183: Chapter 103 Commitment_2 183: Chapter 103 Commitment_2 I’m just lucky that little blonde girl knocked me down, or else I might actually have taken a life on your territory…uh, that’s not quite accurate either.
When we attacked, I did crush a couple of annoying guard dogs that wouldn’t stop barking.”
“You haven’t killed any of Selva’s villagers?” Leon asked from the side.
It was indeed the first time he heard the other party personally confirm this.
Mamor turned to look at Leon.
“Believe it or not, it’s true.
I’m not exactly a paragon of virtue, but having practiced martial arts for decades, I’ve always preferred to challenge the strong.
Unless commanded by the Sealing Lord, I have no interest in drawing my sword against the weak for slaughter.
However, I’m not the model of a Knight either.
Had I not been injured and bedridden, I might have still raised my butcher’s blade under Lord Dawson’s orders.
After all, Lord Dawson wouldn’t allow the villagers to live and risk revealing the troop’s movements, nor could I possibly defy the Sealing Lord’s command.”
Mamor shrugged his shoulders and turned his head to continue speaking to Lokhak.
“But your question is strange.
Afraid that your own family might suffer such a fate?
Do you think I could avoid this fate by just being a good loyal estate lord, going home to farm the land?
You don’t mean to tell me…
that you believe only we Kantadar people are natural-born thugs, and only the ‘Kantadar mongrels’ as you call them would loot and slaughter the innocent?
Has there been so little bloodshed by the Felu people in Kantadar territory?
Your self-righteous interrogation seems to suggest only Kantadar people commit atrocities.”
Mamor looked at the young man with a furrowed brow and a troubled expression, seeing a naive version of himself who once read tales of Knights.
He couldn’t help but elaborate, “Never been to the battlefield, have you?
When the Sealing Lord orders you to burn down enemy villages and wheat fields, to massacre enemy Subjects, to cut off the enemy’s supplies, do you plan to make this righteous interrogation of mine to your lord?
How will you stop your Soldiers who wish to vent, to plunder, to massacre after bathing in blood?
Sing them a song, hold hands, and dance?
When you inevitably have to kill those you deem innocent, men and women, old and young, how will you answer your own interrogation?”
Lokhak was at a loss for words, the ordinarily tongue-tied boy couldn’t find a reply: “No…
I…I wouldn’t do that…”
“Good, I could be like you, defy the Sealing Lord’s orders, betray what my men desire, become a, what is it…
a great saint of the Sun Worship.
That way, my wife and I wouldn’t have to wait until today for you to take action to kill us, right?
I see it now, lad, you’ve lost family at the hands of us Kantadar people.
Strange, if you want revenge, why not take your sword and kill your way back.
An eye for an eye, blood for blood; this principle is timeless.”
Mamor’s dry, cracked mouth let out a chuckle, and then he looked at the naive young man.
“As for your question, well, perhaps it’s precisely because we don’t want to endure those atrocities that we choose to commit them first…
Watching Lokhak, his brow furrowed and his right hand gripping the Halberd tightly, Leon immediately shouted, interrupting: “…and having committed a litany of sins under that twisted logic, whose hands does your destiny lie in now?”
Lokhak turned to listen to his companion’s voice.
Though the young man’s puzzled expression had not cleared, his brows had eased slightly.
Leon raised his hand and shepherded Mamor and his party away.
Even if you haven’t killed any villagers from Selva, you surely can’t have avoided bearing the Blood of the Innocent.
I may not harm your wife, but if Lokhak is provoked, I won’t stop him from slaying you alone.
If you want to live, then take this nonsense and get lost.”
He didn’t even bother to refute the other side.
No matter how eloquently one speaks, it may well be the logic of the survival of the fittest that most people in this dark age hold in their hearts.
But Leon refused to stoop to such a frail and seemingly strong train of thought.
What, as someone who holds the power of violence,
can’t you win without needlessly killing the innocent?
Can’t you lead soldiers?
Can’t you protect your family?
Can’t you gain strength?
This is nothing but a self-serving excuse made by thugs for their own indulgences.
Leon knew from history in his past life that there were real counterexamples to each of these points, and if there were examples, it meant it was achievable.
Being able to achieve makes one strong, and that’s enough.
If his young and confused companion couldn’t see that righteous path, then it was up to him to lead the way and forge a road.
There was no need to tread the shameful path of the weak, who justify their own indulgence by following the crowd.
Hearing Leon’s rebuke, the bearded man dared not speak up but earnestly dragged his bewildered Lord away, hastening their escape down the hillside.
Leon led his troops and the ransom back on their return journey, no longer concerned about the departing silhouette of the Knight Kantadar and his party.
Watching Lokhak, who rode on his horse looking gloomy and skyward, Leon thought, perhaps he should find time with Azeryan to properly guide his friend.
Unlike the prematurely mature noble’s son, and certainly unlike himself, a grown man from an Exotic Realm.
Lokhak, despite his tall and strong physique among the three, had a heart that was even more childlike than the others.
Having endured the tragic loss of family members, the tragedy of Selva, and the various experiences along the way, it was uncertain which direction these events might gradually steer the young man’s hatred.
Taking revenge on the thugs for his family was, of course, not wrong.