CH 157 Madman’s Head

"Sheehan?"

Saul saw that all the lines on General Sheehan's face had become tense and hard. He and Sheehan had grown up together, and he had rarely seen him show such an expression.

"Sheehan?"

General Sheehan crumpled the letter into a ball and held it tightly in his hand. The wind blew across the dry earth, tangling the young general's disheveled blond hair. He was still wearing the armor that he had not had time to take off. The sunlight fell on the armor and reflected on his handsome face. His eyes were difficult to distinguish under his brows.

"Go and gather our knights."

General Sheehan's voice seemed to be squeezed out from between his teeth.

"Burn the granary."

"What?!"

Saul looked at Sheehan in astonishment. But before he had time to understand what this order meant, a chill ran up his spine.

………………

The fire jumped up from the southeast of the city, rolling into the sky under the scorching sun. The flames were raging. It was not one or two houses that were on fire, but mountains of dry food and grass that were set alight. The fire was so intense that it turned the sky south of the city blood red.

At first, people didn't realize what it was, but soon, the whole city became angry and frightened. These days, the people of Bubas, under the heavy pressure of the approaching army, almost all the adult men in the city were preparing to fight. But before they could even set foot on the battlefield, the city's last slim hope was burned by fire.

Anger, despair, fear.

People who witnessed the Iron Rose Cavalry lighting up the granary flocked to the center of the city, and more and more people gathered outside the official residence. Amidst the roars and questions, stones of all sizes were smashed into the official residence like raindrops.

"The order was not given by you!"

Saul kicked the door open. He pushed the crowd away with his shield and was able to rush in with difficulty. The anger of the crowd made his heart tremble, and the countless curses and hatred towards General Sheehan left him with no doubt that if General Sheehan walked outside, people would eat his flesh raw without hesitation.

"That's the King's order! That's not your order!"

General Sheehan was wearing armor and had a long sword on his waist. He was standing behind the window. There was a bloodstain on his face, which was left by the glass shards when the stone smashed the window.

"Saul!"

General Sheehan's voice suddenly rose, becoming more serious than ever before. In all their years together, Saul had never heard him speak in this tone.

"The King had not given us any orders."

He spoke clearly and turned around to stare at his friend.

Saul felt as if he had fallen into icy waters. He looked at the blond general standing in front of the window, his back straight. Outside the window, desperate people surrounded the official residence, shouting and yelling. The voices of "traitor", "coward" and "bastard" were mixed together and overwhelming.

"I have not received any orders from the King."

General Sheehan stared into his friend's eyes.

The moment he issued the order, he had already foreseen everything happening now.

When standing alone in front of the window, Sheehan thought of the white-haired old man again. Those words that the imperial knight said in the heavy snow. The old man said that he was too idealistic. He said at that time, if those who wear armor and hold swords do not protect the weak, then who would protect the weak. The old man said that justice, greatness and heroism cannot be used to describe the monarch.

However, it was only today that he suddenly understood that the Duke of Buckingham had only told him part of it.

The just and the great were heroes and knights, and they would never be generals.

A general did not fight for one or two people, but for the whole country. In this world, many people need justice, greatness, and heroes. But there were many more people who were not qualified to consider what justice was.

"Go gather our soldiers."

General Sheehan said, the muscles on his face twitching.

It was completely impossible for the 5,000-strong Iron Rose Cavalry to fight against the 70,000-strong Holy Legion of the Sea. He would not abandon Bubas and retreat if there was even a glimmer of hope. But now, only by retreating to the Kriya Mountains and using the terrain could they resist enemies dozens of times their size.

If the Iron Rose Cavalry was destroyed in Bubas, then the southeast of Legrand would no longer be able to resist the onslaught of the Holy Legion!

The line of defense that the King wanted to raise on the land of Legrand would be torn open with an absolutely fatal crack!

In the King’s letter, there was only one concise order——

"Burn the granaries and weapons depots, evacuate Bubas, and hold Kriya."

Every word was clear.

At the end of the order, the King's signature was signed heavily.

"I am the general of the Iron Rose Cavalry and the commander-in-chief of Legrand's southeastern defense line. The council and the King have given me the authority to take all actions in the southeast. Now, I order—" General Sheehan said word by word, "Evacuate Bubas, hold Kriya!"

"This is me! It's my order, Sheehan Rolandst!"

In that year, the veteran general of the empire told the young general that people would only remember who gave the most cruel and ruthless order, but not who executed it. All anger born of despair would only be directed at the person who gave the order.

The young monarch had already suffered enough infamy, but this time was different!

The entire Legrand was plunged into turmoil and an unprecedented struggle. The King himself could care less about his reputation or the fact that he was hated and vilified by those he protected. But as a knight of the empire and a general of Legrand, he couldn't not care! At this moment when the whole country was at war, the King was the flag of the entire country and the sustenance of all Legrand spirits!

The King must play the role of "protecting the people". The order to abandon the people could never come from the King himself.

For the first time since becoming the general of the Iron Rose Cavalry, Sheehan disobeyed the King's order.

"This is my order!"

He roared.

"Now—"

"Execute it immediately!"

………………

Five thousand cavalrymen, five thousand silent knights.

The sky was so bright and the flames were still burning. Saul was riding his war horse, holding the reins tightly with one hand and pressing the hilt of the sword at his waist with the other. In this summer, his hands were shaking with cold, and what he was worried about actually happened——

When the Iron Rose Cavalry who had executed the retreat order arrived at the city gate, the angry crowd had already formed a human wall here, blocking their way. Everyone knew what it meant for the Iron Rose Cavalry to withdraw from here. Blocking the path of the cavalry were skinny old men, mothers holding their children, and men who were angry and disbelieving.

