The Demon King Seems to Conquer the World

Episode 140: Winning Eve

That night, around the border of the town, which is also the nearest boarding town, we were in formation.

All the curtains were lent to the refugees, and in the curtains stretched out on the square, people should be asleep so that they can be laid down.

It was also in the same condition among the houses that had already been temporarily requisitioned.

Outside such a town - nothing, we were gathered in a place not suitable for sleeping like that, where only a flock of stump trees had been recently felled and stood sawdust on one side and a fallen tree in the dryness that had been left unwrought.

Three hundred and a few dozen remained just under the cloudy skies of summer.

But it's not cold.

In the middle where everyone was surrounded, there was a large incendiary fire like a campfire.

The flames of patchy and bursting firewood illuminate the surrounding area red, and the heat emitted warms people up.

And they all rarely had booze.

Anything that was wounded on his leg sat in the fallen tree, but everyone else, stood.

"You guys did great today!!

And I held the cup in my hand, and stood one step inward from the ring surrounding the burning fire, and said out loud.

"Thanks to your bravery, the enemy fled with no gain whatsoever! It is our victory!

If you give them a late win, they will all cheer in unison and ohhhhhh!!! and sounded like a kodama.

After a loud aftertaste,

"Due to this situation, I couldn't get enough booze to take a bath, but please drink it today!

Say,

"And well, let's keep this from me. I want to praise you guys, but I don't know what a bastard's speech is, 'cause it's not very good for my ears."

Closing so, a full laugh boiled from some of the relaxed soldiers.

It was Carol who stepped back and took my place in the chair.

Carol stepped forward as she lit her coal-fired blonde hair in flames of war dust.

That's all the buzzing voices disappeared from the soldiers, and I felt sooo clear of my ears.

It got so quiet.

I don't really feel it, but the presence of Carol, who was born and raised in a feudal society, is still special.

That is no different for the people of Siyarta or for the people of Kirchina.

Not to mention that the princess, who is supposed to be behind the castle, is here now, trying to work just as bravely -.

If you grew up, knew politics, and had a family that you had to defend even by laying down your loyalties, maybe you'd feel differently again.

But the boy or young man who is here now still lives in an innocent world.

"First of all, I want to thank you all. It is thanks to your work today that there is the life of the people who are in this village now, and my life. You fought really well."

And Carol meditated her eyes and looked down for a moment.

A casual trick looks dramatic.

"And I wish to pray to the fourteen souls scattered on the battlefield today to spare"

Carol looks over here and next to the bonfire.

There, on the small table, are fourteen cups of similarly poured liquor.

These fourteen glasses of booze will not be drunk today.

It is a cup dedicated to the dead.

Among the fourteen, the first fifty-six college students also include two.

I have to tell their relatives about their deaths.

And Carol meditated her eyes.

The dizziness leans down, and I close my eyelids again.

After a while she opened her eyes, Carol was still in silent prayer.

However, I raised my head (like this) without waiting.

"You saved ten thousand innocent grasses today, and protected the princess."

The princess, there's something about Carol, but I guess it includes the other one.

"Now no man on this mighty peninsula can denigrate your work. Because what you have done today is the honor of the knighthood itself."

Carol separated for a moment and breathed.

"Proud! You all deserve that! And..."

Slightly more, keep going.

"A winning warrior needs a lot of rest. So, today's victory and to our scattered companions!

Carol raised the cup she had in her hand.

Everyone follows in unison.

"Cheers!"

When Carol says so, cheers! and three hundred voices continued to fold.

The banquet is lively with the excitement of the end of the war, with less booze and less food.

Each young man greeted his fellow spear-lined or fought in another way, saying Gayagaya and Takeshi.

Some guys are blushing, even with only one glass of booze, especially if they are vulnerable to booze.

It's a good night.

I was sitting in a chair, a little further away, just watching it.

"What's up? Don't you feel comfortable?

Myallo, who came next door, tells me that he was setting aside.

Looking lightly at the side, all the military uniforms, including the cladding, were undressed and dressed like townspeople.

Doing so, he really looked like just a boy.

No, you're rude.

But I can't help it because I'm wearing men's clothes.

"No, that sounds fun, I thought"

Put your gaze back on fire again, I said.

"That would be, yes. I won."

"But some of them aren't here."

About fourteen.

"Was that what you were thinking?"

"Yes."

"If we start a war, there will always be victims."

Myalo said, in a voice that seemed to have wet the words with dead-water, whether he had perceived anything.

"That's right. It's natural."

People die in war as a natural and inevitable consequence so that wheels can be shredded if they run on the road.

