Chapter 29: Justice and Evil

After pausing for a moment, I thought about what happened today. It was a lot, certainly, and perhaps it should have rattled me, but it didn't. Even the few innocent people that had died didn't weigh down my consciousness. It was a sacrifice I was willing to make and in such a battle impossible to avoid.

We had carefully used those tribes that were exceptionally vicious and a risk to anyone's safety. Extremely territorial and violent with their leader encouraging this behavior. Still, there was no denying that there were a few good apples among these savages.

It also couldn't be denied what I had committed. A massacre. I wasn't sure I had it in me, but knowing what sins most of them must have committed during their life made me feel like I was correcting the world's order. Man-eating savages that only knew how to kill their fellow men and try to exterminate any other races on sight. They had lived by the law of the jungle and now died by it.

The fact that I was the one that had orchestrated this 'invasion' didn't take away that they would have done this if I wasn't here to protect the human nation. The strongest had the right to decide over anyone else and this cleansing had to be done in a regulated manner or on unpredictable terms. I chose to do this under my control rather than have those demi-humans think of it by themself.

I was able to decide how many would suffer from this and with my decision I prevented more deaths in the future. Compared to the 5 deaths on our side, the many who would have died if those demi-humans were still alive to hunt them down paled in comparison. Honestly, this entire ordeal, made me acknowledge the belief that would have been born if I didn't change this world's future. The strong were justice and weakness was a sin.

It was a flawed logic but it certainly had its place, especially in a world like this. In a world where power was a personal attribute, something that was inherent to someone's being and couldn't be taken away without killing the person. Fortunately, I was practically powerful enough to decide the fate of those I deemed to be worth saving.

Another thing that made me pause for a moment was the demon's delight when I had given him the task to help me stage this event to push my social standings and spread my reputation. It made it almost seem like this idea had been a plan born out of malice. Perhaps I was just too biased and the demon was just happy to get a task after being told to stay on standby.

After all, I had the good for the people in mind. That I benefited from my actions should be a good thing since my success would determine the lives I could save in the future. Overall it was a net positive...

I glanced down at the cowering noble at my feet that had tried to ambush me with a bunch of other scum, making me think of my newly gained passive skill.

'Sovereign of the Earthly'. It wasn't a passive that just made everyone in my vicinity worship, admire, or deify me, but it also caused anyone that earned my ire to feel at odds with reality as if the entire world was against them.

To actively feel anything and anyone just wanted you dead or worse was a terrifying feeling that made them desperately fearful and paranoid or at least that was how he looked like after I had written him off as something to be disposed of.

This noble had lost significant weight and had been easily set off by the tiniest sound over the last couple of days, thinking it was someone plotting against him. Hm. Was it paranoid, if he was correct?

After all, the world being against them wasn't just something the target of my ire imagined. Any person I had previously encountered and looked me in favor, with compassion, love, admiration, and so on, something that made them see me in a positive light would know and instinctively dislike these outcasts.

It was also because of this that only outcasts could band together to form a group since anyone that had an amicable relationship or even a neutral impression of me wouldn't feel comfortable dealing with them or even dislike or hate them.

The outcasts were more likely to be isolated and even be reported if they did something shifty. It made me feel like I had an army of spies to expose and hinder my opposition at every step and turn. Obviously, it wasn't an omnipotent cheat code to make anyone submit to me and nip any opposition in the bud, but it gave me a lot of extra points to those that followed the rules and were good people, while simultaneously hindering anyone else.

Almost anyone that heard of me was generally good-willed toward me. Those that were unlawful, criminals who had little regard for their fellow men actively disliked me but also avoided contact with me. I didn't figure out just why they would go out of the way to avoid me.

Given that they disliked me, I expected they would stir up trouble, but it didn't happen just quite how I imagined it. Perhaps it was just the fear factor I instilled in those people or it was just because Aneko had been busy killing most of them off in Kalinsha and they didn't have time to bother with me.

