King of succubus

"...You are right; this is nothing more than an excuse, a reason I give myself to justify my actions. By the way, I think my decision has already been made regarding my participation in this trip. But I still have trouble with how to do it. On the one hand, some must stay behind me, and those who must follow me on this journey.

-But I'm afraid, afraid of what could happen following my choices. Will those who remain behind me be exterminated after my disappearance? Will those who follow me be able to come back in full stat? What will happen if I underestimate my enemies? What if I am wrong on all the points and the enemy's trap turns out to be more powerful than my estimates?

Yes, I'm afraid,...I think." He ends his confession with this last uncertain sentence.

The next moment, he saw Sabrina holding his hand on the table while smiling at him mysteriously. "I'm happy that you can feel emotions such as fear and worry; it proves that you are still able to make good decisions." She says without adding anything.

Staring at her, Alvine smiles slightly. "You don't help me much there. Finally, are there even good decisions? No matter what choices we make, it always results in two consequences. Do we really have choices? I don't think so.

Our actions are always guided by the present and the (negative/positive) consequences of the choices we have made in the past. Seen from this angle, wouldn't it be ridiculous to talk about a good choice?"

He mumbles in a baritone and serious voice.

Always calm, Sabrina shakes her head. "I don't agree. From your POV, and your experience, what is really good? To hear you, I rather have the impression that you deny the good things and only see the bad sides of things. Moreover, I who have not lived as long as you, and who has not experienced even ten percent of what you had experienced, am the most able to understand these things."

Alvine looks into her blue sapphire eyes while retorting...

"…It's a contradiction, Sabrina."

Once again, Sabrina shakes her head. "Not really. Do you think that your lives allow you to know more things than we do? I don't disagree. You can analyze and find solutions to the most complex problems, able to find more advanced strategies than others, and all this, in the shortest time.

-But these complicated and...amazingly complex things also give you difficulties in solving the simplest problems; like the one you just mentioned."

Alvine squints his eyes twice in a row when he hears Sabrina treat his problem as simple. 'With my shadow behind me, the protection of my subjects is now 80% guaranteed; to defeat it, it takes at least a hundred beings in the same rank as Azalea, so it will go on this side. But what about the other problems I mentioned rather?!' As he mumbled, a crazy thought crossed his mind.

Determined to check his hypothesis, he peek up at Sabrina. "Sabrina, could it be that you found a solution to protect everyone?" As crazy as his question was, he did not hesitate to ask it.

But Sabrina giggled at his mindset. "No, how am I supposed to be able to do that?"

"..." his mind emptied following Sabrina's frank and direct response.

"Don't be so disheartened. Even if I don't know how to protect everyone, I know how to solve this problem." She made this remark when she saw Alvine remain silent without changing his expression.

This time, Alvine raises his eyebrows slightly. He then crosses his arms while lying against his chair. "I am intuitive, compared to your miraculous solution."

Even if she saw Alvine's attention on her, she knew that he didn't expect much from her.

However, she had not been fooled by this lack of interest in her thoughts. "Here is my solution: realize that you will never be able to protect everyone; moreover, no one will be able to. No matter your choice, there will be consequences. So listen to what your inner voice tells you and forget the rest." She ends her session with these words.

For a long time, Alvine listened to her, hoping that she would continue. But when he realized that she had finished what she had to say, Alvine's nerves contracted.

"If I do this, I could never...

Sabrina interrupts him. "I just told you, stop believing that the world has after everything that followed you. Our enemies are actually obsessed with you, and not those you had protected."

Always skeptical, Alvine smiles with skepticism. "What proves to you that my enemies will not attack them once I volatilize for years? Remember the reason that led me to evacuate Reha from his own house to host him with me."

"I know, she was attacked by your enemies. But you too must have to remember the reason that pushed them to target her. Is it because they thought it was bait to attract you, or a weapon they can use against you?"

-!!

Seeing Alvine's surprise only through his eyes, Sabrina smiled slightly. "Have you now understood? What's really a threat is not to leave people behind you, but to stay with them. They were not looking for Lady Reha to directly harm her, but you... by using her powers.

-There is also a factor that you must take into account. Just like with Reha, if you decide to leave me behind you or those who are really related to you, then expect us to be targeted by them.

-I can see you telling you that we will be safer by staying here. But you're all wrong. Unlike your subjects, we are different from them; I don't need to tell you exactly what." She paused, to be sure that Alvine was listening to her.

But seeing the latter's eyes immersed in hers, she continued.

