Chapter 218: Count Rondon (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 218: Count Rondon (3)
Ordinary people.
Most of them didn't know Roman Dmitry’s face.
They had heard the rumors, of course, but recognizing the man himself on the soil of Redford was a different matter entirely.
And yet...
"It's Roman Dmitry!"
"That's him! Count Rondon is conspiring with the Dmitry Family right now to siphon off Redford's wealth! You traitors! Aren't you ashamed before the heavens for living like this?!"
A few voices suddenly erupted from the crowd.
For Jacklin, this was a bewildering situation.
Having worked at the party, he recognized Roman Dmitry, but he had absolutely no intention of provoking him. This was the rumored Aura Swordsman. Knowing exactly what kind of monster he was dealing with, Jacklin’s original plan had been to avoid drawing Roman's ire at all costs, no matter how extreme the protest became.
But that plan... was ruined by this sudden, unscripted outburst.
Faced with shouts that directly provoked the Aura Swordsman, Jacklin found himself unable to back down. He looked deeply troubled.
Observing the unfolding situation, Roman Dmitry locked eyes on the men who had raised their voices.
'Agitators have mixed in.'
A rebellion of the commoners.
It was the physical manifestation of long-suppressed anger.
However, judging by Jacklin's reaction and the precise way the crowd recognized and targeted him, it wasn't hard to guess that instigators were hiding in their ranks. It was exactly as he expected. The Kronos Empire had prepared a specific weapon to strike at Count Rondon. In Cairo, they had used traitors who wanted to swallow the country; against Roman himself, they had deployed assassins known as Shadows; and to bring down the Rondon Family, they were weaponizing the public's fury.
It was almost amusing.
The Kronos Empire truly had a talent for scattering chaos across the continent in a wide variety of ways.
Without even deploying their own military might, they engineered situations that forced their enemies to collapse from within.
Borrowing a knife to kill another.
That was the empire's way.
Roman Dmitry spoke.
"Traitors who sell out their country. Do you have any clear evidence to back those words?"
"We don't need evidence! Roman Dmitry! If you are truly a man who knows justice, stay out of our business and get the hell out of Redford! The wealth you are trying to take—that was earned through the blood, sweat, and tears of the people! The wicked Rondon Family monopolizes it all and lives in luxury while we starve. If that isn't treason, then what is?!"
The man spat the words with venom.
Since the situation had already spiraled out of control, Jacklin showed no signs of backing down either.
Whoosh.
Crackle.
Like a rising flame, the atmosphere grew so tense that a bloody brawl could break out at any second.
Their words.
Their expressions.
Roman Dmitry looked around at the crowd. Dealing with ignorant fools who couldn't face reality was a simple task, but whether it was worth directly intervening in Redford's internal affairs was another matter entirely. In truth, the method to calm this angry mob was incredibly simple.
The truth.
That alone would be enough.
If he revealed what Count Rondon had actually been doing all this time, they would never dare utter the word "traitor" again.
However...
Creak.
The mansion doors opened.
A knight of the Rondon Family stepped out and spoke in a low, hushed voice so the mob couldn't overhear.
"...Lord Roman Dmitry. Count Rondon wishes for you not to get dragged into our troubles. Please, step inside. We will handle the anger of the people on our own."
At those words, Roman Dmitry no longer had any reason to stand against the commoners.
* * *
Once they stepped inside, Count Rondon spoke with a bitter expression.
"I apologize for dragging you into such unnecessary trouble. To be honest, today isn't the first time something like this has happened. There have been several instances where starving people attacked the trading company I run. Of course, we've never faced an extreme situation like today where they stormed the mansion itself, but it seems the people's patience has finally reached its limit."
He had hoped for a peaceful resolution to this matter.
