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Barth Baltic fell as quietly as a piece of burnt wood.
Juan looked silently at Barth Baltic’s body.
Barth hated Juan until the very last minute of his life, but he was also the Regent who was fiercely loyal to the empire. Juan foresaw that he would never find another Regent like Barth Baltic ever again—at the very least he wouldn't be able to accept anyone else.
This was a different matter from loyalty. It only seemed right to leave the position of the Regent empty forever as a sign of respect.
Juan sighed and looked around the audience chamber of the Imperial Palace in silence. It seemed to have been managed fairly well, with every corner being cleaned thoroughly. But now, the front of the throne was dirtied with blood and dirt.
In the end, Juan failed to accuse the Pope of his sins and failed to regain his original body. But the fact that Juan had taken over the empire did not change.
Juan climbed up the stairs and examined the throne. The golden throne was decorated even more splendidly than when he was alive, but for some reason, it felt like he could still smell his original body.
At that moment, a voice suddenly came from behind Juan.
“Aren’t you going to take a seat?”
Juan stroked the throne without even looking back.
“I’m thinking about it.”
Sina quietly stepped inside. Her clattering footsteps broke the silence in the audience chamber.
“Duke Henna is disarming the Imperial Army, and General Nienna is meeting with civic representatives to discuss urban restoration. Anya couldn’t even come inside because of the Undeads, but I guess it doesn’t really matter, since she was busy looking at the Golems anyway. It seems like those little things were more important to them than entering the Imperial Palace. They are good people, Juan.”
Instead of answering, Juan looked down at the throne.
“You must have heard Barth Baltic’s story. What Dane said about me was not a metaphor, but a literal expression. Aruntal made me, and Dane transformed me. It means that the emperor you praised so much is the result of a dirty trick,” Juan said.
SIna did not answer.
“I can see why Dane wanted to ‘recreate’ me again so badly. His precious work has been ruined, so it’s only natural for him to be annoyed, to see me pretending to be fine,” Juan murmured with a sigh. “I thought the only thing Dane ruined were plans related to my first child.”
“I don’t think it really matters that much.”
“No, I don’t think it’s irrelevant. To be honest, I sometimes wonder if it’s okay to just leave me alone without any restrictions. That’s why I adopted Nienna, Dismas, and Ras. They are already great children, but I wanted to keep them by my side and keep my eyes on them,” Juan sighed once again.
“Perhaps that’s what Dane thought as well. He probably wished there was a god who could protect humanity and love them. I’m sure everyone who lived in the Mythological Era had the same thought. The Pope was probably one of them as well. And if there was such a being, he probably wanted to put a leash on it—just like I did. I don’t think that’s necessarily bad.”
“...Maybe,” Sina answered.
“But
 I don’t like being his puppet either.”
Dane created an emperor to protect and lead humanity. If that was the sole purpose of Juan as the emperor, there was no reason for him to follow it now that he has been freed from his restraints. Rather, he might even go against them out of resentment.
Come to think of it, the hatred and disgust Juan felt toward humans right after his resurrection may have been the result of a backlash against the restraints that Dane has placed inside him.
Sina bit her lips. She tried multiple times to say something, but felt uneasy for some reason. After a long time, she finally opened her mouth.
“You’re right. No one can force that on you.”
Juan looked at Sina.
“None of us needs or even wants a god. Was it really love that gods showed to their races? No. It was nothing but an affection for one’s toys. Are humans so weak that they need a god's endless care? I deny that as well. In the end, it is humans who survived after all the gods died.”
“However it was the product of a twisted sense of affection of a magician named Dane Dormund.”
“I don’t intend to deny that. But
 Nevertheless, I think you are still capable of loving humans.”
“What?” Juan lifted his eyebrows and turned his head toward Sina.
Sina slowly walked past Barth Baltic’s body and approached Juan just below the stairs.
She then looked up at Juan and opened her mouth again.
“The emperor that you were before the start of the Eternal Rule is only a small part of you. You became free of Dane’s restraints when you died and were revived. You may or may not love humanity, since you have become a being greater than the result of Dane’s crude fraud.”
“What if I don’t ‘nevertheless’ love humanity? You’ve already seen the possibility of me going crazy and killing them all.”
“There may be some people who think you would do that. There may be people who get angry and curse over the decisions you make, just like what happened with Arbalde. There might even be people calling you a monster rather than the emperor. But you will eventually make the right decision.”
“Why? Just because I’m the emperor?”
Sina did not avoid Juan’s cold eyes that were staring directly at her.
“No. Because
 you’re Juan.”
Juan remained silent.
“I don’t think anyone has watched you for as long as I did after you were resurrected. Knowing you from what I saw, I think we can still hold hope. You were just being you, but good people like Hela, Nienna, Anya, Haild, Opert, Dilmond, and Horhell willingly decided to follow you. You were always like that—you continued to grow whenever you overcame the crisis of death. I have changed my thoughts about the emperor. Both you
 and the emperor can change.”
Juan was silent for a long time and then opened his mouth with difficulty.
“I don’t love humanity blindly.”
“As a matter of fact, neither do I.”
“I’m not perfect either.”
