The rooms within the hospital were filled with the smell of death and pain. It was only natural, since it was a hospital in the city that had just suffered a disaster and a war at the same time.

Juan fumbled over a mask that he had pulled up all the way up to his nose and wandered around the room, looking for someone.

While the civilians, soldiers, and knights were all groaning in pain, the citizens of Hiveden were passionately taking care of the injured.

Such a sight could be seen everywhere in Hiveden—although there were many aggressive men in Hiveden, to the point that the city was called the ‘lawless city,’ surprisingly no one plundered or gave up on the city. The people of Hiveden only quietly searched for the survivors and grouped up to rebuild the city.

The same was true of the Order of the White Crow. No one gave them a good look since they were no different from slaughterers, but people already stopped caring too deeply about that—the things they had all experienced were too intense and the shared experience had banded them together.

Only a few people had ever seen a god in person even among the older people, and the same was true of incarnations of gods. It was surprising enough that the god of death had appeared, but they had also faced the powerful being who was capable of bringing down the god at once.

There was no one making a big fuss over it, but everyone had been quietly whispering to each other—that ‘His Majesty has returned,’ and that he had kept his promise to return when the empire was in crisis.

Soon after, Juan found the person he had been searching for among the soldiers—it was Dilmond.

Dilmond’s whole body was covered with wounds as if he had been stabbed widely, and he laid sideways as he couldn’t lie on his back due to the painful burns on his back. It seemed like the bandages wrapped around his entire body were being changed quite often, but focused treatment and care was hard to expect in this messy place with the large numbers of patients. Nevertheless, he was still alive.

“Dilmond.”

Juan approached Dilmond and began to change his bandages.

Dilmond opened his eyes upon Juan’s touch.

“What… who is…oh, it’s just you.”

“Well… you look quite disappointed. I had been feeling sorry for you, but all of a sudden I don’t anymore. So you recognized me at once, huh?”

“I’ve already heard from Anya that your face has changed a little bit—though I didn't expect this to be what she meant. Well, it doesn’t matter. Anyway, it seems like you made it out alive,” Dilmond said.

“That’s what I wanted to say to you as well. But we can’t be too relieved just yet, based on your wounds.”

“It’s nothing. Just a few scratches and burns here and there. If these puny wounds could kill me, I would’ve been dead a long time ago when I tripped over a stone. Compared to when sir Ras Raud fought against Barth Baltic, I…”

Dilmond hesitated to continue his words for a moment, as if it was hard on him to mention Ras’ name. Dilmond looked at Juan who was silently changing his bandages and asked. “Did sir Ras end up dying?”

“It’s a bit complicated, to be honest,” Juan answered as he pulled out the essence left by Nigrato when he died from his pocket.

The fluctuating mass of darkness moved constantly; it looked like a liquid, but it also looked like it could be gas.

“It’s the essence of Nigrato. But I couldn’t feel any presence of Ras when I checked. I think we should just consider it as a lump of mana. I’m not sure how such a thing can even exist, but… thinking about it, it’s not the first,” Juan explained.

“There’s something just like this?” Dilmond asked.

“The heart of Mananen McLeir.”

Dilmond looked straight at Juan.

Juan put the mass of darkness back into his pocket.

“Yes. Ras had been trying to clone Mananen McLeir’s heart until he died, and he did make some successful progress. So I’m guessing that he did something similar to Nigrato’s essence. But the problem is that I have no idea what function it has. It’s not like I can absorb it into my body like Mananen McLeir’s heart.”

“It must mean something if sir Ras had left it for you. How did the Captain die? People spoke some nonsense, but I couldn’t believe it as I was the only one unconscious at the moment.”

“Ras regained consciousness in the end. He asked me to finish everything off for him.”

“That’s it? Anya brought up to me an unbelievable story.”

Juan immediately understood which story Dilmond was talking about. He wanted to avoid explaining, but he didn’t think it would be easy based on the way that Dilmond was glaring at him.

“Well, what do you think?” Juan shrugged.

“Half and half. I did think of you as someone similar to His Majesty or maybe his incarnation, but I never thought that you were His Majesty himself. To consider you as His Majesty, you are too…”

“Weak?”

“A brat.”

Juan burst out laughing, and Dilmond also chuckled. But Dilmond soon shook his head.

“It seems like Anya has no doubt that you are His Majesty.”

“To be honest, I don’t know, Dilmond. Up until not long ago, I didn’t know how and what to prove—I was the emperor himself and that was it. But as time went by, I thought that I was the one who didn’t know anything. The title of emperor began to feel odd and heavy to me.”

“That’s a bit…”

“Maybe the brat is growing up. Anyway, I don’t consider myself to be the emperor right now just because I was the emperor in the past. Dilmond, what do you think was the reason for which Ras had been trying to clone Mananen McLeir’s heart?” Juan asked.

The reason why Ras tried to clone Mananen McLeir’s heart was definitely not to seek strength, nor was it to become as strong as the emperor—what Ras tried to create wasn’t simply just a source of strong power. Ras wanted to create the emperor—Ras had hoped for the appearance of a being who could save, lead, and unite the empire once again. Ras wanted to rely on such being’s support.

“When my thoughts got that far, one person came to my mind. There is one person who refuses to acknowledge me as the emperor.”

Sina Solvane.

Even after Juan had shown his powers as the emperor, Sina didn’t come to visit him. However, Juan could tell that she was alive, just as Sina could tell what state Juan was in. There was only one reason why Sina didn’t come to find Juan; regardless of whether Juan had the power of the emperor or not, Sina couldn’t acknowledge him as the emperor.