There will be a ratio of how many damage we do to a few enemies, or something, but as long as it's a people-to-people war, it won't be zero.

There is no war where depletion is expected from the beginning, and I didn't think people would die, etc.

"Well, I'm just soaked in sentiment"

"... the living also need comfort"

Would it have seemed to me that you were criticizing this feast of victory?

Not to celebrate victory, but to mourn the dead.

"I know. The soldiers have done enough work and should enjoy the victory"

Not that I don't like this feast.

It's not like someone told me to need it and gave me permission, it's rather a feast that I told myself to do and even engineered to cheer up.

Victory requires celebration.

Otherwise the soldier who risked his life would not be rewarded, and in an atmosphere like a funeral even though he won, he would not be worth fighting for.

"It's about Yuri."

Myalo said pizza.

"Yuri-kun did his job very hard. I think you can relax now."

You mean me.

"... No, I don't know"

The dead people wouldn't have died if they hadn't fought.

Given that, I still have a part to think about.

But if we hadn't fought, there would have been more deaths among the asleep refugees now.

Perhaps a hundred times, a thousand times as many had been sacrificed.

Still, the dead can't be counted in numbers.

Dead people had their own lives, their own stories.

As every human being, it was as a result of my judgment that I ended their lives.

If one thing was different, here are the dead who were joining the circle to drink and sing the day of victory.

Nothing was decidedly different from the people who are interested in the feast right now in front of me.

And yet, I don't have any regrets about judgment.

That was the strange feeling.

If this was Howe's job, if there had been an accident that would have caused death, he would have regretted it and blamed himself.

Measures to prevent recurrence would also have been taken to prevent it from happening again.

But when people say they're dead, there's nothing like it.

No regrets, no blame, I think I did well.

"I wonder how I can take responsibility"

When I say pompous,

"Huh...?

Myalo looked so strange that he did not understand the meaning,

"It was in the disclaimer of application requirements, and I don't think you'll be held liable,"

I said.

Yeah, that's true.

That's not what I meant.

"So you're saying atonement......?

"Well, yeah"

"If you mean atonement, you'll have financial security in your two deceased houses. As I've already reported, neither of you is a man, so there will be no problem with what it means to have lost an heir."

"I know. I already heard."

"So, maybe, atonement for the dead,...?

Myalo said in surprise.

Maybe you didn't think I'd bother with that.

"Well...... yes"

"It's... the dead don't talk about anything, and give me something from here... because, you know, I can't make you happy... It's hard."

In Myalo's tone, it doesn't sound like he made a fool of himself.

Seems like I'm taking it seriously.

"There are theories about where the soul is going, and there are theories about disappearing at the moment when life dies."

Shan's view of religion is more like a myth than a religion, and not like defining a view of death exactly.

There are a lot of outrageous things about it.

In the ancient, itchy faith, it sinks into the bottom of the sacred marsh and is reused in a roundabout manner. There was a teaching that, but now long after leaving the Holy Marsh, the idea of going somewhere like extreme pure earth has also arisen.

Holy Marsh, or Black Sea, was also a kind of sanctuary when the capital of the Great Empire (Chantinion) was alive.

"Even if I mourn it in some way, I guess it's self-satisfaction to think I'm making amends for it"

The dead don't make any declarations of intent, so the only reason I think I've done something myself and made amends for it is to comfort myself.

Still, I want to do something, so I honor it, tell my family I fought bravely, and cover the lives of my survivors.

I guess Carol's earlier silent prayer and mourning death in front of a large crowd will be one end of it.

In fact, that's not worthless.

If the will resides in the soul after death, it would not be a mistake to think that there is a good chance of comfort.

But I don't think I did anything about it.

"But it's not just about the dead that it's hard to make amends. Even being in a cavalry can cause an accident where your bones are shattered and your hands and feet are imperfect. No matter how much you make amends to someone like that, apologies and money don't cure your hands and feet. Life is ruined, and some students choose to die themselves with pessimism. It's sad to do something irrevocable to others, but it happens."

"... well, yeah. Some of them have a deep hand."

Countless people have suffered slaughter wounds and arrow wounds.

Some of you may have finished the procedure, but if you take the bandage, your nerves will be cut and your hands won't move.

He also dies of a deteriorating condition due to tetanus or something. There may be others.

There's nothing I can do against them.

"Ah... No, I didn't... I just wanted to say that I don't need to feel particularly responsible..."

"Oh well"

Nothing, I'm not feeling responsible.

What Myalo is saying is all the more true.

I suppose I'm simply indulging in the characteristics of war.

When I first drink alcohol, it's the same as being confused by the feeling of drunkenness, and eventually I get used to it.

I have a feeling about that.