༺ I Don’t Need a Guillotine for My Revolution ༻
Written by – 카르카손
Translated by – Mara Sov
༺ Civil War Period – The Blue Knight (2) ༻
In the guest room of the mansion.
“I’ve declared confidentiality for now. So please don’t worry too much.”
Eris gave me an awkward smile as she heard my words.
“I hope you’ll treat me the same as you did before.”
“You don’t need to worry about this, Eris.”
As soon as I changed my tone, Eris’s eyes widened.
After blinking her mesmerizing purple eyes a few times, she spoke.
“Did you know all along……?”
“……Yes.”
Upon hearing my answer, Eris pouted before turning her head towards Francois, no, Sir Beaumont.
“Well, that’s ridiculous. Was I that obvious?”
“I do not believe so, My Lady.”
She turned towards me with a suspicious look before sighing.
“How exactly, or rather, since when? Was I completely tricked into a devious contract from the beginning?”
“No. Even though I knew you were a princess, I never intended to make use of this secret. And I was completely honest in my promises to you.”
Eris looked rather wronged, but to be honest, I was feeling just as wronged.
Before my regression, no one recognized her as a Princess, until the church delved deep into her past.
It was no wonder that a child from the King’s favored concubine was kept hidden with the political turmoil that sparked the Civil War.
In hindsight, with her distinctive looks and her sensitivity to sunlight, it’s no wonder the Late King was very proactive in hiding her existence.
Although the Marquis is a ridiculous monster who managed to recognize a middle-aged man as a former Royal Guard just because he saw him wield a sword years ago on the battlefield.
Initially, I planned to introduce Eris as my patronized artist and if the Marquis showed any signs of wanting to use Eris for her divine power, I would leave her in Christine’s care.
But how could I have anticipated that he would recognize her as the Princess right away?
Eris looked at me with her unique eyes and sighed, perhaps sharing my pain at this moment.
“Right. If I wanted to avoid trouble altogether, I wouldn’t have accepted your offer in the first place, and I can’t blame him for finding my identity either. So what is his goal now?”
“He probably wants to announce the existence of Her Highness the Princess and rally the remnants of the First Prince’s faction.”
Of course, this decision doesn’t consider Eris’s wishes, as she is a semi-prisoner under the guise of protection.
“The Second Prince has already been crowned, so what’s the point of announcing my existence now? My mother wasn’t a noble, so I’m second to King Louis in legitimacy.”
Yes.
Honestly, announcing Eris as the Princess wouldn’t benefit the First Prince’s faction in terms of legitimacy.
However, that’s the narrative for the entire faction.
The current faction leader is Duke Lorenne, the right hand of the First Prince. Though the Prince is dead, he is still a powerful and authoritative figure.
And the power-hungry Marquis of Lafayette was not pleased that Duke Lorenne received more attention than him, who was the real main fighting force of the First Prince’s Faction.
But by announcing that Lafayette harbors a descendent to the Throne, the story changes.
“……Eris, they’re thinking that by endorsing you as the heir to the Throne, the Lafayette family could take the lead in the faction.”
Giving me a very displeased look, Eris also added her thoughts.
“He would also make me a puppet queen and marry me off to someone, making Lafayette a family with royal blood?”
……Was she referring to me?
“Don’t worry, these are just some plans the Marquis made, nothing is decided for now. And they certainly won’t risk Her Royal Highness the Princess’s life just for an internal struggle.”
The Princess disappeared right before the Civil War, and because of this, she has become a completely forgotten Royal.
Thus, whispers about the Princess can be dismissed as mere rumors, but the moment Eris is announced as the Princess and enters the succession dispute, then there will be no turning back.
If that happens, not only will King Louis and his faction target Eris, but the Revolution as well.
When Eris is declared a contender for the Throne and affiliated with Lafayette, the Revolution will make us a primary target for purging.
That’s why the timing of Eris’ reveal must be at least after I manage to establish some connections with the Revolutionaries, and when they show themselves willing to accept some coexistence with the Royalty and nobility.
And now is definitely not the time.
After listening to my reasoning, Eris stared at me for a while and then showed a small smile.
“You are very peculiar, you know that? I should be feeling very suspicious of you, but for some reason, I feel like I can trust you.”
“Perhaps your divine power, or rather your personal power is trying to tell you something?”
“I don’t know. I like to think that my hunches are usually spot on! But If I had such a handy ability to predict the future I wouldn’t be in this situation, would I?”
After saying this with a mournful expression, Eris regained her usual cheer as her tone became playful.