The Rondon knight went outside and offered a compromise, presenting leftover food from the banquet and monetary compensation. Having achieved their goal, the crowd's anger naturally subsided. Aside from the hidden agitators, no one actually wanted an extreme confrontation. They knew that if a real battle broke out, they would be slaughtered by the rumored Roman Dmitry. Thus, having achieved their objective to some extent, they chose to withdraw.
Rondon's way.
It was foolishly naive.
If it had been Roman Dmitry, he would never have let those who pointed blades at him leave in one piece, regardless of their reasons or circumstances.
However, this was Redford.
Since this was not Dmitry, he merely let Redford's methods run their course.
Roman Dmitry asked,
"Why did you not speak the truth? The Rondon Family bears absolutely no responsibility for Redford's poverty. No matter how much you are targeted as traitors, wouldn't revealing the truth be the right choice for your family? I apologize for my bluntness, but the King of Redford needs to take responsibility for this issue."
Roman's words were pure common sense.
Everyone who knew the truth said the exact same thing, but Count Rondon simply could not bring himself to speak it.
"...I, too, know very well what is best for Rondon. However, I do not believe that is what is best for Redford. We are currently living in an era of hatred. When a problem arises, people look for a scapegoat to escape their harsh reality. If it were revealed that all these problems began because of His Majesty the King, what do you think would happen to Redford?"
From that point on, it would be a completely different story.
If the people's anger turned toward the royal family, the kingdom would plunge into an irreversible abyss.
"If those who can only find satisfaction by blaming someone target His Majesty, there is no telling what will become of this country. The people will rise in rebellion, and we might collapse from within before we even clash with the Kronos Empire. That is why I cannot reveal the truth. If the people's anger is directed at a mere noble like me rather than the royal family, their wrath will amount to nothing more than disrupting trade and attacking my mansion. In the end, since I am just a subject under the crown, their anger won't spread to the entire kingdom."
He was only human.
He didn't enjoy being vilified.
Looking at the people who spat curses at him, there were times when he wanted to scream the truth dozens of times a day.
But... the benefits of doing so were negligible.
While the people might praise Count Rondon as a hero for his selfless actions, the anger directed at the royal family would undoubtedly shake the very foundations of Redford. If that happened, what meaning would the reputation of a hero hold? If the country collapsed and a rebellion broke out, all his past efforts would be rendered meaningless.
He swallowed the truth.
Forcing a smile, he looked at Roman Dmitry.
"Redford's problems are not solely the responsibility of His Majesty. Even if we held him accountable and dragged him down from the throne, Redford would only fall into greater chaos due to the factions that encouraged his deviations and those who idly stood by and watched. It is better for me to bear the people's blame. At least I have the power to remain safe while absorbing their resentment. Therefore, until we can establish a foundation for Redford to survive, the people must never know the truth."
Over the years, this was the heavy burden Count Rondon had carried.
Looking at him, Roman Dmitry recalled the face of a certain person from his distant memories.
* * *
Demonic Cult Scholar Yoo Hyun.
He had been a truly unique individual.
In a world governed by the law of the jungle, he was someone who stubbornly believed that humans were fundamentally born with a good nature. Unlike what was expected of the successor to a prestigious family, he showed little greed for power. Perhaps because he lived a life so vastly different from Baek Joong-hyuk's, the two felt an inexplicable pull toward each other and often spent time together.
Baek Joong-hyuk had once asked him:
"I heard you went to the slums to help the people. Why on earth did you do that? You might have done it out of pure goodwill, but from that moment on, those people will endlessly wait for the day you return. And if you don't show your face again, they will grow resentful, claiming your single act of kindness was nothing but arrogant pity."
There was a common misconception people held regarding poverty and wealth.
They believed that these opposing financial states represented a person's character.
But the world Baek Joong-hyuk lived in was not like that.
Some portrayed the poor as saints who lived by helping one another, while the wealthy were depicted as villains who exploited that poverty. But was that really the truth? Being wealthy did not automatically make one evil, and the poor were not necessarily people who understood human warmth just because they were impoverished.
