"...At that time, I remember that a fairy tale-style narrative poem was very popular among bards." Nemo sighed and muttered softly. "The Heroes and the Witch, don't tell me that's talking about..."
"Yes." Medeth's voice was like a dying old man, "Except for the rumors of the Royal 'Flint is a liar', that's another look of the 'truth' in the eyes of the public."
Nemo has heard that song countless times—
[Once upon a time, there was a hero who was brave and good at fighting and made numerous achievements. He brought countless miracles and made the people he guarded very happy.]
[But this made the enemy very dissatisfied, and they sent the demagogic witch to him. The bewitched hero abandons the princess that should belong to him and falls in love with the evil witch.]
The illusion in front of him, until he sat down opposite Flint, Meders was still in a trance.
His former head of the regiment was dressed in a simple civilian dress, with no smile on his face. Flint just glanced at Medeth's clean and tidy image lightly, and opened his mouth lightly.
"Don't be stupid, your death won't change anything, Balthazar." He lowered his eyes, still looking pale and thin.
To Meders' surprise, the right arm that Flint was supposed to give to the king was completely intact and moved freely.
But his captain did lose something. Medes looked bitterly at the man across the table—Flint's eyes were dim, his face was numb with pain, and his breath was eerily similar to that of a refugee who had lost his homeland.
They didn't meet in the tavern, and Flint chose an abandoned shabby house near the capital—he even brought two dusty bottles of shoddy wine, and threw one to Medeth, who was sitting across from him.
"Let's talk." The former Tin Corps commander said coldly.
"..." Meders pursed his chapped lips. He wanted to speak, but the countless words were all stuck in his throat, and he couldn't utter a word.
"If you don't want to say it, I can start." Flint quickly uncorked the bottle and took a few sips to himself with the dust. "It was you who told the king about my situation, and I think we all know that."
Medes gritted his teeth and nodded extremely slowly.
"I should have thought." Flint's voice was flat. "I remember you mentioned a long time ago that your family was lifted out of poverty because of King Sampson's innovation. You admire him. To be honest, Medes, in Logically I can understand what you're thinking...but I can't understand it from the bottom of my heart."
"Tuan... Flint, I know it's useless to say sorry at this level. As a friend, not only can I not share your pain, but I will push you into the abyss." Medes closed his eyes, "but if the time comes again, Countless times, I think I'll still make that choice and regret it to the death. I can't afford that, Flint, I can't."
The young Medes was shaking so badly that he almost threw the wine bottle in it to the ground: "It was I who betrayed your trust, and I failed to trust you from the bottom of my heart... You can retaliate against me any way you want, in the cruelest way possible. It's okay, that's the punishment I deserve."
"How did Sampson tell you?" Flint asked in a chatty tone that could be called scary as if he hadn't heard it.
"He didn't like Miss Ramon from the beginning. But he decided you wouldn't be serious, so—" Medes didn't react for a while.
"So you gave me a 'break time' to distract the attention of women from the bottom, is that right?"
"Yes, you know, the status of the two of you is really..." Medes took a few painful breaths. "The king he..."
"'Flint is like another kid of mine, he's supposed to be a man who knows what's important. I know very well what he'll choose in the face of love and righteousness. But he's changed, you're his friend, you see out. He was bewitched by the woman who disintegrated his fighting spirit—she tempted him to abandon the people and go into seclusion at a time when Alban was in desperate need of a hero.' Your Majesty, no, that's what Sampson said. ."
Flint gave a wry smile twice, tightening the neck of the bottle.
"'It's been almost half a year since the end of the expedition, and it's time for Flint to take it easy. He's less than ten, and at the peak of his power. Just abandoning the people when Alban needs him most? Suspicious enough, what she's doing now is like treason.'" Medes repeated those words with a sharp edge.
[She has polished his will. Powerful heroes can still fight, but no longer have the heart to fight. He turned his back on the people who believed in him, ignored the tragic war that was taking place, and ignored the people who were suffering because of gunpowder smoke.]
[The wise king cannot let his warriors be taken away, he wants to save the bewildered hero. He killed the witch.]
"It seems that he called me last time to confirm my 'bewildered' state." Flint's voice began to tremble, "This is really... Ha."
The hero who lost his wife let out a laugh that was worse than crying.
"I admit he's a good emperor, Medes. No king has ever reinvigorated Alban as fundamentally as he did. I understand your concerns, and if I kill him now, the young princes won't be able to resist. Willard's offensive—if that's what you fear. I get it, but..."
"… "
"But you worship the king too much, like everyone who has benefited from him. Sampson Alastair is a great king, and it has nothing to do with him being a 'trustworthy' man. No, because He's too successful, so that's why it's scary - gentle and kind people are not fit to sit on the throne, and Abbas has long seen this."
"I thought that with your friendship... it was a mistake of my judgment." Medes tugged at his hair.
"You thought he would not force me to this step because of Abbas's sake?"
Flint put the almost empty wine bottle aside and stared at the broken clods on the ground due to drying: "Abbas once told me that sometimes the magic circle of pure calculation will get more strategy than the sage. To be effective, do you know why?"
"...No." Meders lied. He knew it, but the long overdue answer made his heart twist.
"Because calculations don't require emotion, and people are swayed by 'human hearts'. Sampson Alastair is more like a sophisticated device than a human being - if you predict all the threats and kill them all at the beginning State, of course you can make it. He is the ultimate in rationality, with no gaps left between the parts for humanity. Now I'm not 'Flint Lopez' to him, just 'The Calamity of Alban' ."
