***
In the year Banares was born as the prince of the Cabonihar Kingdom and turned ten, his father was murdered. The usurper snatched the throne and tried to cut off the seeds of revenge by killing the young prince.
Count Bellido spoke of the facts passed down along with his own thoughts on this.
“Would it have been a big deal for a usurper who beat the king to death to kill just one ten-year-old prince? The prince’s death was a foregone conclusion. However, it is said that a knight who was staying as a guest of the royal family saved him and fled to a neighboring country.”
That knight was said to have possessed very excellent martial prowess, facing six knights alone and shaking off the pursuit for forty-eight days. And after entrusting the prince to the queen of the neighboring country, he left to become a guest of another country.
“Afterward, the prince spent eight years there. And when he became an adult, he dreamed of revenge by borrowing the queen’s army... but the revenge could not even begin because the neighboring country perished.”
Knowing that Banares would take revenge, the usurper had made a surprise attack on the neighboring country and destroyed it. Banares was captured after resisting and was sent before the usurper in a cart.
This was the second crisis.
And this time too, a guest saved him.
The escort army stopped at a certain city, and there was a hunter there. The hunter, who had stopped by the city briefly to sell items, saved the prince from the cart in the middle of the night and fled.
The two crossed the forest where a crazy witch lived and headed for another country. Naturally, a pursuit team followed behind them, and it was said their number was as many as the trees in the forest.
However, because their large number incurred the witch’s wrath, the prince safely reached another country, while not a single member of the pursuit team could leave the forest alive.
The Count added:
“Among the plays, there are those interpreted as the hunter commanding the witch, rather than the witch being angry. We do not know exactly. Since all the stories were passed down orally from his mouth.”
The clear fact was that the hunter also left after saving the prince.
“The third and fourth were the same. Just before he was to be executed due to a false accusation that he was trying to start a coup, and when he fell into a state of suspended animation for several years after drinking poison, there were guests who brought evidence of his innocence and an antidote, respectively.”
The knight, the hunter, the priest, and the alchemist—the four guests all appeared with different names and different professions and saved Banares, and they left without taking even a bit of reward once the task was finished.
In the year Banares turned thirty-eight—the year twenty-eight years had passed since his father was murdered—he gathered a group and achieved revenge against the usurper. Afterward, he ruled Cabonihar until his age reached ninety.
During his reign, the kingdom’s territory increased several-fold. He married the princess of a neighboring country and the two countries became completely one, and he punished and subjugated the country that had driven him into false accusations.
Although it was only after several hundred years had passed that the country’s name echoed across the continent, historians evaluate that Cabonihar’s national power was actually greater during Banares’s reign.
After the story ended, Roberta asked.
“What happened to those guests?”
“Immediately after the Great King regained the throne, he looked for the guests. To repay the favor, he sent out proclamations to every corner of the country. However, it is passed down that they did not visit.”
“……”
“Also, strangely... the proclamations did not write their names or their features. Like a letter, they wrote gratitude and blessings to them, and finally, hope.”
Based on this, Banares knew the fact that the four guests would not seek him out again, and perhaps he sent out the proclamations merely to convey his heart, the Count evaluated.
“Priest, you asked about the relationship between Great King Banares and the Duke of Dithmarschen. What if, I say, the four guests were one person? What if that person is Duke Ulrih of Dithmarschen?”
“Do you also think those four people were one person, Count?”
“I do not know. Honestly, I have no sense of it.”
Roberta nodded, thinking that would be so.
Banares is practically the founder of the Cabonihar Kingdom. Hadn't twenty years passed since the throne was usurped? It was an amount of time sufficient to consider that one country had perished and a new dynasty had been established. Therefore, the moment he regained the throne was also the moment the kingdom met its second founding.
That founder faced four crises in his life, and each time a different person helped him, and that story was being talked about among people until now.
The reasons would be diverse. The special talents shown by each guest, the appearance of them helping in every crisis and then suddenly disappearing, the ending where he wanted to see them again for his whole life but couldn't meet them—it was sufficient as story material.
Also, what if that person was still alive until now?
“It is said that all sorts of liars appeared when the Great King was alive. They even appeared on the day he was facing his deathbed, looking for rewards.”
They met terrible ends, the Count added.
“The people who know in detail about the four guests are only those of the royal family. Today, Duke Bailen, my master, is the only person who heard the story directly from the Great King, and the reason I believe is because my master believes so.”
Roberta thought.
If what Duke Bailen believed was true, then Ulrih, the Lord of Dithmarschen, became a person who had lived more than twice the years in the records.
Previously, he had subtly stated that he had lived for 1,400 years or more, but that was merely a claim he made alone.
On the other hand, what about now?
Duke Bailen guaranteed that the four names, including Laurant, were Ulrih’s old names. There was no reason for Bailen to lie. If so, was Ulrih a person who had lived for over 600 years?
Ulrih called himself a pure human. A pure human in whose ancestors not even a bit of a non-human race was mixed.
That itself was an absurd claim, but even if she accepted it, the doubt about his very long lifespan was not resolved.
‘Ulrih, Laurant, there must be several other names.’
