Chapter 298 - Episode 291: Closure
One week after the peace negotiations broke down, the complete withdrawal of the Betumia Republic Army was finished.
As a result of the Kingdom of Roadberg daring to present a short withdrawal deadline to rush them, the Betumia Republic Army prioritized boarding their soldiers onto ships and abandoned a significant amount of equipment. Furthermore, they gave up on transporting many of the items they had planned to loot.
Consequently, the Kingdom of Roadberg secured a certain amount of spoils, including over two hundred magic carriages and many horses across the western and eastern regions, as well as resources such as iron that had once been stolen. While it was incomparable to the reparations originally demanded, it was still far better than gaining nothing at all.
"...Honestly, I wonder when I'll finally be able to sleep with my head on a high pillow."
Inside Laden, which had been handed over by the Betumia Republic Army, Oscar sat heavily in the chair of the office within the estate of the House of Count Kivileft, which served as the provisional headquarters, and let out a complaint.
The war was over for now. However, this was merely the beginning of a new battle. A long, long struggle in the world of politics awaited Oscar from here on.
He had to rebuild aristocratic society and the kingdom's society, and quickly demonstrate both domestically and abroad that the Kingdom of Roadberg and the royal family were not weakened. The problems were piled high.
"Hahaha, His Majesty is still young, so I am sure it will be fine. Even when the previous generation reached the same age as you are now, he labored at his duties until late at night every single day."
"Don't be absurd; that of Father's was simply workaholism. He would tackle matters that were neither important nor urgent while agonizing over this and that... that is why he died young. Besides, in Father's time, there were no great wars or great crop failures like this. In terms of the hardships I carry, I am superior."
The one who cited the example of the previous king while laughing was the leader of the Northwestern faction, Marquis Siegfried Bechtolsheim. Since there were no other ears present, Oscar answered his words with a candid attitude.
"It is true that the work His Majesty is undertaking is exceptionally difficult, even among the successive kings. However, it is for the purpose of supporting you at such times that subjects like us exist."
"True... things will likely become difficult for your faction as well; I apologize for causing you trouble, Marquis Bechtolsheim."
"My duties as the leader of a faction are so trivial that it would be presumptuous to even compare them to the hardships His Majesty faces in rebuilding the entire kingdom."
In reality, considerable hardship likely awaited Marquis Bechtolsheim as well, but he remained humble and saved Oscar's face as the king.
"...First is the reorganization of the aristocratic territories where the lordly houses have perished. Without doing that, it will be impossible to put the kingdom's society in proper order."
There were fifty-seven high-ranking aristocratic houses in the southern part of the kingdom in total. Among them, the heads of thirty-two houses had died. Of those houses, it was confirmed that successors remained—such as legitimate children, legitimate grandchildren, or unmarried siblings—in only twenty houses.
In other words, the remaining twelve houses had to be considered completely extinct. By calculation, over twenty percent of the high-ranking aristocratic houses in the south were lost. This was only among the high-ranking nobility. Including the lower nobility, there was no telling how many houses had perished. The aristocratic territories of the south were currently riddled with voids.
Even in the aristocratic territories where successors survived, many were individuals who had not yet reached adulthood and would suddenly inherit lands devastated by crop failure and war. If handled poorly, they might fail to rebuild, and the number of abolished aristocratic territories would increase further.
As for the southwest, the leader, Marquis Gardwin, had died, his children had died, and among the legitimate grandchildren who managed to evacuate in time, the eldest male was still only seven years old. The head of the House of Count Ahatz, who had been the deputy leader, was also dead. It was a situation that made one's head ache just thinking about how to organize it.
"Regarding that point, the leaders of the three factions, including myself, and the Minister of Internal Affairs, Marquis Skeggjason, should be able to be of assistance. This kind of work is a first for us as well... but well, we will manage somehow."
"Yes, I am counting on you. Regarding the logic of the regional factions, there are many things the royal family does not quite understand."
Saying so, Oscar gave a faint, bitter smile.
He had to reorganize aristocratic society while ensuring that no great dissatisfaction arose from any power, whether it be the various aristocratic factions or the military nobility and court nobility of the kingdom's center.
Because he had forced through an utterly unorthodox strategy using Angel's Honey by royal authority, reports were coming in that some nobles were now beginning to express dissatisfaction over that matter. The recovery of the royal family's support and authority was also an urgent task.
Just thinking about the work ahead made him dizzy.
"For now, I must return to the royal capital as soon as possible..."
