12. Flowing Star – 06
It came suddenly, without any sign.
At first, I thought the winter would last a few days longer than usual. However, when I saw snow falling from the sky instead of sprouting in March, I realized something was wrong.
June, the time when, as usual, the sweltering heat hit the continent. However, snow was everywhere, and people could not walk the streets without wearing thick winter clothes.
…and then people noticed. The fact that an endless winter has come to this continent.
That winter lasted more than a year.
In the end, hell came to human life.
It was the beginning of a terrible nightmare with no way out.
****
“Iris, in the end, I ended up entrusting you with such a huge burden. I just feel sorry for you.”
“It is not so, Your Majesty. Aren’t those who inherit a noble lineage honored by all subjects to be the first to die at the worst possible moment? I can only feel that it is extremely honorable for me to be able to do something for the Empire with my own will.”
Hall of the Sun. In normal times, it was a space where the emperor and all the officials of the court gathered to handle all the government affairs of the empire, and it was a splendid space that symbolized the dignity of the empire itself. It has been transformed into space.
The reason was really simple. After an endless winter that lasted for a year, all the bureaucratic systems that existed in the empire collapsed. In this environment where people starve to death due to lack of food, and all the furniture that existed in my house is turned into firewood with their own hands to find firewood to start a fire, it is hard to believe that a system created by humans will operate normally. It must be absurd indeed.
…Yes, the situation was just so hopeless.
However, it was still too early to just despair. Hope still remained.
The oracle of the goddess came down to the saintess, and based on that, an investigation team of 100 people sacrificed their lives to succeed in uncovering the cause of the endless winter.
A mysterious woman who was said to have appeared in the Duchy of Estel, who used to make snowflakes bloom from her fingertips. An evil witch who instantly took the lives of 99 members of the investigation team with just a light glance.
If all the citizens of the empire can unanimously kill the ‘Witch of Winter’, the continent may escape from the endless winter and regain spring again. No, it must be so. Because, that was the last hope of everyone on this earth.
An expedition was formed immediately. The goal is ‘witch of winter’. An existence possessing mighty power that would not be an exaggeration to say that he was an absolute being, capable of taking a hundred lives casually with a single glance. You have to take the idiots with you, but you will be reduced to a mere scarecrow in front of the ‘Witch of Winter’.
Yes. What is needed to oppose a person with a mighty force that transcends the human race is a person with a force that has reached the absolute stage as well. Those who were appointed as members of the expeditionary force also came to be selected as those with the armed forces, which would not be an exaggeration to say that they had reached the pinnacle of the current human race.
Bianca del Castana, who is said to be an unparalleled genius among the wizards produced by the Castana marquis within a thousand years, and Ariel, a saintess who possesses divine power called the incarnation of a goddess and can use the ‘power’ bestowed directly by the goddess. Thier, Kyrie El Denaris, who has lived for over a thousand years and has existed for a long time as the guardian of the World Tree, and Iris El Devhart, the best swordsman on the continent and at the same time the ‘sword of the sky’.
They were the maximum force that the current human race could mobilize. In Iris’s opinion, the combination of the four including herself was truly perfect. No matter how strong the ‘Witch of Winter’ is, it will be clear to the witch that the current human potential is not so formidable-
“Iris, can I ask you a favor?”
At the emperor’s powerless words, she shook her head from side to side and answered.
“Please. His Majesty just needs to give me a command.”
Looking at Iris’ straight eyes as he answered, the emperor sighed softly.
“I know very well that you are trying to compose only a few strong members of the expedition to subdue the ‘witch of winter’. However, could you add one more member to the expedition just because of my face?”
“…You mean add one? Can you tell me who that person is?”
“Cain von Estel. This is the current Duke of Estelle.”
The emperor’s words caused Iris’ brow to twitch slightly. The emperor who mentioned him so suddenly was very surprising, and most of all, the man the emperor mentioned was a human figure that Iris detested.
“Are you referring to that pitiful, pathetic man?”
The Emperor’s eyes lit up at Iris’ harsh criticism of Duke Estelle.
“…do you know about him?”
“How could I not know about him? It is not an exaggeration to say that it is not an exaggeration to say that he is a disgrace to the Empire. To be honest, I wondered if it was really merciful to put such a man in a dungeon at best.”
It really couldn’t have been more funny. The nobles’ blood is blue because they inherited the pride from their honorable ancestors, and the reason they were treated was to stand ahead of anyone else in the face of an approaching threat. However, the prestige of all the nobility of the empire fell to the ground because of the man who took refuge in order to take care of himself, forgetting his sacred duty.
And for that fact alone, Iris, who was proud of being a proud imperial bloodline, just didn’t like Duke Estelle. That too, very, very, very much.
“your majesty. I am very sorry to inform you, but may I ask you the reason for including him in the expedition?”
Aside from his personal feelings towards him, why the hell did the emperor want to include him in the expedition? The Duke of Estelle of the time was a typical man of letters, so the emperor would be well aware that he would not be capable of anything. why.
“The Duke of Estelle is one of the four major dukes who have been with the imperial family since the beginning of the empire. Even though it has fallen into disrepair today, the history and traditions that have been formed over a long period of time exert an influence knowingly or unknowingly just by existing. If they really fall apart, it will cause great losses to the imperial authority. Therefore, I intend to include him in the expedition and cover the o with fruit.”
In the end, to sum it up simply, it meant that it was a reason based on a political purpose.
