Chapter 1140 - 1082. The Two Women Cries
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(A/N: Don’t forget to give those power stones to Skyrim everyone!)
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The curses, the insults, and the raw, unadulterated words of absolute anguish washed over Lie Fan like a torrential, freezing rain. He did not push them away. He did not summon the guards to drag them off. He simply stood there, an unmovable pillar of stone, absorbing the full, horrific emotional consequence of his own decree.
He remembered them from years ago. He remembered meeting Empress Ding and Lady Bian back when he and Cao Cao were still cordial allies, long before the ambition of warlords had turned the continent into a slaughterhouse. They had shared polite conversations over tea, they had been gracious hostesses. To see them reduced to this broken, hysterical state was a heavy, agonizing burden to bear.
Slowly, gently, Lie Fan raised his hands and placed them softly on the trembling shoulders of the two weeping women.
"I am sorry," Lie Fan spoke, his voice dropping to a low, incredibly gentle whisper, entirely devoid of imperial arrogance. It was the sincere, agonizing apology of a man who recognized the monstrous nature of the act he had just committed.
"There was no other way," Lie Fan continued softly, speaking directly over their sobs. "There was simply no other way except this path. If I left them alive, the sons would have grown into men, and the cycle of war would have started all over again. Hundreds of thousands or even millio wemore would have died."
He looked down into Empress Ding’s tear streaked face. "Brother Mengde knew this. He understood the rules of the board we played on. He accepted this outcome. He drank the tea knowing that it was the only way to finalize the peace."
"Peace?" Empress Ding choked out a bitter, agonizing laugh, her grip on his robes weakening. "You call this graveyard peace?"
"I will bury him, and I will bury your sons, with the utmost honor," Lie Fan promised, his voice thick with solemn resolve. "They will not be forgotten in an unmarked ditch. They will be laid to rest on the eastern hills, facing the rising sun, dressed as the royalty they were."