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Chapter 208 - [12th Round] Hero: Homecoming

“The name of the state alone isn’t the end of it.”

I introduced a decree stating that all inhabitants except the Emperor and Master Mollan were equal before the law and entrusted the rest to Prince Nasus, Saintess A, and the former queen.

Anyone could handle that.

I still had to find a Guardian for the state and use it as the basis of our national flag and anthem.

“If you’re looking for a Guardian, I’m perfect!” The First Spirit proclaimed.

“You wouldn’t defend the empire, would you?”

“Of course not. I am a spirit, and I only fight for my kind. And I have no desire to leave the Drug Hero’s head.”

“That’s not something you should be proud of. I suspected from the very beginning that you would say that, but if someone like you is appointed as a Guardian, then the state will definitely fall into ruin.”

It was customary to make a dragon the guardian of a country.

There was no particular reason. They were simply the object of awe and fear, hailed as the strongest race in the lands of Fantasy. Dragons used to actually protect countries, but there were no such dragons left.

Unfortunately, they had all been slain.

“I know that too. The old dragon killed them all.” The First Spirit said, pretending to know what happened.

“You’re right. In his best years, Noebius killed them all. The dragons knew they would lose, but because of their promise to protect the lands, they confronted him anyway, ultimately leading to their demise. After that, the dragons no longer made a pact to protect humans.”

But I was different.

The citizens of the empire thought that I would become not only their emperor but also their protector. However, I wasn’t going to become a guardian that could be blamed the moment anything happened.

After all, my reputation was important to me.

From the vault, I retrieved the blueprint for Golem D.

I had studied magical engineering on the Western Continent, but I still had no talent for it.

I just couldn’t understand how it defied the laws of physics and nature.

If I fed an ugly man the Magical Ingredient A and performed the Magical Procedure C at the Magical Place B, he would become handsome!

That was the kind of nonsense it was.

“We’re going to create the Guardian Golem.”

“Your Majesty! The state treasury is empty,” Treasurer A told me.

Huge sums of money were spent every day. All the documents had to be rewritten because of the change in the country’s name, and paper and labor cost a lot of money.

Stupid residents didn’t think about such hardships.

They just thought that only the name had changed.

“Don’t worry. I’ll take up the coffers of all three countries and create a golem. We’ll recover from our expenses through war, which should be easy enough to do.”

“War…?”

We needed money if we wanted to wage wars as well, but only if we were going to hire and mobilize a huge army of soldiers.

If Soldier A could deal with just one person in exchange for one piece of bread, then Hero B could deal with an army of 5,000 people for the same price.

Hero B would only need a maid and a porter to help him.

But there was no need to explain all that in such detail.

I was the emperor. I had absolute power.

“I just want to create someone like Captain Fantasy…”

But it’s hard to create such a masterpiece in a short period, so I had to give up the idea.

It required a lot of valuable materials to create him, and the transformation technique was too complicated for ordinary engineers to execute. A sage from the Northern Continent or someone of equal prowess was needed to create him.

I could try to create Golem D instead.

There were a lot of unnecessary little details like chest structure, its sway, and its firmness factor, but it was still a much easier choice.

Not to mention…

“Father, I can help,” Green Cake confidently offered after reviewing the blueprints.

“You?”

Saintess H, stroking his head, replied instead of Green Cake.

“You have nothing to worry about, master. I’ve been helping him learn magic. Dragons are normally predisposed to it from birth. Hence, they don’t study it voluntarily, at least not until they become aware of it themselves at some point. However, Green Cake already studied and learned it before that could happen.”

“Is that so?”

I allowed him to cooperate in its creation. With the support of the best mages in the Central Continent, he should be able to handle it.

I prepared and stabilized the country as I created Golem D.

A year had passed since I started that project.

My experience in the Fantasy World was now closing in on 61 years.

? Race: Archigolem

? Level: 950

? Job: Shaman (Beauty → Physical Strength ↑)

? Skills: Physical Strength SS, Magic S, Unbreakable Body S, Slaughter S, Charm S…

? Status: Disconnected, Standby

Golem D turned out to be pretty good. Naturally, I had to empty the treasuries of the Three Kingdoms to create it.

All that was left to do was to put a soul into its socket.

This was a very important moment. After all, depending on the soul inserted, skills could be added or changed.

The best option was the Holy Sword C. If I imbued the Hero’s soul enclosed in it to my creation, I would achieve the most effective result.

BAM!

I put the Holy Sword C, which I had already mined on the Northern Continent, in the socket hidden between the legs of Golem D.

The Holy Sword C was easy to get.

With the wings of the righteous hero, I quickly made my way to the pond, remembering it from the terrible 6th round when Lanuvel pretended to be my little sister.

Fortunately, the place hadn’t changed, so reaching it was easy.

As a bonus, I got a mermaid who clung to the sword, screaming that she had to see if I was worthy. She now lived in the pond of the royal garden.

And…

Plok!

I trained her to sing every time I threw a stone into the water.

She tried to escape several times by turning her tail into legs, but she couldn’t even get out of the garden and was caught every time because of the hernia in her back.

Lately, she no longer resisted and just sang faithfully.

“Cruelly mocking the beautiful mermaid… Are you really my junior colleague?”

Those were Golem D’s first words after I imbued the Holy Sword C into it.

“I’m not your junior colleague. I’m your master, tin can. Unless you want to turn into a bogeyman that even orcs will turn away from, keep your mouth shut.”

“Why should I?!

The Hero’s soul seeped into it, causing a change in its stats, but that didn’t make it powerful enough to be worthy of being the Guardian of the Holy Mollan Empire.

So I infused Divinity into it and made some skill changes.

