TOMWDET Chapter 187.2

The God-Making Chapter (3.2)

Ergonikin was already within sight.

This city looked no different from when Gabriel had brought them here before, and Bartholomew, who was being pressured to provide explanations, also put on an expression as if he was being forced into everything.

He then said, “Ergonikin is just one of the most remote cities of the Beast Tribe. Rather than using their power as combat strength, it would be better to maintain the status quo. Let the monster beasts in this city gradually provide soldiers capable of contributing to war under the screening of the rules.”

“And those who cannot become soldiers would just muddle through their days like they do now?” Matilda looked toward Gabriel’s position. The gray wolf’s current appearance could be described as utterly disheveled.

As a ruler, no matter how weak Matilda might appear, she wouldn’t deliberately miss out on intelligence she should know.

The Beast Tribe’s rule of expelling inferior currency had long become common knowledge with the help of time.

“No, monster beasts like him would previously die heroically alongside reconnaissance squads from the Winged Tribe or Water Tribe in mutual destruction,” Bartholomew said without any change in expression, his face still bearing the slightly dissatisfied look from not long ago due to his status as a prisoner accompanying the army.

It was simply bizarre.

“Enough, stop talking about these things.” The one who finally interrupted what could very well become a conversation about governing nations was the mermaid who had already aimed toward the main gate of Ergonikin.

Just as Bartholomew had said, the people in this city simply lacked the strength to serve as proper Beast Tribe monster beast warriors.

Leia only needed to send any random subordinate forward, and upon discovering the Water Tribe army, the Beast Tribe truly chose to compromise just as the mermaid had predicted earlier.

However, it wasn’t because information about the unicorn and dragon being captured made them understand the facts.

Rather, not long after seeing the Water Tribe army, they understood that in this siege battle, they had no defensive capabilities whatsoever.

Compared to letting the entire city suffer trampling, the monster beasts under the rules also followed that rule: “Do not waste resources possessed by the King.”

The Beast Tribe, whether cities or various resources, were all defined by the Beast Tribe’s monster beasts under the pressure of the rules as belonging entirely to Clemens.

Colin, whom Gabriel was familiar with, was loudly condemning the city administrator who wanted to surrender.

“I don’t want to know what complex things you’ve been considering. I only know that once you surrender here, other cities will definitely view Ergonikin as a disgrace afterward. Even worse, monster beasts in other cities might also choose to surrender in the future because of Ergonikin’s precedent of surrender!”

“Shut up, Colin,” the administrator of Ergonikin said with an ugly expression.

“Do you think war is such a simple thing? Once we choose to resist, it will only result in all the monster beasts in this city and the city itself dying here. Have you thought about who will take over the work that should be handled by us after we monster beasts die? Those resources that should be obtained by us will ultimately disappear into thin air due to our deaths, won’t they?”

“Since resistance is useless, choosing to preserve our strength, whether for later acting as inside agents or simply to preserve power, is the optimal choice made after weighing the pros and cons.”

Colin shouted, firmly believing in what he considered correct. “That’s not right at all! Only choosing to resist is correct. If all monster beasts in Ergonikin choose to resist, even if we die in battle, it doesn’t matter. But once we choose to surrender, our lives will only be under the control of those ugly fish afterward!”

“In the end, rather than transferring the right to decide our death to ugly aquatic monster beasts, I’d prefer to choose for myself!”

“Even dying doesn’t matter,” Colin said what he considered the key point. “Dying in battle is honor!”

“Learning that we fought desperately, other cities will fundamentally eliminate the possibility of surrender. Only this way can we avoid falling en masse in a short period, instead drawing out enough time to wait for the King to bring reinforcements.”

The administrator didn’t want to mindlessly welcome death like that. “But by that time, all the monster beasts in Ergonikin will already be dead!”

The dispute was still intensifying. Before it could escalate to violence, a monster beast that the humans had only heard about but never seen before spoke up.

“Then why don’t big brother and Lord each lead people with the same ideas to act separately? Everyone’s purpose is to protect the King, right? If so, then just follow what each considers correct, wouldn’t that work?” Connie said without any expression.

The tense atmosphere came to an abrupt halt.

Whether Colin or the administrator, both finally stopped their dispute in this strange atmospheric change and, in an extremely short time, began separate actions as Connie had suggested.

Those advocating for battle didn’t depart from the main gate. The administrator stated that as long as he remained the administrator, he had the responsibility to bear responsibility for the future of the monster beasts in this city.

Compared to most monster beasts who agreed with the administrator’s thinking, the minority including Colin ultimately could only choose to depart from the side gate.

But he left his sister behind.

One of Leia’s subordinates became Colin’s opponent who intercepted him.

The aquatic monster beast who had participated in countless battles was not comparable to this kind of logistics personnel. Colin was easily subdued.

