I came from a world where being good meant you'd get taken advantage of. It meant you were likely a weakling, someone who'd fall prey to anyone. I believed that was one of the cruelest fates one could have—that being a good person meant you'd probably never succeed in life. You'd have to twist your moral code or perhaps even become one of them. A world where evil rewards you isn't a world worth living.
But the unfortunate truth is that the ones who aren't afraid of being evil are usually the ones who succeed in life. It was very clear this world wasn't much different than mine: the ones who chose not to give up on their morals had to suffer the consequences of those who did.
The Highlanders were the same: good people who were the victim of the same consequences.
I learned a great deal about this world: the cruelty, the fate of those who clung to their morals. These lessons were meaningless to me; I had already seen and witnessed them in my past lives. But two things caught my attention. Evil was considered normal here; morality was a liability. Since this world was fundamentally about survival, people simply chose to live how they liked. Crimes, of course, were still illegal—but only for the commoners.
The Kingdom of Ethinburg was ancient, defined by a dark history and a merciless nature toward its enemies. Its army had a nickname—The Nargesver, or "People from Hell." They were practically unkillable.
I was wrong to fear the Nargesver. They were the executioners, but the Kingdom of Ethinburg created the Hell they enforced. The ultimate truth of this world was a sentence of death, issued by a profound act of malice called The Satyakaal Trials.
The Trials had existed since the kingdom's founding. They were perceived as the gods' mechanism to judge the damned souls of this rotten world. The word Satyakaal literally meant True Destiny; your fate was decided here. Cruel as it was, people still worshipped the Trials, viewing them as a sign of hope for those in need, praying for the moment of salvation. The Trials lasted for 7 days. Yet the common folk held a specific, burning belief: those who survived these trials were chosen by the Heavens to lead the charge and abolish the kingdom's enemies.
To fill the required quotas, the Crown gathered victims from three sources. First, many commoners, desperate for a higher purpose or salvation, chose to participate willingly. Second, there were the criminals—the scum of the kingdom. Those deemed to have potential were forced into lifetime servitude, while those seen as useless were condemned to the Trials against their will, their lives meaning nothing to the Crown.
But that was only the surface. The preliminary spiritual screening was the Aatamateyum Test, conducted before the ancient, gnarled Withered Tree. This Tree was believed to be a sacred conduit to the Aatma (Soul). Behind the scenes, the Royal Family pressured people they despised into taking this test. The final results were then altered, ensuring their political rivals were falsely 'marked' for Wickedness and forced to attend the Trials.
The Royal Family was very powerful, They had influence, knew more about the trials then anyone else, were incharge of the Nargesver army, those who chose to oppose them were dead the moment they raised their voices against them, The royal family were known for their cruelty towards their opposition, they were ruthless, they would destroy everything you ever loved, solely because you chose to raise your voice against them.
Martin once sat me down and told me a story—a history so profoundly horrific that I recognized its consequences were far graver than my own private misery.
I already knew the Highlanders were good people—those who stood for the common folk, the ones you could rely on in desperation. I didn't realize their commitment to virtue knew no bounds. Martin told me the story of my grandfather, Arthur Highland: a man who died fighting for what he believed in.
Arthur Highland was the 24th head of the Highland family. He was a man of honor, respected by all his peers. At a young age, instead of pursuing the typical education of a noble, he chose to serve in the military—to protect the innocent and serve his nation. He was a great swordsman and even became practically blood brothers with one of the generals of the Nargesver. He commanded respect wherever he went.
Arthur was charming, handsome—the dream of every woman. If looks could kill, he would have been a serial killer. He was immensely popular among the common folk due to his relentless generosity. After leaving the military, he chose to work alongside local farmers, learning the art of the trade and helping them sell their goods at a much higher price than usual.
Arthur was, simply put, the poster child of the kingdom: good, respected, handsome, and charming; he had it all. He was one of the few individuals in the kingdom ever to be given The King's Blessing, one of the highest honors in the kingdom's history.
The King and the Royal Family understood Arthur Highland's popularity and his unwavering moral code better than anyone. They had a crucial need for his voice, which is why his King's Blessing was followed by a permission to speak at the Nobel Summit. The Summit was the one venue where nobles across the nation met to discuss policy, and Arthur often used his time to speak for the common folk's suffering, not his own selfish demands.
Arthur Highland always stood for what he believed in. He was infamous for getting in trouble with the Royal Family because he constantly confronted other nobles for mistreating their people. He genuinely believed that the way someone with power treated those beneath them was the sole measure of their character. Unfortunately, this unyielding commitment to his morals was exactly what led to his horrible demise.
Twenty years ago, when Martin was ten, a massive scandal involving the mass kidnapping of young women erupted near the Highland district. Arthur was swiftly informed and immediately took measures to protect his citizens. The perpetrators were a group of bandits called the Blood Spiders. They were notorious for robbery, but their sudden shift to kidnapping young women—whose fates were unknown—created a terrifying new problem. Arthur, being the man he was, took personal charge, determined to hunt them down.
It took Arthur an entire month of relentless, silent vigilance to finally track and corner the Blood Spiders. When he finally moved, he was absolute. He ensured that none of the bandits made it out alive, save for their notorious leader, Aaram.
