"...You are right; this is nothing more than an excuse, a reason I give myself to justify my actions. By the way, I think my decision has already been made regarding my participation in this trip. But I still have trouble with how to do it. On the one hand, some must stay behind me, and those who must follow me on this journey.
-But I'm afraid, afraid of what could happen following my choices. Will those who remain behind me be exterminated after my disappearance? Will those who follow me be able to come back in full stat? What will happen if I underestimate my enemies? What if I am wrong on all the points and the enemy's trap turns out to be more powerful than my estimates?
Yes, I'm afraid,...I think." He ends his confession with this last uncertain sentence.
The next moment, he saw Sabrina holding his hand on the table while smiling at him mysteriously. "I'm happy that you can feel emotions such as fear and worry; it proves that you are still able to make good decisions." She says without adding anything.
Staring at her, Alvine smiles slightly. "You don't help me much there. Finally, are there even good decisions? No matter what choices we make, it always results in two consequences. Do we really have choices? I don't think so.
Our actions are always guided by the present and the (negative/positive) consequences of the choices we have made in the past. Seen from this angle, wouldn't it be ridiculous to talk about a good choice?"
He mumbles in a baritone and serious voice.
Always calm, Sabrina shakes her head. "I don't agree. From your POV, and your experience, what is really good? To hear you, I rather have the impression that you deny the good things and only see the bad sides of things. Moreover, I who have not lived as long as you, and who has not experienced even ten percent of what you had experienced, am the most able to understand these things."
Alvine looks into her blue sapphire eyes while retorting...
"...It's a contradiction, Sabrina."
Once again, Sabrina shakes her head. "Not really. Do you think that your lives allow you to know more things than we do? I don't disagree. You can analyze and find solutions to the most complex problems, able to find more advanced strategies than others, and all this, in the shortest time.
-But these complicated and...amazingly complex things also give you difficulties in solving the simplest problems; like the one you just mentioned."
Alvine squints his eyes twice in a row when he hears Sabrina treat his problem as simple. 'With my shadow behind me, the protection of my subjects is now 80% guaranteed; to defeat it, it takes at least a hundred beings in the same rank as Azalea, so it will go on this side. But what about the other problems I mentioned rather?!' As he mumbled, a crazy thought crossed his mind.
Determined to check his hypothesis, he peek up at Sabrina. "Sabrina, could it be that you found a solution to protect everyone?" As crazy as his question was, he did not hesitate to ask it.
But Sabrina giggled at his mindset. "No, how am I supposed to be able to do that?"
"..." his mind emptied following Sabrina's frank and direct response.
"Don't be so disheartened. Even if I don't know how to protect everyone, I know how to solve this problem." She made this remark when she saw Alvine remain silent without changing his expression.
This time, Alvine raises his eyebrows slightly. He then crosses his arms while lying against his chair. "I am intuitive, compared to your miraculous solution."
Even if she saw Alvine's attention on her, she knew that he didn't expect much from her.
However, she had not been fooled by this lack of interest in her thoughts. "Here is my solution: realize that you will never be able to protect everyone; moreover, no one will be able to. No matter your choice, there will be consequences. So listen to what your inner voice tells you and forget the rest." She ends her session with these words.
For a long time, Alvine listened to her, hoping that she would continue. But when he realized that she had finished what she had to say, Alvine's nerves contracted.
He knew it, he knew more than Sabrina why he had decided to forget his enemies who had become parodies of enemies in his eyes.
Whether on the Earth, on Alzania, or with the Brave King Hidenbird, through the valskars and Serena, who had even almost killed him several times, all these people became insignificant in his eyes when he had reached a rank beyond what they could achieve.
And even after that, members of the order or other people like Yasmine whom he hated for being the cause of his grandfather's murder and infiltrating his estate; Feyre, who wanted to transform him into a Guinea pig for the rest of his life (a fate worse than death)... all these people became like dust seeds after he awakened his memories of a distant time.
All these events have not only had a negative impact on his career. And that's precisely what worried him the most at that moment.
'When you think about it, have I really lost much? My grandfather and all those who died in these previous battles can be resurrected at any time by Reha, with or without my help.
-I have not yet ordered it only because the idea that the resurrected go to war barely resurrected displeases me just as it disgusts me. After sacrificing so much, I find that offering them a world of peace after their resurrection is the ideal. In addition, they will...-
Before he finished putting the order in his mind, Sabrina spoke. "There is another solution that can guarantee you their safety."
Hearing her voice resonate in his eardrums, Alvine was forced to put his thoughts for later.
Seeing that she had all his attention, Sabrina scraped her throat and spoke at a slow and calm pace. "Just order Lady Reha to transport them into this dimension before sealing it with your powers. As a result, they will be disconnected from any external influence, just as the monarch Askald did with our current base."
Alvine's eyes widen with disbelief.
'What a brainiac! I don't need to ask Reha to do this, I could well create an independent planet and seal it from the inside with the same seal that had sealed my two monarchs.'
By dint of thinking about infinite possibilities, an ironic smile stood on the corners of his lips.
He wanted to shout why he hadn't thought about that instead.
But once again, he could only admit that Sabrina was right in saying that by solving more complex problems, he forgets how to turn the wheels of the simplest puzzles.
With a big sigh, Alvine opens his eyes as clear as never before as if he had just spent a century in Nirvana.
"To say that I spent several hours to find a solution, I suddenly feel stupid." He mumbles while raising the white flag in front of Sabrina.
The latter shakes her head. "It's just that you're not looking in the right place. The same goes for me who had not thought of this rather than expected."
"..." Alvine remains silent, overwhelmed by her modesty and insight.
Finally, his relief ends up having the upper hand over his emotions.
He then gets up from his chair and leans towards her while obliging her to keep visual contact with him (with his fingers under her chin). "You, I love you more than anything." He mumbles while putting a kiss on her lips, entirely turning Sabrina flushed by his acts.
The latter was naturally surprised and surprised beyond what was possible.
But more than anything, this reward (Alvine's words and touchy-feely kiss) seemed to please her as a reward more than all the treasures of the world.