One year earlier.
Slightly east from the palace. The central congress hall, built as a temporary government institution, stood out as newer than the other buildings in Aureatia. Those individuals who were formerly divided among the land's three kingdoms and fought against one another had now come together in this place and imposed their rule.
It was an obvious point, but getting this far had not been an easy process. It was the threat of the True Demon King, placed front and center, that had barely managed to convince the citizens to discard their nations and become a unified country.
The cities corroded by madness and terror were all abandoned one after another, until the minia races' living sphere had declined to less than a tenth of what it had once been.
However, as a result, Aureatia prospered like never before.
Separate cultures mixed together, and the enormous population coalesced in the few remaining cities.
The dark age left behind the sprouting bud of a new, unified nation.
Therefore, now more than ever, they had to search for the Hero.
The remaining deferment time was growing short. The thought ran through the mind of the Aureatia Third Minister, Jelki the Swift Ink, as he received the survey team's report.
"…That concludes our report. There is no one we can claim with one hundred percent certainty. We believe this time, too, the claimant assumed the title for self-promotion purposes."
"Understood. You may leave… The age of self-proclaimed Demon Kings has been replaced with self-proclaimed Heroes instead, it seems."
"…We'll continue our investigation."
Adjusting his sternly furrowed eyebrows, Jelki walked alone through the congress' corridor.
He was a dyed-in-the-wool civil servant, and on a list of the Twenty-Nine Officials' retainer military strength, you'd find his far closer to the bottom than the top. However, the intelligence officers in his employ remained the most skilled among the rest of the twenty-nine.
They had worked for nine small months and hadn't even confirmed the Hero's name. He understood there was an appropriate conclusion to reach. It was a natural result at which to arrive.
Nevertheless, it was a possibility the future of the world couldn't let pass.
Could the Hero have died without anyone knowing who they were?
Insanity. Maybe suicide. Considering the power of the True Demon King, even supposing the Hero did indeed kill them, it was extremely likely that the Hero had met such an end.
Nevertheless.
"You look as angry as ever. Everything all right?"
Just as he passed by the door, he heard a deep voice call to him. Jelki turned, still looking displeased, before considering things again and pressing his finger to his brow.
"…Oh, it's you, Yuca. It's always the same concern. As for my face, it's no different than usual…"
"Guess that means you haven't found the Hero, like always, eh? Want my advice?"
A giant man, rotund and chubby, dressed in red light armor and helmet.
The Fourteenth General, Yuca the Halation Gaol.
His areas of responsibility as well as the nation he formerly belonged to were both different from Jelki's, but he was recognized as one of the very few trustworthy men within the scheming maelstrom of the Twenty-Nine Officials.
"You don't seem the type to handle this problem. Everyone has their strengths. Your jobs are… Wait, you were suppressing rebellious elements again, weren't you? Is that what the armor's for?"
"Well, yeah, that's the gist of it. I killed two people. Doesn't feel great, honestly. Our battle with the Demon King Army is finally over, but this time I had to kill fellow minia."
"…The Demon King Army were all minia races, too."
"Yeah… Well, I guess. It's a figure of speech. Yeah. You get what I mean, right?"
In actuality, Yuca's work did much to ease Jelki's anxieties, with the general always taking the initiative on doing the dirty work of suppressing and purging dissent. At the very least, he was much more highly valued than the likes of the Sixth General Harghent, who even at times like these was toiling away with subjugating non-minia races.
This problem was about suitability for the job. Until the True Hero was found, they needed someone to buy time like this, to keep the tides from swelling higher.
"Yuca, about the Hero situation… Wait."
When Jelki went to continue the conversation, he directed his attention to someone who'd appeared on the other side of the hallway.
"Third Minister?"
The approaching figure was a woman. Her clever and attractive features were plenty to court the average person's favor.
"…Worrying yourself over the Hero thing again, are you?"
However, the wrinkles on Jelki's brow only grew more intense. The woman's name was Elea the Red Tag.
Like Third Minister Jelki, she was a civil servant, but he hated the Seventeenth Minister Elea from the bottom of his heart.
