The Rise of the Black Plain

Hearing the voice of young Stuart near her, Gloria opened her eyes. Still, she continued in the same lotus position that she was cultivating just before this young man arrived here.

"You're pretty bold to disturb me while I'm cultivating, huh?" She said as her eyes narrowed.

But Minos was not tricked by Gloria's acting skills. "Hehe, you were already finished when I sat here."

"Or do you think I can't tell the differences between a person cultivating and one who is just meditating?" He then looked at her training clothes and teased her. "Maybe you were testing me? You wanted to see what I would do upon noticing you cultivating like this?"

Gloria's training clothes consisted of elastic trousers that firmed up her legs. At the same time, she had a dress covering most of her body but without hiding her beautiful curves.

"Tsk!" She made a disgruntled tongue sound, realizing that Minos was not provoked enough by her. "So what do you want here? Perhaps you missed the time we spent together in Dry City?"

"No, not yet..." He smiled peacefully, looking at the silly expression on Gloria's face right now.

"Is that so?" She clenched her fists and stood up from where she was, turning her back to him as she felt nervous. "Then what do you want here? You didn't come here just to annoy me, right?"

Minos then stood up and approached her, hugging her from behind. "Gloria, you get annoyed easily, huh?"

"Well, I guess to make up for that, I'll have to make you relax a little like last time..." He whispered in her ear as he felt her stiff body slowly getting more comfortable in his embrace.

"That's better." She murmured, feeling her heart calming down a bit.

"Hehe, but let's do that later. Right now, I want to talk about some serious issues with you."

Hearing this, she turned to him and watched him closely. "What are you talking about?"

He continued with his hands around her thin waist and began to explain. "Well, I want to know how you would react if something violent happened inside this camp..."

Her gaze narrowed as her pupils contracted. But she continued to listen to the young man in front of her. "After our first attempt at negotiation, I gave some orders to my forces..."

He then explained to her what had happened on the Black Plain the night before, from those involved in the incident to the targets of that planned massacre by his forces and the Snow Kingdom.

After listening to Minos in silence for several minutes, that red-haired woman continued with her mouth open in surprise, shocked to discover the methods that were giving him the confidence from before.

"Did you truly do that?" She asked in shock, not believing that he, who seemed so reasonable when he was with her, was capable of giving orders like that.

Even she, who had lived much longer than him, who grew up in a much more hostile place than this region, and had a considerable position of power, could not imagine making a decision like that.

And in fact, although she was so powerful individually and influential because of the Church, this woman did not like violence and was relatively peaceful in most of her decisions.

As a result, she had repeatedly attempted to pacify the region without bringing in outside forces that would only exacerbate local tensions and even saw the benefit in Minos winning the war.

She was a kind woman, something Minos already knew because of how the two had met.

Gloria could have ignored him in that situation or even acted as many arrogant people would and blamed the victim for getting in the way of her arrows. But she had done nothing of the sort. Instead, she was concerned about caring for him and even replaced this young man's weapon.

Noticing her shocked look, Minos gently held her face and explained himself. "Yes, we did that since there is not much more time to waste."

"The regional families are hypocrites, and if something extreme does not happen, this war will never end. They will keep talking about how I am a tyrant trying to dethrone them, destroy them, etc. They will keep talking about how I will bring the reign of terror to the region if no one stops me."

"They know they can't do something like that against me, so they will fight to stop me from doing what they would like to do in my place. And for that, they are willing to sacrifice the lives of every one of their subordinates, members, vassals, etc."

"As long as there are chances for them, these people will keep fighting, no matter how good my promises are."

"Meanwhile, the population of the Black Plain is the one who will be most in danger if these people are not stopped."

"Make no mistake. If I fall, they will massacre or enslave the entire population of Dry City as it is not interesting to them to have these conscious and empowered people alive."

"Because of this, I had to make the difficult choice of eliminating these enemies." He finished speaking his reasons to her, looking into Gloria's eyes without glimpsing away, making it clear to her who he was.

He did not care what most people would think of his actions, but he did not want this woman to be confused about him. As such, he made it a point to show her the reason behind his attitudes, something for her to understand that the massacre the night before was not because he had taken a taste for enemy blood.

"That..."

"Minos, I think this is all too much..."

"Even if you're right, it's the lives of tens of thousands of people we're talking about here!" She expressed her irritation but did not leave his arms.

"Did you truly kill them in their sleep? That's not right!"

"Would it have been better if I had allowed the sect assassins of the Flaming Empire to join my enemies in brutalizing the more than 600,000 inhabitants of Dry City?"

"That..." Her eyes opened wider, but she could not answer him.

He then continued. "Gloria, I'll be honest with you. If I have to fight so many powerful people, I'll do something like that in Dry City since that's where I have my best defenses."

"But I don't have the ability to protect that place from many Spiritual Emperors, so if something like that happens in the future, the people there would be the most harmed."

"So, to avoid endangering the lives of my citizens, I sacrificed those enemies. As for whether they had the chance to fight or died amid their dreams doesn't make much difference."

"The Snow Kingdom forces at most saved the lives of their vassals by adopting this strategy." He commented this without changing his tone, still speaking softly to her.

After hearing this, Gloria suddenly remembered something that Minos had just said but which she had ignored at first. "Sect assassins from the Flaming Empire? Your mother told you about that?"

"Yes, she told me about it right after arriving in Dry City."

"I see..." She swallowed her saliva and then said. "Minos, this has nothing to do with me..."

But before she could even finish, he placed one of his fingers on her lips and smiled. "I know that. Don't worry. I don't blame you for your organization's decisions."

"But then, Gloria, what will you do if I act against these people in this place? Of course, I can act against them outside of here, but it will be easier if I can eliminate them in this place."

"That would end the war in a few weeks, and I would have the time and strength to deal with the assassins coming from the empire."

"The number of deaths in the region will definitely be less if I can deal with these people in this place."

"Minos..." She muttered, feeling complicated about this situation.

...