Chapter 252

Sen Hostanio was seventy-two years old this year.

It was a fairly long life.

His hardships were certainly more than others, never less.

So one might expect his heart to have become dull by now, yet he felt stifled, wondering why he wanted to cry like this.

If asked why he wanted to cry, he wanted to scream that it was because he was angry, that he was so angry that tears were trickling out.

But he could not even do that.

Sen Hostanio ground his teeth as he watched the people of Schmeizen crawling out from everywhere like bugs.

‘…Do you really crawl out just because I tell you to come out? You should have stayed hidden tight…….’

If the people of Schmeizen heard this, they would feel wronged.

Hadn’t Sen Hostanio himself been shouting at the top of his lungs for them to come out just moments ago?

Even selling the Emperor’s name to do so.

But regardless of logic, Sen Hostanio was simply angry and stifled.

‘…You stupid Western bastards. Why are you coming out? Why are you coming out, I say….’

He is the Two-Flame Grand General.

He is the second-greatest general in the Cordis Empire.

Yet, there were several reasons why he had not been able to breach the Throat Gate for three months.

One was that he insisted on an all-out war with the intention of fighting Deballo.

Another was that the Widow Queen Aida, who wielded two Ancient Weapons, was trickier than expected.

And the last one, the biggest reason he had actually been dragging out time until now was….

‘…Why do you make me kill innocent humans again….’

He blankly counted the number of people.

There were about thirty.

About ten old people, five or six children, and even two infants.

Ah, a sigh escaped him, and he squeezed his eyes shut.

Sen Hostanio felt nothing but grief.

From his boyhood, not even twenty, until he passed seventy, he had lived half a century on the battlefield.

So naturally, he had killed all sorts of people and trampled on all sorts of lives.

He did not want to remember it, but… there were times when he had cut down young lives as well.

Even though he wanted to forget, it remained deep in his mind as a memory he could never forget.

Sen Hostanio knew the feeling of killing a child.

He did not want to know, but he ended up knowing.

He wanted to forget, but he could not.

That damned feeling, as if the deepest part of his soul was instantly defiled, as if the dignity of life he was born with was falling into an irreversible filth, resembled the sensation of falling….

Sen Hostanio felt a premonition of a fall and bit his lip until it bled.

‘Bald eagle…. I wondered why he was following me….’

He glanced sideways without hiding his hatred.

Kerenneus Cansella Caseptus, who was getting hit by the rain, furrowed his eagle-like eyes as if asking what he was looking at.

He acted as if he was monitoring him, and indeed, that was likely the case.

‘…I knew it would turn out like this.’

If Kerenneus hadn’t been there, he could have just let everyone live.

He could have pretended not to see, and released the Schmeizen people as if they were never there.

While pressing military provisions to eat during evacuation or thick blankets into their hands.

But Kerenneus continued to stare.

He was glaring at Sen Hostanio with those yellow eyes resembling an eagle.

It was a gaze of reprimand, asking what he was doing.

Sen Hostanio knew what he had to do.

His age was age, and his experience was experience.

He knew too well what was wise at this moment, what was loyalty, and what action he had to take as the Two-Flame Grand General.

But he did not want to do it.

But then again, he had to do it.

Because of that, he was simply sorrowful.

“…You came out well….”

Apart from the smile he forced onto his face, the double-edged sword in his hand was sharp.

It was a sword of the standard form issued to Cordis legionaries.

Except for being made slightly more durable, it was identical in both length and size to the swords used by soldiers.

The rain still falls.

Above the sky, Hermai Merhes dances while crying.

In the rain, Sen Hostanio flared his hair with grief.

As the old man, who wore bright yellow flames instead of hair, approached gripping his sword, the people of Schmeizen all trembled in fear.

“…….”

Sen Hostanio got off his horse.

A look of complexity was deeply stained on his face.

Some of the old people looked like they couldn’t even walk properly, and just coming out into the heavy rain for a moment had caused them to lose their strength, their purple lips trembling.

They looked older than Sen Hostanio, who was seventy-two.

The Two-Flame Grand General could not strictly look at the eyes of the infants.

“…General of Cordis….”

As he stopped holding his sword, one old man crawled out on his knees.

He walked on his knees over the mud made slushy by the heavy rain, and soon buried his forehead into the ground.

He seemed to be the representative of this village.

“…You may kill an old man like me as much as you please. Please, just spare the children.”

“…Didn’t I say I would spare you?”

“…No. What is the use of living longer? We would only waste the provisions of the precious soldiers. Just, please take in the children…. Give them a chance to be loyal to the Empire….”

“…….”

The old man with his head buried in the mud poured out servile words too easily.

Sen Hostanio looked down quietly at such an old man.

However, the village people crawled out on their hands and knees one by one.

“…That is right. We are fine with dying.”

“The children know nothing…. Please have pity, have pity on them….”

“In the future, in the future we will not do it….”

Sen Hostanio eventually could not endure it anymore.

“You won’t do it in the future?”

He screamed out of anger.

He could not bear it at all.

He knew that bellowing abruptly like this was a bad habit.

Yet he hadn’t been able to fix it even as he reached seventy.

Sen Hostanio rampaged while holding his sword.

“What! What in the future! What are you saying you won’t do in the future! What-!!!”

Hic sounds came from everywhere.

As the veteran general holding the sword hilt shouted, everyone was thoroughly cowed and lay flat on the ground.

They buried their heads like bugs and muttered as if reciting a spell, we were wrong, we were wrong, please save us, please save us.

“……Lightning-struck…….”

Sen Hostanio clenched his teeth.

What, just what are they saying they won’t do in the future.

When they hadn’t done anything, when they hadn’t committed any wrong….

