11 – Tale of the Past: Charlotte de Gargantua – 1
If you are looking for the person who best fits the word genius, without a doubt, you will be able to name Charlotte.
Charlotte was praised as a genius from an early age. At the age of 5, he began to learn basic magic knowledge, and at the age of 9 he knew how to draw a lower magic circle.
Considering that in general, the age at which one starts studying basic magic knowledge is 10 years old, and the age of drawing a lower magic circle is around 15 years old, it was absurdly fast.
He also excelled in swordsmanship, and learned other non-magical knowledge at a very rapid pace.
The royal magicians, tutors, and royal knights praised and encouraged Charlotte as she absorbed all kinds of knowledge like a sponge.
Compared to children who were born into a high class and grew up in an environment full of praise and overwhelming talent, they usually grow up with high self-esteem, self-centered, and arrogant personalities.
It seemed that only well-decorated flower paths existed in the future of the kingdom that Charlotte would lead.
That is until the incident happened.
She had an older brother who was seven years older. My name is Alexandre de Gargantua. He was a person with the opposite abilities and personality to Charlotte.
Under normal circumstances, her brother would have succeeded to the throne, but unlike Charlotte, who was a well-behaved and talented princess, Alexander was a prince whose existence itself was a problem.
To the point where I doubt if they are the same brother and sister.
He always has the smell of his body, he hates washing, he always uses verbal abuse and insults at his attendants, he abuses his position as a prince at will, and he has a sense of being a chosen citizen.
Above all, it was terribly incompetent.
Swordsmanship, magic, personality, talent, and even appearance, nothing was better than Charlotte.
Not once or twice did even Charlotte almost get stabbed by Alexander. Had it not been for the intervention of the queen, it would have certainly been a target of violence.
If Charlotte was born with much love from God, Alexander was born with plenty of hatred from God.
Even Charlotte’s mother’s infinite love and kindness could not change Alexandre’s character in the end. Rather, it only provoked more violence and backlash.
The contrast between the two children was so extreme, it was only natural that the king and queen were in trouble.
I don’t know if there was a precedent for not following the principle of succession to the eldest son, but unfortunately, their choice was about to become a precedent.
In the Gargantua dynasty, the firstborn has always been above average compared to the other children.
The incident occurred the very next day after the king and queen, who had been thinking deeply for years, decided to give power to Charlotte before it was too late.
It was a rebellion.
Several nobles revolted and invaded the kingdom, claiming that Alexander de Gargantua should be crowned king according to the principle of succession to the eldest son.
I don’t know when or by whom the rebellion was planned. One thing was known, was the fact that almost all nobles in the kingdom participated in the rebellion.
The royal palace turned into mayhem in an instant, and only Charlotte and her mother could barely hide in a room.
Seeing her mother who locked the door and breathed heavily, Charlotte wept.
“Mom… let’s run away together. Yes? I can handle intermediate magic well now. I know how to draw a magic circle, and again, again… that, so, please. Yes? I will protect you.”
Her mother shook her head despite her daughter’s tearful pleas. Her long silver hair, just like Charlotte’s, swayed slightly from side to side.
In the hallway outside the room, the shouts of the soldiers and the screams of the ladies-in-waiting could be heard.
“Open it, you dirty bitch! Or I’ll break it in!”
Several strong hands knocked on the locked bedroom door. The thumping noise grew louder and louder.
Charlotte’s mother took her in her arms and went to the closet in the corner of the room and opened the closet door.
“mother?”
Charlotte looked at her mother with trembling eyes as she smiled sadly. He was a child known for being a genius. Her mother must have noticed what she was up to.
The two red eyes, very similar to each other, met for a moment.
“Never, no matter what, don’t come out. Don’t make a sound.”
The knocking on the door got louder and louder. Now he was breaking down the bedroom door with his weapon, not his hand. The hinges slowly came off, and it didn’t seem like it would last long.
“I love you, my daughter. Forever and ever.”
On the other hand, their lips touched Charlotte’s forehead. A tear finally fell from his eyes.
To Charlotte, her mother closed the closet door after lightly kissing her cute daughter, who resembled her in everything from appearance to personality.
As soon as I took three or four steps back, the bedroom door could not stand it any longer and was smashed open, allowing the stranger to enter. A row of men came into the bedroom.
Even at a rough estimate, that number far exceeded ten. And in front of them stood Alexander with a mean smile.
“Here you are, Mom.”
“Shut up, Alexander! What the hell are you doing! Rebellion, are you a man with an idea!”
“It would have been nice if you would have quietly handed over the throne to me. Then your life would have been saved.”
“Nonsense! Can’t you leave right now!”
“Go away. They’re all here with a purpose.”
As soon as he finished, a wicked laugh echoed through the room. Each groin swelled up, and the eyes glistened with greed. Perhaps the gaze was directed toward her body.
It wasn’t hard to guess what these men were here for.
