Prologue 2: -still, that they may forget it one dayHe had not awakened…
Once he discovered that this world was enshrouded in darkness…
Actually he never wanted to discover it.
Because he knew, once detected, he couldn’t turn back.
Because he knew, the deep darkness would not let one sigh in peace.
He found that if he didn’t continue to move ahead, there would be a large amount of pain awaiting him.
A strong grief that he never had experienced.
A strong pain that he never had experienced.
No one wanted that.
No one wanted to change to that, but…
Even so, reality forced people to make decisions, forced people to choose that pain.
How painful.
How detestable…
He wanted to escape.
Yes.
He should escape, that way he would not have such a heavy burden?
Put down everything and escape, could he gain respite?
But…
Sion sat on the throne, listening to Claugh and Froaude’s report.
He stared at Frouade.
“Then, the n.o.bles under Duke Stearead have all fallen into your trap…”
Froaude nodded.
“Almost all the influential n.o.bles… have been killed.”
He replied simply.
Sion listening to that, his expression changed slightly.
The anti-royalists who were under Stearead…
The numbers were not small.
But, this man said that he had killed all those people. He didn’t let anyone who was unequipped fall into the trap, and kill them.
He didn’t even let the other side negotiate, he purged all of them…
Perhaps there were some n.o.bles who didn’t really have the intent to go against the king…
But as of now, Froaude had killed them.
He had killed almost every one of them.
Sion’s expression contorted because of this. Contorting as if he felt the pain.
So Froaude said:
“As of today, do you still regret sacrificing these n.o.bles’ lives?”
Claugh interrupted:
“Ah? Of course Sion wouldn’t feel good about this! Acting by yourself, killing people… Don’t you feel anything? Does killing people mean nothing to you?”
Froaude replied simply:
“If there is a need to kill, then I will kill. If I feel guilty because I vomited over it, then what can I do about it? I believe His Majesty feels the same.”
“You… Don’t utter such nonsense. Sion is different from you…”
At this moment, Sion raised his hand up.
“Enough, Claugh. Now isn’t the time to be fighting over this. What I’m frowning over it because… the current situation. The leader of the anti-royalist faction, Duke Stearead, is dead… And it was not by our actions, he was murdered by someone else… Actually before this I had expected that it would turn out this way. I knew there was a n.o.ble who held great authority behind Stearead and had not appeared. But…”
Sion narrowed his eyes at this point, not saying anything else…
Froaude nodded, saying:
“Yes. The person who killed Duke Stearead isn’t from this country. Then from this observation, it is clear that this n.o.ble has joined forces with people from other countries.”
Claugh hearing that, said:
“Other countries? Which country? Didn’t you find that out when you fought that person?”
“Eh. Don’t look at me like that, I did my best… But, the opponent couldn’t be taken lightly…”
“In the end he escaped, so it was meaningless.”
Claugh said challengingly, Froaude replied simply:
“Yes. I pains me to let him escape. If you could have hurried over earlier, perhaps the situation could have been overturned.”
“Eh? Ah, don’t push the responsibility to me!”
Froaude seeing that, smiled blandly.
“…I was joking.”
Claugh revealed a surprised but annoyed expression.
“You, your joke… it’s really not funny at all… And it make me feel strangely irritated… Let’s put this aside, about the foreigner you talked about, what country do you think he’s from?”
Froaude replied:
“…That’s hard to tell. It has to be further north from Runa… Apart from Ca.s.sla… there should be little countries that would attempt to invade other counties. But there are other countries that are quite powerful… That country that destroyed Stohl, starting to ascend…”
Then, seeming to interrupt him…
“Gastark… huh? It seems that we need to send someone to know more about the situation.”
At this moment Claugh said:
“Ah, then I…”
He quickly tried to volunteer, Sion hearing that, had a surprised expression.
“How can you go? You are the Field-Marshal of this country? You want to listen in on the enemy’s situation with your status?”
“How is it not feasible? Ah, how about this. Anyway it’s too troublesome being Field-Marshal, I’ll hand it over to Miller-sempai, then you can send me to spy on them. Not thinking about Miller-sempai, and making me Field-Marshal was the weird thing. Then I’ll go handle the procedures of the hand over…”
But Sion interrupted him.
“I did request for Miller to be Field-Marshal, but he rejected.”
“Eh? Is that so? So you turned to me to be Field-Marshal.”
“Wait, wait a moment… Then, then if this is the case, if I reject this, can I not be Field-Marshal…”
“No. It’s too late.”
“You, you’re too cunning, Sion! Why can Miller-sempai reject, but I can’t!”
