I Don’t Need a Guillotine for My Revolution

Chapter 72: Directory Government - Guardians of the Revolution (4)

[Pierre de Lafayette, Commander-in-Chief of the Southern Army, declares! The illegal occupation of the National Assembly by Raphael Valliant, Commander of the Northern Army, is a clear act of treason against the Francia Republic! Those who do not cooperate with his treason, surrender immediately! Those who do not surrender will be considered traitors!]

The shout, amplified by magic, vibrated the air inside the National Assembly.

Raphael Valliant felt a tingling sensation on his skin and saw the soldiers occupying the Assembly instantly fall into turmoil.

Jerome Morelle, Nicolas, and all the Northern Army were looking only at his face.

"C-Commander, sir. The National Assembly is surrounded by the Southern Army!"

The report sounded distant, and Valliant slowly turned his head to look at his subordinates.

In their eyes, the respect and admiration for Raphael Valliant, the guardian of the revolution, and their loyalty were shaken.

On the soil of doubt created by Maximilien Le Jidor's desperate cry, the shock of Valliant's gunshot takes root.

Finally, the fear that things have gone wrong, that perhaps even he might be framed as a traitor, intensifies.

He must fix this now.If he doesn't do something here, these weak men will collapse.

Valliant, who had opened his mouth to steady them, closed it again.

But what can I do by steadying them here?

Will I take the deputies hostage with these men who have already lost their conviction?

Or will I flee miserably, falling from hero to traitor?

Valliant turned his back on his subordinates and began to walk slowly.

The remaining subordinates stared blankly at their commander, who walked towards the deputies without giving them any answer.

Then one of them dropped his gun and ran out of the Assembly.

The defection, which started with just one person, quickly spread, and the Northern Army quickly turned their backs on their commander and fled.

It took only a few minutes for all the troops to disappear.

Raphael Valliant had never once thought that he might be ruined by this coup.

When Lafayette pushed through a divisive bill in the National Assembly and emptied the capital, he considered the possibility that it might be a trap.

But more than that, Valliant believed in his own abilities, and he had a stable position.

He thought Pierre de Lafayette was his only rival, so he believed he could win even if it was a trap.

In fact, given Pierre de Lafayette's arrival time, Valliant's judgment was not wrong. It was physically impossible for Lafayette to arrive in time to stop him.

Had he overthrown the nominal National Assembly and seized power, Marquis Lafayette would have tried to compromise rather than wage a civil war given foreign threats. Even if things went wrong, he could have shifted responsibility to Richelieu and backed out.

But his enemy was not only Pierre de Lafayette.

Richelieu, who had provided justification and would have taken responsibility if needed, was eliminated from the outset. Furthermore, Christine Aquitaine effectively blocked him in political strategy.

Despite this, he had ultimately won. Even the most brilliant strategist alone could not stop him.

What ultimately brought him defeat, just as victory seemed certain, was.

Raphael Valliant looked down at Maximilien Le Jidor, lying down and surrounded by deputies.

The deputies around him, wary of Valliant and his gun, blocked the space between Le Jidor and him with their bodies.

Maximilien Le Jidor breathed heavily, his chest covered in blood, yet he still looked up at him with bright eyes.

"Councilman Maximilien Le Jidor."

To Raphael Valliant, Maximilien Le Jidor was merely an incompetent hypocrite, consumed by self-righteousness and stubbornness.

The National Assembly was a collection of blind men and fools incapable of running a government. He believed this group would collapse if intimidated by the army.

But in reality, they were nothing like that.

He considered them the most insignificant group, not even thinking of them as enemies.

And yet, they gave him a decisive defeat.

Valliant slowly bowed his head to him.

"You have won."

Immediately after Valliant spoke, the door burst open and an army poured in.

Raphael Valliant turned around and faced Marquis Pierre de Lafayette, who was holding a sword and leading the army.

"Marquis Lafayette."

"Commander Valliant."

Raphael Valliant burst out laughing.

Had he ignored the foreign invasion and from the beginning fought a civil war, a contest of generalship, he was confident he would not have lost.

But neither Lafayette nor he intended to destroy Francia itself, their common goal.

If only he had abandoned his attachment to Marquis Lafayette and begun by killing him and that black witch.

Belated regrets flooded in, but it was too late.

The hero Raphael Valliant had underestimated the Republic of Francia too much, and therefore he lost.

Valliant smiled, a refreshing smile, threw away his pistol, and raised both hands.

"I admit defeat. I surrender."

*

Splitting the National Assembly gave them an excuse, and my absence induced their actions.

The biggest problem with this perilous operation was getting Hassan's consent.

No king would be pleased to have the long-awaited treaty signing unilaterally postponed because of their circumstances.

-King Kroxx considers friendship with the Republic of Francia to be very important, but he has ordered us to provide all possible conveniences to the Marquis, who made the treaty possible.

