Ashes and Kingdoms

Dark. Dark darkness is there everywhere, everywhere.

Even if you can't capture it with your eyes, if you do “exist” there, your soul feels it - the evidence of it doesn't stop you from trembling.

Unexpectedly something cold touched his shoulder, and Marius jumped up like he had been bounced. A hand towel dampened with water falls from the shoulder to the belly. I gasped and turned around, and there was the face of my anxious wife.

"Oh... Ediona..."

"I'm sorry, because it's something that's been done a lot. But I don't know if it was a good idea."

Ediona picked up the cloth and wiped Marius' sweaty forehead. Marius lay her hands gently over those hands and closed her eyes.

"No, thank you. Thanks to you, I escaped the nightmare."

Relax. Ediona asked as she peered into the face.

"Something terribly bothering you?

"I can't run out of troubles, but this is just what you do, and it'll be easier."

"That's a kind word. But all I can do is watch you suffer?

"There's nothing I can do for myself. Not to you, not to that general."

Marius smiled lonely and gently placed her lips on his wife's forehead, getting off the sleeping table. weave a jacket,

"I'm gonna walk a little"

On my back trying to leave, Ediona whispers. Rip the darkness of night for a moment, like a silver needle.

"Master Elecia will always return."

"Oh."

Of course, Marius nodded small and left the room without looking back.

(I know. Probably more than anyone else in this Nornicom right now, I'm the best believer in Lord Elecia's safety)

The protection of the flames that have been inflicted on us is not yet extinguished, but both the Flaming Dragon Genshas and the Dragon Hou Elesia are still alive somewhere. He knows that.

But I didn't reveal the secret to anyone.

In the beginning, fear that the protection will soon weaken and disappear and be plunged into despair.

And next, concerned that the sooner the people will rampage by offering themselves to the succession of the dragon marquis.

And it came to pass, that Jerusiah would indeed return, and the people - no, they did not know whether they would really want it.

Walk down an unpopular hallway relying on weak candlelight. A cool night breeze stroked his cheeks as he went out to the building where Elesia used to climb. Marius inhaled a pleasant night's air and turned around feeling the signs of people in it.

- General.

On the other side of the building, a figure leaning against a handrail and looking up at the starry sky. That's what Marius called me to turn around.

"Lord Marius? How'd it go?

"General is the reason why you're in a place like this. What happened to the lights? They didn't climb this far by hand through the darkness."

To the bewildered Marius, Glaus rubbed and shook his wide shoulder and laughed.

"Of course I brought candles, because the moon is bright and I'll be here until dawn anyway. I turned it off."

"... can't you sleep"

"Not every night. I'm not that delicate."

Glaus didn't wave flickering, and he rode himself out of the handrail again. The gaze was now directed towards the earth, not the sky.

"But even I can't sleep feeling disturbing signs from time to time. Oh, it's not the hostility of the people of Nornicom. I'm used to that one. It's not like that, it's like twitching around us from further away... it's a sign of darkness"

"Did the general feel it too?"

The hostility of the people dared to listen, and Marius gazed into the darkness in line beside the general.

Three years after Elesia was gone.

One and two bonfires on the border that were pouring the power of the Flaming Dragon were extinguished by the Dark Beast, and the wings of the dragon running through the night sky were gone, and the Eastern Nornicom was still twitching and collapsing from the edge. Just as the North once followed the same fate.

Worse than in the north, to the east of Nornicom lies Naruto. The end of the world, the signs of the wrath of the gods, the bottomless cracks from which everything that lives does not lean. There, too, no god power works.

It should be the same for the Dark Families that Naruto is an abomination, but for humans, it feels as if darkness comes from Naruto infinitely, and fear and despair.

Marius just checked his surroundings, then dived in his voice and whispered.

"Just for the record, since that day three years ago, we've been wondering when the general will return to the capital."

Even to his disturbing remarks, Glaus just snorted and flaunted his shoulders.

In fact, he was also stepping forward that he would be able to go home sooner. The council appointed a substitute Legion Commander, who said he should be able to return to the Imperial Capital again and support him by Emperor Varis as commander of the Imperial Capital Guard.

