I Don’t Need a Guillotine for My Revolution

Chapter 186: Shadow Peace - Triumphal Return

Episode 186. Shadow Peace - Triumphant Return

After the peace treaty was signed in Alsace, the Revolutionary Army entered Alsace, from which the Krafte Army had retreated, and declared its Recapture.

A war that began with Francia's civil war for the succession of The Throne and lasted for over 10 years.

Francia's seemingly endless fight finally came to an end with the war against Krafte.

Leaving behind some troops in Alsace to guard the border and manage the unsettled public order from the occupation, the entire Revolutionary Army set off on the road back to the Capital City, Lumiere.

I rode at the Front of the Revolutionary Army, glancing at Louis d'Aquitaine who was riding beside me with quite a sentimental expression on his face.

“Are you that happy?”

“Ah.”

Louis flinched and stiffened before answering.

“I-I apologize, Your Excellency.”“What are you sorry for? There's no need to be so formal just because I'm the Commander-in-Chief. The war's over anyway, and it's not like you'll continue being a soldier, right? You're a precious magician from the Magic Tower.”

Even without that, Louis is an Aquitaine.

I didn't say it out loud since he wouldn't like it.

“……Is that why you have kept me by your side?”

When Louis asked cautiously, I smiled faintly, thinking I knew his intention.

Although I promoted him to captain for his service in the Barua street battle, he's still not of a rank to be returning at the Commander-in-Chief's side.

“Don't worry too much. I'll have you fall back when we enter Lumiere.”

Seeing Louis's rather relieved face, I let out a small chuckle.

If he's riding next to the Commander-in-Chief during the triumphant return ceremony, he'll be firmly imprinted in the citizens' minds.

From what I've seen of Louis d'Aquitaine, he's the type who dislikes being the center of attention, so I have no intention of torturing him like that.

“You've been in the army for a while, but we haven't had much chance to talk due to our positions, so I just called you to my side for a bit on the way back.”

“I, see.”

Seeing Louis's accepting expression, I just smiled quietly.

In truth, considering the rigidity of a military organization, even this isn't common, and there would surely be people who wouldn't welcome it…….

Anyway, there's no one in the Revolutionary Army who doesn't know about my relationship with Christine. If there is, they must be a spy.

The Commander-in-Chief who defeated Krafte shows a bit of favoritism to his future family member; there's probably no one brave enough to curse me for that, right?

“So, looking at the Francia you helped protect, you seem to be feeling quite emotional?”

“It's nothing so grand, but…….”

Louis gave an awkward laugh and opened his mouth.

“Before I entered the Magic Tower, I had never accomplished anything with my own hands, nor had I ever roamed freely on my own feet.”

“I see.”

It wasn't so much that Christine suppressed Louis's Freedom, but rather that his position was that precarious.

After all, there were plenty of people who were loyal to Christine but wanted to eliminate Louis.

Back then, it was accepted as a perfectly natural fact that once Louis grew up, he would become a threat to Christine.

But now, well.

Seeing Christine's achievements in handling and raising Aquitaine so far, Louis can't possibly threaten her position just because he's a man.

In the first place, The One himself doesn't seem to have any intention of doing so.

……If anything, it's Christine who's thinking that way.

“Although what I did was insignificant, I learned for the first time that the scenery looks so different after achieving something for peace with my own hands.”

Louis said so with a face quite full of emotion.

“Yes, it seems you've seen and felt a lot in this war. Your face has become quite dependable, too. Christine will be happy to see how you've changed.”

Joy was visible on Louis's face, but at the same time, bitterness settled in.

After a long silence, Louis slowly bowed his head to me.

“I'm sorry, His Excellency the Marquis Lafayette.”

“For what?”

“……I let in someone I thought was a friend, and nearly put Francia and His Excellency the Marquis in danger.”

“Things like that can happen.”

I said it calmly, but it was Louis who was flustered.

“C-Can you just let it go like that? My sister…….”

Louis's shoulders slumped.

“……She must be angry with me.”

I snorted.

Christine, who had rushed over from Verdun, turned and left without seeing Louis after hearing from me that Léon Durand was Gilles de Lionel.

-Even though I was paying close attention, he showed no suspicious points until the very end, only revealing his evil intentions at the last moment in a place where I couldn't do anything. ……So I know it's not the boy's fault, but for some reason, I don't think I can face him calmly right now.

It seems Louis might know Christine better than I thought.

“Certainly, it wasn't a very wise choice. Christine suspected him, too.”

“……That's true.”

Christine had suspected Léon Durand's identity from the beginning, and even told Louis about it.

He was someone who appeared in an overly coincidental situation, so Louis probably didn't trust him completely either.

“I was definitely warned by my sister, but he was the first connection I made outside the Magic Tower and he protected me for quite a long time, so I must have let my guard down without realizing.”

But still, he was just a boy, not yet an adult, who had lost his parents at a young age and grown up as a loner for a long time.

To demand that he suspect until the very end someone who had continuously looked after and protected him during the long war was, if anything, too harsh a demand.

“To him, throughout all that time, was I really of no value at all?”

Louis spoke so sorrowfully that I recalled the last I saw of Gilles de Lionel and replied.

“……Well. I don't think so.”

“You think so?”

Why Louis d'Aquitaine of all people?

That was why Christine, despite suspecting Léon Durand, couldn't rashly conclude he was a Krafte spy and get rid of him.

If he were a Krafte spy, it would have been normal to approach someone more influential.

At the very least, choosing someone who would arouse less suspicion and had fewer variables dependent on luck would have made infiltration easier and yielded more gains.

However, Léon Durand, no, Gilles de Lionel, out of all those people, chose Louis d'Aquitaine, who had little influence in the Revolutionary Army and Francia and was bound to attract Christine's attention.

