novelraw Chapter 186 : Chapter 186
Chapter 186 : Chapter 186
Chapter 186 - Miracles and Heroes
It was a trivial epilogue.
Trivial stories about what happened after the battle was over.
The first thing I did was heal myself with the artifact I had prepared in advance through Regina.
No matter how well I had grasped Grændal’s attack patterns, I couldn't block them all, and I had also sustained some rather large wounds.
As the sphere-shaped artifact emitted light, my wounds began to heal rapidly.
Judging by the engraved patterns, it seemed to be an imperial artifact, and it felt like imperial items were indeed reliable in their performance.
“Haa⋯⋯.”
My muscles and joints were screaming.
My head was still emitting a burning sensation as if it were on fire.
The story was that although the artifact had helped my wounds to heal to some extent and the white cracks etched on my body had disappeared, the pain still remained.
That's right. It wasn't a particularly special story.
After cutting off Grændal’s head, I carefully prepared it and put it in the storage space of my 『Knight Robe』.
As I was doing various things, such as draining the blood from the head, I had a thought.
‘He looks at peace.’
I suppose it was because Grændal’s face, with his eyes closed, looked so peaceful in eternal sleep.
His blood-soaked past, the fierce battles he fought, and the martial achievements that brought me so much pain are all just stories of the past now that he's dead.
His soul must have left his body and departed for a place far, far away from here, to what is called the ‘Origin’ in this world.
The face of the man who had laid down all his worldly burdens looked truly peaceful.
Perhaps I felt that way more strongly because I had grown so tired of hearing Grændal’s peculiar, raspy voice, as if he had swallowed charcoal, and seeing his empty, hollow eyes.
“Isn’t that a bit too much for him?”
To be honest, I couldn't say I wasn't displeased by that peaceful silence.
To think that after taking the lives of countless innocent people and inflicting such terrible pain on me, he could just die peacefully.
It was also true that I felt it was absurd. Especially for me, who had cursed and hated him.
I felt like I was going to be sick. The thought that it shouldn't be that way seemed to overflow in my mind and run down my entire body.
A fate of wandering in pain without being able to die, or a fate of eternal suffering, would suit him. At least, that's what I thought.
That's why I must have been pondering. On the topic of how to inflict the maximum insult on this dead man.
‘Let’s just drop it.’
But I soon gave up.
I wanted to spit on the face of the man who was already dead, but I didn't actually do it.
If you ask why⋯⋯ well.
It was probably because I had come to realize anew that it was a meaningless act.
Even if it was a life stained with sin, in the very end, it is forgiven by death. I also had the thought that it might be good to leave such a loophole open.
Though that, too, was a distant affair for me now.
“⋯⋯.”
Yes, I'll admit it.
This was a petty farce born from a rather ugly jealousy.
The outburst of jealousy towards someone who had reached an end I couldn't reach now, and had found peace first.
The way back is just the reverse of the way there.
I retraced my steps on the snow-covered forest path to Selbod's quiet train station, bought a ticket, and boarded the train back to Endinium.
Along with Grændal’s head, which I had stored in my Knight Robe.
Of course, there was a sort of inspection process, but⋯⋯ the crew members weren't passionate enough to look inside the Knight Robe.
The train ride back was incredibly boring.
On the way there, I had been filled with so many thoughts, but now, I was just staring blankly out the window.
Well, it's true that now, the number of things to think about had decreased.
I no longer had to rack my brain about how to kill Grændal or where he might be hiding, and I didn't have to think about what it meant to ‘stray from the path.’
Of course, whether the latter was a truly good change was debatable⋯⋯ but, well.
Whatever.
I was tired.
Tired of constantly dwelling on various complicated thoughts, and of constantly wracking my brain to survive.
From that perspective, this might have been a welcome respite, like a refreshing rain.
A rest that cools my heated head.
“Ah⋯⋯ is that it.”
When my thoughts reached that point, I suddenly had a realization.
The realization that I was now hoping for a rest.
I'm not sure if that was something that could be permitted.
***
After that, well, what else could have happened?
I safely took the train and arrived at the station in Endinium, and then I returned to the academy first.
Of course, taking Grændal’s severed head directly to the Endinium branch of the Knight Order was also an option, but my collaborator had told me to come see her first, before anything else, after everything was over and I had a chance to breathe.
She probably couldn't stand to see me go to the Knight Order looking like a beggar.
“Haha.”
Thinking about the expression she would make if I did that, a laugh escaped me without my knowing.
Anyway.
When the train I had boarded in Selbod reached Endinium and I got off, someone approached me.
“⋯⋯.”
And that ‘someone’ was one of Regina’s personal guard knights. I'm talking about Kilt, and he still maintained his taciturn demeanor without a single word.
‘He doesn't seem to like me very much.’