Claugh protested, Sion smiled wryly and said:
“Ah, don’t be so angry. How about this, if Miller agrees to be Major-General… perhaps I can demote you to Lieutenant General…”
In a split second.
Claugh immediately spun around, dashing out…
“Hey, Sion! Remember what you just said! I’ll go convince Miller-sempai now! Until then, the person who’s going to Gastark is me!”
He said, as he ran out of the hall…
Sion watched him leave, then sighed…
“That guy… seems to hate the paperwork that he has to do after becoming Field-Marshal…”
Froaude said:
“I personally think that Field-Marshal Claugh is much suited to directing the army than doing paperwork… But, letting Colonel Miller be Field-Marshal… I don’t think it is a good idea. Colonel Miller is too serious.”
Sion narrowed his eyes and stared at Froaude.
“Oh? Then, do you wish for Claugh to continue being Field-Marshal? Or… are there any others… oh yes. What about you, do you wish to be Field-Marshal?”
Froaude shook his head when he heard that.
“No, I cannot be Field-Marshal. My thinking is closer to your first thought.”
“…That is to let Claugh be Major-General?”
“Yes. It should be clear what reasons I have for thinking so? For Roland’s future, the leader of the army needs Claugh Krom more… it would need someone as charismatic as him. Because, unthinkably, there are many talented people who listen to him. Although it doesn’t measure up to Your Majesty, but… his uncertain, special nature of being strong and gentle, it easily controls people’s… the citizen’s hearts. For Roland, this special ability will…”
Froaude looked at Sion’s face when he said that, then stopped.
He continued:
“…No, I don’t think I need to elaborate. Your Majesty, you look a little tired. Would you like to rest for a moment? Even if it is Claugh Krom or Rahel Miller as the Field-Marshal, if this country doesn’t have you, it would be unable to progress, so… please take care of your health. Then, please excuse me…”
He left the room as he said that.
Sion did not call him back.
What Froaude said just now—
It repeated itself in his mind…
“His uncertain, special nature of being strong and gentle, it easily controls people’s… the citizen’s hearts. For Roland, this special ability will…”
Sion frowned.
If there was war, someone like Claugh who was able to control the citizen’s hearts, were much more suitable to lead the army than people like Miller who were able to control groups easily.
So that the soldiers would be deceived, thinking that as long as they followed Claugh, no matter what disadvantages they faced, perhaps they could win.
So that the soldiers would be deceived, thinking that as long as they followed Claugh, they could relax.
In this way, the normal soldiers would gamble their lives for the country, because Claugh was there.
So that they would gamble their lives and fight, he needed Claugh’s charisma.
If it worked, the soldiers would probably use their lives to build an irreplaceable strong army…
If they fought with other countries and wanted to survive…
This was necessary.
On this continent, Roland wasn’t a large country.
There were other stronger, more powerful and financially strong countries.
If they needed to fight these countries one day…
Even if they used dirty methods, they would not regret.
They would set traps everywhere, form alliances, then betray the alliances…
That was not enough… they needed to brainwash the soldiers of this country, let them think that they would win… then make them sacrifice themselves for the battle…
“…How cruel…”
Sion moaned.
There wasn’t enough time.
If there were a little, only a little more time… then they probably could strengthen the foundations of this country, and gain enough power to go against the other countries, but…
Reality had turned harsh.
Even the internal affairs… the problem of the n.o.bles couldn’t be solved in time…
Reality had turned cruel.
Then he discovered that everything…
The peace and everything that he saw was fake.
He discovered that this world was actually covered in darkness…
He didn’t want to discover this truth.
Because he knew, once he knew of it, he couldn’t turn back.
Because he knew, the deep darkness would not let one sigh in peace.
He found that if he didn’t continue to move ahead, there would be a large amount of pain awaiting him.
A strong grief that he never had experienced.
A strong pain that he never had experienced.
No one wanted that.
No one wanted to change to that, but…
Even so, reality forced people to make decisions, forced people to choose that pain.
If they didn’t want to die, they had to kill people.
If they didn’t want to die, they had to wipe out other countries.
If they didn’t want everything to be stolen from them, they would have to steal everything from the opposition…
Plundering.
How painful.
How detestable…
He wanted to escape.
Yes.
He should escape, that way he would not have such a heavy burden?
Put down everything and escape, could he gain respite?
But, where could he escape to?
Where would he escape to?
In a moment, in the distant past… the memories of the time where he didn’t have the troubles now flitted across his mind.
Before he became the king…
He had Ryner, Kiefer, Fahle, Toni and Tyle…
At that time it wasn’t like he had no troubles.
But, he had thought in this fashion at that time—
Squabbling with his companions, laughing together, mending past relationships…
What else could he wish for?
