Night World Players

Chapter 189: How Much Can a Person Pay for Justice? (Two-in-One)

"I married...Last?"

Listening to her stepmother's words, Hiltina's voice paused, and the calm tone she had previously maintained disappeared.

"Wait...why do you know him?"

"Hiltina, do you really think that we parents are hands-off and indifferent to your affairs?"

"No matter how much you tried to cut ties with the empire and the royal family in the past, we only have two daughters, you and Ophelia. You have the blood of the Granville Empire flowing in your body, and this is a fact that can never be denied."

The lady stopped and turned to look at her stepdaughter in front of her.

"I knew that little fellow named Rust very early, as early as when he first started school."

"But I didn't really start paying attention to him until a few months later—after your sister took the initiative to go to the Arcana Tower and caused quite a stir."

The noble lady paused for a moment before speaking again, "Ophelia thought she had hidden it from us. She did it without anyone noticing, sneaking off to the Mystery Tower to test us."

"But she's never really considered it. Her father is the emperor of the empire, and half of the ownership of the Arcana Tower ultimately belongs to the empire... What could possibly be hidden from her father within the empire?"

The lady smiled and said, "Both of my daughters are showing extraordinary interest in a member of the opposite sex."

"If we still know nothing about that person, then we are unfit parents."

"It's normal for you and your father to pay attention to Rast..."

Hiltina was silent for a moment before speaking again.

"With his abilities and the earth-shaking deeds he has accomplished in the night world—even if he has nothing to do with me, I believe he will definitely come into your and father's sight."

"It's just that you mentioned earlier, the engagement..."

"This was also your father's idea, Little Tina."

The noble lady smiled again and said, "Hiltina, you and I are different from the other noble girls in the imperial capital."

"Those great nobles often use their daughters as tools for political marriages for the purpose of exchanging interests or forming alliances."

"Even myself, I married your father because my family had invested in him when he was still a prince. I know that from the beginning to the end, His Majesty Aaron's true love was your biological mother, Cecilia."

"Although, I don't regret it."

The noble lady looked at Hiltina and said, "But you are different, little Tina."

"You are our daughter. According to your father, no one in the Western Continent is worthy of marrying you."

"And our royal family doesn't need to rely on marrying off our daughters for political marriages in exchange for so-called benefits or to form alliances with other noble families or countries."

"No one in this world can force you. You just need to choose your own partner according to your own wishes."

"But as the future empress of the empire, you will eventually have to get married... and Rast is a very good candidate, even the only choice, isn't he? At least you don't dislike him."

"He is the only person in all these years who has been able to enter your heart and truly gain your approval, little Tina."

"To be honest, if we hadn't found that young man, your father and I would have been worried that with your stubborn temper, the royal bloodline might have died out in your generation."

The noble lady looked at the silent Hiltina before her and spoke again.

"Also, as your father would say, this is also a way to make you, little Tina, less stubborn."

"The reason you've developed such a stubborn and obstinate temper, a stubborn refusal to give up until you hit a wall... is because you've made your mother's ideal of the Ranger your entire life, and never considered your own happiness."

"And if you marry Luster, even after you have children, you will have concerns in your heart."

"You will have your own happiness, and this bond and concern, this attachment to happiness and life, will force you to learn to cherish yourself and learn to be selfish when necessary—"

"I will no longer be so willful as before, drowning myself in the pursuit of my ideals without hesitation."

Hiltina was silent for a long time before she spoke again, "No matter what, I don't want you and father to influence Rast because of my personal affairs, or even use imperial power to force him."

"I definitely won't force him with imperial power. He now belongs to Star University, and Star University has no affiliation with the Empire."

The lady shook her head.

"Besides, he has a very good relationship with that snow ferret, and the old president of Star University is such a protective person. The imperial power has no influence on that little guy at all."

"but--"

"What if it wasn't forced, but that little fellow named Rust voluntarily became our son-in-law?"

"Then by then, little Tina... you shouldn't have any other reasons to object, right?"

The lady's voice paused for a moment.

"These are just some of your father's superficial ideas at the moment. We still need to investigate further."

"In a few days, your father may personally invite Rast to the palace to discuss the feasibility of your engagement."

……

Knock, knock, knock——

The sound of high heels stepping on the ground gradually faded away, which also symbolized that Xiltina's stepmother, the queen of the Granville Empire, was gradually walking away and leaving the dormitory area of ​​Star University.

After making sure that the other party had completely left, Last crossed the last section of the path and arrived at the dormitory door.

In the courtyard outside the door, the figure of the girl with the rapier was bathed in the afterglow of the setting sun, still a little dazed.

After hearing the footsteps of Rast's arrival, her slender figure subconsciously tensed up.

Only after she settled her eyes and confirmed that the person coming was Rast, did Hiltina slowly relax her alert posture and return to a relaxed state.

"I didn't expect you to come back at this time. I've made a fool of myself by showing you this."

Hiltina smiled bitterly.

"It's understandable. After all, they are the imperial family. They always have to consider more than ordinary people."

Last smiled and said, "Honestly, compared to the dramas of other royal families, your family's situation, Hiltina, is much better."

"There's no life-and-death struggle among nine princes for the throne, and even less of a loving father and filial son..."

"Honestly speaking, if I were born into a family full of intrigue and severing family ties, I might have felt much more relaxed."

"Anyway, I just need to cut off everything. Whoever stands in my way will be killed and that's it."

