WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator: Abood

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◈ Friedrich's Battlefield

Chapter 37: Even Upon Knowing It was Fate

Only Friedrich and Yurika remained in the tent. He stared blankly at his own hands.

He hadn’t known. Hadn’t imagined this was what it meant to become "someone."

Had his plans failed, had comrades died from his mistakes, that pain he might’ve understood. But reality was crueler. Death was inevitable even in victory. Each strategy required accepting casualties upfront, tossing lives into the calculation like coins.

Victory bought with blood. Then another battle. And another.

And this was just a minor skirmish. If he kept winning, kept rising, commanding hundreds then thousands, the weight would crush him. Not dozens, but hundreds might die per engagement.

Yet to keep winning, he’d have to bear it. Fight on. Until when? Until he died? Or until age forced him from the field?

To count lives as numbers, to carry countless deaths on his back, to be hailed as a hero for delivering victories while walking a path paved with fallen comrades. Was this truly a life he could dedicate himself to?

What a terrifying existence. What unbearable suffering.

Had he really wished for this? Back in Volga, he’d had no need to fight, no burden of death. He’d lacked nothing, food, shelter, and love. A peaceful and content life. Had he really been so dissatisfied that he’d yearned for this, ignorant of what it truly meant?

Friedrich clutched his head in his hands.

Ah, I want to go back.

To abandon it all and return to Volga.

To that unremarkable rural town, to Alma’s church.

He ached for those monotonous days. What had he even been dissatisfied with? That life had been enough. To live peacefully with Yurika in that boring, ordinary world… Hadn’t that been more than enough?

He could go back. All he had to do was say the word to Matthias, and that life would be his again.

"......"

No. He couldn’t go back.

He’d already shouldered it, the weight of those dead knights and soldiers on that battlefield.

To forget their screams, their gaping wounds, the blood and viscera, Noela’s mangled corpse, to return to Volga and live in peace? Impossible. He wasn’t that kind of man.

There was no going back. The boy who’d naively dreamed of becoming ‘someone,’ who’d idolized heroes from storybooks without understanding their burdens, that boy was gone forever.

This was his life now.

The battlefield had become his home.

"...Hey, Friedrich."

A gentle voice drifted down. Warm hands pried his own from his head, then pulled him into an embrace.

"I’ll never truly understand your pain. No matter how hard I try, I doubt I ever will... But Friedrich."

Her hand brushed his cheek. He looked up to find Yurika gazing at him, close enough to feel her breath.

"Everything I’ve ever said still stands. I’ll stay where you are. Do what you do. Always."

"...Yurika."

His voice cracked on her name.

She likely didn’t know. Didn’t remember how he’d saved her as a child, how she’d been more beast than girl, barely comprehending words, let alone that she might be killed.

She couldn’t have known. That day when they were still children, when he’d stepped between her and death, she’d been too lost in terror to comprehend anything. Too feral to even understand the knife at her throat. Now here she was the one holding him together.

If she kept following him like this, if she remained by his side on the battlefield, she might eventually die too.

To bear the weight of Yurika's death as his own sin was a terror beyond comprehension.

Was it right to keep her here? The girl whose life he'd once saved, would he now be the one to lead her to her death? Should he force her away, send her back to Volga against her will if only to spare her?

"Yurika, I—"

"I know."

Yurika cut Friedrich off, her voice quiet but firm.

"Back when I first came to the church, there were people who thought maybe I should have been returned to God's embrace. I know about that. And I know you were the one who saved me. Alma told me everything when I came of age."

She smiled gently, her fingers brushing the scar she'd once left on Friedrich's skin.

"I've loved you since we were children. But hearing that story made me love you even more. I love you. I'll protect you... I'll never leave you. Not even if you push me away."

Yurika's smile carried a dangerous edge.

"No matter what you say, I won't stop following you. I'll stay by your side forever. If you really want to stop me, you'll have to kill me. That's how much I love you, okay?"

As she spoke, Yurika pressed her nose against Friedrich's until their tips touched. His vision was filled completely by her bewitching smile.

Persuasion was impossible. Keeping her at a distance was impossible. Friedrich understood this now.

"So you see, Friedrich... No matter what burdens you carry from now on, no matter how you change, one thing won't change - I'll always be by your side. Just like when we lived in Volga, just like when you carried no burdens at all, my love for you will never change, I promise you that. My Friedrich."

With these words, Yurika pressed her lips to Friedrich's.

It was as if she was sharing her very soul with him, her breath flowing into Friedrich's being.

Time seemed to flow differently then - not particularly long, but deep and intensely intimate.

"......"

Yurika's lips parted. Their eyes met.

