Side story episode 4
* * *
“We have to move before it gets dark.”
“yes……?”
Leaving behind the corpses of the iron knights strewn everywhere, the man opened his mouth. At those words, the girl, Uffie, swallowed softly.
“Looking at their armament, they must be no ordinary force. Even if they are just scouts, since news of their unit has been lost, a pursuit party will follow them to check the situation.”
“That can’t be… … .”
I looked around, muttering weakly. Because I could finally feel the broken town, the dead bodies of people, and the daily life that had collapsed overnight.
“Mom, Dad… … .”
Just a moment ago, her father, mother, and younger siblings were smiling as if nothing had happened. In front of the corpses that were so mangled that they were unrecognizable, Yupi began to sob.
Emperor or revolution.
It was her fault. Her foolish answer led to the death of her family and people.
“… … If you are mentally prepared, please tell me.”
The man spoke with a calm expression as he looked at the sobbing Uffie.
“It’s all my fault.”
“It’s not Yuffie’s fault.”
The man quietly shook his head at Uffie’s muttering self-reproach.
“It’s their fault.”
It was a voice so cold that it was devoid of even a shred of emotion.
The journey of a man and a girl with nowhere to go begins.
* * *
“It’s a revolution!”
“Let’s drive out the old regime!”
Before night fell, the man and the girl safely descended the mountain and reached the city. Despite the darkness of night, the city was engulfed in the excitement of a festival reminiscent of broad daylight.
Revolution, the girl bit her lip at those words.
A man in robes spoke silently as he moved through the crowd.
“You must be hungry, so let’s eat first.”
“… … Yes, sir.”
The girl nodded weakly. She had no idea where to go or what to do. In the first place, she didn’t even know why this man, who was always wandering around the village, was with her.
Above all, how could she forget the way the man acted against those who called themselves the ‘revolutionary army’? Even if Upi was a girl who knew nothing about the ways of the world, she could sense that the power he showed her was something that could not be explained by ‘mere magic’.
The darkness of the beginning and the cold of the end. Yuffie silently glanced at the man’s profile. The deep, dark shadows cast beneath his robes, just silently.
* * *
Immediately afterwards, the place the man took Uffi was not a shabby Mokro tavern. For Uffi, who only knew of luxuries such as hard black bread and sausages made from pig intestines, these were things she could not even dare to imagine.
“Hey, this is… … ?”
“Eat as much as you want.”
The most luxurious restaurant in the city. As the diners looked at the man suspiciously, he soon held something out from his bosom. It was a gold coin. Seeing the gold color for the first time in her life, Uffi held her breath.
“Oh, I’m sorry I didn’t notice! Nari!”
“And please provide some linen clothes for this girl.”
The man said, holding out another coin, and the diner’s owner quickly nodded and smiled.
I remember one day, when this strange man came to visit the village of Yupi. The world is not so easy as to let an unknown stranger in. However, the villagers accepted the man readily, and he also did what he could for the village.
Her mother and father called the man a ‘monster hunter’. When Yuffie heard that, she was convinced.
But the meal served before Uffi was by no means something that a mere monster hunter could afford.
Soft appetizer bread made from pure white wheat flour, clear and clean meat soup, and luxurious smoked dishes poured out afterward unfolded like a dream in front of the young girl.
“Th, these expensive things… … ”
“Don’t worry and eat as much as you want.”
Immediately afterwards, Yuffie was able to understand that the meal served before her was a consideration on the man’s part.
“Thank you, sir… … .”
In a small rural village, it was difficult to even eat on time. Above all, after seeing such a horrific sight, there was no way she could properly feel hungry. Nevertheless, Yupi hesitated and took a piece of bread in her hand. It was soft and fluffy like cotton. It was not the rock-hard black bread she usually knew.
He carefully tore the bread and put it in his mouth. Surprisingly, it was sweet. It was the first time that Yuffie realized that bread could be sweet.
“it is delicious.”
“thank god.”
“It’s really… … delicious.”
After tearing off a piece of bread and savoring it, Yupi mumbled. Then she picked up a spoon and scooped up some soup to taste. Her parched throat felt warm.
And then, instead of putting the bread in his mouth again, he started to sob with the sadness welling up in his throat.
* * *
That night, I had a nightmare.
However, perhaps because of the soft bed that was hard to feel as usual, the nightmare was fleeting. After the nightmare ended, a pleasant dream followed.
It was a dream of eating bread as sweet as honey and soft as cotton, and clear and delicious soup. After enjoying the meal, I was able to lie down to my heart’s content on a thick and fluffy bed like the clouds in the sky.
Living the life of a princess, so joyful and happy, Upi could laugh heartily.
And when Yuffie finally woke up from her dream, a nightmare unfolded before her, one she could not wake up from.
“… … !”
