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Casey didn't like this look on him. This man now conclusively settled in the identity of Ludger Cherish. It was too unlike the strong, well put together, and finely groomed professor she was used to. In her mind, she still remembered her last sight of him standing triumphant in the sky after striking down the oppressive God and banishing it into the abyss.
Then he'd disappeared into a similar shimmering doorway shortly after, with his student dashing after him before the portal closed. Casey didn't know what to think when he vanished. To later have his student tumbling out again, crying her heart out... Like all the others, she had initially thought him dead and lost to them forever after.
However, there had been a tiny glimmer of hope with the information crystal he'd sent back with her. As the weeks and months passed though, to Casey, the hope had been hard to sustain when she had little to contribute to the research to open the dimensional doorway into the Realm where he was trapped.
And when that research paid fruit to have the student pulling him out again, though trapped in that damnable crystal coffin. Casey wasn't sure if it had been worse for them when they were unknowing of his fate, or then to see so plainly the evidence of how he'd suffered in the three years it had taken them to retrieve him.
Within the crystal coffin, he had looked emaciated. So thin and gaunt-- skeletal even. Barely breathing-- barely alive... Casey had thought it a cruel humiliation for him to be given back to them looking so frail and weak, with them unable to get him out of the cursed crystal box to render any aid.
Then there were the incidents that followed, after the Empire took full charge of his Crystal prison and hid him away while they tried to get him out. The rumours that he'd one day been found silently crying within that crystal coffin in the throes of a panic attack. Then his brief disappearance when the Elemental Monarch of Earth stole him away from the Empire. And his later reappearance at Ceoren Academy in the back garden of his former townhouse, under the guard of a Spirit of the Forest.
Casey had the chance to visit him then. And allowed to spend more time with him when he was at Ceoren, she had been horrified to clearly see the evidence of his terrible suffering during his years of isolation.
She and his many visitors would spend time with him, often talking to his sleeping body under the watchful guard of a Spirit of the Forest. Principal Willow even arranged a Watch Party for them during the highly publicise 'Execution of the Demon King'. Casey had been glad for him that Empress Eileen had tried to help him by freeing him of the identity of the notorious 'Villain' of the Holy War.
However, now it had already been some week or so since he'd finally been released from his crystal coffin. To her senses though, he currently looked only marginally better as he slept in his own bed as compared to when he lay in his crystal coffin.
As she watched, his eyelids fluttered open to let her see his cerulean eyes once more. "Casey?" He still sounded so weak, it practically broke her heart.
"Hey? Can I get you some water?"
"Yes, please."
Casey brought him a glass with a straw and held it for him to take a few sips before he indicated he'd had enough. This weakness was so unlike him the Jade Mage was truly discomforted and unbalanced by the whole matter.
"You're not here to try and arrest me, are you?" He asked with a teasing smile.
She scoffed at the idea, though glad to hear his light-hearted tone. "Where's the fun of it when you're not running away?"
Ludger chuckled. "Well then, you can more or less see what I'd lived through. So, what have you been doing these last three years? And--
"Why do you look as exhausted as I feel? Did something happen to you?"
“Well…”
Slowly, her story had come out. How after the Holy War she had come to question her conviction and goal about ‘eradicating evil’. After meeting Ludger-- James Mariarty and her understanding that he had sacrificed himself to become a ‘villain’ to go after the root of untraceable crime. Then in the Holy War, siding with the Demon King against the Holy Emperor… Her beliefs in the difference between good and evil, right and wrong, was shaken.
She had wandered for a while as she tried to sort out her thoughts. And Betty had suggested that she start a journal. That writing down her thoughts and describing her past adventures might give her a different perspective. The idea was intriguing.
However, the thought of an autobiography did not appeal to her and so she had tried to write in the perspective of man. Creating a fictional character with which she could separate her observation of her life and adventures. The writing exercise had not only been fun, but it had also improved her mood as it helped her objectively look back upon her past.
Unfortunately, her sister, Marias Selmore had discovered the journals. Marias had thought it was a great series of fictional stories and submitted them to a publishing house without consulting Casey.
Casey had been furious, but it was too late. The publisher distributed her stories, and they turned out to be a smash hit. The books were selling like wildfire.
“It sounds like congratulations is in order.”
“I’ll be sure to get you a set of books, er-- cause you’re-- in some of them…”
Ludger blinked at her. “Me?”
“Well-- James Moriarty?”
“Under a different name, I would hope.”
“Of course!”
“You’re-- not looking me in the eye. Am I going to be disappointed in my characterisation?”
“It’s not you!” Casey flushed then deliberately faced him firmly. “And like I said, I changed my character, making the protagonist a man. The dynamics between us would of course naturally be different.”
Ludger coughed. He looked sceptical but still fascinated all the same.
“And so? What would be your worry now? It sounds like you’ve made a very successful pivot in your career from successful detective to successful novelist.”
“I’m in a slump! Writer’s block! I’ve run out of cases to write about.”
“Well? You can stop writing, right? Or-- just end the series.”
“About that-- ” Casey handed Ludger a newspaper cutting.
[Shocking! The famous detective protagonist falls from a waterfall and dies!]
He raised an eyebrow at her. “How-- familiar…”
“Well… I ran out of ideas, and it was-- a dramatic way to end it all, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, I’m sure you weren’t thinking that when you threw yourself at me that day.”
“Hey!”
“Just-- how much of my life did you put in your books?”
