Chapter 186 - The Embers Become Flames Again (3)

The King raised his hand and declared the end of the meeting.

The commanders, who offered their respects to the King and me in turn, exited the conference room, and the Commander of the Royal Knights, who had stayed until the very end, also yielded his seat at the King's glance.

"It seems that not all Sword Masters are men of iron."

With just the two of us remaining, the King opened his mouth.

"Though one may harbor the immense power to cleave the sky and overturn the earth, that physical body is still a human's made of flesh and blood, so how could one live without ever falling ill or feeling pain?"

I wondered what he was talking about out of nowhere, but he was referring to how I had groaned with a high fever overnight.

"However, you must realize that many are watching you. Your rash actions could lower the morale of the army, and your trivial deviations could cause many to waver. Therefore, you must ensure you never again cause others worry with reckless behavior like yesterday."

An unexpected reprimand. Had it been in the past, I would have jumped up and told him to mind his own business since I would handle it myself.

But I neither rebelled nor raised my voice in defiance. I just quietly listened.

For I was no longer ignorant of the concern hidden within those lengthy words.

The King calmly continued his requests.

"Do not be arrogant, and do not be overconfident. Be careful in all matters to set an example for others, and let the soldiers consider you an unbreakable wall. Thus, let them view your very presence as a force of thousands."

The King's voice, which had been echoing in the conference room, suddenly ceased.

The King looked at me.

"I could not do so, but you will be able to."

A fleeting moment of self-deprecation flashed across his wrinkled eyes.

"Your Majesty. The soldiers of the citadel already view Your Majesty as a wall, and as a legion, so how could you say such..."

"If you are trying to offer empty flattery now, cut it out. Were you not the one who criticized me to my face as an incompetent and narrow-minded man?"

I had subconsciously tried to comfort the King, but he chuckled and brought up the past.

At the time, I truly thought that way. I believed a man lacking the capacity was sitting on the throne, clinging only to his position.

I had changed my mind after belatedly learning the circumstances and understanding him at least a little, but that did not mean the words I had spoken to the King back then would disappear.

"Back then..."

I made a lame excuse before closing my mouth again, pointlessly staring at the innocent table.

"Raise your head. I am not trying to blame you."

However, the King said he had not mentioned the past to reprimand me.

Rather, he blamed himself, saying the fault lay with his own foolishness.

"My eyes were blind, so I did not see the nobles' respect for the Royal Family rolling around in the gutter,"

"And my ears were deaf, so I did not hear the cries of the people, who suffered under the tyranny of the nobles, resenting their monarch."

Thus, he said, even if the Royal Family were to cry out for the kingdom's independence now, only a few loyal subjects would sympathize, while the vast majority had reached the point of resenting the Royal Family for provoking the Empire and causing a war.

"From the people's perspective, what difference does it make whether they are exploited by the kingdom's nobles or the Empire's nobles, and what does it matter if the name attached to this piece of land changes, or if the shape of the fluttering flag changes?"

The King was right.

Four hundred years ago, this land overflowed with people who were willing to fight and die for the kingdom. They would rather fight to the death than be annexed under the Empire's flag.

But not anymore.

The people, exhausted by the nobles' exploitation and tyranny, did not care in the slightest who became the master of this land.

I did not want to admit it, but the kingdom's independence was no longer the will of the entire kingdom.

While I was lost in thought, the King spoke again.

"If it had not been for her, I would never have realized that truth until the very end. I would have believed that if only the Royal Family stood upright, everything else would follow."

Yet, that voice was completely different from before.

"She did not collapse because she was overwhelmed while fighting. She simply made a choice."

His voice, which had sunk endlessly with self-deprecation and guilt, began to carry power.

"In the face of life and death, she made a decision without hesitation for what she considered more important. Though she could have lived if she wished to, she chose not to."

At that sudden change, I jerked my head up and looked at the King.

He had the same calm face as when I first entered the conference room.

But his eyes were shining like never before.

"How could a blood relative of House Ballorhard, reputed to be the kingdom's best at sieges, not have known that the remaining forces in The Capital could not possibly defend the entire outer wall? She must have known that if she had locked the inner castle gates and fought, she could have easily held out for a month, not just four or five days."

As I stared intently, the King poured out his words quickly.

"But she did not do so. She did not wait for the Iron Lions in the inner castle. She faced the enemy at the outer wall. She did so even knowing it was impossible. What do you think the reason is?"

