How many people have looked up at that back.
How many people have longed to be like him one day.
At this moment.
He stands here.
"Himmelning Heinzwom."
The queen spoke, with a slight trembling voice, and repeated the name in the great swordsman's mouth.
This is a somewhat difficult name to pronounce.
It can be seen from the pronunciation structure that it is Suomir's "son of so-and-so". But excluding those who paid tribute to him in later generations, names like Hymir are not traditional Suomir male names.
Now that it is 1530 in the Raman New Calendar, everything related to it has been buried under a thick layer of dust.
Time fades everything.
What is so ironic is that in Suomir today, there is the last small group of people who still react to this taboo.
As fate would have it, they all gathered here at exactly this moment.
The ghosts who return during the Ghost Festival in August. The queen turned her head blankly and looked at Archbishop Roman next to her: "Are you hallucinating because of this ghost festival?"
"Why, why here."
"There will be people who died two hundred years ago." She started, asking a question that she might not be ready to answer.
And she wasn't the only one present who was shaken.
"Why are you - but, our sin, but -" The great swordsman Haimir who was kneeling on the ground became incoherent, as if his faith collapsed. He could not believe that the figure he had been chasing after was standing at this moment. On the opposite side.
"Don't make any mistake, I said before, I don't take sides." Henry said, and Hymir was stunned for a moment, while the great swordsman and the dragon-winged knights behind him started arguing again because of the end of the fight.
Cynicism and personal attacks alternated, and just when it seemed that a new round of bloody conflict was about to begin - the sage lowered the tip of Kramer's sword.
He turned around and looked at the Queen.
The sage's behavior, which had attracted the attention of everyone present, made other people look at her.
The Queen stared blankly at Henry, looking at the man with the same color eyes as her son and granddaughter.
"——Sin." In the words spoken by the great swordsman Haimir, this word was deeply imprinted in her heart.
"Are you here to take revenge on us?" "Grandma -" "Your Majesty -" The worried voices of Princess Lola and Bishop Roman rang out, while the Queen walked towards Henry step by step, using a tone of despair. He opened his mouth and said, "Come to this ungrateful country and to those who have committed sins."
She knew what that sin was.
The name Hemelning Heinzwom is an extremely taboo for the royal family, and it is an unknown darkness in the history of Suomir. Even as a queen, she shouldn't have known this name.
This is history that should be erased, sealed up, forgotten, and buried under thick dust.
Suomir's royal family spent two hundred years burying him.
Because of the obstruction of the great swordsmen, all this was almost not possible.
The first few generations tried to solve the problem by burning books and brainwashing education, which was successful in most areas. But because the great swordsmen are rooted in the people, the more they press, the more the opponent will stick to it, hoping that one day it can be used as a trump card against the royal family.
The entire country showed faint signs of division in such a struggle. The situation was so bad that the church, which initially stood with the royal family, felt that the trend was wrong and left, shifting its focus to the booming Padrosi Empire next door. middle.
The final solution to the problem was King Niels I of Suomir who came to the throne in 1399. He summarized the mistakes of his predecessors and learned the lessons according to the story of a certain hero who successfully controlled the flood in the Laman fables of the classical era. It has changed the practice of blindly containing hostility, which will only further arouse the resistance of the great swordsmen who are based among the people, causing the country to be in danger of splitting. Grooming communication was adopted.
He affirmed the privileged status of the great swordsmen and established the organization "Great Swordsmen Directly Affiliated to the Royal Family to Protect the Country." Giving them the power to collect taxes, command armies, and even enact local laws, they used retreat to advance, and promised the great swordsmen autonomy to gain their loyalty.
This approach directly attacks the weakness in the hearts of the great swordsmen.
Over the decades, they took root in Suomir. Those young people who were originally alone became fathers and husbands. After having families, they began to fear losing them. As a third-party force in the civil war, the Great Swordsman still has a legitimate reputation. If he can get a real home and be recognized by the royal family, naturally no one will want to continue to shed blood and sacrifice.
thus.
Many years after the birth of the great sword Claymer, after many vicissitudes of life and tempering, it finally became the sword of the Suomir royal family.