“At least, that's what I think.”

I think he probably felt a certain sense of kinship with Louis, who was in the position of having lost his family because of me and Christine.

At first, was he planning to incite Louis to betray Christine? Considering he chose Giselle Davi of all people, it's plausible he had such thoughts.

Nicolas Brisseau, Giselle Davi, and Louis. They were all stepping stones to achieve revenge by negating the path I and Christine had taken.

It seems that for him, at least, simply killing me could not be called revenge.

But from what he saw of Louis and Christine's relationship, that would have seemed impossible, and if so.

Gilles de Lionel had a much easier way to get revenge on us.

Just by killing Louis d'Aquitaine, he could have taken away one of the purposes that sustained Christine's life.

And I, who would have seen her crumble from it.

Nevertheless, he did not choose that path.

Despite there being a much more certain and easier method, instead of laying a hand on Louis himself, he chose the path of leaving the choice to Giselle Davi.

According to the report from that oaf, Damien De Millbeau, even when that failed and his identity was exposed, if he had put his mind to it, he could have eliminated both Louis and Giselle and escaped.

And I, too, would have died if he had put his mind to it.

“Perhaps.”

I smiled lightly at Louis.

“Louis d'Aquitaine. Perhaps the image you and Giselle Davi showed to Gilles de Lionel is what saved me. So don't be dispirited by what's past, and hold your head high. As far as I know, Christine would not want you to return overwhelmed with guilt.”

Louis looked at me for a moment, then composed his expression and replied.

“From now on, something like this will never happen again.”

Then he glanced at the procession following us.

The place he belonged to, and the place he protected.

“I am no longer the loner who just watched others from the mansion. I have people who have expectations of me, people whose expectations I must meet.”

I smiled faintly at Louis, who now had the determined face of a young man, not a boy, and replied.

“Congratulations on becoming an adult, Louis.”

*

When the Revolutionary Army arrived in the Lumiere Urban Area, the residents welcomed them enthusiastically.

The residents filling the urban area wave the Flag of Francia.

Among them, the words written on the placards held by the residents caught my eye.

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.

There is no eerie sound of the guillotine's blade falling day after day.

There are no crowds engulfed in madness, screaming for death.

Instead of flying stones, flowers carefully prepared by the citizens rode the wind, fluttering down to cover the path we walked.

For this moment, everyone turned a blind eye to those who broke from the ranks to embrace their families.

Savoring the joy and elation permitted to the victor, we entered the central square.

The guillotine in the central square, which had provided the residents with a spectacle like a mad performance, had long since lost its purpose and been dismantled.

Instead, I ascended the platform prepared in its place.

“First, I express my condolences to the Soldiers of the Revolutionary Army who should rightfully be sharing this joy with us but are no longer able to.”

At once, the boisterous atmosphere became quiet as if cold water had been thrown over it.

But the number of those who died fighting under my command is by no means small, and I, who ordered them to their deaths.

If those who were protected by them do not mourn them, then who will?

After spending a moment in solemn silence.

I slowly added.

“Their sacrifice, which has allowed us to rejoice here today, will never be forgotten, and as a member of the National Assembly and Commander-in-Chief of the Revolutionary Army, I will prepare compensation for all the bereaved families to console them.”

The sound of stifled sobs can be heard from here and there.

Time passed for those who could neither share in the joy nor show their sorrow.

Only then did I open my mouth again and declare.

“Revolutionary Army, and Citizens of Lumiere. We have won the Victory.”

“Waaaaaah-!”

A great roar covered the urban area of Lumiere.

Death to the corrupt nobles.

Death to the blue bloods.

Instead of the sharp cries that once erupted in this place, I slowly closed my eyes, listening to the praises for the Revolutionary Army and me resounding.

“Today, to reach this day of Victory, we had to come a long way. The path we ran, enduring days of mutual distrust and countless sacrifices, was by no means easy.”

The prices we had to pay to join The Republic.

And even the things I did, enraged by The Republic that couldn't erase its suspicions to the end and their atrocities.

“Nevertheless, we united as one and created a new Francia. That is why we were able to win against powerful enemies.”

The Republic that brought me ruin before my Regression is no more.

What is here is not a corrupt and fallen Kingdom, nor a Republic engulfed in madness and hatred.

There is only the hometown that everyone here protected, the Motherland obtained at the end of that journey.

“Some will praise the Generals of the Revolutionary Army as heroes, and some will praise the National Assembly as the heroes who achieved the revolution and led it to Victory.”

The Revolutionary Army led by me and the Generals, Maximilien Le Jidor who cried out to protect the revolution until the moment of his death.

The great king thought of me as a hero, an adversary.

Not just me and Eris, or the Generals.

But I, and Eris too, thought of ‘us’ as the ones fighting against the great king.

“However, the Generals and I would not have been able to win without the Soldiers who fought against the danger of death, and the National Assembly cannot exist without the support of the Citizens.”

When we were caught off guard by the great king's Tactics, what ultimately brought Victory in the moment of greatest crisis were the Soldiers who followed my suicidal actions.

It is thanks to The People who endured the difficult life caused by the war, despite it lasting over 10 years since the Civil War.

“Therefore, I want to give all the glory to all the Citizens and the Revolutionary Army present here. To all the great heroes in this place, I, who achieved Victory because of you, pay my respects.”

If they hadn't been there, if I hadn't fought alongside them, my end would have been no different from the Blue Knight, who died leaving behind a solitary achievement.

I, who was denied everything by the revolution, by The Republic.

At the very place where I met my death in a previous life.

I speak to those who led me to Victory in this life.

“To all of you who protected our revolution, I thank you.”