Chapter 334
転生したら剣でした
Reincarnated as a Sword
Author: 棚架ユウ
Raw:
334. Murellia's History
Thanks to Kuina's Phantom Illusion Matric, Johan is hypnotized. However, this effect doesn't seem like it will last for long, which means I need to quickly find out what I want to know.
"What is your affiliation!?" Kuina asked.
"Johan! Snap out of it!"
"Vice-captain! You scum!"
"Release us you wretches!" In loud voices, the other knights tried to disturb Kuina.
Kuina tried to question Johan, but the other knights interfered. From their point of view, they could understand that Johan was being manipulated.
"Shut up."
"——!"
"——!"
With Fran's Wind Magic, any sounds from the knights were cut off. No matter how much their mouths moved, their voices were unable to reach us. With this, we can comfortably Johan for information.
"I'll ask you again. Which place are you affiliated with?"
"The Bashar Kingdom."
"What is the relationship between you and Murellia?"
"Miss Murellia is the benefactor of my country as well as my home."
"Let me know more about that. Tell me what you know about Murellia."
Johan then began to tell us about Murellia's relationship with themselves. It was a story about Murellia from 500 years before, that was completely different from those told in the beastkin country.
In that time, 500 years ago, Murellia was steadily accumulating fame whilst acting as an adventurer. She bore her honor as a member of the royal family, and although she was prideful, she did not seem to have a twisted character. Rather, she was actually concerned about the beastkin supremacists and their rejection of humans, which was the mainstream ideology in the country at the time, and she even desired to regulate this discriminatory behavior towards humans. However, despite her status as royalty, Murellia had little actual influence due to being an adventurer. As such, she began to Party (team-up) with humans and endeavored to improve her public image more.
Shortly after, she had a fateful encounter, and, of all things, fell in love with a human in the same Party (Adventuring Team). Unfortunately, love between the princess of the beastkin and a human, whom were treated as slaves or worse in the beastkin nation at the time, could not be tolerated.
Murellia, who refused to give up despite these sentiments, instead decided to change the very nature of the people around her and her country itself. Retiring as an adventurer, she returned to the Royal Palace to gain status and voice amongst her people.
However, due to her human lover, the backlash towards Murellia was severe. She had become an affront to the pride and honor of the beastkin. A fool who had gone mad over a mere human. Worse, she opened herself to be exposed to even worse rumors, such as that she was a prostitute, a fallen princess, or as scum to even humans. To put it kindly, there was no beastkin around who would take her side.
In the end, Murellia and her lover were separated by the King, as the shame of the ruling beastkin tribe. That was not all. In order to sever any lingering attachments Murellia had for the human, the King arranged a female human slave for her lover and forced them to procreate. In front of Murellia.
It seems that the lover was threatened using Murellia as a shield, and had no choice but to obey….
To begin with, Murellia was only infuriated with the beastkin who were conducting unreasonable acts against humans, but after being deprived of her lover, it had become a profound and terrible hatred. It was to such an extent that one could say nothing in this world held value to her anymore.
Immediately after this, Murellia made contact with the Evil God. At that time, the royal family was managing the seal, but Murellia broke it in order to destroy the beastkin nation. However, because of the many years in captivity, she failed to immediately resurrect the Evil God. Instead, the Evil God empowered Murellia and ordered her to gather souls for itself.
It seems that Murellia had the ability to resist Evil Magic, and even with the power of the Evil God, she did not lose her reason and rampage. Murellia continued to resurrect the Evil God and take revenge. The first thing she did was to take control of the beastkin royal family. She did this simply by manipulating them with the power of the Evil God.
With the political power she gained from this, having obtained the power of the Evil God and the Black Cat tribe as tools, Murellia began to politically purge any factions which would discriminate against and oppress humanity. It was a two-bird one-stone strategy that would both exterminate the beastkin races she despised, and offer up souls to the Evil God. Unfortunately, that did not mean discrimination against humanity would disappear from the country. Rather, the resistance to Murellia, who forcibly pushed for human protection, became even more critical of humans by the day.
At that time, assassins were frequently sent to kill Murellia, as well as her lover, who many believed to be a fiend that had driven Murellia mad. As such, Murellia kept her lover, the female slave, and the newborn child born between them close to her side where she could protect them.
However, as the pressure from assassins increased with each passing day, it came to a point that Murellia finally resolved to have her lover and his family escape. The destination was the neighboring Kingdom of Bashar, a country founded by humans. That being said, they were uncertain if they would be accepted as officials of the beastkin royal family. For this reason, Murellia gave them confidential information on the southern nobles' plan to invade the Bashar Kingdom.
The Bashar Kingdom of that time was not even half the size of what it was currently. Furthermore, they had to deal with the beastkin nation, which was highly aggressive towards them. In addition, they had been defeated in the war the previous year, making preventing another beastkin invasion into their land difficult.
It was to this kingdom that they brought the military intelligence Murellia had given them. While initially doubtful, they acted on the information nonetheless, and managed to successfully defend their country. At the same time, one of the other decisive factors that lead to their victory was Murellia, who lead the Black Cat tribe and attacked the invading army from behind.
