Kou was drizzling some sauce on Keel and licking her all over.
“All right, Kou, stop it already,” Father said.
“Aw, man,” Kou said. “Can’t we get another Keel so I can eat him?”
Father shook his head. “Even if we get another Keel, you can’t.”
“What do you mean ‘get another Keel’!?” Keel shouted.
What a delightful scene. I was having fun just watching from the sidelines. Seeing Father take care of the others cleansed my heart and soul, I say!
Keel, Yuki, and Kou all gobbled up the food with glee. However, I did notice the other groups watching us coldly. Did they not understand how many lives we had saved?
But as the meal unfolded pleasantly for the most part, I had more important things to be thinking about. In the first go-around, now was around the time that Father and the Crimson Swine betrayed me.
Oho? Itsuki was walking over toward me with a grim expression. Apparently, even without me on the Crimson Swine’s side, Itsuki was fulfilling my role to a tee.
But what exactly would he try to pull? I couldn’t just let him do whatever he wanted, so I decided to make the first move and walked over to him.
“Itsuki, is there something wrong?” I inquired.
“I have to talk to Naofumi,” he said. “Please step aside.”
“What about? I can tell him for you, I say!”
“Motoyasu, this is none of your business!”
He tried to push me aside, but even a hard shove from someone as weak as Itsuki wouldn’t make me so much as flinch.
Then Father came hurrying over. I saw Father glance at Itsuki, and I could tell that when Father saw Itsuki’s unpleasant expression, he understood just what was going on.
“What’s up?” Father asked.
“Nothing is up!” Itsuki pointed at Father. “I heard everything, Naofumi!” Itsuki raised his voice. “That you—you bastard—enslaved your own companions!”
Father and I met eyes for a moment. “I did, and so?”
Keel, Sakura, Yuki, and Kou all looked over toward us. Lazy Pig, seemingly too lazy to get involved with anyone else’s business, looked away as if she hadn’t heard anything at all. Father was looking surprised, as if to say, Itsuki, what in the world are you even talking about? But since Father and I had discussed the possibility that this might happen beforehand, I knew that Father wasn’t the least bit surprised.
“So you admit it!” Itsuki’s face flushed with the glee of victory.
“Keel is a slave, and Sakura and Kou are monsters,” Father said, with his confused expression a contrast to Itsuki’s joyous determination. “Is there a problem with that?”
Itsuki suddenly looked lost as well. “How . . . how could you just say that? Like it’s a matter-of-fact thing?”
“Well, it is matter of fact,” Father said. “Of course, it’s immoral, but it’s not against the law. Given the circumstances, I didn’t have much choice—”
But Itsuki was quick to interrupt. “You enslaved a human being and forced them to fight to the death on a dangerous battlefield! How could someone who takes slaves call themselves a hero? Let them go—and if you don’t, I’ll make you!”
“What are you talking about?” barked Keel. “We fought because we wanted to! Alongside Big Bro!”
But Itsuki shook his head. “Of course you have to say that—you’re being controlled by the slave seal to do whatever Naofumi commands! But don’t worry, I’ll save you!”
Father sighed. “I’m not sure what to tell you. Is it wrong for us to use slaves? Maybe, but in this country, demi-humans are by and large enslaved to begin with. There are some exceptions, some adventurers, but it’s hard to find them in Melromarc. And one of the only regions with free demi-humans was completely ruined in the first wave of destruction. And then the people from that village were enslaved by none other than the knights of Melromarc!”
Itsuki didn’t appear to be listening to a single word that Father said. Trash and the Crimson Swine appeared to have noticed the commotion and moved over toward us as well. Surely, they had whispered all sorts of dangerous lies to Itsuki beforehand.
“Keel told me himself,” Father said. “It was Melromarc knights that enslaved him.”
“And that’s the truth!” Keel interjected. “It was Melromarc soldiers. We were trying to rebuild our village and they killed every last one of the men and took the rest of the women and children into slavery!”
Of course, Keel was telling the truth. But Itsuki had heard Trash and the Crimson Swine’s side of the story first, so he would never believe her. Itsuki was neck-deep in their lies. Just like me in the first go-around.
“Itsuki, we’re in another world,” Father said. “When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Slaves exist in this world and we have to make do with it.”
“‘We have to make do with it’? Surely we can do something! Naofumi, this . . . this is just wrong!”
“Honestly, I agree with you. It is wrong. If we were back in Japan, I couldn’t be more wrong. But we’re not in Japan. We’re in a country where demi-human slaves are the norm.”
Itsuki’s expression was resolute. He would not back down. I could tell.
Back then, I looked at Father the same way Itsuki and Ren were looking at him today. And yet Father somehow found it in his heart to forgive all three of us. To take the point to its logical extreme, there is no such thing as an absolute right or wrong. Something done for the right reasons could kill countless people. And while the way we treated Father was wrong, Father recognized that he needed our strength as heroes. So he let us live.
It was all in spite of Itsuki’s cruel treatment of Father.
Yes, for better or worse, the world has never revolved around right and wrong alone.