Friedrich's Battlefield - Prologue

WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator: Abood

◈ Friedrich's Battlefield

Prologue - Even Upon Knowing It was Fate

The Kingdom of Edelstein, a nation located in the western part of the Ludna Continent. In a small city of the said western reaches, two men stood speaking with a nun in front of a church door. One of the men was holding a large basket in his arms.

“Now then, I’ll be leaving the rest to you.”

“Certainly. I’ll take good care of it. May God bless your act of compassion.”

The middle-aged nun, having received the basket from the man, offered a gesture of prayer toward the two. They gave a respectful nod in return, then departed from the church.

“Is this good enough for ya, boss?”

“Ah, this place’ll do. Can’t say I know how he’s gonna make a life for himself here… but that’s not something I need to take responsibility for.

The man who had been carrying the basket gave his reply, prompting a wry smile from the one who had asked the question.

“You could’ve just ditched it along the way, y’know. But nah, you haul that thing across the border, struggle to take care of it in a place you don’t even know, all proper and by the book. You sure are a real piece of work.”

“I took the payment, didn’t I? That woman was a strange one… but she paid a hefty sum.”

The man who had carried the basket replied as the image of their client flickered in his mind.

The two were merchants. The one with the basket led a small caravan in his trade, while the man beside him was one of his subordinates.

It all began about two weeks ago. In the royal capital of the Loire Kingdom, west of the Kingdom of Edelstein. They were approached by a strange woman, well-dressed and out of place.

The woman, looking as though she were being followed or even hunted down, pressed the basket into their hands in a panic. She pleaded with them to take it out of the country to claim they’d found it along the roadside, and to leave it in some rural church, far from notice.

When the men looked inside the basket, their first instinct was to turn the woman down. But her desperate pleading… and more than anything, the pouch heavy with gold coins she offered as payment was enough to change the guild master's mind.

In the end, they accepted the payment and the basket from the woman. Crossing the border into the Kingdom of Edelstein had already been part of their trade route, and so here they were now.

“Don’t know where you came from, kid… but do your best to survive.”

The man cast one final glance back at the entrance of the church as he spoke those words.

“Alright, time to get back to the caravan and make some coin. If we don’t hurry, we’ll miss the post-war boom.”

“We’re only missing it because you, boss, decided to take a detour into the middle of nowhere.”

With that casual exchange, the two men walked away from the church.

And just like that, their role in the continent’s history came to an end.

“…Where in the world did you come from, little one?”

The nun gazed down at the basket she had received from the two men and murmured softly.

Inside was a baby with deep crimson hair, a rare sight on the continent.

This boy still had a role left to play in history, one far greater, far more significant.

The infant slept peacefully, wrapped in fine cloth, unaware of his circumstances or the fate that awaited him.

Footnotes: