I am the Monarch

Chapter 261: Hometown (4)

---

Silence.
No one opened their mouth.
No, couldn’t open their mouth.
Everyone with their eyes widely goggled stared at Roan Lancephil.
Within a very short amount of time, too many unbelievable events had happened.
Roan alone incinerating ten ogres, the ones called Amaranth Taemusa Troop appearing and annihilating the goblins, and Roan himself announcing himself to be the monarch of this land.
The Lare Village’s people dryly swallowed with dumbfounded expressions.

‘M, monarch?’
‘King?’

They couldn’t fathom just how they should react.
If he had become even just a general, no, a great general, they would have clapped and cheered.
They would have greatly praised him saying he achieved his dream.
However, Roan became not merely a great general but a monarch.
Even more, he became a founding king that raised a new kingdom.
An event they hadn’t dare even imagine.
No, to say it honestly, it was something they couldn’t believe even now.

“I, is that really true?”

Bas, who was hiding behind a wooden hut, showed himself out onto the vacant lot.
Melly followed his back and came out.
Roan brightly smiled and nodded his head.

“It is all true.”

A gentle voice.

“I do not lie.”

There wasn’t even a little deceit in his eyes and expression.
Bas and Melly, who watched and raised Roan since he was born to the year he turned eighteen, could tell that everything was the truth.
The two people kneeled before Roan.

“Y, your majesty.”

Their voices sharply shook.
Roan, with a shocked expression, pulled up Bas and Melly.

“I couldn’t tell you because I knew you would do this.”

A bitter smile hung on his mouth.

“B, but how could w, I, I mean us peasants dare……”

Bas, unable to do this or that, formed an awkward smile.
Roan, in a small voice, spoke as if to whisper.

“Whether some poor handyman, beggar, soldier, general, or a monarch…… I’m Roan. I haven’t become someone else.”

He gently held Bas and Melly’s hands.

“I have always remembered your kindness. You not only took me, whose parents had passed away and became an orphan, into your family but also watched over and raised me up like your own.”

It was a difficult world to live in.
It absolutely wasn’t something easy.

“You always worried about and awaited the kid who simply left his home one day. I came back home after so, so long a time, but……”

Roan couldn’t easily continue his words.
As much as his voice, his eyes watered up.

“You two were still waiting for me here.”

That someone was waiting for him.
That someone was always looking at him with the same feeling in their hearts.
That someone loved and trusted him unconditionally.
There was nothing more that could make a person happier.Meanwhile, the village people that had ran from the monsters and hid began to gather in ones and twos.
Everyone had half-dumbfound expressions.
But their eyes at least were all looking clearly at Roan.
Roan stood in front of them and in a calm voice began to recount the events that had occurred up until now.
From the rank-and-file spearman of the Rose Troop to the moment he became the Amaranth Kingdom’s monarch, that grand and tortuous story continued without an end.
The people swung between and let out gasps and sighs.

“…… and like that, I became the monarch.”

The story ended.

“Ah……”

The people let out quiet exclamations.
Not only them, but the members of the Amaranth Taemusa Troop filed behind him too couldn’t hold back exclamations at Roan’s story.
They had newly understood.
That a great existence that would leave a mark upon history was before them.

‘So he’s really a king?’
‘Ah……’
‘Just what did we……’

The faces of the few village people and the gang that followed Bekeil bleached blue.
Them having sneered at and deriding Roan all through the last night floated up in their minds.
Few girls exhaled deep sighs.

‘Ah, I could’ve become a queen if I’ve acted right just before……’
‘If I can marry Roan……’
‘Could I live a fabulous palace life?’

Each fully filled their heads with reddish and innocent delusions.
They were simple thoughts possible only because they were countryside girls.
Roan faintly smiled and looked at Bekeil.
Bekeil, still with a dazed expression, merely blinked his eyes.

“Bekeil.”

A quietly calling sound.
Bekeil unconsciously shuddered abruptly.

Gulp.

