Chapter 130. To Stand on One's Own (2)
A young man with reddish-red hair looking as if burning was walking down the hallway.
However, the gaze he possessed harbored cold and chilly energy completely different from his hair color.
Although the path he was walking was a splendid hallway paved with red carpet.
“Gurgle…….”
The carpet he was stepping on wasn't red originally.
Behind the hallway Aleid was walking, countless corpses were scattered.
Blood flowing from them was dyeing the carpet red.
Aleid’s footsteps walking without hesitation stopped.
“Eventually, I came here.”
In front of his eyes was a splendidly decorated door, and there were knights guarding that door.
No, there were corpses of knights.
“Prince Aleid…….”
The white-haired Commander of the Royal Knights called Aleid’s name with fading breath while grasping the sword stuck in his abdomen.
“Just what have you done…… Just what…….”
The Commander collapsed, gradually leaning on the door of the audience chamber.
“To join hands with Evil…….”
Ending with those words, the Commander passed away without even closing his eyes.
The splendidly decorated door of the audience chamber was dyed with his blood.
“…….”
Aleid looked at his corpse blankly.
He approached quietly and closed the Commander’s eyes, but.
“…….”
His eyes stopped wide open and couldn't be covered even by Aleid’s touch.
Aleid looked down at his hand and realized only then.
That with his hand dyed in Gartaria’s blood, he had no qualification to close the eyes of the Commander who protected the kingdom all his life.
A void knight walked out from behind Aleid standing silently.
It cleared away the Commander blocking the door although he became a corpse.
“Open it.”
Void knights opened the door of the audience chamber following Aleid’s order.
Light from the hallway Aleid passed shone into the King’s audience chamber which had no light.
“……You came.”
The highest place of the audience chamber.
Prince Georg, sitting alone on the throne, greeted his half-brother.
***
Blanc’s group entering the Iateho Plain knew the time for farewell came, seeing the Continental Lighthouse visible in the distance.
“We always end up parting at this spot with the Count.”
Seeing Tarania smiling, Blanc offered a handshake to her.
“Although parting is always regrettable, hasn't our farewell always been full of smiles?”
Two Demon-breaking Knights who tracked traces of Evil starting from Baltimere to the Neyanpalgar Mountain Range.
They had the duty to report the Evil of Greed and Charm that was hiding its body in old darkness.
“We Gray Knights will not forget the friendship the Count bestowed upon us.”
Fabiano and Blanc smiled at each other and exchanged handshakes.
Demon-breaking Knights who reached Carmen of the Black Forest chasing Evil squirming under the feet of Baltimere.
“It is truly a relief that you were by my side.”
Although the Regressors who should have been with him weren't in this world, Blanc wasn't alone.
Beside him were those who would defeat together the Evil dyeing the world in darkness and the Void that would plunge the world into destruction in the future.
“May the blessings of Goddesses be full with the Count.”
“I hope a bright torch accompanies your future ahead.”
As the two knights who defeated darkness together left, Blanc’s knights who were with them waved hands and saw them off.
“……Farewell.”
Sten, who was strangely shrinking among the group, also waved his hand regretting the parting with them.
Although parting is always regrettable, since it was a farewell promising the next time, Blanc and the knights could part by smiling.
Blanc looked at the Gray Knights disappearing beyond the Continental Lighthouse and stroked the seed of the World Tree in his bosom.
The seed of the World Tree Ulrich prepared for Beronion.
The seed giving a warm feeling about the size of an adult fist was an object that cleared the head and circulated unknown vitality in the body just by holding it.
Strong vitality was inherent within this.
“…….”
Blanc touched the seed and recalled the conversation he had with Ulrich in the illusion.
-Plant the seed.
Ulrich had said to plant that seed.
-Beronion was a person who always strove to revive the World Tree. Although that effort returned as failure in the past life.
Ulrich in the form of a dwarf smiled miserably and said.
-It isn't just because of his wish. The World Tree is something like a pillar the Goddesses set up when creating this world. Because it collapsed, the existence called the Void could take root faster in our world.
The past life. Among signs of destruction that appeared countlessly, what caused the biggest shock not only to humans but also to other races was exactly the death of the World Tree.
Due to the death of the World Tree which could be called the source of vitality, the land dried and twisted, and the waves of the sea moved no more.
Numerous disasters occurred due to that.
Famine and starvation, ceaselessly occurring earthquakes and the sea that eventually rotted.
In the time heading toward destruction, human kingdoms locked their doors firmly to survive individually rather than helping each other.
Human kingdoms scattered in pieces in a situation where gathering strength as one against the Void wouldn't be enough.
The result was eventually the destruction of all kingdoms.
-If I plant this, will it become the World Tree?
At Blanc’s question, Ulrich answered.
