30 Years Have Passed Since the Prologue - Chapter 154

WeTried Translations x Flame Comics

Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B

Chapter 154: At the End of the Rebellion (2)

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-Kaaang!!

Sparks flew. The instant their swords collided, they measured each other's strength, read the direction of the force, then pulled apart.

-Krrrreeeak!!

Their gazes met. Between their clashing blades, Etouan's blazing eyes faced Ivan's cold, sunken ones.

"If only... if only you hadn't been here...!!"

Etouan shouted, his voice boiling with rage. If Krasilov had learned of the rebellion beforehand through his son, and if they had sent Ivan at precisely the right moment.

In the end, every one of his failures had been caused by the battered man before him. By that man staggering about like a walking corpse, yet still deflecting every attack.

"You destroyed everything!!"

His ambition, his dreams, even his son.

Every hope was scattering and slipping away like sand through his fingers, everything he had rushed toward, everything he had all but seized.

History would remember him as a rebel, a traitor, a defeated commander. Every branch of his bloodline would be cut off, and his estate would be dismantled as a traitor's land.

He should have chosen to flee. If he had gathered his troops, retreated, and reorganized his forces, there might still have been hope.

But now it was too late.

-Kwaaaang!!

Cannon fire hammered the front lines. Beneath Krasilov's cursed artillery, the ambushed conscripts fled in complete panic.

Krasilov's superhumans ran wild among them. They ignored soldiers, evaded knights, and targeted only commanders for assassination.

Tilles’s command structure was organized by estate. Once its command staff collapsed, there was no way to regroup. The nobles of each estate could only scatter in small groups.

At this point, the army could no longer be rallied.

"You weren't the first."

Ivan spoke in a dying voice. His arms trembled, his legs had gone weak, and his body staggered, yet his blade work remained impossibly clean.

His voice pierced the surrounding chaos and drove straight into Etouan's ear.

"And you won't be the last."

-Kagaagaak!!

Toppling the Allied Kingdoms, colluding with the demonfolk, plotting rebellion.

From a narrow perspective, these amounted to no more than isolated uprisings led by ambitious people who came at the head of armies, each driven by their own reasons and ideals.

Yet from a broader perspective, there was clearly some enormous current at work.

A current that relentlessly sought cracks in the Allied Kingdoms, tried to bring down monarchies, and destroy human power.

Perhaps it could be called the flow of history. Perhaps that was the ending this world desired.

This world was plainly not friendly to humanity.

"But even so."

Ivan, once a tenant farmer, knew this. Wildfires spread, grain sometimes withered, and storms occasionally ruined every field.

Even so, people rose again, picked up their old plows, and returned to till the land.

Even upon the ruins of homes swept away by war, even atop the blood and corpses of those fallen in battle, people took up old tools, built houses again, founded villages, and raised cities.

Man is not made for defeat.

Even if some will in this world hated humanity. Even when all those once called gods joined hands to oppose humankind. Even in the age when every race gathered armies to burn humanity away.

Even so, humanity still survived here, in this place, preparing for the next thousand years.

-Kang! Krrreeeak!!

His sword flew away. At last, his left hand no longer worked. Ivan stepped back and raked the ground with his hand.

He pulled an axe from among the corpses and gripped it. Fortunately, his right arm could still move.

-Kagaak!!

He met the blow falling toward his head. The sparks bent through the air in slow motion. In the realm of superhumans, the two men drove their weapons toward one another.

Ivan, who had been swaying as though he might collapse at any moment, gripped another weapon and rose again.

-Kaaang!!

Martial arts meant piling up the years and reaching for the sky.

-Kang!! Krrreeeak!!

Even if one could not reach it. Even if it was perhaps no more than a vague concept that could never be reached in an entire lifetime. It was still something one desired.

Not recognizing one's limits. Or recognizing them, yet refusing to accept them.

To spend an entire lifetime.

To devote the whole of one's life, to cast that lifetime before a challenge.

-Kaaang!!

The spear broke. The axe snapped. With his mana exhausted, time gradually accelerated. The realm of superhumans was breaking apart.

Yet Ivan still raked the ground, rolled, seized a weapon, and rushed in again. As if, if he could no longer keep up with time, he would move one more time instead.

Like burning for the one goal one spent an entire life reaching for. Like setting one's life ablaze.

"Why, why won't you die... why!!"

His wounds should already have killed him. Human will could never surpass the body's limits. That was common sense. No matter how steadfast a knight's will was, they had to fall if their arm was severed and their leg broken.

Shattering that common sense head-on, Ivan burst from the flames once again.

With the next weapon, then the next one after that.

With countless blade paths, born of countless people and martial arts, shifting every moment.

Under the pressure of facing a different opponent every instant, as though he stood against an entire legion, Etouan's hand finally gave out.

-Kwachik!!

An axe slipped through that opening like a snake and chopped down on his neck.

"Kh... urgh!"

Etouan's body spasmed. From the other side, a short spear flew in, pierced his liver, and buried itself there. His ribs cracked and shattered, tearing through his lungs.

Khk, cough. After a few ragged breaths, Etouan's knees buckled and he collapsed to the ground.

Ivan gripped the axe and drew deep breaths.

-I won't call your Ideal a home.

-I'll call it a memory. Not something you failed to let go of, but something that has accumulated alongside you.

Adel's voice sounded in his ears. When had it been? It was a voice from a time that already felt so long ago.

Words he had heard in Pritchenkaya during a summer when flower petals rained down.

Only now did Ivan feel that he understood what she had meant.

"Was that it?"

The other senses he had shut off for battle, hearing, touch, smell, began slowly returning. The still-distant noise and heat around him hummed through his nerves, throwing them into confusion.

In the silence within that chaos, Ivan quietly nodded.

"So that was it."

A memory. Had she not understood his entire life better than he had?

If his past life was a memory, if it was all that was mine, accumulated alongside me, then...

I would gladly admit it.

It was not only in the prologue that thirty years had passed.

Thirty years had passed since the prologue.

From the life of the young tenant farmer boy that had been his first beginning to the present, those long years were not a prologue, but one person's unbroken story.

My story was not a journey to find an epilogue. The journey itself had meaning.

I had not moved according to the wishes of the dead. I had built memories with those I had once lived beside.

I realized it far too late. I let far too much slip away.

Ivan gave a quiet smile with dry lips.

-Dududududu!!

He heard something approaching. He could not judge its direction or distance, but it was a mounted force.

He put strength into his bent knees. He steadied the hand holding his weapon. Since he was not dead yet, there was no reason not to move.

Someone was running toward him through his wavering vision.

"Vanka... Vanka...!! Vanka!!"

Still standing with his weapon in hand, Ivan slowly judged the distance. But he could no longer put strength into his arms. So this was as far as he went. The thought made him laugh.

-Fwoosh.

Something like thick cloth wrapped around his shoulders. It felt like a large blanket had covered him. Even beneath that small weight, Ivan staggered and fell to his knees.

Something warm touched his cheek.

"Vanka. Vanka, please. Please! Is anyone there?! A priest! Bring a priest!! Hurry!!"

Thud, thud, thud. Heavy things slammed into place, and the space around him filled with people. When he turned his eyes, they appeared to be knights.

Knights holding enormous shields surrounded him like a fortress.

Their backs were turned. Krasilov's ruler could show tears only before the Lord.

Ivan saw Elizaveta's tearful face before him.

"Vanka, ah... ahhh... Don't die. Please, I'm begging you... hold on a little longer. Please."

"Your Highness."

At Ivan's dry voice, Elizaveta jolted and rushed closer.

"Have you come to? Do you recognize me? Me, I... do you recognize me...?"

"Don't plead. Just command me."

"Vanka..."

Elizaveta looked down at him for a long while without speaking, then reached out and pulled him close.

She held him tight, so that no one would dare harm him until the priest arrived.

As his cold body slowly warmed, Ivan was finally able to fall into a deep sleep.

* * *

-Tap, tap.

At the sound of raindrops striking the window, Ivan slowly opened his eyes.

An unfamiliar ceiling.

He moved his eyes and looked around. White bedding and clean furniture came into view. Beyond the window stretched the late-autumn sky of Tilles. Rain poured down.

A ward?

Ivan turned his eyes again. He saw the back of a man standing by the window.

"You're awake?"

"Oscar."

Oscar approached with a faint smile and sat in a chair. After a moment of silence, he spoke first.

"Three days have passed. Her Highness Elizaveta will be disappointed to have missed this. She stayed by your side for all three days."

"..."

"The war is over. Ironically, I was the one in the best condition out of all of us."

"Is everyone all right?"

"Yes. Thankfully."

But there was no joy in Oscar's smile. Ivan could feel the deep sorrow beneath that expression. Before Oscar could say anything more, Ivan let out a heavy sigh.

"The good always die first."

"...Lord Yermof."

"The funeral?"

"It will be held... in two days."

"Will you stay?"

"No. I have a younger sibling. They're a good kid. I still have something else to do... The Hero Party will still need a knight."

"I see."

Ivan turned his eyes away again. He looked at the ceiling for a while, then closed his eyes and drew a deep breath.

Listening to Oscar's quiet sobs, Ivan lowered his head without a word.

* * *

[Quest Complete!]

[“???-Rank Quest” Shadow Over Tilles.]

[You and your party have finally crushed the conspiracy among Tilles’s noble houses and brought about peace. The war has ended, and an age of peace has returned. For now.]

[Objective: Prevent civil war among Tilles’s Three Great Count Houses. (Completed)]

[Jean Beltua de Vermonfort: Detained]

[Etouan de Grandmartel: Deceased]

[Guillaume d’Otleans: Deceased]

[Optional Objective: Ensure the survival of Gilles Ver de Etakrikh. (Failed)]

[Optional Objective: Meet Maximilian de Itouale. (Failed)]

[Additional Objective: Keep the total number of destroyed estates at fifteen or fewer. (Success)]

[Additional Objective: Ensure the survival of the Tilles Royal Family. (Success)]

[Calculating reward.]

...

[Reward: Extend the continued existence of the Allied Kingdoms by five years.]

Ep24. At the End of the Rebellion.