Last Edit: 16 July 16

‘If only I was slightly stronger,’ I thought.

I had fought many times over.

And people whom I knew of died each time.

The man, who said that he wanted to become a chef, was skewered by several spears in order to protect me. His pained expression was something that can never be forgotten.

Another man passed away at the foot of the cliff under the rain after speaking to his lover from another squad. From what I heard afterwards, that very lover jumped off from the same cliff at the end of the war.

In the midst of the Empire’s battle, people who were working on the squad equipment’s repairs vanished under the light of the manifested magic furnace (具現魔導炉). I was glad when that moment came; to be presented a poison-coated dagger by an abandoned infant who had become a blacksmith¹.

Dragon, human, beast-kin, celestial being, demon, everyone; I can only be surprised by how they die so easily.

The ideal which I wanted to carry out caused people to be killed easily and endlessly.

Even so, I continued to live. I will live until I attain the status of Emperor.

People are celebrating the day when the country was founded on this land. Over and over again, year after year, they celebrated.

Whenever this day arrived, although I try to remember the faces of the dead, I was unable to do so.

Based on memories before becoming the , I knew that I was not protected by the . Rather, I am steadily vanishing.

Optimistically, there is a way to separate myself from them, but what will the tomorrow of the citizens become?

Do the things they saved then still truly exist even until now?

Regarding that, I will never know until I am broken.

—Year 120 of Empire Calendar, publicized extract of the founding Emperor’s memorandum

End of Chapter 1

1残された幼子が鍛冶となり、俺に毒を塗った短剣を贈ってきたとき、嬉しかった。