The Life That Never Was

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  ???? POV

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  Damn door, come on, open it! There's only one more lock to go through, it shouldn't be a problem. I quickly check my data tablet, all parameters are within the acceptable range, the guards are still on patrol, there shouldn't be anyone around for the next 10 seconds, the door will finish opening in 5, I should have time to get through. It's open! Inside, now!

  I finally manage to enter the sealed archive room. I have to run as fast as I can to find the highest security area, where the most secret documents ever created are stored, only on paper. The only other copy of such things is in the infinity of the Akashic Records, and the only way to access or process them is with its key, the Codex, the damned cristal that is always guarded by the True Dragon of War. It's much easier to infiltrate here than to deal with such a hellish beast.

  Here it is! I've found the safe, the password changes every 20 seconds. I hope she's finally finished her work. Come on, I just need the code for this cycle. I hear you're one of the best. I check the data tablet again, desperately hoping that all these problems have finally paid off. An encrypted message comes through. I immediately get to work on it, there should be about 8 seconds left with the valid key. Once the code is revealed, I quickly enter the long code into the safe's buttons, hoping I made it in time.

  The safe opens!

  I finally have access to the top-secret documents, and I finally hold the folder containing them in my hands. I've invested a fortune in this moment, I've risked everything to be here. I've gambled too much, giving that damn dragon that stupid spear to keep him occupied. While he and everyone else is distracted by his stupid dead wife, I can finally learn his weakness. It's time to reveal the secret.

  I open the folder, scan the lines and letters, and read quickly. Any word written here could finally be the key to defeating the final monster.

  Name: Cesar [ Redacted ]

  Come on, are their last names classified? Like they are so important, what else is there? Oh! Finally, the most important part!

  Divine mission: Return the salt shaker to a waiter.

  What the hell? Returning a stupid salt shaker to a worker? What the hell is this? It's worth nothing! It means nothing! How the hell is it possible that his great heavenly mission, the very one that THE BOSS created his existence for in the first place, is nothing more than giving the salt shaker to some nobody! A stranger interacting with another stranger, that means nothing, there's no plan, where's the greatness? There's no beauty in it, it's just a waste. How is it possible for such a damned dragon to have such a stupid origin? The world that THE BOSS has created is nothing but a damn circus with no order or rhythm, it's not beautiful, it's not perfect.

  How was it possible that such a monster was created for something completely different? There must be something more, something I didn't see, something that explained it. Luckily, I had all the information about the Emperor of Atlantis in my hands. Here must be the reason why he ended up knowing goddesses, demons, angels, and all kinds of mythical creatures, here must be the secret of why, the original reason, the reason why he was my enemy. So, with even more concentration, I began to read carefully and learn everything I could about him.

  Okay, here it says that he was conceived by accident one night when his parents drank too much alcohol, hmm, so he was never planned at all, who cares? I'll skip all that filler. Originally they thought he would be a girl, so they worked hard to find a name until they reached Maria Celeste, they bought girls' clothes and girly things, but by the time he was born and they saw he was a boy, it was too late for a lot of things, so in a hurry they gave him the first name that came to mind, the name of the same hurricane that was destroying the country at that moment. What a stupid origin, there's nothing here, just more filler.

  In his early years, he had to use the things his parents bought for a girl, thinking he would be a girl. That's where his taste for "girly" or "cute" clothes comes from. Nobody cares about these things. When he grew up and understood the differences between men and women, and that he was forbidden to use the things he thought were pretty, he became sad and depressed. Where does all this crap come from? I'll skip that part too.

  Oh, maybe there's something here. It says that when he was growing up, his parents were afraid that he would be too weird for others, so they punished him severely when he did something out of place. If he mentioned that he liked things that were typical for girls, he'd get lashes from his father's belt. Not being completely submissive to his parents would be punished in the same way. He always had trouble speaking, expressing himself, and socializing because of this, and yet he was punished even more for not being "normal" in his parents' eyes. Strange, but still, none of this matters in the grand scheme of things. There's nothing really important in this thing's childhood; better skip all that and go to school, maybe there'll be some luck.

  At school he was extremely antisocial. It seems that here he realized that he had a special curse: he is easily ignored, no one ever pays attention to his existence. Several times he was locked in the classroom because they thought no one was there, they didn't give him food in the cafeteria because they miscounted the number of students, there were several absences in class even though he was present because the teacher never noticed him among the others, field trips to fun places like the amusement park were lost because they left him behind at school. Everything was always punished at home with more pain for never being able to be normal. A complete nobody that nobody cared about, not even me reading these pages. Again, more filler.

  If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  In high school... no, more of the same, nothing important. Wait! There's something here, maybe. His mother, Adelis, was worried that her son was being too weird and that it might affect the reputation of her son Leon, who was already in school and seemed to have a promising future. So she talked to a neighbor to get her daughter to go out with Cesar, then she pressured him to believe that Sharon was the right girl for him, making him believe that it was his only chance in life, or else he would die alone as an old man. Apparently, Cesar really believed it, and saw it as the only way he could do something that wouldn't disappoint his parents, a way to redeem himself. That's why he started working extra jobs to earn money to invest in his "girlfriend". But according to what's written here, Sharon also realized what was happening and used it to her advantage, using Cesar to get what she wanted without having to do anything for him. This led to the graduation party that traumatized him and that his mother used to blackmail him for a long time.

