T/N: “Longport Castle” has been changed to “Longfort Castle”.
Flamdor? Travias?
‘Mana Technique and spear?’
Roan creased his forehead with a confused expression.
‘Have I gone mad?’
It was an exceedingly logical thought.
For a mana technique that didn’t even have a form and a spear that was inorganic to appear with human appearances.
But the even surprising thing was.
‘The more I look, they do seem to be so.’
As more time pa.s.sed, the crimson uniform person felt like the Flamdor Mana Technique and the black uniform person felt like the Travias Spear.
Perhaps noticing Roan’s such thought, the crimson uniform person, no, Flamdor cheerfully smiled and bent his head.
“There’s strangely no repulsion, no?”
Roan slowly nodded his head.
This time, Travias cheerfully smiled and spoke up.
“Of course. You can’t remember, but we’ve met quite many times.”
“We’ve met many times?”
“Yeah. Here at the Vertex.”
“Vertex?”
Roan creased his forehead.
It was a series of simply incomprehensible words.
Flamdor stepped back and opened his arms.
“This s.p.a.ce is called the Vertex. It sounds like some grandioso name, but you can call it a very deep place within your head and heart to put it easily.”
“Should we say it’s a place that’s the origin of sanity and emotion?”
Travias added on and casually sat down.
Roan still couldn’t understand it.
“How is such a thing possible? Are you saying Flamdor and Travias aren’t ordinary mana technique and spear?”
As soon as his words finished, the two people immediately nodded their heads.
“Obviously.”
“Of course.”
The two looked at each other and cheerfully smiled, then made jocular expressions.
Roan creased his forehead.
“So you have no plan to reveal your ident.i.ties?”
Such feeling was strongly felt.
Flamdor and Travias, with expressions saying that was obvious, looked at Roan.
“That’s not something we can tell you.”
“It’s what you have to find out yourself.”
Flamdor turned a full circle on the spot.
“Don’t just train and research, research. Even that stupid Reid didn’t take this long to meet me.”
“Reid? Do you mean the Fire Monarch Reid?”
“Yeah. That b.a.s.t.a.r.d. He was called a Fire Monarch. He mutually annihilated himself with the Queen of Water, but he was a rather nice guy.”
Shocking stories casually popped out as if they were nothing.
With the tip of his forefinger, Flamdor scratched his cheek.
“So I told him he has to always train and research hard, but then he went all high horse just because he got a little stronger than others and then…… tch.”
At those words, Travias, who had been staying quiet, cut in.
“That’s not something you should be saying. Since the reason Reid’s personality became that state was totally because of you. You ate up his sanity.”
Bizarre stories continued.
Flamdor answered with an amazingly bold expression.
“So he should have trained and researched hard so not to get eaten up. Kukuku.”
A horrifying monstrous laugh.
Flamdor’s eyes turned towards Roan.
“That guy too, if it wasn’t just for the Water Spirit King, I could have had just eaten him up at that time…… tch.”
He smacked his lips as if regrettable.
Flamdor, with his finger, pointed at Roan and Travias one after another.
“Roan. You should be thankful to the Water Spirit King and this blacky b.a.s.t.a.r.d over here. If it wasn’t for the two b.a.s.t.a.r.ds, you too could have turn up like Reid, no perhaps like Simon.”
“What do you mean?”
Roan asked in an unexpectedly calm voice.
Flamdor hesitated a bit, then clicked his tongue and spoke.
“Tch. Alright. I’ll tell you this much. The more and more you learn my mana technique, not you but my strength becomes stronger. If it becomes stronger to a certain degree, I swallow up and eat the sanity of the b.a.s.t.a.r.d that was learning the mana technique. Humans see that and say that one became corrupted by fire’s power and the personality became tyrannical or temperament, but the fact is slowly losing the sanity.”
The Flamdor Mana Technique’s hidden secret.
It was the moment the secret of Reid’s that violent personality was revealed.
“I planned to also eat you up when you rampaged the first time, but the Water Spirit King appeared out of the blue and then crush down my strength.”
His words slowly turned faster.
“I was collecting my breath for a long while after that, but another chance happened this time. A second rampage. Furthermore, at a state where the Spirit King’s water energy that was pressing down my strength was gone. I tried to quickly swallow up you brat’s sanity, but……”
At that moment, Travias brightly smiled and pressed a finger to his chest.
“I intervened.”
Flamdor nodded his head.
“I didn’t possibly think that this b.a.s.t.a.r.d would attack me. Since I didn’t know his strength had gotten that big.”
At those words, Travias looked at Roan.
