Civilization: Beyond Two Worlds

208 Killing Without Teaching Is Torture

The cold wind at night blew comfortably. His mind was clear and his forehead was cold.

The door was kicked open. Amidst the flames, Kang De strode out.

The wailing people were shocked. They looked up and saw a figure walk out of the light, his face, and body hidden in the dense shadows.

Flames shone on both sides, casting two illusory shadows that stretched to the sides behind them. From the perspective of these people, it was as if two shadow wings had opened.

!!

They smelled something wrong.

It was very bad.

“I actually have a lot of logic to tell.”

“I can say that I’m not from Goethe, nor have I enjoyed the wealth of your Goethe. I’ve never squandered the taxes you paid or exercised the right of a feudal noble, so I don’t have any obligation to you.”

“I can say that I can leave at any time, but I stayed to fight for you. I’ve never stepped into the war, but in order to protect you, I’ve become a killing ghost. My hands are stained with blood, and I don’t know how many elves I’ve killed. All of this should have nothing to do with me, but I made the decision to stay. This is a favor and not a duty. This is a good deed and not an obligation. You shouldn’t treat me like this.”

“I can say that the elves’ publicity and slogans are all vicious schemes. The possibility of them fulfilling their promise is actually not high. The more they use this method, the more it means that they’re already helpless.”

“I can say that I have family and relatives like you and want to return alive to see them. This is a war that has nothing to do with me. I participated, but I have to face two enemies. One is the elves, and the other is you. If you have any conscience, do you want to think about this?”

Facing the night wind, Kang De’s voice was calm and cold.

In the past, he had a relatively reserved personality and had never practiced public speaking. He would always be a little nervous when participating in speech competitions and speeches in school. Now, he had experienced it. What he faced was not the gazes of the entire school, but a group of kneeling people that stretched to the other side of the street.

There were many, many people.

Were they pitiful? Very pitiful.

Even now, Kang De still sympathized and pitied them. These people lived in this bad world and era. They did not have a good life and were only tired and exploited. They were even involved in the war.

They were weak and stupid and could only struggle to live with cunning and selfishness. They were too weak, so they could only use weakness as a weapon, and this weapon… could only hurt kind people.

Kang De understood, very much.

However, so what?

—I’m the one who was hurt, schemed against, and forced.

What had he done wrong?

‘My life is also my life. I’m also someone else’s son. I’m innocent too. I have a family too.’

—You don’t want to die so you want to let me die. Is this appropriate?

It was not suitable.

Therefore…

“Later on, thinking about it, those words and explanations are actually useless,” Kang De said calmly. “You only want to live. It’s understandable and very normal. Survival is the instinct of living beings. As someone stronger and living better than you, I’m not qualified to criticize your struggle to survive.”

“It’s not easy for you. I know that everyone’s lives are precious. I know that too.”

“Therefore, after careful consideration, I’ve decided on something and promise everyone here.”

The crowd was only a motley crew. No matter what their goal was tonight, whether they were instigated or selfish, they were mostly guilty. It was not that they felt that their actions tonight were against their conscience and against Kang De, but they were afraid of the other party’s identity. After all, he was the Grand Duke’s son-in-law.

When they saw Kang De’s actions, their hearts were a mess. Just as they were surprised and flustered, they heard Kang De’s last words and felt a small hope.

That was what the plays and poems said.

Those heroes with noble morals were willing to sacrifice themselves and save the lives of others. Even if the bad people held swords to the neck of a lowly beggar, they could make the heroes surrender.

Facing the threat of ferocious enemies, heroes would repeat their oath to protect the weak to the weak commoners and sacrifice themselves. This was what the story said.

Hope arose in their hearts.

Then, they heard the hero’s serious and solemn promise.

“I’ll avenge you and defeat the elves to save your compatriots from today’s pain.”

Just like when he first entered Goethe, when he saw a village being slaughtered and burned, he chased after it overnight until he killed all the murderers to comfort the souls who had died, even if he did not know those people.

