Chapter 256: Nina’s Speech

Nina von Reckenber stood at the center of the Colosseum’s arena.

Blood dripped from her hand.

As if to draw attention to the wound, Nina raised her hand high.

It was a blood-soaked fist.

“Look at me!”

Baumann, the strongest soldier of the Landsknecht, clutched her shattered Zweihänder.

Staring vacantly, she simply held the weapon stained with Nina’s blood—a sword no longer of any use.

“Look at me!”

Nina shouted again.

Baumann, still dazed, could only look at Nina.

The Landsknecht all thought the same thing.

Ah, we’ve heard this voice before.

It was Reckenber.

The voice was identical to Claudia von Reckenber.

The young woman, who could barely be called anything but a girl, was shouting.

Look at me, she demanded.

She had something to say.

Something to say to the Landsknecht, and she wanted them to listen.

—But her words felt meaningless.

That’s what they thought.

“And what would listening change?”

Someone muttered those words.

“Even if she has the same voice, even if she is the daughter—”

—You are not Claudia von Reckenber.

That sentiment hung heavily over the Landsknecht gathered in the Colosseum.

It was the truth.

Even if she was the daughter, why should they listen to her words?

She was not their master.

And yet.

Someone spoke.

“She has the same air about her.”

Like a winter rose, she carried a peculiar scent.

They remembered the woman who once struck their shoulders with a sword.

She was similar.

The scent of death lingered from the corpses of the seasoned Landsknecht veterans killed by Lord Faust.

It was the smell of the battlefield.

And faintly, there was indeed the scent of a withered winter rose mixed within.

“What should we do?”

Someone asked.

It sounded like a question posed to everyone, yet also like a question to themselves.

What should we do?

What can we do?

Conversely, if they were to leave this place, then what?

They had nowhere else to go.

“We do nothing.”

Someone answered.

They were defeated.

Just moments ago, their courageous and proud veterans had been slaughtered by Lord Faust.

Even their strongest soldier, Baumann, had fallen, though she had fought valiantly.

Compared to that, how utterly pathetic they were.

Their polished boots reflected their faces.

Foolish faces.

Haggard faces.

They had nowhere to go, no place to return to.

That was the reality of the Landsknecht.

“Let’s hear her out.”

“Let’s hear her out.”

Someone began to whisper.

“Let’s hear what she has to say. Let’s see what the daughter of Reckenber is made of. After all, we have nothing else to do.”

Such voices joined in.

Indeed, they were right.

They had nothing left.

So at least, they could listen to what she had to say.

Thus, even we, who are usually coarse, vulgar, and thirsty for blood, refrained from causing a commotion.

After all, we had already seen more blood than we cared to today.

Our heads had cooled completely.

“—First, I intend to convey to you my mother Claudia’s intentions. What I learned from her diary regarding what she ultimately planned to do with the Landsknecht—these are her intentions.”

The lone figure on the stage, speaking in Reckenber’s voice, said something intriguing.

It was something that every member of the Landsknecht had been curious about—

“Will they simply leave us abandoned in the imperial capital? Will they be content to let us rot there? That’s what the Duke of Temeraire, that reckless boar, asked. My mother replied—”

We listened.

We silently paid heed.

“I will grant them what they desire. I will become a king. But not the Emperor of the Holy Gusten Empire.”

Our greatest hope.

The rose that we sought to bloom.

The vision of Claudia von Reckenber ascending to the throne of the Holy Gusten Empire.

That was Denied, but Nina Had Something Else to Say

“Let us head east.”

Her new words signified a direction.

Someone muttered softly.

“Colonization of the East.”

It was a venture once undertaken by the ancestors of the Holy Gusten Empire’s people.

“To the east of Virendorf. There are places where no one lives yet. Let’s build the Landsknecht Kingdom there. I will be the queen. You will be my retainers. Money will be arranged. We can threaten the emperor, liquidate the Reckenber family’s assets, or borrow development funds from Virendorf or Queen Liesenlotte, ‘the stingy Anhalt.'”

We silently listened to Nina’s words.

“Do whatever it takes. My mother thought it would be fine if the Landsknecht had a king of their own. That’s what she believed, or so it was written in her diary.”

It was a good story.

Ah, so it’s about development.

In a way, it was nothing more than a ridiculous invitation to serve as mere settler soldiers.

But that didn’t matter.

We thought it would be fine if it brought us prosperity.

But what we truly wanted wasn’t something so trivial.

