Chapter 22 – 6. Byungsik Yeol and the Mandate of the Heir (2)
I was back in Rheinheim.
Today is the day when the fever ceremony is finally held. Capital of the Margrave of Essenmund. The ceremony is held here in Reinheim.
The place where I am right now is the central square in front of the Reinheim Waterworks Building where the preparations for the military parade have been completed.
A large stage was set up in the central square.
And next to the road in the central square, the Essenmund’s territories were also flocking out to watch the parade.
I was standing on the stage waiting for the parade to begin. Uriel standing next to me said.
“How are you feeling? Count Julian.”
“It’s not bad. It is thanks to Sir Uriel helping me wholeheartedly.”
“Ah… No. It’s thanks to the Count’s hard work!”
Uriel’s face turned red at my greeting. It is completely different from the provocative and hard appearance of the past.
Is she also a woman? Her demeanor has softened a lot since mixing her body.
Still, my skills as a knight didn’t go anywhere, so I was able to properly prepare for the parade with her help.
‘My stats are still the same, and the time to prepare for the military parade was too short. But thanks to Yuriel and her traits, I learned the basics of the Lion Heart Sword, one of them, and one meal properly.’
The characteristic ‘general mana test’ increased the efficiency of swordsmanship training. As a result, I, a man in my 20s who was completely away from sports, mastered the first type of swordsmanship in just a few days.
It’s not just imitating the appearance. He received a passing grade from Yuriel, an aura user and knight of the midnight sun.
So there will be no shortage to be recognized as the official successor.
All that was left was to compete with Captain Michael for one match. The best scenario is completed only when he, who has a high reputation, puts his heart into it.
This time, Eirin, who was also standing beside me, spoke to me.
“Young master. Are you satisfied with your speech? If there is something lacking, even now…”
“No. Suffice. Reading it made me feel good enough to make my blood boil. Great job.”
“… No. I was just doing my job as a maid.”
After saying that, Eirin straightened my clothes. The clothes I’m wearing right now are noble uniforms that are worn during major events in the Reinhardt family.
While practicing swordsmanship with Yuriel, he also briefly strengthened his basic physical strength. I also managed to control my diet at the same time, so I lost quite a bit of weight.
It’s not to the extent that I’ve made the body properly. Still, it was enough to live on the clothes she was wearing now. Eirin’s cheeks were slightly flushed as she touched my clothes. She might react to the way she dresses like a maid.
Just as I was, I headed in front of Marquis Wilhelm.
The Margraves are nobles with titles of the Essenmund Territory, and high-ranking ministers of the Metropolitan Government. He was talking with key figures in Essenmund.
“This is Julian. Are the preparations complete?”
“Yeah. Your Highness Marquis.”
The Marquis spoke to me. The nobles and factors who followed the Marquis to greet me, his heir.
For a moment, surprise appeared on their faces.
“Hello. Count Julian. Oh oh. Today’s look is really cool. You are indeed Reinhardt’s successor.”
“Really. It’s a dignified appearance that anyone can see that it’s the successor of Her Highness the Marquis.”
“Clothes are not wings, but Julian-sama’s appearance is like the archangel’s wings!”
The candy coating continued, but it didn’t feel bad. Because it was Otto’s father and son’s uniform that raised the charm stat, this kind of reaction was expected.
“Haha. Today’s Julian is really cool even to me. I don’t know whose grandson he is. Don’t you guys think so too?”
It seemed that the Marquis rather liked the sugar coating than I did.
“Not only that, but I heard that Yulian has prepared a special speech ahead of the 1,000th heir. Isn’t it amazing?”
“You mean the speech? That’s amazing. It is no easy task to stand in the middle of this central square and give a speech.”
“Still, it’s a thought worthy of Reinhardt’s successor. The Count’s speech is highly anticipated! We look forward to giving a wonderful speech about the proud Reinhardt family.”
And I recognized a man who bowed silently and silently among the flattering crowd.
‘Michael, leader of the White Night Knights.’
Untidy, disheveled brown hair. A wildly grown beard.
At first glance, he seemed like a middle-aged man you might encounter on the road here in Essenmund.
However, the general mana test characteristics and Reinhardt’s blood speak for themselves. That man was clearly a ferocious beast. In the face of even a petty enemy or trifle he can completely conceal his claws.
