Chapter 537

Heinrich refused to join, but I didn't want to leave him to die. So Sarkagar continued to report on the situation at Kernstadt, and I kept an eye on things. With the judgment that something was going to happen, I followed them with Harriet. I thought Louise von Schwartz might have touched Heinrich, but it turned out that Louise had killed her own brothers. And, although it was a stillborn, it was shocking to hear that it was not the king's stillborn but Louise's. Charlotte said that Louise von Schwartz would not do such a foolish thing if she heard that Heinrich was going to be assassinated. The brothers conspired to assassinate Heinrich. It was not all the brothers who conspired, but the second and third, or the second's dictatorship or the third's dictatorship. Louise von Schwartz was a person who had nothing to do with the original incident. She lost her son because she did not calculate the foolishness of her brothers. And whether she knew the truth of the incident or not, she was executed with the emperor's anger. Heinrich survived. Louise von Schwartz, who was thought to be one of the culprits, was actually the person who had to protect Heinrich. She seemed to be shocked that she had done such a thing herself, seeing her brothers kill and go crazy. In the original, Louise did not choose her brothers or Heinrich. As a result of her awkward belief, Heinrich died and she died too. But now Louise has made a choice. I don't know what excuses the commander of the Kernstadt army will make about the deaths of the brothers. There are certainly roles for the two who died, and there will be problems, but it is better than Louise or Heinrich dying. We just need to stay still. The changed world showed a changed development, but I cannot know specifically what, where, or how something changed to produce this result. Harriet and I left the abandoned warehouse area and hid in the nearby forest. "I don't know what happened or how it happened... but it's okay, right?" "Yeah, we don't need to worry about it." Harriet nodded at my words. I knew who was actually trying to kill Heinrich, and that Louise had a hand in it. There may be noise and problems, but Heinrich's life is no longer in danger. If Louise von Schwartz had actually been a stillborn, things would have been even more complicated, but fortunately that was not the case. However, the protagonist learned a more complicated family history. The certain advice of the oracle was to watch the changed world show a changed outcome. The vague advice of the oracle was all that could be known. "Yeah... it doesn't make sense that Heinrich has been alive until now..." "What do you mean?" "If Heinrich was really the king's bastard, there was no need for the royal family to accept him. The queen is not a person who would acknowledge a bastard. Charlotte speculated that the king insisted on it and forced it to happen. Even the royal family conspired to kill Heinrich. But it ended with just the Templars being banished. In the first place, it was strange that Heinrich was alive. "Louise von Schwartz tried to save Heinrich somehow... right?" "...That's right." Whatever the circumstances, whatever the method, it is unknown how Louise von Schwartz gave birth to Heinrich and how the secret has been kept until now. But even other royal families did not know that Louise was a bastard. Only the king, queen, and Louise herself were probably aware of it. At the time of the accident, Louise pleaded. Please don't kill him. Don't kill him, just let him live outside of our sight. Maybe that's what the deal was. It was better to kill the baby who would be better off dead, and the reason why he could have survived until now was because he was the bastard of Louise von Schwartz, who possessed the most outstanding qualities in the history of the Schwartz royal family. Just as Louise tried to save Heinrich by using her own position and position. Heinrich's existence itself could have been a shackle that was passed on to Louise in some way. He may have held Heinrich's life hostage to control Louise's actions. Heinrich would have been used by the current Kernstadt king to shake the first princess. So he survived. Because no one knows what the successor to the kingdom will do if Heinrich dies. Why did Heinrich survive? If he was just the king's bastard, he would have died a long time ago, and that would have been the natural situation. It was because Heinrich was useful and necessary. Heinrich was precious to Louise. Heinrich was useful to the royal family. If she had realized that truth, Louise von Schwartz could not have been the culprit, so I knew that I could solve this problem more easily or just watch it. That was the advice of the oracle. And the advice of the oracle could bring both good and bad things at the same time. If it was a good thing, it meant that Heinrich's assassination was passed without major bleeding. If it's a bad thing, then naturally, other things will stem from it. There is a possibility that those things will lead to even more bad things. "What...what will happen?" "Exactly." Bad things can happen at any time on the battlefield. That's why predicting it was meaningless. Heinrich had always thought that no matter what he said, his brothers would twist it and not listen. But that story applied to himself as well. "You've come, youngest. Sit down." "There must be a reason why the brothers are gathering. Since you're not part of our army, it's hard to see your face, so we called you to have a meal." "If this situation is resolved, do you plan on returning to Kernstadt?" "That's too bad." "You must be tired. Go in and rest first." In retrospect, she was just someone who didn't talk much. There was no difference between her and the other brothers who were overly attached to the meaning behind her words and upset alone. She just didn't know. She didn't know how to deal with someone who had to face complex emotions that she hadn't faced in a long time. There were only so many words that could be said by someone who was originally blunt, especially in a more complex state of mind. She was just misunderstanding the smallest words that could be said in such a complex state of mind. She was no different from the other brothers. And finally, Louise made another extreme choice to kill her brothers with her own hands, unable to watch the other two brothers try to make another extreme choice to try to kill Heinrich. "...." "...." On the way back to the base, the horse walked slowly and there was no conversation between Heinrich and Louise. Louise's complexion was pale because she had killed her brothers with her own hands, and Heinrich was in a state of shock because he had seen that sight in front of him and heard the shocking truth. There was no conversation. There was no situation where a conversation could take place, and nothing had been sorted out yet. A person who has a lot to say. A person who has a lot to ask. No one said anything. "I'm sorry. For everything. All of it." Two words were spoken quietly. "Everything...is my fault." Louise finally managed to apologize only with such difficulty. Two princes of Kernstadt died. It wasn't executed publicly, but they were killed by the unilateral decision of Louise von Schwartz. It was not legal, nor procedural. The content that Louise von Schwartz shared within the army was simple. Disappearance. The two princes also have their own power. But they cannot compare to Louise von Schwartz. The commanding officers knew that there might be internal details that many people didn't know, such as whether it was a defection disguised as disappearance for the honor of the Schwartz royal family, or whether there was a hidden agenda. But Louise didn't explain anything. As Emperor Bertus said, it was a war for justice. The disappearance, defection, or death of the two princes. It is a big problem, but Commander Louise von Schwartz is alive and well. The gap left by the two princes could be filled by reorganizing the command system. In the end, the two irreplaceable princes survived, and the two replaceable princes tried to kill Heinrich out of fear for their own position. So the gap left by the relatively weaker two princes could be easily filled. Emperor Bertus knows what happened, but he doesn't mention anything. The commanding officers also remain silent, aware of the suspicious circumstances. The disappearance of the two princes caused confusion within the Kernstadt army, but it did not lead to a split. The war is for justice, but the changed relationships cannot be restored. Louise killed her brothers to protect Heinrich, but they cannot find the right words to rebuild their relationship. They have not had any personal conversations since then, only work-related ones. Louise leads the army without conversation, but Heinrich is always by her side. Suddenly, Louise tenses up at the sound of a telepathic message reporting to her. The feeling of intrusion is uncomfortable for her, and she feels a strange sensation of someone seeing something that no one else can see. However, Louise is not the type of person to pass it on to someone else. "Since the small warp gate in Lagirian, which was the next target, has already been destroyed, the Allied forces will continue to march to the Theta point instead of the next planned base." "Hmm... I understand. Good work." "Yes, Commander." Heinrich realizes that Louise has received telepathic communication from her murmurs. Louise looks at Heinrich. "It seems that the next operation area has already been cleared. That's why we continue to march." "I see..." Although there is no personal conversation, it was a position where such dry conversation had to be made. Heinrich watches Louise inform the commanding officers of the entire army broadcast information. Louise looks at the endless procession of marching soldiers. It would be nice not to have to fight to the death in the next operation area. But isn't the long march another hardship for the soldiers who eventually have to walk that distance themselves? Louise pondered what was better. Emperor Bertus. It was Bertus who directly said that if he didn't kill his brothers, Heinrich would be killed. What if the two youngest princes knew that Heinrich was their half-brother? "They would have wanted to kill him even more." Louise did not marry. If Louise von Schwartz dies in this war, the next successor to the Schwartz royal family will be her eldest son, German von Schwartz, not Louise, who officially has no children yet. She may have secretly hoped that Louise would die. Now that she knows how foolish and short-sighted her brothers were, her suspicion becomes a certainty. If Louise von Schwartz dies during the war, German will become the next successor to the Schwartz royal family. If that happens, Alphonse may have been jealous of his brother, who became the heir to the Schwartz royal family, a dream that he could never have realized, and may have tried to kill his brother and inherit the throne himself. If Heinrich had not been there, German might have tried to kill him instead. Then Alphonse might have killed German next, and the throne of the Schwartz royal family might have been taken by Alphonse instead. "...." Louise felt ridiculous for thinking such thoughts. Wasn't calculating her brothers' foolishness after killing them just a self-defense mechanism because they had to be killed because they were trying to kill her child? There are choices and consequences. She killed them because they tried to kill her child. In return, the child survived. All other judgments are meaningless. She couldn't even talk to her child. This cannot be okay. How she endured the impulse to throw away everything and run away, what happened and why, what words were exchanged. How many times has her life been weighed so far? Thinking only about how you will do well at the temple, how many days have you lived a forced life, swallowing tears.

