The Conquerors Path

Chapter 886  Chapter 884-The Innocent Lie.

"If you looked into me, you would know about the gap in my history from my dukedom, which shows that I wasn't spending my time there during that break..."

As I said this, my eyes went to match toward Elenara's, who kept her gaze fully focused on me, my expression remaining calm as I continued to speak.

"During that time, I was travelling the world, I had this morbid curiosity to see what the world had in store for me, so I set off on an adventure, I travelled a lot of places, between both the realms, made a lot of friends, and what I saw was the world for what it is....."

As I stopped, my gaze focused a bit on the cup at the table, breaking my eye contact as I continued to speak.

"Greed, desire, lust, evil, corruption, and an unending need to get more, to get more power, to get more lands, to get more influence, to climb to the top. The desires that I saw with my own eyes were endless, betrayals, plots, schemes to kill, and even more. All of this comes together to form the whole world of darkness that resides over."

I stopped once again, my gaze finding its way back to Elenara as I spoke.

"The world was as such, and even people that tried to keep it cool, tried to stay untainted by all of this would perhaps fall into it, just due to the fact that they didn't have the power to resist what was coming at them, the norm of scheming, betraying, and planning against the one in front of you somehow going to become the norm, and I felt a bit of despair at that thought....."

My gaze focused deeply towards the calm pupils of Elenara.

"I faced my own bitter experiences in travels, and I learned a lot, but there is something else that I came to understand too, truth, love, lies, happiness, innocence, naivety, a sense of heroism, a will to never give up, a will that always believed justice and good will prevail, certain elements in life that made all that darkness fade away."

My fingers started to tap lightly at the chair on which I sat.

"I saw the beauty of all life in this world, I came to understand why all of us live as long as we did, for something sparked in my mind, for all the darkness I saw, a light appeared, and for all the light I saw, a small darkness reigned within it."

A small bit of my mana pooled from me as I pointed the finger I was tapping the chair towards the front, the small culmination of mana soon coming to form the symbol of yin and yang, the mix of evil within the light and the soothing brightness of the light within the darkness, I could see the reflection of Elenara's face shining at what I showed as I spoke.

"The truth is like that, there is no absolute for everything. I came to learn to hope, to care, to love, and to understand that betrayals would come to me, during my travels I had reached a crossroads, I had to choose which path I would walk, one of the tyrant, one who just does everything he wants regardless of the blood it spills? Or would I accept being weak due to being unable to take any actions?......."

I could feel the attention of the two fully focused on me, a small smile at the edges of my lips as I continued, breaking the symbol into small sparkling pieces with my fist.

"I had to make that choice, what really meant evil? What really made the fact of evil or good? How can one even know in this world? I strived at that question, and with it, I saw the goodness of what lay within all of us, so I chose to accept that, accept the fact that everything, in the end, belongs to me, my choice dictates everything, which meant my path showed who I really am."

My finger went back to lightly patting on the chair as I spoke.

"The path I walked was to help all I saw, I wanted to be someone the people I cared about could rely on, so I made myself around that, someone that isn't sinking himself into the fight the world throws at him, it wasn't an easy path, and it wouldn't be an easy path forward, that's why I will keep fighting, not just for myself, but also for the ones that follow me....."

I stopped here, a full-blown smile coming to my face, one that seemed to bask on the innocence, I activated the aura of innocence I received from my bloodline, filling it around me, hurtling at the hearts of the two women in front of me, deeply shaking their values and the things they keep their truths on.

A moment of silence lay, I could see the fact that I had shaken up the hearts of these two quite well, so I sat there, calming myself down as I went forth to take a sip of the tea, a bit of it remained as its taste filled my mind, the aura and innocence I showed having shocked them enough that even the well-trained Silva forgot to refill the drink for a moment.

But it didn't take long for them to regain their minds as Silva moved with practised ease as she went forth to fill the drink again, soon meshing herself into the shadows as Elenara now looked at me with a certain extra light in her eyes as she spoke.

"You have truly amazed me, and that's not an easy feat, I don't think I have ever felt such conviction before, but you do know that this path won't have a happy ending for you?"

My smile didn't falter at her words, our gazes clashed over the air as I replied.

"I know that, but it doesn't mean I will stop walking it, my heart stays transfixed on this, and happily, I don't alone walk this path, I have like-minded friends that will support me through it all."

My words made eyebrows of Elenara quiver for a moment, the words I spoke no doubt hitting and calling towards her youth, a time where even she had dreamed of such life, where she had fought for it, only to end up like this, there is a reason why I laid forth such a story, especially after knowing the past of Elenara.

She was once like this, a free spirit who dreamed of reaching such a passionate world, cleansing it, to make the world more beautiful, her vocational heart had focused on creating treasures and artefacts that would make the world better, cleanse it, clean it, make it a better place for the people to live in.

She thought of combating the world's problems, to take the issues into her own hands, and she had like-minded friends along with her on the ride, Elenara in the past was much more of a calm and gentle dwarf, every different form there is, her passion came with her naivety to see the world in sparkles, to see it with perfection, to see it on the way on how she could fix it, on how she could make everyone live on something better.

Her best friend Silva was also along with her on that rise, a mix of those friends came together to combat their desires, to make everything better, those innocent beauties where they believed that the world was all nice, where the good will always win against the evil, where the goodness in the heart of another was worth fighting for.

Elenara and her friends fought for that, made things for it, and set forth into the world with those thoughts.

'Sadly, all that remains of that journey is just Elenara and Silva.'

My body and mind wandered at that thought, knowing very well that things didn't end up well in that end, there is a reason why Elenara didn't continue to follow that path, a reason that formed her rivalry with Valdris, a reason she had ended up like this, as just the mere queen of a king, content living herself locked away in the huge castle.

'Her talents outshine Valdris, and her heart is beautiful, it's just the past has now destroyed a good sense of who she was.'

My mind churned with all the data as I saw the dazed yet nostalgic expression of Elenara's, my words had shaken her heart, and it had only gone forth to perhaps hint toward the layers and layers in which the desires of Elenara are hidden.

'I want to make her shine.'

My inner corruption roared, as I said, there are a lot of different ways in which you can go about corrupting someone, and the lowest one was to make them true to their desires, the current Elenara in front of me is just a shell of the past, all those raging desires of hers hidden away, unable to be accessed, locked within a vault that cannot be opened, and I don't like that single bit, I want that beautiful woman to shine.