novelraw Chapter 184: Krafte War - The Victor and the Vanquished (2)
Chapter 184: Krafte War - The Victor and the Vanquished (2)
Episode 184. The Krafte War - Victor and Vanquished (2)
“Congratulations on your victory.”
Cecilia said as she poured champagne into a glass and handed it to her.
“This time, it’s alright for you to accept my offer without making me feel awkward, isn’t it?”
It was strange that she still remembered how coldly Eris had refused the tea offered in the Kingdom of Alps of the dwarves, so Eris received the glass with a bitter smile.
“I’ll think of this not as a celebratory drink, but as one of mourning.”
Cecilia was silent for a moment, then gave a slight nod.
“If you think of it that way.”
Cecilia said, holding out her glass.
“……To the peace between our two nations.”Eris replied, accepting the toast.
“……And may the fallen rest peacefully in God’s embrace.”
The two half-sisters barely wet their lips before setting down their glasses.
A brief, awkward silence passed, and it was Cecilia who broke it first.
“You’ve now become the true Queen of Francia in name and reality. You must be pleased.”
“……Not particularly.”
Eris’s reply was so genuinely indifferent that Cecilia’s brow furrowed slightly.
“Is it not the throne of a great power that everyone covets?”
“The one that rules that great power is the National Assembly. I am a queen who does not rule.”
“Ha.”
Cecilia let out a hollow laugh.
“Have you come all this way just to play the Saintess, claiming to be a puppet? You yourself should know very well that you are not.”
As Eris kept her lips tightly sealed, Cecilia continued.
“It would be tiresome to list all the miracles you performed in this war, and you stood on the frontline to prevent the defeated army from collapsing. Isn't that an action only possible because you know full well that the people of Francia would never retreat and leave you behind?”
Eris readily nodded her head.
“That’s right.”
“Even I, the Kaiserin of the Empire, do not possess such influence, yet you call yourself a queen with no real power. Furthermore, with this war, Marquis Lafayette, who enthroned you, has become an almost legendary figure. If he set his mind to it, he could easily turn the National Assembly into mere scarecrows.”
Cecilia’s lips twisted into a sneer.
“And yet, even here, you play the part of a Saintess, claiming to have no interest in power?”
Eris remained silent for a moment before slowly opening her mouth.
“To me, the throne of Francia is nothing more than a bothersome position that keeps me from moving freely and brings me annoying marriage proposals.”
Cecilia stared at Eris for a long while as if to see right through her, then laughed self-deprecatingly.
“So the weight of the position I coveted so much that I endangered the Empire means only that much to you.”
“I’m sorry to say it, but yes, sister.”
Cecilia raised a hand to her forehead.
While Cecilia was silent, Eris spent a rather long time sipping her champagne.
Just as she had nearly emptied the champagne glass that seemed like it would never diminish, Cecilia spoke again.
“You said you resented me.”
-I resent Your Highness. Perhaps the people of the Empire do as well.
Recalling her own words, Eris quietly nodded.
“You also said you mourned for those who died in the war started by my greed.”
“Yes.”
Cecilia asked with a self-mocking smile.
“But if that’s the case, why did you end the war?”
“Because there’s no point in shedding more blood?”
At Eris’s immediate answer, Cecilia tilted her head further.
“Thanks to Francia defeating the Krafte Army and ending the war without entering the Empire, I was able to reclaim what I should have lost in this war.”
Eris did not answer.
“I managed to subjugate the feudal lords who frequently rebelled within the Empire through military force, and I reclaimed the promise of support for the imperial throne that I had given to Krafte for their participation, by instead offering to lead the peace negotiations ourselves.”
Cecilia stared intently at Eris and said.
“Ironically, the one who gained the most from these peace negotiations is the Empire.”
“You were the one who asked us to win for all of our sakes, sister.”
At Eris's calm reply, Cecilia bit her lip before speaking again.
“And you were the one who answered that you would fight not for us, but for the people of Francia, as one of them.”
