WeTried Translations

Translator: Nemui

Editor: Nemui

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Friedrich's Battlefield

Chapter 128: As Queen, and as This Country’s New Protector

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“I am Claudia Edelstein. In place of my late father Sigismund, I am the one who will inherit the throne of this country.”

Solemnly, Claudia began to speak. She had already given speeches many times in place of her bedridden father, and her dignified bearing already possessed majesty. Her voice reached everyone gathered there.

“Now, the Kingdom of Edelstein is in crisis. The army of the invading Kingdom of Arelia has crossed the Beiral Plains and set foot in this country. Arnsberg fortress has fallen, and Count Matthias Hosenfeld, the living hero of Edelstein, has died a heroic death in battle… And by strange coincidence, at the same time, King Sigismund, beloved by all, has passed from this world. The one absolute God now imposes an immense trial upon us.”

While she spoke mercilessly of the kingdom’s current state, Claudia’s powerful voice kept the words from sounding pessimistic.

“Can we not overcome this trial? Will this country fall before a trial so great? The answer is no! The Edelstein royal house has the power to lead this country to victory! Once, Queen Waltrude Edelstein overcame every hardship, took the crown watched over not only by nobles but by commoners as well, and built this country! Since that time, the Edelstein royal house has continued to protect this country and all who live within it!”

The words of the speaking crown princess began to carry heat. That heat was amplified by the majesty behind her, nurturing the rapture and excitement born among the people.

“The royal house still has the power to protect the country! The authority inherited from the age of Waltrude, the mother of the founding, to the age of my great father, King Sigismund, I too shall inherit! It is precisely to show the power and resolve of the new queen that I have come here! This place, where people have gathered from across the kingdom, is worthy to be the place of my coronation!”

When Claudia gave a sign with her hand, the patriarch of Allusionism stepped forward. In his hands was the crown passed down through generations of the Edelstein royal house.

To be crowned not in the central church, but on the very front line of the battlefield. When Claudia had expressed that intention, the patriarch had naturally shown reluctance, but his resistance had come only once. He had quickly chosen to grant the crown princess’s wish.

In this land, the time when the positions of secular ruler and religious leader had been reversed lay far in the distant past. The Edelstein royal house had treated the church with due respect, but the reason the church was permitted to continue existing was ultimately because its authority had value as something to be used. That was why, if the new monarch demanded it, even the patriarch accepted an exception to the sacred ritual.

The clergy lined up there began to sing a hymn. The nobles and knights followed. It was a hymn everyone above a certain social rank knew as part of basic education.

The hymn sung by several hundred people wrapped the ceremonial space in fantasy, drawing a dignity more graceful and vivid. Even the wind direction now sided with Claudia, carrying the sound of the hymn from the hill toward the people.

Amid an atmosphere that had begun to feel almost mythic, Claudia faced the crown and, now as a child of God, knelt on both knees and bowed her head. Before her, the patriarch stood as a servant of God and held the crown high.

Under the absolute God who created sky, earth, and sea, the patriarch declared Claudia the rightful ruler of this land and the rightful heir of the Edelstein royal house, then placed the crown upon her head.

Claudia, now crowned, stood and turned to face forward. The new master of this country looked down over the nobles and soldiers, and over the people gathered there.

“…Our Queen.”

The patriarch spoke in a calm voice that somehow carried widely, and this time he bowed his head to Claudia. At the same moment, behind Claudia, royal crested banners were raised to cross each other against the curtain.

Our Queen. Calling the newly crowned woman by that title, every kingdom soldier and civil official lined up there, every noble and their retainers, and every clergyman knelt on one knee in unison and paid respect.

Because the movement had been coordinated by the signal of the banners, the gesture and the spoken words were perfectly aligned. The sound of armor and rustling clothing. All of it came together, and reverence for the queen took visible form before the eyes of the people. Without anyone ordering them, the crowd naturally bowed their heads as well.

“All of you, raise your faces!”

A voice stronger than ever before rang across the hill. It was the voice of a ruler. Receiving that voice, everyone raised their faces and stood.

Surrounded by majesty created through every possible means and colored by mysticism, Claudia, standing with the crown upon her head, radiated extraordinary force.

“Here today, I have taken the crown! From this moment onward, I am queen of the Kingdom of Edelstein! Never forget this! I was crowned on the frontline battlefield, watched over not only by nobles, but by the people!”

