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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Ruby
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Yuma stared intently at the face of the kneeling woman.
“…”
Revolutionary group
It was clearly Casiella, whom he had encountered on the magic train heading to the transit city of Arkan.
Yuma wasn’t the only one bewildered by the current situation.
Marquis Tornel looked back and forth between the two and spoke.
“Do you know each other?”
Ignoring the question, Yuma walked towards the tent’s entrance and looked down at Casiella, who was still kneeling.
“Stand up, leader of the revolutionary group.”
“Lord Yuma.”
Casiella’s black eyes met Yuma’s blue ones.
“Whatever the matter is, it’s better for us to talk privately later. This is a battlefield, Leader Casiella.”
Casiella quickly stood up at Yuma’s admonition.
“…I apologize.”
After helping Casiella to her feet, Yuma sat back down in the chair in front of him.
“Sit down as well, Casiella.”
Casiella bowed her head.
“Yes, Lord Yuma.”
She then sat down in the seat immediately to Yuma’s left.
Yuma thought he should create a private moment for them to talk as soon as possible.
From his perspective, he couldn’t even begin to guess why Casiella was behaving this way.
Yuma slowly opened his mouth again.
“First, let’s talk about the battlefield. You said we suffered less damage than yesterday thanks to the revolutionary group’s efforts, Marquis Tornel?”
“That’s right. Thanks to you and the revolutionary group, most of the enemy troops occupying areas under my jurisdiction retreated today.”
Marquis Tornel unfolded a map.
“There’s only one place we haven’t reclaimed yet, the western wall.”
Thunk!
Tornel pointed at the western wall with his command baton.
Judging from the topography shown on the map, the western wall area was a place where one could grasp the whole war situation at a glance.
In other words, it was a location that had to be recaptured to end this war.
“The revolutionary group should focus their efforts there. And the two battalions of reinforcements that will likely arrive tomorrow should also be deployed there. As I just told the Marquis, I will face Conqueror King Kament with the main force.”
Casiella’s eyes widened suddenly.
Her low, beautiful voice burst out.
“…Do you intend to face the Conqueror King directly?”
“Yes.”
Casiella showed a somewhat worried expression.
It was a worry that contained subtle emotions.
It didn’t seem like a worry about Yuma being defeated.
“Conqueror King Kament is said to have a legend that the origin of his bloodline is the lion tribe.”
Tornel nodded.
“I’ve heard about that too. If he can draw upon the power of that lion tribe, he might become twice as strong as when he fought me.”
Yuma didn’t feel anything unusual about those words.
“It doesn’t matter.”
No matter what power from a non-human race he drew upon, it wouldn’t have a stronger defense than
“I can defeat him. If we strike down the leader, the enemy’s will to fight will be lost. At that time, completely block the front line.”
“Understood.”
Tornel sensed confident assurance in Yuma’s words.
The meeting that wasn’t much like a meeting came to an end.
Yuma looked at Leader Casiella.
“Let’s go outside and talk.”
Casiella nodded vigorously.
“Yes, Lord Yuma.”
Yuma took Casiella into an empty tent outside.
Yuma stared at Casiella.
“Explain in detail what you mean by saying you followed me.”
Casiella also stared intently at Yuma.
“Erestina.”
The name of someone Yuma knew came out of Casiella’s mouth.
An NPC who had become a friend in the VR game Loop Blood.
In that game, the name of the revolutionary army Dawn’s corps commander was ‘Erestina’.
“She is my mother. The person you called a friend. The one who created the Dawn revolutionary army 22 years ago when she was young.”
Erestina.
This revolutionary group leader.
Erestina’s daughter?
Yuma felt as if he had been hit on the head with the fact that Casiella standing before him was Erestina’s daughter.
“-Later. When I make this world a bit fairer, I should get married and live happily. That’s my dream.”
She was a woman with charming eye smiles. Erestina was.
‘…The probability of them being the same person is low. No, almost none.’
Loop Blood was just a game.
To begin with, the continent names and country names Yuma knew didn’t exist in this world.
The ‘Argalos Islands’ where he had parted with Erestina in the game didn’t even exist in this world.
Even if the game developers of Loop Blood and those who put him in this world were connected.
In the end, he thought he couldn’t consider an NPC he had briefly encountered in a game that was mere data and a being who had lived and breathed in this world to be the same person.