Her large, dark pupils and crimson lips curved into a broad grin,a smile both charming and faintly dangerous. It was the same smile she'd always worn. Nothing about it had changed.

He had already shouldered too many deaths. There was no returning to who he'd been before.

Yet not everything had changed. Some things remained. Some would never change. Yurika’s very existence was proof of that.

She had known him before his transformation, and she knew him still. Despite everything, she chose to stay.

That ultimate promise became his greatest strength. He wasn't alone. With her beside him, he could endure even the battlefield. This conviction steadied him.

"So do as you please. I'll leave everything to you."

Friedrich nodded at Yurika's words.

Then he made his decision. His answer had long been clear.

・・・・・・

"What do you think he will choose?"

In the midst of the retreat preparations, inside the large command tent serving as headquarters, Gregor posed the question to Matthias.

The timing of his inquiry was deliberate, now that the other officers and messengers had left, leaving only the two of them.

"Hard to say. If he truly understands his fate, then there may yet be hope... But if he still chooses to leave my side, then the House of Hosenfeld will end with me."

"It seems you’ve already made peace with that outcome."

Gregor’s words cut straight to the heart of Matthias’s thoughts, drawing a wry smile from the count.

"And if Friedrich decides to stay by your side?"

At Gregor’s follow-up question, Matthias nodded.

"Indeed. I intend to adopt him as my heir."

Friedrich had proven his capability not once, but twice, securing victory through his wisdom.

Now, only one question remained: his resolve. If even after bearing the deaths of his comrades and facing the destiny laid before him, he still refused to leave the battlefield, then as both a commander and a successor to the hero’s legacy, he could be said to possess the necessary qualities.

That was Matthias’s judgment.

"Do you object?"

"No. As your vassal, I respect Your Lordship’s decision, one made after thorough deliberation."

Hearing Gregor’s reply, Matthias allowed another faint, wry smile. It reminded him of the conversation they’d shared after first meeting Friedrich.

"...Your Lordship. He’s here."

At Gregor’s quiet words, Matthias turned toward the direction of his gaze.

Beyond the open entrance of the tent, Friedrich approached with Yurika at his side.

The panic from earlier was gone from his face. So too was any trace of hesitation.

What remained was quiet resignation and resolve. One glance at his expression made the conclusion he’d reached unmistakable, even unspoken.

"It seems our expectations were correct."

Matthias murmured this as he ushered Friedrich and the others into the tent.

After Gregor stepped outside and closed the entrance, Matthias spoke.

"Have you reached your decision?"

"Yes, my lord."

At the question, Friedrich gave a small nod. His gaze remained fixed straight on Matthias.

"I will continue to live as a soldier of the Kingdom. I will carry the lives of my fallen comrades, those who died under my strategies. I will bear the lives of every knight and soldier who will fall from this day forward."

There was no trace of frivolous excitement in Friedrich's voice or expression as he spoke.

He reminds me of him, Matthias thought. That same expression Rudolf had worn after his first battle as a knight, after witnessing his comrades' deaths.

The fading memory of his son's face suddenly seemed vivid again.

"Knight Friedrich, as your lord, I am pleased with your resolve. I expect great deeds from you... and I have one proposal to make."

As Matthias made his proposal, Friedrich's expression stiffened slightly as he braced himself.

"Would you consider becoming my adopted heir and taking the Hosenfeld name?"

Upon hearing this, Friedrich's eyes widened just a fraction, but that was all. It wasn't the reaction of someone caught completely off guard.

An exceptionally perceptive young man, Matthias thought. He must have anticipated this possibility to some degree, and must have wondered why I took him under my wing.

"I won't demand you call me father, nor even think of me as one. I won't ask you to change your relationship with Yurika either. I only wish to grant you every resource at my disposal, that is why I want to make you my heir. This power comes with responsibility, yes, but it is power suited to who you are now... Whether you accept it remains your choice to make."

"I shall accept your generous proposal with the gravity it deserves... Count Hosenfeld."

Friedrich answered without hesitation, his crimson eyes fixed steadily on Matthias.

Matthias met Friedrich's gaze with his own piercing blue eyes, then allowed a faint smile to escape as he placed a hand on the young man's shoulder.

I told him he needn't call me father, nor even think of me as one.

But I... I will consider this young man as my son. I will protect him as my own.

This silent vow took root in Matthias's heart.

"Once we return, we'll first inform the royal family. Then we'll make the announcement within the regiment. After that, rumors will spread on their own... Until then, keep this to yourselves."

"Understood, my lord."

The newly acknowledged son gave a dutiful nod to Matthias's words.

Footnotes:

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