Virgin Knight Who Is the Frontier Lord in the Gender Switched World - Chapter 81

I was struck in the face.

Falling to the ground, I crawled and stared at the person who had hit me.

It was Robert-sama, the royal consort of Queen Liesenlotte of the Kingdom of Anhalt, who reigns over this kingdom.

“Don’t say foolish things! Surely, you haven’t spoken of this elsewhere, have you?!”

“Never, never would I…”

Crawling.

I had to crawl.

Angry shouts fell upon my head.

For now, all I could do was try to calm Robert-sama’s anger.

Fear coursed down my spine.

I regretted my words, fearing everything would be ruined.

“Do you intend to ruin everything?! Do you understand the situation?!”

“I do. I understand our position, everything. But, but…”

I was regretful.

Yet, I had to speak out.

From the beginning, such a wish could never be granted.

Even I knew that.

But, but…

“We are in the same predicament as other nomadic tribes facing hardships. I understand it’s impossible to help, even an uneducated person like me knows that. But, since I’ve received pleas from other nomadic tribes, I can’t just stay silent!”

“All the nomadic tribes that come to you will be banished from Anhalt, I told you from the beginning! Do you think my allowance is unlimited? Do you think if you smack a biscuit in my pocket, two gold coins will appear?!”

The Holy Gusten Empire, a member state that recognizes the supreme authority of the emperor and the pope.

In the Electorate of the Kingdom of Anhalt, Robert-sama’s policy to grant jobs and residency to our brigade was becoming known to all the nomadic tribes across the Holy Gusten Empire.

It was a natural progression.

Others also hoped to be saved from the harsh nomadic life.

And…

“Ringmaster, do you truly understand? I have already told you. I can only save your brigade. This is merely an experiment aimed at the final solution for the nomadic tribes wandering within the Holy Gusten Empire.”

Robert-sama had already foreseen this.

He had warned me in advance.

That there would be those who would come to me, clinging to a sliver of hope.

“I have already spoken many times. You must remember, right? Repeat it.”

“…You granted us jobs, you gave us a place because the crimes committed by wandering people like us had to be eradicated. The emperor initially considered a plan that ‘nomadic tribes could be killed without generally being held accountable.'”

“I tried to avoid that plan!”

I am grateful for that.

Truly grateful.

I met Robert-sama’s eyes, filled with agony.

“I thought there must be a way to save them. It’s considered that when nomads appear in a city, the church bells ring to signal their expulsion. My people, armed with the just cause given by Her Majesty, would start hunting down nomadic tribes. I thought such a hell would only deteriorate people’s hearts.”

“I understand.”

Hell did not materialize.

Because Robert-sama had fiercely resisted.

His influence was significant, as he corresponded with Her Majesty the Empress and Her Holiness the Pope.

After discussions, he proposed the best solution.

The final resolution for this issue was to try a policy that would grant nomadic tribes a place to settle and jobs within the Kingdom of Anhalt.

Of course, there were obstacles.

The Empress opposed, the Pope opposed, his wife, Queen Liesenlotte of Anhalt opposed, her nobles opposed, and the representatives of the common guilds opposed.

In essence, it wouldn’t matter if the nomadic tribes died out.

We would not suffer.

That was the brutally honest truth, and only Robert-sama opposed it.

I knew everything.

Robert-sama taught me everything I needed to know.

It wasn’t that Robert-sama sought gratitude, but it was a reality that the representatives of the protected nomadic tribes needed to understand.

Getting everyone’s understanding and moving forward with the policy was Robert-sama’s way.

The harsh reality he taught me was something I didn’t want to hear.

The nomadic tribes were even considered for an extermination policy.

What had we done?

No—let’s not play the victim.

We were never an unjustly discriminated tribe.

That much, at least, had to be acknowledged.

Robert-sama detested it—the mad cries of creatures that did not attempt self-help.

Merely impoverished, merely impoverished.

I didn’t want to become nauseating trash, constantly repeating my victim mentality like a parrot.

That was the last line.

We were not granted residency by the Holy Gusten Empire, nor had we culturally sought to settle.

But.

That way of life was no longer permissible, as Robert-sama had said.

“Times have changed.”

Satisfied with my recital, Robert-sama began to speak.

I had heard this speech many times before.

