Chapter 97
Chapter 97
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 97
Chapter Title: End-Time Scenario (3)
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I was excused from class.
It was a considerate gesture from the Cradle, suggesting I take some time to rest my mind and body after the major incident.
It was for the best.
I needed to stay cooped up for a while and sort out my thoughts anyway.
“No matter how I think about it, something’s strange.”
As I wrote the post on the anonymous forum, I couldn’t shake the unsettling feeling.
The series of events leading up to the Empire’s fall and the world being engulfed in the flames of war—it all felt unnatural somehow.
To put it simply, it was as if the entire world had suddenly been swept up in madness.
I didn’t mean that everyone had literally gone insane at the same time.
But from my perspective, the heads of any family with a certain level of influence had definitely lost their minds.
If they weren’t mad, then they must have all suddenly become imbeciles.
Otherwise, there was no way they could have made such a continuous string of terrible decisions.
They certainly had other options.
If they had wanted to, they could have made far better choices.
They could have acted as a stabilizing force, using the reputation and influence they had built over generations to quell the chaos, or they could have passively observed the situation to preserve their strength.
In fact, that was the role people at the time expected of them.
But the reality was the opposite.
They always made the worst possible moves.
They sabotaged their own interests and exacerbated the situation.
It was as if they had intentionally chosen the worst option among the many laid out before them.
As a result, the chaos accelerated, and eventually, the entire world was engulfed in war.
It was strange.
It wasn’t normal.
“Hmm.”
It could have been that they were simply not capable enough to overcome such a turbulent era.
Or perhaps the void left by the great tree that was the Empire was larger than I had thought.
I pondered and pondered.
But no answer came.
As I continued my fruitless contemplation…
*Knock, knock.*
Someone knocked on the door.
“Lian?”
Lian, the leader of Team 3 and a direct descendant of the Kart family, stood before the door.
“What about class?”
My eyes widened at the sight of Lian, who should have been in the middle of a lesson right now.
“All classes have been canceled.”
Lian looked at me and explained the situation.
In short, all cadets of the Silver Eagles batch had been given personal time.
“Until when?”
“Until next week.”
They had cleared a whole week’s schedule for personal time that should have only taken a day or two.
It was a rather sudden decision.
But it seemed I was the only one who thought so.
“Everyone seems to welcome the Cradle’s decision. We all needed some time, anyway.”
His words carried a hint of relief.
Only then did I get a good look at Lian.
It had only been a day since I’d last seen him.
Yet, Lian’s appearance had changed beyond recognition.
For starters, his complexion was poor.
His once-sharp eyes were somewhat dull, and dark circles shadowed his hollowed eye sockets.
It was an overly dramatic change for just one day.
Was something weighing heavily on his mind?
“Can you spare a moment?”
I couldn’t bring myself to refuse and simply nodded.
“Let’s go. Everyone’s waiting.”
I followed Lian to a familiar place.
It was the same clearing where we had once gathered for the sake of unity.
“You’re here?”
The kids saw me and acknowledged my presence.
The complexions of the kids welcoming me were not much different from Lian’s.
The timid Boen, in particular, looked so anxious he seemed on the verge of a seizure.
“What’s this? Did you all have the same nightmare or something?”
I tossed out a silly joke, trying to lighten the heavy atmosphere.
But the kids’ reaction was not what I expected.
“Something like that.”
Instead of refuting my silly joke, they affirmed it.
So they really did all have the same nightmare.
For a moment, I considered the intervention of a mage.
The kind that could enter others’ dreams or manipulate dreams themselves.
The Mages of Nightmares.
In my past life, frontline units had gone collectively insane after being targeted by them.
Because of that, an entire front had collapsed, and I had to run myself ragged following Roman, who was urgently deployed to handle the mess.
“Wait.”
Recalling the existence of those cursed individuals, I immediately checked the kids’ eyes.
Those afflicted by the nightmare curse have a small mark inside their pupils.
A horrific brand that distorts everything they see, blurring the line between dream and reality, eventually turning them into madmen.
“...Huh? It’s not there.”
But contrary to my fears, there was no sign of the curse in the kids’ eyes, nor any trace of magic whatsoever.
Just in case, I checked everyone, but I couldn’t find the mark on anyone.
“Phew.”
I let out a sigh of relief and found a spot to sit.
I gestured to Lian, who had brought me here, asking for an explanation.
“As I thought, you’re fine.”
I had hoped for an explanation about what had brought them to this state, but what I got was a completely unrelated comment.
“I had a feeling you would be.”
“You’re different from the other cadets.”
I couldn’t make any sense of the kids’ subsequent remarks.
“It seems coming to you was the right decision.”
Frustrated, I asked them directly.
“What is it? Why do you all look like this?”
At my words, Lian began to speak.
And after hearing his full explanation, I froze.
“You’re saying that after reading the post on the anonymous forum yesterday, you can’t get it out of your heads?”
So, the reason these kids were in this state was because of me.
“I-It feels like such a world really exists somewhere. Like that future is really going to happen. It’s so scary. No, it will definitely happen. A world where chivalry has fallen to ruin, and everyone is consumed by madness. It’s… it’s too horrible! I can’t stand how scary it is!”
