Chapter 221
Human memory had a limit of ten years, and even if memory was passed down through education and learning, thirty years was the limit. What this meant was that even if one knew it in their head, they could not truly feel it.
At first glance, it sounded like it didn't make sense, but seeing how humans surprisingly repeated the same mistakes throughout history, it was certainly true.
In that context, Rickart was also gradually fading from people's memories. Even as the invincible swordsman, the undefeated commander, and the ultimate hero.
There was no place in the reorganized order of the Empire that he hadn't influenced, and no place his hand hadn't reached, yet Rickart's presence was unexpectedly indistinct.
In the end, all humans lived captured by the daily lives surrounding them. That was what was most important; the hymns to the hero were merely familiar oral folk songs or ballads. Far removed from reality.
He could have stood at the pinnacle of the world. He could have possessed god-like power, or become the richest man in the world.
However, Rickart did not take even one of those three.
As the king of the frontier, he ruled the kingdom without discord and merely led the Council of Six from behind the scenes; ironically, the extraordinary hero sought normalcy.
That normalcy was simply doing what needed to be done and being faithful to those around him. It was truly so. In other words, what moved Rickart was not wealth or fame.
At first, he sought to shed the dark shadows of his past life, then he worked for the sake of the world, and now it was time to return to being himself. In that respect, the trio of young adventurers seemed to remind him of something he had forgotten.
Rickart's reflection on the past was not about being bound by what had gone by. It was merely a lingering regret for what was left unfinished. Specifically, leaving behind Caldebert and discharging from service.
What would have happened to me if I hadn't discharged then? Could I have been saved sooner? What more should I have done there?
To have regrets now of all times...
"It has been a long time since my eyesight became dim... Now, even looking through a crystal magnifying glass, I cannot see well."
Dr. Reno said as he rummaged through the old library. It was a space filled with the smell of dust, the scent of old leather like wood.
The library was none other than the place where the records of the Caldebern family history were kept. Some dust was piled as thick as half a book.
Anyway, Dr. Reno's back was bent due to his age, and his movements looked very uncomfortable.
"If you tell me where it is, I will find it myself, Doctor."
Rickart, who had stopped by his eldest brother's house for a while, stood still and said.
"No. I am enjoying enough luxury as it is. I cannot put a king to work."
"It's not that, it's just that I'm getting frustrated."
"Haha, is that so? I should have kept a librarian separately. Having relied only on my memory all this time, it's quite embarrassing now that my memory is getting hazy."
The library was a fairly large space. But because it was packed with old documents, just searching through them looked like it would take several months.
Most of them were records of past land ledgers, family registers, weapon ledgers, cash receipts, and battle progress that had no historical value. Almost a hundred years' worth was piled up.
Keeping all these things without organizing them was because they were the very footprints the family had walked.
History was when a historian looked through all these individual pieces of information and organized the things that particularly needed to be told.
And to did such a thing, the central power would have to integrate and proceed with the compilation work, but that was also no ordinary task.
So, what was currently called history was merely the records each noble family had piled up about their own family.
Even the Emperor was only interested in the Emperor's own family and was indifferent to records of the state, the people, or certain events. That was common sense. It was an era where they didn't yet know why they should did that.
That meant, in the end, he had to find the records concerning Caldebert among all these documents.
"The documents over here are the records of the family's figures. When they were born, what they learned and experienced as children, who the successor was and to whom it changed, their eating habits or appearance—it's a messy record of such things."
"Are they organized by era from bottom to top?"
Rickart said, looking at several piles of books stacked almost to the ceiling.
"No. They are mixed."
"......You should have kept a librarian."
"If you hire a librarian, you have to keep using them, but it's better to save the territory's funds as much as possible."
"We aren't so poor that we need to save on things like that..."
"Ho-ho, the moment you let your guard down, cracks appear in the granary. By the time you realize there's a problem, the rats have already eaten everything. Frugality must be ingrained in the body."
It wasn't a wrong statement, but Rickart didn't want to talk with the old man anymore. He respected, admired, and liked Dr. Reno, but the old man had the peculiar stubbornness of the elderly.
