Ch.640Reason for Hatred

“You…knew…?”

Orhan couldn’t help but ask, doubting his own ears.

Haschal’s psychology that he thought he understood. It was essentially saying that his hatred stemming from the misunderstanding that he had mistreated Imelia was just his delusion.

“How…?”

“About five years ago, I believe. Glar casually told me. That the hatred I harbored was nothing but an unfair misunderstanding.”

Giran Glar, the war commander of the Black Banner Army.

Befitting a man who was once Orhan’s guard captain, he understood why Orhan had no choice but to act as if he was mistreating Imelia.

The reason he deliberately told Hersella was because he believed that returning the distorted and misaligned father-daughter relationship to normal would be for Orhan’s benefit.

Though in the end, it meant nothing.

“He told me. That you mistreated Mother to somewhat reduce the warriors’ hostility toward her, and that you didn’t show up even at the funeral because you were searching for the culprit to execute.”

Hersella said with a furrowed brow, as if spitting out the words. Recalling the mental turmoil and displeasure she felt when she learned the truth. She too was clearly shocked at that time. At that time.

Now, only displeasure remained in that memory.

“So he asked me to put down my hatred and understand the Khan’s feelings!”

Displeasure calls forth anger, and anger leads to killing intent.

Though she had declared she had ‘no intention of exchanging words,’ Hersella continued her conversation with Orhan, but while answering readily, she continuously unleashed attacks full of killing intent toward him.

A massive boulder, lifted with both arms and the tentacles of Karma of Murder, shot toward Orhan like a javelin. Like the spear tip thrust by a giant. Massive and sharp.

“Then, why…?”

Orhan asked without even looking at the boulder javelin flying toward him.

Even though you knew it was a misunderstanding, why do you still hate me? That was the meaning behind his question.

“Why, you ask? Is knowing the reason important? At this point?”

Hersella mocked him.

“Answer me!”

Orhan shouted, taking the boulder javelin with his body.

The house-sized boulder shattered upon collision with the Unyielding Flesh, pushing his body backward. His roughly sliding heels parted the lava covering the ground like the Red Sea before Moses.

“Fine, I’ll tell you. I have nothing to hide.”

Hersella answered as she lifted another boulder and drove it down toward Orhan’s head.

“Even if my belief that you mistreated Mother was just my delusion, you still bear responsibility. Responsibility for Mother’s death.”

The reason why she still despised Orhan even after learning the truth.

“You brought Mother into a world of people who hated her and her people, kept her there, and yet couldn’t even protect her properly. Isn’t that right?”

“That’s…!”

Orhan, who had kicked off the ground and leaped to swing his fist at the boulder coming down on his head, hesitated for a moment. Both Hersella’s words and the boulder she brought down struck his head simultaneously.

“You had to distance yourself to protect Mother? It’s absurd. What was the result? Were you able to protect her by keeping your distance?”

A voice full of disgust. Orhan’s words were suddenly caught in his throat. He probably couldn’t think of anything to say.

“No, quite the opposite! When you distanced yourself from Mother, the warriors thought she had lost your favor and began to despise her without hesitation. To the point where they thought there would be no consequences even if they killed her!”

Hersella pressed Orhan down with the boulder she had brought down, burying his body in the lava. The tears of the earth splashed in all directions.

“I had no choice!”

Orhan rose, tearing the boulder in half.

“The warriors’ anger had reached its limit due to Ludwig’s attack. If I had stayed close to Imelia, they would have tried to kill her, calling her a witch who had bewitched the Khan! There was no other way!”

His voice was also filled with intense emotion. Because he couldn’t accept his daughter’s accusation that Imelia’s death was his responsibility.

“I thought you would say that. You still don’t understand. You still can’t even conceive of it. What do you mean there was no other way? If you wanted to protect Mother, there was such a simple way!”

The method that Hersella herself could think of as soon as she heard Glar’s explanation, but Orhan couldn’t even imagine. That very point, that he ‘couldn’t even imagine it,’ was the source of her hatred and disgust toward him.

Hersella, who had responded fiercely, leaped high to distance herself from Orhan and quickly scanned her surroundings.

Most of the boulders had melted away, leaving no more rocks suitable as weapons, and the ceiling, having lost its pillars, was swaying as it glowed red and dripped lava.

Orhan seemed quite mentally shaken, but his body was still firm without a single wound.

