Reincarnated in an Otome game as the ugly character in the background - Side Story ─ The Secret of Arklight

Side Story ─ The Secret of Arklight

I leave appearance of Rasiel’s ancestor, possibly I will use this design for a character in one of my novels.

https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/4243584

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A few years ago, Livie was looking for books to read in the imperial library.

Normally she wouldn’t be able to go in there because it is designated only to certain people.

She went in because she asked her father to let her in and the emperor agreed.

She was looking for some interesting book to read, unintentionally in a certain bookcase she found a false wall and there was a diary there.

As a cover it had nothing, you couldn’t identify what it was about, she opened it anyway and the first thing she did was to read what was written.

“Property of Theodore, only those who want to know the truth of the empire, must read this.”

With that introduction she began to read curiously.

◇◇◇

My name is Theodore.

Theodore Gazeff von Arklight.

The current king of the Arklight Kingdom.

I am frightened.

A few months ago a war started.

The war was not caused by me or anyone in this country.

The war is something the neighboring countries decided.

Seven countries in total.

Granville.

Luinberg.

Wimlet.

Carlyle.

Mercury

The worst are these two.

Fitzclarence

Rosenberg.

I must say Rosenberg is the most ambitious of all, I once spoke to the present king when we were crown princes and he wanted to conquer the world.

He wanted to form a new kind of government that he heard exists in the deepest part of the north.

An empire.

That’s why he was the first to attack us.

The other countries wanted to do it too.

Fitzclarence is a braggart who does not want to lose, for that reason he has attacked other kingdoms.

Rosenberg does the same because he wants to take over every one of them.

He takes it easy.

I’m scared.

I really have no idea what to do.

They have already taken over almost the entire nation except the capital.

I’m scared, I don’t know what to do.

“Your Majesty, don’t worry. I will take it upon myself to protect the capital with my life, you can be sure that with my last breath I will make sure that none of them will penetrate our walls.”

The one who spoke those words of confidence was my commander of the royal guard, my childhood friend and right-hand man.

Lyonnet von Attley.

He is a trustworthy man… but his sword skills are not!

My sword skills aren’t either, the worst thing is that I’m even better than him.

Lyonnet is terrible as a fighter, he’s an excellent strategist, but a lousy warrior.

If it wasn’t for me preventing him from going to the battlefield, he’d be dead.

On the other hand, the one who is in charge of protecting the capital is the second most loyal baronet household after Lyonnet.

The Erzberger´s.

They are very rare people, but they are loyal.

“Your Majesty, I bring good news.”

Now the one who spoke with words of confidence was that woman who arrived in our kingdom days ago.

Olivier, she is a beautiful woman and everyone treats her like a saint.

We get along well… my problem with her is different.

I am afraid of her eyes.

Despite being bright, I can feel a dark aura as they stare at me.

Maybe I’m imagining it and it’s due to stress, maybe that’s why my hair is falling out too.

I ask her.

“What do you have good news for me?”

She pulled a sword from her back.

“It’s something I created by using a lot of my magic power. You call it the sacred sword Camlann.”

“Remember my scepter? Well, I used it to create this sword.”

Her beautiful smile was a symbol of hope.

Lyonnet was astonished as a small child.

“Oh! As expected from Olivier-dono.”

“I’m sure that with this sword we can win.”

“Please Your Majesty, allow me to use it. I assure you that I will bring victory to our kingdom.”

“About that…”

(How to tell him that I don’t want him to die in combat?)

(I don’t doubt Olivier’s magic skills, but for some reason I feel that sword is nothing more than trouble.)

(No. She’s helped us a lot, it’s me who’s rambling on about nonsense.)

(It must be because she possesses large breasts and I like small breasts.)

“Your Majesty!”

A servant came in making a fuss.

“Now what’s the matter?”

“There’s trouble!”

“Trouble?”

“Yes! A thief! A thief has stolen a pig!”