This sense of identity was a treasure that the great swordsmen at that time were eager to acquire, but they invariably avoided talking about the price behind it.
The name Hemelning Heinzwom was given after the great swordsman was surrendered by the royal family.
No one mentioned it again.
Of course, and as expected.
As someone once said.
"forgotten"
This is an indelible sin.
The royal family and the church joined forces to kill him for the first time; then the royal family joined forces with the great swordsmen to kill him who was still living in the hearts of the people.
Even Her Majesty the Queen learned all this from a documentary novel written by a certain scribe that collected many Suomir folklore. As a result, she expanded her interest and after several investigations, she learned about the dark history of her royal family.
A royal family that turned its back on the heroes who had saved this country;
The great swordsman who turned his back on the founder of the organization and who they once followed.
It is true that they can find countless reasons to excuse themselves, but these unreasonable self-hypnosis can still work at other times, when he appears there like this, as if he walked directly out of the story, holding the useless knife. The unstoppable Kramer.
Everything shattered like a clay pot that fell to the ground.
Suomir is ashamed of this man, the great swordsmen are ashamed of this man, and the royal family is ashamed of this man.
But Dragon Wing Knight is not like that.
"So are you all cowarded? Because you lost to a mercenary? If we had known this, why would we have taken action personally." I don't know if you can't read the atmosphere or you may mistakenly interpret the guilt of the great swordsmen as withdrawal, the knight's adjutant Sig mocked arrogantly.
He still wanted to start a fight, which was what his training had taught him to do. Fight and defeat your enemies, domestic and foreign. Defend the Queen, defend Suomir, defend the Dragon Wing Knights.
The great swordsmen turned their hostility towards him, and the dragon-winged knights took up their weapons again. The pale Manisto stopped the bleeding and pushed away the person supporting him, reluctantly but still standing.
He looked at the Queen, then at Henry, and finally at the great swordsmen - he was thinking about how to use this opportunity to escape with the Queen, although the name Hemelning Heinzwom did also give He caused some shock, but this guy is a problem that can be put on hold.
Immortal? Nothing is truly immortal. You can eventually find a way to kill him - Manisto thought this way and cast a "don't worry, I will solve everything" look at the Queen.
The queen noticed his look, but still turned her attention to Henry.
She stood very close in front of him, with only gray-blue eyes on her face that had never aged since she was in her twenties, filled with the light of wisdom accumulated over time.
She felt a little envious for a moment, but immediately felt that everything about her thoughts was being seen through in front of these eyes, and she was a little panicked.
"What on earth are you thinking about-" Henry did not answer the Queen's previous question, nor did he answer her follow-up question. Her heart was beating loudly, and she thought of the fables she had read when she was a child, in which humans felt at a loss when standing in front of beings who were far more intelligent than themselves.
That's probably what it feels like.
This is a living legend.
"Aurora's Nightmare" they once called that person, their tone always full of pride. Because this nightmare was inflicted on the Imperial people by the Suomir people.
But when they turned their backs on him, the nightmare seemed to befall the Suomir royal family as well.
The war in neighboring Padrosi eventually became fertile ground for all vitality. The moths existing among the aristocracy were consumed by civil strife, and the most powerful ones were uprooted by the new emperor Clovis I. This gave the merchant class an opportunity to rise, and Padrosi became a powerful business empire.
The people of the destroyed southern town of Parnilla fled to the port that had only existed as a military fortress, giving it the name of their hometown, and eventually flourished with the east wind of commerce. They exchanged with the dwarves and the Absera people in the south to obtain high-quality iron ore, forging skills, and horses. The wealth brought by the excellent maritime trade made the port bigger and bigger.
At the same time, the Suomir people were obsessed with the dream that one or two technical superiorities of the kingdom would never be surpassed. When they finally came to their senses, they had been thrown a long way away.
On the way to catch up, the royal family encountered obstacles from within. The great swordsmen, who were worried that the introduction of Laman cultural shock would threaten their status, eventually launched various bloodless power struggles with the royal family. The royal family finally succeeded in weakening and expelling the Great Swordsman in the Queen's generation, but its power was also completely evacuated due to internal friction.
