Myth: The Ruler of Spirituality

Chapter 621 - 202 Human Justice_2

"Facing a war of injustice stirred up by an enemy nation, a benevolent monarch only defeats the opposing army, captures their king and aristocrats, and spares their soldiers and servants.

They win over the people of the enemy nation with virtue, using their own character to halt the wars of the world; whereas those who defeat the opposing army, execute the king and aristocrats, and stack the heads of the enemy soldiers into mounds to deter the disobedient, they are tyrannical kings.

They subdue bandits with the bodies of invaders, intimidate nations with the swords in their hands, and make the heroes of the world restrain their ambitions, daring not to raise arms in the mortal realm,"

"As for those who kill the enemy nation’s soldiers, allow the pillaging of cities, and put to death one-third of a city’s population, seizing all food and wealth, such acts can only be carried out by cruel kings. They subdue their subjects with fear, maintaining their rule with strength.

Consequently, rebellion persists, and the heroes of various nations vie to draw their swords, proving their martial prowess,"

"History is not only of men, but of gods as well. In the ancient years, the first Divine King ruled the world in such a manner, and he too was eventually overthrown by his offspring. As for human kings like this, they have seldom been seen throughout history, and not one of them met a good end.

Such brutality is rare in the world, yet the destruction of the Bronze Age was far worse, making the former pale in comparison,"

"Even after searching through histories, I have never heard of a king who killed the enemy nation’s king and aristocrats, slaughtered all the invading soldiers, and put their entire population to the sword.

Blood turned rivers red, and civilization was reduced to rubble—an intolerable act for all life, yet it was precisely the disaster brought down by the gods, the suffering the people of the Bronze Age endured,"

"The act of deceit is unjust, and those who break promises should be punished, but besides the Forethinking God and priests who committed all this, what wrong did the rest of Bronze Humanity do?"

"Even if the gods were angered by this and sent them famine, plagues, and torrential rains, it could be seen as the act of a ’cruel monarch.’ However, a flood cascaded over the earth from east to west for seven days and nights. Not a single life on the earth went unscathed; even the birds in the sky fell into the vast ocean for lack of a place to land.

When all gods deprived mortals of life, whether devout or faithless, whether beasts or insects, can such an act truly be called just?"

The voice echoed above the assembly. At first, Andrea was merely reciting by rote, but gradually, she began to persuade herself.

Indeed, in recent years, wars between city-states and kingdoms have been common, and cruel kings have emerged from time to time, but to kill off an entire nation’s lives, leaving not a single human or animal, such an act had never occurred, even by the Northern Barbarians who performed blood sacrifices.

If the gods of Olympus committed such an act, then it would be a behavior even more ruthless than the cruelest of kings in the mortal realm, so how can such actions be called just?

For a moment, the assembly fell silent. The first phase of the conference had ended, and the debate among the competitors could begin. Yet for a while, no one stood up to refute on the high platform.

"So, Miss Leah, this is your opinion?"

"Yes."

Andrea nodded in response to the words, while on another platform, Odysseus’s voice remained steady.

She didn’t expect to convince the wise ones present with just a few sentences. This was only the beginning. Now, she was ready to witness the wisdom of others.

"In that case, I will speak frankly. Your speech was indeed splendid, but it also contained quite a few loopholes,"

Odysseus remarked with a smile, his words unapologetic.

Although he indeed harbored fondness for the ’Miss Leah’ before him, for Odysseus, love was not something to be obtained by begging or making concessions.

"Beautiful lady, just now, you compared Prometheus to a king waging war, his students and priests to aristocrats, Bronze Humanity to the citizens, and Divine Court as another nation responding. This certainly is a fitting metaphor for the Fire Thief inciting the priests of that time to break their agreement, deceiving all gods, but it contains an undeniable flaw,"

"All that you have spoken of concerns wars between kingdoms and between mortals. Thus, the kingdoms of humanity wage war against each other without annihilating the enemy nation to the last; the conflicts among mortals do not exist to eradicate an entire race.

Yet I have heard that humans cannot comprehend the actions of beasts, hence the fish in the water devour their own offspring, and mortals view this as evil; humans also fail to understand the behavior of insects and predators, so when the mantis consumes its own mate, mortals cannot accept such brutality."

"This is how humans regard beasts, but isn’t it the same way gods view humans? What mortals consider cruelty may not be seen as cruelty by the gods. These matters are not comparable, as they are conclusions drawn from different perspectives. An argument built upon a flawed premise will invariably lead to a flawed conclusion.

Being unable to recognize the essential difference between gods and humans naturally leads to an inability to discern justice and injustice. Therefore, Miss Leah, your earlier speech likely has no significance."

With incisive and forceful rhetoric, Odysseus had not disputed the cruelty of the Divine King, but rather suggested that comparing gods and mortals was meaningless on account of the gap between them.

Debate is like this: often, there is no right or wrong in the topics argued by both sides, and sometimes there is, but what truly decides the outcome is whether each party’s perspective is rigorous, whether it forms a coherent logic, and whether it captures the flaws in the other party’s arguments.

For a moment, the atmosphere in the arena seemed to shift, and the disturbance caused by what could be deemed Andrea’s blasphemous remarks had settled.

Faced with the counterattack, Andrea was eager to retort, but she temporarily could not find how to counter the argument of divine and mortal divide. After all, no matter what she said, the other party could always reduce it to "as a mortal, how can you understand the thoughts of a god?"

However, Andrea felt far from discouraged by this situation. After all, she was not very familiar with debating from the start. Her true means of response still lay in the voice that rose in her heart.

"Very well, Prince of Ithaca, you have evaded my question and attempted to deal with it by claiming ’this question should not exist.’ You think that mortals cannot understand gods, just as they cannot understand the birds and the beasts. Although I do not agree with your statement, let’s proceed with your viewpoint."

With a courteous glance at the tens of thousands of spectators present, Andrea’s voice remained steady and unhurried.

"Just now you said humans cannot comprehend birds and beasts, hence human nature and the nature of birds and beasts are completely different; humans cannot understand gods, so human behavior can also differ from that of gods."

"Yet humans praise the diligence of bees, and use this to compliment themselves; humans denounce the brutality of devouring offspring, and thus criticize the behavior of predatory insects. Every judgment in this world is based on one’s stance towards others, and so-called fairness also stems from this."

"To evaluate right and wrong from an individual’s stance may be biased; to judge right and wrong from the stance of a city can be fair to the people of that city. To assess right and wrong from a nation’s perspective can be fair to that nation; to appraise right and wrong from the perspective of humanity, then to humans, this judgment is just."

"This great assembly is being held in Athens, bringing together the elite from various nations to honor the deities with their wisdom. This showcases the wisdom of man, not the wisdom of gods; this is a debate held by humans, not a debate between humans and gods.

If you do not measure justice by human standards, but demand that it be assessed from a non-human standpoint, isn’t that contradictory to the very purpose of this assembly?"

"Now, back to the point I was initially making—Odysseus, Prince of Ithaca, the wise youth among mortals, please tell me: assuming that you, I, and everyone present cannot understand ’divine justice,’ then from the perspective of humanity, do you approve of the destruction of the Bronze Age as aligning with ’human justice’?"

The voice was calm; at that moment, a breeze began to stir in the clear sky, clouds obscured the sunlight, but Andrea’s gaze remained bright.

Discussing justice beyond mortal understanding at a debate unique to humans is pointless. Justice is relative; if one were to consider divine justice, wouldn’t one also have to consider the justice of plants, insects, and fish?

Being human, one should ponder issues from the perspective of humanity. In this case, the previous challenges by Odysseus naturally fell apart.