episode 2

She reached the age of twenty-eight

after twO years of war.

She had her first child on the

battlefield. It was the child of her

half-brother, not her husband, who

was ruling back in the palace in her

place.

After a small battle, Peijak came back

bloodied from destroying a town in

the south to find Swan glaring at

herself in the mirror.

He fell down and cried. "Sorry. I'm

Sorry,"

"It's my fault for not predicting this.

Not yours."

She was pregnant but had not gone

back to the palace for two years,

because of the war. Things had

changed. Instead of wallowing in

despair, she sent a letter to her

husband.

Duke Brionake replied to her letter

and did not blame her for having

another man's child. "Even if it is a

son, I will keep it a secret if you make

our child the heir."

"I will, Belbarote. Belbi, I truly do not

know what to say."

Though she did not wallow in

despair, she did feel terrible at this

moment. The wifeless husband gave

a bitter smile.

"But come back to the palace and

tend to the affairs of state, Your

Majesty," he said.

So, a yearlong truce was pronounced.

The nobles were starting to grow

tired of the long war, which they had

expected would end in a few years.

Those who raised their voices with

concern that the queen had no heir

held a feast. Small kingdoms in the

south who trembled at the news of

Rarke's invasion were delighted and

sent tribute disguised as gifts. The

people prayed the war would end at

this.

Seven months later, the queen gave

birth to a son. The child looked like

his mother, and hence like his father.

Two months later, Swan led her army

back onto the battlefield, despite her

vassals pleading her to stay and rule.

From then on, Belbarote came to

visit her on the battlefield from time

to time. She did not blame him for

leaving the palace, for she had

promised him a child. He implored

her to end the war and rule her

country whenever he visited.

Peijak, who supported her ambitious

plan to conquer the entire continent,

opposed Brionake and claimed he

was a coward. "You seem to have

grown scared even of the littlest

things since you got locked up in that

castle and started playing with paper

instead of a sword, Your Grace."

"Though you may be winning war

after wa, the people of Rarke are

tired," Brionake snapped in reply.

"Do you not realize that the number

of widows will increase if the drafted

men do not come home, and we will

sOon run out of food because many

are taken to forced labor? Not all of

that can be replaced with plunder."

"If you mean to stop my sister, I will

not just stand aside."

Duke Brionake glared at him,

revealing his personal hatred. “The

only reason you're still alive after

laying your hands on Swan is because

you are protecting her:"

While her two supporters' animosity

toward each other grew day by day,

Swan carried another child. It was

Belbarote's.

The queen decided to compromise.

She promoted Peijak Dollehan to

commander-in-chief. She decided to

return to the palace for two years to

straighten her country's affairs. Not

long after her return, she gave birth

to her second child. Another son.

Belbarote pleaded with the queen,

who only showed any kind of passion

at the continuous reports from the

battlefield, even after giving birth.

"Your conquest has yielded enough,

my queen."

"A little more. We will soon reach

Morgana."

In less than eight years, they reached

the final border in the far south. With

the richest and the most beautiful

kingdom, Morgana, left, she ignored

her advisors' words.

"A little more, a little more, and the

north and the south will unite, and

this continent will be named the

continent of Rarke," she repeated

obsessively.

She was now the age of thirty-four.

She even ignored her husband's

pleading and returned to the

battlefield, to experience the

moment of uniting the country with

Peijak, who had been faithfully

keeping his place on the battlefield

for their grand triumph.

But under the rule of Dernajuke IV,

the Blond King, Morgana was an

enemy of vast strength that she had

not faced yet. The legend of the

undefeated army crumbled like a

sand castle. The Rarkian army

struggled.

And they were defeated.

To Swan, facing defeat was

something unforgivable that shook

her soldiers. "I will not return before

her very core. After repeatedly

advancing and then retreating, she

roared in rage at the dead bodies of

I crush those sons of whores!"

The purpose for her war with

Morgana changed from patriotism to

merciless hate. More people died,

and the war turned into a war of

attrition. Even at the cost of

countless lives of her soldiers, Swan

slowly advanced and reached Olzore

at last.

Olzore was a nature's gift of a fort,

said to have not once fallen since it

was built. There was a narroW valley

and rough lands in the front, and a

valley with a shallow stream of water

behind it.

The queen's army attacked without

hesitation, but utterly failed. The fort

did not fall to her attempts at

infiltration, ambush at night, or

battle. It mocked her.

Filled with hatred, the queen ordered

a new operation so vast in size that

no one had ever dared to think of it.

