287 Justice (1/2)
From Aso, I learned of a story that had been seldom told before—how he had walked the path from nothing to the peak, from a nobody to a SemiGod Undead Emperor.
An equally few number of people knew about the true, illustrious history of the undead kingdom that arose after the immemorial great demon empires. Thousands of years ago, there once existed a country that had now long vanished in the tides of time—the Tark Republic.
A republic? Indeed, it was a country founded by escaped slaves, farmers who had lost their lands, and artisans who possessed nothing. It was one of the rarest types of countries of all, a country without a ruling class.
Perhaps this country had never been recorded in history mainly because it was a country of undead and magic.
Aso F. Milanton was Aso's real name. Slaves weren't supposed to have family names, and he only obtained the name of Milanton after he was freed. Milanton was the family name of the priest who had saved him from slavery, and F was a special middle initial commonly used in the Tark Republic to represent a person's freedom from slavery.
Yes, that's right. The powerful Undead Emperor Aso had been born as a lowly slave.
”I was born as a slave to serve the great demons. When I'm old enough, they'll eat me. That's all the value I had in life.”
The great demons had personal power levels, natural talents, and cultures far surpassing that of humans. Humanity naturally became their livestock. With traditions and culture breaking down for humans, it would only take three or four generations for any intelligent creature to be reduced to the primal times.
Even thousands of years later in the present, plenty of great demons still had the hated habit of eating humans. This was the best evidence that they were related to the ogres who also ate humans.
Slave, servant, thing, and backup food source. This was the life set out from Aso. Aso had been forcefully injected with such a way of thinking ever since his birth. He also used to treat this as his only value in life. Until one day…
”Don't eat my mother! Damned monster!”
When the great demon named Wok that Aso served intended to make Aso's mother into a meat pie, it was perhaps that which had awoken the slight remnant of resistance in Aso's body. Or, perhaps it was the most basic instinct for all creatures to want to protect their mother. Even though the great demons and ”common sense” told him that it was only natural for humans to be eaten, and that it was the fate of all humans, Aso still acted instinctually.
Aso lifted up a meat knife and ambushed the great demon from behind, cutting off Wok's head. Then, he poured oil on Wok's body and burned it to ashes in order to truly kill Wok off and prevent him from regenerating.
In that generation where an adult great demon like Wok would easily be able to kill several tens of adult humans, this was an incredibly heroic feat. However, Aso didn't receive his relatives' gratitude or respect from other humans…
”Why did you do that! Why did you kill Master Wok! What are we supposed to do now? We'll all be killed off without even having gotten fat yet! No, we won't be fed, and we'll starve to death first!”
If you attack a person who's abusing his pet, perhaps the first one to bite you would be the pet that you were attempting to save. After many years and many generations of being raised as slaves, these humans, whose minds were basically empty, were no different from pets.
The end result was that Aso, who had saved his own mother, was actually angrily roared at and loathed by his own family and other humans. Finally, they even tied him to a board, intending to sacrifice him in order to appease the great demons' anger.
However…
”Kill them all and hang them up in the plaza to dry as cured meat!”
Even though the murderer Aso was already captured, how could the slave masters possibly allow a group of slaves related to someone that killed a slave master to be forgiven? Otherwise, if news of this spread, the entire great demon society would be shaken—especially if more slaves tried copying them.
The vicious great demon slave masters intentionally let Aso stay together with his own family, locked up in the same room before execution. They also told everyone that they were all going to die because of Aso. And so, when the next day arrived and Aso was the first one to be hung up on the executioner's rack, he already had several hundred injuries on his body and had lost an eye and a foot.
Vicious slave masters like these would meet rebellion and resistance? How was a tamed cow, sheep, or pig supposed to resist? All they knew was how to cry when faced with the slaughtering knife, and then obediently offer up their necks.
Aso's family didn't protect him? His mother that he tried so hard to protect was the very person who carved out his right eye, and his own father was the person who broke Aso's right hand for daring to slay Wok. Meanwhile, his starving family ate Aso's foot as their final meal.
When humans didn't even treat themselves like humans, it was truly something to sigh about… it was pitiful, laughable, hateful, and sad…
When Aso was hung on the rope for his impending execution, his single bloodshot eye observed his family and the other humans that were all numb to his fate without any hatred for them or fear of his impending death. The only thought he had was: ”They're all so pitiful…”
As the noose tightened on his neck, Aso still didn't have any fear of death. He simply pitied them even more.
”Ah, you all aren't the only ones to be pitied. I'm quite pitiful as well. No, I should say that all of humanity is quite pitiful.”
Right before Aso lost his consciousness, he saw a black flag waving in the distance. This flag was a strange flag with a black hand holding a lamp. Under the flag was a group of black-clothed people with strange appearances.
”Child, are you alright?”
When Aso finally woke up again, he discovered that he had been saved by a group of strangers. They called themselves the ”Black Will,” and seemed like a strange group to Aso.
They told Aso that humans weren't born just to become food for the great demons. They told Aso that each human had the responsibility to fight for their own survival. They told Aso that ogres and great demons could be defeated after all. They told Aso that not every person had the courage to fight, and that they came just for him!