WeTried Translations x Flame Comics
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 140: Succession (6)
──────
Hey guys, quick announcement before the chapter! We're hosting an original webnovel contest with a $1000 prize pool, a chance to publish your novel on WeTried, and lifetime free reading access for the top two winners!
There's also a participation prize of 500 coins for everyone participating.
If you've got a story sitting in a folder somewhere, or have been wanting to try writing one, we'd love to read it. You only need your first 10 chapters, and you have until 1st January 2027 to submit. New writers are welcome too!
Full details, rules, and how to enter here! https://wetriedtls.com/announcements/webnovel-contest
Feel free to send this to anyone you know who writes. Enjoy the chapter!
If you have any questions, please join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
──────
“This is the burden of the previous generation.”
“Your Highness...?”
“Surely the Hero Party of the previous generation cannot pass its responsibilities onto this generation’s Hero.”
Gilles Ver looked at Isabelle with a warm smile.
Maximilian’s daughter. Those eyes looked so much like that bastard’s, it was almost startling.
He had envied him bitterly, again and again, for skill he could never match no matter how hard he chased after it.
Even so, back then, he had raised his shield and protected him with his life on the line. Feelings of inferiority could never outweigh duty and justice.
Seeing the stance and presence with which Isabelle drew her sword, Gilles Ver let out a quiet laugh.
You grew up well. Your remarkable father never taught you anything, yet you really do resemble him. Frighteningly so.
There was no jealousy left now. Maximilian had shone too brightly for Gilles Ver to keep envying him. Realizing that had been such a relief.
After hearing of the Demon King’s curse, he had sworn to protect Maximilian’s daughter at least. Seeing Isabelle now, all grown up, made him smile.
“Walk as the Hero. Go where your help is needed.”
“Your Highness... No, Uncle.”
“Bella. And all of you. I will leave this generation’s affairs to this generation’s Hero. Go. Save Saint Matilene and protect this country. This is not a request from the previous generation, but from the Defender Duke.”
Gilles Ver willingly bowed his head. The whole group panicked and tried to stop him.
Even so, Gilles Ver continued in a steady voice.
“Protecting this nation is my duty, but I dare entrust that duty to this generation’s Hero. Will you accept this mission?”
“Uncle... Yes, gladly....”
“Thank you, Hero.”
Gilles Ver ruffled Isabelle’s hair, then looked to his son.
Oscar stared at the ground, biting his lip as though he might burst into tears at any moment.
“My son.”
“Yes, Father.”
“This is Etakrikh’s sword. All military authority in Saint Matilene answers to the authority of this sword. You will carry it now.”
“It is... too great an... honor for me....”
“It is duty.”
Gilles Ver stroked his son’s cheek.
Oscar looked up at Gilles Ver with tearful eyes.
“It is not honor. There is no honor there. Only duty. Take this and save the people. Save the country, save your king. And protect your mother and younger sibling.”
“...Yes, Father.”
“You are now an Initiate Knight of the Eastern Knights. Go, knight of the Hero. Stand firm before death and protect the Hero. Be faithful to your duty, protect the weak, and conduct yourself so that you may always hold your head high with a clear conscience.”
“Yes, Father.”
The previous generation’s burden belonged to the previous generation, and this generation’s duty belonged to this generation.
After giving them the finest horses left in the camp, Gilles Ver turned away once more.
Following a brief farewell, the group descended the mountain.
* * *
“Am I too late?”
Ivan reached the summit, steadying his ragged breathing.
No, not yet.
The Eastern Knights were still intact. They had suffered some losses, but they still had the strength to keep fighting.
The Capital Defense Force had been almost completely wiped out. Fewer than a thousand remained.
And Gilles Ver....
The Duke of Etakrikh stood atop a dragon’s corpse, breathing heavily with a military standard in one hand.
“Gilles Ver!!”
“Ivan.”
Gilles Ver turned toward Ivan as he approached, grinning beneath his helmet.
“How many did you kill?”
“Three.”
“Ha ha, I killed five. I win. Again!”
“...I’ll join you.”
Gilles Ver quietly shook his head as Ivan approached.
The dragons’ assault had subsided, but it was not over. The dragons soaring through the sky had been terrified by the battle between Gilles Ver and the Eastern Knights, and no longer dared approach.
Instead, nearly every forest in the Vernina Mountains had burned away.
Ash drifted through the air. Whenever the wind swept across the bare ash fields, the ash swirled away like dispersing mist.
A massive fissure lay beneath it.
Gilles Ver stood before the fissure and raised his spear.
“Do you remember the dungeon they said was beneath this mountain?”
“Mm.”
