Chapter 201

Chapter 201

***

"It's funny to ask now, but why do you want to be the Emperor?"

Rickart said. However, his gaze was directed out the window. Whether the heat had subsided a moderately cool breeze blew gently through the window.

What was visible were mostly working people. People cutting wood, moving heavy things, paving roads, or building buildings. A crane was also lifting a huge stone.

Among them there were almost no Stormhearts people. Most were outsiders, people related to the Master's Federation, and people who had business with them.

In the distance, in a barely visible place the army of Adelorn was stationed. Carriages and carts went back and forth between the garrison and the place where the city was now being built.

"Taking over the family, legally pulling the family down from the Emperor's seat, and yet if I and everyone live happily wouldn't that be the best revenge?"

It was Marie's voice. As Rickart turned around she was looking down with a lovely gaze holding their son in bed.

If she became the Emperor the head of the Nivelinger family would automatically become Marie, and since Vilter of the Rikarn family would inherit it when she died, the Imperial family would no longer be Nivelinger.

Marie didn't have much attachment to her family. Rather if anything she hated it.

Even so it wasn't that she only denied it blindly, as she utilized being a royal when utilizing it.

"You know, Ricky. I am different from you or Billy."

"In what?"

"My mother being pregnant with me was an unwanted pregnancy, so my being born was also an unwanted birth. It's better to lose parents instead. Being denied by parents is truly a terrible thing. But look, in the end I won."

"......"

Though not knowing what she won against, Marie raising her head and looking at Rickart was making the happiest smile in the world.

"......Not yet."

"Are you not going to kill the 5th Prince?"

"No, not that, killing the 5th Prince is the start. The previous Emperor had many children right. To neatly finish the work you have to kill them all. Finding them all one by one. But that I cannot help you with."

"Yeah, I will do that."

"You have to be careful, Marie."

"About what?"

"To not lose yourself. You must not forget with what mind you started the work at first, and why you wanted to become the Emperor."

"Mmm...... but now I feel like whatever is fine. Even being unhappy is okay. Because now even unhappiness feels happy."

Marie smiled looking at their son embraced in her bosom again. The existence named Vilter itself seemed to be a magic making even unhappiness feel happy to Marie.

Rickart knew Marie had changed. And himself too. Was it possible for a changed person to remember their original intention?

Now he felt it was truly difficult. He couldn't tell what was what. A modest dream created too big a matter, and made him come too far, and now he couldn't go back even if he wanted to go back.

"I will go."

"But I don't need to care about the 2nd Prince?"

"He won't aim for Stormhearts. He will probably chase me. Since whichever side wins in the fight between me and the 5th Prince will suffer damage, he will probably intervene last and try to become the final victor. But he doesn't have the ability to do so, nor the decisiveness."

"Are you that certain?"

"I actually saw that person right. A typical what shall I say, a feeling of doing things he feels he should do as a Prince having been born as a Prince and lived continuously exactly like that, but a person who never threw a question at that. So he doesn't even know who he himself is and what he wants."

Whether Rickart or Marie, or his other friends were all people who suffered in the shackles of destiny then somehow struggled and cut off the chains. But the 2nd Prince Nivellius was not.

Although he was treated coldly in the Imperial family he only gained greed full of it because of that, and was not a person who pondered deeply about destiny or his own life.

And such people generally had weak decisiveness. Not knowing themselves they lacked the capacity to throw themselves into uncertain situations.

Rickart approached Marie and lightly kissed her. And after stroking his son's head very softly, gently exactly as if touching or not touching he stepped out of the bedroom.

Coming out of the headquarters Roy was waiting holding the reins of the horse he would ride and the Crimson Comet.

However he was in the middle of talking with someone, and fascinatingly it was a girl named Belynn whom they met in the Esk region.

Because Belynn was broadly speaking also belonging to the Master's Federation, her being here wasn't such a strange matter.

"Can't I ride it once?"

