Until the Very End
Raising her sword with such fierce resolve and making that declaration had meant something — but in the end, it was still only a cry.
To stage a rebellion, every single piece of it had to be put into motion.
"Lady Luna — no. My lord."
Mets's voice, now calling her not castle lord or Lady Luna but my lord, startled her a little. Still, she knew it was a title she would have to grow used to. She nodded slowly and answered.
"Go ahead."
"What will you do with those who refuse to cooperate?"
Everyone present had already given their hearts to Luna. But the remaining officers — the ones still quietly doing their duty elsewhere, not in this room — were another matter entirely.
They had entered the Karelia Army and worked for Karelia. Just because their castle lord suddenly raised a rebellion did not mean they would fall in under Luna without a second thought.
True, Vanessa's tyranny and Karelia's willingness to look the other way had already eroded the officers' goodwill far below what it once was. Even so, without dealing with them, cleanly taking Teppelo Castle was all but impossible.
Tifa, who had been listening beside them, scratched her head and spoke up.
"Isn't it obvious? We just round 'em all up. Let them go and they could blow the whole plan before we even start."
Tifa's point was sound.
The later word of the rebellion and the seizure of the castle reached outside ears, the better for Luna's side. That much more time to reorganize, prepare, and shore everything up.
And right now, Karelia was not the only force they had to worry about.
Luna, lost in thought for a moment, slowly parted her lips.
"…Violet."
"Yes, my lord."
Even in that still-youthful voice, the word my lord carried real weight.
For a second Luna almost marveled that Violet — the girl who used to sit blankly with a book — could sound so alive. But this was no time to linger on that.
"I can leave the right flank to you, can't I?"
Violet grasped her intent at once and bowed her head.
"I will send a letter to the Ohana Army myself."
"Please do."
As Violet said, they had to account for the Ohana Army on their right as well.
How Ohana would judge them was anyone's guess — but before those people could collude with Karelia and turn on them, Luna's side needed to win them over first.
Luna turned her head toward Mets and Tifa.
"Everyone. Would you gather all the officers under our command?"
"Shall we have them all bound?"
At Mets's question, Luna slowly shook her head.
"No. Do not threaten them in any way. Simply bring them here."
"Hold on. What are you planning to do?"
"Leave this part to me, Tifa."
After answering Tifa that way, Luna looked once more at every face in the room.
And then… the one who had become their sovereign bowed her waist again before her vassals.
"Leave it to me. Please."
If Swen finds out about this, he'll be furious. He'll tell me I mustn't do this. Luna knew that much herself.
But when it came to asking her comrades for help with her whole heart, she did not really know any method other than putting her sincerity on full display.
She would surely catch an earful for it… but that was fine.
She would be relieved just to be able to hear that scolding at all.
"…I will bring them at once."
Mets nodded, then left the castle with Francis and Tifa in tow.
It was time to settle things once more.
Not long after.
Hearing that the castle lord had summoned them urgently, every officer serving at Teppelo Castle gathered in the audience hall.
And before long… the entire assembly, faces stricken with shock, finally managed to speak.
"My lord… you mean to found a new nation?"
"I do. As of today, I declare the Lunarien force, and I intend to open an age of peace upon a continent drowning in chaos."
"When all is said and done, that means betrayal, does it not?"
"…"
Faced with the question, Luna closed her eyes and could not answer.
Mets flared up at the words and shouted. This time, Luna did not stop him.
"I already explained everything! Vanessa ordered the elimination of a castle lord who only sought to keep faith! Why should anyone pour out loyalty for someone who never meant to trust her from the start?"
"If that was Vanessa's will and not our lord's, could you not simply speak openly with our lord about it?"
"Even if we spoke, knowing what kind of person Vanessa is—"
"And besides, can we entirely rule out the possibility that this is merely Lord Mets's one-sided claim?"
