Chapter 162: Marching on the Elf Village; Who Consents, Who Objects
"Not everyone... I—I couldn't save... everyone..."
Scalding, raindrop-sized tears continually spilled from Teacher's eyes as she choked out words that only she could comprehend.
If the elf race truly consisted of villains, then the three students who had already passed away undoubtedly had everything to do with them. And she, who had provided the information, was the root culprit who had caused her students' deaths.
The broken-down Teacher looked exactly like any ordinary child, squatting helplessly on the ground and wailing loudly, looking as though she had lost everything holding her up.
The atmosphere in the room felt somewhat suffocating, only slowly reverting to a state of calm after Teacher cried herself unconscious.
No one could truly empathize with Teacher's feelings. Shirazawa perhaps understood a fraction of it, but a selfish spider possessed none of that noble sentimentality required for self-sacrifice. As for the others, they found it even harder to understand.
Something like the truth of the world was actually quite easy to accept for these reincarnations who had not yet experienced much of life. Unlike the original timeline, where they would constantly clamor to defeat the Demon Lord and save the world due to preconceived notions and an information gap.
Originally, to guarantee Ariel's safety, Shiro would have directly insta-killed the young Hero Julius. Who could blame her, given that he possessed the Hero title capable of rivaling a Demon Lord?
But Shirazawa knew that even if the current Hero was killed, the System would simply seek out the next suitable candidate for the title. Furthermore, because of Schlain's—that is, Yamada's—inherent skill
This had caused Shiro to face obstacles at every turn in her subsequent plans. After all, he was Teacher's student, so it wasn't easy for her to deal a fatal blow; she could only utilize Hugo's greed to frame Schlain, pushing him far away from the vortex of the world war. Yet this guy was clearly not the type to sit idly by, insisting on rushing forward to meddle, which ultimately resulted in him only making matters worse. He nearly killed his best friend from his past life, Wrath, not to mention slaughtering a massive number of the demon race.
Fortunately, Sophia didn't coddle him, giving this bunch of troublemakers a severe thrashing to settle things down. In the end, relying on that wish-fulfilling
It was truly a load of absolute garbage.
But this time, Shirazawa was obviously not going to let events develop to that stage.
The genuine Hero Julius was not dead; he was alive and well. Furthermore, Julius disdained to pick up the Hero's Sword capable of insta-killing a deity; he believed that the notion of saving the world simply by killing the Demon Lord was far too naive.
Could the world achieve peace just by eliminating a single person? Heh, that was the kind of plotline that only appeared in fairy tales. Julius's worldview was easily dozens of leagues ahead of the innocent and naive Schlain's. Wasn't a Hero possessing such a fully formed set of values vastly superior to a Schlain who only knew how to clamor about saving the world, yet ultimately couldn't even save his own kingdom?
Shiraori held the unconscious Teacher, applying healing magic to her, while Shirazawa explained the current global situation to everyone else.
If they wanted to save the world, a lot of people had to die; there was absolutely no room for doubt on this point. Before that, they needed to eradicate the old elf Potimas, who was coveting the System's energy, to prevent any unforeseen accidents from occurring.
After listening to his explanation, Schlain was the first who couldn't hold back from speaking out.
"Isn't there a way to have the best of both worlds?" "Does it absolutely have to cost so many lives?"
Hearing this kind of idiotic remark, two veins throbbed violently on Shirazawa's forehead.
He had already made things perfectly clear just now.
Their own world required them to salvage it themselves. It was plainly a mistake committed by humanity, yet Goddess Sariel was the one footing the bill for them. Even if Shirazawa possessed pure energy from divinity cores on hand that could plug this deficit, on what grounds should he?
Atonement!
Whether it was the human race or the demon race, every single one of them was going to atone for their sins.
He had still been somewhat prepared for the fact that a thoroughly over-sympathetic Schlain would ask such a question, so he quickly adjusted his state of mind.
"Yamada, if sacrificing you alone could truly save the world, would you be willing to sacrifice yourself?" Shirazawa threw out a sharp question, wanting to see exactly how massive this kid's savior complex truly was.
"What do you mean?" Schlain was puzzled.
Shirazawa responded coldly, "Litterally."
In the end, the boy fell into a prolonged silence, the dazzling figure of his Hero brother surfacing within his mind. Just as everyone thought Yamada would choose to back down, this guy actually nodded firmly.
"If sacrificing me alone truly can save the world, then I am willing."
"Oh?" The corner of Shirazawa's mouth hooked into a wicked smile. "Since an outsider like you is willing to sacrifice yourself, then what's the issue with letting the native inhabitants of this world sacrifice themselves to save their own world?"
"This..." Schlain's CPU suddenly entered a brief short-circuit, crashing completely.
"What Shirazawa said is perfectly flawless!" Hugo rested his chin in his hand, feeling that the other party's words made a tremendous amount of sense.
Katia twisted her beautiful red hair, similarly falling into deep thought.
There was also the Light Dragon Fei perching on Schlain's shoulder; she silently hopped off Yamada, wanting to curl up inside Shirazawa's embrace instead. Then, halfway through her walk, she was imperceptibly scooped up by Shiraori and stuffed directly into Teacher's arms.
Humph, Shinohara hadn't given up on her wicked designs yet, actually still wanting to seduce her man; she had to be dreaming. Although Shiraori and Hiiro Wakaba were two different entities, Shiraori, who possessed Wakaba's memories, naturally knew exactly what this Light Dragon was thinking inside.
"But..." Schlain always felt like something was somewhat off, yet he couldn't put it into words, leaving his sentence hanging.
"Alright, we only came to notify everyone, not to solicit your opinions." Shirazawa laid his cards flat on the table, meaning: *You guys just sit tight and watch the show; leave the rest to me, there's no need for you to worry.*
The reincarnations, who had originally planned to achieve great things in an alternate world, were suddenly informed that it was already right on the verge of the final conclusion, leaving them feeling somewhat unmoored for a time.
"The class meeting ends here for now. We will resume next time once everyone is present."
To prevent this bunch of fellows from causing trouble, Shirazawa ordered White Nine to lock down the entire Analeit Kingdom, placing Schlain and the others under a form of disguised house arrest. At the same time, they also witnessed exactly how terrifying the abilities of Shirazawa and Shiraori truly were. The grand kingdom had changed masters in an instant, making it feel as though they were living in a dream.
The miserable old King had simply been sitting quietly inside his home when disaster dropped straight out of the clear blue sky. In a single night, he had inexplicably been rendered a figurehead by a bunch of his own ministers. There was simply no one he could go to for justice.
To be safe, Teacher was taken back to the Demon Lord's Castle by Shiraori, where the old butler was instructed to have people look after her meticulously.
Meanwhile, Shirazawa and Shiraori joined a mobilization assembly convened by Demon Lord Ariel.
The ten grand armies of the Demon Lord assembled within the Demon Lord's Castle, causing a massive surge of wind and clouds for a time.
Having stepped into the domain of the gods, Demon Lord Ariel—whose strength had become thoroughly bottomless—sat enthroned within the royal chambers, looking down at the uniformly aligned military forces below as a smile manifested on her face. Behind her stood the ten Army Commanders along with Shirazawa, Sophia, and the four puppet spider sisters acting as external personnel, every single one of them exuding an intimidating aura.
"My ministers."
"In three days, we march on the Elf Village. Who consents, who objects?"
"..."
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