T/N: Ch. 213 will be up in few hours.
It was an unprecedented event.
A single human conquering a castle, and a kingdom's capital at that, was an event without a precedent.
It was a feat that even Reid, who was one of the strongest humans in history and the original owner of the Flamdor Mana Technique, couldn't succeed.
"Our lord is a war god. A war god."
"A god has borrowed a man's body and descended."
"I was worrying just what to do from now on when we were attacking the capital, Miller, but……"
"There's no one who could beat our lord."
The Lancephil Fief Regiment's soldiers were of greatly flushed expressions.
They by themselves held pride at being Roan's soldiers.
The citizens of the capital, Miller, too were elated as much as the Lancephil Fief Regiment's soldiers, no, even more than the soldiers.
The end of the reign of terror.
Freedom from Simon Rinse's tyrannical reign.
The castle's residents showed cheers at the news of Roan and Lancephil Fief Regiment's entrance to the castle.
"If it's Sir Count Lancephil, we can trust and depend on him."
"He's different than the other nobles."
"Since he always cared for the people at low places."
The castle's residents looked up to and at the same time respected and loved Roan.
Because of that, all of the castle's citizens even gathered in the plaza and prayed for Roan's recovery when the rumor that Roan fell down during the battle went around.
"Sir Count Lancephil. Please wake up soon."
"We are always on Sir Count Lancephil's side."
The ardent prayers of the castle's residents rode the warm southern wind and headed towards the mansion Roan resided.
Roan, instead of the palace, instead chose an ownerless humble mansion in the inner castle as residence.
Although he had lost his consciousness, his subordinates too were people who knew of what was proper as much as Roan.
Princess Aily Rinse too did not return to the palace and stayed at Roan's side.
On this, numerous buzzing rumors went around.
"What's this? Is Sir Count Lancephil and Princess Aily actually in so and so kind of relationship?"
Six, seven men gathered in a shabby pub and were sharing a chat.
"This kind of words may be a bit harsh, but…… isn't it a bit regrettable for Sir Count Lancephil? The situation is like so, and Princess Aily was someone without enough presence to be called the shadow princess even amongst the royalty……"
At those words, an old man in his early late-age clicked his tongue and shook his head.
"Nah. This man, he really doesn't know how the world goes around. Look here, Prince Simon climbed himself onto the throne, but he's an incomplete king without the royal crest nor the national seal and he's putting up mad acts of cutting off heads of ordinary citizens as well as those of his nobles and killing them. Prince Tommy is already dead so there's nothing more to say there, and although Prince Kallum is also better than prince Simon, he too isn't treating the kingdom's citizens like people. The three princes' acts are all atrocious and tyrannical that even a popular revolt called the Black Rinse rose up."
"Right. Right. But even that Black Rinse in the end came to follow Sir Count Lancephil."
Numerous people echoed his words.
The aging old man clicked his fingers with an excited expression.
"Right! That's it! Even angry citizens can trust and follow if it's Sir Count Lancephil. But even Sir Count Lancephil has a problem."
"A problem? On Sir Count?"
The people asked back with shocked expressions.
The aging old man quickly nodded his head and added on.
"Sir Count Lancephil is a man who started from the bottom with a commoner background to the current place. In short, his bloodline is the problem. This is something that just can't solved with his own abilities. But……"
Only then did the numerous men noticed and exclaimed out.
"Aha! So the problem is solved if Sir Count Lancephil marries Princess Aily?"
The aging old man nodded his head.
"Right! Although she's a shadow princess or whatnot princess without any ability or power, it's a fact that she's definitely of Rinse Royalty's bloodline. If Sir Count Lancephil marries Princess Aily, Sir Count also becomes a member of the royalty. The sole problem that was the bloodline issue becomes solved."
Gulp.
Everyone dryly gulped.
Within their heads, they all thought of a same future.
The youngest and tactless man unknowingly spoke out the future within his head out of his mouth.
"Oho. Then if he can just properly calm this messy crisis, Sir Count Lancephil will become the Rinse Kingdom's new ki……"
But even he couldn't easily continue the words.
Because it simply was an incredibly big story.
Gulp.
Everyone dryly swallowed with nervous looks.
'Seriously……?'
'Is such a thing possible?'
Until now, no one dare thought that another house other than the Rinse Royalty would climb up to the throne.
To such a degree, the seat of the monarch was like sacred ground none could dare covet.