It was great too. As a knight, his nickname was not the ghost of the North for nothing.
‘A knight who has risen to the level of a master. I’m sorry for Uriel, but I can’t compare to her.’
Of course, Wilhelm’s eyesight, which was higher than that, also endured. However, today is the day to directly receive the sword of a master-class knight, not just a glance.
Above all, I had to show my changed side in front of the people in Essenmund who had gathered to watch the parade. That is why it is said that the man must be made to take out the toenails hidden deep inside.
I approached him first and shook his hand.
“Long time no see. I wish you well today. Captain Michael.”
Of course I’m seeing him for the first time. According to Eirin, Julian and Michael had already met several times.
Just like a rabbit quickly recognizing a beast and contemplating its own path. Previously, Julian said he couldn’t make eye contact with Michael’s sharp momentum every time.
But today I was different.
Rather, I met him face to face first. That too with a somewhat provocative look.
“I wish you well. Count Julian.”
So, Captain Michael’s reaction was unexpected. A look of bewilderment was evident on his face. Not only that, but the other ministers around the Marquis were also momentarily astonished by our handshake.
“No… Count Julian. To that ghost… How can I speak?”
“Is what I just saw really true? You said that Count Julian approached the terrifying captain first and greeted him?”
It would be such a reaction. It was just a handshake. No matter how famous the opponent is…
“Yu… Julian? You said you approached Michael first?”
Even the Marquis was taken aback. Seeing that his eyes were more wide-eyed than the ministers, it must have been no ordinary action.
And after a while Finally, the fever ceremony began.
From the southern end of the central plaza, toward the stage here, the Knights of the Midnight Sun and the elite soldiers of the Essenmund Army were approaching in line.
Buzz buzz buzz-
Clap clap clap-
A procession of 150 knights and 1000 Essenmund troops. Even if it’s not a large army, you can feel the theft because it’s an elite.
But something was different. Although it was a military parade, it was not a flashy appearance with polished armor and weapons.
Rather, they were as rough as they had just been on the battlefield.
I can’t find a place where there are no wounds anywhere in the armor and armament. As those menacing figures come together, the intensity of their lives increases.
Then, when I looked at them, their faces were also full of messy beards.
However, there is a mischievous smile hanging over that sloppy face. That composure that only the strong who survive beyond the most desperate line of death can have.
Indeed, it could be said that they were the elites that Marquis boasts.
‘I can understand why Yulian ran away just by seeing that appearance.’
And why he went around with a bald head and a shaggy beard that others couldn’t understand. It seems that he was trying to imitate the raw ferocity of those elite soldiers.
Of course, there’s no way the idiotic young master who said he’d never held a sword could follow that ferocious wildness.
At last their procession stopped. And Marquess Wilhelm, who stepped right into the center of the stage.
The mood of the Marquis changed at once. His grandfather, who had been so proud of his grandson just a moment ago, was nowhere to be seen.
The old man’s eyes flashed open. As it was, frost stood in the central square. All the people who participated in the fever ceremony stood up at once.
“Welcome home. My soldiers.”
It was a majestic sight.
The elite soldiers lined up in unison to get down on one knee at the frontman. Following them, the key figures on the stage and the young people who came to watch the military parade all knelt down.
It was an oath of allegiance to the Marquis, the owner of the territory.
“To stand up. I appreciate your hard work.”
It was also spectacular to see the elite soldiers stand up in perfect order at those words. He then said
“Today’s military parade is also a place to declare the qualifications of another person who will carry on the name of the long-standing Reinhardt following me, Wilhelm von Reinhardt.”
At Wilhelm’s words, all eyes in the square were focused on me.
It was a feeling of pressure that even a normal aristocratic trait could not bear. Especially those elite soldiers who openly shoot me alive.
However, based on the history of the new basic mana, I confidently received all those gazes. Thanks to Yuriel’s hard work, he started with twice as much mana, so this was enough.
“And before I officially announce Reinhardt’s successor today. My grandson and count of Harsen. There will be a speech by Julian von Reinhardt.”
Wilhelm looked at me. I lowered my head slightly and stood at the center of the stage following the Marquess who had moved away.