“Neither am I.”
“I don’t know about you, but others will be disappointed in me and curse me.”
“I also have people that are disappointed in me and curse me. But
” Sina continued to speak in a calm manner. “
I will always believe that you can eventually love humanity even if the time comes when everyone in the world calls you a monster. There should be at least one person like that, don’t you think?”
‘Is this blind obedience she is showing?’
Juan looked into Sina’s eyes. However, there were no signs of blind loyalty or madness in her eyes. Rather, her eyes were clear and full of conviction. Juan felt like he had seen such eyes somewhere else before. Juan stared at Sina for a long time and smiled.
“It is true that I was born as a product of sin.”
“Juan
”
“But thanks to you, I think I know what I have to do.”
There will be at least one person who will tell Juan that whatever he does is okay until the end of the world. Knowing that, Juan was able to lift his head up and open up his heart.
He thought it wouldn’t matter if he left the throne as it was now, since he had finished what he had to do. Dane’s fraud, Barth’s resentment, as well as humankind’s expectations all felt too burdensome for Juan to sit back on the throne once again.
However, Juan now knew what he had to do.
Juan sat on the throne and buried himself deeply in it. It was not a comfortable seat, and Juan couldn’t believe that his body has been sitting on it for over forty years. He was worried that his spine might have broken, despite it being a corpse.
Juan turned his head to look forward. He could see the familiar, yet not-so-familiar scenery of the audience chamber. Nienna and her subordinates were beginning to enter the room.
‘Here we go.’
Getting the empire back in his hands was not the end of his journey. Rather, Juan was finally standing at the starting point once again—the place where he was stopped while running. But there were many obstacles ahead.
Above all, the opponent he had to fight from now on might be the emperor himself.
***
The first thing Juan did on the day he took the Imperial Palace back was to search for the missing rather than holding a triumphant coronation ceremony or declare his return.
Numerous buildings were burned by the Telgramm’s attacks on the holy city of Torra, and many people were harmed. Among them were quite a few nobles and civic representatives. The Imperial Palace which had been unused for the longest time had now become the center of medical care and reconstruction; the Imperial Palace which no one other than the Imperial Guards used to be able to enter was suddenly overflowing with people.
“How’s the recovery process coming along?” Juan asked in a temporary office on one side of the Imperial Palace.
Hela, who had buried her head in the documents for a long time, raised her head with a tired look.
“I have tasked all the Imperial troops with the reconstruction efforts. I think the recovery will be quite a lot faster than expected. They are also in the middle of finding bodies in collapsed buildings. For now, we are finding missing people through a resident investigation. But I think it will take some time. By the way, thank you for delaying the disposition of the Priests.”
“Well, they are necessary for the treatment of the people.”
After the Pope fled, all the remaining Priests in Torra were tasked with helping with the treatment of the people. Of course, the Bishops were under strict surveillance, but no one dared to confront Juan when they saw him enter the Imperial Palace.
Hela smiled awkwardly and opened her mouth.
“I’m embarrassed about trying to do whatever I want without knowing Your Majesty’s generosity.”
“To tell you the truth, I don’t know how to take back the Grace they have. I could just kill them all, but I am keeping them around because we still need them. It’s not like I can get my strength back from them by killing them anyway. Perhaps I need to do something to my original body
”
Hela, who seemed to be thinking about something upon hearing Juan’s words, then opened her mouth again.
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“I’ll torture a Bishop, no
 I mean I will interrogate him to find out about the process of getting a Grace. The Bishops can grant Grace, and the excommunication Priests can even remove Grace. So they must know something. Still, I will tell the others that they are alive thanks to His Majesty’s generosity.”
“Thanks,” Juan answered briefly and turned around.
At that moment, Hela stopped him.
“Is that all? I think you had something else you really wanted to ask me about.”
“...I was going to skip that question because you looked busy. Or I could have just found out about it myself.”
“The person you are looking for is in the patient camp. There should be a Priest beside that person
 Wait, Your Majesty!”
Juan immediately headed toward the patient camp without looking back after hearing Hela’s answer. At the same time, various complicated thoughts passed through Juan’s head.
The patient camp that was built on the right side of the Imperial Palace was crowded with patients from all over Torra. Patients who had suffered injuries ranging from minor bruises to burns, and even amputations.
The smell of death and pain was getting stronger as Juan approached the patient camp. At the same time, none of the patients seemed to think that Juan was the emperor because he was dressed plainly.
Juan’s expression gradually hardened. Priests from all over Torra were gathered to treat the people, but there were too many patients, especially when considering that the Grace that could be used was limited. If Juan had been a little late to enter the Imperial Palace, the epidemic might have gone around Torra.
Juan focused on his senses and captured Heretia’s presence among the large crowd.
Soon after, Juan found Heretia under one of the tents.
Heretia and Juan immediately made eye contact.
“Hey, Your
 I mean, Juan.”
Heretia was about to call Juan ‘Your Majesty,’ but quickly called him by his name instead upon being conscious of the people around them.
Juan looked at Heretia for a long time and finally opened his mouth with difficulty.
“What are you doing? I thought you were dead because they said you were missing.”