Chapter 51
- Mom. Mommy!
“Gasp!”
Inside a tent on the southern front, the lord of the Sneria Domain rose from her bed.
She wiped away her sweat with the towel beside the bed and quenched her thirst.
The nightmare had been set in an incident that had occurred over a hundred years ago.
A lord who had ruined a happy family for mere amusement.
In that empire where strength was law and justice, the lord received no punishment whatsoever.
That was why the girl took up a weapon.
Not only to oppose that lord, but also to oppose the world that tolerated such lords.
To prove that a society could be created where the weak did not have to fear under laws and promises, rather than strength and power levels.
Under that conviction, the girl avenged herself on the lord, witnessed the empire’s collapse with her own eyes, and governed her domain.
Once the Sneria Domain became the most prosperous domain in the kingdom, she stopped having nightmares.
That was why she believed she had overcome her past.
Until this terrible war began.
- Sister, where’s Mom?
Those words, spoken by an innocent girl barely rescued from a burned village, brought back the trauma she had forgotten.
As though she were paying interest on a debt that had accumulated over a long time, they were followed by even worse nightmares.
- A weak ruler is···
- That is not an appropriate attitude for a ruler.
The nightmares always ended with the cold gaze of an old man.
The question-and-answer session with Peter.
He had said that her attitude was not befitting a ruler.
Someone ruled by responsibility could not lead the people.
The old man had rebuked her for that.
In the end, the old man had joined her faction, but it could not truly be said that she had earned his loyalty.
She had merely claimed him first by happening to give the right answer among seemingly infinite possibilities, and the answer she had given at the time had not reflected her true feelings.
- “A ruler··· must be someone whom the people admire.”
Admiration.
She had admired someone all her life, but had never once imagined that she could become someone others admired.
The person she admired was so far above her that she had not even dared to consider standing shoulder to shoulder with him.
But she had answered that she would become a ruler who inspired admiration.
After answering the old man’s question with a lie and obtaining his loyalty, her heart had not been at ease.
Was that why?
She felt as though this war had happened because of her.
She had thought she could prevent the war by recruiting another asset besides the old man, but the reality was that the old man could protect only the north.
“I’m sorry···”
In the end, because the lord herself was weak, there was nothing one old man could do.
“Because I’m incompetent···”
And only after exchanging questions and answers with the old man and facing reality through the war did she realize it.
She had no dream of her own.
She had merely imitated the ideal ruler she envisioned while being driven by her sense of responsibility. That was not her true dream.
That was also why her growth had been so slow.
Saying that she had no time because she was concerned about the people of her domain, like the other lords, was only an excuse.
Look at Duke and Rex.
Had they not reached high power levels while protecting their citizens?
(If the two of them had heard this, they would have desperately denied it.)
The real reason was that, unlike those two, she had no dream of her own.
How could her power level rise properly when she was running toward a false ideal?
Despite lacking both talent and aptitude, she had coveted the position of lord, and the result had been this tragedy.
She derided herself.
The only difference between her and the other lords was what they pursued. In the end, there was no difference in the fact that people suffered because someone without the qualities of a lord pursued that goal.
“I will atone without fail.”
But now that she was in this position, it was too late to escape through excuses.
She whipped herself onward as always and rose from her bed.
After rising with her heart full of remorse, she left the tent,
“I look forward to your guidance today as well, Sir.”
and greeted Duke, who had been waiting outside.
***
It had been several days since I joined the southern front.
Since that day, my only task had been to train one person, rather than liberate the southern front.
It was to ensure her governing authority by having her reclaim her territory herself.
As a secondary benefit, by not appearing in person on the southern front, I could also make the lords in the east lose heart.
But that was not what mattered right now.
‘Morning Q&A with Hana~’
I was so happy that I could spend time alone with her in a room.
For the record, that phrasing might be open to misunderstanding, but this was earnest training with not the slightest improper intent.
Since we could not spar and expend our strength in the middle of a war, we had chosen a method of imparting enlightenment through questions and answers.
