I Became The Leader Of A Revolution In A Romance Fantasy

< Chapter 18: Punsu All Stars – 2 >

He retraced his memory.

The scene of the explosion flashed through his mind like a recorded video.

Before realizing it, I had already leapt like a beast. What exactly did I see that made me react this way?

The answer came to me belatedly.

At a very small angle of my view, hidden by the desk, a crouching reporter was fiddling with something.

‘Damn yellow journalist bastard.’

A threat I had neutralized with a document knife.

Some bastard was trying to open the briefcase, which lay on the ground along with my bleeding wrist.

– Wow! It’s a scoop. What’s inside? Hehe!

In that moment, my body’s movement wasn’t a conscious thought. It was the pulsation of a primal instinct that dominated me.

「Black Heart」

In an era where guns and explosives dominated wars, the original plot device that turned Eugene Hastings into a super soldier at a Nazi Slayer level.

– The heart’s ability isn’t strength or wild instincts. The heart held secrets. And Eugene Hastings listened to that eerie secret.

So, there was some interaction with this 「Black Heart」, but surprisingly, in the memories of Eugene Hastings that remained in my head, there was no such episode.

‘What the hell is this thing?’

The heart did not answer.

###

I snapped out of my thoughts.

My whole body ached, and it was noisy ‘outside.’

I suddenly became alert.

The image of the congressman being shredded by the air-pressure-made grinder when the bomb the journalist bastard tampered with finally exploded came vividly to mind.

‘Ugh.’

Some debris was pressing heavily on me.

And within my arms, held in a plank position, two women were breathing.

“Here!”

I shouted, trying to let the people inside know that we were safe.

But it seemed my voice couldn’t be heard, as the chaos outside continued with all sorts of nonsense.

– Bomb! A bomb exploded!

– This is a terrorist attack on the Republic!

– Commander, sir!

– These reactionary bastards! Execute them all!

– What nonsense! It’s obvious you red bastards did this! Princess!

‘Is it structured so they can’t hear us?’

Sound is ultimately a wave.

It seemed the debris that buried us had collapsed in a way that blocked internal sound.

Or maybe it was the material.

I tried to get up, but that wasn’t easy either.

Crash!

– Ah, something moved inside!

– His Excellency is alive!

– Your Highness! Your Highness! We’re coming!

“Oh, shit.”

Even the slightest twist of my body made a thunderous sound, as if something was about to collapse.

What was likely pressing heavily on me was debris that had fallen when parts of the wall and ceiling collapsed.

If I forced myself to get up or touched anything, those stones would come crashing down.

‘Honestly, I don’t think it matters much to me.’

Despite stopping the explosion and being directly swept up by the building’s debris, it felt like I just got hit with a few pebbles?

It didn’t seem like much damage at all.

So, even if some debris fell, I was confident that this monstrous body would endure it without any issue.

But the problem was.

“Milmil! What are you doing here!”

“Your Highness. Ugh, you’re safe.”

“And what’s with this mustache?!”

Camille Roche, caught in a humiliating disguise, fell silent for a moment and then mumbled awkwardly.

“…Ugh, suddenly my head hurts.”

Anyway, Visenya and Camille.

These two people being protected under me are not the male leads of a romance fantasy. In other words, if the debris fell, they would be crushed without a doubt.

Before setting a course of action, I needed to check the situation.

I grabbed the weakest among us three and asked.

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

Visenya’s silhouette wriggled.

A pair of golden eyes with different shades.

The only source of light in this darkness looked at me.

In the pitch-black darkness, Visenya’s eyes sparkled like luminous treated metal.

Perhaps she became aware of how close we were, as her golden eyes widened, and she gasped.

Then, rolling her eyes around.

“Oh, uh-huh.”

She moaned as if she were injured somewhere.

“Uh, I might need the Count’s support.”

“Are you hurt?”

“Hurt… am I?”

“This is no time for jokes.”

“Hiing.”

Alright, enough of that.

I pushed Visenya aside as if flipping a meatball on a frying pan and checked on Camille.

The force resisting my hand was weaker than expected.

She didn’t seem to be in a normal state.

Visenya, realizing Camille’s condition belatedly, screamed.

“Milmil!”

“…I’m fine.”

Fine my foot.

She barely managed to say that with a dying voice, and then Camille Roche collapsed.

She seemed to have fainted from exhaustion.

#

The sudden explosion wasn’t large in scale or firepower.

But the location was bad.

Two congressmen nearby were definitely dead.

The next closest person was Visenya.

The flames and shockwave were about to engulf her.

However, from the moment something felt wrong, two people instinctively rushed forward.

I ran from the opposite side of the conference hall.

And Camille Roche, in her poor disguise, emerged from the press corps nearby.

We both threw ourselves to protect Visenya.

And just before the three of us tangled together.

I clearly saw the shockwave of the explosion slam into Camille’s back.

#

I needed to check the injuries, but it was too dark here.

No matter how good someone’s night vision is, there’s no solution in total darkness without any light source.

‘Wait a minute.’

I had unconsciously overlooked it because it was a common description in the original work.

The phrase “Visenya’s eyes shining even in the darkness” wasn’t just a metaphor.

Even now, her peculiar metallic gleam was actually emitting a light!

If that’s the case!

