Do Your Own Revolution-Chapter 177

Still, he didn’t stop his steps midway.

One step, then another step.

As he walked along the well-maintained hill path, his destination soon came into view.

[Friedrich Franz Kalhyram]

[The Empire’s last Emperor, and shall be the Empire’s eternal Emperor.]

What a fierce epitaph.

With that thought, the old man, Kalkas Gloucester, smiled wryly and looked beside him.

The Emperor’s tomb.

There was already another visitor who had arrived before him.

“You managed to crawl up here with that dying body of yours.”

An old man leaning on a cane, gazing at the Emperor’s tomb.

Judging by the iron mask on his face, his peculiar taste hadn’t changed.

“Kassel.”

“Kalkas.”

Kassel Korhonen.

From behind the mask came a faint laugh as he responded to Kalkas.

“At your age, shouldn’t you have learned some manners in your speech?”

“That sharp tongue of yours hasn’t dulled. Seems it escaped the decay that’s taken the rest of you?”

The two men traded barbs like old rivals.

But shortly after, they both burst into laughter, looking at each other.

“Around this time, Freddie used to show up, didn’t he?”

“That’s right. Always saying we should think about the next plan instead of fighting.”

Gone was their youthful vigor from when they first met, replaced by age and frailty.

Meeting again, they were no longer the Margraves commanding two autonomous territories, but old men preparing for retirement.

“How is Reina doing?”

“She’s started rehabilitation recently. Though not everyday activities, she can at least walk to her chambers now.”

“That’s good news. Meanwhile, Harpel brought in a bunch of lieutenant generals from his homeland, making a fuss about opening new frontiers in pioneering work.”

“New attempts are the privilege of the young, aren’t they?”

“Watching it makes my blood boil though.”

“Isn’t he cute compared to how you were in your youth?”

“Shut up, you annoying four-eyes.”

“I don’t wear glasses anymore though.”

Between Gloucester’s blunt remarks and Korhonen’s sly responses, the two Margraves’ conversation continued for a while longer.

They discussed recent happenings, business, their growing children, and memories of their youth.

“Well, whatever we say.”

At the end of their conversation, both Margraves wore similar smiles.

“Things are getting better. For both you and me.”

A today better than yesterday.

A tomorrow better than today.

How much had they struggled and despaired to make that happen?

But in the end, they succeeded.

The reign of magic nobles had ended, and a new era had begun.

Emperor Friedrich.

The man who made them dream the same dream had finally achieved his goal.

“In the end, everything happened just as you said, Freddie.”

Under the pristinely clear sky, Kalkas smiled brightly.

“Everything, exactly as you planned.”

As if responding to those words meant for his departed friend, the sun in the sky shone with unprecedented brilliance.

***

Thud-d-d-d-d!

A gloomy sky. Rain falling steadily.

A carriage raced through the central contaminated zone, cutting across ground covered in slimy pollution.

“Can’t we go any faster?”

“Th-this is the limit! The carriage might hold, but the horses…!”

At the coachman’s urgent cry, the man behind the carriage window gritted his teeth.

While the carriage, modified to traverse contaminated areas, was relatively fine, the horses pulling it were not.

Contaminated matter clung to their bodies with every step.

The monsters’ poison seeping in through their respiratory system.

Once in the contaminated zone, these horses would mutate into monsters within an hour.

Lost in thought for a moment as he narrowed his eyes…

“Duck!”

“?!”

At the man’s sudden shout, the coachman immediately hunched down.

And in that moment.

Crack-!

“N-neigh?!”

A bullet pierced through where he had just been.

Looking back, he saw a knight on horseback lowering his rifle with a click of his tongue.

‘H-how did he know? There wasn’t even any warning…’

As the coachman pondered this briefly…

Crash-!

“Wh-what?!”

The carriage door was torn off completely as the blonde man inside launched himself out.

“Y-Your Highness!”

“?!”

Leaving the coachman’s cry behind, his target was the knight pursuing the carriage at close range.

Seemingly caught off guard by the sudden action, the knight failed to react for a moment.

Everything was going as predicted.

“Third Prince Friedrich…! Traitor who defied His Majesty the Emperor’s orders…!”

“Traitor? No.”

