Succession Round 2, Lord Ransel. (16)

35.

Afterword.

This is a kind of afterword.

What happened to him and Marigold after they barely escaped the Imperial Capital with their lives?

If someone were to ask, well, Lancel thought he was doing pretty well.

No, really, he was doing great.

Even though the divided Imperial territory was on the verge of war, and countless people were dying.

Even though the people of the Dante Family, who had suddenly become the First Princess’s closest aides, had entered the heart of the Imperial Capital.

Even though the Dante Family’s head… now a Duke… sent him letters for survival reports, saying, “Bring Mary and run away immediately, you damned son of a bitch. That’s Her Highness’s order,” which were warm replies.

Even though his conscience pricked him for the hardships his two brothers were going through on the battlefield.

Even though Lancel, who had fled to the outskirts and gone into hiding, limped on one leg due to the injury he sustained at the ballroom, and was always dependent on a cane.

Even though Marigold had completely lost sight in one eye and was destined to live with an eyepatch for the rest of her life.

Even though they had to pickpocket the occasional passing thief due to their tight pockets from fleeing in such a hurry.

“Hey! Give me your money!”

“Uh… we were going to say that?”

“Give me your money!”

“Give it to us!”

“Huh?”

Nevertheless, their lives were not bad.

The Dahlia Barony, where they settled, was still a peaceful land. A rural territory with endless fields and a large lake.

“Recruiting students!”

Marigold started teaching swordsmanship to children there.

“In this era, the power to protect yourself is essential! Recruiting students!”

“Students? Teaching swords?”

“Yes! Five silver coins a month!”

“That’s damn expensive.”

“That’s why the more students there are, the cheaper it is to learn. Five people is one silver coin per person, fifty people is ten copper coins per person!”

There were three villages in the Dahlia Barony.

Marigold diligently went around to all of them, recruiting students.

Of course, no one wanted to do it. It was a complete failure for a month.

“Whyyyyy……!”

“Who would?”

Lancel, who occasionally made a living by robbing thieves, chuckled at the expected result.

He patted Marigold’s back, who had buried her face in the pillow, for a long time to comfort her.

“Why do you want to be a sword instructor so badly?”

“……I want to play with the kids.”

“Ah.”

Certainly.

Marigold seemed to have some kind of obsession with the children these days.

The fact that they didn’t have a child between them probably played a part.

‘Isn’t that a good thing?’

That’s how Lancel felt.

What if they had a child and then he regressed? They would be someone he could never meet again, so it would be unsettling.

Even he, who had never had a child before, would not easily recover from the mental shock of being separated from a child he had raised.

‘Well, I think I’m infertile anyway.’

In the past dozens of lives, Lancel had been with women other than Marigold quite a few times.

And he had never had a child in the process, so if you asked who was the cause of infertility, it would definitely be Lancel.

‘Still, it’s a relief that I’m infertile.’

But.

What if he was still infertile even when the regression stopped?

‘Hmm.’

I don’t know.

Lancel decided not to think about it. It was something to think about when the time came.

“Actually.”

Marigold looked back at Lancel with a gloomy face.

“Another sword instructor has already come and is teaching the Baron’s son. Everyone is flocking there, and they don’t pay attention to me.”

“So, it’s a market that’s already been taken over.”

“Because I was recruiting students, they were making a big fuss about whether they wanted to learn swords from a woman.”

“Really?”

“Isn’t that too much?!”

“Hmm.”

He stroked Marigold’s sulky head. When he glanced at her, she had a very venomous look on her face.

“Ah.”

Lancel suddenly opened his mouth.

“Breaking the Dojang?””

“……?”

“From the learner’s point of view, they would naturally want to learn from someone stronger.”

“You mean…….”

“That sword instructor, he’s not better at swords than you, Mary, is he?”

“Lancel… genius!”

Is that so?

But it seemed to be the answer for Marigold. Her eyes were wide open.

The next day, she hurriedly raided the swordsmanship classroom.

“Instructor, come out!”

“……?”

“I’m Mary Mary, a new sword instructor who has settled in this village. It’s a duel to see who is more suitable to be an instructor!”

“You’ve been making a lot of noise lately, and now this bitch has finally gone crazy.”

