"The butcher's blade, the fish on the block."
"Today, I held the blade, and they were the fish."
"They knelt before me, begged me, feared me."
"How utterly boring."
Cui Ciyou's gaze grew profound.
"I don't want to wield a blade and slaughter others at will."
"But even less do I want to become the fish on the chopping block again, helpless to resist."
A thought surfaced in his mind.
"Strength... power... what boring things they are."
"What were those people in my previous life thinking back then?"
"Worshipping the strong and bullying the weak. Perhaps human nature really is that filthy."
"Still..."
"I want to try something. Something interesting."
At that thought, Cui Ciyou felt the urge to act.
He knew what he needed to do.
A deathly silence hung outside the Boreas estate.
Hundreds of residents held their breath, their gazes fixed on the woman kneeling on the ground and the three trembling boys.
They waited for their hero, their future lord, to deliver his final judgment.
Cui Ciyou regarded the four faces before him, filled with fear and remorse, his expression calm and unruffled.
He spoke slowly. "There's no need for punishment."
At those words, Mrs. Aite, Somar, and the others felt as though they had been granted a pardon.
Their eyes instantly lit up with the wild joy of surviving a disaster.
"An apology will do."
"All I want is an apology."
Cui Ciyou paused, his sharp gaze sweeping over the three boys, who had already gone deathly pale with fright.
"But the person you need to apologize to... isn't me."
With that, under the crowd's puzzled, uncomprehending gazes,
he turned and walked back through the imposing gates of the estate in utter silence.
A moment later, Cui Ciyou appeared again.
This time, he was