Foolish Emperor. Meet a foolish death.
The news spread strangely fast.
From the mouths of those who escaped the emperor’s imperial guards, from the nobles who worked hard to clean up after the war, from the elves and dwarves of Betelgeuse.
And from the mouths of the Church of Life’s pilgrims.
The Church of Life, which typically doesn’t meddle much in worldly politics, began to intervene in an unprecedented number of matters, likely due to their saint, the Dragon Priestess.
When Emperor Commodus heard rumors that the Dragon Priestess was desired, the church’s originally gentle disposition completely vanished, and they were genuinely furious.
So much so that they decided to send the rumored Dragon Priestess to Betelgeuse to discipline Emperor Commodus.
And at the center of those rumors, the Dragon Priestess was saying…
“Please! Oh, Dragon Priestess! Kindly transfer that flag to us!”
“Ehh~, no. I won’t give it.”
“Please! Can’t we make it happen somehow!!”
“No way. I can’t give it. Go back.”
“Please!!!”
She was wasting time dealing with the nobles from North Romania who came to her every day.
Well, they couldn’t help it. The undying flag, the only one left in North Romania and a symbol of the emperor’s authority, was in her hands.
Of course, they’d want to regain that flag that had fallen into her possession after the emperor was captured.
“If I have that flag….”
“Forget the thought of becoming emperor relying on this flag’s authority. You’d be better off increasing your power through politics.”
“W-What?!”
“Now, hurry and leave. Or would you like to face the goddess’s wrath?”
“Y-Yes!!!”
The weak noble fled the room like a startled cat at her light remark.
Seriously, why do these guys keep coming? Do they really want to depend on the authority of such items that much?
If that’s the case, they ought to focus more on honing their own abilities. It’s obvious that relying on an item is no good if it’s lost.
“Thank you for your hard work, Priestess.”
“Really, why do these kinds of people keep coming?”
“Because that flag you have is incredibly important, I suppose.”
I sighed softly and looked at the man bowing politely to me.
The High Priest of the Church of Life, factually responsible for the church’s administration.
Surprisingly, he was a person who attained the position of High Priest without being a dragon.
“I know it’s an important item, but it’s just so bothersome.”
“Hahaha, to reduce such an item to mere ‘bothersomeness’….”
The High Priest chuckled. Well, I did create the item. Being troublesome is just troublesome.
If only there were someone capable enough, I could just hand it over and forget about it…. But strangely, all those wannabe emperors are completely nuts.
It’s like I’ve wrecked all the aspiring emperors. I’m just curious how one can mess things up this evenly.
“Still, we can’t just leave North Romania’s situation as it is, can we?”
The High Priest spoke with a hint of concern.
While I understand that sentiment, hmm…
It seems about time to let go of the human world. If I step away adequately, wouldn’t my workload decrease…? Well, that hope aside.
The current situation in North Romania was approaching a Warring States era.
After Emperor Commodus died in Betelgeuse, at first, the nobles seemed to team up to elect a new emperor and stabilize the political landscape…
But human greed knows no bounds, and they repeat the same mistakes… Cough, that’s not quite it.
Anyway, they gathered with the same thoughts initially, but over time, those with different ideas began to emerge, causing the noble alliance to start creaking at the seams.
One reason was that the old noble who had become the central figure in that alliance passed down his title to his child and retired. Regardless.
As the noble alliance began to falter, the potential next emperor, Emperor Commodus’s younger brother, announced his abandonment of the throne, causing the alliance to shatter like a cookie.
According to him… the foolish emperor felt a great burden about succeeding his brother as emperor and thought that dealing with the aftermath was no easy task, so he might as well enjoy his royal privileges peacefully.
I don’t quite understand it… but considering the problems that arose because of that, wouldn’t it have been better if he simply took the throne instead?
Anyway, as the likely next emperor voluntarily dropped out… the noble alliance crumbled.
When the most likely heir withdrew, the powerful nobles began to fight over the now-empty throne.
Starting from political conflicts using their political might, it escalated into small-scale local wars between territories.
The noble factions, each bringing one royal to the mix, plunged North Romania into a muddy battle.
From an overall view, it’s hard to say these circumstances are beneficial for North Romania… But I don’t have a pretext for interference, do I?
Unless something massive and catastrophic occurs. If I interfere with every little local war, how would the world cope? It’s better to leave these things be.
I mean, it might devolve into a Warring States era with all the increased factions… but surely, there won’t be a giant schemer pulling strings like in those tales. Leaving it alone should be fine.
The people of this era, their population, their numbers are the most important resources that underlie everything.
Surely, those who would sacrifice such people don’t exist. No noble would slaughter their subjects who could bolster their power if they govern them properly.
And those subjects would live their lives without much care, whether their ruling lord changed or not.
Still, just in case, to express their stance, the Church of Life did issue a statement against excessive slaughter…
The overall outlook for North Romania was bleak indeed.
Well, maybe this is some sort of growing pains. Hm.
Up till now, I’ve intervened too much in every little thing, so perhaps I should wait for them to grow on their own.
Thus, here I was, holding the undying flag, spending my time quietly at the headquarters of the Church of Life.
Those asking me for the undying flag are mostly weak nobles thinking they have no chance, or foolish nobles believing that with that flag, they could overcome any foe.
There’s no way I could hand this flag over to them! Absolutely not!!
So, while the situation in North Romania was turning to chaos, let’s turn our attention to South Romania, where things were going haywire as well.
“Isn’t the problem in South Romania still unresolved?”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
The High Priest spoke with a regretful face.
That’s understandable, as the issue here was closely related to the Church of Life.
Or rather, is there anywhere that isn’t involved with the Church of Life? But let’s skip over that.
The problem in South Romania was among those belonging to the Church of Life—those who venerated death.
Life, birth, and death. All of it is believed to exist within the realm governed by the Goddess of Life, and among them, there were those who saw death not as evil but as the ultimate punctuation mark to be embraced.
They called themselves the Followers of Death.
Their goal was to live a righteous life, accept death, and reach paradise.
To them, death was a finish line that must be accepted, and striving for the paradise beyond it was seen as the true meaning of life.
Some deemed them heretical; they were people who believed in performing good deeds to prepare for the judgment in the afterlife.
That was the case. “Was.”
Was there a problem with those who had such beliefs? Those who longed for the paradise after death… began to obsess over death itself and, ultimately, sought to harness death as their power.
As the Followers of Death started welcoming various mages, they began transforming into those seeking to command death with magic.
They began calling themselves summoners. Necromancers.
They were those who sought to possess death and wield that power freely.
In other words, they were heretics.
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