127 A Ridiculous Ending
Selma Payne’s POV:
After talking to Aldrich, I felt much better. I turned around and found my mother looking at me gently in the corridor.
She walked over and sat down beside me.
“Mother.” I wiped my tears and said shyly, “I’m sorry.”
My mother wiped my face with her sleeve and said softly, “Why did you suddenly cry?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t even notice that I was crying,” I whispered.
I didn’t want to be too indecisive, but Adele’s urging and behavior touched me deeply.
“I just called Aldrich, and he consoled me. I feel much better.”
My mother touched the top of my head and leaned against me.
“I understand how you feel. I feel the same way as you. When your father saw Adele, he would also be worried about her current state and feel sad for her fate. This is the empathy that everyone has. You don’t have to blame yourself for her.”
“But she’s a criminal,” I whispered.
“That’s right. She’s a criminal and a bad criminal who tried to attack a werewolf.” My mother nodded. “But there’s no conflict between condemning her and pitying her, right? The mistake is what she has made now, and the encounter is what she has experienced in the past. These are two emotions that have converged in different dimensions.
“Adele shouldn’t have used her experience as an excuse to hurt others. Similarly, we shouldn’t ignore everything she had done in the past because of what she has done now.”
“The existence of law and reason is often contradictory. In the background of the law, we usually acquiesced to the dominant position of law and reason. But this doesn’t mean that reason is dispensable. One of my legal teachers once said, ‘The law is the chain that prevents humans from becoming slaves to emotions, and emotions are the reins that prevent humans from becoming slaves to the law’.
“Sometimes, as a leader, you have to learn to split something into different things,” my mother said.
“For example, when your father punished Adele, she had to be punished because she did commit a crime, but she should also be taken care of because it has been proven that her crime does not warrant death, and we owe her something.”
I nodded to show that I understood.
“How is Adele now?” I asked.
My mother sighed softly. “It’s good and bad at the same time. Her body is not injured, but her spirit is probably unable to recover.”
“But it has only been one night. Why would she…” I was confused.
“Not all questions can be answered.” My mother was also very helpless. “Besides, we werewolves are born with barriers against sorcery. Even a werewolf grandmaster can’t find out the core technology of the sorcerers. This makes it extremely difficult to heal Adele’s spirit.”
“So, no witch clan is willing to help now?”
“Yes, no one even acknowledges Adele’s existence. As she said herself, she had long betrayed her clan. Perhaps her so-called master had left her in the care of a clan, but outsiders are always easily discriminated against. And toward traitors, the attitude of sorcerers is no gentler than that of us werewolves.”
This meant that the werewolf and the witch had nothing to talk about. Adele’s problem was likely to end with her, and no clues could be found.
“What is Father going to do?” I asked again.
My mother said, “We still have to discuss the countermeasures. The good news is that we know the enemy in the dark is likely not the witch clan. The bad news is that if the enemy in the dark and the witch clan work together, the good news will turn bad.”
“So, is it very likely that a war will break out?” I asked, a little despondent.
“Your father will do his best to ensure peace.” My mother said firmly, “We are people who have experienced real war. We all know what it is like on the battlefield. Glory and courage are all bullsh*t. Only blood will flow like a river no matter who wins or loses.”
Three days later.
Since Adele had been confirmed to have lost her mental ability, her interrogation had become unnecessary. The elders were in a heated debate over whether to punish this sinner with werewolf blood.
In the end, my father decided Adele’s fate. All her magic power was sealed, and she could not even use the most basic sorcery. She was then transferred to a secret manor guarded by the royal guards and would spend the rest of her life there.
As her father, the southern Duke was allowed to visit her three hours a week. This was a secret.
The warriors found Carolyn in a stone house at the volcano’s crater. Adele did not abuse her sister, as she said.
The tattered scarecrow had taken good care of her. Besides being a little shocked, she didn’t seem to have lost much weight.
After the warriors took Carolyn, the scarecrow did not resist and jumped into the volcano.
At this point, the dark clouds hovering over everyone’s head for over half a year ended ridiculously.