She could no longer fight by throwing boulders as she had been. Hersella, draped in lava like a dress, gripped Durandal with both hands.

Whether it was thanks to changing her tactics, or because she had continued the conversation while suppressing her rising anger, she had been able to buy considerable time… but now she had to return to her original method.

The style of fighting with blade strikes while taking hits until the Unyielding Flesh broke.

“The warriors’ anger was at its limit? They would have tried to kill her, calling her a witch who had bewitched the Khan? So you had no choice but to distance yourself to protect her?”

Hersella glared at Orhan with contempt.

“You truly are the ‘Khan,’ aren’t you? You can’t escape the Khan’s way of thinking. As Aishan’s Khan, Aishan-Gioro Orhan, yes, you had no choice. You had to appease the warriors so they wouldn’t cause discord. You had to lead so that Clan Aishan wouldn’t falter.”

As the Khan leading tens of thousands of troops and ruling hundreds of thousands of people, it was unavoidable. Hersella understood that much.

But-

‘So what?’

That was not reason enough to forgive Orhan. Because,

“It never even occurred to you to give up all of that and protect Mother!”

It was natural for warriors to resist if the Khan’s wife was from an enemy country.

It was natural for warriors to try to kill her if the Khan’s wife was bewitching the Khan and destabilizing the country.

If she was the ‘Khan’s’ wife.

―In other words, if Imelia de Median had not been the ‘Khan’s’ wife, if she had been the wife of an ordinary barbarian, there would have been no problem.

If Orhan had not been the Khan ruling Aishan, what would it matter if the warriors harbored resentment? After all, they would have no relationship with him anymore.

In Hersella’s mind, if Orhan had valued her mother above all else, he could have left Aishan and lived in seclusion with her… no, including herself, the three of them.

In this vast plain, surely there would have been one sanctuary where the three of them could live?

But Orhan did not do that. While claiming to love Imelia, he couldn’t let go of his position as Khan of Aishan, choosing an indecisive and half-hearted avoidance.

The one who paid the price was not him but Imelia de Median. With a final moment full of contempt and pain.

That was what Hersella could not forgive.

“Mother’s life, her very survival was at stake. Even in such a situation, you couldn’t give up your position as Khan of Aishan. That is your sin. That is your responsibility. You weighed yourself as Khan against yourself as a husband, and chose to remain as Orhan of ‘Aishan’!”

Hersella’s fury shook the underground cavern.

As always, exchanging words with Orhan brought her boundless anger. To the point where she forgot even the human shame that had briefly awakened.

“No. I, I didn’t think… That wasn’t…!”

Orhan, who had spoken to stop the battle but was hit with unexpected criticism and blame, unconsciously stepped back and muttered meaningless words.

Hersella’s questioning was piercing like a sharp awl into parts he hadn’t even thought of.

He hadn’t even conceived the idea of giving up Aishan and choosing Imelia. Not then, not even until just before this moment arrived.

‘Did I weigh Imelia against Aishan and abandon Imelia?’

Because he had no such awareness, Orhan couldn’t refute Hersella’s accusation. It felt as if the ground beneath his feet was crumbling.

“You didn’t even take responsibility for that. Because of your choice, Mother met a death full of disgrace and contempt, yet you continued to flourish as Ser Khan, receiving praise from the warriors! How could I forgive this!”

Of course, Hersella had no interest in Orhan’s dejection. She charged like a beast, kicking through the lava, and thrust Durandal toward Orhan’s solar plexus.

Orhan’s combat instinct, honed as a warrior, reflexively defended against Hersella’s attack and counterattacked, but his counterattack clearly lacked its previous sharpness, reflecting the turmoil in his heart.

“No one held you accountable. Not even you held yourself accountable! Because as Khan of Aishan, it was such an obvious and right choice!”

That point fueled Hersella’s fury even more.

It was detestable that he had been unaware of what his sin was all this time, and now he was shaken as if in shock.

“That’s why I decided. If you chose to remain as Khan of Aishan rather than Mother’s husband, then I, as the child of Imelia de Median rather than a descendant of the Khan, will hold you accountable for abandoning Mother!”

Seething, rising, and fiercely burning passion. Her soul stained with venomous hatred, her will dissolved into killing intent and burst forth.

The extreme of Karma of Murder. The Field of Mortality unfolded above the lava.

It was a mistake.