Before that aquatic monster beast tried to break Colin’s neck, Gabriel interrupted him with an attacking posture.

Immediately afterward, he showed a bewildered expression and stared at the monster beast whose arm began bleeding, saying, “S-sorry, I didn’t mean to!”

This action also made Colin notice him.

“Gabrielkin! I didn’t expect it to be you. You’re actually mingling with aquatic monster beasts. Is it because you’re dissatisfied with Gabriel being exiled and turned to the aquatic monster beasts instead? You traitor!”

“I knew it. With a brother without talent like you have, how could you possibly have any means? Waste, bastard, trash who defects to the enemy! Why don’t you go die?!”

Compared to what Colin had said before about death being equivalent to honor, this transformed monster beast was now purely venting emotions.

Had he prepared himself to die?

Had the people around him also prepared for such a fate?

What should those who abandon everything to achieve their goals possess – madness, or absolute rationality born from clear judgment of the current situation?

Whether the former or the latter, neither was Colin.

Before Leia’s subordinate aimed at Gabriel to attack, Leia stopped him.

The mermaid focused attention on Gabriel, with a strange look in his eyes. “The act of stopping one’s own people from killing enemies on the battlefield – can I consider that you want to be our enemy?”

“No! I know him. I think he shouldn’t die here…” Gabriel couldn’t give the explanation that the person before him was the brother of the girl he liked, so he couldn’t just watch him die.

At least in Colin’s eyes, Gabriel was still his younger brother Gabrielkin.

“Then what do you think should be done? You were close to Su Li, so you should have heard everything I said. I didn’t plan to deal a death blow to this city before either.”

“But for a monster beast who actively attacks us, I don’t think he still has the qualification to continue living.”

Colin’s mouth clamored: “If you have the ability, then kill me!” Both the mermaid and gray wolf ignored him.

“He’s the person in Ergonikin who best understands the King’s rules!” After saying this, Gabriel’s subsequent voice became smoother. “He has always used the rules as his principle of action. If you choose to interrogate him, you’ll definitely be able to get a lot of information related to the rules. His value in staying alive is greater than his death, isn’t it?”

Pleading had already appeared in Gabriel’s eyes.

“That’s not right,” Leia walked to Colin’s side and actively grabbed his neck.

A half-smiling expression appeared on the mermaid’s face. “For war, enemy logistics never have any value in staying alive, no matter what they know.”

The restricted windpipe gradually suffocated Colin.

“Moreover, killing him has far greater value than letting him live. Compared to treating prisoners gently and making enemies think there won’t be any crisis even if they lose, I prefer to choose intimidation.”

“Killing prisoners will make those who want to resist want to resist even more, while those who try to submit will only understand more clearly that they have no choice but to obey.”

Benevolent governance?

Forget about monster beasts – even among humans, there was no substantial implementation of benevolent governance.

“Gabriel, your expression of wanting him to live, rather than truly wanting this guy who was once your companion to live, is more like you simply wanting this monster beast to live for some reason.”

Gabriel hadn’t shown obvious concern for other monster beasts’ deaths.

“It’s just selfishness,” Leia looked down at the gray wolf condescendingly.

He hadn’t seen what kind of perception this monster beast had when he initially didn’t know human strength, but the mermaid could guess.

It didn’t matter when he didn’t care about Su Li, but as long as he cared, he couldn’t accept any monster beast looking down on Su Li.

Afterward, the mermaid didn’t give Gabriel another chance to entangle and directly broke Colin’s neck.

That crisp snapping sound became Gabriel’s inescapable nightmare.

…He died just like that?

Easily, without any power of resistance.

Not long ago he had been so vivid, able to shout various insulting words.

Gabriel knew Colin had always been displeased with him, but based on the fact that the girl he liked was Colin’s sister, Gabriel could understand that too.

But why did he suddenly die?

Confusion.

The emotion Gabriel felt wasn’t hatred, but another kind of confusion.

Why did Colin choose to fight?

Wasn’t the number of monster beasts appearing at the side gate very small? This meant the monster beasts choosing to fight were also few, while the other part had obviously prepared to surrender, so why did they still come to die?

Gabriel was very clear that he would never get an answer to this question through his own thinking power alone, but he chose to ask other monster beasts.

No matter how those guys resisted, they eventually told him Colin’s thoughts.

“Because of so-called honor, and because the death of Ergonikin’s monster beasts could be used to warn monster beasts in other cities, he chose to actively rush toward death?”

Gabriel, who had already received a clear answer, still asked in disbelief.

Seeking death…

Gabriel couldn’t forget that when he was exiled, although he had prepared to perish together with other monster beasts, he had actually also envisioned that when he killed Water Tribe or Winged Tribe monster beasts, he could survive and continue to the next battle.

Looking at the monster beasts before him, Gabriel momentarily doubted himself – was his desire to live abnormal?

