Everything Falls Into Place
It wasn’t particularly difficult to identify the Death King using the clue Pride had provided. After all, there were plenty of other hints scattered about.
The reason the Death King pursued the Immortals was because they killed his family. That pointed straight to the airship accident from two years ago. He examined the list of missing persons one by one, reading every name with care.
The Death King once wiped out the Nasara Merchant Group. At the time he hadn’t understood why. He had simply assumed the group must have done something to offend the Death King and left it at that. Yet the instant he saw the list of victims from the airship disaster, a memory flashed through the Magic Sovereign’s mind like lightning.
Kayen Nasara.
The visionary who had absorbed the remnants of the bankrupt Nasara Merchant Group and used them to build the foundation of the current Grant Merchant Group. She had lost her parents as a child and had one younger brother.
Everything fits perfectly. The motive for destroying the Nasara Merchant Group. How Kayen Nasara could have known about the danger in advance. Even the chain of events that led the underworld to hunt the Immortals. Her single death made every piece click into place with mechanical precision.
There was, however, one thing the Magic Sovereign still could not comprehend no matter how he turned it over in his head.
He’s only just turned twenty.
The Death King Dark Heaven. The man suspected to be him—Kain—was a young man who had only just reached twenty. Depending on who you asked, he could still be considered little more than a boy. No, since twenty was his current age, that meant when he first rose to prominence as an Absolute Being he had been sixteen or seventeen at most. In other words, while other youths his age were still learning magic at Benedict Academy, he had already claimed a seat among the continent’s supreme rulers.
By the Magic Sovereign’s common sense, such a thing was impossible.
Was he an Ebon user? The only plausible explanation was that he possessed Absolute-level Ebon abilities similar to the Ice Empress. But even that failed to satisfy him completely.
There have been no observed cases of rampage. An Ebon user inevitably caused collateral damage upon awakening. Such cases were extremely rare, yet if a superhuman Ebon user appeared, an entire major city could be leveled. What, then, would an Absolute-level Ebon user do?
Take the Ice Empress, the only known Absolute-level Ebon user in the current era. When she awakened, a full quarter of the continent froze solid. The nation where it happened was destroyed; only a handful survived. To this day that region remained a frozen wasteland where no one could live.
Yes. If an Absolute-level Ebon user had appeared, the world could not possibly have missed it. Policies had recently been enacted to detect potential Ebon awakenings early and fit people with mana restraints, but an Absolute-level Ebon user was a cataclysmic bomb that would render even those precautions useless.
And above all else, the Death King is famous as a dark mage.
The reason for his fame was simple. With his four undead servants—led by the King of Bones—he had faced the Empress in single combat without once showing himself. He had displayed the full majesty of the King of the Dead using nothing but his summons. No matter how perfectly one mimicked dark magic with Ebon, a fundamental difference existed between the two disciplines. Which meant that even if the Death King were an Ebon user, he had also reached Absolute level in true dark magic.
In every sense, it made no sense.
Now he understood why no one had ever uncovered the Death King’s identity. Even while confirming it with his own eyes, he could hardly believe that a mere twenty-year-old youth was one of the Absolute Beings who ruled the continent.
One of three possibilities. Either Pride had lied, or he himself had misidentified the suspect. Or else this Kain Nasara was a monster who surpassed even the greatest geniuses in history.
The first was impossible; Pride would never lie about anything concerning the Death King. The second was also out; there were no other suspects left. Which left only the third.
Arina Grant…
Once he realized the Death King’s identity, the man’s daily life proved to be almost comically ordinary. Two years ago he had settled in the capital of Raymond with his deceased older sister’s daughter. Since then he had remained shut inside his house, never venturing out. And that daughter had entered Benedict Academy this year as the freshman representative.
To think that the supreme ruler of the underworld, the Death King himself, lived such a mundane life.
I suppose I’ll have to meet him soon.
He was already convinced of the man’s identity. Still, to dispel the last lingering doubts in his heart, the Magic Sovereign decided he would have to move personally. Fortunately, since the girl was the freshman representative, he had more than enough justification to meet her as chairman of the academy.
If he met Arina Grant directly, he would surely obtain absolute confirmation that Kain was the Death King.
Now it all makes sense.
The palace intrusion incident from a few days ago. The culprit had shaken off even Chrombell Legacy, commander of the Royal Mage Corps, and escaped. Very few people in the world could accomplish such a feat. If his guess was correct, the intruder must have been hovering secretly around Arina Grant to protect her, and the resulting tragedy had been unavoidable.
Viewed that way, it also explained why the palace suffered no damage despite facing such an intruder. Jealousy, one of the Seven Deadly Sins who served as the Death King’s limbs. One of the seven superhumans who called themselves the Death King’s own. Such a being would certainly possess the ability to cause an incident inside the royal palace.
And since they had revealed themselves first, they probably wouldn’t bother hiding if he tried to confirm this. After all, Pride had said their only wish was to avoid directly interfering with the Death King’s daily life.
Still, I need to finish this matter first.