But the Nornicoms did not stop plotting in the shadows even as they behaved in an ostensibly submissive fashion, and tracking and sweeping the fugitives was not easy, and sloppily they began to sit down. And now...

"But now," Marius speaks for the heart of Glaus. "I'm hoping the general will stay as long as possible. It's unsolicited."

"Neither am I. While I care about the capital, I'm telling you that if you leave Nornicom, there will be a terrible disaster, as if it were our land."

Glaus grinned sarcastically and stared straight at Marius.

"You will be in a difficult position."

"... what does that mean"

Glaus raised an eyebrow and grinned bitterly at Marius, who frightened her face vigilantly. Lean on the handrail and sigh softly.

"A brilliant commander, who was in one hand in command of the battle under Dragon Hou Elecia. You yourself may be unhappy with me and your country, but apart from that, you must accept the outrage of the people. Even if you personally want to ease your attitude, the people will forgive you for it. From the threat of the beast of darkness, even for the reason that we must protect its people."

…………

"You don't have to shut your mouth. I also understand that you have not given up the return of the lady lord. You're not foolish enough to go to jail from one end because you're in love with your former Lord."

"It's hard for the general, too."

"Not at all."

Glaus laughed a little. It wasn't sarcasm or self-pity, it was a teasing, bulky way of laughing.

"I have a slight desire to be seen by that lady again, so it doesn't end well. In case it comes true, this time it will be burned down."

No treatment means this, Glaus shook his head and put a cheek wand on his wrist. The side of it, Marius stares stunned.

Indeed, Glaus paid tribute to the “late lord” Elesia and never insulted or despised her until now. But I just thought it was because of his pride as a samurai and the need to deceive the people. But now in front of me was one man, chasing the remnants of a scattered love heart into the night sky.

Noticing Marius' gaze, Glaus turned with a strange expression of illumination.

"You can laugh if you want. Well, this is just the story."

"General..."

Not knowing how to respond, Marius just vaguely shook her head and dropped her gaze.

Often silence descends. A cloud flowing in the wind blocked the soft moonlight.

"If you say so."

Glaus coughed up and cut it out in a deceptive tone.

"As I recall now, you were originally the commander of the cavalry. Unusual."

Diatius' legions are basically infantry-centric. The cavalry unit is only positioned as infantry support, partly because the number of horses is not so high and because the techniques of breeding and discipline have been largely monopolized by the Dolphins and it has been considered humble for the natives to be involved in it.

Legion commanders are therefore also traditionally infantry. Glaus also rides according to time and circumstances, but is not good at that aspect.

Marius nodded in response to "yes," a look he missed.

"On the day I took up military service, the commander at the time said at first sight." You're too low a candle for infantry, get help from a horse. "

He made an obnoxious tone and said, he smiled small and bitterly. Glaus looks "ho" funny and looks down at Marius' feet. Just as the moon turned up again, Marius let one foot out into a spot of light. Weak moonlight alone can see the shape of a sandal foot.

"I don't even think it's extraordinarily low, but it's certainly not expensive."

When Glaus praised him, Marius put his foot down and smiled.

"Thank you for your concern. But that's how I learned a lot thanks to being entrusted to the cavalry. Now I'm proud and confident that I'm a cavalry."

The warm grin was not directed at the person in front of him. Glaus noticed that and scratched his head uncomfortably. Turn away and leak a complicated voice.

"... you were a good superior officer"

"Yes."

Marius also perceived Glaus' mood and erased his expression.

The old commander, who looked at him and ordered him to be a cavalry, even then gave me something to look at. How great was his presence for Marius, who lost his father early and had no kinship relatives to serve as a back shield. There was no doubt that they would be profitable, but alongside the lord and his wife, the commander was a spiritual support.

- The Genus Emperor took it.

Distant memories come and go one after another. I can't stay here any longer, alongside my own general.

Marius lay her eyes down and swallowed thoughts that seemed to overflow from her chest.

"Sorry to bother you"

That's all he said with a blurred voice, he gave a bow of grace and left the building.

Swallow the various thoughts of the two men and the dark and heavy night winds were swirling.