"Then... where should I begin? Let's start from when I was still a general. I was an excellent general. I fought many battles and hardly ever lost. Though I killed a great many people, though many feared me, I knew that they also worshipped me, believed I was extraordinary—and I thought so too."
"You were quite extraordinary," Sui Xiong nodded and said earnestly.
"But later, I learned that it had all been an illusion. All my efforts, all my hardships, the merits I earned, the wounds I suffered, the support of soldiers and civilians, the recognition of my colleagues, the trust of my king—all of it was worthless! Faced with an enemy army holding an overwhelming advantage, I simply could not stop them. If I had not run quickly enough, I would not even have been able to save myself." Lord of Glory let out a deep sigh, and some of the evil aura on his face faded. "As I fled alone for my life, hunted by a host of pursuers, what I felt was not fear or tension, but... emptiness."
"Emptiness. Utter emptiness. So everything had been false; nothing could be relied upon. The only thing I could rely on was myself—only the sword in my hand!"
"Did you think your sword came from thin air?" Sui Xiong sneered. "Miners dug up the iron ore, smelters cast it into ingots, blacksmiths forged it into a weapon, and perhaps mages even enchanted it—without them, where would you have gotten a sword?"
Lord of Glory smiled again, with no intention of arguing.
Though they were destined to fight a great battle sooner or later, to decide life and death, though they both understood that, at least for this moment, they were still sitting here in peaceful conversation.
Since that was so,