Chapter 96

  Dylan propped his chin on his fist, adopting a thinker's pose, contemplating his own morality and the hard path of life. Ajax spoke, interrupting his thoughts and turning all attention to himself.

  "I understand why it would be necessary to assume that this beastman is one of us. But even if it is, she has crossed a line in the sand, the church will kill her no matter the cost." He said calmly, putting all the reports aside. Most agreed with him, but Cullen thought differently.

  "I don't think so, I did a little research on Richard. He was probably looking for Reincarnators. He personally met with Liam, Dylan, Sheen, Dennis and me."

  Dylan nodded at his words, remembering his earliest childhood. and spoke right after him. "Right, He performed at one of my first birthdays. I even still have his gift, a music box. It really helped me train [Mental Resistance]."

  Sheen spoke after Dylan, awkwardly patting Tasteless, reassuring himself. "He met me too. Richard was performing in the capital, and later he came over to talk to my family. We talked about small things, he even asked about me and Tasteless. I thought he was a nice guy."

  Cullen nodded and added, "He met me when he visited the main store of our trading conglomerate where I worked at the time. Father personally met him and introduced him to me. If I'm not mistaken, he was looking for some equipment, alchemy and various consumable artifacts, and even acquired a level 7 spell stone, "Lake Creation."

  Ajax nodded almost agreeing with their arguments. "That sounds better, but still, I highly doubt she's a Reincarnator."

  Everyone in the group nodded, more or less agreeing with this. The fact that Richard had met a few of them didn't really mean anything, since most of them were from wealthy and influential families.

  "I know that sounds far-fetched." Cullen said, trying to get his point across. "But listen to this. Richard Darrell was a public figure and an influential one, the best bard in the last millennium. He performed for the Senators, the King, even the Elders of the Elves. Somehow, he knew the most powerful people in three countries and earned their deep respect for his skill. And that's not even counting his [Epic] level."

  "Richard was literally revered and idolized by people. But what's also important is that he was considered a good and kind person not tolerating Evil spirits and all those like them." Cullen paused for a second, taking out another small book from the portal. Opening it, he flipped through a few pages and poked his finger at it. "He even got involved in the fight against the "Undead Eminence" as a regular Mage." Looking at the others, he continued in an excited voice.

  "Do you even know what it takes to achieve that? Not to mention that he hid the depth of his entire power. His gambit against Veksian for the sake of a beastwoman seems really bad, because of everything he lost. That's why I think she's either a reincarnator or a young girl with a [Legendary] skill. Basically, someone who has great potential. And considering that she destroyed a city and was cursed, he had no choice but to protect her, otherwise the church would have killed her."

  After finishing, Cullen sat down in his seat while the others considered his words. Dylan in particular thought that his conclusions were quite logical. The Beastwoman did not necessarily have to be a reincarnator, just someone who could tip the scales in the fight against demons. Thinking like this, one could understand Richard.

  After a short lull, Denis spoke up. "Does it really matter that she's a reincarnator, she's the damned one who destroyed the city. She doesn't meet the small standards we set."

  Dylan thought about it, Denis's words made sense. But from the report he had read, Dylan could understand the desire to destroy the city.

  "I disagree, we don't know the full context. Her actions are definitely horrible, but there could have been reasons for that." Dylan said, thinking about the most common cliche against the protagonist and chuckling quietly to himself.

  Denis turned his head, meeting his gaze. Perhaps sensing his frivolity, he responded with a bit of aggression.

  "She has the title of [Cursed Existence], her hands are covered in blood up to her elbows, and you're suggesting we just forgive her?"

  Dylan was a little taken aback by this outburst, unsure of what to say. It was definitely wrong, but he didn't want to just write it off. "No, I'm just asking you to look into it before jumping to conclusions."

  But Denis disagreed. "There are no hasty conclusions, she destroyed the city and that's a fact." Denis said, clenching his fists.

  Callen raised his hands in a calming gesture. "Let's calm down, it's just a guess." Dennis sighed and nodded at his words, Dylan just remained silent. "But I agree with Dylan, from the reports I've read, and I've read a lot more. Her potential life was terrible. Maybe she's not so bad and regrets her actions, or maybe she didn't do it on purpose, no one knows." Most reluctantly agreed with him and Callen spoke with a slight regret.

  "But if we put aside morality and look at it pragmatically. As someone with a [Legendary] skill, she could prove to be a valuable ally. If, of course, we deem her adequate enough to work with us."

  Those present considered the idea, Ajax spoke first. "It's not worth it, if the church finds out we're working with them we'll be branded heretics." Almost everyone agreed with his words.

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  Kalen shook his head, answering. "Not exactly. There are plenty of examples in history of the church tolerating people it didn't like, even the damned. If we become important enough, we'll be forgiven for such offenses." Kalen turned his head, addressing Cassandra. "No offense to you, Cassandra, but vampires are tolerated. Despite the curse and the incredible danger of the species. I could give a few more examples, but I don't think there's any point."

  Everyone's gaze turned to Cassandra as she rolled her eyes. "Don't compare vampires to [Curse Mages], we are not an uncontrollable threat. Vampires are quite capable of controlling their urges. Of course, we need blood and life force to live, but we do not need to kill for that. But you are certainly right. We are under the surveillance of other major powers, but not even because of the [Control Relatives] skill. Rather, it is because of the fanatics of the holy church, it is a pity, but they are indeed the majority." While the others were pondering her words, Emilia spoke up.