I did not answer.

"It is because she wanted to show everyone. She wanted to show them a royalty who does not just seek the safety of their own family in the face of crisis while standing by as the people outside the inner castle are trampled, but rather a royalty who dedicates their very life to protecting them."

The King, too, did not expect an answer from me.

"It is because she wanted to show that a true royalty, who viewed the people as their own flesh, was there."

The King's breathing grew slightly ragged.

"So that the public sentiment that had left the Royal Family. So that the justification for war that the Royal Family had lost."

The King caught his breath for a moment.

"Would finally return."

Then he continued speaking in a low voice.

"By sacrificing her life, she hoped that the embers, which had been burning weakly only within the palace walls, would ignite beyond those walls."

His coldly chilled voice was enough to raise goosebumps on my skin.

"So that those embers could spread throughout the kingdom and rise like a wildfire."

The King kept talking.

About the Empire's atrocities that ambushed The Capital, and how the Queen fought against them.

And what kind of end she met. He would make sure there was no one in the kingdom who did not know.

The King said this in front of me several times.

"Some might point fingers, calling me a man who exploited even the death of his companion for propaganda. And others might close their ears, claiming it is all a lie."

Only then could I see the heat flickering in the King's eyes.

"But I will make sure the flames she sacrificed her life to ignite reach every corner."

It was desire and resolve,

"If the embers are lacking, then I, too, shall become an ember."

As well as sorrow, wrath, and madness.

"For that is the mission she left to me."

The moment I realized the nature of that heat, my heart ached.

I had seen countless people with eyes like his.

I knew what path they walked, and where those steps led.

Thus, I could no longer just listen quietly and said to the King.

"Why do you seek to fuel the embers by burning only what belongs to the kingdom? If you command me, I will burn down their fortresses and stoke the flames."

So please reconsider leading the army personally. I pleaded with the King.

The King chuckled.

"Are you worried something might happen to me?"

Words he would have never said to me normally, and an affection he would have never expressed.

That made me even more anxious.

I asked him to reconsider over and over again.

Consequently, I finally managed to get the King to say he would carefully think it over.

But that effort of mine was entirely in vain.

Even before the King had finished deliberating, on an evening half a month later, a foul day when the gradually subsiding blizzard began to rage once again.

A battered Sword Maiden arrived at the citadel, pushing through the fierce snowstorm.

It was Gionne, one of the five surviving Sword Maidens, a black-haired Half-Elf who had been left behind in The Capital to serve both as the Queen's guard and Montpellier's watcher.

Her left arm had been severed, leaving only an empty sleeve fluttering, and her torn, crushed body had turned blue, frozen solid in the blizzard.

"Gionne?"

"Ah..."

Even in that state, Gionne smiled brightly as if overjoyed when I called her name.

I immediately ran out.

Before I could even reach her, Gionne swayed and collapsed in front of me.

I quickly reached out and supported her body so she wouldn't roll in the cold snow.

Half-embraced in my arms, she waved her one remaining hand, gesturing earnestly.

But I could not understand her sign language.

I just stared blankly at her hand.

They were gone. Her five exceptionally long and white fingers were entirely missing.

Belatedly realizing that her sign language wasn't reaching me, Gionne gave up gesturing and quietly placed her hand over mine.

Then, she smoothly guided it to her waist.

Only then did I look at her waist.

She had some sort of rope tied around her waist. It was tied so tightly that her waist beneath the rope was turning a dead blue.

I hastily tried to untie the rope but completely froze.

The rope wrapped around her waist was connected to somewhere else.

I rolled my eyes. I shifted my gaze along the rope.

And finally, I reached its end.

It was something bundled in what must have once been an expensive, clean cloth, though it had been soiled during the journey.

I looked back at Gionne.

Her lips fluttered.

It was extremely difficult to understand words spoken by forcibly moving facial muscles frozen from the cold. But she patiently moved her lips over and over again, and I finally managed to comprehend her meaning.

Your mother.

I stiffened right there.

I turned my creaking neck and looked at the object wrapped in the dirty cloth.

My heart constricted.

I forced myself to reach out and stripped away the frozen cloth, practically breaking it off.

Blue, frozen flesh appeared. A twisted, frozen corpse revealed itself.

A head, patched and stitched back together with clumsy skill, was exposed.

Though it was undoubtedly mutilated beyond recognition from when she was alive, it was unmistakably the corpse of the woman I knew.

"Ah..."