The sword instructor scoffed. He was a man from a knightly background, even though he looked like that.

Although he was now a full-time rice-eater who went around with his attendants, teaching swordsmanship to nobles by currying favor with them in this area and that area.

In any case, he was a knight who had experienced war.

“Get out of here right now! Do you think I would clash swords with a woman with no background? Especially with a woman who sold one of her eyeballs? That in itself is a disgrace to a knight.”

“I’ll give you one Gold coin if I win.”

“Let’s go right now!”

Duel start.

“Kyak!”

Duel end.

Before they even crossed swords, the full-time rice-eating sword instructor was hit by a sword and fainted. Bright red blood flowed down his forehead.

How terrible.

“Hehe.”

One corner of Marigold’s mouth was hooked on her ear.

“I lost.”

“I’ll give you twenty silver coins. Hand over this classroom to me entirely. You have no complaints with this, right?”

“……If you tell me to go, what can I do?”

‘He looks a little pitiful when I see him like this.’

Still, a match is a match.

Lancel could only mourn in his heart for the wandering knight who had been disgraced and fled to another area because of Marigold’s 100% selfish desires.

As a result, the Dojang breaking was successful.

“Master!”

“Instructor!”

“Hehe!”

One month.

Two months.

Three months passed.

“Tomorrow, we’ll do it outside. Make sure you bring your lunch boxes!”

“Yes, Master!”

“Lunch boxes!”

Most of the children living in the remote Dahlia Barony began to learn swordsmanship under Marigold.

Perhaps because of the rumor that the instructor was a woman, there were quite a few girls as well as boys among the students.

“To live safely in this era, a certain level of swordsmanship is essential, essential!”

It seemed that many residents were hooked on Marigold’s words.

As a result.

Yes.

It was good.

Marigold’s life, and Lancel’s life, who was by her side.

Even though Marigold’s students frequently broke into the house they had bought, and there wasn’t a single quiet day.

Even though they had never enjoyed a prosperous life because Marigold gave all the money she earned to poor and orphaned children.

Even though it seemed a little too simple for Lancel, who was a noble, and Marigold, who was a member of the Imperial Family.

Anyway, it was good.

The aftermath of the war and the tragedy were difficult to see during the time Lancel lived here.

Occasionally, Mercenary passed by and caused trouble, or conscription officers came and took away young men.

Even that was easily resolved by Lancel and Marigold, so the peace here could continue.

Seasons passed.

Years changed.

Now, until the end of this iteration tomorrow.

‘Soon it will be 10 years.’

Lancel had been contemplating for an incredibly long time.

The matter of telling Marigold his secret. He had been holding back until now because he couldn’t bring himself to say it.

He had been living all along without being able to seize the timing to tell her face to face, but now it was time to tell her.

“Let’s leave it in a letter.”

Lancel left a simple note on the table.

So that Marigold, who had returned from the swordsmanship classroom, could see it.

That’s how 10 years passed.

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“……Huh?”

Lancel did not regress.

“How is this?”

He was bewildered. He stared blankly at the letter on the table.

‘Is it over?’

Lancel pinched his cheek for a moment.

‘Is it another dream? Again?’

No.

That couldn’t be.

This was not a dream, but a clear reality.

“It’s over…….”

Lancel sat blankly in the room for a long time.

When he came to his senses, he had already jumped up from his seat.

Bang-!

He ran without regard for his knee, which had been injured years ago. Perhaps because of the rapidly rising adrenaline, he didn’t even think about feeling the pain.

“It’s over……it’s really over?”

A smile leaked out of his mouth. He ran madly across the field where the sun was hot.

He limped, and Marigold would scold him for overdoing it again, but Lancel couldn’t help it.

He ran across the grassy field. He kept running without stopping until he saw the swordsmanship classroom where Marigold was.

“Mary……!”

“Lancel?”

Marigold, who was smiling among the children wielding wooden swords, reacted to Lancel’s shout.

Her brow narrowed when she found him running towards her, limping.

“Really, what are you doing, Lancel? You’re going to say you’re in pain again at night.”

“Come here!”

“Kya!”

Lancel lifted Mary up as she was. Rings sparkled on their hands.

“The, the children are watching, Lancel.”

