Book 17: Chapter 57
Ling Yue heard me approaching. She turned to look in the direction I came from. She opened her eyes and looked over with her blood-red eyes. Despite knowing how her eyes looked, I was still slightly frightened in that instant. Ling Yue gently shook out her fur and questioned, “So, what’s your final decision? How are you going to deal with these things?”
“Destroy the entire city.”
I caressed Ling Yue’s leg. She looked at me with mixed emotions then sighed. She softly asked, “Do you really have to destroy this place?”
“I have no choice. I can’t allow a single one of them to escape. If even a single one of them reaches humanity, it’ll be disastrous. I can’t take the risk. I know that destroying this entire city is cruel and ruthless, but I don’t have a choice. For the majority, for this world and for your sakes, I won’t hesitate to pay any price. Let me shoulder it all. I no longer feel anything; I’ve finally realised that now. Ling Yue, I said I’d destroy this city, which means that I’m going to murder thirty thousand people, yet I don’t feel anything. Can you understand that? Ling Yue, I’ll be carrying the weight of thirty thousand lives, yet I don’t feel scared or worried whatsoever. I’m as calm as if I’m about to have a daily meal. How frightening, huh…?”
Ling Yue gently leaned her head over and licked my face. In a quiet voice, she replied, “It can’t be helped. You’re a King. You don’t see just one or two people or a city or two. What you should be looking at is the entire world, this entire nation. No matter what happens to you or what you have to shoulder, I’ll always stand by your side. You’re my husband, and I know what you did. You don’t need the entire world to know what exactly you did. Only you need to know what you did. A King isn’t someone who does what everyone considers to be correct. Because you stand alone, you need to always be aware that what you’re doing is right, and that’s all that matters.”
“True.”
I wasn’t a democrat. I was a dictator. I didn’t ask for anyone’s approval when I acted. Nobody would know my reasons for doing what I do. I’d be the only one who knew. I had no need to explain what happened to everyone. I protected the world that I had and those around me. Nevertheless, sometimes, protecting oneself means that others would get hurt in the process. I had to destroy whatever I wanted to protect. That was my misery and what I had to do.
What would they think when they saw the burnt city? What would they think of me? Previously, I used ice to wipe out the entire anthropoid army. Today, the entire continent would be able to see the fire I set to Troy City. What exactly did I leave behind? What exactly did I accomplish?
I didn’t need to think about so much, and I had no way of explaining it clearly. All I needed to ensure was that I, alone, understood and was aware of what I did. After all, everyone in the North, all the elves at Duargana and all the people at Hilles City were just marionettes. I just wanted to ensure the puppeteer who controlled them was a wise puppeteer. That was enough to me.