Prologue: One Day After Transmigration
These days, the Astel Empire was far too peaceful.
"The projected harvest from the eastern granaries this year shows a twelve-percent increase over last year's yield."
"Maintenance of the northern border supply routes has also been completed. Even when winter comes, neither warhorses nor provisions will run short."
"The Mage Tower's new purification artifacts have begun distribution to the provincial territories. The incidence of epidemics is expected to drop dramatically as well."
"And the embezzled funds recovered from the nobles arrested last month have been redirected in full toward the establishment of orphanages and relief houses."
The Imperial Palace study.
Reports stacked neatly upon the desk, one after another.
Every single one of them was excellent.
So excellent, in fact, that it was a problem.
"…Very well."
I closed the documents with an expressionless face.
The ministers standing before me carefully held their breath. Awe and tension mingled in their eyes.
Of course they did.
The body I had possessed was that of Riftan von Astel, Crown Prince of the Empire.
The villain of the original otome game.
A psychopath who took pleasure in torturing the male and female leads.
And an overwhelmingly overpowered final boss.
The real problem was that he was simply too strong. By the standards of the original game, no one had ever managed to clear this bastard.
And so I had made my resolve.
I would kill myself with my own hands.
However…
…Haa.
I gazed out the window and sighed inwardly.
Seven years had already passed since my transmigration.
At first the plan had been simple.
Since I had become the final boss of the original story, all I needed to do was raise the heroes.
I would not leave the empire to rot.
I would purge the corrupt nobility.
I would lay the foundation so that the Mage Tower, the military, and the provincial lords could properly fulfill their roles.
Then, once they had grown strong enough, they would one day bring me down.
That was definitely the idea.
The problem was that the plan had gone far too well.
The corrupt nobles collapsed of their own accord at a single word of my command. The bureaucrats worked day and night. The military engaged in loyalty competitions. Every time the Mage Tower offered up research results, they clamored to erect statues of me.
Even the Northern Archduke had recently brought his soldiers before the palace and sworn an oath.
—I shall become Your Highness's sword.
Hearing those words, I had been delighted.
At last, I thought, a powerhouse capable of killing me had appeared.
So I had answered thus:
—Very well. Grow strong enough. One day, cut me down with your blade.
At that, the Northern Archduke had dropped to one knee.
And shed tears.
—This Calix shall devote his life to growing stronger until the day Your Highness permits it!
Why is the loyalty going up?
From that day forward, the training intensity of the northern army doubled.
They were not growing stronger in order to kill me.
They were growing stronger in order to die for me.
"Your Highness."
At the chancellor's call I raised my head.
A ridiculously handsome man carefully presented the next report.
For reference, this guy was also a male lead in the original work.
Why he was hanging around me instead of going to the heroine… honestly, even I had no idea.
"A report has arrived stating that the possibility of rebellion in the west has completely vanished. It seems the land reform and tax reductions Your Highness enacted three years ago are finally bearing fruit."
"…The possibility of rebellion has vanished?"
"Yes, Your Highness."
"Completely?"
"Completely."
I closed my mouth for a moment.
Then quietly asked,
"Then what about the ones trying to kill me?"
"Pardon?"
"I asked who is going to kill me."
"……"
The chancellor stared blankly up at me.
"Never mind."
I pressed my fingers to my temple.
"You've worked hard. All of you, leave."
The ministers bowed in unison.
"We give thanks for Your Highness the Crown Prince's grace."
"Glory to Your Highness."
"Loyalty to the sun of the empire."
The door closed.
Alone in the vast study, I sat motionless for a long while.
The mountain of documents.
Letters of gratitude from every corner of the empire.
Gifts sent by the people.
Hundreds of petitions addressed to His Highness the Great Crown Prince.
Looking at them, I suddenly found it hard to breathe.
"This is wrong."
I muttered.
"I'm supposed to be the final boss."
In the original, Riftan had been hated by everyone. He had been an object of terror. People joined hands to bring him down.
But the current me was surrounded by loyal retainers.
At this rate the game will never end.
I lifted my head.
Beyond the window rose the Central Tower of the Imperial Palace.
The tallest place in the empire.
The ground was solid marble.
And directly below it lay the Imperial Garden I myself had ordered constructed.
From that height…
Even with the body of the final boss…
"Right."
I rose from my seat.
"If nothing else works, I'll just end it myself."
The summit of the Imperial Palace's Central Tower.
The wind blew fiercely.
