Reader’S Regeneration Life [EN]: Chapter 244

244―――――

Everything That Falls

A king in Hispaña was about to ascend the throne and immediately admit and apologize for his mistakes.

Not just at any time, but so soon after ascending to the throne.

Even worse, on the last day of his coronation party, a meteor, known as the ultimate symbol of misfortune, fell before all the nobles and citizens of the kingdom.

Vanessa acted swiftly because this was an issue that couldn’t be ignored.

She decided to hold a ritual of apology to the heavens, stating that holding the party for too long at a time when the kingdom’s chaos had not yet subsided seemed to be a kind of warning, and that she would refrain from doing so in the future.

“What else can I do?

The misfortune of the country is always the fault of the king.

I am no different.”

From Vanessa’s perspective, it was absurd and embarrassing, but she had warned herself that something like this might happen someday, so she remained calm.

She muttered this in front of Zion, saying that she would perform the ritual tonight.

“···.”

Zion stared into his teacup with a troubled expression, but Vanessa smiled as if to reassure him, as if it were nothing.

“Don’t worry about it, Duke Zion Claussen.

Whenever difficult things happen in the country, the king would always step forward to pray for forgiveness for his sins and perform such rituals.

Even my late father appeased the angry public in this way when the kingdom’s people were struggling with a prolonged drought in the early days, and he actually gained more strength when it rained shortly after.”

“I know that story.

But the king at the time probably didn’t prepare for such a ritual without any preparation.”

“Hmm?”

“He probably knew that rain would come soon and acted accordingly.

That’s how things usually are.

You could say it’s about reading the will of the heavens in advance and preparing to turn coincidence into inevitability.”

Vanessa may not know it, but Zion does.

There was such a part in a passing story in the novel, during a conversation between Kim Yoo-hyun and Raido.

King Edgar IV, who knew that rain would come after the continued drought, used the perfect timing to change the wavering public sentiment into loyalty to the royal family all at once.

“But this time is different, isn’t it, Duke Zion?”

“···.”

“You saw it yesterday, too.

The red meteor fell with an ominous sound.

The more time we waste, the more disadvantageous it is for the royal family.

The situation is too different from then.”

Vanessa sighed and fiddled with her teacup.

She was now agonizing over things she wouldn’t have even considered when she was a princess, and her head was throbbing.

So this is the immense weight that her father had endured for so long.

He endured this pressure with worry and a sense of duty to the country.

Can I overcome it like him? No.

I must overcome it.

For my father, for my brother, and for the man sitting in front of me.

For Zion, who believed in her more than anyone else, she had to wisely overcome this challenge.

“How are the nobles reacting?”

“Everyone is hush-hush about it, but it’s not good.

It happened on a day when all the nobles who are known in the kingdom were gathered.”

“···What’s the atmosphere in the castle?”

“···.”

The vassal cannot answer the king’s question.

Unless the vassal is openly rebelling against the king, it is proof that the situation is so bad that he cannot put it into words.

“We must not delay.

There is no other way but to perform the ritual when the sun goes down and the stars twinkle, as our predecessors did.”

“It seems there is no other way.”

“Performing the ritual doesn’t create any particularly brilliant solutions, but I must show that I am always willing to take a low posture and work from a low position for the sake of the kingdom.”

Vanessa muttered, bringing the teacup to her lips.

Zion, who had been staring at her, simply sighed, showing that he didn’t have any brilliant solutions either.

“I said, this is not something you should worry about.

This is a burden that has been placed solely on me from the moment I decided to take this position.

This is a challenge that only I, with my own strength, must overcome on my own.

There is no need to blame yourself for not being able to help me, and I don’t want to see that either.

Do you understand what I mean?”

“···Yes, I understand.

Your Majesty.”

“Yes.

You just need to treat the nobles from the East and the guests from the North well and send them home.

That’s the best you can do for me.”

Vanessa smiled brightly, something she didn’t even do when she was a princess, as if not to burden Zion, signaling that he should trust her.

Until now, you have helped me, but now there are countless things that I have to do on my own, so I will break through on my own now, and you don’t need to worry or take my place, she said.

“Still, I haven’t been feeling well all day, but thanks to you, I’m laughing like this.

Thank you, Duke Zion Claussen.

I would like to talk a little more, but now I am not just a princess but the ruler of a country, so I have many things to do.

Let’s talk about the rest later.”

At Vanessa’s words, Zion nodded as if to agree and left the palace.

As he got into the carriage with the royal knights escorting him, Lilith, who was inside, cautiously opened her mouth.

“How was it?”

