Moral Dilemma

[Edric Windwalker]

Age: 16 years, 8 months, and 27 days

[Tasks]

[Task Number One: Ancestor of a State]

Progress: 31,947 / 100,000 - 48 / 1,000 Objective: Conceive 100,000 children within 1,000 days. Rewards: 1 Mythic Chest 2 Legendary Chests 1,000,000 XP A Mythic-rank weapon Failure Penalty: Lose 2,000,000 XP

[Task Number Two: Available in 1 day]

[Techniques]

Legendary Knight Training: 390 / 1,500,000 Legendary Mage Training: 149 / 1,500,000

[Talents]

Knight Talent: Legendary (0 / 2,400,000) Mage Talent: Average (0 / 100,000)

[Skills]

Self-Consumption (Cyan) Energy Absorption (Red) Magnetic Pull (Golden) Beast's Senses (Golden) Poison Resistance (Golden) Crystal Skin (Silver) Bloodline Sensing (Silver) Telekinesis (Silver) Steel Hair Manipulation (Silver) Extreme Yang (Silver) See-Through (Silver) Flesh Control (White)

[Cheat Ability]

Low Level – Generates 1,000 XP per day Available XP: 472,914

"Are they here?" Edric asked the woman standing beside him.

Her name was Ava. She had the youthful appearance of someone in her twenties, but in reality, she was over 120 years old. For an ordinary person, that would be ancient—practically fossilized. But for a Silver Knight, she was still quite young.

Edric was a busy man. He couldn't handle everything on his own, so he had gone to the Elowen Kingdom's Knight Association and hired her. Her job was simple—follow his orders and handle tasks he didn't have time for. 

"Yeah, they arrived a few minutes ago. They're waiting in the guest room," Ava replied casually. 

"Great!" Edric grinned.

The first batch of babies had been born about fifteen days ago. Fortunately, they were all ordinary humans—no strange mutations, no demonic anomalies. When Edric had first confirmed that, he felt a wave of relief. The Demonic Happy Farm spell hadn't caused any unintended side effects.

The first batch consisted of around 9,000 babies, with each of his clones giving birth to ten.

But now, a new problem had emerged.

What was he supposed to do with this many babies?

From the system's perspective, as long as the babies were born, they were considered fully and completely conceived. Their deaths wouldn't cause the progress to regress.

For a moment, Edric seriously considered just throwing them all into a fire and being done with it. After all, his main goal was to complete the task as quickly as possible with minimal distractions.

But as he thought it over, a chill ran down his spine.

Why did I even consider that?

These newborns weren't just numbers on a progress bar. They were real, living human beings—his flesh and blood. He could feel the undeniable connection through his Bloodline Sensing skill.

And yet, for some reason, he had contemplated burning his own children alive without hesitation.

Something was deeply, terribly wrong with him.

He wasn't like this back on Earth. He had once been normal—human. But now? He felt nothing. No guilt, no hesitation. If anything, he had come to enjoy bloodshed. The realization sent a shiver through him.

But, as always, he lacked the means to figure out what was wrong. He couldn't see into his own mind. His only choice was to postpone the matter until his magic rank improved.

Shoving those thoughts aside, he discarded the idea of outright slaughtering his newborns and instead focused on a more practical solution—finding someone to take them in.

That was why he hired Ava.

Her job was simple: Locate individuals or organizations that could take care of the children.

It was a dangerous task. No one would simply accept thousands of newborns appearing out of nowhere without asking questions. But fortunately, Edric was a Golden-rank Mage. He didn't need to answer questions—he could simply mind-control people into doing what he wanted.

Ava herself was also under his control.

Controlling a Silver Knight was difficult. After all, Edric couldn't yet cast Golden-rank spells. However, Silver-rank spells cast by a Golden-rank Mage were still barely effective against Silver Knights. And if one spell wasn't enough? He could simply cast two times, three times, ten times—until it worked.

Still, he never let Ava wander too far from him for too long. As a Silver Knight, the effects of a Silver-level Mind Control spell would eventually wear off.

But the two people waiting for him now? They were ordinary humans.

For them, a single Silver-level Mind Control spell was permanent.

There was a reason mages were valued far more than knights. Their versatility allowed them to adapt to nearly any situation.

"Let's go," Edric said, flashing a small smile.

A few babies had already died over the past few days due to lack of proper care.

He had no time to waste. He needed to find a place for them—quickly.

...

Camila and Luna managed one of the largest child welfare systems in the Southern Elowen Kingdom, overseeing orphanages and foster placements across multiple cities and caring for over 200,000 children.

Taking care of that many children required massive resources, but they managed. After all, they had a powerful backer—none other than the government of Elowen Kingdom itself.

Today, they had come here because of Ava.

Ava had once been their personal bodyguard for over twenty years. When she told them there was a man who needed their help, they normally wouldn't have paid much attention.

But this was Ava. A Silver Knight.

They trusted her completely and didn't want to refuse her request.

As they waited, a young man with red hair and vibrant green eyes walked into the room.

"Ladies, happy to meet you!" Edric greeted them with a charming smile.

