Seeds of Hope, Rewards Obtained

McDeras watched the man who, even as he wished for his own death, finally wore an expression of peace. He drove a kick into the man's gut and spoke.

"Don't use me as a tool for your suicide. Raise your sword."

Brifen nodded and lifted his blade. He took it as McDeras's kindness—to grant him his final death not as suicide, but in the form of a duel.

Brifen wrapped his sword in aura and swung, but the moment it touched McDeras's blade it shattered to pieces. Staring blankly at the ruined weapon, the man sank to his knees and murmured,

"No matter what I did, the outcome would have been the same, wouldn't it, Lord McDeras. There is one thing I wish to ask. You knew about the sacred relic as well, didn't you?"

"Of course."

Even when Brifen had thrown the relic ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to the emperor, McDeras had not failed to stop him—he had simply chosen not to. It would never have activated anyway.

Still on his knees, Brifen muttered,

"If only I had possessed power like yours…"

"The problem is that you chose me as your point of comparison. You are strong enough. Emperor Lukan, now a corpse at your side, did not make you his hunting dog for nothing."

"I see… In any case, the only end for a knight who loses in battle is death. Please take my head."

McDeras walked toward the man, then asked one more question.

"From what I overheard, it seems your sick younger sister was taken as a hostage and you were forced to follow the emperor's will. Explain."

"It is a common enough story. My only sister was dying of an incurable disease, barely able even to walk… A single mother raising a young child, struck down by sudden illness."

Those standing near McDeras froze. McDeras himself brushed his own cheek.

Surely not…

The little boy who had stood guard over his mother at the border. The child who had sobbed that McDeras could kill him so long as he spared his mother. The boy who, to the very end, had raised a sword and swung it at McDeras.

Impossible.

The border was one of the most dangerous positions on the battlefield. Leaving nothing but a frail woman and a small child there was unthinkable—especially if those hostages were the leash around Brifen's throat.

McDeras raised his sword to take the man's head. Brifen's swordsmanship was overwhelming. He had only lost so one-sidedly because he had fought McDeras; in truth he was strong enough to toy with a formidable opponent like Tekeloman as if he were a plaything.

If there had been a sure way to bind this man to the Fibron Empire, keeping him alive would have been far more profitable than killing him. Even at the last, he had been a man of such firm conviction that he personally struck down the emperor.

The problem was that McDeras had no way of knowing the fate of the sister who had forced Brifen's obedience. If remnants of the imperial faction still left in the Caelon Empire took Brifen's sister hostage again and threatened him, there was no guarantee the man would not become an enemy once more.

So he decided to kill him.

A shame, but it can't be helped.

The moment McDeras lifted his blade, Brifen spoke with empty eyes.

"I have a photograph of my sister against my chest. If by chance you should find her body on the battlefield… no… if the child at least is still alive… if you would see to that child, I would be more grateful than I can say."

"That much I can grant."

Finding them would be impossible. How could anyone search among so many people for one woman and a child? They might already have been reduced to ash. Still, answering this way would ease the man's heart a little.

Thinking that, McDeras swung—then stopped.

That is…?

The pendant in Brifen's hand. The photograph of a woman smiling brightly caught his eye.

McDeras halted the blade mid-swing and used magic to seize the pendant with telekinesis, drawing it into his own palm.

Beside him, Princess Brainy murmured in astonishment,

"This woman is…?"

The middle-aged woman from the border. Her face was the very image of the one in the picture.

McDeras lowered his sword and asked Brifen,

"Do you have even a rough idea where your sister might have been?"

"I do not. But she originally lived near the border region. The emperor always threatened me with that. He said that if I so much as stepped out of line, he would throw her into the enemy lines. That if the enemy ever invaded our empire, my sister would be the first to die."

McDeras understood why Emperor Lukan had treated such a precious hostage that way. He had driven a man to the edge of a cliff and laid a trap from which there was no escape.

He never even imagined the border would be breached.

