Episode 72 Governor-General Government – Guardian of the Revolution (4)
[Pierre de Lafayette, Commander-in-Chief of the Confederate Army, speaks! The illegal occupation of the National Assembly being committed by Northern Army Commander Raphael Balian is a clear treason against the Franconian Republic! Those who do not cooperate with his rebellion must surrender immediately! Anyone who does not surrender will be considered a traitor!]
The shouts, amplified by magic, even made the air inside the National Assembly vibrate.
Raphael Balian felt a tingling sensation on his skin and watched as agitation quickly spread to the soldiers occupying the parliament.
Jerome Morel and Nicola Ney, as well as all the Northern troops, are only looking at his face.
“Your Excellency Commander. “The National Assembly is under siege by Confederate troops!”
Balian slowly turned his head and looked at his men while the report to him sounded like it was coming from far away.
In their eyes, respect, envy, and loyalty to Raphael Balian, the defender of the revolution, waver.
In the soil of doubt created by Maximilien Isidor’s bloody cry, the shock planted by Balian’s shooting sprouted.
Finally, the fear that something will go wrong and that he might even be accused of being a traitor begins to bloom.
It has to be resolved now.
If he doesn’t do something here, they foolish and weak people will collapse.
Balian opened his mouth to deal with them, but immediately closed it again.
But what can we do to deal with them here?
Are you going to take these people who have already lost their confidence and stage a hostage situation with the lawmakers?
Or will you run away miserably and go from a once hero to a traitor?
Balian turned his back on his men and began to walk slowly.
The remaining subordinates looked at their commander, dumbfounded, walking toward the lawmakers without giving any answer.
Then, only one person threw down his gun and ran out of the parliament.
The defection that started with just one person quickly spread and the northern troops turned their backs on their commander and ran away one by one.
It only took a few minutes at most for the remaining troops to occupy the entire parliament to disappear.
Raphael Balian never once thought that this coup might destroy him.
When Lafayette pushed through an agenda that could cause division in the National Assembly and vacated the capital, it was not without considering the possibility that it was a trap.
But more than that, Balian believed in his own abilities and had a stable position.
I thought that Pierre de Lafayette was the only opponent who could stand up to him, the hero, anyway, so even if it was a trap, I thought I would be able to win.
In fact, considering the timing of Pierre de Lafayette’s appearance, Balian’s judgment was not wrong. It was impossible to physically stop him in time.
Once he overthrew the illusory National Assembly and took over power, the Marquis de Lafayette would have tried to compromise rather than engage in a civil war in the face of foreign threats, and even if things went wrong, he thought he could just shift the blame to Richelieu and get out of the way.
But Pierre de Lafayette was not his only enemy.
Richelieu, who had given him justification and had to take responsibility when necessary, was eliminated from the start, and Christine D’Aquitaine blocked him almost perfectly in the area of politics.
Nevertheless, he eventually won. No matter how great a strategist he was, he could not stop him alone.
Although he was sure of victory at that point, he ended up losing.
Raphael Balian looked down at Maximilien Isidor, who was lying down surrounded by lawmakers.
The lawmakers surrounding him were wary of Balian holding a gun, but blocked the space between him and Isidore with their bodies.
Maximilien Isidor is breathing heavily with his bloody chest, but is still looking up at him with his beautiful eyes.
“President Maximilien Isidore.”
To Raphael Balian, Maximilien Isidore was nothing more than an incompetent hypocrite obsessed with his own self-righteousness and stubbornness.
The National Assembly was a collection of blind people and idiots who had no idea how to run the government, and it was a group that would collapse if he was sufficiently intimidated by the military.
But in reality, they were not like that at all.
Those whom he judged to be the most insignificant group, those whom he had never even thought of as enemies.
inflicted a decisive defeat on him.
Balian slowly bowed his head to him.
“You won.”
As soon as Balian spoke, the door burst open and the army poured in.
Raphael Balian turned his back to face the Marquis Pierre de Lafayette, sword-wielding at their head.
“Marquis de Lafayette.”
“Commander Balian.”
Raphael Balian burst out laughing.
He was confident that he would not be defeated if he had started a civil war from the beginning and fought based on his skills as a general, without worrying about whether it was an invasion by a foreign power or anything like that.
But neither Lafayette nor he had any intention of destroying Francia itself as a means to his own ends.
It would have been better if I had given up on the Marquis of Lafayette and started by killing him along with that black witch.
Belated regrets came flooding back, but they were already in the past.
A hero named Raphael Balian underestimated the French Republic too much and was defeated.
Balian smiled brightly, threw away his pistol, and raised his hands.
“I admit defeat. “I surrender.”
* * *
The division in the National Assembly is an excuse, and I am absent to induce them to take action.
For this dangerous operation, the biggest problem was getting Hassan’s consent.
There is no king who would not be displeased when the long-awaited treaty is unilaterally postponed due to his own circumstances when he is waiting for it to be concluded.
-King Crocs considers friendship with the Republic of Francia very important, but he especially ordered the Marquis, who made it possible, to provide all possible convenience.