  "You're all forgetting yourself. This isn't about moral standards, or the propaganda of the holy church. Demons, undead, curses, and eldritch, creatures are so twisted in our understanding that they are the very definition of evil. There's no need to look at it pragmatically, because that's not true at all. These creatures can't be re-educated, so controlling them is incredibly difficult and often fatal. Do you really think that they would be completely vetoed if it could even potentially cost something? Of course not. These aren't the [Mind Mage] and [Soul Mage] classes, which are incredibly dangerous in evil hands, but still aren't inherently evil. That's why the government controls them."

  "My point is that if this girl is just a shell of herself, corrupted by the influence of the curse, she will not be of any use to us. Perhaps my words may seem unpleasant to Cassandra, but vampires are cursed and this is a fact, it is just that their curse is not as strong, or rather is not as corrupting as normal cases. Therefore, they can retain their minds and fight the curse. The same is true for intelligent undead, such as liches, young ghosts, death knights. They, along with vampires, are rather an exception to the rule, since they are able to resist the evil influence and retain their minds. But will the cursed one be able to do this?" Emilia said, finishing her speech. Ajax spoke right after her.

  "Right, has anyone encountered any of the creatures listed?" Several people in the group nodded, as did Dylan himself. After waiting for their confirmation, Ajax continued. "Then you must understand what this means, they will go their own way no matter what it costs them. There are creatures that are corrupted and have intelligence, but they are even more dangerous. Creepy, demons, undead and some intelligent curses, trying to negotiate with them is stupid."

  When Ajax finished speaking, there was silence. Cullen had nothing to say, so he decided to remain silent. Meanwhile, Dylan agreed with him, all the minor characters who tried to deceive or negotiate with demons, or the like, were themselves deceived and dead. He didn't want to go to such a banal death, he would be incredibly ashamed. He would curse himself until the very end of existence, even in the afterlife.

  He also had slightly revised his morality during this short conversation. He had never considered killing people in self-defense to be wrong, not at all. But now he looked at it from a different angle. In this world, people's lives were a resource for moving forward, he had long accepted this, but he realized that some of the shards did not.

  In particular Denis [Rune Architect], and perhaps others. This led to the fact that he would probably have to express himself in a less rude manner until the others came to the same inevitable conclusion. They would have to kill people, a lot of them. Perhaps it would be for a just cause, perhaps it would be accidents, negligence, and perhaps it would be hopelessness.

  It would seem that in 15 years one could get used to this idea. Eh, apparently a protected life did not give them this opportunity. But this should change soon. Dangers, stupid decisions, mistakes and consequences of failure actually shape a person.

  Dylan smiled thinly, such irony always made him smile. Although it was not funny at all.

  While Dylan was in his own world, Cullen opened a portal and got new documents from there.

  "Well, I suggest we leave this conversation until the right moment. For now, we should focus on our future plans."

  The people around nodded as Cullen walked around passing documents. Dylan had been given a few as well, but he hadn't been involved in their plans yet. Simply because he didn't have people he could send to do anything. Sure, he had Benedict and Maria, but their job was to keep an eye on him, not to run around the kingdom on stupid errands.

  At times like these, he regretted not asking his father to give him his own men, he was stupid for not asking sooner. Although he probably would have refused until he got the class. After complaining once more about the unfortunate set of circumstances, Dylan focused on the conversation.

  These were unimportant topics for him, how to avoid losses and increase profits in several enterprises. Migration, laws of different noble lands, panic of the population, how all this will turn out and what will be the consequences for the kingdom. It's not that Dylan didn't understand much from the conversations, it was just not interesting to him at all. He didn't have any enterprises, never dealt with county affairs and certainly didn't know the laws of other nobles. He didn't regret it, if he really studied it he would never have acquired two [Rare] classes.

  Listening to the Shards' investigation, Dylan was once again convinced of what a pain in the ass it was. And he was increasingly upset about his mother's promise to teach him how to rule after the academy. It was a nightmare.

  In order not to be so bored while the others were talking, he brought Liam and Linella in, telling them about his new spell, but leaving out [Insights Great Mage]. They were genuinely happy for him, and very surprised by his new spell. Developing this topic, he told him that he wanted to master two new schools of magic. Blood Magic and Wood Magic. He thought that they would suit his fighting style well, due to his high skill and the abundance of life force accumulated in his sword. Overall, these two magics should suit him much better than anything he had learned before.

  Blood magic suited him well because of his [Fast Recovery] [Rare+] skill and his [Developed Human] [Rare] physique, as it turned out his body in its original state was several levels higher than normal humans. Also, the abundant life force accumulated in the sword would be easily used to further strengthen blood magic spells. He thought that in theory he would only be 2 stages behind Cassandra in spell power. Which was very, very good.

  The wood magic would be very powerful if he used the [Nascent Maple Spirit Sword] to create it. For example, growing seeds from it, and from them trees to control and entangle enemies, or shooting thin wooden needles coated with poison. The potential was great, but not because of his skill, control, or will. But because of the spiritual power that strengthened all the wood magic that flowed through the sword, with the abundance of life force, it should be a very strong combination. Especially with his new skill [Insight Great Mage] [Special].