One-Eyed Monster

”For us? A fine sentiment, but what does your Alchemy Workshop do other than curry favor with the king?” Among the resentful crowd, there were always a few impulsive voices; these were the ones most deeply poisoned by bitterness.

Those who had reached the depths of despair uttered no words. They remained silent, one foot already in the Eternal Tranquility Realm, too preoccupied to heed anything happening around them.

To awaken such individuals, one either needed an overwhelmingly strong presence or the ability to push their resentment to its absolute limit.

However, Grand Master Guzan had no intention of awakening them; he continued to busy himself with the task at hand.

He did not wish to exploit the warriors’ bitterness, nor did he possess a presence powerful enough to rouse them. All he could do was help these men by removing the Markers from their bodies.

”Are you here to pity us, Great Mentor?”

”Look at what your Alchemy Workshop has done!”

The Great Mentor raised his head, feeling he had no right to face these warriors. ”You are all heroes of the Empire,” he said, his voice heavy. ”I cannot blame you for your choices. Nor can I change any of this. I know words of comfort are useless now. I only hope that you can find a way to keep going.”

”So, Great Mentor, you came here to persuade us to continue this damn plan?”

”You’re criticizing our choices, Great Mentor, but do you have any idea how many of us walked into this cage because of your name, because of your reputation?”

”I know,” the Great Mentor answered feebly.

”Then, Great Mentor, you still want us to continue down this path? Please, I beg you, tell me—where are we supposed to go?”

”Please, Great Mentor, tell us the answer! What are we now?”

”We want to hear you say it yourself, Great Mentor! Tell us we’re monsters!”

Sometimes, saving a dying person was harder than killing one; living was so much more difficult than dying.

The Great Mentor’s steps grew heavier, though not because he was defeated by their bitter words. He was a man who had weathered the ages; the crucible of several wars had accustomed him to such turmoil. Over the years, he had been wronged, and he had wronged others. He had once mistakenly slaughtered an entire village, yet he had also rescued refugees from entire city streets. The world was a tumultuous place of rising and falling fortunes, of debts and grievances. There were no easy explanations, no simple resolutions. All he could do was press on and remove the Markers from these embittered souls.

As for a reason to live—that, they would have to find for themselves.

When a person was truly desperate, no amount of persuasion could reach them.

”Great Mentor, say something, won’t you? What exactly are you doing right now?”

Resentful people were always a bundle of contradictions. They sought to provoke, yet after a while, they craved comfort. They swung back and forth like this, intensifying their own bitterness.

”I came here for you,” the Great Mentor repeated, his voice steady.

”For us! You Alchemists always make things sound so grand! His Majesty the King has been completely fooled by your deceptive words!”

The eighth one. Guzan silently removed the Marker from the eighth warrior. Kuyi Tulan is overly cautious, and his desire for control is a little too strong. Perhaps this failure will be a lesson for him. It might even smooth his path to rapid growth in the future...

”Great Mentor, are you trying to make excuses for your disciple?” A palpable resentment still hung in the air of the cage. None of these twenty warriors were easy to deal with. Each was laden with honors, a seasoned veteran of many battles, yet none of them were eloquent men.

”Shut up! You bunch of cowards!”

Suddenly, another person appeared in the cage. This man had only one eye; the other socket was an empty hollow. In fact, one entire half of his face was disfigured.

It was Blaine, leader of the Seven Knights of Honor, and concurrently the Commander of the Empire’s Silver Lion Knights.

”Commander Blaine!” A few of the men recognized him, but none dared to step forward. They felt they could no longer face this renowned commander.

”My apologies, Great Mentor. I’m late.” Blaine had been waiting outside the Alchemy Workshop for word from the Great Mentor, but he hadn’t expected to be delayed by another matter. Initially, he’d thought the Great Mentor might be overstating the situation, but an incident outside the workshop doors had completely changed his mind.

By the time he fully grasped the situation, the Great Mentor had already been calling for him for some time.

The Great Mentor, however, hadn’t held out great expectations for Blaine. He merely hoped Blaine could offer some comfort to these warriors who had temporarily lost all hope.

After all, the Empire’s foremost ”monster” might, at the very least, offer a sliver of kinship to these desperate men trapped in the cage.

With common ground, there was a chance to find the will to live.

”You bunch of cowards!”

”Commander!”

”So you’ve become monsters? Does that mean you can’t go on living? Look at me—am I not alive and well?”

”Commander, with all due respect... your injury is to half your face. You can just cover it with your hair and still walk among people...”

”Bullshit! Do I need to hide it? When have I ever bothered to hide it!”

Commander Blaine was furious; he couldn’t stand seeing these men so devoid of spirit.

”A bunch of cowards! You think you can’t go on living just because of this?”

”Commander, we aren’t suicidal! If you ordered us to face Mountain Monsters and Tree Spirits, we wouldn’t flinch! But how are we supposed to live? Wherever we go, we’ll be treated as monsters. Even under His Majesty’s protection, we’d feel utterly stifled!”

”It’s not death we fear, nor the strange looks from others! We fear having no place where we belong!”

”Nonsense!” Blaine retorted. ”There’s room for you to stand anywhere under the heavens.”

”But am I still... me?”

”And why wouldn’t you be?”

”Even if I accept it, even if you accept it, and His Majesty the King accepts it—will the entire Empire accept us? Wherever I go, I’ll be a monster, abandoned, hunted! Commander, weren’t you treated the same way when it first happened to you?”

”Bullshit! I stand tall and fear no one! Who the hell dares to lay a finger on me?”

Blaine was indeed a hard man to break. His disfigured half-face had once caused a great stir in the Empire. People feared it, shunned him, and lodged complaints. Eventually, even His Majesty the King couldn’t help but urge him to cover it with a helmet. But the stubbornly defiant Blaine never complied, nearly losing his life for his obstinacy. If the Great Mentor hadn’t interceded on his behalf, Blaine’s ravaged face—and likely he himself—would have vanished from the world long ago.

It seemed Blaine’s arrival hadn’t made much of a difference. The argument only grew more heated. After removing the final Marker, the Great Mentor looked at the quarreling men and sighed once more.

”Commander, you also suffered such treatment. But look at us now... do we even look human anymore?”

”Wanting to die is an act of cowardice! No matter what you say, the way you’re behaving now makes you cowards! Scum!”

”Commander, have you ever considered what would have become of you, if not for the Great Mentor back then?”

”A beheading? Just another scar! If I went to the Eternal Tranquility Realm, I’d go down as a hero!” Blaine didn’t fly into a rage because they brought up his past. He had faced countless accusations without flinching and had long been immune to such barbs.

”That’s what we think too!”