Divine Luck: SSS-Rank Battle Maid Harem-Chapter 510 : Hypocrite

"So, my family, your three tribes, and the Children have entered the Labyrinth to do something about the Hydra? I get that part. But why the war?" Zach asked.

Maura rolled her eyes.

"With our history, would you expect anything else? The Evandiels left their posts, and we needed to enter the Empire. It was a natural flow of events," she answered lazily.

Zach wasn't satisfied.

"Couldn't you have told everyone about the Hydra? Couldn't you have talked with, I don't know, the Emperor? Maybe cooperated to deal with a greater threat or something?" He pressed.

A lot of lives had already been lost, and by Maura's words, it was seemingly for nothing. The war was a hoax. A front for something else.

How could Zach not be angry?

But he realized something else and spoke before Maura could answer.

"And why did the Children interfere in the war?" He asked in a chilly tone.

"That's…" Maura hesitated for the first time. She had promised to answer Zach's questions to a certain degree. She certainly could tell him what it was about and why they hadn't bothered stopping the war before it broke out.

But while she and the others who knew about it were in on it, she could tell that Zach was against it.

Maura sighed.

"How much do you know about the Hydra, Zacharia?" she asked.

Zach shrugged. He knew it was a strong, nigh-mythological beast that dealt in fire, poison, death, and destruction. That was about it.

"In short, it's a nine-headed, overgrown snake, with each of its nine heads representing an Aspect of its power. One of those heads carries the Aspect of Death."

That made Zach glance at Soara, but she wasn't sure what to do about that. It wasn't like all deities of death knew each other, so she shrugged and shook her head.

Maura was a little curious about that interaction but didn't bother.

She was about to continue when Zach's eyes widened in realization.

"...It's to make the Hydra stronger?" He asked in disbelief.

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Soara's powers of death made her passively gain strength by being close to death and areas where people have died. It hadn't shown a lot over the past years, but Zach wasn't a genocidal maniac, and he hadn't gone around massacring people.

However, Soara had gained a little from it while they traveled around the Evandiel Duchy since the war broke out. But it was less than expected for a place riddled with the flames of war.

But if the Hydra had the same ability and was already connected to the land, it was understandable why Soara hadn't gained as much as they would have expected.

However, that aside, Maura was saying that it was intentional.

They hadn't stopped the war because they didn't mind the Hydra absorbing the energies of death that would come from it. And the Children of Hydra were fanning the flames because they wanted the Hydra to gain even more from it.

Zach didn't understand.

Hadn't Maura just said that the Hydra was a great disaster that they needed to stop? Why were they helping it grow stronger?

Zach's frown took on hints of anger as he looked at Maura.

She wasn't scared in the least, but she felt that she needed to correct his assumption.

"Before you do anything you regret," she said, feeling the power surging within Zach's body, "Listen to the end first.

"The Hydra is sealed. Isuls put her deep in the Labyrinth, but that wasn't all he did. He made sure she would not escape. But the seal is also there to keep her safe.

"We need the Hydra to break out of the seal so that we can kill her once and for all," Maura said.

Zach's frown deepened.

"...So, this war and all the innocent lives lost are just part of the process to hunt the Hydra?" Zach questioned, hoping for a no.

Maura nodded.

"Yeah. That's one way to put it, I guess."

Zach's eyes darkened as he looked at Maura. She did not shy away from his gaze.

"I can tell what you're thinking, Zacharia. And I can probably give you a dozen excuses and reasons for why it had to be done this way." Maura shrugged.

"But the simple answer is that it's the easiest way. Like this, we can control when the Hydra breaks free from its seal to a certain degree. Like this, we can prevent it from breaking out from the Labyrinth and laying waste to all of the east.

"It's a necessary sacrifice. The ones dying right now would only die sooner or later to the Hydra once it breaks free and escapes the Labyrinth."

Maura didn't owe Zach an explanation, but she gave it anyway since she hoped Zach would see clearly.

"Do you think that justifies it?!" Zach shouted in outrage.

Thousands of people had died and were dying because some impatient schmucks wanted to kill the Hydra on the right day of the week.

"Thousands dead! Thousands more are dying—"

"And if they weren't, it would be hundreds of thousands. Zacharia." Maura's voice silenced Zach. She interrupted him, and she was not letting him interrupt her.

"I am not seeking justification. I don't need it. But if you want to get into the worth of lives, think about yourself for a second.

"How many innocent deaths isn't your life built on? The Empire is built on a foundation of millions of lives. Half of the Evandiel wealth comes from the slaughter of countless Sesha throughout the generations. And don't get me started on your principal. Do you think he got those Titles because he's a good person who saved a lot of lives? He might be laying low right now but the blood on his hands is enough to drown a city."

The heat in Zach's eyes faded slightly.

"I…am a few generations too late to do anything about that. Call me hypocritical if you want, but this is happening right in front of me! How can I not blame the ones responsible? How can I not even try to do something about it?" He asked in a pleading tone.