Chapter 27
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 27
Chapter Title: That Day Will Come
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Forget not, my children.
Forget not, my brethren.
That day will come.
The day when this long, endless time of suffering and oppression ends will come.
With a blue light from the heavens and alongside That One who will liberate us, that day will come.
When that day arrives, let us go welcome it together.
Let us go welcome our king.
Zarha came to his senses, feeling the desert wind brushing sand across his face.
"Ugh..."
"Father! Are you okay?"
When he opened his eyes, he saw his son, Rakan.
Zarha shook off his hazy mind and sat up.
His body had been treated, wrapped in bandages.
Looking around, he realized they were in the Colosseum.
How could he not recognize this cursed place where he had survived by killing countless comrades until now?
The difference was the numerous sleeping bags scattered about, people who looked like doctors bustling around, and his comrades lying down or receiving treatment in the sleeping bags.
Kasha, Horu, Maron, Uron, and countless others he thought had died in the battle were collapsed nearby, treated just like him.
What in the world was going on?
Hadn't he been killed by that lord's arrow?
In his confusion, his son spoke up.
"The lord said he used anesthetic arrows to subdue you and the warriors."
"Anesthetic arrows?"
So that's why his strength had drained away.
With one question resolved, another arose in Zarha's mind.
Why go this far to keep us alive instead of killing us?
Were they sparing them just to enslave and torment them all over again!?
The most logical answer made his stomach churn once more.
The days of agony seemed poised to begin anew, and he pondered igniting another rebellion right then and there.
But as he thought that, something odd caught his eye.
No one, including himself, was wearing Purple Iron Chains.
If they planned to use them as slaves again, the first thing would be to bind them with those chains.
Yet no one around him wore them.
As he grew bewildered by the mounting oddities, a sound came from outside.
Bwoooooong—!!!!
At the massive trumpet blast signaling assembly, Zarha stepped out of the tent with Rakan.
Numerous slaves like himself emerged at the sound.
And at the center of it all, the lord who had shot him with the arrow—Calix Cron—looked down from the pulbinar, the seats reserved only for the most noble in the Colosseum.
The Cron Knight Order guarded him without gaps, both at his side and around the Colosseum.
Once the trumpet fell silent and everyone had gathered, Calix opened his mouth.
"Slaves of Dreihart!! You have been defeated."
His words darkened the faces of everyone present.
They had been defeated.
They knew it, but didn't want to admit it.
They wanted to believe a different tomorrow would dawn from yesterday.
"You have lost to me, Calix Cron, and the rule of Dreihart has been transferred to me, Calix Cron, Lord of Cron, by the will of His Imperial Majesty and the Platinum Council."
A high-ranking figure beside him nodded in agreement.
Even deeper shadows fell over the slaves' faces.
Some prayed the new lord wouldn't be the same trash as the last.
"I am your new master, and you are now my slaves."
At Calix's declaration, some slaves reflexively dropped to their knees.
Among them were even those who had fought Zarha.
Ignoring that sad reflex born of lifelong abuse, Calix continued.
"Your master, Calix Cron, commands the slaves!!"
Every slave there held their breath at the words of their master's first command.
It was said the former lord of Dreihart, to celebrate becoming lord, had gathered 100 gladiators and forced them into a deathmatch.
Trembling at the thought it might repeat, some closed their eyes in terror.
But the words from Calix's mouth next were utterly unexpected.
"Slaves of Dreihart... live freely."
Silence blanketed the Colosseum in an instant.
Even War Overseer Rakyu, listening from the side, thought he'd misheard.
Ignoring their stares, Calix pressed on.
"Live more freely than any freeman!"
The slaves felt like they were dreaming.
Yes, it must be a dream.
For a noble to utter the word "freedom" for their sake—it had to be.
"Live for happiness more than any imperial citizen!"
They had believed they had no right to happiness.
Born slaves, taught it was natural to live abused until death.
Yet the noblest among them denied it.
"Enjoy freedom and happiness all the more for the suffering you've endured until now!!"
Tears streamed from the slaves' eyes.
Overwhelmed by joy beyond words, some simply wept endlessly.
They couldn't believe it.
None of them could believe this moment.
"The history of oppression, suffering, and abuse ends today. I, Calix Cron, your master, declare it."
But as if to prove it no dream but reality, Calix declared.
To all present, so none could deny or misunderstand.
"From today, you are all free!"
The moment Calix finished, flower petals began drifting down in the Colosseum.