"This conversation has nothing to do with you. I heard a rumor that your soldiers were torturing Lithia troops the other day. What's a woman like you
—"
Jelki's piercing gaze then shifted behind Elea.
A pair of red eyes shone among the deep shadows cast by the setting sun. "—luring Her Majesty the Queen away for? Trying to fill her with nasty
thoughts, no doubt."
"…A very audacious implication to make, Minister. Her Grace requested that I accompany her on her stroll."
"I see. I rescind the part about luring Her Majesty away, then." "…"
"Come on now, guys, no bickering in front of the queen. Isn't that right, Your Majesty?"
Yuca locked eyes with the ruler and flashed a smile with his usual laid-
back attitude.
The pair of red eyes blinked from their low stature before giving a single- word reply.
"Indeed."
She was the last of the royalty.
Her long, soft silver hair and doll-like facial features made her seem like a single lovely flower, showcasing her superior pedigree from generations of royal blood.
The True Northern Kingdom. Their country's royalty had stopped the True Demon King's invasion for the first six years, but amid the rampantly spreading fear and sacrifice in the kingdom, the people's madness, called "revolution," led to their execution.
The Central Kingdom. Their country's ruler, while afflicted with the same disease that had killed off their sons, gave their all to governing the people, establishing the foundation for the present-day Aureatia but passing away before they saw an end to the conflict.
The United Western Kingdom. Their country's royalty sought an amicable agreement with the True Demon King, but for that reason, the True Demon King visited their capital, resulting in their slaughter along with their subjects'.
Within the turmoil of the United Western Kingdom massacre, there was a single surviving girl. The name of the world's last remaining royal was Queen Sephite. A mere ten years old. Even at her young age, the shadow of death was always close behind.
The queen asked plainly—
"Jelki, is the Hero out there somewhere?" "…They are, or so I hope."
"In which case, why haven't they made themselves known?"
"…There are still some reaches we haven't searched yet. It's possible the Hero isn't necessarily a minia. We'll scour the whole world if we have to."
Whenever he spoke with her, Jelki lowered himself on one knee and looked her straight in the eyes. While the true governance had been
transferred to a parliamentary system led by the Twenty-Nine Officials, Aureatia, composed of three kingdoms unified as one, was still a monarchy, and there was no higher authority than the lineage of the One True King chosen by the Word-Maker.
"What do you think, Elea?"
"…Whether or not there is indeed a Hero, we already have yourself, Queen Sephite. While you have yet to concern yourself with official business…I, Elea the Red Tag, can guarantee that Your Majesty will be able to one day rule over the people."
That couldn't come to pass.
Jelki was unable to deny that there were times when he, too, was surprised at Sephite's percipient mind.
It was clear from her appearance and behavior that she possessed a capacity to lead the people.
However, if they were to someday hand over true authority to a young girl, the government was destined to become a puppet regime. Jelki looked to Elea, standing beside the queen—a woman of vulgar lineage, suspected of killing the previous Seventeenth Minister herself.
Sephite began to speak.
"Yuca. I want to hear your opinion, too."
"Hmm. I don't really understand it much myself. But having the Hero pop up couldn't hurt, right?" Yuca said leisurely, scratching the back of his neck.
Jelki glimpsed from his kneeling position that, on Yuca's sleeve, peeking out slightly from his armor, there was a stain of the blood spatter from the citizens he had cut down.
"If the Hero's actually out there, then we owe them our lives after all."
With her eyes still wide open, the queen tilted her head to the side slightly.
"In that case, let us find them. Bestowing royal honors and compensation should help, yes?"
"…We've done plenty to indicate that at this point, Your Majesty.
Nevertheless, the True Hero has yet to appear." "Is the True Hero necessary?"
"…Hmm… And by that, you're saying…?" "Does it have to be the True Hero?"
"..."
This didn't necessarily have to be the case, or at least, it shouldn't have been.
If they were to prop up a false Hero, they could claim it was the Second General, Rosclay the Absolute, for instance, and the people would most likely be easily convinced.
However, if they were to one day find the True Hero? Should their existence be proven, Jelki couldn't possibly calculate how or in what way the resulting distrust would boil over and explode.
