Ep.30 Release the Rabbit Horde
The next day.
I unexpectedly took a day off.
Saving it would be as good as saving money, but the situation looked extremely urgent.
And I didn't want to pinch pennies over something like this.
"……."
It would be nice if I could think of this as a reward for having perfectly supervised the Duel, but still.
It wasn't as if I had taken advantage of the weekend to travel somewhere far away, like the sea....
The fact that I had ended up at the damn Imperial Palace was simply irritating.
When I decided to retire, I hadn't imagined for even a moment that I would return here.
Yet here I was, like a frog leisurely paddling around in boiling water, unaware that its own body was slowly cooking.
Becoming something like that.
I hated it even more than the thought of things getting complicated.
...Keep this in mind, Joseph. The Emperor isn't a man with much spare time. That means I'll probably spend a lot of time waiting, but let's get this over with as quickly as possible.
Besides, if I wandered around for too long, I was sure to be caught by that Imperial Palace ghost. Then he would shed middle-aged tears while asking what our conversation yesterday had meant.
But there was no need to worry too much about that.
After all, it was easier to ask forgiveness than permission.
I also knew very well how much of a burden my older brother was shouldering to cover for me, so I had absolutely no intention of causing trouble.
I had come here to prove myself through results.
"I am Entering the Imperial Palace. Please step aside."
As soon as I approached the entrance to the Imperial Palace.
"Please present the means by which we can verify the identity of the passerby...."
The gatekeeper, who looked like a rookie, looked me up and down with a stiff gaze containing a hint of contempt and spoke.
"Hey, hey!"
"Senior...?!"
"What are you doing? To that gentleman?!"
"Who, who is he...?"
"Look at his face! I said look at his face properly. Are your eyes blind?"
The gatekeeper who appeared to be his senior recognized me immediately.
His eyes practically bulged out as he rebuked the rookie.
Good grief, how frightening.
Take it easy.
Well, fine.... After about five years, I suppose it's understandable that you wouldn't recognize me. Still, it's almost surprising that someone remembers me.
What he had done as a gatekeeper was only natural.
But that rookie looked like his entire ego was about to be torn to shreds.
They had said the people loved me.
Seeing that he didn't even know my face, it seemed that their affection hadn't exactly been profound admiration.
Still.
I knew.
It was only natural, in a way, that someone who had tried to bury himself beneath the passage of time would not be widely welcomed.
So I merely spoke in a somewhat stiff tone, matching the gaze he had directed at me.
"I am Joseph, the Sword of Hero Laval Lagrange."
"Lo, Lord Joseph?! So you were Lord Joseph. I apologize. I made such a mistake...."
"I apologize, Your Excellency! Since it has been so long since you last entered the Imperial Palace, this new fellow failed to recognize you."
No.
Don't take it so personally.
I wasn't so petty that I would be offended because someone failed to recognize me.
More than that, I was a rotten bastard who didn't even have the energy to care about you.
"My business is an audience."
However, when I said that.
Their expressions hardened.
"Five years ago, His Majesty the Emperor said something to me."
"What do you mean...?"
"I didn't send word ahead, but His Majesty the Emperor told me that I could come whenever I needed something. I have merely come because that time is now."
Of course, he had probably only said it as a courtesy.
However, if I took those words at face value.
The Emperor was a man whose every word carried the weight of a thousand pieces of gold.
They couldn't simply disregard it.
Thus, after saying that, I made no further sound.
But my silence and wordlessness were clearly an absurd amount of pressure for them.
Sure enough, the only things they could do next were....
"Enter the Imperial Palace!"
"We will urgently report this to our superiors."
Open the gate.
And get out of the way.
"Wow, this place really.... Nothing has changed at all since five years ago."
The palace's layout.
Its splendid passageways.
The unnecessarily elaborate etiquette.
I knew all of it.
However, I did not have to wait long before a court eunuch came hurrying toward me from the direction I was waiting in and said:
"Lord Joseph, His Majesty the Emperor has commanded a private audience with you."
"Is that so?"
"I will escort you, so please hurry and move along."
Just as I thought.
I had realized it from the way he had tried to wheedle information out of Lord Laval.
The mysterious being who seemed unlikely to show himself again had suddenly reappeared, and apparently His Majesty could not contain his curiosity.
I quietly followed the court eunuch with a rotten smile that rose from the depths of my chest, though I had no idea why I was smiling.
"Lord Joseph, Lord Joseph! It is truly wonderful to see you. What a welcome face! I confess that I was troubled when I heard that the Demon King Slayer's blade had retired to the countryside. But ever since you recently revoked your retirement, you have been displaying a reputation worthy of your name. I have always wanted to see you again!"
Flowery words.
Words he didn't mean.
But since I had slain the Demon King, they were formulaic lies spoken as if he were at least praising my achievements.
Just as Lord Laval knew the Emperor well.
I knew him well too.
"Thank you, Your Majesty. I have not forgotten the grace you showed by recognizing and employing me. I have come here to pay my respects."
So I played along, bowed my head once, and displayed humility without daring even to look up at the Emperor.
Well?
Do you like it?
How do you like my tail-wagging skills?
"Well, if I were to continue praising you, the man who fulfilled the empire's long-cherished wish, I could go on for several more hours and still not say enough. It would be better to move straight to the point."
"……."
"What business brings you to request an audience with me, invoking our past agreement?"
What else could it be?
You already know, you senile old man....
I brought out the direct approach.
"I heard that Your Majesty had taken an interest in me, so I came at once."
