“If you want to retaliate, you are free to do so. You can do whatever you want to me and I will accept it. I will not even fight back. Because the people whom you said betrayed you, those people were your own countrymen who were also my parents’ victims. They did not know the truth. And like you, those people had also lost their loved ones. I dare you to look back on the past once again, Crono, even if it hurts you. Because I want you to remember all the faces that you saw that night. I’m sure that your reaction right now was also their reaction when they attacked you after their loved ones died. They were broken, angry, and grieving, too.
“My Father was wrong. My entire family was wrong. I would not even try to justify what they did or to ask for your forgiveness or for the other victims’ forgiveness. We do not deserve that,” I added as I shook my head. For the hundredth time, I felt the surge of embarrassment rushed through me. “But at least, spare the civilians, I beg you. Fight me and my family instead. We wouldn’t dare fight you back. And that’s a promise. My father may have broken his, but you can be assured that I will never break mine. Just please don’t include others’ family.
“If you truly wanted to get even, then do it to the right people. Punish me. Please do not make others experience what you went through. You are not really a bad person, don’t you ever forget that, Crono. Stop walking in this thorny path. Think of your family. They wouldn’t have wanted to see you like this.” My voice became firmer when I spoke. “That’s why for the last time today, be the soldier that you once was and protect your people… from your hatred and from yourself. I also wish you could protect yourself from all the regrets that will haunt you afterwards.”
Crono looked stunned.
“You know that nature would punish you more for every Armethian who will die because of you. Please stop this. It’s enough that my family and I would suffer. Besides, you said that memories are hard enough to tolerate.” I smiled faintly. “‘Must you really add regrets on the list, too?”
Crono stepped back. But after a while, he laughed. And it echoed in the entire road. Seconds later and Crono was crying while laughing hysterically.
“You are one sweet talker, young man. I must commend you. I see you are very much like your father,” he said when he recovered from shock. He clicked his tongue while harshly wiping his tears. “But it was either you have thought of me too highly or you are deluding yourself. Did you actually think that I would come here to launch an attack if there was still some compassion left in my heart? I have killed countless of mortals and supernatural beings in where I came from. I have come this far. So, yes, young man, I could tolerate the regrets and the punishment, but never the thought of you all living in peace right after you have destroyed mine.”
Crono rode on his horse, but he did not leave as if he was waiting for somebody. Not long after and I heard the sound of the approaching horses. When I glanced around, I saw the Council members with their Knights.
“You could not fight me, but those people could,” Crono added. “All the more reason to push through this shit-“
He did not get to finish what he wanted to say because the eleven Ministers already hit him with their arrows. To my surprise, Crono did not move an inch as if he was anticipating it. I was about to run to him but he moved his hands. In a blink of an eye, I could not lift a finger.
“You can’t save me,” Crono said while shaking his head. “I can’t back out now just because of you, no matter how different you are compared to the rest of those fucking Armethians. It is too late, young man. It is too late for you all,” he added before accepting all the attacks against him. The Council’s arrows could pierce through the magic around the supernatural being’s body. They could remove the protective spell in a wizard’s body. And everyone knew that, including Crono.
All the arrows penetrated through different parts of his body. He was bleeding so much. And when he fell from his horse, only then was I able to move again. When he stopped breathing, the crowd cheered. He was now dead. But I did not feel relieved.
Crono’s blood seemed to have a life of its own when it crawled towards all of us. It was my first time to see something like this. It was nothing to be worried about. It was just a blood from a dead man. That’s why I don’t know why I felt uneasy when I saw the blood. I tried to step back to evade it. I don’t know if I was just imagining things because of the guilt I felt but it was like the blood was chasing me. It reached the bottom of my boots.
After a while, I looked at the Ministers wide-eyed when I heard the Knights who were with them clapped their hands. The Council members looked so goddamn proud because of the “heroism” they did. But I had this strange feeling that what they did just made the matters worse.
For the first time in my life, I found myself afraid. And no matter how much I tried to fight it, fear was like a virus that was spreading quickly in my veins.
“What the hell is happening? You are not supposed to regain your consciousness yet, Alexandros! This should not happen!”
I quickly opened my eyes when I heard Crono screamed. I had only heard his voice once but my system had already remembered it. My head was spinning when I got up after hearing other people screaming as well.