Proofreader: M_W Miss Fierce

The moment Madam Silva fly away far from their sights, everyone immediately looked at each other.

"Should we leave or continue with this evacuation?" Cassandra was the first one who asked everyone what they should do. Leaving the civilians behind wasn't yet something she, or the majority present here, can easily choose to do without any problem like Queen Maria and Madam Silva. That's why she needed the others to also decide on what to do.

"I vote on we should continue! Just like what I've said, we are already halfway done with this operation, hence we should still be able to finish it before the Black organization decides to activate the trap." Elizabeth still clings on to the chance that they can save every civilian at the relocation area. But deep in her mind, she was conflicted as it involved her own life.

"I vote that we should just abandon everything here. Let's just face the truth here, you might say that you want to save all the civilians, but deep inside all of you, you also want to not die while saving the civilians. Anyways, we have already saved half of them." Angel said while gritting her teeth before turning around and walking away, showing that she doesn't care about the deaths of the civilians and that she doesn't want to wait for all of them to reply.

Angel was an elite of the Sword and Magic, specifically someone who has gone with plenty of elite training already and completed all of it successfully, so she had long grown up to be aware of the saying that weak people can only choose to run away when they can't handle the situation and only the strong ones have the right to rewrite their own Fate or the other people's Fate. Of course, she really hates such a choice, since deep in her heart she believes that saving all the civilians was the right thing to do. After all, it's the responsibility of the strong to protect the weak, right? And this was also what the books have written of how the Human race has survived 50 years after being transported into the Celestial World. But what can she do? She has her own life as well, just like the civilians, and now that her own life is being threatened, choosing to abandon the others for her own good is just a reasonable thing to do, or more appropriately the only thing a weak person like her could choose to do.

"....." Veronica was unable to say a word after seeing Angel's reaction. In her heart, she wants to save all the civilians as well, but her mind was constantly telling her otherwise, that she should not do something she is incapable of doing.

In the next second, Veronica followed after Angel, while gritting her teeth and clenching her hand, to the point that blood eventually starting flowing on her fingers and started dripping to the ground. This was already the second time that she felt a sense of powerlessness and helplessness, and she absolutely hates it. This just made her even more determined to become powerful.

"Angel is correct, let's just face the truth that what we really care about right now is our own lives." Ash also turned around and followed after the two, while also gritting her teeth and clenching her hand.

Seeing Angel, Veronica, and even Ash leaving, almost all of their men also choose to stop and follow after them to leave, not intending to sacrifice their life in exchange for saving a bunch of civilians. This also includes Chief Lago, Sebastian, Dan, Sele, old man Torre, Jeffrey, Matt, Venice, and Number One to Number Ten as well.

In the end, all of Leo's men finally choose the same, leaving only Cassandra, Elizabeth, Charlotte, and the rest of Silver royal family's soldiers who choose to betray back at the west wall.

But looking closely at all of those people who choose to leave right now, their heads were lowered down, obviously feeling guilty and ashamed of their choice.

Inside the minds of those who left, if Leo has ordered them to save all the civilians no matter what, or even if it was only all of Leo's woman instead that came into an agreement, then they would of course follow the order, even if they were against it inside their own minds since such decision was the right decision to choose. But since even their Leaders were feeling unwilling about saving the civilians, hence they naturally followed after them.

At the side, Charlotte suddenly shook her head as she said, "Truthfully speaking, I want to save all the civilians and I'm not feeling conflicted about my own decision. I also know that saving them is the right thing to do in my heart. But unfortunately, in the end, saving all the civilians with only us and the remaining others is impossible, and not to mention its something we are incapable of doing as of now..."

"Yeah..." Cassandra and Elizabeth both agreed with Charlotte's words. That was the truth, with their current number right now and capability, even if they indeed choose to stay, it would still be deemed useless, and in the end, they would just die once the Black organization detonates their trap in Silver city.

"HOWEVER!" Charlotte suddenly exclaimed loudly, causing everyone who was currently leaving to turn their heads to look at her, which also made the already walking Angel, Veronica, and Ash to stop in their footsteps, "This is still not the end!! A situation like this would definitely repeat in the future, especially since all of us here have chosen to follow after Leo. But promise me here right now, or even just promise yourselves, that when that time comes, ALL OF US HERE WILL NOT REPEAT THE SAME CHOICE THAT WE MADE TODAY!! That when that time comes, ALL OF US HERE WILL NO LONGER FEEL THE SENSE OF POWERLESSNESS AND HELPLESSNESS THAT WE ARE FEELING TODAY!!"

