Chapter 622: Responsibility

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu

“Admit it! It must be your fault that your misfortune has spread to me!”

Harloys’ cute face was right before mine. The loli was jumping up and down on top of my head, and the way she gritted her tiny teeth was quite cute. Her vicious expression as if she wanted to devour me seemed even comical to me.

“Paha! Haha, it’s your fault for previously laughing at me. Of course you would have this befall you as well.”

Alright then, I truly laughed out loud. I laughed arrogantly, tyrannically, and rolled around on the floor while laughing.

But right after that, I crouched on the ground in depression. This was because I had suddenly realized that since Harloys was bound to me, her troubles were my troubles. In a roundabout way, I had been laughing at my own misfortune.

Currently, the people in charge of the Mist Alliance were unable to make such an important decision, so they tossed the trouble over to me. Who managed to teach such disciples who were so irresponsible? (Harloys: You!) …In the end, I had to take the responsibility for everything, and this responsibility would determine the survival of an entire species. This responsibility was too much for me!

“It’s all your fault! You were the one who found this information, then you shamelessly tossed it out to those in the mortal plane. Of course it would turn out this way with how you did things! It’s all because you didn’t want to take responsibility in the first place, which is how you ultimately became responsible!”

Damn, Harloys’ logic actually made sense. The elves wouldn’t have gone crazy if I hadn’t obtained this information, and I wouldn’t have been forced to take responsibility now…

Why was it all my responsibility? The others didn’t even need my advice or anything like that. Right now, there were simply two choices before me. Either I could accept the anti-moon elf silver elf faction into the Northlands, and also establish an Elven Empire in the Northlands so that the elves could have somewhere to retreat to, or I could watch the elves behave ridiculously and prepare to clean up their corpses.

Choosing the first option would likely create a permanent major fracture amongst the elves. The second option would basically be watching the elves die. No matter which decision I made, the moment that I made this decision, I would become the mortal enemy of a significant portion of all elves. Perhaps I could even add additional nicknames such as “Elf Annihilator” or “Destroyer of the Elven Empire” to my already long nickname list. Wasn’t that taking too much blame?

The demon wave was approaching. The elves were facing a crisis. However, their behavior once again refreshed the limits of my understanding.

Actually, the most logical and effective method to protect the entire elven species would be to dissolve all elven tribes, which would relax the guard of the human kingdoms around them. Then, the elves should organize a great escape. No matter if the elves became slaves or refugees, they should run away as far as possible, which would preserve the largest number of elves. As long as enough elves survived, they would always one day be able to reestablish their country.

Even if the adult elves weren’t afraid of death, they could organize an escape for the elderly and the young. The human kingdoms would be willing to accept refugees far more readily if it was only the elderly and the young.

However, any elven leader who made such a decision would probably brand themselves with the infamy of having personally destroyed the glorious Elven Empire that was just restored. That elven leader would become a heinous criminal for all ages… But hey, in this generation, weren’t leaders supposed to be professionals at taking insults and receiving blame? Without even that much courage, the elven leaders couldn’t even compare to a single little finger on Bardi Emperor Orloss the “Foolish King”.

The elves’ current decision seemed courageous. “None of us will run away”. However, this actually meant “All of us will die together”. If the demon wave was as scary as recorded in history, this was the equivalent of waiting for death.

Actually, according to our calculations, this demon wave’s strength was likely strong enough to break all historical records. When it occurred, not only would the elves meet their doom, it was likely that even the neighboring human kingdoms who wanted to enjoy the show would become involved and get destroyed. Also, even if the elves started a great escape right now, and all the neighboring kingdoms guaranteed free passage for them, it was unlikely that all the elves would be able to escape.

I was no saint. Not only that, I had a deep grudge against the elves. However, I truly didn’t want to see the entire elf species be annihilated. Apart from the cliché fact that this would mean losing allies, I had an even more important reason that people didn’t know about.

“The elves are indeed quite weak right now. But in twenty years, no, just ten years, they shall usher in a super golden era…”

Did this seem inconceivable? Actually, in my eyes, the elves had far greater potential than any other species. In fact, it seemed likely to me that they would flourish in this Holy War. The reason for this was due to the battle of Hell which had occurred eight years ago now.