"What did you just…? Are you finished talking? You know full well what sort of person Vanessa is, so how can you dismiss my words—"
"Mets. It's all right."
At Luna's voice, Mets finally reined in his temper and fell silent.
The man who had asked the first question let out a long sigh, looked around, and spoke.
"So then — why call us here? To lock us up? If you truly believe things will go smoothly after discarding faith like this—"
"That is not it."
Cutting the officer off mid-sentence, Luna bowed her waist with an expression of deep apology.
"I apologize for interrupting you. But I wish to persuade you. I only want to protect your right to choose freely."
"A chance, you say?"
"Whether you choose me, or return to your original lord, Karelia… please speak freely."
At those words, the people gathered there began to murmur all at once.
Not only the officers just brought in, but even those already following Lunarien wore looks of surprise.
And yet it went no further than that.
No one raised a challenge against what Luna had said.
Because Luna had spoken. Because she had asked them to trust her. And so they trusted her. They believed in her actions and stood behind them.
"…And if we say we will return — what then?"
"I will send you back unharmed."
"And how am I supposed to believe that? Coming from someone who means to drive a knife into the back of a lord who trusted her so completely!"
"…"
Watching Luna remain silent, the officer raised his voice, almost interrogating her.
"Then how about this. If you release me, I will go straight to our lord. I will report every weak point of Teppelo Castle. Even so — can you still let me go?"
"Yes. I will release you."
"…Hah. Unbelievable…"
"But please allow me to say this much."
At Luna's words, the officer held his silence.
Sensing that the silence was not a refusal, Luna bowed her waist once more and spoke.
"I beg you. Please trust me and follow me. Please become my strength. I desperately need the hands — the help — of all of you who have worked alongside me at Teppelo Castle."
"…"
"I will not claim that Karelia is a wicked person. But the Karelia of today is someone who cannot defy that woman… Vanessa. And you all know far too well what Vanessa has done, do you not?"
The moment Vanessa's name left her lips, the officers' complexions changed again.
Yes.
Everything she had done with military authority behind her had been so harsh that no force on the continent — not only Karelia's — would have carried it out.
It was not only her underhanded treatment of Luna that was the problem.
They had not served under Karelia for long years just to watch such things. That was why Luna's words could shake them.
"Our present lord — Lord Karelia — is suited to govern a castle in peaceful times. I do not believe he is suited to be a sovereign in an age of chaos like this. So I ask you all: will you not entrust your dreams not to Karelia, but to me — to Lunarien?"
After Luna finished speaking, the packed audience hall sank into a heavy silence.
In truth — though it was a rather base thought — no one felt kindly toward Vanessa.
Least of all here at Teppelo Castle, sitting on the border.
Public opinion among the domain's people regarding Vanessa was already in ruins, and the officers under her had only obeyed her words because they were their lord's commands. They harbored enormous resentment toward every brutal order she had ever issued.
And the backer who made all of that possible was none other than Karelia.
Rebellion was not a righteous act.
As long as they belonged to the Karelia Army, that conviction weighed all the heavier.
But if their lord was only going to keep being led around by Vanessa like this… then perhaps this path might be the right one after all.
Because that thought was not entirely absent, the man could not open his mouth carelessly.
If he truly had no second thoughts, he would have stepped forward without looking back the moment the choice was offered.
The very fact that he was still listening to Luna already meant he had one foot halfway into betrayal.
Then—
"I would like to ask Lord Luna a single question."
A seasoned male officer carefully raised his hand and spoke.
Counting from the imperial era, he had served at Teppelo Castle for over forty years. His name was Shane.
It was no exaggeration to say he had helped Luna more than anyone else right after she first took office as castle lord.
"Please speak."
"If the only reason we should follow Lord Luna is Vanessa's tyranny — is that not insufficient?"
And this old officer began pressing Luna from a thoroughly practical angle.
