Chapter 318:
Ryan was dead.
He was a traitor, and he died with a smile on his face.
Everyone witnessed that scene: Frechen and his knights, and the explorers.
Lean stood up from his bowed position, showing only his back to the others. No one could tell what his expression was like.
Lean remained still, as if trying to erase his emotions.
No one dared to speak to him, until a voice broke the silence.
“Ha. What a generous treatment for a traitor.”
The explorers widened their eyes and looked at Frechen.
Frechen didn’t care about their gazes. He even challenged them back.
“Are you all out of your minds? He was a traitor. For 32 years, he hid the truth from us and prevented us from escaping this hellish place. And you mourn for his death? That’s not even funny.”
“Watch your mouth! What do you know about him…”
“What do I know? Sure, I don’t know everything. I didn’t know that crazy bastard lived only for fighting and risking his life. But does that matter? I know this much. The reason we’ve been suffering in this frozen wasteland, the reason we’ve been hiding from the frost giants’ eyes…”
Frechen pointed at Ryan’s corpse.
“It’s all because of that traitor.”
“…”
The explorers who were about to shout at Frechen closed their mouths.
They couldn’t completely deny Frechen’s words.
In fact, they wanted to ask Lean too. Why did he let that traitor die peacefully?
He deserved to suffer forever for what he had done.
The survivors’ discontent was clear to Lean, even without looking at them.
Lean turned around. Countless eyes were fixed on him. They were all waiting for him to say something.
“First, take care of the body.”
That was the first thing Lean said.
“We have to hold the memorial ceremony.”
“Now? In this situation…”
How could they?
How could they hold a memorial ceremony in this situation?
Before anyone could argue, Frechen burst into laughter.
“Kahahaha! This is hilarious!”
“Y-your Majesty.”
Even his loyal knights were at a loss, not expecting him to act like this.
“Fine. A traitor is a traitor, and a dead man is a dead man. The memorial ceremony is the memorial ceremony. We can’t miss this festival that happens only once a year because of this.”
“…Please.”
Lean left those words and tried to leave.
As he passed by Frechen, Frechen quietly asked him.
“What are you trying to do?”
“The truth.”
Lean’s eyes were filled with sadness, but also with a clear flame.
“I have to tell them.”
In front of everyone.
Why this world became like this, and what they had to do.
It was time to reveal the truth of this world that had been hidden until now.
“Look forward to it.”
Frechen nodded obediently and left with his men.
The remaining explorers were still stunned and rooted in their places.
Lean didn’t bother to explain anything to them. Yu-hyun clenched her fists.
“What are you all doing? Let’s go. Aren’t we going to join the memorial ceremony?”
“R-right! Let’s move! We can deal with our sadness later, right?”
When Ringug also agreed with Yu-hyun’s words, most of the explorers reluctantly moved.
Everyone left, and Yu-hyun also took Ringug away from the scene of the fight.
“S-sister? What about Lean hyungnim?”
“Leave him alone.”
The others might not know, but Yu-hyun knew.
Lean was crying right now.
Keira’s body felt Lean’s sorrow and shared it with him.
“He needs some time for himself too.” When he realized that he was left alone, he would let out his emotions that he had been holding back with tears.
She didn’t have any interest in staying and watching that scene.
All she had to do was wait for him to come back.
The fireworks that should have soared into the sky were extinguished by the cold air emitted by the frozen ceiling.
But the people didn’t care.
They had gotten used to it in the past 32 years.
‘The mood is, not so good.’
Looking around, the atmosphere of the explorers was gloomy and heavy. They seemed shocked by what had happened earlier, as if they were lying about being happy that fewer people had died recently.
The mood spread like a plague to the ordinary people who wanted to enjoy the memorial festival.
Then someone stood next to Yu-hyun and said.
“Tsk. There’s no point in having such a big memorial festival if you’re all so depressed.”
“…You seem more relaxed than I thought, Your Majesty.”
“Do I? You’re right.”
Frechen was alone without his usual escort squad.
“Where are your guards?”
“My knights? They deserve a break on this festive day too.”
“In this atmosphere?”
“If they can’t enjoy themselves, it’s their own fault.”
This man. He was too selfish and arrogant.
I had felt it before, but I understood why he was constantly called the emperor.
He was truly haughty like an emperor. And he had the qualifications, that is, the power to back it up.
“Your Majesty…”
“Ah, forget it. Don’t call me Your Majesty. Just call me Frechen casually. It’s too burdensome.”
“All of a sudden? You’ve been fine with it until now.”
“That’s because I have my followers around. When we’re alone, you can just call me by my name. I don’t care about disrespect or anything like that. I never cared about that stuff from the beginning.”
Yu-hyun suddenly remembered what Ryan had said when he fought with Frechen.
“He was a low-ranking crown prince, for sure…”
“That’s old news. I have nothing to hide. Everyone who knows knows it.”
Frechen grabbed someone passing by and snatched their beer mug.
He drank the beer coolly and wiped the foam on his lips with his back of his hand.
“Ahh. Beer is the best, I tell you.”
“So, what do you want?”
“Huh?”
“If you’re approaching me so blatantly, you must have something in mind, right?”
“Well, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t. I’m just curious about something.”
“What are you curious about?”
“You went beyond the ice barrier, right?”
Yu-hyun nodded. Anyone who wasn’t a fool would know that Ryan had hidden that path and that Yu-hyun and Lean had stepped beyond it.
Especially Frechen.
“I’ve always thought that. The curse of this frozen land must have come from beyond that barrier.”
“…Why didn’t you say anything then?”
“There was no need to. Even if I did, what could I do? The only way to call it a road was blocked and to go beyond the ice barrier, you had to go a long way around. And if you ran into a frost giant on the way, it would be a huge blow. So I just kept my mouth shut. I thought I just had to find a way to head beyond the ice barrier somehow.”
