Chapter 893: Chapter 627: Alia’s Confusion Chapter 893: Chapter 627: Alia’s Confusion The night in Faelun was equally beautiful.
Strolling along the banks of the Winterless River, the surrounding beauty seed perfect for a confession.
However, unfortunately, Duanmu Huai knew that Alia would never seek him out for this reason.
After all, Prince Sherrick once described the God of Justice as follows, “Tyler is just a perverted erotomaniac; otherwise, why would he have so many who are willing to sacrifice themselves for justice, yet those who serve him are a bunch of pretty, unmarried homosexuals?”
Well… how to put it, crude words, but not crude reasoning, I guess.
Of course, players have their own interpretation and think Tyler’s preference is understandable—after all, Tyler is an old man who lost his right hand.
Well, those who know, know.
By the way, Sherrick also had it rough, as his Church was pretty much eradicated by the players. It’s not that the players had anything against Sherrick, even though the Murderous Prince is the god of lies and slaughter; they didn’t have much to do with him.
But the problem lies in Sherrick’s God Emblem—a white skull head shrouded by a black sun.
Well… that’s quite blasphemous.
If Duanmu Huai were to see Sherrick, he would definitely kill him without explanation.
Just this emblem alone is enough to get him executed a hundred tis over.
But now is not the ti to discuss Sherrick.
“Mr. Duanmu, actually…”
Walking to the riverbank, looking at the forest in front of her, Alia’s expression was sowhat lancholic.
“Actually… before I left Neverwinter City, I visited Lady Eribeth one last ti, and she was not in good shape… I heard from her servants that she often has nightmares… It seems like she has lost her faith, and I don’t understand… who really represents justice and who is evil?”
“Oh, if you’re asking about that, I have to say… the Tribunal doesn’t care about that issue.”
“…What?”
It must be said, Duanmu Huai’s response completely caught Alia off guard, and she looked at him in surprise.
“But…”
“Originally, justice is very ambiguous and indefinable. For example, if a nation is invaded by Barbarians who brutally kill the nation’s people, rape the won, and slay the children, then are these Barbarians evil?”
“Of course.”
This ti, Alia answered without hesitation.
“Then what if you dig deeper and find out that the land originally belonged to the Barbarians, and to seize this land, the nation’s people not only hunted the Barbarians who invited them into their holand but also used disease and pestilence to eradicate them completely. They even skinned the Barbarians’ scalps as trophies, and what the Barbarian Tribe is doing now is rely getting revenge to reclaim their holand. Now tell , who is just?”
“This…”
Alia was montarily at a loss for words.
“Justice and evil are human subjective definitions. Just like if a child runs into the forest to pick flowers and gets killed by a wild beast. People would consider the beast evil because it brutally killed an unard child. But in the world of wild beasts, killing the offspring of other species is a natural act, done to stop other species from encroaching on their territory. So in the beast’s perspective, what it did was not inappropriate, and there would be no distinction between justice and evil—it’s all subjectively defined by humans.”
Duanmu Huai spread his hands and shrugged his shoulders.
“Lady Eribeth’s problem lies here, justice was never just one thing, which is why the Sacred Knights of the God of Justice often face issues, because if you adhere to your own justice, soday it will clash with soone else’s. For Eribeth, although Vanswick was wrong in his thods, his intentions were just. But for the people of Neverwinter City, Vanswick aiding a tyrant is inherently evil. So, having an in-depth discussion about what is justice and what is evil is pointless. Therefore, the Tribunal… we don’t concern ourselves with these matters.”
“So… what you an is, justice is an unnecessary existence?”
“I didn’t say that… Let give you an analogy.”
Seeing Alia’s disheartened look, Duanmu Huai thought for a mont.
“Suppose humanity is a large house, then the Tribunal is the bricklayer—we are only responsible for maintaining the structure of the house itself to prevent it from collapsing. But, the decorative style inside the rooms is up to the hoowners to decide—justice, evil, chaos, order, freedom… whatever your ideas are, how you want to decorate your room is your affair. Unless your renovations cut through a load-bearing wall and threaten the existence of the entire house, how you decorate the room is your freedom. The Tribunal… will not interfere.”
Upon saying this, Duanmu Huai chuckled.
