Death to the Guilty
"This is the result of your choice."
McDeras walked toward the boy, replaying what had just happened.
Get... get away from me! You murderers!
When the boy of about ten had shouted those words, several knights of the Fibron Empire had ground their teeth and whispered among themselves.
"Damn brat. He has no idea how much death we've had to endure because of them—none of it our fault."
Silence settled over the surroundings. McDeras looked at them. Some of the knights regarded the boy with pity, but others watched him with eyes that held no compassion at all—eyes that might as well have been staring at a hated enemy.
McDeras neither felt disappointment nor thought poorly of the men's reactions. He simply found both sides pitiable.
War is this tragic.
Even a boy's desperate struggle to protect his mother could look, to someone else, like disgusting hypocrisy. Those who had prosecuted the war were the high command and the knights. Yet why did the arrows of resentment always turn upon the powerless weak? Simply by belonging to the same community, their hatred set off a chain reaction.
That chain would never end—not until one side was completely destroyed. But the man wanted a different ending. At least here, this was a place his power could reach.
"..."
Standing before the boy, McDeras quietly regarded him. Then he raised his sword and cleanly bisected the boy's blade.
McDeras put a question to him.
"Let me ask you one thing. I have killed more than hundreds of thousands of Caelon Empire troops. Do I look like a heinous murderer to you?"
"Of... of course... You're someone who deserves to die..."
"Then let me rephrase."
McDeras reached into his coat, and knight insignias of the Fibron Empire spilled forth in abundance—tokens he had collected from the corpses so that the families of the fallen might at least receive word of their deaths.
"Every owner of these insignias is dead. They were violated and slaughtered by the knights of the Caelon Empire."
McDeras kept his eyes fixed on the boy's trembling gaze and raised his voice.
"Your Caelon Empire's knights invaded the Fibron Empire without declaration of war or justification. Afterward they broke every treaty of war, massacred civilians without mercy, even took civilians as prisoners to seize advantageous ground on the battlefield, and butchered the powerless. I wanted to stop their advance, but they would not yield—so I killed them all. Do I still look like a heinous murderer to you?"
The Fibron Empire knights standing nearby no longer looked at the little boy with resentment. His hands were shaking violently, and tears were streaming down his face.
"Just as you raised a sword to protect your mother, these men also raised their swords simply to protect the people precious to them. Just as you chose fighting over dialogue, they chose the same. As you well know, in a situation like this that was the only way."
The boy set the sword with its shattered blade upon the ground and sank to his knees.
"If our empire has done wrong and you have come to punish us, then please just kill me. My mother can't run, and she can't go anywhere else... Please... just kill me and take my mother somewhere safe."
On his knees, the boy begged mercy from his enemies. But McDeras did not accept it.
"There's no need for that."
McDeras lightly wiped the blood trickling down his cheek and began walking into the building. The boy tried to stop him, but it was useless. McDeras stood before the boy's mother and stretched out his hand.
A portion of the life force condensed within the crimson sphere flowed into the boy's mother.
The faint spark of life began to burn stronger and stronger.
At last the boy's mother coughed, then came to her senses. She opened her eyes and rose from where she lay. Ironically, the first thing the mother did was shield her son from them.
The boy stared blankly at his mother.
"M... Mom... they said you'd never walk again... I'm sure..."
Toward the boy who could not even form proper words, McDeras posed another question.
"This is the result of the choice you made to resist. But do not be mistaken. The world is not always this romantic."
He lowered himself to one knee and asked the boy once more.
"Am I still the slaughterer driven mad by murder whom you must kill? Or have I become the benefactor who saved your mother from her incurable disease?"
Faced with that either-or question, the boy could not bring himself to answer.
McDeras spoke to him.
"Humans are narrow-minded. I am no different, and neither are the knights behind me. We only killed in order to protect. If you wish to protect, grow stronger. If you do not wish to be robbed, do not beg your enemies—swing your sword. Just as you did today."
The boy remained on his knees and expressed his gratitude. McDeras no longer paid him any further attention and turned away. Then he issued orders to the knights around him.
"They won't survive if they stay here, so transfer them to the Fibron Empire. Once the situation stabilizes, send them back here. If they wish, help them live a stable life in the Fibron Empire."
"Understood."
As McDeras walked the path in silence, the man beside him asked a question.
"The boy's sword never even touched your face, Sir McDeras. Why did you do that?"
As if answering Tekeloman's doubt, the blood flowing from McDeras's cheek stopped. Then the pure white flesh that had been hidden began to show through. McDeras answered without embellishment, simply and concisely.
"They are waging a war without justification, but we are waging a war with justification. Tekeloman. It is the same reason you spared the Saintess. In a hellish war like this, if you do not want to go mad, justification is more important than anything."
McDeras looked at the expressions on the other knights' faces.
"How do the knights' faces look to you?"
"They seem much more at ease."
This was not a merciless drama of revenge. It was nothing more than a journey toward peace. I had merely shown them a possibility, using the boy as an example.
"Sparing two people and lightening their guilt in the process—that's a bargain. And a tiny spark of hope will have been kindled as well. The hope that peace can be maintained without killing every last person of the Caelon Empire."
McDeras looked at Saintess Plimia. In a way, this little play had also been for her sake.
"You saw it too. Whether a child or us, there is no difference. We only fought in order to protect. So no one is a monster. Even if countless people die in this war, do not blame yourself any longer. The fall of the Caelon Empire will ultimately bring them salvation."
Plimia shed tears as she clutched at McDeras's waist. She vowed again and again that she would not grow weak.
Princess Brainy, who had been quietly watching the scene, finally understood. She understood why McDeras had spent the time to save the child and his mother.
Brainy spoke to Plimia.
"You have a good comrade."
The justification for this war was for the Fibron Empire and for the suffering people of the Caelon Empire. At the same time, it was for the Saintesses who, though chosen by the gods, were treated as the Emperor's playthings and handled like objects. And it was for all the powerless.
Today McDeras would be recorded as the worst mass murderer in history. At the same time, to someone he would be called a savior.
"The Imperial Palace buildings are coming into view!"
Imperial Knight Commander Plotain shouted in a tense voice, and McDeras looked toward the place.
Ironically, from the massive building next to the palace, countless people were pouring out. Even at a glance they wore luxurious ornaments, each accompanied by knights and servants. On the floor, half-drunk wine was strewn about, and food had been trampled into mush by the fleeing people. Even before the doors, beautiful ornaments were all collapsing into ruin.
McDeras's eyes began to fill with blood. At the same time, the sphere floating in the sky started to vibrate madly.
"Those people are..."
Clear killing intent began to fill Princess Brainy's eyes as well.
The ones who had caused this horrific war. The ones who had driven people into death's jaws and made them turn blades upon one another. The ones who, without justification, had stolen families and made countless people tremble in agony.
They had been merrily enjoying a party as if this had nothing to do with them, and the moment the empire fell into danger they fled without a thought of defending it.
The knights ground their teeth.
As if answering their fury, McDeras whispered.
"Pierce them."
Hundreds of thin spears shot from the crimson sphere and skewered the hundreds of people around the palace. Yet some survived by using those nearby as shields, and they began to flee once more.
"Stop them! You useless bastard! Stop them! Even if you have to die, keep those bastards from getting here!"
Even in this moment, the bureaucrats of the Caelon Empire used their authority to shove people toward death.
McDeras started to use a mass-slaughter spell, then stopped. He knew there were those who had been waiting for this moment more than anyone.
McDeras shouted to the knights behind him.
"Kill them all."
As if they had been waiting for those very words, the knights of the Fibron Empire charged toward the bureaucrats of the Caelon Empire.