Interesting though, was that those I would imagine were 'evil' didn't necessarily dislike me. Of course, that was just a guess of mine when Kalinsha's executioner greeted me with a smile on his face, genuinely happy to see me. He had been quite friendly and had a favorable impression of me. Not that he knew I knew his occupation, but it certainly was interesting to see his attitude compared to those 'secret' human traffickers.

Back to this fool. I stared at the noble who had tried to ambush me with this bunch of pathetic lowlifes. These people were hired from another city and were clearly out of their depth. They didn't even know who they were ambushing besides the composition of my party and my adventurer rank.

They were so confused that a silver rank was able to easily match their numbers on their own without even the help of their party. After capturing one of them and making him rat out the position of the rest of this little group, I swiftly exterminated them.

It wasn't surprising to me that the noble who was now begging at my feet was the one that tried to kill me. He was just as inconsiderate of the situation his country was in as I thought he would be. They went after me after I had gone out and 'survived' the front line.

They thought I would have to be exhausted after fighting at the front line and waited for me on the road back to Kalinsha. Yeah, they must have not heard of the news that I had slaughtered my way through demi-humans that were much more powerful than they were. Though I guess it was hard to get news when they were waiting to ambush someone, especially news of the same day without magic.

Weirdly enough, the noble had confidence that I would survive the battle and would take this route to return to the city and replenish my strength. It was a bit odd to have someone like him belief in my survival even if he still vastly underestimated me. Of course, it also made sense as otherwise I wouldn't be able to make him fear me as much.

Still, it made me question whether they send out any scouts to see where I was going, did those not hear of my victory? I hadn't heard of any scouts spying on us, so either they were too dumb to use scouts or those scouts had bolted the moment they heard of my feats on the battlefield. I wouldn't expect any less of a group that held no loyalty to each other. Of course, Edan just killing them, expecting me to know that he would without telling me, was in the realm of possibility.

I looked around at the corpses of the scum that were bought with a few coins to ambush and kill me. They were probably enticed by the news of the women on my team as well as they weren't surprised to see the admittedly high number of women in my party.

With my spear I cut into the nobles cheek, drawing blood. "P-please I-I give you ev-everything hwuah-" The noble wailed making me sigh. I reached into my inventory. The sight of me reaching into the void only increased the desperation of the kneeling noble. As I ignored him, I pulled out a little angel doll. It didn't have any features, though it gave off a dirty feeling, making it quite fitting for what it was.

After smearing the blood onto the doll, I threw it to the side and looked at how the doll turned into a full-sized mannequin with black wings before taking on the appearance of the noble who gasped in shock. It wasn't powerful, but that really wasn't why I had collected a bunch of these low-level items. In this world it didn't need a high level to be helpful, even a fallen angel with a level of 20 was helpful if they had very specific skill-based or 'role-playing' specialties. Having a bunch of shape-shifting sounded rather useful.

I looked back at the 'real' noble who had gone deathly pale as he fixated on the summoned fallen angel. When he noticed me staring at him, he seemed to have seen death itself. Without dragging this on any longer, I grabbed the air towards him and took hold of his soul bound by his flesh. With my knowledge of magic from tier 0 to Super Tier Magic and beyond, World Items, and reality-altering magic coming from chaos itself, it was rather easy to take hold of his tainted soul.

I wasn't too skilled with Wild Magic, but a mixture of what my body knew instinctively and my in-depth knowledge of the arcane complemented the missing experience. A crude pull later and I ripped his soul out of his body, like a grey-bluish mist with dark spots, it flowed out of his eyes and mouth.

The noble choked like a drowning man before the light in his eyes vanished and he fell to his side as dead as he could be. Even if someone tried to resurrect him, they would only be able to revive an empty husk without his soul.

His soul flowed into my domain to act as my shield until its energy was drained and replaced by another soul. A painless and merciful death if one considered what I could have done if I wanted him to suffer.

"Yuri, do you think that anyone would want these corpses?" I glanced at the Battle Maid, who nodded at my question.

"I think Kyouhukou would appreciate them." I nodded before heading back to the carriage only to see my audience consisting of Edan and his three scared-follower wolf pups.