“I brought you especially rough kids. They’ll be on a different level than your dad. You’ve been a little lonely lately, right? Don’t worry. I’ll make sure you don’t even think of such poor dicks.”
Charlotte closed her ears to the jumbled footsteps, the violent tearing of her clothes, and the tearing screams of her mother. I also closed my eyes.
Tears flowed incessantly from her closed eyes.
Charlotte desperately buried her face between her knees, fearing that her cries would leak out, or that the horrible noise outside would somehow be mixed with the sound of sobbing.
I didn’t want to realize what was going on outside. She desperately ignored the vulgar sexual harassment directed at her mother.
I forcibly erased the sound of gurgling water and insulting words referring to women from my head.
Charlotte knew too. The fact that it was impossible to escape from the palace with such basic magic. So the fact that her mother sacrificed herself to save herself.
Charlotte’s bright brain took it all too easily.
“By the way, mother, where is Charlotte? As an older brother, I have something to tell you personally.”
Alexander, who had been gasping for a while, suddenly asked such a question. He pulled out the object he had shoved into his mouth and slapped him on the cheek, forcing him to spit out the liquid in his mouth.
“……I don’t know, Coke, everything. Even if I knew, would you tell me?”
“Hmm, I guess I’ll have to use some medicine to boost my memory.”
After the clicks and pauses, her mother’s voice was completely different. It was a voice as if he was trying to suppress the excitement welling up from deep inside his body.
“You, kyahak, haueuk.”
“Are you thinking about it now?”
“…”
“Hwiyu, you shut your mouth completely. This makes it even worse.”
Charlotte had just guessed what Alexandre had done.
It must have been the drug that caused a big commotion half a year ago. Was it a drug that, instead of making a woman feel extreme pleasure for a short period of time, actually made her a disabled person?
The King was really enraged that Alexander had secretly administered to his lady-in-waiting, enjoyed it, and then killed the lady-in-waiting.
To the extent that Alexander, the caretaker, realized that something was going wrong and begged the king. He had no qualms about using such a dangerous drug on his own mother.
Charlotte’s hand pressed against her ear grew stronger. Tears still haven’t dried.
How much time had passed, Charlotte, who had fallen asleep exhausted from crying, hurriedly raised her head. He was still in the closet.
The first emotion I felt was relief. About this closet door not being opened, and about not being noticed.
I gently brought my ear to the closet door. It was quiet. No sound was heard.
Charlotte repeated dozens of times to herself that there would be no one outside, and cautiously put her hand on the door and gave it strength. The light from the room flooded into the closet with the creak of a small hinge.
There was a disgusting smell that was unbearable. Charlotte vomited. Even though the closet door was open, the room was still quiet.
Carefully looking around, I took a step out of the closet. The entire room was filled with a foul smell.
Through the window, I could see the setting sun. Broken and scattered doors and messy footprints.
“mother?”
Charlotte cautiously called her mother. No answer came back.
“mother?”
It was the same. Charlotte hesitated and moved forward. And on the bed in the middle of the room, I could spot a familiar figure.
“ah……?”
A despondent voice cut through the air.
Her silver hair, which resembled Charlotte’s, was all tangled and tangled, and dyed white. Likewise, the two red eyes that looked exactly like Charlotte’s did not light up any more.
A huge amount of whitish liquid had accumulated between her half-open mouth and was leaking out little by little.
It was even more difficult to find an area that was not covered in the white, dried fluid, such as the hands, feet, face, neck, legs, navel, and pelvis.
A grotesquely twisted pelvis and a solid white liquid mixed with blood from underneath. Bloody blades strewn around him and cuts deeply etched into his skin.
Charlotte, who stared into the empty space and saw the two hardened eyes, sat down and vomited.
“Oops… Uwucks,”
When I couldn’t stand it and vomited, clear gastric juice leaked out of my mouth. My esophagus was sore. The dried up tears flowed once more.
“Mother, mother…”
There was no answer coming back.
“……Mom.
Even though Charlotte brought up the word mother, not mother, her mother still did not move.
If you’re crying like this, your mother will come to you right away and say, “My daughter, aren’t you nice? Don’t cry.” Charlotte cried out to her mother at the top of her voice, feeling as if she would wipe away her tears with a benevolent smile.
However, nothing changed.
The fishy smell filling the room and her mother lying on the bed were all the same.
After crying for so long, Charlotte could barely stop her tears. It wasn’t because the sadness had subsided, it was because of the one-sided thought of living.
If you keep crying like this, someone might come to this room. If even Charlotte is captured, this sacrifice will be in vain.
I couldn’t make my mother’s sacrifice in vain. Wiping her tear-stained eyes, Charlotte stood up.
Standing at the boundary between the hallway and the room, Sarlott cautiously poked his head out to examine the hallway. The hallway was horrendous. Naked maids were dead everywhere, and the whole place was covered with blood.
Dead knights with one place cut off and traces of fighting on the walls and floors showed what had happened here.