But right now, Roan who wasn't even of a prestigious noble house with a long history but a newly rising noble of a commoner background was stepping his feet into that sacred ground.
"Khm."
The one who broke the silence was the aging old man.
"Anyhow, if the two sir and lady are really in such and such relationship, the things from now on will become interesting."
Everyone nodded their heads.
Roan Lancephil, Simon Rinse, Kallum Rinse.
And even the faction that followed dead Tommy Rinse……
The possibility that the Rinse Kingdom would face a never-before experienced era of chaos was high.
And an era of chaos where any of its endings were possible at that.
"By the way."
A middle-aged man who was occupying a cornered seat snickered and shook his head.
"The story you said until now is all correct, but there's just one thing wrong."
At the abrupt story, everyone creased their brows.
"Un? What's that?"
"What do you mean?"
Sounds and gazes asking back poured down.
The middle-aged man pointed at his ear with his finger.
"Princess Aily doesn't have any power or ability? Not at all. Don't you know that the princess demonstrated an incredible swordsmanship in this battle? Furthermore, the more important thing is the ones the princess ordered around like her limbs. Their identities were……"
His eyes flashed and shone with light.
At that moment, a loud voice abruptly jumped out from within the pub.
"They were elves! Elves!"
The owner of the voice was the pub's owner.
The middle-aged man, who was putting up air so much, nodded his head with a de-energized expression.
"Yeah. Right. Elves. I don't know for what reason, but it looks like Princess Aily has elves as her subordinates. That, in short, means that if Sir Count Lancephil were to marry Princess Aily……"
Everyone's eyes twinkled and flashed with light.
The middle-aged man grinned and finished his words as if to declare.
"Not only becoming a member of the royalty, he may even take in elves as his subordinates."
It was an incredible story.
A silence once again whirled inside the pub.
Once again, they were drawing a same future within their heads.
Amongst them, one muttered in a small voice.
"It's not a bad future……?"
A simple bedroom where three, four candles were pushing away the dark.
On the hurriedly prepared and clean bed, one young man was lied down.
Neat brown hair and eyebrows, a manly face.
The identity of the young man who was closing his eyes as if dead was Roan.
He, after having conquered the capital, Miller, alone and losing his consciousness, wasn't able to wake up even as two days passed.
"Sir Lancephil……"
Together with a beautiful voice, a snow-white hand brushed Roan's hair and cheek.
The woman staying by the bedside was Princess Aily Rinse.
Her deep and large eyes shone with a sad light.
'I heard of it from reports, but this is the first time I personally saw that appearance.'
Roan's rampage.
That was a truly bizarre experience.
In truth, she worried a lot when she first saw that look.
'Since it's no different than brother Simon if it's a rampage by madness……'
However much Roan loved and cared for the kingdom's citizens, a leader who cannot control his madness couldn't be called a good leader.
Aily even thought of taking Roan and retiring far into the countryside and living a humble life if the things went wrong.
Of course, that was something completely impossible due to various reasons.
'But……'
Thankfully, Roan and Simon were different.
'I'm glad.'
A faint smile hanged on Aily's mouth.
In the process of cleaning up the battlefield, a surprising truth was revealed.
'He consciously avoided the castle's citizens and the allies.'
When Roan became the Crimson Ghost, no, a Crimson War God and was turning the south gate region into a ruin, the nearby residences of the castle's citizens didn't receive even a little damage.
They thought that the citizen's loss would obviously be immense since he had so mindlessly hit and broke, but the things that were destroyed were only the castle wall, the military facilities, and the wide empty space in front of the south gate
Furthermore, when he climbed up onto the castle wall to destroy the ballistas and the ramparts, he poured down his attacks towards the enemy army inside the castle gate between the armies inside and outside the gate.
Meaning that he had clearly distinguished allies and foes even while rampaging.
That was completely different than Simon's madness which unrestrainedly cut down and killed the subordinates who followed for their entire lives like his limbs.
And most of all.
'He showed a reaction to my voice, to my appearance.'
No, it wasn't at a level of showing a reaction.
The outer look that was dyed red with a scarlet light returned to what it was and he regained sanity.
A look of stopping the rampage himself.
Before he lost his consciousness, he even left a word of thanks.
A feeling almost like having become a special person.
That made Aily happy.
'I won't fret.'
Although Roan wasn't able to regain consciousness for the second day, she didn't worry.