Hana had built up excellent fundamentals and mana over the past several hundred years, but her advancement had been slow because she had no proper teacher, so her power level gradually rose through questions and answers alone.
‘My damn master never did this for me.’
Not only my master, but most of the so-called masters in this world did not impart enlightenment through questions and answers.
That was because it was a waste to pass on the secret notes they had accumulated over hundreds of years, and because revealing their entire mental image to a disciple was no different from exposing their weaknesses.
They could not reveal their weaknesses to a disciple who might stab them in the back someday.
But I was not the sort of person who worried about such things.
‘Hana? Kill me?’
Our good Hana would never kill me.
If she ever tried to kill me, I must have done something to deserve it.
Of course, I said that, but even aside from Hana, I had never been stingy about teaching my disciples.
Kicking away the ladder because you are afraid someone below you might surpass you was something only cowards did.
The proper way was to butter up newbies and turn them into comrades.
‘About time.’
I checked the time with Rex’s ability.
Seven in the morning.
It was time for Hana to come out of her tent.
Strangely, she always kept to this time precisely.
Even though, unlike me, she could not look at a clock.
That fact seemed to speak of her diligence, which made her all the more admirable.
‘What should we discuss today?’
Sword debate (the act of running battle simulations with words) had ended yesterday.
I had nothing to advise her about shadow magic···
‘Hmm. Maybe I’ll probe her mental image this time.’
A superhuman needed a goal in order to grow stronger.
Not only superhumans, but anyone who wanted to strive toward something needed a goal.
The advancement of superhumans’ power levels and even their transcending of mortal lifespans were merely means of achieving those goals. What mattered was the true goal each person held in their heart.
In my case, my dream was to become an evil and magnificent final boss,
Rex’s dream was to build a harem and live a moderately wealthy and peaceful life (though that ship had already sailed),
and Ari’s dream was to build a big family with Rex and protect it from all threats.
‘Hana probably···’
Her dream was to create a domain where people could live safely and happily.
‘All right. Let’s go with that.’
Thinking that I should help her give that dream a concrete image, I prepared for our question-and-answer session.
As I was thinking that, the tent opened and she appeared.
‘She’s five minutes late today.’
Well, considering that, unlike me, she relied on her biological clock, an error of about five minutes was perfectly understandable.
“Good morning, Sir.”
“Yes. Then let’s go.”
I brought her to a room completely sealed off from the outside.
Inside, I sat in a magnificent throne(?) while she demurely took a seat on a plain wooden chair.
With a wide desk between us, we lit incense and began today’s questions and answers.
“You no longer need sword debate. From today onward, let us discuss your mental image.”
“My mental image···?”
“Yes. Then let me ask you. What do you dream of?”
I asked the question and waited for her answer, already preparing the next question.
But when no answer came even after several minutes, I realized that something was wrong.
‘Huh?’
Only then did I raise my head and look at her face.
‘What the hell.’
Why was she suffering qi deviation or something?
*
I hated the time in school when we had to write down our dreams for the future.
The smart kids smoothly wrote down prestigious professions such as prosecutor, judge, or doctor,
while the kids who liked playing around or still had a lot of childish innocence wrote down YouTuber or streamer.
I heard that some children in my nieces’ and nephews’ generation even wrote VTuber? for their dreams, but that was not important.
Whenever that time came around, I felt as though I had a vague understanding of what qi deviation was.
There was no martial arts in this world for me to write down Heavenly Demon,
no mana for me to write down Demon King,
and no notebook for me to write down God of the New World.
My dream had been an impossible fantasy.
So I had to compromise with reality and write down something fake, which meant I effectively had no dream, and something resembling qi deviation would happen.
- “XXX. An ancient swordsmanship instructor? How are you going to make a living doing that in Korea?”
In the end, I had written it because I did not want to give up on the romance of it.
But that was not the important part. Hana’s expression was more or less like that.
The flustered face of a student with no dream who had just been asked what she wanted to be in the future.
‘She has no dream···?’
This diligent Hana, who had run straight ahead all this time?
There was no way.
There was no way she could have maintained that diligence without a proper dream.
