The Poet's Choice and the Princess's Choice

Chapter 179 The Poet's Choice and the Princess's Choice (Part 2)

"If you ask me why I came here, that's a long story," Aida said slowly.

"The story begins when I learned, while reading many ancient books, that there is a ruin beneath Iron Abyss City containing one-third of the blood of the God of Slaughter, which was deliberately left in the human world as one of the means by which the latter would be resurrected."

"You've all seen it, that's right, it's the one the Sixth Prince accidentally dug up—I have to thank him for that, otherwise I would have had to dig it up myself."

Richard's lips twitched as he listened.

No wonder the Sword of the Fallen Angel said that the ruins contained ominous objects.

It would be strange if the spicy blood curd left behind by the god of slaughter could bring good fortune!

Here, Aidan continued, "That ruin is a contingency plan of the gods, and its opening conditions are naturally extraordinary."

"It requires the stars to reach the correct position, it requires someone capable of bearing the power of slaughter to personally draw the sword, and it requires the sacrifice of thousands upon thousands of lives before it is activated —"

"Taking all this into account, I abandoned the idea of ​​sending a small team to secretly open it. Instead, I cooperated with the orcs in the swamp, and recruited several of my dragon friends to assemble a large army to directly conquer the entire Iron Abyss City!"

"In this way, I will have both the time and enough life to sacrifice—"

Everyone suddenly realized.

So this was the real cause of the whole war!

The burning city, the razed villages—all of this stems from the fact that this great demon in front of us wants to open that damned ruin!

Fuck!

Isabella pressed further, "If you wanted to besiege the city and cause deaths, then just keep attacking. Why retreat without a fight first, and then feign a sneak attack?"

Aida said quite frankly, "These are all tactical strategies—well, in the end, it's just that we can't win by brute force."

"Iron Abyss City is, after all, a fortified city."

"And I am not so arrogant as to think that I can defeat the Empire's supporting army by just bringing a bunch of chaotic orcs. The Empire has indeed been declining in recent years, but its size is still enough to make people wary."

"Perfect timing! We've discovered an underground city nearby that can house a large army."

"So we sent out a small force to use dummies and illusions to create the illusion of a retreat, while the main force hid in the underground city. After that old Ludwig passed by, we used the burrowing worms to break through all the way back to the vicinity of Iron Abyss City —"

"Finally, taking advantage of the moment when everyone in the city thought we had left and relaxed their minds, we seized the city gate and the mage tower in one fell swoop through the infiltration of the cult, and sent our army into the city."

"Our strategy proved to be quite successful!"

The crowd gazed at the city behind them, which had completely fallen, and silently lowered their heads.

Adaen changed the subject: "As for impersonating Robert—"

"It all started when he was kidnapped by a succubus. That succubus was one I summoned, and I took the opportunity to kill him then. Using my personal space and puppetry techniques, I bypassed the usual methods of detecting transformations and perfectly disguised myself as him."

"My initial intention in doing this was simply to infiltrate the city using a high-ranking identity that would allow me to easily find out about your operations, in order to ensure the smooth implementation of the plan."

"But later on—"

"After speaking with Richard and Isabella, I changed my mind."

The poet and the princess exchanged a glance and frowned simultaneously.

Richard asked, "What do you mean?"

Aidan bluntly stated, "I have high hopes for your potential. Although you have killed many of my men, that only proves that you are extraordinary and exactly the right-hand men I have been longing for."

"Therefore, I would like to invite you to join my Killing Order!"

"That's why I'm willing to talk to you more tonight."

ha?

Richard never expected the conversation to unfold this way.

After a half-second pause, he raised an eyebrow and said, "What are you thinking? We don't look like we'd be involved in cults!"

Aidan smiled and nodded: "That's exactly what I wanted. Don't forget, I was once favored by the Lord of Radiance. In my opinion, the more corrupt a harpist and the more treacherous a paladin, the more suitable they are to become my companions!"

Ah, this—

Do you want to drag others down with you just because you've fallen into evil?

Richard was speechless.

