Ray did not settle for giving a vague answer. Instead, he continued calmly while staring at the ceiling.
"Aside from the fact that the Black Winter is approaching and the provinces will become isolated, there is something else you shouldn't ignore, Morgana."
Ray was lying down wearily, but he adjusted his position slightly to ease the strain on his back. Looking at Morgana, who was sitting beside him on the edge of the bed, he said,
"Human nature is not necessarily evil... selfish, yes, but evil is unlikely."
Then he paused for a moment and smiled mysteriously before adding,
"Of course... that's relative."
"What do you mean by relative and selfish?" Morgana asked, her curiosity mixed with confusion.
"Don't you have that term here?" Ray was surprised before remembering that they actually did not. He explained,
"Selfishness simply means centering oneself around one's own needs and desires. For example: 'I want to survive first, even if everyone else goes hungry.' As for relativity... it means that the same action can have different meanings depending on who is looking at it. What you see as absolute evil, the person committing it may see as a necessary means of survival."
Morgana narrowed her eyes and raised a hand to hold her head, as though old memories had suddenly begun assaulting her. Yet she did not react violently. Instead, she quietly commented,
"No... I don't think so... Some people are simply demons that need to be purged. There is no logic that can justify what they did."
"Calm down."
Ray spoke softly, realizing that his concept of "relativity" had collided with the walls of her wounds. It seemed to be one of those memories she still refused to speak about. He sighed and corrected himself.
"I'm not speaking in a universal sense. I'm speaking specifically about the nobles of this empire."
Morgana lowered her hand and looked at him sharply.
"So you're saying that someone who exploited everyone around him and threw his own daughter onto the execution platform to protect his throne... isn't evil?"
"Yes, he isn't evil."
Ray answered coldly while staring into empty space.
He let the word fall into the room like snow.
Morgana trembled where she sat, but before she could say anything, he continued.
"An evil person destroys for no reason. Your father doesn't want destruction; he wants power and control. That's what I call political selfishness. Remember, it wasn't the Duke of the North who started tearing down the empire. It was the Eleventh Emperor."
Morgana did not know how to respond. She seemed lost before a logic that stripped her father of the title of devil and placed him in the category of a selfish man instead.
Ray continued, trying to clear the haze from her eyes.
"There are different kinds of selfishness. Some are close to evil, like narcissistic selfishness. The desire to gain everything even if it requires destroying others for no reason. But remember, your father seeks the throne, not destruction for its own sake."
Morgana asked bitterly,
"So you're saying you'll forgive him?"
"No."
Ray's answer was decisive.
"If I leave him alone, his selfishness will turn into hatred, and he'll want to destroy everything he can't obtain. Your father has already entered the realm of toxic selfishness. He genuinely believes it is his moral duty to put himself first and expect nothing from anyone else."
Ray sighed and continued.
"But the other nobles? You could say it's simply survival instinct. Of course, some of them have fallen into destructive selfishness—the kind that says, 'After me, the flood.' But the rest are still useful."
Morgana looked at him suspiciously.
"I don't understand what you're trying to do. I don't know what kind of world you came from, but here... there are people who wouldn't hesitate to make contracts with demons if it benefited them."
"You're only proving my point, Morgana. That's exactly what I mean by selfishness."
Ray looked at her and gently patted her head.
"And regardless of the world, humans are humans. Don't look at me as if I came from some world filled with flowers. I've seen enough injustice to last centuries. Tell me, when you sat on the throne today, what was in front of you?"
Silence filled the room.
Morgana remembered that moment, sitting beside Ray in the hall while Rei explained the system and the nobles whispered as they stared at the documents.
With annoyance, she answered,
"A pack of hyenas."
Ray smiled and ruffled her hair, clearly amused by the expression.
"That's exactly what I'm talking about. Hyenas in the wild are a living example of selfishness and social intelligence. Don't look at them as mere trash or evil creatures. The truth is that they're far smarter and far more vicious than you imagine."
"Then how do you plan to deal with them?"
Ray sighed and withdrew his hand.
"If the carrot doesn't work, then it's time for the stick. That's all."
"And what's that supposed to mean?"
Ray laughed but did not explain this time.
"In reality, beyond their selfishness, I don't see them as anything more than a group of children who lost the path their fathers and grandfathers once walked because of the nest itself."
"Are you blaming the throne?" Morgana frowned. "Are you trying to justify their actions? I didn't expect you to be this kind."
Ray smiled and asked,
"Setting my personality aside, have you forgotten who started all of this? Didn't you study history?"
He answered his own question without waiting for her response.
"In truth, the First Emperor built a moral foundation for this empire that deserves respect even in my world. Because of him, the nobles held positions worthy of admiration from the very birth of the empire... until the reign of the Eleventh Emperor."
He paused for a moment before continuing after realizing from Morgana's expression that she did not know the full story.
"Well, his title is famous. He became known as the Tyrant because of his actions. He was the embodiment of narcissistic selfishness. It all began with a sudden desire to dominate the continent and expand endlessly. He destroyed everything he disliked. He pushed everyone to their limits in pursuit of his goals, and at the same time wanted everything under his control. And how did it end?"
Ray did not wait for a question.
"He turned a group of nobles, raised under the ideals and respect of the First Emperor, into little more than servants by exploiting their loyalty. The empire—which was already in one of its least prosperous eras—began suffering under ambitions far beyond its capabilities. He drained the empire and drained the nobles. And in the end, as they say, every action has a reaction. His actions eventually came back to him. The nobles mobilized against him and attempted to resist his tyranny, but instead of correcting course, he resorted to oppression and intimidation... and in the end..."
Ray mocked the outcome and waved his hand as though a boulder had crumbled into dust.