"Even if you have expanded your forces, the number of domains is still vastly different. There is no real countermeasure prepared for the neighboring Ohana Army. And even if you hold a justification fitting for rebellion — betrayal is still betrayal. Setting moral questions aside, the fact that we are overwhelmingly at a disadvantage does not change in the slightest, does it?"
"…"
"I do not think Lord Mets is lying. It is probably true. Lord Luna is not someone who invents things that never happened."
Shane cleared his throat briefly and continued.
"Furthermore, I will not say the castle lord has no strengths at all. If Karelia is a setting sun, then you are a rising one. If the two of you are similar in temperament, then as you say, the one who can make decisions like yours may well have the advantage in surviving this chaotic age. But if we are to entrust a new dream somewhere, this old man believes there ought to be a few more strengths than that."
"When you say strengths… what sort of things do you mean?"
"There are many kinds. But right now, those strengths are conspicuously lacking. Betraying Lord Karelia and still choosing to cooperate with Lord Luna is not a choice that feels attractive enough to stake our lives on. That is what I am saying."
In short, Shane's meaning was this:
Show us a little more of something worth crossing over for. We are not without grievances against the current Karelia system. But this alone is not enough for us to risk our lives cooperating.
If this entire conversation was one great moment of persuasion, Luna sensed that this was the most critical turning point — and fell into thought.
"That is…"
Until now, she had come this far thinking, What would Swen have done?
But when it came time to actually appeal to a strength, no answer would come.
This persuasion had been a plea from the start.
A situation of begging them to believe in her.
When every aspect was disadvantageous, and all she could offer was a promise to somehow fight through it and ask for their help… how many things could she possibly claim that would let them overwhelm the Karelia Army?
The only real difference was that there was no one like Vanessa here — and that was all.
In that moment, what rose foolishly in Luna's mind was nothing but the words Swen had once given her.
"Don't worry too much, my lord. No matter how meager and difficult the situation is now — if we go until the very end, we will win."
Swen…!
Saying if we go until the end, I will win might only earn her ridicule.
But if it was something Swen himself had said… that faintly absurd thought had just crossed her mind when—
"Legitimacy."
"…?"
"What if I told you we possess a legitimacy that the Karelia Army does not?"
The one who answered Shane was not Luna.
It was the old man who always occupied the lowest seat among the three who stayed at Luna's side — Cain.
"Legitimacy, you said?"
"Indeed. Legitimacy. Our force holds an overwhelming legitimacy that Karelia does not. At least when it comes to the justification needed to unify this continent."
"Um… Lord Cain…?"
At Luna's question, Cain glanced at her.
His eyes shone more clearly than they ever had.
It was the same look he had worn on that final day, during his conversation with Swen.
"Shane. You know why the tyrant Serpina can still sit on that throne despite all her oppression, do you not?"
"I do not understand why that is being brought up now."
"What if Serpina were not the only living member of House Aingart?"
"…!!!"
"And what if that member of House Aingart declared support for Lord Luna?"
Everyone who heard those words was stunned.
The only ones who did not look surprised were the three children Cain had brought with him — Francis, Charlotte, and Violet.
And the one most shocked of all was Luna, who had always been at his side.
—If we go until the very end, we will win.
The thoroughly ordinary old man standing before them, Cain Nerkis, seemed almost to be proving the words Swen had once spoken to Luna.
"I will reveal it now. My name is not Cain Nerkis."
Having said that, Cain turned his gaze — not to Shane this time, but to Luna's face.
This was the moment.
The moment he chose the woman he had picked merely to while away the days under a false name, clinging to life with his back to a fallen imperial house—
"My name is Kyle von Aingart. The late king, Serpina's father, was my elder brother. And I possess physical proof sufficient to demonstrate that fact!"
—as the one who would stand in Serpina's place.
Legitimacy.
The overwhelming legitimacy that only Serpina had held on this continent came rolling, unearned, into Luna's hands—
and Luna looked once more at the face of that white-haired man and thought:
His words… were right again this time.