Chapter 292: The Past (2)

‘Then is the pope Latio the mastermind? Or the other priests and high priests? If not, perhaps one of the believers?’

Roan Lancephil gave a frown. There was a great lack of information, but there was nothing that could be done as the memories of the Tempestas flowed without a stop. Standing still, Roan focused on listening to Pierce and Katy’s conversation.

“The method to defeat the Tallian Church… You’re talking about the Grand Commander’s Baton right?”

Pierce replied and took the baton out from his waist. Seeing the golden Tempestas flash, Katy gave a slow nod.

“It’s because of this Tempestas on the end of the baton that the Middle World had been ruined.”

An angry voice, but on her face was a strange sense of hope.

“But this Tempestas can also save the Middle World.”

Pierce gave a nod.

“We didn’t know it would be possible to control the time and space with a gem like this.”

A bitter smile hung on his lips.

“If we had discovered that earlier…”

Guilt flowed out from his eyes but hugging Pierce’s head, Katy shook her head.

“It’s not late yet. Time and space cannot bind Tempestas anyway.”

Her face surfaced a heavy light of hope, but,

“Cough, cough!”

With deep coughs, Katy trembled her body and every time she did, black blobs of blood left her mouth.

“Katy!”

Pierce quickly sent mana into Katy’s body with a start but unfortunately, it had no effect.

“Cough, cough.”

Katy could not stop her coughs for a long time.

“Mhmm.”

In the end, she closed her eyes and fell on the bed top.

“Haa. Haa.”

Her breath was light and frequent, as if she could stop breathing any time.

“Katy, if you’re not here, I…”

Pierce once again let tears flow out. This time, it wasn’t because of powerlessness or guilt but the despair and deep sorrow of having to let go of his loved one. Barely opening her eyes, Katy forced a smile towards Pierce.

“R, really cruel curse. Right?”

Hearing that, Roan made a frown.

‘A curse? She was cursed?’

It was startling that there was a strong curse that even the current strongest, and someone who was considered one of the strongest even throughout history could do nothing about.

‘It’s not a curse of the sorcerers.’

Although he was only seeing it through the memories of Tempestas, Katy’s eyes or aura had no signs of sorcery nor any of its symptoms.

“Sorry. I can’t do anything for you…”

Pierce grabbed tightly onto Katy’s hand. The black blood wet his hands as Katy shook her head.

“Now, please stand up not for me but everyone else. If it’s you, you can do it.”

Her eyes were filled with a sad light.

“The one and only true emperor who was supposed to have unified the continent, someone who should’ve been the great monarch, your friend…”

Katy’s voice trembled towards the end.

“Wake the First Emperor, Roan de Amaranth up.”

Kung.

Roan once again received great shock.

‘The only emperor who unified the continent? Great monarch? The First Emperor Roan de Amaranth?’

He felt like his head was being torn into pieces. Of course, he had heard from Kalian that it wasn’t his first time becoming a monarch. However, he had never thought that he would be the first emperor to have unified the continent, and besides,

‘Amaranth?’

It was surprising that he had been using the name Amaranth back then as well.

“If it’s the First Emperor, he will be able to block that evil, disgusting guy for sure and save the Middle World. If it’s him…”

When her words reached that point,

“Cough! Cough!”

Another round of coughs began.

“Katy…”

Pierce once again tried to flow his mana in but Katy shook her head with a forced smile.

“It’s fine. I’m okay so save your mana.”

She faced her two eyes directly at Pierce.

“You have always talked about him.”

Her voice was so soft and powerless.

“Even when he had lost his life as the lowest spearman in the war, you said he isn’t someone who would die like that, and that he would do greater things for sure.”

Pierce silently nodded his head.

“Right I did. He, Roan, was not a person who should’ve died like that.”

He heaved out a deep sigh.

“If I had cared a bit more about it, he would’ve been able to achieve greater things for sure…”

Katy shook her head in response.

“It wouldn’t have made a difference. Those guys wouldn’t have just watched that person be victorious without doing anything.”
“Huu.”

Pierce once again let out a deep sigh. It was impossible to deny those words, as there indeed were too many situations where it had gone different to his own commands and orders.

“When he marched to a strange place different to my orders and carried out tasks at weird places, I just thought it was because of some mistakes in the ordering system but…”

In hindsight, all that must’ve been the work of those bastards.

