Chapter 168

Chapter 168

***

When faced directly, there were many cases where things were different from what was imagined.

A person thought to be great might be nothing more than a cowardly coward, and someone thought to be insignificant might possess incredible abilities.

A person thought to be smart might have their life ruined in an instant due to ridiculous and foolish behaviors, and a person thought to have ended might overcome despair and succeed again.

So even if one ssaw an angel and a devil directly, could human intellect distinguish the two? If that distinction were easy life wouldn't be this complicated and difficult.

Rickart was different from what he had thought.

Perhaps it was obvious but he might have overlooked it. To Count Ceska's eyes, Rickart was a person carrying inhuman violence inside him before being a shining hero.

Inhuman violence didn't simply mean beating people well or being violent, but a more fundamental part.

Was he a hero to save the world, or a demon king to destroy the world. Whatever fate the world met, if that was God's will then in the end it was clear he received God's selection.

And one more thing, whether Rickart was an angel or a devil, Count Ceska was completely fascinated by Rickart.

So he had no choice but to please, hope that he was an angel.

"Winter is coming in. How is the food situation of the County?"

Amidst the chilly autumn wind blowing, Rickart asked.

But what happened was that Count Ceska didn't answer immediately even while looking at Rickart. No, he couldn't. Because he was in a slightly dazed state right now.

Rickart's long golden eyelashes made the person look frail, but he knew well that he was never frail.

His eyes were exactly like a deer. Normally they were. However when fighting seeing blood it was not so again. That contrast even made one feel a sense of guilt exactly as if it shouldn't be like that.

As Count Ceska didn't answer, Rickart looked at the not-so-wide farmland and then turned his head to stare at him.

After scanning Count Ceska up and down with a questioning gaze exactly as if saying WHY ISN'T HE ANSWERING?, he asked.

"Is there any problem?"

"......? Ah, no."

Count Ceska answered flustered. Those sharp eyes when first seen had softened a lot.

"How is the food situation in preparation for winter?"

"Ceska is originally a place where not many people live. As you can see there is farmland but the land is neither fertile nor wide. Because we have made a living through hunting or gathering since ancient times, starvation doesn't occur often just because it's winter."

Compared to hunting and gathering agriculture merely had a high population supporting capacity, the danger regarding starving was much higher for agriculture.

Compared to agriculture where there was no countermeasure if a year's farming was ruined, hunting and gathering had accumulated experience and know-how over a long time so it didn't change greatly just because it was winter.

Of course it being hard was the same though.

"How about this? The Forest of Demonic Beasts has good wood, so cutting that and selling it. I will buy it. It's exactly a time when a lot of firewood is needed too. If the trade goes well it could continue."

"Understood. I will do so."

Count Ceska didn't particularly think either and answered immediately. Exactly like a loyal vassal receiving a King's order.

Rickart looked back at Ceska's farmland again. Having traveled the world a lot he had seen all sorts of bizarre and beautiful sights, but Ceska was full of some gloomy atmosphere.

Strangely the people living here lived with resignation attached. Doing that and nevertheless acting as a breakwater protecting the human world for a distant time, it was something one couldn't tell even knowing it.

Some sublime thoughts or actions, there seemed to be cases where the outer packaging was shabbier than thought.

So, was the graveyard where unknown fallen soldiers were buried 'Shabby Valor'. Such thoughts brushed past Rickart's head like the autumn wind.

Rickart got on his horse. The horse was exactly like bright red ripened autumn leaves. It suited autumn well.

As Rickart rode his horse and ran on the path between the fields, Count Ceska and several escort knights also rode horses and followed.

Completing one big round of the directly controlled territory and reaching the graveyard named Shabby Valor, before the spirits the head of Broken Fang was offered.

Whether that would truly become a comfort to the nameless heroic spirits was unknown, but at least a person like me not forgetting it was important.

On the outskirts of the graveyard Raimund and Roy were waiting riding horses. Rickart looked at a phrase written on a certain tombstone for a while, then approached them.

And looking back at Count Ceska he said.

"There is no need to come out to the fortress gate. Parting should have a regretful taste right. I will go."

Rickart said like that and ran his horse. Raimund followed, and Roy still lightly bowed his head to the Count and then followed Rickart.

As they distanced themselves saying clippity-clop, clippity-clop, only faint dirt dust bloomed up.