At that.
The Emperor narrowed his eyes for a brief instant, so brief that he himself might not even have noticed it, then spoke with his characteristic benevolent smile.
"The daytime speech is heard by birds, and the nighttime speech is heard by mice. It seems my words are a sun that cannot be covered by one's palm."
If we interpret this imperial-court language.
It meant something like:
How did you find out, you bastard? So you and Laval really are in league together?
That was probably the gist of it.
I admit it.
But it was a meaningless guess.
Lord Laval and I had become bound by a shared fate.
The fact that we had shared the same roof, eating from the same pot, laughing and crying together, was a long story that had begun when I was still a little brat.
Treating the obvious fact that one plus one equals two as if it were some insightful deduction was simply the behavior of a typical tyrant trying to manipulate his subordinate.
But if I made my objective clear.
The issue would become straightforward, and that man's sharp mind would show its brilliance.
That was what I believed.
"I did not come here intending to cause Your Majesty any trouble. Rather, the time Your Majesty is spending paying attention to someone like me is so very, very precious, considering the current state of the empire, where grave matters are piling up. I came only to offer my counsel, despite the discourtesy."
In other words, put simply:
Please. While you have so much to do, stop needlessly suspecting someone who quietly disappeared to the countryside and returned at an appropriate time, you damn old bastard.
That was where it should have ended.
But the Emperor was no ordinary veteran of this game.
The moment I said that, he immediately countered without even snorting derisively.
"Haha, how could I not take an interest? With such a legendary figure as the Demon King Slayer's blade living so openly before me, how could I not bestow upon you my admiration by looking after your destiny?"
Is that so?
Then fine.
Just when I was getting tired of arguing, he had tossed me a perfect opening.
"Your Majesty praises me so highly that I can only feel even more pathetic by comparison."
"There is no need to say that. What an extraordinary man you are."
"Not at all. My killing the Demon King was nothing more than a fluke. As for the man I am now, I am merely a pathetic fellow who could not even achieve the retirement life he had hoped for and lost everything after being swindled."
"...I see."
When I went that far.
The Emperor openly furrowed his brows and sat there sullenly for a moment.
It was understandable.
The Emperor's intention had been to elevate me as an extraordinary person by any means necessary, send my mood soaring, and then frame my achievements as something dangerous, since he wanted to dispose of me once I had served my purpose.
But I had taken the initiative by declaring that I was worth nothing.
Unlike the Emperor's intentions, I had truly become a worthless man, hadn't I?
If he disliked that, he would have to keep praising me along the lines of, No, you're amazing. Seriously. Why are you being like this? I'm telling you, you're amazing.
But how could an Emperor who lived and died by his dignity keep spouting such flattering words?
I might dislike this sort of thing.
I might live while pretending to be stupid.
But at least when the time came to do what needed to be done, I could do it.
If I couldn't, he would have noticed me while I was still under Lord Laval and eliminated me.
In fact, that would have been the perfect time to kill me.
After I killed the Demon King, it would have become more difficult to remove me.
But even if he was rotten, this man called the Emperor was still a terrifying existence, one who could turn me into a traitor with the twitch of a single finger.
Therefore.
If he wanted to prevent this sensation from developing into an unpleasant impulse.
Now was the perfect time.
"Your Majesty. However, this is merely the life of Joseph, an insignificant man, and has nothing to do with the Grand Plan I came to discuss."
"...Ah, yes. You said you had come to tell me about matters of great importance. If it is your counsel, I am willing to consider it at any time. Go on."
At those words.
I did not even need to sigh.
I spoke crisply, deliberately giving my words weight.
"After killing the Demon King, I began to sense something within me. I thought that everything would end as soon as he died, but it did not end."
"...What?"
"I can still sense remnants threatening the empire."
Well, this might be information that only I in the entire world knew.
After all, the creator of this world was my cousin.
"What do you mean, Lord Joseph?"
As expected.
The Emperor seemed dumbfounded.
He blinked at me, uncharacteristically bewildered.
He isn't calling me 'you' anymore? So he only calls me 'Lord' when the situation affects him personally. As expected, he really was looking down on me, wasn't he?
But whatever. I put that thought aside.
This was genuinely astonishing news.
Just as Lurua's mother had gone berserk.
After the Demon King died.
Every member of the Demon race in the world had begun to collapse....
Under ordinary circumstances, the existence of surviving remnants was fundamentally absurd.
However, it would be impossible to dismiss my claim as completely nonsensical.
In the shadow beneath my feet, the dark silhouette of the man who had killed the Demon King was rippling ominously.
He could not ignore it.
At least, if I were in his position, I would not assume I was speaking without reason.
"At the very least, I cannot take anything Lord Joseph says lightly. So please, tell me in detail."
"I would be happy to."
That was why he could ask such a question.
Of course, it was the natural thing for an Emperor wary of threats to do.
But from the moment he asked that question.
His Majesty Isaac would have to understand.
If he continued to respond with blind distrust.
Depending on the circumstances, humanity could once again be plunged into a sea of fire.
Let's see. There was a saying that once you catch the rabbit, you boil the hunting dog in water, wasn't there?
But what should the owner of the boiling pot do if that rabbit had already given birth to a whole litter?
Well, obviously, he would have to act wisely.
Then.
The Emperor's old, dry fingers began tapping anxiously against the armrest of the throne.
But just like his eyebrows a moment ago, there were times when the intervals between taps became unusually long.
And watching that, I could not help but become certain.
He's shaken.
Did it work?