Chapter 139

Chapter 139

***

Rickart passed Valensha, moved away from the beach, and went inland.

Although he said he killed four knights, the Amir of Valensha didn't take any separate measures. Whether he was scared, or didn't have the spare capacity to respond couldn't be known.

Anyway, is there truly not a single person to protect the people? The number of refugees following behind Rickart looked to be a good few thousands.

Unintentionally leading them, Rickart arrived at the Keresi Plateau where the headquarters of the Flame Knights was located. The fields covered with shrubs and short grass had cool breezes and the lake water was clear.

However, the thousands of crowds following Rickart suddenly laid out mats and sat down here. Then Rickart was stuck unable to go anywhere, as if shackles were placed on his feet.

Should he abandon them and go, or should he do something. But what could he possibly do?

"Even if you look at people like that, there are bound to be people like village chiefs. Let's ask them what they are going to do."

Hashim advised. With the thought of asking first as he said, Rickart approached the people.

Approaching them while riding the bright red horse and wearing flashy armor, because he was clearly visible even from afar, the thousands of people all looked only at Rickart.

Riding back and forth on his horse surveying the people, Rickart said.

"Is there a leader here? I mean is there someone like a village chief."

Then the people rolled their eyes nervously and everyone looked at certain people. Soon after, as if reluctant, or fearful, one person stood up from here and there and approached Rickart.

Everyone had dark skin. They were not of the same ethnicity as Rickart.

"I have a path I must take. Have you decided where to go separately? Is it safe to stay here?"

Then the leaders guiding people from the same village or same region only checked each other's reactions.

Then, an old man wearing a turban stepped forward and spoke, with a courage peculiar to a person who didn't have many days left to live.

"This here is our hometown. If you go that way the village of Musa comes out, and if you go that way over there the village of Alpanti is there, and if you pass the ridge far over there is the village of Jose, and if you go straight over there again......"

The old man kept pointing everywhere with his hands, mentioning where villages or cities were located. So he didn't know what they were proposing, but Rickart calmly listened to the whole story.

The old man continued.

"However, all those villages and cities have been destroyed. El Cid, you might not understand, but to people like us, even if destroyed, it is our hometown. If we have a wish, rather than fleeing far away for refuge, it is to rebuild our hometown and live there again."

The people called Rickart 'El Cid'. It meant 'Master' or 'Lord' in the Salaman language, similar to calling someone 'Sir'.

Earning respect from infidels was a truly rare sight to see, but the current situation wasn't purely a joyful one.

"Who destroyed your villages and cities?"

"It is the Flame Knights."

Hearing those words, Rickart felt frustrated and his heart became heavy.

However, sure enough, with so many people gathered they couldn't help but stand out, and there were people approaching this way riding horses from afar.

At the lead was a cavalryman holding a triangular lance flag; the flag had a flame drawn on a white background, and the surcoat covering his chainmail armor also had a flame crest drawn on a white background. Anyone could see it was the Flame Knights.

They approached Rickart, and the one wearing a nose-guard helmet stepped forward and asked Rickart.

"I am a knight of the Flame Knights, Raimund. Are you the one who killed the knights of Valensha and protects the infidels?"

The people merely followed on their own accord, but contrary to Rickart's intention, it seemed the rumors had spread like that. Rumors were originally like that. They often spread regardless of the person directly involved's intention.

However, Rickart affirmed it.

"That is correct."

"Why are you protecting the infidels?"

"Only the way of believing is different, we all believe in the same God. And look at them. Do they have the strength to resist. Tormenting the innocent is what demons do, and protecting them is what God commanded. Therefore, I am merely following God's will."

Rickart looked up at the sky, and openly revealed his most honest thoughts to himself without adding or subtracting anything. Even knowing that judging by the way things were going, he might have to fight the knight of the Flame Knights.

However, the knight named Raimund glanced at Rickart and the people once, and gave an unexpected answer.

"You speak things that make sense, which is rare to see in the world these days. What is your name?"

"I am Rickart of the Kaldebern family, from Stormhearts. As we are waging war in Adelorn, I have come to request the support of the Flame Knights. And having my older brother in the knighthood I have intentions to meet him, and also intend to grant the request of Edmund who died unjustly."

Rickart confidently revealed his three purposes. First, wanting to receive the support of the Flame Knights, second, meeting his older brother Vilter, third, delivering the reliquary.

However, having heard Rickart's origin and family, Raimund was visibly flustered and made a surprised expression.

"My word...... By any chance, among your brothers, is there Vilter? The Red Reaper Vilter?"

"Red Reaper you say?"

"He is called so here. Anyway, this is awkward......"

"Why is that?"