This was the only thing Kang De could do.

However, he knew that it was not enough… not enough.

These people would definitely feel that it was not enough.

This was because revenge did not mean much to the dead. Their compatriots were not them.

As expected, when the crowd digested this sentence, the commotion and crying suddenly magnified. Many people broke down emotionally. The child cried, and the old man shed tears. More people were interrogating, roaring, and pleading. They raised the child and cried about their lost relatives. They were only a group of people who wanted to live.

With a bang, gunshots exploded in the sky.

“I was indeed right. Compared to those principles, there are only three words more suitable for you.”

Kang De said coldly, “Idiots, get lost.”

Perhaps firearms were not too intimidating to people from another world who had never seen them before. After the initial panic, a few stubborn people wanted to howl at the top of their lungs.

“I’ll give you two more words for free.”

In the next moment, the battle axe fell to the ground. Gravel flew, and killing intent filled the air.

“F*ck off!”

The person at the front hurriedly retreated. The crowd was in chaos. Kang De strode forward and approached, “I’m very curious. You’re afraid of the elves, so why aren’t you afraid of me? They can only kill your entire family tomorrow at the very least, but I can do it now. Why don’t you understand which is more terrifying?!”

Not everyone was afraid because some emotions could override fear in a short period of time. For example, the hysteria after losing everything. A middle-aged woman’s eyes were red.

Instead of retreating, she advanced and pounced at Kang De, “My sons are all dead! It’s all because of the orders of you nobles, all because of this cursed country! Kill me too!”

Kang De attacked like lightning and grabbed her throat. He exerted strength with his fingers and pinched her until her face turned purple and red. She struggled desperately until fear appeared in her eyes.

He leaned closer and looked into the other party’s eyes. “Don’t you know why your sons stood up to protect this city? Don’t they know the danger of participating in the battle? They’re heroes, but you’re trampling on their bones now… Take the flyer and scram home!”

Then, he threw this woman far away.

“You can’t do this!” someone cried from the other side. “Heroes shouldn’t be like this!”

“Keep spouting nonsense. Hero?”

Kang De walked to his side and grabbed the collar of the person who was sitting on the ground and retreating. The other party’s clothes were soft and he looked gentle. He was a good citizen.

“Listen carefully, idiot. I’ll only teach you this principle once.”

Kang De said coldly, “Of course, a hero can sacrifice himself to protect the weak, but when a hero doesn’t want to do this, you can’t force him, let alone hate and criticize him.”

“I don’t care how high the moral standards and sacrifices of other heroes are, but I’ll blow up the heads of anyone who plans to force me to do this.”

As if he had a mental breakdown, the middle-aged man cried in despair.

“Gods, is our fate destined to be like this? Do we deserve to die?”

He looked at Kang De with jealousy and hatred and gritted his teeth. It was unknown who he treated Kang De as, or rather, he was reprimanding and cursing all the injustice and fate in his life, “How do you understand our pain? I don’t have your strength or status. I work hard day and night, but I’m still like this! Could it be that people like us deserve to die when we’re born?”

Kang De was silent, then shook his head.

“Of course not,” he said. “But this is not my fault. I’m sure this is not my fault. It has nothing to do with me at all. You can hate Grand Duke Goethe, all the nobles, the gods, fate, this fixed social class, the bloodline theory, private ownership, and exploitative class that has never changed since ancient times, but you shouldn’t hate me. I’m very sure of this. I’m innocent.”

Kang De grabbed the other party’s hair and looked into his eyes.

“Listen carefully, ant. Don’t make yourself look like a maggot.”

Amidst cries and exclamations, he barged through the crowd and faced everyone.

No one dared to look him in the eye.

However, he did not feel happy.

This was not the victory he wanted.

Valentine and Glory Sand were two completely different places.

He did not want to kill here.

These people could not be born to be good, but they did evil because of their weakness. Although Kang De was furious, before he hated them, there was also pity. To these people, instead of saying that he hated them, it was more like sorrow.