If this was the peaceful era now, then it was only temporary…
Why did he need revenge on his brothers, why would he need to become king?
If he were with Ryner and the others…
That was what he thought, even if it were only for a moment.
The Sion in his memories that was with Ryner and company, was a happy period filled with laughter…
It was a very happy time…
“…But… this world doesn’t have… any place to escape to… Ryner.”
Sion mumbled with a slightly lonely expression.
It was evening.
The sky was red.
It was red like that day.
As if stained with fresh blood…
The blood-red sky.
In a villa of a n.o.ble of Runa Empire.
It seemed like a stable of this villa, but it seemed like the money spend on construction was quite a lot…
Ferris said:
“Eh… then, the girl you violated before is pregnant, then after the woman died, so she pa.s.sed her child to her only relative, and that is you who is the father, now how do you think you will take up the responsibility of taking care of this child?”
She looked at the black-haired youth who was sleeping on Ryner’s back.
Ryner’s eyes were half-lidded when he heard this…
“…Urgh, when did my life become so dramatic?”
“…Mm-hmm. With only a breath, you make women pregnant. A dangerous man indeed.”
“Wow… that’s amazing… then, as long as I walk on the streets, my life will become dramatic?”
“Yes. And it will be a drama full of dangers.”
The two started their lame conversation again, Ryner shaking his head.
“Never mind, let’s not play around… What do we do with this child now…”
Ryner looked at the child on his back.
It was a young black-haired boy.
Like Ryner, he was a boy with Alpha Stigma.
Like Ryner, he was a boy who had been hated and feared by everyone…
Ferris did not speak, staring at the boy for a while.
“…Talking about which, Ryner, how old are you now?”
She asked, Ryner tilted his head in suspicion.
“Ah? Why are you asking that now? I’m asking you what will we do…”
But Ferris said:
“Don’t question so much, answer me. How old are you?”
Ryner thought about it for a moment, then replied:
“I should be nineteen… Actually, I don’t know how old I am. I have no parents, or memories from when I was a child. But from how big my body was when I had memories, I’d guess that I’m about nineteen years old or so? …Why are you asking about this?”
Ferris nodded with a serious expression, staring at Ryner, then said:
“…This child should be around six years old, right? That means, you’d have to be twelve years old when you had this child… You are indeed an extreme pervert from young…”
“Why are you so certain that this child is my child!”
“Eh? Isn’t that so? If you’re not his father, then who is his father? He has black hair, he has a rare star shaped pattern in his eyes. It’s obvious he’s your child! You can’t escape from this. Perhaps you wish events to progress like what I read in a novel, the main character and the woman’s conversation—
‘This isn’t my child! I don’t agree! He’s a brat that you had with some other man’
‘How, how can you say that? He’s your child! I only, only love you…’
‘Shut up! I said this isn’t my child! That’s right! If you say that he’s my child, then show me proof! Prove it to me!’
‘You, you…’
‘See! You can’t prove it, right? Ne, get out! I’m very busy! I don’t have time to fight with you! Bang! Slap!’
‘Ah!! Don’t hit my child! I, I know, I’m going!!’
--If it’s something like this, I wouldn’t accept it.”
After Ferris finished reciting the lines, Ryner looked at her in bemus.e.m.e.nt…
“Ah… there are many points that I want to rebut on, but before I rebut you, I already feel very tire… Let me ask you, what does ‘Bang! Slap!’ mean… What century is this, and you still imitate that uncreative sound effect with a serious face, don’t you feel awkward? More importantly… the main character that you mentioned… Can a main character like that have a story? Let me see, what is the content of this story?”
Ferris nodded her head.
“Yes. It’s about a boy who suffers with his mother, although their family is poor, but they have always worked hard, half-way through after they seek revenge on the main character, they work even harder to gain success, it’s a very touching story about success…”
Ryner couldn’t help but interrupt her.
“Then, it’s obvious that the son should be the main character!”
“Eh? Is that so? I have always thought that you were the kind of main character that is extremely evil and the enemy of woman…”
“Why do I have to appear in your novel… Ah, I can’t stand this! Every time I talk to you, we have no progress! I—say—we don’t have any spare time to be talking nonsense! Really, we have already distanced ourselves, but the pursuers will chase after us from that mountain, and from what happened there, the people who come after us may be Mage Knights, in addition, the brat has been sleeping, he’s not waking up, and it’s troublesome if I run while carrying thim like that… Under this situation, what should we do! I am asking about that. Do you understand me?”
Ferris nodded.
“This child has always been taking lazy naps, purposefully escaping from his work, this point can prove the truth that you are his father…”
“Nonsense!”
Ryner yelled angrily, Ferris didn’t take notice.
“There’s no time to be telling those kind of lame jokes, Ryner.”
