Retired old man #12

Everyone arrived outside with the sleeping old man, Rashida fed Gu Worms to the two children and instructed them to follow her orders completely.

If they betray her trust then she would have no choice but to end their lives which was something she did not wish to do but would have to if forced to do so.

Ki arrived in front of the two children and spoke. "Just like how you were about to enter the Blood Sect at your families wishes, you will have to walk down a similar but different path set for you because that person spoke up to save your lives. From now on that person will be your mentor, your master and your guardian so do not betray her. She has just risked going against me just to save your lives so you should be grateful to her and do not make her regret her decision."

The brother and sister were only around six and seven years old so their understanding of the world was limited but it was enough to understand their situation.

Their family had no choice but to die and sacrifice themselves for the future of both of them because of the mistakes that they had made upon working with a bad group of people, after that there was another problem to be solved by those bad people until finally the bad people were defeated.

All those with connections to the bad people would be killed and that included themselves but because of one person among the group that killed the bad people, they were able to survive.

Throughout the whole process the choice had been taken away from them and they had to follow the rules or wishes of others and survive.

However it was also true that they had been saved from whatever the bad people had planned for them and the lives they would have to live from now on.

All that those people asked of them was to not betray or make that person regret their decision so it was not something difficult to do.

The sister bowed her head and spoke. "Thank you."

The brother nodded quietly since he was the youngest and also the most traumatised of the both of them.

Once again the image of the hunting grounds appeared in her mind and she was reminded of the image of Rashida's final moments during her previous life as she bought more time for the others to escape and live on.

She was able to live on thanks to her sacrifice and here she was doing something somewhat similar that could put herself at risk but still she had chosen the path that she believed in.

She chose to protect two children who both had their lives decided for them and followed while carrying out their filial role as the son and daughter of the family, their family had pushed them down a dark road and continued to push until there was no longer any way to escape from it, from then on they would be pushed further down that road by others in their place until they either went mad or broke completely.

Ki looked at the children and confirmed that for now they did not seem to have the intent to betray but she was still glad that Rashida had put the Gu Worms in their bodies to ensure that they would not betray.

They are children now and were more innocent but upon growing up they may still be able to turn against their saviours if influenced by others or upon witnessing something that would change their outlook on their new guardians.

Taking them in was essentially exposing them to the village and some secrets so they needed to be controlled to prevent any leaks that could hurt what Ki had built so far.

To Ki she was choosing between the children's two lives and freedom or the thousands of lives that she is responsible for protecting.

Many rulers can look on from a far away place and make the decision with ease by choosing the majority and abandoning the minority but when close up and making the decision it was always much more of a difficult decision to make after weighing the aftereffects of such decisions.

However she still chose to do this and did not leave the execution of such important tasks others because she still questioned if she was correct in her decision.

Would she have made this same decision if she had not come personally and would she of heard the doubts of those beneath her if she sat back behind the scenes and left everything to others then the answer would be no.

There would be things that she would have missed and variables may have appeared that were out of the teams control that would have caused high casualties and people that could of been saved or spared would be killed according to her orders.

There were also unknown variables when people are involved, each human is very complex and hard to predict how they would act in every situation.

Had she chosen to not come, perhaps an agreement may have been made among those taking the task to spare some of those within the group, this may not of been handled so strictly and even may have been kept from Ki which could increase the threats created from their decisions made without her confirmation but from then there would also secrets kept from her and their actions would lead to further distrust within the group and from Ki towards them, so in the end it was best if she came to handle important tasks herself.

Ki placed the smelling incense under the old man's nose and woke him up from his deep slumber.