He opened his mouth to speak, but I interrupted him with a raise of my hand. "Edan, don't feed them trash."

He looked thoughtful for a moment as he looked back at the wolves, hiding behind him. They tilted their heads when they saw him looking. "Understood." His deep voice sounded out before he went back inside the carriage with the three walking behind him like little ducklings hurriedly running behind their mother.

After the maids cleared up the mess, we continued on our way back to the city. However, it didn't take long until we were once again approached by someone. I could hear her shout to please wait for her as she had something to give me. Yuri stopped the carriage, while the human maid whispered to Yuri, informing her that this was the one I had asked about a few days ago.

Sueko was silent and most likely enjoying the lovely weather. Yuri apologized for the interruption. I didn't feel like walking outside again, so I invited the girl inside. The door opened and Neia Baraja stepped inside.

We only had a brief encounter on the wall, though it seemed like I had made some impression on the girl as she held the bow I had borrowed in her arms. "Hello, Sir. My name is Neia Baraja. I wanted to deliver this to you. Your hands only."

I took the bow from her hands and turned it around to inspect it. Surprisingly, it seemed to have gained some holy aspects after I had used it. Temporary but still fascinating. I handed it over to Fubuki, who was sitting next to me. "Yes, the squire. I remember. Thank you, Neia. Though I have to admit it was just a bow I borrowed from the military."

"Eh? Oh! I-I see. I apologize, sir! I can bring it back again." Now that I thought about it, I did say to her to take care of it. Perhaps she thought it was a personal item? It wasn't really meant to make her bring it to me again after the battle, but I would use this opportunity. Though I wasn't too sure how I should approach this as I could hardly replicate what Ainz had done.

We hardly had similar situations. Ainz had the benefits of an opposite force in the form of Remedios pushing Neia away and toward him. The several factors that played into her loyalty towards Ainz were difficult to replicate. Though, I had my own advantage in form of my indoctrinating aura. Besides, she wasn't a mentally stable individual.

"It's quite alright. Please take a seat. Yuri, start moving and take her horse with you." I didn't give her the chance to decline and pointed at the seat in front of me. "I insist." Fubuki watched us with great interest, probably already knowing where I wanted to take this.

"I-" she started her protest, but when I pulled out a bag with cookies inside and offered them to me, she relented after giving me one of her death stares. Honestly, to have read about this and seen the few pictures of her wasn't comparable to the real thing. It almost made me think that she had a deep grudge toward me and was just waiting for the striking opportunity to ram a knife between my ribs.

Of course, it made the thought of her succumbing to me only more enticing. Just thinking of her giving me that look during a blowjob certainly had its charm. It was probably because she rarely experienced direct eye contact, but she quickly looked away when I stared into her eyes for a bit too long for her liking.

After a moment of hesitation, she looked at me again and spoke up. "What did you mean by weakness is a sin?" Wow. No small talk first? Besides, did I even say this? Honestly, as the battle began I was more focused on keeping my spell active and only spoke a few words to her since I recognized her.

I tapped my chin with my index finger as I thought about it for a moment before I stared into her eyes. It was a speech I had thought of before. "...Strength is the greatest gift bestowed upon us, and it is our duty to hone that strength to its utmost potential. The world we live in is unforgiving and full of dangers, and only those with the strength to survive will endure. To be weak is to be vulnerable, and to be vulnerable is to invite destruction upon oneself and those we care for."

I paused for a moment to let my words sink in.

"But do not worry," I added, my expression softening somewhat. "Strength can be earned through hard work and dedication, and all who seek it with a pure heart will find it within themselves. Perhaps I should have been more precise with my words. It is not a sin to be weak, but it is a sin to remain so when we have the potential for greatness within us."

She fell into deep thoughts and I wasn't sure if I could convince her with just a few simple words as I didn't have the tragic circumstances to underline my points. I could only hope that my aura and the battle today were impactful enough to give my words the necessary weight to align her beliefs with mine. Although I thought there was a lot of nuance to something like weakness was a sin and strength was justice, these words weren't lies and they weren't without significance.