"Even after officially announcing the Hero, if the True Hero is already uninterested in claiming their title, then…I'm sure they won't stake a claim to the title even if we decide on one for ourselves."
Hearing the young queen's words, Elea quietly muttered.
"Making it widely known among the people that we're searching for the Hero…"
If instead of using spies to search far and wide, they instead prepared a bigger proclamation. If they could turn the affair into a colossal social event to capture the interest of the people, that would make it definitive and common knowledge, rendering meaningless anyone who appeared later to claim the title for themselves.
"Ha-ha-ha. Then in that case, you should round up all the self-proclaimed Heroes who Jelki's found and pit 'em together in a royal match or whatever. Hero'll be the strongest of them all, right?"
"…Yuca."
"Oh, sorry. Rude way of speaking in front of Her Majesty. My bad." "...Forget it. Don't worry about it. I was thinking about something
else."
This time Jelki glanced over once at the pretty Sephite.
Peering into her red irises made him feel like he was descending into a whirling abyss. Within the monarch's eyes still remained the vestiges of ruination, the only pair of eyes to have witnessed the fall of her kingdom and survive.
"Jelki?"
"…Oh, forgive me, Your Majesty, just something on my mind. Allow me to take my leave for now."
"Yes, of course. Be well, Jelki."
He couldn't reveal to anyone the plot that had just risen into his mind…
not even the queen herself.
Jelki the Swift Ink's thoughts were already in motion. The remaining deferment time was growing short.
A Hero was needed for the new age. The symbol of authority who'd ended the age of the True Demon King, on par with royalty.
Then, with that Hero's authority, Sephite would be dethroned.
In this upcoming new age, the same monarchal government as before was unsustainable. Now, there existed no other besides Sephite who claimed lineage from the One True King, mandated by the Word-Maker. However, without the appearance of a new icon, in the Hero, the people would eventually want for monarchal rule. Such a development would lead to a puppet regime, full of conspiracy and political rivalries.
The young queen would be unable to govern the unified kingdom, sowing division among the people, once united against the True Demon King threat, and conflicts would arise. Jelki thought that the Twenty-Third General who'd seceded from the assembly, Taren the Punished, had held the correct view on this subject.
…Someone. Someone needs to adopt this undertaking.
The current parliamentary government, managed by the Twenty-Nine Officials, was administered by politicians selected by the people. The Aureatia Twenty-Nine Officials, a wartime structure gathered together from throughout the three kingdoms, would be abolished, including Jelki himself.
Then Aureatia would become a republic, similar in structure to what a subsection of self-proclaimed Demon Kings had once created. If there was ever an age where such a thing was possible, it was the current one.
Too many people had died. Too much peace had been lost.
Jelki couldn't let the world slide back into an age of war and chaos ever again.
Someone needs to do it. Someone who has become aware of all this.
Self-proclaimed Heroes. If they were truly confident enough in their own strength to declare themselves Heroes, there would come a day when they became self-proclaimed Demon Kings and looked upon the unified nation
with hatred. It was so in ages past, when all those with power inevitably proclaimed themselves one of the "demonic monarchs."
As long as a common enemy in the True Demon King existed, these powerful individuals hadn't posed a threat to the nation. However, the past twenty-five years had birthed too many of these sorts of champions in an attempt to defeat the True Demon King.
There needed to be only one Hero.
To begin the new age, all the others needed to be weeded out. A pretext was needed.
The only one who can do that…
Adjusting his glasses on his brow, Jelki walked alone down the congress's corridor.
He now knew what he needed to do.
…is me. I need to find a way to do it.
There wouldn't be a seat left for Jelki in the time of peace he was looking to create.
He knew that better than anyone. Then, one year later.
The enemy of all life, the True Demon King, who had plunged the world into chaos, had been defeated by…someone.
That individual's name and whether or not they truly existed was still a mystery.
Now, with the age of fear at an end, it had become necessary to determine who this Hero was.
Now, there were four Shura.
Soujirou the Willow-Sword.
Alus the Star Runner.
Kia the World Word.
Nastique the Quiet Singer.