Episode 185 Krafte War – Winners and Losers (3)
Kaiserin Cecilia slowly lowered her eyes after hearing Eris’ answer.
“Yeah, I see.”
Then he slowly opened his eyes-
“…Esiliste Liliane de Frangias.”
He said with a tired and sad face.
“…Her Majesty, Queen of Franzia.”
“Please speak, Kaiserin Cecilia.”
Cecilia asked slowly in response to Eris’ answer.
“As the queen and saint of a neighboring country, would you please attend my husband’s funeral?”
“…I cannot give confirmation right away because I am the queen appointed by the people. Still, I will gladly attend as long as I get permission.”
After hearing Eris’ answer, Cecilia remained silent for a while before opening her mouth.
“You are cruel.”
“yes?”
Eris blinked and made an incomprehensible face, so Cecilia smiled faintly.
“You finally got through it. “It’s pathetic that I can’t honestly congratulate you, and you don’t even get angry at me…”
Cecilia was about to say something, but stopped and stretched out her hand to Eris.
“ah.”
Eris flinched, but Cecilia only gave her a light hug.
“Don’t wait, little brother.”
It would have been better if he had been something I could be jealous of and hate as much as I wanted.
If that were the case, Cecilia would have been fueled by hatred and vowed revenge.
It would have been better if I had left my heart behind when I was abandoned in my hometown.
If she had, she wouldn’t have felt sorrow at the death of her husband, who only whispered his love to her to solidify her position.
They came all the way here and spilled so much blood.
What kind of abominable affection remains in her, worrying about this innocent saint, but hoping that she would come for her husband, who was long dead and could not even rot?
The pleasure and satisfaction of the moment when those who despised her as the Empress of Francia praised her for the first time seemed distant, only the determination of my youth when I pledged to become a greater empress than anyone else.
A half-sister who was similar in age to her mother whispered to Eris, who was perplexed and not knowing how to react.
“Please don’t change.”
* * *
Mittelmark, the capital of the Kingdom of Krafte.
Peace negotiations were concluded and Krafte’s surviving soldiers returned home.
There is no such thing as strict discipline and majestic momentum.
They were raised to be the strongest army, even at the expense of their humanity, but without the pride and honor they were given, they were nothing more than ordinary defeated soldiers.
Exhausted soldiers, injured and wounded, returned to the city helpless.
The city was immersed in sadness as there were as many people who did not return as there were those who returned.
Among them, there were those who praised Crown Prince Henry for saving Mittelmark and pushing back the Northern United Kingdom and the rebels.
However, there are no longer those who praise the great king and look with pride at the strongest Krafte army.
Even after being notified of a death, there are only families who cannot believe it until they see it with their own eyes, so they come out to greet the return procession, shedding tears, looking for their son who was never there.
Charles II smiled as he looked at the cityscape.
I didn’t know.
His actions are simply those of a tyrant.
An action taken not as the king of Krafte, but to remain in history as a great general.
If he ultimately lost, he would naturally be the target of criticism.
But even if you know it in your head.
To see firsthand how those who praised him and cheered him suddenly changed to cold resentment and distrustful gaze.
“It’s fleeting.”
Charles II just laughed empty-handed.
* * *
After disbanding the army, Charles II returned to his villa.
Arriving at the second floor where he always spent time, Charles II slowly walked out to the balcony where he always looked out.
He stood at the place where he always spent his time, holding his baton with both hands as always.
The villa, with nothing around but a parade ground and barracks, is extremely desolate.
We always prepared for war here.
Always prepared for challenges here.
Even when they defeated the empire, it was considered an incomplete victory.
He has been waiting for the challenge of his life, dreaming of a bigger and greater victory.
I never once became complacent with reality, never stood still, and stood tall in this place.
That’s why there are wars to prepare for and challenges to await.
In the villa, even the appearance of the military that trained itself to the limit, even wearing away its humanity, for the sake of its dream has disappeared.
It is no longer his place.
Charles II, who was no longer the Great King, slowly turned his back on the balcony, touching the ground with his staff, which was no longer his baton.
And then he faced his nephew.
“Do you regret it, Your Majesty?”
King Charles II answered Crown Prince Henry’s question without even a moment’s hesitation.
“No, I have no regrets Jim.”
Heinrich was silent for a moment and then asked again.
“Then, did you get the answer, Your Majesty?”
Charles II laughed.
When Kaiserin Cecilia began leading the peace negotiations, he smiled.
It was thought that a woman who lost a political war and barely managed to restore an empire that was on the verge of division was doing something unreasonable for political reasons again.
He thought there was no way they would agree to peace negotiations in a war they had won.
I saw the feast of steel and blood that took place in the burning streets of Bahua.
The blood that Franzia shed was etched directly into their eyes, showing their fighting spirit.
In the end, I saw the Marquis de Lafayette defeating him by smashing the dagger in which he had hidden all the elite soldiers he had prepared.
However, Charles II’s recognized rival took the hand of Kaiserin, whom he did not even consider a proper opponent, and eventually concluded peace negotiations.
Because of him, the empire was saved.
The Kingdom of Krafte was also saved.
Although he thought he should also fulfill his responsibilities for those who had fulfilled their responsibilities to him, he did not want to accept such an ending as he had endlessly pursued victory and honor.
Why make such a choice when complete and total victory is right in front of you?
Why is Charles II complacent even though he achieved victory against the strongest army led by mankind’s strongest general?
So he went to the person who defeated him and asked for an answer.
Charles II, recalling his conversation with Pierre de Lafayette, nodded slowly.
“Yes.”
He cannot understand Pierre de Lafayette.