“Such a thing…”

Even Roan who had been silently listening made an extremely surprised expression. He did think that things were going too rough compared to the efforts he had put in. Every higher-up he met would steal his achievements and with reasons that made no sense, he was either lowered down or sent away.

It could be called a miracle to be able to rise up to the position of a Squad Leader of the Elite Force, the 1st Spear Corps, despite all that.

‘The last battle – that was a command, hard to comprehend as well.’

Thanks to that, he had taken a steel blade to the heart and lost his life.

‘All that had been because of someone playing tricks…’

It was then,

“Cough!”

Katy let out a large cough and along with that cough, a black blob of blood came out once again. Her face that had already been pale without even a faint hint of red turned blue. It was finally time for her to bid farewell to the world and Pierce.

“Cough. S, sorry, for leaving first. Leaving you behind in this hell… I’m really sorry.”

Her passionate feelings could be felt.

“Katy.”

Pierce held onto Katy’s hand, as if he would never let her go. Katy caressed Pierce’s face once before slowly closing her eyes.

“Wake that person up…”

Her voice was very soft,

“And save…”

And yet there was a deep desire embedded into it.

“The world.”

Those were the last words she left behind in this world.

“Katy!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Shooting his head back, Pierce gave out a roar. He knew she was going to die. He also knew that there was no way to survive after being hit by that curse. For days and dozens of days, he had steeled his heart but in front of Katy’s death, all that preparation had been pointless.

“Uuuuuk.”

Tears fell and it felt like his soul would do the same. It was so painful that his breath might cease at any time.

Then,

Kwang!

The door of the shack was hastily pushed open and the same soldier that had reported the fall of the Estia Empire showed himself.

“Sir Grand Commander! It is them! They have already shown themselves!”

Urgent voice – and from the other side of the entrance appeared large shadows. Pierce clenched his teeth and grasped a fist.

“Katy.”

Staring at Katy lying still on the bed top, he nodded his head.

“Your will…”

Pierce held tightly onto the baton of the total commander.

“I’ll definitely see it through to the end.”

He rushed up from his seat and from his two eyes flowed neverending tears. However, every step of his was filled with power and heaving a deep breath, he stepped outside.

In that instant,

Hwaaak!

The surrounding scenery changed with a breeze. As Pierce left the shack with Tempestas, the scenery of the memory had changed along with it.

“Ah…”

Roan let out a low mutter.

‘It’s hell.’

The scenery before them resembled hell. A black sky replaced a blue sky, red blood replaced the clear rivers and instead of green mountains, countless corpses had been built up.

“Uaaaak!”
“Die! You devils!”
“Die!”

Several soldiers and knights swung their weapons with shouts.

‘Are they the Defenders of the Middle World…’

Roan shook his head with a pitying expression. They were like candles swaying before a gust of wind.

“Uaak!”

Screams of pain sprouted forth from several places and,

“…”

Soon, silence had filled the area. Standing next to Pierce, Roan stared at the surroundings and found no-one.

Absolutely no-one.

The only surviving person was Pierce, keeping his spot rigidly on his two feet. A hot, disgusting gust went past, as the only survivor, Pierce broke the silence.

“You think this is the end?”

He opened his two eyes wide and towards the hot wind rushing towards him, he made a shout.

“No way! We are only just starting!”

Pierce clenched hard.

“To use the power of Tempestas to revive Roan, I need to pour in all of my mana as well as my life.”

Suddenly, he thought of Roan who had died a long time ago. His eyes flashed in nostalgia and Roan who had been nearby caught those signs.

“Roan.”

A low voice called his name.

“Pierce. I am here.”

Roan replied in a large voice unconsciously but unfortunately, Pierce could not hear those words.

But,

“I can still remember the days I fought with you.”
“Me too! And I’m still fighting with you through those battlefields!”

Roan continued shouting from the side as Pierce’s two eyes sparkled.

“After you died, I went around the battlefields alone.”

A bitter smile hung on his lips.

“Those were boring, and lonely battles.”

Deep remorse was evident from his voice.

“Ah…”

Roan let out a long mutter while Pierce forced a smile on his face.

“Although the me here cannot see you nor fight with you…”

He pushed forth the Grand Commander’s Baton.

“The me there will be able to go through the battlefields with you once again.”

