novelraw Chapter 74: Directory Government - Requiem (2)
Chapter 74: Directory Government - Requiem (2)
Raphael Valliant seemed quite pleased to see me.
Seeing the bread and wine in the basket I brought, he even rejoiced.
"Oh, my. Haha... Is this the victor's generosity, or something like that?"
Valliant, even with a haggard face, smiled brightly and approached the bars.
"I wonder."
I slid the basket under the bars.
Valliant picked up the already opened wine and gulped it down straight from the bottle before starting to eat the bread voraciously.
Watching the scene, I added a word.
"I'm just returning the favor I received."
"…?"Valliant looked puzzled, but soon focused on devouring the good quality wine and bread he hadn't tasted in a long time.
As I watched Valliant, I thought of Jessie.
The girl, now Eris's personal maid, is always bickering and complaining thanks to the saint who can't stay still.
I smiled softly, remembering her determined face at the victory celebration banquet, vowing to put Eris in a dress, but ultimately failing and looking dejected.
I traced back the path I had taken in this prison.
A dark, cold place designed to intimidate people.
The guards, who had treated me harshly before the regression, were now polite and respectful, wary of me, who was called the guardian of the revolution.
But it would never have been like that for a former maid from a noble family with no power or authority.
In a time when countless commoners were executed for alleged collusion with the nobility or branded as counter-revolutionaries, what was she thinking and what was in her heart when she showed me such kindness?
I, who received that favor, didn't even remember her name.
While I was lost in thought, Valliant, who had quenched his thirst, filled his stomach, and was now much more relaxed, spoke.
"Ah, thank you. I feel a little better now."
Valliant seemed to study my expression for a moment, then asked.
"So, what brings you here?"
"Shall we say it was a farewell before departure?"
"Haha, should I express my gratitude?"
I chuckled at Valliant's response and opened my mouth.
"The Northern Army's key commanders will be relieved of their duties, but they will be reinstated during the war after light punishment."
"Oh, I see."
Valliant didn't seem very interested.
"Weren't you quite close to the Northern Army commanders?"
"Well, yes. I had some friends."
Valliant shrugged, then scoffed.
"But when my defeat was certain, they all surrendered to save their own skins, didn't they?"
I didn't give any answer, and Valliant chuckled.
"I would be much more helpful to you than them, Marquis."
"Your fate will be decided by the National Assembly, not me."
"That's a bit unexpected."
Valliant looked slightly surprised, and spoke again.
"I thought you would be the one to lead the charge to have me executed?"
"Why would I bother? Until you did this, I was planning to go with you."
"Haha, that's kind of you to say. So, knowing worth, do you still want to save me?"
I smirked.
"I wonder. Just because I didn't argue for your execution doesn't mean I asked to save you."
Anyway, judging by the atmosphere of the National Assembly, his execution is certain. I just didn't contribute to it.
Valliant remained silent for a moment.
Just as I suspected he swallowed dryly, his mouth opened again.
"I still have value, Marquis."
"..."
"If you are willing, I can become your general and fight against the invasion of those foreign powers."
"Even if I wanted that, the National Assembly has no intention of letting you live."
"Why does the National Assembly's will matter?"
"..."
Valliant was serious.
"Maximilien Le Jidor is dead, and I, the opponent the National Assembly prepared for you, have self-destructed. Now, if you just set your mind to it, who can stop you from overthrowing the National Assembly and seizing power?"
I let out a hollow laugh.
"I thought you cleanly admitted defeat and surrendered?"
Didn't he, at the moment of surrender, accept his defeat and the death it would bring?
"That's true."
"Then, why are you telling me to follow the path you failed?"
"Because you are now the only remaining hero worthy of leading Francia."
I smiled bitterly.
"You, who claimed to be the hero to make Francia greater, was defeated by the Republic of Francia."
"I admit it. My defeat was due to underestimating the Republic of Francia too much. But the Republic that defeated me included you, Countess Aquitaine, and Jidor."
Valliant shrugged.
"With Countess Aquitaine willing to follow you, there's no one else, is there? Honestly, I don't want to die like this, but I don't think you have any reason to carry burdens like them. I would be much more helpful to you instead."
The way Valliant spoke was so confident, as if stating an immutable truth.
I see. For Raphael Valliant, everything boils down to heroism. He embodies heroism.
Even though he admits his defeat by Maximilien Le Jidor, it is not an admission of defeat for the Republic's values or the National Assembly, but rather for himself as the individual hero Valliant failed to recognize.
I stared at Raphael Valliant.
For me, Raphael Valliant was irreplaceable and unique.
After the regression.
Even though I knew eliminating him before the revolution might allow me to win against the revolutionary army, I didn't even consider that option when I found him through Christine.
Because before the regression, I was denounced as a disgrace to the nobility by the Blue Knight and couldn't find my value as a noble.
I cherished his genius who respected me, but when I came to my senses, the revolution had already broken out, and I had no choice but to fight alongside King Louis to survive.
For me, Raphael Valliant's image, fighting under the banner of revolution, pressuring my army, and being praised by the people, was the ideal I longed for.
But in the end, that too was just a shell that didn't penetrate any essence.