"I don't know where to start talking from, but to state the conclusion first, the Flame Knights are currently divided into two. Your brother has currently seized the knighthood's citadel and is acting as the Commander. The rest are relying on King Santonio, unable to follow his will."

At the completely unexpected and surprising news, Rickart was dumbfounded. Looking at Rickart who was like that, Raimund added an explanation.

"There has been a certain degree of internal division within the knighthood since a long time ago. Then, it flared up in earnest recently due to the Emperor's suppression. The faction wanting to establish a country solely for the knighthood, and the faction wanting to solely fulfill their duties. For your reference, I am the duty faction. Opposite to the Red Reaper."

The Keresi Plateau was truly a completely picturesque field no matter where you looked. The breeze was cool, and the lake was clear. However, past this beautiful plateau, blood and flames lurked beyond there.

The thought also occurred that somewhere it resembled the Heiden fields. Even though the Heiden fields were in the far distant north. There it was cold, here it was warm. The only difference was that.

"I will have to meet Billy in person. May I trust you and entrust the people to you?"

It wasn't a request fit to make to a person seen for the first time, and why he had to do so was even more questionable.

However, looking at the brother who looked exactly identical to the Red Reaper, Raimund felt a mysterious sense of trust.

Although their thoughts were different and what they pursued was different, as a knight, Vilter was the strongest knight he knew. It might be due to some kind of respect originating from that.

They were similar, yet a completely different feeling was felt. From Rickart.

"It is a funny thing. The land overflows, yet there are no people. There is a citadel in Saramusa. There are many resting farmlands in front of it. I will take them there for now. I will tell King Santonio later. Go to Karagosa. Your brother is there."

At Raimund's consent, Rickart merely nodded his head calmly. And after looking back at the people once, he set off on the road again. Together with Hashim.

It had already been hundreds of years since the Flame Knights guarded the Empire's borders. Even though they say they swear an oath of chastity, it also meant it had been hundreds of years since those who were discharged or retired settled down here, started families, and lived.

In the early days there must have been several major wars, but time blended their blood into one and made them live rubbing shoulders with each other.

As that happened, questions naturally started to arise little by little. Just who is the enemy? Protecting what from what?

Although they lumped the infidels together and called them Salaman people, actually their appearances were different from the real Salaman people to begin with.

Perhaps, just as objects wear out and lose their use when used for a long time, the noble ideology of the past might have also grown old and worn out.

Around the time the setting sun was falling, Rickart finally arrived. After taking a lengthy 20-some days, he had reached the headquarters of the Flame Knights, the Karagosa Citadel.

The Karagosa Citadel was first built during the Ancient Empire era, later occupied and expanded by the Salaman people, and then occupied by the knighthood and expanded once again, boasting overwhelming presence and an impregnable defense.

It was on a different level from any shabby castles in the Empire. Settled upon a sheer hill, the citadel was solid, thick, and overflowed with majesty.

Adding to that, the flags of the Flame Knights were fluttering everywhere. Below the citadel, there was a large barrack facility like a village, where commoner soldiers belonging to the knighthood lived.

As Rickart and Hashim passed shoulder to shoulder on horseback, they looked with hostile glares. As if they would pounce right away.

Unknowingly people tagged along, and surrounded the two like encircling them. Everyone held weapons like spears, halberds, or billhooks in their hands.

Upon reaching the citadel entrance below the hill, a knight approached. The eyes glistening under the helmet were the blunt eyes peculiar to those who had committed countless murders.

"If it is a useless errand, I will not guarantee your life. Where do you come from, who are you, and on what business do you approach the great citadel."

"Stormhearts, Kaldebern family, Rickart. I came to see my brother Vilter. And came to deliver a reliquary requested by Edmund, a knight affiliated with the Flame Knights."

To the incredibly brutal question, Rickart merely answered calmly. Then, perhaps even as a knight he didn't expect the brother of the Commander he served to come, he stayed still before saying.

"Wait."

Then he sent word into the citadel. Rickart and Hashim waited surrounded by hostile people. There wasn't a single hint of fear.

Actually, Rickart wasn't scared at all. No, he was scared. That wasn't because of their threat, but afraid the somehow unidentifiable anxiety would become reality. His pounding heart couldn't easily calm down.

Before long, a person came out from the citadel. He whispered to the knight. The knight nodded as if understanding.

"Go in."

Fortunately, he wasn't turned away at the door. Rickart rode his horse up the uphill path and stepped into the citadel. Inside the citadel, there were knights in states of wearing or having taken off their armor.

A guiding person took the reins so Rickart dismounted his horse. The knights all stared at Rickart and Hashim; although they didn't openly glare, the blunt gaze itself was incredibly brutal.

As if pressuring with silence, not a single person spoke.

