Ch.305305. Broken Clock Hand (5)

# A Festival Marking the New Year

With the new year came a festival.

The hoarding of mana stones resurfaced alongside position troubles, and with them emerged the conspiracies of the Kutelli family.

The arrival of the Lewen Merchant Guild in Levrant erased the isolation crisis at Ripol Gorge and Silvia Kutelli’s death as if they had never happened.

Instead, the reunion with Guild Master Lewena helped restore the name Adel Risia.

After the festival, the mana stone crisis would have led to difficulties in the magic armor compatibility test, which should have triggered a second inferior student rampage incident. However, with Cayden’s gang all becoming addicted to magical energy, that incident was concluded as if it never existed at all.

The issue of insufficient funds was resolved by directly raiding Octagon to solve Cain and Charlotte’s problems. The subsequent Great Shute Subjugation was carried out through direct combat while clearing Seren’s false accusations, thus helping Senia and Michelle.

Hipplisia, discovered through connections with Cain and meetings with Senia and Seren, played the most crucial role in producing a new medicine, saving countless lives that would have perished from the Lemtert Plague.

As time passed and the faction war began, Aris, who should have lost all his disciples and fallen into despair, succeeded in rescuing them with the help of one person. In the second week, he achieved a splendid comeback victory and got to taste the salty sea at the resort.

The nearly completed Dube Hall collapsed due to a madman who transformed into a magical beast, but thanks to that, an ampoule was discovered, revealing that the temple was the source of the dark art known as Sacrificial Offering.

Though they had traced the tail of the Sacrificial Offering technique, it wasn’t enough. Either Levrant or the Principality might have walked the path to destruction.

However, they cleared the false accusations against the Lakan tribe, Levrant successfully defended itself, and they managed to eliminate the great villain Defornice III, the source of the dark art of Sacrificial Offering and a heretic of the sacred temple.

The Lemtert Plague and the Great Shute Subjugation. The Sacrificial Offering and the Pimpert Subjugation.

Two major incidents had passed, but the outcomes were far better.

They enjoyed a long period of peace, enough to properly hold the Real Winter Parade, not just brief rituals and prayers, welcoming the snowy winter.

The Principality’s forces, which had preemptively suppressed the nobles’ power, appropriately eliminated the colonies and caves. The desperate enemies provided pretexts, leading to the full implementation of the Mirpark Blockade.

Indeed, is the reality we face now worse than the past?

No.

Everything has been changed.

Knowing the future. Changing the present.

Numerous truths emerging as one traverses between past and present.

The one who was thought to have helplessly relied on others’ power, merely extending their own life, and manipulating others for personal gain was not there.

There was no defeat; they were always one step ahead in catching pretexts or tails, and the lacking 1% was always achieved by his hand.

It was Junon.

Because of him, we face this present reality.

This present, so vastly different from the past, was what he had achieved.

“I… to someone like that…”

Did I say he wasn’t a comrade?

Erica’s mental state begins to waver.

Countless scenes flash through her mind.

-What can you possibly do?

-Aren’t you being too reckless, relying solely on healing magic?

-Junon, you’re completely useless!!

-If you have any conscience, leave on your own.

-Commander? You? Don’t talk nonsense.

-You’re absolutely unsuited to be the current leader of Tembris.

-After abandoning Goden and running away… what tricks are you trying to pull now!!

What am I saying?

That one person, that single individual changed everything.

“Ugh, uuugh…!”

She sees only herself. Always hurling accusations and slander at Junon, engaging in malicious behavior—her own self.

-…Give this to Erica. Water is enough for me.

He handed over precious sugar needed to stabilize mental state on the battlefield.

-No. Half is enough for me. Give the rest to the others.

He didn’t even eat his fill.

-I’ll take over the shift.

He substituted proper sleep with short naps.

-Urgh, ptui!

When even short naps weren’t enough, he chewed on chicory or drank coffee to stay awake.

-I’m… fine. I’m not badly hurt, so I’ll handle it myself.

Pretending to be okay while hiding his wounds, never once asking for treatment.

Incredibly meager food rations.

A body weakened by daily sleep deprivation and constant battle.

A mind deteriorating as he steadfastly carried out operations while pushing back waves of criticism from his lonely position.

Junon not only possessed nothing, but even gave away what little he rightfully deserved to others.

And most of the things Junon gave away…

-If we leave it, it’ll just go to Junon, right? I might as well use it myself.

All ended up in her own hands.

“No… no… NOOO!!!”

She screams in denial, but this was the truth.

A truth she couldn’t ignore or refute.

Junon bore no guilt, nor did he deserve any retribution.

Neither in the past. Nor in the present.

【 This is the final moment. 】

A telepathic message announces that they’ve reached the end.

Though it should have been the most welcome voice, the situation before Erica’s eyes was anything but welcome.

“No… no, it can’t be…”

Step, step.

Erica Scherpen climbs the hill path, sword in hand.

Though uncertain where she’s heading, a sudden fear grips her.

As always, she tries to deny her fear. She clings to even the smallest hope that it absolutely cannot be true.

