Chapter 385: The winner Doesn’t Pay The Price (2)
Yev Karina looked dumbfounded.
That was something that she already knew was coming. Even the Senior Bishop lying over there knew the story. All I did was give her a reminder.
The winner wasn’t the one to pay any price. That was a universal truth.
It was a simple law. Nothing could be clearer than it.
It meant that even if we tried to cover the didactic morality with all sorts of words, our lives were destined to lead to that point regardless. Yev Karina also seemed to agree with my words.
She merely bit her lips as she looked at me, but that reaction was all I needed to see to know she agreed with me.
Looking back at her, I smiled once more. I knew I had to continue the conversation.
“Am I wrong?”
“…”
“I don’t think you have any intention to answer. Well, I’ll just accept your silence as affirmation. Haven’t I told you that already? People like you and I are the same. If Yev Karina had won this battle, it would have been me to pay the price. If you thought that way, you should be feeling a little disappointed right now. Pfff.”
“I am different from you. You… You are trash.”
“Why is your hatred directed towards your own kind?”
“I am not trash like you! Mean swindler bastard!”
“I’m not thrilled to say that I’m a scammer, but it’s undeniable that I’m a messenger chosen by God, Karina. The divine power doesn’t lie. Haha. Jin Qing is also a demon summoner. I’m not sure what the difference is between your lie and my lie that makes you heat up like this. Aren’t you the same? Have you not sympathized with agitation and fabrication to promote morale and eventually bring people who don’t know anything into war?”
I paused for a moment, then continued again. “In a way, you and the heads of the Republic are even worse. You can say it’s an excuse to defend my own morality, but you don’t even have the means to rationalize yourself. The one who picks a fight first will always be the one who’s prepared for war, and the one who declared war was you. Who’s the trash and the scammer now?”
“Stop with the bullshit, trash human! I am not talking about the process. I-I’m talking about your means to an end. After all, you lack even the most minimal sense of ethics. Continental laws and war regulations were not created just to be ignored. Senior B-Bishop is not someone who would…”
“You are referring to the Bishop, whose head was broken by a brilliantly dull technique. Gosh. In case you misunderstood the circumstances, I would like to say I did not act in any way that violated the laws of war. I just gave a bottle of fine wine as a gift.”
“You know that’s not what I mean!”
“You also know what I’m talking about, Yev Karina. I’ve never violated any form of war regulation. You know that even if I controlled the Senior Bishop from behind, it wouldn’t be against the law. It is you who are irrational. Because you think I’m a piece of shit, you feel like it’ll improve your situation a little if you try to console yourself with belittling me. That’s why you’re condemning me.”
“Ptooey!”
“I think that’s how you cheer yourself up. In the first place, if you weren’t really like me, you wouldn’t even be in this war. You would be stuck deep in the woods, devoting yourself to studying ethics. In the end, you and I are the same.”
“I did it for Jin Qing and the Republic soldiers!”
“Ah…”
“…”
“…”
“Aha. After all, that’s what it was. Hahaha.”
“What? What did you…?”
“I had my doubts, but I guess that’s really it. What you just said is not a lie. Right?”
“What are you doing now…?”
“Well, all I just said was a joke. You don’t have to get all worked up, you know. I guarantee you we’re definitely different kinds of humans. I have to admit that much. You aren’t moving for your own comfort.”
Karina had a weird expression on her face that seemed to wonder what bullshit I was talking about.
Yev Karina was a completely different kind of human compared to Lee Jihye and me.
While her unique characteristic and disposition didn’t always tell the right answer, she and I were still far from being the same.
‘You are a friend with a strong sense of responsibility.’
Her face distorted at my sudden change in attitude. Seeing that she was reacting nervously, she seemed to realize that she had just made a mistake.
For example, the sophistry just before was just to make her feel worked up.
The entire conversation had been manipulated from the beginning to capture her weaknesses. I needed to find ways to deal with her.
“You’re amazing. Great. Hmm. It certainly might be. I think I know now why demon summoner Jin Qing appointed you here. If the war didn’t go down like this, it would have been quite annoying. You must have endured with minimal damage to have some form of benefit. Your purpose isn’t to win the battlefield. I think I know now.”
“What, what?”