So many things which were destined to be recorded in history had happened in that year. However, many things wouldn’t happen immediately. Time would be needed to see the effects.

In that year, the God of Fate, Goddess of Wealth, and several other Order Gods chose to join Hell. The moment that they joined Hell, they abandoned their former Divine Kingdoms and heroic spirit temples. Countless heroic spirits fell back down to the mortal plane. They became the children of the Dawn Generation. It just happened that this coincided with me establishing a new Cycle of Reincarnation to replace the old. Thus, these spirits were able to become reborn anew as infants without the mandatory memory wipe that the old Cycle of Reincarnation would have performed on everyone and before the new Cycle was fully established. They became the “luckiest” people who were reborn.

When other Gods discovered how the Hell Gods were basically cheating to help their heroic spirits be reborn, many other Gods also did the same thing!

In the Dawn Generation, the theoretical difference between a heroic spirit’s reincarnation was very similar to an undead spirit becoming a demon. They were both processes for transforming the dead into the living. However, unlike with my revival of Harloys, these newborn spirits would have completely new lives, albeit with past memories and knowledge. Foundationally speaking, however, they would all become new individuals.

Perhaps none of them could compare to their past lives. However, as long as no accidental death befell them, these heroic spirits would all accomplish many things as they had their past life’s vast experience and knowledge to draw upon.

Even if a Myth-ranked hero couldn’t swiftly surpass his former self, it shouldn’t be all that difficult for him to at least reach Legend again.

Then, what did this all mean? This meant that within the next ten to twenty years, the new versions of heroes from history would appear in large numbers all over Eich. This would bring a new heroes’ generation to Eich.

This was my ultimate defense plan against the Chaos Faction. While this plan wouldn’t see any effects for the short time, it would indeed increase the overall combat strength of Eich by a significant amount. While a single hero might not be able to change the course of an overall battle by themselves, defending a village from magical beasts shouldn’t be that difficult.

The issue was, out of all the heroes who were reincarnated, at minimum 33% of them were elves!

The reason for this? The elves had the longest history of any species, so they had the most heroes. Apart from this, there was also a coincidental reason that I was speechless to comment on.

Elf Main God Anslo had just happened to choose this timing to betray the Order Faction. His heroic spirit temple was filled with elite heroes. The heroic spirits that a Main God accumulated over the years would be countless. They had all received the opportunity to be reincarnated when Anslo fell down to the Chaos Abyss and abandoned his heroic spirit temple. I couldn’t even begin to imagine how many mega powerful elven heroes would thus become reborn with their memories intact.

I highly doubted that Anslo would have known that this would happen. It was probably the result of luck. Or, perhaps Fate truly wanted to still protect the elves.

According to the basic principle of reincarnation, elven souls who were reincarnated were highly likely to choose to be reincarnated as elves. And, the demon wave was about to descend on the location with the greatest elven population in the world…

If the Moonwheel Capital, which had more elves than any other location, was destroyed by the demon wave, countless future elven heroes would be killed before they could even have the chance to develop while they were still young children. From this standpoint, the demon wave had truly chosen the correct location to begin its first attack.

“Damn it, my plan needs to be changed now. In this situation, not only will it be impossible for Reyne, even I might not be able to personally deal with this.”

I’d originally had a plan in place regarding the future elven heroes who would grow up soon. The moment that I gave the mortal plane the information on the first demon wave’s planned attack location, I had also contacted Reyne and told her to take the new Borealis Squadron to the Moonwheel Capital, saying that they were there to help the elves.

Our purported reason for going there would be to sell some munitions and purchase some magical items, making a profit from the elves’ upcoming battle. However, the real purpose would be for the elven children.

Even the most fearless or courageous warrior would still have a soft heart for their children. Even if the warriors were willing to bravely face their deaths, they would never be willing to watch their children die together with them.

After Reyne finished selling the munitions stocked in the Borealis Squadron, all she would have to do was say that it would be meaningless to fly back with empty airships. Out of moral obligation and kindness, she would be willing to take elven children and the elderly with her to the Northlands’ elven kingdoms to live there. When considering the fact that the Northlands was the only place in the mortal plane where the elf slave trade was illegal, and adding the excellent reputation of the Church of Law, this plan should have had a very high success rate.

