Herscherik (Reincarnated Prince Series)

The sound of the wind, heard even in the carriage, shook the carriage loudly. If that's all, you won't mind if it's just a breeze. But the carriage stopped, and further to the noise heard from the outside, Thomas Rosehome lurked his eyebrows and took a seat.

"What the fuck!

Yelling like that, he opens the carriage door and jumps off. And I was stunned by the sight that spread in front of me.

"Lord Rosehome, don't you dare leave…… Gah"

Yes, one soldier said as he laid his sword, but the next moment he was stirred by a gust of wind, blown away by his body. The soldier is not the only one. Around half of the less than twenty soldiers that had accompanied his country were rolling to the ground with groans. But there was no blood flowing, and there seemed to be nothing else in life with life and consciousness.

And it was the Beastmen who were not supposed to be in this country who were bent on blocking the carriage's path. He spreads his deep blue wings, grips a stick as long as he is tall, and tows it at his cutting-edge to the soldiers around him.

The beast tribe looked familiar. A battle slave who was the leader of a unit commanded by The Treasure of the Army. Among the combat slaves who boast special combat abilities, slaves with first-class strength. He was always the man on our side of The Treasure of the Army.

I heard the man was secretly imprisoned by the royal family of this country that it was her story. And she ran away with that gap. Yet why is Thomas' head filled with doubt as to why the slave who is supposed to be in captivity is here?

Furthermore, there was a small shadow just on its side. The little shadow finds Thomas coming out of the carriage and smiles.

"Hi, I'm sorry to disturb you.

The identity of the small shadow, it was Hershelik, the seventh prince of the kingdom of Gracis, seen far away in the feast seat. While the prince apologized, his expression contained no fine dust or apologies. On top of that, being on the side of a slave who blew up the soldiers, it's hard to believe he wants a friendly relationship.

"... what can I do for you, Your Highness Hershelik? Take me to such a thing.

Thomas was a man of a country that had been uncertain about the situation, but still had tolerated the existence of slavery since his birth. Turn your gaze toward that thing as if it were rubbish.

The words made the smile disappear from Hershelik. And once he leaks his sigh with a fed up look, he shoots through Thomas with a sharp gaze.

"I have nothing to do with you. Will you keep your mouth shut, only words that don't even think of the person as a person?

"What authority...!

"This place is still in the kingdom, isn't it? Please don't let the others move either.

Thomas can't say anything about the cold, intimidating things from the young prince. The opponent is the prince of one of the biggest countries on the continent. Your status on this occasion is at the top. Though he comes from ten families in the military, he is not the one whose second son, who is not a heir, can talk to each other equally. Plus Thomas says he's a toddler, but he learns from the prince the feeling that his spine freezes as if he were dealing with a superior. The feeling dominated him and Thomas was silent, as he was told, pushing his men aside just by hand.

"Well... Mr. Krenai, will you come out?

Make sure Thomas is completely silent and Hershelik speaks to the person in the carriage.

A few beats later, a red-haired woman emerged from the carriage...... Krenai, her real name Artelise Danville. As he descends from the carriage into the earth, he ignores Thomas, who turns his suspicious gaze, and moves forward and forth in front of Hershelik.

"Prince."

Yes, the voice calling Hershelik was hard, and the expression didn't have the usual smile. And his gaze stood behind Hershelik Ao... fixed on the prince so he wouldn't look at Gail. Dark eyes that can't read emotions intersect with fresh green eyes.

"Why is that?"

Why you're here, why you're here, why you're here, why he's here... it was a question that included all those questions.

"That is…… and this is not what I say. Ao."

Hershelik tried to answer the question, but turned his gaze and nodded at Gail, who stood behind the rethink.

"Arte......"

Gail took a step forward, prompted by Hershelik, calling out her real name. Her dark eyes caught Gail and rocked.

"I came to pick you up.

"Gail……………."

To Gail's succinct words, Arte calls his name. But as soon as he shook his head to the side and embraced himself with both hands as he held himself, he turned away from him.

"I don't know what you're talking about. He said he was freed from you.

"Artelise."

Gail's low calm voice calls her name again. There was force in her hand holding Artelise's self in that voice, but still she didn't try to gaze at Gail.

"Don't call me names at ease...... in the minutes of slavery.

Artelise says to throw it away. But it was not a voice that despised slaves, as Thomas had just said, but a way of saying it as if it were a blood reflex.

