Chapter 571
Ludwig never liked slaughter.
Strictly speaking, I’m afraid of it.
Even so, Ludwig fought because he thought it was something he had to do.
Ludwig is such a person.
If you have a certain goal that is precise and clear, you don’t hesitate to run towards it. Even if you are afraid of it, go that way.
but.
Ludwig gets lost in a problem without an accurate and clear answer.
Hitherto in such matters Ludwig had been helped by his friends.
Delphine Izzadra.
Lanian Sesor.
Including Scarlett, Louis Ancton, of course.
The other classmates in Class B judged it.
Someone judged for him and Ludwig went that way.
But Ludwig was now alone.
And I had to face questions for which the answer was not clear.
There are no rules or theories in the vagueness of living a good life.
That’s why Ludwig didn’t know which hand to raise among those living in vague despair.
There has never been a reason to build something like that.
Ludwig’s justice is nothing more than a punishment for obvious evil.
The demon king who is the culprit behind all this.
A monster that wants to destroy humans.
In the presence of an obvious enemy, Ludwig’s unbreakable will shone through.
But a place like this.
Ludwig did not know what to choose in the refugee residence area full of only those who struggle to survive in chaos where everyone is neither evil nor good.
Ludwig thought the battlefield was terrible.
– Only one piece! Just give me one more piece!
But the sight of them fighting over just a piece of bread was a terrible sight.
Ludwig walked through a refugee settlement full of shacks with a guard patrol.
Ludwig had to get used to the smell of poverty, stench, and hunger that permeated everywhere like dirt.
Looking at the uniforms of the guards, most of them were hiding in the alleys of the shack.
If you’re proud, there’s no reason to hide.
Did they all commit a crime or plan to commit a crime?
Ludwig gritted his teeth as he watched adults and children hiding in silence.
No way.
In the lawless refugee camp, most crimes are dealt with by the guards.
That must have been the reason why he avoided it even if he hadn’t done anything wrong.
In fact, while conversing with Ludwig, he saw a guard patrolling and slapping a young boy for bumping into him.
Ludwig lost his senses when he saw the boy running away, crawling across the floor with his cheek bursting and bleeding from his mouth.
I didn’t know what to say when I saw the guard with a shy smile saying that he was in front of Ludwig.
Ludwig was even more speechless when he realized that a slap on the cheek was actually something light.
It was a series of painful things to see with my own eyes.
A total of two guards that Ludwig is currently accompanying.
“Hmm… … .”
Among them, Sontain, who plays the role of senior soldier, stops on the street and looks somewhere.
“I think we should go over there.”
Beyond the shack, a guard points in a certain direction.
“Over there… … . Do you have anything?”
“It smells like grilling meat.”
“I guess so. It also seems to smoke. why is that… … .”
Looking at Ludwig, who doesn’t understand, the guard shrugs.
“Why is the meat here?”
“… … .”
Ludwig wasn’t to the point where he couldn’t understand what the words meant.
* * *
after a while
“Oooh! Woo!”
The scrawny, skeletal remains were staring at the bare ground with sunken eyes, and the guards clicked their tongues as Ludwig vomited.
“It is common.”
The other guards are neither surprised nor astonished.
eat because you are hungry
No wonder.
For those who are driven into a corner, cannibalism is sometimes the only option.
Unsurprisingly, the guards’ unconcerned attitude.
And, the gaze of swallowing saliva while watching the contents that the guards poured out from afar.
Ludwig gritted his teeth while looking at those eyes.
This.
beyond the difficult
It was painful.
* * *
Cannibalism is punishable by capital punishment.
No matter how hungry they are, we cannot forgive them for that.
If there is no punishment for the act because it was an unavoidable choice, people will think that they should not be caught, not that they should not do such a thing in the future.
If that happens, cannibalism becomes a natural culture in the refugee residence area.
It is not to be killed because the sin is outrageous, because it is an unforgivable evil.
Some crimes may destroy entire refugee settlements.
Ludwig knew that the refugee camp needed help.
Just when you thought there was something you could do for yourself.
He thought that even through that small thing, he could find the meaning of his existence.
“… … .”
But where is this small thing?
Some may decide that these things are better than fighting for their lives on the battlefield.
The battlefield was easier for Ludwig.
It was more comfortable.
Because of one enemy, hunger, this terrible place where everyone has become the enemy of everyone was the most difficult work for Ludwig.
I want to run away.
For the first time in his life, Ludwig put such a thought into his head.
* * *
Ludwig felt with his own eyes how absurd it was for the troops not to starve in the Allied garrison.
I had no choice but to know why the allied army was constantly being replenished.
Because you can’t starve until you’re trampled to death by the monster’s feet.
Right now, the soldiers at the Allied Garrison in Serandia will be comfortable during the winter.
I couldn’t help but feel how important ‘eating’ is in the matter of eating and living.
There is only one problem.
hunger.