Thanks to this, Murellia believed she could offer up a large number of souls to revive the Evil God, exterminate the beastkin, and regain her lover at once. However, this was not the case.
In the end, her lover, the female slave, and the child born between the two, spent the rest of their lives in the Bashar Kingdom. The lover revived the Magnolia family with the child born from the female slave as heir, whilst the female slave became a mistress of that time's king.
In other words, the prince of the Bashar royal family and the heir of the Magnolia family became half siblings. The Magnolia family, under the protection of the royal family, continued to retain its name since, and was now known as a family of warrior masters.
"What a ridiculous story…. I don't know anything about it." After hearing Johan's story, Mia thought with a troubled expression. Of course, the fact remains that Murellia is a sinner attempting to revive the Evil God, but this story implies that her character wasn't originally broken. Of course, that was only if Johan's story was true.
"Does Murellia still intend to revive the Evil God?"
"I don't know."
"Murellia said she would create a paradise for the Black Cat tribe, but why? From what I heard from your story, she should have despised the Black Cat tribe…"
"Using the power of the Evil God, it seems she intends to recall the souls of the Black Cat tribe from 500 years ago and grant them eternal torment. She said that she would then use their power to destroy the other beastkin tribes." Johan responds to Mary's muttering in an emotionless voice.
Apparently, the story about Murellia was passed on through the Magnolia family and the Bashar royal family. Therefore, he accompanied Murellia in order to repay his ancestor's debt towards her. In addition, the king decided to ally with Lynford and Murellia as well. All this makes the likelihood of the story being true high indeed.
Not only that, but the invasion of the beast nation is, in fact, more meaningful to Bashar than territorial acquisition.
In recent years, a large gap has formed between the beastkin's military power and other countries, making even light skirmishes impossible. As a result, many misunderstand and think 'peace is coming', but the truth is the opposite. Within the country, underground beastkin discrimination groups were forming, with many among their number being nobles.
As a result, the number of young people instigating hate against the beastkin from the shadows were increasing, and the movement to reject the beastkin was quietly spreading in the country. At this rate, it was possible that civil wars or riots might erupt. However, if a war was started with the beastkin country for the sake of letting out their stress, there was the fear that they might be destroyed as well. Although the current beastkin king is moderate, Bashar's leaders were fundamentally unable to trust in the beastkin.
That being said, what if they accepted Lynford's invitation? With their combined power, it might even be possible to win the war and achieve their long cherished wish of colonizing the country of the beastkin. Even if they lose, they could still send the extremists belonging to the radical underground organizations to be disposed of. They could also make the excuse that the beastkin Murellia had used the power of the Evil God to manipulate them as well. Even if they were forced to make reparations, their nation would not be destroyed. And, of all things, the one to propose this was none other than Murellia herself.
"If we put all the responsibility on ourselves, the beastkin nation shouldn't be able to bring all their strength to bear, is what we were thinking."
"Is that the benefit of having saved the country twice…?"
"That is correct."
The knights present here are among the members of the Magnolia family who are particularly patriotic, and who also seem to have great obligation and adoration for Murellia. Their nation had given them the role of a watchdog, but in reality, they were more like Murellia's escort instead.
"Even if we are wicked, we shall not forget our debt to her."
Still, this is pretty troublesome. I don't really care if the other person has stuff like justice or circumstances. To begin with, everyone has their own form of justice. Even the enemies we've cut down so far all had their own reasons to fight our justice. It was just incompatible with our's. If there's someone worrying about things like that at this point, they shouldn't have started fighting in the first place.
I don't really know how true the story just now is anyways. In the end, it's no wonder that the story of the Bashar kingdom, which favors Murellia, is different from the beastkin nation. Both stories should be taken with a grain of salt. Though, I do think it's more likely that the Bashar kingdom, where the information remained intact, has the more accurate story.
What I found to be the most awkward part of it all was Murellia's motives. This is just what I think from my previous live's experience, but there's nothing more terrifying than the grudge of a woman's love. What's this 30 year old virgin saying, you might ask. Yeah, I personally don't have much romantic experience, but I've seen it enough at work and at school.
A girl who lynches a friend just because the boy she was in love with likes said friend. Or, a certain senior female employee who saw their love interest show kindness to a new employee, and, believing herself betrayed, curses them out of misplaced resentment and attempts to commit suicide in front of their eyes. Or, a colleague who began stalking the person their boyfriend was having an affair with, and murdered their pet cat. Truly terrifying. And they all have in common that, even after doing so many illogical things, they're still smiling and going about business as usual.
Just like them, Murellia also looks calm on the surface. However, she's someone who no one can understand what destructive actions she might take. Ordinary women might swing their kitchen knives around, but what if it were Murellia? She's someone who might cause dungeons to spiral out of control or even revive the Evil God.
To make it worse, those with emotions such as delusions and grudges don't know how to give up, even to the very end. Fueled by negative emotions, they can continue on without end. And now, she's the Evil God's Miko (Shrine Maiden). I have no idea just how twisted and insane her spirit might have become…. In that respect, Murellia is really troublesome.
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