"Don't you come back, won't you?

"Where are you going?

Artelise answers Gail's words without setting them apart. And he stopped looking away, pointed his dark eyes at Gail, and said without looking away.

"Only my country should return.

Gail won't be able to say anything to that word. Because that was a definite rejection. I don't know what to say, but the feeling that I shouldn't let her go like this swirls in him.

"Ao."

Hershelik calls his name, as if he had read that feeling.

"I have to put my feelings into words, I can't convey them.

That was like pushing your back. Gail closes his eyes once and takes a deep breath. And when I opened my eyes again, I looked straight at Artelise.

"…… Artelise.

Gail speaks to Artelise with a low, and gentle voice.

"If you won't come back to me, kill me.

But the words that came out of it were enough to silence Hershelik and Artelise.

For a moment I couldn't understand what he was thinking, and Hershelik's eyes dotted but immediately remembered his nature. Gail is not good at talking originally. So the words he utters, they become very frank. The sincerity was painfully conveyed because it was that unadorned word.

"My life is yours. Artelise, if you say I don't need you, I'm not worth living.

Usually faceless and hard to read emotions, he lifts the edge of his mouth slightly and smiles. The smile affirmed that he meant his words, and Artelise was more wolfish than Hershelik had ever seen.

"What...!

"From the time I replaced this, my life has been yours.

Gail says to block the words of Artelise, touching the red feather ornament on the noodle that binds his hair. Before that, Hershelik had heard from Gail that birdmen had a habit of keeping their lovers and couples from each other's feathers. Red feathers as if they were Artelise hair. As Hershelik turned her gaze to Artelise, she was also gripping her own chest clothes. The behavior didn't hide that you had feathers there.

"If it's enough to reject me, kill me. If you're not on your side, I'm dead too, Artelise.

Yes, Gail overlaps words.

"You still have the master of the slave's crest. If you say a word or say a demon word, I will die... if you reject me, kill me.

"Gail...... I am ah!

The words distorted Artelise's face. That was a hard look, my heart was going to be torn apart by something. The look convinced Hershelik.

"Mr. Krenai, I somehow understand your feelings.

"…… Prince?

Listening to Artelise, Hershelik continued his words.

"Losing the people you care about. I also know that without my power... I know that I want revenge, and that I want to die.

"You want to die, do you?

Gail's complexion changed to that word, and I looked at Hershelik. Hershelik continues his words as he nods at Gail.

"Mr. Krenai, you are about to return to the army to die.

"What's the meaning of this?

An upset word leaks from Gail, and his gaze turns to Artelise. Evidence was that Artelise missed his gaze so as to escape that gaze.

"Ao, I do think Mr. Krenai is such a genius warrior that he is said to be a 'military treasure'. But that's why reality isn't as sweet as the aerospace theory on the desk carries. Mr. Krenai, you must know that too. the odds that the revenge will succeed.

To Hershelik's words Artelise turns her gaze to Thomas, who continues to remain silent. He stayed on the spot but had his angry caged gaze at himself.

(I have to give up now.

Already he was no longer a convenient pawn. If you understood what Hershelik said, you would have found out that you had been used.

There's no way they didn't consider the possibility of coming after us. The magic of hypnosis on Oran is powerful. Once you put it to sleep, you won't wake up for half a day. If I'd just bought that much time, I could have gotten away with it, even if Gail had telescopic abilities. But Artelise thinks it was a sweet reckoning. As far as Thomas knew, no matter how ambitious he was and how narrow his horizons were, it was impossible to modify the course of action.

"…… Thirty percent, you should have one.

"Artelise?"

Gail called his name in a bewildered voice to Artelise's words, which he perceived. But Artelise continues his words.

"For ten years, the success rate of my measures to divide and contend internally with the military and at the same time to create civil strife, with other countries interfering and disintegrating the military is 30%.

"30% within ten years......"

Hershelik admires. The odds were higher than Hershelik had expected. I guess elaborate measures were worked out in her.

"Why, Artelise?

Gail asks. The age of ten years. That was with the years she graduated from cadet school and devoted herself to the military. I didn't know I had a good chance of dying after trying to destroy the military over the same years.

"… I am, I cannot forgive.

To Gail's words, Artelise says as she looks at her palms.

"Because I wished for the ideal, everyone in the unit sacrificed...... dead.

