8. The Revolutionary Corps
8. The Revolutionary Corps
Silence lingered in the private cabin of the magic train.
Two corpses lay cold on the floor. The bodies of Count Vynens and his loyal knight Rakan.
Kung—
The man in the iron mask tapped the floor lightly. Then he straightened his body once more.
"All nobles present in this place."
The iron mask stepped forward heavily with military-issue boots.
"All are guilty of standing by."
The iron mask raised his mace high once again.
"All will die."
Killing intent erupted wildly from the iron mask's entire body. As if he were truly declaring he would kill every noble in this place.
Then, from the back, someone stood. A man with ash-gray hair, Yuma.
"You're spouting strange nonsense."
Yuma stood before the iron mask.
Some guy in an iron mask had suddenly burst in, recited the crimes of a single count, and then smashed his head in with a mace.
If he had quietly vanished after that, Yuma had been ready to let it go. If those crimes were accurate, the bastard deserved to die anyway.
But now, the man suddenly unleashed reckless killing intent and declared he would kill them all.
Yuma felt Cloné's body, seated to his right, tremble faintly.
That was why he stood.
'First, I'll handle one of them.'
He had already used today's <Bullet Time> in front of the 1st Princess Palace. If he had to face many, the answer was defeat in detail.
Kung kung—
But the sound of military boots echoed from behind.
"Stop, Hecard."
Yuma turned his head back.
The one who called the iron mask's name in an unfinished tone was a woman. She strode forward, her long red hair fluttering. The woman's brow was deeply furrowed.
"Didn't I tell you that crimes are laid only upon the criminals?"
"Kuhahahahahaha!"
The iron mask, Hecard, let out an extremely loud laugh.
Then slowly, the laughter stopped.
"Commander, after dealing with these corrupt nobles for years, do you still not know what the so-called nobles of this empire are like?"
Hecard, who had been laughing, suddenly began grinding his teeth furiously.
"If you move that pathetically, the new dawn (黎明) you preached to death can never be achieved!!"
Yuma felt a strange, profound sense of dissonance from Hecard's words. Not from Hecard's existence itself, but from what the man had just shouted.
"Those who obstruct the dawn shall die!"
Buuuuung—!!
Hecard's right hand moved. The blood-stained mace was swung. Toward Yuma's head.
The commander instantly envisioned a future where Yuma's skull was crushed and fragments of flesh scattered.
Jjeo-eo-eong!
Yuma merely moved his right arm with an indifferent expression.
A circular burst of light signaling a successful parry burst forth.
Kwa───jijik!
A crack tore through the dead center of the iron mask. The iron mask split completely in two.
"What... is this?"
Hecard stared blankly at his iron mask rolling across the train floor.
Then he looked down at his body. Unidentified holes were riddled all over his form.
His heart beat no longer.
Pu-hwa-aaaaahk!!
Blood burst from all his limbs.
The mace's attack, wrapped in high-density Aura, had been amplified tenfold and struck the body of its owner, Hecard, directly.
Hecard's body collapsed forward.
Ku─────ung
The train was enveloped in silence once more.
Because the iron mask, who had killed an upper-rank Sword Expert knight in a single blow, had himself been killed in a single blow by an unidentified man.
The man, Yuma, turned his body back to face the red-uniformed figures who were staring at him blankly.
"The agent of the 1st Princess Brigitte."
He took a step forward as he spoke.
"The 1st Princess's Sword, Yuma."
He had to use the position he'd been given.
"Who are you people?"
And lastly, he asked the question with detached indifference.
"...I am Cassiela, commander of the revolutionary group, Dawn."
Cassiela stared directly at Yuma. The one who had mercilessly killed her subordinate.
Yuma stared back at Cassiela.
"It seemed you had differences of opinion with your subordinate. You failed to manage your people properly."
Cassiela swallowed hard.
She had witnessed with her own two eyes Yuma's dagger parry Hecard's mace.
But she hadn't properly seen anything after that.
Not a single strike among the countless attacks that had struck Hecard's body, now a cold corpse.
'A gap...!'
The fact that she, a Master-level swordswoman, could not perceive a thing meant he was a monster far, far beyond the realm of Master. That man who merely stared at the world with weary boredom, exuding no fighting spirit, no killing intent whatsoever.
Yuma looked at the fifteen red-uniformed figures standing behind Cassiela, the red-haired woman before him. He also saw about five more rushing into the private cabin from the rear car.
'If they all attack at once, I can't handle it.'
He had to bluff. Using the divine might he had just displayed as a foundation.
"The choices you can make are only two."
Yuma raised his head arrogantly.
"Death by my hand. Or kneel here and now, all of you, wait, and be arrested when the train stops at the next station."
"Commander, what nonsense is that lunatic spouting? Why are we even listening to this nonsense!"
A blonde mage who had just rushed in and hadn't witnessed Hecard's death swung his staff.
Kwarrrrreung!
A blue lightning bolt surged toward Yuma.
It was the 6th Circle lightning magic, Thunder Strike.
Yuma swung the <Black Dragon Bernak's Fang> in a reverse grip. The tip of the blade met the three streaks of lightning with precision.
Kkwa-aaaaaaang!
The Thunder Strike, amplified tenfold in power, pierced straight through the mage's body.
