The fourth and final trial.

“Help me up, would you?” the knight said and extended a hand up in the air. I gladly did. It’s funny how a beer and a fight with friendly banter could make you see your worst cockblock as a great friend.

We stood there, hands locked and did what both of us thought was the right thing and shook hands.

“Now, for the final trial.” Oh great, what now. “You will answer a question of mine and in return I will answer the question you came here for.”

I blinked. “That’s it?” I asked. “That’s it.” He confirmed “Keep in mind that, whatever you will answer you have already won.” Our hands parted and I waited for his question.

“We are in a unique position where you have a tool much more powerful than me at your disposal. My question is: Why aren’t you using these earrings to change the world into a better place? You could eliminate conflict forever, but instead you use them for your petty sexual appetite and swore to only use them in the gravest situations. Why is that?”

So that’s what meant with ‘a topic for later.’ I thought about it for a long time and when I eventually answered I choose each word carefully.

“At first I swore to not use them because I didn’t want to change things as god made them. But I guess that was another one of the things I carried over from my life, truth is I no longer believe in a god. Why do I not use the earrings? Because I think conflict breeds progress. War in my time was brutal but I brought the world forward. From what I read about the world of the living wars a purely economic thing now, so economical conflict is what keeps the world spinning I guess.”

I shook my head. “That’s not all there is to it either. Let’s say is start redoing the world so that bad things don’t happen anymore, will people suddenly turn good just because I say something along the lines of ‘evil people disappear’ or will they just take another form? No, this is too complex for any one mortal mind to understand. Better fight the enemy you know then the one you don’t know.”

The blue orbs dimmed but the knight nodded. I patted him on the shoulder, “On the petty sex thing, I do it because I can, it hurts nobody and as long as I don’t make any too generic alterations the world will not suddenly be set ablaze.”

After that the plaza was silent, I looked at the endless blue sky. I would love the say the sky was clear just like my conscience was, but it was more likely that the sky was my actual conscience.

“Your answer satisfies me, you are indeed worthy to wield me, Nize.” The knight said. “Ask me your question. I looked down and right into the blue orbs that were his eyes. “What is your name?”

“Call me, mercennarium militium.”

Suddenly blackness enveloped me. It was as if me body decided that now, that the task was done it would simply shut down and to be honest, sleeping sounded like a great idea.