“I made a deal with you to earn the hearts of the people. So I’ll continue to work hard at it! And as promised, I count on you to protect me. Since you know my identity, I believe you’ll do a good job as my patron!”
I could only offer her a wry smile.
“That’s the plan, Your Highness. Or should I say, Eris? It’s comforting to know that your ‘hunch’ compels you to trust me. Although I cannot deny that I’m a little anxious for the future.”
“……Hey, when you say things like this, I’ll start getting anxious too, you know?”
“That’s just how life works, doesn’t it? If we could be certain of the future, things would be so much easier.”
But that’s not how the world works……
Before regressing, I faced unexpected situations such as a sudden revolution and the plague. So this time around, given I was armed with foreknowledge, wasn’t it unfair to once again be blindsided by absurd events?
—
Late in the evening.
I stood in a dark room, holding a candlestick.
A room that was seldom visited by anyone but me, so it was left abandoned.
The light from my candlestick illuminated a portrait that had been shrouded in darkness.
It revealed an elderly man, who despite his age still appeared robust.
The 5th earl of Toulouse – Xavier De Toulouse.
This man wore his armor and held a sword with a confident smile.
He was a true warrior and my grandfather. Known for his favorable treatment of his subjects.
If he was alive, I wonder what he would say to my father, the Marquis.
Moving on,
The candlelight now illuminated the portrait of a woman with a kind and nostalgic smile.
The 6th Earl of Toulouse — Yuria De Toulouse.
The woman who married a Knight favored by my grandfather, and gave birth to me.
She was the one who helped my father, Hurbert, create the legend of the ‘Blue Knight’ when he had yet to become a Marquis. However, when his son was defeated by a commoner in a tournament, she was neglected by her husband and died of a broken heart.
I slowly reached my hand towards the portrait but stopped myself from touching it.
No warmth could be felt from it. I’m sure even If I touched it, it would be the same.
The thing with memories was that they were usually warm. But there’s no warmth in reality.
As I withdrew my hand and clenched it into a fist, someone knocked on the door.
“Young Master, it’s me, Baron Domont.”
“Come in.”
The Baron entered the room and bowed.
“The Marquis is requesting your presence, Young Master. It’s something regarding the Civil War and Her Highness the Princess’s treatment.”
“Very well, let’s go.”
As I turned around, the Baron was looking wistfully at Mother’s portrait.
The Baron had served the House Toulouse for many years, long before the creation of the Lafayette Marquisate.
His words from before came back to me.
—Young Master. Seeing how you have grown into a fine man, I feel that I won’t be ashamed when I finally meet Lady Yuria.
Before my regression, I didn’t recognize what sort of a man he was.
When I was defeated by a commoner, and treated like worthless trash by my father, I was too caught up in my self-loathing to notice those around me.
Thus, even after my regression, I doubted this man’s loyalty simply because I didn’t know him that well.
“I’m sorry for everything, Baron.”
“……Pardon?”
The bewildered face of a noble in the Knight Kingdom who couldn’t ride a horse because of his prominent belly, was quite funny as I let out a small chuckle.
“Let’s go. This time, I’ll offer you my complete trust, Baron.”
“Ah? Oh, yes, yes. You can trust in this Domont!”
He might not look very reliable based on his……rotund looks, but at this moment, he was truly the best ally I could have.
—
In the conference room.
The Marquis sat at the head, with the vassals and retainers of Lafayette gathered around him.
While all of the retainers and vassals had anxious and frightened faces, the ‘Blue Knight’ glared at me with his cold eyes.
“Are you saying we shouldn’t announce the existence of the Princess?”
“Yes, your Excellency. We have little to gain and much to lose by doing this.”
The Marquis’s glare intensified, but he eased up and chuckled.
“You’ve grown a lot, Pierre. To think you would be capable of looking me in the eye, arguing against what I say.”
“It’s my duty as a member of the Lafayette family to offer wise counsel to Your Excellency.”
“Hehehehe……”
The Marquis laughed a little.
Like the prelude of a disaster, with each laugh of the Marquis, the retainers flinched and tried to shrink while visibly swallowing their saliva.
“Fine, I’ll listen to your wise counsel then. But you must be prepared to bear that responsibility.”
The Marquis said as his eyes betrayed his struggle to rein in his fiery temper.
Had it not been for my recent contributions, he wouldn’t have even given me the right to speak.
“The faction of the First Prince and King Louis are irreconcilable enemies. As long as they have set their sights on our destruction, we have no choice but to rally against King Louis’s tyranny. Do you think that the First Prince faction won’t be able to unite once more just because we don’t proclaim the Princess’s appearance?”
“……”
The Marquis’s mouth twitched a bit, but he didn’t bother to disagree.
