LIGHTNOVELONLINE
Chapter 215
“But think about this carefully— for I am giving you one last chance to do good, Amelia. To save the world.”
Grat-ra’zun finished as his gaze bore into me. I heard him out. I listened to everything he had to say. And I could tell that this was an ultimatum. To him, this was the end of the discussion. To him, there was nothing else I could say in response.
Either I made the right choice and saved the world, or I forsook everything. This was… a ridiculous ultimatum, to me. I didn’t understand why it had to be one or the other. I had already explained to the Elder Dragon that I was willing to intervene if things got out of hand. But I wasn’t going to intervene now.
And while Grat-ra’zun thought it was morally irresponsible for me to do nothing, I felt like it would be even more irresponsible for me to act thoughtlessly and adhere to my fleeting feelings. If I did that, with the strength I held, I could reshape all of Vacuos in a moment, and whatever outcome that emerged wasn’t necessarily going to be for the greater good, even if my intentions had been pure.
So while the conversation was closed and shut to him, to me, it was only just starting. After all—
“You say that you’ll take responsibility over the Kingdom of Kal for me. But what happens if you’re a shit ruler?” I asked, refusing to back down.
Grat-ra’zun blinked. He was taken aback by that. Not just by the fact that I could even repudiate what he said, but also by my accusation towards him. If anything, he had expected his plea to my emotions to work. But it failed, and I had turned it around back onto him.
I crossed my arms across my chest as he stared at me quizzically.
“No offense,” I continued as I looked him up and down. “But I know nothing about your qualifications as a leader. And to make matters worse, you’ve been asleep for a long time. That isn’t really what anyone would want from a king.”
He huffed as he drew back, affronted. “Do not cast aspersions against my good name. I will have you know that I was one of the Great Sages of the Grand Nova Empire. That meant I was one of the foremost and most trusted advisors to the Grand Elder Dragon Arrak’tun.”
I looked at the way he spoke proudly of himself. He raised his head slightly, looking like he was lost in his memories. I just sighed.
“And then you went to sleep for a few thousand years. Now where is the Grand Nova Empire?” I asked flatly.
That made Grat-ra’zun pause. His brows snapped together as he glared down at me. His mouth moved, but I spoke over him.
“Also, aren’t you being a bit of a hypocrite right now?” I pointed out as I raised a brow at him. “Here you are, criticizing me for my inaction. But you were literally sleeping when everything from the [Hero King] to the Sect of the Abyssal Thorns started to play out. So don’t lecture me about saving the world. Unlike you, I already did my duty. I just want to relax now.”
The Elder Dragon blinked a few times. He clearly didn’t expect this response from me. It wasn’t like he was stunned into silence by what I had to say. Rather, it was more like he had too many things he wanted to say, he didn’t know which to start with.
Finally, he blurted out, “First of all, I was not asleep for a few thousand years. I periodically woke up to deal with any threats or participate in various societal customs—”
“Yeah, yeah. Look, that’s not my point,” I said as I waved a hand dismissively. “I was poking holes in your argument to prove that we can go about this for hours.”
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“What do you mean by that?” Grat-ra’zun frowned, his gaze peering into me.
“That I’m not going to budge,” I finished.
It didn’t matter what kind of an ultimatum he gave me. My decision was final. Unless he said something that made the issue far more pressing and threatening than it currently was. Like when the Void-possessed Lich King had nearly blown up the entire planet.
And considering that I didn’t sense anything from anyone across all the continents with enough power to do that, I was still going to sit out of this mess.
“So you’re not going to act,” the Elder Dragon said. “Even if inaction is the morally wrong thing to do.”
“Well, that is debatable.” I rolled my eyes. “But even if it’s true, I have always said I’m a pretty shit hero. That is why I turned down the [Hero] Class that the System or whatever offered me.”
Grat-ra’zun’s eyes flickered when he heard that. “Did you not say that the World System refused to give you a Class?”
I tilted my head back as I pursed my lips. “Right, I did lie about that. Sorry, but that’s not true. I was offered a Class. A single Class. Just the [Hero] Class.”
“And that’s it?” he asked as he stared at me.
“That’s right,” I said with a nod. I recalled the reason why I had initially sought out the Elder Dragon all those months ago. Right after I had first come to Vacuos. There had been a lot of things I was uncertain about, so I had kept a lot of my secrets close to my chest.
And I didn’t know how he would have reacted if he knew I was given a [Hero] Class but chose to reject it. Which was why I told him a half-truth. That I couldn’t gain any Class. Which was true in the sense that I couldn’t gain any Class that wasn’t the [Hero] Class for whatever reason.
“But I wasn’t offered any other Class ever,” I continued as I held the dragon’s gaze. “No matter what requirement I fulfilled. Even until now, the System refuses to accept me.”
Grat-ra’zun raised his head as he heard what I had to say. He spoke softly to himself, his eyes fluttered shut. “The [Hero] Class is only offered to those who are deserving of being called a [Hero]. Those who have accomplished great feats and carried out acts of bravery. Those who have demonstrated heroism without fail.”
“And I do not embody any of those principles or values,” I said as I gestured at myself. “Look at me, I am a coward or lazy or whatever, right?”
“Then if it does not befit you,”— the Elder Dragon shook his head— “then the World System deemed it necessary.”
“Deemed it necessary?” I raised a brow. “What does that even mean?”
Grat-ra’zun sighed. He rubbed his temples as he leant back. “It means the situation is more dire than I thought. It means that you need to take action, even if you do not want to.”
He looked tired. Unlike before, where he tried to make himself look intimidating to me, I could clearly see the wrinkles on his scales. The exhaustion in his eyes. He looked defeated. Even though I hadn’t even given him another verbal riposte to his arguments.
It was like he realized something that I hadn’t. And that realization drained him. It made him lower himself as he closed his eyes.
“It means that even if you are unfit to be called a hero, Amelia, that fact does not matter to the World System.”
“And why not?” I asked with a raised brow. “Why does that even matter?”
“Because the World System is all-knowing,” the Elder Dragon said as he looked up to the ceiling. Like he was staring at the sky. “The World System is all-present, and it is all-seeing. So it has already made this determination long ago.”
Now, I was starting to get confused. I placed my hands on my hips as I stared at Grat-ra’zun’s less-imposing figure than before. “What determination? What are you talking about? Explain.”
“What I am saying, Amelia, is that the World System has already foreseen these events with the [Hero King]. And that is why it offered you the [Hero] Class long before everything has played out. Because it already knew the outcome. It already knew what was going to happen. It already knew the end result.”
The Elder Dragon spoke as his voice echoed throughout the magically-expanded chamber. Behind his bar, Arthur raised his head curiously, and Jax looked up from the kitchen. I narrowed my eyes as I waited for the answer.
“And what is going to happen?” I asked.
And Grat-ra’zun finished, “The World System is not offering you the Class of a [Hero], but rather it is telling you that you are the only one in all of Vacuos who can take up the mantle of a hero— that you are the only one who will be able to stop what is to come. That you are the only one who can save the world.”