? Race: Great Golem

? Level: 999+

? Job: Sword God (Swordsmanship → Divinity ↑)

? Skills: Divinity MAX, Magic Power SSS, Magic SS, Annihilation SS, Vitality SS…

? Status: Modification

This was a weapon of mass destruction.

Magic, Magic Power, Annihilation!

I put in three major skills that could turn the flow of wars in our favor.

The soul imprisoned in Holy Sword C was a master swordsman capable of using any sword in the world. The golem adopted his skills, as reflected in its job.

Virtually indestructible and having mastered swordsmanship, it would be impossible to defeat in close combat.

In addition, there was also the “Vitality” skill.

The Golem had gained the characteristic of a living creature, deprived of the chronic weakness of mechanical combatants.

“Well, let’s test it.”

Of course, it would naturally need to undergo testing after its creation.

The Holy Empire wasn’t happy about the birth of a new empire, so there had been skirmishes over some areas since last year.

No big battles or casualties had occurred, though. That was why I didn’t intervene.

Interfering in petty squabbles would be bad for my image. If the emperor got himself involved, it might be seen as the entire country having no finances and no military power.

But that was no longer necessary.

After all, the “Guardian of the Empire” now existed and would fight in the emperor’s name.

“Junior- no, master. You mean I’m to kill humans, not demons?”

“Tell me if you don’t want to do it so I can insert a different soul in your socket. But then you’ll be useless, and I’ll just get rid of you. Can’t you make that kind of sacrifice for the people? You’re a former Hero, aren’t you?”

“Ho-ho! I didn’t say I wouldn’t do it. It was just a question, master.”

Hence, the skirmishes against the Holy Empire on the frontier ended with our victory without having to result in sacrifices. No, honestly, it was simply a massacre.

As soon as Golem D’s spell hit the center of the enemy army, everyone was wiped out. I didn’t keep a body count, so I didn’t know how many savages were killed.

There was an immediate protest from the Holy Empire.

“I don’t understand this at all, Drug Hero. They started it, so why are they angry?”

“Human politics.”

They committed grave sins, but they were still convinced they were doing what was right.

I wanted to declare war on the Holy Empire and reach their capital with Golem D.

But the problem was Master Mollan.

In order not to disturb him, we had to use peaceful colonization methods.

“Hearing you speak of peace is strange, Hero.”

“You’ll soon see it for yourself, Drug Spirit.”

I was a 61-year-old hero. I couldn’t claim to know everything about the world of Fantasy, but I still did have a broad understanding of it.

After all, this was my 12th round already.

I thought it was worth taking a more noble route this time.

There were still three years left before the official summoning of the Hero.

Perfect timing.

In the Holy Empire, it had already been so long since the Emperor became bed-ridden due to an illness. That made the officials discuss who would succeed the throne.

The potential heir at this time was the first prince. The Imperial Princess was still too young, so she hadn’t yet been able to prove herself.

“Drug Hero, are you going to kill the emperor?”

“Huh? What do you mean? Righteous heroes do not use such wretched methods.”

“What will you do, then?”

“I will fight them fair and square with Mollan’s help.”

I would show the savages the greatness of Master Mollan!

Knock! Knock!

At that moment, someone knocked on my office.

I often ignored the presences outside of my room because they were often just the maid doing their frequent cleaning of the corridors, but I soon realized who was coming.

It was Mage A.

“Your Majesty! There’s something you should know.”

“Don’t come in, but speak from there.”

On the bed was a weary naked Boris sleeping, and on the lap of the Holy Mollan Emperor sat Saintess H, writing down my words on paper.

Such a sight shouldn’t be shown to outsiders.

“As you wish, Your Majesty. The Five Heroes who had gone to the Western Continent and the recently summoned seventh Hero had arrived.

Quickly figuring out what this was all about, Saintess H stood up and quickly smoothed out the creases that had formed in her clothes.

I issued one command.

“Tell them to assemble in the throne room.”

***

Five heroes, two of them males and the rest females, set out for the Western Continent, along with the ever-pretending Pretty Lanuvel and the future Sword King Alex.

They lost to the Phantom King Shakespeare and returned to their starting point, the Central Continent.

There was no resurrection after death here.

We could die and be resurrected as much as we wanted during the entrance exams as if we were living in a virtual reality game. However, that convenient system was nonexistent in the secondary education course.

If we died, that was the end of it!

We would become a repeater and would need to repeat the course from scratch along with the juniors.

“Attention! Behold, His Majesty the Emperor!”

The Dumpling Kingdom, the Holy Kingdom, the Elf Kingdom.

The representatives of the three states, elves, priestesses, and aristocrats, rose from their seats.

A loud ceremony, complete with an orchestra, celebrated my entrance.

That wasn’t new to me.

As soon as I was born, I immediately destroyed the knightly order, and by the time I was two years old, I was already a powerful emperor of the Northern Continent, so I was used to this picture.

Sitting on the throne, which was at the very end of the great hall, and looking down on my subjects and Heroes, I spoke.

“Glory to Master Mollan.”

That, too, was politics.

A foundation to prove to him that we weren’t the enemy as a precaution against situations that could put us at a disadvantage.

The subjects immediately responded.

“Glory!”

“Glory!”

“Glory!”

“Uhhh…”

All but the heroes, who didn’t know the noble greeting of the Holy Empire of Mollan, shouted “Glory!” and sat back in their seats.

Surprised by such a cohesive atmosphere, the heroes froze like lambs encountering an unknown world.

With the smile of a Righteous Hero, I removed the rigor from their faces.

But their faces turned pale instead.

“Do not fear, Female Hero. I don’t bite, so don’t cry. The Emperor isn’t scary. As proof of that, I’ll even let you esteemed heroes be the first to ask a question. If you have something to say to me, go ahead.”