Novel Full Chapter 1949: Discussing What Had Happened
Chapter 1949: Discussing What Had Happened
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“Sometimes I wonder if they really committed a mistake… I only showed my secondary demon traits when I reached puberty. My skin turned redder, I grew longer, visible horns, and other things…” Ruby said.
“The Gods know what your parents are, so I believe it wasn’t a mistake,” my mother replied. “Whoever blessed you must have wanted someone with demon bloodline among the heroes. Perhaps to bring a change the other Gods might not usually or easily accept. Maybe there are internal conflicts within their pantheon. Not all of them share the same mindset, after all. Some are more reasonable than others, certainly…”
I’m honestly pretty intrigued by the gods, even though I’ve heard about them constantly—the different factions within their pantheon, who they truly serve, their higher-ups, and the higher-ups of the higher-ups and so on. It’s all a society and hierarchy we know almost nothing about.
I’ll try to research more about them later. Maybe once we return to the capital for the Academy, we’ll learn even more.
“Ah, there you are!”
My mother looked rather angry at Aquarina’s family. After a couple of minutes of wandering, we finally found them enjoying delicious hot cocoa with pastries. Esmeralda munched happily on everything.
“Ah?! F-Faylen! What are you doing here? This is a family meeting…!” Nepheline said.
“And so what? We’re family now,” my mother replied. “Anyway, a lot of things have happened. Aren’t you updated?”
“About what?” Nepheline asked, raising an eyebrow.
“What’s wrong, Faylen?” Shade wondered, curious.
My mother quickly explained everything. Their expressions grew serious and surprised. It seemed they truly hadn’t known; they had simply been trying to relax and spend time with their young daughter. It wasn’t selfishness—they wanted her to have happy childhood memories.
“Uh, okay, this is not good,” Shade nodded. “Hmm, actually worse than I could have ever imagined something like this would be…”
“Yeah,” Nepheline agreed. “I guess we’ll have to cut short our little trip around the city, baby. Let’s go back to Felicia to tell her the news.”
“Aee! Awawa!” Esmeralda said, waving her tiny hands. Her face was covered in crumbs and white cream from the pastries she had been devouring.
“Awawa to you too,” Aquarina nodded, patting her head and quickly lifting her little sister into her arms.
“Let me clean you,” I said, using a handkerchief to wipe her messy face. “There you go! All clean and cute!”
“Heheheh!” Esmeralda giggled adorably. I resisted the urge to pinch her cheeks. She was an incredibly lovable little thing—and she reminded me so much of Aquarina when she was young. She had been just as darn cute.
“Aww, she reminds me of you when you were little, you know?” I asked as we headed back to Felicia’s home.
“W-Wait, what? Really?” Aquarina asked. “How?”
“Why do you ask how? It’s pretty obvious you two are similar!” I said. “You’re sisters. Though you were a lot shyer than Esmeralda. Your baby sister looks like she’s brave from the start.”
“I guess you’re right. She’s got that warrior spirit in her,” Aquarina nodded, smiling faintly and kissing her forehead. “My cute baby sister.”
“Aeee!” Esmeralda patted her face and then kissed Aquarina back on the chin. “Muack!” She clearly adored her big sister.
“Awww!” I nearly died from the cuteness. “W-What about me? What about your auntie Sylphy? I also want a tiny peck!” I leaned closer.
“Awaaa!” She swung her tiny fist and punched my face.
“Ouch!” I cried.
“E-Esmeralda! Stop hitting Sylphy!” Aquarina facepalmed.
“No, it’s fine…” I giggled awkwardly. “I got too cocky there… We aren’t so close yet… hehe…”
I rubbed my nose. It really hurt—that girl packed a surprisingly strong punch.
While my mother explained everything to Aquarina’s parents—showing them the map and all the details—we returned to Master Felicia’s home and called everyone else.
Zephyrus, Celica, Felicia, and Dad came to greet us. We told them about the situation in Evercraft. The news hit everyone hard. But Master Felicia didn’t seem particularly surprised.
“Ah, I had detected some anomalies months ago—I think it was two years ago, a month or two before you girls arrived,” she said. “I remember it was some kind of dark, foggy presence. It was so weak I thought it would die out or get eaten by another wanderer, but it settled deep in the dungeon and slowly recovered. They sure are stubborn.”
“W-What, you knew?!” my mother asked. “And what do you mean by ’a stubborn one,’ Felicia?”
“An Evil God…” Felicia said plainly.
“Huh?!” Most of us responded in shock.
If she already knew, why hadn’t she said anything earlier? What was going on?
“Why didn’t you inform us?” my father asked. “We could have—”
“What could you have done, Allan?” she asked. “Gone after a defenseless, wounded Evil God and killed them in cold blood while they begged for mercy? I didn’t tell anyone because I thought it wasn’t necessary. Evil Gods… despite their titles, aren’t all truly evil beings. What is evil or not, anyway? The Demon King we slayed wasn’t even a bad person; he was fighting to protect his people. It’s all gray. Even the gods are no exception, no matter how strong they are.”
“…”
I wanted to argue against her words, but I couldn’t.
She wasn’t wrong at all.
Armageddon herself proved that not everything was always “absolute good” versus “absolute evil.”
The vast majority of everything and everyone exists in the middle—a gray area—sometimes leaning toward good, sometimes toward evil, sometimes both in equal measure.
Unlike my parents, I could never have forced myself to kill an innocent man or terrorize people in the Demon Continent just because the church ordered it.
But even after everything they did, are they evil? No.
Many of the Demon Lords serving the Demon King were indeed very bad people—attacking innocent human villages, sacrificing them for power, terrorizing humanity.
The Demon King, even though he wasn’t evil, knew they were coming for him and chose to fight back by any means necessary to protect his people.
But there’s also a sense of righteousness—of what we believe is wrong or right—and through that belief we move forward, following our own path, our own way.
This world is truly a strange place. The gods have caused undeniable damage to this planet; they have committed many atrocities and made so many suffer.
But are they all evil? No. Some could be genuinely good, or some could exist in between. Nothing is as simple as just good and evil, and I’ve always known that.
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