Charlotte looked around for the last time and stepped into the hallway. I was barefoot in case I heard the sound of my shoes, so I could feel all the traces of the horrors on the soles of my feet.
I forced myself to swallow the vomit that was about to come up again.
‘it’s okay. Castle only, castle only needs to go out. certainly… … There will be someone to help me.’
Watching her surroundings with anxious eyes, Charlotte walked down the bloody hallway. Has there ever been a time when I resented this big castle like now? Until now, this castle had been her pride.
Fortunately, no one was to be found in the hallway. After safely descending to the second floor, Charlotte opened the window.
I climbed on the window sill, looked down, and chanted a small incantation. As the chant ended, a mountain of dirt rose from the floor and stopped right in front of the window Charlotte was standing on.
Carefully climbed the mountain of soil. I sighed in relief as soon as I landed on the floor along the slope of the mountain, which was broken as my feet touched it.
That’s it. Run like this, entrust your body anywhere in the name of Charlotte de Gargantua—-
“Hello, brother? Where are you going in such a hurry?”
—-Charlotte, who was about to say it, stiffened. From the side of the gate on the outer wall of the castle, Alexandre, still smiling meanly, walked out with six knights.
They were not wearing armor, but they were faces that Charlotte vaguely knew.
Those humans who were members of the royal knights, but were busy hanging out with the prince, skipping training and drinking together.
Even though the knight commander caught me and scolded me, they were those guys who didn’t even pretend to listen, as if they believed in the protection of the prince. I remembered hearing the complaint of the knight commander one day.
“Huh? I can’t even meet this older brother. I’m very sad about this.”
“Oh, how…”
Charlotte hesitated and stepped back. In response, Alexander and the knights around him moved forward.
“My younger brother, who was always praised as a ‘genius’, is really stupid. The only place to go out of the castle is here, so of course I was waiting here.”
Alexander, who gave strength to the word genius, gestured. The knights lined up according to the gesture.
“Now, let’s go back. Charlotte. This brother has a lot to talk about with you.”
Alexandre held out his sweaty, gnarled hand. The two eyes that were wide open were glistening with desire.
Feeling the unbearable disgust from the gasping breath, Charlotte let out a gasp.
“No! You murderer! Pig! I’ll never listen to people like you!”
“Can you…?”
Alexander’s eyes twitched. As the knights sighed at Charlotte’s unexpected choice of words, Alexander rolled his eyes backwards.
As the knights sighed and corrected their expressions, Alexander drew his sword from his waist. It took me a long time to find the handle of the knife that was hanging around my waist because I had gained so much weight in my stomach.
“I was going to treat you kindly, but you’re earning a hawk. Catch it. Instead, I’ll take it first.”
As the knights rushed out, the embarrassed Charlotte turned and tried to escape, but it was futile.
It was obvious to the trained knights that no matter how genius they were, an 11-year-old kid could do it. I was so flustered that I even forgot the idea of using magic.
One of the knights threw a spear at Charlotte, who was about to run away again. The javelin was pierced right in front of his feet.
A strong hand grabbed her arm while Charlotte was taken aback by the javelin, which trembled with a javelin stuck in a stone with a thud.
“Hey, let go of this!”
Charlotte struggled with all her might, but the grip on her arm did not budge. Alexandre snorted and approached slowly.
It was at that moment when her dirty, sweaty hands were about to touch Charlotte, and Charlotte closed her eyes tightly, hoping for help because everyone is good.
“Oh, is it too late?”
The knights aimed their weapons at the man’s voice heard from the outer wall of the castle. Alexander, who had stopped moving, looked back with an annoyed look on his face.
Someone from somewhere was walking this way. Her face looked quite young. 16 or 17 years old. At most, around 18 years old.
Besides, the fact that he was quite handsome further irritated Alexander.
It was a normal adventurer’s outfit, probably worn roughly somewhere. Instead, there was no such thing as armor.
At least there were no arm guards or knee pads that even the lowest-ranking adventurers somehow wore. He held a sword in his right hand, and that was the end of his armament.
The black hair and black eyes that matched it were looking around at Alexander and the knights. It was a composition where Charlotte could not be seen because of Alexandre’s body.
His face frowned, but when he realized he could hear the voice of a woman struggling behind him, his eyelids straightened.
“Let’s see… Princess Charlotte de Gargantua is behind it, right? I heard her talking earlier, and she said something about her sister.”
“What are you?”
“Me? I don’t have a specific name. Just call me whatever you like.”
Cheo-eok, the man in front of him aimed his sword. The knights left Charlotte alone and rushed in front of Alexander.
“I’ll take the princess instead.”
“What nonsense, you bastard!”
“It’s not bullshit. At least I’m better than a pig like you?”
“Pig…? Yi-ik, kill it! Kill it! Bring me the neck of someone not like me!”
As soon as Alexander’s words ran out, the knights rushed towards the man. Charlotte was spread out on the floor in a daze, smiling leisurely as she looked at the man who was trying to deal with the knights.
While pondering whether or not his prayers really worked,
