Chapter 106 – It isn’t Going as Planned (3)

“Heroes.”

“They really are heroes.  The heroes that were born in Diaz are in Aedia….  No, they are in the empire of Zard.”

“If the heroes are going along with this, I might be able to accept this situation.”

“A nation that was born alongside the heroes…..  The fall of Aedia does make my heart burn, but it feels as if I’m watching a lotus flower bloom from within the mud.   Of course, I can’t help, but celebrate its birth……”

It didn’t matter if one knew about it or one didn’t know about it.  Everyone accepted the reality of the situation when confronted with the title of hero and Demon king.  Heroes were the only existence that could transmute a human vs human struggle into a struggle between humanity and the Demon race.

Of course, the ruling class of each nation would have tried to somehow profit from the situation, but the entire ruling class of Aedia and Tiata was gone right now.

Artpe was cooperating with the ex-king of Daitan.  The current emperor Angelo Zard had a good grasp of the situation, so there were many magicians and knights on his side.  He used them to establish the Zard empire, and the proclamation of the heroes were able to be spread throughout the united empire of Zard.

“Hoo.  I’ve somewhat set the stage.”

“Is this what Artpe wanted?”

“This might not sound so great, but a war had broken out at the right time.  I was able use this to my advantage.”

In a situation where it was potentially unstable and dangerous, it was hard to perceive and fix the problems as they appeared.

The people had received a huge shock, but until the dangers rose to the surface, most of them would maintain the mentality of ‘We’ve been fine until now, so it’ll be fine in the future.’ and ‘It worries me, but there are other more important things to focus on.’  These kinds of attitudes were problematic, but he decided to worry about this problem at a later date.

“The war made everything obvious.  It revealed the plans of Aedia and Tiata.  It exposed the problems being shouldered by the Elves within the Forest of Eternity.”

“Yes, it is a situation where everything is exposed.  It makes it easier to cut out and heal the malignancy.  I acknowledge that there were inevitable sacrifices…..”

“Hoo-hue hee.  Artpe is really kind.”

“I’m not kind.  Hey.  Don’t pet me like that.”

At that moment, his ears picked up murmured voices..

“The two heroes are really friendly with each other.”

“They are a man and a woman in their prime.  They spent many years together.  It would be weird if there wasn’t any affection between them..”

How could they be so predictable!

There were too many people that were saying words that were straight out of the ‘Words That Shouldn’t Be Spoken Unless You Want to Become a Supporting Character in Another Person’s Life  Volume 1.’

“There!  Look at what they are saying.”

“Hue hue.  If we display our relationship like this, no other bitc…..women will dare to get between us.”

“Hey.  What word were you about to use right now?”

They were participating in a weird parade.  It was a parade celebrating the ascension of Angelo Zard to the position of emperor.  On top of that, they were advertising the presence of the heroes.  It was a parade that displayed the alliance between the heroes and Zard in no uncertain terms.

“Please grab my hand once, hero-nim!”

“Hero-nim!”

Of course, voices of support from the people could be heard intermittently.  However, he completely ignored them.  If he developed an image of being too friendly with the civilians, they would want his help over every trivial problem!

When the opportunity to kill the Demon King arrives, he didn’t want some messed up quest involving Flower Selling Girl A to pop up.  It would make him go all over the place for nothing.  Artpe wanted to stop the possibility of such routes from developing.

“Ooh-oong.  You were being kind hearted, but you suddenly became bad.”

“I’ve alway been bad.”

“Still, it is better than Artpe holding the hand of another woman, so I’ll forgive you.”

“······you do realize that you are not much better than me recently?”

Where did he go wrong in nurturing the hero?  Artpe mulled over this question during the parade, but he couldn’t come up with an answer.

The extremely close relationship between the two heroes was seen by the civilians watching the parade.  Moreover, the recorded images were spread throughout the empire, and everyone became aware of this fact.

A week passed before the celebration finally came to an end.  Emperor Angelo Zard elevated the capital of Aedia to become the capital of his empire.  In turn, this meant he needed a more intimate connection with the lands of Daitan.  He needed a Warp Gate like the one linking Aedia and Tiata.  He started constructing one that connected Daitan to Aedia.

