The capital, Miller, shook once again.

< Sir Count Roan Lancephil has woken up! >

The Miller Castle’s residents cheered.

In the case of commoners, it was general for them to quake with irritation at the nobles.

However, Roan was an exception.

It wasn’t because he was a general and a hero who raised outstanding military achievements.

“Sir Count Lancephil is different than other nobles.”

“He’s a man who’s at our side and not above our heads.”

A noble who treated people as people without discrimination of status.

That was the very reason the ordinary commoners loved and respected Roan.

And.

“I’m really glad.”

There was another person who was joyous enough to shed tears.

Aily Rinse.

Wiping the tears with a back of her hand, she gazed straight at Roan’s face.

She tried not to cry.

No, she thought she shouldn’t cry.

‘What would he think if I cry……’

Such thoughts entered her mind.

But the moment she saw Roan, clear tears flowed regardless of her will.

“Thank you very much for worrying about me, your highness.”

Roan slightly bowed his head.

The instant he saw Aily crying, a corner of his heart turned soft.

‘Princess Aily.’

Amongst the memories that awakened thanks to the hexers’ assault, there were also ones about Aily.

‘Three years from now, princess will catch an epidemic and die.’

A news he heard through one ear and out the next in the last life because she was an individual with such a lack of presence.

It was a dreadful future.

But he didn’t worry.

‘It probably was a faked death.’

The reason Roan thought so.

‘Since three years from now is the time when Gold Master Sale fully begins to move.’

Probably, Aily met the Great Warring Era and threw away her status as a princess.

‘Is the princess Aily, Sale, or Piscis……’

Roan gazed quietly at Aily’s large eyes.

‘If she, as princess willed and not by someone else’s decision, lived a life she herself wanted, then……’

Her desire and wish.

Roan planned to help so that Aily can live as such.

And he wished that he would be at her side.

‘I merely do as my heart says.’

In the last life, he lost love while chasing his dream.

In the end, both dream and love, he failed all of them.

But the life this time was different.

‘Dream, and love too……’

The first step.

Roan planned to embolden his feeling to Aily.

“Princess. I’ve visited today because I have something I need to say.”

The end of his voice slightly shook.

“I really don’t have a talent in this kind of thing, so I’m not sure how to say this.”

A feeling like he had became a fool.

But it wasn’t an unpleasant feeling.

His heart rapidly raced.

Aily quietly sat and nodded her head.

Her face too was colored brightly.

Roan faintly smiled and collected his breath for a moment.

“I thought that there are reasons to loving someone. So I thought once, twice, thrice, tens, hundreds of of times.”

HIs gaze went towards Aily.

“Of the reason I liked your highness princess.”

Aily tightly grasped her two hands.

The tips of her eyes rapidly trembled.

“But I couldn’t find it.”

Roan’s words continued on.

The story of his heart that began to burst out once continued on unhesitantly like a violent stream.

“There was no reason. I just like you. Without any reason……”

Roan looked straight at Aily’s eyes.

“I like you, princess.”

*****

“Waaaaah!”

“Roan Lancephil! Roan Lancephil!”

Cheers poured down.

At the grand street that cut the capital, Miller, to north and south.

Around it, the Miller Castle’s residents poured out.

With crimson roses in their hands, they screamed at the top of their lungs.

“Roan! Roan! Roan!”

“The Crimson Ghost! The Crimson Ghost!”

Simon Rinse clicked his tongue at the boiling heat of the castle’s citizens.

“You truly have a great popularity.”

“It’s an excessive praise, your highness.”

The one softly smiling and slightly lowering his head was Roan.

But he too couldn’t hide his pride.

It wasn’t merely because people liked him.

‘It’s proof that what I’m doing is not wrong.’

Walking on the correct path.

And people recognizing that.

They made his heart proud.

“Anyhow, do you truly plan to leave like this?”

Simon shook Roan’s hand with regrettable expression.

The numerous nobles that lined behind him were also the same.

“Sir Count Lancephil. Please stay a bit longer before you go.”

“We didn’t in fact have much time to talk because you were down, sir.”

“I have a good wine, sir. I truly wish to serve it to you.”

Sweet words overflowed.

The nobles who supported Simon wanted to make favorable impressions with Roan in any way possible.

Looks that weren’t very different even at the fact that Roan was from a commoner background.

‘What use is that now?’