My life as Rain Enlight had only been a little over a year, but even in this short life, I was somewhat confident in my intuition to discern the atmosphere contained in others’ gazes.
It was because I had received that many gazes, and that much contempt.
And my intuition told me that he didn't seem to be welcoming me.
It was a gaze that was nothing short of resentful, and this became a certainty every time Kilt occasionally opened his mouth.
‘To send such a guy as a guide.’
Should I say it's a characteristically malicious choice of personnel for Regina?
Well, it was highly likely that it was an act to imprint our respective positions on Kilt⋯⋯ but it was also true that she would be pleased to have anticipated this side of me.
It was so like her, and that very her-ness seemed to prove that I had returned to my daily life.
Time flows again.
The first thing I did after arriving at the academy dorms was, naturally, rest.
The fatigue accumulated from the fight with Grændal was beyond imagination, and I felt that no matter how much the person I had to meet was the princess, I couldn't go anywhere in this state.
The princess also seemed to understand that point and had sent a message that it was okay to come and see her slowly.
But that rest couldn't last forever.
Yes. Well. It was a long story, but in the end, that was the conclusion.
When I thought my body had recovered to some extent, I got up from my bed and moved my feet.
To the flower garden behind Aurora Hall, where I always talked with the princess.
“Oh my.”
That was Regina’s reaction when she first saw me.
She waved her hand with her characteristic fresh and gentle-looking smile.
“It's truly a hero's triumphant return. Young Lord.”
“A hero, you say.”
Her characteristic smile-laced banter was unavoidable.
“In this world, Your Highness is probably the only one who would call me that.”
“Fufu, is that so? The young lord is so well-liked, after all.”
Is she teasing me?
She probably is.
“That's a story I can't help but agree with from the bottom of my heart.”
I replied with sarcasm, and Regina shrugged her shoulders.
“I'm being quite sincere, you know.”
Leaving those words behind.
“Anyway⋯⋯ shall we get down to business then?”
The topic changed quickly. After all, both she and I were goal-oriented people.
“I need to see the head of that Knight Executioner.”
Regina’s words were direct.
To confirm the results of this affair.
“⋯⋯I understand.”
In fact, considering that she had sent Kilt to meet me at the exact moment I arrived, it meant she had been monitoring my movements, so there was no need to confirm⋯⋯ but procedures are important.
Ssk.
I reached into the subspace storage of the Knight Robe I was wearing and soon took something out from within.
A face with skin full of scars, unkempt and disheveled hair, and something that had been steeped in the malice of many years and had not been washed away even at the moment of death.
In other words, it was the severed head of the Knight Executioner, Grændal.
“Heo⋯⋯.”
To the extent that even Regina unconsciously let out such an exclamation, Grændal’s face, though now just a corpse, had a certain power.
A power that overwhelmed and intimidated those who faced it.
Perhaps the long and terrible life he had written in blood was revealed in that face.
“Indeed, it matches the montage distributed by the Knight Order.”
However, as if she was not a person to be overwhelmed by that, Regina quickly returned to the original topic.
“⋯⋯Ahaha.”
And then she let out a small, dry laugh.
“I thought I would no longer be surprised by your actions, but you always exceed my expectations.”
“You praise me too highly.”
“Don't you, young lord, know best that it's not an overstatement?”
“⋯⋯.”
Regina’s words were true.
For a mere cadet to single-handedly take down the infamous Knight Executioner, who had been slaughtering renowned Senior Knights and Master Knights as if they were livestock.
“This is an impossible feat. It’s a military achievement so great that it’s hard to find a comparable precedent in the entire history of the empire.”
Yes. This was an impossible feat.
“And⋯⋯ we use this expression when we have achieved the impossible.”
Regina’s burning purple eyes shone in the moonlight, and the corners of her mouth drew an arc.
And after a moment of silence, the words that came from the princess's mouth were.
“A miracle.”
A miracle.
“You have performed a miracle.”
To hear such words directly from the princess.
As a citizen of the empire living in the world of
A feeling as if my heart was pounding, yet at the same time, something was catching in it.
“A miracle, what a heart-pounding word.”
“Fufu, you don't exactly look like that⋯⋯ but I want to say that, but it’s true that those words are true.”
Regina, who continued the story, was still smiling.
That smile was not the ‘benevolent’ smile that she usually showed when she stood in public.
“A miracle, this word makes everyone’s heart pound. Yes, the masses, the nobles. In other words, people’s hearts.”
Her burning eyes, reflecting her endless ambition, and a confident smile that drew a curve without pretense, fitting for it.
“The one who has performed a miracle. You will be perceived as such by the people. To use another expression—yes, you will be called this.”
And before I knew it, I was walking alongside Regina, who held such a shining ambition.
I, who had been so shabby, who had been called by the derogatory name of a wastrel.
“A hero, that is.”