"I told you not now. I'm taking charge of work. Because I'm serving the King."

"Isn't battle dangerous?"

"The King's back is the safest place in the world."

"Is that so?"

"Ah, he came out."

Rickart approached Roy and asked.

"Are you playing romance?"

"No...... it's not like that. We met coincidentally."

"It doesn't seem like a coincidence......"

"Yes?"

"Can't you tell seeing her?"

"What?"

"Well."

Rickart didn't answer him and got on the horse. His eye level rose significantly, and his field of vision opened up clearly far away. However giving a glance to Belynn nearby he said.

"Roy is a decent kid. He's just a bit dense. Don't be too anxious and if you continue to reach out your hand it will reach his heart someday."

"I know."

"Is that so?"

Rickart smiled and turned his horse's head.

It was a truly strange feeling. Why was his heart so excited leaving to fight a battle? The days he lived with a cold and sharp heart in the past felt like a lie.

Everything in the world looked beautiful, but now he desperately wished hope would bloom at the tip of the sword, not death and despair.

Hope at the tip of a sword, though he didn't know if that was a statement capable of being established, the surrounding reality clearly showed it. That you, Rickart, were living properly.

One of the various virtues a military commander had to possess was gathering the troops well when defeated.

However although that was a very important ability, it was hard to be well recognized. Because in a situation already defeated it was truly hard for others to recognize that merit.

But sadly, whether merit was recognized or not the 5th Prince's army defeated in the Stormhearts siege battle initially had no person to gather the troops.

Because the field commander Count Gustred died in battle, there were various opinions regarding why he went to such lengths.

That the weather was too hot and he suffered from the heat, that from the moment he disobeyed the 5th Prince's directive he had to produce results without fail so he overdid it, or both.

Anyway he died. If only considering troop loss it wasn't that many troops sacrificed either.

Because the sword of a Sword Master definitively cut off life, there were almost no injured and only deaths at the level of several hundred people. Then did the remaining 5 thousand or so people return to the Imperial Capital Nibelungen?

It wasn't so. Surprisingly the defeated soldiers returning to the Imperial Capital were about several hundred people, and the rest all completely returned to their hometowns.

Among them there were also those who encountered Rickart advancing to the Imperial Capital.

"The 5th Prince does not know the word forgiveness. He does not tolerate failure. At first everyone followed him thinking he would soon become Emperor since he seized the Imperial Capital, but isn't it not true anymore? Then why must we tremble in anxiety not knowing when our necks will fall off returning to the Imperial Capital, and why must we follow him? If the King bestows mercy we will return to our hometowns and quietly live doing farming. We don't know thievery or things like that."

Having lost their weapons, and a soldier who took off his gambeson due to the heat wearing only undergarments knelt and looked at Rickart and said.

Besides him a group of defeated soldiers were also kneeling, and just blinking their eyes they seemed to have absolutely zero will to fight.

Rickart looked down at them from atop his horse then coolly nodded his head.

"Grudges and revenge are a matter for the Prince and me to settle, there is no sin in you who received commands. Return to your hometowns as you wish."

At Rickart's mercy the defeated soldiers who were exactly like children being scolded by an adult, quickly got color in their faces.

They continuously fired off thank you then truly ran away swinging their arms like children.

Rickart stared at them blankly, then said to Raimund.

"Ray, perhaps we might not need to do a siege."

"Shall we station nearby?"

"No. Divide the troops in two and block the north and west. Let only me and the Royal Guards enter the city first."

"Isn't it too dangerous?"

"The Imperial Capital originally has no city walls. Because the surrounding territories act as city walls. However they have already been defeated. It is no different from the city walls having collapsed."

"I merely follow your word. Only, finally the revenge for Sir Edmund is completed."

"......Yeah."

Knight Edmund was the person who enlisted Rickart's older brother Vilter into the Flame Knights, and a person burned at the stake while suffering terrible torture without any sin. By the 5th Prince Bellator.