We cannot dare to deny that Esiliste Liliane de Frangias is a saint, but we cannot sympathize with her either.
The perfect victory they talk about is completely opposite to the path he has pursued his whole life.
That’s why he doesn’t regret it.
Because their path is a path he cannot and should not pursue.
Still, they are the winners and he is the loser.
so that.
“I don’t regret my ways, but they are right.”
Charles II looked at Henry and spoke slowly.
“So this defeat and this failure are mine. “I have fulfilled my duty, Heinrich.”
He suppressed his desire to die on the battlefield, signed a peace agreement without taking his own life, and returned home despite the resentment of the local people.
By doing so, at least Henry’s reign will be able to escape from his shadow.
“I know, Your Majesty.”
A moment of silence passed, and this time Charles II spoke first.
“Did you go to Wittenfeld comfortably?”
Heinrich did not answer.
-You’re not even from Krafte. With such ability, why do you serve someone who has only just ascended to the throne? Although it has a foundation, this country is still just a border territory in the northern part of the empire.
-All human beings with abilities have the greed to achieve something by spreading their abilities rather than being complacent with reality. So do I.
Charles II still clearly remembers those eyes filled with greed and ambition.
-It may be presumptuous, but I saw that His Majesty also possesses similar qualities and greed. If we want to become a leading figure in changing the course of history rather than being swept away by the waves of history, shouldn’t we serve someone like Your Majesty?
-Hahaha good! Well then, let’s change history together with Jim!
Without Wittenfeld, the Kingdom of Krafte would not have become a power comparable to the Empire so quickly.
Some of the technological innovations that made Krafte’s army one of the most powerful were his ideas.
While he was evacuating Mittelmark, where an invasion was imminent, he died in an accidental fire in the basement.
I couldn’t have had a good time.
Charles II chuckled.
“It’s fleeting, it’s fleeting.”
Nevertheless, it is only one life.
Charles II slowly walked with his cane, not to the throne, but to the long table set up for the strategy meeting.
I couldn’t reach it.
Still, I tried.
didn’t win
Still, it was a struggle.
If so, that is the life he wanted.
“…I’m tired, Heinrich.”
“Rest, Your Majesty.”
Throughout his life, Charles II sat at the table where he discussed the wars and battles that took place and discussed the strategy.
When he closes his eyes, countless soldiers who have discussed strategy meetings with him and gone through battlefields throughout his life are looking at him.
Charles II smiled contentedly and spoke to his soldiers.
Then let’s start the meeting.
* * *
Heinrich slowly approached the table.
Charles II smiles and no longer breathes.
Heinrich, who was silent, slowly took off his hat and bowed to his master.
Henry, who had been looking down at Charles II for a while, thought about calling a servant, but soon decided against it.
The High King would not want to be disturbed during a strategy meeting, so it would be best to leave it alone for a while.
Henry turned his back, leaving the Great King behind.
A selfish tyrant, a great master who pursued a dream for himself all his life and then drowned while embracing his dream.
Regrets don’t suit him.
Feelings of betrayal do not suit him.
-Did you go to Bittenfeld comfortably?
So Heinrich remained silent.
Heinrich was angry instead.
While he was fighting to protect Mittelmark, a fire broke out in the basement of the capital’s government building.
Everything was completely burned down, and all that was left was a burnt corpse that no one could tell who was who.
Those who were lucky enough to escape testified that Wittenfeld and his subordinates were organizing materials in the basement, so it was assumed that the unlucky chancellor would have burned to death along with them.
however.
After belatedly winning the battle, Henry, who visited the scene first to mourn the chancellor who had served the royal family for a long time, saw it.
He was lying face down right in front of the iron cage door, holding a dagger in his hand as if it had been nailed to the floor, and a lump of black charcoal solidified there.
The words he carved into the floor with a knife until the last moment.
-Bittenfeld was a devil and
his handwriting was a mess.
So much so that it immediately reminds me of the image of someone desperately carving while vomiting blood, even in the immense pain of burning pain.
If you think about it, there were many unnatural places.
Although he was the Prime Minister of a country, he always supported the Great King’s war. He supported the militarization of Krafte more than anyone else and actually contributed to it to some extent.
He was extremely convenient to the Great King, and was actually capable and helpful, but if he was truly someone who wanted to protect Krafte, he should have at least opposed this war.
All the paving stones he found, and even the information given to the enemy, were many that I couldn’t understand how he got them.
All those doubts were simply covered up by the trust that Krafte, who had been assisting the great king since the beginning of his reign, was a heroic prime minister.
Even so, if he was a devil from the beginning.
Then it all makes sense.
Although it was in decline, the empire, which still maintained precarious stability, fell into chaos due to the rise of Krafte.
Most of the military supplies that armed Krafte’s army were purchased from the Abyss Corporation. It was the Abyss Corporation that benefited the most from the chaos of the Empire and the civil war in Franzia.
Although he was victorious against the empire, the great king was unable to achieve complete victory due to the limitations of his national power, so he further accelerated his military equipment.
But even then, the goal of the Great King’s war was clearly the empire.
Although the Great King had some hopes for turning the arrow to Francia just because the empire had collapsed, Wittenfeld’s stake was clearly significant.
Suspicion that his country may have been raised from the beginning by the needs of demons and with the help of demons.
All that exists is a suspicion, and this is nothing more than a suspicion.
No, it has to be suspicion.
As the new king of Krafte, Henry walked the halls of the villa with dark, burning eyes.
Still, if that’s true.
When those devils one day pay the price for their evil deeds, the military state that their arrogance and deception created will turn its guns on them.