However, Hassan agreed so readily that even I was dumbfounded.
Thanks to this, I, who had gone down to Bury, rode alone at night to the capital, arrived at Lumière late in the afternoon, and upon my return was able to launch a counterattack with the units of the Southern Army headquarters protected by Christine and Gaston.
* * *
National Assembly.
Raphael Balian, who declared surrender, did not resist the soldiers who were arresting him at all.
The one who made me believe that I could only survive if I joined the revolutionary army.
The man who defeated me is praised by the Franzian people as a defender of the revolution and a hero of the republic, and is dragged away with disgust as a traitor to the revolution and a traitor to the republic.
I do not know what his fate will be in the future after my execution.
Would he have taken the same steps in Francia without me and in the Republic without me?
I looked at the back of Balian being dragged away and then looked away.
The Northern soldiers who surrendered to us told us openly about what happened inside the National Assembly, and I immediately ordered them to find Eris.
However, Eris was treating the injuries sustained during the suppression of the Northern Army. Even if you find it right away, it will take time to get there.
Can you guess it?
When I saw Izidor’s complexion and amount of bleeding lying on the floor, I thought it would be difficult.
Maximilien Isidore was lying on the floor with a completely pale face and breathing hard.
It’s as if a body that wouldn’t be strange even if it had died a long time ago is being held on by its last flame.
Isidor’s mouth slowly opened and made a weak sound.
“Please make room.”
“Mr. Governor.”
Isidore smiled weakly and spoke again to the young councilor who tried to dissuade him.
“Please, Talleyrand.”
Talleyrand looked at me for a moment, then bowed his head to Isidore and retreated with the other council members.
Isidor motioned to me, so I bent down and walked closer to him.
“marquis.”
“Governor.”
Isidore’s completely pale lips twitched and he tried to say something, but he was unable to make any sound for quite a long time.
“I told you to bring the governor saint…”
Did my words serve as a signal? Even though he was on the verge of death, he calmly opened his mouth.
“I thought the republic had to be morally perfect.”
The voice that came out of the mouth of the man who cried out to protect the revolution until the end was so weak that it seemed like it would go out at any moment.
“I believed that sacrifice was inevitable for him, and I ultimately believed that such actions would lead the republic to a more righteous path.”
Isidor coughed dryly as he spoke, but continued speaking with a weak voice.
“I was on my guard against you. “I was afraid of you, whose very existence shook the meaning of the revolution, and who could not be controlled by the laws of the republic.”
Isidor laughed empty-handedly.
“However, those who were passionately discussing reform have harmed innocent citizens and the Count of Aquitaine with the help of the devil, and the person whom I and my faithful revolutionary comrades brought in to become your opponent is trying to hijack the revolution.”
Tears flowed from the eyes of a man who had never harbored self-interest and believed that he was moral and thus justified.
“Marquis, was I a hypocrite?”
“….”
That’s what I said the day Christine collapsed and dirty my hands with all her seething hatred.
I did the same thing as them and grabbed him by the collar with my blood-stained hands and angrily accused him of being a self-righteous hypocrite.
He was undoubtedly self-righteous. He was a person who was convinced that only his beliefs were correct and tried to sacrifice those who went against those beliefs in the name of necessity.
However, how can I be called a hypocrite for doing the same thing to those who fell while protecting the republic without giving up their beliefs until the end?
I slowly shook my head.
After hearing my answer, Izidor slowly raised his hand and grabbed my arm.
The trembling in his arms made me question.
This person is afraid.
“The Marquis Republic….”
What?
“…was our revolution worth protecting?”
-If the order can only be maintained by doing things like this, it would be better to collapse.
Only then did I realize how much the words I had spoken in anger meant to him.
To me, their so-called revolutionary government was nothing more than a lesser evil.
It was a group full of contradictions that I could barely tolerate by deceiving myself and defending myself, which I reluctantly chose because there was no alternative.
I was afraid of those people who were staining innocent people with blood in the name of revolution.
They despised those who tried to sacrifice them by branding them counter-revolutionary just because they did not follow their demands.
He hated those who talked about justice with their mouths but did not hesitate to do evil.
Liberty Equality Fraternity. I detested those who held up that noble banner but did not follow even a single thing.
However, they have been constantly changing.
They chose to compromise with us, the nobles, and accepted us as members of their council.
Even though their justice was directly denied in the vote, they kept their faith and accepted defeat.
Because the government was made up of such people, it was possible to join hands with Crocs.
The future and present that those of the past faced was always a little better than the past.
“…Could I prove it?”
The man who sentenced me to death in my previous life was breathless and desperate for answers.
Even though I was threatened with guns and knives, I kept my seat in the National Assembly, and then walked away a little and looked at the National Assembly members who were looking at Isidor.
I slowly answered Isidor’s question.
“…If they don’t betray the spirit of the revolution, I will continue to protect them.”
The trembling I felt in Isidor’s hand holding my arm stopped.
I saw his hand slowly fall down as he lost strength.
Did he hear my answer?
When I turned my gaze back to Isidor’s face, his mouth was smiling.