“Roan. It’s thanks to you giving strength to me.”
It was true.
Even during the rampage, Roan flowed in majority of the heat to not himself but to the Travias Spear.
To particularly nitpick, he had given Flamdor’s strength to Travias.
Travias, using that strength, had once again held back Flamdor’s ankle.
If heard by chance, Flamdor seemed like an evil guy and Travias seemed like a good guy, but the truth wasn’t so.
The two people were existences that weren’t good nor bad.
They simply moved following each’s own instinct.
“If you were to focus more on training and research, you should be able to suppress me and obtain the real strength. Since me trying to eat your sanity is an instinct and simultaneously like a whipping to make you work a bit harder, so don’t hate me so much.”
Those were Flamdor’s words.
Travias’s words that followed was also similar.
“Same for me of course. If you want to properly use me, then you’ll need much more training and research than now. And I didn’t save you from Flamdor so don’t be mistaken. I saved myself. Because if you get eaten by that guy, I’ll have to stay asleep until another owner shows up again.”
Roan, Flamdor, and Travias.
The three existences were each of a weird relationship.
Roan, cleaning up the complicated thoughts inside his head, exhaled a long sigh.
“So in the end, everything is decided according to how I do things.”
Flamdor slowly nodded his head at those words.
“Right. You’ll become my master or become my slave.”
“With me, the relationship could forever be cut off, or command the world.”
Travias too added some words.
Roan didn’t carelessly continue on the words and stared at the two people while standing still.
Flamdor and Travias too, grinning, didn’t dodge his gaze.
The s.p.a.ce that was dark like a pitch-black darkness wobbly rolled.
Flamdor smacked his lips as if regrettable.
“Now’s the time to part.”
“It was really nice to see each other face to face and talk. Though it took much longer than I thought…… kuk.”
Travias bizarrely laughed and shook his head.
Flamdor waved his hand as if to say goodbye.
“Since we’ve seen each other’s faces, rampage like the one that happened beforehand won’t happen again. But if there’s no growth at this state…… you know what happens, right?”
Roan wordlessly nodded his head.
Travias, who was at the side, too raised his hand as if to say goodbye.
“I actually shouldn’t be doing this, but I’ll give you a slight hint since it’s so frustrating. In the last life, your friend took me to the Byron Kingdom and received the Count n.o.bility.”
Instantly, Roan’s face stiffly solidified.
The face of the b.a.s.t.a.r.d he had thought of as a friend floated up.
‘Traitor b.a.s.t.a.r.d……’
The b.a.s.t.a.r.d who forcibly robbed the Travias Spear from him.
Although a long time had pa.s.sed, his teeth gritted whenever he thought of the event at that time.
Travias cheerfully smiled and added on.
“That guy too, before getting me, wasn’t a particular spearman same as you. But how could he have become a kingdom’s count and received the nickname of a Spear Ghost within merely a year?”
“Hhm.”
A quiet groan leaked out from Roan’s mouth.
It was something he never had thought of, or even wondered about.
Because thinking of that b.a.s.t.a.r.d itself was too enraging and painful thing, he simply covered it up and ignored it.
The smile hanging on Travias’s mouth became much deeper.
“He became a Spear Ghost just because of one reason that he had me? You know that’s something impossible, right?”
Roan slowly nodded his head.
‘It’s something absolutely impossible.’
It wasn’t that an incredible spearmanship skill appear just from having the Travias Spear.
If it was so, Roan would already have become a spearman that commanded the continent.
‘So I was the one who merely hold the Travias Spear.’
He merely controlled the length and width as he did battles and hadn’t done any research about the spear at all.
His self felt embarra.s.sing.
The distortion of the surrounding s.p.a.ce became more intense.
Flamdor and Travias, fully showing their teeth, brightly smiled.
“Let’s meet often at here, Vertex.”
“The more you become stronger, this s.p.a.ce too will slowly change. No……”
The two people looked at each other for a moment, then added on in one voice.
“Everything will change.”
That was the end.
Flamdor and Travias, as if they didn’t exist from the start, disappeared without even a trace.
Simultaneously.
Paat!
A bright light exploded in front of his eyes.
“Kuuk!”
Roan unawarely clenched his teeth and tightly closed his eyes.
“Sir Lancephil!”
Suddenly, a sweet voice was heard through the edge of his ears.
Roan opened the eyes he closed and turned his head searching for the owner of the voice.
No, there wasn’t even a need to turn his head.
Right in front of his nose, she who he yearned for even in his sleep was there.
“Aily.”
Raspingly hoa.r.s.e voice.
