“I want to talk about the order you have to your elite guards. Was it necessary to send them to annihilate the entire clan?” Zach asked in a solemn voice.
“I had a faint guess that you would want to talk about this,” the sixth scoffed. “It’s not about if that order was necessary or not. I gave that order so I could avoid further casualties.”
“How are you avoiding casualties by killing an entire clan?” Zach raised his brows and uttered, “I know I am not in a place to say this since I am responsible for all this mess. But there could be children and innocents.”
The sixth quietly nodded and said, “Sometimes, the king needs to make tough choices to protect—”
“That’s not what I am talking about!” Zach yelled.” The problem is that you want to kill the entire clan. Sure, you said they could come after my loved ones or me, and that’s one thing. But you can’t just end their generation like that.”
“Zach…” The sixth looked at his hand and uttered in a low voice: “There were only two choices. To do it, or not to do it. If I hadn’t made that order, we would be fighting a war against them.”
“…”
“How many noble and powerful clans do you think who want to usurp my throne? I think you are mistaken about the sea realm. It indeed has only three kingdoms, but many species and races are living in the colonies, hidden and secluded from the other kingdoms.”
“Just as a world works in the land, it works the same here.” The sixth looked at Zach and said, “What would you have done if they had joined forces?”
“…it would have turned into a bigger mess…” Zach replied.
“No. This entire sea realm would have turned upside down. Once the war had started, it would have continued for years,” he asserted. And then decades for everything to get back to how it was before. As they say, precautions are better than cure.”
The sixth stood up and walked to the glass windows. He looked outside and watched his citizens roaming around in the city even though it was past midnight.
“Tell me, Zach…” the sixth looked at Zach from the corner of his eyes and said, “Do you blame yourself for this?”
After a brief silence, Zach answered, “I will say… 50%? First of all, I did not start the fight. Second, I wasn’t going to kill Maxim, but he forced me to. And third, I don’t regret what I did.”
“A king’s duty is to think for his citizens’ well-being. If he can save hundreds for one life, he shouldn’t think twice before saving hundreds of lives. I… couldn’t do that,” the sixth sighed.
“I had two options. One was to side with you, and another was to side with them.” The sixth shrugged his shoulders and said, “I shouldn’t say this, but we never had a good relationship with Maxim’s clan. So the best and the smart option was to choose you over them.”
Zach knitted his brows and uttered, “Can I ask you one question?”
“You can ask two,” the sixth responded without looking at Zach.
“If… Aquarius did not want to marry me, and I hadn’t won the event, would you still have chosen me over Maxim?” Zach asked with a curious look on his face.
“Hmm… that’s a very… hard question…” The sixth pondered for a while and nodded before saying, “I think yes. Because regardless of if you hadn’t won the event or my daughter hadn’t asked me to marry her to you, everything would still have turned out the same.”
“Minum would have tried to harass your wife, and you would have gotten angry and killed him. And the rest…” he shrugged.
“Now to my next question. What—”
“I thought you said you have only one question,” the sixth remarked.
“And I thought you said I could ask two questions,” Zach remarked.
“Well, go ahead. I am sure your next question can’t be more troublesome than the last one—”
Zach interrupted the sixth and uttered, “You said you would save 100 lives over the life of the one, right?”
The sixth finally turned to Zach and nodded in response.
“What if that one person was your wife or daughter?” Zach asked with a judging look on his face. “Would you still have chosen to sacrifice them to save 100 lives?”
The sixth stared at Zach with a dead-panned expression for a while. Then, he let out a deep sigh and muttered, “Only you can manage to leave a king speechless.”
“I am just curious to know your answer. You can even lie, and I wouldn’t know,” Zach shrugged.
“Very well, then… but before that…” the sixth looked into Zach’s eyes and asked, “What would you do? Would you save 100 lives over your wife’s life?”
The sixth was looking straight into Zach’s eyes, but he soon regretted doing that. However, he couldn’t break eye contact unless Zach answered him.
He patiently waited for Zach’s answer as sweat poured down his forehead.
“Of course, I would save my wife,” Zach answered nonchalantly. “I honestly don’t care about others. But if someone is dying in front of me, I would save them.”
“However, I couldn’t care less if I failed to save them. Their lives are theirs to protect, and I have my loved ones to protect. Even if I get to choose between all the players in this game and my loved ones, I wouldn’t think twice before choosing my loved ones.”
The sixth scoffed softly and smiled at Zach before saying, “Only if I could say those words.”
“Does that mean you would choose to save a hundred lives over your wife or Aquarius?” Zach asked with a knowing look on his face.
The sixth shook his head and asserted, “I honestly don’t know the answer to that. But… I hope I never get to choose between them.”
Zach walked out of the hall room after saying, “Fair enough.”
***
Total players in the game- 402888.
0 new players logged in.
17 players died.
===
Author’s Note- Question- Just curious, but what do you guys think of Zach’s gloves? And what were your thoughts when Zach first bought them from Xie Lua? Have your thoughts changed now?