They were gathered beneath a darkening sky, standing amid stone and ash, smoke drifting like a second ceiling over the ruined city. Fires crackled somewhere beyond the walls, but inside the courtyard there was only stillness. No banners. No music. No victory cries. Just soldiers waiting.
Aurelian stood before them.
He did not raise his voice.
"They say I am the storm,"
he began quietly.
"But storms do not choose where they strike."
"I do."
"For years they told you I was the aggressor."
"That I came with fire because I desired ruin."
"That I woke one day and decided the world should burn."
"And yet—"
He took a glance at the soldiers and continued,
"Who built fortresses on our borders?"
"Who trained armies while smiling at our diplomats?"
"Who sharpened knives while calling it peace?"
He said,
"They say I had a choice."
"So did a man with a blade at his throat."
"I warned them."
"I sent envoys."
"I offered restraint."
"I offered time."
"They laughed."
"They laughed because they believed we would never act."
"They laughed because they believed humans existed only to endure."
"To suffer."
"To serve."
"And when the fire finally came,"
Soldiers were stiffened and tensed,
"they cried out as if it were unprovoked."
"As if history began the moment they felt pain."
"They call me cruel for striking first."
"They call me a butcher."
"They call me a monster."
"But answer me this—"
He questioned,
"Is it cruelty to refuse extinction?"
"I do not wage war because I love it."
"I do not march armies because I crave blood."
No one spoke,
"I march because I understand something they never will."
"Peace that depends on your obedience is not peace."
"It is submission."
"And submission is simply extinction with better manners."
There was a dead silent on the troops. He said,
"They ask why we did not stop."
"Why we did not lower our weapons."
"Why we did not hesitate when they placed chains of flesh before us."
"They ask why humans died by human hands."
He took a deep breath,
"I will tell you why."
"Because those chains were already death."
"Because those bodies were already condemned."
"Because the moment the goblins shackled them and shoved them forward—"
"they made their choice."
"They chose to turn human lives into armor."
"They chose to turn your mercy into a weakness."
"They chose to gamble that you would value the present more than the future."
"And if we had stopped—"
"if we had lowered our weapons—"
"if we had retreated—"
"Those slaves would not be free tonight."
"They would not be alive."
"They would not be remembered."
"They would be dragged back into cages."
"Worked until their bones failed."
"Bred into chains."
"Or killed slowly to remind the rest what defiance costs."
A murmur spread through the soldiers. They were listening carefully,
"That is not mercy."
"That is delay."
"I will not pretend their deaths were painless."
"I will not dress this war in clean words."
"I will not lie to you."
"They died."
"And it hurts."
"But hear this clearly—"
"They did not die for goblin cities."
"They did not die for goblin kings."
"They did not die so their masters could rule one more year."
"They died because this world forced them into a position where death was unavoidable."
"And I refused to let that death be meaningless."
"The goblins believed they had found a shield."
"They believed they had found a way to break us."
"To fracture us."
"To turn us against ourselves."
"Today they learned something else."
"They learned that their cruelty does not command us."
"They learned that their tactics do not dictate our future."
"They learned that human freedom cannot be bought with hesitation."
"You ask if sacrifices are acceptable."
"No."
"They are inevitable."
"The question has never been whether sacrifices will be made."
"The question is who decides them."
"For centuries, the goblins decided."
"They sacrificed us to build their cities."
"They sacrificed us to power their economies."
"They sacrificed us to maintain their comfort."
"I chose to end that."
"I chose a future where humans decide their own cost."
"Where no goblin king can point at chained bodies and laugh."
"Where no human child is born into a cage because we were afraid to act."
"They will call today a massacre."
"They will carve our names into their grief."
"They will teach their children to hate us."
"Good."
"Let them remember this moment."
"Let them remember that chains stopped working."
"Let them remember that human blood no longer buys their safety."
"You think history will be kind to me?"
"It will not."
"You think they will tell this story fairly?"
"They never do."
"They will say I chose brutality."
"They will say I chose fire."
"They will say I chose to harden my heart."
"They will not say what came before."
"They will not say how many generations we endured."
"They will not say how many times we begged."
"But history does not belong to the comfortable."
"It belongs to the survivors."
"I did not choose this role because it was righteous."
"I chose it because someone had to carry the weight."
"You stand here alive."
"You stand here unchained."
"You stand here because the world now fears to use you as tools."
"That fear is the beginning of freedom."
"This—"
He paused for a moment,
"this is the price of liberation."
"And I will pay it."
He continued,
"I will pay it with my name."
"With my legacy."
"With my soul, if that is the cost."
"You are free to hate me."
"You are free to curse me."
"You are free to leave my banner when this war is done."
"But as long as you stand beneath it—"
"understand this—"
"There will be no chains."
"There will be no kneeling."
"There will be no future where humans die quietly so others may rule loudly."
"This path is paved with blood."
"I will not deny it."
"But at the end of it—"
"there will be no cages."
"That is what today bought us."
"That is what their deaths bought us."
"And I will not let this world forget it."
The soldiers were now convinced that there fellow humans sacrifices were not in vain. They didn't died for goblins and their Kingdom, they died for humans and their liberation.