CH 23

Chapter 23: Homeland

Right after I reunite with Sir Ezeal, some really fancy carriages roll around to where we were standing.

These carriages were provided for the Black Dragon Knights to transport them to their barracks. It’s not just because they are local heroes and celebrities that the country goes this far.

Unless there is a formal parade to welcome these guys, you’ll have 20 fully armored knights walking the business streets of a peaceful capital. They’ll be in the way of usual traffic, and because if their popularity, you can imagine that crowds will gather and cause a scene.

I’m sure they asked the Black Dragon Knights to come fully armored as a PR move to appeal to the public saying, “Hey! We’re back from fighting on the frontlines!” But once they see the armor the first time, the deed is done. Further action on their part is not required.

But that’s not our problem right now.

Henry: “..........Sir Ezeal…why were we stuffed into the carriage with you?”

My party and group are riding with the Black Dragon Knights. Owen, who is the same age as me, is also with us.

Ezeal: “Hm? HA HA! That’s because it looked like you yourselves just arrived at the Capital. Our barracks have more than enough rooms so just stay with us for the time being!”

Henry: “You can’t just bring in outsiders to the Knights’ barracks, Sir Ezeal…”

Ezeal: “Outsiders?! What a sad thing to say, Henry! We’re comrades who fought side by side, have we not?!”

This guy is supposed to be the top military leader, right? Why is he so lax on his own security protocols...

Cyril: “Excuse me…”

Ezeal: “Yes! What is it, most beautiful miss!”

Cyril raises her hand to ask Sir Ezeal a question, and pauses from his overly energetic attention. Cyril is practically fearless with talking to strangers, but even she is bewildered on how to speak to this man.

Wait, most beautiful miss? Who? I don’t see anyone who fits that description.

Cyril: “Umm… so, Sir Grandezeal, what is your relation to Henry?”

Ezeal: “Like I stated before, we are comrades! This man has a deep tie with our Black Dragon Knights. He joined us when we faced off with the Demon General, Gileverte!”

...Gileverte, yeah, Gileverte. Now, hearing his name doesn’t bother me as much.

Cyril: “Demon General?”

Jend: “Cyril, you should be knowledgeable about current events. The Demon Generals are the leaders of his army who are currently leading the war against us. I think there were 10 at the beginning of the war, and the people of the frontlines were able to take down 4 so far…”

Jend quickly explains and summarizes the key points to Cyril.

Cyril: “Henry fought the Demon General? This Henry?”

Ezeal: “In fact, it was Henry who delivered the finishing blow.”

Everyone’s eyes widen at the statement,

To be brutally honest, my contribution to Gileverte’s death is minimal. I just happened to be the last guy who attacked him before he died, and if it wasn’t for Sir Ezeal and the Saint of Deliverance (*LOL), there was no way I could have beaten him.

{{Chonky Notes: Henry chuckles when mentioning the Saint of Deliverance as if laughing to an inside joke}}

On the battlefield, one odd thing led to another, and I ended up finishing off Gileverte. It was the product of sheer luck and coincidence.

Henry: “Teo, just to put that into perspective, your sister took one down all on her own. That’s how she became a Hero of Legend.”

Teo: “Oh, i-is that so? Now that I think about it, I didn’t even know how sister Ageha became a Hero.”

Sir Ezeal raises a brow at the comment.

Ezeal: “Is she from the lineage of the Sagiri family?”

Teo: “Yes. I am a relative to the Sagiri household. Ageha Sagiri is my cousin.”

Ezeal: “Oh ho! What a glorious day! I reunite with my comrade and meet a descendant of the Sagiri! Our knights are deeply indebted to your cousin. This is even more of a reason for you to stay with us now!”

Sir Ezeal’s laughter booms from the carriage.

Henry: “Owen, you’re just gonna let your Captain do as he pleases?”

I drag Owen, who has been invisible up until now, back into the picture.

Owen: “Haha. Have you already forgotten, Henry? This is just how we operate.”

