Ch.224Towards the Sky. Peledias (3)

“Haah…”

I sighed as I shook the blood off my sword.

Today, I slapped my wife and beheaded another man’s wife. Naturally, I couldn’t possibly feel good about it.

The people in the square disappeared into their homes as soon as the beheading was done, and the square where hundreds of thousands had been walking was now desolately empty except for me, the officers, and the recruiters.

Ah, I should also include that man standing stupidly ahead—the relative of the deceased.

“The body will be handed over to you. I hope you’ll conduct a proper funeral this time.”

“…”

“Are you incapable of answering properly before a noble?”

“Was it an execution, sir?”

“Enough. It would be sacrilege to strike such insignificant beings with a sacred artifact bestowed by God. You may go now.”

“Yes. Where will you be heading, sir?”

“There was a café below the Mooring Tower… I think I’ll go there.”

“As you command.”

I wonder why. It hasn’t even been an hour since I had tea, yet my throat feels parched.

Well, even if I don’t know the reason, it’s not a big problem if I can solve it. If I’m thirsty, I just need to drink something.

I went to the café below the Mooring Tower with my followers, and the owner, upon seeing me, offered me the best seat.

“What would you like to order?”

“Tea and fru… No. Just tea. Cold, please.”

“Iced tea, I understand. I’ll bring it right away.”

True to his word, in less than a minute, a brown liquid in a transparent glass teapot was placed before me.

As I filled my teacup to the brim, I suddenly realized how unfamiliar my face was to me.

Of course, this is my face. It’s merely the result of injecting growth hormones and forcibly expanding growth plates—this is how I would have looked had I grown naturally.

The body is a means, the mind is a connection, and only the purpose of the soul defines everything about humanity—so scholars and sages often say.

When the body collapses, the means disappears, so the mind has no reason to remain in the body.

When the soul’s purpose is fulfilled, there’s no need to maintain the means, so the body has no reason to remain in this world.

Then what exactly defines the mind, which is neither purpose nor means?

Is it merely the glue between soul and body, or just a byproduct of the interaction between body and soul?

Does the pleasure and happiness I possess go to my mind? Or to my soul?

Does the grief and lamentation I feel stem from the unfulfillment of my soul, or from the pain of my body?

I quietly lifted the teacup and poured the cold tea into my mouth.

Droplets formed on the teacup, wetting my hardened skin before enveloping my tongue.

“Hmm… the tea is good.”

A fresh aroma and clean aftertaste. It was tea perfectly suitable for a noble’s appreciation. I knew my mood had improved slightly, but then I felt worse again at the realization that my mood had improved.

Humanity has already overcome death.

Whether by converting personality into data, or by regularly receiving telomere extension injections, or through medicinal treatments like elixirs… there were many methods.

But strictly speaking, that wasn’t overcoming death.

Why do humans die? It’s because as we age, we gradually become weaker, until we’re too weak to even breathe.

So the above methods weren’t overcoming death, but overcoming aging.

Furthermore, they were struggles to avoid becoming weak.

Modifying the nervous system, enhancing the body.

Whether auras or implants, the essence is no different.

If humans truly feared death, then death should have become an absolute object of avoidance, regardless of whether God exists or not.

What humans fear is weakness. Furthermore, it’s having their choices taken away by something vast and beyond their control.

That’s why they fear death as a result.

They die because they are weak, and they fear it more because their existence doesn’t remain after death.

That’s why they developed civilization.

The weakness of an individual can be hidden and compensated for when they become many.

A human alone can do nothing. At best, they can barely survive by investing all their time in a single day.

But when 1 person becomes 100, and 100 become 1,000, things naturally change.

That’s how nations were born and war was invented.

Civilization gave humanity not survival but life, and humanity created prosperity with life as its material.

And prosperity gave birth to sin, and from then on, humanity could not separate itself from civilization.

If asked who is more “human”—someone tearing at raw meat in a cave, or someone enjoying tea time in a decent house—everyone would have to answer the latter.

That was the price of prosperity. We came to live by burning the weak in exchange for our strength.

Humans are humans. Whether tearing at raw meat or elegantly cutting a steak, the essence doesn’t change.

Whether changing the body into a machine or having only the soul wander the world, that doesn’t change. Some might disagree, but at least that’s what I think.

I opened the sugar cube box that came with the teacup, took a sugar cube, put it in my mouth, and savored its taste.

Sweet.

Humans prefer sweet foods because they’re high in calories, and avoid sour and bitter tastes because foods with those tastes are more likely to be spoiled or poisonous.

Reason built on the foundation of instinct was so clear in its mechanism. Like how limestone water comes from ground full of limestone.

Then was my slapping my wife derived from a childish instinct because she interfered with me? Or was it from anger based on reason that something lowly interfered with the exercise of noble blood?

Was that mother’s attempt to stop her son and her assault and verbal abuse toward my officers derived from the instinct of not wanting to lose her son? Or was it from rational madness that her possession defied her will?

Most people couldn’t distinguish between the two. Not because they lack the ability, but because emotions are created from a mixture of both.

Like how fuel is mixed with the air entering a piston.

I poured more tea into my cup and then took another sip, filling my mouth that was full of the sweetness from the sugar cube.

The stickiness of the sugar in my mouth soon subsided, and the tea going down my throat still had a syrupy sweetness to it.

“My lord.”

As I was closing my eyes and enjoying the sunlight, one of the officers cautiously addressed me, and I slightly turned my head to look at him.

It was the brigade commander.

The highest-ranking officer among those I had.

“What is it?”

“Your wife wishes to see you, my lord.”

“…”

I sighed briefly and frowned.

Should I accommodate her just because she wants it? I didn’t particularly feel I had to.

“I have no desire to see my wife yet.”

“Shall I relay that message?”

“Hmm… Tell her to wait in the captain’s quarters.”

“I will convey that, my lord.”

Saying so, the brigade commander called a subordinate nearby, whispered something in his ear, and sent him away. Probably a messenger.

After the messenger left, he took out a file from his breast pocket and handed it to me.

“These are enlistment papers for about 2,500 people. Please review and approve them.”

“Ah… yes. I’ve received them, you may go now.”

“Yes, sir.”

I refilled my teacup and began to carefully examine the thick file.

There was still plenty of tea left in the pot, and I continued signing each document until morning ended and noon began, recruiting the living to fill the places of the dead in my army.

*

Around lunchtime, the officers I had dispatched entered the café and presented themselves to me, having received my location from the brigade commander.

They all took out documents from their breast pockets and showed them to me, containing detailed descriptions of various businesses written in military format.

“Good work. You may go now.”

“Yes, sir!”

“Ah. Hand this file to the brigade commander.”

“Understood.”

I said this while continuing to drink tea and look through the documents.

Is this what a noble’s life is like? I thought I could enjoy a leisurely life, but there are so many responsibilities that my head aches.

Some nobles deliberately don’t learn to read and hire literate officials to handle their affairs—it might seem like a waste of money, but it’s actually a subtle way of showing off their wealth, so I couldn’t really criticize.

If a noble is someone who doesn’t labor themselves but has the wealth and leisure to hire laborers, am I not a noble? If so, then I cast my wife out onto the street purely out of my pride.

Of course, it was also a sin for a wife not to follow her husband’s opinion, so it wasn’t my fault, but still, peeling away one layer of defense mechanism for the assault would make me feel worse.

I don’t know how to face my wife.

Will she be crying, or puffing her cheeks in anger?

Is this what nobles have to worry about…