Betrayed by My Best Friend and Dumped by My Fiancée, I’ve Decided to Enjoy Life as I Please ~ For Some Reason, a Bunch of Crazy Fanatics Keep Pledging Their Loyalty to Me~
I am a humble blacksmith in the city of Zaks.
The city is seething with discontent.
The taxes are high, but not so high that you can’t afford them, but the lord is notorious for his trashy character, and it is rumored that he kidnaps the women in his domain and makes them his concubines.
However, the exorbitant taxes required to emigrate from the city make it impossible to escape.
In such an environment, resentment and discontent built up day by day in Zaks.
Then one day…
“You want me to sell you a lot of weapons?”
“Yes. You are an old-timer in the blacksmithing industry, and know all kinds of blacksmiths. So I was wondering if you could sell me a large quantity of weapons.”
The people who came to us looked like they had never been in a fight before.
What is it about these people that makes them want weapons in the first place?
“What on earth would they use them for? You’re not adventurers, are you?”
“Still, I want you to sell me something.”
“If you’re just looking for something to do, go home. Even if you have a reason, a weapon is nothing more than a weapon that can take a person’s life. If they are used just for fun, it’s not worth the trouble. I don’t spend my live making weapons for that kind of thing.”
At my words, the people who had come to buy weapons fell silent.
I can’t live without money, but that doesn’t mean I’ll do anything for money.
That’s what I was committed to as a craftsman.
“I understand. I’ll tell you. But I don’t want you to tell anyone about this.”
“…… fine. Depending on what you tell me, I may sell it to you.”
“Thank you. I’m going to be straight with you. There’s an underground coup being planned in town right now.”
“…..!”
A coup, you say?
I was speechless at the suddenness of the story.
“Recently, there was a sudden talk about a coup d’etat. We’ve decided to participate in it, and we’ve been assigned to procure weapons. We’re in charge of getting weapons to take Gedo’s head off.”
“Gedo’s ……”
I had a grudge against Gedo.
He had killed my daughter because she had offended him.
If I could kill him,……, I would have no regrets after losing my wife and family.
This was the moment when my resentment won out over my pride as a craftsman.
“I understood. I’ll give you all the weapons I have, and I’ll call on other craftsmen. But on one condition: I’ll participate in the coup, and you can’t force me to sell them to other craftsmen. This is non-negotiable.”
“That’s enough! Thank you!”
The day of the coup was during a joint military exercise between the Knights and the army.
I decided to take part in the coup.
◇◆◇
“Keep moving! If we can get through here, we’re almost to the Lords’ Hall!”
“Defend, defend! You may draw your swords! No one is allowed to get through!”
The guards and the uprising people clash.
Blood was spilling everywhere in the melee, but we were steadily making our way toward the lord’s mansion.
I too, roused by my own strength, fight with the best I have made.
“Uraa! I must finish him off for killing my daughter ……!”
“Gaaaah!”
The guard in front of me falls down, spraying blood.
I was in a cold sweat at the first bad feeling I had, but I couldn’t back out now that I’d come this far.
“We can see the lord’s mansion now! Everyone, we’re almost there! Fight hard!”
I look up suddenly at the sound of someone’s voice.
I saw the lord’s mansion in my eyes.
My body was filled with the will to fight.
“Break through the gate! Gedo’s head is right there!”
“Defend to the death! Defend this gate for sure!”
The two sides clashed with each other’s willpower and determination.
The stalemate continued for tens of minutes, but we were the ones who outnumbered them overwhelmingly.
At the moment we finally broke through the gate…
[Dooonn！！]
There was a tremendous roar and the earth shook, and the chaotic battlefield fell silent.
Everyone stopped moving and could not hide their confusion.
When they looked, they saw a large hole in one corner of the lord’s mansion, and smoke was rising from it.
(Was that a …… gunpowder explosion? No, it looked like …… magic?)
“Oh, hey! There! Look at that!”
As I was contemplating the explosion, someone shouted and pointed at me.
I looked that way and saw someone standing on the roof of the lord’s mansion with a black hood covering his face.
I thought it might be enemy reinforcements, but the guards were equally puzzled.
So what in the world is that? ……
“H-How did that person get in?”
“I will not answer your question. Shut up.”
The hooded figure sharply cuts off the question of the person who seems to be the captain of the security team.
The voice was dignified and feminine.
Then, she opened the storage room, took out something wrapped in a cloth, and threw it down.
“What? This!”
“Gedo’s …… head!”
Voices of agitation and doubt rose from all over the place.
The guards were especially upset because the general they were supposed to be protecting had been killed.
“H-How did you do this?”
“It’s no big deal for us. I had to take this guy’s head off for some business, so I apologize to you all, but the object of your resentment has been avenged.”
It was hard to realize that everything had suddenly come to an end.
But even though I couldn’t do anything about it myself,……, I felt a little rewarded just by being told that he was dead.
“Instead, I left plenty of evidence of wrongdoing. I also found evidence of corruption in the security services, so you security guards should be careful.”
With a giggle, the hooded woman confronts the guards with the reality of the situation.
The woman’s words must be true, because a few of the guards are turning blue.
“Y-You!! Do you know what will happen to you …… if you do anything to challenge the empire like this?”
The captain’s face turned pale and he asked the woman as if he was taking it out on her.
The woman, however, was neither impatient nor anxious, but simply laughed.
“challenge the empire? Isn’t that great? Our goal is not to overthrow a small empire, but to overthrow the World Alliance.”
“”?””
Everyone present was speechless.
What is this woman talking about?
But there was no one who dismissed it as a joke.
The woman’s words were filled with such power and force that no one could say whether or not they were true.
“Our power is to help the weak and discourage the strong. We will not abandon the oppressed. For my Lord, who has noble ambitions, has risen to save us all.”
“D-Don’t be ridiculous!”
“ridiculous? I am only telling the truth about everything.”
Saying this, the woman begins to chant something.
Then the walls of the lord’s house began to glow, and some sort of emblem began to appear.
The emblem was a pair of black and white dragons intertwined with each other, something I have never seen before.
“Tell the higher-ups to wait and see what happens. Tell them to wait with their heads held high. The blade of our ‘Black and White dragon’ will surely cut through you.”
Then the woman turns around and takes off her hood.
Her long black hair appeared and swayed in the wind.
The next moment, she was gone.
The success of the coup and the appearance of a mysterious organization that wanted to challenge the Empire and the World Alliance quickly spread throughout the city with the crest.
The empire had to clamp down to protect its authority, but there were so many witnesses that within a few months, rumors about the incident and the mysterious organization spread throughout the world.
The ultimate goal of Iris’s plan was to “defeat Gedo” and the other was to “make the existence of the Black and White dragon known to the world and declare war”
Iris, who stands for the liberation of the discriminated races, knew that there are many people who are oppressed even by ordinary humans.
In order to increase the power of the organization and to increase the number of collaborators, she declared that she would not abandon those who are oppressed, even those who are not of a discriminated race.
She went out of her way to appear in front of many people so that she would not be squelched by the empire…..
Thus, the name of the Black and White dragon Clan became known, and those who had been dissatisfied with the empire began to look favorably on them…
Iris’s move laid the groundwork for opposition to the Alliance
This was undeniably a major event that will remain in history, and will be widely talked about in future generations as an incident that symbolized the beginning of the age of turmoil that was to come.
The Black and White dragon took a giant step forward.
It will be a little while before Rex learns the full story of this incident.
It goes without saying how he would have reacted at that time.
-Maiban