They had shown sincerity first. It was only proper that he respond in kind. What he needed to do right now was completely uproot the Church’s influence inside the Ellemental Kingdom. Once Pride began to suspect a connection between the Immortals and the Church, events would unfold one way or another. In the worst case, it could lead to all-out war. In such a scenario, the Church’s forces inside the kingdom would act as clear poison.
Damn it all, these days are relentlessly busy.
He had promised himself he would take a vacation this summer. But sitting at his desk eating a sandwich for dinner made that dream feel impossibly grand and distant.
“Haa…”
A deep sigh escaped the Magic Sovereign, accompanied by a heavy shadow that fell across his face at the thought of his wrecked plans.
Meanwhile, at the same moment the Magic Sovereign was buried under a mountain of documents, another of the continent’s Absolute Beings—Kain—was enjoying a peaceful dinner with Arina as usual.
Tonight’s menu was hamburger steak. Arina, finally freed from all her assignments, had prepared a lavish spread for the first time in a while. Kain would devour anything placed in front of him without complaint, but he naturally preferred delicious food when given the choice. After a satisfying meal that eased his mood, he looked at Arina and asked in his usual blunt tone,
“Now that your assignments are pretty much done, have you decided where you want to go during break?”
Since it was summer, he figured she might want the beach or a valley. Given her age, she might prefer an amusement park or monster park. It didn’t matter where they went as long as he had promised, but Kain hoped she would choose somewhere close to the capital. He had no desire to repeat the experience of sitting on a train like an idiot, phone dead, staring blankly until they arrived.
“Yes!”
Arina nodded immediately, as if she had been waiting for him to ask. She had spent the past several days thinking hard. It was a rare opportunity. Where would be best to go with her uncle? Mountains, sea, valley, amusement park, monster park, aquarium—she had looked up far more places than Kain had imagined. For a while, her smartphone’s related search terms had been filled entirely with information about summer resorts.
She wanted to go everywhere. Not going anywhere would leave her with regrets. While she was swelling with anticipation and deliberating endlessly, a single memory suddenly flashed through her mind.
“Since you’ve already been on a honeymoon once, please let me choose this time.”
It had been two years ago, right when her father Hughes Grant and Kayen Nasara’s wedding was being prepared. Her new stepmother had boldly asked to choose the honeymoon destination herself. Her father had chuckled and nodded.
“Sure. Is there somewhere you want to go?”
“There are lots of places I want to go. But there’s one place I’ve wanted to visit since I was little.”
Her excitement was unusual for someone normally so calm. “I want to go to Vivaldi.”
The same words her stepmother had spoken two years ago now flowed from Arina’s own lips.
It was the place her stepmother had longed to visit ever since childhood, even while she worked herself to the bone for her younger brother. Yet she had never managed to go there while alive. Arina wanted to see the sight with her own eyes in her stepmother’s place, to etch the scenery into her memory.
“Vivaldi, huh…”
Kain’s expression grew strangely complicated when he heard her. The City of Arts, Vivaldi. It was a name familiar to him as well. A very long time ago, when their parents were still alive, his older sister would always point at parade footage from the middle of that artistic city and declare that she wanted to go there.
It’s not like it’s Yggdrasil or anything. She had been delighted by the thought of spirits flying about and artificial magical lights that looked like fairies dancing. The grand orchestra music echoing throughout the city had reached even through the screen, delighting the ears. Kain, eight years younger, had thought it childish, but his sister paid him no mind. She had gone around singing about how she wanted to go there.
But her enthusiasm had been cut short when their parents died in an accident. After that she entered society early to protect him, and Kain had assumed she had forgotten that childhood dream.
Until the day she suddenly announced to him, “I’ve decided we’re going to Vivaldi for our honeymoon.”
Yes. She had simply set her dream aside for a while. She had never given up on that childhood vow. And in the end she had smiled the happiest smile in the world and bragged to him about it.
The realization was so absurd that a hollow laugh escaped him.
If you wanted to go that badly, you should have just said so. That trivial trip—if she had wanted it, he could have bought the entire city of Vivaldi and given it to her. Looking back now, he realized he had always been painfully insensitive to other people’s hearts, both then and now. He had only understood after it became too late to grant her wish.
“…Yeah. All right. Let’s go.”
After the brief silence that followed his recollection, Kain’s answer made a bright smile bloom across Arina’s face.
“Since we’re going anyway, let’s time it so we can see the parade too.”
His sister had said they held one every season. If that was true, there should be one in summer as well. If they matched the dates, they might be able to see it.
“Really?”
Kain hated crowded places. She had been considerate enough not to mention the parade, yet here he was bringing it up first. A bitter smile rose to Kain’s lips as he watched Arina, who seemed excessively happy in his eyes.
His sister’s final request. No matter how he thought about it, it felt like far too difficult a task for him.
Well, I’ll at least try.
He wasn’t sure how well he was carrying out his sister’s request, but seeing Arina look this happy suggested he hadn’t completely failed yet. Yes, that was enough. As long as he didn’t end up too late like his sister, there would always be another chance.
“I did some research on the internet, you know? There are several places in Vivaldi that you absolutely have to visit…”
Kain popped a bite-sized piece of hamburger steak into his mouth, listening to Arina’s cheerful chatter with one ear while letting the rest flow out the other.