She wanted to say everything, but in the end, she couldn't open her mouth because it would be no more than an excuse for not being able to fulfill her duty as a parent.

After the war ends.

When everything is settled, can we talk?

After lifting the veil of the dark fate of humanity, can we talk about everything?

This battlefield is too heavy to talk about sorrow and pain.

Therefore, the only story that can be told now is the story of this war.

"Youngest...."

Louise vaguely opened her mouth, but her tongue stiffened.

Is it right to call him the youngest?

But she can't call him her son. In this situation where there are watching eyes and listening ears, isn't it impossible for the older sister to call the youngest her son like a bastard?

But Heinrich, as if understanding, looked at Louise.

"Yes, Your Highness."

"...."

Things that are known but cannot be said.

It was a look that understood it well enough. Louise bit her lip slightly, feeling ruthless.

But it's a story about work, a story about war.

You can't not talk about what you have to say because of trivial things.

"Do you think you're close to Emperor Berthus?"

When the name of the emperor came up, Heinrich fell silent for a moment.

"To be honest, I don't think I'm close. However, we spent time in the same class at the temple...."

"I see."

If it hadn't been for the words of Emperor Berthus, she might have lost Heinrich because she couldn't calculate her brothers' foolishness.

And the emperor knew that Heinrich was his bastard, and even knew the name of the man he used to love.

But what Louise is thinking about now is not that problem.

"The high command is hiding something."

Excessive marching speed, abnormal weather conditions, and preemptive suppression of the operation area.

Only good things keep happening to the Allied Forces.

Ellen Artorius, Savioline Tana, and Shanafer, the royal magicians.

If they put all their abilities together, this speed could be possible, but Louise couldn't erase the feeling that these processes were not clear.

"Do you know what they're hiding?"

In response to Louise's question, Heinrich stares at the marching route.

"I don't know."

Like he doesn't know his mother well.

Louise doesn't know her son well either.

But now she knows one thing.

"I see...."

Louise realized that her son was not good at lying.