Aily, wiping away the watery eyes that seemed like tears would immediately pour out of, nodded her head.
“Yes. It’s me. I’m right here. Sir Lancephil.”
The beautiful voice poured down like soft flakes of snow.
Roan faintly smiled and raised his hand.
The tip of his fingers brushed Aily’s hair.
“Aily. I have a favor to ask……”
“Yes. Please speak. Whatever it is, I’ll listen to them all.”
Aily held Roan’s hand and nodded her head.
The smile hanging on Roan’s mouth turned much thicker.
“Could you call me Roan now and not Lancephil? No……”
The tip of his voice slightly shook.
“It’ll be even nicer if you called me orabeoni.” 1
An unexpected request.
Aily without noticing herself snickered out a laugh.
She caressed the back of Roan’s hand and nodded her head.
“Alright. I’ll call you that as much as you want.”
Her beautiful voice sweetly melted.
“Roan orabeoni.”
*****
The news that Roan had woken up was soon known to the people.
Due to a loud cheer that exploded from the mansion he was staying at.
The Lancephil Fief Regiment as well as the Miller Castle’s citizens all swarmed to the mansion.
“Roan! Roan! Roan! Roan!”
“Lancephil! Lancephil! Lancephil! Lancephil!”
The cheers chanting Roan shook the sky and earth.
Smiles blossomed on people’s faces and red rose petals flew everywhere.
It closely brought a festival to mind.
But the actual mood in the bedroom where Roan stayed couldn’t be bright.
“Do you really have to go now? Rest a bit more and go……”
Aily sighed with a worried expression.
Roan, who wore his armor, cheerfully smiled and shook his head.
“It’s already the third day since the capital, Miller, was conquered. Even now is too late.”
His gaze went towards Chris.
Chris, as if he had been waiting, instantly answered.
“According to the information Sir Ian, no, Director Ian gave and those we separately have gathered, simply unspeakably cruel acts are currently being carried out in the Longfort Castle area. Not only that, monsters are moving as a horde at the Grain Mountains located west of the Longfort Castle.”
Roan slowly nodded his head.
‘It’s same as the last life.’
Although the time was different, the flowing process was similar enough to raise gooseb.u.mps.
‘There is no more time to dither.’
A precariously tight situation even if they were to immediately march right now.
Roan tightly clenched his fist and looked at the youthful young man standing next to Chris.
“Ian. I’ve ended up receiving a big help twice already.”
Naturally pa.s.sed words.
The youthful young man’s ident.i.ty was Ian.
Ian faintly smiled and shook his head.
“What do you mean help…… I’ve already decided to follow the lord, so I’ve merely done what I obviously have to do as a subordinate.”
Although still youthful, it was a somehow powerful voice.
Roan looked at Ian with a proud expression.
‘To think that Ian became my subordinate……’
Still a dazing feeling.
Ian Phillips visiting Roan was not very long after Roan had regained consciousness.
Ian, as soon as he met Roan, had kneeled down on one knee and requested employment.
The reason was simple.
As the throne succession war intensified, numerous n.o.bles fell to beheading and distinguished n.o.ble houses were exterminated.
In this process, Count Phillips House too had its fief, wealth, and soldiers all taken away and was house arrested in the Miller’s mansion because of a reason that it hadn’t actively supported Simon.
Ian originally planned to go find Kallum and request employment but changed his mind at the Evishun’s report that soon followed.
‘Prince Kallum too is treating the kingdom’s citizens cruelly in order to take the throne.’
In the end, it meant that there was no one amongst the royalty’s people that could be trusted and followed.
Naturally, he searched for who might be the most fitting as a king outside the bloodline.
‘No. There wasn’t even a need to search.’
Only one man.
There was a man who was close to the ideal monarch that Ian thought of.
‘Sir Count Roan Lancephil.’
He wasn’t a man simply with abilities.
He was a man who knew how to care for and love the citizens more than anyone.
Ian deeply inhaled and looked straight at Roan.
A spark jumped from a place deep inside his eyes.
Roan quietly stared at Ian and made a faint smile.
“Ian. I will be needing your help a lot from now on.”
At those words, Ian instantly answered with a pleased expression.
“I will support as much as needed, sir.”
Roan nodded his head with a proud expression and then looked around.
Aily, Chris, and Ian as well as the core commanders including Austin were all staring at him with resolute expressions.
Roan tapped his chest with his right fist.
“We go to the Longfort Castle.”
A powerful voice.
“We will save the kingdom’s citizens. But……”
The gazes became hotter.
“There is something to do before that.”
At those words, everyone formed puzzled expressions.
