Obviously, there was only a single option there that I cared about choosing.

I chose to capture the settlement.

The starting food was great. The starting science was even better. But the labor was absolutely horrible, which I knew was going to be a downside of that location anyways.

The happiness was also low, but that was to be expected when it came to conquering a new settlement. I doubted that those we conquered were happy about it.

More importantly, considering that it already had a unit of population there, I was curious about who they were. Fortunately, I was able to open up a communication window with each of the other settlements from the Council Pavilion.

And when I opened it up, I saw the damaged tents from the battle, bodies on the ground that didn’t immediately disappear after the battle was over, and only a few remaining Viking Elves. They were dressed like regular people—well, regular as in they looked like how I would expect fantasy Viking Elves to casually dress outside of combat.

Once they noticed the communication window, one of them, a man with short, red hair, walked up to it and stared straight at me.

He didn’t say anything. He didn’t do anything.

He just stared at me.

It was kind of awkward. It was probably made even more awkward by the fact that I had celebrations going on behind me while he had death and destruction behind him.

“I’ll give you a choice,” I told him. “I have no interest in forcing you to work for me.”

It was a simple opening, but it was one that clearly surprised him. I doubted that he expected that after being conquered. Especially considering the culture that he was from which was all about battle, apparently.

“Once I queue up instructions for your settlement, you’re going to be forced to obey me and carry out the orders. I don’t want to do that unless you consent it like everybody here has. Unfortunately, the only way out for you is to die. So. Disregard how evil this is going to sound, but I’m giving you two choices. You can either join us, be treated as an equal, and fight for a better future for everybody, or you can die before I give any orders. Either you can kill yourselves or the Volcano Hounds up there can kill you. If you choose the latter, I will make sure that they make your deaths as quickly and painless as possible.”

“What… are you talking about?” the man asked, finally speaking up.

“Freedom. I wish I could give you more options, but those are the only two I have for you. I need to win which means giving that settlement orders, which means, unfortunately, forcing anybody living there to obey them. The only way for you to not be forced to obey my orders is to die and return to your own world. That’s as much freedom as I’m able to offer you.”

“You would… give us a choice? You slay our people and conquer our land, then want us to choose between willingly serving you or returning home?”

“That’s right. It’s not too complicated.”

“Why would you even give us a choice?”

“Because I believe in freedom. Even if this is a ‘game,’ you’re still real, living people partaking in it. I have no interest in forcing others to serve our cause. You can either join us and be an equal, share your culture with us, and help us by consenting to following any orders I give, or you can die and return home.”

“I have never heard of such foolishness.”

“What would you do if you were in my position?”

“Me? I… would not even think about the will of those I have conquered. The only one’s whose say matters is the conqueror’s. The conquered’s only use is to serve.”

“Winner takes all, huh?”

“There are those who conquer and those who get conquered, and to be a member of the latter is nothing but shameful.”

“Then would you consider your current situation shameful? After all, we’ve conquered your settlement.”

“Yes. Unbelievably shameful. Even if I did not get to participate in the battle, I feel ashamed for even belonging to a group that has lost so easily. There was no honor in our defeat.”

“Then what are you going to do?”

The man paused for a moment and closed his eyes as if to think about it before opening them and looking straight into my eyes with renewed determination. “The conqueror is offering the conquered a position of equal power at their side. Dying in anything but a great battle is already shameful enough, but rejecting the opportunity to fight among the powerful is even more pathetic. For that reason, I would be honored to fight among your people.”

There was a lot that I was going to have to work with when it came to him and the others like him. Even with their consent, their warmongering culture and belief that the conquerors have utter dominion over the conquered wasn’t to mesh well with our ideals. It reminded me of the people who believed the Native Americans deserved what happened to them because they lost in a fight that was never fair in the first place.

There was no honor in our victory. We overwhelmed a brand-new settlement with superior forces, and those who tried to flee were cut down. There was nothing honorable about that. No glory to be found. It was simply a necessary measure we had to take to improve our chances of winning.

I was sure that we were going to butt heads, but I would rather them not have to go through the pain of dying, and I would like to work together with as many different peoples as possible. The more diverse we could grow our faction, the better off we’d be through unique technologies, different races that combo’ed with different unit types better, and ideas in general.

So, even though I knew there would be some ideological differences in need of working through, I nodded and held a hand out as if to shake his despite that not being possible through the screen. “Then welcome. I’m glad to have you with us.”

“And I’m glad to be on the side of the conquerors,” he replied.