ALL NOVEL Chapter 50: Friends
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.
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—What am I doing?
I know what would happen if I did this.
It’s a negative act as a knight of the Rhode.
Maybe I will not be able to stay in the army and I will not be able to achieve my goal.
So I should have just let it happen?
Like that time? Should I have just cried and watched people without power get killed?
Now that I have the power, there are lives that could be saved simply by my actions.
Piles of rubble, piles of iron.
A wilderness of gunpowder and dust.
Only one giant knight stands there.
The evacuation was already complete, and there was only Kenya and the Asgard forces blocked by Kenya.
“Almost destroyed… and against only one unit? That’s ridiculous.”
Major Nez’s face paled as he looked at the battlefield.
Although not a large force today, there are still some 20 KOGs in number.
All of them are skimmed and destroyed, rendering them incapable of fighting.
“This is ridiculous. What is that strength? Even if he’s a knight of Rhode-sama, it’s too strange.”
Nez is at a loss for what to say next.
But he is further surprised by the appearance of someone who appears immediately afterwards.
“Will you take me to him? He’s my knight.”
“Heh?”
A beautifully dressed man, not unlike those on the battlefield, gets out of a vehicle that has stopped in front of him.
The boy’s face is one you might not see every day if you live in the empire.
The current real NO.2 of this country.
The second prince of the family that rules the world.
“Ro, Ro, Ro, Rhode-sama!!!?”
***
“Huh, now what should I do? I can’t even make excuses anymore…”
After the battle was over, Kenya’s KOG stood there for a while.
He can’t even begin to think about what to do from now on.
Then a car approaches.
Kenya braces himself, and then the vehicle stops in front of him.
A boy gets out of the car with something in his hand.
The vehicle leaves the boy behind, meaning that Kenya is now here with him.
“Ah, Rhode!”
“I’ve made all the troops back down. We’ve also stopped the attack. Come down in peace, Kenya. Let’s talk.”
Those words reassured Kenya.
Trusting Rhode’s word, Kenya did as he was told and disembarked from the KOG.
“Rhode I’m sorry.”
“No, this is my fault for knowing your character and sending you to the battlefield. I was prepared for some trouble, but I never thought that my brother would order me to kill everyone, even the children. Had he fallen that far…?”
Rhode then takes out a piece of fruit from the bag he was carrying.
“I used to still have some respect for him… Eat, it’ll calm you down a bit if you put something in your mouth. It’s my favourite.”
It was purple and flabby.
“What? Grapes?”
Not many people would say their favorite thing is grapes.
Kenya also likes grapes, but he doesn’t have such a strong attachment to them.
The unexpected choice loosens Kenya’s tense feelings.
“It’s good, this is a good grape.”
“You can tell? It’s certainly top quality, and…”
“No, I have no idea. All I know is that it’s good.”
“Ha, yes, of course. But come to think of it, we don’t know too much about each other. You didn’t know that I like grapes or why? We owe each other our lives.”
“Ah.”
“So today, I’m going to tell you why I love grapes, which I haven’t told anyone.”
“Why I love grapes”? Does that mean it’s in Rhode’s past?”
“Oh, you didn’t think it was weird? Why am I such a nice guy for a royal?”
“You tell me.”
“Compared to my sister, anyone would be a good guy.”
“haha. Yes, of course.”
The black joke makes me laugh a little.
Kenya and Rhode are eating grapes brought by Rhode, leaning on KOG and chatting like they are good friends.
Before long, Kenya’s guard is all but down.
Seeing this, Rhode’s words are breaking down more and more.
After chatting for a while, he looks at Kenya with a serious voice.
“Well then, let’s talk. My past. I am…”
Chewing on a grape and looking at the grapes, Rhode speaks out about his past.
“I used to be a grape farmer.”
◇Lord’s past.
“Rhode, will you help me with the harvest?”
“Yes!”
This is the edge of the EU.
The Asgard Empire was nearby, not far from the border.
“Rhode is eight years old now. He’s not quite ready for wine yet, but…”
“I prefer grapes as they are to wine! Wine is bitter!”
“Oh, dear, children don’t understand yet…”
The boy, who was crunching grapes as he harvested them, lived with his mother.
His mother’s name is Scarlett, and she loves her son, and the son loves his mother, a mother-son family everywhere.
The world is peaceful, the sky is blue, and the weather is fine.
On such a pleasant morning, it is the perfect time to take a nap in the field.
The boy and his mother were enjoying the pleasant sunshine.
Until that day.
***
“Begin progress!”