Charlotte turned to look at everyone who has chosen to walk away and abandoned the civilians, "DO YOU ALL UNDERSTAND ME?!!"

Hearing Charlotte's question, everyone raised their fist high up in the air and replied in unison, "YES!!"

"Then all of us here right now should leave this place with our heads held up high, not down, not feeling ashamed nor guilty for abandoning the weak, or more precisely, for abandoning the correct choice!" Charlotte said with a smile on her face before leading everyone up in front.

Cassandra and Elizabeth who were completely against this choice gritted their own teeth while also clinching their hands, but eventually in the end they let go and held their heads up high, and finally followed after everyone.

All of them who were leaving have sworn in their hearts, that one day, when a situation similar to these repeats, then they would all be able to choose to save everyone.

In the end, even the Silver royal family's soldiers also choose to follow behind as they don't have any choice left. If they stayed and save all the civilians, then they would all die with the civilians. But if they choose to leave and abandoned the civilians, then they would have a chance in the future to redeem their sins.

All of those nearby civilians who were still lining up as they weren't yet taken to the relocation area outside the Silver city were able to hear Cassandra and everyone's words, causing their face to darken and despair. The message was also being passed from one civilian to another.

The next moment, when everyone arrived nearby the lining civilians, they didn't bother hiding their real intention of abandoning them and just keep on walking.

The civilians who already knew about what they were doing soon after started throwing curses and some random stuff they could pick up on the ground.

"All of you started this war, and even gave all of us hope that we will be saved, but yet in the end you're just abandoning us like we don't matter at all?! Shame in all of you!"

"Cowards!!"

"Weaklings!!"

"A bunch of trash!!"

"Get out from our sights!!"

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Rocks, woods, or even pieces of glass shards from the broken window pale rained down on Cassandra and everyone else leaving. But they didn't turn their heads or even retaliated.

"Fuck you!!" A muscular man throws a punch on Matt's face.

Bang!

Matt stopped after receiving the punch and turned to look at that muscular man, but instead of punching back, he only showed a smile and even grabbed that man's wrist and right after guided the hand to punch his own face, voluntarily, while tears were falling down from his face as he silently muttered, "For... forgive me... but... I really cannot save you... please just go on and save yourself... I'm really sorry... sorry... sorry..."

Pak!

"Bitch!" A woman who was breastfeeding a baby walked forward and slap Venice's cheeks. And the same action as what Matt had done, Venice also grabbed that woman's wrist and right after guiding the hand to slap her face, tears also falling down as she muttered, "We... we have no choice..."

A kid from the side grabbed a rock and throw it straight at Jeffrey's face.

Bang!

Jeffrey's face then started bleeding after being hit by a rock, causing him to stop walking and picked up that rock, which caused that kid to step back in fear that Jeffrey might just throw the rock right back at him for revenge.

But in the end, Jeffrey walked in front of the kid, then he half-kneeled on the ground, before returning the rock to the kid with a smile on his face. He patted the kid's head as he said with tears slowly forming in his eyes, "I'm very sorry young boy that I cannot save you. But you can still save yourself, so just run away from here, or even just follow behind us. Hehehe, don't worry, in the future, I won't allow another kid like you to die..."

After saying that, Jeffrey then stood up and returned to his formation, just like what Matt and Venice had done.

Aside from Matt, Venice, and Jeffrey, a few others also received a punch, a kick, even being spit to their faces, and something much worse, but they didn't bother retaliating and instead just shown a smile, apologized, told them to save themselves, and returned back to the retreating formation.

They all know that what they are doing right now was wrong. But instead of denying it and consoling themselves with hypocritical words, they choose to face those people they have done wrong instead and apologize in front of them while still continuing with the wrong decision.

This was the price that the weak people would pay. And being abandoned and thrown aside is also the price to pay by those weaker kinds of people.

It is indeed such an unfortunate thing to do, but since all of them simply wanted to save their own lives and were also incapable of saving others because of being weak, then abandoning the people weaker than them to save themselves is not a wrong thing to do, but rather a correct choice is given their own situation right now.

They would all definitely feel guilty, ashamed, and even regret after choosing this choice, but in the end, everything still depends on their own strength. And right now, they, unfortunately, don't have the strength to save everyone and could only save themselves.