The Warrior’s Ballad
Chapter 92

Translator: Willia

It was a very, very distant place. Haiden Village. Even the name Haiden was fading from people's memories.

It was a place where people herded sheep and planted barley or buckwheat. The land was barren, but since few people lived there, they managed to get by somehow.

Looking at the tragically overgrown ruins, Ricardt felt the futility of time.

It didn’t have to be so hurtful. He could have forgiven, even if it wasn’t with love, but with hatred. Didn’t he even show mercy to Vesprim, the Meat Grinder?

At last, Ricardt could somewhat understand the words of the lord. It wasn’t the world that cursed and burned me, but myself.

The wind felt cold. For some reason, his chest felt tight, and he even felt depressed.

Ricardt wandered through the ruins. He looked around the temple where people had been imprisoned and burned. Not even bones remained.

Then he arrived at the newlywed home where a boy who didn’t know what happiness was had first come to understand it. It was the place where the tragedy began.

Ricardt couldn’t bring himself to enter. He wandered around for no reason. Memories of happiness, hatred rising up, and the explosion of rage intertwined.

Looking back after living a new life, there were things he could finally see. I was the only one who loved.

The wife introduced by the village chief had been a widow. They hadn’t married out of love in the first place. She simply needed a man to take responsibility. The community had entrusted a woman with nowhere else to go to Ricardt.

She must not have trusted me. I was clumsy with everything.

Ricardt calmly recalled the past he didn’t particularly want to revisit. He didn’t cling to it, just let the old memories scatter in the wind like cremated ashes being released into the sea.

Rather than a firm resolution, he simply stepped into the abandoned house with a calm heart. But unexpectedly, a white-haired girl was crouching in a corner. What is this?

It was so sudden that Ricardt blurted out without realizing it.

“Huh? There’s someone here.”

At the same time, the girl abruptly lifted her head. Then, squinting slightly from the sunlight, she stared intently at Ricardt.

In that moment, Ricardt felt like he had seen the girl somewhere before. Daisy had been so filthy and ragged in the past that she was hard to recognize.

“Huh?”

“There’s someone? Is it a spy?”

Marie, who had been inspecting the ruins, approached. At that moment, the girl dashed toward Ricardt and threw herself into his arms.

“My love!”

A lightning-like memory flashed through Ricardt’s mind. When he had left home and crossed the mountain path following Arno, the girl he had saved back then. Daisy.

Having just thought of Daisy, even Ricardt, with his monstrous reflexes, couldn’t react in time. So he ended up catching her.

“Daisy?”

“That’s right! It’s me! Ricky! You came to find me! You came to save me! I’m so happy!”

“Huh? Uh, no, that’s not it, I was just looking around here... But what are you doing here? Oh right, I met your mother once. I heard you became a nun?”

“Yeah. Order of Judgement’s Prophetic Nun, Miquella is my name as a nun.”

“Then what are you doing here?”

“Well, I had to meet my love, didn’t I?”

Daisy wrapped her arms around Ricardt’s waist and wouldn’t let go. And like before, she called him "love" without his consent.

Ricardt felt bewildered, both taken aback and oddly happy, but then suddenly the back of his neck felt cold. When he turned around, he nearly stopped breathing.

Perhaps due to Marie’s unique mana drive, her hair had become wildly frizzy like extreme static electricity. And her eyes, somehow out of focus, stared at the two of them.

“Ma, Marie? Hold on, let go for a second. Daisy.”

“Who’s that woman? She looks like a witch. I’m scared, Ricky.”

Daisy buried her face in Ricardt’s iron-plated chest covered with cloth, staring straight at Marie. Despite what she said, she didn’t seem particularly frightened. The only one scared was Ricardt.

However, Marie, unexpectedly, didn’t shout or explode in anger, but spoke in an extremely calm tone. Which made it even more frightening.

“From now on, you’d better answer carefully. If not, you might all end up dead. Who is she?”

“Uh, th-that, a while ago, that...”

“Excuse me, but we’re already married. We even exchanged rings. Right? Ricky.”

“What are you talking about? When did I ever?”

At the alarming words, Ricardt’s eyes widened. In truth, his memory was vague. What could be a precious, lifelong memory for one person might just be a fleeting moment to another.

Either way, to Marie, it was something she could not tolerate. Without even drawing her sword from its scabbard, she slashed through the air. Then, from within the sheath, the blade shone with light and revealed itself, cutting through the scabbard.

Holding a violet flash under the midday sun, Marie spoke.

“Fine. Everyone can die then. Ricky, don’t worry. I’ll follow right after.”

“Wait! Waiiit! Calm down! Calm down! That never happened! I mean! It did! But it was just a flower ring, a flower ring! I was ten years old! Not even an adult yet, what marriage are you talking about!”

Ricardt tightly shut his eyes and shouted desperately, frantically. In the midst of that, bits and pieces of memory returned, causing him to babble.

Though Ricardt was usually emotionless and indifferent, combining both his past and present lives, never had he been so flustered and embarrassed as now.

“What are you talking about, Ricky? You said thank you. When I said we were married because of it, you said okay.”

“I never said okay! Never! We were both just kids back then! Don’t make me angry!”

Ricardt forcibly unwrapped Daisy’s arms from around his waist and pushed her away. The powerless girl hit the wall of the abandoned house and collapsed with a thud.

“Ow!”

Doing that seemed to slightly quell Marie’s rage, but Ricardt felt a bit sorry for pushing Daisy.

