Chapter 506 The Third Path

"...to get myself the compensation."

Saying so, Lith jumped down the mountain and explosively landed on the ground, creating a small crater beneath his feet.

The slave miners stopped working when they heard this noise and looked at the source, only to see Lith standing straight like a lance and gazing at everyone with a calm yet murderous glint in his eyes.

The slaves trembled in fear as they watched him and nobody dared to utter a single word or move from their place.

The young child who used to beat Lith was near him as well.

He saw Lith didn't have his shackles on him and noticing his domineering stance, he was ticked off. How dare Lith show such an attitude? He thought to himself.

The kid took great strides and walked towards Lith with an air of authority and yelled,

"YOU DAMN SLAVE, HOW DARE YOU BREAK FREE OF YOUR SHACKLES!"

Lith didn't even need to know who it was that was screaming like that. He turned his head to look at the little kid walking towards him and the corner of his lips curved up into a faint smile.

Only he knew what was going on in his mind as he looked at the kid.

The kid got close to Lith with the whip in his hand, failing to take a hint from the calm composure Lith had and continued to rain curses.

The more he got close and saw Lith not fear him, the more annoyed he became. 

'I'll hit him so hard this time, he'll never forget his place. Ever.' The kid thought to himself.

As he reached close to Lith, he yelled again, "KNOW YOUR PLACE!" 

WHIP!

He hit Lith but the whip ended up doing no damage to him.

Lith took a step in the kid's direction and the kid became slightly panicked as he saw Lith to not falter.

He hit Lith a few more times, only to see him not react.

"Y-YOU! STAY IN YOUR PLACE AND AWAIT PUNISHMENT!" He continued to lash at Lith as his leg trembled when he walked backwards.

Lith cracked his neck and looked at the kid in front. It was time to put him in his place, he thought.

Taking a step ahead, he reached in front of him and held the top of his head in his palms.

"Slave, you were saying?" Lith asked calmly, though his lips still were curved as he had many thoughts while looking at the kid.

"L-leave me! If my father knows, h-he'll—"

Snap!

Lith interrupted the kid's words with a snap, causing a guillotine to appear in front of him and making him shut up.

The kid felt chills down his spine as he looked at the guillotine with a bad feeling swelling up his heart.

He looked at Lith and asked, "w-what i-is the m-meaning of this?"

Lith smiled and didn't bother to explain. He dragged the kid towards the guillotine to explain things with his actions rather than words.

"No! No! No! Leave me! LEAVE ME! LET ME GO! LET ME GO!" The kid thrashed his arms and legs around and tried to get away from Lith's grasp. 

But alas, was Lith going to let him go so easily?

The answer was no.

Even if it was an innocent kid who was only doing things due to having a bad upbringing, it wasn't Lith's problem. He wasn't going to be a hero and solve his trauma and make him a better person when he grows up. He wasn't obliged to and it wasn't his fault that this kid was in such a situation.

The kid brought things upon himself, the current things were happening due to his own karma.

Lith was only doing what he felt was fair. 

A tooth for a tooth, it was.

The kid was going to be shown the harsh reality of the world and also would be told what messing with Lith meant.

Lith had decided the path he was going to walk on.

It wasn't the hero path, nor the villain one.

It was going to be a third path, something really hypocritical, but something that Lith felt was the best suited one for him.

He wasn't a human anymore to care about bullshit justice and he wasn't someone so vile as a villain.

If he became a villain, it would mean walking on a path where he wouldn't care about the feelings of his closed ones either. That was something Lith wasn't going to do.

Being a villain meant using everyone, becoming a maniac and killing everyone, causing pure chaos and destruction in the world.

It was just too much of a hassle and not something Lith wanted to walk on.

He loved his family, his wives, and cared about all his close ones. He wasn't a scum to mistreat them and he really just wanted to shower them with all his love and care.

Thus, the third path that Lith decided to walk on, it was the best and it really suited him as well.

In this path, he could do anything he pleases, even if it meant he was being a hypocrite or a scum.

It was close to being a villain, but not completely a villain. It meant being a hero, but not really a hero.

Such a third path, after careful consideration that Lith decided to walk on was…

The Anti-Hero Path!

Being an anti-hero meant being a hypocrite. He could kill anyone he deemed vile and become a hero for anyone he saw fit.

An example to this would be, if Ralph or Dennis, by any chance did vile things and someone tried to come kill them for their actions, Lith could butt in and kill those people coming for Ralph or Dennis and become a hero for the two.

Though it would mean Ralph and Dennis who were doing vile things would continue to live on and the good people would die, it wouldn't really matter to Lith.

This was the hypocrisy of this path and also the beauty of it that Lith preferred.

The main motto of this path was: 

Do as you see fit.

It was as simple as that.

In the current situation, that is, in this dream, what Lith saw fit was that the people who caused problems for him, they would need to be given their punishment.

Punishing them would be Lith's compensation and after he was done taking it, he would have done the most fair thing and could leave.

As stated previously, fairness was subjective and since this was Lith's dream, what Lith thought is the most fair would be the most fair, that was final.

Lith dragged the screaming kid towards the guillotine amidst the shocked and gasping gazes of the other slave miners and reaching it, he stopped.

Lith held the kid with his one hand and with his other, held the guillotine and dropped it into a horizontal position.

He took the kid with him and stood on top of the blade of the guillotine. 

He then looked at the kid and asked with a kind smile, as if he was the closest person to this kid and knew him for ages,

"Are you ready to do some cooking with me?"

.....

A/N: Happy New Year everyone!

Lilith's nsfw are uploaded on discord, can't post it here on webnovel, so do check the official artwork and nsfw artwork.

It's limited access, so do note that it won't be available for long.

I hope you all have a blast this year and wish you great prosperity!

Have a great day!