600. [Side Story] Wound (2)
Temple. ICU.
Nobody and Chain, who came here to visit, clicked their tongues. It was toward Candler, who was lying on the bed in the intensive care unit with a dazed face.
“I really hurt my head.”
“I really couldn’t walk properly.”
“That’s right, who’s going to lie~ It’s all coming back.”
“Where did you buy it anyway? Tsk tsk.”
Candler survived.
It was a mystery how she could survive in the middle of the southern plains in the face of that huge explosion.
At the last moment, did the golem protect it with its life? What kind of miracle worked and how…
However, at the cost of being caught in the explosion, Candler was horribly seriously injured.
He suffered burns all over his body and suffered a serious head injury. Both of her legs were burning and she couldn’t walk properly.
Now, lying on the bed in the intensive care unit, I just inhale and exhale while staring at the empty space with blank eyes.
“….”
“….”
Likewise, with their entire bodies wrapped in bandages, Nobody and Chain looked into Candler’s hospital room for a long time.
“Get well soon. Then we can play poker together in this boring hospital room.”
“okay. It’s boring because it’s just these two guys playing together.”
“Call us when you wake up! Scream! got it?”
After a nonsense, the two mercenaries walked away from the intensive care unit at a slow pace.
The faces of the blind swordsman and black magician walking down the hallway were hardened.
***
The intensive care unit next door.
Gulp, gulp!
Kelly Bay was swallowing a bottle of hard liquor.
His condition was also not very good, with bruises and burns all over his body. Damien ejaculated in front of Kelly Bay, who was drinking a lot of alcohol.
“Master Kelly Bay. My body says no to alcohol, please… At least after treatment…”
“… Can I be sober right now?”
Kelly Bay, who casually set the empty bottle down on the bed, mumbled with a loose tongue.
“My son rode Geronimo and rode away to die. Do you know what I did while watching that?”
“….”
“I boarded the lifeboat. I will live. My son is going to die, but I will live.”
Kelly Bay swung her short arm wildly.
“Do you know what I was thinking when the lifeboat caught up in the explosion was blown away and fell down the cliff?”
“….”
“I thought it was scary. I’m afraid to die. Then, the parachute opens and the lifeboat slowly lands on the bottom of the cliff… Do you know what I did?”
Damian closed his eyes. Kelly Bay chewed the words over and over again and spat them out.
“I let out a sigh of relief… ! I lived, I felt relieved without even realizing it! I am relieved to have escaped the blast that killed my son!”
“… Master craftsman.”
“This is also my father… This is also my father…”
Kelly Bay fumbled for an empty bottle with red, bloodshot eyes.
“I am a selfish, obsessive, old and stubborn Dwarf who only cares about my own life. Why did you save me and my son died?”
“….”
“How can I become the next king!”
Kelly Bay threw an empty bottle at the other dwarves snooping outside the intensive care unit.
Chaeng-Grang-! Glass shards shattered with a sound. The dwarves screamed and stepped back.
“go away! Turn it all off! Get out before I break everyone’s head!”
At Kelly Bay’s bluff, the Dwarves withdrew.
Watching Kelly Bey, who was gasping for breath, Damian also slowly left the room.
“Rest, master. Don’t think anything…”
“….”
Finally, inside the empty room, Kelly Bay’s trembling hand ran through the empty bottle and covered her face.
“I… What can I do for you, son… It’s already too late…”
***
next day.
West of Crossroads. grave site.
In front of the funeral that came again, the whole area was crowded. It was because the number of people who died this time was too many.
“….”
I looked at it and kept my mouth shut.
Many people died and were injured. More than 50 heroes died, and among the heroes, 200 were injured.
Casualties of ordinary soldiers were well over 1,000.
For the past three days, I led the restoration work during the day and visited them one by one at night to comfort them all.
however… If all the sadness faded just because of the commander’s consolation, what kind of sadness would remain in the world?
The city was still immersed in grief.
Each coffin is covered with a national flag, holy water is sprinkled, and a choir sings…
I was staring blankly at the chaotic scene of the funeral home when someone approached me.
“Your Highness Prince Ash.”
Turning around, the person limping towards me on crutches was none other than Macmillan, the commander of the airship.
