Chapter 3 – Story 90: A Retainer’s Duty
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The Romanian brutes must be annihilated. This appeal of King Warius was immediately passed on to all of Holmea. However, the reaction of the lords wasn’t one of delight and expectations, but one full of anxiety and resignation.
It was true that they couldn’t afford to leave Romania’s invasion unchecked. But, if one asked whether they’d be able to repel Romania just because they recruited some soldiers in response to King Warius’s appeal, most lords would judge the possibility to be low.
Above all, the one leading the scraped-up Holmean army would be King Warius himself. The king had made a name for himself with several achievements when it came to domestic affairs, but thus far he wasn’t known for having experienced leading an army into battle. Moreover, his son Alexius suffered a crushing defeat against the rebelling slaves, and on top of that, rumors were saying that he disappeared, resulting in the royal family’s dignity having hit rock bottom.
Telling someone to expect victory under these circumstances was next to impossible. Yet, the lords had no other choice. At this point Romania didn’t accept any pledges of allegiance by the eastern Holmean lords anymore and rumors about the Romanian soldiers exercising brutal atrocities in the eastern territories were making the rounds.
At this rate, only destruction by Romania awaited them, if they sat on their laurels. Hence, the lords had no choice but to go along with King Warius’s appeal, no matter how low the chances of success.
The lords of various areas gathered their soldiers with a grim determination and converged at Holmenia, the royal capital. However, the number of troops assembled in this way didn’t even amount to 8,000.
Even if they were to fight the 20,000 Romanian soldiers with such numbers, the chances for victory were slim at best. And yet King Warius, clad in armor, announced that they wouldn’t return to the capital until they repelled their sworn enemy Romania and reaped the head of Vulitas while holding a grand departure ceremony.
Having finished that ceremony, King Warius took the lords and officers of the royal army with him and walked through the hallways of the royal palace with a rough nasal breathing in order to join up with the army that had been stationed outside.
A single man awaited the king in one of the hallways. As soon as he saw him, King Warius widened his eyes as if frightened.
“D-Darius…!”
That man was no one other than the old general Darius who was once hailed as Holmea’s strongest general.
Darius was already wearing his military uniform. Under his arm he held a helmet with the violet tassel of a general being pruned off.
King Warius said with a quivering voice, “I should have ordered you under house arrest.”
Even the king was aware that the crisis of today stemmed from him having dismissed Darius over his warnings at the court. Because of that, King Warius got ready, thinking that Darius might hurl complaints or admonitions at him. However, Darius genuflected on the spot and lowered his head deeply.
“Although you ordered me to stay under house arrest, I cannot stay still when the country is in such dire trouble. As such I have come here, despite knowing about the shame it would bring upon me, to request being allowed to join the army as a common soldier.”
King Warius felt a silent pressure from around him in front of Darius who remained bowing. It told him to let Darius join the expedition in these hours of existential danger for this ruined country. Up until now Darius had overcome national crises many times. He was a former marshal with a track record of having defeated many formidable enemies. Everyone present right now believed that Darius might be able to overcome the current crisis as well, if only he was given the right to command.
Of course, even King Darius thought so. In the first place, Darius had been placed under house arrest for bringing up the danger of the Divine Son of Destruction.
But, that very Divine Son of Destruction, whom the king had considered to be nothing more than a lowly boss of rebelling slaves, had now become a mighty foe endangering Holmea, proving Darius to have been correct on all accounts.
King Warius could have admitted his own fault, released Darius from his house arrest, and reinstated him as a general. However, Warius was too narrow-minded to admit his own mistakes.
“D-Do as you see fit!”
Although he acknowledged Darius’s participation in the battle, King Warius didn’t mention anything about reinstating Darius’s rank as general, let alone transferring the right to command to him.
Possibly unable to endure the disappointment welling up among those present, King Warius passed in front of Darius at a quick pace as if running away. Yet, it was common knowledge in Holmea’s palace that saying anything to the king once he became like this would be futile. The lords and officers had no choice but to follow the king while donning expressions full of mortification.
And then, after all of them had passed, Darius finally raised his head. But, just when he was about to follow the crowd of people, someone called out to him from behind.
“Darius…”
Once Darius looked back, he found the former great prime minister Ponpius standing there. On top of making sure that no one was around them, Ponpius additionally lowered his voice as he asked, “Darius, I’d like you to tell me the truth. Can we win against Romania?”
Darius sighed lightly at this question and answered, “This is not an answer I can give you as retainer.”
Above else, it was a very smart answer. As retainer, one could never say that an army led by the king would lose. Ponpius’s face was filled with bitterness and disappointment.
Afterwards, Ponpius started to say something several times, but desisted from actually voicing it out every time, before he eventually used a metaphor.
“Darius, it’s said even a beast would hide in the bushes and large fishes would seek refuge amidst rocks, when faced with a storm.”
“…What do you mean?”
Ponpius directly stared into the eyes of Darius and answered, “This country is already finished.”
Even for Ponpius it was a bitter regret to admit that the country, which he had painstakingly fostered as prime minister across his entire career, was approaching its end. But, he had to spell it out nonetheless.
“But, beginning with Marquis Apius in the north, many influential lords still remain. Should we retreat to that place for the moment, set up Her Highness Warina as queen and work towards a revival of Holmea?”
The only one capable of succeeding the royal family at this point was Princess Warina. Princess Warina had been adoring Darius like a father for quite a while now. She’d like grant any of Darius’s requests, if possible. And, if the former great prime minister and former marshal made a move with the princess as their banner, many lords should conform with their cause. That was Ponpius’s idea.
“That is yet another possibility.”