Thinking back, McDeras recalled the knights lingering near the house until the very end, then fleeing in a panic only after countless of their number had died.

Piece by piece, the puzzle locked into place.

Lucky bastard.

McDeras put the question to Brifen.

"Even now, would you change your mind and raise your sword for the Fibron Empire?"

Those around them flinched in surprise, yet not one of them interfered with McDeras's words. After all, the man was a war hero itself. Whatever he did, they judged there must be sufficient reason.

"I cannot. I no longer have any cause to take up a sword."

"You have a sister and her child to protect, don't you?"

"…"

Brifen fell silent, then spoke in a trembling voice.

"They may already be dead. No—even if they are not, they will die soon. My sister suffers from a disease that makes her blood reverse its flow unless she receives highly concentrated holy power from an imperial princess every single day. That is why I asked you to recover her body if you found it, and why I begged you to save the child at least, if by some miracle he was still beside her."

Brifen muttered in despair.

"But the chance that a child who has lost his parents in war is still alive on his own is vanishingly small. I know that. I know they cannot still be living. Even if soldiers happened to take them, it would change nothing. The moment they confirmed my sister's death, they would decide both were useless and kill them before discarding the bodies. And if the soldiers never took them at all…"

His words were bleak, but they were realistic.

If McDeras had not found them first.

"They are alive."

McDeras spoke, but Brifen did not believe him.

"That cannot be…?"

As if to give him certainty, McDeras offered information he should never have known.

"You said there was a child… Your nephew is only about ten, yet he was already remarkably brave."

"…? Lord McDeras, how do you know the child's sex and age…?"

In Brifen's hollow, empty eyes, the faintest light of hope began to rise.

"I found them at the border. With my own power I healed your sister, and I had them escorted into the Fibron Empire. Follow me, and I will let you meet them."

"…"

Brifen began to weep like a madman. He collapsed face-down onto the earth and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠sobbed without end, choking and keening. Of course he did—the sister he had believed dead, the sister whose death had seemed certain even if she still lived, and her son as well, were both alive.

It was a miracle. No greater miracle could possibly occur.

"I will make the offer once more. Devote the rest of your life to the suffering people of the Fibron Empire. Do that, and I will spare you."

Brifen raised his sword and split his own palm, letting the blood fall. Watching the drops strike the ground, the man swore his oath.

"Until the day I die, I will live and atone for my sins."

McDeras heard him and nodded. A few of those present seemed thoroughly displeased that Brifen—once the emperor's personal knight—was being allowed to live, but in time they would learn why McDeras had spared him.

The long war between the Caelon Empire and the Fibron Empire was racing toward its end. No matter who argued otherwise, it was the Fibron Empire's complete victory.

Having lost its sovereign, its core forces, and its bureaucrats, the person who held the greatest decision-making authority in the Caelon Empire at that moment was Imperial Knight Commander Brifen. Naturally, Brifen declared surrender at once.

A war that had ended unofficially was now formally concluded by a man who possessed the authority to do so.

Before the eyes of the people of the Caelon Empire and the knights of the Fibron Empire, McDeras and Brifen mounted the same platform.

The expressions on the faces of the Caelon citizens were dark. Overnight they had lost their nation and been forced to endure the deaths of countless people.

The powerless had never held any decision-making power; that reaction was only natural.

If they were simply absorbed by force, the citizens of the Caelon Empire who nursed that hatred would one day rise in revolt, and then another terrible sacrifice would have to be paid.

For true salvation, preventing a recurrence was essential.

Brifen called out to the people of the Caelon Empire.

"We have been defeated in war."

The citizens of Caelon poured abuse upon the man. They cursed him for selling the country and began to despair that they were finished. Brifen looked at McDeras; when McDeras signaled him to proceed as he saw fit, Brifen spoke as though he had made up his mind.

