Yuma stared intently at the woman’s face kneeling before him.
“….”
The revolutionary group [Dawn].
It was clear that Cassiela, whom he had encountered on the magical train heading to Arkan, was here.
Yuma wasn’t the only one baffled by the situation.
Marquis Tornel alternated his gaze between the two and spoke up.
“Are you two acquainted?”
Yuma brushed aside the question and walked towards the barrack’s door, looking down at Cassiela still kneeling.
“Get up, revolutionary leader.”
“Lord Yuma.”
Cassiela’s dark eyes met Yuma’s blue ones.
“Whatever the matter may be, it’s best for you two to discuss it later. This is a battlefield, Leader Cassiela.”
Cassiela sprang to her feet at Yuma’s reprimand.
“…I apologize.”
Yuma, having lifted Cassiela from her kneeling position, took a seat in front of him again.
“Sit down, Cassiela.”
Cassiela bowed her head.
“Yes, Lord Yuma.”
Then she plopped herself right beside Yuma.
He thought about how he needed to create a private moment for just the two of them to understand what the heck was going on, as he had no clue why Cassiela was acting this way.
Yuma slowly opened his mouth again.
“First, let’s talk about the battlefield. I heard that thanks to the revolutionary group, we suffered less damage than yesterday. Marquis Tornel.”
“Indeed. Thanks to you and the revolutionary group, most enemy troops in the marquisate have withdrawn today.”
Marquis Tornel unfurled a map.
“There’s only one area we have yet to reclaim—the western wall.”
He pointed to the western wall with his command baton.
From the terrain visible on the map, it was clear that the western wall was a place where one could grasp the overall situation at a glance. In other words, to end this war, this place had to be reclaimed.
“We’ll need to strengthen our forces there for the revolutionary group. And we can also deploy the support troops arriving in two units tomorrow to this spot. As I mentioned to the marquis, I will face the Conqueror King Kament with the main force.”
Cassiela’s eyes widened.
A low, melodic voice sprang forth.
“…Are you really planning to face the Conqueror King directly?”
“Yes.”
Cassiela’s expression turned somewhat worried.
It didn’t quite seem like worry for Yuma’s defeat, but more like a nuanced concern wrapped in different emotions.
It was a worry filled with subtle emotions. It didn’t seem like a concern that Yuma would lose.
“The Conqueror King Kament is said to have the bloodline that originates from the lion tribe.”
Tornel nodded.
“I have heard that too. If he can draw on the power of that lion tribe, he might become about twice as strong when fighting against me.”
Yuma didn’t feel anything unusual about those words.
“It doesn’t matter.”
Even if he drew upon the power of some otherworldly race, it wouldn’t possess greater defense than the [Black Dragon].
“We can defeat them. If we take out the leader, the enemies will lose their will to fight. That’s when we can completely block off the front line.”
“I understand.”
Tornel felt a strong confidence in Yuma’s words.
The meeting, which seemed anything but a meeting, came to an end.
Yuma looked at Cassiela.
“Go out and talk a bit.”
Cassiela nodded vigorously.
“Yes, Yuma.”
Yuma took Cassiela and entered the empty barracks outside. He gazed intently at her.
“Explain in detail what it means that you followed me.”
Cassiela stared back at Yuma.
“Erestina.”
The name of someone Yuma knew came out of Cassiela’s mouth.
An NPC he had befriended in the VR game [Loop Blood].
In that game, the leader of the revolutionary army [Dawn] was named ‘Erestina.’
“She is my mother. The one you said was a friend. 22 years ago, she was the one who founded the Dawn revolutionary army.”
Erestina.
The leader of that revolution.
Erestina’s daughter?
Yuma felt as if he had been hit on the head with the fact that Cassiela before him was Erestina’s daughter.
“Later on. After making this world a bit more fair, I should get married and live happily. That’s my dream.”
She was a woman with a charming smile. Erestina was.
‘…The probability of them being the same person is low. No, almost nonexistent.’
[Loop Blood] is just a game.
The place names and country names Yuma knew of on that continent didn’t exist in this world.
The ‘Argalos Islands,’ where he parted ways with Erestina in the game, didn’t exist in this world either.
Even if the game developers of Loop Blood and the ones who brought him into this world were connected.
Ultimately, he thought he couldn’t consider the one-time NPC who merely flitted past him in the game as the same person who had lived in this world.