Looking at the knight’s face now right before him, Friedrich smiled coldly.

“I’m merely paying the price for witnessing the truth.”

Thwack-!

With a kick using all his strength, the knight was thrown from his horse.

“Urgh?!”

Friedrich took the saddle in place of the knight.

Unlike the carriage horses, this one was in relatively good condition.

It was a Virtus war horse resistant to contamination, equipped with specially made gear.

“Hyah-!”

He immediately spurred the horse.

The distance widened in an instant.

The knight who had just regained his senses turned pale.

This was deep within the contaminated zone, the domain of monsters.

What happens to someone left alone in a contaminated area without transport?

“Keeeeek-!”

“A-aaaagh–!”

Hearing the monster’s cry and screams in the distance, Friedrich immediately rode his horse to search for a safe zone.

“Phew…!”

“Y-Your Highness!”

At the end of his ride, he arrived at the designated meeting point.

Looking there, he saw the coachman who had been driving his carriage earlier running towards him with a relieved expression.

“Thank goodness, Your Highness! If something had happened to you, I… I wouldn’t know what to tell my comrades…!”

However, Friedrich’s eyes were ice-cold as he looked at the coachman.

“Andrei.”

Shunk-!

Along with the call to his guard knight, a sword emerged from the coachman’s chest.

“Gu-guh…”

“Information about my movement was leaked to the pursuers, and you were the only one who knew.”

In other words, you were the only one who could have told them my location.

At Prince Friedrich’s words, the coachman’s face contorted.

Not with indignation, but with frustration at his failed plan.

“Thank you for your driving all this time. I got a bit motion sick, but your carriage-handling was decent enough.”

“D-damn it…!”

Squelch-!

With that brief farewell, the sword in his heart twisted, and the coachman died on the spot.

“Are you injured?”

“I’m fine. But… this is truly maddening.”

Looking at the coachman’s corpse sprawled out, Prince Friedrich sighed.

“Even one who served by my side for over a decade betrays me. Does this mean I truly have no allies left in the palace?”

“It could be dangerous to return to the palace. Perhaps we should find a hiding place…”

“No. We’re going to the palace.”

Friedrich shook his head and said.

“Their goal was to kill me before I reached the palace. In other words, they can’t touch me recklessly in the capital.”

To avoid a beast’s claws, one must cling to its nape.

Even the Knight Order couldn’t kill an imperial prince in the capital.

“Time is short. Follow me.”

With those words, Friedrich immediately led the way through the contaminated zone.

Even Andrei, his guard knight, couldn’t understand how he navigated the unfamiliar forest as if it were his own home.

‘And the most frightening thing is…’

That these seemingly reckless advances always created an opportunity to reverse the situation.

After traversing the contaminated forest for some time…

“This smell…”

Sensing something tickling his nose, Andrei’s expression changed.

In the middle of land filled with monster contamination and toxins.

A fresh breeze was blowing through.

“This way.”

Friedrich smiled, showing his teeth, and pushed forward through the dense forest.

What appeared through the undergrowth was another clearing similar to before.

However, here there was no trace of monster contamination.

‘A purification ritual. And strong enough to completely remove contamination of this concentration…’

In a space glowing as green as a fairy tale forest.

In the middle of that space stood a man with brown hair.

He appeared to be around Prince Friedrich’s age.

As Andrei stepped forward to block the way, the brown-haired young man glanced at him with a slight smile.

“So you’re the Empire’s Third Prince, Friedrich.”

“That emblem, you’re from the Gloucester Knight Order?”

“…!”

Gloucester.

Hearing that name, Andrei’s wariness increased.

“You remember well. Though it’s a Knight Order that was destroyed, leaving only me.”

Saying this, the man wiped the blood thoroughly coating his sword.

At his feet lay the corpse of a monster.

It seemed he had set up camp here waiting for them.

“The heir of Count Gloucester’s house, Kalkas Gloucester.”

“…”

“The last survivor of a family driven to the frontier after being falsely accused of treason because of you people.”

Sensing the murderous intent,

This 𝓬ontent is taken from freeweɓnovel.cѳm.

Andrei immediately raised his sword.

“I’ll handle this, Your Highness. Use this chance to escape…”

“No.”