But Hassan agreed with a readiness that even I found bewildering.

Thanks to that, I rode alone at night to the capital, arrived in Lumiere late in the afternoon, and was able to counterattack with the troops of the Southern Army Headquarters, protected by Christine and Gaston.

*

The National Assembly.

Raphael Valliant, having declared his surrender, did not resist the soldiers who were arresting him.

The man who made me believe that I had to join the revolutionaries to survive.

The man who, as the guardian of the revolution and the hero of the Republic, defeated me, praised by the people of Francia, is now being dragged away as a traitor to the revolution and a rebel of the Republic, receiving hateful gazes.

I do not know what his fate was after I was executed.

In Francia without me, in the Republic without me, did he follow the same path?

I watched Valliant's retreating figure, then turned my gaze.

The Northern Army soldiers that surrendered to us told us everything that happened inside the National Assembly, and I immediately ordered Eris to be summoned.

But Eris was treating the wounded from the suppression of the Northern Army. Even if I summoned her right away, it would take time for her to arrive.

Will she make it?

I looked at the complexion and blood loss of Le Jidor, lying on the floor, and thought it was unlikely.

Maximilien Le Jidor was lying on the floor with a completely pale face, breathing with difficulty.

As if his body, that should have died long ago, was being forcibly held together by the last spark.

Le Jidor's mouth slowly opened and made a faint sound.

"Please, step aside."

"Councilman."

To the young deputy who tried to dissuade him, Le Jidor smiled faintly and spoke again.

"Please, Talleyrand."

Talleyrand paused, then bowed his head to Le Jidor and stepped back with the other deputies.

Le Jidor beckoned to me, so I bent down and approached.

"Marquis."

"Councilman."

Le Jidor's pale lips twitched as if to speak, but he remained silent for a while.

"I have sent for the Saintess, so..."

As if my words were a signal, he spoke calmly, even on the verge of death.

"I believed that the Republic should be morally impeccable."

The voice of the man who had cried out to protect the revolution was faint, as if it would extinguish at any moment.

"I believed that sacrifice was inevitable for that, and that such actions would ultimately lead the Republic to a more righteous path."

Le Jidor coughed dryly, but continued in a strained voice.

"I was wary of you. I feared you, who by your very existence shook the revolution's meaning, beyond the Republic's laws."

Le Jidor laughed hollowly.

"But those who enthusiastically discussed reform used demons to harm innocent citizens and Countess Aquitaine, and the one I and my loyal fellow revolutionaries brought as your opponent tried to usurp power."

Tears flowed from the eyes of the man who believed himself moral for his lack of selfish desires, and justified by his morality.

"Marquis, was I a hypocrite?"

"..."

On the day Christine collapsed and I dirtied my hands, fueled by boiling hatred, I said that.

I grabbed his collar with blood-stained hands, having done the same as them, and denounced him as a self-righteous hypocrite.

He was undoubtedly self-righteous, a man who believed only his beliefs were right and tried to sacrifice others under the pretext of inevitability.

But how can I, who raged at them and did the same thing, dare to call him a hypocrite, when he fell while protecting the Republic without bending his beliefs until the very end?

I slowly shook my head.

Le Jidor, who heard my answer, slowly raised his hand and grabbed my arm.

I felt the tremor in his arm and pondered.

This man is afraid.

"Marquis, the Republic..."

Of what?

"...was our revolution worth defending?"

-If this is the only way to maintain order, it should rather collapse.

I realized how heavy the words I had spat out in anger were to him then.

To me, their so-called revolutionary government was merely the lesser evil.

It was a group full of contradictions that I had reluctantly chosen because there was no alternative, a group I even had to deceive myself to defend.

I feared those who stained even the innocent with blood in the name of revolution.

I despised those who tried to sacrifice others by branding them as counter-revolutionaries just because they did not comply with their demands.

I hated those who spoke of justice but did not hesitate to do evil.

I loathed those who held up the noble banners of liberty, equality, and fraternity, but did not keep any of them.

But they have constantly changed.

They chose to compromise with us, the nobles, and accepted us as members of their Assembly.

Even though their justice was directly denied in the vote, they accepted defeat to uphold their beliefs.

Because it was a government made up of such people, it was possible to join hands with Kroxx.

For those in the past, the future—our present—was always a little better than their time.

"...Have I, proven it?"

The man who sentenced me to death in my previous life breathed out as if he would be extinguished at any moment and craved an answer.

I looked at the National Assembly deputies who were standing a little away watching Le Jidor, even though they were threatened by guns and knives, and stayed in the National Assembly.

I slowly answered Le Jidor's question.

"...If they do not betray the spirit of the revolution, I will continue to protect them."

The trembling I felt in Le Jidor's hand holding my arm stopped.

I saw his hand, which had lost its strength, slowly fall down.

Did he hear my answer?

When I turned my gaze back to Le Jidor's face, he was smiling.