“I, I am going to ki~ill you!”
Ryner’s patience had reached its end…
But, as usual, the shouting Ryner was ignored…
Ferris disappeared.
Actually she was just moving so quick that it seemed like she had disappeared…
Then, from some reason, from the elegant stables in front of them—
“Who, who is it… ah?!”
“Save me!”
“Aah?!”
Screams sounded, disappeared, started, vanished, at last…
Ferris sat on a carriage that was as elegantly decorated as the stables, and came out from the stables…
“Ryner. Coincidentally, I picked up a carriage from the side of the road, are you coming?”
Ryner seeing this…
“…I say… Coincidentally, picking up by the road? What a bunch of nonsense! You must have stolen a carriage?”
Ryner said with half-lidded eyes, Ferris answered:
“That means, you don’t want to seat on it? Alright, you continue to carry the child, continue to run and be chased after by the Mage Knights. I’ll take this carriage to Rajit Village, ask the girl for money for our saving of this child, then hurry to the dango shop in the capital. I can’t take care of you, farewell.”
Saying that, she seemed to want to snap the reins, Ryner seeing that quickly shouted.
“Ah, ah, I was just saying nonsense, don’t take it to heart. Anyway it’s already been done, please let me board the carriage.”
Ferris nodded.
“Yes, then, let that child come onto the carriage quickly! I’m worried that the child will be infected by your pervert nature just by sitting on your back, that would be troubling.”
Ryner hearing that, slowly helped the boy on the carriage, saying:
“You’re so rude… Ah, that’s right. Carrying him while escaping, the child’s body wouldn’t be able to keep up with it, so you wanted to grab the carriage. Right? I didn’t think that you were so thorough.”
Ferris nodded, then for some reason, snapped the whip at the horse.
“Ne, it’s now, Silver! Escape this troubling perverted man!!”
In a moment, the horse that was mysteriously names Silver, neighed, then ran…
Ryner seeing that—
“Eh? Ah, wait…”
He moved towards the carriage, but because he had not helped the boy completely on the carriage, so he was unable to get on successfully…
But, the carriage had increased its speed…
Ryner desperately pushed the boy into the carriage. He could only do that.
When Ryner pushed the boy into the carriage, Ferris waved the whip at the horse again.
“Charge, Silver!”
“Who is Silver!!”
When Ryner yelled that, the carriage had started to draw away from him…
“Hey, do you really want me to chase after the carriage!?”
Ryner started to run after it, but the carriage had started to increase its speed…
Ferris said:
“Heh heh. Ne, if you don’t want to be left behind, then run!”
Ryner was so angry that his whole body trembled…
“You… b.a.s.t.a.r.d Ferris! I’m really going to kill you…”
But, at this point that carriage was a fair distance ahead, that sentence was unheard by Ferris.
“Ah, d.a.m.n it! I’m going to beat up that person!”
Ryner said as he ran.
The sky was red.
It was as red as that day.
As if stained with fresh blood…
The blood-red sky.
It was as if he had seen it before…
The crimson evening sky that had been the same colour as the blood flowing out from the mountain of corpses…
That sky…
Ryner didn’t like it.
Every time he saw that kind of sky, he would feel uncomfortable.
Many memories would awaken in his mind.
Many hated memories that he didn’t want to remember would stir…
So, Ryner didn’t like this kind of sky…
He didn’t like the evenings.
But now…
He was desperately running under the red sky that he so despised.
Every time the distance between Ryner widened, the carriage would stop, when Ryner caught up it would start moving as if mocking him, Ryner yelled at the carriage that he was following:
“Ahhhhhhhh!! d.a.m.n it!! This is maddening! Really! Ferris, wait for me!”
He shouted frantically, but…
For some reason, maybe it was just a trick of the light, he seemed to be smiling…
And you probably should know.
After Ryner was forced to chase after the carriage in this fashion for half a day, the contents of his shouting had changed from—
“I really want to kill you”
To screams—
“…Please, I’m begging you, Ferris-sama! Please let the pitiful me on the carriage!”
His screams echoed in the wilderness of the Runa Empire…
And you probably should know.
At this point—
A woman appeared in the Gastark Empire at the northern Menoris Continent.
She had tidy shoulder-length red hair, and a pair of charismatic eyes that showed her strong will and seemed to suck people in.
She looked at the land of Gastark spread out in front of her with her red eyes…
At this moment…
“Do you want to enter the Gastark Empire too?”
The boundary official asked, so she said:
“I heard Gastark is inviting talented people… If I can contribute a little power…”
“Then, can you give me your name?”
She nodded.
Then…
“I’m called Kiefer Knolles.”
She reported her name.