Darius had also considered this option in secret. Now that Holmea was about to be destroyed, only the Divine Son of Destruction would stand in Romania’s way to unify the West under its rule. Moreover, only Romania could be regarded as a threat for the Divine Son of Destruction, too.
In such a scenario, they might as well abandon the capital altogether and use it as bait for Romania and the Divine Son of Destruction to duke it out. And in the meantime, they’d be able to flee northwards with Princess Warina. There they would form a new country, amass power, and plan to retake Holmea.
However, Darius refused Ponpius’s suggestion.
“Founding a country isn’t the end but the beginning of it all. You must establish a system that will become the country’s foundation. Just how much time would that take…?”
More than anything, if they planned to build a new system and order for the country, it’d immediately lead to a power struggle between the influential northern lords who would want to grasp the power in Queen Warina’s new country, and the old retainers who participated in Holmea’s politics for many generations. Humans were unable to ignore the concessions rolling around before their eyes, regardless of the circumstances.
Yet, Darius believed that Ponpius and him might be somehow able to keep an eye on that.
But――
“Ponpius, how much longer will you and I be able to survive? One year? Two years? Even if we manage to stay alive for another five years, ten years will be likely impossible. In such a case, we will only prolong the suffering in the country pointlessly.”
Under normal circumstances, Darius would have entrusted his successors to deal with such affairs after his death. As long as Marius whom he raised into his own successor, Hiakis who had gained the trust of Alexius as vice-corps commander of the Black Wall, and the people supporting those two, were around, protecting the country would have been no problem, even with Darius himself gone. Thinking so, Darius had retired from his post as marshal and intended to put himself to the sword at a time of his own choosing.
However, he ended up losing all of that due to his own incompetence.
Darius continued with a sorrowful look, “Doesn’t it only bring unhappiness for a country and its people, if you don’t end it when you should?”
A heavy silence descended between the two. After a short while Darius addressed Ponpius while looking the far distance, “Thinking back on it now, we might have made a mistake in our judgment. Maybe I should have retired back when you retired…”
After the demise of the previous king of Holmea, Darius and Ponpius had secretly devised their future course of action while considering the country’s needs. In their eyes, the successor Warius was highly suspicious of others and couldn’t be relied on to be entrusted with the country all of a sudden.
Accordingly, Ponpius, who had handled the governmental affairs, retired first from active duty, allowing King Warius to accumulate achievements and experience by leaving the governmental affairs to him. In the meantime, Darius would devote himself to keep the country safe by keeping foreign and domestic forces in check as marshal. And choosing a point in time when King Warius had grown enough, Darius was supposed to retire as well.
However, as soon as King Warius took the throne, the officials groomed by Ponpius, who were actually doing all the work, started to distance themselves from the governmental affairs. The reason we to be found in the fame of the late king. The previous king of Holmea was a wise ruler who heeded Darius’s advice when it came to military matters and Ponpius’s advice when it came to the government of the country.
However, that fame was now a heavy burden pushing down on his successor, Kind Warius. No matter what he did, the new king would always be compared with the performance of his father. If he failed, people would be disappointed, and if he succeeded, people wouldn’t approve of it.
All of these circumstances cast a long shadow on the character development of the current King Warius.
And the two standing as symbols for the previous king’s fame more than anyone else were Ponpius and Darius.
“If I had retired together with you, His Majesty might have been able to settle in. And maybe he’d have become a reasonably good king, even if not a wise ruler.”
As long as we were around, the prestige of the former king always lingered above everything. That must have been very frustrating for King Warius.
Hearing Darius’s words, Ponpius sighed deeply.
“That’s an assumption. Didn’t we decide to go with this because we considered it to be the best back then?”
Darius smiled wryly at that, “Well, even if we regret it now, it won’t change anything. So, just take it as the boring grumbling of an old man.”
He withdrew easily with a bitter smile and then said after putting on a serious expression, “However, it’s my unworthiness that led to me being unable to admonish His Majesty. Hence, it’s my duty as his retainer to follow him to the very end.”
“So you’re going to stick with His Majesty…?”
Darius was resolved to die together with King Warius. Perceiving as much, Ponpius followed the urge welling up from deep inside his chest and emotionally stated, “In that case, I will do so as well.”
But, Darius shook his head at Ponpius who said that he’d take responsibility and perish together with them.
“Someone must always close the curtain at the end. If no one does that, it will cause big chaos and confusion. I’d like you to take over the duty of putting an end to it.”
Ponpius revealed a bitter expression at that.
“You’re pushing a nasty task on me.”
“You went ahead and leisurely retired ahead of me. I’ll have you put up with this level of hardships in return.”
Both laughed at this joke for a short while.
In the past we talked and joked about the future of Holmea under the previous king, but now we can only laugh at each other’s weakness in light of Holmea being about to become a thing of the past. What an irony.
After laughing for a while, Ponpius asked at the end, “Darius, isn’t there anything I can do?”
Darius was about to deny it, but then he suddenly remembered something.
“In case someone should appear in front of you, asking some unexpected things about me, I would like you to pass on a message to them.”
This was an odd request. Usually you’d mention the addressee when asking someone to pass on a message. Yet, even when Ponpius asked whom he should tell the message to, Darius insisted on not revealing it, only stating that Ponpius would know once the time was ripe.
Ponpius didn’t understand what was going on, but given that it was the last request of his old friend, he had no choice but to accept it.
“Got it. ――What should I tell them?”
Darius entrusted a certain message to Ponpius. Moreover, it was an odd message, too. Ponpius felt confused as he had fully expected that Darius wanted to entrust his future to someone else. Darius only left behind the words, “I leave it in your care,” before belatedly following King Warius in order to depart to the front.
A little while after Darius left, the more than 8,000 soldiers, combining royal army and feudal armies, departed the capital full of fervor and spirit for the sake of repelling Romania.
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