Ugh, that’s right. Sir Ezeal isn’t one to enforce strict order and discipline to his subjects, and everyone in the Black Dragon Knights is like this. They are hella strong, but they could care less about formalities. It’s a giant group of problem childs.

And it’s probably one of the reasons why the common people adore them. They have equally humorous legends as well as their deeds on the battlefield.

Lana: “Ummm… may I address you as Sir Grandezeal?”

Ezeal: “Yes, what is it? You may speak freely to me as you please.”

And Lana began speaking to Sir Ezeal.

Lana: “My name is Lana, and I requested for Mr. Henry’s party to escort me to the Capital and ensure my safety.”

Ezeal: “Ah! That’s why one of you was not an adventurer. I see, I see.”

Lana: “Yes, so Mr. Henry manages the travel arrangements, but I am the representative of this group presently. As the representative, I would like to formally thank you for allowing us to stay in your barracks.”

Lana bows politely to Sir Ezeal.

Ezeal: “I see, I see! I understand! I accept your gratitude as the leader of the Black Dragon Knights. But you do not have to be so formal. You are all young, but we are welcoming 3 beautiful flowers to our barracks. It is we who should be thanking you for gracing us with your company!”

…..yeah, there are women in the Black Dragon Knights, but they speak with their fists more than their beauty, and none can be referred to as a flower without getting your throat ripped out. Of course, I would never mention this fact to any of them.

Cyril: “Wait, Sir Grandezeal, did you just treat me as a child too?”

Ezeal: “Hm? HA HA HA! Do no fret about youth! You will sure enough grow up one day into a beautiful lady!”

Cyril: “I’ve already reached adult age and am already a respectable, beautiful lady!”

Cyril gots some guts telling off Sir Ezeal. She really has no fear.

Ezeal: “Is that so? Forgive my rudeness!”

And Sir Ezeal continues to laugh it off, as he tells Cyril to not worry about it.

And our carriage ride was pretty much taken over by this man’s pace and atmosphere all the way to the barracks.

<<<<>>>>

At the barracks of the Black Dragon Knights.

They really did have plenty of open and unused rooms there.

Sir Ezreal just told us to “Use whichever rooms you please!” and I had Owen help us find appropriate rooms and threw our luggage in there.

Jend: “So, we would like to show our gratitude for allowing us to stay here, and offer this ale to you in kind.”

We sit around the tables in the dining area for dinner.

The lady handling the cooking for the Black Dragon Knights lines the tables with many delicious looking dishes, and Jend puts a keg of ale next to it.

This is one of the kegs we brought. We are offering it free of charge, but if the Black Dragon Knights remember us by name, it’s a small price to pay for the notoriety we will gain in return.

Jend: “From the northern town of Flowtier, the Carousel Merchant Association presents to you our Flowtier Ale. We are a rural town compared to the larger cities, but I will guarantee the quality of taste.”

“ “ “ YEAHHHHHHHH!!! “ “ “

The Knights hear the name of the ale and an uproar fills the room.

Flowtier Ale is popular even on the frontlines, but it’s expensive to import and is constantly out of stock, so it’s hard to get your fill of it.

“Henry! You moved there just for this ale, huh?!”

Henry: “What are you talking about?! It was only about a third of my reason!!”

An older knight, Ryden, laughs merrily to hear it’s still a third of Henry’s reasons.

Ezeal: “Hey, Ryden! Come cool this for us!”

Ryden: “Yessir, Captain! As you command!”

With the commanders orders, Ryden approaches the keg.

He is wearing his civilian outfit, but he still carries a belt with a stack of metal plates, and holding one of them, he begins the spell chant.

Ryden: “The glitter of ice, silver wind, the hand of the northern god, reveal thyself and dance.”

As he pronounces the words, the inscription on the plate glows.

This man used the Fulfuse Style magecraft. On each metal plate, a spell inscription is engraved. Unlike the Kroseid Style, you can’t combine multiple spells together, but each spell is complicated and carries more effective power alone.

There is no worry of having a spell explode on you and is relatively simpler to learn then the Kroseid style. It is a very rigid but reliable magecraft form.

And what he just used was the ice spell.

