30 Years Have Passed Since the Prologue
chapter-267

Chapter: 267

“Isn’t that a foul? Honestly.”

Isabelle pouted as she walked over. Following her, warriors from the South approached.

The conflict had already become meaningless. Among those remaining, there were none whose will to fight still persisted. The warriors from the Northern territories had disarmed and were staring at Ivan.

For a warrior, a death without struggle is an insult. According to tradition, an unarmed warrior is never killed except in special circumstances.

Even if they had been plotting a rebellion, there was no reason to treat the remaining warriors in such a manner after their leader was dead. Drovian society has no civilized customs like collective responsibility.

“Being a married man…”

Even in the midst of all this, Isabelle was murmuring gloomily.

No, honestly. This is unfair. What should a married man do if he wants something like that?

When she realized that the man was actually in a polygamous relationship, she noticed that technically, he wasn’t married yet.

He hadn’t even had a wedding with Elizaveta, and Ecdysis was only ‘engaged’ due to operational reasons…

In Tylesse, under those conditions, he might as well be single. One could say he was in a situation tagged as ‘free dating.’

“Then does that mean I also have a chance…?”

It was a state of one confession and three rejections, but still.

Isabelle’s thoughts were broken by Ivan’s cold voice.

“What the hell happened here?”

“Ex, excuse me? What?”

“I asked why Ecdysis is like that… um. In that state.”

“Oh, um… ahaha.”

Following Ivan’s gaze, Isabelle turned her head and saw Ecdysis drumming away in the leading train car.

– Burn Drovian down! Warriors!!! Break what can’t be ridden, and bury what can’t be broken!!

– Waaaah!!! Blood and!! Glory!!!

– Lead us to slaughter!!!

– Shield Maiden!!! Shield Maiden!!! Shield Maiden!!!!

As befits a bard, her voice was incredible. While shouting with a tremendous volume and perfect intonation, it felt more like music than mere noise.

Ecdysis, with a half-dazed expression, was pounding a war drum made of steel shields with her mace… The warriors surrounded her train, dancing and shouting as if entranced.

It felt like witnessing a fragment of the apocalypse. Noticing the mix of concern and suspicion in Ivan’s eyes, Isabelle awkwardly smiled and pointed to Eugene.

“That’s his fault. I don’t, I don’t know anything.”

“No, Isabelle!! Are you betraying us here?!”

“Betrayal? This is really your fault! You charlatan priest!”

“Charlatan…? What are you talking about? I am a fully ordained priest who has received the proper sacraments from the Saint.”

Eugene approached, giving a haughty laugh. He faced Ivan, hesitated for a moment, then cautiously spoke.

“Well, this is all needed, you see, brother.”

Let’s go back to the time when the South was in chaos.

The most representative and famous traditional game of Drovian is the Blood Eagle. It holds the same status as the swing game played during the Dano festival. It is tied high, many people gather to watch, and the riders scream.

Unfortunately, the Blood Eagle isn’t a frequent event. It is too cumbersome. If you were hoping for some humanitarian reason, this is Drovian.

However, there is another more universal Drovian game.

Arson.

This is akin to firecrackers. People delight in watching what is lit, actively trying to start fires, and occasionally causing unexpected conflagrations.

“Uaaaaah—!!!”

A group of citizens screamed as they rushed out of their homes. The once peaceful village was filled with flames and the smell of burning. Warriors clashed their weapons, reveling in the chaos, shouting.

Surprisingly, arson isn’t just good to look at. If there’s no economic benefit, these Drovian economists won’t budge.

When arson occurs, it’s only natural that there are victims of fire. By actively rescuing them, the Drovian people earn a modest rescue fee. If they refuse to rescue, they conduct body recovery and heritage acquisition in the burned ruins. This falls under the standard Drovian inheritance procedures.

“How dare they ambush their own kind…! May they be cursed!!”