“I don’t care.”

“Why did you come so suddenly?”

“Just!”

“Yes?!”

When was it?

When was the last time he felt so relieved?

When was the last time he felt no worries, no emptiness, no frustration?

‘It’s over. Finally!’

His secret, which he was going to tell Marigold, was no longer needed.

He was no longer a Regressor.

Marigold was no longer one either.

The two would now live a normal life.

Lancel threw the memo in his pocket into the sky. The palm-sized paper flew far away, following the wind, to an invisible place. He hugged Marigold so tightly that her body would break.

“Hahaha.”

“Kehek! I, I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe.”

Suddenly.

Lancel remembered what he had to do first.

Come to think of it, there was something he had never done properly in dozens of lives.

“Mary.”

“Eek, Lancel!”

Lancel lifted Marigold up again.

“We’re married, right?”

“Yes……?”

“No, I don’t think we had a wedding.”

Marigold’s expression went blank.

Soon, he could see tears welling up in her eyes.

That was enough.

He never imagined that the regression would end with him promising Marigold a lifetime, but this seemed to be enough.

“Oh God. Under this blessed sky, the two have finally become husband and wife.”

This is satisfactory.

It was not a bad life.

“Now, may neither good nor evil, nor death, nor time, nor eternity separate these two!”

Lancel looked at Priest Marigold in the small church in the village.

“The husband may kiss the bride.”

Their lips slowly touched.

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—Would you like to restart the game?

No.

—Penalty: The game will restart.

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“Don’t cry, Mary. We’ll meet again.”

Surely.

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[Playtime 10 years 0 days]

—Marigold is 25 years old.

—Has a marriage partner.

—Has achievements.

▶Why only the same person? +100 points.

▷Master of Swordsmanship. +100 points.

▶Third Wedding. +50 points.

▷Wife of a Knight Family. +100 points.

—Total Score: 350 points. (Remaining score until the 3rd Memory Inheritance 650/1500 points)

[Save.02 – Oath]

—The iteration has been saved to ‘Save.02’.

—View the Recollection.

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‘I wish……time would just stop like this.’

‘You can just come again. You told me to come to get the money.’

‘I don’t think I’ll have time.’

‘Then……take me with you in the next life. That’s all you have to do.’

‘……That’s right……I didn’t think of that. That’s all I had to do.’

[Oath – Save.02]

—Would you like to restart the game?

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“Hmm.”

Lancel sighed as he looked at what appeared before his eyes.

‘I wonder if she found the memo?’

All he did was put it on the desk.

He was a little worried about whether the clumsy Marigold would find it.

Or maybe the him after 10 years had normally handed it over.

Lancel couldn’t be sure what happened after 10 years because it wasn’t in his memory.

‘If it wasn’t delivered……I’ll think about it then.’

Honestly, it wouldn’t be bad if it wasn’t delivered.

Couldn’t he just tell her in the next iteration?

After all, the Regressor Marigold will definitely come to him. Then what Lancel had to do was already decided.

‘Achievement points are the key, right?’

Based on the information he had organized based on the information he had heard from Marigold, his next goal was this.

1.

Find Marigold.

2.

Make her accumulate achievement points.

3.

Call the Regressor Marigold.

‘Perfect.’

Lancel nodded, thinking so as he returned to the age of eighteen.

Marigold’s real life was now as good as real. He finally felt like he was getting a direction.

In that sense, the most important thing is number 1.

Starting with finding Marigold…….

“Huh?”

Wait.

“Ah!”

Lancel suddenly realized something he had completely forgotten.

“Karma!”

==========

※Karma 15 points: Initial travel funds are stolen.

==========

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A few months later.

Lancel met Marigold again.

In a city near the Imperial Capital.

“You’re caught, you thief brat! Come with me right now! You’ll be immediately hanged without a trial!”

“Oh, it’s unfair! I just moved the silver coins scattered in this world into my pocket!”

“You’re talking nonsense! That’s called stealing, you stupid brat!”

“Ugh, it hurts! Don’t do this!”

There was Marigold being bound by the guards.

‘……?’

Lancel was overwhelmed with absurdity.

[Inheritance 2nd Iteration. Husband Lancel – END]

[NEXT – Thief Marigold]