Villain : I reincarnated as a Prince! Shouldn't I have a Harem?

"Can we proceed with trial Young Lord?" The eldest tribe-head questioned after explaining the rules of the trial to Ashen.

Ashen didn't answer, instead, he contemplated:

So this means only one of these children who are participating in this trial will come back alive and all others will simply die.

Glancing at Yan Li, he continued:

Meaning Yan Li will die too!

Should I interfere in this or let it continue?

As this thought came into his mind, his eyes widened:

Wait! Why do I care if he lives or dies?

It's his decision in the first place to participate in this trial.

He should be the one to suffer the consequences.

Making up his mind, he answered to the tribe-head: "You can proceed with the trial!"

The tribe-head let out a sigh of relief before stepping forward to address the gathered children in the ring.

"Young warriors, I know you might be afraid, but, you should know that even your death won't be in vain. It would help in brightening up the future for our tribes!"

"I wish each one of you luck and may the blessing of the Blood Demon God be with you!"

"You all are already familiar with the rules of the trial, so without any delay, I announce the commencement of the Warrior's Trial!"

"Begin!"

As soon as 'Begin' escaped his mouth, the children divided themselves into three groups.

The three groups were composed of children from their respective tribes.

Their plan was simple, first eliminate the other tribes before fighting among themselves.

It was a repeated pattern that was seen in each year's trial.

Yan Li wielded the long sword that he had brought in his hand as he stuck together with other children from his tribe.

They were normal children right now since they hadn't even awakened their spirit. They could only fight in groups while covering for each other's weaknesses.

The children were divided into an equal number of groups, with each group containing nine children.

Previously it was difficult to distinguish between these children but now that they have divided, it was much easier to find a similarity in the children belonging to the same tribe.

They wore color-coordinated attire: Yan Li's tribe dressed in yellow, while the other two tribes wore red and orange, respectively.

The three groups were in a stalemate with no one making the first move. Since there were three groups, the first attack had to be coordinated to make sure that the remaining tribe wouldn't take advantage of the two groups fighting.

While the stalemate was going on, Feng Xue approached Ashen as she asked: "How can you let this inhuman trial continue? Young children fighting to kill each other, is that even human? Anyone can see that this is wrong!"

Then she continued: "I thought you liked Yan Li. You even made his siblings your brother and sister. Was that all an act? Are you going to let him die like this?"

"So what do you suggest I should do?" Ashen asked with an indifferent expression.

"Save him of course! Also, forbid this trial from taking place in the future. You have that much authority as a Prince right?"

"And why would I do that?" Ashen questioned calmly without even glancing at her.

"Huh? Isn't that obvious? Because this is wrong! This whole trial is evil! Even for a demonic tribe, letting children kill each other is crossing the line!"

"Sigh..." Ashen turned his gaze to Feng Xue before explaining: "See Feng Xue, Although I have the power to stop this, but that doesn't mean I should!"

"Everyone has the right to decide as to how they'd live, I can't be the one to take away that freedom just because I have the power to do so!"

"Also, It was Yan Li who decided to participate in the trial. It is their culture and this is how things are done in the north. You shouldn't judge everything from your own perspective. Try to see it from their perspective too!"

"What is the need for this trial? Think about that! They also don't want to kill their own tribes' children in a useless trial! They are in need of strength, for which they are ready to sacrifice their children!"

"People with strength like you and me, may have it difficult to understand how weak feel, but you shouldn't come in their way just because you think this is wrong!"

"If you want to stop this trial, then come up with an alternative. Fulfill their need for which they hold this trial, that would be truly helping them!"

"It is easy to tell that robbery is wrong and one shouldn't do it. People in power will even stop them, but once you are starving, you don't have any other alternative other than to rob!"

"If you don't understand, then you can go ask the tribe-head about why they hold this trial. I'm sure he will explain it better!"

Though Feng Xue was in awe at how mature Ashen sounded just now, however, instead of expressing her surprise, she decided to follow Ashen's advice: "Alright, I'll go and ask him!"

She went and asked the Tribe-head. The tribe-head was happy to see someone was actually curious about their ritual, instead of simply calling it evil.

"Young Lady, I'm sure the Xue Mo Tribe is known as a demonic tribe to the outside world, however, that is not true for the whole tribe. It is true that there are demonic cultivators here who commit demonic acts, however, that is not true for the majority of people!"

"We are like any other tribe in the world, however, our situation is different from the others. We would also not like to hold this trial every year and lose our dear children who can be the support of the tribe in the future, however, our situation compels us to resort to this method."

"Huh? What situation?" Feng Xue asked.

"Since you are not from the north, you may not know, but not every tribe in the north has similar territories!"

"We so-called demonic tribes have barren territories with not much land to grow crops and other resources. And with each year, this fertile land reduces in area!"

"As you know, the cultivators below the core-formation realm cannot survive without food. They cannot use qi to keep their bodies functioning without food!"

"And us three tribes doesn't have a single core-formation realm expert! Due to this, we have no choice but to attack the bordering righteous clans for food and territory!"

"And to do that, we need stronger cultivators! You also know that a strong cultivator can only be someone who can awaken a higher-level spirit!"

"You need atleast a 4-star spirit to even dream of reaching the core-formation realm. Instead of having more mouths to feed and low-level spirit cultivators, we decided to use this method that guarantees that the spirit awakened will be above 3-star atleast!"

"With that, atleast we won't have useless mouths to feed!" He said with a solemn expression

-----------------------------------

(A/N - Thanks for reading. ^..^)