My Living Shadow System Devours To Make Me Stronger Chapter 1157 - 1158: Moral Answer

He couldn’t forget the woman’s expression.

A human.

Someone just like him.

Burned alive by savages.

Ranar glanced sideways at him before quietly asking,

"Have you ever killed someone before?"

Her eyes drifted down to his hands.

"They’re shaking."

Ric lowered his gaze.

Sure enough, the hand gripping his sword trembled ever so slightly.

He had never killed anyone.

His master had trained him to fight.

To survive.

To endure pain.

To hunt monsters.

But Damon had never once ordered him to take a person’s life.

Ric closed his eyes for a brief moment before quietly repeating the words engraved into his memory.

"Murder is a habit, Ric."

"When you kill to solve a problem, you begin believing killing is the only solution."

"And soon..."

"...you trap yourself in a circle of murder."

"A trail of bodies."

"And enemies with vendettas."

His grip tightened around the sword until his knuckles turned white.

"However..."

"When you come face to face with someone you must kill..."

"...do not hesitate."

"Kill them."

"Some men do good for this world by leaving it."

The cave became quiet.

Even the children stared at him.

Ranar had never heard anything quite like that before.

She slowly folded her arms across her chest and lowered her eyes in thought.

"Your master..."

"He seems like a tough person."

She looked back at the fires below, where the lesser orcs were still laughing around the burning corpse.

"Isn’t killing hard?"

Her voice became softer.

"My father always told me that all life is precious."

"Everyone is important to someone."

She paused, her fingers unconsciously tightening around her sleeves.

"Even monsters have their own reasons."

A faint sadness crossed her face.

"After all..."

"...my mother was a monster."

The moment those words left her mouth...

Everyone turned to look at her.

Even Ric blinked in surprise.

The children exchanged uneasy glances, unsure if they had heard her correctly.

The crackling of the distant fire was the only sound that remained.

"Ahh... what?" Ric said, certain he had heard wrong or that she was joking.

"My mother was a monster," Ranar repeated calmly.

She had never met her mother, but she had seen her mother’s bone sword. It was one of the few things she had inherited from her.

One thing she knew without question was that her mother loved her, even though she had died before ever truly knowing her.

Ranar had nothing to be ashamed of.

Even if her mother had once been a monster.

She glanced at Ric.

Unlike the other children, whose faces had become noticeably more fearful after hearing her words, Ric only had a curious and excited glint in his eyes.

Ranar bit her lip.

"My mother was an Evil Forest Wendigo."

"She gained intelligence... and a human form after shedding her monstrous body."

"When she first met my father, she was nothing more than a beast."

"And he had wandered into her territory."

Ric nodded slowly.

He could already picture it.

It sounded like the beginning of one of those stories Damon sometimes told him before bed.

A strange love story.

"Then she tried to kill and eat him."

"He escaped."

"But my father..." Ranar sighed, rubbing her forehead. "He’s someone who always pays back his grudges."

"So he returned to the Evil Forest..."

"...and slaughtered her clutch of cubs."

The other children gasped.

Ranar simply continued.

"Filled with hatred, she somehow became a person and hunted him down."

"Then she lost."

"And lost again."

"And again."

"Eventually my father tricked her..."

"...then she died."

"And then I was born."

She summarized the story the same way she had heard it.

Her father had never gone into detail.

Frankly, she had never asked.

The only thing that mattered to her was that her mother loved her.

That was enough.

Whenever she tried to imagine what her mother looked like...

...the first face that always came to mind was Eva’s.

Only afterward did she imagine her real mother.

Eva was the one who had been there.

She bathed her.

Fed her.

Dressed her.

Held her whenever she cried.

Told her bedtime stories.

Slept beside her whenever she had nightmares.

She had done everything a mother was supposed to do.

"Wait..." one of the children suddenly interrupted, scratching his head.

"Your mother died..."

"...and then you were born?"

"Don’t you mean you were born first, then your mother died?"

Ranar shook her head.

"Oh, no."

"I was born months after my mother died."

"My father was half dead for the first few months of my life too."

"So I was raised by a squirrel..."

"...and a raven."

"Until he finally woke up."

The children stared blankly at her.

The story was so absurd that it sounded completely made up.

Ranar’s words, however, had cooled some of the murderous intent burning inside Ric.

She looked at him.

"I understand how you feel."

"They aren’t like you."

"They’re just common beasts."

"But as savage as they are..."

"...they’re still a group of people."

"Their lives have worth too."

"If you only want to kill them because they’re different from you..."

"...then how are you any different from a monster?"

She clenched her teeth.

"Who says a monster doesn’t have feelings?"

"Who says a monster can’t love..."

"...or hate?"

"If I believed something like that..."

"...I’d be spitting on my mother’s grave."

Ric lowered his head.

"Then should we just stand here and do nothing?"

"Not all evil people commit evil."

"Some are evil because they’re complacent to evil acts."

Ranar glanced at him.

"Did your master tell you that?"

Ric nodded.

"Yes."

"Then I hope your master is a saint."

Ric immediately shook his head.

"No."

"He’s human."

"That’s how I know he isn’t perfect."

He really didn’t want to admit that his master wasn’t perfect.

But Damon himself had taught him that.

Nobody was perfect.

People made mistakes.

That was what it meant to be human.

Even Ric living with Damon instead of his real family...

...was one of those mistakes.

"But we don’t have to be."

"If this is a mistake..."

"...let me learn from it."

"If it isn’t..."

"...then let me move forward with a clear conscience..."

"...knowing I did the right thing."

He slowly stood.

Below them, another woman was being dragged from a crude wooden cage.

Ric gripped the hilt of his sword so tightly his knuckles turned white.

His jaw clenched.

His breathing slowed.

He needed a plan.

Not revenge.

A plan.

Ranar stepped beside him and gently placed a hand on his shoulder.

"We need a plan."

Ric turned his head.

"We?"

Ranar nodded without hesitation.

"Yes."

"We."

"I’d never leave a friend behind."

Ric blinked.

Then a smile slowly spread across his face as he rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Is that so..."

"...friend?"

Ranar looked away, her ears turning slightly red.

This was her first friend.

Hearing him call her that made something warm bloom inside her chest.

She gripped the sword of light that slowly formed in her hand.

A determined smile appeared on her face.

"Let’s wreck ’em."