82
I Killed the Demon King. It Was a Mistake.
Chapter 82
Gregory was stuck to the library wall, looking down at Caesar, then descended along the wall as if familiar with it.
Caesar shook hands with Gregory.
"Long time no see. How have you been?"
"Well, I'm busy preparing for the next election. Only four months left now."
"That's why it's been hard to meet often. We used to meet at the teahouse sometimes."
Gregory took a sip of wine and spoke:
"By the way, I heard Harrison is running for the council election. Is that right?"
"He wanted to do it, so I told him to go ahead. Is there a problem?"
"There is a problem. Harrison is from the Walterwood family. Originally, when two people from the same family run for council, one typically voluntarily steps down and instead puts another person in the council seat."
"Why do they do that?"
"To prevent one family from monopolizing the council. It's not legally blocked, but it's a kind of unwritten rule."
Gregory took another sip of alcohol.
"Harrison is technically your person, but also a Walterwood family member. If he becomes a counselor, it means I and Harrison would compete for the seat."
"That must be quite a dilemma for Harrison."
"You already knew about this, didn't you? Don't pretend you didn't."
Caesar nodded obediently.
"Well, I did know."
"Do you still plan to make Harrison a counselor?"
"Then, aren't you willing to give up for your child's future?"
Caesar used psychometry.
"Not at all. I'm not planning to end my life as an old man in the back room."
-Stepping down doesn't make sense.
-I still have the stamina to do this for four more years, and the world is chaotic, so I must stay in politics.
He thinks he needs to stay for Homigraph, but digging deeper, it means he can't let go of the power in his hands.
He's quite greedy.
How can he not yield even to his own son at that age?
Indeed, with such ambition, he could become a six-term councilor.
"So I have another suggestion. Give Harrison to me as my assistant. Then I'll educate him well and make him a councilor in the next election."
"The first and second children would feel bad. It sounds like you're saying you'll appoint him as the next head of the Walterwood family."
"That's a problem Harrison should solve himself."
He's raising the youngest child strongly.
After all, Harrison isn't a fool and must have decided to run for the council election prepared to fight Gregory for the seat.
"I've heard your opinion for now. But I don't think that's a problem I should particularly think about."
"Why?"
"Does it look like I'm pushing Harrison to become a counselor? I'm just helping because he wants to do it. Of course, if he becomes a counselor, it's good for me to have a trustworthy person in the council. But I have no particular desire to have a councilor friend."
Gregory silently drank wine, trying to understand Caesar's intentions.
-Is it really so?
-In a way, this might be good for Harrison.
-He's found someone who believes in and supports him.
-I wish he would realize a different dream rather than this dirty and complicated political world...
-But I can't figure out this man's true nature... I'm not sure.
They say a father's heart is different inside and out, but there's probably no one as opposite as this man.
Would it hurt to be a bit more honest?
"Are you trying to come at me with such ambiguous feelings?"
Look, his words and heart are completely opposite.
"Harrison is fighting you. It seems like he's reversing the subject and master. If Harrison can't endure and falls out, oh well. I'll just tease him thoroughly and make him work hard again."
"Then let me ask you one thing. Do you think Harrison can push me out and take the council seat?"
Caesar received champagne from the bartender.
"What's important is whether he succeeds or fails?"
"...What does that mean?"
"Eventually, whether Harrison loses the council seat with his head broken by you or becomes a counselor, it's a good experience. Regardless of what he chooses, Harrison has nothing to lose. Of course, he'll struggle if he fails. But unlike you, Harrison has time to recover. Even if he fails, he'll eventually dust himself off, and if he doesn't let go of his dream, Harrison can become a counselor."
Caesar took a sip of champagne while observing Gregory's expression.
Gregory's expression remained unchanged.
But his subtly trembling pupils and the complex emotions heard through psychometry permeated Caesar's heart.
"... Harrison will never overcome me."
"Why?"
"Because he has you. Desperate people seek and drink from wells. Since Harrison has somewhere to return to even if he fails, he won't give his absolute best."
Gregory finished his wine.
-But this doesn't seem like what a father should do.
Gregory swallowed his last words with the wine.
"Well, I'll be going now. Enjoy the party."
Gregory left with those words.
He seemed slightly staggering, apparently a bit drunk.
"What an incredibly insincere gentleman."
***
There were quite a few familiar faces at the party for Caesar.
'Oh, Larry is still alive? The person next to him... Gibson is here too. They're both still around.'
Are Larry and Gibson famous wizards from the game?
No, that's not quite right.
They're just ordinary extras, you could say.
But these two held significant meaning for Caesar.
And that's because they were comrades who had crossed life and death together with Caesar... No, with Barre.
'It's nice to see them like this.'
Even if Caesar approached and spoke to them, they wouldn't know who Caesar was.
But Caesar knew every detail about them.
Larry was a wizard from the Gale Mage Tower, not particularly strong in firepower, but a specialist in target assistance who could adjust and support other wizards' magical coordinates.
That's why when fighting alongside Larry, they never suffered from blind magic attacks.
However, he's missing his right testicle.
Gibson was the opposite of Larry.
He was a specialist in buff magic who created the 'Awakening' spell that could dispel a Succubus' charm magic, though his ability to pinpoint coordinates was weak.
But if he drinks even a single sip of alcohol, he turns into a dog.
'There was another companion they used to be close with...'
Caesar used wind reading to listen to their conversation.
"I wish Pablo was here too."
"For Pablo."
...Looks like Pablo is dead.
