Chapter 253

I was holding a long baton in my hand.

It was an item I had used ever since assuming the position of Vice-Commander of the Western Alliance.

Carved from a whole piece of Seram wood, it was sturdy enough to be used as a weapon.

“……”

I stretched my back and fiddled with the baton.

Then I suddenly sprang up and struck a glass cup violently.

A clean posture.

The glass cup, struck by the baton, shattered into pieces and scattered on the floor.

Having smashed the glass cup, perhaps not having vented enough anger, I began to smash all sorts of things with the baton.

Since it was the brute strength that wielded the ‘Iron Bloodline’ recklessly, anything caught in my hand, whether wood or metal, was utterly destroyed.

Only the sounds of smashing were distinct inside the barracks.

I, Shion Pollinglight, could not endure without doing so.

I ground my teeth so hard that my neck hurt.

After swinging the baton like that and making a mess of my barracks, I finally snapped even the Seram wood baton with my own hands.

My strength was so great that when I twisted and squeezed the baton with one hand, it broke in the middle with a snap.

“…It’s happening again….”

In front of me, as I groaned while burying my face in my hands, were several sheets of paper.

They were urgent reports delivered from Schmeizen.

How many people Two-Flame Grand General Sen Hostanio killed in a single day, what important figures died alongside them….

“…I remember these names….”

Former Minister of Defense of Schmeizen Kurt, Mayor of Trofalen Ganhelm, Viscount Smosren….

Names I had seen exactly the same before my regression.

Names that died by the Empire crossing the Throat Gate, died just like then and delivered their obituaries to me.

I, the regressor, felt a terrible sense of powerlessness for a moment.

It felt as if history was alive and moving.

As if time was twisting its body and pushing me away.

It felt like it was mocking me, saying nothing changes even if I regress, saying I let them die again.

I knew well enough that couldn’t be true.

I had already caused many changes.

However, my exhausted mind and body could not easily shake off those whispers.

I didn’t even know whose whispers they were, only that they were whispering clearly.

Ugh……!

I resisted, veins bulging on my neck.

The whispers continued to be heard.

You failed to save them.

You cannot save them.

You cannot bring down the Empire.

Half-wit hero, what can someone like you do?

Do you think you are something just because others praise you?

Remember.

You have already failed.

You failed once, will the second time be different?

But you have no way.

Just suffer. Suffer and suffer again.

Wondering where all these whispers were coming from, I realized they were from my own heart.

All the wounds and malice I had used as driving forces had already rotted away, emitting this stench whenever there was a crack.

I ground my teeth even harder.

My teeth had already all turned sharp.

As I ground my teeth that were all fangs, wounds appeared and blood flowed.

Even the blood was black.

The more I resisted the whispers with bulging veins, the more black scales gradually covered my skin.

I hated it.

I just hated it.

I hated Cordis so much I couldn’t help it.

I loathed those who performed the cruel deeds I had struggled so hard to prevent without hesitation.

But I was also Cordis.

I was the Cordis of Cordis.

I could not be free from responsibility.

Caught between hatred and self-reproach, my soul only grew blacker and smoother.

“…It’s twisted, it’s twisted….”

I tore at my hair.

“…The time the three confidants appear is too early. It won’t affect the main flow, but until then, too, too many people will die….”

The fight with the three confidants was something I had already kept in mind.

With a little leeway, I could turn the tables quickly.

But the ones who would die until then, the pitiful lives. Names I could never ignore….

“No, Shion. Don’t be anxious. Don’t be afraid. There is no perfect plan. That goes for the Empire too….”

My blue pupils flashed.

“Ferbias summoned the three confidants. So the Empire gained the upper hand again. Then… will Ferbias stay still? Will he try to maintain the war situation while thanking the three confidants?”

I shook my head while muttering to myself.

“No way…. That can’t be…. He is an arrogant man, Ferbias…. He will think it’s his own power and try to spur on further…. Then he is bound to make a mistake…….”

I touched my lips.

“Right. Ferbias is impatient too…. He will definitely make a mistake.”

Dimashq, Dimashq…. I muttered like that.

It was the name of the battle where I achieved the greatest victory before my regression.

If I induce a battle like that time, I can overturn the entire situation at once.

“I just need to buy a little, just a little time…. Then I can lead them to the Dimashq Plains. And there, I will win just like then….”

Only when my thoughts reached there did my ragged breath find its place.

“…Right, that’s right. I just need to turn it around at the Battle of Dimashq Plains. Calm down, Shion….”

I tried hard to regulate my breathing.

I forcibly pressed down the breath that was about to burst out again any moment.

“We’re almost there…. The day to fulfill destiny has come faster, so it’s a good thing….”

My voice trembled.

“…So let’s do today’s work. What I have to do today, what I can do….”

I stood up and began to clean the barracks.

I personally cleaned up the traces of my uncontainable anger.

Using ‘Fantasy Finger’, it was quick.

Then I soon sat at the table and began the work of a strategist.