His throat roughly moved up and down.
Roan quietly stared at Bekeil’s eyes.

“You touched my bag, no?”

The instant his words ended.

“Gulp.”

Bekeil began to hiccup.
Even his breaths turned rough.
A greatly panicked look.
That was also the same for the gang lined up behind him.
Their faces were now beyond blue to bleached white.

‘Bekeil. I have no thought of leaving you alone.’

The light in Roan’s eyes sank down.
The betrayal he experienced in the last life.
He had resolved to definitely get revenge if met again.
But even so, he couldn’t simply cut off his head all of a sudden.
His betrayal was something that hadn’t yet happened.
If he were to kill Bekeil here, he and his gang as well as even the Lare Village’s people would form an unnecessary misunderstanding.
They would merely think that Bekeil’s head was cut off for touching Roan’s belongings.
It wasn’t quite a good look for a monarch of a kingdom.
Furthermore.

‘In the first place, I didn’t want to kill him that easily either.’

Having his head cut off in an instant without knowing why was far too pleasant a death.
Roan wished to let Bekeil feel all of the dejection and pain that he had felt.

“Y, y, you are going to kill me? N, no I, are you going to kill me, sir?”

Bekeil sharply trembled his entire body.
It was miserable.
A look endlessly powerful before the weak and endlessly cowardly before the strong.

‘So this was Bekeil’s true appearance.’

Something like the dominating look that spread fame as spear ghost in the last life simply couldn’t be found.
Roan slowly shook his head.

“There’s no need to unnecessarily touch blood with my hands. Since you……”

His voice quietly sank.

“Will soon die.”

Boom.

Instantly, Bekeil kneeled down on the ground with a greatly shocked expression.
He sharply shuddered his entire body.

“D, die? W, what do you mean, sir?”

The look that poured sneers and derided Roan just until before couldn’t be found any longer.
Roan answered with a calm expression.

“There is poison on my belongings to prevent theft.”
“P, poison?!”

Bekeil sharply raised his head and screamed.
The gang behind him lost strength in their legs and fell onto their bottoms.
For they too had stolen Roan’s belongings.

“P, poison……”

Bekeil looked down at his hands and whimpered.
Roan snorted.

“Did you really think that a monarch’s belongings are guarded so laxly?”

Those words were logical.
Bekeil kowtowed flat upon the ground and begged.

“S, save me! Please save me, sir!”

Following behind, the gang that stole his belongings together approached up next to Bekeil and dropped to the ground the same. (t/n: “the same” or “the same way”?)

“P, please save us!”
“We were wrong, sir!”
“I don’t want to die yet, sir!”

Already, few of them were bawling.
They rummaged through their clothes and took out shabby objects.
They were all Roan’s belongings.

“H, here it is, sir.”

Bekeil too a moment behind took out an object.
Roan quietly looked at that sight and then extended out his right hand.

Spat!

Suddenly, the objects were sucked into his hand.
An amazing and awesome scene.
It was a type of psychokinesis using mana.

“The poison on these objects are so strong that only I can touch them.”

The instant his words ended, a dark-red flame rode his hand and erupted.
The fire burned ferociously, but did not burn the objects.
Likewise an amazing and awesome sight.
Thanks to that, Bekeil and his gang came to believe Roan’s words like a stone.

“Please save us!”
“I’ll do anything at all if you save us!”
“Please forgive my immature, dumb, foolish actions of last night!”
“Please forgive me. I was a fool!”

The gang begged and begged until their hands turned into feet. Bekeil too was the same.

“I’ve dared to disturb your majesty’s mood without knowing my place! P, please forgive me! Save me!”

Desperate voices fully filled the clearing.
Roan quietly looked at that sight, then spat out a line.

“It isn’t that there absolutely is no way to live.”

Instantly.

“Eh?!”
“W, what is that way, sir?!”
“P, please teach us! I’ll do anything if you would just teach us!”

The gang including Bekeil cried with desperate expressions.
Roan waved his hand to calm them down, then spoke with a calm voice.

