Chapter 247: Sacrifice I

A female voice emerged from his wristwatch.

"Was all of this necessary?"

Gia’s question hung in the air, accusatory despite the neutral tone she tried to maintain.

"You knew about the presence of this soul fragment and that cube from the very start. You could have prevented everything. Thousands of innocent lives wouldn’t have been lost. Eleanor would still be alive. Those children wouldn’t be trapped in a hostile dimension."

The Chairman’s lips twitched slightly – not quite a smile, but acknowledgment that Gia was right.

Indeed.

The Chairman had known from the very moment Eleanor brought that cube to the Capitol.

There were very few things that could remain secret from him within the boundaries of humanity’s capital city.

The soul fragment had been confident it would eventually be discovered – such entities always were – but when days passed without action, when the Chairman seemed oblivious to its presence, it had grown arrogant.

’Perhaps his understanding of laws aren’t strong.’

Foolish assumption that had just cost it everything.

The Chairman finally moved, walking slowly toward the alley’s entrance where faint moonlight was beginning to illuminate the destroyed cityscape beyond.

His hands remained in his pockets, his posture relaxed, his voice carrying the weight of someone who’d thought deeply about decisions that would haunt lesser men.

"Humans are inherently selfish, Gia. They don’t care about problems unless those problems affect their lives directly."

He gestured vaguely toward the north.

"The Northern Region is better in this regard. They have portals everywhere, constant Monster attacks and genuine daily threats to survival. Sure, there are some terrorist organisations causing trouble as well. But people there have unity born from necessity. They understand that division means death."

His voice became colder.

"The other regions? They’ve become comfortable and soft. Divided along lines that would be laughable if they weren’t so destructive. Nobles and commoners fighting over power while the real enemies grow stronger in the world beyond the portal they pretend doesn’t exist."

The moonlight caught his face now, showing features that appeared middle-aged but carried the weight of far more years.

"This artifact the Monsters created... this ability to open portals deliberately rather than waiting for random rifts... it will instill fear across our entire world. The understanding that nowhere is safe. That they can strike anywhere, anytime, without warning."

He turned slightly, looking back at where Victor’s ash continued drifting in the breeze.

"If I had simply killed the soul fragment, seized the cube, and announced what I’d discovered to the Federation... it would have generated reports, discussions and political debates about resource allocation for scientific research and defensive strategies."

His voice dropped lower, carrying absolute certainty.

"But it wouldn’t have generated the visceral terror and rage needed to actually unite people. It wouldn’t have made Nobles and commoners look at each other and see fellow humans instead of class enemies."

Gia’s response came after a long pause, her synthesized voice somehow conveying disapproval.

"So you deliberately waited... You watched that soul fragment possess Eleanor, knowing it would act eventually. You let it proceed unchecked, knowing thousands would die when it finally struck."

"I waited for a long time," the Chairman confirmed without shame or hesitation.

His voice became harder.

"No matter where or when it chose to open that portal, the Capitol remains under my absolute control. Everything in this city exists within my observation. No Monsters establishing pathways to our world would have survived their arrival."

The confidence he radiated wasn’t arrogance – it was a simple statement of fact from someone who’d defended humanity’s heart for longer than most people had been alive.

Gia’s voice cut through his explanation with unusual sharpness.

"What about what happened afterward? Thousands of people including Eleanor died because that soul fragment chose to self-destruct her core. You could have prevented–"

"Eleanor had been getting too close to Imperial families."

The Chairman interrupted smoothly, his tone suggesting he’d already considered and dismissed any moral concerns about her death.

"While serving as a Federation cabinet member, she’d become compromised politically. Taking bribes wasn’t even subtle about it anymore. She disqualified the Murdock girl from this tournament specifically because Arthur Cross requested it – not because of any legitimate rule concerns."

He continued walking, his footsteps echoing in the destroyed streets.

"There’s a difference between diplomatic relationship-building and being completely in someone’s pocket. Eleanor crossed that line years ago. I’d been looking for an acceptable way to remove her from her position without creating political chaos."

His lips curved into something that might have been a smile if it had contained any warmth.

"The soul fragment solved that problem for me. Now she’s a martyr who was sadly possessed by an enemy. Her corruption becomes irrelevant, her political compromises forgotten. The Federation Cabinet seat opens for someone more... reliable."

"And the thousands of other people who died?"

Gia pressed, her voice carrying genuine emotion now.

"The children who lost parents? The elderly who died watching a tournament? Were they also politically convenient sacrifices?"

The Chairman stopped walking, standing silhouetted against the moonlight, his shadow stretching across rubble that still smoldered.

"It’s sad," he said quietly, and for the first time his voice carried something approaching genuine sorrow. "Every death is a tragedy. Every family torn apart represents failure on some level."

But then his tone hardened again, controlling his own emotions as if it had become a habit.

"But it was necessary. Nobles and commoners are too divided. Our internal conflicts weaken us more than any external threat. And how do we unite groups that have hated each other for generations? How do we make them see beyond class warfare?"

He turned to look directly at his wrist where Gia resided.

"We unite them through shared trauma, through common enemies and most importantly through hate directed outward instead of inward."

His voice became almost lecturing, like a teacher explaining fundamental principles to a slow student.

"Thousands died today – Nobles and commoners alike, killed without discrimination by an enemy that sees no difference between them. Victor Cross, eldest son of one of the thirteen Imperial families, dead alongside nameless commoner children. Equality achieved through tragedy."