50: Right and wrong

"The first Golden King sacrificed himself to calm the calamity. The survivors then began to rebuild their homes and recuperate."

"At the same time, everyone was searching for the cause of this disaster."

"The kingdom had been continuously striking down Cultists with a severity unimaginable to ordinary people. Despite this, such a serious Evil God calamity occurred within the kingdom."

"The successors of the Golden King and the various Archdukes began to join forces to investigate the cause."

"Finally, through long-term investigations and the deductions and discussions of various Legendary Experts, the high-level officials reached a conclusion."

"And that was: the subjects of the kingdom were living too well!"

Renn was shocked to hear this conclusion. Such a reasoning existed?

"Huh?"

"How could that be?"

Kapdo seemed to have anticipated Renn's reaction and said with a smile:

"You find it unbelievable too, don't you?"

"I was also very shocked when I first saw this unknown piece of history, but the fact is as it stands."

"When the kingdom was first established, under the diligent governance of His Majesty Asriel, the entire kingdom flourished. Everyone lived and worked in peace. Within two hundred years, the kingdom's external expansion reached its limit, and internally, the living standards of the subjects improved tremendously."

"Having enough food and clothing might be difficult for the current subjects of the kingdom, but it was very common a thousand years ago. No one went hungry; everyone lived a happy life."

"But human desires are infinite. When everyone's bellies were full and there was no hunger, and when the kingdom had no wars or enemies threatening its survival, the subjects began to look for places to vent their desires."

"The nobles began to indulge in pleasure, and the commoners did the same. However, compared to the nobles, their ways of seeking pleasure were too simplistic."

"That was when the Cultists appeared. They secretly spread various stimulating pleasure-seeking activities among the people to lure them into corruption, while simultaneously preaching lies of immortality to trick the ignorant into worshipping the Evil God."

"Falling into corruption through pleasure, losing oneself in indulgence, and kneeling at the feet of the Evil God in a fantasy pursuit of immortality."

"The final outcome was the outbreak of the Black Calamity, the tragedy of the Day of Falling, a feast of pleasure for the Cultists, and a tragic song for the kingdom."

Listening to Kapdo's narration, Renn thought of many things, and for a moment, his mind was somewhat in chaos.

"After reaching their conclusion, the kingdom's high-level officials quickly made deployments. The core was to lower the living conditions of the subjects, keeping the ordinary people in a state where they only had just enough food and clothing."

"Giving up advanced farming techniques in favor of backward ones, consuming a large amount of manpower in the fields, and making ordinary subjects focus all their energy on farming and filling their bellies was one part of it."

"When even eating enough is a problem, people will no longer have the time or energy to pursue pleasure. When just staying alive is difficult, they won't think about immortality."

"You understand the reason now, don't you, Baron Renn?"

Kapdo looked at Renn calmly, as if the secret kingdom history he had just told was as insignificant as the gossip discussed by old men and women at the village entrance.

"Exhausting the people, keeping them ignorant—is this the 'good' solution those great nobles and kings came up with?"

Renn organized the information he had received and felt nothing but disdain for the Royal Family's approach.

"Stopping eating for fear of choking. Do they really think this can resist the encroachment of the Evil God? I see it as a slow suicide. When the next great calamity arrives, who will resist the Evil God?"

"Will it still be the Golden King?"

Renn's words were like a thunderclap shaking Kapdo's heart.

"Exhausting the people? Keeping them ignorant?"

"Stopping eating for fear of choking?"

These terms echoed continuously in Kapdo's mind.

Beside him, Renn did not stop and continued to voice his thoughts.

"To put it bluntly, the kingdom a thousand years ago developed too quickly. Externally, there was no pressure from enemies, and internally, material conditions improved rapidly."

"As people's material conditions improved, their corresponding spiritual pursuits naturally increased as well, but the rulers of the kingdom failed to see this."

"They never opened up access to knowledge for the commoners. The subjects of the kingdom had no pressure to survive and were materially satisfied, so they wanted to pursue spiritual satisfaction."

"In the end, not only did the kingdom fail to satisfy this, but they also monopolized knowledge and suppressed the spiritual needs of ordinary subjects. This kind of oppression is just as serious and terrifying as material oppression."

"The rulers of the kingdom turned a blind eye to this, and the Cultists took advantage of the void. They used faith in the Evil God to fill the spiritual void of the common people."

"What resistance could those uncultured, illiterate, and spiritually empty commoners have against the bewitchment of the Cultists?"

"Blocking is not as good as channeling. Blindly suppressing doesn't solve the problem; instead, it temporarily hides the problem while power continues to accumulate where people can't see it. One day, when this power can no longer be suppressed, it will completely explode."

"When that time comes, disaster will fall upon everyone's head."

Kapdo was now lost in thought. Renn's words made him see the problem from another perspective.

When he faced this problem from a thousand years ago, he had also thought about how to solve it, but he never had a definitive answer. It seemed that what the kingdom's rulers did back then wasn't wrong.

Now, he felt he had a new answer, one that was more perfect than those of the predecessors.

"You're saying that the actions of the kingdom's rulers a thousand years ago were completely wrong, and that suppression is not the way to solve the problem?"

"Of course, it's obvious they were wrong."

"However, I think for them, this approach was the most 'correct' one."

Renn looked up at the bright sun in the sky. The sunlight was so warm, shining upon the earth and selflessly giving without asking for anything in return.

"Every one of those Legendaries was a brilliant genius. Is it possible that none of them could see the connection between these problems?"

"I think not. Someone among them must have discovered the solution long ago; they just weren't willing to do it."

"Those high and mighty beings were unwilling to give up their monopoly on knowledge, nor did they want to spend energy satisfying the so-called spiritual needs of the common people. Simple suppression was the most once-and-for-all approach."

"And for the Golden Royal Family, doing this could not only curb the spread of Cultists but also use the massive grain resources of the Golden Plains to strengthen control over the four borders."

"It's a move that achieves multiple things at once, so why wouldn't they do it?"

"Tell me, am I right? Master Kapdo."

Renn's eyes were bright as he stared at Kapdo.

Kapdo, whose mind was already in a state of upheaval, looked into those eyes. For a moment, he felt the other person was emitting a special light and heat that felt blindingly bright.

"Perhaps you are right!"

"However, the actions of those great figures back then did indeed curb the development of the Cultists. Although Evil God incidents have occurred frequently over the past thousand years, a great calamity like the Black Calamity has never happened again."

"Your words have some truth to them, Lord Renn, but it's better if you don't say these things to others again."

"To be honest, I somewhat regret telling you this secret kingdom history now. Perhaps sometimes ignorance is a form of bliss."

"The weight of knowledge can sometimes be too heavy."

Renn shrugged and stopped staring at Kapdo.

"Right or wrong, time will prove everything."

"These words are just casual talk between you and me; there's no need to take them seriously."

"Actually, I have another question I'm curious about that I need Master Kapdo to answer for me."

"Where did the Lair Creaturess of those great nobles go?"

Whether in Rage Bear Fortress or Iron Wall Fortress, Renn had never seen a single Lair Creatures. Logically, although these special creatures were rare, they shouldn't be that uncommon.

Kapdo had thought Renn would ask some deep secret and was prepared to refuse, but he didn't expect Renn to ask this, so he answered casually.

"They are all in the Sub-planes controlled by those great nobles."

"Sub-planes?"