"In the end, I didn't see it through at first and was deceived by his enthusiasm."
Flint's grief finally found an outlet.
"In his opinion, my body is not broken, and I can fight again... No, maybe it is the same for you and him, isn't it?"
"...Yes." Meders didn't intend to hide his thoughts any longer, "Because you're the strongest person I've ever met, Flint, you always have a way to cheer yourself up."
"I'm not strong at all!" Flint yelled. "You don't know I'm at the bottom of the abyss—"
He stopped oddly.
"Sometimes mental wounds are harder to heal than physical." After a few seconds, Flint changed the subject wearily. "But people are never willing to identify with what they can't see. Sonia... Sonia she knows how vulnerable I am. I can only breathe normally and break down when I'm around her. Don't worry about being considered a coward or a lunatic."
The real hero fell into a daze after saying this, as if he couldn't accept the fact that his wife had left for a while.
"What did you know at the bottom of the abyss?" Medes asked cautiously, "Maybe I can..."
"No, I won't tell you, I won't tell anyone. Balthazar, this is my last love as a former companion." Flint shook his head weakly, his eyes red. "But I'm really…very weak, and only she can see me like that. No, she can accept the weak side of everyone."
"You've been emphasizing class, emphasizing power. Yeah, I never told you how I fell in love with her."
Flint, looking like a dead man, went on ghostly.
"I got there early that day and overheard her companion talking to her. Her friend was equally concerned about the differences between us and advised her not to be really tempted.' Flint Lopez is currently the No. , he wouldn't really fancy a lowly character like us.' - Her friend said so."
"'No. 1 in fighting skills. Yes, his fighting skills are much better than mine, but compared to me, his dancing sucks. He's just a pretty clumsy boy, and I like his laugh .'—she said."
"I knew at that moment that it was her. Balthazar, I could feel it all this time, my spirit was far less powerful than hers. Are you wondering why I didn't want to regroup the Tin Soldiers? I can't fight anymore."
"I didn't have the strength to keep fighting—not out of fear, just because I felt exhausted from the bottom of my heart when I looked back at the world in front of me. If it wasn't for Sonia, I might have found a quiet place to kill myself. She Not tempting me to turn my back on Alban, she's just saving my life...with a warm home, saving my life."
But everything has turned into a bubble.
"Flint." Tears finally poured out of Medes' eyes.
"Disappointed with me, right?"
"No, I… I don't know. I'm sorry."
"Now that the king's thoughts are confirmed, I don't have any doubts now." Flint stood up and patted the soil on his clothes.
"Wait, Flint! Your right arm—"
"Oh, this." Flint moved his right arm, which looked extremely normal. "Because it couldn't recover properly, I asked the people at the 'butcher shop'. It's made of demon flesh."
"…but it will corrode your body!"
"Enough for me to live until my child grows up, if he survives. He's still breathing and I can go on."
"Even if you lose your strength, your swordsmanship should be enough..."
"You know the child's physical condition. My teacher taught me a lot of abyss magic theories, and with this arm, I can finally use them. If necessary, I will use abyss magic to heal him... and." Flint's voice dropped.
"and?"
"If he survives, I want to be like other fathers - holding him up as he rides on my neck watching the fireworks."
Beyond the vision, Oliver closed his eyes. Medes, who had long since turned to withered bones, bowed his head, and the red light in his eyes was so weak that he could not see it.
"Goodbye, Balthazar Medes. Thank you for giving my children a chance to live. It's very sad, but I understand your choice to protect the king. There is only one thing I can never forgive you for - when my children can't Alone, you let him get caught up in the king's hunt. That's it, I think it's the last we'll see."
Flint grabbed the empty bottle and grinned hard. It was repeated. "… goodbye."
[But the witch's spell is too powerful, and the hero quickly weakened and died after that. Only the scorched land remains.]
Nemo clenched his fists, and he could feel Oliver shaking as he clutched his own.
"Then I never saw him again." The memory disappeared, and Medes whispered in the rolling white mist. "That's all I know, Oliver."
The white fog slowly dissipated, and then poured back into the skull, turning back to a bright white light source.
"No wonder father has always hated bards." After a long time, Oliver finally spoke up. "Mr. Medes, how did you become like this?"
"Having done such a thing, I can no longer live normally as a 'human' from any point of view. Perhaps in the eyes of the people, this is righteousness. But I can never forgive myself, I am completely ruined He—if it wasn't for me, he wouldn't need that demonic right arm at all."
The necromancer rubbed his bones, and the knuckles collided with a light click: "I was too young at that time, and I was tortured by right and wrong.
"A lot of times there is no right or wrong, only acceptance - what I want and what I don't want, what I agree with and what I don't agree with. Most of the time, right and wrong are just weapons."
"But I learned too late."
"I'm not qualified to forgive you on behalf of my father." Oliver bowed his head slightly and saluted. "However, thank you for being willing to tell me this."
Medes shook his head with a wry smile, wiping the blood and tears on his face with his robe. "I don't need forgiveness."
"Since you haven't left now, you're still willing to talk to me. Then I'll help you find out about your physical condition and how to treat that little girl. There's only one thing I want to say about the past... Oliver, Let me be cheeky and say a word as an elder."
"Never go to the bottom of the abyss. I don't know what your father found there, but it really changed him. Sometimes ignorance is the greatest happiness."