I am the Monarch

The first life was perfect or at least, it was close to perfection.

An orphan of a mountainside village next to the Grain Mountain Range, Roan had left the village at the age of 18 and had entered the barracks of the Rinse Kingdom. After a short period of training, he had made small and large contributions after going into the Rose Troop.

However, because of his bad relationship with the Corps Commander who the troop was under, the Supreme Commander of the Eastern Army, Viscount Benjamin Doyle, he had repeatedly been sent away until he was ultimately placed at the Grain Mountain Range which was no different from exile.

But after only 5 years of being placed there, he had suppressed a large-scale monster group and had been raised up to the Lieutenant Commander of the Rinse Kingdom’s Northern Army.

“Wait. How did a normal spearman sent to a place similar to exile suppress a large-scale group of monsters after 5 years?”

Kalian who had been hearing the story frowned and tilted his head. Roan Lancephil made a bitter smile in response.

“I’m not sure either. These are only memories dependent on the Tempestas so I cannot tell exactly what I had gone through in my first life.”

If Roan had talked about his life personally in a place near Tempestas, that memory would be embedded as well but unfortunately, there was no such memory recorded within Tempestas.

Sometimes Roan or stories about Roan appeared but those were all on everyday conversations. In the end, he had to listen and analyse the stories of Pierce, who had been the owner of the sceptre for the longest period of time, as well as his surroundings.

“According to Pierce and the others that had been talking to Pierce, it seemed that I had met some sort of a fateful encounter.”

Of course, it was only an assumption.

“A fateful encounter… you didn’t get it in any of your other lives?”

Roan slowly nodded his head in reply to Kalian’s question.

“Yes. In the previous life – the second life, I never had anything similar to an encounter and in this life, there is nothing related to the Grain Mountain Range.”

The laws of mana from Reid, his martial arts, the tears of the Spirit King he got thanks to Biate and the lair of the blue dragon Beru… Although he did get a few things in this life that could be called fateful encounters, none of them were related to the Grain Mountain Range.

“Hmm. An encounter in the Grain Mountain Range… what in the world is there…”

Slurring the end of his word, Kalian fell into contemplation but soon, he felt Roan’s gaze and waved his hand.

“Ah! Let’s finish the story first. Continue.”

“Yes sir.”

Roan nodded slowly before continuing his words. After being placed as one of the Lieutenant Commanders of the Northern Army, he had led the Border Security Army against the Byron Kingdom several times during the Rinse Kingdom’s war for the throne and had recorded victory upon victory.

Especially when the Byron Kingdom had united with the Istel Kingdom for a large-scale invasion, he showed amazing achievements by defeating the army alone.

“Indeed, there must have been a fateful something.”

With a grin, Kalian flickered his eyes. Roan gave a nod and continued the story. Just like the second life, the war for the throne had ended with the 3rd Prince, Kallum Rinse’s victory. Likewise Simon Rinse who had been defeated in the war for the throne had become a mad monarch and drove the kingdom into fear.

In the first, second and third life, Simon had lived as the mad monarch.

‘In a sense, he’s a pitiable bloke.’

The reason for him becoming a mad monarch was mainly due to the dirty greed of his grandfather on the mother’s side, Duke Bradley Webster as well as the sorcerers.

Roan could feel pity towards the man.

However, that did not mean that the evil deeds and murders he had committed could be forgiven. When the Rinse Kingdom had been driven into fear, a hero had appeared and that was none other than Roan.

Roan, who had gone up to the seat of the Lieutenant Commander of the Northern Army, had defeated the mad monarch, Simon’s regiments of darkness with his outstanding swordplay and strategies.

This part was entirely different from the second life. In the second life, Pierce and Ian had been the ones defeating the mad monarch and his armies instead of Roan. Roan had only been a mere spearman back then.

“In the first life, the achievement of defeating the mad monarch and his armies as well as stabilising the nation had gotten me the title of a noble and was placed as the Supreme Commander of the Central Army.”

Through this, he had taken in Pierce, Ian and others who had great achievements during the war. After that, Roan had gone through several large and small-scale wars and had gone up to the position of a count as well as becoming famous as the best, great general of the kingdom.

It was then that the Great Warring Period had begun.

For unknown reasons, the countries of the continent pointed their spears and swords at others. The friend from yesterday became the foe today as the foe from yesterday became the friend today. Confusing situations continued without an end, similar to the second life.