Pablo was the firepower specialist of that trio.
He was good at explosive magic...
Seems he's dead.
Caesar felt a sense of emptiness.
Though born a spy and doppelganger, he had experienced the highs and lows of war with these comrades.
When they suffered defeat, they collected the corpses of their allies and cried at their funerals.
When they achieved victory, they danced arm in arm with the survivors.
But Caesar knew.
Caesar would never reveal his true feelings to anyone.
If he completely exposed his inner thoughts to someone he considered a true friend, that friend would instead be overwhelmed with a deep sense of betrayal and try to tear Caesar apart.
You got my friend killed.
You got my son killed.
You got my lover killed.
Caesar was not yet ready to accept such accusations.
Perhaps he would never be ready.
But Caesar considers them comrades.
Just as they would have sacrificed their lives for Caesar, who has lived only in deception, Caesar would willingly give his life for them.
...But would they sacrifice themselves for me if they knew the truth?
Drinking his champagne while pondering this unanswered question, Caesar emptied the glass.
"Whew."
A sharp alcoholic scent brushed past his nose.
Thanks to his incredibly sturdy body, he wasn't drunk, but his gloomy mood had somewhat lifted.
Leaving aside the unsolvable puzzle-like problems, let's go uncover some interesting secrets.
Caesar placed the champagne on the table and leaned forward.
'It should be around here somewhere.'
In the game, the Great Ark Library offered quite interesting secrets.
You could discover the remains of people who died without escaping the library.
You could find secret passages.
You could discover hidden treasures.
There were even artifacts that could be obtained unconditionally just by starting as a magic-born, even with low magical abilities.
Caesar climbed the wall, turning his back to the moon illuminating the library, thoroughly searching the unlit areas.
'Found it.'
Caesar discovered an adventure book called 'Tears at the Blue Horizon' stuck between the bookshelves.
Unlike other books, it had a unique feature: a small mirror attached to its cover.
Without even opening the book, Caesar positioned the mirror towards the moon.
And he counted numbers in his mind.
'5, 4, 3, 2, 1, now!'
Caesar turned towards the bookshelf.
Simultaneously, the mirror shot light towards the bookshelf as if emitting moonlight.
Then Caesar felt a sensation of being sucked somewhere, spinning around.
When he regained his senses, he was in a small room filled with blue candles on all sides.
"Bingo."
Caesar picked up the translucent lens that looked like a blue moon, placed in the center of the room.
"Never did I dream I'd obtain the Moonflower like this."
Moonflower.
An artifact hidden in the Great Ark Library by the adventurer wizard 'Cheche'.
Its ability is quite unique - when using the Moonflower to look around, it can analyze what magic is in effect around you.
By using this to analyze magic, one could potentially accelerate magic proficiency by more than twice, making it the first artifact to obtain when starting as a magic-born.
'In the game, this used to appear as text...'
What would it feel like in reality?
Caesar held the Moonflower and looked around.
Bizarre magical circles suddenly became visible to his eyes.
"...I don't understand anything at all."
Although he knew something about magic, he could only recognize what kind of effect a spell might have. He couldn't precisely identify or distinguish magical circles.
If he could, he would have been eyeing wizards already.
'Still, it might be useful.'
At least he could now tell where magic was active, right?
This would help him be more cautious when entering unknown areas.
He'd need to have this custom-made into a monocle or telescope to carry around.
Caesar continued examining his surroundings.
Curiously, colorful lines protruding between the magical circles were all connected to one point.
Beyond the darkness where blue candles did not reach.
'Where's that?'
Escaping this strange place was simple.
He just needed to place the lens back on the book he brought, and he would return to his original location.
'It looks like I should go that way.'
He had never seen this scene in the game before.
Since this was a room created by Cheche, the creator of the Moonflower, he felt certain something special must exist where those lines converged.
Caesar slowly moved forward.
And when he had approached to a certain point, he again felt space twisting.
When he came to his senses, he found himself in a study illuminated by a warm campfire.
The problem was he wasn't alone.
"...Who are you?"
Green eyes, shining like a beautiful jewel, were fixed on Caesar.
The woman with green eyes pulled out a wand.
"How did you enter my private room?"
Caesar knew her.
A wizard of the Green Eyes.
Barre's colleague.
Raven.
***
The Great Ark Library, with its complex and undiscovered secrets, occasionally presents rooms that no one uses.
Such hidden rooms could be used as personal quarters by the first wizard who discovered them, with the principle that they would permanently own the room until their death.
Having existed for 230 years, many personal room locations had been revealed.
But Raven wanted a personal room unknown to anyone and, after searching for almost a year, found this room.
When she first discovered the room, it was filled with undisturbed dust, seemingly never found by anyone.
That's why Raven loved this place.
Despite hundreds of thousands of wizards having passed through the Great Ark Library, the fact that no one had visited meant this small room could only be accessed by Raven, past and present.
So Raven cleaned it herself, filled it with books she loved, and even brought sofas and tables to decorate the interior.
It had become her special hideout...
'How on earth did he get in?'
Raven looked at the man with full vigilance.
Could there be another secret passage leading here?
"How did you enter my private room?"
Raven instinctively scanned the red-haired man.
She felt something oddly familiar about him.
His standing posture, the angle of his feet, and even the rough yet shaded magical essence.
This is... Somewhat similar to Barre.
Raven raised her wand toward the man staring intently at her.
"Won't you answer?"
The man seemed to choose his words, rolling his eyes.
And soon, he answered confidently:
"I don't know either."