Chapter 188: How Much Can One Pay for Justice

“I am to marry Rast...?”

Upon hearing her stepmother's words, Shiltina’s voice faltered, and the calm tone she had maintained earlier vanished along with it.

“Wait... how do you even know him?”

“Shiltina, do you really think we, as your parents, are completely hands-off and indifferent to what goes on in your lives?”

“No matter how much you’ve wanted to sever ties with the Empire and the royal family in the past— the fact remains that you and Ophelia are our only daughters. The blood of the Granwell Kingdom’s royal family runs through your veins, and that is a truth that can never be denied.”

The noblewoman halted her steps and turned to face her stepdaughter before her.

“I’ve known about that little one named Rast for a long time, ever since he first enrolled.”

“But I only truly started paying attention to him a few months later—after your sister took it upon herself to make a trip to the Arcane Tower and stirred up quite the commotion.”

The noblewoman paused momentarily before continuing, “Ophelia believed she had kept it from us, that she did it all under the radar. She snuck off alone to the Arcane Tower to test him.”

“But she never thought it through—her father is the Emperor, and half of the Arcane Tower’s ownership belongs to the Empire. Within the Empire’s borders, what could possibly escape her father’s knowledge?”

The noblewoman smiled faintly. “Both of our daughters are showing an unusual interest in the same young man.”

“If we still knew nothing about him at this point, wouldn’t that make us rather unfit as parents?”

“That you and Father took notice of Rast is perfectly understandable...”

Shiltina fell silent for a moment before she spoke again.

“With his abilities, and the earth-shaking feats he’s accomplished in the Nightworld—even if I had no connection to him, I believe he would have caught your and Father’s attention all the same.”

“It’s just... the engagement you mentioned earlier...”

“That was your father’s idea as well.”

The noblewoman smiled once more. “Shiltina, you are different from me and from those other noble girls in the Imperial Capital.”

“Those high-ranking nobles often use their daughters as tools in political marriages, trading them off for alliances and interests.”

“Even myself—when I married your father, it was because my family had invested in him back when he was still a crown prince. I’ve always known that from beginning to end, His Majesty Allen’s true love has always been your birth mother, Cecilia.”

“Although, I have no regrets about that.”

The noblewoman gazed at Shiltina. “But you, Little Tina, are different.”

“You are our daughter. In your father’s words, there is no one on the Western Continent worthy of being your match.”

“And we, the royal family, have no need to rely on political marriages by marrying off our daughters to forge alliances with other nobles or nations in exchange for so-called benefits.”

“No one in this world can force you. You only need to follow your own will when choosing a partner.”

“But as the future Empress of the Empire, you will, in the end, have to marry... and Rast is a rather fine candidate—perhaps the only one, wouldn’t you say? At the very least, you do not dislike him.”

“He is the only one in all these years who has been able to reach your heart and earn your acknowledgment, Little Tina.”

“To be frank, if we hadn’t discovered that young man, your father and I were truly beginning to worry. With your stubborn and headstrong nature, perhaps the royal bloodline might have ended with your generation.”

Looking at the silent Shiltina, the noblewoman spoke again.

“Moreover, in your father’s words, this is also a way to soften you up a bit.”

“The reason you’ve become so stubborn and obstinate, charging ahead without looking back... is because you have treated your mother’s ideal of being a ‘Forest Ranger’ as the entirety of your life, never once considering your own happiness.”

“But if you were to marry Rast, and even have a child with him, then you would begin to form attachments.”

“You would come to possess your own happiness. That bond, that concern—your longing for life and joy—would force you to learn to cherish yourself, to learn to become selfish when necessary—”

“And no longer recklessly drown yourself in the pursuit of ideals like before.”

Shiltina remained silent for a long time before she finally spoke again. “Regardless of anything, I don’t want you and Father to interfere in Rast’s life on my behalf, let alone use royal authority to force him.”