“What’s the problem? We are to receive war reparations. You have permanently renounced your claim to the throne of Francia. For me, that is enough.”
“……How can you say such a thing with a face that mourns the dead even at a banquet for your own victory?”
Cecilia said, and then, she clapped her hands. Clap. Clap.
As Eris watched with a look of confusion, a lady-in-waiting who entered the room began to remove Cecilia’s dress.
“W-w-what are you doing right now?”
Eris jumped in surprise, but her expression hardened when she saw the jet-black clothes Cecilia was wearing underneath the removed dress.
The Empress of the Empire, dressed in mourning, spoke in a low voice.
“My beloved, foolish husband died a short while ago, little sister.”
“I’m sorry to hear that……”
At the words Eris uttered half-consciously, Cecilia smiled.
“You act like a saint until the very end. But if the war had continued, I wouldn't have been able to hide the fact that the Emperor was dead. The support of the Prince-electors I worked so hard to bring to heel would have all dissipated if they found out the Emperor had died in the middle of a war.”
Smiling, Cecilia looked at Eris with a completely blank face and asked.
“I truly want to ask you. You had the chance to bring the Empire down like a sandcastle and achieve a perfect victory for those who fell in this war, but you yourself gave it up and protected ‘my’ Empire. ……Can you truly not have any regrets?”
*
Karl II, standing with both hands on his cane, was still dignified, but his body and face showed clear signs of exhaustion.
“So, are you satisfied?”
Is he satisfied, having waged the war he so desired, only for it to end in defeat after spilling so much blood?
“Hmm, it was a relatively satisfactory war.”
“As a result, the fame and honor Your Majesty the Great King has built have all been tarnished. Your Majesty the Great King has clearly led your kingdom down the wrong path.”
“Indeed.”
No, he’s affirming it?
As I stood there with my mouth agape in disbelief, the Great King gave me a slight bow.
“I express my gratitude, Marquis Lafayette.”
“……Where in this conversation was there anything to be thankful for, Your Majesty?”
“You have defeated me. You have dealt me a complete defeat. By doing so, you have clearly proven that I was wrong.”
What’s there to be thankful for in that? I really don’t get this man.
“I was quite proud of the Krafte Kingdom’s reputation as a nation owned by its army, but Heinrich was not so fond of it. Now, those who will serve my nephew as king will have no cause to criticize Heinrich for not following my policies.”
“……But that would be the same as negating your entire life’s work.”
“I, too, knew that my nation had strayed from the normal path. If such a me has failed, then I must be negated. If I had not met an enemy like you, or if I had succeeded by a stroke of luck.”
The Great King gave a deep smile.
“Would not those who believe only my way is right have continued to lead the kingdom according to my teachings? Since even I have failed like this, if my successors had led the nation in the same way as I, ruin would have eventually come.”
This man is, in many ways, truly remarkable.
As I couldn’t help but be impressed, the Great King bowed his head and said.
“Therefore, I express my gratitude to you. I have no regrets in my life, but you have at least allowed me to carry my transgressions with me to the end.”
He knows he was wrong, and he is glad his successors will not follow him.
And yet, he has no regrets.
Karl II, the Great King, is ultimately this kind of man. He probably won’t change until the day he dies.
I let out a hollow laugh.
“Well then, Marquis Lafayette. Since I have answered you, will you, as the victor, show generosity and solve my curiosity?”
“Speak, Your Majesty.”
Karl II grinned and opened his mouth.
“If it were me, I would not have ended it so leniently.”
I smirked and replied.
“That’s a curious thing to say for the man called the Great King of Krafte, who ordered his Crown Prince to join the war against the demons.”
“Hahaha!”
Karl II burst out laughing and struck the floor with his cane.
“Correct! My actions were only possible because I never even considered that you would drive me and my kingdom to the brink of ruin.”
Karl II looked at me with blazing eyes and said.
