Chapter 725
After a brief commotion, I managed to clear up the misunderstanding between Esmu and Ashili, and now it was my turn to be surprised.
It’s been a week since I fell asleep? Every time I got involved in a big incident, I felt like I was not sleeping well, but rather on the verge of eternal sleep, so it wasn’t very pleasant.
Maybe it was because I was hungry. I wanted to go to a restaurant and grab something to eat, but Esmue strongly advised me not to and insisted on soup, so I ended up eating bland patient food. Maybe it was because I was hungry.
“You’ve skipped twenty-one meals to rob me of a week of my short mortal life. Ascension is indeed harmful.”
“···I don’t know if that’s really the right conclusion, but considering the changes that come with ascension, it’s definitely harmful.
It was a joke I made while quietly drinking soup because I was worried about people for no reason, but Esmue’s reaction when he came back was infinitely serious. It was because I had already told him about all the strangeness I felt along with the change in my emotions.
“First of all, we need to investigate past cases again based on your testimony with the help of each religious order. Perhaps we can find a clue on how to improve your current condition more quickly.”
“Does this help···?”
“That’s right. Among the stories that are almost legendary, there are often cases like ‘one day, they suddenly disappeared.’ Until now, there was no other way than to think that it was a disappearance due to a simple change of heart or skepticism. But what if, as you said, it was an emotional change that came about because they entered the realm of ascension or demigodhood?”
“···Is it possible to guess that person’s actions or process?”
“That’s right. It’s hard to understand a change of heart unless you’re a contemporary, but ‘phenomena’ aren’t like that.”
Listening to Esmu’s words, I felt a little proud because I felt like I had made a great discovery, but that was it.
The investigation was not my job, but the biggest reason was that I had to deal with the influx of visitors, as news of my regaining consciousness had already spread like wildfire while the soup was being brought in.
At first, I thought that Lagnis or Esmue would cut it off on their own as I saw so many people flocking in, some wanting to thank me, some wanting to worship me, and some just wanting to cheer in a frenzy of enthusiasm, but that wasn’t the case at all.
“You have no problem moving, so this is an opportunity.”
Rather, she quickly brought the maids along and started preparing for a full-scale parade by washing and dressing me up. I wondered if she was really the person who had just made me drink soup until just now, but I couldn’t argue with her because she had already run around here and there once to prove that she was okay with eating anything.
So, I asked them questions to find out the reason for their incomprehensible reactions, feeling like they were just pets being groomed nicely.
“opportunity?”
“A lot has happened while you were asleep. Our side suffered a lot of damage, but the Demon King’s army lost a master-level talent, and even though the Demon King himself was involved, the operation failed.”
As Lagnis, who was personally checking the uniform I was going to wear, started talking, Esmuye, who had been observing my every move from the front while ordering her personal maid to cut my hair, continued to speak.
“Siegfried has been a great help in forming positive public opinion by showing off his safety through external activities, but since you, who contributed the most to solving the case, are lying in a sickbed, you cannot attempt anything more.”
“What are you trying to do···?”
When I asked her while looking in the mirror to see if her hair, which had grown long because she had been sleeping while lying down, was neat again, Esmue nodded almost simultaneously, as if she was satisfied with me.
“Cognitive Warfare”
It is true that there are some crazy people who agree with the Demon King’s ideology, but it is also an undeniable fact that the vast majority of people simply follow the flow of the strong. That gap was what the high-ranking officials, including Esmue, were aiming for.
“As you said, his purpose was only exploration. But how many people would be able to hear that?”
“I went sightseeing with Cheryl.”
If you look at the time period, it doesn’t seem like much of a memory, but it already feels like a distant memory. I really need to visit Ogwen again once things are sorted out to some extent. How is it that every time I recall a memory, a day feels like a year?
“I got the hang of it, so let’s do it.”
Just following Lagnis and Esmue through the door and out into the inner hallway, the commotion grew louder. I had already stood in front of many people when I was awarded the title of Wandering Knight and when I went out to save the demon cultists, so I thought I wouldn’t be nervous, but for some reason, my fingertips were trembling strangely.
I said it curiously, but what is this? Are you scared again? There’s no reason for you to be?
As I was folding and unfolding my poor hands because I didn’t understand myself, Esmue, who was watching me from the side, quietly opened her mouth.
“You seem nervous. Well, this is probably your first time.”
“Is this your first time? I’m used to crowds.”
“When I say leisure, I mean a situation where you have to instill confidence in others even though you are not confident in yourself. Haven’t you been walking the path for yourself up until now, not to instill confidence in others?”
Her affectionate voice was the same as usual, but her expression was extremely cold. She had already prepared to stand before the people as an iron-blooded princess, and she continued to give advice while maintaining a steady gait.
“If I go into the fire alone, I can do it if I am determined. However, it is a different story if I have to persuade people who are not my comrades and who do not know anything to jump into the fire with me. If there is someone who does that without any hesitation and without any concern, then he is a tyrant.”
We know the truth
The power of the Demon King is extraordinary. Rather, it is because even the master-level talents could not handle it, that they were unable to fully exert their power. And that this may have led to a future where a terrible tragedy would have been difficult to handle without a hero.
But we must not let it be known. We must be the ones who have blocked the powerful enemy as planned. We must be the ones that even the Demon King cannot easily penetrate.
We need to make people believe that right now.
“Planning, executing, and leading people to reach a goal despite being uncertain is, of course, not an easy task and requires a lot of thought. If you can do that and succeed, you will become a king or an emperor.”
As he spoke with a more serious face than ever, he looked absentmindedly at Esmue, who confidently raised his thumb and pointed at himself, and almost burst out laughing.
“Thank you. Thanks to you, I can understand the situation and feel less tense.”
“Of course, that’s how it should be.”
“···I can give good advice too·”
As we were talking, Lagnis, who had been quiet, pouted and expressed his displeasure, and Esmue burst out laughing and said,
“I told you earlier, Eldmia just didn’t understand it properly.”
“Ragnis? When?”
“Didn’t I just tell you to remember what you saw and pretend to do it?”
“···It seems that Ragnis has too much confidence in his own advisory abilities.
I had to get an unreasonable slap on the shoulder just because I said out loud what I should have just thought, but thanks to that, the tension that had been tickling my fingertips definitely disappeared.
Soon after, the two men took the signal to join the escorts who had been waiting in advance and began to look straight ahead with the appearance of a leader who showed no trace of playfulness. Then, with each step they took, the commotion grew louder and soon, when they could see the crowd of people gathered in the distance through the wide-open inner gate, the commotion turned into cheers.
When I came out of my introverted state like that, I was speechless when I realized that, if nothing else, what Ragnis said about Levien’s population exploding was the truth, without a single exaggeration.