Andrei stood with a resolute expression, sword raised.

Though the four stroke imprint on his arm glowed, the prince shook his head.

“Look at his imprint, Andrei.”

The prince pointed to the imprint glowing on his right arm.

Seven strokes.

Andrei’s grip on his sword tightened involuntarily.

“A seven stroke imprint…!”

“A mage of head family level. Forget winning, even buying time would be impossible.”

After saying this, Friedrich patted Andrei’s shoulder and stepped forward.

“May I ask why you point your sword at me?”

“Since your Franz Imperial Family branded us traitors, I thought I’d become a real traitor.”

“So you mean to kill me?”

“Not just you.”

With those words, the magical power emanating from Kalkas grew increasingly dense.

“My family, my friends who died by the imperial family’s hands. I’ll kill your imperial family as many times as they suffered. However many it takes!”

“…Ah, I see.”

Magical power and killing intent that made his skin tingle.

Yet Friedrich’s expression remained perfectly calm as he faced it.

In a situation where all those I trusted have betrayed me.

And now I’m approached by a noble harboring a grudge against the imperial family.

This is…

‘Exactly as I foresaw.’

Having finished his thought, he smiled brightly and spoke.

“Then, Kalkas Gloucester. Let me make you a proposal.”

“A proposal?”

What?

Making a proposal to someone who just declared they would kill him.

Had he lost his mind?

While Kalkas tilted his head in confusion…

“Would you like to commit real treason with me, Friedrich Franz Kalhyram?”

“…?”

At his sudden words, Kalkas’s expression turned strange.

“Treason? What do you…”

As his words trailed off…

“Countess Dvorak, a member of a magic noble family, has brainwashed His Majesty the Emperor with mind control techniques.”

The words from Prince Friedrich’s mouth were utterly shocking.

“Wh-what? Brainwashing? What are you…”

“And that old hag has blasphemously shared the Emperor’s bed, trying to make the imperial family her own.”

Your family’s destruction was their plot.

And the Knight Order targeting my life is also because of this.

At his continuous stream of words, Kalkas’s expression grew confused.

Was this desperate attempt to survive?

A lie?

No, his composure was too unsettling to dismiss it as such.

“No, wait. What are you suddenly…”

“And right now, at this moment.”

Mid-sentence, the prince tilted his head slightly to the right.

A gesture as if warning him to watch that direction.

“…!”

The moment Kalkas turned that way, feeling something was off.

Before his eyes appeared a spear blade filled with majestic magical power.

“What?!”

Clang–!

Though he immediately swung his sword to deflect the attack, he couldn’t shake off the impact.

Kalkas was pushed back toward Prince Friedrich.

And around them, a group of knights revealed themselves.

Swish-!

Twelve knights composed of five stroke mages.

Their raised blue spears were aimed simultaneously at Kalkas and Friedrich.

“The Blue Lance Knight Order…! Even Drexler was searching this forest?”

Deploying over ten captain-class knights meant they were seriously hunting.

Gritting his teeth, Kalkas turned to look at Prince Friedrich.

He appeared as if he had predicted this situation.

Kalkas asked such a prince:

“You… did you know reinforcements were coming?”

“Well. I wonder?”

The prince avoided answering with a low laugh.

“But this confirms one thing.”

That my nonsense was sensitive enough to provoke a response from the Knight Order.

And…

The prince smiled slightly and continued, his blue eyes gleaming.

“From this moment on, you’ve become my accomplice.”

“Ha…!”

Hearing those words, Kalkas let out an incredulous laugh.

This royal he had tried to kill with his own hands…

Was even more insane than he’d thought.

***

Author’s note:

Although the main story concluded with chapter 176, there are quite a few foreshadowing elements and stories that weren’t fully resolved in the work.

I originally planned to address them during the serialization, but as we approached the conclusion, I felt adding these would be forcing unnecessary length, so I plan to serialize them separately after the main story’s conclusion.

The major episodes I’m currently planning include ‘Keiren’s Past’ and ‘The Emperor’s Failed Reform,’ and finally, I plan to serialize a final chapter centered on the main heroines Irene and Mari.

I will do my best to write engaging content up until the final chapter.

Once again, I thank the readers who read my inadequate writing.

Author's Thoughts

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