Chapter 30 - Volume 4 (1/2)
Chapter 3 – The Day Cherry Blossoms Fall
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▯The King of Peasants, Rank 71st, Dantalian
Empire Calendar: Year 1506, Month 4, Day 7
Bruno Plains, Army of the Crescent Alliance, Simple Prison
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In the middle of the night.
Farnese returned.
“This young lady has brought commemorative gifts, Lord. A lot of them.”
The gift that Farnese brought while saying that, the very first gift that the girl who had just turned 17, an age where it would only be appropriate for a girl to emanate a freshly sprouted feeling, gave to me, the person who was an existence which was closest to that of her father, was not something adorable like pocket money nor was it a traditional hand-written letter, it was simply a mountain of what appeared to be hundreds of human skulls.
Furthermore, they were skulls that had pieces of flesh still attached to them.
“······.”
“This is a knight from Brittany. This here is the ringleader of the most successful free company in the imperial army of Francia. That individual, who this young lady obtained information about after having tortured prisoners, seems to have had quite the reputation. And this here is the brigade commander that is rather well-known in the Republic of Batavia······.”
With a face void of emotions, however, as if she were a child who had returned from her very first overseas trip and had brought souvenirs for her family members, Farnese displayed the skulls and presented them one at a time. She was able to differentiate them quite well. Although they all looked the same in my eyes and were heads that I wished she would put aside a little, for some reason, it seems in Farnese’s eyes it was as if there were colorful nametags attached to each and every head.
“I see. I understand well that you have a sexual orientation that has an incredibly eccentric and academical value in researching. Therefore, can you get rid of all those in an orderly fashion before I end up vomiting? I am much too normal to accept your preferences in their entirety.”
“Wait a second, Lord. This young lady has yet to reveal the real present. Be overjoyed. No matter how vast this universe may be, the only girl who would possibly gift Your Lordship with a commemorative gift is this young lady. This young lady is unsure, but would it not be because Your Lordship had done an incredibly good act during your past life?”
Farnese behaved pompously.
It was seriously a bit annoying.
Just who exactly does this child take after in order for her to act like that?
If she behaves like that, regardless of whether she’s pretty or not, I’m curious as to whether a man would ever be interested in her. Please do not live while only sticking to my side, you fool. I don’t have a hobby of living while a high-performance psychopath is occupying a corner of my home.
“Okay. In any case, that mind of yours, that wishes to not only give me the news of victory but give me a gift as well, is indeed commendable. So, what exactly is the real present?”
“Hu-hum.”
Farnese spread out her arms while making a ‘Tadah’ sound effect with her own tongue(I’ll add the fact that the action seriously didn’t suit her).
“Among these, this young lady shall permanently gift to Your Lordship the skull that you especially like. How is that? Is Your Lordship not so moved that you wish to build a library exclusively for this young lady?”
“I do not need it at all!”
I roared and stood up in order to press down on the crown of Farnese’s head. However, I realized that it was impossible. Regretfully, there were iron bars placed between Farnese and myself, moreover, there was also a fair distance between us. My body was obstructed by the cold iron bars with a clank.
“Did you come here while bringing something like that in a bundle as your first gift to your sublime lord? If you only consider the number of lessons I have given you, then the lecture fees alone would have been enough to build a temple. Come here and be hit a little.”
“······Surely, is Your Lordship not satisfied with these skulls? How troubling. These are excellent-quality goods which this young lady had handpicked sternly. But do not worry. Does Your Lordship think that this young lady did not consider Your Lordship’s fastidious sense of beauty? Knowing this.”
Farnese clapped her hands.
The moment she did so, soldiers approached while pulling along with them wheelbarrows. Surprisingly, the wheelbarrows were filled to the brim with human skulls. Although the rain had stopped, the sky had the same darkness as before so my sense of vision was limited, I could see a line of wheelbarrows, that reached the very bottom of the hill, heading up towards where we were. Farnese gallantly placed her hands on her hips and declared.
“This young lady collected anything that was a corpse on the battlefield and took only their heads. Now then, Lord. Please appreciate them leisurely until Your Lordship is able to find a head that suits your taste.”
“Like I said, please escape from the idea of gifting a skull to another person, you imbecile!”
This fellow was not right······. Seriously, she was really wrong······.
Farnese tilted her head and muttered, how strange, how could His Lordship dislike this amazing work of art. It appeared as if she was truly surprised.
To Farnese, art meant the moment when life and death flickered brightly. In that regard, the expressions made by the corpses on the battlefield must have been the pinnacle of art to her. Although I did not fail to understand that peculiar logic, I just did not have the amount of leniency needed to passively consent to it.
