Chapter 203 – 20. Interlude (3)
Montmorency Mansion.
Whenever a powerful man from eastern Gaul visited the capital, the mansion where he stayed was dazzlingly splendid and dreary. The colorful glass painting on one side of the drawing room was overwhelming just by looking at its gigantic size, and it was because there was not a single employee to be found in the spacious room.
“Sometimes this life feels so overwhelming.”
The abandoned crown prince, who had a wild appearance, was a mature man with a slovenly impression. Jacques, with his long hair tied back in a ponytail and his beard trimmed short, put his hands behind his back wearing an eyepatch with the royal family’s emblem on it. At sunset, in front of the glass paintings that glisten solemnly in the setting sun, I was immersed in a bitter mood.
“The king’s life is miserable, and the life of commoners is exhausting. All this struggle to have more than everyone else sometimes feels terribly worthless. And every time I do, I think of my mother.”
After carefully closing my eyes, the face of a benevolent woman came to mind. She was vague, and Jacques shed tears in his heart as he recalled her mother, who faded beyond her memory every year. She commemorated a woman who never complained even after an arranged marriage with a man who tended to go out.
Jeanne Dieudonne de Gallia.
Such was the national mother who should be remembered as a beautiful but tougher person. Not only did he show great talent in magical powers to the extent that the king’s advisors were amazed, but he also bestowed that power on the people. As a single healer.
‘Doesn’t your mother hate Obama?’
‘Why do you think that would be, my Zach?’
‘Because you are neglecting the family. You hang out with lowly women every day. I don’t know how she’s holding up when she has so many siblings, both above and below me, who don’t know when they were born.’
‘There are no perfect people in the world. Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. The categories that can tolerate moral hazard such as cheating may be different, but at least my mother was able to accept it.’
The royal family of Gaul in the reign of Dear King was harmonious. This does not mean that Eugene and Jeanne’s marriage was good, but at least the dead queen did not take her husband’s entertainment seriously. It was she who gave them the social status of Aquitaine under her family, from which only her name remained as her collateral.
‘Why?’
‘Disappointment is an emotion that can only be felt when it is accompanied by expectations. What her mother wanted from Her Majesty was not a good husband and a good head of household. She was just a benevolent monarch who knew how to look after more people.’
Many remember the former king of Gaul as an incompetent horny man. It cuts down the wise king who inherits the legitimacy from the line where he will not be anyone, and emphasizes how excellent the current Alphonse is. Unfortunately, however, they ignore the most important fact.
Who was it that built a country devastated by successive wars on a solid rock?
Had it not been for the three siblings’ battle for the throne, Gallia would have had the same status as Rus by now.
‘If there were only one or two illegitimate children who would be regarded as her collateral, she wouldn’t even be happy with her mother. But Zach, as you said, so many brothers and sisters above and below do not have authenticity. Paradoxically, His Majesty is giving you strength.’
‘It’s not because you love me.’
‘Oh, he loves everyone equally. It’s just that I don’t see anyone as special.’
‘What does that mean!’
‘Can’t you find meaning in the fact that this mother’s heart, which loves you the most, is enough?’
The former queen of this country was like that. She gave great support to an orthodox healer who had been living in Gaul, and devoted her life to taking care of the sick and poor together with them.
Although she died because she was the first to notice her ruse with the women of Aquitaine.
“Jean Dieudone de Gallia, the mission inherited from that solemn person is everything in this life.”
Jacques tilted his head back and glared at the celestial figure depicted at the top of the glass painting. Dare to say that it is a being that transcends human cognition, so he stared at the artwork carved with metaphysical techniques with a resentful look. After that, she continued to speak with determination that she would definitely repay this bitterness.
“Are you aware of the Grand Mande Incident, Lord Somerset?”
At the entrance to the drawing room, Oliver, who was standing with his back against the door, nodded. The incident mentioned by the deposed prince was an incident in which a large number of orthodox healers in Gaul were purged. It was while the volunteers, led by her queen, were touring the lawless West to take care of the underprivileged.
“Your mother got caught up in a fight within a clique of healers.”
The ideological conflict triggered by a certain incident also harmed the queen who led them at the time. The cursed Jean-Dieu Donet de Gallia was immediately transported to the capital, but she died within ten days.