"He was removed."
Morgana sighed and absentmindedly wrapped a lock of hair around her finger.
"But that doesn't justify what they did, nor what their children did. Especially this group of nobles. None of them lived in that era."
And that was true.
Even a duke who was fifty-four years old was not considered particularly old in this world, especially as a mage. Furthermore, he had only inherited his position during the reign of the Thirteenth Emperor, long after the nobles had already caused countless problems. The Duke of the North himself had only begun taking his current path ten years ago after his father's death during a hunting expedition. His father had been one of the most loyal figures to the throne.
Ray did not deny this.
Instead, he continued.
"You're only looking at one group. Did you know that after the Eleventh Emperor died, his wife stepped forward to occupy the throne until her eldest son came of age? During her rule, the nobles gave everything they had in an attempt to restore the empire."
As for gender, no one here was as biased against sex as they were against race. Especially with the existence of the Selene Empire, where succession passed through women. That was why nobody in the hall objected to the idea that the Pillar of Spirit would be led by a woman. But if Ray announced that woman was Morgana... everyone would object.
"Although the Empress was not suited for leadership either because of her excessive kindness, she at least bore the burden of the throne with the support of this elite group. And in return for that loyalty, they waited for the prince. But what did they get in the end?"
Disappointment was obvious in Ray's voice.
"A king with the mind of a child. No talent for leadership. All he cared about was making everyone get along. A boy completely unlike his father. An obedient boy, not the kind of leader capable of guiding this elite group that still remained loyal to the empire."
"Then naturally, the selfishness of the nobles began to surface as a new generation rose and the old generation stepped down in disappointment, realizing the empire was dying. Even I would have been disappointed. Imagine enduring injustice for thirty years, working for another five, only to end up with a child who has no talent for leadership."
Because he was the only child who survived after the death of the Eleventh Emperor, disappointment was all that remained.
Even so, not all nobles gave up. Many still tried to save the empire. Among them was the father of the Duke of the North.
Ray sighed and continued.
"In the end, every reform he attempted opened cracks elsewhere. Under his rule, the empire rapidly shrank and lost control of its external territories. Eventually he gave up entirely, focused on producing an heir, and withdrew from the throne."
Twenty years of rule were enough for him to forget all of his principles.
The obedient boy became little more than a lustful man after his mother's death from a demonic curse. He secluded himself in a border palace and lived among a group of women until he was eventually found dead in his bed from a drug overdose.
Ray did not stop. Instead, his voice grew colder and more irritated.
"And then who inherited the throne? The grandfather of this 'rabbit.' He tried to salvage the situation and introduced numerous reforms here and there. True, he was a talented knight, but he wasn't a talented ruler. He tried using force against external enemies and became preoccupied with international conflicts, forgetting that the greatest problem was rotting the empire from within, while leaving absolute authority in the hands of the nobles."
"Wars and failed attempts at diplomacy eventually brought him back in defeat after creating foreign enemies while the foundation itself was collapsing. I truly don't know what he was thinking. Did he believe he was the First Emperor or something? But what really irritates me is that he took the most loyal people with him—people like your grandfather, Morgana—and left the hyenas to play with the empire. Even the dumbest king I've ever seen wouldn't have done something that stupid."
Ray nearly cursed but managed to stop himself.
"After the throne had lost more than half its authority, and many of the great nobles died alongside him during his campaigns, even more resentment fell upon him. Add the anger of the common people... and in the end, what could he possibly do?"
Ray asked the question.
Morgana hesitated to answer, but both of them knew the ending.
He committed suicide.
The throne then passed to the First Prince—Ray's father.
"Then came the Fourteenth Emperor. A throne without authority. Nobles who had lost hope. A rebellious population. Endless uprisings. An empty treasury. Defenseless borders. He survived seven years only because he acted as a ring that stamped approval on the ambitions of the nobles. He never tried to reform anything. Instead, he purchased his own survival by surrendering everything. He granted them absolute sovereignty over their lands, turned fiefdoms into private property, and shattered the dignity of the crown."
"And now I'm the one struggling against this poisoned legacy. Were it not for that law, I would have imposed the system with the authority of the crown."
But upon whom would he impose it? And by what right?
That cursed law granted the nobles absolute ownership that could never be revoked. Worse still, it allowed them to change their allegiance while keeping their territories. In other words, if a noble joined another kingdom, his land would legally become part of that kingdom.
Because of that loophole, the Duke of the West had been able to isolate his province and proclaim himself king. It was an act of treason wrapped in a perfectly legal disguise.
"And in the end, he took half the treasury and fled, only to be found later as a lifeless corpse in some filthy alley..."
Ray sighed deeply and took a long breath, as though trying to expel the remnants of that polluted history from his chest.
Then he turned and looked at Morgana.
Dead emperors.
The corpses of loyal men.
The stench of filthy alleys that had swallowed the pride of the throne.
The room seemed to have suddenly grown smaller, and the air itself felt saturated with the bitterness of truth that Ray had poured out with the detached calm of a surgeon explaining a corpse.
Morgana did not move.
She remained frozen in place, her eyes fixed on an imaginary point in the distance.
At first her breathing was short and uneven, as though she were trying to catch up to the speeding train of history that had crushed her convictions.
Gradually, however, her breaths became deep, long, and exhausted.
The breaths of someone who had just drowned and been pulled from the water at the very last moment.
Amid her shock, Ray showed no sympathy.
Instead, he smiled faintly and added coldly,
"That's why I completely understand why this rabbit chose suicide after holding out for three years. He simply realized that he was fighting ghosts and laws, not people."
---------------------------
End of Chapter
----------------------------