“Of course we wouldn’t use royal authority to pressure him. He now belongs to Starfall University, and that institution does not fall under the Empire’s jurisdiction.”

The noblewoman shook her head.

“Besides, he has a very close relationship with that little snow ferret, and the old principal of Starfall University is notoriously protective of his own. The Empire’s royal power couldn’t touch that boy even if it tried.”

“However—”

“What if it wasn’t coercion, but that young man named Rast willingly chose to become our son-in-law?”

“If that were the case, Little Tina... you wouldn’t really have a reason to object anymore, would you?”

The noblewoman’s voice paused slightly.

“These are merely some preliminary thoughts from your father. They still need further deliberation.”

“In a few days, your father may appear in person and invite Rast to the palace to discuss the feasibility of your engagement.”

……

Tap, tap—tap, tap—

The sound of high heels striking the floor gradually faded, marking the slow departure of Shiltina’s stepmother, the Queen of the Granwell Kingdom, as she walked away from the dormitory area of Starfall University.

Only after confirming that the other party had completely left did Rast finally step across the final stretch of the path and arrive at the entrance of the dormitory.

In the courtyard outside, the figure of the Rapier Wielder girl stood bathed in the last glow of the sunset, still slightly dazed.

Upon hearing the sound of Rast’s approaching footsteps, her slender figure instinctively tensed.

It wasn’t until her gaze settled and she confirmed that the one approaching was indeed Rast that Shiltina’s guarded posture slowly relaxed and returned to a state of ease.

“Didn’t expect you to come back at this time. I must’ve let you see quite the spectacle.”

Shiltina let out a bitter laugh.

“I understand. After all, we’re part of the Empire’s royal family—there are always more things to consider than in ordinary households.”

Rast chuckled. “Honestly, compared to the dramas of other royal families, your family’s situation is already much better, Shiltina.”

“No life-or-death struggles among nine princes, no false displays of fatherly kindness and filial piety...”

“To tell the truth, if I were born into such a scheming, kin-severing household, I might actually feel more at ease.”

“After all, I’d only need to sever all ties. Whoever stands in my way—I just cut them down.”

Shiltina gradually loosened up. “I know. Even though she’s my stepmother, she truly treats me like her own daughter.”

“Even the argument just now came from a place of genuine care and concern for my wellbeing.”

“But it’s exactly because of that, that it becomes all the harder to let go. It only added a lot of pointless inner turmoil… but I know I’ll never agree with Father’s ideals, just as he’ll never agree with mine.”

“Rast...”

Her voice paused. “Can I ask you something?”

“What is it?”

“Rast, tell me…”

In Shiltina’s light brown eyes, an extremely rare trace of confusion appeared.

“How much can a person truly sacrifice for justice?”

The evening wind brushing through the courtyard of Starfall University scattered the question that Shiltina had posed.

Immediately afterward, Shiltina saw Rast’s motion pause slightly.

The black-haired youth stood in the middle of the courtyard, enveloped in the pale golden afterglow of the setting sun, his silhouette sharp and profound, like a chiseled sculpture.

A moment later, Shiltina heard a firm, resolute reply without the slightest hesitation.

“My answer is—”

“Everything I have.”

……

When Rast returned to his private student dormitory, finished his microwave-heated ready-made dinner, and completed his nightly wash-up, it was already late into the night.

He sat at the edge of the bed, holding a wine glass in one hand, sipping the liquor he had personally mixed.

Although it was a high-proof spirit, Rast at this moment wasn’t considered weak among the extraordinary. The potent alcohol was swiftly broken down and absorbed within his body, leaving only the rich sweetness and a faint, veil-like sense of drunkenness.

“How much can a person sacrifice for justice…?”

He stared at the pitch-black sky outside the window, recalling the question Shiltina had asked him earlier that evening at the dormitory entrance.

In a previous Nightworld Remnant, Grey had asked Rast a similar question, and his answer had never changed.

Rast had already spent three centuries within Deep Blue Port to interpret his true response to this question.