"I understand, so I'll look for it from now on. You go and rest, Doctor."
"Shall I bring you a meal?"
"It's my brother's house, do you think I'll starve? It's fine. You just take care of yourself, Doctor."
"Ho-ho-ho......"
Dr. Reno just laughed ho-ho as he always did. And then, after watching Rickart settle down and examine the records one by one, he left.
A deep and heavy silence settled in the library where Rickart was left alone. Rickart didn't like studying that much, but he wasn't slow-witted and was on the side of being a fast reader.
However, the problem was that the writing style and recording method were different for each recorder, so even finding the dates was not easy. And there weren't even the names of the people who recorded them, and their education levels were all different.
Since they were recorded by people the family hired from time to time, the recording method changed abruptly even within the same lord's era.
Someone marrying in, marrying out, getting married, the wealth level of the in-laws' or the wife's family, history, and such things were just written down haphazardly.
It was even recorded that someone from the Caldebern family had jumped from a high tower as a child and broken their leg. There were even records of trivial conversations, and there was a whole pile of things where it was impossible to tell why on earth they had been recorded.
In the end, he had to spend time looking through everything one by one. Since it was a cool place where the sun didn't shine, it felt like his sense of time was becoming faint.
In that faded time, Rickart examined the records as if wandering somewhere in the past.
Then, when the records were piled as high as a person's height next to Rickart, a name finally caught his eye. Caldebert.
Had he unconsciously fallen into these dry records? At the words that Caldebert blamed himself, a single tear fell from Rickart's eye without him realizing it.
Caldebert must have known Rickart's whereabouts after returning from the Expeditionary Land, and he felt sorry rather than disappointed. Rickart's heart ached.
And soon after, he breathed a sigh of relief at the words that Caldebert had recovered. Even though it was an event that had passed in the distant past.
Anyway, it seemed that the early Caldebern family had a very hard time. The Emperor only gave the territory, and it seemed that the two of them took on almost everything, from establishing security to feeding and clothing the residents. From the most trivial matters to fighting with their lives on the line.
However, as Rickart continued to read the records, he discovered something he hadn't known.
It was the content that Caldebert didn't end his life in the territory but went back to the Expeditionary Land. Rickart wondered for a moment what this was. He went back to that hell?
Thinking it was strange, he continued to read, but from then on, it was all about the recorder and the young master. And that, too, had its own moving quality like an old story.
The successor who had been a source of trouble finally came to his senses and grew into a gallant knight. And he became the second head of the Caldebern family.
The name of the recorder never appeared until the end, and the conclusion was that his daughter and the successor got married.
And he left his final words.
In a way, this was closer to an individual's diary and memoir rather than a historical record. Perhaps because he was not a person educated in this area, he had recorded it in this way.
Was he a wandering swordsman, or a mercenary? Even that was unknown. Because the interior of the recorder was entirely filled only with Caldebert and the territory. There was no mention of himself.
However, there was no falsehood in the records, and therefore, that earnest heart was conveyed just as it was.
The Caldebern family, the Caldebern territory, and even Stormhearts which branched off from there—all of it was built with the efforts, tenacity, and bitterness of those he hadn't thought of.
Just like how Rickart saved Adelorn, created the Council of Six, and was working hard to manage something.
Rickart quietly closed the records. Many records still remained, but even if he searched through them all, it seemed difficult to find any more records about Caldebert.
So he quietly stood up, took a lantern, and went out of the library. After passing through the dark hallway and climbing the stairs, it was the ground where starlight had settled.
Since Rickart had once infiltrated the Count's castle in the old days when some bandit-like fellows had occupied it, he knew the structure of the castle well.
So he walked toward the inner castle, and the guards or escort knights he encountered midway greeted him lightly.
Rickart caught just anyone and asked.
"Where is my brother? And Dr. Reno?"
"The evening banquet has just ended. We were going to call the King, but he said there was no need."
"I see......"
"Shall I tell the chef to make more food?"
"No, it's fine. For some reason, I don't feel hungry right now."
Rickart nodded and headed straight for Dr. Reno's room. When he opened the door, the sharp smell of herbs reached his nose.