As I moved my arm, more debris threatened to collapse, but I had no choice. I had to move carefully.

“Excuse me.”

“What? Kyah?!”

I tilted Visenya’s head like a flashlight.

Then, although very faint, it really did become slightly brighter! The darkness lightened to the level of a crescent moon night!

“Oh!”

Visenya lantern!

“Um, Count?”

“Uh, speaking shakes my view.”

“Ugh… I don’t think this is right.”

“Hold still.”

Visenya wriggled for a moment before giving up.

Even though my eyes couldn’t emit light in the darkness, they could at least see through with minimal illumination.

What I saw was Camille’s back, her clothes torn and her bare skin exposed.

‘No burns. No puncture marks from debris.’

A stroke of luck.

However, judging by the extensive bruising, she likely suffered a contusion.

That’s as much as I could determine.

But Eugene Hastings, the war hero who had fought on the front lines, had different experience.

There’s a reason I checked the injured first.

If one of us had sustained serious injuries, (excluding me) they would have to risk getting hurt by the debris and rise through the rubble.

But the war hero’s experience gave a clear answer: ‘This won’t kill us.’

So I could give a clear answer to those trapped with me.

“Let’s wait. It’ll be safer if they clear the debris from outside.”

“Hmm.”

Released from being a lantern, Visenya made a pouting sound and let out a sarcastic laugh.

“Do you think that will happen?”

###

……How many tens of minutes had passed?

It would have been enough to just clear the debris, so what were they doing to take this long?

– #*%!^

– @*^%^&!

The congressmen were still barking outside.

No one was working, but the number of barkers was increasing in real time.

Hearing about the accident in the conference hall, everyone in the parliament building had gathered here.

– This is madness! We need to save the princess!

– These feudal reactionary bastards are trying to tamper with the evidence!

– Then why don’t you do it yourselves!

Nothing was being accomplished.

It was an endless series of arguments without any decision-making.

Even the most basic and obvious action of ‘rescuing the people buried’ wasn’t progressing at all, as those idiots were too busy tearing each other down and passing the buck.

I started to feel a bit anxious.

Hearing those fools so engrossed in their bickering, unable to make even the most common-sense decision on their own, something started creeping into my mind.

‘The second part of the original story was complete chaos. Not only did the main couple’s lives get ruined, but the entire continent was destroyed.’

An unprecedented great depression that tore the entire continent apart.

The domino effect that eventually plunged the world into the flames of war.

Faced with such a terrible crisis, what were our revolutionary comrades doing?

It was pure chaos.

The extreme right and the extreme left went berserk simultaneously, becoming warlords. They aimed their guns and knives at each other, and the entire country burned with either terrorist attacks or violent clashes by political thugs.

And the higher-ups of the revolutionary government, were they any better…

– Reactionary! It’s a reactionary! You’re a reactionary too!

– Stop it! We should be melting down guillotine blades for resources, but you’re all obsessed with political strife!

– That bastard is a reactionary too! Kill him!

It went something like this.

Under the reign of terror where blood flowed like rivers, no one addressed the country’s pressing issues; they only continued their ideologically extreme conflicts.

‘Could it be that these guys…’

Would they still be like that if I, the foreign entity, weren’t here? Would they still be unable to agree on even the simplest solution like ‘clearing the debris’?

That, that can’t be!

“You see? They are not qualified.”

Then Visenya whispered.

From an infinitely close distance within my arms, she sang secrets in a voice that sounded almost sweet.

“In fact, you know it too, don’t you? They will never escape their infighting until the entire country is destroyed.”

Visenya, who had whispered up to that point, continued in a voice that carried a sweet tremor and even a hint of blush.

“And, and I know too. That you had to continue this painful play for us. For me…”

“?

No, that part I don’t understand.

‘Where did such a strange misunderstanding even come from?’

Visenya’s golden eyes, gazing at me while saying these incomprehensible words, looked wistful.

“But because of that play, I can’t let you burn the country you love. You’d never forgive yourself for that, and I… I can’t demand such a sacrifice from you.”

「So now, I will survive on my own」

Because you’ve already shown me the answer.

Just like you did, I will establish my own position by standing at the pinnacle of the Royalist faction.

“Becoming a congresswoman was solely for that reason. To secure a position where I could survive without your sacrifices.”

Visenya whispered softly.

“So, I’m not a burden. Not now. Not ever.”

Her words sounded strangely provocative.

Those golden eyes seemed to whisper, ‘Do it now!’

‘I really don’t know where to start clearing up this misunderstanding…’

But at least, it sounded like a revelation.

Perhaps surviving the impending era of chaos with those clueless bastards wouldn’t be something achieved by relying on others’ help or expectations.

Instead of waiting for rescue from outside,

I clenched my fist.

###

“So before we remove the debris! We need to establish procedures in case something has happened inside!”

“Are you crazy? Are you saying the commander might be in trouble? You feudal reactionary bastard!”

“Oh my princess! Our princess!”

The congressmen, still engaged in useless quarrels, fell silent as the debris suddenly started to shift.

And just as Lize Carter, who had heard the news belatedly, rushed in with a pale face,

Bang!

With a loud crash, the debris collapsed.

Standing up without a scratch, Eugene Hastings emerged, with Visenya (and Camille) clinging to his neck, laughing gleefully.