Delphinium, those blooms of pure, beautiful blue.
Their meaning: freedom.
When a master presents a delphinium to their slave, the slave is freed.
Seeing the blue petals falling from the sky, the slaves finally knew it wasn't a dream.
They felt their freedom.
"The King of Liberation..."
"The King of Liberation has come."
For ages untold, Dreihart had one legend passed down orally.
That That One would come from the heavens with blue light to liberate them.
The great king come to free the slaves.
In reverence, the people of Dreihart called him thus:
The King of Liberation, who frees all slaves.
"The King of Liberation has come!!"
"Long live the King of Liberation!!"
"Our king! Long live!!"
This was Noah's method.
To make slaves freemen in the Empire, one must first become their master.
The Cron Knight Order quells Dreihart's rebellion alone, becomes their master and the legendary King of Liberation, then grants them freedom.
This was the only way to save them all.
As the slaves cheered, Calix descended into the Colosseum himself.
He approached Zarha, who lay collapsed in joy and ecstasy, sobbing like a child.
Reaching Zarha, Calix bowed his head in apology.
"I'm sorry for hurting you. This was the only way to save you all. Forgive me."
"My lord..."
Zarha's hands trembled.
To the very end, he had doubted him.
He had no choice but to doubt, yet he had anyway.
Assumed a noble could never understand.
But look at this outcome.
Who truly failed to understand?
Who acted like the nobles he despised most?
Zarha felt profound shame that his actions mirrored those he hated.
"I am no King of Liberation. Without your rebellion, I could have done nothing."
Even then, Calix offered no rebuke.
He defended Zarha instead.
"Because you rebelled, they could rise themselves, and I could free them."
Calix said it loud for all to hear.
The rebellion wasn't meaningless.
Because of it, they all gained freedom—he affirmed their actions.
"The true King of Liberation is you, Warrior Zarha."
Tears welled in Zarha's eyes at Calix's words.
He who had raged that no such king existed—yet believed in him more than anyone.
But when the king never came despite his faith, he prepared rebellion in fury.
And as if mocking him, the heavens sent the King of Liberation.
Not just any, but one of vast caliber beyond Zarha's measure, who even healed the wounds in his heart.
Unable to stay still, Zarha approached Calix and knelt on one knee.
"Zarha?"
"Father?"
Then Zarha gripped his right horn and snapped it off with raw strength.
Offering the horn to Calix, Zarha swore.
"Warrior Zarha of the Dragonkin. I offer to my master the horn granted by Dragon God Lanix."
The horn was the Dragonkin's symbol, believed granted by Dragon God Lanix to watch over them.
Thus, Dragonkin warriors offered one horn to the master they truly served.
Swearing to walk the path of loyalty without shame even under the Dragon God's gaze.
That day, Dreihart became territory of the Cron Family, all slaves became freemen, and Warrior Zarha became Calix's vassal.
The moment another great lord was born in the Empire.
At that moment, in the control room atop the Colosseum, three women watched the scene.
Rana the maid couldn't hide her awe at the delphinium petals Sharen conjured with magic.
"What a sight. Lady Sharen, it feels like something out of a dream."
"For a mage, this is simple."
Sharen used illusion magic to generate the petals with mana.
They vanished like snow on touching ground, but it was enough to convey freedom.
Gazing at Noah, who had planned and prepared it all, Rana said,
"Now everything has gone according to your plan, Lady Noah."
"No. It was possible only because the lord resolved himself."
In Noah's Kingmaker plan for Calix, the key was expanding the territory.
Cron Territory, through various reforms, had achieved high food self-sufficiency, becoming robust.
But militarily, it still fell short of great lord status.
So Noah prepared to absorb nearby militarily strong territories, Dreihart among them.
Right after the rebellion broke out, she predicted this and readied western wheat imports and anesthetics.
But preparation was all she could do.
The rest depended on Calix's resolve.
Only when he pitied the slaves, truly intended to free them, and embraced becoming the King of Liberation could it succeed.
Had Calix wavered, seeking profit from slaves like any noble, it would have failed.
But Noah trusted her Eyes of Truth and Lies—and Calix.
A gamble her past self would never take.
And Calix rewarded that faith.
Noah felt proud and cherished the Calix she chose.
'Ah... My lord, truly, only you deserve to be emperor.'
Watching Dreihart's people ecstatically cry "King of Liberation!", Noah was enraptured.
She felt the future drawing near, when all the Empire's citizens would cheer that silver-haired lord.