  Ugh, all this is pure crap, there's nothing interesting here, just things that already happened and mean nothing. None of this is useful to me, I think the best thing is to change strategies. This is all about things that have already happened, but there are more documents. Maybe if I read the part that's supposed to be his original story instead of what's actually happening, I'll see why this nobody who only knows how to disappoint others ended up as a damn True Dragon.

  Let's see, I think this might be a good place to start. It says that Cesar would marry Sharon because she felt sorry for him and it would be easy to get more benefits from him. But he would have trouble finding a decent job, it says here that he went more than five years without a single job because no one wanted him or he was simply ignored among other applicants. Things got so bad that his mother would use the money Leon gave her to give to Sharon so she wouldn't divorce Cesar to avoid embarrassment to the family. He would be nothing but a burden to all his acquaintances, who would secretly hate him while still greeting him. His mother, from afar, was the most annoyed and disappointed in her eldest son.

  When the war between the Alliance and the Empire began, new recruits were needed. His mother and his brother Leon talked about forcing Cesar to join the war and get rid of the nuisance he was in their lives. They urged him to volunteer for the Alliance's war in Europe, even paying Sharon to convince him. The man volunteered as a recruit, hoping to finally prove his worth to others; he saw the war as a way to redeem himself from his insignificant life. It seems that his curse of being ignored was what kept him alive during the war, or maybe not, it says here that he lost an arm and a leg to a bomb. Apparently his sister, Maria Celeste, died of cancer while he was fighting in Europe. Still resigned to continue fighting, he cried to his superiors and managed to convince them to give him an artificial limb and allow him to continue serving at the front. Cesar was still determined not to return home and give his family something to be proud of for the first time, but no one responded to his messages or calls home.

  After all, he was never the favorite of his parents, that was Leon.

  Meanwhile, at home, Sharon was with her new lover, using his own house as a love nest between them, hoping that Cesar would die in the war sooner or later. His mother didn't care, she was grieving for the loss of her only daughter, and the only children she had left were focused on Leon, her last remaining pride.

  It doesn't matter, none of this means anything, where's the greatness? Where's the perfection in all this? Where's the grand plan created by THE BOSS in all of this? These are just random events thrown against a wall, there's no substance to it. Where did he get the power? Where does it say that he got Avalon? Where does it say that he was the emperor of Atlantis? Where does it say that he cruelly killed gods? Where does it say that he was destined to inherit the Codex? Not even the damned Yazmagrel knew that he would be defeated by Cesar during the Dragon War, and not by my hand, so it wasn't even his plan. What is all this nonsense?

  It seems that Cesar returned from the war against all odds, but no one was waiting for him when he returned. His family claimed they were too busy that day, when in fact they were angry at having to deal with him again and hid him like before. He was unemployed again for several more years, until the Alliance's veterans program gave him an office job out of pity and to prevent the Army program from being tainted. Still, he had to return the prosthetics, which made it difficult for him to do his job. Some of the women at work approached him with professional courtesy, but the lack of interaction he felt made him take it the wrong way. He pushed them away, saying that he was a married man and loyal to his wife. The women looked at him with disgust, took it as a bad joke, and reported him to Human Resources on false charges of sexual harassment. He was immediately fired and never found another job.

  Cesar died of a gunshot wound to the head during a robbery at a cafe. Apparently he gave the thief all his valuables, but for some reason the thief didn't like the look on his victim's face and shot him just for the fun of it. His mother buried him somewhere away from the family compound, away from his sister or anyone who knew him; they wanted everyone to forget him. Sharon kept the insurance money and used it to pay for her wedding to the lover she had always hidden from Cesar.

  All this is nothing more than a mediocre story, a mediocre life. He didn't even live to be 30. This document is nothing but a mistake, just like the person who wrote it. There was no way that someone like that could be the same person who held the codex in his hands, the one who destroyed my old enemy's plan. My curse is that my own plan was limited by an existence that was never meant for greatness, but it was given. Why is he strong? Why is he my greatest enemy? Who made him what he is? It must have been someone else's actions, but this document I've sacrificed so much to read says nothing but nonsense. And what's worse, I ended up giving him the clue he needed to find the Celestial Forge for this moment, which also means nothing.

  I couldn't believe that Cesar was really destined for nothing; he really was the nobody he always claimed to be. He only survived the war against the dragons because it was just a coincidence.

  All these jokes and meanings have only one origin - THE BOSS.

  The sound of a door opening jolted me out of my thoughts. I had to leave the place quickly, put the documents back in the safe, and rush out through the escape plan I had practiced and reviewed so many times, angry that all I had done was a waste of time.