“I changed your name! And a lot of the details-- ”
Ludger sighed as he pinched his nose between his closed eyes. “So, all characters and events described in these books are purely fictional. And any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or to events is completely coincidental.”
Casey was impressed. He understood! “Exactly!”
“Even though you *are* pulling these events from your real cases and people you’ve met in your life.” Ludger still gave her a stink eye.
“I didn’t mean to publish my journals. It was my sister who started it. She did it without my permission!” Casey gave him a contrite look of shame. “But it was so popular I-- well I couldn’t deny-- there were people clamouring for more and I-- people just wouldn’t stop hounding me for more…”
“And so, you decided to kill the protagonist to end the series?”
“Yes!”
“And it made the front page of the newspapers.”
“Well-- yeah.” She waved at the scrap of paper in his hands.
“Casey…” Ludger sounded tired as he laid the newspaper clipping on his lap and closed his eyes as he lay back upon his pillows. “Given that this event made the front pages of the newspapers, your readers and fans must have been furious.”
“But this is a fictional character! Why are they getting so worked up about an imaginary detective? Some people even held a funeral and cried right in front on me.
“My sister even scolded me for killing my protagonist.”
“It was a terrible decision.”
“What? You’re agreeing with the crazy fans?” Casey barely stopped herself from reaching over to grab Ludger by the collar to shake him. She only managed to hold herself back because he was still awfully weak and sick.
“I’m being driven up the wall!”
“That’s why it was a terrible decision.” He gave her a scrutinising look. “Casey, why do you think your stories have so many fans?”
“I-- ” With variations, changed details, and even extra ‘acts’, she’d written about events that she’d experienced. That’s why she’d started writing in the first place, to reframe her narratives, so that she could unload her thoughts and feelings and review the events in her life. And-- for the readers-- it resonated with their emotions, drew their interest, evoked empathy…
“Oh…”
“So, you now understand your responsibility to your readers?”
“But I don’t want to keep writing all the time.”
“Who said you have to? Who has dared to demand a book publication schedule that you’re not ready to meet?”
She was taken aback. Who indeed. Not the publisher, not even her sister. Her series of books weren’t even release in chronological order. Her fans would try to put her books in chronological order, but she hadn’t cared nor wanted to confirm the chronology with the publisher. Each book had a self-contained story that she’d decided to write based on her cases, that she’d chosen to look at on a whim.
Even with her protagonist’s archnemesis-- it wasn’t like there was a connected series of books that followed the build-up of their encounters. She’d just released an extra-large volume which-- ended in their death falling in the waterfall.
“Urgh! But I already killed him! What do I do now?”
“Just bring him back to life.” Ludger sighed at her.
“What?”
“We didn’t exactly die either.” Ludger reminded her. “Your readers will accept it. They just want to see a character that they love and care for, return to continue his adventures.”
She remembered then the revelation she’d received when she had memory stormed with Moriarty’s mana essence to discover the truth. He’d used a wrist device with a grappling hook that arrested their deadly fall into the waters.
“And-- I can-- I can just write when I feel like it.”
“When your hobby becomes work-- it robs the hobby of its fun.” Ludger reminded her. “And this started as a hobby, didn’t it? So why rob yourself of the joy that writing these ‘journals’ brought to you.”
“Yes…”
“So? Have you received the advice you were looking for?’’
Casey looked at him in shock. “Can I never get anything past you?”
“Get what? We’re just chatting, aren’t we? As old-- frenemies? I think that’s the term for what our-- relationship evolved into."
Casey laughed. “I-- I’d really prefer it, if we could just be friends.”
“I think I’d like that too.” Ludger yawned. “Excuse me.”
“I’ve kept you up long enough.” Casey got up with concern and reached around him to fluff up his pillows a little to make it more comfortable. "And I've selfishly spent all this time talking about me and haven't even heard from you about what your plans are for the future."
"Immediate plans are just to get well. After that? I've not actually thought that far." Ludger yawned again.
"I'll come back, and we can chat more."
"I'd-- like that-- " And he was out like a light.
Casey sighed as she gave into temptation to give Ludger a kiss on his forehead as she tucked his blankets in around him. 'Friends.' Yes, she'd like it if she could reclaim this relationship now with Ludger Cherish...
It had been what she'd thought she’d had with James Moriarty and what she'd missed the most with him. That friendship had been tarnished by misunderstanding, hate, anger, guilt, grief... That was over. He was Ludger Cherish now, and they'd both changed over the six years since the Kingdom of Delica.
Casey made a note to herself to gift Lunger a full collection of her books. She hoped he'd read them to realise the apology to him that she had embedded in some of the stories, for her misunderstanding and unjust persecution of him in the past. She hoped too he'd appreciate that her protagonist had not tried to kill them both at the falls out of hate. That it was a tragic accident when trying to stop his arch nemesis's self-hatred and sacrifice, after the man had taken down the true mastermind on his own.
In story, if not in real life, Casey had wanted her protagonist to recognise that his ‘arch nemesis’ was just a grieving man driven to seek justice by his own hands and had not been the true villain. Moriarty had used her. Unlike her, in her book, her protagonist knew and realised this. And his desperation to chase him down was as much to save him as to capture him.
As Ludger had reminded her, they did survive the fall. And memory storming gave her the perfect solution for how to save both her characters too. Moriarty had saved them in real life. Casey liked the idea of giving the grappling hook wrist device to her protagonist instead.
Could she then turn the tale to having her protagonist rehabilitate 'Moriarty' after saving their lives? This was something to think about in her next book.
~Owari~