“… Is that all you’ve come to make a fuss about?”

“I-It’s not what you think!”

“The thief…”

At that moment, I didn’t realize that indeed the blissful Alexia that Olivier was telling us so much about, was going to smile at me.

“He’s extremely strong! He took down no more than 100 soldiers all by himself while running away with the pig!”

“The pig is not small either! It weighs more than 100 kilograms and flees at a great speed the thief. He has currently arrived near the palace and─”

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

Suddenly we heard some shouting.

A man came in through the wall.

I dropped the bread I was holding in my mouth.

“How did a man get here?”

“Grab him!”

“Don’t let him escape!”

“He’s too strong!”

Outside we could hear the shouts of our soldiers fighting something.

I peeked through the hole, Lyonnet tried to stop me.

“What the hell is this!”

I couldn’t see what my eyes were seeing.

A human being carried a heavy pig on his back, at the same time he grabbed a broom and with it sent the knights protecting our royal capital flying.

The escape would hit them lightly and they would be sent flying hundreds of meters in the air.

Execution is the only punishment a thief of his ilk deserves.

But in this situation, only an idiot would do it.

“Let’s all go outside!”

I shouted and everyone joined me.

◇◇◇

Arriving outside, the knights threw ropes to immobilize him.

As they caught the pig included, the guy stopped moving as the pig mattered more to him.

They were about to slit his throat.

“Stop!”

I yelled and they stopped.

I approached the individual.

His hair and eye color were odd.

I had never seen anyone with those characteristics.

I asked him.

“Why did you steal property from the kingdom?”

“…”

“Come on, talk. Can’t you talk or did the mouse get your tongue?”

“Yes, I can speak. But I do not wish to.”

“Answer then. Why did you steal that pig?”

“I am hungry. If I do not eat, I shall die.”

“You can die now for these men if I wanted to.”

I’m waiting for a sign from you, go on, say it to ask you the obvious reason for not wanting to execute you.

“Go ahead. Whether I’m killed by you or famine I don’t care.”

“Starvation? Despite the war situation in our country there is no famine.”

“There is. At least for my family, or it was since there is only me left.”

“Where do you live to have been starving?”

“In the forest over there.”

He pointed to the black forest. A forest where dangerous monsters and wild beasts live.

“No, no, no. Don’t look at my face like an idiot, it’s impossible for a human being to live there. It’s too dangerous.”

“We have been living there for many years. We have reproduced with women from other places since there are only men in my family.”

(This is taking too long, let’s speed up the process.)

“I ask, foreigner, do you want to die?”

“Not really.”

“In that case, I propose this.”

“Become one of my knights, with you by my side. We will win this war.”

“Will I have food?”

“Every day. Also water, your own room, and when it’s all over, I’ll grant you land.”

“Good.”

I never imagined that, with that simple discussion, I have made it into history.

◇◇◇

Two years have passed since then.

We have not only defeated the other kingdoms.

We are also conquering part of the world.

All thanks to him.

“Your Majesty, we bring good news.”

I was in the courtyard playing with my heir, Roderick.

Lyonnet came through the door shouting.

Thanks to the last few months, he has become famous.

They’ve been calling him a sword saint lately.

Because the holy sword was forged by Olivier.

She passed away a few weeks ago, apparently she contracted an incurable disease.

Before she passed away, the holy sword broke into seven pieces.

That guy did it unintentionally.

She used all her strength and created seven unique swords.

One of them can generate tremors, the sword we gave to him as it is the most suitable for his ridiculous strength.

The others we keep under lock and key.

I asked Lyonnet about this good news.

“Tell me. What’s good today?”

“Yes. Our vassal states have agreed to become dukes. You will be crowned in a few days as the emperor of the Arklight Empire.”

There was something that no one knows, but when that guy was ravaging the enemy armies, two people approached us.

One of them was Mercury, who suggested to me some methods I don’t want to say about how to defeat Fitzclarence, which was the last of the kingdoms to fall.

