Side Story Chapter 27
“…You really shouldn’t believe rumors, huh,” Sparc Murtan, the commander of the White Tiger Knight Order, murmured after he finally pulled himself together.
“Are you talking about the rumor that I voluntarily left the palace because I wasn’t talented?”
Sparc flinched. It was becoming very obvious that Kireua spoke very straightforwardly even if he was degrading himself.
“You’ve seen me fight with your own eyes. What do you think?” Kireua asked.
“I think you are indeed His Majesty’s son.”
“Is that all?” Kireua tilted his head.
“And we made the wrong choice.”
Kireua was holding his sword against Sparc’s neck, so his neck must have been stinging. However, Sparc didn’t so much as frown; he was actually called “stone” for never revealing his emotions.
“I believed I was doing this for Avalon.”
Kireua frowned slightly. “Did you think Avalon would fall just because His Majesty is away? Avalon isn’t that weak.”
“Have you forgotten? His Majesty Joshua Sanders took the throne all on his own.”
“You could just say you started a riot because it seemed to be your chance, but you had to make it sound complicated, huh?” Kireua said.
“Why do you think the nobles thought so in the first place? His Majesty had no legitimacy but became the emperor through his strength and for vengeance. It was inevitable for an uprising to start.”
Kireua’s eyes turned cold. Just like him, Sparc was straightforward.
“I’ll be frank with you: on that day twenty years ago, the prestigious nobles held grudges against His Majesty, but thousands of the Imperial Knights supported Joshua Sanders.”
“Are you talking about the day that the Dark God died?” Kireua asked.
“Yes, but on the other hand, I should have expected it. His Majesty’s achievements inspired me and the other knights. Of course, you may not understand me because that happened before you were born.”
“You talk like you were there,” Kireua noted as he watched Sparc reminiscing.
“I was there.”
“…What?”
“Before I became Marquess Suspen’s knight, I was an Imperial Knight,” Sparc revealed, to Kireua’s surprise.
Even Cain was dumbfounded.
“I don’t remember seeing you,” Cain protested.
“You wouldn’t know me, Combat Emperor, because I voluntarily left the palace on the day Emperor Marcus died.”
“Mmm…” Cain grunted. He remembered what happened. After the death of Marcus ben Britten and Joshua’s ascension to the throne, many of the Imperial Knights had left the palace. Their reason was, of course, obvious.
“An Imperial Knight’s job is to protect the emperor of the Avalon Empire and the Palace, but all of us failed to do our job.”
“Well, you were fighting against my master.” Cain shrugged. “Besides, Emperor Marcus—”
“Yes, he sold his soul to the Demon Spirit, but we already swore our loyalty to him. We should have protected our master even if it cost us our souls.”
Cain looked at the incorrigible man and clicked his tongue. How could a man be so honest?
“I can tell what kind of path you walked down,” he said.
“Another reason was out of respect for the new emperor.”
“Respect?” Cain repeated.
“I’ll be honest with you: I was in awe of his skills, so I firmly believed that Joshua Sanders would stabilize this country and make Avalon one of the three strongest countries on the continent once again.”
“I see.”
“But that was it. I had protected the Palace for a long time and entrusted His Majesty with it. However, he suddenly disappeared, and Avalon became this mess.” Sparc’s expression turned grim.
Cain and Kireua could feel all his hard work and regret from the knight who was already over fifty.
“He always left without saying anything. I heard about that from the Auxiliary Battalion knights, but he shouldn’t have done that after he became an emperor.” Sparc clenched his fists.
“Do you resent His Majesty?” Cain asked.
“Yes, I resent him for neglecting Avalon until everything turned into a mess.” Sparc pointed at the knights standing in the corner. “If His Majesty hadn’t gone missing, do you think Hans over there would have lost his father? The nobles in the south wouldn’t have dared to harass the knights’ families. Numerous tenant farmers have starved to death when they failed to pay their taxes. His Majesty is selfish. All his talk about doing this and that for his people and building a stronger rule are just excuses for the people like us. He isn’t fit to be an emperor. It would have been better if he remained a knight like us.”
As the son of the Emperor of Avalon, Kireua had gone silent long ago, but Cain wasn’t content to stand there and take it.
“How dare you!” Cain roared, his golden aura rolling over them like rough ocean waves.