Hiltina's figure gradually relaxed. "I know that although she is my stepmother, she truly treats me like her own daughter."

"Even during the argument just now, they were actually thinking about me from the bottom of their hearts and wanted to do what was best for me."

“But that’s precisely why I find it so hard to let go, causing me so much unnecessary entanglement… But I know I will never agree with my father’s beliefs, just as he will never agree with mine.” “Lust…”

Her voice paused: "Can I ask you a question?"

"what is the problem?"

"Laster, you said..."

There was a rare hint of confusion in Hiltina's beautiful light brown eyes.

"How much can a person pay for justice?"

The evening breeze blowing through the courtyard of Starry University blew away the questions raised by Hiltina.

Then, Hiltina saw that Rast's movements paused slightly.

The black-haired boy stood in the center of the courtyard, in the pale golden afterglow of the setting sun, his outline clear and deep, like a stone sculpture.

A moment later, Hiltina heard a decisive answer without the slightest hesitation.

"My answer is—"

"Everything I have."

……

When Last returned to his single-family student dormitory, finished his simple pre-prepared dinner heated in the microwave, and washed up, it was already late at night.

He sat on the edge of the bed, holding the wine glass in one hand and drinking the wine he had mixed in small sips.

It was obviously a high-concentration liquor, but at this moment, Rast was not considered a weakling among the extraordinary people. The high-concentration alcohol was quickly decomposed and absorbed in his body, leaving only a mellow sweetness and a faint drunkenness like a gauze.

"How much can one person pay for justice?"

He gazed at the dark sky outside the window and recalled the question that Hiltina had asked him at the dormitory door not long ago.

In the previous Night World History Echoes, Gray had also asked Last a similar question, and his answer was always the same.

Last had already spent three hundred years in Deep Blue Harbor to interpret his true answer to this question.

He drank the wine in the glass in his hand by the bed and wanted to fall asleep with the help of the drunkenness.

But then, Rast's mind suddenly moved slightly.

His gaze was directed out the window, somewhere in the endless darkness of the night.

A faint rustling sound came from the night.

A few breaths later, someone appeared silently in the shadow of Rast's house and stood behind him silently.

"Senior, have you come here this time and seen the memory crystals I left behind?"

Rast didn't look back, but just stared at the seemingly endless curtain of eternal night outside the window and spoke calmly.

There was silence behind him.

After a long time, someone nodded slightly in the shadows: "Yeah."

This is Ingrid's voice.

As a wanted criminal of the empire, Ingrid has been marked as dead in the intelligence archives of all organizations in the Western Continent. She is a person who cannot be seen in public. If she is seen by the teachers and students of Star University, it will probably cause an uproar.

But Ingrid, as the former Chief of Inspectorate of the military and a sixth-level peak transcendent... has long been standing at the top of the transcendent field, and has mastered skills such as stealth and assassination to perfection.

If she wanted to hide her whereabouts with all her strength, then unless a legendary expert came in person, she would never be noticed by outsiders.

"I want to ask you one last question, Rust."

Ingrid stood in the shadows, looking at the boy sitting beside the bed.

Although the expression on his face was so peaceful, the boy's expression was so solemn, without words but full of majesty.

Rust nodded: "Please ask, Senior."

"Why do you choose to support Hiltina?"

Ingrid stared at Lust's face. "According to the fragments of the past contained in your memory crystal... Lust, you have clearly seen a darker night than I have."

"So you should know very clearly that Hiltina's philosophy is pure idealism, completely short-sighted, or perhaps even childish and naive."

"As a leader, one should learn to be ruthless, decisive, and make necessary sacrifices, rather than adhering to so-called 'chivalry,' which is clearly just the self-satisfaction of hypocrites."

"Yes, Senior Sister, what you said is not wrong."

Luster smiled. "A childish and naive idealist, a short-sighted person. Perhaps it's okay to describe Hiltyna in this way."

"However, this does not prevent her from shining brightly and making people yearn for her."

Last paused. "If a world can achieve a prosperous future simply by following the rules and avoiding mistakes, then the view you're suggesting, sacrificing the minority for the benefit of the majority, and prioritizing profit over all else, as a leader and decision-maker, may not be wrong."

"But what if the end of this world is inherently bleak and doomed to destruction?"

He gazed out the window at the boundless night. "According to your thinking, Senior Sister, based on the cold judgment of self-interest... if faced with the end of an era, a fate engraved in the laws of nature, then at this moment, people should simply lie down and wait for death."

"Under such circumstances, the world actually needs people like Hiltina, childish and naive idealists—"

"Only such a short-sighted person can become a symbol, shining through the darkness like the sun, bringing hope to people in desperate situations."

Rast thought of Cecil again, and the battle on the Broken Coast.

The Sixth Era was an old era that was destined to be destroyed and was written into the history books of later generations.

If it were an ordinary person, after knowing this hopeless truth and the irreversible, destined ending, he would probably have already become disheartened and chosen to lie down and wait for death.

But even so, after knowing everything, Cecil still burned himself out and entrusted his hopes to the future guardians of the shore.

That is certainly a short-sighted idea, the naive wishful thinking of an idealist.

But if it weren't for these short-sighted people and idealists, the "shore guards" would have been wiped out long ago, instead of being passed down from generation to generation until today.

"I have already answered the questions from Senior Sister."

Luster looked behind him, at Ingrid's slender figure shrouded in shadow.

"Then it's your turn, Senior Sister. Make your choice..."

(End of this chapter)