She trusted Roan.
"Because you are sir Roan Lancephil."
The beautiful voice tickled Roan's ears.
'Where is this?'
Everywhere was dark like a jet-black darkness.
The only thing visible were his arms, legs, body.
He couldn't even distinguish up and down.
The one looking around everywhere with a panicked expression was Roan.
'Perhaps……'
His face stiffly solidified.
'Have I died?'
But he soon shook his head.
An instinctive rejection.
'Not yet. It still isn't the time for me to die.'
Furthermore.
'Since it wasn't like this when I died in the last life……'
The thing called death was truly painful.
He couldn't tell if it was due to dying from being stabbed by a sword, but it was an experience he definitely didn't wish to go through again.
But the now, although it was baffling, didn't feel painful or agonizing.
Rather, his body and heart felt calm and peaceful.
'Right. I definitely haven't died. Then where is this?'
Roan did not carelessly move and looked around while standing straight.
Although he used even the Kalian's Tears, the visible things were only the pitch-black darkness as expected.
'It's a space I simply can't under……'
The moment his thoughts reached about that point.
"Oho. Look at this guy. He woke up already?"
"You're right. And he's not even panicking much either?"
Strange voices pierced through his ears.
Roan creased his forehead.
He couldn't guess even from which direction the voices were heard from.
Voices that almost seem to be ringing directly inside his head.
"Who are you? Show yourselves."
Roan forcefully maintained his calm and spoke in a quiet voice.
Soon the strange voices were heard again.
"Show ourselves?"
"Even though we've been here since before?"
The two voices, whether they were male, female, or even a beast, couldn't even be differentiated.
Roan, with the place he stood as the center, slowly made a turn.
"Hmm."
Immediately, a quiet groan flowed out.
'There definitely was no one there, but……'
But before he knew it, two exceptionally handsome young men were standing behind him.
No, the feeling of neutrality was strong enough to be difficult to distinguish whether they were handsome young men or women just from their looks.
The two people seemed very similar, and also very different.
Although the two people's facial features were similar enough to be shocking, one person's hair, eyebrows, and eyes were crimson and the clothes he wore was also a crimson uniform.
On the other hand, the other person was of a black hair, eyebrows, and eyes deeper and blacker than the darkness that filled the space and wore a uniform that was black as well.
And the person of black uniform seemed two, three spans taller than the person of crimson uniform.
Roan deeply breathed in.
"I am Roan Lance……"
His greeting couldn't quite continue on.
"We know. You're Count Roan Lancephil."
"You're from a mountain village of the Grain Mountains. A self-made man who started as a mere rank-and-file spearman and became a Rinse Kingdom's count! Right?"
It was exact.
'Are they someone who know me?'
Roan creased his forehead.
But the two people were definitely people who weren't in his memories.
"Ah! And……"
When Roan was fumbling around his old memories, the person of a crimson uniform and the person of a black uniform were murmuringly conversing between themselves.
"That guy has an incredible secret, right?"
"Right. Right. A secret that ordinary people can never believe!"
The two people looked at each other and grinned, then turned their heads and looked at Roan.
Crimson eyes and black eyes twinkled and shone with light.
The two people's lips moved simultaneously.
"You died once and came back to the past!"
Words exactly matched and said without a single bit of disharmony.
Roan goggled his eyes.
Completely unexpected words.
His secret that no one knew of abruptly came out.
It wasn't a time to flip through his old memories.
"Ho, how do……?"
Roan, who usually don't panic, greatly shook.
'Huu.'
For now, he exhaled a long sigh.
He took hold of his greatly shaken heart.
With a stiffly solidified expression, he glared at the two people.
"Who are you?"
Seemingly saying he won't leave them be if they don't answer, an incredible pressure flowed out.
At that look, the two people, with playful expressions, pulled their heads back.
"Put some strength out of your eyes since it's scary."
"Right, right. It's not right to be like that between us."
The two people grinned and moved their steps towards Roan.
And as if extending hands for a handshake, they simultaneously extended their right hands.
"Nice to meet you."
"It's a first meeting like this."
The crimson uniform person and the black uniform person.
The two people made sunny expressions like children.
"My name is……"
"My name is……"
The one who went first was the crimson uniform person.
The one who followed was the black uniform person.
"Flamdor."
"Travias."
< Amaranth (12) > End.
Translator : CSV
Proofreader: Fujimaru