"For my proposal, the best thing to do is to bring your army with you and make a clean slate of your existence behind. Therefore, even if your enemies send scouts, if they see that neither you nor your closest ones are no longer here, they will not bother to make sacrileges, but quite the opposite, leave and look elsewhere."

"...What makes you so sure of that? They will just as well be able to get rid of them just to take revenge or settle with possible future annoyances." Alvine finally intervenes by seeing Sabrina pronounce these sentences one after the other without the slightest doubt.

The latter still smiles as if she expected this question. She immediately points her finger at Alvine while saying: "This answer lies in you."

"...?"

"Look, we are on a planet that was once your home. Just as you had made a lot of friends, enemies also count in the thousands. But you are here conversing with me instead of going to kill them to avenge your martyrs." She replied when she saw Alvine silent.

"...Do you think I'm heartless?"

"No, it's almost the opposite. There is one important thing you forget. With a simple snap of your fingers, you can probably shave this planet and everything it contains. But why don't you do it?

-The answer is simple; because you don't feel the need. From your point of view, they are no more important than insects. If an ant bites you, will you kill all the anthills until the end of time? It's the same with you.

-If even you, known to be the scythe of revenge in the past, manage to forget your differences of the past with these people when they are constantly within your reach, then how do you think others will act?

-Also note that they have nothing against those under your jurisdiction. Those who concern him are those who have a direct connection with your powers. Even if hatred engenders hatred, is it necessarily necessary and undeniable that this hatred spreads over everyone? Even on those who are considered ants?

If this is the case, then know that no one will be spared by them and it will not be related to you, but to their own perception of the world."

When Sabrina finally stopped, she realized that Alvine was still attentive to her, and one thing that made her slightly disturbed was to see that he was in a state of deep listening.

"So in your opinion, the solution would be as simple as that?" He asks in a static voice.

He knew it, he knew more than Sabrina why he had decided to forget his enemies who had become parodies of enemies in his eyes.

Whether on the Earth, on Alzania, or with the Brave King Hidenbird, through the valskars and Serena, who had even almost killed him several times, all these people became insignificant in his eyes when he had reached a rank beyond what they could achieve.

And even after that, members of the order or other people like Yasmine whom he hated for being the cause of his grandfather's murder and infiltrating his estate; Feyre, who wanted to transform him into a Guinea pig for the rest of his life (a fate worse than death)... all these people became like dust seeds after he awakened his memories of a distant time.

All these events have not only had a negative impact on his career. And that's precisely what worried him the most at that moment.

'When you think about it, have I really lost much? My grandfather and all those who died in these previous battles can be resurrected at any time by Reha, with or without my help.

-I have not yet ordered it only because the idea that the resurrected go to war barely resurrected displeases me just as it disgusts me. After sacrificing so much, I find that offering them a world of peace after their resurrection is the ideal. In addition, they will...-

Before he finished putting the order in his mind, Sabrina spoke. "There is another solution that can guarantee you their safety."

Hearing her voice resonate in his eardrums, Alvine was forced to put his thoughts for later.

Seeing that she had all his attention, Sabrina scraped her throat and spoke at a slow and calm pace. "Just order Lady Reha to transport them into this dimension before sealing it with your powers. As a result, they will be disconnected from any external influence, just as the monarch Askald did with our current base."

Alvine's eyes widen with disbelief.

'What a brainiac! I don't need to ask Reha to do this, I could well create an independent planet and seal it from the inside with the same seal that had sealed my two monarchs.'

By dint of thinking about infinite possibilities, an ironic smile stood on the corners of his lips.

He wanted to shout why he hadn't thought about that instead.

But once again, he could only admit that Sabrina was right in saying that by solving more complex problems, he forgets how to turn the wheels of the simplest puzzles.

With a big sigh, Alvine opens his eyes as clear as never before as if he had just spent a century in Nirvana.

"To say that I spent several hours to find a solution, I suddenly feel stupid." He mumbles while raising the white flag in front of Sabrina.

The latter shakes her head. "It's just that you're not looking in the right place. The same goes for me who had not thought of this rather than expected."

"..." Alvine remains silent, overwhelmed by her modesty and insight.

Finally, his relief ends up having the upper hand over his emotions.

He then gets up from his chair and leans towards her while obliging her to keep visual contact with him (with his fingers under her chin). "You, I love you more than anything." He mumbles while putting a kiss on her lips, entirely turning Sabrina flushed by his acts.

The latter was naturally surprised and surprised beyond what was possible.

But more than anything, this reward (Alvine's words and touchy-feely kiss) seemed to please her as a reward more than all the treasures of the world.