“There isn’t an antidote, but a medicine that could suppress the poison exists in the capital, Mediasis. If you consume that drug every thirty days, then you can live on no different from like until now.”
“Ah……”

Everyone let out a sigh of relief.
A hope that they could live floated up fully on their faces.
Roan looked directly into their eyes and added on.

“I will send a man the moment I return to the capital to send the medicine.”

The instant his words finished.

“Aaaaah!”
“T, thank you very much sir!”
“Truly thank you very much!”

Cheers burst out.

“But……”

Roan waved his hand and made them close their mouths.

“If your forms and actions are narrow-minded and base like today, then I will immediately stop that medicine.”
“Ah……”

Bekeil and the gang that were greatly rejoicing let out exclamations with stiffly hardened faces.
A conditional time-limited life.
It meant that they could easily die if misstepped.
But in either case, there was no other way.
They could only follow Roan’s words if they didn’t wish to die.

“W, we’ll remember, sir.”
“I’ll commit myself for the village people.”
“I will be a good person.”
“I’ll follow village head’s words properly.”

 

Empty promises full of hot air overflowed.

“I’ll definitely become a good person like your majesty said.”

Bekeil too raised his voice with a determined expression.
Roan looked straight into his eyes.

“Remember it well. If you renege on your promise……”

An edge rose up in his voice.

“You will soon die.”

Gulp.

Bekeil and his gang dryly swallowed.
The presence and pressure exuding out of Roan’s body suffocated their breaths.

“Uuuuh. W, we understood, sir.”
“We will definitely keep up our promise.”

They all laboriously nodded their heads.
Roan only then pulled away his pressure and looked again at Bas and Melly.

“Should we share the rest of the story at home, Ms. Melly?”
“Y, yeah. Let’s do that.”

Bas confusedly nodded his head.
Roan ordered the repair and guarding of the fences to the Amaranth Taemusa Troop’s members, and then returned to the house together with Bas and Melly.
The three people, in the old and small wooden hut, shared long and long stories until the day brightened.
After the day brightened, he gathered all the village people together and laid out his many fun and happy, sad and painful stories without restraint.
The people all immersed deep into Roan’s stories.
They especially reacted excitedly to the story of the newly founded Amaranth Kingdom.
Few village girls even openly flirted with Roan.
Roan, as if he had been waiting, took out the story of the most beautiful and lovely woman in the world, Aily.
In the end, the village girls that dreamt vain dreams could only turn back with dispirited expressions.
Roan stayed two more days in the Lare village.
He had stayed longer than the original plan.

“Roan. Even if often is difficult, do please come visit even occasionally, very occasionally at the very least.”
“Don’t get hurt anywhere and be careful. Alright?”

Bas and Melly held Roan’s hands and repeatedly insisted and insisted again.
Even if Roan was a powerhouse counted among the best, he was no more than an endlessly young and frail child in their eyes.
Roan brushed the back of the two’s hands.

“Whenever there is time, I will absolutely come visit, Ms. Melly.”

He didn’t say it just for the sake of it.
He turned his head and looked at the village people.

“And I will invite everyone to the capital soon.”

At those words, few adults and children raised up their arms high and cheered.
Purely rejoicing and happy looks.
Roan felt his heart becoming pure.
He whispered in Bas and Melly’s ears in a small voice.

“The next time I come too……”

His voice was gentle.

“I’ll come again not as monarch Roan Lancephil but as countryside boy Roan again, Mr. Bas.”

At those words, Bas and Melly faintly smiled and nodded their heads.
Proud, so proud, they simply couldn’t speak out any words. Roan lightly hugged such two people and then stepped back.

“Murray.”

At the quietly calling sound, the Amaranth Taemusa Troop soldier that was standing nearby walked up.
It was one of the Taemusa Troop adjutants, Murray.

“Yes. Your majesty.”

Quiet but powerful voice.
Roan quietly looked at Murray and then spoke whisperingly in a small voice.

