Eve of War (2)

An old, deserted tavern.

A man with an unkempt beard and hair, giving an overall disheveled impression, was alone blowing into an empty bottle.

“Puhah!”

The man looked like a complete wastrel.

His eyes lacked any sign of life, and he seemed to have no will to live, as if he spent each day drowning in alcohol.

Ding!

At that moment, a new person appeared in the empty tavern. It was an elderly-looking man with his entire body covered by a worn hood.

Unlike the one blowing into the bottle alone, this elderly man exuded a sense of dignity.

“I’ve heard the devil’s forces have drawn near this area.”

“Ah, is that so? Then I should flee. Yes, certainly flee. But I’ll move after I finish drinking this.”

“King of Ares… No, never mind. There’s no point in telling someone who won’t listen.”

A person accompanying the king of the fallen Ares Kingdom.

The elderly man, Judas, sighed and joined the table.

He considered meeting Calips to be divine providence.

That’s why he was accompanying him, though he knew he wasn’t in a position to make demands or requests.

Of course, he had once saved Calips’s life, so he was saving that favor for when the time was right.

Surely there would come a time when he needed the man’s combat power.

“Sigh… I suppose I can relax here for a while too.”

He was still a man who couldn’t face God with a clear conscience, so he tried to avoid showing himself in public whenever possible. Moreover, there were quite a few people who would recognize him.

Fortunately, everyone in the tavern, including the owner, had fled.

Outside was already in chaos, crowded with people who hadn’t managed to escape in time.

The only ones left in the village were those who didn’t care if they died or looters.

In such a situation, he felt no need to hide his appearance.

With another sigh, Judas said:

“Let me have some of that too.”

“Some of what? The alcohol?”

“Yes, I’ll soothe my troubled heart with the blood of the Lord.”

The situation wasn’t good.

The devil’s forces were advancing toward the heart of the empire faster than expected, and even in such circumstances, people were busy looking out for their own interests.

They were busy gathering valuables when they should have been focused solely on escaping.

For Judas, who had abandoned everything, this was frustrating.

“Hehehe, sure. Yes, of course.”

Calips, as if seeing through Judas Sicarii’s thoughts, chuckled and examined the bottles scattered on the table one by one, picking them up and putting them down.

Just from the number of empty bottles he’d picked up and set down, one could tell how much he had drunk.

“Hmm, only cheap stuff left. It’s not the Proof of Faith, but will that do?”

Calips grinned as he poured alcohol into Judas’s glass.

“The last alcohol I had was the Proof of Faith, so it’s fine.”

“You drank that good liquor alone?”

“I shared it with the apostle. It was so moving that we didn’t even notice if one of us died while drinking.”

“Hahahahaha! I thought you were a humorless man, but I was wrong.”

“You flatter me.”

Judas smiled slightly as he downed the alcohol Calips had poured.

After watching him intently, Calips opened a new bottle of high-quality liquor and started blowing into it again.

Judas was momentarily dumbfounded by this selfish and petty behavior, then sighed again as he drank his alcohol.

“Aren’t you going to ask?”

“Even if I asked, I doubt I’d get a positive answer.”

“I see.”

Despite their disjointed conversation, the two understood each other.

Calips had been in this state ever since the fall of his kingdom. It was impossible to ask him for help.

Judas, being a survivor of a fallen nation just like Calips, understood his feelings.

He wouldn’t help the empire. Even if the devil was the enemy who had destroyed his country.

After all, he likely hated the empire just as much as the devil. What else could he do?

“Phew… If you’re done drinking, let’s go.”

After gulping down the high-quality liquor in one go, Calips said this and stood up.

“……”

Judas set down his glass, which he hadn’t even half finished, and followed.

“The empire’s people call me the Sword King. Actually, I heard that title a few times in the kingdom too.”

“That’s because you’re so famous.”

“But you know what? I don’t particularly like that title.”

“Why is that?”

Calips would occasionally talk about himself and his kingdom.

To Judas, it sounded like the ramblings of an old man who had lost everything.

“I was just an ordinary person who happened to be good with a sword.”

“But weren’t you a king?”

“Ah! Right. Yes, of course. Playing pretend kings and royalty with land about the size of a count’s territory in the empire.”

“……”

“I’m an ordinary person. So I have no intention of helping the empire. You understand the reason without me having to explain, right? If not, we’d better part ways.”

“I understand.”

In the end, Judas hadn’t forgiven the empire either. It was just that after struggling to survive, he could no longer think about revenge or forgiveness.

Most people would probably be the same.

Time tends to dull most problems.

Calips was still in that process.

“I’ve been wandering like this for quite a while. You know something? I have good eyes and ears. I can hear the screams of people who haven’t managed to escape being caught by demons and half-demons from a great distance.”

“That must be quite painful.”

“You think so? Former Cardinal Judas, what made you think that?”

“If you’re an ordinary person, it would surely be painful to hear.”

“……”

Calips fell silent.

Because Judas had struck right at the core.

Self-contradiction.

His own words had given Judas the exact insight into what was really happening.

“Hehehe.”

Calips laughed. He laughed at the absurdity. Then he admitted it.

Yes, he was an ordinary person.

That’s why he couldn’t forgive the empire and those belonging to it, but at the same time, he was a contradictory being who regretted and suffered from not saving them.

It was this very contradiction that made him human.

“It’s painful.”

“I see.”