But he didn’t expect Ryan to have hidden it all this time, Frechen said with a bitter smile.
“Did you know that Ryan was watching and following you?”
“How could I not? Just as he followed us, we also tailed him.”
“That’s why…”
Yu-hyun recalled what had happened today.
“You didn’t come to the entrance on your own, but followed Ryan’s trail.”
“Yeah. His trail suddenly disappeared in the middle and we went on and met you guys. I was surprised. It wasn’t long after his trail was cut off that we ran into each other. I felt it right away when we crossed weapons. The guy in front of me was Lean.”
“Why did you run away?”
“What do you expect me to do? Stay there and face him shamelessly? If I stayed there, anyone would have been suspicious. Even if I said no, they wouldn’t believe me.”
“…”
“And, I doubted you guys too. It was Lean who attached Ryan to me in the first place. And you, who looked like Kaira, also seemed to have something to do with Lean.”
“I guess it could have looked that way.”
“It was a coincidence. After breaking away from Lean, I joined up with my men and heard that you and Lean had returned to Guardian in a hurry. It looked urgent. That’s when I felt it for sure. Something was going to happen.”
Frechen shrugged his shoulders.
“But then, what do you know? Lean had nothing to do with it, and it was all Ryan’s doing. And even worse, Ryan was trying to kill you.”
“I appreciate you saving me.”
“Is that all? That’s it?”
“What else do you need?”
“Hmm. How about a kiss on the cheek?”
“Do you want to get hit again?”
“Alright, alright. I was joking.”
Frechen said with a laugh, but Yu-hyun couldn’t take it as a joke.
He was a tyrant emperor who was filthy and lustful. He didn’t care if he knew he was a man, as long as he looked pretty.
He probably was a playboy when the empire was still around.
“How did you know that Ryan was the culprit?”
“To be honest, I didn’t know either. Or rather, I was half-doubting it. I knew he was following us, but I also knew that Lian had ordered him to do so. He was completely obedient to Lian’s words. So I actually suspected Lian more.”
“That’s…”
“I told you, right? When I met him at the scene, I was almost certain.”
“That’s the same for us too.”
“I guess so. From your perspective, it was suspicious that we were wandering around that area.”
“Then you mean you didn’t move together with Lian while being hostile to him until now…”
“Why would I move with him? I don’t trust Lian.”
“…”
Distrust.
In the end, it was because none of us fully trusted each other that we came this far.
Ryan skillfully exploited the relationship between the two groups. No one could have suspected him.
For 32 years. He had been working as an explorer with Lian for 32 years, fighting against the frost giants.
Even when he was exploring, Ryan fought sincerely to protect his comrades.
Who could have doubted him?
“Well, I have nothing to say if my attitude aroused their suspicion. But we found the traitor, didn’t we?”
He spoke casually, but Yuhyun still couldn’t shake off his suspicion of Frechen.
Even considering that Ryan was the traitor, it was still suspicious that Frechen had been roaming around the ice cliff for a long time.
The first thing that came to mind was the imperial capital beyond that cliff.
Did he try to find something there?
“Oh. It looks like the hero of today is coming.”
As Frechen spoke, Yuhyun also spotted Lian approaching.
People recognized Lian and greeted him or made way for him to walk easily.
No matter what anyone said, he was the leader and the protagonist of Guardian.
The surprising thing was that Gondulbor was also with Lian.
“Lian?”
“Is he feeling unwell?”
As everyone wondered, Lian stood in the center of the square and whispered to Gondulbor.
“Please.”
“Hmm. Can’t help it.”
Gondulbor sighed and waved his finger in the air. Runes were engraved in the air with his magic.
“Ahh.”
As Lian uttered at the same time, his voice was amplified and spread throughout Guardian.
Everyone’s eyes turned to Lian.
Some were curious about what he was going to say.
Some others mistakenly thought he was going to give a speech to start the festival.
Among them, Lian uttered the words he had kept in his heart until now.
“I regret to say this while everyone is enjoying the memorial service.”
“Huh?”
“What are you trying to say?”
People murmured at his uneasy start.
“But I decided that I couldn’t hide the truth any longer, and I thought this was a good opportunity to tell you when everyone is gathered here. So please, listen carefully to what I have to say.”
As he looked around the silent square, Lian took a breath.
“A few days ago from now. I moved to another area for exploration. In the meantime, with the help of a companion, I discovered a suspicious area that we had not noticed before, and went beyond it. And what awaited us there was our god who we thought had disappeared by now. Georen.”
At his words, shocked sounds erupted from various places.
He didn’t care about the noise and continued without stopping.
“Georen. He became covered with ice and became the frost giant that we feared so much. His breath froze everything around him with cold air. Yes. Georen. The reason why the frozen curse occurred, why the frost giants appeared. Our god Georen was behind all this.”
Our god is trying to kill us.
What could be more terrible than this?
“And, the problem didn’t stop there. There was one traitor among us. Someone who noticed Georen’s existence first and found a way to get there, but hid it for a long time. It was Ryan.”
“What, what?”
“Ryan betrayed us?”
“What are you talking about!”
“Ryan! Where is he now?!”
“Ryan is dead. He tried to destroy the evidence when his crime was exposed, and he died by my hand in the process. He is no longer here.”
The appearance of a traitor and the punishment of a god.
It was a series of truths that they couldn’t accept as humans.
But they knew it wasn’t a simple lie by seeing other explorers who already knew some of the truth and accepted it.
“Our Guardian has to choose now. Whether to stay still or fight back.”
Lian drove a wedge into their expectations with a calm voice.
“The choice is yours.”
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