Although the Suomir royal family, which had cut off its fangs, urgently established the Dragon Wing Knights, the major nobles in the kingdom no longer bought into their account. The real power of the royal family in Suomir was limited to the Heinzwom Meteor Star. In the palace by the lake. It can be regarded as a continuation of the "nightmare" or the "curse".
She actually knows all this.
The ministers and dragon-winged knights regard her as a naive monarch, admittedly, because she has not really taken over politics, some of her actions do seem to lack consideration.
But Her Majesty is not a complete fool.
Her so-called impulsive move was actually because she wanted to escape from the birdcage where she was imprisoned by the nobles headed by the prime minister who claimed to be in her best interest and thus controlled power everywhere.
But is this all the end of it?
"Are you here to take revenge? This country is ungrateful." She asked Henry for the second time.
The great swordsmen and dragon-winged knights who were arguing fell silent. The great swordsmen looked at Henry and the Queen with complicated expressions. Most of them felt the same guilt.
Manisto frowned. He was aware of the Queen's uneasiness. He had received no response from his previous expressions with his eyes, so he chose to speak and express his confidence this time: "Your Majesty, I will fight to the death later -" "Please be quiet, Manisto." Sir!" But the queen, who had always spoken softly, uncharacteristically interrupted the leader of Longyi, which made the pale man and the adjutant Sig next to him freeze in place.
"I am not a delicate flower that needs your careful care."
"The lily of the valley in Suomir is a flower that grows in the mountains."
"In contrast to the severe cold in the north, it is not an exotic thing grown up in a greenhouse!"
"Your Majesty..." Not only the dragon-winged knights, but also the great swordsmen and Archbishop Roman looked at her blankly.
The Luoan girl, who did not understand Suomir, whispered and approached Galeva and asked him to translate.
It was only at this moment that Henry's expression finally changed a little.
He smiled.
"..." The queen blushed. She had always tolerated these people making decisions for her without authorization. She finally broke out today. It must have been related to this dramatic scene.
"That's how it should be." The sage spoke in a calm tone.
But these words, which were not spoken harshly, were like a thousand kilogram boulder dropped from the castle.
"Ah -" The queen was speechless. She clearly wanted to say something, but she felt like her throat was blocked by something.
"Ah - ah -" she recalled all of this.
Time seemed to go back many, many years ago. When she was a young girl, she first came into contact with "Haimierning Heinzwom" in the prison that existed in the name of protection from that time to this day. The emotions that arise when telling a story.
Peeling off the layers of guilt she felt because of the sins committed by her royal family, in the deepest part of her heart, she initially had the impulse to find all the information related to this story, the most primitive emotion.
It has not disappeared yet, it is just the emotion that has been wrapped up in layers and buried in the deepest part——
It's longing.
The agreement made between the knight and the girl.
Even if he is the enemy of the whole world, he must carry it out to the end.
That man's longing.
If anyone could hold my hand——
The ending of the book is still fresh in her memory, even though later evidence shows that much of it was made up by the author. But she still couldn't erase the initial touch it brought to her.
【......The white tower with the bronze bell.
Dark green forest.
Under the bright sunshine was the snow-capped land, and the knight in the bright red cloak walked towards the white dragon.
Make a pact with it.
Give men courage;
give hope to mankind;
Give humanity a future;
In the name of humanity, he said.
I raise this sword to cut through an indomitable future.
In the name of humanity, he said.
The knight shouted the name of the sword.
The name of his sword——
Kramer. 】
She suddenly understood why the girl before had no worries at all.
What a shallow and ridiculous fallacy that was. I thought she was heartless and unreasonable, so I didn't worry about her.
No, when she looked directly into the shining eyes of the young girl with white hair, she understood.
Those eyes were always looking at his back, just like so many people had looked up to him in the past years and many, many years ago.
Faintly, the bright red cloak seemed to be fluttering behind his back again.
When reading that period of history in the past, the Queen once thought that the tiny Suomir was able to stand up and compete with Padrosi's army, which was "a miracle led by a hero."
She doesn't deny this now, but she has a new interpretation.