“It’s painful. The fact that they too are people who suffer and scream just like those in our kingdom.”

“Then, King Calips de Ares, why don’t you save them?”

“Because it was none other than the empire’s people who made them suffer and scream like that!”

“That truly must be painful.”

“That’s why.”

The reason he wouldn’t help the empire.

The reason he wouldn’t seek revenge.

The rational choice of a king and the humane choice of an individual.

He was just someone still caught between the two.

“What difference is there between the malice of the devil and that of humans?”

“……”

“Who can definitively say that one’s cruelty is worse than the other?”

Calips looked back.

The domain he and Judas had belatedly left was engulfed in flames.

“To my eyes, they look exactly the same.”

The screams that reached him even from a distance were all too clear to his ears, and the sight of people being torn apart and burned to death was all too vivid.

“Former Cardinal Judas.”

“Yes, King Calips de Ares.”

“Give me a little more time.”

“How could I urge you to make a choice? Take all the time you need to consider and suffer.”

“I see.”

Calips turned around again.

Turning his back on the screaming people of the empire.

Hoping that their pain might provide some solace for the kingdom’s people he had to leave behind.

The man who had both the empire and the devil as enemies turned away from reality.

*     *      *

With the devil’s forces beginning to move and causing an uproar in various quarters, I found myself in an unexpected crisis.

“So, you’re that……”

The silence that followed “that…” carried quite a few meanings.

A man I was meeting for the first time.

Despite it being our first encounter, I could read his emotions.

The reason was nothing special.

“They say you’re Línea’s beloved.”

It’s just that this stranger happens to be my father-in-law.

Count Gallea Spirin, the head of the Spirin family, one of the empire’s prestigious families known for their medical expertise.

Eventually, I had to face him.

Yes, from the beginning, it was something I couldn’t avoid like death…

Recently, the person who had been troubling Línea, her sister, had reported everything to the family head.

What could I possibly say?

Slurp. After leisurely sipping tea from his cup and setting it down again, Gallea Spirin spoke:

“Why are you so quiet?”

“…Khuph!”

I hadn’t even touched the tea, yet I choked. As I coughed for a while, Línea, who was sitting with us, gently patted my back.

Ah, this is uncomfortable. Unbearably uncomfortable.

Línea had already confessed everything to her eldest sister, Celia Spirin, including our relationship.

How could I possibly tell a parent with a daughter that I have two more people I care for besides his daughter?

No, there’s no need to. He probably already knows everything.

“What can I say at this point? I haven’t even properly looked after her, so how could I be angry with you?”

“…Ah, no. You have every right to be angry in this situation.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes.”

“Hmm, in that case, even if it might be unpleasant, let me say one thing.”

A situation where a composed person is about to express anger in a composed way.

It might have been less scary if he had just shouted loudly.

I don’t know how to deal with someone who maintains a serious attitude and speaks gently throughout.

“Honestly, I’m in no position to blame you. I myself have taken two wives.”

The untold story of the Spirin family.

The moment the subject came up, Línea’s body trembled.

I knew what her problem was. What she feared.

The relationship between a couple strained by her very existence. The second wife supposedly brought in as a result.

Línea, at the center of that incident, lowered her head as if the mere mention of the topic caused her pain.

“Lost…”

I grabbed her shoulder and pulled her into my arms.

It might be somewhat inappropriate to do this in front of Gallea Spirin, but I had to.

“…It seems I’ve misspoken. I should have been more delicate, I’m sorry, Línea.”

“It’s… okay.”

Gallea Spirin, too, seemed to have belatedly realized Línea’s state.

If there had been no malicious intent, he hurriedly apologized to Línea.

He probably intended to explain my situation, but ended up hurting someone he hadn’t expected.

Just the fact that he hadn’t anticipated such a situation showed how he had managed his family.

“Celia, take Línea outside. That would be better.”

“Yes~ Let’s go, Línea. Let’s go eat a lot of sweet and delicious things.”

Celia patted Línea’s shoulder and left the room with her. As she was leaving, Línea glanced in my direction with a worried look, but soon nodded as if entrusting the matter to me.

“I’m glad to see the two get along.”

“……”

“However, what you’re doing is highly unstable.”

“I know. I also know what Count Gallea wants to say.”

“I see… In that case, I have nothing more to say. If she confided in you, you must certainly be someone she can rely on more than me.”

“……”

He was an inept man.

He knew what his mistake was, but he was someone who had already reached a point of no return.

If only he had trusted Línea’s mother a little more, or at least not taken a second wife under the pretext of continuing the family line.

Then there might have been signs of their relationship healing.

But he had already been too late. The emotional rift had deepened too much to be bridged.

That’s what he was worried about.

Knowing the state he was in, he wanted to admonish me.

“Then I won’t say much.”

“I’m all ears.”

“Whether you take her as a wife or a concubine, I won’t mind. Just… just if you could promise… yes, if you could at least promise that no matter what happens, you will trust her?”

A relationship that had completely soured because of a lack of trust and suspicion.

Knowing that one person had been completely broken because of it, the man spoke almost pleadingly.

And I had to answer him.

“I swear. I will love Línea no matter what happens in the future.”

Only after my clear answer did Gallea Spirin nod and leave with a pale expression.

Ruminating on an irreversible relationship, hoping that his daughter wouldn’t follow the same path he had.

That’s how Gallea Spirin was living, carrying the burden of his regrets.