Only Neril and I went to meet the Emperor.

Honestly, I could have gone alone, but Neril insisted on coming along because she was bored.

…Bored.

Meeting the ruler of the Empire because someone was bored…

I wasn’t even sure what to feel about that.

“Welcome.”

The Emperor truly seemed to have cast off all worldly ambitions.

There was no fake smile I had seen on his face before.

What replaced it now was genuine respect and reverence.

The master of the Empire lowered his head to me, someone who had once been nothing more than a wandering mercenary.

“I have heard everything about what happened in the Dronoar territory. I offer you my sincerest thanks.”

“Please raise your head.”

“No. After what happened, I resolved myself. You have proven that you surpass me not only in power, but in every aspect. Let me at least offer this much courtesy.”

“…”

“Have you come to report on the events in Dronoar? If that’s the case, I have already…”

I shook my head.

“No. I have come to make a request.”

“Speak.”

“Please grant us unlimited access to the Imperial Capital’s underground, until the day we slay the False Demon King.”

The Emperor answered without hesitation.

“So be it.”

The answer was so fast it caught me off guard, I stood there briefly with my mouth open.

He was giving us access to the underground that easily?

[Think about your current reputation. It’s only natural the Emperor would respond like that.]

…Fair enough.

Neril asked,

“Seriously? You are not hiding anything else, right?”

“I have no ulterior motives. I have given up on becoming the Hero.”

“Hah. So you wanted to be a Hero, huh.” Get full chapters from novèlfire.net

“It was a foolish ambition of my younger self. Don’t mock me too much.”

Neril simply turned her head away, clearly still bitter about having used honorifics toward his fake persona back then.

I gave him a brief nod.

“Thank you. Then we will take our leave.”

“Still as busy as ever, I see.”

“Well, now that the Demon King’s return is practically a confirmed fact, shouldn’t a Hero stay busy?”

“Hmm. It may be presumptuous, but… may I offer a piece of advice?”

Neril and I glanced at each other.

I responded.

“Go ahead.”

“Among your party… there’s someone called ‘Bright Death,’ correct?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Be wary of him.”

…What was that supposed to mean?

Neril, already harboring some distrust toward the Emperor, frowned.

“Are you trying to sow discord in our party now?”

“Not at all. I say this out of genuine concern. Now that the Demon King’s descent is nearly certain, your party is humanity’s hope.”

“And what exactly are you so concerned about?”

“Hmm… I suppose I can speak frankly to you two.”

Though no one else was around, the Emperor still glanced cautiously around.

Then, he lowered his voice.

“You have probably already heard from Mide about the former Emperor.”

“That you poisoned him?”

“Yes. I could make all sorts of excuses, but I’ll spare them and get to the point. At the time, I used a very particular poison to assassinate the previous Emperor.”

“…”

“The one who made that poison was a man named Hyran Gois.”

Hyran Gois?

Where had I heard that before…

Ah!

I remembered the blood script floating above Offense’s head:

—Sinned against Hyran Gois and 376 others.

He had been listed as the main victim, the one Offense most wanted to keep secret.

Neril tilted her head.

“Who’s that?”

“A legendary man who committed countless assassinations across the continent. The balance of power in many regions shifted due to his actions.”

“I have never heard of him.”

“Wouldn’t it be more suspicious if you had? Assassins rarely go by their real names. Especially that one, he specialized in poisons, so most of his assassinations happened without him even showing up in person.”

I crossed my arms and remained quiet.

The Emperor continued.

“Hyran Gois is a supremely dangerous individual. To be honest, I always believed that if he ever wanted to kill me, he could.”

“But how does that relate to your warning about Offense?”

“Because Offense was Hyran’s apprentice.”

Huh?

So Offense had wronged his own master?

“For two months, Hyran discreetly supplied poison to me. Every time, there was one man who praised his work without end.”

“And that man was Offense?”

“Correct.”

“…”

“When I received the final batch of poison, I decided it was time to eliminate Hyran. I had Captain of Alkahad secretly tail him.”

Typical of the Emperor.

“But the captain returned empty-handed.”

“So he failed. Hyran must have been that formidable, then?”

“No. He never even fought him.”

“…What?”

“Someone else had already taken care of Hyran. Apparently, they did it with little effort.”

His voice grew quieter.

“It was Bright Death.”

Hm.

So Offense’s sin against Hyran… was killing his own master.

“Assassins don’t exactly abide by honor codes, but… Hyran was also the guildmaster of one of the continent’s top guilds. From what I understand, Offense was raised by him since birth.”

“…”

“Doesn’t it chill you a little? That he killed someone like that without hesitation?”

“Hmm.”

“He has already betrayed Kaeld once. Who’s to say he won’t betray you next? That’s why I’m warning you.”

I chuckled softly.

“In the world of mercenaries, betrayal is as common as meals.”

“Still.”

“No. It’s how the human world works. If you want to transcend all that, you will have to become some kind of celestial god or something.”

“…”

“Still, thank you for your concern, Your Majesty.”

I said clearly,

“But I will handle my party members myself.”

On the way back to the inn, Neril spoke.

“Why do you think Offense killed his master?”

“So you were bothered by what the Emperor said?”

“Not really. I’m just… sensitive to the word ‘betrayal.’”

“Why?”

“Because I got seriously burned once.”

I tilted my head in curiosity.

