Riches and Bitches: I have a gate to an isekai and leveling-up system!

Chapter 266: Colonial guilt?

"All things considered, things are moving in the right direction," I muttered to myself as I sat on a branch, within the massive crown of one of the bigger trees located right at the edge of the forest.

There was no lie or falsification in my words.

Just as I requested the afternoon before, the survivors of the army that attacked the forest were now busying themselves, collecting all the torn pieces of flesh from the wetlands.

Whenever someone would find a single torn bodypart, they would end up bringing it all the way over to a massive pile, where the torn pieces of flesh would find peace among all the corpses they've gathered on said pile before.

"A chilling sight, isn't it?" Makary muttered from below my set, where he rested his back against the side of the tree. "To see all those corpses stacked up in one place…."

"And that's merely a small fraction of those who died, for those who died in the forest…"

By now, this peculiar trait of this zone already become common news, finding its place within the new common sense of the otherworldly humans.

"Don't remind me…" Makary muttered before shaking his head a little and then raising his chin up to give me a chilling stare. "So tell me," he muttered as his expression froze on the man's face. "Why do I feel no remorse?"

Hearing the question, I nearly fell from the seat I whipped for myself from some smaller branches and a whole lot of leaves.

'So I wasn't the only one,' I thought, sensing a fair dose of relief.

"I wish to know that too," I sighed while admitting the truth. "I wonder, is this our racist side coming out… Or is this something entirely else? An influence of this world, perhaps?"

Just like with many of the questions I had regarding this world and the inner workings of the various aspects it introduced to my life, I only had my own guesses to serve as a potential explanation.

And I've already established how rarely those guesses of mine would prove to strike true the crux of the topic.

"But the fact that we feel nothing about killing humans of this world…" I muttered before pressing my lips into a thin line and turning silent.

Then, sensing how our discussion was nearing the topics that we couldn't so freely discuss out in the open without a care in the world, I breathed a long sigh before jumping down from my seat and dropping by Makary's side.

"Is this the will of this world, an incentive to make killing them easier… or something else entirely?" I posed the question out loud, only to turn silent when it came to providing an answer.

"Don't get all philosophical on me, kid," Makary muttered after sparing me just a single glance before returning to his task of watching the survivors of the human army tirelessly work on their task just a few meters ahead of us.

In the end, the princess followed through with what I requested and sent the orders that made said survivors stay as they were and focus on gathering all of the human remains in one place.

And ever since just a little while ago, right to the side of the huge pile of corpses, there was a simple, crude even, table set at the top of a huge pile of wood and dried-out undergrowth.

"Either way, it's a new reality we have no other choice but to accept," I muttered.

Just a single look at the two piles, one of human remains and the other one of mostly wood was enough to bring my mood down.

Still, even though we were somewhat cooperating for now… It was only a matter of time before the forest folk supported by the modern army would stand their ground against the onslaught of the imperial forces.

A really short time, to be honest, for there were now less than twenty-four hours before I could use my portal once again, finally completing the process of opening up a stable gate to connect the two worlds.

"Things are really going to get bloody quite soon, are they not?" Makary muttered, the expression on his face hinting at the moral dilemma he had in his mind.

'What kind of human am I if I feel no remorse when thinking about all the killing that we are about to do?' I asked myself the question this man was bound to ask himself.

A question that, for a soldier like him, had to be all the more vital.

Was it right to kill humans while helping a race that didn't exist on earth at all? Was it okay to use the overwhelming power of the modern military to bring doom to those who wanted to fight fair and square, hand to hand, to lay their lives on the stake in their bid to conquer the forest… a part of their own world?

"I hope you are not getting the colonial guilt now," I pointed out while giving the man an inquisitive stare.

It would do us no good if Makary were to break down and refuse to cooperate out of a misplaced sense of guilt. For even if we were currently helping out some locals to defend their own land from the greedy reach of the empire…

Not a single one of Makary's veterans could have a single shred of doubt that once the reinforcements arrived, we would limit our actions to just supporting the forest defenses.

No.

The investment of money and resources necessary to bring all the might of the modern world to bear was simply too great not to look for recompense somewhere within this world. And given the track record of our civilization and how our ancestors treated those who had lesser military power than them…

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"You don't need to worry about me," Makary muttered while crossing his arms over his chest. "I will do what needs to be done. What you should worry about right now, though," his mouth twitched before showing a faint hint of a smile, "is the guest that even I didn't expect to make their way over here."

Prompted by the man's words, I looked back towards the edge of the forest and then beyond the crowd of the men tirelessly working to clear the wetlands from all the human remains.

"Just look at who the winds have brought," I muttered once I locked my eyes on a small group of merely three people slowly yet steadily making their way across the plain and towards where the two piles reached out from the ground and into the sky. "I wonder what kind of trade she seeks to make today?"