It wasn’t the empire itself that we desired.

We simply wanted our master, our king, to be Reckenber. That’s all we sincerely wished for.

That is why—why.

“If only you had said this five years ago… If only you had taken us there earlier…”

Someone muttered, their shoulders slumping as if collapsing.

Yes, even so, even so.

No matter how poor we became, it wouldn’t have mattered to us.

We would have followed you.

To the very ends of the east, to the farthest reaches.

Even to the ultimate sea, Oceanus, we would have followed you with a smile.

Even if it meant our deaths, we would not have regretted it.

But you are no longer here.

You are no longer with us!

“Ah…”

Grief swept through their entire body.

They now understood that their dream was gone, vanished without a trace.

It would have been better to die.

The dream they could have achieved was now completely out of reach.

“I ask you, Landsknecht.”

Nina’s voice continued.

We didn’t want to hear any more.

Surely, the conversation was over.

But Nina continued.

“What will you do now?”

It was a quiet question.

It carried the voice of Reckenber.

“My mother is dead. She is no longer here! Everyone knows that! And yet, you all, unfortunately, have survived!!”

Nina spoke only of reality.

Then, she walked over to the corpses.

She grabbed the Rose Banner draped over the remains of the veteran warriors.

It was the banner of the Landsknecht.

As Nina yanked the banner away with force, it revealed the corpses of the veteran warriors, their faces peaceful, as if they had finally found rest in death.

“These veterans fought valiantly and made their way to Valhalla!!”

The blood-soaked banner.

Nina draped it over her shoulders like a cloak and continued speaking as always.

“You are lost. You have lost your place to die. You have also lost your dream of how to live. Now, what will you do? Will you decay here in the imperial capital?”

Once again, she quietly asked.

Truly, quietly.

No one answered.

There was nothing to be done.

“I will give you a choice.”

Nina did not stop speaking.

In that Reckenber tone and atmosphere, she simply continued.

As though possessed by a ghost.

“Will you think about how to die? Will you think about how to live? Or will you accomplish both?”

The blood-soaked banner.

She bore the Rose Banner we once hoped to see bloom.

With the stunned Baumann standing by her side like an attendant.

A twelve-year-old girl, shouting as if she were a seasoned general.

Among the Landsknecht—there were still a few who showed signs of life.

“Lady Nina, I ask!”

Someone brave stood up in the audience and shouted.

“What do you mean by how to die?! We have no path but to rot away! We can no longer hope for Valhalla!!”

That was true.

From here on, all that awaited us was earning wages from the emperor or the municipal council, spending the money on drink and clothes in a single day.

That was all.

That was the only future left for us.

“A new battlefield will be prepared. A war, a hellish war worthy of you who crave it. A war that the Holy Gusten Empire so desperately desires—a war where tens of thousands of soldiers will fall like leaves.”

Nina declared her intent to prepare such a battlefield.

Her eyes opened wide, gleaming fiercely.

A stark contrast to the ‘narrow-eyed Reckenber.’

“When you die, surely you will reach Valhalla. If you die alongside me, we can meet Mother together in Valhalla.”

And yet, her voice and demeanor were unmistakably her mother’s.

This was the bloodline of the Reckenber family.

“—I know such a war will erupt within two years. How about it? Doesn’t your heart start racing? You can die with pride, just like these veteran warriors!”

Nina shouted, pointing to the corpses on the stage.

Once again, a brave Landsknecht shouted out.

“Then I ask again: what does it mean to live? If we survive even that battlefield, what lies ahead for us?!”

“Let us build a Landsknecht nation.”

Nina spoke quietly.

Her voice was truly soft, yet it naturally resonated throughout the Colosseum.

The tone of Reckenber’s voice carried effortlessly to every corner of the battlefield.

“As my mother wished, we will build a nation to the east of Virendorf. Its name shall be Reckenber. The capital will be called ‘Claudia.’ What do you say?”

What nonsense, I thought at first.

But—

“Doesn’t it excite you? A purpose for your lives. It’s far better than the rotting, pitiful state you’re in now.”

Indeed, Nina was right.

It was better than this.

Far better than wallowing in the muck, letting ourselves rot away.

“Let’s do it.”

A voice spoke.

The voice was not from some unknown Landsknecht.

It was my own.

I don’t know what the other Landsknecht thought, nor what decisions they would make.

But at the very least, as someone who once felt my shoulder struck by the sword of Reckenber herself, I had decided—I would follow Lady Nina.