On the other side, after the mermaid recounted the course of events and the reaction of Ergonikin’s monster beasts, he explored with Su Li in a joking tone. “Dying now to warn companions in other cities, or compromising now to preserve one’s own life…”

“Which does Su Li find more interesting?”

“Neither is interesting,” Su Li saw through the mermaid’s mental illness at a glance.

“Choosing to actively seek death and putting one’s life in others’ hands to decide life and death both only amount to death in my view.” Su Li directly avoided the answer the mermaid wanted.

“Rather than having this idle time to consider the broad philosophy between life and death, you should think about why the choices made by Beast Tribe monster beasts are all death.”

“Abandoning this city to go to other cities, gathering all the power that can be gathered to resist the Water Tribe army – isn’t that also a choice?”

“Whether surrendering or choosing to fight to the death, do Beast Tribe monster beasts really only have these two choices?”

Su Li kicked the ball back. He hadn’t noticed the scene where the mermaid directly killed the brother of the gray wolf’s beloved in front of the gray wolf earlier, only thinking Leia was having another intermittent episode.

But the mermaid fell into contemplation…

Just like everyone who had communicated with Egbert would uncontrollably extend and deepen his words infinitely.

The mermaid was no exception either.

This influence comparable to thought manipulation made Leia unconsciously begin thinking about why Beast Tribe monster beasts would only make these two choices…

Like the third method Su Li had given, whether fourth and fifth methods existed was hard to say, but at least the third had a concrete approach.

So the question arose: why didn’t those monster beasts have a third kind of thinking?

The conclusions of the previous two kinds of thinking were both death.

Who would think the mermaid ruler was some kind of good person who had a change of heart and wouldn’t kill prisoners?

If it weren’t for being unable to kill the dragon and unicorn whose power was restricted, the mermaid would have scattered their ashes long ago.

He kept them for two reasons: first, he couldn’t resist Su Li; second, the current mermaid felt that the dragon and unicorn might be able to provide unexpectedly helpful actions.

Setting these aside for now.

Even without participating in the battlefield, this logistics group couldn’t possibly not have heard of the mermaid ruler’s fierce reputation.

Both options resulted only in death, and Gabriel had said before that Colin was the monster beast who best understood the rules… A guy who best understood the rules made the solution of actively seeking death, while those who understood less chose to delay the arrival of death…

Was this normal?

It couldn’t be that the purpose of Clemens establishing rules was to make these transformed monster beasts die.

The time spent considering this problem didn’t last long.

Compared to thinking about these problems in front of this city, Leia chose to suppress his thoughts temporarily and planned to completely capture Ergonikin first before beginning deep contemplation.

Ergonikin’s administrator, just as Colin had argued with him before, truly chose to surrender without any resistance.

When Leia had his subordinate aquatic monster beasts take over this city, he was still thinking about why things could be so simple.

Even as a logistics area, Ergonikin shouldn’t have fallen so quickly.

Before what was said earlier about needing three more hours to reach the position, they had already been marching for a full day.

No monster beast would think that Leia’s purpose in leading a large number of aquatic monster beasts in this direction was Rota County.

Even if it were, suppose Leia received reports from subordinates about Winged Tribe or Beast Tribe movements, even if he wouldn’t personally go to the scene, he would definitely send monster beasts to investigate the detailed situation.

But…

This was still too simple.

Until he voiced this doubt to Egbert, who had already become his soul friend.

Egbert told him: “Is it possible that with Bartholomew as the proxy failing in his attack, the Beast Tribe simply didn’t receive information? After all, from their timeline perspective, Clemens and Bartholomew had only just led their respective armies to attack the Winged Tribe and Water Tribe.”

All these changes occurred within four days.

Even from the Beast King’s perspective, Clemens probably would only think he needed to focus on how to thoroughly control the Winged Tribe territory that had already been conquered.

You should know that on the other side were the unicorn specialized against mermaids and the dragon acting jointly with the unicorn.

Without Su Li, the specific development of the battle situation…

Was also hard to say.

After all, if there were no Su Li, Leia definitely wouldn’t choose to actively fight on the beach, a place advantageous to both Beast Tribe and Winged Tribe. The coward king would never do thankless tasks.

But if in the deep sea, even if the unicorn and dragon united, they might not necessarily be able to kill Leia.

Not considering the dragon’s hatred, from a ruler’s perspective, Clemens only needed to have Bartholomew contain the Water Tribe.

Containment didn’t equal victory.

As long as it was confirmed that Clemens had defeated the Winged Tribe, Bartholomew could choose to terminate the containment and return to report.

He didn’t return, which in the Beast King’s view meant either he hadn’t received intelligence yet, or…

He had died in the ocean.

This logic made the mermaid understand their side’s advantage, and Leia’s eyes immediately brightened.