Chapter 260: A Hard Decision
The throne room remained silent, but it wasn’t a silence born because the Chiefs and the King were contemplating his words.
It was a silence of horror.
White looked around and realized there was no admiration left on their faces anymore. Only disbelief.
Finally, one of them seemed to recover first.
He was an elderly chief, sitting on the left hand of the King, and he spoke a single word.
"No."
"No?"
White repeated.
"No."
The chief repeated more firmly, before another, the one closest to the King’s right, spoke.
"You wish to burn the Outer Circles’ harvest? The one that makes up half of the Kingdom’s entire yearly harvest!?"
White nodded.
"That’s correct."
The old man looked at him as if he had been struck by lightning, his next words unable to form, requiring another chief to continue for him.
"Those crops represent six months of labor! Entire families depend upon them."
"People will starve if they’re lost, and you ask for them to be burned!?"
White’s response came immediately.
"If we don’t burn them, the Hellwraiths will eat them instead."
He said, and all of the chiefs froze.
Of course that was true.
The crops were only being burned because they would feed the coming Hellwraiths.
There was no way they could harvest them all in just four days. It would take at least three weeks, leaving them no choice but to let the Hellwraiths consume them.
"We’re not losing the crops to fire, Chiefs."
White said.
"They’ve already been lost. The real question is whether we allow our lost crops to feed our enemy or not."
Silence covered the entire room, but then another chief rose to his feet.
"And the forced conscription? Drafting innocent civilians into war against man-eating barbarians!"
He shouted, pointing at White.
"Commander Mallory! You would ask for spears to be placed in the hands of boys!?"
White met his gaze head-on, replying:
"I would."
"Many of them will die. Mothers will lose their sons, daughters their brothers!"
"I know."
White replied curtly once more.
"How could you? You speak of it so casually! What has become of you, Commander Mallory!?"
The chief pointed at him, looking at him as though he were some evil creature, and all of it did nothing but annoy White for one reason.
He wasn’t annoyed because of their words.
They were the wisdom of the Igasus Kingdom, and the safety of the Kingdom was their first priority.
But what annoyed him was that everyone kept pointing out the cost without offering an alternative.
"And what would you have me do instead?"
White asked, and the room fell silent once more.
"Tell me..."
"If they do not fight, what are the chances of us being overpowered by the Hellwraiths? One hundred percent!"
"Forget the sons. Not even the mothers and daughters will be kept alive!"
"Yes! Their sons could die, and they could grieve them. But what happens when the sons do not fight at all?"
"The Hellwraiths will make the mothers and daughters watch as their sons are fed to beasts before ultimately skinning them all alive!"
"Is that the better or kinder choice for the Kingdom!?"
He shouted at them, watching their faces become lost in thought as they contemplated his words before ultimately arriving at the realization.
The choice that was kinder was to force no one into conscription.
But the result of that choice was an absolute horror.
The evil choice, on the other hand, was forcing boys into conscription.
But the result of that choice was a chance at survival.
Sure, many would grieve.
But at least they would be alive.
"And the military rationing?"
Another chief asked, to which White replied.
"There will be food, but it won’t fill our bellies. At worst, we’ll starve, but hunger can always be satisfied later. After the war, the hungry will eat and be rejuvenated once more."
"You know what can’t?"
He asked rhetorically.
"Death."
He spoke, and the word landed like a thump against each of their hearts.
"Is this all truly necessary, Commander Mallory?"
The King finally spoke.
For one who was king, the man ultimately responsible for each and every soul in the kingdom, there was no anger in his voice.
But the worry in his eyes was clear.
The quiet question shook White and made him hesitate.
Why?
Because deep down, he hated this plan.
And so he replied:
"No."
The entire room froze in confusion.
"I do not believe it is necessary, Your Majesty."
"I believe it is horrible. I believe thousands will suffer, and I believe that many who survive will curse my name for the rest of their lives."
He said amidst the silence.
"But I also believe that every alternative apart from this ends with sixty thousand innocent corpses."
Those words none of them could refute.
If they didn’t fight, only one thing awaited them.
Certain death.
But then one chief asked a question.
"And if you’re wrong?"
"If all of these extreme measures still end up futile in the face of our enemies."
"It won’t."
White replied.
"But if it does, may history remember me as the man who destroyed the Igasus Kingdom."
Then there was a pause before he completed.
"But if I do nothing, then there won’t be an Igasus Kingdom left to remember anything in the first place."
"This is a hard decision to make, Commander Mallory, and futility still exists amidst it all."
The King said.
"Your Majesty, by all the trust you may have in my status as a Commander, our actions will not be futile."
"The Hellwraiths will pay as we starve them, slow them, and ultimately bleed them."
"They will pay for every life they devour and each citizen of Igasus that is lost."
"And in the worst case of our extinction, history will remember us as the ones seen as small, yet who dared to fight against the almighty and drag them down into woe."
As said, in such cases, words did wonders, as White noticed the dejected expressions in the room quickly shifting.
Expressions hardened.
The flames of resistance were relit.
After the King looked at each chief, and they returned his gaze with quiet nods, he finally passed his verdict.
"Very well then, Commander Mallory."
"Your plans shall be followed and carried out to the best of the Royalty of the Igasus Kingdom’s abilities."