If he put his full power into it, he could freeze an entire household, but simplified chants like he used just now are used often to cool beverages.

The chef brings out large glass mugs, and we hand out the cooled ale.

Lana and Teo also have a mug too, but a single glass should be okay.

Ezreal: “All raise your drinks! For our return to our homeland, reunion with old friends, and to new beginnings with new friends! CHEERS!”

“ “ “ CHEERS!!!! “ “ “

Glasses clinked and people began guzzling down the ale. We have a good bit of people here, and they all drink quite a bit, so this keg will be emptied by the end of the night.

Teo: “.....I thought knights were more scarier people, but they are more laid back than I imagined.”

Teo sips the ale slowly and carefully.

Henry: “Well, they need to be examples to the soldiers. Plus the Black Dragon Knights are famous so any rumored incidents with them will spread really quickly.”

They are rowdy but not vulgar. Out of all the trouble makers that gathered on the frontlines, they were the easiest to get along with.”

Jend: “So Henry, why did you keep the stuff about the Demon General a secret from us? That’s a heck of a feat you accomplished.”

Henry: “Don’t keep bringing that up. I swear it was a stack of unbelievable coincidences that led to that. Sir Ezreal led the main charge, I was supporting him from the side, and when Sir Ezreal got a solid hit and made the General waver, I struck from the side and got a lucky hit.”

I’m not that thick skinned to take all the credit for myself.

Ezreal: “Hm, that’s a very humble way to put it. It’s true that I was the one who faced off with the Demon General directly, but your contribution in that fight was not insignificant. You fought well.”

Henry: “Well yeah, I don’t think I pulled everyone’s legs or was not doing anything but still…”

I definitely struck during key moments in that fight, but without the Saint of Deliverance (LOL) having my back, I should have died 3 or 4 times during that battle.

Ezreal: “Hmph, very well. Your recollection of history is your own, so we’ll let you be. Even so, you were able to complete your goal in the most magnificent fashion! Be at least proud of that!”

Cyril: “Goal…? What was Henry’s goal?”

Ezreal: “What? My lady, you do not know? Has he not told you?”

Oh, yeah, I don’t think I ever talked to them about it.

I wasn’t trying to hide anything. The topic just never came up.

Henry: “Well, to put it bluntly, I had a personal vendetta against Gileverte. He was the General that destroyed my home country.”

I can’t count the number of times I dreamt about that day when my Kingdom was destroyed.

I finally stopped having those nightmares after that battle.

Cyril: “Oh… Umm…”

Yeah, I guess this was a difficult subject to talk about even for Cyril.

Henry: “Hey, don’t worry about it. It’s all in the past now. I got my revenge, and now I’m just living a lukewarm life in Flowtier.”

Owen: “Yeah, you should have seen how much he changed after that battle. He used to always walk around with pissed off eyes like this, and picked fights with anyone who looked him straight in the eyes.”

Owen makes angry brows with his fingers to resemble how I looked back in those days.

What? I didn’t look like that. Yeah, my eyes may have been a little bit more scowling than what I have now but…

Owen: “As soon as the battle was over, his face became like this, and his personality completely changed. He used to just lay about after that.”

Henry: “I-I still did my job.”

Owen: “Yeah, but you didn’t have a pinch of tension left inside ya. You were just an empty husk at that point.”

Hey, I just stopped doing things way too seriously, but I didn’t let my guard down.

I just finished what I was trying to do all my life, and once it was done, I kinda sorta knew what it felt like when an old man retires. I mean, that was how I was naturally before the war.

Just a really laid back personality… I think. It’s not like anyone who knew me back then can vouch for me today...

Cyril: “Where was your home?”

Henry: “Ah, yeah, it was the Fezard Kingdom. You probably don’t know it, but it was a small country that’s now part of the Demon King’s territory.”

It was one of the many kingdoms that fell at the time of the Demon King’s coronation.

Cyril: “.........................what?”

Henry: “What do you mean, ‘what’?”

Cyril: “Henry, you were born in the same country as me?”

Whoa now, Miss Cyril.

That’s the first time I’ve heard that news. Care to explain?