“Why do you choose Death before Dishonor?”
Alex’s face twisted into a mixture of confusion of shock as he kept reading the book. He had taken an interest in human history recently, but some things about it confused him. First of all, all of the landmasses on earth were divided into regions called countries, which were all lead by a political leader. That didn’t make much sense, back on Coluberia, the only land anyone was in charge of was the land immediately around their place of residence. Second, every other year it seemed that two or more of these countries would blow all of their resources to fight one another in something called a war for vaguely defined reasons, resulting in tons of pointless death. On his planet, even the biggest and most bitter conflict would usually die down before anyone died, or even got seriously injured. Although, to be fair, on his planet, fights were usually about who was intruding on someone else’s property.
One thing that shocked Alex above all else was the fact that in some of these countries, surrendering was seen as a crime punishable by death. So Alex did what he always did when something confused him, he went to ask Sonia.
———
“Hey, Sonia?” Alex called as he slithered downstairs. When he said that, he heard a lot of rustling before Sonia suddenly ran into his field of view, her hair looking a bit frazzled, “Sonia? What happened to you?”
“Nothing, just a…” Sonia trailed off for a second, “really intense gaming session.”
Alex raised a scaly eyebrow, but didn’t question it for now, “…Okay. Well, I wanted to ask you about something.”
The blonde woman fixed her hair, “What is it this time?”
“Why is it that Japanese soldiers weren’t allowed to retreat during a war?”
Sonia sighed, she should have known that he’d reach that part of history at some point, “It’s a saying they have: Death Before Dishonor.”
Alex stared at her with a look that could only be described as complete befuddlement, “…That’s ridiculous!” he finally spat.
Sonia reeled back at the mamba’s sudden outburst, it was rare to see Alex truly angry about something.
The mamba continued, “You’re punishing people for having basic self preservation instincts!”
“Well, they thought that being willing to die for your country was incredibly noble.” Sonia explained.
Alex crossed his arms, “It’s not! It’s suicidal and stupid!”
“Think about it this way.” Sonia said, “You’re willing to die to protect your family, right?”
“Well, yes.” Alex answered.
“It’s sort of like that.”
“It’s different though, if I were to die to protect my family, I would be protecting other mambas that I love, not millions of mambas who don’t even know I exist!”
Sonia put her hands on her hips, “Even so, in their eyes, surrendering was seen as an incredibly cowardly move.”
“Who cares how others see you?! You’re alive!”
Sonia thought for a second, “You know what? Fair enough.”
Suddenly, a magazine fell out of Sonia’s shirt, making her gasp in horror. She moved to grab it, but Alex was faster, and Sonia could only stand and look in terror as he opened it and started looking through it.
Alex turned the magazine back towards Sonia, “Why is this magazine filled with pictures of naked men?”
Sonia wanted to melt into the floor.