NOVEL NEXT 3- Twenty Nine
"Do you think that she's going to turn out all right?" I said, as the crowd parted.
I think she's going to be just fine. Oh, that appears to be her parents if I can judge them by their eyes and their manner..
Too elegantly dressed cultivators, a man and a woman stood alone in the center of a large circle. Zarin stepped towards them. Now. I'm not one to tell her what to do. But she knew what was about to happen. I could sense the relative strengths of her parents and, to my surprise, they were weaker than her. Min's sudden appearance on my shoulder surprised me.
"Min, stop doing that," I said. "Go next to our protégé over there."
"Boss man," Min said. "She said that she wants to do this alone."
I definitely did not know what to say to that. After all, who would?
"Daughter, you return to us with these men and went. What have you done?" The man said.
"Father, you always treated me like I was just a weapon," she said, pulling out a black long sword. "And for a long time, that's all I felt like."
"Daughter, beware. These people have corrupted you."
"Like you have corrupted the family?" She said. "This ends today."
I can see them trying to pull out some demonic technique and I thought about squeezing them with my nascent soul, but this wasn't for me. If she wanted help, she would ask for it. They had put her through the ringer and then basically sacrificed her. She should have been dead. Dead by this point. Did not want to see this, but it bore the mark of something that I had to..
Someone had to bear witness at the moment that they received their comeuppance.
As her opposite arm outstretched towards them. Gone was the girl who thought she could infiltrate my organization- my institution- through some sort of misguided. Seduction. What's stood in front of me was a woman who would run her parents through without a single issue
"You know I don't need to kill you," she said. "I feel like that would do you a disservice. But there are so many people here that don't understand the implications, the weight of what you've been doing. You've and the countless lives without a thought for what could actually have been done with them. So many people that you could have not killed just by taking a different path and doing some good in this terrible, awful world."
She took two steps. Her parents visibly clung to each other as if that would help them.
---
Now you might say to yourself. Damn, I should really zoom in on that, but I have seen enough death already. Whatever was going to happen between her and her parents? That was her business so long as they she decided to do the right thing. And again here I must remind you that the right thing is really subjective and sometimes, and sometimes, it's actually the right thing. We did not know what these people were doing, and it was only because their nightmares were now haunting me because of their proximity that I could really sense how they all knew that this was coming and this had been a known problem.
Was that a problem? Yes, would I turn her parents' ashes without a single thought? Yes. But that would not help her.
Truly, the best thing that I could do for her would be to offer her the chance to make her own choice there. And exam my own feelings about it. I kept scanning the crowd with my niece and soul, looking for someone that would actually pose a threat, but for all their posturing and they're sending killers after us, it just felt wrong.
This wasn't some faceless institution.
After all, I had a face, even if it was a hidden one.
All these were people that had they chosen a different path. Each one could have survived the day. But as I walked around the outer circle looking for any outliers, all I could feel was that they were afraid not only of me but of her parents.
What kind of father sends his daughter off to war against an enemy that he was racially certain that she would not destroy?
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He didn't know better, but then it goes back to the what kind of father would raise a daughter in such a way that she had to sacrifice human life in order to advance their own power directly. Now I understand like there is war and war was political Power by other means and the real politics is the power behind the gun or the sword.
Each one of these people looked weak.
They had to be hangers on or minor functionaries. People that just could not make it in the outside world without someone propping them up. They were all just the little people you don't think about much. They were the people that would allow this kind of thing to happen. Unchecked.
We had a word for those kinds of people. Back on my planet, I said to Lee. Lee. There was this terrible war, and a group of people did it and the result was that millions died. They called them Nazis. And if you were a citizen of the country and you weren't fighting against them and you were deciding, things happen and that's what you were.
I studied myself by putting a hand on Lee's shoulder. Every single person out there was the equivalent of a Nazi.
"That must have been hard. Was it during your lifetime?"
"It was during my grandparents' time, but you never forget how human nature is and how things that we think could never happen in one time have already happened because history defeats itself."
History repeated itself even here, where despite all the bluster, I knew we had found it. We might not have found Kael, but from the way they were trying to talk to their daughter, these two were in charge. I gave iron's mother a withering look. She was not paying attention to me. In fact, she had barely said anything. I found one near second realm cultivator looking like he wanted to play hero.
I walked up to him and stared down at him before briefly unveiling within my domain. He landed on the ground under the pressure.
I kept the effect localized. Everyone else would have thought he just went prone for no reason. But I knew. And he knew.
The manor itself looked like you could see at least 20 families comfortably on the inside and keep them overnight. It looks expansive in the casual way that everything in the capital had. It also made me worry that there was another threat over there and I could feel men following my intent.
"I'll go check it out," she told me from my shoulder.
I kind of wanted her to stick around, but when she left, Xueyie saw what she was doing and slunk around behind her.
She was chosen for this mission because she decided what she was going to do and I had no issues with that. Between myself. Lee and the two kangs setting up a formation behind us. The government was going to have a lot in their hands. And in fact, the institution that was about to have to do all his paperwork before. They are probably some early executive people. We're going to get my hand directly up their ass to actually do their job for the next 10 days. I was already dreaming about how much s*** I would stir up just based on this
The argument continues between Xiran and her parents
"We taught you the right way, daughter. You must obey. Give up this farce."
"You abandoned me. You're not my father anymore."
I could hear that slap if I was 100 miles away. He flew, barrel rolling over into the ground. And from the way he landed, it kind of looked like he had broken something on his face. Both probably most of the bones underneath his cheeks. Those were important bones.
"I think this is a healthy way to let your newly adopted daughter get her rage out. It's adorable! How she's standing up for herself. I mean, without question, her parents are going to be executed by the state for trees and, among other things. But what were you saying about institutions?"
"They can change the rules on you whenever they want. The only thing that's really hurting me here is that it's really I feel like that this was too easy... I kind of dropped my voice at the end there
It's difficult, she said, it's simple. Through all that misdirection and their misdeeds, one thing kept them here and kept them thinking that they were safe from our repercussions.
She didn't have to say it's getting her point across. It was just bald-faced greed., the humans behind the institutions were still just that. Humans. And getting power didn't really change you. It didn't change the fundamentals of who you were as a person and how you approach power, and that's why I never wanted to be the president or really any role of any significance.
"I Just wanted to play with my girls."
She squeezed me. I accepted.
"I feel like I'm actually doing something here. Like we're actually going to make some progress."
"Hey, now it's a terrible thing to say. What happens if?."
The sound of a cultivator screaming before being tossed out of a third-story window punctuated ours little talk.
Another defenestration quickly followed and was pretty sure that Xueyie was now just showing off.
It made sense but I wasn't going to be spending too much of my brain cycle thinking about what she was going to do. It looked like she was just wearing out the dreads as the rest of them washed in horror as Xiran verbally berated her parents.
It'll be great if we can leave that place. I'm bothered. This whole estate, with its rolling plane on the interior of this marble wall, is just a giant crime scene.
There's nothing wrong with a crime scene.
But she was definitely spending way too much time tossing people out of windows. And honestly, I could hear a bit of a cackle from the reunion.
They were well and truly done for.
Xirans Father looked at me with tears in his eyes and a broken jaw as if begged me to end his misery early and I just had nothing left for him. I had no empathy for the man. You thought that his money could buy him safety. But he had fucked with the wrong guy's peace.
"Patriarch Kang?" I said.
He looked up from his formation.
"Get our friends from the Blue Robes."