“Realistically, what our faction needs to aim for now is not total victory but resistance. Our goal is to chip away at the power of the King and his faction as much as possible and drag them to the negotiation table. If we present a new heir to the throne right now, that will only increase their drive to wage war against us.”
The Marquis looked at me with a displeased expression before blurting out.
“Your words have merit, but if we support the elevation of the Third Princess and dethrone King Louis, our claim will be undeniable.”
“My apologies, Your Grace. But this is only valid if dethroning King Louis is possible.”
“How dare you discuss defeat in my presence!”
The Marquis’s anger thundered through the room like a tempest.
Not only the retainers but even myself flinched at the sheer mana infused into his shout.
Before I realized I was already sweating.
However, I couldn’t back down now.
If there’s no way back, then the only way is forward.
“Even when the First Prince was alive, we failed to secure a decisive victory.
I’m sure you realize that it is impossible to surrender the North, including the capital, and let them have a total victory.”
And that’s not what you are after.
“Isn’t what your Excellency desires not a pretext to rally the First Prince’s faction, but to elevate the Princess and take the lead of the Faction from Duke Lorenne?”
“And, what of it?”
“That would be dangerous, Your Excellency. As I mentioned, it will only give King Louis and his faction a sense of crisis, it would just offer them the push—”
“What do you know, boy! You have never stood on the front lines! I was the main fighting force behind the First Prince’s faction! I was the one fighting on the forefront, the one who won the most victories, the one our enemies fear the most! And then, some incompetent pig calling himself a Duke mismanaged the war and let both the Prince and the nobles astray!”
Madness and rage swirled In his fiery gaze–
“If I had led them, this Civil War would have ended in our victory long ago! The one thing holding me back from taking command was my bloodline!”
In its wake, the long-accumulated resentment and lust for power burned.
What made him become this depraved?
The very place he stands now is the one he stole from my mother.
“If that’s so, you believe that by supporting the Princess, the arrogant Duke Lorenne, and those snooty high nobles will bow down to you? No, they won’t. This will only sow more discord. Surely you don’t believe that marrying a half-blood princess will solve all issues of authority—”
“You! You worthless worm! How dare you think you can lecture me! I built up the Lafayette name by myself! A parasite like you who simply munches on my feats–! When I marry the Princess and ascend to the throne, I will take every privilege of an heir you may have and choose another of my children as my heir!”
“Do as you wish, Your Excellency.”
“I–What?”
“I said. Do. As. You. Wish.”
The vassals and retainers who had been frightened by the Marquis’s anger now looked at me with their mouths agape.
Even the Marquis, who had been raging mere seconds ago looked shocked as I naturally curled the corners of my mouth.
“But would that be wise, Your Excellency?”
Even after my mother’s death, the Marquis didn’t take another wife.
Was it out of love for my mother? No, this man enjoyed the presence of countless concubines and never bothered to hide them.
He was utterly ashamed of his son, for losing to a commoner in a Knight’s tournament. He was so concerned with his lost honor that he even imprisoned the Knight who won against me in our domain.
Nevertheless, he still appointed me as the Acting Lord. Was it because he discovered his lost love for his son? Or because I was the only heir?
He could have simply taken another wife and sired a more favorable heir.
“This land was part of the Earldom long before it belonged to the Marquis, it dates back to when this place was still called the Toulouse Earldom.”
Everything he owned. This land was originally left to my mother by my maternal grandfather.
The loyalty of the vassals, including Baron Domont, is not towards my father but towards the Earl of Toulouse, which has been passed down from my ancestors.
“And now, with my mother gone, I am the Earl of Toulouse, Your Excellency.”
Without me, he is just a Knight with the fancy and empty title of a Marquis.
That’s why, even though he regards me as worthless, he could never cast me aside.
Before my regression, during the times he was in the domain, I was too young and too afraid to even grasp this simple truth. By the time I realized this, the Marquis had already died of the Plague.
The great ‘Blue Knight’ Hubert De Lafayette. A man so obsessed with greatness and power that he commands the inclusion of his title as the great ‘Blue Knight’ when referred to.
A man who only remembers the frustration and discrimination due to his humble origins.
But a man who forgets what he has received.
“Your Excellency’s foundation was built by my maternal grandfather, Xavier De Toulouse, and lent to you by my mother. Your lofty reputation is also built on top of the blood of the Toulouse soldiers.”
The man, who claims to have achieved everything he had, through his might and sword, but actually, had only obtained the title of ‘Blue Knight’ and the title of Marquis.
A title higher than a Count but lower than a Duke, an ambiguous honor without a single land attached to it.