Dr. Reno was spreading out his bedding and turned to look at Rickart. Rickart naturally lit the fireplace for the aged man.
"Hm? Have you found it already? I thought it would take about three days."
"I have something I'm curious about. Who is the person who assisted Caldebert by his side?"
"The person who assisted him? Hm...... I read it so long ago that my memory...... Ah, I remember. I don't know the name, but I know the burial site."
"Is he not enshrined in the castle's underground tomb? He is the father-in-law of the second head, after all."
"Exactly. As you might know if you've seen other records, he did not want to be enshrined in the castle's underground tomb himself. He said he wanted to be the first to go out and meet the Founder when he returned."
"......I see."
"The Caldebern family's foundation was built on friendship and loyalty from the beginning. That was its greatest asset."
"Did you know that Caldebert left for the Eastern Expeditionary Land again?"
"Was that so? I think it might have been...... Because only his strategies and tactics are famous, there are many parts of his life that are overlooked. And the records regarding his art of war will be recorded in more detail in the Imperial Library than here. If you look for the volume on Martelus II......"
"That's enough. What I'm interested in is Caldebert's whereabouts. He was appointed as Governor, so his body wouldn't just be lying around anywhere. But did he end up not being able to return?"
"That is correct. Is there not a saying that heroes may fade away, but they do not die?"
"I'm hearing that for the first time. Anyway, please tell me where the father-in-law of the second head is buried."
"Since the Founder left for the east, it is on the eastern road. It hasn't been maintained for a long time, so it must be hidden by bushes, but there should be a tombstone. What was it? 'I lived as a stray dog and became a house-guarding dog. Here I wait for my master.' It's probably something like that. There is no name there either."
"I understand. I'll look for it tomorrow. Rest well."
Rickart left the room. No, he was about to leave.
"Oh, right, it was a story that came up during the banquet, my brother told me not to tell the King......"
"What is it?"
"The Master's Federation. The atmosphere there is getting worse and worse lately. To the point where it's affecting the management of the territory. It seems a big fight will break out between the Viola Clan and Beringen Academy soon. Signs have already been captured here and there, and they say the number of casualties is increasing day by day. It seems difficult for the leaders of both sides to stop it anymore, because those from there have each established their own clans, so their words don't carry much weight."
Rickart looked at Dr. Reno while listening to his words, then turned his head toward the door and sighed.
"Can one become a villain themselves if the world requires it? Is that justice, or is it unjust because one has become a villain?"
"......If they can no longer be persuaded by words, it cannot be helped. There is no monarch among all the monarchs of all time who has not conducted a purge."
"Since it's a seed I sowed, it's right that I am the one to plow it under. Just as grass and trees grow better after a forest fire, I can only hope that it will become so after time passes."
"Giving a petition to the Emperor......"
If a purge were to be done, it was right for the Emperor to did it for appearances. But Rickart shook his head.
"I feel like I can hear the Eastern Frontier calling for me. It seems I will have to set out on a long journey, so it's right for the person who will disappear soon to handle it."
"There are many people who understand. Don't try to shoulder it all alone."
"I know. Because I know that, I'm going to try to do it alone as much as possible. At least I won't be lonely, so that's enough. However, I feel as if I've become the Grim Reaper. I used to be called that in the past...... If that weighs on my mind, it weighs on it."
The Steel Reaper. It was a nickname given by the barbarians. Then was it no different from back then? No, that's not it. Because back then, he was lonely.
Even if ice and glass look exactly the same, when put in the mouth, one melts and one cuts the tongue; even if performing the same act, if the essence was different, it was different.
Then what was that essence? Justice? No. Rickart held the belief that strong justice was a strong injustice. It was merely responsibility. Nothing more, nothing less.
Responsibility toward the family, responsibility toward the nation, and responsibility toward himself.
Rickart had never once shirked his responsibility until now. It was merely that. There was no such thing as measly justice. Like a person who lived as a stray dog and became a house dog.
The next day, after Rickart visited his grave and paid his respects, he first turned back. Toward Stormhearts City.
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