‘If Prince Simon becomes the next king like this, Count Lancephil will rise to a status with merely one above and everyone below.’

‘He’ll at least become a duke. Looking at the last time, it seems the prince is even considering him as the princess’ partner.’

The nobles were shrewd.

Roan too had surmised their intentions.

‘I have no heart to play with those games.’

With a sad and regrettable expression, he lowered his head.

“I’m sorry, your highness. I’ve left the fief empty for much too long.”

An indirect refusal.

“I know it can’t be helped, but…… even so, it’s sad and still regrettable, sir.”

Simon exhaled a short sigh.

“Once the work here is somewhat cleaned up, I will go take a visit to the Lancephil Fief.”

“Yes, your highness. I will await your visit.”

Roan once again lowered his head and then stepped back.

Once he climbed above a mammoth warhorse, the magnificence of a great general spouted out.

“Waaaaaah!”

The sound of citizens’ cheers turned much louder.

Roan lightly raised his right hand, then added a short salute towards Simon.

“Then excuse me……”

As he pulled the reins, the warhorse snorted a rough neigh.

Clop. Clop.

Roan, who went alone between the colossal waves of crowds.

The sight of his back on top of the warhorse truly looked grand.

Gulp.

The cheers slowly sank.

“Umm.”

All swallowed dryly.

Roan’s crimson armor reflected the light and flashed.

Although Roan was alone, he exuded an incredible presence and pressure comparable to an army of a hundred thousand.

A silence where the space and time seemed to have literally stopped.

Between that, only Roan was moving by himself.

Finally, he passed through the Miller Castle’s north gate.

“Waaaaaaaah!

“Roan Lancephil! Roan Lancephil!”

As if it had awaited, the incredible cheer that had been suppressed blasted out.

“Hmm.”

Simon and the numerous nobles, with slightly dazed expressions, moved their steps towards the ramparts of the north gate.

Swoosh!

When they climbed on top of the rampart, a southern wind pushed their backs.

Instantly, the wide plain that spread outside the north gate filled their views.

“Ah……”

A weak hearted man amongst the nobles let out a quiet exclamation.

The other nobles too all looked greatly shocked and daunted, and merely didn’t let out a sound.

A crimson wave.

“So that’s the crimson legion……”

Simon and Viscount Tio Ruin murmured with voices mixed with awe.

It was a grand sight.

Crimson soldiers neatly lined up on the wide plain murmuring with green light.

The Tale Legion and the Lancephil Legion, even in front of the violent southern wind, stood their places without a tremble.

The legion flag, the troop flag, and the commanders’ flags that rose at the vanguard violently flapped.

To the front of it, Roan was approaching.

Paat!

Suddenly, together with an incredible pressure, the legion’s soldiers saluted.

The soundless salute was, even just by the sight of it, was enormously pressuring.

“Uuuuh.”

Few scholarly nobles chattered their teeth and shrunk back their necks.

Meanwhile, Roan turned his horse and looked towards the Miller Castle.

No, to be exact, he stared at Simon and the numerous nobles standing at the ramparts.

Very slowly, Roan made a salute.

“Salute.”

A quietly worded sound.

It wasn’t even a sound that could be easily heard.

But soon, a shout like the eardrums would explode followed behind.

“Salute!”

The shout the soldiers of the crimson legion poured out.

That sound became a force and stormed the Miller Castle.

“Huugh.”

Not only the scholarly nobles but also the warrior nobles whose bones were battle-hardened on the battlefields couldn’t quite endur and trembled.

Goosebumps burst all over their bodies.

A feeling as if their throats were suffocated.

“Hhm.”

Simon leaked a quiet groan.

His heart was complicated.

A feeling both proud yet worried.

‘It’s a great strength when at the side……’

But if turned into an enemy, a vexing existence.

No, not only at a level of being vexing, he was an existence dangerous enough for the throne succession competition to flip in an instant.

‘I must make him my man.’

The several plans he had already made brushed through his head.

Meanwhile, Roan, who was watching the ramparts, pulled his rein once again.

He looked at the crimson legion and gave a short order.

“Crimson Legion, march.”

The instant the order fell, the thousand-man commanders and above shouted at the members of the troop below them.

“March!”

“March!”

“Let us go home!”

The enormous legion moved without an error like a single body.

The Crimson Legion that filled the Miller Castle’s southern plain disappeared with a rapid speed as if an ebb flows out.

“Viscount Ruin.”