Still, Yuffie’s bedding was a thick, fluffy, cloud-like bed of wool. The man said it was a room in a mansion used by nobles or high-ranking clergy when staying in the city. Yuffie had no idea how he had managed to get a room like this.
She thought back to the dinner she had had that evening. It was just like in a dream. Soft wheat bread and soup. But still, Yupi couldn’t be happy about anything.
Beyond the glass window, the darkness of dawn had descended. Burying her head on the soft wool blanket, Yupi sobbed silently.
* * *
“All of the Iron Troops under his command, including Major Garcia, were killed.”
At that time, the village on the mountain where Yupi was born and raised.
There was a group of soldiers there, who also claimed to be the pioneers of the revolution.
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“Was it an attack by the Emperor’s faction?”
“Ah, I don’t know yet! But judging by the shape of the corpse, there is no doubt that it was attacked by a wizard.”
“… … .”
It was strange. Regardless of how powerful a person was to annihilate these units, the fact that the magic armor they were armed with was left there alone was even more strange.
The magic armor that the Iron Guards are armed with is a new type of weapon for the revolutionary army, and it is like a spoil that must be taken away after defeating the Iron Guards. However, those who defeated this unit left without showing any interest in the armor.
“Colonel! I found footprints here!”
Fortunately, the clues to tracking down the enemies of the revolution were hidden in places that were not too difficult to find.
* * *
The next day at noon, the scorching heat engulfing the entire city finally woke Upi up from her sleep.
“Are you awake?”
“… … !”
And when she woke up, she heard a voice without any sound. It was a man’s voice coming from outside the room.
“yes yes!”
As Yuffie hurriedly got up and left the room, a man dressed in robes was there as usual. The shadows cast from beneath the robes were still very dark.
“You changed your clothes.”
The man said. It was a pure white linen dress that the man had bought separately while handing over gold coins last night. Feeling like she was wearing an ethereal dress that did not suit her, Yuffie’s cheeks turned a little red.
“This is weird, isn’t it?”
“It’s not strange.”
The man shook his head and turned away. At that moment, an ear-piercing shout rang out from far away.
“We have to move quickly.”
The man continued speaking quietly.
By the time the sun was high in the sky and I had waited without waking Uppie, it was already too late.
* * *
“They are the standard-bearers of the revolution!”
“Iron Age! It’s the march of the Iron Age!”
As I came out of the mansion after renting a room for one night, the streets of the city were crowded with people.
“Revolution! Revolution!”
Those words, which sounded like a nightmare to Upi, echoed endlessly, and the man also watched the scene silently, mixed in with the crowd.
“… … !”
The cavalry known as the Iron Horse were marching through the city, clad in the same armor as when they had earlier attacked the village of Uffie.
And in front of them was a man, naked and crawling on the floor like a dog. Unbeknownst to Yupi, the man was the mayor of this city.
“Please, Nari! I really don’t know anything!”
At the end of the march, the mayor, who had been crawling on the ground like a dog, opened his mouth as if begging.
“I never intend to hinder the revolution! I never hide the enemies of the revolution!”
“Our proud warriors of the Iron Age were attacked. Where did those who could wipe out such a force disappear overnight?”
“I, I really… … !”
To the revolutionaries, it seemed like a perfectly reasonable guess.
“You dog of the old regime! Kill him!”
“Kill the enemies of the revolution! Kill them!”
In many places, the crowd was spitting, throwing fruit and other objects, and raising their voices. Upi gasped in shock at the sight, and the man whispered to her without saying a word.
“Don’t be agitated.”
“Well, still… … ”
“Is there anything you wish for?”
Just then, the man asked back.
“yes yes?”
“Assuming that you, Miss Yuffie, had that power, is there anything you would like to accomplish with that power?”
At those words, Yuffie held her breath. The man’s voice had a strong power, almost like the whisper of a devil, as if he was saying that he would grant her her wish.
“… … .”
Yuffie was a young girl. To her, the revolutionary army was good for what they did, what they wanted, and their cause.
“Them… … ”
Those who called themselves revolutionaries took everything away from Uffi overnight. There was only one emotion that Uffi could feel about that fact.
“I can’t forgive you.”
“… … .”
Yuffie whispered, and the man was silent. Yuffie also had not been wishing for anything else when she said those words.
It should have been so.
“Then let’s do that.”
Just then, like Moses’ miracle, a man walked onto the split road. Without even a hint of hesitation.
“… … !”
There was a man.
A man alone stood in front of the iron barricade as revolutionary warriors marched through the city.
“Hoo.”
As soon as he saw that, Colonel Bourbon, who commanded the Iron Corps, smiled with interest. For a moment, silence fell. At the end of the silence, in the air that seemed ready to explode at any moment, the colonel spoke.
“Reveal your identity.”
“Enemy of the revolution.”
The man answered.
