Chapter 326

Lefren and I were in the sky.

The Cordis Great Imperial Palace was visible beneath our feet.

It meant that the place we were in was Rutilium, the capital of the Millennium Empire.

“I’ve heard a lot about this era.”

I said.

On my head was a crude wooden crown, the ‘Crown of Paradox’.

It is the Ars of the soul I found while reconciling with my life.

“I know, Shion.”

Lefren answered.

She had three heads.

One was rotten, one was only bone, and one was beautiful.

While she was the very person who gave the fruit of immortality to all mankind, she was watching the past together with me by my side.

She and I were observers.

We could peer into the past and speak, but we could not change it.

“Lefren, you seem to know me well. I don’t know why.”

“Because your life is interesting.”

“Why? Because I am a regressor?”

“No, because I knew you would eventually reconcile.”

The Demon Queen smiled broadly.

“May I tell you a secret?”

“Is it a secret you are allowed to tell?”

“I do not know. But I want to tell you.”

“Do as you please.”

My voice was gentle.

I was a man who lived with many secrets.

I knew well how arduous it was for the heart to suppress secrets firmly.

“You are the protagonist, Shion.”

The Demon Queen added that this was the world’s deepest secret.

“So I had no choice but to pay attention to you.”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“That is correct. Because if the protagonist knows he is the protagonist, the story would not be established. You will not understand it yet.”

But it will be soon.

Lefren admitted that she was hasty.

I soon forgot her words.

Even though I heard them, it was as if something was stuck in my head, and I could not understand them.

“Now, let us focus. We have come from the past of 1,335 years ago to the past of 53 years ago.”

“We crossed a whopping 1,300 years.”

“Let us approach carefully. To the Man-God who has lived a long time, the ‘Last Emperor’.”

***

The door was large and magnificent.

It was the door leading to the Emperor’s room.

Two men opened their mouths in front of it.

“It is Caseptus, Your Majesty.”

“Debius is here as well.”

No sound came from inside.

Silence meant affirmation.

Caseptus caught his breath and then threw the door open.

He was in the form of a young man.

It was the appearance of a noble youth wearing round glasses from when he was human.

Debius also had the form of a young man who looked so young he seemed childish.

“You have come.”

There was a golden throne in the center of the room.

There was a man sitting on the throne.

He looked about seventeen years old at most.

However, his eyes were deep.

Those pupils were a golden color that harbored a depth that could not be measured.

Caseptus looked at those golden pupils and his lips trembled slightly.

“…Oh….”

Caseptus smiled deeply even while trembling slightly.

He was the Man-God ‘Last Minister’, and he had already aged nearly one thousand three hundred years.

No matter how much he took the form of a young man, the old heart does not change.

Yet laughter came out. It was because of the appearance of the man sitting on the golden throne.

“Truly….”

Caseptus bowed deeply at the waist.

He had become very cruel living a long time as a Man-God.

To the point where one sometimes wondered if anything called emotion was left inside him.

But looking at that one face, joy close to ecstasy welled up.

“…It is truly a welcome face, Your Majesty.”

“Is that so?”

The ‘Last Emperor’ touched his own face.

He was the Emperor.

He was the 1st Emperor of Cordis, the 2nd Emperor, the 3rd Emperor, and also the 48th Emperor.

And now it was his turn to become the 49th Emperor.

Today was the occasion to showcase the body he would use as the 49th Emperor to his confidants.

“I find this face unfamiliar all over again.”

“What do you mean unfamiliar?”

Debius laughed heartily.

Caseptus suddenly questioned whether his friend had taken a form that was too young.

Debius looked to be only about fourteen years old at most.

“I am also very glad to see you, Your Majesty Cordisias!”

“How many times have I told you not to use that name, Debius!”

“It is just us, so what does it matter, Caseptus!”

Debius snorted.

“Aren’t you even glad to see His Majesty’s original face after a thousand years, you bastard?”

“Didn’t I say I was glad, you stupid bastard!”

“Then just let it pass roughly, you cunning bastard!”

Watching the two bickering confidants, the ‘Last Emperor’ also smiled.

He was someone who had lost his laughter from living too long.

However, those two who shared the same time with him often became a great joy to him.

Because Caseptus and Debius knew that too, they would often act more like children and quarrel to amuse him in front of the Emperor.

“It is not completely the same face.”

The Emperor’s face closely resembled his own face that he had lost a long time ago.

Before he decided to switch bodies, when he ruled Hotus, when he was still human, it was the appearance he was born with and had not chosen.

“I just had it sculpted to closely resemble my first body. Since it is the last body, I paid a little attention.”

“Last.”

Debius groaned, saying ‘Mmm’.

“I see. It must be the last.”

“Though half a century still remains.”

“Half a century passes quickly.”

“No. When you work, it is longer than you think.”

“That is also true.”

The two Man-Gods looked at each other and laughed.

They didn’t laugh because there was a reason to laugh, but they laughed because there was no reason not to laugh.

It was proof that they had aged.

“Really, I put a lot of effort into it. This body will even be able to make children. I am planning for about 6 sons and 2 daughters.”

“Oh. How is that possible?”

“I asked Sen. For the first time in a very long while.”

“……Pardon?”

Caseptus was startled and raised his head.