“Haha!! Did you expect us to send a warning before looting?”

The remaining warriors snarled at the raiders with faces flushed with rage. The faces of the unarmed warriors kneeling were still brimming with fighting spirit.

However, the raiders do not execute or unnecessarily humiliate them. According to Drovian tradition, raiding is considered an action with a relatively high survival rate. No Drovian would kill an unarmed warrior.

Everyone must have the right to revenge equally. This is because everyone has the right to go to the corridors of heaven. Even if they lose everything, as long as they maintain their lives, they can head to heaven through a lawful battle. Of course, if they win, they need not go to heaven.

“Isabelle. We need to pick up the pace.”

“Huh?”

“Lord Yeremov is in danger.”

Yuri, watching the warriors happily collecting gold and food from around the village, spoke.

“What I mean is, we can’t move at this speed.”

“I understand we need to hurry, but have you heard something?”

“No, but… how can I express this….”

Yuri looked up at the sky and let out a brief sigh. If Elpheira were here, she could probably read the signs, but she was just a mere student from the Knight Department.

Before she knew it, the warriors gathered here numbered just under ten thousand. She didn’t have the authority or ability to command such a large army.

How to convince them to stop these pointless tasks like plunder or skirmishes and run towards the eastern front as fast as possible? To do that, she would have to win over each and every clan present, and frankly, she had no idea how.

As she swallowed her words, Isabelle sighed and said.

“Well, whatever.”

“Huh?”

“It’s not like it matters anyway. Like the uncle said, whatever ‘common sense’ is. It seems there’s common sense I don’t know about.”

Isabelle shook her head. The sense of this strange group often resulted in exceedingly nonsensical choices from her perspective. It felt as if conclusions were derived without any process of information.

But what can she do?

“The problem is that until now, that uncle’s common sense has never been wrong. It’s infuriating.”

“….”

“Alright, let’s find a solution. What should we do?”

“Uh…”

Yuri carefully glanced at Isabelle’s expression and asked.

“How can I believe this? I’m just a commoner, a student with no background.”

She was hoping to be trusted, but being accepted so easily threw her off balance. Honestly, even if it’s called common sense, this isn’t a common sense situation.

In fact, this is a selfish way of thinking viewed from the perspective of a being possessed by a 21st-century Earthling, treating this world as a kind of ‘worldview’. To someone who has been living normally in this world, it could sound extremely insulting.

However, Isabelle just shrugged in response to Yuri’s words.

“But you’re a hero.”

“Huh?”

“There’s no hero that can’t trust their party. If my dad couldn’t trust uncles like you, would he have caught the Demon King? And the more decisive point is….”

Isabelle got ready to say something confidently, but then her face turned red, and she looked away. It wasn’t hard to guess what she had swallowed back, and Yuri chuckled as she patted her shoulder.

‘Because I trust Lord Yeremov. There’s no way the people he placed would be wrong, and I have no doubts about that…. In case of disagreement, my attitude prioritizes Lord Yeremov’s judgment.’

What a sinful person. Seeing Yuri laugh, Isabelle clicked her tongue. As if they had been listening to their conversation, Eugene approached, grinning while rubbing his hands together.

“What, what now?”

“I’ve had a brilliant idea—.”

“Your last idea was to marry Ecdysis to the uncle, wasn’t it?”

“That was a truly brilliant idea. Hehe, thanks to that, hasn’t everything worked out so far?”

She had to forcibly suppress the desire to try out Drovian games. Isabelle asked, her voice cold.

“Keep saying useless things. I really might end up dropping you.”

“That’s not just nuclear warfare against civilians…?”

“What?”

“Oh, no. No, indeed. Hehe, so what I meant is that we need to persuade the Yarl to rush to the eastern front as quickly as possible.”

“And?”

Yuri spoke in a grave tone.

“Why not let Ecdysis handle it?”

“Convince the Yarl? Do you really think that’s going to work? Unless we take them down one by one, that’s going to be tough.”

