Side story episode 17
* * *
The hooves of the imperial northern cavalry trampled the ground. The spears in the cavalrymen’s hands struck down the serfs, and the heavy cavalry warhorses trampled over the fallen serfs without mercy.
Bones were broken, internal organs were crushed, and screams were heard.
“Let me know the fate of those who dared to defy His Majesty and the Empire and flee!”
Marquis Maximil, who was leading the cavalry and also the leader of the northern noble forces, shouted. In order to personally end this situation, which even the central government was unable to properly respond to, with his own hands.
He was the Marquis Maximilian who had previously destroyed the main force of the revolutionary army in the north and was a pillar of the empire. Therefore, he was not afraid of the northern forces that the central government was afraid of.
“Please, spare me! I beg you! Please, forgive me!”
“Emperor, I will serve only Your Majesty the Emperor! I will never disobey the Empire again!”
It wasn’t even a battle in the first place. It was a massacre, and it was nothing more than an example to be set.
The serfs who had fled their lands, lured by the absurd rumor that a ‘Fourth Reich’ had once arisen. Marquis Maximil smiled coldly before them.
Looking at the serfs lined up there and his family.
* * *
“… … .”
Dale quietly raised his head. Then, looking at the scenery spread out there, he took a deep breath.
The corpses of serfs were hung on crosses. Severed heads were stuck on spears in the floor. Houses were burning, fields were trampled, and blood and flames were raging.
At the northernmost point where Dale ruled, a night raven knight approached after looking around the surroundings.
“I looked around the entire village, but there was no one alive. As you commanded, I evacuated the runaway serfs who were cultivating the fields in the remaining area to the castle.”
“… … Is that so? You did a good job.”
After hearing the knight’s report, Dale nodded indifferently. He then turned his head away. The family of the serfs and the corpse of the young girl were there. The image of Yuffie came to mind. The ending she had to face was probably not much different.
Nothing had changed. It was truly hell, and it would continue to be hell.
That fact left an unknown void in Dale’s heart.
“Give me the order. I will immediately gather the Night Raven Knights and present their heads before Your Majesty!”
“You don’t have to do that.”
At the Night Raven Knight’s words, Dale quietly shook his head.
“I will talk to them alone.”
“yes……?”
“I plan to head directly to their northern territory and speak directly with their leader.”
They fled from the north and gave them land to farm. That was all. No soldiers were raised or measures were taken to protect them.
Because there was no land or people to protect.
At least for Dale, he thought he had given the Emperor’s envoys the best warning he could. And he believed they understood his warning.
I thought it was so… soft.
When I thought about it, I burst out laughing. There was no mission to be accomplished in this world. As a foreigner in this world, thinking was never Dale’s role.
It should have been so.
“Go back and tell Lize what I have said. He wants me to count the number of people this land can accommodate, and to create a land register so that the fields and farmland can be divided again and given to you knights of the Night Ravens.”
The Blue Tower Pole, once the Emperor’s most trusted aide, assists him.
“I will obey your orders!”
Guessing the meaning and weight of it, the Night Raven Knight bowed his head.
Now, what Dale had told her was tantamount to declaring that she would become the ruler of this land.
Dale turned his head and mounted the black horse.
The knight turned back towards his castle, and Dale also began to advance, pulling on the reins of his horse.
* * *
The land of Dale, and the northern outpost of the Empire built to watch over runaway serfs. The guards of that outpost raised their voices in front of the man riding the black horse.
“Stop and identify yourself!”
“Who rules this territory?”
“This is the land ruled by the Marquis Maximil, the ruler of the northern part of the empire… …!”
The man asked, and the soldier answered. It was at that moment.
A black tentacle sprouted from beneath the man’s feet and wrapped itself around the nape of one of the soldiers’ necks.
“Ugh, ugh… … !”
“I heard that the Marquis Maximil raised his cavalry. After they plundered my lands, where did they go?”
“Th, what the heck is that… … !”
The soldier mumbled in suffocating agony, and only then did the tentacles finally release his neck. One of the soldiers shouted, desperately trying to breathe.
The Marquis Maximil and the Northern Lords laugh at this as nothing more than a ridiculous rumor. However, not everyone thinks so. There are many who tremble in fear that the Great Demon Empire and the Black Gold Lord have truly been resurrected and will soon sweep across the continent.
“We, we are just mere soldiers! We really don’t know anything about the Marquis and the cavalry… …!”
“… … .”
The soldier begged desperately, and Dale remained coldly silent.
It was just then.
Blue butterflies flew up.
─ Are you lost and wandering again?
A voice was heard.
“… … Lize.”