The guide didn't take them to the inner keep but rounded the inner keep to take Rickart and Hashim to the backyard. There was a large tree there, and Vilter was sitting on the tree trunk showing his back under that tree.

"I have brought him, Commander."

The guide said. However, Vilter remained silent without even looking back. As the guide stepped away, not even birdsongs could be heard in the garden, only silence lingered.

Then suddenly Vilter looked back at Rickart. Blue pupils. Only that was different. His height and build, blond hair and facial features were truly identical as if looking in a mirror.

However, the indifferent gaze where no emotion could be felt felt like a dagger to Rickart.

At the feeling different from his desperate longing all this time and what he had thought, Rickart's heart pounded somewhat for unknown reasons. Say something, Billy......

Feeling something welling up from deep inside where Rickart himself didn't even know, he had to struggle hard to deliberately suppress it.

However, contrary to Rickart's feelings, Vilter turned his head back again, looked at the ground, and asked dryly.

"What brings you all the way here?"

Rickart gulped down dry saliva once and said.

"Edmund, the knight who took you, Billy. I saw him being burned at the stake in Nibelungen. Before he died he asked me to definitely deliver this to the headquarters."

Rickart brought out and showed the crudely decorated reliquary. Vilter didn't even look and said.

"Leave it."

"Is that all? Because what you have to say is?"

"What more is there to say. By the way, what is that beast next to you."

He was speaking of Hashim. Here, Rickart felt something was seriously amiss.

Flustered, he looked back at Hashim, but he was simply standing indifferently.

"A beast you say? Hashim is my friend. He guided the way up to here."

"A friend you say? Has your head gone crazy? Taking an infidel as a friend?"

As Vilter looked back at Rickart again, his eyes were full of venom, as if he had a mortal enemy. They seemed to burn blazing intensely.

"......Why are you getting so angry? It doesn't seem like the Billy I knew."

Then Vilter smirked and shook his head back and forth.

"You still haven't grown up, Ricky."

"Then how did you grow up?"

Rickart inexplicably felt his emotions well up and asked somewhat excitedly.

"Exactly as you see. I am the Commander of the Flame Knights."

"So? Is killing completely powerless people the job a Commander should do at best?"

"Don't say naive things, Ricky. In the end, it's a matter that ends only when all are killed. Especially the infidels are defiling this land. Purifying the land and establishing a pure country is what I must do as Commander."

"Don't delude yourself! Billy! Such a thing isn't establishing a country! It's committing sins!"

Rickart shouted. Then Vilter suddenly sprang up from his seat, grabbed Rickart by the collar, and glaring as if to kill him, said.

"What do you know? Have you seen the deaths of brothers? Do you know war? If you're going to say childish things, get out of here."

Rickart violently shook off his brother's hand, grabbed his collar in return, and shouted.

"Snap out of it! Just what on earth did the knighthood do to you for you to be like this!? You weren't like this originally! Think of our family!"

Emotions escalated and seemed almost ready to explode. No, perhaps they had already exploded.

Vilter shook off his brother's hand again, and this time forcefully pushed Rickart's chest, clenching his fists and shouting.

"Do not speak of family in front of me! Are they not the people who abandoned me! It is the knighthood that raised me! War! Fire and steel! Blood! And death have raised me!"

In that instant, Rickart received such a great shock that his breath stopped. His body trembled as if struck by lightning, and looking at Vilter with a shaking gaze, he looked exactly identical to his past life self.

Vengeance and grudge, hatred, and deeper inside, a human tamed by slaughter existed.

When Rickart couldn't say any words out of great shock, Vilter continuously huffed, calming his anger, then snapped around backward and said.

"Don't do useless things here and go back. Whether you go home, or play house as an adventurer or whatever fry it is. As a final mercy to my flesh and blood, I will just let you go. Do not cross paths with me on the battlefield. No matter if it's you, I will kill you."

Saying so, Vilter took large strides and went somewhere. The strength left Rickart's legs and he plopped down on the ground.

His energy drained completely, and it felt like all strength was draining out of everything. What I am doing, what I intend to do, what I have done......

Soon after, sadness and feelings of disappointment, and apologetic feelings swirled in his chest. Even Rickart, who was indifferent in everything and had almost no emotional agitation, couldn't help but break down just this once.

It felt like the childhood days he spent together with Vilter passed before his eyes. Playing together in the fields of Stormhearts, sleeping holding hands at night, the smell of grass, the scent of flowers, the light of the setting sun, hugging with a smile, carrying on his back, and the tender heart.

However, that boy was no longer there.

It hurt like someone was wringing his heart. Before long, the scenes full of memories wavered with moisture. The resentment that lost its way unable to direct itself toward anyone turned into tears and fell drop by drop.

The subtle red light of the setting sun wrapped Rickart's back.

Chapter 28 - Repeating History. End.