Neia didn't say anything as she mulled over my words, while I looked outside to enjoy the scenery. The sun shone on my face and I couldn't help but close my eyes and enjoy the warmth it brought me.

"You are a paladin, right?" She suddenly asked while I continued to enjoy the sun on my skin. Didn't know why, but I found it relaxing, especially after the slaughter I had just committed.

"Of sorts. I am not from the Paladin Order if that was what you were asking for."

"That was what I was just wondering. Why didn't you join the Paladin Order? With your skills and power, you would easily be able to become a high-ranking member. You could make a real difference!"

"Do you think me being an adventurer is a waste of my time?" I asked and she immediately nodded before shaking her head hastily as if she was afraid to insult me. Before she could retract her words, I continued. "Do you know the problem with the Paladin Order?"

"The problem? No?" She asked unsure and a bit suspicious. Perhaps my words made it seem I had some sort of conflict with them. If I spoke too negatively about them, it probably would not make for a comfortable conversation with a squire whose goal was it to become a paladin.

"Their existence is to fight evil in the name of their Justice." With that I let the words stand for themselves and got a predictable reaction.

"...Huh? That's it? How is that a problem?"

"Tell me. What is evil?"

"What is evil?" She sounded like she was almost baffled by the fact that I was questioning this since it should be obvious, right?

"Those that seek out to harm others." Good on her that she didn't say undead or demi-humans. Probably had to do something with her upbringing as she was faced with prejudice because of her appearance. However, that didn't quite fit the narrative I was pushing for.

"So, those demi-humans that wanted to invade our country today were evil?"

"I... most of them?" She sounded unsure since she felt like she stepped into a verbal trap, which she did.

"Hm. Then do you know why there were so few paladins here today? It should have been their holy mission to defend against this evil force, right?"

"A few dozen demons besieged the capital, so Grandmaster Custodio had called upon the paladins to exterminate them." As a squire, she must have gotten the news of it before the general public, so it wasn't surprising that she knew of it.

"Yes. Demons are evil and what the Paladin Order should be fighting. They were called to do what they were appointed to. However, it also left the country open to an invasion of demi-humans that would rip through the countryside, through countless villages and lives. This is where the problem lies. The number of demons they were fighting didn't need that many paladins and even if they did, they could have sent squires like yourself to help out. However, they didn't."

"But there aren't that many members in the Paladin Order to begin with! If more joined us then-"

"Then what? The Paladin Order would have sent more even though they already had some to spare? Not to mention, the priestess who resided in the capital were enough to take care of those low-level demons. You said that they besieged the capital and that was indeed the reason why they were called, but Remedios Custodio just didn't want any demons to survive, so she called upon any paladin to hunt them down and completely exterminate them. Of course, she didn't know of the demi-human invasion before she set out, but which leader would just take all their troops and go out hunting some minor threat when another bigger enemy they knew of was still waiting for an opportunity to invade?"

She was too stunned to speak as it must be new information that she as a member of the Paladin Order didn't even know.

"So, now even after the invasion was known by Remedios Custodio, they didn't send out any paladins as they are still searching for the few remaining demons that they should be cornering at this point. They expect that the soldiers on the wall and the adventurers to throw away their lives to slow them down, so Remedios can exterminate all evil before moving on to the next threat. Even the priestess of the church has realized that the demi-humans should be stopped first, which is why-" I stopped and opened the curtain for her to look outside and see the view priestesses riding towards the wall. In the distance, one could even see a group of paladins.

They weren't far away anymore. Only a few hours and they would arrive at the wall. However, it was clear that they were too late. If I hadn't been there, they would have had to send their paladins to the villages instead.

Honestly, it wasn't even hard to get this result as I only had to let Remedios know of the demons and she was out on a witch hunt without bothering to listen to those that warned her of the possible risks. It was too far away for her to regard and she wanted to eliminate the threat that she could see, so she headed out with hundreds of paladins to hunt down a few demons.