He was already able to communicate with the entirety of his empire thanks to the Magic Transmission magic.  When the Warp Gate was finished, he would be able to easily rule over his empire.

“Thank you for acting on my behalf, hero.  It must have been tiring.”

“This was part of the deal.  You are the one with the tough task ahead of you, emperor.”

When the hero called Angelo by his title of emperor, a small smile appeared on his face.

“I was able to rise to this position thanks entirely to you, hero.  That is why I’ll protect this empire.  I’ll prove to you that I deserve to be in this seat..”

“You know that the Demon King’s army is on the move, yet you have such ambitions.  I kinda like that.”

Artpe nodded his head in a satisfied manner as he took out a map.  As if she knew the identity of this map, Maetel’s eyes slightly narrowed.  Angelo Zard tilted his head in puzzlement as he received it…..  His reaction was the same as those that received similar maps from Artpe.

“Is the information within this map true!?”

“I’ve marked Daitan, Aedia and Tiata.  I categorized them into regions that will be good to grow your soldiers, knights and magicians.  You should be thankful.”

This was obvious, but the map was marked with the location of the Dungeons.  The high level Dungeons were left out, and he had only marked the Dungeons that the humans could handle.  This was enough to surprise Angelo Zard.

“You went this far for me······.”

“This will allow you to grow the power of your empire.  Moreover, it will allow you to gain the loyalty of your subjects.  It sounds possible, right?”

“It is more than adequate!  Even if this map is half…..no, even if this map is 90% wrong, the remaining 10% would greatly increase the strength of the empire!”

“I’m glad you know the worth of what I’m giving you.”

Artpe’s eyes narrowed.

“Don’t release this information all at once.  The people will become entitled.  They’ll take the information as a given, and they’ll become lazy.  They’ll want more from you.  I’m sure you know what I am talking about.”

“I will take your words to heart. ······is that why the levels, Dungeons and quantity of the loots were categorized like this?  I’m not sure how you know all of this, but….   No, I won’t pry into it.”

Angelo Zard took the map, and he put it deep within his robe.

“I’ll put my trust in you.  I will carry this out.”

“Good.  That’s the answer I wanted.”

The hero from his previous life had grown the power of her party through Dungeon exploration.

She had ignored the stress that her actions had caused on her relationship with each nation on the continent.  She focused on the concept that everything would be fine once the Demon king was defeated.  That was why she hadn’t been able to create a friendly relationship with other nations.  Everything broke apart before any amicable relationship could be started.   It forced her into a much more brutal fight.

However, things were different now.  He had successfully created a positive relationship with the Elves within the Forest of Eternity and the humans on this continent.  It was possible for Artpe to grow their strengths, and they would remain vigilant against the Demon king’s army.  The process had been a complete mess, but he had achieved the best possible result.

‘Diaz is akin to the weakest amongst the Four Heavenly Kings.  I don’t have to do anything in regards to them.  On the other hand, the holy nation of Paladia…..  They already found a candidate that is more suitable for their needs.’

He arrived at the conclusion that he should make a clean sweep of the riches of this world.  He just had to wait for Sienna and Regina to come back.  Then they could depart!  They could have fun clearing the Dungeons of this world!

“Your highness, an envoy from the temple has arrived.”

“Bring him in.”

······there was a time when Artpe had such thoughts.

“I congratulate you on your ascension, your majesty.  The temple does not involve itself in the feuds between royalty.  That is why we could only sit by and watch the war.  I apologize.”

“No, you don’t have to worry about it.”

The envoy dispatched by the temple wore the hat of an archbishop.  He was the archbishop in charge of all the temples within Aedia!  This was obvious, but in terms of power within the temples, he was highly placed.  He was in the top seven.

The God Flush had covered everything.  It was called the Upthrust Calamity.(The event had already gained a name.)  The temple suffered under the same predicament, but the temple was clean now.  Maybe, he was imagining things, but it felt as if the archbishop was glaring at Artpe.  This was why Artpe decided to ignore him.

“However, you did reveal the names of the heroes in the parade and the coronation ceremony.   It was something that wasn’t sanctioned by the temple.  The pope in Paladia is deeply worried about this.”