Aaram was a monster, well known for rape, murder, and robbery. Arthur refused to show him any mercy. Martin said that when his father returned that day, the Arthur he knew simply disappeared. His smile was gone, his charm had vanished. All that remained were cold, red eyes.
Martin spent the next five hours listening from upstairs, hearing noises from the basement below. It was the sound of Aaram being systematically tortured. Then, abruptly, everything stopped. There was only complete, unsettling silence. Arthur finally emerged from the basement, walked over, placed a hand on Martin's head, and said with unnerving calm:
"Sometimes, it's necessary to do things that need to be done in order to achieve your goals."
What happened next was a brutal few months, known only to the deepest levels of the kingdom. Arthur spent that time hunting down every single buyer the Blood Spiders had sold the young girls to, securing the victims one by one. But the damage had already been done. The smile, the joy the girls once had, was gone forever; their innocence had been stripped away against their will. Arthur was incandescent with fury. He proceeded to personally execute every individual who had purchased the girls or done them any harm.
This spree wouldn't have bothered the Royals, as Arthur was careful to vary his methods of killing, ensuring the police never caught him. But during this campaign, Arthur found the biggest buyer of all: the one who had purchased the largest number of young women, enslaved them, and repeatedly taken their innocence by force. He was a noble named David Sunflower, the heir to one of the richest families in the kingdom. The Sunflowers used their vast industrial wealth to commit unspeakable acts against the common folk.
Arthur kept a close eye on David for weeks. He noticed David went to the same place every week, arriving and leaving at the same exact time—a schedule Arthur found deeply suspicious. Knowing that killing a rich noble heir would be impossible to get away with, Arthur planned to expose David publicly, to shame him so completely that he would be forced to live out his rotten life isolated inside his own castle.
When Arthur finally decided to confront David, what he saw was so monstrous that he had no choice but to ensure David never left that place alive.
David had been frequenting an abandoned bar in the city of Rosewell, the capital of Ethinburg. When the day of confrontation came, Arthur slowly followed him, taking out his guards with precision and leaving them unconscious. Following David wasn't easy; the man was deeply paranoid, constantly looking around to ensure no one was spying on him. Arthur waited until David entered the building before dealing with him accordingly.
As he moved through the narrow hallway, screams started to echo through the empty space, illuminated by a single glowing lamp. Arthur rushed toward the voice and stumbled upon David. What he saw horrified him to his core.
David was on top of a badly beaten woman who looked no older than eleven, having intercourse with her while repeatedly hitting her in the face. The fat, ugly man was screaming:
"HOW DOES THIS FEEL, HUH?"
"YOU LIKE THIS, YOU LITTLE BRAT!"
In the corner of the room, another woman lay badly beaten, chained to the wall by her neck. Her eyes were so swollen they looked ready to pop. Arthur was beyond furious. He grabbed David by the back of his neck, choking him forcefully, and threw him into the corner. He rushed to give the woman on the bed his coat and destroyed the chains on the wall with his sword.
Arthur had never been this angry. He knew nobles were corrupt, but to sink to this depth made his blood boil until he lost control. He went above the basement and killed every guard he had previously knocked unconscious; in his mind, they were just as guilty as David for enabling these crimes. His need for justice, his dark impulse to deliver pain to those who wronged the common folk, took over his entire body and mind. He killed the guards and left them behind the bar.
Arthur then spent the next ten hours torturing David. You could hear Arthur laugh; he was enjoying himself completely. From Arthur's point of view, David deserved everything. He never felt any regrets. He left David in the basement to slowly bleed to death. David begged Arthur to free him and let him go, but Arthur refused. Arthur furiously replied:
"The young women asked you to let them go, but you didn't. Don't ask me for something when you can't do the same for others."
Arthur returned the young women to their homes, knowing full well he couldn't help them overcome the trauma they had received from that evil, evil man.
Eventually, the Sunflower family began raising questions about their heir's disappearance. Under pressure from various noble families, the Royal Family's intelligence team began to look into the matter.
After months of investigation, they eventually found out what happened. Initially, Arthur was never a suspect; their intelligence indicated he was out hunting bandits and securing the safe return of the kidnapped girls. But unfortunately for Arthur, there was a witness who saw him enter the bar the day David died.
What a cruel twist of fate it was. The witness who saw Arthur enter the bar was his diehard fan, a fourteen-year-old girl named Emily Crowheart. She saw Arthur enter the bar and excitedly told her mother. Unbeknownst to the excited Emily, her mother informing the intelligence agents about Arthur's appearance was the reason he was going to face judgment.
Arthur was swiftly arrested on suspicion of mass murder. After an obvious slam of a trial, where it was clear Arthur was never going to walk free, the day finally arrived.
Arthur Highland was found guilty on all charges and was sentenced to death.
The end of an era happened during that day—the end of a brave man who fought for the innocent, a man who took it upon himself to protect those in need, even if it meant losing his own life. Judgment had arrived. That day, a hero, a father, an idol, a man who stood for those who couldn't stand for themselves, died.
What happened next, shook the entire Highland family...
End of chapter.