episode_0065

“Mom, it’s all our fault… I offer my deepest apologies, so please forgive me…!!!”

The sight of an old officer, hunched over and apologizing, was quite unsightly.

“… Did you say Major Harlen?”

“Yes! That’s right!!!”

“Let me ask. Where did the money stolen in that way go?”

“That, that…”

“I don’t like repeating the same thing over and over again. I don’t want you to spoil my mood anymore.”

“To boost the morale of officers who have been assigned to remote areas and have lost morale…”

There was nothing more to hear.

“You mean you spent it on alcohol? There must be a bar around here too.”

It’s not that I don’t understand that feeling. I too have drowned out my sorrow and pain with alcohol on the battlefield, so I can’t blame him for drinking.

However, I couldn’t help but criticize the cost of buying that alcohol. The coins they used to buy alcohol were all someone’s blood and sweat.

There is no contradiction more contradictory than extorting those who are supposed to be protected. No, perhaps I am already familiar with it.

It’s the person who is supposed to protect that ends up abusing and exploiting that person.

“Now even this familiarity is new, and this newness is familiar.”

I hated people who didn’t do their job.

It was just annoying that people who were doing their duty were not given the rights they deserved, and that people who were enjoying their rights but not fulfilling their duties.

That may be why I hate the Minister of War. He abandoned his duty and started wandering around as soon as the rebellion succeeded. No, he was one of the fundamental reasons why our duty began.

“I regret sacrificing so much to protect this country. It’s new every time. And it feels new every time, so it’s familiar.”

It is as the Demon King said.

It was a country where there was no such thing as belief. It was a country so pathetic that Leila wasn’t worth sacrificing her life for. It was a disgusting place where people didn’t care about what happened to others as long as they were full.

Hell, no, it’s worse than hell. At least hell is a just place where the wicked are punished.

“Disgusting and pathetic, always.”

The imperial palace guards that had stood in my way during the rebellion were like a clear spring compared to these cesspools.

A country where all the clear spring water evaporates and sewage water overflows.

“But Raul, we also have no choice but to solve the low salary problem…”

“Low salary? What do you mean? All the Imperial Army officers… Ah.”

It seemed like it had rotted to the core. No matter how hard Camilla’s dead brother tried, he couldn’t reach such a remote place because he was so busy.

Is this how the devotion of someone who is too busy to even bother to pay attention to the outskirts is being abused?

What on earth should I call this feeling that was so irritating that I couldn’t even describe it? Well, that didn’t matter. I was irritated by them.

“Lastly, I have a question. What do you mean by sending out people without ID?”

“A while ago, three men and women came to visit and offered me a large sum of money, so I just let them in… I couldn’t stop feeling the taste of money back then…”

“I wasn’t asking you to make excuses. What were they doing?”

I don’t know what they would do if they were wanted criminals or merchants selling contraband.

No, I didn’t want to understand the principles of these people’s actions at all.

I didn’t want to understand Seonje, my mother, or these people at all. My understanding is not that broad. There was no need to try to understand things that didn’t need to be understood.

No, I no longer wanted to understand things I didn’t know. That would only hurt.

“They didn’t look particularly suspicious. A man who resembled a wolf with three swords… A white-haired woman with one arm… And a knight wearing armor all over his body. ”

“What?”

It was them.

The Demon King himself and his supporting twin were clearly visible. The Queen of Dragons and the King of Ghosts. They were abominable and monstrous creatures that I alone could not defeat.

But their strength didn’t matter at all. What mattered was that they had stepped beyond this. That was all.

“These incompetent guys…”

Kyle, who knew their appearances, also looked at them with disgust.

“I’ll leave the words here, so take good care of them. That way, when I punish you later, I’ll be a little more considerate.”

Kyle and I left our horses and started running at full speed, like bulls that only looked ahead, not taking in the scenery around us.

I couldn’t lose her again. It wasn’t a long relationship. It wasn’t a particularly meaningful relationship. I didn’t cherish her as much as Leila or my other friends.

Even so, they were mine. It doesn’t mean ownership. It means continuity.