─ The blue bird and the mice came whispering to my brother about what he was looking for.
“Where should I go?”
─ Are you thinking of starting an endless journey for this world again?
The blue butterfly asked back. Dale shook his head at the question.
“That was my land of Saxony.”
After stirring, Dale said.
“As long as I was in that land, there were people I had to protect and I had to protect them. That was my responsibility.”
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─ … … .
The blue butterfly was silent, and at the end of the silence, Dale answered the question of whereabouts of those he was looking for.
After hearing that, Dale didn’t hesitate either. There was no reason to hesitate.
It was not the world that had to be protected, but his land, and it was not the world and all of humanity that had to be redeemed, but only his people.
* * *
On the land of Dale, once the northern backwater, stood proudly the barracks of the Ninth Empire’s cavalry. It was the cavalry of the northern lords, who were on the move to root out the serfs’ defection and set an example under Margrave Maximil.
To them, the revival of the Great Demon Empire was nothing more than a ridiculous story. Nevertheless, the sight of the Empire, which was unable to do anything about the Emperor’s envoys or even the revolutionary army, was quite amusing to Marquis Maximil.
That is why another ambition was burning in his heart.
The forces loyal to him, the reality of the empire that was rapidly disintegrating, and the situation swirling between the emperor and the revolution were the perfect opportunity for him.
Putting an end to the mysterious events and riots of ‘armed forces’ in the North would be the beginning of that feat.
And just then, a silhouette appeared beyond the barracks.
The knight standing guard readied his spear blade in case it was an enemy, but it wasn’t. It was just a silhouette.
‘beast……?’
There was a man there dressed in a robe.
“Reveal your identity!”
That’s why the knight shouted.
“Do you want to know my identity?”
The man asked back.
At the same time, darkness and cold began to swirl throughout his area.
“It’s the enemy, it’s the enemy!”
The cavalryman shouted urgently and tried to thrust his spear head down. However, the spear head was swallowed up in the darkness. Dale paid no attention and walked towards the knight. He trembled and tried to step back, but the pitch-black tentacles holding his ankles did not allow him to do so.
“Ah, ahh… … !”
“Confess your sins to me.”
As he walked, Dale asked.
“I, I didn’t do anything! Really! I, I was just following the lord’s orders… …!”
The knight shouted desperately. Dale glanced down. The knight’s shadow was telling him the truth.
A father who was begging for his life was slaughtered in front of his daughter, and things that should not have been done while wearing human skin were carried out.
“Why did you lie?”
So Dale asked back. The knight, whose legs were caught in the tentacles, begged desperately.
“That’s a lie! No, my lord!”
And upon hearing the commotion, the cavalry of the area hastily gathered their weapons and rose up. From the heavy cavalry to the gun cavalry armed with the new weapon, the musket.
The new era and technology, the wheels of history are ultimately driven by blood and war. Nothing has changed.
Kwajik!
The tentacles that had bound the knight’s ankles were crushing his armor and ankles. His posture collapsed, and the tentacles wrapped around his body once more.
Kwajik!
The armor was bent like a sheet of paper, the bones inside were crushed, and the internal organs burst out through the gaps in the armor.
“My mother.”
Dale opened his mouth indifferently as he looked at the sight.
“I drove out the ‘real humans’ of this planet and built a home for monsters. As your son and the king of monsters. And now, your children are filling this planet.”
Towards Shuve, and the old dark mother.
“As per Mother’s will, the seed spread from the end of the universe and took root in this land, and this is the flower. Did Mother really wish for this scenery?”
The seeds spread by the old dark mother and her children.
Dale and his people, the race that calls themselves humans, were not the rulers of this planet.
To the real humans who were supposed to truly rule this star, it would have seemed like nothing more than an ugly monster.
And those monsters took root on this planet and won. That’s the result.
─Do you regret your actions, my dear child?
The old dark mother asked, caressing Dale’s cheek lovingly.
“Hee, heek!”
And to the Marquis Maximilian and his cavalry, it was the ugliest and most horrible sight in the world.
A swarm of tentacles caressed Dale’s presence, and Dale buried his head in them without saying a word.
Like a child burying his head in his mother’s chest.
“Gold and shadow, truth and lies, empires that crumble endlessly. I thought the world was so boring. That’s why I wanted to turn my head away.”
I turned my head away. At the same time, darkness enveloped the entire area.
“But now I understand. That is our life, and we can never escape its shackles as long as we live.”
As the king of men and the king of monsters, the Black Gold Monarch has finally revealed his true form.
Dark Young.
The ugliest and most horrible form of existence that a human being can have.