Yes, indeed.
If it is such a person, if it is him.
If it were this person, if this person was holding Claymore in his hand and moving forward indomitably, he would stand at the most conspicuous place on the front line and shout to move forward.
Then, look up at the people on the back.
You will definitely feel your blood boiling.
Kramer is the national sword of Suomir.
Because it is supposed to be the cohesion of the spirit of the people of this country.
If the Padrosi people have the best tolerance in the world, then what the Suomir people should have is the endurance cultivated in this ice and snow.
and the courage to move forward.
But once upon a time, I forgot all this.
"That's how it should be." Henry's words were like an ice-breaking hammer in the hands of an ice transporter who went deep into the northern lakes of Aurora in the summer, severely shattering all the pretense of self-deception.
"I should be the queen of Suomir."
"And not the queen of the Lamanites."
"If we only follow the practices of the Lamanites, perhaps Suomir can indeed become a commercially developed country. With the kingdom's excellent mineral resources, it is not surprising that we will be among the powerful countries."
"But in that case, will this country still be Suomir?"
"Paderosi is just a person groping on the road of reform. Directly copying all their actions will bring about the kingdom. Will the children of the future not even remember this awkward mother tongue? What they say is only the popular and expressive in Lamani.”
"I was wrong." The queen looked serious and bowed deeply to the great swordsmen with sharp movements.
"Your Majesty..." Haimir, who was still kneeling on the ground sweating profusely, looked at her blankly, then looked blankly at Henry in front of him, and then turned back.
The great swordsmen behind them all lowered their weapons.
Many people's hands were shaking.
Not out of fear, but out of excitement.
The Suomir people have square heads.
Once you go down a path, you can never go back.
The great swordsman who sticks to tradition, and the dragon-winged knight who overthrows them all.
Either approach is too extreme.
She should do better, she should lead them and choose a path out of all the confusion.
Because she is the king of this country.
"..." Manisto noticed the change in things. Something in Her Majesty the Queen, who has always been regarded as a mascot by them and has no real power, has awakened. Their transgression is finally coming to an end today.
He began to feel a little uneasy, still out of distrust of the Queen he served.
But he still had some consciousness of being a minister, so he just remained silent and said nothing.
"This will be a road full of thorns." Henry lowered his head and looked down at Queen Suomir, who was already quite old, and said the words he had said to another woman many, many years ago.
"But in this world." Then he added this sentence himself: "There is never an easy road."
"Are you... back?" the Queen asked Henry.
"No." He just shook his head and smiled softly.
"Can not go back."
"It's time for us to exit." The loneliness in Henry's expression only lasted for a moment. He tilted his head, held Kramer's eyes in one hand and said to Mira and Galeva.
"Wait a moment, Lord Haimirning-" The voice of the great swordsman Haimir sounded behind him, and he got up and rushed towards this side. "Bah-" Henry stopped.
The great swordsman with a ponytail was panting heavily, and he still had not fully recovered from the previous intense physical exertion.
"You -" "Hemelning Heinzwom died many, many years ago." Henry said in a calm tone, with no fluctuation in his gray-blue eyes.
"The person you should follow is over there, right?"
"It doesn't matter if it's twenty years late."
"Just do it."
"It's okay to fall."
"Just get up and you'll be fine."
"As someone told me a long time ago, if there are no roads, just make your own."
"Cut the thorns with a sword, but maybe that sword doesn't have to be Claymore?" Henry turned back and smiled at him.
"You..." He stopped where he was, and Mira and Galeva both turned back and glanced at the young man when they passed Hemir.
They led the horses and continued to leave in the north direction, but he stopped where he was. After a moment of silence, he suddenly shouted loudly.
"Everyone stands still——"
The great swordsmen changed their stance.
"salute--"
Then they all paid their respects with the ancient etiquette that no longer exists in this era.
Henry drove his horse forward without looking back, and the military salutes of the great swordsmen continued until he disappeared at the end of the road.
"I'm confused. You'd better explain it to me later." The Luoan girl said angrily, and Galeva nodded in the same way.
"I know, I know." The sage shrugged.
