Chapter 821: Vengeance
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu
Was only the victor the one on the side of justice? No, that was because only the victor would survive and get a chance to talk about their idea of justice.
Would justice always win, then? No, this world had no such thing as justice or being absolutely right. Anything that sounded completely correct, even if it represented benefits for the great majority of people, would always end up hurting some others.
Strict laws would protect the daily lives of ordinary people. However, criminals who were stripped of freedom or their lives by these laws were those eliminated under the system of such “order”.
Was goodness as people thought of it truly goodness? Ancient heroes placed in modern times with modern standards would all be considered mass murderers who should have been punished by law long ago.
Back in ancient times, stealing and similar crimes were sufficient to be punished with hanging. Adultery and other such moral crimes were punished even more severely than ordinary capital crimes. Yet, a noble would only need to pay some money as compensation after killing a commoner.
Was that normal? At the very least, people of that generation felt that it was normal. In that case, were so-called good and evil simply the standards of the current generation? Were they something that could be changed easily?
Ordinary people needed saving? Villains and demons didn’t need saving, then? Could one really say that it was correct to kill the wolf in order to protect the sheep? What if the sheep evolved into a powerful civilization? The sheep would then probably hunt or lock up the past dangerous predators that used to be a threat to them.
“Shut up, idiot!”
When a world-ending flood covered the world, who had the right to determine the final passengers on Noah’s Ark? God? Something that you couldn’t decide upon was tossed over to a God? How sly.
No, it was arrogance. Who gave you the right to set standards for good and evil, to decide who could be saved in the future world, and who would be kicked off the ship?
Benefiting the majority? The choice of the majority? What a joke, was having a majority equal to justice? Didn’t many incredibly foolish decisions in history happen because of a majority decision?
Perhaps Karwenz was the correct one, not having to choose anything and letting the cruel and natural process of elimination decide everything instead…
“Shut up, idiot!”
I roared angrily as Dawn’s light illuminated the entire world. Meanwhile, Karwenz kept smiling without saying a single word.
I knew that he was trying to use words to shake my heart. I was really envious right now of his personality as not having to think too much about things was also a type of bliss sometimes.
I knew that Karwenz hid the truth, and never mentioned anything to me previously, choosing to tell me right now instead all in order to shake my determination.
However, he surely also knew that my resolution wouldn’t be so weak!
There was only one explanation, then… He was doing this on purpose to disgust me!
“Holy Light, judge this evil.”
Even though I was burning up with anger, my sword didn’t shake or tremble one bit against the gigantic Karwenz. I judged the distance between us, jumped, spread my wings, and paused in midair for an instant to dodge the slash from his greatsword. I was now close enough to him.
“Anti-evil slash!”
While the golden light was Dawn’s blade, my true killer attack was the fact that the blade of light could suddenly extend.
However, Karwenz expected this beforehand, and easily dodged my attack. It merely scratched his face.
As I had expected, my previous fight with Sophocles had exposed far too much information about me.
“Come at me! Try slashing me! You Holy Knights always love to talk about judgement, justice, and other such useless things. Why think so much about things? Regardless, the one who survives the fight until the end is the one with justice.”
Karwenz pointed at his own head while declaring something so maddening. He knew quite clearly that I absolutely hated the world’s unwritten rule that only the strong were in the right.
“The law of the jungle where only the strong are in the right? Why would we need laws and morals, then? What difference would there be between us and beasts? If all that we want to evolve are claws and teeth, wouldn’t it be better for humans to devolve back to monkeys?”
Maybe it was due to the influence of my original life on Earth, but I was forever unable to accept a primitive society that lived by the law of the jungle. Unfortunately, the law of the jungle was the rule that the world of Eich lived by.
Anyone who was forever unable to get accustomed to the prevailing way of life in a world would probably be considered “abnormal”. 99% of the time, such people would be eliminated, but there would always be a rare few… who were crazy enough to change the world. And now, there just happened to be two such individuals.
“Roland, do you really think that even if everything in the future develops as you want, even if your Wumianzhe truly completes the path of Law, that you’ll actually be able to eliminate world wars? Ha, don’t be naïve. As long as intelligent beings have greed and desires, war will absolutely continue. Forcefully suppressing war will only make the next one explode with even greater cruelty.”
“Shut up! Karwenz! I know better than anyone that it’s impossible to completely eliminate war! What I want is just… just a slightly better world to live in, where at least the weak have slightly more rights and can survive easier!”
“…Roland, if the weak have rights, then the originally strong will naturally become the weak. You still haven’t discovered it yet? Your Concept of Law is just the same as how demons use fists to convince their enemies. To be honest, you’re even worse than the demons. You’re forcing wolves to eat grass and sheep to eat meat. At the very least, demons won’t force other species to obey their own rules or decide others’ way of life.”
3
Our swords continued to clash amongst our verbal sparring. Both of us clearly knew that only the victor would have the power to decide things, and that obviously neither of us would be convinced by the other’s words, meaning that words were useless. We both clearly knew that neither of us was wrong in our way of thinking, and that some things never had an answer in the first place, yet it was impossible for either of us to stop.
Blood went flying as I smelled burnt meat that had been scorched by Holy Light. Both of us kept accumulating more and more sword injuries on our bodies. We maintained a subtle balance as neither of us had used many aces yet.
However, I had already achieved my objective. I finally finished all the prerequisites for using my troublesome ace weapon.
“Condition one, the suspect has caused actual harm.”
I blocked Karwenz’s blade once more. However, his sword energy instantly bloodied my right arm. I praised Holy Light in a low voice, and instantly recovered as if my arm was brand-new.
In this battle of attrition, Karwenz’s recovery abilities of a demon were obviously more advantageous. However, my Holy Light could also heal, so I wasn’t afraid of trading injuries.
“Karwenz, you bastard, have you not considered how many people will die if you open the door to the dimensional barrier?”
“…Does that have anything to do with me? Isn’t it only natural for the weak to die?”
Karwenz’s smile made me really want to beat him up.
Condition two, the suspect verbally admitted to harming others, and explained his crime and motive… Condition met.
I fell silent as I glanced towards Didina. Her legs were broken and she was unable to move. She was the only other living person in this entire area.
Conditions three and four, having a witness and neutral observer juror… Conditions cleared.
2
“All conditions have been met. It’s time to start the court session, Law Sword Vengeance.”
1