The world’s largest empire suddenly launched an invasion.
A huge black shadow fills the sky and the Empire’s most advanced KOG heads towards the EU.
The Asgard empire, which had been in the hands of internal conflicts, and the Resistance, had not made any major moves recently.
But at last it is fully unified, governed, and ready for war.
The target is a huge confederation of countries dividing the world.
The European Union, commonly known as the EU.
And so began a massive offensive against the EU.
It was the outbreak of the EU War, later called the Greatest War.
***
Scarlet!
“Brother!”
Rhode’s mother, Scarlett’s brother Daniel, was a general in the EU army.
The EU immediately went on the offensive and fierce battles were taking place every day around the borders.
However, the war was unfavourable.
The EU has KOGs, but there is an overwhelming shortage of pilots.
The Reich has been focusing on training strong pilots over the past few years.
The EU is also well-funded with aid from the Asian Union, but only pilots cannot be obtained overnight.
Among the Asgard Empire, the ace class, known as the Holy Knights, showed remarkable results in the war.
Later, the most prominent among them were called the Chief Holy Knights.
“You guys get out of here! We are holding the front line, but we don’t know when the border will be breached!”
“No, I will stay. This is still my brother’s sister.”
But… but the Rhode…
“If push comes to shove, we will use the last resort, and for that we should still be on the front line.”
So saying this, Mother Scarlett hands Rhode a ring.
As it is not yet large enough to be worn, she puts it on his neck as a necklace.
“Mother, what is this?”
“I’ll tell you one day, it’s a talisman to protect you.”
My brother saw this and nodded.
“…well, it’s really a last resort, but… okay. Then come to the base at least. If it comes to it, I’ll let you go, even if it’s by force.”
“Yes.”
And the fighting began that day.
Repeatedly, we were beaten and beaten near the border.
But gradually the front collapsed.
***
“Damn!”
The accommodation where my brother, Scarlett and Rhode are staying.
There, they hear their brother’s angry voice.
“This is… a week, or more likely three days…”
Daniel puts a map and a model on his desk and repeatedly conducts mock battles, even while he sleeps.
But no matter how many times he tries, if this continues, the front line in this area will collapse.
If this front is breached, other fronts along the border will be breached one after another, so we must not lose.
What awaits us after that is hell.
Unable to hold on to my frustration at the daily string of defeats and the battle with no clear tomorrow, I raised my voice loudly in my sleeping quarters.
“Brother…”
“Ah, Rhode, Sorry. I woke you up…”
“Uncle Daniel? What’s wrong?”
“I’m having a bit of a problem. I’m sorry, Rhode.”
Then Rhode sits down on his brother’s lap.
“What’s this?”
—-It might give you a change of pace or maybe you’ll come up with a better idea.
With this in mind, Daniel carefully shows Rhode the map and the model.
He thought he might come up with some strange ideas in the process.
“Yeah, great. You learn it in one lesson, this is the enemy and this is the ally. And this is where we have to make sure they never get past this place. This is the fight to protect you and keep you safe.”
“Then what’s this?”
“This is where the enemy base is, and if we take this place down, I’d say we win, but, well, we can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Why not? No, there’s an enemy base here, right? You have to get past it to get to it.”
“But if you pull here, this enemy piece will come, because the objective is here. So, if we take this other piece and go around this mountain from the side, we can reach it, right? Then the enemy will rush back to their base, right? If we follow them then, we can pin them down, right?”
“Now, Rhode! Go back to sleep, you’re bothering your uncle!”
Then Scarlett grabs him by the hand and almost takes him to her sleeping quarters.
“Wait, Scarlett.”
“Uncle?” “Brother?”
Daniel was trying to think of reasons why he shouldn’t, trying to laugh it off as childish nonsense.
But no matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t find a clear reason why not.
He had only thought of defending, and had decided that it would be impossible to go on the offensive due to the difference in strength.
“That… no, but. If that happens, the enemy will have no choice but to retreat… and deliberately let us cross the border? I’m afraid to even think of such a thing… but…”
Daniel continues to mumble to himself.
No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t think of anything else.
It was an idea that made him think so, and taking into account the terrain, the movement of a separate unit should be absolutely undetectable.
In the first place, there is no such thing as a trap that would force them to cross the border. Something that would be like giving your heart.
But that is why this strategy is sure to work.
“Rhode… you.”
Then he looks at Rhode.
A boy who doesn’t even know much about war.
The boy smiles at Daniel with a smile.
No one yet knew that behind that innocent, carefree smile, the devil was smiling.