Once this place had existed solely to flaunt imperial authority. Now it had become the spot where the people looked up at the palace and confirmed the Crown Prince's banner.
Beneath a blue sky, a flag bearing the golden sun crest snapped in the wind.
I stood upon the railing.
I'm really doing this.
Looking down, my legs trembled slightly. But it was not from fear. The body simply remembered its childhood acrophobia.
Probably.
"I wonder if I really have to go this far," I said with a dry laugh, "but dying is the goal, after all."
And then, without a moment's hesitation, I threw myself off.
KWA-AAAAANG—!
The Imperial Garden shook as though it had exploded.
Marble flooring cracked like a spiderweb. Jets of fountain water shot outward in every direction. Gardeners tending the grounds screamed.
"His Highness the Crown Prince has fallen!"
"Summon the physicians!"
"Inform the Imperial Guard!"
"Assassination! Someone targeted His Highness!"
No.
Not an assassination.
I jumped.
I slowly raised a hand from the center of the collapsed floor.
My fingers moved. So did my arms. My legs felt lighter than ever. As for my neck, it might as well have been mounted on a gimbal.
"Ha."
A laugh escaped me.
"Is this even possible?"
Just how overpowered is this guy?
In that moment—
"Your Highneeeeeess!"
From afar came a familiar wail.
It was the chancellor.
He was sprinting across the garden with not a shred of his usual dignity. One of his shoes was nowhere to be seen—he must have flung it off somewhere.
The instant he reached me he flung himself face-down on the ground.
"Your Highness! Have we once again failed to grasp Your Highness's will?!"
"No, wait—"
"Was the empire's administration insufficient?!"
"That's not—"
"Did the western tax system fall short of Your Highness's intent?!"
"I said no!"
"Or was research funding for the Mage Tower lacking?! Was the northern military budget too small?! Surely there cannot still be injustices remaining in the empire that Your Highness cannot tolerate!"
The chancellor clung to me, on the verge of tears.
I seized his shoulders.
"Chancellor."
"Yes, Your Highness!"
"Listen carefully."
"Only give the command!"
"I simply wanted to die—"
Thud!
The chancellor's forehead smashed into the floor.
"Ahhh! So that was it after all!"
"Why did you cut me off?!"
"Because the empire is not yet complete! Your Highness took every responsibility upon yourself alone and even sought to cast aside your own life!"
"No!"
"We were incompetent!"
Thud!
"We dared not keep pace with the ideal Your Highness sought to achieve!"
Thud!
"Even offering this life at once would not be enough!"
"Stop smashing your head! You're bleeding!"
If you damage your brain, who's going to kill me?!
But the chancellor was already beyond hearing.
He lifted his bloodied forehead and fixed me with a resolute gaze.
"I know not whether I am worthy of Your Highness's concern, yet—"
"…What."
"This time I shall surely create an empire that will make Your Highness smile."
"The thing that would make me smile is not you, but someone killing—"
"I understand now."
The chancellor slowly rose to his feet.
"Your Highness need not speak."
"Listen to me for a second."
"We shall find it ourselves."
With a face burning with loyalty he turned around.
Then he shouted toward the knights and officials gathered in the garden.
"All hands, assemble in the Chancellor's conference hall!"
"Pardon?"
"To the point that His Highness the Crown Prince would personally choose death, the empire's reforms remain incomplete!"
The officials' faces turned ashen. The knights gripped their sword hilts.
"Effective today, every department's duties will be re-examined!"
The chancellor's cry rang throughout the entire palace.
"Uproot the corrupt by the roots! Seek out any starving commoners! If there remains any place the empire's law does not reach, correct it at once!"
"Your Excellency!"
"What His Highness desires is not mere prosperity!"
The chancellor looked at me standing in the middle of the shattered marble. His eyes burned like a fanatic's.
"It is a perfect empire in which His Highness need not seek death, but may live in peace!"
"UWOOOOOOOOH!"
Officials and knights roared as one.
Some wept openly. Some clenched their fists. And some were already racing off with armfuls of documents.
"……"
And I, standing alone in the crater in the middle of the garden, watched the spectacle unfold.
"…I'm screwed."
The Astel Empire would only grow better from this day forward.
And the number of people who might kill me would, in all likelihood, only shrink further.
I looked up at the sky and let out a deep sigh.
"Anyone will do."
The final boss's heartfelt plea scattered into the empty air.
"Please, just kill me."