Dilmond silently looked at Juan, then reached out his hand. The thick and rough palms of Dilmond’s hand roughly patted Juan’s hair.

“Looking at you agonizing like that, I’m starting to think that maybe you are more of an emperor than a brat,” Dilmond said with a bright smile which revealed all his teeth.

Juan remained silent.

“I’m not sure either. I had only seen His Majesty only a few times, you know. But sir Ras respected and accepted you no matter what you did or what you looked like. Perhaps he was able to do that since he had deep trust in you, and I trust sir Ras, just like he trusted you.”

Dilmond smiled and whispered to Juan.

“And at least those who have such thoughts and worries are more like the emperor than those who don’t.”

***

The Order of Huginn still held their base in the dark and humid underground of Hiveden.

Juan clicked his tongue as he looked at the walls that seeped sewage water when rubbed with his hands and a room filled with mold. Juan thought that such an environment must have played a part in negative rumors about the Order of Huginn.

However, Anya didn’t seem to be planning on moving the home base of the Order of Huginn just yet.

“The reactions of the residents of Hiveden are neither good nor bad,” Anya said.

“Even when it was the Order of Huginn that stopped the massacre of the Order of the White Crow and stopped the advent of Nigrato?” Juan asked.

“We might be praised for the former, but I must admit that we are also at fault for the advent of Nigrato. Although it feels a little unfair, I think it’s reasonable for them to resent us in the situation where there are so many casualties due to the undead. After all, we had been summoning and controlling them since a long time ago,” Anya said with a sigh.

There were quite a few people who received help from the Order of Huginn and the Order of the White Crow when the city had been submerged in darkness; there were many people who remembered Sina and Deputy Kamil in particular.

“Anyway, everyone seems to have complicated feelings toward us. There are people who resent us, and there are people who appreciate us for our help. But I think everyone has a shared bond—that they are all ‘survivors.’ Especially when they witnessed that His Majesty had returned!”

Anya straightened her chest and pointed to Juan as if she was proud. Upon hearing Anya’s words, Kamil who had been quiet the whole time flinched and widened her eyes to look at Juan.

“About that title—I think it would be for the best that you just call me Juan for the time being,” Juan said with an irritated face as he held his forehead.

“Okay, Juan!”

“You are not even going to ask me why?”

“You are His Majesty, and I’m sure that you made the decision after considering the big picture and deeper meanings.”

Juan felt as if he had fallen into an even deeper pit. Nevertheless, he was relieved that he could avoid a complicated explanation.

Meanwhile, Juan felt Kamil glancing at him. The only reason she could stay at the home base of the Order of Huginn as the Deputy of the Order of the White Crow was that she gave up her position as a Templar.

“Did you say your name was Kamil? I heard it was rather common for the Templars to give up their position.”

“Yes, it’s true,” Kamil answered while looking at Juan with a complicated expression.

When the light that extinguished Nigrato had appeared, Kamil had definitely felt the presence of His Majesty. The same was true for everyone in the Order of the White Crow.

However, the existence of Juan was barely known to others except for the Order of Huginn. However, people gossiped about it privately.

‘I did think that there would be someone like His Majesty behind it, but it was that young man?’

Kamil held a skeptical view of Juan. In fact, Kamil’s reaction was rather normal—it was Anya who was unusual.

“Can you tell me why you gave up your position as a Templar? As far as I know, being a Templar is a symbol of high status,” Juan asked.

“...That day when His Majesty showed his power to destroy the enemies, we all fell into a dilemma. We questioned whether we had been fighting against the wrong enemy this whole time. Although Ras was the servant of the god of death…”

At that moment, Anya pulled out her stiletto even before Kamil could finish his words. Juan grabbed Anya’s hand to stop her, and Anya stared at Kamil without any expression. Kamil quietly continued her words at Juan’s gesture.

“…Although Ras was the servant of the god of death, it is also true that the Order of Huginn tried their best to defeat the god of death. There are many witnesses too. When we found out that His Majesty wasn’t a Templar or a Priest, but one of the people who had fought alongside the Order of Huginn, many people became skeptical. I was no different from them.”

“Is that really a good enough reason to give up your status as a Templar?”

“The Order of the White Crow had already lost its function as a knight order. The number of Templars we had gone down dramatically, and Captain Ethan Etil… had gone missing as well. The most important for the Templars is to have faith without any suspicions. However, we were already in doubt. I bet there isn’t a single Templar who doesn’t doubt their faith after the current situation.”

The emperor who appeared in front of Kamil and the others captivated people, made them look back on themselves, and shook the future by existing alone. Juan still felt complicated, but one thing became clear to him.

“Then would it be okay for me to assume that the Order of the White Crow will no longer be the Order of Huginn’s enemy?”

“That I can promise. But if you ask me to join the Order of Huginn… I’d have to decline. It’s hard for the other Templars and myself to even describe what we are feeling right now. Besides, we have more work to do.”

“More work to do?”

“We are planning to help the survivors of the massacre we started in this city for the rest of our lives. I don’t know how they will see us, but it’s the least we can do considering the sin we committed which stained His Majesty’s name,” Kamil whispered as she dropped her eyes.

Juan was satisfied with the Order of the White Crow’s decision. It didn’t matter to Juan where and how Kamil and the Order of the White Crow would live the rest of their lives. It would have been best for them to join the Order of Huginn, but such would be impossible as the two knight orders had decades of resentment toward each other—it wasn’t something that could be solved with ease. Juan was content just by them not being hostile to each other.

At that moment, Anya spoke to Kamil with a serious look on her face.

“Kamil. In that case, I have a favor to ask you…”

“A favor? Go ahead and tell me.”

“Can we blame everything about this incident on Ethan?”