My Death Flags Show No Sign of Ending

Walk the path you are accustomed to passing looking at the golden flowers that flock to the side of the road. A carriage usually used at work takes about a few dozen journeys. If you take more than an hour to go through that, you can finally see where you want to be.

A view of a town with no philosophy of any kind dotted with private houses. One of the houses that is completely blended into it was where Zen, who works as a carriage rider to the Stokes family, would visit with a prosperous leg.

The garden, which can never be said to be large, is well maintained and there is also a well-groomed home vegetable garden on the corner. There was a long time of red glut that I was used to seeing. Both the vegetable garden and the person who manages it still look fine.

With that in mind, Zen knocked on the knocker provided for the front door. Between a few moments, the rattle and the door open.

"Yes, which is it?

"Hello, ma'am"

"Oh, Mr. Zen. Please come inside."

It was women in their sixties and seventies who welcomed Zen. When she put me through and headed to the living room, there was an old man with gray hair sitting deep in the chair waiting for me.

He is a former colleague of Zen, Norman, who retired a few years ago.

"None, Mr. Norman."

Zen laughs as she deliberately says a shattered greeting. In response, Norman smiled back as well.

"Hello, you look fine and most importantly"

"Mr. Norman is the one. Oh, this is a souvenir."

Handed over wooden knitted basket. The contents are a bundle of bread baked at Zen's house.

"Thanks for everything. Oh, you should hang up."

Norman urges Zen to sit opposite him.

Even after retiring, he seems to have a mild old age without major illnesses, etc., but Norman nevertheless has always cared. The feeling is also well understood by Zen, which is why he shares the reward of seeing time and taking his feet here, which reaches him from time to time.

Him - five years early since Harold left the Stokes family to become a member of the Knights of the Holy Kings. Zen and Jake regularly send seals around to report on the latest developments in the house, but the exchange continued even now, when he quit the Knights and remained in the King's Capital.

Harold replied to the envelope every two or three months about once every three times.

"So what this time?

"The instructions are nothing in particular. I just figured I'd be worried about the house lately."

This is what Harold has been saying for eight years now. The Stokes family said with certainty that they would soon fade. To slow it down, he devised a new farming method called the LP farming method, and even developed it as a large-scale business by embracing the other's house, which at the time was a pardon.

With the help of the Smeragi family, we managed to regain the financial aspects of Stokes territory, but support from the public remains low. Once out of town, there was an exodus of the population to such an extent that it was felt on the skin. Tax payments are only temporarily increasing due to the LP farming method, but that would also hit the head in the current situation, where production is limited per territory.

Around the thought of 'delaying' rather than 'stopping' the Stokes family from falling apart from the beginning, the current situation is also considered to be what Harold had assumed.

"Really? After all, there seems to be very little we can do to help Harold."

Norman lays his eyes down sadly. The feeling was painfully sympathetic to Zen as well.

Harold has been outstanding since childhood. Words were gentle in the heart of harsh things, intelligent and strong in body and mind. He has a diligent personality that does not fail to make an effort on it.

He can do most of the work by himself. Serving Harold like that is also a matter of pride, and at the same time I learn to crouch my teeth at myself for not being able to help.

"Oh, and I care about Master Huey, too. Isn't your older brother cute, even though he has a stomachache?"

"You're less interested in your position and power than you are in the past. I guess you're not even interested in a succession fight."

"So you just seem to want to be cute. They sent me Huey's clothes and toys before."

Moreover, it is divided into two crates. Sometimes I couldn't come to see my face all the time, or the gift of a birthday celebration arrived like a mountain.

It may be hard to imagine from the usual harsh, unpopular impression, but not surprisingly for Zen or Norman. Sometimes Norman sends expensive ceramics to commemorate his retirement in an exchange of letters, or when Zen reports he's married, from the market, he sends two different digits or so different amounts of congratulations.

It was accompanied by a simple saying, "Something will come into use".

I was just too scared to be sure if I would receive it, even as Zen, but given Harold's character, it wasn't hard to imagine being pushed without question. So for the time being, I take it and put it away without a hand.

I mean, that's what Harold is. You look like a cold-blooded man and thick to the humans.

It was true that there were many around him who were still scared of him because he hated putting those parts on the table so badly.

I reach for the cup I keep in front of me, wondering what's wrong. When I lifted my finger to the handle, the weight fell off all the way through.

As it was, the cup made a noise and fell, and the coffee that was poured inside spread over the table.

"Whoops! Shh, sorry..."

"Are you all right?

"Yes, but the cup..."

The cup that Zen broke. That was sent by Harold as Norman's retirement celebration.

My apologies just come in knowing that Norman is using it dearly.

"Nothing to worry about, anything that takes shape breaks down sooner or later.... but it's a beautifully cracked one"

"Huh?"

I notice in that word. The cup I thought slipped off my hand, but that handle was still in Zen's hand.

Then why did the cup fall? Seen, the junction between the cup and the handle was divided, leaving a section as if it had been severed.

Norman's right. It would be kind of impossible for something shaped to break.

But I wonder how many years I've been using it to crack it like this due to aging. Anyway, I feel like I'm implying a vicious sign.

"... is Master Harold safe?"

Norman whined in a small voice as he wiped the table with a cloth towel. Zen didn't have a response to that.

◇

How did this happen? I don't remember how many times I asked myself that anymore. It's been a "how did this happen" streak since that day when it was replaced by Harold Stokes eight years ago in the first place.

Speaking of now, now.

Not to mention that although combat ability is Harold compliant and a lot higher, Hirazawa Ichi, the contents of manipulating it, is the kind of ordinary person who is everywhere. To date, I have managed to stand around utilizing the anomalous technique of original knowledge, but I am an ordinary person to speak to the entity.

