Chapter 287: Justice

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Pranav

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!

These black-robed individuals gave the young Aso a choice. Either he could continue staying together with his family, and they would help him to find a safe valley to live in, or he could choose to join Black Will.

Aso took one final glance at his family whose expressions were filled with fear and blankness. How could a natural-born predator like him possibly stay together with cattle and sheep like them? Aso unhesitatingly chose to join the Black Will.

“Idiots, we are justice!”

The Black Will had gotten used to using that as their catchphrase to talk to other humans who were numb to their fates. This seemed like an angry denunciation of others, but, in truth, it was filled with hope as well. They hoped that their fellow humans would be awakened.

But, most of the time, they received nothing but blank looks. They wouldn’t force anyone to join them, either, as that would be bad for everyone.

Despite being betrayed countless times by fellow humans, they still chose that as their catchphrase. However, only those who willingly resisted on their own would be able to become their companions. Otherwise, it would be better for those who couldn’t resist continuing being cattle and sheep.

After that was a bloody battle that lasted several hundred years. The slaves had no will to fight, no matter how strong or fattened they were. They remained simply as cattle and sheep waiting to be slaughtered for food.

Even those that awakened to becoming tigers or cougars instead of cattle and sheep still didn’t have any resources to help them become stronger. They had no weapons to fight with. Things were truly difficult.

Meanwhile, the humans’ enemies were the previous victors of the Holy War. The great demon countries covered the entire continent, and their voodoo spells, curses, and magic spells were all considered absolutely top-class. All that the “Black Will” organization possessed were their own souls and physical bodies. Of course, they also had the resolution to change everything, no matter what it took.

But in the world of Eich where souls were the source of power, having a soul, a physical body, and resolution was enough.

Indeed, they may not have been able to obtain precious magical knowledge and ingredients, thus they were unable to become wise mages. Nor did they know hunting techniques passed down through the generations, so hunter and ranger job classes were impossible for them. It was already difficult enough to eat well and sleep well. Weak bodies that suffered from malnutrition made it quite difficult to become outstanding warriors. The great demons’ True Gods were the Main Gods of that era, so it was even more unfeasible to obtain divine favor as a priest or divine job class. The mysterious druid job class was still an elven secret in this generation. However, there was one job class which only needed one’s soul and flesh and blood.

Yes, the job class known as the undead mage. This so-called evil job class known for toying with souls and flesh and blood had long since been forgotten that it was the job class that represented hope for the entire human race.

Perhaps it was a joke by some demon, or some secret plot but a certain Death God, but part of the knowledge regarding undead magic that came from the far ancient demons was obtained by the Black Will. They then spread this knowledge to all who were willing to resist against the great demons.

The Black Will’s pitch-black flag of a raised lantern came from this as well. They viewed themselves as the guides for humanity in a pitch-dark night to firm humanity’s resolution.

Aso was the same. He was only twelve years old at the time when he joined the Black Will and began learning undead magic as a dark warrior…

The Black Will allied with the elven species and traded for precious magical knowledge from the annoying long-ears. They sowed seeds of discord amongst the great demons’ countries, pitting them against each other. They used evil blood sacrifices to appease True Gods not associated with the great demons, giving birth to the first group of dark warrior job class members. They allied themselves with the dragons and became dragon knights. Aso grew together with the Black Will, experiencing all these things.

After experiencing countless battles, Aso’s power level grew past the Legend and Myth ranks, but all his companions from the very beginning when the Black Will had recruited him had long since perished. With members of Black Will continuing to fall left and right, the pitch-black flag was finally left for him to carry alone.

Aso F. Milanton became the Third Senator of the Tark Republic and held this position for 172 years. Indeed, by the time the long battle between all other species and the great demons finally ended, the formerly impulsive boy had already become an undying lich king.

The Tark Republic viewed cultivating undead magic as glorious. The boundaries between life and death had long since been broken here, and undead magic was even commonly known by all its citizens. When the Tark Republic was at its strongest, it possessed several hundred SemiGod undead and had sufficient power to even challenge the Gods. However, out of all things they could have possibly done, they broke an incredible taboo that they shouldn’t have. The Tark Republic invented an absolutely perfect undead magic spell with no drawbacks which could transform any living person into an undead.

When all the living were easily capable of turning themselves into undead to receive limitless life, and the Tark Republic only kept increasing in population but never decreasing, the Cycle of Reincarnation had evidently been broken. This was something that the Gods were unwilling to overlook.

And so, calamity visited the Tark Republic. The elves that had been the Tark Republic’s magic teachers and allies suddenly betrayed the Tark Republic and ambushed their capital. A forbidden spell transformed the entire capital into a tremendous canyon. This canyon was actually the famous “Fissure of Betrayal,” although the origin of this canyon’s name had long since been forgotten by history.

The Tark Republic that lost the protection of the Gods became all other species’ public enemy number one in a single night. All its cities were surrounded and attacked, and the Dark Warriors lost their divine powers. The dragons mysteriously abandoned the Tark Republic. Only the undead mages were still capable of fighting (death knights hadn’t been born as a species yet at this time). The top undead mages weren’t in any way weaker than the strongest elven mages and could definitely hold their own.

However, they ended up meeting their mortal enemy. The elven mages made a new discovery during the war against the Tark Republic. There was a special golden energy and ringing sound that could directly turn any undead into nothingness. Yes, that was the original form of the Holy Light.

Luckily, or, perhaps, unluckily, an undead archmage discovered a way to open Dimensional Doors and even succeeded in teleporting to other planes that possessed only negative energy and death. These became the first few Undead Planes to have been discovered.

The few remaining elites of the Tark Republic escaped to these Undead Planes as their combined enemies were far too strong for them to stop. The perfect spell to transform anyone into undead was put into use once more here as no living person could possibly survive in the Undead Planes. Every living person of the Tark Republic willingly chose to become undead.

The elves betrayed them, the dragons betrayed them, and the Gods plotted against them. Undead magic had once represented glory and freedom, while the origin of Holy Light had such a story behind it that couldn’t see the light of day. With all these factors combined, it was quite natural for this piece of history to have been “forgotten,” as history was always written by the victors.

Was it Aso’s nostalgia for his home country? His hatred of all those who betrayed the Tark Republic? His fondness for his people? Or was it simply being unwilling to be forgotten, and that he didn’t want the Tark Republic to be forgotten by history? Aso had unhesitatingly sacrificed himself to build the portals necessary for his people to return to the mortal plane, along with giving me his memories and experiences as the final evidence that he had once existed. Perhaps, it was to make his junior learn about this already forgotten country and its justice.

Hordes of undead arrived through the six wide-open Dimensional Doors like an unstoppable flood. All the undead from these six planes had all sorts of different appearances and species. However, they all came from the same original place: the Tark Republic that had already been forgotten for millennia.

Today, these forgotten ones had returned. They proudly lifted their pitch-black flag of the raised lantern and, in unison, shouted out that same old catchphrase with a deafening roar.

“Idiots, we are justice!”

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