The scream saying I have no sin, was still vivid in Rickart's ears.

Perhaps the 5th Prince might have lost trust from then on. Although possessing an outstanding brain, he was a person who only knew how to suppress and didn't know how to win people's hearts.

Thinking of when he was young made his thoughts truly complicated in various ways. He had a truly outstanding intelligence. In the end tracing back the core of all problems the family environment was the problem.

Anyway Rickart brought exactly about 50 Royal Guards and entered the Imperial Capital Nibelungen. The city was truly as desolate as if ghosts would appear.

The troops defending the city also having heard the news of Rickart coming had run away.

Rickart headed to the palace following his old memories. A forest impressive with Robur oak trees, and a fantastic palace blended with the forest. The beautiful garden had obvious traces of having hurriedly evacuated.

The knights took control of the surroundings, and Rickart got off his horse and entered the palace. Reaching the huge hall where the throne was, he faced the 5th Prince Bellator sitting alone on the throne.

Light fell diagonally from the round window above the back of the throne. As if made so when designed, it was only illuminating the path heading to the throne in a straight line.

Due to backlighting the person sitting on the throne naturally looked like a dark silhouette.

"Leave."

Rickart said to the knights. Thereupon the knights vacated their seats without complaints. In the huge hall there was only Rickart and the 5th Prince Bellator.

After a brief silence flowed between the two Bellator spoke. Because it was a place where sound echoed much even without speaking loudly it was heard well.

"From where did you plan this? If it was planned from when you married my sister, you are indeed worthy of being called my teacher."

"No. I do not become Emperor. The one who decided to become Emperor is Marie. I merely support her."

"A not even funny excuse."

"Think as you please. But you said it right. That human history is the process of widely projecting a monarch's dominance. So what is next? If just widely spreading dominance does it end with that?"

"Chaos will end and order will be set right. By maintaining it peace is also maintained. Shedding blood in that process is unavoidable."

Knowing only one but not two. What Bellator was saying was ultimately that the Imperial family firmly holding power was soon peace, but such a thing was bound to corrupt.

Rickart who experienced Helauman knew well. He too made that his justice, and was a person who didn't even recognize what was wrong with inhuman behavior.

"Do you think people who submitted to fear will be loyal to you if a greater fear appears?"

"Loyalty? You believe in such a thing? I didn't hope for something like loyalty from the beginning."

"So it became like this. In the end there is no one by your side right."

"There was no one from birth. So it is better to not have anyone when dying too."

"It sounds like acting like a baby. I hope death becomes peace to you."

Saying so Rickart drew his sword and walked into the light. Walking on the carpet laid on the floor a dull trudge, trudge sound echoed in the hall.

"Is this your final teaching, teacher."

"The whole world is full of teachings. Merely you only saw what you wanted to see and heard what you wanted to hear."

Reaching in front of the dark silhouette, unexpectedly Bellator with a calm appearance was seen. He was wearing the Imperial Crown on his head.

Rickart grabbed his shoulder, and stabbed the tip of his sword into his heart in one breath. Bellator trembled shivering making a hup! sound. His gaze was forward, looking at the area of Rickart's chest.

However he tried to maintain his posture until the end. Rickart's touch grabbing his shoulder, helped somewhat small though in maintaining his posture.

The blood flowing from his heart soaked his front, and reached the throne. And reached the floor.

Rickart waited until he completely died then pulled out his sword. Bellator's blood predictably smeared along the blade.

He was a person born lonely, grown lonely, and died lonely. He didn't have friends either, and his family were competitors.

The only person he attached human affection to was his teacher, and his teacher was the only one guarding his side at the end.

Rickart gently let him lean against the backrest, and put the twisting Imperial Crown on straight.

He only engaged in politics, diplomacy, and a battle of wits and had no personal feelings toward him. A thought merely entered his mind that if only I had been born a little later, or if we had become friends early on in a different way at least.

Because diving into the essence he knew Marie and Bellator had no big difference.