Simon, who was watching quietly, called Tio.

Tio stepped in closer and lowered his head.

“Yes. Please speak, your highness.”

Simon chased Roan’s back that was receding further away and spoke in a much quieter voice.

“I will have to place a trap.”

“Where should we place it, sir?”

A cautious expression and voice.

Simon answered shortly.

“Aily.”

*****

Return.

Finally, the Crimson Legion finished the fief war and returned to the Mediasis Castle.

Furthermore, together with a sweet spoil of the war called fief war victory.

“Waaaaah!”

“Roan Lancephil! Roan Lancephil!”

“Tale Legion! Tale Legion!”

“Lancephil Legion! Lancephil Legion!”

“Crimson Legion! Crimson Legion!”

It was obvious that the Mediasis Castle shook from a welcoming ceremony.

Especially as the Mediasis Castle became selected as the capital of the new Lancephil Fief that expanded by more than twice, the heat of the castle’s residents were hotter and greater than any other time.

Because the Pavor Castle, which was the capital of the original Lancephil Fief, was scheduled to adjust and supported to become the center of culture, arts, and education, the responses of the old Lancephil Fief’s citizens were also not bad.

Harmony and coexistence.

Thankfully, the Tale Fief’s citizens and the Lancpehil Fief’s citizens understood each other well.

While the fierce welcome of the castle’s citizens was continuing, a noisy conversation was continuing at the lord’s castle, no, at a slightly large building located at the center of the Mediasis Castle.

“Eh?! Then do you mean the lord moving separately by himself?”

Clay, who usually had no case of being surprised, widely opened his eyes and raised his voice.

Austin, who was sitting on the opposite side, awkwardly smiled and nodded his head.

“That is, he said that there was a place he had to visit when half way……”

“Even so, so sent him to that place alone? The lord? There’s still Count Chase and Viscount Owells’ remnants……”

When his words reached about that point.

“He wasn’t alone. He went with Walter.”

Brian subtly squeezed in and cut his words.

“Ah, so we can relax since he went together with Walter whose left are was cut off and his mana hole destroyed?”

“Tha, that is……”

At Clay’s bladed words, Brian stuttered his words and then soon closed his mouth.

At that moment, Harrison, who had been staying quiet, spoke in a brusque voice while crossing his arms.

“It is what the lord wished. We simply need to follow his orders.”

At those words, Clay stared straight at Harrison’s eyes.

Bold eyes without a bit of hesitation or indecision.

Even, the ones with such eyes wasn’t only Harrison.

Austin, Brian, Keep, Glenn……

The light in the eyes of the core retainers were boldness itself.

‘Huu.’

With a short sigh, Clay nodded his head.

“Understood. It can’t be helped since it’s something that already happened. But I must definitely say just this one thing clearly.”

With a calm and clear voice, he added on.

“I understand everyone’s loyalties plenty well. But even so, it is problematic to give unconditional loyalty to the lord.”

“What do you mean? President Clay.”

Austin creased his brows.

Clay, with a tip of his finger, pointed at his chest.

“An unconditional loyalty makes one’s chest hot. But……”

The tip of the finger headed towards his head.

“It also makes one’s head stiff.”

His gaze swept through the numerous retainers.

“If you are a truly loyal subject, do not be afraid to remonstrate. Things that are wrong must be said to be wrong, and one must be able to present opposition at irrational orders. If we were to remain silent even while knowing that the path is wrong and follow unconditionally……”

Clay’s expression turned fierce.

“We will all fall down a cliff.”

“Hhm.”

Everyone including Austin and Harrison leaked a groan.

Clay’s statement.

They were words he had decided and spat out because he had already experienced similar events numerous times.

Clay looked at the retainers of grave expressions and lowered his head.

“I apologize if I was somewhat arrogant. To please think of it word for word as a warning.”

With those words as final, he exited the meeting room.

“Huu.”

A long sigh twisted and leaked through his lips.

‘Would they change a bit……’

A smile hang at Clay’s mouth.

Loyalty and remonstration.

If one was a good subordinate, there was a need to have all of the two.

But it wasn’t because of merely such reason that Clay spoke out the words this time.

‘It’s a given that even medicines good for the body have side effects.’

Clay.

Even while doing one work, he was always aiming for more than two, three effects.

‘Now, should I then see what the lord is doing?’

The smile hanging on his mouth became much deeper.

< New Ability (5) > End.

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