The Hero Who Returned From Death Quits

84 – EP5. Memories of the Wind

He opened his eyes.

“…I let my guard down too much.”

He forgot about his own situation, drowned by the thought that he had found a way to solve it.

Yes, when he thought about it, it was absurd. Even if he found a weakness in the royal family, thinking he could seize and shake the royal family as he pleased was arrogant.

Ainjel completely forgot about the failed plan. He had to come up with a different way.

“…Once it’s like this, is attempting to prevent rebellion peacefully in vain?”

Ainjel frowned.

He wanted to resolve the situation as peacefully as possible. However, now that all means of peaceful resolution were nullified, Ainjel had to resort to coercive methods to stop Ricardo.

How should he stop Ricardo?

He pondered deeply and realized there was no other way.

It would be a path of hardship. For him, for everyone. Even a path with a high possibility of failure.

He checked the time. It was the time before he sought help from Ibercas through conversation and answers.

Yes. Ultimately, seeking help from Ibercas must have been the correct choice in itself.

Ainjel lowered his head. His decision, which he believed would prevent everyone from becoming unhappy, was proven wrong.

After lowering his head for a moment like that, he slapped his own cheek.

He headed towards the room where Ibercas was waiting for him.

Ainjel answered Ibercas’ question, and Ibercas asked him what he needed to do.

“…When I give the signal, come to my location. Without asking or objecting.”

“Hmm? Why?”

Ainjel looked at him. His eyes emitted a clear amethyst light.

“…I just have a feeling that something is not right in the Fairy Kingdom these days.”

After saying that, Ibercas strained himself to deduce what lay behind Ainjel’s words, and regardless of his deduction, Ainjel looked at him and spoke.

“Will you be able to listen?”

Ibercas shrugged his shoulders and said, “Well, sure. It might be fun.”

Angel nodded slightly in response to his words. He didn’t feel joy; instead, his thoughts leaned closer to “I’ve avoided the worst.”

“Ah, but how are you planning to signal me?”

Angel asked, looking at him.

“I was thinking of using magic.”

“hehehe, that’s too restrictive. How about I make a contract with a lesser spirit that I can introduce to you?”

Angel looked at him and said, “A spirit?”

“Yeah, a spirit. The lesser spirits bound to me can contact me anytime since their very essence is bound to me. I’d prefer to introduce an intermediate spirit, but your affinity may not be suitable for that. So, we’ll make a contract with a lesser spirit. How about that?”

Angel nodded, accompanied by an “Oh.”

“That method is similar to how the demons do it… very well then. How do we contract this spirit?”

The method was structured similarly to how demons operated. Higher beings subjugated lower ones, and those subjugated would subjugate beings even lower than themselves.

“Alright, like I said when I instructed you to incinerate the criminals, you can summon them right away. Give me your hand. Do you know the spirit summoning ritual?”

“Yes, I’m familiar with the summoning ritual.”

“We only need to create a seal for intermediate spirits, but we’ll be summoning a lesser spirit, so that won’t be necessary. Okay, go ahead and activate the summoning ritual.”

Angel activated the summoning ritual.

Flames flared up and then extinguished abruptly. Dust billowed, and Angel could see a figure within the dust.

“Ah…”

Within the cloud of dust, a short-haired girl, just like Ibercas, with a stern expression, became visible.

“Ibercas, are you calling for me?”

“Yeah, that’s right, Ann. I was wondering if you could make a contract with this human.”

As Ibercas spoke with a cheerful smile, the short-haired girl named Ann looked troubled and said, “That might be a bit difficult.”

“Huh?”

Ibercas was surprised and looked at the spirit named Ann.

“Why? Doesn’t he appeal to you? It’s strange; he’s considered handsome even in the spirit world.”

Ann nodded hesitantly.

“No, it’s not that… it’s his affinity…”

“Oh.”

Ibercas stared at Ainzel with arrogance.

“What are you up to, exactly? Did you declare war on nature and lose, setting the mountain on fire?”

“No, but in that case, can’t we make a contract?”

Ainzel lightly dismissed Ibercas’s jest and replied.

“Well… yes. Your charisma is so abysmally low that a formal contract seems unlikely, but it looks like we’ll have to settle for a temporary one. Even then, it might not last very long. Maybe a month.”

Ainzel nodded in agreement at the idea of a one-month temporary contract.

“That should be sufficient. Let’s make a temporary contract.”

Ainzel and Ann held hands. It was the beginning.

…

The Emperor looked concerned.

“Jegiral, how should we deal with this situation?”

From Noble mtl dot com

As soon as he felt that the international situation was unstable, even the factions within the social elite began to withdraw their support. Once you fell from grace, your political career was over. He was quickly being pushed by Martopju, that damn niece. She might not even know that she was her niece.

No, maybe she did. If so, her own situation was the problem, but the bigger problem awaited after his death. If the imperial family was pressed under Martopju, he could lose his throne to her, even if it meant killing his own brother, and the power he had gained at the cost of his own brother’s life would be taken away by his niece.

“What do we do in this situation…”

Even within the church, the Saint was overpowering the Pope. If this continued, it would be impossible to reorganize the Pope’s direct forces.

The Saint overwhelmed all the church’s faithful, and as a result, the Pope and the Papal Curia, and even the Pope’s direct forces lost their power.

The Emperor tried to amplify the anxiety about the traitorous warrior who had betrayed the Empire and was still alive in the north, Grandis. But even that was impossible.

First of all, in the case of Grandis, she was quietly sitting in the north of the Empire, showing no signs of any suspicious activity, and people didn’t want to disturb the hornet’s nest. After all, the Empire had suffered a defeat once, and it had cost a lot in terms of casualties and bloodshed, and there was even more to recover from the past.

Therefore, the Emperor did not dare to try to identify someone as the enemy to unite the inside.

And to him, a saving hand came down.

No, to be precise, something that looked like a saving hand came down.

“…What did you say?”

The Emperor said to the man in a black robe with an irritated expression. The man shrugged his shoulders and replied.

“We, the Black Magicians, would like you to turn a blind eye to our use of imperial citizens as materials. By making it appear as if significant damage has been caused, you can then point us out as the enemy and unify the inside.”

“Do you dare to hand over my imperial citizens to scum like you?”

The man in the black robe laughed mockingly. It felt like he was saying, “Don’t speak nonsense that you don’t believe in.”

“Well, we’re just going to use commoners as materials. Even though it may seem like a large number, it’s not that significant when viewed in the context of the entire empire, is it? We just need the materials to achieve our goals. The easiest way to gather those materials is to request it from Your Highness. And… even if Your Highness refers to imperial citizens as ‘your’ imperial citizens, they don’t consider you ‘their’ emperor.”

The emperor, drawn by the enchantment of the man’s words, took his hand.

This had happened several months before the emperor’s death at the hands of the black magicians.