The mage had no time to feel pain.
Because the moment the lightning struck his crown directly, his brain was incinerated.
His body left no form behind either.
Only a blackened heap of ash remained on the floor.
"Choose one of the two."
Yuma continued his sentence, which the mage had interrupted.
".........."
A long silence flowed.
What broke the silence was:
"Uwee-ee-eee-eek!"
The sound of one of the ten nobles watching the standoff between Yuma and the revolutionary group vomiting up the meal he had just eaten.
A man standing behind Cassiela approached her ear and whispered.
"Commander, what do we do? Do we retreat?"
Yeah, you can do that. Go home.
Yuma answered inwardly.
But the one who actually heard the question, the commander of the Dawn Revolutionary Group, Cassiela, simply stared at Yuma.
"...Yuma, was it? The Princess's sword?"
"Yes."
"Then, are you antagonistic toward the 1st Prince?"
Yuma looked at Cassiela, who was suddenly showering him with questions, with a bored expression.
"Something like that."
"...Since when have you been the Princess's sword?"
"Dawn this morning."
Because that was when the official document had dropped.
"Seeing how she recruited a monster like you, it seems the Princess has made up her mind to become Emperor."
Cassiela looked again at the dead mage and Hecard.
Kill the corrupt nobles.
For the glory of the Asthes Empire.
Their personalities may have been foul, but they were the ones who had most fiercely supported the Dawn's reason for existing.
"Could the world change? If Princess Brigitte became Emperor."
Yuma did not grasp the implication of Cassiela's question.
Because 'Don't Screw Me Over' was someone who had only entered this world two days ago. He didn't know how dirty this world was.
So he gave no answer to the question.
"Your revolution is wrong. Commander of the Dawn Revolutionary Group."
Commander Cassiela's brow furrowed.
The 'dissonance' he'd felt earlier. Yuma had recalled the reason for that dissonance. And he intended to say it.
Revolution, Dawn.
They were keywords held by a major character in the VR roguelike game <Loof Blood>.
They had started as a bad relationship, but she became a friend in the end.
"The name Dawn is wasted on you. If your revolutionary group's name originates from the revolutionary army Dawn founded by Erestina, then you are merely staining that name."
Cassiela's expression went blank.
"You know Erestina?"
Yuma sensed a visible disturbance on Cassiela's face.
As expected.
So this was a part where the world view connected with <Loof Blood>.
If the ones who made this damn world were those bastards, then having such elements wasn't strange. It was common to paste in elements from previous works as homage.
"A friend."
"...A friend?"
"A fleeting connection, but a friend to whom I entrusted my back. A friend, but someone who was fully worthy of respect."
She was the one who ran a tavern and gave shelter and food to truly struggling wanderers. A prodigy who used her brilliant mind to swallow up national commercial spheres and used that to screw over the corrupt nobles.
"If you took the name Dawn to carry on her will, then stop here. Stop staining it further."
Cassiela still wore only a blank expression. As if her soul had left her.
Then, roused by the call of a subordinate, she came to her senses. She scanned the eighteen subordinates who were all looking only at her and spoke in a low tone.
"...We withdraw."
The subordinates nodded without any further objection. Because they had all witnessed the overwhelming martial force of Yuma right before their eyes.
Jjiii-ik!
The eighteen of them tore their return teleport scrolls simultaneously.
"Th-those insane revolutionary bastards!! They've run away!"
A viscount who had been trembling in the corner shouted, pointing his finger into the empty air.
A baron fixed his drooping, graying bangs and slowly approached Yuma.
"Sir, a-are you truly Lord Yuma, appointed as the 1st Princess's Sword?"
Yuma didn't even look at the baron.
"Noisy. I'm tired, so don't disturb my rest."
Step...
Then he walked with a gait that anyone could see was graceful and noble.
A noble walking gait that seemed far removed from fatigue.
But that was the forced nobility created by his Noble Characteristic.
Because Yuma was indeed steeped in fatigue, someone who could fall asleep the moment he closed his eyes.
Each and every parry demanded that much concentration.
As Yuma walked toward his seat where Cloné would be waiting, a red-haired woman surfaced in his mind.
The face of Erestina, the NPC who became a friend in 'Loof Blood'.
She had always greeted him with a smile.
It was only within a game, but seeing that smile made him feel better.
-Don't Screw Me Over, you're staying for a drink today, right? A glass together?
'Now that I think of it.'
After parting ways in the capital, her later story had never been mentioned. Not until he had caught the Immortal King and finished the game.
Lost in thought for a moment, Yuma soon shook his head.
'Loof Blood is just a game, anyway.'
Unlike this shitty world.
Loof Blood was nothing but a complete game. Where it was natural that the entire life of every character wasn't explored in detail. Just a game.
***
The sun had fully set, and it was a dark, gloomy night.
"...."
Cassiela opened the door to the revolutionary group commander's office.
A single black-and-white photograph stood on the desk.
Cassiela picked up the frame holding the photo.
"Mother."
A single tear rolled down her cheek.
"I thought no one would remember. I was wrong. Someone remembered Mother."
-A fleeting connection, but a friend to whom I entrusted my back. A friend, but someone who was fully worthy of respect.
"...There was a friend who remembered Mother."