-If the World Tree doesn't exist in the timeline you are in, it will take root as the World Tree, but if not, that young thing won't become the World Tree.
-Then what does it become?
-If the World Tree exists, that seed becomes another existence.
Ulrich’s mouth, which was smiling, opened.
-It will become a Spirit Tree.
While Blanc was lost in thought recalling the conversation with Ulrich.
The young Phoenix sitting on his shoulder pecked its beak toward the seed Blanc was holding blankly.
“……Hey.”
Blanc, waking up from thoughts at the Phoenix’s abrupt action, quickly lifted the seed and blocked the Phoenix’s approach.
“SCREEEECH-!”
Although it was the Phoenix that pecked the World Tree’s seed out of curiosity, it cried as if feeling bad rather since Blanc’s reaction was firmer than thought.
“Your habits get worse as time goes by.”
Blanc wondered whether it was a mistake to stick this guy with Iselin when young.
“Let’s go.”
Blanc turned his horse remembering the two Demon-breaking Knights who disappeared beyond the horizon at some point.
Behind the leading Blanc, his knights followed.
Although it was the Cadmus Knights who had undergone numerous hardships and adversities, they didn't hesitate to advance forward following Blanc.
Because the person they were following was one harboring a certain mission and the person who saved them.
Above the Black Wolf flag heading to Baltimere, the young Phoenix flapped its wings.
The Cadmus Knights run out kicking horses along with Blanc’s word.
The Neyanpalgar Mountain Range, said to have been together since the beginning, was seeing them off.
***
“……I should have burned you together on that day.”
Georg looking at Aleid and burning anger quietly.
Since the grand ambition he harbored was crushed by the brother he considered trivial, now the only things remaining to Georg would be anger and resentment.
“Why didn't you do so rather?”
Aleid answered Georg without meeting gaze.
“That day, if I burned together in my mother’s arms, I could have died warmly at least.”
What rushed at Aleid after his mother died were only gaze and malice colder and sharper than the severe cold of north wind.
Aleid had lived in gazes looking at him always wondering when he would die, how to kill him.
All his life in such a cold and dried-up place.
“You bastard! So you dragged Evils to this glorious King’s audience chamber!”
Georg, whose everything collapsed, expressed anger to Aleid dragging out things in darkness, not a legitimate method.
It was the only thing Georg, with nothing left, could do.
“There were only them. Brother.”
However, Georg should have known.
That it was eventually the figures of the Gartaria Royal Family including Georg who led to such a result.
“The only things that embraced me were dark and disgusting things.”
Looking at Aleid’s eyes full of resentment, but containing sticky loneliness and sadness inside, Georg forgot what to say for a moment.
They were brothers who never showed each other’s emotions like this even once while living in the same space all their lives.
Georg, facing his brother’s eyes with sincerity for the first time since birth, realized the solitude and resentment hidden in Aleid’s eyes only then.
“I have the qualification.”
They were burning coldly.
Toward Georg himself, and the throne of Gartaria he was sitting on.
Aleid looked at Georg with reddened eyes and said.
“Qualification to break your things as much as you took from me.”
Aleid drew his sword and walked toward Georg.
Georg did not move a single step from the throne even seeing Aleid approaching him.
Even if death approached him, he intended not to rise from this place until the last moment.
"Remember." "Aleid."
Because that was what Georg wanted all his life.
“Those things you swallowed will eventually climb up your throat and block your breath.”
Aleid’s sword raised high toward his brother.
“Eventually, what you can do will only be vomiting out dark things!”
SLASH-.
As Aleid’s sword struck down, the head of the one sitting on the throne until the moment of death fell down.
SPLAT-.
Blood of the noble one overflowed from the highest place of Gartaria.
Blood of the noble one was falling to the feet of the one possessing lowly blood.
Aleid pushed away the corpse of his brother, spewing blood quietly.
And sat on the blood-stained throne.
“…….”
Aleid kept silent for a long time sitting on the throne dripping blood.
He needed time to chew over many things.
However, no matter how much he chewed and chewed, he couldn't contain all things flowing out from inside him.
Eventually, he vomited out.
“……Now am I the King?”
It was Aleid’s question containing many things, but no one answered his question.
Although he achieved what he intended, there was no one by his side.
Both Nasgoer and Ensadu had left for their missions.
Thus, the ones by his side were only knights possessing void gazes.
Aleid sat on the throne and looked down at void things he led here.
However, they didn't answer his words in the end.
“…….”
Just looking at Aleid with void gazes.
Although dozens of knights filled the King’s audience chamber, Aleid couldn't feel anything from them.
“It is cold…….”
Aleid sitting on the throne lowered his head and muttered quietly.
Aleid who lived in cold places all his life.
Eventually, he sat on the throne of Gartaria he wanted, but this place also couldn't bestow warmth upon him.