For a King, for a person who would become a King, it was shabby. Exactly like the Ceska County.

However, just as the Ceska County had fulfilled a sublime duty unlike its shabby outward appearance, Rickart's past actions were also similar. At least Count Ceska felt like that.

He didn't want to be treated, merely shouldered the duty together, and proved himself taking risks.

Autumn was a lonely season but on the other hand it was also a season of fruition. And there was no harvest as big as winning a person's heart.

There was always something following where an army was stationed. Alcohol and gambling, and pimps.

It wasn't that there weren't such things in Adelun either, but compared to the scale of the stationed army it was at a level of not existing.

Because the knighthood members had lived an ascetic monk-like life for a long time, the boundary against lewdness, one of the sins, still remained somewhat.

So, he had to pair them up even on purpose. That was one of the things Rickart had to did.

Leaving the soldiers aside, the knights of the knighthood were all around a thousand people, and the problem was that they were all nobles.

Nobles couldn't marry just anyone. It wasn't that marriage between a noble and a commoner was impossible according to religious law, but it was one of the things extremely tabooed culturally or traditionally.

Especially it was a fact everyone knew that if the civil war ended the knights would all receive titles and land big or small. Whatever Rickart's determination was, anyone with tact knew just seeing the returning situation.

So the work was very important and also complex, he had to consider all things like which influential family's daughter among the local natives they would marry.

Since Rickart couldn't look into this one by one and pair them up, ultimately Marie took charge of this task. Doing so was also simultaneously the task of opening faces with many nobles of Adelorn.

Of course among them there were also those trying to reclaim their lost rights, but Rickart rejected all of that. Because they couldn't protect their own land.

Simply put, it meant an outside force was coming in and becoming the new ruling class, and to proceed with this task smoothly without spilling blood as much as possible fusing with the local natives was important.

To proceed with marriages as a method for that. Just as human history gwent, it was an obvious yet always used method.

Of course it was also something Rickart had promised. Having the knights break free from duty and form families.

The soldiers naturally became vassals under the respective knights they wanted to follow.

However even putting the marriage problem aside, there was a mountain of work to did. Rebuilding the capital, having refugees settle down, organizing the messy surroundings, and establishing security too.

Marie paid attention to internal affairs, and going around outside was Rickart's job. Work ran like that.

In the midst of that Rickart had a personal greed-like thing, one thing he separately paid attention to.

That was none other than the problem related to Bori.

"Is the research going well?"

With dried fallen leaves piled up heavily on the ground, Rickart asked under a tree with not much autumn foliage left.

Bori was sitting on a rock scribbling something on a pile of parchment.

Rickart was looking down tepidly at what Bori was doing with his sword worn at his waist, and Bori said without even looking back at his friend.

"Just doing it in my spare time, what else."

"Is that so fun?"

"Wouldn't it be everyone finding their own place. Bolka or Ice, or you or me. Each doing the work they want to do."

"Speaking of which, what do you think about newly making an Academy or Adventurer's Guild? When I think about it quietly, when we were young the Adventurers Guild did quite a lot of good things right. I'm thinking how about operating that properly within the Kingdom."

"That would be okay."

The answer was positive but the tone had not much interest.

"I want you to take charge of it. Whether as School Principal, or Guild Master."

"Eek. It's bothersome."

Bori only then looked back at Rickart once. Though he quickly turned his gaze back to his notebook immediately.

"Hey, wouldn't it become a much more meaningful task than scribbling things like that?"

"Meaning is up to each person to define. By your standards, Ricky, that might be meaningful, but not for me."

"Is that so? No matter how much I think about it, even if you organize things like Mana Drive it probably won't be very useful. Who's going to look at it? Isn't it better to find talented kids and teach them rather?"

"Whatever you decide to do, Ricky, you lose interest quickly. Didn't you also decide to make a book related to Mana Drive?"

Regarding tasks to be done, Rickart made sure to accomplish them no matter what. However, tasks like hobbies or studying he didn't even glance at them if he lost interest. Things like this were not known unless one was a close person. Rickart himself didn't particularly reveal it either.

"Time is aplenty. I just have to finish it someday before I die. But saving and benefiting people is an urgent task right now right."