At that very moment, a groan was heard from behind me.

I turned my head, desperately hoping that the groan didn't belong to the King.

But ruthlessly crushing my hopes, the King was looking at me.

With a face drained of color, like a man who had lost his mind.

"Y-Your Majesty."

I hastily covered the corpse and blocked his path.

STEP, STEP.

The King, who approached with staggering steps, squeezed out his words.

"... Step aside."

A feeble hand pushed me.

Against that powerless gesture, I couldn't even resist and was pushed back.

Having pushed me aside, the King dropped to his knees.

"Ah..."

He reached out and grasped the twisted, frozen hand of the corpse.

He then brought it to his mouth and blew his warm breath onto it.

But the stiffened hand did not unfurl, and the long-lost warmth did not return.

After staying like that for a long while, the King cupped the corpse's cheek.

"Agh..."

A groan slipped through the King's clenched teeth.

"Ugh..."

Pressing his own cheek against the frozen cheek, the King held the corpse tightly.

"Ahhhh..."

Like a wounded beast.

"Guhhh..."

The King clutched the Queen's dead body and wailed.

I could not bear to watch that sight any longer and turned my head away.

Holding the wound-riddled Half-Elf in my arms.

Feeling her breath slowly fading.

"You did well. Gionne."

The pitiful Half-Elf, who had run tirelessly all the way from The Capital, smiled radiantly.

And then, she quietly breathed her last in my arms.

Massacred by Sigrun with only five left remaining, another of the pitiful women I had vowed to help live without hardship had fleetingly perished.

I squeezed my eyes shut.

The sound of the wind grew even fiercer. However, the King's screams pierced clearly into my ears even amidst the raging northern wind.

A long time passed since then.

The body of the deceased Half-Elf was retrieved by Gunne, but I still couldn't leave my spot.

I silently stood guard beside the King, who remained clutching the corpse.

The sounds of his sobbing could no longer be heard.

The King, preventing anyone from approaching, whispered endlessly to the Queen's dead body.

Then, the King stood up.

Our eyes met.

Empty pupils, as if his soul had drained away.

My heart sank, and I hurriedly approached the King.

"I should find some clean clothes. We cannot hold a funeral like this."

Unlike my turbulent feelings, the King's voice was exceedingly serene, and his steps toward the citadel did not waver.

That demeanor did not change in the slightest even during the funeral the next day.

The King proceeded with all the arrangements in that same calm manner from beginning to end.

We dug out the frozen earth amidst the blizzard and laid the Queen's coffin deep within. The Sword Maiden who had guided her body to the citadel was also laid to rest alongside her.

"On the day the kingdom stands upright, she will be buried in The Capital once again."

When the earth finally covered the two coffins, the King, dressed in black mourning clothes, quietly headed to the highest point of the citadel's wall.

Standing atop the wall, the King looked down at the soldiers with sunken eyes.

"Are you sad?"

He asked after a long while.

"I, too, am sad."

Amidst the howling wind, the King's voice echoed through the citadel.

"But now is not the time to be sad; now is the time to be angry."

The King's voice gradually became more impassioned.

"Then where must that anger be directed!"

"The Empire!"

The soldiers screamed in response, as if it had been prearranged.

"What is the price they must pay!"

"Blood for blood! Death for death!"

As the roars echoed, the raging blizzard slowly began to die down.

And finally, it stopped completely.

Of all moments, it was when the King resolved to turn the Empire's lands into a sea of blood, kill every last imperial citizen and mount their heads on pikes,

And declared that he would burn even their livestock and leave absolutely nothing they had built behind.

"Death to the imperial bastards!"

"Curses upon the land of those wicked scum!"

The Legion Commanders and knights who had been dissuading him from marching out were now swept up in fury and grief, screaming for the advance, and even the most cautious commanders were roaring that they must avenge the Queen.

I looked at the sky, which had cleared up as if by magic.

There was nothing left to stop the King from marching to war.

* * *

The King declared a general mobilization order.

All the Silver Lions of the kingdom headed for the frontline fortresses, and the nobles led their private armies and conscripts to set off for the borders all at once. The Eastern fleet began sailing south, cutting through the frozen sea, while the elite legions of the West began their march toward the border fortresses.

The Iron Lion Knights, who had retaken The Capital, along with their army and all the knight orders of the kingdom, began to converge toward the border.

It was the moment when the true war, with the kingdom's fate on the line, had officially begun.