Chapter 53 - The Master's Speech

9 a.m... 

The following day...

All the wizards were gathered at the main building of the Sentient Hunter's Guild. The announcement was made to everyone who belonged to the guild, and they all honored it by being present to hear what their master had to say to them.

Most of them were anxious about it and expected the worst just to avoid shock. They had prepared a small podium for the Master to address them from and were curious to know what it was all about.

While everyone waited, it wasn't until five minutes later that they could see the Master, Kazuya, Orihime, and Genta coming down the stairs. The fact that they all came together was proof enough to show that they were all in on keeping this secret at all costs.

This made a few of them theorize that it was only something about the quad, and they were only letting them know about it because it involved their master. They used this to keep their minds at ease, despite the obvious clues pointing quite the opposite way.

Everyone had different theories on what was going on, but their minds all went blank at the very moment the Master got on the little pulpit.

"Greetings, fellow travelers and adventurers," Shizu said to them, "thank you all for coming as instructed." I will not take your obedience lightly; I promise you that. Some of you might have come here terrified that I have bad news to share with you due to the sudden nature of this meeting. Well, I am afraid to tell you that you are right to be terrified because what I am about to tell you isn't something any of you would want to hear, but you would still have to hear it.

...As most of you know, I and Genta went on a mission with these two strange travelers, Kazuya and Orihime. We went to raid a hidden goblin hideout in a town about a day's walk from here. Based on the clues we gathered, we have come to the logical conclusion that nobody is safe anymore.

...It is said in our passed-down traditions and written folklore that mankind was made and selected by the gods as the primary sentient creatures of the earth, to exercise dominion over all creators, big and small, and that is correct. But based on what we discovered, it is also very true that the gods have decided to get rid of us and to establish another race of sentients to have dominion over all creation.

When the Master said this, everyone was troubled, and different murmuring sounds of dissent came from the crowds. Of course, nobody could dare come out boldly to point out their master as a liar, but based on the current atmosphere, it was apparent that a lot of people were skeptical of what she had just said.

She knew this and easily understood why. Even as she spoke, she felt the absurdity of what she had just said. But she was persuaded that what she said was true, and it would be to their benefit to take it seriously.

"I understand your skepticism." But you have to trust me! Your fate might depend on it! The deities have expressed discontent with us and do not want us to be the pioneers of their glory anymore. They don't want anything more to do with us—so much so that they now employ inferior creatures to come against us... 

Don't you see? This perfectly explains the sudden sentience of the goblins and the sudden, unexplained spike in the ghoul population around human settlements.

... The goblins were once extinct creatures that were exploited by the rich for mining gold and precious gems, but now they are man-eating monsters that actively hunt down humans and destroy their settlements. As a result of this, they have become more prosperous and united and now thrive off their victories over human settlements. This young man here (she points at Kazuya) can testify to that. He was the only survivor of the village in the fields, the one that had just been ravaged by goblins.

The Ghouls, on the other hand, though they have always been successful human eaters, were once solitary, territorial creatures that bred in complete seclusion, even from other Ghouls. But now they are hunting humans in packs with no sense of territoriality or competition among themselves. As a result of that, they have become even more prosperous in breeding and surviving as a race than ever before.

Believe me, ghouls and goblins will not be the end of it. Slowly but surely, the wisdom goddess Sarasa will continue blessing inferior but powerful Sentients with the wisdom they never had, and soon, every powerful Sentient will come together in fighting against mankind. We will inevitably go extinct, and everything we have ever lived for will be for nothing! ... 

If we do not do anything now, the gods will wipe us out at their whim. I don't know about you, but I do not intend to go down without a fight! "I and these others (she said, pointing at Kazuya, Orihime, and Genta) will be going soon to raid Sarasa's temple, and we are asking for your support!"

With those last words, the whole guild went into a sudden uproar, and everyone in the hall was upset.

"Whoa, Whoa! "Give us a break, Master!" said Izuku, a young man Genta knew personally, who spoke out first. 

"Are you joking, Master?" Going against a goddess? "Those beings could wipe us out with the snap of a finger!" a young woman also said, standing beside Izuku.

"Even though she is right, it is still ill-advised." Going against the will of the gods who made us is like trying to bite the same hands that have always fed us with continuous kindness and mercy despite our shortcomings. "Going against them would only confirm their just reasons for wiping us out in the first place!" another young person spoke out, speaking across a short distance towards them in partial agreement. His sentiment towards the gods was so unusual that it made Kazuya and Orihime cringe. 

"Sarasa is the goddess of wisdom and the arts, loved by all gods and entities alike. "If we go against her, they would all bring down their wrath upon all of us!" a middle-aged scholar said from an area close to the podium. 

"Who knows what the other gods would do when they discover such an act of rebellion?" At that point, it wouldn't matter if what the Master says is true or not, would it? "We will all be damned anyway, right?" asked a nonchalant mage in the middle of the crowd. 

"Asking us to embark on this mission with you is like trying to ask us to willingly throw our lives away for a vain cause. "There is no way we can prevail against the gods; if they made us out of their own free will, then it also follows that they have the right to wipe us out by their own sovereign will as well!" an elderly man spoke out, sounding wise and philosophical to most but looking like a stupid old man to Orihime. 

She resisted the urge to walk down to where the old man was to give him a piece of her mind. She didn't stomach the willingness of some of these powerful and talented wizards to just succumb to the unjust will of the gods this way.

Kazuya also felt the same way, folding his hands as part of an attempt to hold back his wrathful emotions. He could not believe the people were so lost in reverence for the gods that they couldn't think for themselves.

Genta, on the other hand, only felt bad because people were in opposition to her master, who was just genuinely talking about what she believed in and was informing them out of her deep love for them. But it seemed that a genuine concern for her people would not be enough to get them to join her side.

The murmuring continued until the Master raised her right hand as high as she could with a frown on her face. When the people saw this, the noise died down, and they all became attentive to what she was about to say.

She had been pleading with them to trust her, but now she realized there was no need for that.

"You misunderstand me, my children," she said to them. "I do not intend to have you come with me on this." I love you all too much to make you do that. But all I want is your moral support, and if you also cannot afford that, that is fine. But I will give my life for this race, for this land, and for this guild.

I will make sure I bleed miserably before the wrathful hands of the gods come upon any of my children. It will only happen over my dead body, and even if my spirit ends up in hell for it, I would escape by all means just to ensure your safety. That is how much I love you—so much that I won't sit back and watch them wipe you away but would rather lay down my life for your sakes because you all are too precious to me. "

When she finished speaking, the whole crowd fell into complete silence, all standing in awe of her charisma and genuine bravery. It was as if all the dissent had vanished and was suddenly replaced with a unified respect for their master.