Four Different Kinds of Justice

Chapter 87 Four Different Kinds of Justice

"Wooden stick soldiers."

In the noisy tavern, Marcus threw a card on the table, and Victor, who was squeezed onto the same bench with him, immediately frowned like a twisted caterpillar.

The priest said in an unquestionable tone, "You should send out your longsword attendant."

Upon hearing this, Kuran moved his finger from the middle card to the right: "Stick Servant."

"Can you shut up, Viktor? Stop pointing fingers while others are playing cards! That's basic manners! Either take your gold and get out of here, or grab your snake-man and jump into the river. Stop babbling on!"

Marcus cursed at the priest next to him, calling him a piece of shit. He thought the priest had come to the tavern to urge him to complete a mission, but he turned out to be a gambler as well.

To be precise, he's an annoying guy.

"Don't blame others for the wins and losses of the bet; it's God's will." Victor's expression remained unchanged. He wasn't a gambler at all, yet he knew exactly how to spoil a gambler's fun.

Bardin, who was playing against Loka, had a twisted, thoughtful expression on his face. Dwarves are always like that, slow and seemingly able to calculate the entire game, but they always end up continuing to play their cards.

Kuran took a sip of the strong liquor and thought the priest who had suddenly appeared out of nowhere was actually quite interesting.

"Would you like one, Pastor?"

"Kurlan?" Marcus asked his card-playing friend in confusion, "Why would you invite an out-of-towner to play cards?"

"Don't be such a spoilsport, Marcus. Go fight with Trish; she's been watching you from the bar the whole time."

"Then why not just kill me? Who can beat her then?"

"We'll win someday, I promise."

Kuran shuffled the messy cards on the table, dealt eleven cards to each deck, and first played a small card to guarantee a win. He then casually asked, "Victor, where are you from? Silver Mountain City? Briel, or Eagle's Nest, the capital of the Griffin Kingdom?"

"A place you've never heard of."

Kuran nodded and continued playing: "I'm from Riverside Town, you know? Kuran, the fierce dog of Riverside Town, when those adventurers are about to die, they always talk about Hora, Tyr, and Delalie. If you ask me, in this godforsaken place, nothing beats believing in the Water Ghost Queen."

"Have you seen her? Where is her church and pastor? Who preaches her doctrines?" Victor followed up with his card, maintaining a casual tone.

"The rainforest is her church. Everyone who dies tragically from plague, mosquitoes, swamps, and water is a priest of the Water Queen." Kuran tapped his temple with his index finger: "She is here, in the air she breathes, in the scorching sun, and in the rushing water."

"The absurd claims, just like the rumors, are that Linhe Town is filled with superstition. A settlement that has only been separated from civilized society for forty years has actually evolved into heretical ideas similar to those of the Northern barbarians."

"After all, civilization is not needed here."

Kuran chuckled coldly, then switched gears, using his conversation with Marcus to explain the local civilization to the priest: "Marcus, I've taken a liking to a girl from the Vizi family. How about you do me a favor?"

"————" Marcus stared at Kuran with the eyes of someone looking at a monster; the girl was probably only twelve years old.

"What exactly did Tira do to you? That cunning Lawson abandoned everything and left, and now you've taken a fancy to a girl with pigtails. Was I lucky that I didn't get involved with anything more troublesome after taking over a hundred swords that day?"

"She was pure and innocent, like an angel fallen to earth—"

Whether these words were meant to describe Tira or Doris is unclear, but Kuran's cold tone clearly came from the heart.

The calmer a man's tone is when he speaks, the more determined he is about the matter.

"Then let's talk about how you fell for her."

"That day, I was on guard duty on the plank road. Actually, it was more like I was on guard duty, ready to take out the Visi family members at any time." Kuran took a swig of ale, loosened his collar, and looked somewhat restless. "She hurriedly stepped off the plank, lost her footing, and landed next to me. I helped her up, and she said, 'Thank you, sir.'"

"and then?"

"And then," Kuran chuckled, his gaze sweeping over the mercenaries in the Pig Lung Tavern, "Moraz has proclaimed himself village head, so perhaps he should correct my mistake of not having a wife yet. Even dockworkers can find an elf as a wife, so a fierce hound naturally needs someone worth protecting."

Like Fielding, Kuran also wanted something from the Vichy family, but these two men, who were like father and son, made completely different choices.

The fierce dogs will directly try to steal it, while the resigned warrior can only helplessly go berserk.

"Let's talk about this later—"

"The Knight of the Goblet." Kuran played a card, steer the conversation toward Viktor: "You are a priest of Tyre. I've read about your church. You always talk about justice, order, and fairness, but the world is always so unfair. Take the Vici family, for example. They used the pretext of returning to their territory to rebuild the town to cover up their financial losses from failed businesses with lies, and we have to bear this responsibility for nothing? Justice executed with swords—I think bandits are far more righteous than priests."

"Justice is a will, a constant and steadfast sacred thing that gives everyone what they deserve." Victor pressed down his card, indicating that he was skipping this round: "Most priests in the church believe that we are in a sacred order, that everyone has their rightful place, that nobles own the land, and that peasants pay taxes, with the former protecting the latter from harm—at certain times, this idea is naturally correct and indisputable."

"You don't agree with this idea?" Marcus asked curiously.

"Justice is a kind of—" Viktor seemed to still be searching for his own justice, and his tone when explaining the doctrine was extremely refined: "Duty exists in the soul of every person. Devotion to God is the key to awakening our dormant justice. Acting in accordance with a universal law requires many trials before one's spirit can resonate with the word of God."

"How unfathomable, sir. You can't even explain your own beliefs, yet you dare to preach to others." Kuran's tone was sarcastic, and his smug expression made Marcus suspect that Victor would draw his sword at any moment.

The pastor appeared calm. He silently played a card, seemingly unconcerned about the suspicions of heresy: "Practicing justice is Tyre's guidance. I need not explain to you the deeper meanings beyond words and actions."

Having just finished a tense round of cards, Loca chimed in, "Justice is not a belief, nor an obligation, but a concept. You can't define justice precisely; you can only say that doing something aligns with people's sense of justice. It's a consensus."

Victor immediately retorted: "You mean that justice, through some kind of deliberate guidance, can lead a mob to believe that evil deeds can become justice? Absurd."

"I didn't add that, Your Excellency. Judging from the current situation in Riverside Town, the Griffin Kingdom needs silver. A sufficient influx of equivalent goods into the north can guarantee the vitality of the market. But what about us? Who will uphold our justice, ha!" Loca stated a fact that Victor could not refute with a sarcastic tone.

Is justice based on morality or on order? This is a paradox that is almost impossible to solve.

Marcus was amazed by their discussion on justice. It was truly remarkable that Linhe Town, where almost everyone had received prenatal education, had produced two philosophers.

After several rounds of card games, night fell, and the crowd began to disperse noisily. Locals, adventurers, and mercenaries tacitly maintained a noisy but non-interfering attitude in the tavern.

Marcus had a great time playing cards tonight, winning several rounds in a row. As for the endless debates about justice by Kuran, Roca, and Victor, he thought they were all nonsense.

Justice is—

Everyone has at least the freedom to place bets.

"Sir, we should go catch the water druid. The rye won't disappoint you, and there's a gold coin engraved with the image of the Dog Shit King. I really wish my chin were as round as the king's; then any girl would surely fall in love with me. By the way, what's the current king's name again? King Piloch?"

Pyrrhus II.

"Long live the golden Pyrrhus! Ha ha ha!"

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