However, the numerous derivative problems that the problem caused did not boil down to cannibalism.
“… … What is this?”
“I do not know.”
Ludwig felt an indescribable disgust when he saw what Thorntain had retrieved from one of the shack, a jumbled piece of bone.
I don’t know what bone it is.
A number of people muttered in a corner of the shack, and the guards who felt strange went into the shack and brought it.
Seven people were praying to this bone idol in a small shack.
Of course, it did not resemble any of the names of the gods.
Heresy prevails.
The Cult of Braves, who believe in Ellen Artorius, cannot be treated as a heresy.
However, not only the cult of warriors, but also mysterious superstitions were occurring all over the refugee district.
“Are they worshipers?”
One of the guards said to the cult members who were kneeling and trembling.
“Oops, no. We believe in our savior, Esta, who will soon appear… … .”
Heretics who believe in an unknown god.
“Soon salvation will come… … .”
Ludwig seemed to let go of his pulse.
“What do they do?”
“You don’t have to kill them all.”
Are you talking about keeping this alive?
-Hook!
“ugh… … . ugh… … .”
It wasn’t that, it was a story about killing only one person.
“Don’t believe in heresy.”
The guard left with only one word left.
There is no law that prevents them from dying.
one guard.
People’s lives only come and go at the judgment of the guards.
– Those who will be cursed… … .
– Heaven will be punished.
A curse was poured on the back of the head of Ludwig and his party as they turned around, and the other guards left without even responding as if they were accustomed to it.
* * *
It’s good that you don’t think of yourself as a person.
A senior security guard deciding whether to kill or save refugees.
These were the words of Sontain, a member of the guard who is Ludwig’s gunner at this point.
“I’d rather think of it as a bug.”
“But how… … .”
Then I fought to keep the bugs, and lost an arm.
A few people died while the allied forces defended the bugs, and even lost friends.
Does this situation make sense, where the guards easily step on and kill those precious people, calling them insects?
Are you saying that the allied forces are just dying for the bugs?
Can you judge something like that?
Ludwig felt like he was going to burst into anger, but he couldn’t bear to say it.
or what
what to do
There is no one who doesn’t know that this kind of thing won’t happen when their hunger is solved.
I can’t solve it. Isn’t this all there?
The answer is easy.
But there is no way to get to that answer.
“If you don’t think so, you can’t work.”
Sontain looks around.
Watching adults and children hiding, Thorntain speaks calmly.
“We think of them as bugs, but they think of us as monsters.”
A bug-killing monster.
The guards were just such an existence here.
“Don’t approach them easily.”
“… … .”
“Then there are countless guys who went to the goal.”
The guards are a collection of monsters.
Refugees cannot like guards who kill refugees even more than dogs.
I can’t count the number of guards who died after being stabbed with a knife while being compassionate, claiming that they were different from the other guards.
Just as the guards execute the refugees summarily, the refugees also kill the guards.
The guards treat the refugees harshly, the refugees take revenge on the guards, and that’s why the guards act even more extreme.
It was the current situation in the refugee camp where the chain of hatred was unfolding.
Ludwig nodded with a gloomy expression at Sontain’s words.
* * *
Well-crafted laws are not maintained.
As long as there is power to uphold the law, the law can be upheld.
It doesn’t matter if the standards are ambiguous.
You don’t have to be fair.
It doesn’t matter if the law has become obscure enough to be called a law.
Law, no matter how fair and great it is, is not an object of trust in the first place if there is no power or strong power to enforce it.
Therefore, the foundation of the law itself is in power, not in the perfection of the law.
The refugee zone was showing that reality.
This situation, which is just suppressing refugees with violence, is bound to reach a critical point someday.
If one day the critical point at which refugees’ anger and hatred can be suppressed by force is crossed, public power will be overthrown.
Laws that have lost their sole support will become meaningless and chaos will ensue.
hunger.
Cannibalism.
Heresy.
Murder of the guards.
and.
Attack on guards.
-Pak!
-die! You devils!
Ludwig catches a fist-sized stone flying at his face with his left hand, then sees the boy disappearing into the alley while uttering hateful words.
For a while, Thorntain was surprised by Ludwig’s reflexes. I look at the alley calmly.
“Are you following me?”
“it’s okay. It was me who was attacked.”
– These days, even an idiot can see a guard!
Ludwig laughed bitterly as he heard the echo of the boy shouting at him in the alley.
It’s not just those who directly attack them.
The eyes looking at them in the cracks of the shack and in the alley.
I can feel the murderous intent and hatred mixed in that gaze with my skin.
No matter how arbitrarily the guards hit or kill someone, the gaze itself is not punished.
It’s not because you can’t ask for their sins in their eyes.
If you kill all the people with such eyes, you can’t do that because you have to push the refugee camp itself.
Ludwig shakes his head while holding the stone that flew at him.
Once you get used to this, Ludwig, like the other guards, will have to kill the refugees.
