Chapter 51
Chapter 51
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 51
Chapter Title: A Slightly Old Secret - 2
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I gave an awkward smile and replied.
“Only someone like you, Grade.”
“No. I wasn’t all that great a leader.”
Grade let out a sigh.
“Of course, I’m not trying to downplay myself from my hero days. Back then, our party was truly united as one. And I was at the center of it.”
“......”
“That’s why I deluded myself into thinking my vessel was big enough. Our party had just six members back then. Trying to contain a whole continent in a bowl meant for six—it was bound to shatter.”
His meaningful words drew me in closer without thinking.
“Shatter?”
“There were so many events from becoming king and founding an empire... all the way to ascending the throne as emperor. They were days far longer and harder than our journey to slay the Demon King.”
“......”
“Even my party members who once supported me began to change. Some left in disappointment, while others turned even more ruthless than me, chasing power and wealth.”
He wore an expression like he was chewing on raw bitter herbs.
“Magna Neros was the only one who stayed true to her original self until the end.”
“You mean Risel Vaint.”
“Honestly, I’ve been wanting to ask from the start—how do you know so damn much? There’s no record anywhere that Magna is Risel.”
“I have my own methods.”
“Heh. Well, without something like that, you wouldn’t have even dreamed of becoming a hero.”
He nodded readily.
I gauged the mood for a moment before asking carefully.
“How has Risel lived for over 1,500 years?”
“......”
“And what was her end like? Why did you two part ways, and why is she following Kaild around like that now?”
Grade let out a deep sigh.
Soon, he slowly opened his mouth.
“It was all my fault.”
Grade was a black-haired warrior among warriors, his whole body a weapon.
He stood with the hero’s sword planted at his feet, gazing out over the cliff.
He had just finished his grueling battle with the Destruction Demon King.
Joy at having protected everything in sight mingled with grief for the comrades who had fallen along the way, reddening Grade’s eyes.
Then a voice came from behind him.
“Hero.”
“Magna Neros.”
“You said to call you Risel when it’s just us. I prefer the name you gave me.”
Risel’s hood was pulled all the way over her head, hiding her face.
From the moment Magna Neros joined Grade as a comrade until she vanished from history, she never once showed her face.
Grade chuckled.
“Magna sounds cooler, doesn’t it? That’s what the spirits call you.”
“The spirits say Magna Neros means ‘king.’ It doesn’t suit me at all.”
“I’ve always felt sorry toward you. For making you hide your face like that.”
“I understand. I’m a slave.”
“......”
“You always said that for me to become a hero, I needed fame. And that traveling with a slave as a party member would ruin that fame.”
Fame.
Not visible as a concrete number like it was for Maide, but every hero chosen by oracle instinctively knew that ‘fame’ would make them a true hero.
No one taught them.
They just knew.
Grade said.
“It’s only temporary. As you know, I—we—defeated the Destruction Demon King.”
“......”
“My homeland lost its king in this war. With the strong support of nobles and commoners, I’ll take his place.”
His face hardened with resolve as he continued.
“Then I’ll abolish slavery entirely. You’ll be able to stand by my side with your true face shown proudly.”
“Hehe. By your side? Even if I’m freed from slavery, you’re going to be a king, after all.”
“A mere king would disappoint me. I’m going to found an empire. Become emperor.”
The empire had begun in the small southern kingdom, Grade’s homeland.
After the first emperor, Grade van Handman, it gradually expanded until it unified the continent.
This declaration marked the beginning of that grand epic.
Risel spoke in a slightly sulky tone.
“That just makes it harder.”
“I’m telling you, emperor. Emperor. I decide who stands by my side.”
“Hmm. Maybe.”
Risel smiled playfully.
But Grade was serious.
“In this continent, slaves aren’t considered human—it’s common sense. I’ll shatter that ridiculous notion.”
“......”
“I’ll make you human, Risel.”
“Hero...”
They embraced.
Decades later.
Risel was no longer a slave. But she was also the Spirit King.
She realized something was off after they defeated the Demon King and began solidifying the empire’s foundations with Grade’s help.
She didn’t age at all.
She never got sick.
Grade, the man she loved, bore the marks of time on his face day by day, but she did not.
Finally, one day, Grade said.
“Risel. Are you really okay with this?”
He was nearing fifty then.
The difference between his face and Risel’s early-twenties one was no longer that of lovers.
“With what?”
“Sticking with an old man like me.”
“......! What are you—”
“Thanks to you, I ascended the throne and abolished slavery as I’d always wanted. I thought it was time to give you this ring, but then I looked in the mirror.”
Grade continued with a bitter smile.
“And saw an old man’s withered face.”
“Don’t say that! I’ll love you forever...”
“This is for your sake. My lifespan’s maybe thirty years at best from now. What will you do after that?”
“Hero!”
“Hero, huh. It’s been a while since I heard that ring to it.”
His once-massive muscles had shrunk and withered.
Grade gazed out the window and said.
“Keeping you by my side might just be my selfishness.”
“Liar!”
“Risel?”
“Don’t lie. I have ears and eyes.”
“What do you mean?”
“I know the ministers have been hounding you about why a fifty-year-old emperor hasn’t taken an empress or produced heirs. And the reason you can’t introduce me to them!”