Even now, I can clearly recall the flame color and the heat of the flame.

"Yet I am alive at last. The upper ranks of the military, the ten houses, the people who live on the sacrifices of all the beasts……"

When Gail held me and let me go, I could not forget the backs of my companions who sheltered themselves and headed to the dead. It was the military and myself that drove them to the dead.

"Your father, your mother, your troops, your ideals, your efforts, your accumulated accomplishments… all the military took and trampled upon. Why am I still alive when everyone is dead!?

I hated the country that took everything. But more than that, I hated myself, and I could not forgive myself.

"I can't forgive you!!

Hershelik's appearance was painful. Even though she smiled all the time on the surface, her heart kept blaming herself.

"... that's because those guys wanted it.

To Gail's words, Artelise turns her gaze from her palm to him.

"All the troops were saved by Artelise.

Until she arrives, the rate of return of the Combat Slave Squad is often 70%. Sometimes I lost more than half of them at a time in unscrupulous operations. It was normal for my buddy who was talking to me until yesterday to be gone the next day.

But Artelise became a commander, and the rate of return of troops since he began to direct the operation has been at least 90%. Even if they didn't go unharmed, they all returned.

"You always struck me with a plan that gave us the highest priority to survive.

I couldn't think about it until before she came. For our own sake, where humans are slaves, I never thought that they would use the night to work out a way to squeeze wisdom and use it. But she said. When you change the country. How much that was a light of hope for the slaves.

"So we didn't spare our lives for you, Artelise.

"... no, I am……………"

In the end, we couldn't change the country, and nobody could protect us. That's what I wanted to say, but Artelise couldn't put it into words. Gail keeps saying things to her like that.

"We don't want revenge on you. All you have to do is live.

Silence reigns between them. Hershelik, who didn't pinch those two until now and kept silent, opens his mouth.

"... Mr. Krenai, I think that whoever is entrusted with his heart by man must live, no matter how hard it may be.

Confirming that their gaze was right for them, Hershelik went on to speak heavily.

"I couldn't protect the man who taught me the truth.

Hershelik grips the silver Komi pocket watch in his pocket from the top of his clothes.

"I couldn't even protect the first person I liked and let him die in front of me.

Gently stroke the ear cuff-like piercings covering the red copper colored ears I put on my ears.

Then he closes his eyes once, thinks of those who are no longer behind his eyelids, then opens his eyes and looks at Artelise.

She is just like herself.

"Mr. Krenai, even if you take revenge, everyone won't come back... and you'll never fill an empty hole in Koko.

Yes, Hershelik puts his right hand on his chest.

I thought defeating the minister would make me feel a little clearer. But the minister's death never cleared my mind. Only the empty feeling of a hole in my chest was left behind. I'm sure this will be with you until you finish your own life.

"You make Ao feel the same way?

Artelise's gaze turns to Gail.

"You haven't lost everything yet. There's still got to be something we can protect. Including you.

Artelise distorts her face to Hershelik's words. And hold oneself.

"I am, I am………!

"Artelise."

Gail hugs her so that she can support Artelise, who is about to collapse.

"Why, is that, Gail?

While surrounded by Gail's successful body, Artelise asks.

"You lost your people… I'm the one who let them die in vain. It's the same thing that I took your people..."

"No. Arte didn't take it. They wanted to protect you.

Gail immediately denies it and strengthens the power of the hand holding Artelise.

"They didn't die for nothing. Don't say it's futile.

At the end of the day, the guys told Gail. He asked me to protect her.

Because of that word, Gail took to protect his beloved, not to avenge his fellow enemy, the military.

Artelise's hand touches his deep blue wings.

I liked the way he flew high in the sky. On earth he was free, even if tied up as a slave, in the great sky. I hoped there would be more of that freedom.

"... Didn't you say that birdmen are delighted and proud to fly in the sky? Why are you talking about me until you throw it away…"

It was time to help the kidnapped prince when he found out he was lying. A bird with damaged wings cannot handle magic. I also knew that Artelise. Until I abandoned the pride of a birdman, until he falsified himself, I never thought that he would give priority to himself, who is a human being.

"Compared to you, I don't spare the sky.

Just as Artelise tried to protect Gail's life over her own beliefs, Gail also just took Artelise over her own pride.

Artelise is overflowing with tears in Gail's words. That was a tear since I escaped from that sea of flames.