Of course, even the novel had depicted her mentality gradually breaking down.
But that had been due to the frustration of being unable to achieve her dream after running into the wall of reality···
Wait. Had Hana’s emotions ever been directly described in the novel?
‘Ah.’
Only then did I realize my own misconception.
The original novel was narrated from Rex’s point of view, and the feelings of a supporting character like her could only be inferred from her actions.
Of course, every one of her actions was described, but that did not mean I knew everything about her.
Unlike Ari, she had also been a supporting character in the role of a master whom Rex happened to meet, so she had relatively little screen time.
Only after my thoughts reached that point did I discard the preconception I had held until then.
‘I didn’t completely know Hana.’
I knew the Hana seen from Rex’s perspective, but I did not fully know the queen standing before my eyes now.
My decision was quick.
I changed my question as I addressed the troubled Hana.
“What on earth is troubling you so deeply?”
“Pardon? What do you mean···”
“If you cannot answer immediately after being asked, then either you have no dream or you have begun to doubt it. I do not think you have no dream, so I suppose you must be doubting it.”
“No, Sir. I’m not that sort of person. I just···”
“Then tell me. And tell me what sort of person you are as well.”
I continued urging her to speak when she hesitated, and only then did she begin to confess the truth.
She told me that her trauma had returned as the recent war continued,
that she had realized through her questions and answers with Peter that she lacked the qualities of a ruler,
and that, after reflecting on herself, she had realized she had no dream of her own.
After hearing her explanation, I nodded.
‘That old coot.’
Why did he have to say useless things and crush the kid’s spirit?
Losing his sight had clearly made him lose his tact as well.
(Of course, I had been putting on airs beside him too, but that was because it was Peter’s interview, so I was not his accomplice.)
I felt the triangle of conscience I had thought was gone working selectively, and cleared my throat.
“Ahem. Cough. That was the problem? Then it’s simple. Ignore what Peter said.”
“Pardon?”
“Didn’t Peter say that a ruler is someone who makes vassals follow him out of admiration?”
In other words, a ruler was not someone who was swayed by vassals, but someone who imposed a dream on them.
“Then once he became a vassal, you may redefine the qualities he defined for a ruler. That old man’s beliefs are full of holes in many ways.”
Admiration, my ass.
Hana seemed to have accepted his words as truth because they came from a former duke and an esteemed elder, but in my eyes, he was merely an old man still attached to a country that had already fallen.
Even from the perspective of someone who had overturned that country, his beliefs were not particularly compelling.
‘The man saying that can’t even make up his own mind.’
At my glib answer, her pupils trembled.
“But you too, Sir···”
“Have I ever once judged you myself?”
“Ah.”
Of course, during Peter’s interview, I had explained why her and Rex’s answers were wrong.
But I had only explained why they were wrong according to his standards because I knew his beliefs; I had not agreed with those beliefs.
I had never agreed that the man’s beliefs were right in all the years I had lived, either.
Yes, I had said, ‘You’re right,’ and moved on, but I had never been moved by those beliefs.
Light returned to Hana’s eyes.
I took that as an opportunity and instilled the meaning of diversity in a girl living in a world that still lacked the concept.
“If there are hundreds of millions of people in the world, then there are hundreds of millions of beliefs.”
Peter was indeed a wise old man, but he was not the answer.
Well, the old man was also high in rank and wise, and he did offer many good words, but they were good words, not the answer.
“Do not let someone else define your dream for you.”
“But I··· merely imitated the ideal lord imagined by other people. That is not my dream···”
“Why can that not become your dream?”
“Pardon?”
If I thought about it, I dreamed of becoming a final boss too, but in the end, I was merely imitating the people I had admired in movies and comics.
But if someone shouted that all my choices and actions were empty lies, I would raise my middle finger without hesitation.
‘Who the hell are you.’
I was aware that my actions were an act.
So what?
It was my dream, I had worked to achieve it, and I was happy because I was achieving it. Who had the right to criticize that?
That was why I could be certain.
“Even if it is merely an ideal you have fallen into out of habit, it is still unequivocally your dream.”