The only difficult thing was to have her sister and queen occupied with something else. A 'lost' holy artifact that they would study and they were too late to stop Remedios's crusade. Their reputation and popularity would take a significant hit from this or at least the Paladin Order would.

"I think I get that, but what does that have to do with demi-humans being evil? Why is the problem of the Paladin Order to uphold Justice and exterminate evil? Is it wrong to want to eliminate the demons?"

I chuckled slightly as she rattled off her questions. "It's not about whether all demi-humans are evil or that the demons have to be exterminated. To be honest, we could even argue about whether the majority of demi-humans are even evil to begin with as they had their own culture, friends, and family that they love. They just have a different perspectives and morality on things. It wouldn't be fair to attribute them to human qualities and morals. The real problem is who decides what was evil and what was justice. When and where the paladins are sent dictates how effective their version of 'justice' can be applied."

She opened her mouth to answer, but nothing came out. Honestly, if she had spent some time with Remedios as she did in the series, she probably would see where I was going with this and wholeheartedly agree.

"Justice is debatable. It isn't universal and it can be applied on an individual level. Currently, Remedios can mobilize the entire Paladin Order to uphold her personal Justice. Even if I joined the Paladin Order with her being sisters with the high priestess of the kingdom and being friends with the queen, my opinion wouldn't hold much weight if they were different from her beliefs. I'm not saying that she does this out of malice. With her actions, it is quite obvious that she just can't think ahead far enough to see that the immediate threat was a minor problem compared to the possible all-out war that could arrive in an instant as it nearly had today."

I opened my eyes to look at her baffled expression as I essentially called the leadership of the Paladin Order incompetent and that the queen and the church tolerated her incompetence due to personal relationship.

"What I am trying to say is that the Paladin Order is too inflexible and too bound by the hierarchy. I wouldn't be able to help the people where they need to be helped. As an adventurer, I can help the common man without having to worry about someone ordering me to go somewhere my presence wasn't needed. Especially since I don't agree with the notion that demi-humans are evil like Remedios openly propagates, at least not to the degree she vilifies them."

I paused for a moment to let her digest what I just unloaded on her. "Evil and justice are something one had to decide for oneself and since I don't agree with the leader's version of it, I find myself unable to join them."

"W-why don't you try to change the order from within then? With your powers, you could easily become a notable member and enact your version of justice!"

"Indeed that would have been possible if I got so far and wouldn't be hunted down for being a demi-human sympathetic. If I said that I would spare demi-human infants, I probably would have my paladin rank revoked." I said with a smile, though Neia didn't seem to believe it.

"As an adventurer, I can uphold my own justice which I gained through my strength, and not have to worry about being sabotaged by someone that is unwilling to even take the responsibility for their own actions and would rather blame someone else for their ignorance... Have you met Remedios?"

She shook her head and I chuckled slightly. "Well, you will know when you interact with her. She has a one-track mind when it comes to this. Of course, don't mention to her that I said this to you if you meet her." I winked at her. Neia remained silent and just nodded.

"Of course, I will still be rooting for you. I wish you the best on your way to becoming a paladin." My words seemed to shock her as if it was something she thought I would never say. Maybe it was because I just stated I didn't agree with what the Paladin Order stood for? Though, it was more a criticism aimed at the management. "Just that you can listen to my opinion about this without throwing a fit shows that you are open-minded enough. I believe you can make a real difference if you play to your strength."

"My strength?" Her expression almost made it seem like I was about to reveal her life purpose to her.

"You are an excellent shot from what I have seen." Her face scrunched up as she heard that.

"A paladin uses a sword! There is no way, I can become a paladin with a bow."

"A paladin is someone who holds up justice and exterminates evil, no? Your problem is that you are still too weak to enact your justice or make others recognize you."

Her lips thinned as she fell silent at that, though her mind was certainly active. In the background, I could hear a bustling crowd. Seemed like we arrived back in Kalinsha. "How about this? If you want to become stronger, come to me and I will teach you how to."