Regressor Of The Fallen Family [EN]: Chapter 145

Patrick leaned back in his chair, a small smile on his face. “That’s a good idea, Ronian,” he said, nodding towards Logan’s younger brother, who stood nearby.

Logan tried to smile back, but his lips felt stiff. He looked at his father. Patrick’s face was still too pale, and his smile seemed weak, not his usual warm grin. *He’s still sick,* Logan thought, worry tightening his chest.

“Are you really feeling better, Father?” Logan asked, his voice a little sharper than he intended. “You still look unwell.”

Patrick sighed, but his smile didn’t fade. “The healer says I need two more weeks of rest, at least. He got rid of the last bits of aura, so don’t worry too much. I’ve always talked about ‘aura’ like it was nothing, but experiencing it myself… it was awful. You be careful with it too, Logan.”

Logan didn’t fully understand what ‘aura’ meant, but he saw his father was worried, and that was enough.

“Can we really worry about aftereffects when we’re fighting a superhuman? We’re already struggling as it is.”

“…Indeed. Haha, I suppose so.”

“Please take good care of yourself. Then, I’ll give this sword to Lady Eilen as you asked.”

“Yes. And if she refuses to accept it, tell her it’s a betrothal gift.”

“Pardon?”

“Given the current situation, we can’t have an engagement or wedding ceremony. If we call it a betrothal gift, she might reluctantly accept it. From what I’ve seen during training, that child can be quite stubborn.”

“…Understood.”

Logan chuckled to himself. Would Eilen really say no to such a powerful sword, just because it was a gift?

But…

“I have no reason to accept this. It’s too much as a gift.”

Seeing his father’s prediction come true, Logan blamed his own lack of foresight.

“Oh, um… Does there need to be a reason for a gift?”

Eilen’s face flushed slightly at Logan’s words, and her eyes wavered. She couldn’t take her eyes off the sword, clearly conflicted, but what she said was different.

“I told you, it’s too much. It would hurt the morale of the other knights if I, who haven’t done anything special, got such a treasure. It’s too much for me right now.”

Eilen’s words about not deserving it made Logan even more determined to give her the sword.

“That’s not true.”

“No…”

“This sword is a betrothal gift for my fiancée, Lady Eilen, not for the knight Eilen.”

“Pardon?”

“Given the current situation, we haven’t even had an engagement ceremony, and I haven’t done anything for you. No, I’ve only been making you work.”

“No, that’s because I…”

“So, I hope you’ll accept it. I hope this sword will show my promise to you someday.”

That’s what a betrothal gift means.

And I hope this sword will help you become even stronger.

That was all he meant.

“Are you… proposing right now?”

Logan was surprised by Eilen’s face, which had turned bright red.

“…Yes? Uh… yes. If… if that’s how it seems…”

Logan was confused. *We are going to get married, aren’t we?* he thought. *Why is she acting surprised by a proposal?*

Eilen gave him the brightest smile he had ever seen.

“A proposal with a sword… Thank you, Master Logan. I don’t think there could be a more perfect proposal for me.”

A proposal with a sword instead of a ring or necklace.

Logan realized a sword proposal was perfect for Eilen. But a small sadness touched his heart. He knew the times were serious, and this ‘proposal’ was born from worry, not just love.

‘…I don’t know what’s going on, but one thing is clear.’

He must never mention that he almost gave it to Ronian first.

‘Never!’

He had to thoroughly silence his father and younger brother as well.

As he was thinking that and forcing an awkward smile, Eilen, with a bright smile, grabbed his hand tightly.

“I’ll work hard too.”

Wh, what?

Sh, she must be talking about swordsmanship, right?

“Let’s go. Let’s spar for the first time in a while!”

Eilen’s smiling face was so beautiful that Logan couldn’t help but smile back and nod unconsciously, forgetting, even if only for a moment, the dangers of the future that lay ahead.

From the day McLaine announced they were leaving the civil war, the battle for Harun Castle had been very intense for some time.

Then, after both sides were badly damaged in the most recent battle, the war slowed down for a while.

It seemed like both sides were recovering and reorganizing, but this lasted suspiciously long.

After a month, everyone watching the war started to suspect something was wrong.

The armies of both sides marched out at the same time. But they weren’t going towards each other. Instead, they were moving in the same direction, which was completely unexpected.

Even the lower nobles and soldiers were confused.

Both sides announced a surprising decision at the same time.

– We will destroy the evil McLaine!

They said McLaine had encouraged neutral groups to stab the rightful heirs to the throne (the two sides) in the back.

Some people didn’t believe it, but it was clear that the armies of the 1st and 2nd Princes, who had been fighting fiercely, were now moving together.

And just by seeing that, people could guess what would happen to McLaine.

– The McLaine family is finished.

They left some troops behind to watch each other, but it seemed like even those deployments had been planned in advance. The dukes and marquises, including the superhumans, were all heading towards McLaine.

