Chapter 6 If Her Majesty the Empress Wishes.
Chapter 6 If Her Majesty the Empress Wishes.
Chapter 6
"Now that the war is over, soldiers should learn to be satisfied. Aren't soldiers originally supposed to exist just to fight anyway? So what kind of grand reward could they possibly need?"
Eleonora spoke with a furrowed brow.
'She makes absolutely no sense.'
She calls soldiers authoritative, violent, and dangerous, yet on the flip side, she claims it's only natural for soldiers to exist to fight.
Her logic didn't add up at all.
"The Empire does not exist solely for you people. There are the poor, women, and marginalized people. I must look after them as well."
"I never said caring for them was wrong."
Ernst's eyes sank coldly.
"However, the soldiers of the Northern Wall Territory are also citizens of the Empire. The soldiers who lost arms. The wives who lost husbands. The parents who lost sons. The villages burned down by demons. They are all the subjects of His Majesty the Emperor and Your Majesty the Empress. Are they not?"
Ernst's voice dropped a bit lower.
It meant he was that much angrier.
"Why are they excluded from Your Majesty's salvation?"
"Th-That is!"
Eleonora's face hardened.
She had realized that even by her own logic, there was a fatal flaw in what she had just blurted out.
"You're crossing the line."
"I merely stated the facts."
"Ern."
She stood up from her seat.
"Have you become just like them too?"
"Who is 'them'?"
"The military."
Eleonora's pupils turned cold.
"People who know nothing but war. People who try to solve everything with swords. People who scream that demons must be eradicated."
"The demons were the ones who invaded the Empire first."
"That's because they didn't understand each other."
Ernst was momentarily rendered speechless.
That damned idealistic nonsense had popped up yet again.
"Understanding..."
He muttered under his breath softly.
The demons bursting out of the Black Rift had mauled children.
They had burned down villages.
They had hung the limbs and entrails of soldiers on the castle walls.
They had laughed while holding human heads up like flags.
And that was due to a lack of understanding?
"Never say such a thing in the Northern Wall Territory."
Ernst said.
"If those living in luxury in the Empire's capital and imperial court spew such utter garbage... the soldiers buried under the cold soil of the Northern Wall Territory will never be able to close their eyes in peace, even in death."
Eleonora's face flushed red.
It wasn't out of shame.
It was rage.
Ever since transmigrating into this world, she had always been praised.
The Emperor loved her.
The nobles called her wise.
The people called her a saint.
Yet Ernst was different.
He did not admire nor envy her.
He did not bow his head either.
He did not call her ideals grand.
Instead, he told her softly and coldly that she was wrong.
That very fact provoked Eleonora.
"You."
Eleonora gnashed her teeth.
"You really have changed."
"The battlefield changes people."
"No."
Her eyes turned sharp.
"You've become dangerous."
Ernst looked at her without a word.
"Swordmaster. War hero. Symbol of the Northern Army. Soldiers move at your every single word."
Eleonora's voice grew lower and lower.
"If such a person holds discontent toward the will of the Imperial Family, what else is that if not the seed of treason?"
"Your Majesty the Empress? That is an incorrect assessment!"
Adjutant Eileen stepped forward in utter shock.
The Empress was framing Ernst as a traitor in an instant.
"Then are you going to detain me as well?"
Ernst did not smile.
"If necessary?"
Eleonora raised her hand with a twisted smile.
"White Rose Knights. Enter at once!"
From outside the reception room, the clanking of metal echoed.
"So you had something to rely on."
Ernst reached out his hand.
Then, the decorative sword hanging on the wall unsheathed itself and flew into his hand.
Ernst immediately pointed the decorative sword at the Empress.
A thick, suffocating killing intent shot toward the Empress.
"E-Ern...?"
The blood drained from Eleonora's face.
For the first time, fear seeped into her voice.
As a transmigrator who had taken over the body of the original novel's heroine Empress, she had walked a path paved with roses.
Ernst von Eisenwald.
Even though he was called a war hero, he was just one of the original novel's sub-male leads, so she hadn't let her guard up much.
She had thought that just like the Emperor and the other sub-male leads, he would whine and beg beneath her feet.
However, at this very moment.
"Phoo."
Ernst was looking down at the terrified Empress.
Black pupils sunken like an abyss.
The moment Eleonora met those eyes, she realized.
This man was not the sub-male lead she knew.
