Chapter 20

Sarah’s daughter, Marc, was the first of the guards to return. It was because she was rushing. Wearing the uniform of the Imperial Army, not the conquest of the guards she had worn two and a half years ago, she held out a red envelope with a miserable face.

It was news that the second son of the Ernst family had died at the end of the war that was thought to be over.

“D… Say it again. What?”

“Viscount!”

Reinhardt grabbed Marc’s Imperial Army uniform and shook it. Marc was very tall, but Reinhardt’s strength made her shake like a leaf.

“The situation with Sir Ernst… suddenly changed….”

“Do not lie!”

“The barbarians flocked to both sides at the same time. The walls of Glencia were about to collapse, and reinforcements could not go to the outpost a little far from Glencia…….”

Marc’s brown eyes were filled with tears as she spoke intermittently. She, who had been running tirelessly to tell the story of what ad happened just a week ago, was horribly frozen with the coldness of the winter mountains. Reinhardt sat down while looking at that face.

“Nonsense…….”

“Sir Wilhelm has decided to go to give Ernst’s aid but the walls of Glencia were dangerous. Because that’s where the villages of the border villages were evacuating….”

It was a mistake that they rested their minds about the barbarians being relieved and that there was no hope. The war chief of the barbarians invaded the place of the people evacuating while the Marquess of Glencia was away. It was already wrong to fight against the Empire, so even the people of the Empire must have felt like slaughtering them.

While the villagers were evacuated to the east side of the inner wall, which had been torn down by long wars, no one thought that barbarians would attack there. It was because they had to either break through the castle head-on or turn around and climb a high mountain for two days to reach it.

However, the barbarians, including the war chief, crossed the mountain overnight. A small number of soldiers were stationed in that front of the castle, but they held torches at night deceiving everyone. It was a two-way operation.

“Sir Wilhelm had to make a choice. Sir Ernst or the young people…….”

“Were there no other soldiers stationed there?!” Reinhardt asked angrily.

Marc shook her head.

“The forces were all concentrated on the front wall of the outer wall. Sir Wilhelm found the war chief crossing the mountain while moving his forces separately to support Sir Ernst, who was already fighting the barbarians at the outpost…….”

Tears welled up on Reinhardt’s eyes as they started falling down. Wilhelm decided to protect the villagers in the end. They didn’t know that there was a war chief among the barbarians who crossed the mountain, so they must’ve thought that they were the minority. They thought that it won’t be too late to go to the outpost after dealing with them.

“I was originally in Sir Dietrich’s unit, but that day I was in Sir Wilhelm’s unit to guide the way to the reunion. Sir Wilhelm was quick to deal with the barbarians and tried to get to Sir Ernst. But there was a war chief…….”

The war chief immediately went to Wilhelm who killed his son. After 30 years of reigning as the enemy of the Empire, the old veteran roared and rushed to kill Wilhelm. The fight was naturally long. Wilhelm was also wounded when he cut off the war chief’s head with an ax at the end of their fight.

Glencia and the fight of the barbarians with the Empire finally come to an end. And that also ended Dietrich’s life at the outpost.

“Aah…….”

Reinhardt covered her face and wept like a beast.

A hoarse sound came out of her throat. There was a constant desperate sound. She was punching the floor while hitting her chest. Ah, ah Dietrich! Reinhardt tore down the tapestry and rolled down on the floor. She was out of breath while shedding tears as if it was pouring rain.

“Dietrich!”

It was only during the day that she was reading the letter and was snorting, but the person who wrote the letter had already become a cold body a week ago. She was laughing and enjoying a dead person’s letter.

“Aaaaah!”

Reinhardt finally screamed. Oh, Dietrich. My childhood friend. Her friend whom she was lying on the bed with when she was a child listening as Hu Linke told them a story, now had his neck hung under the hands of the barbarians.

She had been smiling under the sun without knowing anything. She was happy saying that the coal was selling well. She was angry at the Marquess for coveting other people’s knights, angrily saying that how dare he take her own people.

Taking what’s mine.

Dietrich died on the battlefield because of those who negotiate the price of other people’s lives.

He can’t even see my nephew’s face.

Haa, haa. Reinhardt clenched her chest in pain. Marc also stood up and wept. Mrs. Sarah stood behind her and wiped her tears with her sleeve. The old lady also remembered the pleasant knight.

“…… Wilhelm, Wilhelm.”

Marc answered with a hoarse voice to the question that came back after a while.

“For three days…… he guarded Sir Ernst’s coffin. I was in a rush to deliver the news…..”

“I see…….”

Reinhardt answered with a voice full of weeping, lying on the floor. Again, “Haa…….” She tried to cry out, so she buried her face in her hands. The old woman hurriedly brought a glass of water, but she didn’t drink it. She didn’t even hold it.

Dietrich Ernst ran to this barren land and harsh estate for a friend who was betrayed by the Crown Prince. And he died on the battlefield after suffering for three years. He didn’t even get to enjoy a single luxury.

What was this ridiculous and miserable death of him?

Moreover, his death was because of her. She stayed up all night and cried. Whenever she closes her eyes, she remembered those friendly green eyes and couldn’t sleep.

* * * 

It was a month later that the eleven guards and one knight returned to the Luden estate.