The best soldiers from both sides were moving towards McLaine on different routes.

Of course, McLaine was the most shocked by this news.

Bang!

“Logan! What on earth is going on?!”

“Please calm down, Father. First, sit down.”

Logan understood why his father was so upset because he had felt the same way just a few hours earlier.

“Wasn’t everything supposed to be settled?! What went wrong that led to this…?!”

They had been smiling, thinking everything was going well, when this terrible crisis hit. It would have been strange if his father hadn’t been upset.

“It’s my fault. But we need to find a solution first, right? Father, please calm down and wait.”

Logan sighed and remembered his conversation with Count Roberts Floyd.

[Lambert and Ervin, small baronial families we didn’t pay much attention to, seem to have had connections to each side. We’re still investigating how the information leaked.]

He had checked many times to make sure all the noble families who had broken their neutrality and joined the sides in his past life were gone. But there were still spies.

It was shocking that two small barons could cause such big problems.

‘Was my plan discovered? Or did someone among the leaders of the neutral forces leak information, even though I warned them repeatedly?’

The truth was unknown.

But it was clear that a plan that had been carefully prepared for at least six months had suddenly led to disaster.

The only good thing was that he had thought about, no, imagined, this situation.

‘Yes, imagined, damn it!’

So, Logan was able to recover from his panic in just a few hours.

“A difficult situation has come up, but in a way, it’s just something that was going to happen eventually, just a little sooner.”

“…What?”

“I told you when I came back, didn’t I? We will have to face the Empire eventually.”

“Yes. And to do that, we need to gather our forces.”

“Even if we gather our forces, we need to lead the way in calming this chaos to prepare for the future. We need to show our strength clearly so no one can object later.”

Right after he came back, he had thought about joining one of the sides, killing the duke or prince of that side after winning, and putting the 3rd Prince in charge.

But the problem with that was that it would be hard to get the other nobles to cooperate afterward, even if it worked. It would make it difficult for Logan to achieve his main goal: stopping the Empire.

So, he changed his plan to gather neutral forces by taking this long way, but now he had to take another risky step.

“We just need to show them now that we are strong enough to fight both sides.”

Logan said this with as much confidence as he could.

A hint of hope appeared on Patrick’s face.

“…Do you think our family is strong enough to face both sides?”

“We can handle it.”

“That’s not enough! Are you planning to just suffer and die?!”

“Of course not. We have to fight. And if we succeed, things will change.”

“How so?”

“Since things have come to this…”

As Logan spoke, Patrick’s face slowly regained its color. However, Logan’s face didn’t look any better, because a plan that he thought was certain had been ruined, and he now had to risk everything on uncertain hopes.

‘It has to go as planned.’

Logan tried to think only positive thoughts. If McLaine could survive this attack, no noble in the country would be able to ignore his power in the future, not even the 3rd Prince, whom they would make king.

Clench.

“We can be the anvil. We are strong enough. But we need a proper hammer…”

Logan looked at the northwest sky with worry and connected to a communication line again.

As soon as the rumors of war spread, the lord called up the militia and brought them inside.

This made the people of McLaine’s territory very anxious.

Even the people who hadn’t cared about the town relocation policy were now forming refugee groups to go to safer places.

“Even Tomodo-Silvan Town and Bifrost Castle will soon be full of people. At least, more people are supporting the militia, which is good,” Dwayne said with a complicated expression.

The territory was in danger of collapsing, but the people were actively responding. This mix of anxiety and hope was reflected on the faces of all the retainers in the great hall.

“There is no time to train the new recruits now. For now, use them as reservists for small tasks, keep the existing militia in McLaine Town, and don’t try to defend the other castles,” Patrick announced, sharing the decision made at the core leadership meeting.

Most people nodded because they already knew which way the enemy armies were coming.

But Patrick repeated the news that the retainers already knew.

“Everyone knows that McLaine Town is our center. It’s hard for a large army to move through the northern mountains, and the enemies won’t take unnecessary risks. They will come around the north of McLaine Castle, through the eastern fields.”

Patrick continued, ignoring the confused looks of his retainers.

“The space between McLaine Castle and the northern mountains is too big to defend with just the castle. So, we will build a long wall of earth north of McLaine Castle to create a defensive line.”

Patrick’s announcement turned the great hall into a noisy marketplace.

“What are you… saying?”

“What did I just hear?”

“How can we build a wall of earth when we have so little time? We should defend from McLaine Castle…”

Chatter chatter.

“Everyone, quiet! If we spend all the remaining money, we can do it in a week,” Logan said, ending the commotion.

“Pardon?”

“What nonsense is that?”

“Master Logan! What on earth are you saying…!”

As the retainers asked questions, Logan confidently shouted, looking at one spot in the great hall, but the retainers still looked suspicious.

Clayton, who was standing where Logan was looking, was sweating and giving a forced smile to the audience.