NOVEL NEXT Chapter 186:
“No.”
Camille’s face scrunched up.
“What the hell are you doing there?”
“Nothing.”
Otto smiled as he stepped out.
“I thought you might be alone and sobbing.”
“When did I sob?”
“You were trembling.”
Otto spoke as if he had known all along.
“No, That’s not it.”
“No shit.”
Otto said with a knowing expression.
“Honestly, I was thinking about the old days, how could I not?”
“Why would you think that?”
“Because it’s special, the Kingdom of Slaine.”
“…..”
“You must feel pretty uncomfortable at the thought of invading that place.”
In fact, Otto was right on the mark about Camille’s state of mind.
Why?
Because he knows Camille’s past all too well.
Otto wasn’t alone.
In fact, there were few people on the continent who didn’t know about Camille’s past.
It wasn’t for nothing that some rural lord’s knight had made a name for himself across the continent.
“Don’t worry too much.”
Otto said to Camille casually.
“What do you mean?”
“Just everything.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Well.”
Otto smiled strangely and took a step forward.
“You’ll see it when you get there.”
“….?”
“Don’t stay out in the cold too long. Go inside early and rest.”
With that, Otto walked away, leaving Camille behind.
“…What the hell are you on about?”
Camille didn’t understand Otto’s words in the slightest.
After Otto left.
An old memory flashed through his mind.
Just as Otto had said.
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His time at the Knight’s Academy was Hell from day one.
“A backwater guy enrolls in a knight academy?”
“You backwoods bastard!”
“What kind of small place needs a knight?”
They teased and discriminated against him for being from a rural village that no one had ever heard of.
But Camille didn’t give in.
The lord tightened his belt in an effort to pay for Camille’s attendance, and he had to live up to that expectation.
He didn’t have time to entertain the ridicule of imbeciles.
Instead, he studied, gritted his teeth, and trained.
Resources were not plentiful.
He was a poor student.
His lordship’s patronage barely covered all his expenses, but everything else was lacking.
He spent all four seasons in two sets of training clothes, and he patched up and wore his worn-out training boots.
To save living expenses, he looked for used textbooks and bought second-hand equipment that mercenaries used.
On days when he didn’t have classes or training, he would go to nearby construction sites or local markets to earn money.
“You beggar!”
“Studying in a foreign kingdom with no money!”
“Your poor lord, did he eat bread on the street to send you to study here?”
On those days, his peers teased him, calling him a beggar.
He didn’t care.
It wasn’t like they were paying for his academic expenses.
Despite that harshness, gritting his teeth and studying like a man possessed, Camille succeeded in graduating as the top student from the academy.
Those peers who used to tease him became his closest friends around the time of graduation.
On his graduation day.
“Congratulations, you are indeed a meritorious student.”
The lord came to his graduation ceremony.
The lord beamed with pride.
“Here’s your graduation gift.”
The lord presented him with a sword.
It was the first brand-new sword he had ever received.
“Your grace is as vast as the sea.”
“What grace? It’s all because of your hard work. You’ve made me proud, Camille.”
“But how about young master….”
“He’s been ill.”
When he asked about Otto, his lordship’s expression was troubling.
Something was wrong.
Something is wrong with Otto.
He wanted to ask more, but the lord hurriedly returned to their territory, as if being chased.
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After graduating from the academy, he began his apprenticeship.
An apprenticeship lasted for a total of two years, with one year serving in the military as an officer and the remaining year attending to the assigned temporary lord.
He was commissioned as an army lieutenant in a unit defending the outskirts of the capital of the Slaine Kingdom.
That’s when things took a turn about three months into his service.
While patrolling the small village on the outskirts of the capital, a member of the royal family got into an accident.
The prince, who had come out to get some fresh air on the outskirts of the capital, was involved in an incident where he attempted to forcibly assault a maiden by dragging her into the stable.
As luck would have it, he was nearby and, in an effort to stop the prince, he ended up having to cut him down.
Him and his knights were too strong to be subdued, and he had neither the strength nor ability to subdue them.
He was brought to a military tribunal for the incident and sentenced to death.
He have no regrets.
Even in the face of unjust power and violence, he couldn’t abandon his beliefs.
“Please, please have mercy on him! Please!”
“Lord Scuderia, despite being a lord of his own territory, rushed to the tribunal and kneeled down, pleading for his mercy.
He regretted that he’d brought my lord to his knees, and for that he was filled with shame.
But apparently, he wasn’t worth the trouble.
He was lucky.
Somehow, the king forgave as well as pardoned him.
A mere squire who killed his own brother and an army lieutenant, the King did not execute him.
He suspected it was for political reasons.
He was released safely and he continued his career as an officer.
It was then that happiness came to him.
Isabel.
She, his junior by one year, was the daughter of a viscount, but she graduated from the knight academy against her family’s wishes.
After graduating from the academy, Isabelle began to actively pursue him, and he developed feelings for her as a result.
Unfortunately, he was unable to pursue her.
The viscount’s family, Isabel’s family, pushed for her engagement to the second prince, and the engagement was quickly arranged.
“Let’s run away together.”
“…I’m Sorry.”
Thus he parted ways with her, and she was betrothed to the second prince.
He couldn’t betray his lord, who was like a father to him, and abandon his duty of knighthood.
The price of sending Isabel away was harsh.
He was forced to serve another year as an apprentice knight in the service of a temporary lord, and by some twist of fate, he found himself in the service of the Second Prince.
On his first day serving the Second Prince.
“So you’re that Camille person.”