When the twelve men in imperial military uniforms returned to the middle of the road full of summer roses, the locals ran out barefoot to meet them.

While all the young people ran out and embraced their children, husbands, and wives and cried, there was a man standing there. He was tall, and a cloak of fluffy fur was draped over his hard, broad shoulders. All the people who glanced at his dark hair and his face thought of death. Among those who were weeping, he raised his black eyes and looked ahead.

She was standing in the innermost part of the castle courtyard, where the young people ran out and left behind.

Reinhardt.

Seeing the woman staring at him with her mouth closed, standing upright without crying or smiling, the man opened his mouth slightly, as if crying and smiling. Tears filled the woman’s golden eyes as she slowly took a step forward to the man.

A slight look of welcome appeared in the man’s eyes. At the same time, he reached out to the woman, but Reinhardt passed by as if she had never seen him. The man’s eyes fluttered as he looked back. The place where Reinhardt’s steps reached was the coffin.

A box that contains nothing. It was the coffin with only Dietrich’s name engraved on the lid of the coffin, as not even a body was found. It was just made on the battlefield, so there was no decoration engraved on it, it was just a wooden board.

The man put his hand between her armpits and supported her as she was about to sit down helplessly. Reinhardt’s bewildered eyes met the man. Black hair in black eyes. His scar on the eyebrows was visible through the swaying hair while supporting Reinhardt.

Reinhardt’s eyes became clouded again. She couldn’t even after making eye contact with him. She knew he would blame himself for being shameless.

The lord of Luden got up slowly and wiped the dirt off her dress. Then, standing upright, she held onto each of the guards and praised their hard work. She handed over the compensation and gifts she had prepared, and a certificate stating that she would rent the land for 10 years free of charge. Flowers bloomed on the faces of the guards.

It was a melting pot of cheers.

Except for two people.

* * * 

The Ernst family did not receive Dietrich’s casket.

It was a letter that seemed cold in a way, saying that he should be buried in Luden because he died as a knight of Luden, but Reinhardt read the insides of the letter. A coffin without a corpse would not be accepted. Instead, Ernst’s eldest son came to Luden.

There were no mementos left by him, but the soldier who served Dietrich managed to find his helmet.

The helmet was placed in the coffin and buried. Dietrich’s older brother, Baden Ernst, did not shed a tear the entire time the coffin was buried in the ground. He only looked at the coffin and Reinhardt alternately with empty eyes.

Nevertheless, as he was leaving the funeral he told Reinhardt, “My brother chose you, and this is just the result. I respect Dietrich’s choice.”

Reinhardt had no answer except to bow her head.

After a corpse-less funeral all day, her body was weak. Reinhardt went back to her room and sat down on the bed absentmindedly after the funeral was over.

‘People are so crafty.’

For three days after hearing Dietrich’s death, she cried every day with heartbreaking sorrow. She just ate last night. She was crying as soon as she woke up and before going to the bed for the following week. The week after that, she cried occasionally.

She didn’t shed a single tear when she faced the corpse-less coffin. Of course, she thought of crying when she saw the person who took away Dietrich from her, but that’s….

Reinhardt stopped thinking and bit her lip. It was because she thought her thoughts would be complicated if she thought of him now.

‘That kid…… is back. Alright then.’

She didn’t even make eye contact with him. It was because it was very absurd that the coffin returned with only his name engraved on it without a body. She also thought that she was cruel to the child who returned from fighting in a place he didn’t know for two and a half years.

She thought she should get up right now to praise and hug him, but she didn’t have the strength to get up.

‘Let’s sleep a little bit and wake up.’

She was busy preparing for the funeral. Twelve guards returned. Before that, there were three people who had died in two and a half years.

Their funeral was too sane to make it as grandiose as Dietrich’s this time. In addition, several guests, including Baden Ernst, had to be welcomed. Nathantine seemed to have attended as well.

‘…… The fox of Glencia is here too.’

It was unexpected that the son of the Marquess of Glencia also attended. Thanks to this, Reinhardt exhausted herself when facing so many influential figures….

‘My clothes are a little…….’

The hastily tailored funeral dress had to be tightened with lace, as there was no time to even take her measures. The strap was on the back made it difficult for her to untie by herself. Reinhardt turned her hand backward as she weakly exhaled. The pulses over her body weakened, making it hard to even untie the string.

Creak.

Just then, she heard the sound of the bedroom door opening. It should be the young maid Troy. Troy came to Luden to improve her life, and would always come into her bedroom to take care of Reinhardt around this time. Reinhardt didn’t have the energy to look back so she whispered softly.

“It’s you. I’m sorry, but could you untie the straps behind my back?”

She then heard a sound.

‘Troy’s footsteps are somewhat heavy. That must’ve been because of the funeral….’

With that thought in mind, Reinhardt raised her hand to untie the lace. A wide, warm palm touched her back. Reinhardt was startled without knowing it.

“… … Is this what you asked for?”

A heavy, slow breath settled in her ears. She flinched. It wasn’t from Troy, who was cheerful and bright. Reinhardt involuntarily tilted the nape of her neck in the opposite direction. It was because the man’s hot breath felt unbearably chilly at that moment.

When Reinhardt turned her head, there was pitch-black darkness.

“…… Wilhelm.”