Chapter 15
Dozens of soldiers, myself included, stormed the Banquet Hall, weapons pointed in every direction. Some held guns, others spears and shields.
A grey-haired old man, his face pale as a sheet, pointed at me and demanded,
"Wh-Who are you?!"
His attire, each button adorned with jewels, clearly indicated he wasn't from an ordinary family. Under normal circumstances, I would have bowed my head and inquired about his name.
But I simply ignored him. Approaching a noblewoman beside him, I grabbed her shoulder and shoved her aside.
"Eek!"
"Excuse me."
I picked up some food from the table she had been blocking and tasted it. Luxurious.
The texture of the meat and fat was vivid, the flesh soft, not at all tough.
Top-grade beef, no doubt, blended with a sauce I'd never tasted, not even back in my territory.
How much would this cost outside? My entire monthly allowance, perhaps?
And these bastards were eating this, not in peacetime, but during a war, in the middle of a siege.
"I asked who you are! How dare you ignore the Duke of Barelmunt! Do you have no manners?!"
Moreover, this texture couldn't come from preserved food. It must have been from livestock slaughtered yesterday or today.
Which meant that while the people starved, they were diligently feeding and raising these animals.
Hay must have been scarce, so they likely used grain. A cow eats ten times more than a human.
It was safe to assume that they starved more than ten people for the sake of this banquet.
Their greed was more important than the lives of the lower class... Disgust was all I felt. Royalty, Nobility, both. To think I had risked my life for these vermin.
"State your name and rank immediately and kneel--"
--Click.
"Shut your damn trap before I put a bullet through your jaw."
The old man quieted down instantly after I pressed the pistol against his chin. Letting out a short sigh, I looked around and spoke.
"You want to know who we are? Former Northern Army, current Revolutionary Army. We're here to overthrow you."
I showed them the armband with our symbol and a few fainted, collapsing on the floor. They couldn't handle the fear, being new to this kind of situation.
I wanted to send them to the Goddess right then and there, but for now, I ordered them to be treated respectfully. They were valuable hostages and criminals, after all. Even if they were to die, it had to be officially, in a court of law.
"And I am Lieutenant General Carolus von Roytel, the leader of the Revolutionary Army. You might have heard of me, Deputy Commander of the Northern Army."
"Roy...tel? Could it be, the one called the Wolf of The Northlands?"
"I'd only heard rumors, but I never thought I'd see him in person."
The nobles were terrified upon hearing my name.
The meager reputation I'd built seemed to have held up. Some even remembered me by my nickname.
They stuck me in the Snowfield all those years and gave me such a strange nickname. Those bastards had nothing better to do.
"Lieutenant General Carolus von Roytel, is it? I remember. I personally commended you for your service."
And even our damn Monarch, Charles VII, acknowledged me, his heavy body moving. He rose from the table and approached me with the Queen.
"Didn't you swear eternal loyalty to me when I awarded you the Medal? Where has that loyalty gone? Why this outrage?"
"Outrage... That's quite funny. Wasn't it Your Majesty who made me, made us, this way?"
"What do you mean?"
"Are you feigning ignorance now? How pathetic. You know the cause of this Revolution."
Polite words. But not a polite attitude.
I stepped right up to the King.
My tall body, tempered by years of battle and survival training, dwarfed the King's, bloated with meat and fat.
Charles VII, who had intended to intimidate me with his size, was instead overwhelmed and backed away.
"It was just a small trinket. A small ornament worn on a woman's head!! You sacrificed our lives for that?! You made our sacrifices worthless!!"
I dropped the honorifics. I grabbed the King by the collar with my left hand and pointed at the Queen.
To hammer home their mistake into their thick skulls.
"Ten years and seven months! That's how long I and my soldiers fought in that hellish Snowfield!! For over ten years, we endured the biting cold and fought a bloody war against the Empire!!
Do you even know how many of our comrades are buried there?! Ah, of course you don't. Even if the reports went up the chain, you were probably too busy watching operas and throwing parties to read them!! Our deaths were just another casualty to you and those noble vermin!!"
