Chapter 18
“…No, sniff. I’m not.”
What do you mean no?
I heard you sniffling.
Ricardo is crying.
Ricardo, who remained fine even after being beaten so much by his young teacher, is crying now.
‘Did I hit him too hard?’
It had been so long that I might not have been able to control myself in the excitement of seeing him again.
Elonia hurriedly got off the bed and apologized to Ricardo.
“So-sorry. I didn’t know it would hurt that much.”
“It, it hurts. I’m rather happy, sob. Wahh.”
“…Have you become a pervert while I wasn’t looking?”
“No, I haven’t!”
Elonia made a genuinely disgusted face and stepped back, and Ricardo shouted with a face covered in tears and snot.
“Ew, gross.”
“That’s too much!”
Elonia handed Ricardo a handkerchief.
He took the handkerchief, blew his nose loudly, wiped his tears with his sleeve, and muttered miserably.
“You’re really too much. Saying I’m gross just because your disciple you barely met again is dripping a little snot… Do you know, sob, how much I missed you these past 4 years, Master?”
“…”
Elonia, who had been listening with an “oh my,” couldn’t say anything as he spoke more.
“Having to see your severed head one morning…, your horribly mangled corpse, do you know how I felt! You said you would win. You said you would kill that emperor bastard…!”
“…”
“Seriously, how could you do this to me, Master? Huh? Sob. Sniff. Why don’t you ever consult me about important things? If I had known the result would be the same whether Heilan won or lost, I…! I would have gone and cut off Vermon’s neck myself! But Vermon had already died at the hands of that emperor bastard too!”
“…I’m sorry.”
Elonia meekly accepted Ricardo’s resentment.
She couldn’t even imagine how hard those 4 years must have been for Ricardo.
She truly regretted not telling him about that matter.
But whether Cheron won or lost the war against Ravanta, she was destined to die.
‘The only difference is that if I won, I would die at Vermon’s hands, and if I lost, I would die at Artius’s hands… That’s it.’
Actually, she herself hadn’t known that she was destined to die no matter what.
She found that out by chance.
During the war, Cheron had secretly returned to the royal castle because she missed and was worried about her siblings so much.
She had thought she would use teleportation magic to go quickly, see her siblings for a bit, and come back, but there she accidentally overheard Vermon and Felix’s conversation.
“By the way, why is Cheron dragging this out so much?”
“She probably realized that her life would end when this war ends. She takes after her lowly mother, so sharp-witted, what a headache, Father.”
They had been planning to kill Cheron from the beginning.
Cheron was Heilan’s hunting dog.
If they just conquered Ravanta, it was as good as swallowing the continent.
A dog whose hunt is over is naturally eaten.
Then she at least wanted to choose the person who would kill her.
So she asked Artius.
To kill her and not hand over a single piece of her corpse to Heilan.
And to not leave her corpse intact, befitting the notorious name of the war demon.
She didn’t consult with Ricardo at all before reaching that conclusion.
Because she was afraid he would cry and shout like this and say he would kill Vermon.
Like how he came to kill Artius now, she was afraid he would jump into the pit of fire himself, not knowing the value of his own life.
Elonia approached Ricardo and patted his back.
“I’m sorry.”
“…For what, sniff.”
“For dying on you without even consulting you.”
“…”
She felt really sorry to Ricardo.
She had picked up Ricardo, who had lost everything in the war, arbitrarily taught him the sword and magic, and told him to survive to the end, but…
In the end, she herself had died without consulting him about a single important matter.
For Ricardo, who had lost his family to war, her death was like rubbing salt in his wound.
Elonia stood on tiptoe and quietly embraced her disciple, who had already grown up long ago.
“I’m really sorry. Don’t cry.”
Ricardo flinched and shuddered.
His teacher, who had found him among a pile of corpses, brought him along, and always acted stern.
His teacher, who was younger than him but had never apologized to him in his life.
The only teacher Ricardo had become attached to in Heilan and the only one he considered family.
He thought he would never see her again.
If he did meet her, he thought it would be in hell.
But not only did he meet her again, he even heard an apology.
It was so unbelievable that tears flowed again.
“…I really, really wanted to see you again, Master.”
“Yeah, me too.”
It was just that short sentence, but Ricardo felt like he was being compensated for 4 years of longing.
Ricardo shed endless tears of mourning and joy of reunion on Elonia’s small shoulders.
* * *
After Ricardo had calmed down, Elonia asked how he had crossed the border of Ravanta.
And this was the answer that came out.
“I, sniff, deserted as soon as I saw your body, Master.”
“…”
Ricardo was an insignificant soldier belonging to the lower ranks, hiding the fact that he was a sword mage and having a low status despite his outstanding skills.
Thanks to that, his desertion didn’t stand out much, but still, desertion.
Ricardo pouted and whined at Elonia’s dumbfounded expression.
“Why, you told me to desert if something happened, Master.”
“That was if your life was in danger, who told you to desert after the war is over!”
“Anyway, one soldier disappearing after the war is over won’t be a problem!”
That was true.
They do check the war dead to inform the bereaved families, but Ricardo had enlisted as an orphan, so no one would have bothered to look for him.
Anyway, after leaving Heilan like that, Ricardo said he had been doing odd jobs while traveling the whole continent.
After listening to all the journeys Ricardo had told her while sniffling, Elonia comforted him and asked,
“Sigh. You’ve grown into a crybaby while I wasn’t looking. Anyway, my maids will be able to wake up well, right?”
“Of course. I just cast a hypnosis spell on them.”