Even the highest honor conceded to him, is just a nickname given to a Knight.
So for him, installing a puppet princess as the Queen and becoming the King himself must seem like a heaven-sent opportunity to make up for his inferiority complex.
“You, you dare threaten me now?”
The Marquis’s eyes bulged in rage, and he seemed ready to draw his sword at any moment.
“I was merely listing some facts, Your Excellency. Moreover……I highly doubt that you would be able to conduct the war as it is without me. Baron Domont?”
“Ah, Yes? Oh, Yes.”
Baron Domont, who until now had been sitting with a dumbfounded expression on his face, hurriedly stood up and handed some documents to the Marquis.
As the Marquis twirled his mustache and looked over the documents, I calmly opened my mouth.
“The report on last year’s taxes for the Marquisate, or rather, the Earldom of Toulouse. You may not be aware, but it falls drastically short of the military funds you demanded.”
Until now, he was content to simply bark orders at me, the Acting Lord. If the domain’s tax income was insufficient, then it was my responsibility to raid and pillage villages to make up for it.
“The plague has spread, and now the main battlefield has moved south, you will have to worry about the reduced income from the neighboring domains, instead of plundering them. Even if you want to put the Princess on the Throne, do you think you have the military funds to do it?”
By the Marquis’s look, he seemed ready to charge at me.
But no matter how much he rages, he’s the one who has been sucking the life out of this land while he maintained his luxuries on the frontline.
He’s the one who ended up breaking the engagement with the Aquitaine family simply to take their money in compensation.
“And what about you?”
Taking out the documents I had prepared I handed them to a servant.
As the Marquis received the documents from the servant, his eyes widened and he began to tremble.
“How dare you embezzle money from my domain?!”
“You misunderstand, Your Excellency. Baron Domont, who has been overseeing the domain administration, will attest to it. After all, how could such funds come about from the struggling income of the domain, when we had to send you your military funds as well?”
The Marquis turned his head and glared at Baron Domont, who flinched but nodded in agreement to my words.
“The Earl is correct, Your Excellency. You can even verify this yourself by looking through the domain’s financial records.”
What the Marquis held was a deposit certificate from a bank operated by the Aquitaine family.
Those were the funds I had left after borrowing money from Christine to buy a large amount of raw materials, and then selling it to the Abyss Corporation after their industrial revolution.
I gave some of that money to Christine, who managed the army, but even then, there still remained a tremendous amount.
And he says I embezzled money?
At this point, I would praise even those damned Demons from the Abyss Corporation.
“If your Excellency insists on ignoring my rightful claim as the Earl of Toulouse, and try to control the matters pertinent to the domain’s administration, then I shall renounce my name, De Lafayette, and leave the estate.”
“What nonsense are you spouting now, boy!?”
“After this, I will go to King Louis and ask him to restore my rights, perhaps I’ll even offer him that money as a gift. I’m sure those who are impoverished and desperate because of this Civil War will find my proposal quite enticing.”
I highly doubt the Marquis will be able to properly manage his vassals and retainers after disposing of me.
“Y-you, you…You……”
Ah, I think he’s about to pop a vessel at this point.
But that would be problematic. As entitled and consumed by jealousy and lust for power as he is, his abilities are still worthy of being called the strongest Knight in the Kingdom.
It would be rather tragic if someone who should be charging at the enemy lines died of stress.
“Of course, since I’m a Lafayette myself, I would be rather reluctant to act on such acts of filial impiety.”
Extending my hand to the Marquis, who shook it, trying to convey all his rage through it as he seemed ready to kill his only son.
“Therefore, Your Excellency, the great ‘Blue Knight’ Hubert De Lafayette. Please give up your useless contests of honor and let Duke Lorenne bear all the hatred of our enemies.”
This way, the revolutionaries’ hatred will also fall upon him while we could simply switch sides at the opportune moment.
“Should you do as such, I, Pierre De Lafayette, Earl of Toulouse, shall fulfill my allegiance as your ally, providing financial and military support. Of course, since we are allies, Your Excellency will have to show me proper respect as well.”
Otherwise, I’ll take your hollow title of Marquis and leave you to wage war by yourself, while trying to appease your vassals who would have lost every reason to remain loyal.
TL note: Damn mah man Pierre was cold as fuck on dis chapter, Hes almost reaching Ferzen lvs of chadness.
Hehehehehehehe.
Also also, a real TL note here, In Korean the world 백작 can be translated either as Count or as Earl. Blame English lmao, so I made the choice to put the Toulouse rank as Earl, because we already have an absurd amount of Counts in this novel, and both Count and Earl are basically the same thing.