“A photo.”
Yuma continued, looking at Casiella.
“Do you have something like a photo?”
Yuma remembered Erestina’s face clearly.
He had played Loop Blood as [Don’t Screw Me Over] dozens of times.
Except for two or three times, he had gone through Erestina’s route in all of them.
There was no way he couldn’t remember her face.
Casiella took out a pendant necklace from her bosom.
Inside the pendant was a single photograph.
Red hair identical to Casiella’s.
And a beautiful face that was slightly different.
Eyebrows and eyes that looked kind.
An eye smile like a crescent moon.
“…”
Yuma stared at that photo for a long time.
The person in that photo was definitely the Erestina he knew from
Yuma slowly raised his head.
“When did she die?”
“She passed away the year I turned 14. It was the fifth year after my father died of illness… She was murdered while the trade routes she had built as a revolutionary were being forcibly taken by a nobleman who had been eyeing them.”
Yuma spoke slowly.
“At the tavern… Dawn?”
Dawn.
Another name for Daybreak.
Casiella’s eyes widened at hearing the name of that tavern after so long.
“Yes.”
Casiella was lost in memories.
No, she might have been lost in regret.
“Did she ever talk about the times when they used the tavern as the headquarters for the revolutionary army?”
“Yes, she did often when I was very young.”
The adventures Erestina had before she got married.
Casiella began to tell.
The story started with Erestina talking about her own childhood.
How she ran away from home to escape her father who would drink and beat her, how she joined a small merchant group as their youngest member and worked, and how she built up that small merchant group with her own hands.
And how she opened the tavern, Dawn, as a shelter for the poor to prevent the tyranny of the nobles, and how she used that tavern to help merchants form a complete commercial alliance away from the eyes of the nobles.
‘It’s the same.’
The place names, countries, detailed locations, etc.
Although the geographical conditions and timing were slightly different, the things Erestina had done were exactly the same.
Yuma recalled the line Erestina used to say habitually in
“-The world must be changing little by little with this. Right?”
After saying that, she always smiled awkwardly.
She was a person who acted full of conviction, but without certainty that her convictions would achieve anything.
Just someone who acted silently.
“-Will you have a drink today? [Don’t Screw Me Over].
‘…Just a game.’
Yuma sighed inwardly.
It was just a character in a game, but, he couldn’t definitively say that the Erestina he knew and Casiella’s mother were different people.
“Erestina never used a sword.”
At Yuma’s words, Casiella smiled brightly.
She was so happy that there was someone to talk with about the hero that no one else remembered.
Someone who shared memories of the hero she alone remembered fully.
It was an emotion she hadn’t felt in so long that she couldn’t help but smile.
“That’s right. My mother was smart. Smart enough not to need a sword for revolution.”
Erestina had achieved revolution with just pen, ink, and her mind.
Casiella drew the sword at her waist.
Blue flames rose from the sword.
“But I wasn’t like that. I had to wield a sword to survive.”
When she was young and both her parents died.
The girl who had to stand alone in this world had no choice but to take up the sword.
“When we met on the magic train to Heilo, you said it then. That my revolution was wrong.”
She definitely said such words.
“Hearing that from someone who knew my mother’s revolution, those words resonated very strongly in my mind.”
Casiella continued slowly.
“I wondered what a righteous revolution was. But then I saw you achieving things effortlessly. Alone. Saving Arkan from the crisis of becoming a drug city. Defeating the dragon trying to dominate the count’s territory.”
Tears flowed from Casiella’s eyes.
“I understood very well what the dream salvation that would save this world was. I’m sorry.”
Casiella, who had carried on the legacy of the revolutionary group to this world, burst into tears.
Perhaps the sorrow welled up in this reassuring situation of meeting a great adult figure.
Yuma raised his right hand.
And patted Casiella’s shoulder.
“You’ve been through a lot.”
That was all Yuma could say to the revolutionary leader who had run through life alone.
“Thank you, Lord Yuma.”
Casiella, resting her face on Yuma’s shoulder, smiled brightly.
“-My revolution. It wasn’t completely useless, right? It must have left something for future generations? Right? Answer me, [Don’t Screw Me Over].”
Erestina’s voice rang clearly in his head.
It definitely left something behind.
Something…
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😢