After the probationary period ends, Ludwig must also participate in these private sanctions.
can you do something like that
Is it something that can be done?
No matter how much he thought about it, Ludwig seemed unable to handle such a task.
Fighting was not permitted, and all that could be done was to beat, subdue, and sometimes summarily kill the helpless in the name of maintaining peace.
It might be better to go back to the temple and stay quietly in the dormitory.
Or, look for other things you can do elsewhere.
Ludwig had no choice but to come to that thought in the end.
However, leaving this place does not mean that the tragedy of this place will disappear.
It would never be the right thing to turn away just because it’s unbearable.
I don’t know what’s right, but Ludwig couldn’t help but know that one thing.
* * *
Patrol literally means going around various places to identify abnormalities in the streets and taking action on the spot.
Thorntain’s patrols led by Ludwig were not necessarily violent in killing refugees.
Retrieving the bodies left in the alley and identifying the deceased.
Mediation so that minor quarrels do not escalate into violence.
Watching for thieves in places where food rations are being distributed.
Asking refugees to listen to the situation on the streets and to ascertain the overall situation of the district and whether there are organized criminal groups.
In addition, there was an incident where a crying child in the street was brought to his parents safely, saying that he had lost his mother.
A significant number of refugees fear and hate the guards, but there were others who did not.
‘I’d be fine if I was just doing this…’ … .’
Ludwig held his mother’s hand and smiled as he watched the child return, waving wildly at him.
The execution of refugees was a very extreme situation, and it did not happen very often.
Some were trivial, some were important and must be done.
It wasn’t all bad things.
Some time passed, and Ludwig and Sontain roamed the streets until the patrol was over.
“That’s a restricted area. You don’t have to patrol.”
“… … Is there a line?”
Ludwig saw a blockade line down an alleyway.
It seemed that the area itself had been closed off.
Ludwig quietly watched as the gray smoke slowly rose toward the sky from inside a certain area.
It is clear that there is a fire.
“Is there any reason to even blockade it?”
“There is an epidemic going around.”
“… … An epidemic?”
“It’s common. Infectious diseases occur frequently.”
“Isn’t it dangerous? When people are so densely packed and there is an epidemic… … .”
No matter how much containment was done, if the epidemic started to spread, a huge problem would arise.
It will not end with the death of one or two people, but will die in thousands.
No, infectious disease is not the problem in the first place.
“Priests… … . Shouldn’t you come?”
It is the role of priests to cure diseases.
Even if they can’t afford to heal the wounds of one or two people, priests should be put in for big problems like plague.
However, priests do not come as the contagious area is closed.
At Ludwig’s words, Sontain looked at the smoke in the blockade area.
It must have been the smoke from burning the body.
“The power to cure disease is the power of Tuan, the god of purity.”
“Then the priests of Tuan… … .”
“Many have died.”
“yes?”
“You know? How are you treated now? … .”
“ah… … .”
“It wasn’t like this, but the worse the situation gets, the more people hate the priests of Tuan and Ars, as well as all the priests of the Five Great Priests.”
The two gods who gave holy relics to the demon king.
The persecution of the main religion has been intensifying since the Gate Incident.
In some cases, priests came to treat contagious diseases and aid refugees, but the hatred for them had gone too far.
It is a situation where those who need help hate those who will help them.
That’s why the moment Tuan’s priests enter this huge refugee block despite an epidemic, they have to worry about returning alive.
In fact, Ludwig had no choice but to know from Sontain’s words that there were countless priests who died.
That’s why the priests couldn’t even come into the refugee zone.
The epidemic is left unattended.
“Of course, if left alone, it would inevitably become a big problem, so I would have sent a request for cooperation to the Templars. So, the priests who hid their identities will solve this epidemic purification activity. It is inevitable that the response will be delayed a little, but it does not mean that we do not respond.”
“… … okay.”
In order to save people, they have to hide who they serve.
“Let’s finish the patrol like this. You can go to work right away. I will report to the captain of the guard.”
“ah… … . All right. Thank you for your effort.”
“Ludwig.”
Sontain quietly calls Ludwig, who is about to return.
“… … You don’t have to do anything like this.”
You say you’re not suited for this kind of thing.
It meant that a person who returned from doing a glorious job did not have to do such a miserable and disgusting job, and Ludwig had no answer.
* * *
Ellen and Heinrich decided to patrol the outskirts by dividing them into northern and southern parts.
To begin with, Ellen couldn’t even go outside the ecliptic.
Ellen hurriedly returned to the temple, her complexion turning white, and put me down on the bed holding me tight.
“… … .”
-Aug
No one recognized Ellen because she was wearing a hood, but everyone saw her hugging the cat.
To be honest, it wasn’t something I expected at all.
Little kids on the street, sister, can’t I eat that?
can’t you give me
hungry.
Ellen’s complexion turned pale as she followed them around.
The kids did that too.
When even adult men and women tried to come closer, licking their lips, Ellen hurriedly turned away.
