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“Your Majesty…”
I gently grabbed hold of Nier’s hand and quietly asked, “Nier, you, too, used the holy water to treat a wound last time. Are you feeling all right?”
Nier, who had just washed her hands, had white hands that were soft and warm. I tightened my grip, as I didn’t want to let go.
Nier shook her head with a smile: “I’m all right, Your Majesty, for I have always been drinking the wine from the dragon egg with Her Majesty. I guess my body has become used to having mana. Hence, I haven’t had any reactions. I didn’t get injured in the battle yesterday, either. You need not fret.”
“Is Daisy all right?”
“Yeah, not even the fight last night woke her. That sure saved me a lot of worry and trouble.”
Nier and I embraced. We had just finished fighting a horde of zombies, so I had yet to get any rest and change. The same went for Nier, who only washed her hands. We found our humanity and love as humans on the tense night of bloodshed.
“Sorry, Nier, I need to go. I need to go, and destroy Troy City. I can’t leave Ling Yue lying there all day.”
Ling Yue was still blocking the entrance. She silently lay on the ground as though she was asleep. The red uniform army admired and felt curious about the fox. They all wanted to feel her fur, but she swept away everyone who dared approach her.
Nier nodded then let go of me. However, there was a hint of hesitation on her expression. I sighed: “I know what you want to say, Nier. You heard what the pope said, didn’t you? It was just as you said, Nier. I’ve stopped caring about killing people. I never considered saving the people here. All I thought about was how to destroy Troy City. I’m no longer that me of the past anymore.”
“Your Majesty, is there really no other way? Is destroying Troy City really the only option? Since you’ve realised what went wrong, shouldn’t you be able to save the city now? If you destroy the city, you’d be a tyrant who could ruthlessly destroy a city, right?”
“I don’t have a choice.”
If the woman in my head said there was no way to save it, then there really wasn’t any way. I could provide enough mana for one person. I gave my blood to Tanya, so she was no longer in critical condition. Sadly, I couldn’t give my blood to everyone in the city. Elves and humans resided at Troy City, but the humans wiped out the elves in the incident.
The infected humans would kill all of the elves. The infected humans could no longer be considered humans. They were mere senseless beasts once they were infected. I didn’t have enough mana for thirty thousand mindless beasts. If there was anything that did have enough, it’d be the elven spring. Nevertheless, the spring was the elves’ source of mana. If thirty thousand dangerous zombies were to enter Duargana, I’d basically be burying the elves – both in a physical and mental sense.
The North was an area with extremely scarce amounts of mana, while humanity didn’t have any. I could only save one or two people, but I had no way of saving thirty thousand people. Only God could save them. I wasn’t God. I was just a mere human. I had to kill them for the sake of the greater population. I grew numb to killing. I’d seen even more bloody scenes. I saw more despairing gazes in the snow in the North, yet I stepped on their corpses to reach the imperial palace. I took no prisoners. I wiped out every single anthropoid army in the narrow valley.
Thirty thousand people’ was just a number to me at this point. I truly changed. I truly became what I a man who didn’t feel guilty about killing people as my hands were already bloody. The pope was right. I caused the deaths of the dead on the ground. You could even say that I killed them.
“If I have to shoulder being called a tyrant to save the greater population behind me, then so be it. The people in the present can think of me however they please. The people in the future will understand why I did what I did. Even if nobody ever comes to comprehend my actions, at least, I know what I did. I have no choice, but to kill them for the majority.”
“Your Majesty, killing one group for the majority means that you will have to kill group after group.”
“As long as I can save the majority, even if that’s just one more person, I’m willing to kill ninety nine more people. Though I know what I did, I don’t consider what I did to be wrong. To protect you and this world, I’m willing to shoulder anything.”
“However, Your Majesty, you now understand, right…? Everyone really is afraid of you. Nobody knows why they anger you and, as soon as you’re angry, everyone related will be killed by you. You spill a river of blood every single time. Your Majesty, I sincerely, sincerely plead you, please, please don’t do that again…”
I gently nodded. I didn’t give any explanation, but I understood what I was about to do. Freya once said that the citizens were nothing more than marionettes, and all I had to do was ensure I was controlling the strings. Whatever was most important to people was the best tool to control them with. A puppet master, who could control the strings, was an excellent puppeteer.
“Does everything I previously did qualify me as an excellent puppeteer?” I pondered.
“Daddy!”
As I pondered to myself, Liu Yue suddenly ran into our tent. She was shocked to find Nier and me in an embrace. She leaned over and hit Nier on her leg. She raged, “You, let go of my daddy, you human! What are you trying to do to my daddy?! My mommy won’t be happy!!”
“Ah, Liu Yue, I forgot to introduce you. This is Nier Rosvenor, she’s also my wife… one of them. Mm, you can call her Mommy Nier or Sister Nier. Mm, this is your elder sister, Daisy. While she can’t stand, walk and play the same way you do yet, she is your elder sister. Of course, your mom and I will explain this in more detail to you later on.”
“Daddy!! Who exactly is this woman?!!”
Liu Yue was so furious that her fur on her tail stood up. Nier looked at the little fox with fervent excitement. She bent over to pull Liu Yue tightly into her embrace. She cheerfully stroked Liu Yue’s tiny back and tenderly said, “So you’re Liu Yue. My husband told me about you. Now I realise that what he told me was lacking. You really are way too cute, Little Foxy. Oh, you’re so adorable. You’re just a teeny bit less adorable than Daisy, but still so adorable! Say ‘Sister’. You can call me ‘Mommy’ if you prefer! Go on, Little Foxy!”
“Aaahh!! Daddy, save me!! What is the matter with this woman?! Daddy! Save me! Save me!”