Meaning of 残す, 結びつく and ては


First, a bit of context: there is a knight who grew up with the princess, and
they were very close; in the end they killed each other (which is said in the
prelude, and then the story kinda goes back).

The princess then is shown as ruthless, executing people deemed as rebels and
their families with cruelty, like first killing the young son just to make the
parents suffer.

Meanwhile the knight is shown as blind and is treated as a rebel by her former
comrades.

In the scene, the knight is figthing with her former teacher, and the point of
view is another character.

This is the sentence I'm not sure about:

> 「先生に勝つには、相打ちしかない。だが私はまだ死ねない。陛下を残しては死ねないのです」
>
> （陛下……？）
>
> 一瞬、リーベルヴァイン王の顔が浮かぶ。残虐な処刑と、あの無慈悲な高笑い。しかし、それが「陛下を残しては」という今の台詞と結びつかない。

I read 陛下を残しては死ねないのです in two possible ways:

  * "If Her Majesty is still alive, I can't die" (with [this](https://japanesetest4you.com/flashcard/learn-jlpt-n2-grammar-%E3%81%A6%E3%81%AF-tewa/) meaning of ては), and since the knight is a rebel and the princess a tyrant, it'd make sense if the first wanted to stop the second; but I don't understand how それが「陛下を残しては」という今の台詞と結びつかない follows: I think it means "That [the cruel executions and loud laughters] doesn't fit the sentence 'If Her Majesty is still alive'", which doesn't really follows.

  * "I can't die leaving Her Majesty behind", which - if 残す as "to leave behind" as a meaning of abandoning - would make sense with the following part, since the point of view character wouldn't understand why the girl would be reluctant to abandon such a tyrant; in this case, ては sounds to me like an "and" ("I can't leave her behind **and** die"), but I'm not sure if 残す can have that implication, nor if it's right to read ては that way.

Despite the princess (now ruler) being a girl, リーベルヴァイン王 refers to her, since
the point of view character saw her doing those executions, and thought about
her "あれが、リーベルヴァイン王".

I think the knight's sentence should make sense given the background (knight
and princess know each other since they were child, and they were close), but
the narrator - not knowing their background - sees a mismatch beetwen the
tyrant she knows and what the knight said; I think the second meaning is the
right one ("I can't die leaving Her Majesty behind"), but I'm not sure and I
am unsure about 残す and ては as said above.

The quote is from 僕の愛したジークフリーデ vol. 1, by Matsuyama Takeshi.




You might find the sentence easier to understand if は is moved to a different
position, like this.

> ［陛下を残して死ぬこと］ **は** できないのです。

What the knight says she can’t do is dying leaving Her Majesty behind. Here, て
can be understood as indicating the attendant circumstances under which she
dies. She’s basically saying she needs to be alive for Her Majesty. Nobody
knows why at this point, including the narrator. But it doesn’t seem to
matter. I think the narrator just finds it hard to connect the knight’s
reverential language towards the queen with the cruel and merciless person she
knows.




You might find the sentence easier to understand if は is moved to a different
position, like this.

> ［陛下を残して死ぬこと］ **は** できないのです。

What the knight says she can’t do is dying leaving Her Majesty behind. Here, て
can be understood as indicating the attendant circumstances under which she
dies. She’s basically saying she needs to be alive for Her Majesty. Nobody
knows why at this point, including the narrator. But it doesn’t seem to
matter. I think the narrator just finds it hard to connect the knight’s
reverential language towards the queen with the cruel and merciless person she
knows.