I thought that beings that had lived in this world couldn’t be considered the same person.
“Photo.”
Yuma continued speaking as he looked at Cassiela.
“Do you have something like a photo?”
Yuma clearly remembered Erestina’s face.
With “Don’tScrewMeOver,” he had played “Loop Blood” dozens of times.
Except for a few instances, he had gone through Erestina’s route every time.
There was no way he could forget her face.
Cassiela pulled out a pendant necklace from her embrace. Inside the pendant was a photo.
It featured a girl with red hair that looked just like Cassiela’s, but with a slightly different beautiful face.
Her eyebrows and eyes looked friendly.
With a crescent moon smile.
“….”
Yuma stared at the photo for a long while.
The person in the photo was definitely Erestina from “Loop Blood” that he knew.
Yuma slowly raised his head.
“When did she die?”
“When I was 14, she passed away. It was the fifth year since my father died from illness… She was killed while her trade route was being ambushed by the nobles who coveted it.”
Yuma spoke slowly.
“At the tavern… Dawn?”
Dawn.
Another name for daybreak.
Cassiela’s eyes widened at the mention of the tavern’s name she hadn’t heard in a long time.
“Yes.”
Cassiela was lost in memories.
No, perhaps she was drenched in regret.
“Did she ever talk about the time she used the tavern as the headquarters for the revolutionaries?”
“Yes, she talked about it often. When I was very young.”
She shared adventures she had before marrying.
The story began with Erestina’s childhood.
Escaping her father’s abusive hands after drinking to get away, working as the youngest in a small trading company, and then building that company with her own hands.
And to prevent the nobles’ tyranny, she opened the tavern, Dawn, as a haven for the less fortunate. Using that tavern, merchants formed a proper commercial alliance away from the nobles’ watchful eyes.
‘It’s the same.’
Place names, countries, detailed locations, etc.
Geographical conditions or times were slightly different, but what Erestina did was exactly the same.
Yuma recalled a line she habitually said in “Loop Blood.”
“The world must be changing little by little because of this.”
After saying that, she always smiled shyly.
He chuckled awkwardly.
He acted filled with conviction, but without the certainty that his beliefs would accomplish anything. He was just someone who did things silently.
“I’m having a drink today, right? [Don’tScrewMeOver].”
‘…Just a game.’
Yuma sighed internally.
He was just a character in a game.
I couldn’t assert that Erestina—the one I knew—and your mother were the same person.
“Erestina has never wielded a sword.”
At Yuma’s words, Cassiela burst into a bright smile.
In a situation where someone shared stories about a hero that no one else remembered, but she alone held dear, she felt such joy.
It was a feeling she hadn’t experienced in so long that she couldn’t help but smile.
“That’s right. Mother was smart enough not to need a sword for the revolution.”
Erestina achieved the revolution with a pen, ink, and her mind.
Cassiela drew a sword from her waist.
Blue flames erupted from the blade.
“But I wasn’t like that. I had to pick up the sword to survive.”
After both her parents died in her childhood.
The girl who had to stand alone in this world had no choice but to wield a sword.
“When I met Duke Yuma on the magic train to Halo, you said my revolution was wrong.”
He definitely said that.
“Hearing that from someone who knows about my mother’s revolution hit me hard, right in my head.”
Cassiela slowly continued her words.
“What is the right revolution? I thought about that. But Duke Yuma, you managed everything effortlessly. You saved Arkan from the brink of becoming a drug city and defeated the Dragon trying to dominate the Count’s territory.”
Tears streamed down Cassiela’s face.
“I understood very well what the dream of saving this world was. I’m so sorry.”
Receiving the legacy of the revolutionary faction, Cassiela burst into tears, perhaps overwhelmed by the relief of encountering a great adult.
Yuma raised his right hand.
And patted Cassiela’s shoulder.
“You’ve worked hard.”
That was the only thing Yuma could say to the revolutionary leader who had been running her life alone.
“Thank you, Duke Yuma.”
With her face resting on Yuma’s shoulder, Cassiela smiled brightly.
“My revolution… it surely wasn’t completely useless, right? It must have left something for the future, right? Huh? Answer me, [Don’tScrewMeOver].”
Erestina’s voice resonated clearly in his head.
She definitely left something behind.
Something.