All the mana in his entire started flowing into the baton, and more specifically towards the Tempestas.

Paat.

Light started to flow out from Tempestas.

“Roan!”

His voice started to get louder and along with it, the dirty and disgusting hot wind got fiercer.

“Pierce…”

Roan reached out his hands, but as he had no shape or form, none of his body parts could be seen and neither could he touch Pierce. Then, the black skies roared and the red gust flew towards Pierce.

Hwaaak!

Vicious cries touched the ears. With his eyes wide-open, Pierce glared at the red scorchy gust, as his body trembled.

“Do not fear Pierce. I am with you.”

Roan stepped in front of Pierce and made a fist. He knew it was impossible to protect him but even then, he wanted to. Was it a coincidence?

“I am not scared. I’m not scared of death.”

Pierce’s voice fell behind Roan’s back.

“Because you will save the world.”

As if Roan was right before him, Pierce let out those words. The red gust reached up to his nose and raising the Grand Commander’s Baton high up above the head, Pierce shouted.

“Roan! Wake up from your eternal dreams!”

At the same time,

Paaaaat!

Golden light flowed out from Tempestas. Devouring the red gust, the golden light coloured the entire world in its bright colours.

“Ah…”

Due to the strange sense of comfort, Roan closed his eyes. When he reopened them, the scenery had changed.

***

“The preparations are ready.”

Men in brown uniforms politely lowered their heads. A middle-aged man in the middle of all their greetings was in deep contemplation. His face appeared somewhat familiar.

Roan quickly glanced around.

‘Is this also within the memories of Tempestas?’

The room was quite big, or rather, very big.

‘It appears like a cave…’

Oddly-shaped rocks aligned the ceiling.

‘If this is within the memories of Tempestas, the Grand Commander’s Baton should be nearby…’

Roan looked around one more time to find the baton, and then, his eyes stopped at a place.

‘An altar?’

He frowned. In the very centre of the large room was an altar made by accumulating solid chiseled rocks. The problem was that the altar appeared very familiar.

‘Is that, the broken altar from the Blackburn area?’

The altar he found on the Grain Mountain Range in the Blackburn area had been broken into pieces and was hard to identify, but Roan clearly remembered the confusing patterns engraved on the rocks.

‘Why’s that altar here?’

Roan made a frown but there was something that made him more confused.

‘Why is the Tempestas stuck in the middle of the altar?’

The Grand Commander’s Baton was stuck straight into the middle of the altar. Despite the darkness, Tempestas attached to the end of the baton shone bright in gold. Slowly moving his body, Roan stood on top of the altar, and after getting closer to Tempestas, he could see the surroundings clearer.

“Finally, I’ve laid my hands on Tempestas.”

The middle-aged man with a somewhat familiar face moved his steps and stood on the altar. With a thankful expression, he stared at the men standing next to the altar.

“Thanks for the hard work.”

In response to the low appreciative tone, the men quivered their bodies before kneeling down.

“It is our honour to be able to serve you like this.”
“If it’s for the Church, this one life is nothing worthy of keeping.”

Even their voices trembled, and at the same time, the last man lowered their head and shouted in a large voice.

“Your Holiness Latio! Please start the ritual!”

In that instant,

“Latio!”

Roan opened his eyes wide and let out a shout. The middle-aged man that appeared familiar indeed had several matching parts with the younger version of Latio, the one he had met only a few days ago.

‘Then the one destroying the Middle World is indeed Latio?’

Cold aura flowed behind his back and his heart thumped rapidly. Then, a doubt appeared in his head.

“When we met, had Latio also travelled back in time?”

And if he was,

“Why did he let me live?”

The doubts continued without an end.

Author’s note: The stories of the past are continuing on through the Tempestas and I think it will come to an end in the next chapter. For those that are still not too sure, the next chapter and the one after that should be of help. ^^;;

PS. To the dear readers that have continued on this far… you might remember that in the beginning parts of [I am the Monarch], there were countless comments saying that they couldn’t understand why Roan had died as the lowest spearman. ^^;;

His friend was a duke and after spending 20 years on one field, he was a low spearman which would mean that he really had no talent… and yet after travelling back he had been performing well which many of you had commented on.

At the time I had mentioned that there was a reason for that but… that reason is only starting to come out now… I also didn’t know it would take this long. T.T

<The Past (2)> End.