“You said that to Sen Sorti? Give me a body capable of making children?”

Caseptus asked back as if he could not believe it.

Even though 350 years had passed since they split, they still considered each other husband and wife.

So wasn’t that saying he declared to his wife that he would embrace other women?

“What did she say?”

“She didn’t say much.”

“…That cannot be, Your Majesty. With her personality, there is no way.”

“It is a necessary matter, so what can be done. Sen has also lived for over a thousand years. She knows how to distinguish between public and private matters.”

“…No. That cannot be….”

Caseptus, knowing Sen Sorti’s obsession, furrowed his brow. She acted very obediently in front of Cordisias, but she never did so for others.

“Somehow.”

Debius abruptly opened his mouth.

“Do not even go near the North for the time being, Your Majesty.”

“Why?”

“There was a telegram. The Silver Dragon Magic Kingdom is suddenly developing weapons that have never been heard of or seen before.”

“Weapons?”

The Emperor beckoned for him to speak more. Debius hesitated but continued speaking.

“Well, they are weapons that resemble our side’s magi-soldiers. There are a total of 3 units, and the output is strangely high. It is also certain that Sen Sorti participated in the development.”

“Just how high is the output?”

“They are not objects to be used against people. Anyone can see they were made with Man-Gods in mind. On top of that… the names of those 3 units are….”

Debius squeezed his eyes shut.

“…‘How’, ‘Love’, ‘Changes’….”

“……Did I hear that wrong?”

“…You probably heard correctly. The names of the three weapons urgently developed by the Silver Dragon Magic Kingdom are ‘How’, ‘Love’, and ‘Changes’ respectively….”

He said the three weapons held a whip with thorns, a thick club, and an angled hammer respectively.

Cordisias inadvertently ended up imagining being beaten by the whip, the club, and the hammer.

“For the time being….”

Cordisias touched his lips.

“…I should not even go near the North.”

“You are wise, Your Majesty.”

“We will also be careful.”

The two confidants, who did not want to become targets of undeserved venting, also answered quickly.

“More importantly, Caseptus, what will you choose for your name this time?”

“Oh. I have decided.”

Caseptus raised his head.

“Kerenneus Cansella Caseptus. You may call me that.”

“It is a name full of pretension.”

“How great of a name did you make then, you bastard?”

“I didn’t make it, but.”

Debius shrugged his shoulders.

He seemed to like his new name quite a bit.

“Deballo Debius.”

Tsk. Caseptus clicked his tongue without realizing it.

It was because Debius’s name was quite plausible.

“Did you say you are Continua, Your Majesty?”

“Yes. Call me that from now on.”

“Understood, Your Majesty Continua.”

“Okay, Kerenneus.”

The three Man-Gods looked at each other.

“Ah, there was also contact from Hireium. He says preparations for war are finished, so we can start at any time.”

Kerenneus handed over a paper, saying Hireium had sent a list of places in the West that must absolutely not be touched.

Deballo and Continua looked at it and nodded their heads.

Even if it was a planned war, it was an event where countless human lives would be lost.

They had to be cautious.

“Then, Your Majesty, please speak now.”

“What do you desire from this war?”

They spoke in one voice.

They even looked somewhat agitated.

“I intend to wash it away.”

The Emperor declared.

“My son’s time is not far off. There is much to tidy up for that child. I do not want a world that is too complicated.”

“Your Majesty.”

Deballo Debius said.

He looked barely fourteen years old.

“The words are too difficult for an old man who knows nothing but war. What should I do?”

“Kill, Deballo.”

Continua’s eyes were like the sun.

No, they were too creepy to be called the sun.

But they were mighty.

Every single word he spat out flashed with a dignity that was hard to believe.

“I have taught you what must not be killed, so kill everything that remains.”

“As a human, or as a god?”

“As a human for now.”

“It is easy, Your Majesty. It is a very easy task for me.”

Deballo laughed loudly.

He was the Man-God ‘Last General’.

He was confident he could exterminate all the countries of the West single-handedly.

But even without revealing the dignity of a god, it would not be difficult.

He had been warring for over a thousand years.

“What should I do, Your Majesty?”

“You must already know your task, Kerenneus.”

“Yes. That is correct.”

Kerenneus held a fishy smile.

“My job was always to weed out. In this Empire that has grown too large, I will weed out everything that goes against Your Majesty’s will. They won’t even know they have been weeded out.”

“I feel gratitude toward you, Kerenneus.”

The Emperor had a somewhat weary attitude.

“You always took on the dirtiest and most difficult tasks.”

“Isn’t that what a Prime Minister is?”

“That is also correct.”

Silence intruded between their conversation.

“…….”

There was one more man.

He was not an observer like Lefren or me.

The three Man-Gods had known of his existence all along. It was just that the man had not interrupted the conversation.

The man, who had only been listening to the conversation of the three Man-Gods the whole time, finally opened his mouth.

“Your Majesty.”

He was an old man.

A white beard had grown down to below his waist.

In this place, only he was not a Man-God.

However, the other three Man-Gods did not think it strange that he was in this place.

“If so, please tell me as well.”

At this point in time, the old man had lived for 350 years.

Yet among those gathered here, he was the youngest.

“What should this Hermai Merhes do?”

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