Chapter 25: Merits of war

"War isn’t as bloody or destructive as one thinks, princess." Snow spoke in a calm voice, her eyes still intrigued at various things present inside the castle.

She was still wearing her simple robes, ones that covered her impressive armor.

It was light armor, something that a speed based sword user would love.

And she also had a thin sword by her side: not a rapier, but a thin blade with a round guard and an embroidered handle that seemed to be wrapped around threads.

It was a unique sword.

She was a peculiar figure.

"War is fought by those in power, with authority, those who can manipulate resources, and then people who wield weapons."

A war isn’t just about clashing weapons and shooting magic and killing people. The truth is broader.

"A war starts because someone doesn’t have something and someone else wants something from someone else."

Snow was very clear about the truth that few even among veterans understand.

"Wars aren’t as cruel to those who die on the battlefield as those who end up surviving. Taking lives is never a human thing, and as sad as it is, humans aren’t the only ones who fight in the wars."

There are demons in the world, and there are monsters worse than demons.

"Monsters who hide in the human skin, monsters who tell lies to get what they want, monsters who will take one cut to cut off the enemy head, or those who will spit poison on the enemy just because they want to see them squirm and suffer."

In war, there are no unfounded soldiers. And every war is a war against the children.

Old men declare them, and the one who fights these damned hell stories are the youth.

"The supreme art of war is to get the enemy on their knees without even fighting them. And yet, bloodbath still happens sometimes."

And the war she supposedly fought was no different.

"Boiling blood and charred bodies full of holes, ground painted with red and black, demons eating flesh off the ground, humans chopping their own kind... the ugliness of war is true only to the soldiers."

She paused for a moment before an open passage and looked at the garden some distance away from her.

There, training the knights were proctors and high priests in white robes. The sight intrigued her.

"Princess we who survive the battlefield are mad people. We live a life that’s uncomfortable and dangerous. We know the ugliness of the world and yet we want to live on... and it changes something inside of us."

She still looked normal, and yet, there was a strange madness in her eyes now.

"I look at the knights and all I see are heaps of blood and flesh that I can carve into fine sculptures. I see their delicate swordplay and wonder just how futile it would be against someone who has mastered the wildness of the battlefield."

Merits given to any who survive wars are nothing but a condolence for the brutality they suffered and the inhumanity they obtained.

"Princess, blood or not, war is hell. Death or not, a war is always evil."

She looked at her hands. She saw the blood that wasn’t there. Bodies that had far become one with earth.

She remembered the dead, the evil, and the pain. Things were different back then... and now they are worse.

"Miss..."

The princess was worried, but Snow gave her a warm smile as she walked forward.

They still had much to watch today.

"Princess!" Sadly, there was little that one can enjoy when accompanying a liar.

Their moment of change had arrived at this moment.