By the way, the first one surrendered and the weirdest thing was that they did it after they saw the power of him.

It was the Rosenberg’s.

I said to Lyonnet.

“Emperor, huh?”

“I never thought of that happening.”

“There are a lot of things to prepare, by the way, where is he?”

For some strange reason, when Lyonnet hears me talk about him or mention him, he looks like a child throwing a tantrum.

“… I don’t know where he is, but he sure is in that place again.”

“Good heavens, I should think about his situation.”

I don’t understand why Lyonnet looks jealous, as if a toy has been taken away from him.

◇◇◇

I arrived at the place where I was sure he was.

The black forest.

The monsters here have been exterminated, this place has nothing to offer for the capital.

But it’s his home so we left it untouched.

I found him roasting a huge boar.

I greeted him.

“It’s good to see you healthy.”

He turned around, his hair has grown so long it reaches the ground.

“Wow, it’s you.”

“Don’t say ‘it’s you’ to the future emperor.”

“Oh, emperor. Good for you.”

As usual he is of few words.

I sat down and he offered me a whole leg of wild boar, I declined of course.

“In these two years you have been a blessing from the heavens. Thanks to you we have been able to not only defeat our enemies, we also control them as a vassal state and little by little we are expanding. I am sure this nation will prosper well.”

“You are right. That’s why I will leave this place.”

“I beg your pardon?”

That surprised me to hear.

“I don’t like killing. I know better than anyone how strong I am.”

“I’m so strong that I can crush my enemies’ heads like eggs.”

“I don’t like to hurt others. That’s why yesterday was the last time I killed for you.”

“… That’s why Lyonnet is called the sword saint and not you, right?”

“I don’t like that guy, he’s very conceited, but he’s not a bad person. That’s why I made sure to give all the credits to him.”

“You’re almost like Mercury. Doing something behind everyone’s back and no one knows about your involvement.”

“You can say the empire has seven founders. But only five of them will leave their name in history.”

“I highly doubt it will be five, looking at those ministers, I’m sure they will erase evidence of her and Erzberger.”

“I-I don’t think it’s as you say. Olgren and the others are respectable people.”

“Their hearts are black. I can see that.”

“That’s why I’ll go somewhere else.”

“… If you want to stop fighting and leave, let me deny you the latter.”

I told him the truth.

“I may lose a valuable warrior, but not a friend.”

“I will make sure no one knows of your existence.”

“I will erase your identity and give you a new one.”

He stared at me, I could never forget someone with hair and eyes like his.

A beautiful jet black.

There are other people with black hair, but only he has those eyes that look like a predator’s.

“In that case, only my last name changes, in my family our name is sacred as it is proof of respecting our ancestor.”

I stood up and said.

“All right. In the name of the future emperor of the Arklight Empire I baptize you as─”

◇◇◇

“I baptize you as…”

Livie has already turned 15.

She has been coming to read that diary every day.

And just today, she brought a different book.

That book was the national census.

In it are the origins of every family in the empire, whether native, refugee or immigrant.

She said aloud the name she couldn’t finish as she ran her finger down said document.

“Rasiel Bartlet.”

He found a certain family there.

“The Bartlet family is a family no more than a hundred years old.”

“The current head is Roland Bartlet.”

“But, according to this journal. The Bartlet’s have existed before, you mean someone erased their record?”

“I don’t understand why anyone would do that.”

“But more importantly. It’s this.”

In the journal it also said this.

“I could never imagine that a human being could lift a tree with his hand. When I asked him if he used magic power, he said no. His body was that strong.”

“I see. It’s a very mysterious and interesting family.”

Livie stood up.

From her pocket she pulled out a photo.

“Let’s meet you in person to see what you’re like, Razel Bartlet.”

What no one in the empire knew, is that the Bartlet family are part of the secret founders of the empire.

But, this story will be told another time.

When “Arklight” shines the brightest.