Assuming every case I could predict and establish countermeasures for all those cases, it was a very simple task.

The barracks soon became quiet.

Amethus heard all of my murmurings from outside the barracks.

But he said nothing and quietly looked at the sky.

Then the moon looked at him too.

***

“Are you Nana?”

Marina Debius smiled brightly as she visited Nana Nereyades’s barracks.

Nana, who was crushing medicine and applying it to the wound on her face, was startled and sprang from her seat.

“I greet Her Highness the Former Empress Consort…!”

“Oh my. Don’t do that. Sit, sit.”

Marina smiled benevolently and waved her hand.

She took out a box of sweets with her left hand, which had only two fingers.

Nana sat facing Marina while flustered.

“You are limping.”

“Since I injured my pelvis before.”

Nana bowed her head.

“I will make sure to recover quickly. So that there is no hindrance to the battle….”

“Oh my. Can you heal poof just because you want to heal? I couldn’t do that.”

“…….”

Marina chuckled.

She waved her left hand as if to show it off.

Except for the thumb and index finger, there were no fingers.

Marina pointed to the spot where her left middle finger used to be and said.

“Don’t overdo it. If you overdo it, even wounds that would heal will get worse. My middle finger was like that.”

“…I see.”

“I understand feeling impatient. Since there was the matter in the Bururade Peninsula too….”

“…….”

Nana’s face hardened stiffly.

Mentioning the death of her grandfather, Niko, naturally made her heart churn.

Marina held Nana’s hand.

“You don’t have to become venomous, Nana.”

“…Your Highness Marina.”

“All battlefields are terrible, but you don’t need to become terrible along with them.”

“…It is hard to understand.”

“You can’t know unless you experience it.”

Marina smirked.

Although she spoke like this, in her youth, she lived harboring more malice than anyone.

Breaking the Bellos Grand Bridge with bare hands was nothing.

It was a time when she smashed everything in sight with her innate monstrous strength.

“I wouldn’t have known yet either if I hadn’t given birth to Secundus. How such a reliable man grew up under this unworthy mother….”

“…The Three-Mi Grand General is a very excellent person.”

“So I’m saying.”

Marina suddenly thrust her face forward.

There was an innocence unlike her age.

Nana unwittingly pulled her face back.

Marina giggled, finding such Nana just cute.

“Do you have a lover, Nana? Or a fiancé?”

“…I do not.”

“Then how about our Secundus?”

“……Uh, that…….”

Nana tried to answer something but couldn’t and shut her mouth tight.

Soon her face turned bright red.

All the answers that came to mind were embarrassing ones.

Watching Nana blushing and twisting her body, Marina muttered inwardly.

No, endure it, Marina. No matter how cute, Nana is also a Legion Commander, you can’t just hug her and stuff….

But when she came to her senses, she had already hugged Nana tightly.

“Ah! Look at me. My chronic illness of hugging cute things I see flared up again….”

“…Am I….”

Nana asked quietly.

There was a question that rose to her throat.

But trying to bring it out felt like goosebumps rising all over her body, so it wasn’t easy.

Still, she couldn’t endure without asking.

“…Cute, Your Highness?”

“Legion Commander Nana.”

Marina spoke in a solemn voice.

“I, Marina Debius, do not hug things that are not cute. Even if it were my son.”

“…Is that so.”

Nana Nereyades lowered her head.

It was to hide her reddened cheeks.

But since even her two ears had turned red, it became a meaningless action.

“…Actually, we have already made a promise.”

“A promise?”

“When this war is over, the Three-Mi Grand General… decided to come to Hobel Bay. And decided to have a meal….”

“Oh my! Oh my!”

Marina covered her mouth and made squealing sounds.

“Goodness, so it was like that!”

“…….”

“You two were already taking care of it yourselves, and here I am being silly. Sorry, Nana. But what to do? I can’t control my excitement. So that happened. Secundus with Nana…. By the way, who brought it up first?”

“…The Three-Mi Grand General proposed it first.”

“Oh my, oh-my-! Secundus did? Really!? Look at him. He’s all grown up, all grown up!”

Nana suddenly felt certain that if Secundus heard today’s conversation, he would shudder in embarrassment for several years.

The thought that his embarrassed appearance with that bulk might be quite cute… followed, but it was too cheesy so she pretended not to think about it.

Marina squealed for a long time.

How cute and admirable Nana is, how tender-hearted Secundus is despite pretending to be strong, how she wants to stay young but somehow got this old, and so on.

After pouring out everything inside her like that, she smiled benevolently.

“Nana.”

Marina asked carefully.

“Participate in our Three-Generations Meeting from tomorrow.”

“…How could I?”

“You were one of the Ten Great Generals too, so you are plenty qualified.”

Marina continued.

“Both Dad and I like you very much. Besides, Secundus seems to have affection for you too. So from tomorrow, dress up well and come to my barracks.”

“…Your Highness.”

“I’ll decline a refusal. Understand? See you tomorrow, Nana.”

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