I nodded.
“Sir Macmillan. How is it?”
“That personal injury, time will heal it. But the wounds I suffered as a fleet admiral probably won’t heal forever.”
The airships were virtually annihilated.
Most of the non-airships mobilized in this battle were judged to be retired.
The flagship Alcatraz, which symbolized the Empire, also performed a spectacular last dance, but in the end it could not escape retirement.
“The enemy was a monster beyond common sense, but… The damage is too great. Report to the imperial family, and I will also receive a proper disposition.”
“Disposition…”
“Alcatraz is an airship that symbolizes the imperial family. She must be punished, for she has decommissioned such an empty vessel…”
Soon after, MacMillan was bitter and put a pipe in his mouth.
“Well, I’m not in a position to say that in front of Geronimo.”
“….”
Geronimo is completely destroyed. I couldn’t even find a trace.
Since it was at the center of the explosion, everything melted away.
“What are you going to do now?”
asked MacMillan, who had been breathing smoke beside me for a moment without saying a word. I answered by tucking my collar.
“What? You have to do what you do.”
“As usual… Are you saying that you will continue to fight the monster?”
“….”
“All water defense facilities from the forward base to the southern wall were destroyed, and the airship fleet was annihilated. The number of casualties is in the thousands. All of that is the damage suffered by the elite on the frontlines.”
I listened quietly. Macmillan continued.
“I heard that the black dragon, the next monster to attack, gave us a time delay. That would be a month or two. Can you repair this damage by then?”
“… What do you mean, Sir Macmillan? Do you want to talk about abandoning the crossroads and retreating the front line?”
“Wouldn’t it be better to do that if necessary? Retreat to the middle of the continent and you’ll find several Imperial strongholds. Or rather, transfer the military to New Terra and make a perfect response…”
“….”
His point was valid.
however…
“Crossroads is the last line of defense, Lord Macmillan. If you defeat the defense line here, you don’t know where the monster’s movement path will go. At least the southern part of the continent will be razed to the ground, and if it’s as clever as Black Dragon, it might put an end to all worlds we don’t protect.”
“….”
“This fortress city is the entrance to Inse. Even if I die, I have to die here.”
After MacMillan was about to offer more opinion, I asked abruptly.
“Sir Macmillan. If the world ends tomorrow What are you going to do today?”
Embarrassed by the sudden question, Macmillan scratched his chin and answered.
“… well. Wouldn’t it be nice to lie in bed all day and smoke cigarettes while reading your favorite book?”
“Right.”
Macmillan asked as I nodded.
“What will Your Highness do? If the world ends tomorrow.”
“I’m going to break in.”
“yes?”
“With the end of the world, they will attack.”
I silently glared at the south.
“And I’ll get rid of that guy called destruction, and I’ll protect the world.”
“….”
“That’s my strategy this time.”
“yes?”
“You’ll know when you see it, so don’t worry too much right now.”
Soon, the ceremony proceeded quickly. My turn to speak was approaching.
“Thank you for your efforts in this battle. Let’s talk again later.”
After nodding to MacMillan, I headed down to the podium.
MacMillan tilted his head and followed me.
***
When I got to the podium, people’s eyes were all over me.
Not many were in good health, and even fewer were in good spirits. Everyone’s face was full of sadness and wounds.
Some of the faces even had a ghastly rage.
Hatred and resentment rippled across the faces of my heroes who had lost loved ones.
“….”
That, too, must be a way for each of us to get rid of our sadness.
I inhaled and slowly opened my mouth.
“Today, I will stop talking about what I have been saying many times. Instead, today I… I want to talk about a miracle.”
Glancing around the crowd, I said.
“It’s about a mercenary named Candler.”
The soldiers’ eyes were focused on me. I spoke.
“This golem master was terrified of monsters during his first battle. After that, he falsely inflated his injuries, and he retired.”
I smiled lightly.
“I don’t want to criticize this.”
Everyone wants to run away from an incomprehensible enemy.
Those who can fight despite such fears remain soldiers, and those who eventually reach their limit retire.
This is not a matter of better or worse. It’s not even a matter of right or wrong.
It’s just that. Just the way we all struggle in this crazy world.