“......”
“You’re worried that ignoring their demands and making me—someone who’s never shown her face—your empress would jeopardize your power.”
Surprise flickered across Grade’s face.
It was the look of someone hearing an absurd story, but to Risel, it seemed otherwise.
“Am I right?”
“Of course not! I’m the emperor. I can do as I please...”
“Really?”
“......”
“Do you still think that after all these decades?”
Grade couldn’t answer.
Decades ago, fresh off slaying the Demon King with momentum piercing the heavens, he could say it lightly.
But now, scarred from countless clashes with reality’s walls, he couldn’t.
He had shrunk.
This harsh world had weakened even the ‘hero.’
Grade forced the words out.
“I was thinking of you. Of you left alone after I’m gone...”
“I’m not saying that feeling is a lie. But wasn’t there another thought on the side? Wondering how long I could keep fending off the ministers’ demands.”
“......”
“I waited, you know. For thirty years. For the day you’d give me that ring!”
“Risel...”
“I’m done.”
Tears welled in her eyes as she rose from her seat.
She glared fiercely at Grade and said.
“I didn’t become the spirits’ choice because I wanted to. I didn’t want to be their king.”
“......”
“Look. As a slave, I couldn’t choose anything for myself. Not even whether to become the Spirit King. So there was one thing—one man—I wanted to choose: the one I love.”
“Risel. Wait!”
“You said you’d make me human.”
Those were the words after defeating the Destruction Demon King.
By smashing the slavery system that treated people like livestock, he had promised to make Risel human.
Grade had kept that promise.
But Risel hadn’t become human.
She was the Spirit King.
“I’m sorry. For not being able to become human.”
“Risel. Wait just a moment!”
“I wish you a good partner. And happiness—for my share too.”
She began to fade like a ghost.
Chosen by the spirits, she could spiritize her body whenever she wished.
And humans had no way to track a spirit.
Just like how Maide’s group couldn’t find Risel when she suddenly vanished from an inn room 1,500 years later.
At that very moment, as Maide’s group listened to Grade’s tale.
Risel tossed and turned in bed.
‘How did he figure it out? That guy.’
Was it because he was an aspiring hero?
Well, Kaild had been the same.
She recalled first meeting Kaild.
For 1,500 years, she had spiritized herself, cutting off from the world.
In that time, three more Demon Kings had descended, and three heroes had risen to defeat them.
None of it mattered to Risel.
She wasn’t human.
The human world’s fate was none of her concern.
Then, as she sank into unconsciousness, a voice called to her.
“Magna Neros. Or should I say Risel Vaint?”
Kaild Wake.
A red-haired man with a kind face.
He continued as she blinked in surprise.
“Before I give my name, let me say this first.”
“......”
“I’m going to become a hero, so help me out. Like you did 1,500 years ago.”
“What?”
“In return for defeating the Demon King, I’ll make you human.”
-I’ll make you human.
The words she’d heard 1,500 years ago spilled from this stranger’s mouth.
And unbelievably, they shook Risel to her core.
‘Yes. This time it’ll work. If it’s Kaild.’
But Risel didn’t know.
That Kaild had said those words only because a quest window popped up before him then.
[Next Quest. In the center of Seten Island at the empire’s southernmost tip stands a giant tree.]
[Call Magna Neros, or Risel Vaint, from that tree.]
[Recruit Risel Vaint as your first companion.]
[Hint. She’s weak to the line ‘I’ll make you human.’]
Grade’s reminiscence and lament came to an end.
My mind was racing.
Risel had loved Grade.
And 1,500 years later, she loved Kaild.
But was a punk like Kaild even comparable to Grade?
[What do you mean?]
‘She saw something overlapping. She saw traces of Grade in Kaild.’
If I could just figure out what that was... maybe.
I gathered my thoughts and spoke.
“I understand. Thank you for your efforts, Grade.”
“Sounds like you’re telling me to get lost quick.”
“No. I meant safe travels.”
“Khuk.”
Grade chuckled lowly and said.
“You remind me of myself when I was young.”
“......”
“Yeah, I’ll head out. Seems the second-generation hero still has plenty of worries on the continent. I can’t play angel like that.”
He stretched again and added.
“I think I’ve done my part. The living should handle the rest as best they can. Clinging to a dead man’s coattails won’t amount to much.”
“Agreed.”
“I’ll wish you luck for now.”
The spell on Adwin’s arm glowed.
Would this first hero answer the next summons too?
The thought made me want to say this quickly.
“Grade.”
“Yeah?”
“Shall I let you meet Risel? Through Adwin’s necromancy.”
He chuckled and replied.
“What for? To meet a guy who kicked the bucket 1,500 years ago? It’s over between Risel and me. I don’t want it, and she surely doesn’t either.”
“......”
“Besides, who the hell are you calling a romantic? You damn junior.”
With that, he vanished.
I scratched my head.
The group fell silent for a while.
But soon Jenia spoke.
“It’s so sad... yet beautiful...”
“This is something we can use.”
“Whoa. He’s awake.”
“Listen up, everyone.”
All eyes turned to me.
“I think I know the line that’ll shake Risel’s heart.”