I let out a sigh.
“Are you jealous?”
“Mm? What does Your Lordship mean?”
“Different to you, the faces that can show expressions freely, I am asking whether you were that jealous of the people who were born normally and ordinarily free.”
Farnese froze.
In the distance, a flame was burning and crumbling. We were going to war while burning the corpses. The floating ashes flew around as if salting the sky, and going against that, black smoke rose upwards. Occasionally, the prisoners, who had yet to die and were latching onto their life strings for as long as they could, were slashed down and killed by our soldiers personally. Crackle crackle······ ah, aaack······ Each time the flames surged upwards, death throes could be heard with a slight delay.
Farnese put those screams behind her and stared vacantly at me. Her emotions were faint. When people say that the temperature of a person’s gaze matches that of their heart, then it felt as if Farnese did not even have anything known as temperature.
“I can guess the reason why you are unable to make expressions well. The more you made various facial expressions, the more your father must have gotten worked up. So you, as a type of self-defense, must have decided to get rid of something like expressions completely, similar to how a forest bug throws away its own intrinsic colors and hides within the woods.”
“······.”
“Farnese, if that is the case, then that is something which you have decided. No matter how cruel or unfair it may be, as it is something that you have gone through personally, in the end, it is something which only you can solve. Even if you were to collect tens of thousands of corpses that possess expressions, the day your rage and scars are relieved will never come.”
“This young lady does not understand, Lord.”
Farnese spoke calmly.
“Your Lordship, you told this young lady on that day within the snowing pine forest. You told this young lady to kill everything which blocks her path, regardless of whatever it may be, to not be afraid, to not be restrained by the things which are not this young lady’s responsibilities, and to cut down everything that tries to restrain her. Your Lordship had told this young lady that if she cuts them down, then in that place is where this young lady’s life will be. Why is Your Lordship now advising this young lady to stop taking the heads of the enemies?”
With her finger, Farnese curled her side hair. It was a habit she showed whenever she fell into deep thought.
“Was this young lady’s treatment too cruel? War is already sufficiently cruel. Are this young lady’s methods too wicked? There is nothing more foolish than discussing one’s duties on a battlefield. Or perhaps, is it because a compassion, which does not befit Your Lordship, has surged······.”
“I told you to kill the things which obstruct you.”
I cut her words.
Although she has become eloquent due to having received education in rhetorics from both myself and Lapis, she still decisively lacked the ability to go against me.
“The thing that is obstructing you is not something like these skulls. Look carefully. Is the thing which impedes your path, not your own past?”
“······.”
Farnese became silent.
As if the girl, who had slaughtered at the very least several thousands and at the very most ten thousand today, was being blocked by an invisible wall, she stood in place without being able to move an inch.
“Although this young lady does not want to admit it.”
By the time Farnese was barely able to open her lips, the sky had already become evidently dark and several torches were lit throughout the military encampment.
“Your Lordship is correct. Although this young lady was able to break free from the point where this young lady had deluded herself into believing that the sound of the snow was the cries of cicadas, this young lady is still bound by the chains of the past. And this young lady is unable to control that with her own will.”
Rather than words, Farnese’s utterance was closer to that of a small sigh.
“Whenever there is a face that is showing emotions before this young lady’s eyes, this young lady wishes to lacerate it with a sword. If there is a face that curses at this young lady among them, then this young lady wishes to display that face after having lacerated it. By doing so, this young lady wishes to savor the feeling of life by relishing in the fact that they are dead and this young lady is alive. What should this young lady do? What must this young lady do in order to change this?”
Farnese lowered her gaze to the ground.
This child was most likely pacing back and forth in her mind since she was unsure of what to do. She knew what she had to fix, but she did not know how to fix it.
However, that alone was already a large step.
Until just recently, Farnese was a mass of traumas. She had denied the fact that she was subjected to violence by her own father, she disguised the fact as a lie while not altering her facial expression even once, and she would only speak about her suppressed scars when she was under the influence of alcohol or drugs. In comparison to those days, has Farnese not become much more mature?
Lapis said that Farnese was dangerous. I told Lapis that I would take responsibility and requested of her to leave it to me and wait patiently. While imprisoned in this cage and gazing at Farnese on the other side of the iron bars, I ascertained once more that my judgment at that time was not incorrect.
“I was the same as you.”
Now, it was no longer the time to dig but the time to lead.
“There was a father-like existence within my life as well. Moreover, in terms of filthy personalities, he was perhaps equal or worse than your father, never could he be considered less. My life was ruined because of that man.”
“······Your Lordship, as well?”
“That is so.”
I am able to confess since I have personally experienced imprisonment now. The answer of who’s the easiest person in the world to put in prison. It was my father. This was not a joke.
For starters, there were no two ways about the fact that my father was a beast that deserved to die. I was certain of this since my mother, who had loved him and loved him more until she finally loved even his innards, had tried to kill him.
Except, regardless of whether he was killed or not, until that day arrived, there was a lot of things I absolutely had to take. Even while my father was raising me, there had never been a day where I had starved. Was that alone not something to honestly be grateful for? Although I was raised by a dog-like father and grew up to be a son of a bitch, I was, fortunately, an honest human. I had no other choice but to acknowledge the reality that he had somewhat accomplished his duty as a father because of the mere fact that I had never starved ever since I was born.
That was why, instead of ending his life, I decided to be satisfied with just dropping his life into a bottomless pit. The fellows who are known as mercy and tolerance, as they call it. It turns out that even I was quite the gentle and dutiful son.
The method was simple.
I secretly sent in minors to the swap parties my father would often hold at his favorite villa. That was so. Even though he possessed four or five wives, he still enjoyed promiscuous sexual relations. Was he not deranged? There was no way someone could not show respect towards that exuberant sexual appetite. I believed that it was quite the waste that only I knew about my father’s personality, so accordingly, I had earnestly set up scarecrows known as whistle-blowers and secured evidence.
There wasn’t even a need for me to go out of my way to start an incident myself. Even in the places where I had no hand in, my father flirted with a lot of women. Among them, a small sexual harassment scandal occurred in a place that was unrelated to me. Truly consistently, it was another high school girl⎯⎯⎯⎯there was a reason why I would assert that lolita complex was a mental disease time and time again⎯⎯⎯⎯while being aghast, I poured the fuel, which I had gathered until then, into the incident that had ignited naturally. Even though I referred to it as fuel, it wasn’t anything special. I simply called them over quietly and said a couple of words to them.
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⎯⎯ Young Master, why do we have to secretly install a camera here?
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I told them that they didn’t need to know.
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⎯⎯ Uh. I-Is this really okay······? Can I also trust that you’ll really give me a proper reward once this is over?
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I intimidated them to silently believe in me.
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⎯⎯ We’ve called together all of the defense counsels, Young Master. Do not worry. Even if the video were to be leaked, the situation in which the chairman’s family is also harmed will not happen. The fact that a high school student was involved is only a small obstacle, we will do whatever······ Pardon? Are you telling us to leave it be? But······?
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If they had a complaint, then I told them to complain.
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⎯⎯······.
⎯⎯······.
⎯⎯······.
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Making them unaware of the things which they had the right to know, making them have no other choice but to believe the thing which they wished to believe, and making them do the things which they must not do. Authority was originally something like that and I had a sufficient amount of authority.
I smiled towards them and spoke. ‘Why aren’t you responding?’. They all gulped and answered me, who was the successor of the company.
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⎯⎯ Yes.
⎯⎯ Yes, understood······.
⎯⎯ As you wish.
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The time to hunt had arrived.
When a lion hunts a deer, they do not become intoxicated by the distant fragrance of blood just because they had already tasted the blood of a deer’s neck once.
Even after my father was imprisoned and I had instantly purged all of his close aids, I remained vigilant. I intercepted information and distorted them. His whistle-blowers were unceasing and for some reason, genuine reporters abruptly started to surge from the rotten press. Aha, if it was like this then it couldn’t be helped so I ended up only shrugging.
Stay in prison forever.
That was my final wish and my father more than gladly complied to that small hope of mine.
It became so, consequently.
Four days later, my father died due to a heart attack.
“······.”
I looked up towards the sky that had stopped raining. The vapor refused to dissipate, and instead, chillingly seeped into the earth. Farnese was silently staring at me who was in that state.
“Farnese. I may have succeeded overall, but I committed a mistake at the most vital moment. Although I prevailed in imprisoning that man, I could not possibly expect that he would die due to a chronic disease within four days.”
Aah.
Four days, barely four days.
A time that was much too short to repay him for the resentment that had piled up throughout my entire life.
A mere four days.
I, who had run out immediately after hearing the news of my father’s sudden death, was devastated. Even as I was reading the note that he had supposedly written as a will, only a single thought was going through my head. The thought that this human, this butcher-like bastard, this unequaled venomous snake among venomous snakes, had seen through my entire plan and purposely used a chronic disease as an excuse to commit suicide.
I was unsure how my plan was uncovered. He most likely figured it out with his intuition. He was a monstrous man, after all.
