Marvel: A Lazy-Ass Superman

Chapter 735: Chapter 735: Leave It to Fate

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Alexei still remembered the beginning of Henry’s story very clearly. After all, the Sparrow prototype had been in his hands. When Henry first created the Sparrow spy drones, he had even come to Alexei to ask for his opinion.

He suddenly realized the connection.

”So that’s what you meant back then when you said you wanted to find the mastermind behind the kid’s pranks on you. That kid was the one you’ve adopted now. ...Wait a second!”

Alexei looked at Henry strangely.

”That kid was also someone you brought out of the sewers. You were willing to help her back then, so why, when you encountered someone else who needed help this time, did you not even bother to take a look?”

”Can those really be considered the same thing?” Henry said disdainfully. ”I’ve already told you. After seeing so many people die, I don’t believe the ones who survived are necessarily good people.

”I only adopted Skye because I happened to see her. To be honest, I’ve been thinking back to your suggestion at the time. Maybe I should’ve just grabbed the kid, beaten her up, and forced her to tell me what I wanted to know. Wouldn’t that have saved me a lot of trouble?”

Alexei didn’t understand Henry’s logic.

”So, to you, people aren’t all the same?”

”Of course they’re not. Your two daughters are Natasha and Yelena, right? I’m not even going to ask you which one you’d save first if they both fell into the water.

”But if Yelena and a complete stranger fell into the water, who would you save first?”

”That’s different. I already know Yelena, and I have an emotional bond with her. Faced with that choice, of course I’d make sure my younger daughter was safe first. But what about you? Before you met Skye, wasn’t she also a stranger to you?”

Henry elaborated, ”But because of a momentary impulse, I chose to investigate what was happening behind her. And because of another momentary impulse, I ended up causing the death of a girl, something I deeply regretted.

”So when I encountered a similar situation again, I chose not to let the child continue down the path of corruption, and instead brought her home. Though I have to emphasize that at the time, I thought she was a boy. If I’d known she was a girl, I might have made a different choice.

”This time, when I saw so many people trapped in danger, I don’t blame them for wanting to survive. But I despise the methods they may have chosen. So I ignored their stories, even though there might have been people among them who had suffered just like Skye and genuinely deserved help.

”Aside from the sheer number of people making me feel powerless, after hearing what you saw, I realized I wasn’t wrong to look down on them. I don’t feel the slightest bit guilty about choosing not to help them.

”Of course, saying all this now sounds a bit like hindsight.

”But what I’m trying to say is that the initial impulse behind a decision ultimately leads to different choices. In Eastern culture, this is called yuanfen—fate or affinity. Skye and I had a connection; the people who came afterward and I did not. I’m simply following the path that fate laid out.

”It’s not because this child suffered that I felt responsible for her and believed I had to save her. If that were true, wouldn’t I have to shoulder responsibility for making sure everyone on Earth had enough to eat and stay warm?

”That would be incredibly arrogant, wouldn’t it?”

Alexei stared at him, dumbfounded.

”Simply put, whether you help someone or not depends on how you feel. You don’t actually have any standard for it. Right?”

Henry answered very seriously, ”How is that based on my mood? Buddha said, ’All things arise from conditions and cease with conditions; all phenomena are impermanent.’ I’m simply leaving everything to fate.”

After Henry’s lengthy explanation, Alexei was completely bewildered.

He turned to the person beside him and complained, ”Why do I feel like this guy is clearly spouting sophistry, but somehow I can’t argue against him?”

Someone quite unexpected answered his question.

Gilgamesh said, ”What he’s saying isn’t sophistry. But Henry’s fundamental philosophy is definitely different from yours, which is why it sounds so strange to you. Put simply, you’re two different kinds of people.”

Henry stared at the muscular man, who was considerably taller than him.

Gilgamesh glared back unhappily.

”What are you thinking? Do you assume that because I’m physically strong, I have to be an idiot?”

”No, no... Fine, I apologize. But I still have to say, that really surprised me.”

Henry said, ”I’ve met more people skilled in sophistry than you could possibly imagine. It’s not like I see one and immediately beat him unconscious.”

Cassandra teasingly turned to Tina.

”Now I’m suddenly curious. If Henry and Socrates sat down together, who would surrender first? Somehow, I feel like the two of them would be evenly matched.”

Tina answered seriously, ”I don’t know which of them would surrender first. But I know I’d surrender pretty quickly just listening to them from the side.”

”Exactly.”

The two women, perfectly in sync, happily clinked their beers and drained them.

The Red Guardian was still struggling between his own beliefs and Henry’s seemingly twisted logic.

Cassandra turned back to Henry.

”So, how are you planning to deal with the other Skye problem? The Black girl who died.”

Henry had just finished a beer and grabbed another one. He took a long gulp.

”Honestly, I don’t know either. Although I managed to take this coin from Mephisto, I don’t know whether it’s actually useful.

”Judging from what happened when we met the second time, this really could be Skye’s soul. But I have absolutely no idea how to save her.

”I even tried taking it to a church. But most priests lost interest as soon as they saw that it wasn’t legal tender or some kind of precious metal.”

Cassandra asked, ”The second time you met?”

”The time you saw me talking to him. If the coin were completely irrelevant, he wouldn’t have bothered responding to me, would he?

”But I can’t rule out the possibility that he deliberately misled me, making me think the coin was important when the real bargaining chip is still in his hands.”

”After all, he’s a demon,” Cassandra said with a sigh.

”Do any of you have a way to deal with it?” Henry asked.

”Can I take a look?”

”Of course.”

Cassandra picked up the coin from the table.

There were strange patterns on both sides, with some of the markings resembling writing. Unfortunately, she couldn’t understand any of them.

She shook her head, indicating that there was nothing she could do.

Cassandra handed the coin to Tina, who passed it to Gilgamesh. The two Eternals reached the same conclusion.

After returning the coin to Henry, Gilgamesh asked, ”Have you tried looking for a sorcerer? I remember the most powerful group of sorcerers on Earth is the Masters of the Mystic Arts at Kamar-Taj, near the Himalayas. I think that place is in Nepal now.”

At the mention of those people, Henry’s expression became complicated.

”Kamar-Taj, huh? I’m afraid that if I see the people there, I’ll accidentally beat them to death, and if I see the place itself, I’ll tear it apart.

”So let’s forget about that.”

”You have a grudge against them? Then what about the Vatican? They’ve become more secular these days, but there should still be some genuinely capable people at the core.”

Henry said, ”I don’t have a good way to contact people like that. And I’m worried that if they see something connected to a demon, they’ll simply try to destroy it without asking any questions.

”I’m not trying to bring Skye back to life. In fact, I don’t want that either.

”Letting her find her final peace is the only compensation I can offer her.

”I don’t want to leave her soul as a plaything for a demon, nor do I want the Church to simply destroy her.”

Gilgamesh sighed to his companions.

”Henry’s concerns aren’t entirely unreasonable. When those people go crazy, they really go crazy. They can’t even understand ordinary human speech.”

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