*****

The castle of Maedas, once hailed as the greatest treasure of the Kingdom of Hanovas—the world into which Rob had been reincarnated—was now garishly stained in a hideous seven-colored hue.

From the castle walls that had withstood fifteen years of warfare to the beautiful spires at the very summit, not a single inch had been spared. Even the gatekeepers, servants, royalty, visiting nobles, and envoys from foreign nations had been dyed without exception.

In the face of this bizarre situation, the New King postponed his audiences with the gathered foreign envoys. Now, he sat upon his throne with a deep furrow in his brow, glaring into the void of the empty audience chamber.

The castle had been drenched in an instant with a seven-colored dye that refused to wash away. One didn't even need to think to know there was only one person capable of such an absurd feat.

「...That peasant. What does he think he's doing?」

The New King muttered venomously. He leaned his weight back against the throne's headrest, crossed his arms, and closed his eyes. Then, the King’s body gave a sudden, sharp jolt.

Whether it was for a few seconds or a few dozen minutes, the New King briefly lost his sense of time. In exchange, however, he grasped the truth.

「—Summon the head of the Walz Trading Company.」

In less than an hour, a man was kneeling before him.

「...You may lift your head.」

At the New King's command, the middle-aged man raised his face. Then, with blatant disrespect, he stood up and looked the King straight in the eye. Normally, those surrounding the King would have shouted rebukes at such conduct, but for now, there was no one else in the audience chamber. To be precise, there were hidden guards in the shadows, but they remained strictly focused on their duty of protection by the King’s order.

「...President Richard Lowe of the Walz Trading Company. Or should I call you the local investigator for the so-called Interdimensional Alliance?」

Despite having his identity exposed—a secret he had never breathed to a single inhabitant of this world—the middle-aged man merely wore a bold, fearless smile. His dull blond hair was swept back, and his slender physique and posture were reminiscent of a dancer, yet he now exuded an air of profound dignity.

「I see, a divine revelation has descended. In that case, there is no longer any need for concealment. Allow me to introduce myself once more. I am Richard Lowe, a local investigator for the Investigation Department of the Pan-Universal Agency of the Interdimensional Alliance. Please be advised that from this moment forward, I shall also serve as the official envoy of the Alliance.」

The New King looked down at Richard with cold, merciless eyes.

「It wasn't enough to sniff around my country like a rat; you took it upon yourself to spirit away the Hero under the guise of 'protection.' And now you have the gall to shamelessly call yourself an official envoy?」

Richard met the King’s intimidation head-on.

「Is it not more shameful to sustain a nation through the irresponsible means of reincarnation-summoning, only to strip the summoned man of his rewards and hunt him down as a wanted criminal? —First, a warning from the Alliance: we demand the immediate destruction of the reincarnation-summoning ritual formula. Should it remain intact and its use be discovered—meaning the indiscriminate summoning, or rather, the kidnapping of our Alliance's people—the Alliance will declare war immediately.」

The New King inwardly clicked his tongue—not at the threat of war, but at the realization that he hadn't known about the Hero’s pension being revoked or the bounty on his head.

「The moment he was reincarnated, he became a part of this world. Furthermore, those who sat by and watched from outside the world while knowing of the Demon King’s emergence have no right to preach morality to me. As for the ritual, I know nothing of it; the man appeared of his own accord. But if you want him, do as you please. That Hero no longer has the power to kill a Demon King. He has outlived his usefulness.」

At the mention of the Hero losing his power, it was Richard’s turn to be inwardly surprised. Despite both Richard and the New King being struck by information they hadn't possessed, neither let their expressions waver.

「Hmph. That is all. Begone.」

Richard returned a courtesy that was polite in form but insulting in spirit, then turned and left the audience chamber without further ado.

As he exited the royal castle, Richard took a long stretch. A slime wiggled out from within his clothes and slid smoothly up to his shoulder. Once there, it bounced adorably and rubbed against his cheek.