Isabella scoffed, "Wishful thinking! We have no interest in following you to resurrect the Lord of Slaughter—"

Aidan narrowed his eyes slightly: "Who told you I wanted to resurrect the Lord of Slaughter?"

Isabella replied, "You reinvented the rituals to worship him, and now you've started a war to find his blood. If you're not trying to resurrect him, what are you trying to do?"

"Wrong, terribly wrong!"

Aidan shook his head and said in a deep voice, "I have no desire to resurrect that guy. He started the killing, yet tried to escape his own death. He's a complete coward—"

"My ultimate goal in everything I've done has never changed: to seize his power and become the new God of Slaughter!"

Everyone was startled again.

Do mortals aspire to become gods? It's not that there are no precedents, but it typically takes thousands of years for one or two to achieve this.

Who would have thought that this cult leader would have such ambitions?

Aida paused, then looked at Richard and Isabella and said, "Gentlemen, since we've come this far, why not listen patiently to my thoughts? Perhaps after hearing them, you'll understand that the path of slaughter also has its value."

"Ah, where to begin—"

"Let's start from when I was a paladin who followed the Lord of Radiance."

Aidan closed his eyes slightly, recalling the past, and slowly said, "At that time, I had just established my own knightly order and, following the guidance of the church, went to a small kingdom in the north of the continent to fight against a disease spread by the Plague Cult."

"I thought this would be an easy task. All I had to do was find out the followers of the plague god, kill them, and cure the remaining patients to solve the problem."

"However, I soon realized that I was terribly wrong."

"Although I killed the cult members and cured the patients on the surface, the disease did not disappear; instead, it kept recurring, returning as soon as I wasn't careful!"

"If this trend continues, the disease will eventually spread, becoming a massive plague that sweeps across half the kingdom and kills tens of thousands!"

"I didn't understand what was going on, and thought there were still some cult members who had escaped, so I left the temple and went to investigate in a nearby town—"

Aida seemed to recall something that angered him, and his eyebrows twitched slightly.

"Then I discovered that the root cause of this situation was not cultists."

"It was actually accomplished by the combined efforts of the local lord and the townspeople, working together from both sides!"

"Some of those lords embezzled the medicines they were given, some concealed information about the spread of the disease in order to protect trade, and some increased taxes, making their already burdened subjects even more starving and turning them into ideal breeding grounds for plague."

"And those townspeople either completely ignored the danger of the plague, thinking that it wouldn't be harmful to relieve themselves occasionally, or they took the opportunity to start businesses, seeing the suffering of others as an opportunity to make their own fortune."

"When I led the knights to stop them, the lord would tell me about their financial difficulties, repeatedly emphasizing that he had donated a lot of money to the church and that we should cover for them."

"The townspeople pleaded with the knight for mercy, claiming that they had acted foolishly and would never do it again—but they often did it again the next day."

"That was the situation I faced at the time."

"Bound by our faith, we worked desperately to solve the problem. Soon, my men were exhausted from the constant back-and-forth struggle, while the disease quietly spread."

"I repeatedly asked the Lord of Radiance for guidance, but at this crucial moment, he remained silent and completely ignored me."

My prayers—

"Finally, I realized I had to make a choice, or else I would face a shameful defeat."

"Ha, I will never accept defeat—"

At that moment, several members of the Night's Watch swallowed hard and asked, "What did you choose?"

Aida chuckled and gave a soft hum.

"What else could it be? Murder, of course."

"The nobles must be killed, the townspeople must be killed, the elderly who are susceptible to disease must be killed, and the children who run around everywhere must be killed—humans are the carriers of disease. If people are gone, the disease will be gone. In this way, I carved out an isolation zone and successfully extinguished the plague."

Aidan recounted the past in a calm yet slightly pleasant tone.

The expressions of those listening grew increasingly solemn.

"But after I completed my mission, the Church of Radiance and the Kingdom's army surrounded me."

"They say I have strayed from the path of the Lord of Radiance, that I am no longer a chosen one, but a sinner who needs to be judged—"

"It's ridiculous! I was unresponsive when faced with difficulties, but now that I've returned victorious, they want to kick me aside!"