During the rebellion in the North, the knights who could step on the pontoon bridge from the fast-flowing Lacey River without fear and charge against the rain of arrows were silent, like statues when faced with these unarmed people who were not even soldiers. The war horse snorted uneasily.

"You can't leave! What will we do if you leave?"

A carpenter threw open his arms and stood in front of the horse.

The crowd was in commotion. The children didn't understand what war was, but they were frightened by the heavy atmosphere and burst into tears.

"Step aside!"

The muscles on General Sheehan's face twitched. He pulled out his sword and swung it hard.

Saul closed his eyes.

Blood splattered, and the noisy crowd suddenly fell silent.

"I will kill anyone who dares to stand in the way again!"

General Sheehan held a sword dripping with blood, his voice cold.

Saul opened his eyes, and as if falling into icy depths, he realized what General Sheehan wanted to do.

"Iron Rose Cavalry, obey my orders——"

General Sheehan raised his sword high.

"Charge out the city gates!"

With iron hooves stampeding, the Iron Rose Cavalry headed towards the city gates. The silent crowd boiled up again. People came from all directions, desperately trying to stop the cavalry from leaving. The war horses trampled over the unarmed people, like cold sharp knives, as they carried out the general's orders.

In every battle in the past, the general who would rush to the front of the army stayed at the back of the army this time.

He took off his helmet, revealed his face, raised his sword high, and roared at the people who were trying to stop the cavalry in vain:

"I am the general of the Iron Rose Cavalry and the commander-in-chief of Legrand's southeastern defense line. The council and the King have given me the authority to take all actions in the southeast."

"I ordered the food to be burned!"

"I ordered the weapons depot to be burned!"

"I ordered them to evacuate Bubas!"

A stone was thrown from the crowd and hit him hard on the head. General Sheehan grunted and fell off his horse.

"That's him! Traitor! Coward! Bastard!" The person who threw the stone pointed at Sheehan who fell from his horse with trembling hands.

The crowd rushed toward General Sheehan, who fell from his horse, and surrounded him.

Sheehan struggled to get up from the ground and shouted at the Iron Rose Cavalry who finally rushed out of the city gate because of the loosening of the crowd but stopped: "Go! Go to Kriya! This is an order!"

Outside the city gate, Saul stared blankly at the man surrounded by the angry crowd.

Saul realized clearly that Sheehan couldn't leave.

The anger of the rioting people needed an outlet. General Sheehan, who gave the order, was the focus of all the anger.

Anyone could leave Bubas, except…

Sheehan.

Could it be that they, the Iron Rose Cavalry, were really able to mercilessly slaughter the people they had given up on? They were supposed to protect these people.

Sheehan, he stayed behind on purpose.

Saul remained frozen on the spot, his horse neighing anxiously. He didn't know whether he should move forward or backward.

"Saul! Take them away!"

General Sheehan roared at Saul. He was an outstanding knight, and he was surrounded by a group of ordinary people who did not understand how to fight at all, but he never swung his sword once.

"Saul! We must be knights who protect the weak!"

The memory of a seven-year-old blond boy raising his wooden sword high and turning to face him appeared in his mind.

Huge grief rushed into his chest, and Saul watched the angry crowd drown the armored man like a tide. He was a knight with excellent swordsmanship, and his sword fell to the ground——the sword he swore to use to protect everyone!

Sheehan Rolandst.

General of the Iron Rose Cavalry! An excellent knight of Legrand!

He did not die on the battlefield. He did not die fighting to protect the weak as he said when he was young. The people he wanted to protect held up a stone and hit him on the head one after another, and blood flowed down that face which countless noble ladies were obsessed with. His blond hair was torn at by desperate mothers who bit at his flesh and blood.

Saul! We must be knights who protect the weak!

Be a knight who protects everyone in the world!

The boy holding a wooden sword, the general overwhelmed by the crowd... The boy's smiling face and the man's bloody face were intertwined and overlapped, the sky and the earth were spinning, and the world had become ridiculous like a huge joke.

"I am the general of the Iron Rose Cavalry, and I order you——"

Sheehan was pushed by the crowd, blood flowed down his forehead, and his vision was dyed dark red. He screamed in the direction outside the city gate.

"Evacuate Bubas!"

His voice was drowned out by the crowd's curses.

Saul roared.

Go! ! !

The Iron Rose Cavalry finally took action and galloped towards Kriya. At the end of the line, Saul turned back for one last look.

The blond knight had been submerged in the crowd, and the abandoned people chopped off his neck with his own sword. A carpenter grabbed his head and held it high.

The sky and earth turned gray in an instant.

Saul felt dizzy and almost fell off his horse.

He watched helplessly as the faceless head was thrown to the ground.

The burned-out granary was still burning in the southeast of the city. The fire rolled up and turned the sky blood red. The Iron Rose Cavalry headed south and evacuated the city. People overwhelmed by despair and anger wailed hysterically in the hopeless castle.

Elderly, women, children...all went crazy.

It was as if the day of judgment had really arrived.

The civilians who were supposed to be protected smashed every bone in the body of the general who gave up on them, and his head was nailed to the city gate.

The blood fell drop by drop.

The first person to lift the stone sat slumped on the ground, crying hysterically.

Cries and flames flooded the city.

The five thousand Iron Rose cavalrymen had left, and the seventy thousand Holy Legion were charging to Bubas in a mighty manner.

Above the city gate, the madman's head hung high in the sky.