Star of Blood

15 | A People

The sun rose right after Jude died.

For the past hour or two, Shin hung around in Mendax. He could safely say it wasn't all that different from Dorobo, aside from some cultural and architectural differences. In fact, the longer he stayed, the more he was convinced that peace with Mendax might actually work.

Speaking of which, there had been one hell of a gathering after Jude's defeat. Mendaxians, Dorobans, and Hantri all met up and had one of the biggest, most eventful discussions in history. Shin and Sayaka represented Dorobo, for the most part, while Mendaxian nobles and Hantri elders acted for their respective races. Mateo and Prema had a big role in it as well, due to their close relationship with the former Saviour of Mendax.

The great outdoor conference probably lasted over an hour, and there were several topics to cover. With those topics came infinite conflict, and some disputes were so goddamn intense that Shin thought about unsheathing his sword right there.

Thankfully, the gathering ended in a newfound peace between Mendax, Dorobo, and the Hantri—which was mostly thanks to Sayaka. Any conflicts between them were over, and they would start helping each other from now on. There would be no more truths to hide. Shin knew better than anyone that it wasn't going to be perfect, so he accepted the responsibility of dealing with anything going wrong from now on.

However, Shin knew there'd have to be a lot more meetings between the actual leaders of each race—including his father, the Emperor. That was why he would cherish the free time he had for now.

The Prince was currently leaning against a stone fence when he noticed the Knight Captain in a nearby dispute. Over there, Mateo seemed to be defending a middle-aged couple from . . . another middle-aged couple. It lasted a few seconds before the latter couple walked away, and Mateo turned around to talk with the former couple a bit. After that, Shin waved Mateo over. Mateo complied, joining the Prince at the fence.

"What was that about?" Shin quizzed.

Mateo, gesturing at the first pair, said, "Those two are Jude's parents. And those two"—he gestured at the second pair walking way—"kind of hate them because of what their son did."

Shin scoffed. "From the information I have, I take it Jude's parents were not necessarily a factor in his change of mentality?"

"Yeah, all they did was raise him like any parent ought to. Jude only did this because he learned the truth. If anything, I just feel bad for his parents."

"And according to that Hantri woman, Prema, Jude got his knowledge from the Star of Blood," said Shin, looking at the sky.

"Then it looks like we know what these people are supposed to blame," replied Mateo, looking at the wandering commoners.

Shin half-smiled at that.

"Speaking of which, damn, we are so far from knowing what the deal with that damned star is. If Alucinatio even is a star," Mateo commented. "We've got a lot of guesses, but none of them really explain an object that can show someone the past just by looking at it. Much less an object that we now know appears every twenty-one years."

"It was certainly a devastating discovery for Jude," Shin murmured. "Perhaps some truths are best left unknown."

Mateo put a finger on his chin. "Or perhaps some truths are best known earlier so there's nothing to hide."

Shin looked at him. "Perhaps it depends."

Mateo looked back. "Perhaps it's balanced."