When they were living quietly without sin and suddenly had their lives trampled, why, why were they acting as if they had done something wrong…….

These people, the twenty Schmeizen people kneeling on the mud in the rain with their heads bowed, were not at fault.

This was their land.

It was the foundation of life where they had lived since their ancestors.

If asked whose sin it was, it was naturally Cordis’s sin.

It was the fault of Cordis, of Sen Hostanio, who trampled on the well-living Schmeizen.

But the ones trembling servilely were them, and the one standing confidently holding the sword hilt was Sen Hostanio.

An unparalleled misery seeped into the Two-Flame Grand General’s heart.

“…Why….”

Sen Hostanio asked quietly.

Kerenneus was still watching him.

“…Why didn’t you run away?”

Raindrops flowed down the bridge of Sen Hostanio’s nose.

They flowed down his cheeks and his forehead.

Even though they flowed in streams, they could not wash anything away.

“I saw a swarm of refugees leaving a few weeks ago. But why did you….”

“…May I answer, General of the Empire….”

“…Do so. Name?”

“…My name is Kurt.”

The old man who had knelt first slowly raised his body.

Looking at the way he raised himself, he seemed to be lame in one leg.

His age appeared to be around the same as Sen Hostanio.

“The people of this village cannot make a living without climbing the mountains from a young age…. As a result, it is common for knees to be ruined before reaching fifty….”

“Is your leg ruined like that too?”

“…I am not. I became lame due to a mistake in my youth.”

“So the old and children who couldn’t run away remained here, and the others abandoned you and left?”

“…We pushed their backs and sent them away. We were already sorry for aging first, how could we become a burden too.”

“……I see.”

Kurt bowed his head again.

The sight of his neck sticking out over the mud was wretched.

Sen Hostanio trembled , holding the sword.

“Although I look like this, I, Kurt, was once one of the ministers of the Schmeizen imperial palace. I was pushed out in a political strife with Minister Belrsasal and returned to my hometown, but… I sat in a quite high position.”

“So?”

“In its own way, it is a valuable neck…. So, can I not buy other lives with my one neck, General….”

“…Hmm.”

Sen Hostanio nodded.

If he was a minister of Schmeizen, he would be the highest-ranking official.

And the Belrsasal he spoke of would be the Four-Fiend General Karkarsso whom Cordis had infiltrated into the West.

The Two-Flame Grand General asked.

“Have you ever met the Widow Queen?”

“…Of course. She will recognize my face.”

“That turned out well.”

Kurt’s neck rolled onto the ground with a thud.

Sen Hostanio moved his wrist to shake off the blood.

Raindrops continued to patter onto his eyes, but he did not care.

His heart boiled, but he did not care.

He wanted to scream in anger right now, but he suppressed it and swallowed it down.

Instead, he grabbed Kurt’s severed head and lifted it high.

Kurt couldn’t even close his eyes.

Sen Hostanio passed Kurt’s head to the cavalryman beside him.

“Hey.”

“……Yes?”

“Hey!!”

“Yes!!”

The cavalryman, who had been staring blankly, was startled by the shout and trembled.

Then he hurriedly received Kurt’s severed head.

The Two-Flame Grand General growled with his hair flaring.

“Hang this old man’s neck at the village entrance. Since you say it’s a face the Widow Queen knows, it will be a very good warning.”

“……Yes, Grand General.”

The Two-Flame Grand General looked at Kerenneus while handing over the severed head.

The old man resembling a bald eagle only then smiled brightly and clapped small.

It looked as if he was praising a child who had done their chores.

“Why are you clapping, you bald eagle!”

“Well done, Sen Hostanio. I believed in you.”

“Ha!”

Sen Hostanio felt anger surging to the top of his head and wanted to cry again.

Kerenneus approached Sen Hostanio and whispered.

“Actually, Great Emperor Continua was also worried about you. Saying you are still like a boy despite aging…. But I can tell him he doesn’t need to worry. Right?”

“……Did the Great Emperor really say that?”

“Do I ever lie regarding His Majesty the Great Emperor?”

“……Right, no matter if it’s you, bald eagle, you never lied about matters concerning His Majesty the Great Emperor.”

“Now. Let’s go do the next task. It’s all for Cordis, Sen. And for our Great Emperor Continua too….”

“……Damn it.”

The cavalryman who received the severed head was terribly afraid of Sen Hostanio.

Since the bright yellow flames he wore instead of hair soared up to there, touching the roofs of the houses, it was natural.

Still, there was something he absolutely had to ask, so he slowly opened his lips.

“…Um, Grand General.”

“Ah, what now!?”

“…Those people….”

The cavalryman gestured to the remaining village people with his chin.

They all had faces that had lost their souls.

Perhaps finding it hard to believe that Kurt had died, they had their mouths hanging open and couldn’t even tremble.

The cavalryman threw a question with a face like a whining puppy.

“……What should we do with them?”

“What are you asking?”

Sen Hostanio spat out.

He decided not to watch any longer.

By burying his hands in blood first, he had fulfilled his duty as a commander.

“Kill them all and pile them in one place.”

“……Yes.”

“You will have to hurry.”

The Two-Flame Grand General moved his steps.

“…There are many villages we must go around within today.”

Kerenneus followed behind him with a very satisfied face.

***

Rumors circulated quickly.

That the Empire had breached the Throat Gate following the Waist Gate, that Two-Flame Grand General Sen Hostanio was trampling Schmeizen, that whether soldier or not, if they were Westerners, he was killing and piling them up like chopping firewood, that children and old people alike were all dead and sprawled out……, that he shed the blood of over a thousand people a day like that…….

It would have been good if rumors were just rumors.

However, all those rumors were true.

That night, upon hearing the news, a black dragon crawled out of Shion Pollinglight’s throat.

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