Before the queen, who raised her hand and spoke in a clear voice, the rapture and excitement born among the people made the anxiety that had been inside them only moments earlier feel like something from the distant past.

“I took this crown before those who now fight to protect the country, before those who will soon fight to protect the country, and before those who will send them to the battlefield and support their fight! I am queen of the retainers and subjects who live in this country! I too will fight beside you! I will lead you to victory! This coronation is proof of my resolve! Return to your homes and spread the tale! Tell what you saw here today! Tell what you felt here today! And those who will fight, gather once more on this battlefield! There is nothing to fear! I, your queen, will stand on the battlefield with you!”

Turning her gaze and her raised hand across the crowd, Claudia roared.

The queen was looking at them. The queen was indicating them with her hand. Feeling that as they bathed in her words, a fire lit in the hearts of the people, and that fire soon became flame. From within the flame, fighting spirit was born.

“Think of your homes! They are the history you have built! Think of your parents, siblings, and spouses! They are the homes to which you must return! Think of your children! They are our hope and our future! Everything we have is here in this land! It is to protect everything that you fight! It is to protect everything that I shall bring victory! As queen, as this country’s new protector, the first thing I bestow upon you is victory!”

As if declaring it to the world itself, Claudia cried out in a ringing voice and drew the sword that only a monarch was permitted to wear. The raised blade glittered in the sunlight behind the curtain that formed the backdrop.

The direction from which the people saw Claudia standing. The height of the sun at this hour and in this season. The weather forecast made by scholars serving the royal house. As the result of Claudia herself accounting for all of it, the sunlight illuminated the sword like a stage device. Yet the people saw it as a halo by which God blessed the queen.

The instant the glitter of the blade brushed over them was the instant their rapture and excitement overflowed from within their hearts.

The air shook. Even the earth seemed to tremble.

An explosive cheer, enough to shake the hill, filled the area. Long live the Queen. Long live the Queen. Long live the Queen. Countless voices praised the birth of their new monarch and imagined the victory that lay ahead. It was not only the common people. Soldiers swept up in the raging heat, and even some knights and nobles, raised their fists and called out to the queen.

“……”

Friedrich watched half stunned as Claudia’s full power created that scene.

Once, when he had borrowed Matthias’s prestige and encouraged the people of Volga, what Claudia had done was, in principle, no different from what he had done then.

But the scale could not be compared. Every part of it was on a different order. He had been shown the true strength of the woman who had stood before retainers and subjects as the representative of a great king and carried the affairs of state until now.

The authority of the royal house that could prepare a stage like this, the majesty backed by history, and every part of those things used to the fullest, creating such fervor through nothing but staging and speech. She had created a tremendous flame of excitement in the hearts of the people, who had been so cold only moments before. In this country now, it was a miracle only she could cause.

The sight now spread before his eyes far surpassed what he had predicted two weeks ago. Excitement became heat, voices became wind, and everyone came together to produce power so intense it could almost be felt physically. It seemed as though they might seize victory just like this.

Of course, Friedrich understood that this would not necessarily be so. Every senior retainer who maintained calm, including Friedrich, understood it. What Claudia had shown here was only words. She had borrowed the prestige of the royal house and her father the king, and skillfully clothed herself in it with words. The reality that an extremely harsh battle awaited them from here had not changed at all.

Nevertheless, the people were filled with fighting spirit, as though victory had already been decided. Not only the people. The soldiers had already been swallowed by the heat the queen gave them. No small number of knights and nobles as well. The sight of a group fevered by heat contained danger too.

Even so, this country needed that heat now. To prevent anxiety from turning into despair, and to keep the chill of resignation from covering society, everyone had to remain swept up in that heat.

And the flame of fighting spirit that was the source of this heat could not be allowed to remain a passing illusion. It had to be turned into a real flame bearing enough power to burn away and defeat the army of invaders.

To seize a real victory beyond this, and to build the path for that victory, was the duty of a soldier. The duty of a commander. The duty of Friedrich, who had inherited the Hosenfeld name from his late father.

“…Your Majesty.”

Loyalty to you. Devotion to the royal house. Victory and peace to the kingdom. As a knight, as a soldier, as a noble.

Looking up at the new master of the homeland he served, Friedrich quietly saluted.

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