“Then wake up my maids on your way out, please.”
Elonia tried to naturally send Ricardo away, as if telling him to buy some butter while going to the market.
Naturally, Ricardo didn’t fall for that trick.
“…Do I really have to go?”
“Then you’re going to stay in the middle of enemy territory like you said? If you get caught, that dog bastard will behead you right away.”
Elonia drew her hand across her neck to demonstrate.
When Cheron threatened, it was one thing, but Elonia looked so gentle and innocent, as if she couldn’t even kill a bug.
Moreover, she looked like a doll because she was still young.
Ricardo suppressed the urge to call her cute lest she get angry and asked,
“Are you… planning to stay here, Master?”
“No way, of course not. I’ll kill that bastard and run away once I grow a bit more here.”
“Killing him and running away now? I’ll help you. I’ve built up a reputation in the mercenary guild over the past 4 years and have the ability to adopt you as my daughter and raise you.”
“Are you crazy?”
Elonia hit Ricardo’s head again.
Even though it was a baby’s hand hitting him this time, it probably didn’t hurt.
“Running away comes later. After I’ve given Artius every possible spite.”
Ricardo listened to all of Elonia’s circumstances and plans and nodded.
“Indeed. That emperor bastard is an ungrateful beast. This is why they say black-haired beasts are no good.”
“…”
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
Pretending not to know.
Even though he himself almost became a brown-haired beast who didn’t recognize his teacher and tried to kill her.
There were no normal people around Elonia.
“Anyway, go. It’s not that far from here to the main palace. If you get caught, you’re really dead.”
“…”
“Hurry! Listen to me!”
It wasn’t that she looked down on Ricardo, but he wouldn’t even be able to lay a hand on Artius’s neck.
Even if Artius was a Sword Master, he had fought the genius sword mage war demon for 5 years, so his skills spoke for themselves.
‘Although I did go a bit easy on him.’
Thinking about it now, she really shouldn’t have gone easy on him.
Anyway, if he got caught by Artius, her disciple whom she had barely met would leave the world before his teacher.
Ricardo, who hadn’t budged no matter how much Elonia pushed his back without knowing her thoughts, opened his mouth in a choked voice.
“Master. Do you remember that?”
“What. Don’t stall for time.”
“It’s not that. …In my memory, you often used to gaze at Heilan’s royal castle. What was so good about those trashy people that you stared at them like a fool?”
“Are you done talking?”
The Heilan royalty, including herself, were indeed trash, but Olivia and Simon were exceptions.
How dare he lump those little angels together with them?
Ricardo lowered his eyebrows and smirked.
“Who knows? Chicks grow up to be chickens, will those two be any different?”
“…Shut up. If you’re going to talk nonsense, get out.”
“May I say one thing before I leave?”
“I’ll only hear it once.”
“You’re going to stay here for a few years anyway, right?”
“That’s right.”
“Then I won’t be able to see you for those few years, Master.”
“…I guess so.”
Elonia nodded while eyeing Ricardo suspiciously.
And Ricardo exceeded Elonia’s expectations.
“Then I’ll quit my mercenary work and work at the Princess Palace. Then I can help you when you kill the emperor and leave the palace, Master.”
It was absurd.
Did he think his former identity disappeared just because he deserted, came to Ravanta, and worked as a mercenary?
Reading Elonia’s expression, Ricardo hastily added,
“Even if I was a soldier of Heilan, I’ve never been caught showing my face to people, not even once.”
Ricardo had lived with a fake face within the army.
Even when learning sword magic from Cheron.
Cheron, who had taught him sword magic to survive, had ordered it at the time because she was worried that Ricardo would be exploited like herself if it was found out that he was a sword mage.
She had told him to change his face back to the original and run away if something happened.
“I’ve barely found you, Master. I don’t want to leave like this.”
“Still—”
“Honestly, it would be good for you too to have someone completely on the princess’s side within the Princess Palace, right? With your personality, there’s no way you can completely trust Ravanta, who was your enemy until 4 years ago.”
“…”
“You’re going to kill the emperor and run away. I’ll be of help.”
It was true that someday she would kill Artius and leave the palace, as Ricardo said.
But hearing it from someone else’s mouth, her plan felt unfamiliar.
Elonia asked herself.
Can I really kill Artius?
‘…I don’t know.’
Elonia, Cheron, had hesitated to kill Artius from the day she first spoke to him.
Unfortunately, those words from back then came to mind again.
“The war demon princess of Heilan is different from the rumors.”
“Different how?”
“…What the hell are you fighting for? You don’t seem to be mad with bloodlust like the rumors say.”
It seemed to have gone wrong from that moment.
Those few words that bastard had arbitrarily spouted without even knowing her had made her hesitate, as if she was really an ordinary person, not a war demon.
She didn’t regret not killing him until she died at his hands.
But her mind changed when she saw him again after being reborn.
She wanted to kill him for completely forgetting her will.
‘…But I owe that bastard.’
If he hadn’t killed her then, if he hadn’t mutilated her corpse, she might have met a worse death at Vermon’s hands.
But why had she been shaken by those words?
‘Do I really want to kill Artius?’
Elonia was confused.
Then, suddenly seeing Ricardo’s earnest face, Elonia shook her head after all.
“…Stop talking nonsense and go back, Rica.”
“I knew it, as expected of you, Master. I knew it was all a lie that you would kill that bastard.”
“No, it’s not.”
“I’ll come find you again.”
“Don’t come!”
Elonia shouted, but Ricardo had already disappeared out the window.