"We'll tear down that valley, Peijak."

Her generals followed the order with

pleasure, for the queen believed that

the word "impossible" was a mere

assembly of meaningless sounds.

They secretly constructed an

enormous plan that would take two

years to complete, only to satisfy the

queen's determination to take down

a single fort.

Not knowing that Rarke was in

danger of falling apart because of the

war that had lasted nearly ten years,

Swan focused only on the imminent

plan.

The Rarkians continued to fight little

battles to fool the enemy, deploying

countless soldiers and starting to dig

through the valley and build tunnels.

They weren't enough. Swan started

to draft workers from the nearby

conquered countries. She even

brought people from her homeland

of Rarke into forced labor.

One day, three months before the

end, those who were tired of war

rebelled in Rarke. A messenger

arrived at the queen's camp.

"I have been ordered to bring Queen

Swan Sekalrid Rarkalia back to the

palace, Your Majesty. By force, if need

be."

She laughed at the messenger. "Who

would dare order me to go anywhere?

Duke Brionake will suppress the"

He cut her off. “Duke Regent's

orders."

An arrest warrant with Duke

Brionake's seal fell near her feet.

Brionake was the head of the

rebellion. She lost half of her army

and her right wing.

Those who had praised her brought

her down, saying that she was mad

for war. Her beloved people and the

man she trusted with her life turned

their backs on her. The shocked

queen forced Peijak to flee and

returned to the palace alone.

She saw her children at a palace that

now felt inexplicably foreign. She

couldn't recognize them, for she had

abandoned them at birth. She didn't

even know their ages.

"You've grown so much," she said.

"You must be..."

"It is an honor to finally meet you,

Your Majesty," her eldest son said.

It was a hard blow.

Her ears, which had remained deaf to

all the people's tearful pleadings,

opened at last. She realized her

madness at the single uttering of a

child.

The nobles forced the befuddled

queen to kneel. Some supported her,

saying that she would be a sage

queen now. Those who feared she

would take revenge on them raised

their voices and sentenced her to die

for neglecting state affairs.

Her armor, which felt like a second

skin after almost half her lifetime,

was thrown into the furnace.

Her husband kneeled in front of her.

"I loved you."

She chuckled at the paradoxical

nature of the first revelation of his

true intentions."I still cannot believe

this is my end."

"Forgive me."

"I do not blame you."

"I failed to protect..."

"You protected Rarke."

“You. I failed to protect you."

He had aged quite a bit over the

years, but he sobbed like a child in

front of her. Time had left its marks

on the face of this man who had

sworn to belong to the queen.

The war had begun when she was

twenty-six.

"It's...how old am I now?" she asked.

She did not even know her own age.

conquest that had started with a

loving desire to enrich her people

had starved them instead and turned

Rarke into a living hell.

What a foolish life it was. The

"You will soon be thirty-seven."

“Ah...and you will be thirty-nine. No,

forty?"

"Forty. It's been a long time."

She could not speak anymore.

Thirty-seven years of ferocious

fighting. All she had left was land

rotten with blood and the

resentment of thousands.

She embraced her destiny without

tears, letting her husband's cries pass

like the wind, unmoved by them. It

was like he was shedding her tears

through his eyes.

In ineffable self-loathing, she asked

for one last thing. "Belbarote, I ask

that you be gentle with Peijak. He...

his only fault is that he stayed by me,

like a moth drawn to fire. I will pay

for everything."

Belbarote's wet lips touched her dirt-

covered forehead. She smiled,

thinking it was quite warm.

Two weeks later, the sentence was

carried out on the scaffold for all to

see. It was the end of a twisted

patriotism and rancid madness. With

the death of the tragic queen, her

horrifying conquest disappeared into

history.

Thus, the bloody war that left an

unhealable wound between Morgana

and Rarke ended with Morgana's

victory.

Belbarote Paseid Brionake, the first

king of the Brionake Dynasty,

ordered that Rarke end the war with

Morgana under all circumstances,

even if it meant they had to sign an

unfair treaty. Dernajuke IV, the king

of Morgana, and the first emperor

(ValarjefI), did not miss the chance

to elevate Morgana as the only

empire on the continent.

The twenty-fifth Queen of Rarke,

Swan Sekalrid Rarkalia's path was

recorded in history. She would be

remembered as an innovative and

ruthless strategic genius, the Iron

Queen, a tyrant.

Under the cold dew of the north, all

she left behind were resentful cries,

seven books of war, and two sons

she'd barely even spoken to.

to Be Continued

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