The moment Camila and Luna saw him, they froze.

It felt like they had known him for a lifetime.

Their hearts raced, their cheeks flushed, and they tripped over themselves trying to greet him.

"Hello! Nice to meet you!" Camila said eagerly.

"Good to meet you!" Luna added, her voice trembling with excitement.

Edric wasted no time.

"Listen, I have about 12,000 newborn children with me. How many can you accommodate?" he asked, completely straightforward.

Neither Camila nor Luna reacted with shock.

The fact that an unknown man had 12,000 newborn children should have been beyond suspicious.

But they didn't care.

Camila was too distracted admiring Edric's appearance, and before she could respond, Luna cut in.

"Of course! For you, we're willing to do anything!" Luna blurted out enthusiastically. "We'll hire more staff and make sure they receive the best care possible!"

"Yes! We can do it!" Camila quickly agreed, stepping closer to Edric, her eyes filled with infatuation.

Edric took a step back, effortlessly dodging her approach.

"Take care of them. If too many of them die, I'll be very upset with you," he warned.

At his words, the color drained from their faces.

The mere thought of Edric being upset seemed worse than death to them.

"I would never let you be upset!" Luna swore, already thinking of ways to contact the Eastern orphanages to ensure the children were safely accommodated.

"I would rather die than disappoint you, my love!" Camila declared passionately, attempting to move closer to embrace him.

Edric dodged again.

"Do your task well, and I'll be very happy with you," he said with a teasing smile.

At his words, their hearts pounded wildly.

All sorts of fantasies flashed through their minds.

Of course, Edric had no intention of doing anything sexual with them.

The only reason they were acting this way was because of the longest-lasting brainwashing spell he had—a spell related to love. It was the most effective method he had for controlling people long-term.

"Now, go and arrange everything. I want the newborns gone within three days." His tone grew serious.

Taking care of so many newborns over the past few days had been an absolute nightmare. Too many had already died due to lack of proper care, and he wasn't going to let it continue.

Camila and Luna were clearly reluctant to leave, but after gritting their teeth, they hurried off to complete the task as quickly as possible.

As the doors closed behind them, Edric stretched and let out a satisfied sigh.

"Well, that was easy!" he chuckled.

"At this rate, I'll have a hundred thousand blood descendants scattered all over Elowen Kingdom," Edric mused. "I don't know whether I should be happy about that… or deeply disturbed."

Even though he didn't feel guilt, his lingering modern sensibilities left him feeling uncomfortable.

In reality, he didn't have much of a choice in the matter. He had no option but to complete the tasks, as the punishment for failing was severe.

He wanted to grow stronger as quickly as possible, and the only way to achieve that was to complete the tasks, which was exactly what he did.

Either he let the newborns die of hunger, or he found a place for them to live.

He chose the second option.

It was risky—someone might start questioning where all these children were coming from—but Edric simply couldn't bring himself to pick the crueler alternative.

"Being a good person is always so damn difficult," he sighed, feeling like such a righteous man.

Of course, the dozens of newborns who had already starved to death over the past few days might disagree with that assessment… but at least he wasn't fully evil.

"If a truly evil person had this task, they would simply let the clones give birth, then kill the children immediately. It's much more efficient—stealthy, leaves behind no evidence, and avoids unnecessary complications."

Unfortunately for Edric, he was burdened by his moral values.

"I am a modern man! A man who knows good from evil!"

He smiled proudly at himself.

"Ava!" he called out.

"What?"

Ava answered casually, walking into the room.

Unlike Camila and Luna, she didn't see Edric as a romantic figure. The reason was simple—the spell used on her was different.

Camila and Luna were under a love-based brainwashing spell, while Ava was under a spell of 'Friendship'.

"Come here and drink this," Edric said, pulling out a small glass bottle filled with a shimmering blue liquid.

Ava frowned. "What is it?"

She didn't wait for an answer—just grabbed the bottle and drank it in one go.

The moment the liquid slid down her throat, Edric activated the spell.

"Friendship!"

Golden mana flared around him for a brief moment.

Ava didn't even notice.

Edric nodded in satisfaction. With the potion's effects, the brainwashing spell would now last around two weeks instead of one.

"Now, Ava, go find more foster care organizations and bring them here. Regardless of the results, return in one week."

"Sure, got it."

She placed the empty bottle aside and walked out without another word.

Edric watched her leave, rubbing his aching temples.

"Tomorrow… is another hellish day."

A huge number of clones were due to give birth.

Again.

That meant another grueling round of implanting fertilized eggs, casting the Happy Farm spell—which was already exhausting as hell—monitoring the clones, and even helping them give birth.

He had to do it all himself.

He hated it.

If only he had trusted subordinates, people capable of taking over some of these burdens. But without them, he had no choice but to clone himself using other cloning spells again and again to keep up.

Even with multiple copies of himself, the work was still overwhelming—even for a Golden Mage like him.

"I can't wait for this to be over," he groaned.

The only exciting thing about tomorrow was that Task Number Two would finally unlock.

"I wonder what the next reward will be?"

Despite his exhaustion, Edric smiled in anticipation.

"Only one more day left."