However, unlike the second life, in the first life, the king of the Rinse Kingdom, Kallum Rinse had made the worst mistake. It was that he had planned to get rid of Roan, who had an authority near his own as well as having the trust of the citizens on top.

Roan had received the order to attack the Persion Kingdom after uniting with the Byron and the Istel Kingdoms but due to the betrayal of other nations, he had almost lost his life without even being able to fight properly.

“A person that had saved and given power to me back then was Manus Persion.”

Roan made a faint smile. Manus and himself had a connection from the first life.

After that, there was nothing special that happened. Receiving the help of the Persion Kingdom, Roan had defeated the soldiers of the Byron, Istel and Rinse Kingdom, as they advanced towards the Capital City, Miller of the Rinse Kingdom.

As if they had been waiting, several commanders and soldiers around the kingdom supported Roan and defected over. The Rinse Kingdom which had become an empty shell was broken helplessly and throwing away the crown, Kalum Rinse ran away to the Diez Kingdom.

After that, Roan had ended the period of the Rinse Kingdom and had marked the start of the Amaranth Kingdom.

“Then, to make sure no more wars happened, I had gone for a conquest against the continent.”

“And you had achieved such a difficult task.”

With a grin, Kalian raised his thumb up and Roan made an embarrassed smile. It wasn’t something he did and yet he felt that he was getting complimented for it.

“What about Latio? How did he live in his first life?”

Kalian threw an important question and Roan’s face turned stiff in response.

“That guy was a believer of the Tallian Church from the Aimas Union.”

“There are quite a few believers of the Tallian Church in the Aimas Union after all.”

The Aimas Kingdom had originally been one of the powerhouses of the East, called the Claude Kingdom. Around 80 years ago, the Claude Kingdom had set the Tallian Church as their national religion instead of the Devesis Church which had brought up a crusade from the Devesis Church.

Most nations that believed in the Devesis Church gathered under the flag of the crusaders and attacked the Claude Kingdom which heavily impacted the Tallian Church itself. The original powerhouse of the East, Claude Kingdom, had then been broken into dozens of smaller countries which had resulted in the current Aimas Union.

Although the country had been broken apart with the Tallian Church receiving a heavy blow, there were still a lot more believers of the Tallian Church in the Aimas Union compared to other nations.

Most of them had to hide their identities though.

“Latio’s family had been believers of the Tallian Church for a long time. One of his ancestors even made a temple for the Tallian Church.”

“Mhmm.”

Kalian let out a low mutter.

“Then when the crusaders attacked the Claude Kingdom…”

Roan slowly nodded his head.

“Yes. It was before Latio was even born but due to the attack, let alone families and relatives, most of the villagers had lost their lives.”

It was as expected. Bad premonitions never went wrong.

“Only Latio’s great-grandfather and his grandfather who was still a baby had barely saved themselves. They avoided the Inquisition of the Devesis Church and had barely managed to survive it seems.”

“Must’ve been tough times.”

Kalian made a frown. Since Kalian had been guarding the gates of the boundary, he was pretty much living under a rock and didn’t know much about the evil and cruel deeds that had happened throughout Aimas Union after the victory of the crusaders.

‘They had opened an inquisition by themselves to kill the priests and believers of the Tallian Church.’

In that process, countless people had lost their lives. It was a cruel massacre without regard to the gender and age of the people. Besides, since it was an inquisition that happened on the spot, there were many cases where people without any connection to the Tallian Church would lose their lives.

“From the moment Latio was born, he had immense divine powers inside his body, and had been evaluated as the child of a god. The priests of the Tallian Church which had been almost in a ruin considered it the birth of a saviour. The problem however was…”

Roan made a bitter smile.

“Everyone around him, and even the priests had poured and crammed Latio with hatred towards the Devesis Church. Thanks to that, Latio had grown to be the personification of wrath. And…”

He let out a short sigh. Kalian flickered his eyes and added some words.

“They must have made him also hate the countries that had participated in the crusade.”

Roan nodded his head without a word. From the moment he was born, Latio had considered the world to be his enemy, as hell.

“It was then, when that happened.”

Kalian replied with a bitter smile.

“I think I know what you’re going to say next.”

He stared directly at Roan and continued.

“When the Aimas Union was about to reunite and form the Claude Kingdom again, another crusade had been gathered. Although the scale was smaller than before, it had once again caused ruin on the lands of the Aimas Union, right?”

Roan nodded his head in response. It was something that had happened when he was young but Roan knew clearly about the atrocities that had happened back then through the several books he read.