If they cut off my connection with them again, I would not be able to overcome that despair and would end my life.

There were people who were hostile to me at first, but eventually began to accept me little by little. There was someone who shared bread with me without any calculation. There was also a woman who worried about me.

I also didn’t want to despair of my helplessness. Beyond trivial things like pride and honor, to be honest, I wanted to breathe in that town. It may sound selfish, but I wanted to protect my right to breathe.

“Haa… Haa…”

The side effects of forcing the heart to beat and increasing physical abilities are already starting to appear.

“Raul, take a breather. Even if you ride a horse, it’s a distance that takes a whole day to ride…”

“When fighting the Demon King, I had to bear more than this burden. This much…”

“That’s natural, since the dragon’s venom wasn’t as widespread back then. And then, all four of you, including Raul, fought while drinking more than lethal doses of all kinds of stimulants and potions…”

If it was cowardly, it was a cowardly method.

He fought while drinking illegal stimulants and potions to enhance his physical abilities to the limit. He defeated the Demon King with all kinds of sorcery, body modification, and drugs that cost astronomical amounts of money… and techniques that sacrificed his own life.

Unlike him, who relied on his own skills until the end, we mobilized every means at our disposal.

Righteous evil and cowardly good. That’s who we were. No, if you think about the cause of the war, we wouldn’t even be qualified to call ourselves good.

I don’t care about good or evil at all. I just want my things to exist safely. Then and now.

Even if the Demon King has a just cause, I will trample on his justification by using his righteousness for my own.

“Let’s go.”

I took a moment to catch my breath and then took a small step. I kicked the ground like a human and crossed the forest with a mind no different from that of an animal.

As they were crossing the forest, Kyle shouted in an urgent voice.

“Ra, Raul…!!!”

“…!”

What I saw was black smoke.

Although it was hard to see because of the thick trees, thick smoke was rising from the direction where the village was.

“I…”

“No, I don’t know yet, Raul. If I give up now, Leila will curse me. Don’t you know better than anyone!”

“… Yeah.”

I raised my heart rate even higher, hoping that my guess was wrong.

As I ran and ran, I prayed for the first time that my guess would be wrong.

I continued my pointless jumping around, hoping that God would find my ridiculous wish to disprove what I had pictured in my head amusing.

“Haa… Haa…”

How long did I run like that? I ran so much that I lost all sense of time, and as a result, I was able to arrive at the village earlier than scheduled.

And what greeted me like that was…

“Oh, my lord? You said you had important business, but you’re already here?”

It was Cecilia, holding a skewer of mixed meat and vegetables in her mouth.

“Your complexion doesn’t look good. Is there something wrong…?”

“What was that smoke? Are the people okay?”

“Ah, today is the day of the village’s important festival. Even though it’s an important festival, it’s just skewering and grilling the meat of the game and vegetables.”

It’s a festival… I don’t think there would be that much smoke because of something like that.

“But because of the wind, the fire spread throughout the abandoned warehouse, and we had a hard time putting it out.”

“Thank goodness… I was mistaken…”

It didn’t matter at all what the Demon King would do if he didn’t come here.

The future, what they would do, and so on, didn’t matter at all.

The only thing that matters is the present moment, where I haven’t lost anything yet. It may sound selfish, but that’s the only thing that matters.

I guess I have the right to be a little selfish.

“I’m so glad…”

“Your Majesty…? Your complexion doesn’t look good. And that military uniform…”

I wanted to give her a proper answer, but my mouth wouldn’t listen to my heart.

My vision became a mix of red and blue, and I began to feel cold and hot at the same time.

“Raul!”

Kyle’s voice came from far away.

If Kyle were here, he could probably do some first aid.

I felt like I could relax and lose my mind. Nothing was burning and no one was killed.

Well then, I guess we can really rest assured.

“Kyle… Give this woman a proper explanation and… take the medicine in my arms…”

I couldn’t help but lose consciousness as I finished the sentence incompletely, because the terrible anxiety that had been keeping my sanity in jeopardy had disappeared.