“Is that really necessary? What’s the reason for trying to persuade the Yarl?”

“To lead the warriors…?”

“Then can’t we skip the process and just reach the conclusion? As long as you can lead the warriors, that’s all that matters.”

“… huh?”

It wasn’t wrong. Right now, the warriors were too preoccupied with looting, dragging out the time whenever they found a village, so she couldn’t give orders to ‘not loot and just run’.

At this point, Eugene continued with a smile.

“Originally, incitement isn’t done with authority. It’s not about getting people to ‘listen’, but rather about saying what they ‘want to hear’. In fact, that’s what priests do.”

“… you charlatan.”

“Anyway, what I’m saying is that public incitement is up to this side.”

“Do you have a way?”

“Think about it. Do priests ever guide lost sheep through sermons?”

“… don’t they? Usually?”

“Oh come on, what are you talking about.”

Isabelle was confused. Aside from ‘good words’, what exactly could a priest do…?

“Songs. Singing transcends cultural boundaries and provokes people. Songs are the only legal drugs permitted by the state….”

In fact, no nation in this era criminalizes drugs. It’s because they are highly valuable items. Kalion is known for its experts in this field.

But Isabelle stared at Eugene without rebuttal. There was an ageless reliability in his voice.

Eugene’s voice whispered like a serpent.

“By coincidence, Ecdysis is a bard!”

With that, Eugene headed towards Ecdysis.

“That’s not it, Ecdysis. Put away the violin. What do you expect to do with such a soft instrument?”

“Uh… huh?”

“Grab a mace. Strike the shield! Keep your voice as husky, deep, and gravelly as possible. Right, hit the high notes from there—.”

The initiation began with Metallica, “Seek & Destroy.” Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Led Zeppelin… Fortunately, the songs he can refer to were already filling his head.

In Earth’s 2000s, hipsters listened to hip-hop, while those of the 1990s experienced rock. But the hipsters of the 1980s listened to metal.

Eugene was older than Ivan… that is, Kim Sunwoo, by Earth years. Coincidentally, he straddled an age bracket that was no longer young or ‘MZ’.

“And Drovian belongs to the Nordic cultural sphere.”

There is a lineage of culture. It is universally applicable even across dimensions, as evidenced in Krasilov.

That mad Northern war state maintained a military dictatorship advocating firepower supremacy both here and there. Sadly, he was unfamiliar with Russian culture, making it difficult to utilize Earth’s common sense.

However, this Drovian land belongs to the so-called Nordic cultural realm. In other words, it means a community with a cold-hearted Swedish lineage that doesn’t treat guests, even elementary students, to a meal.

Still, there is proof that even Swedes possess warm hearts. They showed the passion for turning children’s songs into death metal.

In this world, the metal genre doesn’t yet exist, but it could be said that spreading leading-edge culture is the hero’s mission.

‘I’ve become a world-plagiarizing music producer…!!’

With Eugene’s madness-fueled teachings (a graduate of the Theology Department at Jan’s University with a focus on choral subjects) and Ecdysis’s remarkable talent (a Drovian dual-major music student), a new cultural realm began to blossom at that moment.

As all this unfolded, Yuri suddenly murmured, ‘The Pied Piper of Hamelin…’ sparking the beginning of a mad rush.

– Burn Drovian down!!!!

As she passionately declared the most beloved traditional game of the Drovian, every warrior went wild, captivated by her figure as she struck the drum in the lead vehicle.

“Hehe, has Ecdysis… ‘awoken’?”

Eugene laughed like a sly fox while rubbing his hands together.

Ivan, observing him and the still-music-enthused… almost frantically euphoric Ecdysis, briefly replied.

“Excellent.”

Thus, the Drovian Rock Festival (1 participant, 24,000 audience members) successfully began its mobile tour concert towards the eastern front.

EP45. Burn Drovian.