Hardly would Elven Empress Afina force her species to end their own bloodlines for the sake of glory. It would be impossible for her to enforce such an order even if she issued it. It was likely we would be able to obtain some royal or noble Superior Elf children.

I had also told Reyne not to be greedy. It would be good enough as long as we could obtain some of the young elf population. Neither was there any need for Reyne to check the children for who was actually a reincarnated hero. We just needed to treat it as doing a good deed. The Borealis Squadron had more than enough room to rescue 20,000 elf children from the demon wave. But, right before the demon wave was truly about to arrive, Reyne was to use sneak attacks and even illegal kidnapping tactics to steal away another several tens of thousands of elf children, which wouldn’t be too difficult for the Borealis Squadron.

This plan of mine could be described as quite underhanded. However, its success rate would be quite high. This would both preserve the elf species as a whole as well as greatly improve the Mist Alliance’s overall strength. It would be a win-win situation for all of us.

But in this current situation, the elves would even be more willing to send their children to become human slaves rather than sending children to the Northlands Elven Empire that could compete with them as the proper Elven Empire. It was likely that Reyne’s group would instantly be kicked out the moment that they entered the moon elf Elven Empire’s borders.

“This isn’t good. I need to personally go there. It will be quite difficult for Reyne and the others to deal with it.”

I made up my mind. However, Harloys truly had a headache.

For the sake of my “elf children kidnapping” plan, it would have been best not to establish our own Elven Empire that would attract far too much hostility from the Moonwheel Capital elves. But now that it seemed that we truly had a good opportunity to reestablish a true Elven Empire, not only did Harloys seem like she didn’t mind the trouble, her eyes were shining with expectation.

Additionally, if the Northlands established an Elven Empire, not only would this greatly improve the Mist Alliance’s status, all of the Northlands elves would have a place they could call home. Countless elves from other places would also come to the Northlands. This wasn’t a rare chance that would come once in a hundred years, but more like a chance that would only come once in ten thousand years.

If it weren’t for the fact that the Moonwheel Capital elves and the Elven Gods were in such a crisis that they couldn’t even protect themselves, we wouldn’t have possibly received this opportunity to be recognized as the real Elven Empire.

And it just happened that Harloys reobtained the three pieces of Gold Elf royalty God Equipment which symbolized the Elven Empire at such a time. If I hadn’t personally witnessed that this was all a joke by Fate, even I would have probably thought along with everyone else that this was all a scheme by the Northlands elves.

“The princess of a destroyed country became undead and roamed as a vagabond for ten thousand years with her country’s national treasure. Finally, she went through such hardships as she finally was revived, and brought out the three national treasures to reestablish the Elven Empire… This classical story sounds like one that will remain popular for centuries to come, with countless retold versions and plays written about it.”

No matter if people believed that this was Fate or a scheme, as long as a living Gold Elf appeared in front of everyone together with the three pieces of God Equipment that symbolized the Elven Empire, the Northlands Elven Empire would instantly become the officially recognized one.

Countless amounts of information whirled around in my head, giving me a headache.

I’d originally had backup plans regarding the elves, or perhaps they should be more accurately referred to as schemes, for none of them was something that could see the light of the day. My various schemes all had different objectives. As for which plan to finally take, that would depend on the opinion of the person at the center of everything.

“Harloys, what do you think of everything? Do you still hate the Elven Gods? Do you wish to destroy the entire elf species? Or do you want to bring a renaissance to the elf species and revive the entire Elven Empire?”

“Of course, I want to take revenge—”

“Don’t answer me so quickly. Think it over carefully. You are now the only living Gold Elf. Your decision will decide the future of the entire elf species. Ask your heart. What do you truly want? This is your responsibility.”

I didn’t want to force her. But at this moment, I had to force her to come to a decision. Although it was quite cruel, this was a responsibility that she deserved to bear.

“I…”

Harloys sank into deep contemplation. When she spoke up again, she seemed like she had resolved herself.

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