The eyes of the elite soldiers, who were full of respect for the Marquis just a moment ago, changed. Obviously doubts and hostility toward me.
Now it was my turn to show them a new side of me.
As soon as the amplification magic of the magician belonging to the Waterworks Building was cast, I opened my mouth.
***
“…So Reinhardt still remembers the noble blood shed by the children of Essenmund in this storm.”
The central square was full of silence. And in that silence, there was a man who spoke in a low, surprisingly persuasive voice.
‘Count Julian… Julian von Reinhardt.’
Captain Michael chewed the name of Count Mannani again in his mind. For a moment. Michael was reconsidering the word fool.
Something completely unexpected was happening right in front of my eyes.
The speech that Count Julian had prepared was not a speech about family boasting or the boy’s absurd aspirations that heirs of nobles often do.
Of course, that wasn’t a bad thing. Rather, it was customary in the testimony speeches of the heirs of the aristocracy and was considered their own virtue.
But surprisingly, the speech that Count Julian had prepared was a memorial speech.
“The harshest Essenmund on the continent of Iceland. But the beautiful northern hometown of Essenmund. We, the residents of the Marquis, have stood firm for a long time as the greatest spears and strong shields that protect the empire. Purple. The knights of the midnight sun and the elite of Essenmund standing proudly in front of us are proof of that.”
The factors seated on the stage were buzzing. But it wasn’t their reaction that surprised Captain Michael.
His subordinates were immersed in the Count’s words and were listening to the memorial address without the slightest movement. They were knights and elite soldiers, but they looked like bandits just like they did now.
‘You’re saying that you immerse those guys like that with your tongue?’
They are ignorant bastards who sometimes don’t listen to their leader. However, while I was full of surprise about the reaction, I was convinced on the other hand.
Now, the Count’s voice had a surprisingly powerful grip on people’s hearts.
As much as it was a memorial address, it calmed the hearts of the listeners infinitely, and also raised them infinitely.
And an amazingly clear voice. Michael’s voice reminded him of Julian’s real father, bard Riel.
‘Can’t blood really cheat?’
No. Neither was that. Standing on that stage was not a mere minstrel.
Every word that Count Julian uttered was imbued with the pride of the Marquis Command and of Essenmund.
This place is sometimes ignored by the imperials and people of the ecliptic as a northern countryman.
However, they were the heroes who constantly blocked the monsters on the borders of the empire and recaptured the ecliptic even in the war against the demons.
“…So Reinhardt dares to call those of Essenmund’s blood heroes.”
And that Count Julian was clearly aware of that fact.
Otherwise, Michael’s own blood, which is always ruled by cold-hearted reason, couldn’t have boiled like it is now at a mere kid’s speech.
The Count was repeatedly emphasizing how proud Essenmund was in his memorial address.
‘A kid who obviously couldn’t awaken Mana. What the hell happened to that idiot?’
It was a kind of custom to send death threats all at once to the new Reinhardt, who was to become the official successor. Marquess Wilhelm also asked him to do the same.
But that Count Julian was accepting that murder without hesitation.
And his subordinates, far from living, were immersed in the memorial and their eyes were shining.
‘Well, is it the same as me being immersed in that count’s memorial address? Indeed. No matter how foolish he was, Reinhardt was Reinhardt. The lion’s blood…’
The Count’s speeches were all over. Everyone fell silent at the speech no one could have imagined. There were even those who shed tears.
Also, as much as most of the people gathered here know what kind of person Yulian is.
Everyone didn’t know how to react to this unexpected event.
‘This is the first match with me… Anyway, if you calmly accepted the offer to live like that, then you must have awakened mana.’
The provocative look from when we shook hands on stage a while ago. I guess it wasn’t a lie. In the past, he was a pathetic boy who couldn’t meet his eyes, but he has changed.
And Michael’s interest in that young Reinhardt was growing rapidly.
Just like all those who were just here did to Marquis Wilhelm. Is he really worth getting down on one knee and devoting his allegiance to? I wanted to find out the qualifications for myself.
Michael changed his mind. There is nothing to look after. Even if it was only one move, he decided to come forward with his heart too.
The silence of the plaza still persists.
In the midst of that silence, Captain Michael clapped his hands vigorously.