“I understand that it was an incident that led to his death due to poisoning by a clique of wicked healers.”
No doctors or healers were of any use. Alain Leclerc, still the king’s advisor at the time, questioned the sense of a curse in her slain queen, but was dismissed. And the furious king carried out a merciless purge, and that is the full picture of the incident in Grande Mande.
“It is well known to the public. However, the inside story is wrong.”
“Hmm?”
“The imprisoned healers were innocent. They had no reason to harm her mother, and from the moment the incident happened, they had spent almost all of their magic powers trying to save her mother. I was suspecting the symptoms of a curse, not poisoning, after seeing the condition that could not be recovered.”
However, before getting to the truth of the case, they were imprisoned. By Dominique Ravel, the post-bishop who was closest to central power in the West at the time.
“If so, who was the real culprit?”
“The nobles.”
By that time, the number of women in Aquitaine was markedly reduced. One by one, they died disguised due to Millennium Gong’s blatant maneuvering. Later, the abolished prince decided to investigate, and at that point, only two people were seeing through the reality.
“Her mother was right. My father was a man who would do anything for this country.”
One is Dear King Eugene.
The two of them are Jeanne Dieudon, the rain.
“The king who loved everyone equally. So, even while the seeds I had sown were being removed one by one, I used it as an opportunity to keep the Baron in check. Since he doesn’t have the power to stop their rise anyway, he would rather have made a deal, but hey.”
“With the concept of that extension line, did you even give up your mother?”
“It seems that the clever mother understood at once the reason for killing the children of Aquitaine one by one, so she tried to put political pressure on the four nobles. As a result, the North and the East listened quite well and lowered their tails.”
“You mean it wasn’t West and South?”
Jacques, who took a step, turned sideways and looked at Oliver. Then he shook his head with a deliberately calm face. I let out the anger burning inside me with surprising ease.
“It wasn’t center and south.”
“What about Dominique Ravel after Bishop?”
“At that time, Ravel wasn’t yet very influential in the West. Moreover, it was difficult to be on the same side as the relationship between Archbishop Monet and Alexandre was heading towards catastrophe. But things changed when my mother broke in.”
The Marquess of the North and the Duke of the East were burdened with the queen’s attention. However, the millennial ball in the center turned the crisis into an opportunity by using the Southern Grand Duke.
“It was then that Lucien Tarne slaughtered the princess of Nasrid.”
“… Gee, if I’m right, it’s a wonderfully vicious brain.”
“Your guess is correct. Enraged, Sultan Yusuf invaded Gaul with his great army. He first attempted to occupy the coast closer to the south to land his troops. In the process, the West, with Grande Mande at the head, was reduced to ashes, and Mother personally traveled there to help with post-war restoration.”
He killed one more Aquitaine, who was adopted as a princess of a powerful country and was difficult to touch. Even that alone is enough to bring joy, and even has the environment to assassinate the queen, who was like a thorn in her eye, by dragging her to her remote area.
“The Grand Mande Incident was a collaboration between Alexandre Dior and Lucien Tarn. Bishop Ravel, who was able to approach the place in question the fastest, heard the truth after capturing the cursed necromancer, and was able to get what he wanted in return for silence.”
“It was then that the West joined the ranks of the barons of this country.”
Zach nodded. He didn’t know about himself when he was a prince who didn’t know how to do it, and he was saddened and blamed the people around him. After following his mother’s will and looking around him, he realized who was trying to become a god by stepping on this continent.
“I found out after a thorough investigation. Who is the person responsible for taking the money back from the slave trade of the northern immigrants and using it for necromancy experiments they dare not mention? The reason I purged the healers through the Grand Mande Incident was because they were the ones who could easily see through the curse I developed.”
The deposed prince recited the biography of an old enemy.
“Half a century ago, who was the strong man who divided the continent like Viktor Chernikov of the Empire?”
“Ah, what a masterpiece.”
“He was a swordsman who taught swordsmanship to Gerard Lemoyn and Arnaud Leblanc. He was a tactician who offered Lucien Tarn a proposal to usurp the throne. He was the one who briefly conciliated Dominique Ravel of the West and provided a way for Archbishop Albert Monet to intervene in the secular world.”
A duke who was said to be a talented person who would appear only once in a thousand years, and the Prince Dear.
