Kays Translations

Epilogue [Before]: Before the Great Circle (Part one)

When Ren woke up, the first thing he felt was being dazed.

The next thing he noticed was the soft touch of the bed, and then a slight ache that rushed through his entire body.

“......ah......."

He moaned, and a voice came from nearby.

“You should still be sleeping. Your wounds haven't healed yet.”

He looked in the direction of the voice and saw a man standing by the window.

Ren had never met the man before, but he recognized him from his elegant appearance.

“You’re the Baron?"

Baron Clausel responded with a smile and sat down in the chair beside the bed.

“My name is Lessard Clausel. If it pleases you, you can call me Lessard. I don't know how many times I have to thank you.”

“Not at all, sir. But this is....”

“This is my mansion. You've been sleeping in that bed for a month.”

“A month?”

“Yes, that's right. Yes, a month has passed since you and Licia came to town that day.”

I had a lot of questions as soon as I woke up.

Among them, Licia is the one I can't get out of my mind..

Knowing this, Lessard laughed and said,. 

"My daughter is safe. Thanks to you.”

“I'm glad to hear that.”

“Look, there she is, asleep at your feet.”

I turned my head so that my body did not ache, and saw Licia at the foot of the bed.

She was sitting on a round chair and had fallen asleep with her upper body on the bed.

The warm sunlight streaming in through the window had brought back her color and her hair had regained its silky luster, unlike when we had been on the run.

“Licia is here every day to take care of you."

“I'm sorry ......."

“No need to apologize. Licia does what she wants to do and I feel I owe you a debt of gratitude.”

Then Ren heard much more.

Ren's family would be coming to Clausel soon, and that the inhabitants of the village had many injuries but no deaths. Ren's village is being rebuilt and the Clausel family is cooperating fully.

---- Also.

“I owe everything to you. It’s thanks to your defeat of Thief Wolfen that I was able to get help from a certain noble.”　　

“Umm… What do you mean?”

“As I'm sure you've heard, the material from Thief Wolfen is a valuable medicinal ingredient.”

(True… But...)

Not long after he was taken away by Jerukku, Ren dreamed of a story from another time line, although he wasn’t sure if it was from the official history.

Come to think of it, Thief Wolfen was also defeated there.

Soon after, he wondered why the situation was different.

“The ingredients for the potion are several internal organs, but none of them can be missing. Therefore, the medicine made from the material of the Thief Wolfen is precious because the internal organs of the Thief Wolfen you defeated were in perfect condition, without a single blemish."

Lessard went on to praise Ren and in the process told him the answer to his question.

In that dream, the knights had defeated Thief Wolfen with severe wounds.

It was a battle at the expense of Roy, who still had to bear a heavy burden. Unlike that, Ren had pierced the head of the Thief Wolfen from the inside and defeated it.

That’s why it was possible to use it as medicine.

Maybe this is how it happened.

“By the way, how did that medicine help?”

“The Lord of the one who helped me the other day wanted that medicine for his family. So I sold the material to him. In return, besides the money from the sale, he promised to cooperate with me on a conditional basis if the need arose.”

“So, he must be a great nobleman.”

“Exactly. Viscount Givens is no match for the Marquis.”

(You had the help of such a great noble?)

“I have something for you from the Marquis..... correctly, from the butler of the Marquis."

As he spoke, Lessard reaches into his pocket and pulls out a black piece of paper about the size of a playing card.

He placed it on the small desk next to my bed.

Looking at the emblem on the surface of the black paper, Ren secretly thinks.

(I've seen this emblem before)

But I can't remember.

He tilted his head at the strangely gaudy emblem.

“I think his name was Edgar. He said it was an invitation to the mansion.”

“---For me?”

"Yes. The marquis wants to meet you. The marquis is a noble of the royalist faction, but when it comes to the marquis, it's almost impossible to refuse him.”

"I don't think he's the kind of person that would want to meet with the son of a country knight......”

“But you can't afford to be indifferent. The medicine made from the Thief wolfen you defeated saved the life of the marquis's daughter.”

He wanted to see me at all costs. He wants to thank me.

Ren nodded, wondering if that was the situation.

I also thought I understood why the Marquis who came up with the story said he would fully cooperate with the Baron the other day, depending on the situation.

(I wonder if it's because they are from different factions.)

I guess he needed to have a sense of structure.

They needed a decisive reason that would make it possible for the royalist faction to reach out to the heroic faction.

No matter how much the marquis's family was saved, it is difficult to imagine that it would have been difficult for him to lend his strength to the royalists if the nobles, who were different from the royalists, had shown their face.

Baron Clausel is a neutral figure, so it would have been difficult for both sides to make a move.

Therefore, they wanted information that would make it easier for the royalist faction to move.

(That was the information I got from Licia-sama.)

In exchange, he would do his utmost to help them when they became able to move.

That was the reason for the conditional lending of power that Lessard had put in place.

“Oh and don't worry too much about language. I won't raise an eyebrow at the benefactor of my daughter and me for that. Just make it easy for me to talk to you."

When Ren restated the first person, "I," Lessard told him he didn't have to be so formal.

He continued. 

"Viscount Givens is dead.”

Ren's eyes widened in surprise.

“The case was set for a retrial later that day, and thanks to you and Licia, I was acquitted. Instead, several charges were brought against Viscount Givens and the first trial was to be held in his domain. He committed suicide that night using a poison he had concealed."

"...... was it really suicide?"

“He was probably pressured by his relatives or others. Or maybe he gave up everything and decided he would rather die than get caught.”

It was like cutting off the tail of a lizard.

I felt sick because I have seen the black side of the nobility here as well.

"What's more, his house was set on fire by someone. Many of the materials that could have been obtained from it have been reduced to ashes by the effects of the fire. I wanted to find out more, especially the motive for this incident, but all I have left is the testimony of his knights."

Ren asked why Viscount Givens had targeted the Ashton family as well.

According to Viscount Givens' knight, the Ashtons were important to the Viscount, but this alone doesn’t clarify anything.

I tried to predict a lot of things, but it was still not clear.

The fact that he had only been awake for a short time also affected his thinking, and Ren couldn’t think as well as he would have liked.

“But thanks to the Marquis who lent his hand, no one will be able to touch Clausel for a while. Not to mention the royalist faction, since the heroic faction is being pressured by that marquis.”

Still, I must move vigorously after this.

Lessard adds and leaves Ren's side.

“Well, what's the use of a long talk right after you get up. I'm going to go now, but if you are hungry, I can have some food brought to you.”

“I'm sorry, but can I ask that of you?”

“Don't be so formal. I want you to feel at home in this mansion. At least let me take care of you in my house until your wounds heal.”

As it turns out, he has no plans to return him to the village at all.

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