༺ I Don’t Need a Guillotine for My Revolution ༻
Written by – 카르카손
Translated by – Mara Sov
༺ Dawn of a New Epoch ༻
The morale that seemed sky-high after the defeat of the Blue Knight was utterly shattered by the shocking sigh of D’Artagnan’s body being disintegrated in front of everyone.
The armies carrying the banners of Duke Bretagne and Count Millbeau began charging toward the rear of King Louis’s forces at Lafayette’s Heir’s command.
“Charge! Chargeeeee—!”
With Sir Gaston’s shout, Knights and cavalry rushed forward as cannons stationed in the back began artillery fire, throwing the exhausted Royal Army into chaos.
“W-what? We are being attacked from the rear! Weren’t they allies?!”
Seeing the banners of Duke Bretagne and Count Millbeau, the Royal army naturally assumed that those forces were reinforcements, and this mistake proved to be fatal.
With the enemy’s morale shaken by the late Blue Knight’s charge, and by D’Artagnan’s death the arrival of those new enemies was the final straw for the Royal Army.
“Duke Bretagne has betrayed us!”
“What?!”
Before the King and his officials could react, the misunderstanding that their supposed reinforcements betrayed them spread through the army.
Even the sergeants, who were trying their all to salvage this situation by shouting orders at the top of their lungs, were killed one by one as the Lafayette’s Heir arrows fell upon them, cementing the chaos in the Royal Army.
“The Young Master has come to our aid! Give them steel lads—!”
“Long live Lafayette—!”
“Charge! Revenge for the Blue Knight—!”
While one army was living a nightmare, the other couldn’t be more relieved as the appearance of their Young Master killing D’Artagnan, the Blue Knight’s murderer and the arrival of reinforcements was akin to a miracle in their time of need.
“By Count Anjou’s command, we have come forward to repay our debt towards the Lafayette Heir!
From this moment forward, the forces of Anjou will fight with Lafayette!”
The arrival of Count Anjou’s forces finally shattered the morale of the Royal Army.
“What in the world is happening–? My army! My Knights! My guard captain…..!”
King Louis babbled in sheer disbelief, but with the Royal Guard and most officers killed the army’s state was already irredeemable.
“Your Majesty! The enemy forces will soon reach us! You must escape!”
“Escape, you say?”
When King Louis departed from the Capital Lumiere with a grand army of 20.000 soldiers and countless Knights he was certain of his victory.
Although the Blue Knight’s presence was a concerning factor, he was sure of victory once he was dealt with. That’s why the King couldn’t comprehend a scenario where defeat was still a threat even after the Blue Knight’s death.
“W-We Lost?”
“I’m sorry, Your Majesty. But this battle is already beyond saving.”
King Louis directed his trembling gaze at the battlefield where the corpses of his Knights bodies were.
Then, he glanced towards his army, plunged in confusion and chaos.
“We retreat to the Capital.”
Deep within he knew. King Louis knew that he would never lead such a force again.
A grand army, composed of 20.000 soldiers and hundreds of Knights……
King Louis uttered those words with a voice filled with despair as he looked at the enemy soldiers swarming in, discarding the fake banners of Bretagne and Millbeau with the proud banner of Lafayette.
This cursed banner, the symbol of Lafayette, the Roaring Lion, was seared in the King’s mind.
“It’s all their fault……Lafayette! If it were not for them I would….! I would have—-!”
“Secure his Majesty! We must hurry!”
The Royal procession barely escaped from the battlefield.
However, the majority of the troops were left behind, and upon witnessing this scene, their will to fight was lost.
—
The setting sun casts a bloody hue over the plains where the battle was fought.
Countless soldiers of the Royal Army lost their lives, and a great number of prisoners were made.
Our troops also suffered heavy casualties.
I slowly supported my horse along the battlefield.
A dense path was cleared through the mountain of corpses, and the only places devoid of destruction were the places the Marquis didn’t pass through.
Reaching the encampment atop the hill, following the path filled with hundreds of corpses, I dismounted my horse at the sight of Knight bodies pilled, and walked through the blood-soaked path filled with mutilated bodies and severed limbs.
All around me were the weapons the Marquis had swung and thrown as well the bodies they had pierced, painting a vivid scene of the battle that occurred here.
Just by seeing all of this, one could tell how fiercely the Marquis fought.
Walking over the hill, I finally found a distinct set of armor, now painted red by the blood of his foes.
The headless corpse of the Marquis lay belly up to the sky.
As I stared at his corpse in silence, a familiar Knight came over to me.
Before my regression, this was the Knight who guided me through the Marquis’s camp. He had a bloody bandage over one of his eyes.
Even with a single glance, I could see that he was severely injured, but despite his wounds, he persisted and knelt to me as he presented a familiar helmet, with the owner’s head.
He held the helmet as if it was a sacred relic.
“I’m sorry, Young Master. I have failed my duty and oath to stand by the Marquis’s side until the end.”
Maintaining my silence, I took off the helmet from his hands and opened my mouth.
“What’s your name, Knight?”
“Daniel Martin……My Lord.”
His face conveyed his sincere regret.
I had defeated Duke Bretagne and hurried here as fast as I could because I knew that our forces at the main battlefield were at a severe disadvantage.
If I had been just a little faster, or had the Marquis fought just a little more safely.
The flow of battle would have tilted toward the King, and even with my arrival, we may have been defeated.
Looking at the Marquis helmet in my hands, I slowly lifted the visor of the helmet.