“Initiated into necromancy with the help of the mystic Angelique Aquitaine, he sought the path to eternity and immortality. He wanted to put this continent and this world under his hand, not this country, and become a god. Ever since his mother’s death, I’ve been digging into the conspiracy to get to the truth!”
So even when he heard the news that he was dead, he didn’t believe it. Even after he was knocked out, he was frantically immersed in it and explored it.
“Then, the fact that you were close to the heir as if you were carrying the Millennial Ball on your back…”
“When I went in and out of that house, no one questioned me. I could have searched with a minion who was good at detecting magical powers as a waiter. After approaching the truth, the servant was found as a miserable body and was dismissed, so I was convinced.”
So I figured out the current conspiracy.
“Dad, Dear King, you already knew all of that. However, he just took advantage of the rest of the opportunity when there was no way to pressure him properly. Unfortunately, the result was that his wife was also assassinated, and I was also assassinated following the same path.”
“On the surface, it was bedridden, but it’s a curse. I really like the aspect of the country.”
“I am different. Unlike those Marianne and Alphonse, who don’t care too much about their mother’s death. After a long time, I came closer to the truth of the hateful millennium. The fact that the old man will die at the hands of his son after all arrangements have been made and is waiting for his resurrection.”
“It sounds like their resurrection preparations are already complete.”
“I found out four things. Forbidden books with spells written on them, relics of an ancient empire containing vast magical powers, and the right time and vessel. Dark Ball, the son of Millennium Ball, has already obtained the book. He has made significant achievements with necromancy and is moving his subordinates all over the continent. I want to find the artifacts needed for the resurrection of my father and his subordinates.”
Oliver grinned. The head of the Somerset Swordsmen’s Guild, who had been watching him for neither short nor long, knew that this man was not a man to talk about delusions. So, when he heard of the resurrection of the dead, he wasn’t too surprised and asked again.
“That sounds like fun. Then you’re saying you’re giving me this chance. A chance to cross swords with the swordsman Gerard Lemoant, who was called the loser of the North, and his teacher, Alexandre Dior.”
“Of course.”
The ambition of the abandoned prince does not end with silky revenge. He will use the legacy intact after thwarting the revival of Alexandre Dior. That’s how I will resurrect the being I want. My mother, Jeanne Dieudonne de Gallia, who devoted herself to everyone.
“I have high expectations for you.”
And I will give As a sacrifice to my mother who truly devoted herself to serving the people throughout this continent overflowing with wicked rulers.
“I will try my best to live up to it. After all, among the living, there are only a handful of people who have the potential to defeat me.”
“I’d like to hear it beforehand, just in case.”
Oliver shrugged and called out the names of five people. Even though it was a story limited to possibilities, he confidently scratched his brain as if the numbers were enough.
“Constantina Rus.”
The iron-blooded empress who leads the empire.
“Kenneth Somerset.”
A quicksword that had already been defeated by me once and fled.
“James Britannia.”
The lion king of the homeland.
“Helene Hellas.”
An esthetic queen with no one to catch up with a bow.
“… And the disciple who taught me everything.”
“Student?”
“Your enemy son. Now I’m curious about where that crazy talent came from.”
“You mean Lumiere’s invincible knight.”
Zach muttered and Oliver nodded. After capturing a conversation about a difficult past, the two stared at each other for some time, then turned their backs without saying who was first. Knowing that each other needed time to be alone, we were considerate.
“Ah.”
Until the swordsman finally remembered something and turned his head to ask.
“Can I ask you one more question, Zach?”
“Speak.”
“I understand your ambitions. I respect the way she took away her chance at resurrection from her enemies who killed her mother and avenged her by reviving her. However, I’m curious nonetheless. Why did you, a promising prince until you approached the truth, jump into this political conflict where you could lose everything? Just like the dead former king, you didn’t know me, so you could just enjoy what was given to me, right?”
“Yeah, sure it was then.”
“Can I hear the trigger?”
The decapitated prince suddenly smiled and turned around with a serious face. With the expression of a dignified royal family, I was beaten by a strong man who was much stronger than me.
Isn’t that natural?
“Because it was my duty.”
It doesn’t end.
“If not me, who would have done it?”
The war for the throne of this country, Gaul, has only just begun!
