英雄在塚

Those who should have lived died, and those who should have died lived. That was the final conclusion.

Thinking about why it happened, it was a matter of simple arithmetic. Killing him could save a hundred innocent souls. Of course, it was obvious that someone else would step in to fill that vacuum, but what else could be done?

If the value of life could be appraised by human heads, how should the calculation be rightly made?

The number of oppressed and persecuted souls saved, versus the number of villains killed who caused them agony. Which of these two numbers holds greater meaning? Saving, or eradicating evil. Could a human possibly judge on which side to place the inequality sign?

To those who laid down their lives, evaluation did not matter. Why did they have to live? To them, there was no 'self.' Because they regarded the lives of their brothers as their own, if a brother was in peril, they simply had to throw their own lives away to save him.

"Love your neighbor as yourself."

They merely followed unto death just to obey the first and foremost commandment.

If one raised a sword because of love, unfortunately, they also had to know the end of that sword. Just as when Peter drew his blade and was told, "Those who live by the sword will die by the sword." Yet, even so, it was fine. Even if the end was destined by the blade, if one could take just one more neck of the enemies who harm their brothers, they merely would not hesitate to stain their hands with blood. They simply chose that path. Someone had to fight, and someone had to enter the enemy camp—not to defend, but to annihilate the enemy.

How can a war end when the enemy does not vanish? When the enemy is aiming at my neck and locking my brothers in prison, I did not believe things would change by merely squatting in a corner of the house, weeping and praying. I will shatter the iron bars with my own hands to rescue them. And I wanted to grant them rest. That was all.

Even if that price demanded a vast amount of blood. Because of love.

The cowardly survivor attempts to pray like this:

"I will live on much longer to save all the rest whom you could not save. I will wipe out the enemy entirely. May God aid me."

Throwing one's body right now to save a single person. Living with a ten-year covenant to save ten thousand people. Living with the entirety of one's remaining life staked to save a nation.

The heroes are gazing from over there at those who are destined to become heroes. We become witnesses to everyone. The proof that they were heroes will be testified to by those they saved. For how much can the price of life be bartered? They lived for the sake of the most precious thing, and they are the unique entities that will shine even if all of history is extinguished.