Irium

"Seven villages?!" I couldn't contain my horror as I heard it.

"Yes, your majesty." The general of Glice's army said. "People from Temple of Temur were responsible for it all."

They destroyed seven villages in one night. Killed all of the residents. And the people who did this – they are the ones we are helping.

"Tsk!" Turning to the wizards, I can't help but yell, "Explain this!"

"Explain what?" One of them, a witch, says. "Isn't it only natural for there to be casualties in war?"

"Casualties refer to the death of your enemies, not the death of innocent people who were on your enemies' side."

"Ha!" She scoffs. "They mean the same to us."

I can feel a desire to hit them searing through me, a desire so strong that I might lose myself. But,

"Stop!" Roswaisa says so as she puts a hand on my shoulder. "It won't accomplish anything even if you beat them all down."

I back away and glance at her, asking, "Any news on your part?"

She had deliberately taken the job of trying to track down Irium. And so,

"Yes. It's not concrete yet but I know which direction he is in and can take a wild guess as to how far he is from us."

"I see." I nod, and get out of the tent that we had all assembled in. Roswaisa follows right after.

"Roswaisa, maybe this was a mistake! Maybe coming here was a mistake!?" I can't help but think so after hearing about those villages and how they think about killing.

"Maybe it was!" Roswaisa says, not in a much better mood than me either, "But it's too late to back down now."

"Y-yeah!"

After we came to this planet, Dues had reached out to us. She told us how she knew about our deal with Cartel, about how she had met Cartel, and about how she had seen right through our intentions.

And so, we have become her enemies.

Now, we can decide to fight her separately or we can decide to fight her alongside these deplorable killers.

"Smart!" I'll give him that. "That bastard Cartel is smart!"

He has gotten into this position after all, forcing us to fight alongside his minions, lending them not only the support we can give like we had agreed to earlier, but going full force and fighting right by their disgusting sides.

Cartel has played us all.

He had been playing us all from the start.

Nothing that has happened so far has put a dent on his plans, I bet.

"I-it's unjust!" I grit my teeth without even realizing. "It's unfair for a man such as himself to be this smart."

What does he have that would justify having that good of a mind? If this world, this universe, was just, shouldn't that kind of intelligence belong to someone who would stop these kinds of bloodsheds, rather than making them happen?

"Yeah, it is unjust. A man like Cartel having a mind like that – it is unjust." Roswaisa says. "After all, he can do anything with a mind like that."

And so, the questions remains – what does he plan to do with a mind like that?

Is stealing what Dues has right now all? Because if that is the case, then such a shallow man is undeserving of that intelligence!

I can just hope that there's something more, something that could hopefully redeem him in my eyes.

*****

"I hope you can redeem yourself." Irium says as we head out from the inn.

Redemption? Oh, please!

Do I honestly look like I am hoping for redemption? Do I look like someone who can't accept their sins? Do I look that weak to you, Irium?

Well, get your eyes checked, you little twerp.

I am not hoping for redemption, or anything even slightly close to it.

I am hoping to bring Dues down, and that's all. I don't care if, at the end of the day, I am not the one who deals the final blow to her. But, I do care about bringing her down, and taking what's hers.

Give her a taste of her own medicine!

Show her what it feels like when there's someone out there predicting your every move and interfering and controlling your life whenever you try to do something they don't want you to.

I want to let her know what it feels like to be completely outsmarted.

The feeling that I and Grimma felt when we were played, the feeling that many others including you, Irium, would have felt.

That feeling is what drives me. It's my motivation – for everything.

If you don't like that, I don't care. After all, you can never understand me, just like I can never truly understand you.

*****