In an isolated area, far away from the demon stronghold and Logan,
"WHY?!"
Kevin shouted and his voice echoed through the open area making the birds fly in fear.
<…>
To Kevin's question, Michael did not respond.
Kevin was fuming in anger and was drowning in the guilt of abandoning his peers in the face of danger.
"Why did you do that, Michael?"
Kneeling on the ground Kevin started crying as the memories of the past resurfaced.
Andrew's face, his family's dead bodies, and the burned town.
<Kevin, according to emergency protocol, your life was in danger and the alert passed beyond the level of calamity, so Michael had to teleport you.>
"Even then… was there no way to save all of them?!"
<…>
"Answer me! Why did you abandon all of those students?"
<…>
"Answer me… sob… answer me… sob…"
Kevin kept muttering and Michael did not answer.
<Kevin, Michael holds the host's life as the priority, others are secondary.>
Michael finally answered.
<To achieve the greater good sacrifices are important, and those who did not fight for their own life, do not have the right to keep their lives.>
The justice King snorted.
Wasn't it common sense in a world where survival was the priority and everything else secondary?
Then why was Kevin behaving like that? Michael questioned.
<Those students waited for you to clear the stronghold like they were celebrities of some sort. If they can't even fight a mid-level baron, then why are they even opting for demon hunting?>
Michael's voice rang through Kevin's mind.
His ideology was twisting and he didn't like that.
Michael sounded like a real person at this moment and suddenly,
<Would the host like to take complete responsibility?>
Michael's voice suddenly became monotonous and he addressed Kevin as 'The Host' which baffled Kevin.
"What?... What happened to you, Michael?"
Kevin felt worried.
<Would the host like to take complete responsibility?>
The same monotonous Michael asked again.
"What responsibility?"
<In the face of the danger to life, the host will have complete control and the decision will be left to the host. Michael will not interfere.>
"Why?"
Kevin was confused once again.
<According to the host, Michael's decision was wrong, so is the host willing to make their own decision?>
[A/N: The use of 'their' instead of 'his' is as Michael addresses the host in the plural.]
Kevin didn't know how to reply.
Michael was reliable. He took the priority to help Kevin before anything else, and Kevin was grateful for this.
Kevin was low on mana and his fatigue was huge. Not only that but after using <Michael Descends> and <limit Exceed> temporarily, Kevin could've died without even knowing.
Michael's decision, although breaking Kevin's ideology of a 'Hero', it was still within the consideration of a survival world's rule of 'Survival of the fittest.'
"What can be the drawbacks?"
Kevin's hero mentality, no matter what, still tried to blame Michael for his rational decision.
<The host will not be able to use 'Michael Descends' as Michael takes some control over the host's body for a certain period. As the host will be the sole person responsible for their actions, Michael Descends will be replaced with a random skill, from Common to Ancient range.>
"!"
Kevin shuddered as he heard that <Michael Descends> will be removed if he takes sole responsibility.
"Can you… at least… negotiate?"
Kevin asked in a shaking voice.
After losing his family, friends, and now classmates, he didn't want to lose Michael as well.
<?>
Michael did not answer Kevin's question and rather felt questioned.
Why was the host… requesting?
Shouldn't the host 'order' the system?
Was his host… weak?
"Tell me a way that <Michael Descends> will also remain and you will let me handle my body."
The question marks increased.
Michael did not get that was his host greedy or was the host dumb? So Michael explained once again.
<The host handles his body and Michael only controls some of it at the time of 'Michael Descends', and if the host wants to take complete control and abide by the emergency protocols, then the host has to remove 'Michael Descends'.>
"Ah!"
Kevin somewhat understood Michael's explanation.
He wasn't dumb. Michael sighed.
"Ha…Hu"
Kevin took a deep breath and thought carefully.
To put it simply, if Kevin wanted to break free from the emergency protocol, then he has to take complete responsibility and won't be able to use <Michael Descends> as he cannot share the responsibility.
"Let it be."
Kevin said and continued,
"You've saved my life today, and I don't have that reaction time and decision-making. So I will rely on you for that."
Although Kevin was sad for the students who will die at the hands of the baron, he can't do anything for them.
Even if he were to travel back, by the time he reaches all of them would be dead.
<Understood, Kevin.>
After hearing Michael call him by his name again, a small smile appeared on Kevin's face.
Michael's power, which he used temporarily was necessary for him.
And after some rational consideration, Kevin felt that the emergency protocol was necessary for him, as he spaces out at a crucial time.
"So we have two baron cores, what should we do next, Michael?"
…
"Adelio…"
Sitting on her fluffy white chair, Alice sighed as she looked at Adelio's life slip.
Life slips were signed by the teachers of the royal academy.
As the teachers supervise, subdue, and fight all the time, it was natural for them to die in the wilderness.
These life slips helped the academy to know whether to wait for the teacher or not.
An orb of light was placed on such slips and if a teacher dies then so does the light inside the orb.
This set was inside the headmistress' cabin.
On a slip, where Adelio's name was written, the light inside the orb died.
Alice looked at that orb with a slight disappointment and pity in her eyes.
Adelio was her friend.
The only friend who never asked anything in return and helped any and every time.
He was the most ideal man any woman will ever wish for.
Reminiscing over his death Alice went near the life slip and a single tear fell on the ground.
Taking the orb in her hand she went near the window.
"This is why I called you naïve."
In the empty room, Alice's voice filled with dissatisfaction echoed in the room.
"I told you… I told you… haaa"
Being a peak fourth circle, she was habitual of deaths and it was a natural thing for her.
But Adelio was her only friend whom she admired but always called naïve.
"You were always greedy… those shit heroic idealisms don't work in the real world… Remember the story of a 'mother monkey' I told you before?"
She asked the orb and continued,
"In a village, on the side of a river, there was a big tree, on that tree lived hundreds of monkeys. One day, a monkey gave birth. The newborn looked adorable and she was on cloud nine after its birth. Days passed and everything seemed like a dream to the mother monkey. Her child was drinking milk and started climbing on her back on his own. She wanted to cherish its future, but every happy time ends and her time ended pretty soon.
One day it rained pretty heavily and the river flooded. The mother monkey clung to the hope that the rain will stop, the tree will stay strong, and she won't be drowned in the flood.
But her hope was crushed.
The rain did not stop, the tree fell into the river, and she drowned in the flood.
All this time she held her child close to her heart, to save the child, that was her goal. While being swayed by the flood she hoped that everything will be fine and prayed for her safety.
Surly her prayers were responded and she saw another tree. Bigger than the previous one, standing still in the flood, and a branch reaching down like a hand.
The tree looked like a man extending his hand to help her. The only hope she had in her darkest time.
She tried to grab the branch with one hand but was unable to catch it. She tried and failed again and again.
So she did the inevitable.
A decision that fulfilled her wish.
It was for survival.
For 'Her' survival.
She left the child and freed her one hand, using the child's body as a stepping stone, she jumped, caught the branch, and climbed the tree…"
Drip- Drip-
"That is the world we live in, Adelio… to achieve something we have to sacrifice… I am sorry… In this case, you were the child…"
***
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