Daisy couldn’t even get up and looked at Ricardt with a shocked expression, then began to sob.

“Every day, every day, I only thought of Ricky... I don’t know anything about God... I don't..."

Without having done much, Ricardt felt short of breath from the surge of emotions. So his chest throbbed.

“Wh-what do you want me to do... I said I never did that...”

In his previous life, it felt like he would go mad from hatred and rage. Now, he felt like he might go mad from embarrassment, awkwardness, unfairness, and guilt.

With all those complex emotions tangled into one, he couldn’t figure out what to do.

Fortunately, it seemed Marie had somewhat calmed down. The light withdrew from her sword. However, since the scabbard had become useless, the cold blade glinted in the open without a place to return.

“So, when you were kids, you got married? At ten?”

“Exactly! That’s it! But I never agreed to it! And she was even younger! How old are you!? I should have listened to Arno when he told me not to do it!"

Flustered, Ricardt spoke rather harshly.

“Without approval from both family heads, a marriage between minors is invalid. Then that’s settled.”

“Nooo! Forget valid or not, we were just kids...”

“Then I guess I should just die. Got it.”

Daisy, still sitting, said. Her tears flowed without pause, but her expression was blank. It must have been a considerable shock.

"Why, why are you being so extreme? Just let memories remain as memories, please!"

“Stop yelling. Everyone can hear.”

“......”

Marie instantly subdued the flustered Ricardt. Then she quietly looked at Daisy.

From the endlessly falling tears, she somehow felt a sense of shared pain. She too had spent many nights crying because of Ricardt. That’s why the burning anger cooled down even more.

“Hey, your name’s Daisy, right?”

"...Yes, you witch. You threatened Ricky with that sword, didn't you?"

It sounded like an absurd accusation, but it was true. At one point, Marie had pointed her sword at Ricardt and confessed her feelings.

“You’d better let go of your resentment toward me. Doing that won’t make Ricky look at you. Ricky’s not that kind of man.”

At those words, that Ricky wasn’t that kind of man, Daisy flinched. But she quickly shut her tiny mouth tightly and glared at Marie with tear-soaked eyes. She was resentful and furious. That someone else claimed to know Ricky better than she did.

“I knew him first. And we’re husband and wife. Even if you deny it, that’s the truth.”

Marie snorted. If things could be solved by sheer stubbornness like that, she herself would have ended up with Ricardt long ago, without all the heartache.

"There are many ways I could anger you, but I won't bother. First, aren't you a member of the Order? So are you an enemy or what? Let's clarify that first. If you're an enemy, I must kill you. Let me tell you in advance, there will be no personal feelings involved."

“Th-that’s a bit…”

Ricardt, who had been standing with his head hung low like a criminal, stepped forward. But Marie didn’t respond to his words and only stared intently at Daisy.

Daisy didn’t back down and stared right back at her.

“I’m not a follower. I’ve never believed in any god. I only believe in Ricky. And we’re one. So in that sense, you and I are enemies, witch.”

At Daisy’s bold reply, Marie let out a chilling smile. It was hard to tell whether it was mockery or confidence. Maybe both.

She simply turned away and began walking toward the campsite.

Ricardt hesitated, unsure whether to follow her. Seeing Daisy looking so pitiful again made him feel sorry for her.

“Sorry for pushing you. But I hope you don’t misunderstand. It’s a bit late to say this, but… anyway, it’s good to see you.”

“Ricky…”

“Anyway, this place is dangerous. I don’t know how things will turn out either, but I hope you stay safe.”

“Can’t I come with you?”

“……”

It was an incredibly awkward situation. They were here on a mission to eliminate the Order, so telling her to go back to the Order wasn’t possible, and telling her to go somewhere else didn’t make sense either, Daisy had nowhere to go.

Ricardt didn’t know how he should treat Daisy. Should he turn away coldly, even if it was harsh? He couldn’t decide.

The decisiveness that had always shone so sharply on the battlefield was completely useless in a situation like this.

But then Daisy, seeing that Ricardt didn’t know what to do, brightened her eyes, then put on an extremely pitiful expression and stood up weakly.

“Okay… I’ll go… Take care…”

Then she limped off toward the Order. It seemed like she had twisted her leg or something, but in truth, she hadn’t. She was pretending.

But Ricardt, thinking she had gotten hurt because he pushed her, couldn’t just let it go. Damn it!

“Wait. Let’s go together for now. I’ll carry you.”

At that, Daisy immediately climbed onto Ricardt’s back as if she had been waiting for it. Then, smiling brightly behind him, she buried her face in his neck.

“Am I heavy?”

“No.”

“After we got separated, I thought about you every day, Ricky. Did you think about me?”

“Sometimes.”

“That’s so mean.”

“I can’t lie.”

“Then can’t you think only of me from now on?”

“Daisy, you can’t stay a child forever.”

“But still, I can’t lie either. I really, really like you. You’re my prince, and my savior.”

“…How could someone like me save anyone…”

Ricardt didn’t know what to say. A woman’s obsession was truly terrifying. He was starting to understand the things Ice used to say now.

The northern fields were vast and wide. The once-green plains were now slowly yellowing from the tips of the leaves. The wind was cold, but not enough to make one shrink.

Far ahead, a young female swordsman walked in front, and behind her, a man walked while carrying another girl on his back. Far, far away from the ruins. Like the present pushing away the past.

Ricardt’s gloomy mood completely vanished, to the point he couldn’t even remember why he felt down in the first place. Not that this was the situation he had hoped for, of course.

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