There were many such numb people in China nearly a hundred years ago.

That was not their fault.

For some reason, he recalled something Confucius had said.

Killing without teaching was torture.

—I won’t kill you… but I don’t want to teach you anymore.

In the night wind, the surroundings were noisy. He could see all the sorrows of life. He was facing enemies on all sides. Some were crying and cursing, like a nightmare. He would rather fight an equal number of elves for 300 rounds than stay in this array formed by the old, weak, women, and children for another moment.

Nearly a hundred years ago, the ancestors of the Republic worked hard to educate and wake up the numb citizens. The pressure and resistance they endured were ten thousand times stronger than now. Thinking of China at that time, the people who had fallen for hundreds of years and been enslaved simply made people feel powerless and desperate. Now that times had changed, how great was it?

However, Kang De did not have such patience and determination.

Moreover, Goethe… was not his motherland.

Therefore, whatever.

The sound of hooves sounded. Valentine’s soldiers had finally arrived.

However, this did not mean that this matter could be calmed immediately. When these old, weak, women, and children saw that Kang De was unmoved by force or persuasion and his heart was like stone, they turned around and cried to the soldiers. After a series of bitter battles, the most elite soldiers were seizing the time to repair and be on guard. The people in charge of the city’s security were the temporarily formed youth army. They were from poor backgrounds and were even the children of these people, so they were sent out without restraint.

These weaklings had always targeted the weaker ones.

The so-called weaker people were not weaker, but people they thought would not fight them no matter what.

The previous goal was Kang De.

What a mistake.

Seeing that these people were crying and shouting around the soldiers and did not dare to argue with him anymore, Kang De sneered and turned around. Since the army had arrived, he would wait for Nick’s words and actions.

Hong San and Leona welcomed him. The two of them could tell that Kang De was furious and urgently needed to vent, so they only let him go out alone. The girl approached and whispered, “Don’t lower yourself to the level of a lowly commoner.”

Lowly commoner… What an ugly and oppressive phrase.

Kang De said nothing.

Hong San carefully held the camcorder and said, “Master, I’ve been taking videos.”

Kang De took it and played a paragraph back. He nodded and said, “When the war ends and there’s cultural education that opens up the intelligence of the people and awakens the consciousness of the nation, we can edit it into an education documentary and let the Goethe people in the country see it. They’ll definitely be deeply ashamed and curse loudly.”

Moreover, they would ignore the fact that they were not much stronger than this group of people.

However, who cared?

This was the nature of humans. They would forever climb up the moral high ground. The other world was the same as Earth.

The commotion outside continued. These temporarily formed youth soldiers could not resist the cries and tears of their fellow villagers at all. Or rather… they also had some indescribable thoughts.

Leona bit her lip and stood beside Kang De without leaving his side, trying to comfort him. However, Miss Vidal was usually used to cursing. It was a little difficult to speak gently.

She said softly, “Don’t mind the criticism of these people. In the future, when you defeat the elves and make eye-catching contributions, these criticisms will disappear. Others won’t even dare to fart.”

Kang De nodded, then shook his head.

“It doesn’t matter.”

He forced a smile and said softly, “I don’t care what they think of me anymore. Once this is over, I’ll go to the elf capital. After I’m done, I should go home.”

The war in the other world, the schemes of the human heart, conspiracy, and selfishness. All of this was too heavy for a person like him who did not have much ambition.

Back then, he had boldly said that he wanted to change this world and make Goethe better. It was ridiculous to think about it.

Even the people of this city would disgust him, let alone an entire country’s idiots.

It was better to return and be the protagonist of a novel on Earth. Occasionally, he would open the door and live with the magical animals on the Holy Seal Islands for a period of time.

Leona was shocked.

Home…

Her body shook, and her heart was a mess. She opened her mouth, not knowing what to say.

At this moment, there was a commotion outside, followed by shouts.

Kang De listened carefully, then said calmly, “Nick is here.”