Even words that were like excuses and not excuses, he didn't say them unless it was to a close person. At Rickart's words that were like excuses and not excuses, Bori merely shook his head shaking head and laughed.

"Sorry, but I don't have much interest in other people."

"Looking quietly, unexpectedly your human relations are closed off. In the past didn't you treat other people amiably a bit too?"

"Did I? Well, wouldn't that have been a method of survival? I wasn't strong from the beginning like you, Ricky. That's why people understand better if I write a book. And you working for people is also entirely a conclusion you thought out and reached yourself. Rather than being drawn by sympathy or pity."

"......You're really good at speaking now."

Perhaps because Bori read a lot of books he was truly erudite now. And perhaps because parts like insight resembled Rickart, he had sharp sides.

It wasn't that he lacked the innocence like the past, but it had thinned a lot.

"Unlike you, Ricky, why don't you just say it if you have something to say instead of just beating around the bush? It's because of Marie right? Mairie pressing you to get me married?"

"......Yeah."

Rickart didn't hide it and obediently admitted. Thereupon Bori only then closed his notebook. And sitting slightly turned, looked up at Rickart.

Sometime, it brought to mind the Academy life of the Chicken Coop days. Hanging on exercise equipment behind the dorms for no reason, looking at each other and sharing trivial chitchat, that time, that was.

What hadn't changed for Bori compared to then was his yellow-brown bowl cut and cute face, and the innocence revealed when he smiled.

Rickart stood crookedly and just looked down. Bori said.

"Ricky, you said it sometime before right. That you don't believe in the likes of love. But my grain is a bit different, I don't really know if something like love exists."

"Then what are Marie and I?"

"Just well, a handsome man and beautiful woman drawn by sexual desire probably. You guys fight often lately too."

"......That's just because our opinions are different. You've become a very cynical adult. I should have supervised you by your side."

"You being cynical is the same, Ricky. Who would I have watched and learned from?"

"Me? Is that so? Seems like it might be."

Rickart showed trust and respect limited to the people he acknowledged, but for most people merely swayed by their own desires there was a tendency of considering them trivial or looking down on them.

It wasn't denying human desires. However, being unable to exercise restraint and being swayed looked weak.

"As you also know when I was young, when the legitimate children bullied my mother I bullied her together too. Actually back then, I wasn't forced by them but I voluntarily participated because I didn't want to be ostracized too. But I don't really have a sense of guilt like Ice. Because that woman didn't recognize me as a son anyway. Because she said her life got tangled because of me. Saying she would have continued receiving the Lord's love if only I wasn't there. Thinking about it now it is pitiful. But how that woman lives, how she dies I don't care."

"......Is that so."

"I just like being alone peacefully the most. For human relations a few people I like is enough. I don't need many people. It's rather cumbersome. You and Marie, Ice, Bolka and Delphi is enough right. If I have a matter to drop by Beringen briefly seeing Morty and Lara would be good too. Then isn't it done?"

At least to Bori, Rickart was an angel. Unlike Count Ceska who was secretly anxious.

"That does do it."

"So leave marriage for me to take care of. And to say it in advance I probably won't have a reason to do it."

Bori turned back around and opened his notebook. And fell into his own rest.

Rickart wanting to interfere for no reason massaged Bori's shoulders. He didn't did it hard, but rocked his body back and forth to disturb his concentration. Bori smiled softly amidst his body being rocked.

Thinking about it there was almost no one Rickart joked around like this with either. Probably, if excluding Marie and Bori wouldn't there be no one. Having even two people might perhaps be fortunate.

The flow of time was bound to mold changes. Just as autumn ripens like that, friendship too had a side of maturing differently from when young. Or not?

Anyway, while Rickart was spending busy yet peaceful days, unexpected news was delivered from outside the Adelorn Kingdom.

None other than news that the 5th Prince Bellator was defeated in a battle with the 2nd Prince Lotharius.

Whether it was a crushing defeat or merely a trivial defeat wasn't known, but it was quite surprising. Because Prince Lotharius suffered great damage from Rickart and his army was basically completely ruined, but he lost facing such him.

Bellator wasn't such an incompetent person, but since the detailed inside story couldn't be known right away judging anything was early.

Autumn ripened, friendship also ripened, and war also did. The war of succession for the Emperor's throne had broken out in earnest. It started with Bellator's first defeat.