Chapter 1
Chapter 1
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: The War Hero Gets Married (1)
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Twelve years ago, the war ended.
The Empire had declared war on the entire continent single-handedly.
Everyone laughed at the Empire.
No one believed that even the Empire could win a war of conquest against the whole continent.
The Empire answered those jeers with conquest.
Starting with the fall of all the kingdoms facing the Empire's front lines in just one month, the war dragged on for twelve years.
The Empire conquered countless minor kingdoms of the Alliance, but in the end, it could no longer press the fight and declared an armistice.
Because its national power had declined over those twelve years?
No.
There were still many kingdoms left, but the Empire had more than enough strength to defeat them all.
Magic artillery weapons.
The Empire made aggressive use of these alchemical constructs that weren't born of human flesh, developing technology that allowed a small number of soldiers to slaughter masses of enemies.
While the kingdoms' humans died, all the Empire lost were its steel-and-alchemy magic artillery weapons.
So why did the war end?
To put it bluntly, the Empire held the advantage over the entire continent in every way.
It wouldn't have started a war against the whole continent otherwise.
Which meant they had to consider it.
Why did the Empire have to stop the war?
"We should have been wary of that one swordsman."
That was the topic of the meeting in the deepest secret chamber of the Imperial Intelligence Agency.
"The Empire couldn't overcome a single swordsman and was forced to halt the war."
An officer of the Imperial Intelligence Agency displayed a man's profile on the screen.
The glow of the alchemical magic device illuminated a photo of a black-haired young man and detailed information about him.
"Hans Wilhelm. Age twenty-seven. A commoner born to a farming family in one of the now-destroyed kingdoms."
"Were his parents Swordmasters?"
A veteran of the Imperial Intelligence Agency raised his hand and asked.
A deep scar from a blade marred his bearded face.
"Otherwise, there's no way he could be that strong."
"There are rumors to that effect. That he might be the child of a couple of Swordmasters who went into hiding, or ones with that kind of talent. Unfortunately, that's not the case."
The intelligence officer snapped his fingers, and around this Hans's profile, profiles of numerous others appeared.
"His siblings. Officially confirmed, there are nine of them. And we've finished investigating his parents too."
"What did we find?"
"Ordinary farmers. Yes, the typical... poor family that has a bunch of kids to use as farm labor. He was the fifth son."
"......."
A child from an ordinary farm.
"His official enlistment in the military was twelve years ago."
"Right when the war started?"
"When the war reached his kingdom and he was forcibly conscripted, that's when he picked up the sword."
A boy who had been far removed from war enlisted in the army to survive it.
Up to here, it was the typical case of the child soldiers the Alliance Kingdoms mobilized and lost in the war against the Empire.
But he was different.
The Alliance's Red Devil. Starting with him slaying our Empire's Swordmaster Victor at the age of twenty...
"Nine Swordmaster-class magic artillery weapons were smashed to pieces. He took back seven kingdoms single-handedly."
"Yes. The war was effectively stopped by this one swordsman, Hans Wilhelm."
The Empire was defeated.
By a single human.
"We can handle the entire continent. As long as Hans Wilhelm doesn't exist."
"Is that the Intelligence Agency's conclusion?"
"Yes. It's the common consensus not just of the Intelligence Agency, but of every relevant department."
"...This is insane. All the Empire's scholars put their heads together, and this is the result?"
The Empire had no choice but to end the war.
Solely because one swordsman was defending the kingdoms.
"We can conquer the continent without him, but we can't beat that one man?"
"We can beat him. But the Empire itself would be destroyed in the process."
"How can that be called a victory?"
"That's why His Majesty the Emperor halted the war. To stop the skirmishes along the Armistice Line established by the current treaty and allow the Empire to fully unify the continent."
The Emperor declared it.
He ended the war completely because he could no longer afford to let that one swordsman keep killing off their finest talents.
How could it be just one man.
The Empire's defeats at that one's hands were too numerous to fit on a single page.
"So the Empire inadvertently created a hero who blocked our dream of continental unification."
Not even a ceasefire declaration, but an armistice.
"An armistice."