“Times have changed. Our ancestors, who once struggled daily to find enough to eat, are no more. Within the Holy Gusten Empire, our irrigation techniques have improved, crop rotation has been devised, and agricultural efficiency has greatly increased. I will say it again and again. The civic consciousness that is awakening in the principalities of Anhalt, aware of rights and duties, aiming for autonomy and solidarity, is shaping the nation-state. What can be called state sovereignty is forming, and there is no place for nomadic people in that. The places for you, the nomadic people, are disappearing. There will be no place for you hereafter. The only way for the settled inhabitants of Anhalt to recognize the rights of you nomads is through assimilation.”

“We also have culture… We had the culture you speak of, Robert-sama.”

“Culture, I believe, is merely a means for people to subsist. Of course, I do not say that nomadic tribes lack culture. There were fortune tellers, entertainers, blacksmiths, laborers, carpenters, and doctors among you. I acknowledge that you are a distinct ethnic group, and I think you excel in crafts and performing arts.”

As Robert-sama spoke, it was not to soothe me, but to make me truly understand. He muttered from the depths of his heart and then, he completely negated.

“But the culture of the nomadic people is now of no use. It does nothing to protect your livelihoods. It serves neither as sword nor as shield.”

Robert-sama was kind, yet terribly realistic. He would state the cruel facts as they were, presenting them plainly before me.

“In the past, our ancestors employed nomadic people as dukes and counts, even enlisting them as soldiers. But now—no longer. It’s because they cannot be trusted, among other things.”

“Not needed.”

“Yes, not anymore. Now that agricultural productivity has improved and permanent troops have been established.”

Even Robert-sama, usually so gentle, uttered the words he’d never clearly said before. Not needed. We are no longer needed. We had built up our own culture as wanderers, accumulated skills necessary for survival. But for the settlers, who now have well-organized craft guilds and permanent troops, our way is unnecessary in this era. We have become obsolete.

“Have you ever baked bread?”

Robert-sama murmured.

I answered honestly.

“No.”

“In small territories, there are days when the villagers gather to bake bread. Since there’s only one bakery oven, I hear that a small lord might even show up to hear the villagers’ grievances.”

Robert-sama’s murmured words introduced me to the concept of a communal bakery for the first time. What was he trying to say?

“This habit of the commoners to bake bread together can also be called a culture. But with the advent of the baking guilds, this culture will disappear.”

“Meaning?”

“Culture disappears with the progression of history. I believe that most of the nomadic culture will be lost with settlement. And at the same time,”

He believed that this culture, which neither serves as a sword nor as a shield, holds no value.

It was effectively a declaration from Robert-sama.

You must discard the culture of the nomads for the sake of settlement.

“To the nomads, and to you, the ringmaster of the opera in the capital, I say this: Leave behind music and the arts, and think of the nomadic culture as something that once perished. If you wish to preserve these skills, I will not hinder you. I will not take children from their parents. But they must be educated.”

“By those religious women who wish to convert the nomads?”

“They’re used to superficial conversions. I don’t say believe. What’s needed is the ability to read and write. Education, that is the true sword and shield for survival.”

Robert-sama was considering a settlement policy for the nomadic people, thoroughly confining them so they could never leave Anhalt again.

Everything was given, yet it was a mercy laced with restrictions.

Responsibility for rights.

Of course.

“You are the ruts. You must witness the final solution enacted by the Royal House of Anhalt, and then, your ruts will guide the carriages of other principalities towards settlement of the nomadic people. Everything must go well. If one thing fails, all is lost. Settlement would be deemed impossible, and it ends. Empress Gusten will make a cold decision.”

I had to produce results.

Achieve a record of successful settlement in the Kingdom of Anhalt.

If not achieved, the nomadic people would face a dire fate that might seem dreamlike compared to the current situation.

“That’s all I have to say. Do you understand? Command anyone who comes to you to leave Anhalt immediately. That is your job.”

“I understand.”

“Calm down in this Rose Garden for a while. I’ll take the knights and pages with me. Sit alone at that garden table, drink some tea, and gather your thoughts.”

Robert-sama.

With that, he and his knights and pages moved away.

I was left alone in the Rose Garden.

Everything was correct.

I thought calmly alone, and everything Robert-sama said was correct.

I had known it all along.

I had no power to solve the problem with one leap, and Robert-sama was ever wise.

I.

I really had no intention of killing Robert-sama.

A bad habit emerged from my shadow.

Wandering from country to country, unable to settle, struggling even for daily fare.

It arose from the heart of a leader of a nomadic people.

It was ugly.

Looking at the beautiful Rose Garden, I couldn’t help but think.

“Everything was given to him at birth,” said Robert-sama.

As the ringmaster, “Everything was not given to me at birth,” I wanted to say.

We would become the ruts.

