Chapter 679

Chapter 64: Value – Part 2

“She’s a good child…”

Mayor Robert’s eyes suddenly turned red, his smoke-damaged voice choked with emotion: “Elma… Such a child should not have been killed by them. She shouldn’t have died. This world… It’s unreasonable, so unreasonable…”

The old man spoke with tears streaming down his face, his sorrow uncontrollable as it welled up from the creases at the corners of his eyes.

I looked at his face, a fleeting sense of pity flashed in my heart, but I couldn’t help raising my eyebrows. What followed was an uncontrollable surge of anger within me.

“You think she’s a good child…”

“Do you feel that this world… is unreasonable?”

Originally, I didn’t want to argue with him…

I just wanted to quickly settle things, rest well tonight, and set off early tomorrow morning for the Sand Valley. Once there, if Elma was still alive, regardless of where she was, I would no longer wait. I would find her proactively and ask her everything clearly.

…If she really had already died, then we could talk about death later.

I didn’t want to waste time, nor did I have the mood to argue with anyone. After leaving Carlos without saying goodbye, I felt something was blocking my heart, making me very uncomfortable. I just wanted to say what needed to be said and be alone for a while.

But at this moment, hearing the old man suddenly speak those words, I couldn’t suppress my anger any longer. My emotions surged through my entire body.

“Do you know how many people she has harmed in the West Continent…?”

I stared intently at his bloodshot eyes, speaking each word carefully: “Those people she harmed included compassionate priests, loyal warriors, and many more, ordinary civilians like you and me, living their lives, raising families, and making ends meet.”

“Those people were living peacefully at home when disaster struck them. Many died, and some even wished they had died earlier. Before that, they hadn’t done anything wrong. Old man…”

“Do you think the people who were killed by Elma, the woman you call a good child, could have spoken reason to anyone before they were separated from their loved ones, losing their homes and families? Before they were brutally murdered on the roadside or atop the city walls?”

Ah…

I really shouldn’t be talking about these things with an old man here.

It’s meaningless…

But I just can’t help it.

That woman saved my life, and I should be grateful, but I genuinely don’t feel that way from the bottom of my heart.

Not only that, sometimes I even think resentfully, if I had known that the person who would save me in the end would be her, such a villain stained with innocent blood, if I had known…

Then I would rather have died in Silgayea.

My current feelings are complicated.

I want to continue talking to the old mayor, to make him fully understand what Elma, the good child in his eyes, has done in the West Continent that has enraged both heaven and men…

I want him to understand these things…

But I don’t want to see his old face anymore.

That sad face, shedding tears for the devil, that old face.

“…Forget it, you—”

After a brief silence, I suddenly felt extremely annoyed, impatiently waving my hand to send him away.

But just as my hand was raised, I heard the old man interject: “…I think, you’re right.”

He quickly wiped his face, rubbed his dark cheek, and the moisture in his eyes slowly receded. He coughed lightly twice, using a trembling voice to say to me: “Old man, I know, I know the things you mentioned… I know a lot of them… At least in my heart, I do. Although I’m old, I haven’t gone senile… Elma

The young lady… although she doesn’t directly tell me the situation, I actually understand, she… has done many heinous things… I am aware of all of them…

“This is what you consider a good child.”

I don’t want to drive him away: “In your eyes, she is a good child, but in Xizhou, she commands clowns, controls so many madmen and heretics, killing civilians like slaughtering dogs. You think she’s a good child, but it’s only because the butcher’s knife in her hand hasn’t been placed on your necks yet.”

The old man sat across from me and thought for a moment.

“Perhaps, everything you say is correct…”

But then he changed his tone: “However, I don’t entirely agree with that.”

“Miss, although I call you that, I also know that you are very young… Even if you have accomplished many great things in Xizhou at such a young age, ultimately… Haha. These words might not be suitable for you, you are too young to understand some things…”

He pointed at himself as he spoke: “People like us have no value… Perhaps you haven’t understood the story of this town, but what I want to tell you is that we were once a group that rose up in rebellion against the church’s oppression… But that was many years ago, a very distant past…”

“Afterwards, there was no war, thus no oppression, our lives became peaceful… Although we can’t say we’re wealthy, at least we don’t starve and live with dignity… So, hatred gradually faded. Initially, everyone just wanted these things… to live well…”

“Our ancestors ultimately failed to change anything; they compromised under one piece of church document… Choosing to forget those new and old grievances because living well meant no one wanted to foolishly fight anymore… We’ve lived here generation after generation, knowing everything but unable to change anything, just living peacefully… Our existence long lost its value…”

The old mayor spoke sorrowfully, and I couldn’t hold back my interruption: “As long as people are alive, they have value.”

“No, no, you didn’t understand what I meant…”

He waved his hand at me: “What I mean is, in this world, there are many like us… Indeed, no one wants to die, everyone wants to live well, but living doesn’t change anything, it changes nothing, not even the desire to change. Whether one lives or dies, it makes no difference to the world…”

“But Miss Elina is different.”

The old man looked straight into my eyes.

This was the first time he could properly look me in the eye.

“She has killed so many innocent people. Yes, I know this and understand that it is indeed evil… Perhaps her hands are already stained with blood, and in the eyes of most people, including yours, she is an unrepentant villain, killing people like weeds. Those who hate her to the bone, in East and West Continent, must be countless…”

“But Miss, you know. Miss Elina’s father and mother died in the siege twenty years ago. She has no one left to care about in this world… She doesn’t have much desire for revenge; I can see that… She doesn’t really need to do those things…”

“Just a woman not yet thirty, unmarried and childless, why should she burden her whole life with such matters, committing such acts, becoming a demon in the eyes of the world… despised and hated by millions…”

“Miss—”

The old man sighed deeply: “Do you think… did she do those things for herself?”