It is not possible to jump through and be smart or a schemer, it is impossible to get out of Justus or move forward with negotiating matters in favor of the task opponent without original knowledge.

It's because I know that. Harold has been obsessed with the developments that his original knowledge makes use of. Because that's what I thought was best for ordinary people to survive.

But this world is different, even if it is very similar to the game, and the world and people live. It was therefore up to Zara that things would not change as Harold assumed. And as a result of that accumulation, I finally decided to abandon the original flow from myself.

Because when it got here, it was the most likely way to end the original safely.

We do not yet know the right or wrong of this decision.

But at the moment, the elements that Harold was anxious about were brilliantly centered on things.

A stormy storm blurs the skin. ridiculously powerful enough to wonder if that's all you can do with a laceration.

Harold distances himself from the person standing in front of him while dodging it. That could be a swallowing statement, for example, but I still can't help but think so.

"The title of Commander of the Knights is not Dade, Fincent."

Fincent van Vesterfallt, a so-called boss character who stands before the protagonist at the end of "Brave Hearts", making it a masterpiece young enough to head the Knights of the Holy Kings.

He and Harold were crossing swords like that.

As for Harold, I honestly didn't expect him to fight Fincent at this time. It is in itself unexpected that I will fight Fincent in the first place.

Then why are you in such a situation? The reason is extremely simple.

"Harold Stokes... Enemies Exist... Eliminate Top Priority Tosr..."

A frigid eye. The word of the catacotto, which is returned as if it were "every wow." It's not in decent condition from anywhere.

Speaking of what you're trying to say, Justus came to kill Harold for real.

Harold, who broke up with the liners on Smeragi territory, went back under Harrison on his feet and heard where the treasure that was supposed to be the only one left and went there. It is, of course, an unauthorized action against Justus.

Six are already Harrison's, essentially in the hands of Justus. But Harold has a few months left before he's ready to fight. So if I took the last treasure, I thought I could delay Justus' plan.

But that was the idea of the common man, and it seems to have been a prospect for Justus. Waiting in the ruins where the treasure was supposedly located was the insane Fincent, so...

"Hey, you! Why would you attack me!

"Harold no elimination, top priority tosr......"

Fincent turns back the same words with suspicious glow in his eyes. I have tried many conversations from earlier, but they are fruitless.

Probably in a brainwash-like state. It's common to those two in that you're losing your will, but in view of what you're saying, maybe it's not complete brainwashing.

That's why I've managed to find out if I can solve it in dialogue, but that's hopeless.

A massive slaughter by the Great Sword, creeping out of such a step that it can be indented on the ground. Avoid it and go around behind the gap. Challenging directly from the front against the high-fired Fincent doesn't win. That's why Harold fights with the fast fights he specializes in.

but the slaughter from behind is inhibited by one left hand, its cage hand. Even an attack with Harold's speed and strength is lightly stopped with one arm. Robustness as if slashed on a castle wall.

And in the ordinary man, he wields only the sword with his right hand, which seems difficult to even lift. Faster and sharper than a knight at that speed. Slashing, rather than smashing a blow.

If you think game-wise, you usually just lose some HP where you've eaten some offense, etc., but in this world, a blow can kill you. I thought I would try to prevent it with an R-guard, but I am cautious and thoroughly avoiding the fear of getting beaten from the top of the guard.

Fincent's speed is only perceived as a threat due to heavy equipment and heavy arming, but the firepower and durability are remarkably high for that matter. And troublesome enough, for a moment to wave the sword, and only the motion to defend with the sword or caged hand was fast enough to accommodate Harold's speed.

It seems difficult to maintain that speed due to loads on the body and physical problems, but there is something to keep an eye on about the speed of the offense when it comes here to divide the battles. This is also a different part of the game.

Blunt but high firepower and ghost endurance. I guess that's not enough to climb up to the Knights' captain or anything. That's all we're in because we have very little clearance to get in.

There are two choices before Harold.

One is to give up the treasure and escape. If Fincent is the opponent, it's not that hard to escape.

But in that case, all the treasures will be in the hands of Justus. In a sense, it is the same as the original, but it is also impossible to abandon the suspicion that the flow of the original is foregone. The liners may not make it to the event.

Another option. That is to defeat Fincent here.

It was supposed to be fanned by Justus at the end of the story to fight the liners, but it was more likely that this would not be the case in this world. Because one factor that Fincent was instigated to do is to take advantage of the battle in the Bertis Forest when his best friend Cody was put in where his mental fatigue was overlapping and weak due to his departure from the Knights or the Knights' loss of authority over the massacre of the Star Wing "Stella" tribe.

But both of them are inhibited by Harold's behavior, so I thought Fincent wouldn't be riding a Yustus mouth truck. And the fact is, I guess that's true.

That's why Justus came up with a tough brainwashing strategy. To kill the villain Harold, not the protagonist Liner.

"Fuck you......!

If you pull here, a handkerchief named Fincent in brainwashing will be added to Justus' subordination. It's a joker-like trump card. And Justus will surely cut it at a time when there is no more.

A development diverging from the original, Harold doesn't have the brains to just read through the timing. What's the matter? It goes around the back. It even threatens to stop Justus if he is driven into distress by it.

Then we'll have to decide the battle here. If you change your mind, this is a one-of-a-kind opportunity to cut Justus' power.

That's why Harold decided to be ready.

"... Fincent van Westerfallt. I'll make this your tomb mark."

Fighting opponents who don't know if they can win. If you lose, you'll die. Battle.

If it were true, I didn't want to use it until the end, but there wouldn't be an ex or a child if I was dead making excuses for four or five. Now I just think about doing everything I can and beating Fincent.

"Let's go!

Harold screams. The emerald-colored crystal, embedded in a long sword held in its right hand, emitted a faint glow.