At the bedside, he drained the liquor in his glass in one go, hoping to fall asleep under the influence of this post-drinking haze.

But in the next moment, Rast’s mind suddenly stirred.

His gaze turned toward a certain point within the endless darkness of the night sky outside.

A faint rustling sound came from within the night.

A few breaths later, someone silently appeared in the shadows of Rast’s residence, standing behind him without a sound.

“Senior Sister, you’re here because you’ve seen the Memory Crystal I left earlier, haven’t you?”

Rast did not turn around. He only gazed calmly out the window at the seemingly boundless curtain of eternal night.

There was silence behind him.

After a long moment, someone in the shadows lightly nodded. “Mm.”

It was Ingrid’s voice.

As a wanted fugitive of the Empire, a person marked as deceased in the intelligence archives of every organization across the Western Continent, Ingrid was someone who could not be seen in public. If she were spotted by the faculty or students of Starfall University, it would surely cause an uproar.

However, as the former Director of the Surveillance Bureau within the military and a peak Sixth Tier Extraordinary, Ingrid was already someone who stood at the pinnacle of the extraordinary world. She had long since mastered the arts of stealth and assassination to perfection.

If she wished to conceal her whereabouts with full effort, unless a Legendary Realm expert was personally present, no outsider would ever detect her presence.

“I want to ask you one last question, Rast.”

Ingrid stood in the shadows, gazing at the youth seated by the bed.

Though his expression was calm, there was a solemnity on the youth’s face that needed no words to convey its presence—it was dignified in silence.

Rast nodded. “Please ask, Senior Sister.”

“Why did you choose to support Shiltina?”

Ingrid fixed her eyes on Rast’s face. “Based on the fragments of your past in that Memory Crystal… Rast, you have clearly seen a darkness deeper than anyone I’ve ever met.”

“So you should be keenly aware—Shiltina’s ideals are the ideals of a pure idealist, utterly short-sighted, or rather, a foolish and naive childishness.”

“As someone in a position of power, one must learn to become cold and ruthless, to act decisively, to make necessary sacrifices. Not to cling to something as naïve as so-called ‘knightly spirit’—that is nothing but self-satisfaction for hypocrites.”

“Yes, Senior Sister, you are not wrong.”

Rast smiled slightly. “A naive and childish idealist, short-sighted—if you wish to describe Shiltina that way, perhaps it’s not inaccurate.”

“But that doesn’t stop her radiance from being dazzling, from making people long for it.”

Rast’s voice paused slightly. “If we were in a world where order and careful steps could bring about a prosperous future, then yes—what you said would make sense. Sacrificing a few for the many, making utilitarian decisions as a leader would not be wrong.”

“But what if the ending of this world is darkness? What if extinction is already set in the law of the world itself?”

He looked out at the endless night. “By your logic, Senior Sister, beneath such cold calculations… if we are facing a doomed era marked into the very Order of the World, then at that point, people should just lie down and await death.”

“In such a case, the world instead needs people like Shiltina—naive, childish idealists.”

“And only these short-sighted ones can become symbols—shining like the sun through the night, bringing hope in the depths of despair.”

Rast once again recalled Cisel, and the battle at the Fractured Coastline.

The Sixth Era was already a foregone extinction, a bygone age inscribed into history books of the future.

If it were an ordinary person, upon learning of that despair and the irreversible, predestined end, they likely would have fallen into despair long ago, choosing to give up and await the end.

Yet even after learning everything, Cisel still chose to burn himself out, entrusting hope to the Shoreguards of the future.

Indeed, that was a short-sighted notion—an idealist’s naive and wishful thinking.

But if not for these idealists, these short-sighted people, the Shoreguards would have perished long ago, never surviving generation after generation until now.

“Senior Sister, I’ve answered your question.”

Rast looked at Ingrid, her slender figure enveloped in the shadow behind him.

“Now, it’s your turn to make your choice…”

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