Chapter 178:  The Second Event – Collapsing Kingdom – part fifteen

As I fought with the Supreme Commander, we ended up getting inside the castle and kept on attacking each other while inside its corridors. Each time he swung his Naginata, some cuts were left on the walls of the very palace he was trying to protect.

… Though my explosion caused so much damage to this castle, that I guess a few cuts from his weapon won’t make a big difference.

I dodged another one of his blows, picked a piece of rubble that was falling from above, rotated my body around to gain enough momentum, then threw the rubble towards him.

However, he didn’t even bother with dodging the projectile. He just charged straight-forward and crushed the piece of rubble with his head, then attacked me again with his Naginata.

… I guess rubble won’t be enough to damage him when our difference in levels is this high.

Then let’s try something else. When he tried his next attack, I jumped away while throwing some explosives towards him. He didn’t dodge those either, but their explosion left… A small burn mark? It’s not much, but he did take damage at least.

He seemed to be a bit surprised by the explosion, so he stopped his charges for a second and said, “Of course, you certainly do like your explosions.”

“I don’t like them that much…?” I replied.

Though I did use explosives when I killed the king, kidnapped the princess, attacked the nobles, and on this assault on the city too… Well, they’re too useful to not be used.

“Didn’t your parents tell you to not play with fire? Did they fail to teach you even this much?” He asked me.

“… The bad girl is me. Don’t throw your criticism towards mom.” I replied.

Mom always told me what she deemed to be correct. She was always sincere and taught me in a way that I could understand, even if I didn’t necessarily agree with her at times.

I’m no longer a small child. I can make own decisions and whatever I do is not mom’s fault. To insult her at this point of my life is absurd.

“Huh? Did I touch a sore spot there?” The supreme commander asked, but I didn’t reply, “But you see, little girl…”

As he talked, I carefully positioned myself so that he couldn’t see what my left hand was doing… Which I used to prepare poison needles while my familiars used some temporary buffs to increase my strength.

“Aren't a child’s errors fundamentally an issue caused by faulty upbringing by their parents?” The annoying old man asked me.

“Die.” I told him.

Then, I threw my shortsword up a small bit, threw smokebombs towards him, picked up my shortsword and rushed in his direction.

With his sight blocked by the smoke, I tried beheading him with my shortsword, but he parried my attack. I also tried throwing the poison needles, but he was able to dodge all of them… And then, he started laughing out loud.

“What’s so funny?” I asked him.

“I’m laughing at your naivety, in really thinking that your actions are not your parents’ responsibilities!” He exclaimed.

“They aren’t. Mom is not a bad parent.” I replied.

“And that’s why you’re naïve! Parents cannot escape responsibility for their children’s actions! Our children’s behavior is affected primarily by the influence of the adults near them… And the ones who have the most influence are the parents!

“Saying that ‘I told her not to do it, but she doesn’t listen’ is just an excuse! To fail as a parent that doesn’t know how to properly educate their child!” The annoying old man kept on saying those things as he parried each of my attacks that were aimed at his vitals.

I even took out a hidden knife from my inventory and tried to pierce his mouth with it, but he was able to stop it by biting the knife… Just how strong is his jaw?

“You understand, little girl? Adults have the duty to raise, guide, and care for their children… If they can’t do that, nor even take responsibility for their children’s actions, then they’re failures as parents.” The old man didn’t shut up… “You hear me? Your parents failed!”

He then kicked my chest and pushed me away from him with it. His stomps were strong enough to leave footprints on the stone floor, so getting hit by his kick hurt quite a bit… I can’t let him land direct blows on me like that.

I sighed, then said, “You’re mistaken.”

I took out an HP potion, drank it at once, crushed the empty bottle and put the glass shards into an iron ball that had explosives and poison inside it.

After that, I continued, “Mom did tell me when I was doing wrong things, she did reprimand me when I did bad deeds… However, I don’t think I’ve been doing anything wrong here.” As I was saying this, I prepared five similar grenades to this last one and stored them in my pockets. I also asked my familiars to use more buffs on me.

Then, I told him, “I don’t think it was a bad thing to explode a city, kill people or start a war.”

“… I don’t get what you’re saying.” The old man said.

“Killing the king, the crown prince, your loved ones, your co-workers, making the entire kingdom fall into Chaos… What is wrong with that?” I asked him while putting threads all around the walls and ceiling, to stop them from crumbling on top of us.

I also set up some thinner sharp threads that were coated with poison. Which should not only be hard to see, but also force him to limit his movement to avoid touching them, then I said, “In the end, isn’t all this the same? Just like how playing with fire is still a form of ‘playing’, everything I did is also just that. I was ‘playing’… There is no good nor evil there.”

“I see… In that case, you absolutely must die.” As he said that, he charged towards me again, but I was already prepared for it, so I threw one of the grenades with the <Meteor> skill while also asking Santa to put a barrier to stop him.

However, he broke through the barrier as if it was made of paper, so I had to avoid his attack by jumping into one of my threads.

“Your parents education failed thoroughly. I’ll have to wipe you out, and all records of their failure with it.” He told me.

“I don't care about the words of an old man who lost his lord twice due to someone ‘playing’ around. No matter what you say, I’ll keep on ‘playing’ and you can go find a new lord to serve.” I replied.

“It is truly a pity that children can’t choose their parents, maybe you’d have been raised properly if you had the chance to choose better people to take care of you.” He said.

“Aren’t you the biggest failure here? The old man who couldn’t protect his lord twice?” I said.

“Please die.” Both of us said together, then charged towards one another.