Really, I don’t like it. It seemed to let out a sigh. This expedition was no joke. Perhaps it must be a serious matter on which the survival of mankind itself may depend, but even at this moment, it is necessary to calculate future political games and move. All of this will be futile if we can’t stop the ‘Winter Witch’.
…But at the same time as an order from the emperor of the empire, it was a request from his one and only father. In the end, there was only one answer she could give to the emperor.
“…I will do that. your majesty.”
Iris had already begun to hate the man she had never met.
****
“It is an honor to face the Moon of the Empire. My name is Cain von Estel. Lowering.”
The impression that Iris felt when she first met Cain von Estel was that he was a truly unreliable man.
His face was pale for some reason, but it was pure white. It was manly, but at the same time handsome, and it could be said that it was a typical scion who hadn’t suffered much since he was born. At least, in Iris’s eyes, it just seemed that way.
Also, his hands were really soft. Those hands, not to mention calluses and blemishes, were the hands of a typical literary man who had spent his entire life playing with only a pen holder, let alone black.
“You are not a warrior.”
I already felt like my head was hurting. Only in this way is the significance of Duke Estelle truly more than a burden, nothing less. The expedition, led by Iris, was not going for a picnic to the north. It was to leave to wage a life-and-death struggle to seize the last hope that secured the future of mankind. In a situation where you can’t be sure if you can even protect your own body, you have to bring an idiot with no power.
“…Duke Estelle.”
“Yes, lower.”
Cain bowed his head toward him when he called out to him. Seeing that, Iris didn’t like Cain even more. Does a man have no self-respect? I was walking around with my head bowed toward a woman I had never seen before. Really, like a pathetic man.
“Don’t speak directly. I don’t like you.”
“…..”
She didn’t miss the fact that Cain’s eyes fluttered slightly at Iris’ words.
“It’s not just because of rumors. What I don’t like is that you are a coward who abandoned his territory and fled to the system before anyone else, despite being in the position of general manager of the Estel Duchy.”
“…In that sense, let me ask you a question. Why didn’t you die in the Duchy of Estel? Do you not have the pride and honor inherited from your ancestors? Was his life so valuable and precious?”
It was Iris’s own sincerity, but at the same time, it was also advice. It was also a bitter advice that if you are valuable and valuable, stay in a safe system and take your own life. If you take such a pathetic and insignificant man to an expedition, it is self-evident that he will be of no use to anyone, so you have no choice but to break his heart this way.
“…..”
The answer that came back was no. Perhaps, even when he thought about it, he couldn’t answer Iris’s words. It wasn’t bad that he didn’t have a bunch of lame excuses, but at the same time, it was just that. It was nothing short of boring. My heart is shaken by such abusive language at least. Duke Estelle must have been such a pitiful man from the start…
Thinking of that, the moment Iris tried to turn away from him.
widely-
Something grabbed her wrist.
“…no.”
From him, a feeble answer came back.
His voice was so small and feeble that you couldn’t hear it unless you listened closely.
…But, at some point, there was a person who listened to that weak voice.
“My life is not that important. I intend to go north to regain the pride I lost.”
“…why would you want to do that? Is it because of the title?”
Iris knows that too. The ‘Witch of Winter’ was held accountable for appearing in the Duchy of Estel, and he was stripped of his dukeship. Yeah, what the heck do you mean by saying that? Come on, spit out the truth. It means revealing the secret you are hiding.
Cain von Estel. Because there must be a reasonable reason for a pathetic man like you to write and follow me.
“People are dead. Many people died. That too, for me.”
Cain’s voice is calm. There was no pitch in his voice, as if he were reciting an old story. but-
“Due to the cold, due to heavy snow, due to the cold wave, many people died. Writhing in pain, he died. I couldn’t do anything looking at them. Even though I was a duke for them, I could do nothing but look at them.”
At the end of a large hole in the middle of his chest, Iris thought that an empty wind was passing by.
“Everyone is dead. Countless people have sacrificed themselves to escape me, just because I am their duke. In the end, I survived. No, I had to survive. Even in order not to make their deaths in vain. ”
For some reason, I forgot to think that he was crying.
“…so, do you intend to go north and pay your respects for them?”
But at the same time, it was an extremely arrogant thought. People who died in agony because of the endless winter and people who mourned them overflowed to the point that they could walk under their feet. Do you think you are the only one mourning death? Are you the only one who thinks you have to bear their deaths?
“Revenge means nothing. Resentment (怨) and resentment (恨) are only for the living. All you can do for the dead is mourn for them. Didn’t you really realize that if you went beyond that, it would be nothing more than venting your anger in the name of being for the dead?”
In order to break your heart, I laugh at you loudly in front of you. What you pursue is meaningless. In the past, it was nothing but worthless work.
So go ahead and tell me. I will give up. He said he would quietly remain in the system. I won’t be petty stubborn anymore, and I won’t follow you to the north!
…But he’s not at all like this.
“Hey, didn’t I tell you already?”
not bent, not
“I am their duke. So, everything for them is my rightful share.”
His stubbornness to the end, and his refusal to back down against himself was truly—
“…no one will know what you’ve done. It’s already too late for everything.”
“It doesn’t matter. This is me, because I know.”
I didn’t even ask for the understanding of others in the first place. However, he was singing positively in front of himself, saying that there was something he had to protect.
“Even a simple meat shield is fine. Low, please write me as a human being. That is the only wish left to me.”
In his eyes, there was only sincerity.
Truly, it was a dazzling sight. What is the moment when a single human being puts forth everything he has in order to persevere through himself?
Alas, yes. Cain von Estel.
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Maybe from then on, I thought you were like a twinkling star.