"Ah, yes, judging from your looks, you must think that this is why I betrayed the church and that's why I resent the Lord of Radiance, right?"

No, you are wrong.

Aidan glanced at everyone's eyes, shook his head and said, "I don't resent Him. I just realize that His path is incomplete."

"A benevolent god cannot guide this world, because good and evil are never two distinct paths, but rather a vortex that constantly devours each other."

"If there is only good and no evil, everyone fights for what is right, and everyone thinks their suffering deserves to be forgiven, then in the end, everyone will join hands and walk into the abyss."

"Therefore, the Lord of Radiance needs a God of Slaughter!"

"In the centuries since the death of the God of Slaughter, the world has not become a better place, nor have the number of people basking in his light increased, simply because slaughter is necessary, but he has been absent!"

"Killing is both human nature and a necessary selection process of nature."

"Let the strong fight, let the weak and the ignorant perish, and let the clear-headed, wise, and resilient lives survive. Just as a forest needs a wildfire to be reborn, humanity needs true trials to progress!"

"That's why I've decided to become the new God of Slaughter!"

"I will give this world a truly fair selection! A pure contest of ability! Those who have passed will have a future, and those who cannot will fade into oblivion!"

"This is the path I want to take!"

Aidaon kept a close eye on Isabella and Richard.

"Your Highness, as a paladin who swore an oath of conquest, haven't you often felt that the nobles of the empire were nothing but insects, and wanted to wipe them out completely?"

"My poet friend, you are even more radical than Her Highness. I can sense from your words that you genuinely believe this world is barbaric and backward, and that the aristocratic class should not even exist!"

"In that case, you should join me on my path and work together to cleanse this world!"

Finally, Aidan extended his hand to the poet and the princess.

Richard scratched his head.

They have a keen eye; they saw through his transmigrator personality.

So, how should we respond?

He turned his head, met Isabella's gaze, and finally said in unison, "We won't go along with you! / Eat shit!"

—Ah, well, they don't speak in unison, but their meanings are roughly the same.

Isabella said, "You are indeed not a qualified chosen one. You keep talking about principles, but you keep blurring the line between punishment and killing."

"The spread of the plague can be attributed to the inherent difficulty of dealing with the disease itself, or to the greed and ignorance of people's hearts, but it cannot be attributed to the existence of humanity itself! You have solved the superficial problem, but you have evaded the truly important tasks of educating the ignorant and punishing the wicked."

"In the end, you simply chose brute force over patiently overcoming difficulties. You called the original god of slaughter a coward who fled from death, but haven't you yourself also fled from difficulties?"

"I abhor the corruption of a nation so that it can be improved, not reduced to a gladiatorial arena."

"Even if it's difficult, I will take it one step at a time. Even if I fail, I will accept it calmly and reflect on how I can do better. If I unfortunately don't have this opportunity, I will pass on my experience to the next generation—instead of taking shortcuts like you did."

Richard winked beside him.

"Hmm—she's basically said everything I wanted to say. I'll just add one last thing: Aidan, you're clearly enjoying the killing, aren't you?"

Aidaen slightly raised his chin: "I love my mission, is there a problem with that?"

"This is a big problem."

Richard curled his lip, recalling the frequent smiles the other man had shown earlier, and replied, "Using killing as a means and killing for the sake of killing are two completely different things. If you are the former, I might as well observe—"

"After all, human strength has its limits. There are some things in this world that are beyond our control. When there is no way out in any direction, it is not appropriate for outsiders to say anything if we act impulsively for a moment."

"But you've already fallen to the latter—"

"You are a true sinner."

After the Q&A session ended, Aidan let out a long sigh.

"What a pity, I thought you would agree with me."

"Thinking about it, it makes sense. Changing someone's beliefs takes a long time, and you haven't experienced what I have—I was a bit too impatient."

"Well then, I'm sorry, I may need you to stay by my side for a while. I believe that with time, you will understand me —"

After saying that, he raised the long sword in his hand.

Richard, Isabella, and the others also roused themselves, preparing for a desperate battle!