Roan’s gaze turned towards the plaza outside of a window.
“I will declare my intent to all.”
The work he should have done a long ago.
Roan had to announce to all that he no longer pledged loyalty to the Rinse Royalty.
There might still be someone amongst the commanders or soldiers who swear loyalty to the royalty.
If he were to tell them to aim their swords at the royalty without giving any explanation, they could fall into a big confusion by themselves.
No, they could even feel agonized.
Roan didn’t wish for his soldiers to experience such an awful pain.
“Austin.”
Quietly calling sound.
“Yes. My lord.”
Austin quickly lowered his head.
Looking at the outside still boiling with the sound of cheers, Roan spoke in a quiet voice.
“Gather the entire army outside the west gate. I will reveal my intent to them.”
The order fell down.
“Yes sir!”
Together with a salute, Austin answered with a powerful voice.
A moment later, the Lancephil Fief Regiment lined up on the field in front of the west gate following the commands of the core commanders including Austin.
Also following Roan’s desire, few amongst the Miller Castle’s citizens too stood at one side.
“What is it? What’s going on?”
“Is he going to do a marching speech?”
“Nah. What marching speech in this situation……”
“He must have some other reason.”
Murmuring sounds were heard from everywhere.
At that moment.
Ppabababam! Ppabam! Ppababam!
A sound that hit not the ears but chests rang out.
It was the performance of the Lancephil Fief’s official military band Milta.
“……”
The murmuring sounds died down.
Simultaneously.
Roan appeared on the tall stage that was provisionally made.
A majestic look wearing crimson helmet, armor, and mantle.
The mantle flutters following the southern wind.
Gulp.
Everyone dryly swallowed.
At the august that gently flowed out, reverence was naturally had.
‘That sir is our lord!’
The Lancephil Fief Regiment’s soldiers, at the pride that filled up to their throats, fully opened their chests.
Meanwhile, the Milta Military Band’s performance that grandly rang out ended.
The gazes of the Lancephil Fief Regiment and the Miller Castle’s citizens headed towards Roan who was standing alone on the stage.
Tens of thousands of pairs of eyes.
Roan looked back at those gazes with calm eyes.
A moment of silence.
Soon, Roan’s voice broke the field’s silence.
“First and foremost, I am grateful and thank the Lancephil Fief Regiment that bravely fought and the Miller Castle’s citizens.”
He applauded to the many people’s spirits and patience that had led the battle that was fierce for a long time.
Deeply moved light floated up on the faces of the soldiers and the castle’s residents.
At that moment, Roan above the stage abruptly bowed at his waist.
“I wish for you to forgive he who will once again lead you to the harsh battlefields.”
A count of the kingdom bowed.
He bowed for the soldiers and the commoners.
The deeply moved light that floated up on the soldiers and the citizens’ faces became even stronger.
Roan deeply breathed in.
Now was the time to bring up the main topic.
“I plan to directly march towards the Longfort Castle and execute Simon.”
A short wave broke on the faces of the soldiers and the citizens.
Gulp.
Everyone dryly swallowed.
In truth, it was something they predicted to a certain degree.
From the moment he attacked the capital, Miller, they had predicted such situation.
Due to that, they did not receive a bigger shock than they had thought.
But Roan’s statement that soon followed were words they truly did not expect.
“I am no longer a retainer of the Rinse Royalty.”
Boom.
The faces of the soldiers and the castle’s residents stiffly solidified.
‘Wha, what is he saying?’
‘He, he’s no longer a retainer?’
Bewildered looks were plain.
Roan, without minding them, continued on.
Strength slowly went into his voice.
“I plan to become not the royalty’s retainer but a retainer of the kingdom’s citizens.”
The sound that made hearts race pierced through the ears.
It was the moment that the thought Roan held from the moment he first entered the throne succession war was finally pa.s.sed to everyone.
“Our families, our close friends, our friends, our neighbors…… our precious ties whom we laughed and spoke together with are pa.s.sing painful days. Someone must save them.”
Roan tightly clenched his fist.
“I had thought that Simon, Tommy, Kallum…… the Rinse Royalty’s bloodline would be able to do so. But they instead thoughtlessly trampled and violated the kingdom’s citizens.”
Uddk.
The Lancephil Fief Regiment and the castle’s citizens unconsciously clenched their fists tight.
The strength that started from their palms rode their veins and flowed into their hearts.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
The hearts fiercely raced.
Roan’s speech continued.
“I plan to save the kingdom’s citizens from the immoral beings.”
The southern wind slowly became fiercer.
The crimson mantle violently fluttered.