There was no other choice.
"Is this 'treaty' really going to hold?"
"Yes. The reason negotiations resulted in an armistice rather than a mere ceasefire is simple."
A large red seal stamped boldly next to the man named Hans Wilhelm.
"Retirement."
The most definitive word for a soldier declaring they will no longer serve as an active-duty soldier—discharge.
"In exchange for the Empire no longer waging war, we had him discharged."
"......."
"If the Empire tries to start the war again with swords and spears, he withdraws his discharge and rejoins the army."
"In the end."
The people of the Empire had no choice but to accept it.
"Our continental unification dream ends here, all because of one hero?"
The Empire was defeated.
Because of a single existence.
"...Is the Alliance Kingdoms' Red Devil a monster?"
The kingdoms won.
We won a war that everyone said was impossible to win.
War Hero.
For someone like me, who had no special talents beyond physical labor, this was the greatest achievement possible in this era. I returned as a triumphant general and became a national hero acknowledged by the entire kingdom.
Twelve years.
It was a long time.
Born as the fifth son in an ordinary farming family, I was a boy who had to work day and night on the farm just to avoid being sold off somewhere. But there was one thing I couldn't avoid.
Conscription notice.
It sucked.
To receive a draft notice again in this life—after getting one in my previous life in Korea, of all things.
That's right.
I'm a reincarnator.
I was your average guy in my twenties in South Korea, pulling an all-nighter at the office, and I got into an accident on the way home.
When I woke up again, I was a young man in a farming family.
Some people might use modern cheat knowledge to start a business from a poor farm with their childhood friends, or discover they have cheat-level talent in magic and live a cheat life.
I thought I had something like that too.
Looking back now, it was just talent on the level of being among the best in this era.
Martial prowess.
I thought I just had a sturdy body that didn't tire from farm work, but when I was dragged to the battlefield, I discovered I had innate genius for swordsmanship.
My twelve years as a soldier could fill volumes of war history if written down—
'Who cares about that crap.'
The past filled with blood, sweat, and death doesn't matter anymore.
What matters is the present and future I can enjoy now, built on that past.
All that's left is a leisurely harem life of peace and plenty.
I was promised a pension.
For saving multiple kingdoms, I secured an annual pension equivalent to about 100 billion won in Korean currency, paid yearly in gold.
I thought about demanding more, but with postwar reconstruction issues, I settled for this.
I got a mansion.
After rooting out traitors within the kingdom, I claimed the mansion of one such traitor as compensation and became the owner of a building staffed by a full hundred servants.
Women? I could pick whoever I wanted.
Assembling a harem of twenty-year-old virgins and indulging in endless debauchery day and night was entirely up to me—not impossible at all.
Like a Hollywood actor cruising with dozens of beauties under twenty-five, or a movie tycoon having one-night stands with a different supermodel every month out of the twelve who grace his photo spreads each year.
And in a world with magic, I could indulge in consequence-free pleasure to my heart's content with contraception magic.
Age gap?
Considering the twelve years of hell I endured for the kingdom and continent, forming a harem of young twenty-year-old beauties posed no problem at all.
If after ten years or so I felt like settling down, I could just pick any one to impregnate as the mother of my children.
That's how much I contributed to the Alliance.
There was talk that I was too young to retire, but I inwardly cheered the Empire's offer to let me choose my retirement spot more fiercely than anyone and successfully discharged.
Misery ends, happiness begins.
I thought I could live a life of luxury like that.
"Marry Princess Knight Sylvia."
"......Pardon?"
That's what the King declared to me.
"You, the war hero, are the only one worthy of marrying my daughter! Hahaha!"
Sylvia.
Princess Knight.
Thirty-seven years old this year, the woman who devoted everything to the war against the Empire.
I enlisted at fifteen and served the kingdom for twelve years.
Twelve years as a soldier.
I saved countless nations conquered by the Empire.
I risked my life against the Empire's aces and won.
And after the victory, as I tried to retire...
Postwar.
The reward given to me.
"Marry my daughter."
It was a forced marriage to a thirty-seven-year-old woman ten years my senior.