“From the perspective of the Tallian Church, it was a vicious war when their saviour called Latio was still in the process of growing.”

He stared at the skies.

“The crusaders once again massacred without regard to the gender and age of the citizens. During that process, Latio’s friends and parents had all died and thanks to the priests protecting him with their own lives on the line, only Latio had been able to survive.”

“His hatred which had already been great must have been fired up.”

With a frown, Kalian shook his head. He could finally understand where the vicious madness of Latio was coming from.

“After that, I had appeared and through several hardships, I managed to unify the continent but Latio’s hatred grew day by day.”

Within the memories of Tempestas, there were scenes of Latio using the believers of the Tallian Church to put a stop to Roan’s actions before ultimately failing. Unfortunately, there were no clear details on how and when such things had happened.

However, there was one event that had been recorded clearly.

“Around the time when the continent was about to be unified, Latio had gathered the believers around him for a strange ritual.”

Kalian made a faint smile in response.

“I also saw that through the memories of Tempestas.”

Roan gave a nod.

“Yes. That guy used the believers as a sacrifice to try to open the gates of the boundary.”

“But he failed.”

Kalian quickly finished the sentence as his finger pointed at Roan.

“You and your knights attacked the altar.”

“Right. Thanks to the reports of the countless informants placed across the empire, we made it in time and had attacked the altar but we had lost track of the most important Latio.”

Roan heaved out a large breath.

“After gathering the believers once again, Latio began another ritual.”

That was the ritual to awaken the hidden powers and abilities of Tempestas.

“He realised that he could never beat you in that world and had returned to the past.”

Hearing about everything from the first life, Kalian shook his head. Although he found out why Latio had called the world hell, and why he was trying to destroy the Middle World, that didn’t mean that he could be forgiven.

“What are those humans that sacrifice their own lives for that crazy bastard?”

Kalian shook his head, unable to comprehend. Roan made a bitter smile.

“At the start, it was at most the believers of the Aimas Union who had believed in the Tallian Church for generations since their family, friends and relatives had all fallen before the blade of the crusaders. But…”

Thinking back on the memories of Tempestas, he let out a deep sigh.

“After that, throughout the Great Warring Period, the people that lost their precious ones all gathered under Latio. The only thing they could rely on was the Tallian Church and that guy.”

Roan did put a stop to the Great Warring Period, unified the continent and gain fame as the First Emperor, but to the people that had lost their precious ones in the war, he was just another person that caused another war.

However, they couldn’t find rest through the Devesis Church. The Devesis Church had been corrupt and after Roan came into power, they all threw away their positions and ran away. In the end, the only person the scarred people could find was another scarred person like Latio.

“Using the sorrow and pain of the people. He’s the worst of the worst.”

Kalian made a frown. Although he was a dragon, he had involved himself deeply in the human world so he did understand quite a lot about human emotions.

“Then what about the second life?”

Shaking his head, Kalian asked carefully and Roan replied with a bitter smile.

“A mess. It was a total mess.”

Remembering the memories of Tempestas, Roan let out a short sigh. It really was a mess. After coming back to the past, Latio relied on the memories of the future to increase his power and authority.

At the same time, he sent loyal believers to several nations of the continent and didn’t hold back on supporting them. Thanks to that, the several believers were able to hold important positions of the kingdoms and empires and worked as shadows of Latio.

In that process, Latio moved the believers to put a stop on Roan’s works and Roan repeated relegations and demotions until becoming stuck as a lowly spearman. And naturally, Latio forcibly stopped him from going to the Grain Mountain Range as part of the raid squad.

“And he himself searched everywhere to gain that fateful encounter himself but he didn’t gain anything out of it.”

In the end, the fateful encounter which Roan got in the first life ended up in a labyrinth of mystery. Kalian who had been listening in made a frown.

“But why did that guy have to do it in such a difficult manner after returning to the past? Didn’t he just have to kill you?”

Indeed, he was right. Roan nodded his head in response.

“I found that strange as well. If he went to the past, why didn’t he kill me? If I was that much of an obstacle, shouldn’t he have taken care of me first?”

A strange smile appeared on his lips.

“Although I can’t be too sure, according to the memories of Tempestas, I guessed that…”

“You guessed that…”

Kalian repeated the words for no reason and pointed his ears out. The smile hanging on Roan’s lips became deeper.

“That guy returned to a period much later than what he was expecting.”

<The Past (5)> End.