“I will say again, I am no longer a retainer of the Rinse Royalty.”
The voice cut through the field.
“Those who pledge loyalty to the royalty may leave me. You may curse, point, and call me a traitor.”
He was honest.
He had no thought of harming them.
“I won’t pressure you to go together with me. No, your life right now may instead become perilous if you were to go with me. You may not be able to achieve wealth, honor, or power. But……”
Roan’s eyes twinkled with a bright light.
“If you fight together with me, your children will no longer go hungry, tremble in the cold, or end their own life from harsh tax. Your descendants will be able to live in a world where anyone could achieve one’s dream if one endeavor.”
That was the world Roan dreamed of.
No, it was the world that everyone including the soldiers of the Lancephil Fief Regiment and the Miller Castle’s citizens dreamed of.
Roan loudly shouted aloud.
“You will leave your names in history! As the heroes who ended a cruel world and opened a new world.”
Gulp.
The soldiers and the castle’s citizens dryly gulped with flushed expressions.
Roan exhaled a long sigh.
The speech raced to its end.
“Flowers do not blossom on their own.”
If they do nothing, nothing would change.
That was the truth.
“Let us sow the seeds.”
A work that someone must do.
“Let us enrich the world with our sweat, blood, and tears.”
Sacrifice.
A n.o.ble value.
Roan added on with an expression full of certainty.
“The flower will blossom.”
The soldiers and the citizens once again tightly clenched their fists.
Their chests greatly shook.
Roan, looking at everyone, slowly, word by word, spoke out the words.
“With our sweat, blood, and tears, forever unwithering flowers will blossom.”
Even the wind stopped.
The entire world was silent.
A feeling as if even the world was leaning its ears towards Roan’s words.
“Under the name of Amaranth, those who will fight together with me.”
Roan raised his right hand above his head.
The clenched fist sharply trembled.
“Raise your fists.”
Any more words were not needed.
There was no one who opened his or her mouth.
There was no need to speak.
Sss.
There was nothing to discuss of who was first.
More than twenty thousand Lancephil Fief Regiment’s soldiers and the Miller Castle’s citizens slowly raised their right hands.
The fists that rose above the heads sharply trembled.
The clenched fist shouted in place of the mouths.
< We will fight together! >
At the sight that spread before his eyes, Roan exhaled a long sigh.
His heart expanded as if to burst.
It took a truly long time to come this far.
Now there was one thing left.
Roan fully opened the fist he had clenched.
“All army!”
A sonorous voice.
The fully open fingers pointed towards the west.
At that end was the Longfort Castle.
Finally, the order had fallen.
“March!”
Simultaneously.
“Yes sir!”
The Lancephil Fief Regiment answered in once voice.
Enough for the sky and the earth to shake.
Soon following, the Milta Military Band performed.
The Miller Castle’s citizens quickly moved back to one side and cheered.
“Waaaaaah!”
“Roan Lancephil! Roan Lancephil!”
Putting his back to the pouring cheers, Roan led the Lancephil Fief Regiment and headed towards the west.
Of course, he didn’t forget to leave behind a garrison.
The line that tailed long extended towards the west.
The citizens stood on their spot until the end of the line disappeared.
There were number of hobos amongst them, and an old man whose clothes were ragged and whose beard was s.h.a.ggy exhaled short sighs one after another.
“Huu. Hu. Not the royalty’s retainer but a retainer of the kingdom’s citizens……”
A voice that for some reason complicated feelings could be felt from.
“Huu. What to do of this……”
The old man, perhaps feeling stuffy, slightly raised the weird straw mat he had deeply worn to the nose.
The face that revealed for an instant.
Shockingly, he was Duke Francis Wilson who had moved the Rinse Royal Family’s crest and the national seal somewhere.
He exhaled a long sigh, then once again deeply wore the straw mat.
“Even though the qualifications to be the owner of the royal family’s crest and the national seal is plenty……”
Once again, the voice tangled with complicated feelings rolled on the ground.
Francis couldn’t restrain himself and deeply dropped his head.
“Huu.”
A long sigh touched the ground.
And with a very small voice, he murmured barely or barely not audibly.
“Is the Rinse Royalty truly at an end like this……”
That was something to be watched.
< Amaranth (13) > End.
Translator : CSV
Proofreader: Fujimaru
1. In Korea, there is a term called “oppa” that technically means “older brother” but is also casually used by girls to call guys older than them. “Orabeoni” is basically a formal version of “oppa”, though it is almost never used in this sort of context. Some equivalate the term to j.a.pan’s “Onii-sama”.