Traveling through time, I'm making pancakes in Warhammer

Chapter 285 Kindness and Cruelty

A few days ago, when Howard warned May not to fight against fate, the Eldar had asked in return:

If fate has doomed us to destruction, can we not resist?

And now, when Howard admonished the nun to "not abandon your humanity," the nun asked a similar question:

"But there are many wars that we will lose if we are not ruthless. What should we do in such times?"

"Cruelness and upholding humanity are not in conflict, but you cannot make cruelty a habit and a goal," Howard replied.

The nun still looked puzzled. So Howard had to explain further:

"People in my hometown say that kind people can't lead troops into war, because the enemy will take advantage of your kindness. For example, if you care about the people, when you defend your city, the enemy will drive the people to your gate to use as human shields. Kindness exploited by the enemy is a fatal weakness."

"As you said, in many wars of the Empire, there may not be enough time to evacuate innocent people, and sacrifices may often be made. This is the same."

“That’s why generals fighting in wars must put aside their mercy and even be cruel, but they must know why they are being cruel.”

"Many generals of the Empire regard cruelty and sacrifice as glory. Their duty is to bring victory to the Empire, but the essence of the Empire is its people. The ultimate goal of bringing victory to the Empire is to allow the people of the Empire to live a better life."

"However, these generals only see their own duties, but fail to see the reasons behind their duties. They often even put the cart before the horse. Sacrifice should be a last resort, but some always regard it as a prerequisite for victory."

"Perhaps in the eyes of some, reality and ideals are separated by a sea of blood. Unsure how to reach the other side of their ideals, they decide to create this sea of blood, believing it to be a prerequisite for achieving their ideals. Don't you think these people are absurd?" Howard said. "And in today's empire, people holding such absurd ideas are everywhere."

"If I were put in a war like the one you described, where 'victory is impossible without sacrifice,' I would probably make the same decision as those imperial generals. However, before making a sacrifice, I would think twice and confirm whether it was the last resort. After the war, I would summarize the experience and lessons learned and try my best to avoid such a situation."

"Many Imperial generals, however, are different. This time, they sacrificed themselves to achieve victory, but instead of learning from their experience, they saw sacrifice as a useful tactic. The first sacrifice was forced, but they tasted the sweetness of it. So, the next time, perhaps even before the situation was dire, they'd start sacrificing lives for the sake of convenience. What's the difference between them and demons? Most demons probably haven't killed as many people as they have."

"Useless sacrifice may seem to bring immediate victory, but in the long run, it will only breed more despair and strengthen the enemy."

"I heard that an Imperial Inquisitor, in order to combat the xenomorphs, issued extermination orders to dozens of sectors, regardless of their colleagues' objections, without any solid theoretical basis, simply for the sake of experimentation. The goal was to create a buffer zone to isolate the xenomorphs, but in the end, it still didn't stop them. So, were the lives of those dozens of sectors a 'necessary price to pay,' Sister?"

When Howard said these words, even he was surprised. He never thought that he could have such insight and clarity.

But in the next second he smiled with relief, because strictly speaking these were not his opinions, he was just a narrator, and he would not arrogantly think that just because he said these words, these thoughts were his own credit.

This world is not a world of illiterate people where you can shock the whole audience by reciting a few lines of ancient poetry.

But the principles he talked about were not just "random ancient poems", but the crystallization of thoughts that had been verified by countless predecessors and obtained in blood and fire.

Howard's words contained some extremely important secrets of the empire, secrets that even the nuns did not fully understand, but this mortal knew them clearly as if he had experienced them personally.

But the nun did not ask him how he knew all this. After spending these days together, the nun had become accustomed to the mystery of this mortal man. Even if he knew more secrets, the nun would not be surprised and would not ask questions.

Because she knew that if she could speak, this mortal would take the initiative to explain to her, and if this mortal did not want to explain, it would be useless for her to ask.

"I... I seem to understand." Finally, the nun raised her head again, and the confusion in her eyes dissipated a lot.

Then she wanted to say something, but Howard asked first:

"have you eaten?"

Nun: “Huh?”

"Try what I made." Howard pushed the plate of pancakes in front of the nun.

"Thank you, but no." The nun rejected Howard's kindness: "Unless I need to replenish my energy for battle, I don't have the habit of eating outside of specific times."

"Try it! This food is called Jianbing Guozi, and I'm the only one in the world who can make it... It should be like this... So many people want to eat it but can't!" Howard persuaded the nun again.

The nun looked intently at the food on the plate. Although it was a kind of food she had never seen before, she did not see anything unusual in the ingredients or cooking methods. Just from these two points of analysis, the nun could already imagine the taste of the food.

But she looked at Howard's beaming expression again and became suspicious.

Judging from Howard's performance, this seemingly ordinary food called "Jianbing Guozi" did not seem so ordinary, but the nun could not figure out what was so unusual about it for a long time.

Forget it.

The nun thought.

In this situation, he has no reason to harm himself. This human being at most added some strange seasonings to it in order to give him a little trouble. So let him get his wish this time.

So the nun picked up the knife and fork, cut off a small piece of pancake, put it into her mouth, and chewed it carefully and meticulously.

She was prepared for the sudden spicy or sour taste to explode in her mouth, but as she chewed, her eyes suddenly lit up.

"good to eat!"

The nun gave a fairly intuitive first impression, but then she also raised a question:

“It’s weirdly delicious…”

The nun cut another piece and put it in her mouth. She was not being greedy, but was confirming her feelings.

"It's really strange..." After swallowing the pancake, her expression showed more confusion than ever. "According to common sense, these ingredients can't be combined to create this kind of flavor... And what exactly it tastes like... I don't know how to describe it... What did you put in it?"

Asking the nun to describe the taste of the pancake was like asking her to answer the question "What is an empire" before. It should have been an answer that she could come up with without hesitation, but after thinking carefully, she couldn't utter a single word.

"There's nothing here," Howard said. "All the materials are what you see."

"How did you do that?" the nun asked.

"Hehe!" Howard smiled at the nun. "I don't know. It might be a talent I was born with... I'm not kidding. I wonder how many people are lining up to eat the pancakes I make!"