“Predictable.

Just that it’s something I have to take on.

It’s my job to bear, so you don’t need to worry about it.

Something like that.”

“Oh…

I was worried that she might whine about whether you had any solutions, but it seems she still has the awareness of being a queen?”

Zion simply smiled at the succubus queen’s playful words.

If Vanessa had been that kind of woman in the first place, she wouldn’t have made Erader the prince king while crushing him so thoroughly.

Others say that he helped Vanessa, but in fact, Zion always considered the parts that would benefit him first, and if he concluded that it would be beneficial, he thought about the other advantages that would follow.

Erader was a guy who had more losses than gains, so he quickly cut ties with him, but if Vanessa had been judged to be similar to him, he might have chosen the prince instead.

“Master.

Shall we go straight to the Heiness Merchant Guild?”

“Yes.

By now, Helen should have found and made everything I asked for.”

At Zion’s answer, Rishikida, who was outside, gave the order to depart, and the carriage moved.

Lilith, who had been quietly watching Zion in the occasionally bumpy carriage, slowly opened her mouth.

“Are you really going to go through with it?”

“I have no intention of backing out now.”

“No, that’s… um…”

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m just wondering if it will work.

The fairies aren’t stupid, and the chances of them moving the way you want them to by doing that are too low, right?

It could even strengthen their solidarity.

While shouting that it’s a trick of the demons.”

Lilith’s concerns were valid.

In fact, Zion was also thinking about this, and he judged that if things didn’t go well, it could strengthen the solidarity of the pointy-ears and, in the worst-case scenario, all the fairies might declare a final battle with the demons.

“Lilith-nim [term of respect, similar to ‘Lady’ or ‘Miss’].

What image do fairies have of the celestials [beings of light and purity, often associated with gods]?”

“···Annoying appearance?

Or the halo that comes out even when standing still?

Or… ah, maybe wings?”

“All of them are a bit far from demons.

Especially the halo and the white wings, demons are originally far from white, a very honest race, aren’t they?”

“Shut up.

Do you think we like dark colors like black or red and a gloomy feeling?

Our bodies are like this in the first place, so what can we do!”

“That’s not the point.

Anyway, in addition to those fixed images, there’s also the reason why fairies call themselves the seeds of the celestials, right?”

“Because they can use the power of the celestials, although it’s only a little.”

To be precise, it is that they can use the things left by the celestials.

For example, fairies have created a kind of alarm device on the border of their village, which was modeled after the things of the celestials, so they could know the approach of the demons they hate so much.

The people who protect the village are always on guard against the approach of other races, so they only need to know and prevent the worst enemy, the demons, in advance.

“Until now, there hasn’t been a strong person who could break through that boundary and cause trouble.

Even if there was, there was no need to go to the fairies and harm them.”

“Right?”

“Lilith-nim knows very well that fairies are the seeds of the celestials, so they are unlucky, have no manners, and live with their own arrogance, right?”

“That’s… right?”

“That’s it.” Zion answered and chuckled.

Lilith shuddered and trembled at the sight of his wickedly smiling face, which seemed evil enough to make most demons run away.

‘How to destroy those who are too proud?

Easy, very easy.

Give them a shock that they can’t accept with that confidence, so they can’t look back on all the other cases.

Because their pride doesn’t allow it.

Because they think they can’t.’

They made a device to detect demons with things left by the descendants of the great light.

And the village is guarded by the fairy warriors, who are the strongest in the world after the celestials.

In a place where even tens of thousands of humans can be repelled, if a ‘tactical nuke’ [a devastatingly powerful weapon] that they can never handle falls.

‘How will they react?

Will they admit that there was something wrong with the things left by the descendants of the great light and blame the celestials?

Or will they say that the fairy warriors are weaker and sicker than they thought, and they all fell helplessly to outsiders?

No, if it’s not both…’

Will they think that some being they cannot resist suddenly invaded and tried to purify even them from this world?

―

“Your Majesty.

Everything is ready.”

This is the one who should be wearing the most dignified and splendid clothes in the world.

But now, she was wearing clothes that were so simple and even shabby, like during the ritual before the coronation, and had to kneel before the altar and beg for her mistakes.

‘This is not an apology to God, the heavens, or the descendants of light.’

What she is trying to do now is to comfort the people of the kingdom who have experienced misfortune at a time of great joy.

The one in the highest place, with the strongest power, and the most noble is an unspoken gesture to all the people of the kingdom to trust and follow her.

“Let’s go.”

At Vanessa’s words, the chamberlain could not hide his mournful expression.