In the original story, things had not gone well and ended in tragedy,
and I had judged her qualities as a ruler inferior to Rex’s,
but separate from that, I had never said that her dream was wrong.
I also greatly enjoyed stories about people running toward their dreams even after colliding with the wall of reality.
“So have confidence in your dream. Your dream is never wrong.”
“But I lack the ability to be a ruler.”
“Certainly, I do not know much about the qualities or abilities of rulers. But I believe you can do it.”
In the original story, Rex inherited her mentality and the foundation she had laid and built an empire without wavering until the end.
That was why I believed she had merely been born into the wrong era and lacked luck, not that she was unsuited to the role of ruler.
‘Being inferior to Rex does not mean she is disqualified from being a lord.’
That Rex bastard was simply an emperor-level monster at domestic administration; Hana was an excellent lord.
After all, was there anyone who could compete in domestic administration with a monster who had brought a command-focused cheat ability, knowledge from the twenty-second century, and even the luck of a misunderstanding story?
“So set those worries aside for now and focus on training with me. I do not know the virtues of a ruler, but I can teach you the martial power you need.”
“Sir··· Can I do it?”
“Believe me. If you truly cannot believe me, then believe in me—the man who said that if I had not met Lord Rex, I would have made you my liege.”
She closed her mouth and lowered her head.
“I have only followed in your footsteps···”
“Did I not tell you before? When you were looking at the stars, those stars also saw you as a star and moved forward.”
I rose from my seat and draped my cloak over her as she sat unable to raise her face.
Then I headed outside the room.
Right now, what she needed was time alone, not more questions and answers.
Before leaving, I did not forget to leave her these words.
“I have been following you for far longer than you think. Perhaps since before you were born.”
Just before I closed the door, I heard the sound of sobbing from her side. It must have been my imagination.
*
The morning after we had exchanged such profound questions and answers.
As always, I waited for Hana outside the tent.
Time passed, and she came out at seven-thirty.
‘Hmm. Looks like she got a good night’s sleep for once.’
She had not had a nightmare, so she had slept too deeply and ended up being thirty minutes late.
Naturally, that was a good sign, so I did not scold her.
But···
‘Why does she look even more tired?’
She had no dark circles, but she looked strangely dazed.
As though she had been unable to fall asleep until late the previous night.
Had all the fatigue she had suppressed burst out after she finally got some deep sleep?
Perhaps sensing my worried gaze, she gave me a feeble smile.
“Haha, Sir. Would it be all right if I took today off?”
Good heavens! She had suggested changing the schedule!
Naturally, that was a positive sign, so I gladly accepted.
‘She’s finally escaped the grip of responsibility!’
Rather than being driven by responsibility, she must have made responsibility entirely subordinate to herself.
‘That’s right. Sleep soundly, my Hana.’
“That’s a good response. The enemy will be quiet today as well, so take this opportunity to recover.”
Of course, I had not heard any such information, but the enemy would be quiet today anyway.
“Thank you, Sir.”
She slid smoothly over the shadows and returned to her tent.
After seeing her off, I climbed onto the fortress wall to preserve the peace I had not enjoyed in a long time.
As I did so, I remembered something I had forgotten.
‘Right. The cloak.’
I had forgotten to ask her to return it.
Well, I had twenty spare cloaks stockpiled in subspace, so it did not really matter.
‘I’ll ask for it back when the war ends.’
The end of the war was already in sight, so there was no need to rush her.
With that thought, I waited for the enemy at the southern fortress.
“Lady Sneria kicked us out of the shadows and told us to patrol.”
“Hmm.”
“But what did you talk about yesterday to make our lord’s face so radiant?”
“Hmm.”
"Oh, but it looked like our lord was wearing something... We were chased out right away, so I didn't see it."
"Hmm?"
I chatted with her vassals, who had been thrown out of the shadows and left with nothing to do.
“I do not know what kind of special training our lord received, but train us too··· Mmph!”
“No, Sir! You needn’t worry about it···”
“Since we have some time, a light spar seems fine.”
Since it had come up, I trained the vassals as well.