Chapter 223: Empathy

Ren Moon’s face turned sour, but Wu Qingsong felt great satisfaction.

At that moment, he finally understood why he disliked the Dark Moon organization, and why he particularly disliked Dark Moon and Red Moon, those two foxes.

Maybe their intentions were indeed right. Maybe they were standing at a high vantage point, seeing the bigger picture that others couldn’t.

But the problem was, what did that have to do with others?

Just because your intentions are good, does that make you right? Because you’ve made greater sacrifices, does that give you a bigger say? Should everyone just listen to you and act according to your ideas?

That doesn’t make any sense.

Mia had already started flying back, so he didn’t continue speaking.

After all, having someone accompany them the entire time, who could be seen as a translator and a guard, could also be seen as a monitor. Anything important had to wait until nighttime to be discussed.

“Let’s go catch some crabs,” he suggested.

“My hand…” Ram said.

“It’s okay, Ram, you can just stay on the shore and direct us.”

***

Night finally fell once more. Wu Qingsong and the others gathered some dry branches, preparing for a fish roasting party.

Wu Qingsong had initially hoped to catch some crabs and lobsters, but the rocks along the coast had been thoroughly cleaned out by the penguin people over the years. Anything edible had long since been scavenged, and they hadn’t even found a few large shells. The only edible things were the fish caught by Ling using her ability to create fishing nets.

They invited Mia to join their fish roasting party, but it seemed that the harpy wasn’t very interested in meat. Additionally, her vision became quite blurry at night, so she bid them farewell early and flew back to her nest.

“If we stay here any longer, the trees on this island won’t be enough for us to burn,” Eddie said somewhat exaggeratedly.

He didn’t have the privilege to participate in the previous discussions and could only infer from Red Moon’s expression that things weren’t going well.

Wu Qingsong, of course, understood what he meant, but he just smiled and didn’t respond.

“Wu?” Ram asked. “Do you think they won’t accept our terms?”

“It’s possible,” Wu Qingsong replied.

“Why?” Red Moon asked immediately.

“If you always consider things from your own perspective, you’ll never understand others’ thoughts,” Wu Qingsong said.

He actually wanted to say, “If you’re always used to forcing your thoughts on others with magic,” but since they were all in this together, he decided to soften his words.

“Wu…” Ram gently shook her head at him.

Wu Qingsong then casually broke a piece of wood and added it to the fire. 

“In this matter, we are the only variable. In a way, we are the only ones desiring change,” he said.

The bird people of Gale Island had been in a stalemate with the sea tribes for over a thousand years, relying on their own survival strategies.

It seemed that the sea tribes indeed held the upper hand, but they were ultimately fish people. They couldn’t stay out of the water for long or climb cliffs. For the bird people, the worst-case scenario was retreating to the island’s interior and relying on wind magic to fight off the sea tribes.

They might face severe losses and destruction of their trees, but most of the deaths would likely be among the penguins. The harpies, perched on their cliffs, were out of reach for the sea tribes. The giant waves couldn’t reach those heights. In the worst-case scenario, they could select a few elite individuals to retreat to the cliffs. No matter how powerful or rampant the sea tribes were, they would eventually have to leave the island and return to the sea.

But it was different for the beastmen.

Wu Qingsong wasn’t familiar with the historical conflicts between the insectoids, bird people, and beastmen, but if the ancestors of the Gale Kingdom fled to this place because they had nowhere else to go under the beastmen’s pressure, then their historical records would certainly contain many reflections on this painful past.

The fishmen came and went, but if the beastmen arrived, it could mean complete annihilation.

If Wu Qingsong were a harpy aware of this history, he would have such doubts. These people might sound sincere and act friendly now, perhaps because their shipwreck forced them to seek the bird people’s help to escape back to the mainland. But once they returned, who could guarantee they won’t spread the word that a group of bird people still lives here?

The ancestors of the beastmen drove the bird people’s ancestors to the brink. Why would they suddenly become friendly and harmless now?

Even if these people didn’t have such intentions, could other beastmen decide to completely eradicate the bird people, finishing what their ancestors started?

“That’s… that’s a pretty extreme view, don’t you think?” Ram was stunned for a long time before shaking her head. “If the bird people think that way, they might see us as a threat rather than allies.”

If the bird people held such suspicions, they might respond not with help, but with destruction.

“They might be the last descendants of the bird people. If they carry a heavier burden than the Silvermoon Wolf Clan, do you think they’d dare to take such a risk? To bet on the character of strangers like us?”

Everyone fell silent.

“That’s the worst-case scenario,” Wu Qingsong added. “But even if they don’t think that way, our help might not be crucial for them.”

“Why? Do you think killing these fishmen means nothing to them?” Red Moon immediately countered.

“Of course it matters to these individuals now, but it means nothing to their entire species,” Wu Qingsong said. “We all know that the reason the merfolk have persisted to this day and continue to resist the Empire is not because they are particularly powerful or remarkable, but because their numbers are too great, their distribution too widespread, and they can hide in the deep sea. Even if the merfolk in one area are completely wiped out, within a few years, more will gradually move in from other places, causing endless trouble. Since they only operate along the coast, threatening the safety of ports and fishing villages, or attacking and harassing merchant ships, unlike the insectoids who can cause more thorough and severe consequences, the elves can’t even be bothered to deal with them.”

“We can’t kill all the fishmen here because once they realize they can’t fight us, they’ll scatter into the deep sea,” Wu Qingsong said. “Even if we wipe out all the fishmen hiding among these islands and reefs, it doesn’t mean they won’t come back. Maybe in two years, maybe in five, maybe in just six months, they’ll return, and everything will happen all over again. For the people of the Gale Kingdom, all we can offer is an uncertain period of peace. They’ll still have to deal with the fishmen’s harassment in the end. So, you see, even though it sounds good, our offer isn’t as tempting as we might think.”

Ram, Red Moon, and Eddie all fell silent. Wu Qingsong, however, took the slightly burnt fish from Liuli’s hands, tore off the charred part, and took a bite.

“It’s cooked. And it tastes pretty good,” he said to the others. “Everyone, dig in!”