However.

Thunk!

The blade pierces the heart of a man who had committed no crime.

Her entire vision begins to blur.

Her sight turns ashen with guilt.

For some reason, her palm feels wet.

This sticky, unpleasant sensation. Her hand was covered in hot liquid.

Please.

Hoping desperately that it wasn’t true, she looks at her hand and immediately screams.

“─────!!!!”

-Didn’t you kill him yourself because you thought the same, miss? I didn’t lead you to it, did I? Right?

And cruelly, Kelnur’s mocking voice reaches her ears.

-Kekek, kekekek!

Her hands are already soaked in blood.

The bright red blood flows down so vividly, still dripping.

In the blink of an eye, that blood falls onto her hands.

The owner of this blood dripping onto Erica’s palm from above belonged to the man who had just been stabbed to death.

Of course, she knows this is an illusion, not reality.

But her body feels petrified, unable to move anymore.

Senia, who she thought had disappeared without a trace on horseback, arrived. Michelle, who appeared to have died in the cave at the foot of the hill, had somehow survived and climbed up here.

The two people she thought were dead were perfectly alive.

Only she had believed Junon had killed them.

Her wavering at Kelnur’s voice was due solely to her lack of faith in her comrade.

She had killed an innocent person who had committed no crime.

Erica Scherpen was nothing but a foolish murderer.

After facing this terrible truth and returning to the ruins, Erica found… only broken clock hands instead of the ticking sound.

“What have I… done…”

Though she knows it’s an illusion, every cell in both her hands trembles.

Because the sticky feeling won’t go away.

As if Junon’s blood still stains her hands.

***

“What… what should I do?”

Though Junon had told her the method, she couldn’t execute it.

How could she block this vast area where magical beasts would attack, and how should she organize personnel deployment and supply distribution? She had absolutely no idea.

Although she could use mana vision to see through magical beasts’ weaknesses and calculate or understand people’s psychology, taking command and giving orders to others was clearly a different matter, beyond her domain.

Aris was out of the question, and Charlotte even more so. Cain was already carrying out orders, but would likely be in the same situation, and though she had discussed with Michelle, the calculations simply didn’t add up.

‘No. Junon shouldn’t substitute this position…!’

Junon might solve these calculations as easily as eating, as he always did. No, he definitely would.

He was truly someone who fit this position perfectly… but also someone who shouldn’t be in this position again.

As Senia racked her brain for hours without finding an answer.

-You have a visitor.

“Tell them to come in immediately.”

Lenias had arrived just in time.

Since she had delivered the battle map to Junon, she could now receive detailed advice about the operation.

If not that, perhaps some brilliant strategy had occurred to him.

‘No. It doesn’t have to be that. Even if it’s just resolving some peripheral issues. If it can at least alleviate the soldiers’ anxiety…’

She had resolved to force through with the operation, however clumsy it might be.

But then.

“Ju-Junon…?”

It wasn’t just Lenias who came, but him as well.

“Why did you come in person? What’s going on?”

“You’re as ill-suited for this now as you were before.”

“…What?”

Junon immediately grabbed a piece of chalk, drew lines on the battle map, and then pointed at the most troublesome locations with his finger.

“This line here is insufficient, isn’t it?”

“Well, yes…”

“We’ll abandon this river and dig a large trench instead. That will give us flexibility in how we allocate resources. However, during that time, we’ll need to guard this line while distracting the magical beasts.”

“…! Isn’t that too dangerous? The group digging the trench could die if something goes wrong, and without another river, we’ll have no water supply.”

“We’ll have to draw from the Irob River, even if it’s far. We absolutely cannot hold this front without abandoning this river.”

“You mean… that…”

“Ordinary measures won’t work. We’ll have to risk our lives.”

Senia realized with a hollow laugh why he had come in person.

“You’re going to do it yourself. You predicted I couldn’t handle it after what happened at the Kutelli estate, right?”

Junon didn’t deny it.

“That’s right. I have a personal trauma from before I fell to this place. I can’t give such orders.”

Slip.

The Tembris leader armband.

The commander’s seal.

She removed both and handed them to Junon.

“…I didn’t expect you to give them up so readily.”

“Well. You came because it was something I couldn’t do in the first place.”

“That’s true. But I’m surprised by your high level of trust.”

“Do we need any other reason? If I can’t trust you, who can I trust in this country?”

Senia offered a handshake with a bitter smile, entrusting the new commander with her best wishes.

After a brief handshake, Junon immediately issued his first order.

“Form 15 units of 4 soldiers each separately. They must be prepared to die, but strong-willed enough not to.”

“What’s the operation name?”

“Sirah Transfer Operation.”

Senia flinched momentarily at the name “Sirah Transfer Operation,” but Junon’s lively eyes showed no sign of being consumed by despair or resignation.

They were clear and sharp—truly Junon-like eyes.

That was confidence.

Confidence that he would never collapse, no matter what failures he might taste.

That, then, was this commander’s brilliant strategy.

‘He really is amazing.’

Senia inwardly repeated words of admiration.