Following Robert-sama’s orders, taking the opera he granted as our job and place of residence.

From the profits of our opera, welcoming a husband into the brigade.

If we mix the blood of a nomadic woman, a half-breed is quickly made.

Assimilation will not go smoothly at first.

But after three generations, four generations, it will be different.

We would lose the culture of the nomadic people in exchange for a place and a job as settlers.

Our descendants would inherit that.

Our ruts would serve as a reference for the principalities of the Holy Gusten Empire when implementing their final solutions.

That was good.

Very good.

But—something was nagging at me.

The jealousy of a fool, nothing else to call it.

In one word.

“Duke born, beloved by all as a consort, Robert-sama”

What kind of hardships have you faced?

No hardships at all.

You know nothing of the ‘darkness’ we’ve walked through.

Always walking only in bright paths, loved by everyone.

You—

“What do you understand?”

I pulled at a sleeve while prostrated on the ground.

A bad habit.

A habit, and a bad one at that.

The last weapon, the habit of concealing a tiny vial no bigger than a pinkie.

“The rose”

I wanted to wither just one of the thousands of roses in this Rose Garden.

Just one.

Because.

Because Robert-sama was just too dazzling.

Everything he said was filled with logical reasoning.

Continuing to spout reason with a face that had only walked in light.

I hated Robert-sama for that.

“What do you understand?”

Have you ever been called a cannibal?

Have you ever been called a kidnapper?

Told in a town you visit, “If you want to enter, clean up that corpse.”

The bodies of criminals, wanderers, and sometimes, performers from our own nomadic tribes.

Have you ever buried them?

Do you understand our feelings, treated the same as criminals and wanderers?

Robert-sama has never walked anything but bright paths.

The hatred, the jealousy we harbor, of course, he might understand as knowledge.

That’s all.

This envy in the depths of our hearts towards Robert-sama, he could not understand.

We who walk dark paths silently harbor this hatred, this envy.

There’s no way to understand how horribly ugly feelings a person from the darkness can harbor towards someone bright like you.

So, I committed a small act of revenge.

In a word, I wanted to defile.

One rose in this Rose Garden.

I wanted to tarnish just a bit of that perfect Robert-sama.

“…”

I felt as if floating in the air.

Approaching the rose hedge near the garden table.

Just one.

Just one rose I wanted to wither.

If I could cause one rose in Robert-sama’s beloved rose garden to wither, if Robert-sama noticed and felt even a bit of sadness.

—It was an uncontrollable excitement for me.

A light exhilaration.

At the same time, a miserable exhilaration.

I indulged in the fantasy of being able to bring one stain to Robert-sama’s immaculate rose garden.

That’s why, at that moment, I poisoned that rose.

Yes, I applied poison.

I had no murderous intent, but Robert-sama touched that rose and died.

Probably worried about the withered rose, trying to prune it to protect the other roses.

The result of touching the poisoned thorn, he died.

That’s right.

Just as Lord Faust von Polydoro predicted, I had no murderous intent.

At the same time, there was no room for excuses, and I was a murderer who killed Robert-sama.

I do not intend to deny that.

I want that thoroughly communicated to Lord Polydoro.

Lord Polydoro, who has never walked anything but bright paths, understanding this darkness in people’s hearts will help protect his own.

I didn’t intend to kill.

I truly had no intention of killing.

Who in this world would dare think of killing the kind Robert-sama!

And yet it was I who did it.

Is that enough?

It should be enough, right?

Please.

Let me die.

That’s all I’ve clung to.

I’ve lived in anticipation of the day I might atone, even a little, for this sin.

Even if the god who saves none of us takes me to hell, I’ve lived these past five years after killing Robert-sama thinking that it is a natural consequence.

Michael, you might feel nauseated by my confession.

Your mother treated you like livestock, and without any punishment.

If it helps with the travel expenses, then that’s fine, just like the great mercy Robert-sama granted us, without a shred of it, just for a painful nomadic life.

Just for that, she allowed your reproductive ability to be taken.

Such evil is what I am.

I realized I was such nauseating evil only after meeting Robert-sama and experiencing his kindness.

I shouldn’t have been born.

I, who killed Robert-sama, should not have been born into this world.

That’s why.

Erase this evil called me from this world.

Eradicate the foolish me who killed the gentle Robert-sama.

Allow me to disappear from this world.

Send me to hell.

I alone understood.

Only I, who killed the gentle Robert-sama five years ago, have understood.

By my nauseating evil, an existence that could be called a manifestation of good in this world has disappeared.