Even though she had just become the supreme ruler of the kingdom, things had gone wrong from the start.

If there was a god, it was too much, and she wanted to ask the celestials, who were called the descendants of light, if they were so twisted because they had left the holy war.

But Vanessa, unlike the chamberlain, seemed so calm.

Rather, she looked up at the sky and said that the night sky was really beautiful, and then she even smiled and playfully mentioned yesterday’s events that had driven her to this point.

“Fortunately, no meteors are falling today.”

At the queen’s calm appearance, only the faces of the chamberlain and the royal knights became even more grim.

Everyone around her could not hide their mournful expressions, but only Vanessa seemed to be saying that it was no big deal, a very ironic situation.

The queen stood in front of the altar and slowly knelt down.

She told herself that this was all for the sake of the kingdom and that it was nothing, and she was about to bow her head to apologize, even though there would be no answer and no one to accept it, when she heard a voice.

“Y-Your Majesty?”

Vanessa frowned slightly at the chamberlain’s voice, which was full of blankness, as if asking why.

At that, the chamberlain stuttered, ‘Uh, uh,’ and only pointed to the sky with his hand.

“Chamberlain, why on earth are you…”

At that moment, Vanessa wondered if she was dreaming.

Something was happening that was impossible for human eyes or minds to accept or understand.

Shoooo―.

The star is heading back into the sky.

The fireball that had fallen to the ground was flying leisurely far away into the sky, as if yesterday’s events had been a lie.

“Look over there!”

“Huh?

W-What is it?

What’s that?”

The people of the royal castle were in an uproar as something they had never imagined happened.

In a place that had been somewhat gloomy due to what had happened yesterday, a commotion of a different meaning from yesterday was ignited.

Meanwhile, the nobles, who were preparing to leave for their territories tomorrow, were also very embarrassed.

Just yesterday, and even this afternoon, they had been worrying about the future of the royal family and the kingdom, and they had been telling all sorts of stories, but as if mocking them, the fire that they thought had fallen to the ground was soaring again!

“Is this, is this even possible?”

“You said that Her Majesty was clearly holding a ceremony today to pray for the peace of the kingdom.”

“You mean that with that one act, that ominous thing immediately returned to its original position…?! Haha, hahaha!”

Just like yesterday, slowly but surely.

The flame that had disappeared beyond the horizon past the royal castle rose again and left a long trail as it soared above the sky of the royal castle as if rewinding.

“Your Majesty, Your Majesty!”

“Your Majesty!”

The chamberlain and the royal knights all came to the queen’s side and knelt down.

Then, shedding tears of joy, they all said that it was thanks to her, and that what had happened yesterday was probably a kind of test from the late royal family.

They said that she had given a satisfactory answer to the test, so all the discord in the kingdom was being embraced and disappearing far into the sky like that.

“···.”

Vanessa could not answer the emotional words of her vassals.

In this situation where something unimaginable was happening, a man suddenly came to her mind.

‘Zion Claussen.’

No way, it can’t be, right?

This time, it must be something you don’t know, right?

If you really helped me this time too, I’ll be a little sad.

Because I said I could overcome it myself, but in the end, you didn’t listen to me.

So, I’ll think that this is something you don’t know this time.

If I don’t think that way, I want to call you right away and hug you as you are.

Looking at the fire slowly disappearing into the sky, Vanessa prayed like that.

“Ah, good.

Good―.”

Zion, who didn’t care about the queen’s heart, was just grinning with a creepy smile on his face, with only the animosity towards the guys who were trying to screw him over burning brightly.

“Okay, you bastards.

Let’s really have some fun!”

Dove, dove, dove [onomatopoeia for a bird’s cooing, used here to express mocking or disdain].

If you’re upset about the current situation, why didn’t you just drop that meteor or whatever in the middle of the royal castle?

Ah, so you decided to just let it disappear far away so that the manipulation wouldn’t be revealed?

That’s a shame.

The world is full of things you don’t know, right?

A falling star could suddenly gain lift and soar magnificently instead of crashing, telling you to eat shit [a vulgar expression of defiance].

‘Everything that falls is not really fallen until the whole world sees it crash to the ground.

You have to think that it can always rise again and disappear into the sky.’

Well, I’ve launched the star, so let’s move on to the next thing.

I don’t know if you know the law of equivalent exchange [a concept where something is gained only by giving up something of equal value].

You’ll have to adequately compensate me for the mental stress and humiliation I’ve received, as well as the effort and time I’ve put into preparing for today.

‘Every time you drop a flame, I drop a tactical nuke.’

―――――――Author’s Note―――――――

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