「The New King is exactly as the rumors suggested. And then... there is the matter of the Hero’s power. We’ll need to have that investigated. Well, we already have him in custody, so in the end, it makes no difference to us whether he's a lion or a corpse.」

The blue slime quivered as if in agreement.

Even after Richard’s departure, the New King remained on his throne, deep in thought. Back when he was still the King’s younger brother, he had poisoned the King and the First Prince to seize the throne. But that was the extent of his crimes; he hadn't stopped the pittance of a pension, nor had he issued a warrant for Rob's arrest. He didn't acknowledge Rob’s personality or his origins, but there was one thing he did respect: his combat prowess. That was why he had maintained a policy of non-interference and had avoided any move that might provoke the Hero while seizing the throne.

After the war, neither would interfere with the other. That had been the unspoken agreement between Rob and the King's brother.

So why had the pension been stopped? Why had a bounty been set? And why had the Hero fled this world?

In truth, he already had an idea. The remnants of the Previous King’s faction had plotted to turn the Hero’s wrath toward the New King. While deciding the punishment for a criminal required the King’s approval, a simple bounty warrant did not. The reason such a half-baked scheme had functioned at all was that the capital had been in utter chaos following the deaths of the former King and Prince and the New King’s subsequent coronation. In the midst of that, the plotting against the Hero had resulted in nobles and bureaucrats acting on their own "conjectures," assuming the New King moved secretly to eliminate the Hero.

「Hmph. Trying to resist with such pathetic tricks...」

The fact that they had relied on a sloppy plan that didn't even take Rob’s personality into account was proof that only second-rate fools remained in the Previous King’s faction.

It was true that the Previous King had been a merciful and excellent monarch in times of peace. It was undeniable that because he was such a King, he was able to make full use of a commoner like the Hero Rob. However, the King had listened far too much to the demands of a mere commoner hero—integrating different races, abolishing slavery, and distributing firearms to the peasantry—all under the justification of defeating the Demon King.

Even if all that had been necessary, if he had taken steps to prevent the commoners from growing too bold after the Demon King’s subjugation, he wouldn't have lost the support of the nobility. But he took no steps. No—he couldn't take them. That was why he was abandoned.

The nobles of the East had pathetically lost their lands to the Demon King and seen them contaminated. Because of that, they had remained on the front lines until the end of the war. Yet, they were not rewarded during the post-war distribution of honors, and the restoration of the contaminated lands proceeded at a snail's pace. One could argue the Kingdom lacked the resources, but that was no excuse. It was simply a matter of stripping the lands from the useless nobles of the West.

Nothing grows in contaminated soil, and the monsters there are ferocious. One must till the earth and expose it to sunlight for ages—repeating the process three or four times—before it finally returns to normal. Thus, restoration was agonizingly slow. Without support, the Eastern nobles couldn't even feed their retainers. Those nobles who couldn't return to their ancestral lands harbored deep resentment. Seeing former slaves and demi-humans acting as equals to humans was an eyesore; to them, the former glory of the Kingdom appeared utterly lost.

That was why he had seized the throne, exposed the corruption of the Western nobles to condemn them, and redistributed their positions and lands to the capable nobles of the East.

「...Coward. That is why commoners are useless.」

If Rob hadn't been so averse to bloodshed, the outcome might have been different. Though, it was highly doubtful how much governing ability Rob actually possessed.

「—There is no peace where there are no corpses.」

Still seated on his throne, the New King resumed his glare into the void.

Seven days after the contact between the New King and the Interdimensional Alliance, the Kingdom of Hanovas began absorbing the surrounding small nations and villages. Before long, it came to call itself the Federal Kingdom of Hanovas.

Approximately two years after the subjugation of the Demon King, the Kingdom of Hanovas unified the continent.

*****

It turned out the new king wasn't as bad, well, not good either. He is just the man for the job.

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