"Teacher, Light-Taker sent me a telepathic message telling me not to choose betrayal."
"I suspect the academy's first lesson is a multiple-choice question: either choose betrayal or choose to resist betrayal."
"Betrayal? Resist betrayal?" An Kai froze when he heard that answer.
What did that mean?
Why couldn't he quite understand it?
Did betrayal even need a definition?
As far as An Kai had always been concerned, betrayal did not exist.
As long as something benefited him, doing it did not count as betrayal.
Of course, if his subordinates defected to someone else and harmed his interests, that ought to count as betrayal.
Unfortunately, while An Kai might not have done everything well since coming to this world, ensuring his subordinates' loyalty was the one thing he had mastered.
He could even be called outstanding, utterly unrivaled.
That was why An Kai had never experienced "betrayal."
He believed betrayal should not exist because its definition was imposed by others.
Not by oneself.
Yet here he stood in the academy's first lesson, being told to either learn betrayal or resist it?
An Kai did not agree with the academy's views.
What did learning betrayal mean? Did he need it? Everything he did had always been what he believed was right. Even if it was betrayal, that was merely a label others forced on him.
So did An Kai need to learn betrayal?
No!
Because to An Kai, betrayal did not exist at all.
Was he supposed to learn a trait that did not exist?
As for resisting betrayal, that was even more absurd.
If betrayal could be resisted, then what about its cost?
Could the damage caused by betrayal be undone?
What An Kai hated most was "belated justice," "belated judgment," and "belated victory."
Along with belated resistance to betrayal.
Why