“You lead nine taemusas and protect the Lare Village for thirty days. At the same time, precisely and meticulously analyze the situation of the Grain Mountain’s monster.”

The appearance of ten ogres and the assault of more than hundreds of goblins.
There was a need to grasp what kind of reason there was for the monsters’ abnormal actions.

“Yes sir. I will carry out the order.”

Murray nodded his head with a solid expression.
However, that was not the end of Roan’s order.

“And……”

He, for a while, gave through a whisper a long order.

“Would they possible even go that far?”

When Murray asked back with an unbelieving expression.

“He is a bastard that will easily do more than that.”

Roan formed a bitter smile.
At that look, Murray exhaled a short sigh.

“If he really act like that……”

A cold light flowed on his eyes.

“Then he would be digging his grave himself.”

At those words, Roan wordlessly nodded his head.

‘The trap has been set.’

Whether be caught, or not caught, was his choice.
If not caught, then he could preserve his life.
But.

‘If he were to betray like the last life……’

Then he would become caught in the snare and meet a horrible end.
Roan exhaled a long sigh.
Now really was a time to go back.
He waved his hand towards Bas, Melly, and the village people.

“Bye!”
“Take care on your way back!”
“Come again for sure!”
“Don’t forget to invite us to the capital!”

The village people too waved their hands and saw off Roan leaving.
Everyone were of happy and joyful expressions.
Of course, the expressions of Bekeil and the gang squeezed between them were stiffly hardened.
No, to be precise, they were forcibly smiling.

‘Damn it. What the hell is this!’

Bekeil looked at Roan leaving and bit his lower lip.
He felt wronged.

‘Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!’

If possible, he wanted to at the very least spit out curses until satisfied.
But because of the ten Amaranth Taemusa Troop members staying in the village, he couldn’t even act as he wished.
That day, Bekeil emptied his drink cup alone under the watchtower until deep into the night.
A gloomy night when neither the moon nor the stars rose up.
Without even thinking of going back home, he laid down in the dark and tempted sleep.
At that moment, Murray and one Taemusa Troop member quietly approached and stood below the fences.

‘What the?’

Bekeil tried to stand up throwing a fit, but abruptly stopped his movement.
Murray and the Taemusa Troop member, seeming not having discovered Bekeil, conversed in quiet voices.

“Did you passed it on exactly to the other members too?”

At Murray’s words, the Taemusa Troop member nodded his head with a slightly tense expression.

“Yes sir. I have passed it on. But is that really true? There……”

He specifically looked around their surroundings once, then cautiously added on.

“There really was nothing like poison in the first place?”

*****

“Has it all been cleaned up?”

A quiet voice.

“Yes. For now, I’ve cleaned up just the necessary things.”

Likewise a quiet voice.
A young man and a middle-aged man secretly conversed on with their heads together.

“But must we really do it even like this, master?”

The middle-aged man asked again with a powerless expression.
The young man nodded his head as if to show it cannot be helped.

“We cannot expand the business any further in here.”
“But master, that sir isn’t known to be that obstinate a person……”
“I know. He’s definitely a magnanimous man among the magnanimous men. But we cannot view even all his subordinates as magnanimous men.”
“That ‘s……”

The middle-aged man couldn’t continue his words any further.
Because he couldn’t find the words to fittingly counter the young man’s words.

“In the first place, we have to go to the Estia Empire if we want to do a really big business. Let’s instead think that a good opportunity has come.”

The young man formed a bitter smile.
Although his words did say so, his mouth tasting bitter couldn’t be helped.

‘I thought at least my eyes for people was exact, but……’

One of the abilities that he himself prided in.
Because of that very ability, he couldn’t help but pack up the company he had grown his entire life.

“Huu.”

A long sigh naturally flowed out.
The middle-aged man who was watching that sight laboriously formed a smile.

“Please don’t be so down, master. If it is Master Clyde’s ability, you will soon develop an even bigger company.”

