Chapter 312: Want a Daughter
Serie paused slightly, then instinctively retorted, "Completely resolve it? You want to wipe the demons off this continent entirely? Impossible. The demons and monsters arise naturally from the world. As long as life exists on this land, they cannot disappear; this is the law of the world."
She believed that Kurtz wanted to carry out a complete ethnic cleansing. But that's completely impossible.
The demons' history is even older than the elves'. Moreover, we don't even know the conditions and methods under which they appeared, so how could we possibly eliminate them altogether?
Kurtz shook his head. "No, not annihilation. I'm wondering if it's possible for demons to coexist peacefully with other races, such as humans, elves, and dwarves?"
"Peaceful coexistence?" Serie almost thought she had misheard. She looked at Kurtz in disbelief. "That's even more impossible! Demons are born 'evil'. Their nature is deceptive, unempathetic, and wicked. Peaceful coexistence? That's a complete fantasy!" Her tone was filled with strong denial.
Her denial did not sway Kurtz. He patiently explained his point of view: "What you consider nature may not be unchangeable. In my opinion, the reason why demons are considered evil is that people lack an understanding of 'evil'."
"Demons are incapable of understanding emotions like compassion, pity, and love; these fundamental moral foundations are a void for them. They act on instinct, deceiving, egoistic, destroying, and killing everything in their path, neither necessarily realizing nor caring about the consequences for others."
"Elves don't fully understand human emotions either," Serie countered, recalling the initial awkwardness she felt when she first encountered Kurtz, "but we wouldn't hurt them because of that."
"It's...different, Serie. Elves have their own unique emotional system, but demons don't. They do evil not out of some moral or amoral choice, but because of their very existence, because they cannot comprehend the concept of harm as you and I do."
"Even so...," Serie still thought his idea was too far-fetched. "What do you plan to do? Don't forget, demons eat people. If I remember correctly, you almost became a meal for one all those years ago."
"Pff- Ha-ha," Kurtz nostalgically laughed, then said. "Of course not now. Right now, if I encountered a demon, I would still kill it without hesitation. I'm talking about the future, perhaps hundreds or even thousands of years from now."
"Once I fully grasp the formula for the composition of life, I plan to try studying the life formula of the demon race, to see if I can modify it slightly at its root. I'll try to enable them to understand various emotions. When they can understand what pain and loss are, perhaps they may begin to understand what empathy is, thereby suppressing their instinctive destructive desires."
Serie scoffed, her tone still full of skepticism: "Hmpf, that's too unrealistic. Leaving aside how long it would take, even if it succeeded, how can you guarantee they wouldn't use this method to become even more cunning?"
"Then we'll need to observe and guide them for a longer period of time," Kurtz readily accepted her assessment.
Unfortunately, the best research subject had already been killed by his own disciple. If he really wanted to conduct this experiment, Kurtz would have to go and find other demons.
Ideally, it would be a demon race that has undergone genetic mutation, but that's extremely rare.
"It's just a matter of taking more time. We have plenty of time, don't we? When that day really comes, perhaps the name 'Demon Race' should also be changed. For example, 'Demon People'?" he said half-jokingly.
Serie did not answer, still clearly believing Kurtz's idea was unrealistic.
The topic seems to have run its course.
Kurtz stood, walked to the window, and stood beside Serie, gazing out at the scenery. After a moment of silence, he suddenly turned his head, his gaze falling on Serie's adorable little face, and casually posed a bombshell question:
"Speaking of which, Serie, do you want a daughter?"
Serie's body visibly stiffened. Her eyes were wide open, filled with pure astonishment, as if she were completely unable to process the information she had just received.
"....What?" She instinctively asked back, her voice several decibels lower than usual and trembling slightly.
Kurtz's smile deepened slightly as he looked at her almost dazed reaction.
Having successfully resolved the hidden dangers of the Southern Unified Empire, and especially after dispelling the shadow of death that loomed over Serie's future, he felt a long-lost sense of ease and joy.
This seemingly abrupt thought arose naturally under these circumstances.
"Humans and elves cannot reproduce." Serie finally snapped out of her shock and tried to cover up her inner turmoil with the cold facts, but her slightly reddened ear tips betrayed her.
"I know." Kurtz waved his hand. "I have other ways, it's just a bit more troublesome. Don't forget my talent."
Although such a thing is a bit too outrageous, someone like Kurtz with [CREATION] can create a magic that allows people of different races to get pregnant.
Serie remained silent. She lowered her head, her hair falling down and obscuring her expression.
At this moment, her heart was in turmoil. Should I refuse?
She wanted to do this immediately, or rather, she had made it clear before that she didn't want children. But she swallowed the words back as they were about to come out.
A subtle emotion suddenly arose within her; she was unwilling to reject this man.
After a long while, she cautiously asked in a soft voice, "Why...why do you suddenly want a child?"
Instead of giving a direct yes or no answer, she tried to find out the real reason behind his surprising offer.
Kurtz gazed at her lowered head, seeing her taut, pale neck and her small hands clenched tightly on her knees.
The smile on his face slowly faded, replaced by a more serious expression. He reached out and naturally touched the tip of her ear.
An elf's ears can only be touched by the closest person, but most elves cannot understand what the closest person is, so naturally, they become a part of the body that no one else can touch.
But this seemingly taboo action made Serie's body tremble, yet she did not dodge.
"There's no particular reason; it was probably just a whim. I thought it would be very interesting to have a little one with both of our blood flowing through their veins growing up by our side in the long future."
He didn't say anything sentimental like "perpetuating the family line," and that kind of thing was completely ineffective on an elf like Serie. However, Kurtz also knew she needed time to process this.
So he didn't ask any further questions, but lowered his hand and clasped her fingers together with his, while simultaneously leaning forward to touch his forehead with hers.
Serie neither withdrew her hand nor moved her head. She was simply feeling the man's presence.
[End of Chapter]
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