Chapter 1132: Harshness
“Another city has fallen… What is the king waiting for to take action? That handful of Death Knights can not possibly be the full extent of his hidden army!” Vijudius felt quite aggravated as he heard the news that a second city had been taken over by the dirt-bloods, especially since it had seed so easy to avoid.
That city had held on for several weeks, reinforcents could have been sent on many occasions, but nothing had been done! The young knight felt like the king was observing the enemy, but was it really worth it to sacrifice entire cities to do so? The human domain might be enormous and highly populated that an enormous fortified city did not amount to much in the grand sche of things, but still… Knowing that many deaths could have potentially been avoided left a bad taste in Vijudius’s mouth.
He turned toward the woman who still kept on sticking nearby to him despite the fact that there really shouldn’t be any reason to do so.
“The elves have a king of sorts as well, right? Would he intervene if entire regions were taken over by the dirt-bloods?” asked the knight, making Giliniel glance in his direction.
“First of all, we don’t even know whether our Supre Leader is a man or woman… Secondly, did you see any influence from our great leader when we were trying to take back Mountain Jungle?”
Vijudius sighed.
“Weren’t they the one to order this mission?”
“Yes, but that’s as far as it went… Our leaders are similarly more detached from things than us, they don’t see things though the sa lens, they are probably aiming for the preservation of the domains as a whole over the preservation of particular cities”
“I guess it is worth it to lose so people if the end result is that more people will get to live in peace, wouldn’t you agree? It would be madness to try and save everyone if the end result is only to get them all killed” Giliniel looked over in the distance.
She and Vijudius were standing on an elevated position within the citadels they had reached, this one was massive and built directly upon a mountain, it was a jewel are human architecture and genius, its design ant that even if invaders entered, they would have to ascend and be t by many more walls in their attempt to fully conquer the city.
Vijudius looked at her montarily, he would have liked to disagree and say that it was always best to try and save everyone, but he knew very well that only children and idiots could truly believe such a thing.
They lived in a dangerous world, deaths due to violence, war and the likes was simply inevitable.
In such a world, it was senseless to try and go against what could not be changed, humans would get caught into wars, humans would be violent amongst themselves, humans would die everyday and there was simply nothing that could be done about it.
It wasn’t the will of the world or fate at work, it was simply how things were.
As such, the only logical and rational thing to do was to be pragmatic, Vijudius had heard many stories of more people living because of what the domain had been founded upon.
The crown was powerful beyond belief, all of those who opposed it would be dealt with for treason.
And since strength was revered and encouraged within the human domain, it led to many pursuing strength, even re civilians could have gone through certain amounts of knight training and be capable of wielding a bit of fighting spirit.
Those who pursued strength would gain an even deeper understanding of just how powerful the crown was, and in turn, they would revere the king even more, making it so the majority of those with power were loyal to the human domain.
Especially since teaching people to cooperate and into understanding the value of the human domain was a major part of education, everyone understood what it ant to be a part of the domain, and those who wished to go against its rule or laws would either need to be insane or foolish to do so.
Vijudius was reminded of a story he experienced firsthand when he was still a child.
Back then, he had barely begun his training as a knight, for all intents and purposes, he was still but a re young boy like any other, with only his status making him different, he had been a very curious youth however, and with insistence, he was able to get the permission to go explore the city beyond the reaches of the familial residence.
Accompanied by a butler, of course.
But being a young boy, he had not been too keen on having a butler follow him around, so he snuck away at the first occasion and ended up in a small bakery.
There, he saw firsthand what it ant to disrespect the rules of the domain.
So would say that it was barbaric and exaggerated, but let it be known that under the iron rule of a leader popular with the people–That it was a, if not the, most effective way to ensure peace.
Soon after he entered the bakery, soone else walked inside, a man wearing a big hood over his head… Even as young as he was, he thought that it was strange since everything was sunny outside, not to ntion that this man had an odd presence to him…
Nearly imdiately after reaching the counter, he pulled out a dagger and flared with a small amount of fighting spirit, grabbing the woman working behind the counter and demanding that they hand over money.
Nearly imdiately, the baker stepped out from wherever he had been and tried to calm the situation, as he got closer to supposedly grab and give today’s earnings to the blade-wielding maniac.
However, once the baker got within reach, instead of complying, he flared with more fighting spirit than the assailant, grabbed the arm holding the dagger, and snapped it effortlessly before swiftly wrenching the weapon away.
The attacker tried to get up and stay away, but being that the bakery had been filled with several custors, he was unable to as the people who didn’t even know how to wield fighting spirit all converged on him and beat him down until the guards arrived and unceremoniously dragged him away…
For the young Vijudius, this was all that he knew had happened, and it had been fascinating, the threat had been dealt with using the least amount of rcy possible, and back then, he had thought that the attacker had just been thrown into jail afterwards, but as it turns out.
The price for being a tumour in the human domain was steep, the dagger-wielding robber was nearly imdiately dragged to the city center, having been caught in the act by many people, there was no need for a prolonged trial, the judge only showed up to enact the punishnt.
Which was the severing of both the criminal’s hands before the bloody stumps were cauterised, and that was just the beginning, the criminal’s actions were considered especially low and dishonourable since he was capable of using fighting spirit and threatened a woman.
So, which two freshly missing hands, he was forced to carry a heavy stone throughout the entire city whilst chained up, and would be several flogged every ti he dropped it or slowed down, and then, to finish things off, he was then put into a cage hanging from gibbet for people to see, and once it seed like he was on the verge of starvation and dehydration, he was dragged away into a deep prison where he was certainly left to rot and die from exposure.
It was safe to say that the price of disturbing the peace was one that no one was willing to pay, especially since the fate of the robber had been a rather kind one, vermin of worse cris would be publicly tortured for days and sotis even weeks.
Anyone who thought about breaking the domain’s law would have to think long and hard about the potential consequences, especially since it wasn’t just a matter of evading the authorities, if the robber Vijudius rembered had been beaten to death right there and then, the guards would have just patted the people who did it on the back for cleaning up the streets.
The people would cheer when a criminal was tortured or executed.
It was common knowledge that once you decided that you were too good to follow the rules, that you essentially forfeited your existence as a human and made yourself into nothing more than a vile beast that everyone else would be glad to exterminate.
Of course, if the robber hadn’t used fighting spirit and had just brandished his dagger instead of specifically threatening soone, he probably would have gotten away with just his dominant hand being severed, maybe a beating and after so miserable ti in the deep dungeons, would have been allowed to try and repay his debt to the domain with so forced labour.
But alas, once you proved yourself willing to be violent, you basically sealed your fate.
Had he been smarter, he would have just ran in and stolen the money, thievery wouldn’t get you a harsh punishnt as long as the goods were recovered, you would maybe lose a few fingers and be branded on the forehead as a mark of your larceny…
So, in essence, Vijudius sowhat understood what the king might be up to, it was harsh… But if it worked to preserve the domain and its people in the greatest amount… Then it was completely worth it.
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