I released his collar. Instead, I pulled out a notebook from my pocket. The small book I'd carried since I was first commissioned.
The thin pages, like a religious scripture, were densely filled with small writing.
It was my diary.
A report for myself, a record of everything I had experienced on the Front Line, a trace of my life. The history of the past ten years, painstakingly written down to maintain my sanity amidst the harsh battlefield.
I hadn't intended to write so much, but writing daily had made it this thick.
"This contains everything that's happened in the Northern Region. Shall I tell you what the most common entry is? Hypothermia! Freezing to death! Freezing before even fighting the enemy, freezing after fighting the enemy from exhaustion!
We always lacked clothing, weapons, and food because of the weather. Every day was like extreme survival training. On days with blizzards, we'd have mass funerals, officers and soldiers alike!"
Otto, Byrek, Castin, Oscar, Trowee, Becken.
The soldiers I first commanded became corpses within a few months.
'Lieutenant, I'm so cold,' they murmured, losing their life force before my eyes, one after another.
But I couldn't do anything. All I could do was hold their cold hands and weep.
And I wasn't the only one with these memories. Anyone who had served long enough in the Northern Army had similar experiences.
That's how we united through our shared suffering, and how we endured, focused on victory.
"But we endured. We gritted our teeth and persevered, no matter how hard it was. We fought, telling ourselves it was for the Kingdom and our families. We barely held on, suppressing the urge to desert with patriotism and loyalty.
Whether you and the nobles were throwing parties in the rear or enjoying chicken and beer, we fought, simply because it was our duty as citizens of the Kingdom!
But you insulted our dedication. You trampled on the loyalty and sacrifice of the entire Northern Army for ten years, treating it like garbage on the street. For this goddamn piece of jewelry!!"
I grabbed the Queen's hair. I ripped off her wig and snatched the Tiara from her head.
A luxurious piece with diamonds and various jewels encrusted along the circular gold frame.
In my past life, I would have just thought it was pretty. Now, it was just disgusting.
It was sickening that we were treated like disposable pawns for this toy.
I handed it to Lieutenant General Baden, who had accompanied me with the intention of selling it abroad later, and then glared back at Charles VII.
"You cut military spending to secure funds to adorn the Queen? You abandoned the entire Northern Snowfield for a single Tiara? If it was a land that could be easily abandoned for the sake of your and the Royal Family's luxury, why were we even defending it?
If it was okay to abandon the strategically advantageous Snowfield and turn the Great Plains farmland into a battlefield just to buy a shiny trinket, why did we even start the war? Why not just give the Empire some land and negotiate from the beginning!!
That's why we raised the banner of revolution. That's why we turned our guns around and came here. Since you abandoned your responsibilities and duties as a Monarch, we will fulfill them in your stead! Because the sacrifices of hundreds of thousands of soldiers who died for this country must not be in vain!!"
After my long tirade, I grabbed a nearby wine bottle and gulped it down.
I threw the empty bottle to the floor, shattering it, and declared to the cowering Royalty and Nobility:
"From this day forward, the Royal Capital, Lahator, is under the control of the Revolutionary Army. All administrative systems and public institutions, including the Kingdom's administration, will be under our management."
A declaration that we would seize the heart of the Kingdom and control the government. In effect, it meant that we, not the King, would rule the Kingdom from now on.
Many seemed to object, but none dared to voice it. The muzzles of our guns were too close for them to defy the tide.
"Furthermore, all forms of excessive entertainment, such as banquets and operas, are prohibited until the end of the war with the Empire. We cannot waste resources on such unnecessary things when we need to strengthen our military."
Having banned the luxuries the upper class had enjoyed, I gave a final warning to the high and mighty as I left.
"Be prepared. You will pay dearly for the comfort you enjoyed at the expense of our blood."
And the doors of the Banquet Hall closed.
No one could leave.
At 8:37 PM that day, the Revolutionary Army's flag was raised atop the Royal Palace's clock tower.
The Civil War, which lasted a little over two months, ended in a complete victory for the North.