“Hmm.  About what?”

At the emperor’s reply, the archbishop was able to raise his head.  The archbishop was clearly glaring at Artpe.  He hadn’t been imagining it!  Of course, he became terrified by Maetel’s fierce  gaze, so the archbishop immediately turned his head away!

“The Hero’s Class is bestowed and managed by the temple,  It has to be all done inside the borders of Paladia.  These two heroes haven’t been confirmed yet.  Moreover, your majesty declared this information instead of the temple.  It isn’t something you should have done.  It shouldn’t have been done.”

“However, they are the heroes.  They match the description released previously by the temple.  Moreover, I saw them use skills and spells of at least 35 different Classes.  How  can they not be heroes?”

The emperor emphasized his words as he tried to dissuade the archbishop from nitpicking at the situation for no reason. The archbishop had no choice but to nod his head.

“I also do not doubt that they are heroes.  However, they should have visited the temple before their identities were revealed.  I was merely pointing out this fact.  If the temple was involved, everyone would know for sure that they were given the Hero’s Class.  There would be no doubt, and everyone could follow the heroes with an easy mind.”

“Mmm.  You do have a point······.”

In his previous life, the hero had went through this process.  Diaz, the temples and Paladia had pretty strong ties.  This was why the hero of his past life had belatedly visited Paladia….   However, Artpe knew about the disaster that had occurred at the end, so he wanted to leave Paldia alone.

‘It seems whatever I think about or worry about comes to pass.  This is why being a hero is tiresome.  Shit.’

That’s right.  This was one of the reasons why Artpe hadn’t liked revealing the fact that he was a hero.  He didn’t want to become involved with the temples.  The temples liked to manipulate the situation.  They made it look as if they had caused the heroes to descend into this world.  They also liked to meddle in the affairs of the heroes.

“Everything that is done in the hero’s name has to be sanction by the temple.  Of course, a hero hasn’t appeared in this world for several hundred years.  It is understandable that your majesty didn’t know about this.  I’m not trying to criticize your actions.  I just want to request that you should be more careful in the future.”

“Mmm.  Are you trying to excessively restrict the freedom of the heroes?”

“We are not trying to suppress the hero’s freedom.  However…”

The archbishop’s eyes shone.

“The hero’s mission is to confront the Demon King’s army.  We just want to help them, so their work goes smoothly.  That is why I want you to be more careful in the future.”

“Ah.  Understood.”

Angelo Zard had just established his empire, and it would create a massive headache if he went against the temple.  For now, Angelo Zard nodded his head as he gave a meaningful glance towards Artpe.  He was asking Artpe as to whether he found all of this acceptable.  Artpe gave a slight nod.

“Oh, heroes….”

As if he had been aiming for this moment, the archbishop changed his target.

“We’ve searched for the two of you for a very long time.  Still, we waited until the parade ended.  It almost makes us want to commend our own patience.   We really felt…..”

“Dude, get to the point.”

At Artpe’s words, the archbishop’s eyebrows rose.  In the next moment, Maetel glared at him.  She was like a devil that had crawled out of hell.  His eyes dropped down.  He was frightened by Maetel’s terrifying gaze.

“The pope is looking for both of you.  Please come to Paladia.  There is a divine revelation that was given as a preparation for the heroes.  It will help you face the Demon king’s army.  Moreover, the holy priestess is urgently waiting for both of you.”

When Maetel heard about the priestess, she took a firm grasp of Artpe’s arm.  In the past, she said she wouldn’t mind if the number of women increased in their party, yet she had immediately used force like this.  As expected, all women were liars!

“No······!”

“Maetel..”

However, Artpe gently pried her arms from his, and he smiled at her.

“You can relax.  I’ll explain it to you later, but you can rest comfortably.”

“······I’ll rest easy then.”

Artpe soothed Maetel then he turned to look at the archbishop. The emperor thought Artpe was going to immediately cut off the archbishop’s head.  Maetel started to look for a good moment to cut off the archbishop’s head.  However, the words that came out of Artpe’s mouth betrayed everyone’s expectation.

“All right.  Let’s go to Paladia.”

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