"We have lost the war, yet you will live better lives than before. The tax rate that once approached ninety percent without distinction will be fixed at ten percent. Mages and swordsmen will be paid fair compensation for their labor, and facilities for the convenience of the people will be established."

The citizens' reaction remained cold. They believed empty promises shouted at the powerless would never be kept—that this was nothing more than the mockery of the victors.

As if reading their mood, McDeras reached toward the crimson sphere floating in the air. Rain began to fall from the sky.

This time it was not the red rain that meant death. Green rain—the color of life—began to pour down. Those suffering from wounds were healed the instant the rain touched them.

People witnessed the sight with their own eyes and cried out toward the heavens. A miracle had occurred.

Who had worked the miracle was obvious. The single man standing atop the great platform, commanding the crimson sphere.

McDeras called out to them.

"I will not waste words. Everything Brifen has said will be carried out. Even after I am gone, the Fibron Empire will neither coerce you nor exploit you as the previous emperor did, and the Saintesses will never again be used as playthings."

Still the people of Caelon looked uneasy. One courageous man among them shouted,

"W-we know our empire's strength has weakened. Other nations will invade to take revenge for what they suffered in the past!"

"I am aware. That is why, for the next twenty years, the Fibron Empire will protect ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠you in exchange for collecting a ten-percent tax. That is the pact I made with them."

No one asked McDeras by what authority he made such promises. Only moments earlier they had all witnessed him work the power of a miracle. It was not difficult to conclude that the widely known mass-slaughterer was this very man as well.

Their true concern, however, was something else.

"If… if the promise is not properly kept, what becomes of us?"

McDeras looked out over the countless people packed below and spoke with absolute clarity.

"This applies to everyone. If the citizens of the Caelon Empire rise in revolt against the Fibron Empire that has shown them mercy, or if the Fibron Empire uses this war as a pretext to oppress the powerless of Caelon… if there are those who commit such shameless acts—"

The crimson sphere hanging in the sky split in an instant into thousands of fragments that filled the heavens. Under that overwhelming pressure, the murmuring plaza fell utterly silent.

"Then I will return here."

"And without a shred of mercy, I will kill every last person who caused the problem."

The mouth of the man who had been asking questions snapped shut. There was no longer any need for doubt.

After all, no one who had witnessed such a sight would dare break the man's word—unless they desired the suicide of their entire people.

Those around them began to murmur.

"I-if those words are truly kept, wouldn't life become far better than it is now? We wouldn't have officials bleeding us dry for no reason, and families wouldn't be dragged off and killed for failing to pay impossibly high taxes…"

"You're right… The emperor's tyranny was infamous… If the pact is truly honored, people like us without power might actually find life much easier."

McDeras let them talk long enough.

Then, a moment later, he shouted to every person of both the Caelon Empire and the Fibron Empire.

"The war is over! All of you—return to your daily lives."

Every knight of the Fibron Empire began to disarm and withdraw, and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠only then did the people erupt in cheers.

Most of the cheering belonged to the Fibron Empire, but mixed among it were voices from Caelon as well—the voices of those who now held the hope that they might escape tyranny and live proper lives.

McDeras watched them.

Whether this had been the absolute best choice, he did not know. But one thing was certain: this was the best he himself could do.

As McDeras stepped down from the platform, Plimia threw her arms around him with all her strength and said,

"Thank you so much… truly…"

Princess Brainy, Knight Commander Tekeloman, Fltain and Brifen the Imperial Knight Commander, and the countless knights who had fought beside him all offered McDeras their salutes.

The voices that kept cheering McDeras's name. The laughter of those rejoicing that they were finally free of war.

Each and every one was proof that a terrible war had come to an end.

As McDeras looked upon them with a smile, a system message appeared in his vision for the first time in a long while.

A cascade of reward messages rose before him. Then a cheerful chime rang out.

The moment McDeras saw the Admin abilities, he let out a short, dry laugh.

Things are about to get a lot more interesting.

McDeras chose to confirm without the slightest hesitation.