62 2.17 Trial of Wisdom

"But how can I decide what to do without knowing the layout of the battlefield outside," I asked in confusion.

Based on the conversation that was shown to me earlier, the man in the red robe sounded braver while the man in the green robe sounded wise.

"You don't need to know that," the voice of the Labyrinth answered.

'Man, this is tough.'

I could figure out that they are inside a fort and their water supply has been cut off. By the looks of it, the enemy was not attacking them directly, instead, they were probably hoping that these people would surrender. Probably because they didn't want to lose their soldiers as they did in the first battle.

As I was trying to connect the dots, I remembered something. Something that I learned in my previous world while reading history.

"Hey voice of the labyrinth, I have made my choice," I said in a confident tone.

"So, what is your choice? Fight or surrender?" the voice of the Labyrinth asked.

"Actually, none. We won't surrender, neither will we attack them. We will just evacuate the fort but if they want our lives instead of the fort, we will fight back. And this time we won't fight to survive or defend. We would fight to kill, to take as many as we can with us."

"Hmm. I never expected to hear this answer from you. Let's see where your choice will take you."

The scene around me changed into an open field with few trees. There were wounded men, women, and soldiers around me, and in the front, there was the man in the golden robe behind whom the men in the green and red robe were standing. In front of them were several men in metal armor on horses. Since they had no weapons, they must only be here to talk.

A man with a big mustache and shining silver armor, who looked like their commander, was on the front. He jumped down from his horse and came closer to the man in the golden robe. Even though it didn't look like he was about to attack, everyone was on guard. Especially the man in the red robe.

"BRAVO! BRAVO! To you commander, I bow. To your army commander, I bow. I commend the bravery and courage you showed in the battles. You never used any cowardly tricks and never attacked our injured who were incapable of fighting. You did no cruelty to the wounded or prisoners and never even used poisoned arrows. And in respect to that, I will not ask you to surrender or submit your army to me. None of us will attack you while you leave the fort and we are even willing to treat your injured," the commander in the metal armor said in a reverent tone.

"Why would you do that? We are enemies," the man in the golden robe asked.

"Even though we use the tricks that you may call cowardly, we treat the fallen of both sides that we find alive on the battlefield. Some days ago, we found a man whose jaw was shattered by our magic cannon. After we treated him, he said he wanted to return to his country. When we asked him why, the reply he gave scattered the morale of my soldiers. He said he respected our generosity and courtesy in warfare, but he still had his national duty. After trying to convince him for hours to join us, I understood that in his mind, private and national feelings were completely different. He was in no shape to even stand up, so he is still recovering in our camp," the commander replied.

"We the ones outside are fine but there are some of us still inside. We will be camping on the bank of the river that is on the west until all of us recover enough. You can send the survivors that you find in that direction," the man in the golden robe said.

"Okay, we will tell them to head west after they recover," the commander replied.

The scene changed to the one inside the fort into a hall that was filled with the remains of men and women. Both killed and wounded in the battle were laying around in an intolerable stench.

The commander and his men carried the ones that were still alive outside and started the treatment. They also collected the remains of the dead and cremated them. The fort was in the state where it could no longer be used, most of the defensive wall had already been destroyed and the sight inside the fort was so bad that none of them wanted to stay there.

Suddenly the illusion around me disappeared and I was back on inside the room.

"You pass. Only brave or fools enter this labyrinth. This test was to filter out those fools," the voice said.

'Nailed it! I remembered something like: There is only a small difference between bravery and foolishness. If they had fought it would have been foolishness and if they had surrendered it wouldn't have been as brave.'

While I was thinking that, the door in front of me slid open so I walked towards it and passed through.

Surprisingly, this room was completely different from the ones that I had been through before. The walls were smooth and white-colored and the transparent crystal at the ceiling was emitting a bright light. The only similarity I could point out was the two doors that were opposite to each other.

"Welcome to the trial of Wisdom."

'Maybe it's like the IQ quiz or something. I was not too bad at that in my previous world, but I am not sure how that works here.'

"The trial is simple; you just need to answer three questions."

'Yep, this looks like one.'

"Whom should you be more cautious around: A fool or a selfish person?" the voice of the labyrinth asked.

I remembered that in this kind of tricky question the answers are what you least expect it to be. If the answer was straight and simple this wouldn't have been a trial of wisdom.

'Well, here goes.'

"A fool," I answered.

"Correct. You can predict what a selfish person can do and prepare yourself for that, but a fool is unpredictable," the voice of the labyrinth said and paused.

"Who is the worse among these two: The thief that stole the treasure or the person at guard?" the voice of the labyrinth asked after the pause.

"It's the person at guard," I answered.

"Correct. The thief did his job well by stealing the treasure without the guard noticing. But the person at guard didn't do its job well hence it was stolen."

'This was surprisingly easy.'

After a pause like the previous one, the voice of the Labyrinth asked his final question.

"Which one is the worse: Having no knowledge, having some knowledge, or having complete knowledge?"

'And now comes the hard part.'

Next chapter: Trial of self-control