“I don’t know if you know, but in the first place, the demon summoner didn’t expect you to win. Jin Qing only wanted for you to hold on and hold the elves. I’m not sure, but I think he tends to avoid battles. It seems to me that he only wanted to maintain and hold on to this front until the end of the Castle Rock siege.”
“…”
“You have completely ruined that mission. Well, I can understand why. You probably didn’t know that I was staying in the Kingdom of Eberia, but from the standpoint of the demon summoner, it must have been a shame. Huh? Why are you making such a surprised face? You must have noticed that the demon didn’t expect much from you. That’s why no reinforcements came.”
There were more complex reasons, of course. Perhaps Yev Karina knew that, too, but…
“That’s not it. The current front…”
“I know that there is no room on the frontline. I also know that there’s a reason why you had to come to this place. I guess that person doesn’t think of you as much as you think of him. That’s sad. There is nothing more heartbreaking than one-sided love.”
“No matter what you tell me, I…”
“Yes. Of course, you won’t betray him. Hahaha. You seem to have mistaken something, Yev Karina. I’m not trying to drive a wedge between the two of you right now. Just think of it as a joke with my bad personality. It’s undeniable that you and this force have been abandoned. It’s true to a certain point! I don’t use low-level tricks that shake people’s mentality. It’s not an appropriate behavior as an envoy chosen by the light. Yes. Absolutely.”
“…”
“There is a slightly more rational way for me to do things, but why would I go through the trouble to do that? And since it already came out, there was something that Senior Bishop lying down there should’ve done. I even arranged a seat in advance. It’s an essential one. Since someone smashed the precious priest’s head, the reserved seat became vacant. I understand you’re sad about being abandoned, but you still have to work, right?”
“Kill me.”
“Will you not even listen to what I have to say?”
“I don’t want to know or even wonder about whatever bullshit you’re talking about. Just kill me.”
“Why do you keep telling me to kill you? You just have to listen to it and decide.”
“Kill me! Just kill me!”
“There are quite a few prisoners, Yev Karina. There are quite a few people who surrendered. The same goes for the Varian priests who are with us.”
“You…”
“Gosh. This is a problem. The fact that there are many prisoners is not necessarily pleasant to our side. It’s enough to become a force capable of backstabbing us in case of emergency, and it is also hard to deliver supplies that will be responsible for many prisoners. I would rather not have them. I ended up not thinking like a priest. I’m not particularly knowledgeable, but in Chinese history, I think it was the Jangpyeong War? I mean the case in which 300,000 surrendered troops were buried alive. Our demon summoner must know about that better.”
“Son of a bitch…”
“Of course, I’m not shitty enough to do that, but I don’t know how things will change. If something goes wrong, there may be a situation where I will hold my tears and make a decision.”
“Son of a bitch! And you call yourself human?!”
“I was just talking about the possibilities. Yev Karina knows that I’m not going to do such crazy things. There will be a lot to lose politically.”
“Son of a bitch! Piece of shit! “
“Even though I’m the one chosen by God, forsaking those who try to repent… It must be heartbreaking. If I did that, they wouldn’t appreciate me in later history books. Above all, my conscience won’t simply hold up. Still, Yev Karina, I don’t yield.”
“…”
“I never yield. Avoiding it is something any other person would’ve done, but not me. I’ve made a decision, so it’s up to you to yield. Look into my eyes.”
I could see that she was avoiding my gaze. Her expression that was used to be filled with disgust turned into fear very slowly.
“Do you think I can’t do that?”
“…”
“I have told you clearly, Yev Karina. If you reject my offer, I will abandon half of the prisoners. You will be executed as a demon’s servant, and I will make the same offer once more after I find the right person. Of course, if the successor refuses, I will throw away the remaining prisoners.”
“You… Someone like you…?”
“Aren’t they forcibly brought, Yev Karina? You have to laugh and send them back to their hometown. They were brought to the battlefield by accident, but they are all dear children of other people’s homes.”
She had no choice. Her pupils were trembling as I stared at her. She looked as if she was thinking about her options silently.
‘I don’t think I need to explain separately…’
She must have already anticipated what her role would be.
“Should I make the choice a little easier? First of all, I think you should try to determine if there is a demon’s minion among the prisoners. One-third of them are highly likely to be contaminated by the demon. These people have to go through cleansing quickly. Yes. Absolutely.”
“W-Wait a second.”
“Have you made a decision?”
She couldn’t answer. However, I knew she was already half-determined.