“but. Following this, Candler joined the front once again. And he gave his life to save the city.”
If she hadn’t summoned a golem to pick up and carry the corpse of the Lord of the Flies.
The city would have been destroyed more horribly than it is now. Maybe we’re all dead.
But what I want to talk about is not what she accomplished.
it’s her heart
“For those who reached their limit and fled come back to fight. It’s never just like that. It’s not everywhere.”
I shook my head.
“This is impossible.”
One more time, do your best.
“This is a miracle.”
People are looking at me with concentration. I spoke.
“The miracle wasn’t that she summoned a golem and lifted the monster’s corpse. This heart that she, her ordinary human being, risked her own life and decided to fight again… It is a miracle.”
I slowly lowered my head.
“In this battle, there were many noble sacrifices.”
burnout.
Kellyson.
schooled.
Insect Busters. And in countless places where my eyes could not reach, countless people…
He gave his life for the world.
“What made these men risk their lives to fight?”
I raised my head again and looked around at the people.
“We are ordinary human beings. Compared to that gigantic monster, it’s really just a small and tiny existence. It’s natural to want to run away. that’s the nature But what on earth makes it possible for us to stand up and fight in the end here?”
I clenched my fists.
“A human heart fighting against that monster so big and so terrifying. I would like to call this man’s mind, which is more incomprehensible than any incomprehensible monster, a miracle.”
“….”
“All of us who fought here are writing miracles of fighting and winning against the impossible every day. We live in a miracle.”
I raised my voice.
“My people.”
Everyone straightened up and looked at me. I spoke.
“I hope you will remember this miracle you caused. I hope you are proud of this miracle. I hope you don’t take this miracle as an ordinary thing. I hope you are aware of how great you are doing.”
I looked south of the messed up city.
“The war situation is not good. Now we stand on the ruins. But these ruins are the ruins saved by the miracles of all of us who took part in this battle.”
After smiling faintly at people,
“Let’s start over from these ruins, believing that there is something here that those monsters can never destroy, that something that those who perished first wanted to protect is here.”
Slowly, I saw the newly erected grave site.
The faces of the people who had disappeared passed through my mind one after another.
“….”
After taking a few deep breaths and calming your mind.
In honor of the dead, he recited a poem he had prepared.
Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
that life is but an empty dream
Life is but an empty dream!
I hope you don’t say it in sad phrases
In the world’s broad field of battle,
On the vast battlefield of the world
In the bivouac of Life,
Even if it’s a life sleeping on the road
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Rather than being silently pursued like a beast
Be a hero in the strife!
Be a hero in the struggle
Lives of great men all remind us
Learn from the lives of great people
We can make our lives sublime,
That we too can live a noble life
And, departing, leave behind us
On the sand of the flowing time
Footprints on the sands of time;
that we too can leave footprints
Footprints, that perhaps another,
those footprints later
Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,
Crossing the majestic sea of life
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Caught in the eyes of a brother abandoned in a shipwreck
Seeing, shall take heart again.
I’ll give you new courage
Let us, then, be up and doing,
Now let’s all stand up and fight
With a heart for any fate
With the courage to not succumb to any fate
***
same time.
lake kingdom.
In the deepest darkness of District 10, the source of darkness located at its core – the capital.
[….]
The Night Bringer sat on the throne prepared in the throne room here, closed his eyes and remained as still as a stone statue.
There was a long silence in this place where darkness fell, and there was no movement in the throne room as if the world had stopped.
How long had it been?
The black dragon slowly opened its eyes. In the darkness that fell, his golden eyes opened as if a light had arisen.
Suddenly, a low voice flowed from the black dragon’s open lips.
It was an old poem that the demon king, who was originally the owner of this place, often recited.
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor PLAYER
That struts and frets his hour upon the STAGE
And then is heard no more. It is a TALE
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
life is a walking shadow
I’m annoyed after showing off on stage for a while
He is just an unfortunate actor who is soon forgotten.
Life is like a story told by idiots
full of cries and fury
***
Signifying NOTHING.
In the end, it means nothing.
Finally hearing Henry Longfellow after a long time. One of the best poem ever made. It’s near the end. Thanks for your amazing work translator. Really grateful to you