Chapter 562: A Debate
"I don’t know why you’re asking these questions, or what kind of twisted goal lies behind them," Max said, his voice colder than frost. "But know this—if I have to sacrifice a million innocent people to save my family, I’ll do it. Without a hitch. Without hesitation. Every time."
His tone never rose, but it held the weight of immovable conviction. "My family is everything to me. They are my past, my present, and my only future worth fighting for. And if protecting them means burning the whole world to ash, I’ll set the flames myself and walk through them."
He stood then, not out of defiance, but as if his body could no longer contain the cold fury within him.
"Those so-called innocents you speak of?" Max continued, his gaze unflinching. "I don’t care about them. I don’t even know them. Their lives mean nothing to me—not when measured against the people I love."
He stepped forward, shadows from the fire dancing against his frame like flickers of black judgment. "They can curse me. They can hate me. But in the end, they’re weak. They ended up in a situation where I had to kill them, and that’s not my fault. That’s the cruelty of the world. I won’t carry guilt for choices I never asked to make."
"That won’t justify for you killing so many innocents, does it?" Ragnar asked.
"I’m no saint. I’m no hero. I never asked to be." Max said, voice quieted, but it was like the edge of a blade drawn across skin. "I’m just a man who refuses to lose his family ever again. And therefore it doesn’t matter what do I need to keep them safe."
The silence afterward was deafening. Only the faint crackling of the fire remained. Ragnar stared at Max for a long time, the weight of those words lingering in the room like smoke that refused to fade.
Ragnar stared at Max for a long moment, the weight of his answer settling into the small wooden hut like a fog.