The Marquis’s face was smiling.
Seeing this, I closed my eyes for a moment.
I wonder if this man, who died by the plague in my past life, was satisfied with his death this time.
“……Since the former Marquis has fallen in battle…This means that…..You’re now the Marquis of Lafayette, My Lord.”
I opened my eyes as the voice from the Knight who served my father reached my ears once again.
“We wish to prepare his Grace’s body and transport it to the Marquisate……”
It occurred to me that, knowing him, he might have wanted to be buried on this battlefield.
But the answer that came from me was different.
“Good. Proceed with the burial arrangements.”
“And what about his armor, Your Excellency……”
Although his head was severed, the armor was a symbol of Lafayette and it had its value.
At the same time, should I don his armor would mean that I, his son, would succeed his title as the Blue Knight.
Turning my head towards the battlefield, I looked towards the numerous piles of bodies left in his wake.
Cutting through ten thousand soldiers, killing hundreds of Knights in his charge……The Absurd feats of the Marquis would serve as legends told for ages to come.
And from what I could see from……Daniel Martin,
The man whose name I didn’t even know before my regression, who was a Knight himself, harbored more anger towards the fact that the Marquis had fallen that relief for his own survival.
But at least for their self-satisfaction, those who fought the Marquis were turned into mutilated corpses.
The Marquis of Lafayette, the great ‘Blue Knight’ Hubert De Lafayette. The last battle of this Kingdom’s strongest Knight has become a legend.
In this legend, the death of those who blindly charged at him will be regarded as mere footnotes to the Hero’s tale.
“……Bury the armor with him.”
“I head and obey, Your Excellency.”
After closing the helmet’s visor and handing it over to Sir Daniel for the burial process, I turned my gaze toward the tent that once served as the Royal Army command center.
There, the soldiers and retainers of Lafayette all looked at me and knelt down.
Before my regression, when the Marquis died from the plague and I succeeded him, I was just a young man, unprepared to take on such a burden.
Having learned the truth about the Earl of Toulouse only after his death and now tasked with fighting the civil war in his place and later the Revolutionaries, I naturally harbored a fair share of resentment towards him.
“Those who stand under the banner of Lafayette.”
At that time, neither I nor those soldiers knew what we were fighting for.
“The battle that took place today will be spoken of for generations to come, and from today onwards the legend of the Great Blue Knight will be eternal! He may have fallen today, but no one will dare to deny this wasn’t an honorable death for the greatest knight that has ever lived!”
Back then, I had neither the time nor the leisure to understand the value of the sacrifices made under my command.
“However, before I praise the greatness of his tale, I wish to express my respect and gratitude to all of you and those who have fallen on this day. It’s none other than your blood, sweat, and tears that paved the way to victory today.”
I have never given much thought as to why the Revolutionaries harbored such a deep hate for the nobility, or how we might avoid conflict with them.
My main priority had always been survival, focusing only on what lay before me, and this led me towards a senseless death.
But I condemned not just me, but those who also followed me to this fate.
“Today, you fought under the banner of Lafayette, and with this, this marks the end of an era. The era of Lafayette has come to an end.”
For what did those people fight and die today? For the glory of Lafayette? Or for loyalty to an already dead Prince?
Did they even know why? Did they take pride in fighting and dying alongside the Marquis in this legendary battle?
I would never be able to praise those countless sacrifices made to contribute to the feats of a single man.
“Now, we stand at the dawn of a new era for Lafayette, my friends.”
It’s an undeniable fact, even for me, that Hubert De Lafayette, the great ‘Blue Knight’ was the greatest Knight of Francia.
I would never surpass him as a Knight.
Nor do I want to.
If God or whatever entity sent me back, it was certainly not for this purpose.
“I will not lead all of you towards the battlefield for the sake of my honor. For the honor of Lafayette belongs to every one of you who stands by this flag! As long as you follow me, I swear that no one shall ever doubt your worth!”
I glanced at those whose loyalty dated back to the old Earldom of Toulouse.
I etched the faces of those who charged into this hopeless battle and shed their blood without a single reward, just because their lord ordered them.
Walking towards the banner of Lafayette, I grabbed it and raised it high.
This time, I would atone for the weight of their lives that I should have carried but failed to.
“Now I, The Marquis of Lafayette, shall carry this flag for you all! Follow me! And in doing so you’ll become part of Lafayette’s honor!”
“We pledge our alliance to His Excellency the Marquis of Lafayette!”
The retainers and soldiers all bowed their heads and spoke in unison, their voices echoing around the battlefield as I turned my back on the corpse of the late Marquis.
The hero of the old regime, the Blue Knight, is dead.
The Royal Army collapsed as they lost all their Knights and most of their soldiers, marking the end of an era.
The flames of revolution will now consume this Kingdom, plunging Francia into chaos.
In my past life, I was swept away by that fire, without knowing anything, and by the time I had realized the direness of the situation, not only me and my people but Francia itself was consumed by the madness of revolution.
But this time, I won’t allow them to be sacrificed with the old regime.
We won’t be the victims of this movement, but it’s leaders who will sweep away the roots of this corrupt regime.
This cursed kingdom must die before everyone falls victim to its madness.
TL Note: And that ladies and gentlemen how you finish one arc of a novel.
Bruh this shit was very good.
Also, Also, Next chappies will gun begin em Revolutionary Period bitches! Hell Yeah!
VIVA LA FRANCE
VIVA LA REVU….I forgot how to write revolution in baguette language.