“Yes, you all must be talking about all sorts of things on your own[1], but how dare you insult His Majesty in front of me?”
“Commander Cain, shouldn’t you be the most angry?” Sparc asked.
“Just like you said, His Majesty always had good reasons for disappearing.”
“Here we go again.”
“Let me give you an example: Avalon would have disappeared long ago if His Majesty hadn’t lured the empire alliance army on his own twenty years ago.”
The story was now recorded in history books, and Sparc had heard the story thousands of times before. However, Sparc couldn’t help wondering…
“...For three years?” Sparc asked.
Cain flinched.
“I always thought that it was odd. The alliance army returned to Reinhardt in a matter of weeks, but His Majesty disappeared for three whole years…” Sparc trailed off.
“That’s…”
“...and didn’t show his face anywhere on the continent.”
Although Cain knew the truth, he couldn’t say anything because he couldn’t tell Sparc that Joshua had gone to the Demon Realm at the time.
“Everyone believed that he was recovering for three years from critical wounds gained from luring the army away. However, he didn’t have a single scar on his face.” Sparc shrugged. “If he had been so direly wounded that he needed three whole years to recover, he should have had a scar somewhere.”
“Get back to the point,” Kireua interrupted. “What does that have to do with you starting a rebellion?”
“…I did it to save my family, Your Highness. You said that the leaders are at fault here, so I’ll gladly take any punishment you give me.”
Kireua shook his head. “No, I already forgave you and said that I’ll give you all a second chance.”
Sparc went silent.
“So I’ll ask you all for a second chance, too. At least I won’t disappear like His Majesty. No matter what happens, I will never vanish without saying anything.”
“...You’re His Majesty’s son,” Sparc slowly said.
“I’ll prove it.”
“It’s easy to make a promise.”
“Just trust me. You don’t have any other choice, do you?” Kireua said.
Sparc looked straight into Kireua’s eyes. “Knights value their honor over their lives. They might not swear their loyalty to you even if they have to give their swords for the rest of their lives.”
“Even if I use their families to threaten them like Marquess Suspen, will they still disobey me?”
“I don’t think a member of the Imperial Family would do such a thing; if they did, I pity myself for devoting my entire life to a country like this,” Sparc said self-deprecatingly.
“Then trust me.”
Sparc frowned. The conversation was back to square one.
“Whether I believe you or not—”
“If you can’t believe me no matter what I say…” Kireua interrupted. He grinned. “...then what are you going to do? Losers have no choice but to obey the winner. If you have a problem with that, pick up your sword and defeat me.”
Silence fell upon the area.
“…Haha.”
After a moment, someone chuckled quietly. More people soon joined him.
“Gosh, Your Highness…”
“Isn’t this better? There’s nothing more pathetic than someone who talks big when he has nothing except his grand title.”
The relatively young knights responded to Kireua well, but the middle-aged knights waited for Sparc’s next words to make their decision.
“…Hah. I lost.” Sparc’s shoulders drooped and he lowered his sword. “We of the southern rebel army acknowledge our defeat by the national army,” he intoned in his usual monotonous voice.
It was the formal declaration of surrender. Kireua also lowered his sword and smiled.
“I accept your surrender.”
* * *
Meanwhile, Anna, who had been watching everything on the ramparts, grinned.
“I definitely have a good eye for character!”
An opaque bird landed on her shoulder.
“You’re back already? Good work.” Anna stroked the bird’s head.
Chirp!
“How are things in the north? From what I heard, Carmen von Agnus withdrew her army. Wait, did she find the traces she was desperately looking for?”
Chirp! Chirp, chirp!
Anna paid attention to the bird for a while, her eyes gradually widening.
“...Are you serious?”
Chirp, chirp, chirp!
“Unbelievable. I couldn’t find anything for over a decade, so how… No, no, that’s the only logical reason for Carmen to withdraw her army now.”
Chirp!
The bird elemental spirit, whom Anna called Lingling, flew vigorously into the air and circled overhead a long time, occasionally chirping loudly at the north.
Anna’s face turned grim. “…What do I need to do? If the northern rebel army withdrew to follow the tracks of Joshua Sanders… then is that okay for me to just trust Kireua on this?”
1. The raw is ???? ?? ???? ???? ?????. It’s a Korean idiom about how it’s human nature to gossip. 👈
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