Back at Guy's end, once the caravan exited the Rasmus March the next, and final, territory on their way to the Capital was the Regal Plains. In his entire two lives, Guy had never seen such an abrupt transition from one landscape to the next. As they were traversing through sparse shrubbery, everything just suddenly ended and turned into an endless expanse of nothing as far as the eye could see. Guy had never seen so much of nothing in his entire life. There was so little perturbing the still flatness of the plains that Guy could see the curvature of the globe along the horizon.
Upon entering the Regal Plains, the caravan's ambience discharged visibly, even more so compared to the change following the revelation of Guy and Markus' powers and Jean's parentage. After some contemplation, it made total sense. Only an idiot would ambush a caravan in such an undefendable and exposed setting. There was no cover to hide behind, or obstacles to weave around, both the attackers and defenders would be sitting ducks with the advantage in the defenders' favour since they could anticipate and prepare for the attack. Of course, this didn't stop some rogue parties from intercepting the caravan - there was never a lack of idiots in the world.
Most of the ones that did intercept the caravan were clearly amateurs, living a desperate life and struggling to survive. Their attempts to shake down the caravan for food or money were half-baked and superficial. They were more scared than anything else. So Guy took the initiative in those instances and calmed them down with his power, rather than letting the Whispering Dusk members butcher them without prejudice. More often than nought they were refugees egged into joining a raid by a few bad actors, so why amputate the whole arm if the problem stems from a single finger? Once the troublemakers were isolated, they were bundled up into a neat package and delivered to one of many watchtowers breaking the Regal Plain's monotonous landscapes.
"This is the sixth group," Korren, the leader of the Whispering Dusk escort regiment commented as the patrol guards dragged a chained and unconscious prisoner into the watchtower's holding cell. "It's highly unusual."
Guy cocked his eyebrows inquisitively, to which Korren expounded, "It's more than what we've had to contend against in this region from the last ten trips combined! The refugee crisis is getting way out of hand."
With increasing turmoil in the Kingdom up north and a plague on top of that, more and more refugees were evacuating towards the Solar Empire. Guy had the opportunity to witness this first-hand in Radiant City a while back. Droves of roughshod and tired men and women were flocking and camping outside City premises. Their living conditions were abysmal and extremely treacherous - it reminded Guy a lot of the mass refugee migration taking place in his previous life at the time of his death except this was much, much worse.
"I don't understand why you're bothering with all of this, anyways," Korren sighed as they returned to the moving caravan. "Why bother subduing these miscreants and handing them over to the guards? Can't we just kill them and be done with it? It's more efficient, not like anyone will miss them?"
Guy held back a sneer over the man's callous disregard for the sanctity of life and said, "We live in a society. Society has rules. We follow rules so that the society we have built doesn't fall apart."
"Rules are in place to keep the weak and inconsequentials in line and make them feel safe," Korren said with a snort.
"Is it better to be feared or respected?" Guy asked.
"Can't we have both?" Korren joked, to which Guy shook his head and responded, "It is easy to espouse fear, but respect is harder to earn and much easier to lose. Both can be used to motivate someone to do something, however, fear stems from negative emotions while respect is deeply rooted in the positive spectrum."
"What's the point of all this?" Korren inquired with narrowed eyes filled with confusion.
"What I'm trying to say is that a person who fears you will follow your commands, but you will always have to worry about being stabbed in the back. However, a person who respects you will follow your command, and will have your back in your time of need," Guy elaborated. "You see if actions are motivated by emotions in the positive spectrum, the process AND outcome are generally better."
Guy released a long breath to let Korren stew on that notion before asking, "Would you rather have people fearing the Whispering Dusk Sect or respecting it?"
"It would be better if they respected us," Korren affirmed.
"The greater the respect held by the Whispering Dusk amidst the mortal folk, the better your chances of attracting more members, retaining existing members, and raising overall morale, amongst other factors," Guy summarised.
"Since this is established, how does one gain respect?" Guy scoffed mirthfully and said, "Sounds easy enough to achieve, right?"
Korren nodded back blankly.
"They say that one must treat others the way they expect to be treated," Guy quoted. "Back then, we could have followed your strategy and meted out our own personal justice. But then this could become our own future. Maybe, someone stronger would execute us for being plain inconveniences. What do you think about that?"
"It is their right by virtue of their superior strength-" Korren answered instinctively. "-but I'll admit that it would really suck!"
"How would you feel if the stronger mage, instead, treated us like a fellow human - on an equal footing?"
Guy didn't need to hear Korren or see his face to know the man's answer. The line of discussion only had one possible conclusion. At this point, Guy walked forward and joined his Disciple and Jean, leaving Korren to ponder on what was said. He knew that a simple half-an-hour discussion would do little to change the mind of a man so deeply entrenched in a mentality that appeals to the base animalistic instinct of submission to power.
Furthermore, the discussion had unearthed some apprehensions and troubles inside Guy's mind that he had suppressed for a while now. It was on the matter of killing as a whole.
Guy's birth was in the late 20th Century back on Earth. It was a time when the Information Age was just kicking off, with the Internet quickly becoming ubiquitous. Although conflicts still persisted in his past life, the average person never had to grow accustomed to the act of taking a life - humanity had advanced by quite a bit since they first huddled together and formed hunting communities.
To kill was wrong, immoral, and unnecessary. That was what he was taught, and what he preached to all the kids he taught. Could he still continue his teaching of pacifism and civil conflict management in this world?
One thing he learned was that in this world, there were, in fact, some cases that words and civil procedures just could not solve. Take the instance of the thug leader who controlled those refugees to attack the caravan as an example. Guy had clearly asked the man to release his control over his enslaved men, to which the man's immediate action was to kill himself. Guy did not ask him to kill himself, that was nowhere close to his intention. So in this scenario, Guy could surmise that killing the man was the only possible outcome. If there was an alternative, it would require subduing the individual, interrogating him, researching his method of control, and many more hitherto unknown steps.
'But what would the cost be of that alternative?' How many of the people under the man's control would have to be crippled or worse killed before cuffing the man? How many would they lose from their own side?
It was never tractable to run these cost-benefit analyses every time an impromptu conflict such as this was faced.
'I never thought I, as a teacher, would have to ponder on such morbid decisions,' Guy thought wryly.
Sometimes, people would lose their lives at Guy's hands. Sometimes, people would lose their lives at his students' and Sect members' hands. It wasn't something he could stop from happening, but it was something he could curtail.
'I should probably start introducing updated versions of morals and philosophy into the course outline,' Guy decided.
He didn't want his Sect members to get rolled over by everyone they met. For that, they would need to be ready to take a stand and fight. But, he also did not want his Sect members to discount the sanctity of sentient life all for the sake of convenience or selfishness.
'Beyond that, taking a human life can bear a heavy toll on the soul.'
In some countries on Earth, police officers were required to undergo regular therapy after experiencing certain acts of violence while on duty. Guy did not want his Sect members to become desensitised to killing, and he did not want them to enter a self-destructive spiral after taking a life. It would be a good idea to introduce this psychological treatment in his Sect as well.
Guy's mind started to branch off and brainstorm various ideas and additions that he could implement with his Sect that would be necessary to keep up with the society of this world.
A few hours later, right as Guy mentally did the equivalent of dotting the i's and crossing the t's, something breached the banal horizon that drew everyone's attention. As they moved forward and approached the discrepancy, it started to grow larger, and larger, and larger...
Guy could not stop his mouth from dropping in awe - an action that was mimicked by Markus and Dora.
"Welcome to Sunspear," Jean said from his side. "The Capital of the Solar Empire."