“It wasn’t a dungeon. If anything, it was a temple.”
“...A temple.”
“The Temple of the Dragons.”
Ivan stood beside Gilles Ver and looked down at the same sight.
A tingling sensation rose from the split in the earth. The presence of dragons crawled up from below.
How many dragons had slept down there?
How? And since when? Those questions were meaningless.
Dragons had slept beneath this temple since some distant age. The demonfolk discovered that fact, and the three great counts used their information to create this trap.
If one had to put it another way, it was the spark for an episode in which Tilles faced destruction.
It was astonishingly similar to the underground temple beneath Krasilov, where an ancient god had been sealed. It was the same kind of system, one that even carried a sense of malice.
The kind that would one day awaken and burn the country, yet remain unknown to everyone in that country until then.
That was likely why this era needed a new Hero. An age was approaching when countries would collapse, new evils would arrive, and the evils of old would once again roam the world.
How many more things like this remained? This world had to fight not only the remaining Seven Dragon Generals, but things like these as well. Invisible time bombs buried beneath nations.
Ivan sighed.
Gilles Ver placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Leave.”
“Are you planning to die here?”
“Of course not.”
Gilles Ver laughed.
“Had we not overcome trials far worse than this in the old days? Do you think flying lizards could dare plot against the Knight of Iron Mountain?”
“...Show-off.”
“I’m reminded of something you once said.”
Gilles Ver shrugged as though it were nothing.
“You once complained that you were a hunting dog whose leash kept changing.”
When had he said that? Probably when he first joined the Hero Party, and again when he left it.
Ivan left the party during their final journey to the Demon King’s castle. The war had been nearing its end.
He had gone to war under royal orders. It was when he had been assigned to support Krasilov’s Northern Army Corps on the front the Hero Party had pushed forward by killing the Seven Dragon Generals.
As Ivan left the party, he had complained to Enrika that they sure knew how to use him, changing his leash whenever it suited them.
The fate of a hunting dog. A self-deprecating joke.
Considering what happened afterward, it had not ended as a joke. Once the hunt was over, they had been put down. Had the Annihilation Unit not been an exceptionally capable pack of hunting dogs?
Gilles Ver’s amused expression pulled Ivan from his thoughts.
“Do prey see hunters and hunting dogs differently?”
“....”
“To prey, both are natural enemies. Are they not?”
“What are you trying to say?”
“If the Hero is the demonfolk’s natural enemy, then so are you.”
Gilles Ver removed his helmet, tucked it beneath his arm, and held out one hand.
“I am not part of the Hero Party.”
“From the previous generation’s perspective... Well. I think you were the only one who saw it that way.”
Gilles Ver gripped Ivan’s forearm tightly. It was their old salute.
Ivan gripped his forearm in return. Meeting his gaze, Gilles Ver continued with a smile.
“Speaking for this generation, it is the same. Ivan Petrovich Yermof. Then and now, you are still a member of the Hero Party.”
“Gilles Ver.”
“You’re damn timid. Have some confidence. At this rate, how can I trust you with the children?”
Chuckling, Gilles Ver gave Ivan’s arm a shake.
Their hands parted. Gilles Ver put his helmet back on as he spoke.
“The previous generation will bear its burden. Scout of this generation’s Hero, leave the previous generation’s burden behind and carry on its duty. Light the way ahead for this generation.”
As the uncle of this generation’s Hero, the father of this generation’s knight, and the friend of this generation’s scout.
“Don’t talk like you’re going to die.”
Ivan barely managed to part his dry lips. Hearing his voice, Gilles Ver burst into loud laughter.
“Fine, then. I’ll see you alive in Saint Matilene.”
“May fortune follow you.”
“May fortune follow you.”
Ivan left, and Gilles Ver turned back once more.
Beneath his helmet, Gilles Ver took a deep breath. His breath echoed beneath the visor.
Through the cracked gap in the visor, he saw a deep ravine.
Countless yellow pupils glared at him from below.
He smiled.
“Come.”
He raised his spear. Thankfully, it was still light.
He thrust it toward the sky, into the dark night hidden behind smoke.
“You stand before this nation’s Defender Duke.”
The sky split open. The morning star shone. Beneath it, the Eastern Knights gathered. The surviving Capital Defense Force assembled, each soldier raising a spear or blade.
Toward the symbol of hope. Willingly.
Not for their own hope, but for the hope still left in this nation.
The standards fluttered. Etakrikh’s crest and the Eastern Knights’ banners billowed like a wall.
-Bwoooooo!!
The Defender Duke’s horn rang out through the mountains once more.
Ep 21. Duty and Succession.
Footnotes:
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried