Do Your Own Revolution

#163

Even now, when he closes his eyes, he can see it clearly as if within reach.

Freddie, Kalkas. And himself.

That brilliant time when they had resolved together to change the Empire.

“Don’t worry, Kassel. We can do this.”

“All talk as usual. Do you know how much work there is?! Say something too!”

Freddie, hurrying his steps in the middle, pouring out his plans.

Kalkas, the realist contradicting the childish Crown Prince’s fantasies.

And himself, mediating differences between them.

The Golden Age that would rescue the Empire from the grasp of magic nobles.

His younger self and his companions who stood with him were called just that.

“Why…! Why aren’t you doing anything?!”

What followed were memories of that terrible day.

“I believed in you…! That you would change this wretched Empire! That’s what I believed…!”

Maximilien, clutching the grave and wailing.

The companions of those days, one by one disappearing – murdered, defecting, vanishing.

And the self-loathing of being able to do nothing but watch helplessly.

He had succeeded in protecting this land inherited through generations, but that was all.

Before the grand goal of reforming the Empire, all he had faced was failure.

‘That’s why we had to desperately leave something behind, with our hopes.’

That the next generation would not repeat their failures.

And that this small foundation he left behind would become the primer for them to change the world.

…

…

…

“We’ve confirmed Knight Orders gathering outside the domain.”

“……”

In the conference room of the Korhonen mansion.

It was the voice of Count’s daughter Reina that woke Margrave Kassel from his aged contemplation.

Now that he had entrusted all domain affairs to his daughter, he merely observed the meetings.

Protecting Korhonen was now their responsibility, not his.

“Crystal humanoid entities confirmed throughout the Knight Order forces. Believed to be puppeteers from House Reznov.”

“Count Reznov himself has also been confirmed. The head of the house approaching personally means…”

“A silent warning not to act rashly. That if we go any further, it means war.”

After saying this, Reina bit her nail while looking at the distant snowy terrain.

“How is Margrave Gloucester responding?”

“Reports say he’s facing off against the Black Knight Order under Count Sutherland. Given the lack of communication since then…”

“Communication interference. It means they’re already surrounded.”

Duke Buckenheim, holding the center of the round table, was sharp.

The moment they won the war against the Republic, he led the Knight Order to seize the Imperial Palace, killed the Emperor, and placed the First Prince Meldir on the throne.

And simultaneously began the full-scale offensive of the Knight Order.

While Ruinberg, the Kalhyram Army’s most crucial supply base, was holding out somewhat, neutral noble territories managing production bases throughout the Empire were gradually submitting to the magic nobles.

“Sending supplies stockpiled in Ruinberg would let us hold out for several months… but a prolonged battle would be difficult like this.”

As Margrave Kassel muttered this while watching the meeting, all eyes turned to him.

“Unlike the Knight Order who mobilized at full strength, the Kalhyram Army is fatigued from a year of continuous war. With this sudden crisis in the Imperial mainland that had been supplying resources, if the civil war becomes prolonged…”

“The Kalhyram Army will suffocate without supplies, and the Knight Order will gain the advantage.”

Though he nodded at Reina’s response, that wasn’t all.

Margrave Kassel picked up the teacup before him and continued.

“Once the coronation proceeds and Prince Meldir officially ascends to the throne… it will be irreversible then.”

“They plan to secure imperial authority while conducting delaying operations against the Kalhyram Army, then dissolve them by imperial decree.”

“That’s right.”

Buckenheim had likely planned this grand scheme before taking action.

He was quite the serpentine character, after all.

Tilting his teacup, Kassel recalled the face of his old opponent.

Karl Buckenheim.

The one who divided the ‘Emperor’s Faction’ centered around Freddie and established the magic nobles’ ruling system around the round table.

The victor of the previous generation who had competed with the Emperor for supremacy over the Empire and won.

Breaking through wouldn’t be easy.

‘However…’

Though time was pressing, it wasn’t a fight without hope of victory.

They had built up military might that could equally match the unprecedented power of the Knight Order, and gained enough strength to directly oppose them.

This framework that Keiren had built was a point they had never reached.

If they missed this opportunity now, the chance to transform the Empire would never come again.

“This is the watershed moment, Eugene.”

What the Kalhyram Army needed now was just one thing.

A justification to oppose Prince Meldir’s rule.

As he watched the meeting with these thoughts…

“Your Lordship!”

A knight guarding outside the mansion appeared, opening the conference room door.

“A messenger has arrived at the mansion.”

A messenger?

In this situation of confrontation with the Knight Order?

“Sent by the magic nobles?”

“No, that’s… they say they’re from the Special Magical Power Unit.”

“You mean they broke through the Knight Order’s encirclement?”

While pondering this…

“May I enter-!”

Thud-!

Someone strode in with the sound.

With that boisterous voice entered a cheerful-looking young man wearing a Special Magical Power Unit officer’s uniform.

“And you are?”

“Oh!”

Seeing the Count’s face, the young man gave a crisp salute with an energetic smile.

“Greetings, Margrave! Special Magical Power Unit Assault Battalion Commander, Colonel Ortega Han!”

Ortega.

Hearing that name, Kassel carefully observed the young man’s appearance.

‘A six stroke mage. A commander-level mage rare even in the Special Magical Power Unit. Moreover, that imprint activation and overflowing magical power…’

Seeing the soot and scars all over him, it became somewhat understandable how he claimed to have broken through the entire Knight Order.

Even looking across the entire Knight Order, it would be extremely difficult to find someone with such power.

“Whew, the north really is brutally cold. I’ll have to borrow an overcoat when I leave.”

“Y-yes…?”

Reina’s voice grew smaller, seemingly dumbfounded by the officer’s uninhibited manner.

At their first meeting.

What was with this casual attitude toward a Margrave of a region?

While thinking this…

“I’m sure my current attitude seems quite unfamiliar… but you’ll have to get used to it soon.”

Saying this with a slight smile, Ortega approached Kassel and handed him a letter.

“Get used to it?”

“Yes. Well, that’s because…”

Trailing off, Ortega opened his mouth with a smiling face.

“Soon in this Empire, nobles will disappear without a trace.”

“…What?”

“Nobles will disappear?”

At his sudden statement, the expressions of everyone present turned strange.

However, that was only momentary.

Having repeated Ortega’s words, Kassel unfolded the letter he had handed over.

“This is…”

An ‘order’ from Special Magical Power Unit Commander Eugene Lorentz to Gloucester and Korhonen.

Seeing the contents written there, Kassel’s face twisted grotesquely.

“Kuh, kuhaha! Kuhahahaha–!”

He burst into hearty laughter with a volume unprecedented from him.

“So this was it! This was your final move, was it! Kuhahahaha-!”

“Y-Your Lordship?”

“Father…?”

A boisterous laugh unlike the usual Count Kassel.

While Reina and other knights looked at him with suspicious eyes…

“Ortega, you said?”

“Yes, Your Lordship.”

Still treating him as nobility, is he?

Not bad.

Muttering thus, the Count asked him as if confirming.

“This order given to me has also been delivered to Gloucester in the northeast?”

“Of course.”

Matt may not look it, but he’s a sniper, quite skilled at infiltration and stealth operations.

Hearing Ortega’s words, Kassel stepped forward with a smile so deep it showed through his mask.

“Hear me, all Knights!”

At the Margrave’s call, all knights gathered in the crowd took up attention positions.

“Kassel Korhonen, Lord of Korhonen, gives his final order.”

A refreshed smile, as if without any regrets now.

However, hearing the Margrave’s words, Reina couldn’t hide her worried expression.

Final order?

What did that mean?

“All Knight Order prepare for battle.”

“…!”

“From now on, we will crush all the knights of House Reznov who have invaded our domain.”

***

[On the — day, Keiren Buckenheim, Marshal of the Imperial Kalhyram Army, was refusing the rightful imperial order and not returning soldiers suffering on the Republican front.]

[Such behavior by the expeditionary force is a grave insult to imperial decisions, and furthermore could become a spark of rebellion threatening the Empire.]

[Thus His Highness Prince Meldir, who serves as head of the Imperial Family as representative of His Majesty the great Emperor, greatly concerned about this behavior, delivered a summons order to Kalhyram Army Marshal Keiren Buckenheim.]

“Meldir. That inadequate fool has finally become Buckenheim’s puppet.”

Margrave Kalkas recalled Prince Meldir’s appearance as a child.

A child who grew only in body, born from the First Empress and raised among nobles.

Seeing him sitting atop his father’s corpse, putting on airs about being the Imperial Family’s representative… it couldn’t help but make one nauseous.

“Freddie. You completely failed at raising your child.”

After spitting this out irritably, the Count shifted his gaze to the photograph on his desk.

The photograph delivered by Matt, the messenger from the Special Magical Power Unit.

Looking at the knights wearing dark armor shown there, a sardonic smile appeared on Margrave Gloucester’s lips.

“But you did raise one exceptional talent.”

Starting with the Emperor’s death, the Empire had fallen into a whirlpool of turbulence.

The magic nobles united in seizing the Imperial Capital.

Keiren not returning from the Republic, and the summons order issued to him.

And the knights of House Sutherland gathering here in Gloucester territory at this opportune time.

However, these changes unfolding now were merely precursors to the great upheaval soon to come.

“Kassel must have received this letter by now too, wouldn’t you say?”

“It was arranged for Ortega and I to deliver it timed with the disclosure of His Majesty’s will.”

“Good. Then only one thing remains.”

Having finished speaking, Margrave Gloucester rose from his seat and opened the mansion doors.

Waiting for him at the mansion were the knights of Gloucester, standing by with their weapons in hand.

Looking at the knights awaiting his orders, the Margrave opened his mouth with a deep smile.

“The time has come.”

The defeat of that day.

The division then.

The humiliation and helplessness felt at that time.

His comrade who had given up once after being broken had succeeded in rekindling the dying embers by burning his life.

He had succeeded in leaving his light for the flame that would carry on the next generation.

Then there was only one thing left for himself who had yet to die.

“I will repay the defeat of that day.”

With the Margrave’s words, the gathered knights raised their weapons in unison.

From the northeastern frontier.

The knights’ battle cries echoing through the northern snowfields.

Two giants who had been crouching in the borderlands were slowly rising to their feet.

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