Since heart troubles was a chronic disease he had for a long time, no one suspected his death. The opinion of the majority was that he had died because he was prone to death, and it was my own reasonable argument that he deserved to be killed but I was unable to do so. In the end, I may have succeeded in my revenge, but I had to live the rest of my life with this bitter taste in my mouth.
Good for you, father. You must feel lighthearted since you were able to screw your son over one last time in your final moment of life. That’s right, good job dying. Did you dislike the idea of atoning for your wrongdoing towards me that much? Did you want to portray to me the fact that you didn’t have even a single thing in your life that you had to atone for?
“Haa······.”
I let out a sigh.
“There is quite the valuable moral in my story. Do you know what it is?”
“No matter how damned they may be, since your father is still your father, you shouldn’t confine them thoughtlessly?”
“You fool. What were you listening to my words with? It is the complete opposite. Do not needlessly forgive the man or leave him alone, and without fail, kill him, the father who had ruined your life, with your own two hands.”
“······.”
I propped up Farnese’s chin and stared at her clearly. The very first child who I had decided to take responsibility for after having come to this world. Although I rarely ever expressed this vocally, I consider you to be my adopted daughter. Because the sight of your life being twisted was the same as seeing my own life being twisted.
“The people of the world will most likely give you all sorts of advice. Forgive him. Adjust your way of thinking and change your life to be positive. Oh dear. Those are words that befit those people only. They may, perhaps, not even be correct words, either. In any case, you, have you not suffered things which you cannot possibly say out loud or things that are even more severe than that, by your own father? I can easily guess.”
“······.”
“Lapis killed her own mother. It should have been the first time since she was born that she was able to properly meet her mother, but she simply chased after her on the spot and slit her mother’s throat. In that regard, I consider Lapis to be much wiser than myself. Think about it, Farnese. What will you do if your father dies by the hands of someone else before you are able to do it yourself? I am telling you to imagine that. Is it not dreadful?”
“······.”
“Therefore, kill him.”
I spoke.
Using a tone that assured the answer.
“Punish your father with your own two hands. Get your revenge and end his life. No matter how vast the world may be, since there is no one else out there who has as much of a right as you do to get revenge, you must be the one to do so. The task which I was unable to fulfill because I was sloppy, I sincerely pray that you are able to accomplish it.”
As if I were placing a curse on her at the same time as I was bestowing upon her a blessing.
I gave my adopted daughter the answer.
“Once you do so, you will be free.”
Farnese wordlessly shuddered. That was a natural reaction. My words were ice. If one wished to digest ice instantly, then they required a strong stomach and tough teeth. And this girl, who was standing before my eyes, was the pillar that Lapis, the woman who possessed the strongest stomach, and I, who possessed the toughest teeth, had fostered together earnestly. Regardless of whether she grows tired of the cruelty of the acts she must carry out from now on, she will not decline it.
Sure enough.
“······But, Your Lordship. There is a problem. Even if this young lady tries to kill her father, this young lady’s father resides in the kingdom down south. There are more and more people in the north who Your Lordship and this young lady must take the lives of, so when will we ever be able to advance south?”
Farnese pointed out a problem straight away. That meant that she fundamentally agreed to my words that instructed her to kill her own father. This was why I did not dislike children who my words got through to.
“In order to subjugate the Empire, we have to slaughter that Imperial Princess as well, but according to Your Lordship’s words, the Imperial Princess is the largest mountain. The act of even crossing that mountain is quite the distance away, so until that day arrives, how is this young lady supposed to endure the ravages of her past while in this purgatory? How are we supposed to know whether it would take us 5 years or 10 years? This young lady wishes to quickly become free.”
“It is good that you are honest. Each time I witness you slowly turn into more of an honest son of a bitch, it makes me feel so overjoyed that I might break out into a dance.”
“Although this young lady is severely worried since it seems as if her personality is decaying day by day due to Your Lordship and Miss Lapis······.”
“That is fine. Do not worry about it. All we have done is merely brought out what was already rotten. Since that is your true essence, do your best to love it.”
“Your Lordship has the talent to touch a chord with another person’s heart each time you open your mouth. A talent that can touch a chord with another person’s heart in an incredibly bad meaning, that is. Please hastily bite your tongue and kill yourself, Lord.”
I raised the corners of my lips.
“Three days.”
“······?”
“You will be able to kill your father within three days.”
Farnese knitted her brow.
“That is bizarre and inordinate. How could this young lady possibly be able to capture her father within three days?”
“You are not going to be the one to bring him, you foolish child. Have I not told you this time and time again? Please, if what is attached to that neck of yours is a head, then please use it. Think about it. Regardless of whether you have fallen into being a slave or not, you are still the descendant of the House of Farnese. A descendant of their family has betrayed mankind and latched onto the demons, but do you think they would sit around when their dignity as a noble family is on the line? Even if they tried to stay still, do you think the people around them would calmly leave them be?”
“······.”
Farnese became silent. You could tell from her face that it was clearly a scenario which she had never considered. I made a tsk-tsk sound with my tongue and shook my head. This was why a child, who learned about the world from history books, had poor senses when it actually came to something important.
“Listen carefully. Listen well and learn well. Quite a long time has passed since the Imperial Princess Elizabeth had first obtained the memoria artifact. At that point, the Imperial Princess would have already gotten into contact with the House of Farnese. Four days have passed since you became the figurehead and gave that speech, but if it is someone who is as competent as the Imperial Princess, then no matter how severe the situation may be, they should be capable of resolving it within a single week. Therefore, three days from now. Regardless of what happens before an entire week has passed, the Imperial Princess will, without a doubt, pressure you by placing the Duke of Farnese at the front of her forces.”
“How can Your Lordship be certain of that······.”
“Dear Lord. To bring around someone like you as my descendant, I am the one who is misfortunate. Not only are you unable to think, but are you unable to listen as well? Kid, are the rumors that you are the descendant of the House of Farnese and the daughter of a whore not already widespread throughout the front lines of the Army of the Crusaders? Hm? Who do you think could have grasped your personal information so precisely and have also circulated malicious rumors about you, all within three days? Can it be anyone else than the Imperial Princess Elizabeth?”
“······.”
“Therefore, do not worry about whether you will have to wait 10 years or not, but instead, be concerned about the immediately approaching three days. My foolish general, even a week is a time that is beyond your capacity. Fumbling through a single day and discovering the next day again, that is the level which you are still currently at. How impudent of you to try and discuss 10 years.”
“This young lady is starting to dislike Your Lordship more······.”
“That is because a sky is above your sky. I know that feeling well.”
“This young lady also dislikes Your Lordship who pretends to know that feeling well, as well······.”
“Oh? Then try winning against me. For someone who is unable to win, you must have quite the happy life since you still have some pride left. Is that brain of yours feeling peaceful?”
“Guuuuh······.”
Farnese groaned without showing any emotions on her face. What a cute fellow.
Essentially, the desire for power was something that did not forgive anyone who was above themselves. I was the one who had awoken Farnese’s lust for power, and I was also the one who was actually occupying her sky. Due to that, in Farnese’s position, she had no other choice but to feel stifled.
“In any case, since things will be proceeding like that, keep that in mind. So even if the Imperial Princess suddenly brings your father in order to shake your mentality, do not be too alarmed. If anything, be delighted that 10 years was shortened to three days. Get your revenge and take his life. And······.”
And.
It was at the moment I was about to add a few more words.
“⎯⎯⎯⎯Those are good words, Dantalian. Get your revenge and take his life.”
I heard a familiar voice.
The two of us turned our heads at the same time. From a corner of darkness that was blanketed by the night sky, lively, and yet, light steps were approaching from that direction. The owner of both the voice and the sound of footsteps came all the way to a place which was illuminated by a torch that was near the prison and stopped.
Pure white hair.
Yellow pupils that were like that of a lion.
“As it so happens, I came here because I wanted to say those exact same words to you.”
Barbatos was smiling there.
Tick.
The pocket watch that was submerged in my clothes moved.
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▯The King of Peasants, Rank 71st, Dantalian
Empire Calendar: Year 1506, Month 4, Day 7
Bruno Plains, Army of the Crescent Alliance, Simple Prison
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“Hi, Dantalian. Mr. Self-Addressed Genius.”
The night was thin. The rain that had stopped falling during the evening still remained drifting somewhere throughout the air. Although the torchlight made the shadows flicker like steam, making the outlines appear faint, rather than standing on the ground, it appeared as if half of Barbatos’ feet were engulfed by a pitch black mire.
“Iyaah. It seems that life in prison must suit your body well. Look at the complexion on your face. That mug of yours, that has always been weighed down by exhaustion, has bloomed, it really has. You adorable kid. It wasn’t a waste of time to send you to prison.”
Even though it was vague and ambiguous, the occasion of Barbatos’ distinct presence fading away did not occur. Her voice, it was because her voice was clouded with laughter. Although it was easy for Barbatos to laugh, each laugh was viscous with the thickness which was built up from within her innermost heart. Every time she laughed, it felt as if I could see a well that had no visible bottom.
“······.”