“……”
“How long do you think you can keep up your vaunted chivalry? Hehehe! I wonder how it would feel to witness your noble chivalry crushed?”
For the first time, he regretted becoming a knight.
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The Second Prince was a dangerous individual.
Originally a bastard, he was beyond madness, bordering on pure evil.
He enjoyed seeing bloodshed, relished in trampling over others, and was cunning.
Yet, despite being such a despicable human being, he was naturally talented in swordsmanship, and his strength had no rival within the kingdom.
As a squire, he had to endure all sorts of insults while attending to such a second prince.
Furthermore, the Second Prince constantly tested and belittled him in an attempt to break his beliefs.
As that hellish year was drawing to a close.
“After all this, will you still not cut me down?”
“….”
“Kekeke! Are you going to watch this with your own two eyes?”
The Second Prince grabbed a woman on the street in front of him, and planned to rape her in front of his eyes.
Even though he was engaged to Isabel.
Camille regretted becoming a knight to the core.
He, who once resisted unjust power and violence by striking down a ruler, had become the sword that defended that unjust power and violence.
He remained silent.
With the woman’s screams and sobs piercing into his ears, he thought he would go mad.
It was like Hell.
He wanted to take his own life.
Cursing his past self for being such a contradictory person.
But he couldn’t bring himself to draw his sword against the Second Prince.
He realized it then.
That being a knight was never about being noble, but merely being a relentlessly selfish pawn, living to uphold the code of chivalry without free will.
Then.
“Kill the Second Prince!”
“He must be killed!”
The nobles who supported the crown prince sent a force to eliminate the second prince, who soon descended upon the scene.
It was an unexpected ambush, and they fled after taking heavy losses.
In the process, the knights were nearly wiped out, and the Second Prince was gravely wounded.
He barely managed to escape from the dire situation with the seriously injured second prince, who had miraculously survived, in tow.
In the process, he was plagued by the urge to kill the second prince.
“Kekeke! Why hesitate? This might be your only chance!”
“……”
“Go ahead and kill me.”
The Second Prince whispered to him.
“Kill me, and prove that your vaunted chivalry and convictions are nothing more than a bunch of garbage. Hahaha. Prove you’re nothing but a hypocrite. Cough.”
It was the devil’s whisper.
He wanted to kill the Second Prince.
He was a human being who should not have survived.
If he survived here, there would likely be a civil war.
The weak crown prince would not be able to handle the second prince.
If he did not kill this demon now, he was certain that a great tyrant would be born.
Isabel.
Her life will also change.
And that of the people of the Kingdom of Slaine.
“Shut up! Will you please shut your mouth!”
“Hehehe!”
“Shut up… please.”
He carried the second prince up, and together they trudged through the inclement weather to safety.
And then… he was cast away.
“Get out of my sight.”
After lying as if dead for several days, the second prince spoke to him.
“Today’s encounter will be your undoing, and someday I will be the one to end your life. Rest assured, you will suffer for the rest of your days. Hehe… Kekeke!”
“…..”
“I would love to keep you under my heel, watching you regret today and suffer for the rest of your life. But I’ll save that pleasure for later. So, get out of my sight now.”
With that, he left the Kingdom of Slaine and returned to his home estate of Lota.
With nothing but the vain reputation of a noble knight.
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He wished.
To simply live as a knight of a rural domain in the provincial region.
However, after being away for six years, the Lota domain had changed a lot.
“This bastard! How dare you disrespect me, the son of a lord, to a commoner like you? You fucking scum!”
“Ugh! Y-Young Master! Please have mercy!”
“Fuck you, you bastard! Damn to hell, you bastard!”
“Aack!”
Seeing the young master’s changed demeanor, he was greatly shocked.
The intelligent and clever young man who had followed so closely behind him, “Brother!” had become a rare bastard.
He… once again regretted becoming a knight.
Soon after, the Lord of the Estate passed away.
He was left to serve his brother, who took over as Lord.
The lord’s tyranny grew worse by the day.
Though the estate was little more than a small town, the previous lord had spent his life developing it.
To see it fall into ruin day by day was an unbearable torture for him.
Amidst this, the lord’s excessive tyranny only grew worse.
He made up his mind.
If things don’t change, he’ll kill the lord and then end his own life.
It was one of those days when he struggled to remain afloat.
Surprisingly, the lord attended the morning meeting.
“What’s on the agenda today?”¹
“Why are you asking that out of the blue?”
“The lord wants to know the agenda for the meeting, do I need a reason?”
The lord responded to his question.
He was confused.
Camille was just anxious about what was causing this sudden change in behavior.
“First. Release the food reserves and distribute it to the starving citizens.”
The lord commanded.
“What are you up to? What is the reason for your sudden mercy?”
“You said the people are starving to death.”
“Finances are tight. If we release food now, the estate could go bankrupt.”
“A human life is more important than bankruptcy, who cares about a few cobwebs in a mountain’s mouth?”
“My lord….”
“Knight Camille.”
“Yes, I’m here.”
“It’s a command. Get it done.”
“Your command… I receive and honor it.”
After that day.
The Lord began to change for the better.
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Camille gazed out west, reminiscing about the past, before turning away.
‘A war with the Slaine Kingdom. Now it’s killing and being killed by old friends…’
Otto, who had been stealthily hiding, smacked Camille on the back of the head with his poker.
*Thud!*
With a thud, Camille was knocked out cold.
“Hey, I told you to stop reminiscing about the old days and to get your ass down. I’ve been waiting for hours.”
Otto grumbled as he glared down at the unconscious Camille.
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TL/N:
1. Ref. Ch 2