"Indeed. Regarding the restoration of order in the southeast, it should be fine for the time being as long as Marquis Bittenfeld and Marquis Staufenberg are there. As for the southwest, I will handle it somehow."
First, return to a normal society where farmers perform agriculture, merchants perform commerce, artisans perform industry, and soldiers perform national defense and maintenance of public order. That was the first challenge for the southern part of the kingdom.
.....
Since the Betumia Republic Army had withdrawn, and the provisional restoration of order in the southern part of the kingdom would be handled by the king, ministers, and high-ranking nobles who were faction leaders, there was nothing for Noein, a frontier noble, to do.
All that remained was to return to his own territory along with the members of the Arqvist territory army who had accompanied him to Laden.
Therefore, at the end, Noein visited a place of fate—the corner of the Count's estate where he had once lived. Taking only Matilda with him.
"...As expected, there's no trace of it left."
Noein muttered this first.
It had been over eight years since Noein and Matilda left this place. There was no way that father would have left the detached building where the loathsome bastard child had lived. After eight years since the building was demolished, grass grew thick upon the ground, and any sign that something had been there had vanished.
Noein stepped into the place where the detached building once stood, a place that was now nothing more than a thicket of grass.
He thought about how it had been this narrow.
Looking forward, what was there was the stone wall surrounding the Count's estate. Looking to the right, there was likewise a stone wall.
Looking to the left, he could see the small grove created as if to hide this detached building. Looking back, he saw the grove again, and the path leading toward the main building.
These were certainly the sights Noein had once seen from the window of the detached building. To the boy who had been imprisoned in this place at age nine and spent his time here until age fifteen, these sights had felt much wider. This scenery alone had been the place where Noein lived.
But the current Noein was different. Noein had obtained his own territory. He had developed it, grown it, and come to live surrounded by many vassals and people. He had gained many collaborators outside the territory. He had gained friends.
As a noble, he had traveled to various lands. At times, he had even stepped onto foreign soil.
Noein now knew the world. Not just as knowledge learned from books. With his own eyes, with his own feet, he had known the world.
He had been able to change. With his own hands, he had shown that he could change his own life.
Through his own efforts, he had shown that he could grasp happiness.
That pride certainly existed. However, the small detached building used to compare it against was no longer anywhere.
And the father who had given Noein a small detached building and, in exchange, robbed him of every freedom, was also gone. The existence Noein should take revenge upon, the one he should show his happy self to, existed nowhere in this world.
Beside the standing Noein, Matilda drew close in silence. She gently placed her hands on Noein's shoulders.
"...Ah."
Noein muttered. Noein realized it now.
Noein had hated his father.
He had hated from the bottom of his heart the father who denied Noein's very existence as a mistake.
That was precisely why he had wanted to take revenge on his father.
He had wanted to obtain through his own power the things that had once been stolen, and show that his existence was not a mistake, that he had value.
He had wanted to push the revenge further and further, and continue to show his father his happy form.
He wanted to show it, and make him realize.
He wanted to make his father admit that it was he who had been wrong.
That he had been wrong about everything—that he wanted him to one day say proudly that Noein was also his son.
He wanted to be acknowledged.
He wanted to be loved.
He had wanted to achieve the greatest revenge of all: acquiring that father's love.
That would now never be granted. Only that revenge, no matter how hard Noein worked, could no longer be accomplished.
"...!"
Noein collapsed to his knees. Tears overflowed incessantly from his eyes.
Matilda also knelt and gently hugged Noein from behind. While feeling her body heat, Noein cried.
After crying for a while, eventually the tears stopped.
"...Let's go."
Saying so, Noein stood up. He turned toward Matilda, who stood up in accordance with him.
His eyes, swollen from crying, were still a bit red, but a sense of refreshment floated upon his face.
"Is it already alright?"
To Matilda, who asked with a smile, Noein also smiled and nodded.
"Yeah, I'm okay now... I have no more business here."
Noein's revenge would not end. As long as Noein lived, he would seek happiness and continue to protect that happiness. So that when he eventually reunited with Maximilian in heaven, or perhaps in hell, he could declare that he had lived more happily than him.
However, Noein would no longer be imprisoned by revenge. Noein would not live solely for the sake of revenge. He would live in order to live happily.
To walk his own happy life without being imprisoned by revenge. That in itself was a form of revenge. He no longer needed to be conscious of revenge. That itself would become another form of revenge.
Noein stood where the door to the detached building had once been. Then, he looked back toward Matilda, who waited behind him.
"Let's go home. To our home."
"Yes, Noein-sama."