Neril brushed it off smoothly.

“Of course, I don’t think that boring guy is going to betray you too. He’s so ordinary that it’s ironically hard to find fault with him.”

“If you are that curious, just ask.”

“Nah. If someone asked me who betrayed me, I wouldn’t answer either.”

“…”

“Unless you were the one asking.”

At that, I gave a mischievous smile.

“Should I ask you now, then?”

“Wanna know?”

“Uh…”

“Pfft. If you are seriously curious, I’ll tell you anytime. Just say the word later.”

I scratched my head at her words.

Before regression, Neril had been extremely reluctant to talk about herself.

So hearing her say she would gladly share it all now left me a little stunned.

Back at the inn, I gathered the party and said,

“I got permission from the Emperor. From today on, we will be living in the underground beneath the capital.”

Serein muttered,

“That place is so blindingly white, I felt like I was gonna lose my mind.”

“Then maybe you will finally return to normal.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Sounds like you got it exactly.”

As my party began bickering, I calmed them down and continued.

“What we need to find down there is this: a way to communicate with the Celestial God.”

“There’s no way something like that exists. The Celestial God isn’t someone you can just talk to clearly with words.”

“But vague revelations and cryptic signs aren’t enough. Idria’s going to issue a fake oracle. And the only way to counter that is with a real one.”

“…Why is Idria so confident, anyway? Is she besties with the Celestial God or something?”

I was momentarily speechless.

Serein chimed in after Xenia’s comment.

“I don’t think the Celestial God is the type to be friendly with anyone.”

“Mm… true.”

“Unless they are both equally shady and get along that way.”

“Ah! That actually sounds plausible.”

I pressed a hand to my forehead.

I should probably ask the Celestial God one more thing when we meet—

What even is your criteria for granting divine power?

For now, I decided to stop grinding for fame.

Partly because the gap with Kaeld was already fourfold, but mostly because, based on my memories from before regression, nothing major would happen for a while.

Instead, we focused entirely on investigating the underground of the capital.

We practically lived down there for a full week.

Thud.

Lisel collapsed face-first onto the snowy white floor.

“Mr. Grade, please save me.”

“Exhausted?”

“Yes. Is Mide okay? I seriously feel like I’m going to lose it!”

“…”

“Sir.”

“You are starting to sound a lot like Serein.”

A vein popped on Serein’s forehead.

“That was a compliment, right?”

“No.”

“Don’t say it so confidently!”

“How did we do today?”

“Phew.”

She laid out the items she had brought back from each room like she was selling them in a market square.

“These are weapons used by the first to fourth generation Heroes.”

“That’s incredible. They are all authentic?”

“According to my appraisal, yes. And they look brand-new, like they were just made yesterday.”

“Come to think of it, Dame’s sword was like that too.”

Xenia chimed in.

“Yeah. My father’s beloved sword was definitely broken, but the one we found here sparkled like new.”

“Hmm. And in the kitchen where Serein’s parents were, freshly made food kept appearing. My guess is…”

I raised an index finger.

“This place might have the ability to preserve everything in its original state.”

Neril asked,

“But I found my heirloom here too, remember? And it wasn’t in its original state. It still had traces of all the heads of the house who’d used it afterward.”.”

“That’s because it was brought in from outside.”

“…? Didn’t everything here come from outside? All of it?”

Hmm.

I was about to say something when…

[Got a feeling.]

‘Trail? You have been quiet lately.’

[Been focused. Remember how I found Serein’s parents last time?]

‘Of course.’

[Same kind of feeling now. Or intuition, in your words. Just follow me.]

A floating screen appeared and began guiding me somewhere.

I followed it.

“Mide?”

“Yeah. Everyone, come with me for a bit.”

We pushed through the blinding white space, and after a while, a small door appeared.

At a glance, it looked no different from the countless other doors around.

But the screen had clearly stopped in front of this one.

[Go in.]

‘Got it.’

I opened the door and stepped inside.

There was an altar in the room.

And on the altar, a trumpet… huh? A trumpet?

Offense commented,

“An altar and a trumpet? That’s a bizarre combo.”

“Agreed. Should we try blowing it?”

“Uh… um, I’ll pass.”

“Anyone want to give it a go?”

Everyone frantically waved their hands and shook their heads.

Guess this is one of those ‘leader sets the example’ moments.

Tap.

I picked up the trumpet.

Neril quickly grabbed my arm.

“Mide! It could be dangerous. Let’s just make Offense do it, okay?”

“My opinion doesn’t…”

“Don’t worry. It’s just a trumpet. If anything goes wrong, you will protect me, right?”

Neril’s lips twitched at that.

She was clearly happy, just trying hard not to show it.

I carefully brought the trumpet to my lips.

I’d never handled an instrument in my life, but at least I knew where to blow.

–Bwooooom.

It made a perfectly normal trumpet sound.

But nothing else happened.

Aside from the ringing in our ears from the tight echo in the small room, nothing changed.

“Guess it’s just a trumpet after all.”

“Well, it is a trumpet.”

“But your intuition can’t be wrong.”

Not my fault. Go blame Trail.

[Oh, so when things go right it’s thanks to you, but when they go wrong it’s my fault, huh?]

That’s when Lisel spoke up.

Her eyes were wide open.

“I—I think it was right, Mr. Mide. Your intution.”

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