“You wouldn’t want a repairperson fussing over how you should arrange things in your room, would you? It’s the sa principle, your ideas, your goals, belong to you. Eribeth’s justice and your justice are surely not the sa, but it doesn’t an that one of them is wrong. A binary view of values, purely black or white, is the most foolish.”
“It sounds quite difficult…”
“The concept is ambiguous, just like that, without a clear definition. The goal of the Tribunal is much clearer; as long as humans are protected, everything else doesn’t matter. Hence, we don’t dwell on issues of good and evil, nor do we consider whether our thods are right——as long as humanity survives, we have succeeded, and if humanity is destroyed, then we have failed. It’s that simple.”
From a certain perspective, the radical style of the Tribunal also stems from this, focusing solely on outcos rather than being obsessed with justice and freedom like the Sacred Knights, who, even if they succeed, might doubt whether their choices and thods were right. Once doubt takes root, it opens the door for the Evil God to take advantage of the vulnerability and lead to corruption.
So, for Lady Eribeth… Duanmu Huai thought she was beyond saving.
But Alia could still be saved.
That’s also why those who joined the Tribunal could get along so well; with a common goal, everything else was trivial. Otherwise, just arguing over “what is justice” could have disbanded them long ago.
Now, even though everyone’s thoughts, thods, and levels of acceptance varied, the overarching goal was the sa, which made all the minor details tolerable.
“This might seem a bit difficult to understand…”
“In short, what’s left is only to gain more experience. Just rember, even if they are red, pink, and purplish-red, they are different; so people like pink, others prefer purplish-red, but even though they are different, they all still belong to red… that’s the way it is.”
Saying this, Duanmu Huai patted Alia on the head.
“Alright, let’s go back.”
However, when Duanmu Huai and Alia returned to the entrance of the Mage’s Mansion, they found Kasim and Roxia hesitating at the spot, looking afraid to enter.
“What’s the matter?”
“They are afraid to go in.”
In response to Duanmu Huai’s inquiry, Ogis frowned slightly and spoke sowhat displeased.
“Afraid to go in?”
Duanmu Huai glanced at the two curiously, then peeked into the Teleportation Portal, his vision blurring for a mont, and the next mont what appeared before him was a golden Gothic-style corridor and a tall do with decorations.
Oh, speaking of which, the Mage’s Mansion would manifest the most relaxing place from a spellcaster’s mory, so it appearing as the interior of the Tribunal Mothership was quite normal. After all, Duanmu Huai usually stayed on the mothership and hardly ever left.
“Isn’t this normal? What’s the problem?”
Duanmu Huai withdrew his head, looking puzzled at Kasim and Roxia, who appeared very anxious.
“No, that… such a place, it’s not sothing we should enter, right? Roxia and I might as well camp outdoors…”
“What are you afraid of, it’s just the Mage’s Mansion. If you don’t rest inside, what’s the use of it?”
“Really, is it really okay? Everything inside looks so expensive…”
“It’s fine, co on, let’s go.”
Duanmu Huai shook his head and stepped back into the Mage’s Mansion, followed by Ogis and Alia.
Upon entering the Mage’s Mansion and seeing the luxurious sight before her, even Alia was taken aback.
“Mr. Duanmu, are you a prince?”
Well, the little girl sure knows how to talk. Haven’t seen a Prince Charming like this, have you? Given how sweet you are talking, I’ll give you extra points for that.
“Not really, this is just the view of the Tribunal.”
“This is the Tribunal…”
Looking at the magnificent golden Gothic-style corridors and rooms before her, Alia swallowed hard. She now understood why Kasim and Roxia hesitated. Just entering this place imposed a significant pressure, especially the floors so smooth and clean they nearly mirrored, making one worry that stepping on them might dirty them and incur a cost…
Is there such an organization on the Faelun Continent?
Although Alia had never left the Northern Land, the scene before her was shocking; even Lord Nasher’s castle did not possess such grandeur, and… Alia thought, not even the King’s castle would be this luxuriously beautiful.
“Anyway, choose your favorite guest room,”
Duanmu Huai briefly explained, then returned to his own room—Hmm, it must be said the spell of the Mage’s Mansion is really powerful, perfectly recreating the Tribunal Mothership from his mory. Speaking of which, this should be considered so kind of Illusion Technique, since, after all, as a spell, the Mage’s Mansion couldn’t possibly reproduce technological strength…
From this perspective, magic really isn’t scientific.
User Comments
0 comments from readers