The Raphael Valliant I talked to properly and watched closely saw the revolution as nothing more than a means to an end.
The Republic, its fruits, and the people who praised, trusted, and followed him were all just tools for him to prove his worth.
"Marquis, I think you might not like me."
When he charged towards the Storm Witch, he didn't see the soldiers risking their lives with me, shedding blood and sweat to clear the path.
On Raphael Valliant's operational map, the soldiers who burned their lives and fought fiercely were just pieces on a board.
"But I quite like you. It sounds like an excuse, but that also played a big part in my defeat. I wanted to win you over if possible."
Raphael Valliant probably only saw me as the hero who cleared the path according to his plan and finished off the Storm Witch and Eris.
Valliant said with a smile.
"But even if you abandon me now, I sincerely believe you should rise to a higher position, beyond just being a general of the National Assembly."
He didn't see Le Jidor's funeral.
He doesn't know that Maximilien Le Jidor's death created countless people who would follow him and protect the revolution.
I answered Valliant.
"That's not my path."
Valliant's expression distorted.
"Are you still going to sacrifice your loyalty and devotion for those who are still immersed in idealism and cannot see reality?"
I looked at him and opened my mouth.
"I really hate the guillotine."
Valliant looked as if I was talking nonsense.
"The intention of being humane and painless is good. But it's a device that gives death to people so easily and quickly. It makes people forget that death is terrible and gruesome, making it seem like a kind of game."
"...I didn't know the Marquis, who fought more bravely than anyone else on the battlefield, had such sensibilities."
I chuckled and continued.
"To be more precise, I dislike the act of so easily driving others to death just because they think a little differently, might be dangerous, or are a little inconvenient. The guillotine is just a tool and a symbol of that."
Valliant frowned.
"When you were my enemy, I believed that even if I launched a coup against you, I could compromise with you. But now that I'm gone from Francia, such a soft thought will only hold you back."
"Is that so?"
I smiled.
"Just by existing, you shake the very meaning of the revolution. I don't know how it will be when war is imminent, but when your usefulness is over, they will definitely try to eliminate you."
To prevent such a situation, I have established a certain position in the National Assembly with Christine.
Besides, if Eris becomes queen, she will gladly pursue harmony.
Raphael Valliant doesn't know the cards I have prepared at all, but before that...
"Even if a coup d'état, predicted in such a way, succeeds, how many people will have to die to get that coup recognized and quell the backlash?"
How is that different from the radicals who tried to kill Christine because they assumed we were a threat to the Republic?
"To gain power and achieve greater results, sacrifices are necessary, Marquis. You have surpassed me! The greatest hero of Francia, greater than anyone else, to undermine your own value because you can't pay such a price.....Is madness!"
Valliant is angrier that I am not following the heroic path he envisions, despite my victory over him, than about his own death.
"I don't think so."
Before the regression.
Christine was just an unfortunate fiancée who died young from an illness.
Eris, despite being called a saint and performing good deeds, was killed after being falsely accused of being a witch, unable to change anything.
Gaston remained a nameless knight who followed me and died in obscurity.
Maximilien Le Jidor was merely a terrifying figure as the Republic's dogmatic executioner.
But were they all people who would end with just that?
Before the regression, I was merely a noble executed at the guillotine for fighting against the threat of revolution.
"You can be so much greater, the hero to lead those foolish people! You must become the very spirit of their age! If I can't, you must!"
Just as Raphael Valliant cannot escape his limitations, I too was an ordinary, unremarkable person before the regression.
With just a small opportunity, a single attempt, people can change so much.
Desaix, Millbeau, Talleyrand, etc., even those I didn't know before the regression, have countless possibilities.
But I'm a greater hero than them, so I should rise up even if I have to sacrifice others for me?
The Blue Knight who swept the battlefield, sacrificing countless people for his own fame, was like that.
The National Assembly tried to massacre people in a region for not following the values of the Republic, was like that.
Valliant, who tried to destroy the Republic built with countless sacrifices to seize his own power and honor, was like that.
"No. I will not become that."
I am not convinced of my absolute correctness, nor arrogant enough to believe that I am superior to others in every way.
There is no reason for me to have absolute power, even if it means making others unhappy and earning their resentment.
Christine will help me with my strategic weaknesses. If someone truly cannot be compromised with unless they are killed, she will find them first.
Eris can do altruistic acts that I cannot, and unite both the nobility and the Third Estate.
Having abandoned its initial dogmatic and exclusive attitude, the National Assembly clearly possesses possibilities that we, who could not escape the limitations of the nobility, do not have.
I said to Raphael Valliant, the enemy who defeated me before the regression, the one I thought insurmountable.
"Raphael Valliant. I was able to win against you because I am not the kind of hero you want."
Valliant looked dazed and gave no further answer.
I bid him farewell and turned my back.
Before the regression, I walked on my own feet the path I had been dragged out for trial and execution.
The shadow of my pre-regression life, a disgrace to the nobility who didn't know what he was fighting for, swayed by fate.
The man who defeated me and the man who denied me both met their end in different forms.
The hero of the Republic, Raphael Valliant, is no more.
But I, no, we can surpass Raphael Valliant.
The different path we will show from now on is the requiem I will offer to them.