Villain : I reincarnated as a Prince! Shouldn't I have a Harem?

151  Understanding Ashen!

After Ji Jun had left, Ashen took out a corpse from his space ring and burnt it to make it look like it was Ji Jun's corpse.

This corpse originally belonged to Qin Feng's attendant whom Ashen had killed with his whirling sword skill.

After killing him, Ashen had stored his dead body in his space ring to be used here.

Afterwards, He went to talk to Feng Xue alone in private.

"What do you think?" Ashen questioned. "Who can it be? Do you have enemies even in the north?"

The mercenary sect mainly operated in the northern region. If someone had placed a target on Feng Xue, he must be from the north.

Feng Xue shook her head, answering in a puzzled tone: "It is my first time visiting the north. How can I have enemies here?"

"Hmm..." Ashen acted to think before asking: "So you mean this is someone you encountered in our journey here and made an enemy out of, correct?"

"No, I don't think I attracted someone's animosity in this journey--"

And as soon as she muttered this, her eyes widened in stark realization.

"Wait!"

"Now I remember. The sons of that mountain bandit saw me kill their father and since they were innocent, I let them go. Only they could want my life for revenge!"

"When they fled, their eyes were full of hatred. I'll not be able to forget that gaze."

Ashen nodded in understanding before sighing heavily:

"Sigh... This is why you must cut loose ends! Just think what would've happened if I arrived even a bit late? Due to your decision to let them go, Those young children could've died!"

He shook his head in criticism of Feng Xue's decision as he continued:

"Even if you forget about the children that could've died, what about the ones who died already? What about their suffering? Because of your cowardice in killing those sons of the bandit, unnecessary deaths occurred today and this isn't the end. More incidents like this will happen when more mercenaries come in the future!"

After hearing Ashen's words, the gravity of her mistake dawned upon Feng Xue. Her morals and teachings were the opposite of Ashen's advice.

"B-But, Isn't killing innocent children wrong? Even if they are the children of a bandit?" Feng Xue couldn't fathom that her decision which was based on the teachings she had received as a child was wrong.

"Ugh, Just come out of your little fantasy world!" Ashen commented in frustration before explaining:

"It looks like you won't understand till I spell it out for you!"

"If you always think about what is righteous and what is not, how will you ever ensure the safety of yourself and the people close to you?"

"Because of your self-righteousness, you spared those two men. Now from their point of view, isn't taking revenge for their father, the righteous thing to do as filial sons? So tell me, are they wrong? Are they wrong in trying to kill you?"

Feng Xue couldn't retort or deny Ashen's words. After listening to Ashen's reasoning, she truly felt that it was a mistake to let them go.

Even if they didn't come for revenge themselves, they did everything they could to complete their revenge.

She couldn't blame them for doing that since that was the right thing to do as a son.

Then who was wrong here?

She, who had spared innocent men or the sons who were taking revenge for their father.

It was now that she understood how protected of a life she had lived.

Seeing Feng Xue having an identity crisis about her whole upbringing and morals, Ashen comforted her with a pleasant smile:

"Didn't you ask why I killed those innocent disciples in the southern region? I think now the answer should be clear."

Feng Xue's eyes widened as the mystery resolved itself.

Wasn't Ashen's situation similar to Feng Xue's when he enslaved all the top ten sects?

If he had left the sect leaders' personal disciples, it was clear what would've happened.

As a sense of duty towards their teacher, they would've come after Ashen's life, or even worse, they would've taken people close to him hostage in exchange for their teacher's freedom.

It was clear that they would've grown into his enemies in the future, so he was right in killing them.

"Now you see, leaving them alive wasn't an option for me. Just for their revenge, they would've also killed many unrelated people like the tribesmen of this tribe suffered. The only right thing was to cut loose ends."

Ashen, wearing a solemn expression, continued: "Also, I am alone with no one to rely on. You were lucky to have me by your side, however, I have no one. Even you hate me and think of me as evil or some kind of monster. Just because I am alone, I have to be cautious to not let harm come to me or people related to me."

After knowing all this, Feng Xue felt as if she had fully understood Ashen. He wasn't evil, he was just cautious. He is only 20 years old after all.

How could she hate him after knowing all this now?

For the first time in this whole journey, she felt that Ashen wasn't that bad of a man to fall in love with.

As soon as this thought came into her mind, she couldn't help but feel her heart race.

For the first time, she noticed just how handsome he was.

It was as if she had been constantly pushing herself away from falling for Ashen all this time as if it was something wrong, however, now she felt that there was no need to do it anymore.

Through this whole journey, she understood how the world worked.

She understood just how cruel this world was. n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

On the carriage, everyone had voted for her to be sacrificed except Ashen.

For the first time, the world that she thought she was living in seemed different, different from how her father had shown her.

It was only with Ashen that she saw the real, cruel world with her own two eyes.

This feeling... this feeling was new to her.

-----------------------------------

(A/N - Thanks for reading. ^..^)