He was not the childhood friend who used to smile affectionately while looking at her.
He was not a beautiful plot device always sacrificing himself for the female lead.
He was a monster returned from the battlefield.
"D-Don't come any closer! Go away!"
Eleonora involuntarily retreated backward.
Her legs gave out limply.
"Don't come near me!"
Teolseok.
In the end, she collapsed onto the floor.
"If you so much as harm me..."
Eleonora said in a trembling voice.
"You really will become a traitor. Do you know that? Huh?"
Ernst looked down at the decorative sword.
The grey aura upon the blade flickered quietly.
"If Her Majesty the Empress desires so."
Ernst spoke calmly and softly.
"I will gladly become a traitor for you as much as you wish."
"Hiiiek!"
Eleonora's pupils quivered.
The sub-male lead, who hadn't even held much weight in the original novel, was revealing intense hostility.
As a result, behind the facade of the almighty Empress, her true self as a 30-something NEET sitting in her room on modern Earth began to show.
That pathetic sight of her spewing male-hatred with a keyboard in the corner of her room.
That sight was vividly apparent to Ernst, who had been the transmigrator Seo Jinwoo.
"By the way, let me ask you just one thing. Who on earth are you? Who are you to be playing the role of Empress?"
"I-I am...! But how...?"
Han Yura.
The pupils of the transmigrator Han Yura quivered violently.
He hadn't asked directly.
However, Ernst was speaking as if he were seeing right through her true identity.
"Phoo."
Ernst said no more.
Instead, he lowered the decorative sword.
"You controlled yourself well, Young Grand Duke-nim."
"I had to. Killing the Empress right here and being falsely framed as a traitor isn't an option."
That was right.
Ernst could easily kill the Empress here at any time.
However, if he did so, it would be no different from branding himself as a traitor just as they desired.
He couldn't irresponsibly pass such a brand onto the soldiers of the Northern Wall Territory.
Therefore, he could not kill the Empress right now.
Keeping her alive served far more uses than killing her.
"Eileen. Seize the Empress."
"Yes, Young Grand Duke-nim."
As an adjutant, Eileen was both a fine strategist and a knight.
However, it was right when Eileen quickly approached.
"Ern... You will regret this... Definitely..."
Eleonora snatched the pendant hanging around her neck with her hand.
Paat!
Then, along with a burst of light, Eleonora vanished without a trace in an instant.
By a hair's breadth, Eileen missed the Empress.
'So she's still the original novel's female lead after all, huh?'
The original heroine Eleonora was no easy push-over character.
That pendant was likely an ancient artifact granted to the heroine.
It was unfortunate, but there was no choice but to bide time for the future.
"I shall return soon. At that time, I will take your life, wench."
Ernst promised, taking one last look at the spot where the Empress had vanished.
Now all that remained was the Empress's pathetic White Rose Knights.
"Your Majesty the Empress! We have arrived!"
Cheolkeok!
The door burst open, and female knights clad in white armor entered.
Breastplates engraved with rose emblems.
Pauldrons decorated like lace.
Armor highlighting their waistlines.
Jewels were embedded in their scabbards.
They were beautiful.
To the point of appearing utterly useless on a battlefield.
"The Empress abandoned you all and fled. And yet you still intend to block my path?"
Ernst sneered.
"Eek! Her Majesty the Empress is a noble person! She left the aftermath to us only because she trusts us!"
The female knight captain shouted and lashed out frantically.
"Hmph, quite a favorable spin on things. Fine. Try and stop me then."
"Very well! Ernst von Eisenwald. I am Seine Ron Castra, Captain of the White Rose Knights. Disarm yourself and surrender by order of Her Majesty the Empress!"
The female knight with beautiful emerald hair at the very front placed her hand on her sword.
"Surrender? I refuse."
The decorative sword held by Ernst trembled.
"What do you plan to do with a mere decorative sword?"
The female knight captain Seine mocked him openly.
"Well now. Weren't you lot the ones who are decorative?"
Ernst didn't bother offering a lengthy reply.
A grey light spread across the blade.
It was faint at first, but then deepened.
Paaat!
The aura blazed up.
The air inside the reception room collapsed under pressure.
"Euk!"
One female knight fell to her knees.
Another female knight's face turned pale.
Someone's hand trembled while gripping the hilt of her sword.
What they faced was not a simple aura.
It was the killing intent honed over eight years of slaying demons.