“However! The victor has the victor’s rights. If you had driven me and Krafte to ruin, you would have had every right as the victor to take what you will from the vanquished! Moreover, to show leniency in a war waged solely for my ambition, with the title of humanity’s strongest at stake, is an insult to me.”
This is also, in a crazily amazing way, quite something.
Is he saying whatever the winner does is justice?
“At least, from what I have seen, you wished to completely surpass the Blue Knight.”
I flinched at that.
“That opportunity fell into your hands. The odds of victory were clearly in your favor, and if you, who achieved an overwhelming victory against a great foe, had so wished, the Krafte Kingdom would have been trampled under your military boots. Perhaps this entire central continent could have been placed under Francia’s flag.”
The Great King chattered on as if he were talking about someone else’s country, not his own.
“Had that happened, you would have remained in history as the greatest conqueror, one with whom the likes of the Blue Knight could not even dare to compare!”
No, perhaps this man wanted to see a great empire built by the strongest more than he wanted his own country.
“Though it may be out of reach, one challenges because there is a place to conquer. Yet to have a place within reach, a place that can be conquered right before your eyes, and to end the war while forgoing a perfect victory.”
Karl II stared at me and asked.
“Why did you make such a choice? As one who has rejected complacency his entire life and sought challenges, I cannot help but be disappointed that you, the one who defeated me, have chosen to settle for reality.”
“For someone who says that, you barely intervened in the peace negotiations and signed them quite readily, though?”
Karl II answered proudly.
“That is my duty as the King of Krafte! As long as the soldiers of Krafte joined me in my challenge, if you all decided on peace negotiations, it was my duty to end this war for the sake of future generations and pass the kingdom to my nephew.”
Then, he added with a smile.
“However, deep down, I was more hopeful for a final moment where I would fall as a warrior while defending against your overwhelming offensive until the very end.”
Ha.
An old king who wanted to die fighting to the last on the battlefield, even if he and his kingdom were to be ruined.
The Great King stared at me and asked.
“Tell me. With the most perfect victory, the great feat that would overwhelm the Blue Knight you sought to surpass, right before your eyes, why did you give it up?”
*
Eris stared intently at Cecilia and answered.
“I don’t regret it.”
Cecilia gave no reply.
She only sent a piercing gaze, as if trying to gauge whether Eris was being sincere.
“Yes, just as you said, Your Highness. Receiving reparations won’t bring the dead back to life. It’s regrettable, and we must mourn their deaths. But even so, continuing the war while resenting you won’t bring them back either.”
Eris’s voice was calm.
“A war to exact resentment and a blood price only returns greater resentment and more blood. The defeated Empire was saved by peace negotiations, you say?”
Eris spoke in a very composed tone.
“That’s good. At the very least, it means that you, who had regrets but no remorse, did your best for those who lost so much because of you.”
“……I was merely protecting the throne of my husband, of my child.”
“I see. In that case, please take full responsibility for the people of the Empire who fell to protect that throne.”
Cecilia’s face finally contorted.
“You truly are haughty to the very end. Feeling no value in what I coveted, and even while resenting the Empire, you don’t try to take revenge on it. Did you want to act like such a noble Saintess?”
Eris shook her head.
Pierre de Lafayette answered the Great King.
“It is because the victory I dreamed of is not the same as yours, Your Majesty. It is because the honor I desire is different from the glory you sing of.”
The victory the Great King spoke of, the glory the Great King sang of.
It is the same as what that Raphael Valliant wanted.
But Pierre de Lafayette took the hand of another, not Valliant.
Pierre de Lafayette said.
“I have chosen to be a protector, not one who chases glory like the Blue Knight or Your Majesty.”
Erisliste Lilianne De Francia said.
“I am neither that noble, nor do I feel no anger. But I desire more the happiness the survivors will find, than the emptiness I would feel by releasing my personal feelings upon a blood sea.”
The two said.
“Therefore, we have ended this war. I don’t know how it may look to you, but at least we have already achieved the perfect victory we desired.”