As if a dam had burst, Boen grabbed onto me and poured out his words.
“Y-You know the answer, don’t you?”
The already timid boy was completely terrified.
“What should we do?”
I scowled at the question he threw out like a seizure.
This was driving me crazy.
* * *
I spent a good while comforting the kids.
I don’t know if my efforts paid off, but they gradually regained their composure.
Still, their pale complexions and eyes trembling with anxiety remained.
“You’re saying most of the cadets are like you guys right now?”
I then heard from them about the atmosphere in the Cradle.
Apparently, the entire Cradle felt like a funeral home.
“Why? All because of a single post?”
It was something I couldn’t comprehend.
“A single post?! If what’s written there is true, hell will descend upon this world!”
Boen, shrieking as if having a fit, gasped for breath.
“It’s not just a post.”
Lian stepped in for Boen.
“Of course, I don’t think everything in that post will come true. But some parts are quite plausible. Plausible enough that it wouldn’t be strange if they happened right now, not five years from now.”
There was conviction in Lian’s words.
As a scion of a prestigious family, the quality of information he was privy to must be different.
It seemed he had already cross-referenced it with what he knew.
I was confused.
Should I be happy that the warning I’d thrown out, thinking I had nothing to lose, had reached someone, or should I be troubled by this unintended reaction, which was close to mass hysteria?
I couldn’t decide.
“At the very least, the part about the nature of warfare changing was very persuasive.”
You should know.
Lian’s words, aimed directly at me, made me flinch for a moment.
“There are differences, but the tactics and personnel management you showed before had similar aspects.”
But fortunately, Lian didn’t seem to have any ulterior motive.
There was no sign of suspicion toward me.
Actually, this was a natural reaction.
The information I mentioned in the post was not common enough for a mere squire of a freelance knight to access. It would be abnormal to believe that a kid with barely a year of experience as a squire would know the secret affairs of noble families.
Of course, in the future, the top-secret information each family was guarding so closely would become cheap enough for even market vendors to know.
But there was still a long time before that would happen.
In any case, it was a relief for me.
“Alright, I get what you’re saying. And I get why you came to me.”
I played dumb and asked the kids.
“Still, isn’t your reaction a bit over the top? It’s just a post, after all.”
I myself found it absurd.
I had written that post with such care, hoping at least one person would believe me.
And now, I was devaluing it with my own words.
It was a baffling situation, but that was how I honestly felt.
“Maybe you’re right. We might just be oversensitive after the attack.”
Even as he said that, Lian’s expression hadn’t changed much from the beginning.
“But I can’t forget it. The contents of the post won’t leave my mind.”
Seeing him speak with such a gloomy face, I was at a loss for words.
“It feels like it all really happened somewhere I don’t know about. That’s why I keep thinking about it.”
He wasn’t entirely wrong.
It was all real.
A hell that had not yet arrived, but was destined to.
It was the world I had seen and experienced firsthand.
“It’s described so vividly.”
So, the problem was that I was too good a writer.
“Ha.”
It seemed I had a talent for writing I never knew about.
And not just any talent for writing, but the talent of a great author who could sway people’s emotions with just a few lines.
It wasn’t exactly welcome.
Not only did I not want to discover a hidden talent this way, but such a talent would be of no help in the chaotic era to come.
What was needed to survive was a sword, not a pen.
“Tell us. What should we do?”
Lian bluntly demanded an answer.
“Aren’t you asking the wrong person? You should be asking the instructors about this.”
As I played dumb, the kids shouted in unison.
The instructors were not an option.
“If anyone knows the answer, it’s you.”
At Lian’s blind faith, I just shrugged.
Prestigious family or not, it seemed a kid was still a kid.
Being so swayed by a single post, and demanding an answer to such a difficult problem from a mere cadet who hadn't even taken his oath—it was all clumsy and naive.
“So, how long is the personal time? A week, you said?”
Of course, I knew the answer.
“Yes! Yes!”
“Exactly one week!”
The kids nodded their heads eagerly.
They all had looks of expectation.
“Hmm…”
I quickly made a calculation in my head.
Perhaps this was an opportunity.
The knights with their rigid minds would never follow my methods.
Their pride and convictions were not so soft as to be broken by a mere kid’s words.
If they were, so many knights wouldn't have died in the early days of the Great War.
But the kids in front of me were different.
They were still young, their minds not yet set in stone.
They were in an immature state, with somewhat malleable beliefs and half-formed values.
Right now, it wasn't impossible to completely overhaul them.
“Alright, I get it.”
The kids’ faces brightened at once.
“No blaming me later, okay?”
Watching the kids nod their heads so hard they might fall off, I smiled secretly.
A golden opportunity had just landed in my lap.
Who were these kids before me?
They were talents handpicked from all over the Empire.
Whether it was background or talent.
None of them were inferior to me.
If someone had to stop the coming disaster and war, the kids in front of me had a hundred times better chance than a guy like me.
“Alright, then. No need to drag this out. Let’s start right away.”
I got to work immediately.
The grand plan I had formulated in my head.
It would start with the kids right in front of me.