They weren’t words just for the sake of them.
An expression and voice full of certainty.
The young man, Clyde faintly smiled and nodded his head.

“Thanks, Goden.”

Clyde and Goden.
The two people were the very Clyde Company’s owner Clyde and his right-hand man Goden.
Clyde funded and supported the Third Prince Kallum Rinse during the throne succession war.
He thought that among Simon Rinse, Tommy Rinse, and Kallum Rinse, the person could climb to the throne was only Kallum.
No, he was certain.
But in actuality, the one who ended the throne succession war and saved the imperiled kingdom was not the three princess but Roan Lancephil.
Roan, instead of the Rinse Kingdom that already had expired its time, had founded the Amaranth Kingdom and then climbed to the throne himself.

‘Receiving everyone’s support and cheer despite having brought down the originally serving kingdom and newly founding a kingdom, it was an unprecedented coronation.’

But because of that, Clyde’s position instead become complicated.
By Roan’s personality, he wouldn’t get harassed nor hindered because he had supported, funded Kallum, but even so he couldn’t receive support either.

‘The Sale Company that had close relationship even before the throne succession war is endlessly rising and expanding its business.’

Meaning it was impossible to fight for contracts against the Sale Company in the Amaranth Kingdom.
Furthermore, as said before, those among Roan’s subordinates with excessive loyalty could lay a wedge on the Clyde Company.
For various reasons, it was an uncomfortable situation to take a seat in the Amaranth Kingdom.

“Even so, it was fortunate that we laid connections on the Estia Empire and the Holy Palace’s side until now.”

Goden formed a bright smile as he packed up.
At that very moment.

“It has been a while.”

An unfamiliar voice pierced into the two’s ears.

 

“Huhph!”

Clyde and Goden swallowed empty air at the abruptly heard voice and moved back.
There definitely were just them in this large secret room.
The two people’s gazes dizzily swept the secret room’s inside.
At that moment, darkness at a corner of the room wavered and soon people deeply worn black robes showed up.
Their numbers were altogether three.
They were existences that whose presences, despite that they were looking clearly right in front of them, couldn’t be felt.

“Hm.”

Clyde, who had momentarily panicked, quickly calmed his breath and regained his composure.
He had experienced all sorts of things while managing his company.
Through the countless experiences, he knew very well just how important it was to keep his heart steadfast.

“Who are you?”

Lowly sunken voice.
At those words, the one who was standing the most forwards took off his robe with his own hands.
The face that suddenly appeared.

“You are……?”

Clyde formed a slightly surprised expression.
The trespasser’s face was that of a well-familiar person.
Clyde once again calmed his breath and then passed his greeting with a calm voice.

“I haven’t ever imagined meeting at such a place, at such a manner. Troop Commander Sir Keep.”
“To know my face and name, it’s as expected of Mr. Clyde.”

A clear voice that plant into the edges of the ears.
He was in fact Tenebra Troop’s Troop Commander Keep.
Clyde made a bitter smile.

“Good eyes and memory are the absolute necessities for becoming a grand merchant, sir.”

He deeply breathed in.

“What brings Troop Commander Keep of the so-called special forces, the Tenebra, here, sir?”

Clyde asked with the most composed and cool expression.
But in actuality, he was completely nervous.

‘Is he perhaps to harm……?’

The excessively loyal one among Roan’s subordinates that he had worried of could be Keep.
At that moment, Keep gently extended out his right hand.

“Mr. Clyde is absolutely needed in the Amaranth Kingdom, so I have come to escort you.”

At those words, Clyde let out a laugh.

“Hahaha. I’m needed?”

A relaxed expression and movement.
They were actions to hide his completely tense insides.

“I’m merely a fallen merchant, sir. What kind of a help could such an I……”

The moment his words reached about that point, Keep faintly smiled and spat out single line.

“Holy Palace.”

Instantly, Clyde’s expression stiffly hardened.
That was an expression knowing that the inevitable had finally come.

<Hometown (4)> End.