Chapter 150: Guiding Sebas
Sebas was quiet for a long time.
The dusk carved deeper shadows across his face. Those pale grey eyes rested on Lucian, full of something complicated.
"Is this truly the only way?"
The old butler broke the silence again, but his voice had weight to it.
Like someone looking for an answer — wanting to know whether a brighter path existed.
Inside, Lucian allowed himself a small, private smile.
Finally.
He pulled his gaze back from the distance and turned to face Sebas.
"Of course not."
He answered with complete certainty, letting the confidence in his voice carry into Sebas.
"Beyond gradually reshaping understanding through moral weight and shared experience, strong legal enforcement can accomplish the same end."
He slowed his pace deliberately as he said it, holding Sebas's gaze without deflecting.
Lucian understood what was happening. Sebas was being worn down by the suffering of the beastman women and children — and at the same time, he still wanted to protect humans. Those two things were pulling against each other.
What Lucian needed to do was show Sebas a method more consistent with his own values.
Something shifted in Sebas's eyes. The locked tension in his brow eased slightly, and he waited for what came next.
"Sebas knows about the Minotaur Sage, I'd assume — the one who pushed through a series of reforms in the minotaur nation."
"I've heard something of it." Sebas gave a slight nod.
In truth, he had no idea.
"Two hundred years ago, the Minotaur Sage passed a law in the minotaur nation making cannibalism prohibited."
Lucian laid out the history in a tone that sounded thoroughly objective.
"Through the force of that law, within a single generation, there was no minotaur left in the nation who treated eating humans as a matter of course."
Sebas considered this.
He thought of something Touch Me-sama had once said — "Laws exist to tell people what is right and what is wrong."
At the time, he had not fully understood what those words meant.
But now, looking at the earnestness in Lucian's eyes, listening to the story of the Minotaur Sage, Sebas found that he could, for the first time, sense something of the deeper intent behind certain things Touch Me-sama had done.
"From a practical standpoint, this is also the most suitable approach for the beastman nation right now." Lucian said. "If the beastman king were willing to change the law, it wouldn't take long before the practice of eating humans was gone entirely."
He paused. The corner of his mouth pulled into something bitter.
"But..."
Lucian's voice settled lower.
"Making that happen requires enough force to compel the beastman nation to change its laws."
He raised his hand and pointed toward the hills in the distance, shrouded in the failing light — this expanse of beastman territory stretching out before them.
"And I can't do that."
The sense of helplessness that came off Lucian was genuine.
"The Aindra domain's cavalry can move freely through the beastman nation's interior because of mobility and surprise. To frontally defeat the beastman nation's army and force the beastman king to rewrite the law—"
He shook his head.
"That's not something we're capable of."
As though having no choice but to accept a reality beyond his reach, Lucian's shoulders sagged slightly.
"So I can only do it this way. One piece at a time. Make those beastmen remember this taste — force this taste to become permanently linked in their minds to suffering."
He paused.
"If we keep at it long enough, there will eventually be a generation of beastmen who finds war repellent. Who stops eating people."
Sebas watched Lucian in silence.
That young man standing in the fading light, the helplessness in his eyes nearly spilling over.
Sebas understood now. He understood the painful lengths Lucian had gone to.
"..."
Sebas already knew what needed to happen to make peace possible.
"All that's needed is for the beastman nation to change its laws?"
Lucian blinked, and looked at Sebas.
Something had lit up in Sebas's eyes — the look of a man who had found his direction.
"That's right." Lucian gave a nod, though clearly without any expectation. "But the beastman leadership has no intention of changing anything. Not unless I could completely defeat the beastman nation's army and force a change in the law."
He sighed.
"Unfortunately, the Aindra domain's forces aren't capable of that. At this point, being able to kill the beastman king according to plan would already be more than we could hope for."
Sebas showed no trace of disappointment.
On the contrary, a quiet smile crossed his face.
"Please leave the fighting from here on to me, Lord Lucian."
Lucian stared at Sebas in disbelief.
"I will help Lord Lucian defeat the beastman king quickly — and then change the law. True peace can be achieved."
Sebas said it with complete confidence. The troubled expression from before was entirely gone, and the possibility of defeat had apparently not entered his calculations at all.
"The beastman nation's soldiers, as far as I can judge at present — they aren't particularly strong."
Lucian looked at that earnest, uncomplicated face and felt, despite himself, a small stab of guilt.
But outwardly, Lucian quickly drew his brows together, an expression of unmistakable concern taking over his face.
"Absolutely not, Sebas. This is too dangerous." His voice carried real, unfeigned worry.
And as though trying to persuade Sebas to abandon this reckless idea, he pressed on.
"Besides, you need to conserve your strength for the beastman king. The beastman king is roughly equivalent to a thousand beastman soldiers in fighting power."
Sebas heard this and gave a slight smile.
"If the beastman king is only of that level..."
He paused, holding Lucian's gaze with a calm and unhurried confidence.
"Then I believe I should be just a little bit stronger than him."
As he said it, Sebas raised his right hand and held his fingertip up — gesturing at the expanse of sky above it.
"I don't think I'll need to be particularly careful with my reserves."
Lucian's mouth opened slightly. He looked thoroughly taken aback.
Sebas appeared to have misread the silence, and added:
"Of course, I mean no disrespect to Lord Lucian's own abilities."
He said it with complete certainty.
"After all, in the entire world, those stronger than me number perhaps forty-one — and a handful beyond that."
Lucian went completely silent.
He stood there, his expression difficult to make out in the fading light.
Brow furrowed slightly. Lips pressed into a firm line. Every inch the picture of someone caught in an agonizing dilemma.
Sebas waited quietly.
Lord Lucian is hesitating out of concern for my safety, I imagine.
In reality —
Lucian was desperately trying not to laugh.
It was taking everything he had.
He dug through his memory for the saddest film he had seen in his previous life. Then he recalled the time he had been dressed down by his manager at three in the morning after working through the night. Then he thought of every genuine emotion he had suppressed over the years since transmigrating, all the times he had held a straight face through scenes exactly like this one.
Those memories fell over the laughter rising inside him like buckets of cold water.
Finally.
Lucian's expression settled back into its usual composure.
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