The momentum of a survivor who stood atop crumbling castle walls.
The dignity of a war hero and Swordmaster who had staked his life before the Black Rift and the Grand Duke of the Demon Realm.
The White Rose Knights could not endure it.
"W-What are you doing!"
Female knight captain Seine gnashed her teeth and drew her sword.
"We are knights of Her Majesty the Empress! Do not retreat!"
She charged first.
'Oho?'
She was fast.
By the standards of knight orders existing in the capital, that is.
However, compared to the demons of the Northern Wall Territory...
'Far too slow.'
Ernst's sword moved.
Kahang!
The captain's sword shattered into pieces.
"Huh?"
Seine's eyes widened.
The masterwork sword bestowed by the Empress had been shattered in a single blow.
In the next moment, Ernst reached out his hand and unleashed his grey aura.
"Kyaaak!"
Kwaang!
Seine's body slammed into the wall.
Her armor crumpled, and the rose ornament rolled onto the floor.
"Ah, ah..."
The remaining female knights could not move.
Rather, they were unable to move.
"Ahhh..."
Several female knights stood shivering, legs trembling violently.
One ended up wetting herself, soaking the floor.
Fear took precedence over shame.
"Pathetic."
Ernst scoffed with genuine contempt.
To think that the level of the most elite female knight order, which embezzled twice the annual budget of the Northern Wall Territory, was merely this much.
There was no need to even bring up actual combat experience.
The White Rose Knights?
They were nothing more than beautiful dolls focused solely on showy appearance.
"Let's go, Eileen."
Ernst began walking out of the Empress's residence.
"Yes, Young Grand Duke-nim."
Eileen immediately followed right behind Ernst.
"Eeuu..."
The terrified White Rose Knights did not dare block their path.
The servants were equally frozen.
Even the royal guards outside the reception room could not bring themselves to draw their swords.
Everyone knew.
If they tried to stop that man now, everyone would die.
"Phoo."
Ernst caught his breath as he walked down the corridor of the Platinum Palace.
Portraits of past Emperors were still hanging on the walls.
The founding Emperor slaying demons.
The knight who blocked the Black Rift.
The heroes who saved the Empire.
Underneath those paintings, a traitor was walking.
Even though he was a man hailed as a war hero just a moment ago.
Of course, the Empire would soon brand him a traitor.
'It doesn't matter. The die has already been cast.'
Nevertheless, Ernst did not stop.
"Open the door. Unless you wish to die."
Kkiik.
At Ernst's killing intent, the gates of the Platinum Palace opened.
"Phoo..."
Soon, the cold night air rushed in.
In the distance, the lights of the temporary camp outside the capital could be seen.
There, the soldiers who had survived the Northern Wall Territory were waiting.
Abandoned soldiers.
Comrades who might soon be framed as traitors.
And people who did not yet know what they would become.
"It is a reality cruel to the point of being tragic."
Jjaenggeurang.
Ernst slowly discarded the decorative sword.
The jewel-adorned sword shattered atop the marble stairs.
"Young Grand Duke-nim."
Eileen called out softly.
"There is no turning back now."
"I know."
"What will you tell the soldiers?"
Ernst looked up at the night sky.
Unlike the Northern Wall Territory, the sky of Luminark was clear.
There was no Black Rift, nor were there roars of demons.
Yet strangely, this place felt far more dangerous right now.
"I must tell them the truth."
Ernst spoke in a surprisingly calm and low tone.
"That the Imperial Family has abandoned us."
Eileen did not reply.
"And."
Ernst's black eyes turned toward the lights of the temporary camp.
"That we will no longer die abandoned."
With those words, Ernst von Eisenwald descended the stairs.
"Are you returning to the temporary camp?"
"How much spare time do we have, Eileen?"
"It will take up to an hour at most for the Empress to announce the treason and mobilize the military forces inside and outside the capital, Young Grand Duke-nim."
Indeed, it was so.
Military forces were not entities that could be moved so easily.
"Then we still have a little time left."
Ernst had no intention of returning to the temporary camp alone.
He had to rescue Commander-in-Chief Walter, who was detained by the Empress.
"I am heading to the prison. Eileen, return to the temporary camp and make preparations."
"Yes, Young Grand Duke-nim. I will be waiting. Please return safely without fail."
Luminark, the capital of the Arcadion Empire.
Here, the very first ember of the Grey Revolution was beginning to spark.
End of Chapter 6.