However, the doubt she harbored right now was not about his lifespan.
Because she had harbored too many doubts about his lifespan and had reached the conclusion that she could not know the answer. Rather than clinging to a problem she could not prove, she grasped a new doubt.
What kind of life did he live under other names—that was the doubt. He said, ‘I changed my name every time I moved residences.’ What names did he use each time, and what footprints did he leave with each name?
She was curious about that. Did not his names that had been revealed so far leave giant footprints in history without anyone knowing?
600 years ago, he was Laurant de Villeneuve.
From 300 years ago, he was Ulrih of Dithmarschen.
The person who had caused the two human kingdoms, Cabonihar and Osnober, to rise again was him. Would such a figure have spent the 300 years in between quietly?
Roberta was certain that that would absolutely not be the case.
#
The following day, the group descended the snowy mountain as Ulrih said.
The downhill was steep, but they were in high spirits. After staying on the snowy mountain for several days, they didn't even want to look at the mountain. With the blizzard that froze blood, the magical beasts that glided on the blizzard, and the harsh mountain terrain, there was no way to like it.
The flat land below the mountain was a pure white land covered in snow, but unlike the mountain, the blizzard had stopped, and no magical beasts were visible. On the surface, it was quiet enough to make the derogatory name of magical realm pale in comparison.
However, they soon missed the snowy mountain.
When they actually walked on the flat land, they realized the mountain’s tantrums were cute. It couldn't be that an environment comfortable for humans would be uncomfortable for other animals and plants. Evidence that Ulrih’s magical beast tome was not fiction arrived one after another.
“Uh, uhhh?”
*Crunch, crunch*. While walking on the snowy path, someone made a sound.
Realizing that the emotion contained in that sound was confusion, Roberta turned back to see the ground sinking. The place where she stood only vibrated under her feet, but the two people at the rear of the group were different.
The snow-covered ground sank, becoming a cone-shaped pit. At the same time, Count Ballido and one vassal slid into it.
And the moment the vassal sat down in the center of the pit, pincer jaws suddenly popped out, bit his waist, and pulled him down.
“Holy shit!” Enjoying the story? Read on at g.com.
Count Ballido shouted.
The magical beast was not just one.
Another magical beast appeared with its pincer jaws wide open and bit Ballido. Unlike the vassal, he rolled his body quickly, so his waist was not bitten, but instead, his left thigh was bitten.
That was the only resistance. Ballido fell after losing his balance, and since there was nothing to grab onto, he was pulled along powerlessly as the magical beast pulled him.
“Ballido!”
Duke Bailen took a step as if he were about to jump in.
However, Ulrih jumped into the pit before him.
Ulrih landed beside Ballido and swung the sword he held in his right hand, cutting off the magical beast’s head. The magical beast’s head had a hard exoskeleton like that of a crustacean, yet the sword cut it with a *swish*, as if cutting through the air.
And after prying open the pincer jaws and removing them from Ballido’s thigh, he threw him out of the pit.
“Get out quickly!”
Bailen bent his knees and hurriedly reached out his hand. Ulrih shook his head and scanned the surroundings with his back turned to him. The vassal who had first been caught by the pincers was not visible.
“Do not come inside, and stay far back.”
The pit shook.
Below the pit, where white snow and black sand were mixed, an unknown number of magical beasts began to move. Realizing that Ulrih was an extraordinary prey, they were being wary.
*Whoosh*. Sand fluttered.
To prevent the prey from climbing the slope or to obstruct the prey’s vision, the magical beasts fiercely sprayed sand mixed with snow. And the pincer jaws of five magical beasts bit Ulrih.
From his feet and thighs to his waist and chest, they attacked and bit him all at once without giving the prey a chance to react. Ulrih cut off the one that bit his chest, but the remaining four pulled him down to the bottom of the pit.
“Lord!”
Roberta let out a cry close to a scream.
Ulrih did not open his mouth. Even though he was pulled in up to his waist in just a few seconds, he held the sword in a reverse grip and stabbed down with a calm expression as always.
The inside of the sand shook, and his body shook as well. The magical beasts must have been twisting their jaws in rage from the pain. At that, he raised his arm even higher and stabbed again.
“—! ——!”
A grotesque scream that tore the eardrums leaked out of the pit. And as the vibration of the pit became even more intense, Ulrih was completely plunged below it.
Roberta, Bailen, Ballido, and the vassals could do nothing but stare down blankly. They only perceived through their senses the sight of blood rising red below the surface of the pit, the sound of bones being crushed, and the vibration under their feet.
“……”
How much time had passed?
Blood began to flow below the surface of the pit.
As if returning to find its owner, the blood that could not be separated from the snow and soil drained away. The snow found its white color, the soil found its black color, and the pit remained only with the traces that there had once been a commotion.
Eventually, the center of the pit rose and Ulrih stood up. He held a sword in his right hand and the vassal, of whom only the upper body remained, in his left. His clothes, which were light to begin with, had become as tattered as rags.
However, there were no wounds. Although the circumstances spoke of the bloody battle he had undergone, strangely, his skin was white and clean without a single wound.