At the very bottom of life, human selfishness glistened the brightest.
Watching men beat someone half to death just to steal a single rice ball, Baek Joong-hyuk had seen the absolute rock bottom of humanity.
Whether poor or wealthy, humans were just humans.
Even in the exact same environment, the personalities that formed were bound to be different. Baek Joong-hyuk never judged others hastily based on their circumstances. He judged others strictly based on what he saw and felt through his own experiences, and only those who passed that test were worthy of his trust.
Yoo Hyun had replied,
"...Well, they might resent me just as you say, but I am only doing what my heart desires. If there are people like you in the world, shouldn't there be people like me to keep the balance?"
He had smiled warmly.
Even at that sight, Baek Joong-hyuk could not bring himself to smile.
The paths he and Yoo Hyun walked were simply too different.
Though Baek Joong-hyuk was the son of the Heavenly Demon, he had started from the very bottom of life, fighting for survival. Meanwhile, Yoo Hyun was born as the successor of a prestigious family and grew up seeing only the good things in the world. Perhaps a kind heart was a luxury born from such a sheltered background. If Yoo Hyun had experienced a life like Baek Joong-hyuk's, he would never have claimed that humans were born with a good nature.
Even so, he didn't dislike Yoo Hyun.
The time spent with him felt like a single ray of light shining down on a life wandering in the darkness.
And exactly one year later, Yoo Hyun was found dead in the slums, his corpse stripped completely naked.
* * *
Yoo Hyun and Count Rondon.
They were the exact same type of human.
Living their one and only lives, they believed in and followed values they deemed more important than their own safety.
After parting ways with Count Rondon, Roman Dmitry stepped outside and looked up at the pitch-black sky.
"Foolish bastards."
The day Yoo Hyun died, Baek Joong-hyuk had turned the entire slum district upside down.
He tracked down every single person who had ever interacted with Yoo Hyun, and only after sending countless people to gruesome deaths did he finally find the culprit. It was a boy, barely in his early teens. Looking down at the boy, whose ears had been sliced off and was bleeding profusely, Baek Joong-hyuk asked him why.
The boy, his face pale with terror, stammered:
"...I-I was afraid he would never come back to visit us again."
A visit after a month.
The starving people did not remember grace.
Rather than appreciating Yoo Hyun coming all the way to the slums to feed them, they were fixated on the fact that the departing benefactor's clothes looked expensive. And so, as Yoo Hyun turned his back, they smashed the back of his head with a stone. Even as blood splattered and the scholar groaned in pain, the boy had stripped him of his clothes, his eyes gleaming with sheer greed.
That boy and Jacklin.
They were no different.
If they had looked at the world with even a shred of wisdom, they would have known what Count Rondon was doing for the people. Claiming ignorance of the truth was no excuse. The fact that Jacklin had been hired to work at the banquet, and that he had been given leftover food after it ended—these were things he should have been deeply grateful for. But he couldn't see past his blind anger at the mere sight of nobles enjoying a luxurious time.
In that manner, Jacklin was easily used by the agitators.
The only reason he had dared to march on Count Rondon's mansion was likely because of the precedent the Count had set by tolerating the people's misdeeds in the past.
Yoo Hyun.
Count Rondon.
Beings whom ordinary people wouldn't normally even dare to look up at.
They were forcing themselves to become sacrifices under the pretext of helping the people.
It was stupid.
He didn't like it.
But...
'It is none of my business.'
In his past life, and even now, Roman Dmitry had no intention of forcing his values onto the lives of others.
If Count Rondon chose to sacrifice himself, Roman wouldn't interfere, even though he knew exactly how foolish it was.
This trip to Redford.
His only role was to resolve the issue with the Golden Bank.
He turned around.
As he gazed up at the night sky, his thoughts became intricately tangled.
Thus, the night faded away.
Time passed, and before long, the day appointed by the Golden Bank finally dawned.