Chapter 384: 202. Epilogue – The End and the Beginning
Translated by A Passing Wanderer
Edited by RED
Trudge, trudge…
Ashes were settling on the ground. Every time I took a step, thick dust clung to my shoes.
I scanned my surroundings. As the zombie army, once several hundred thousand strong, disintegrated and dissipated from this world, their ashes danced in the winds and floated up towards the sky. I extended my hand towards them before once again fixing my gaze forward.
In the midst of many soldiers, one being still remained, his body going up in bluish flames even now.
The living soldiers stood around this burning figure while shedding thick drops of cold sweat, their lips clamped shut. They were still deeply tense as they trained their weapons on him.
The sole remaining existence that was burning down and disintegrating away…
The immortal king who hated the Imperial Family, was enraged by it, and so chose to lead the army of vampires to wage war…
Vlandmir was on his knees, burning away in flames.
I walked up to him.
Warm sunlight shone down on us from high up in the heavens as the soldiers spread out left to right, doing their best to sort out the battlefield.
I stared at the Vampire King and tilted my head this way and that. “You are still not dead yet?”
Just in case, I was still gripping my musket.
The Vampire King’s head shuddered, and he looked up at me. His eyes were filled to the brim with murderous intent. “And so, I burn once more, just like back then.”
“…”
“Back when I was still a human, the exact same thing happened to me. My younger sister was violated and killed by you Imperial Family bastards. Then you burned me to death, too.”
“But I wasn’t responsible for any of that, though?”
“Your bloodline, your ancestors did it.”
“…”
I frowned slightly and began breathing into the musket. My divinity reserve was practically empty right now, but I still had enough in the tank to send away a nearly-dead vampire.
“History will soon repeat itself with you bastards.”
I sensed the holy bullet materialising, so I aimed the musket’s muzzle at the burning Vampire King.
“Do you really think peace will come just because we’re all gone?” the Vampire King began cackling away, his body quivering visibly. Then he glared murderously at me and everyone around us, as if he was trying to curse us all. “You are all beasts enslaved by your greed. Truly evil beings lost to your own desires. So, peace for bastards like you? Do not make me laugh.”
The Vampire King fixed his glare on me once more.
“It’s the same story for you, oh Humanity’s King, who is also stained by greed! You might have saved this world, but without a doubt, you will also be tainted by the pursuit of power, its temptation! Without a doubt, you are a bastard who will pillage this world, and eventually, bring utter destruction to this wor…!”
I shoved the muzzle inside the Vampire King’s mouth.
“Sorry about this, but…” I retorted to him while narrowing my eyes. “I’m the type to not give a rat’s ass about stuff like that, you see.”
“…”
For a moment there, the Vampire King’s eyes shook hard. But they regained their composure, clarity even, pretty soon.
{I see,} his final words rang inside my head.
I pulled the trigger; a loud gunshot rang out, and the back of this bastard’s head exploded.
The Vampire King’s body finally burned down completely into ashes, and scattered away in the winds.
The King of all Vampires was now dead. I hoped that with this, the surviving vampires would behave themselves and stay quiet.
I mounted a horse. I gripped the reins as Charlotte propped me up from behind, just in case I collapsed from exhaustion.
We slowly made our way back to the capital city of Laurensis.
When I took a look at the foot of the tall outer walls, I noticed corpses of all sorts of zombies were lying around or clinging to the walls. Even the Jötnar were collapsed on the ground, unmoving.
Meanwhile, Harman, all covered in blood, saluted me. He seemed to have been waiting for my arrival by the outer gates of the city.
Behind him were Luan and Hilda. Despite being an Imperial Prince and an Imperial Princess, their current appearances were a total mess. It seemed that they had to wage some serious castle defence in order to protect the capital.
I even spotted Roy hiding behind Laurence, cautiously staring at me entering the outer gates.
“Allen-!”
The Ariana twins, as well as Seran, were waving their hands at me from above the outer wall. Looking bloodied and battered, the King of Frants, Marcus, and White were standing next to them.
They sure were some resilient folks, weren’t they?
I turned my head and looked into the distance. I could see the massive Imperial Palace waaay over yonder.
That place was now my home. My hometown, if you would.
The place I should go back to.
******
Half a year had passed since the conclusion of the War of the Apocalypse, Ragnarok.
Warm sunlight was coming down in the Imperial Palace’s garden. In this stillness, the chirping of birds could be heard quite vividly.
As for me, I was sitting below a huge tree while kitted out in some over-the-top cumbersome attire. The robe was completely white, while golden embroidery and accessories were draped all over it. A flashy crown was adorning my head, too.
I had to sit on a mock throne while gripping Avaldi’s Spear, my head held up high and lofty.
Meanwhile, Cardinal Raphael was in front of me, busy flicking his paintbrush around. His other hand held a painter’s palette as he expertly splashed various paints on a white paper resting on an easel.
This had been going on for two hours straight. Not being able to move for that long made my muscles itch like crazy.
“…Raphael. I had no idea that you had a talent in painting.” While saying that, I glanced at the spot next to Raphael.
Alice was there, giving me an awkward, cramped smile, as if to say I should endure for a little bit longer.
“Your Majesty, I shall have you know that I was responsible for painting the portraits of your predecessors. Alice will take over that duty in the future, of course.”
“Really? Alice is talented in art, too?” I turned my head to look at her again.
She nodded silently, although she looked a bit bashful about that.
Unlike her, though, Raphael seemed rather displeased by this little interaction and suddenly cocked his eyebrow. “Your Majesty, please don’t move.”
The corners of my lips quivered slightly. “In any case, why my portrait all of a sudden…?”
“I am duty-bound to record the Empire’s history, Your Majesty,” Raphael replied, then suddenly put the paintbrush down. He wiped his sweat away with the back of his hand and continued to speak. “Why don’t we take a short break here, sire?”
He then picked up a pen. He brought out a rather thick book from the table next to him and began jotting something down on its pages.
Raphael Astoria…
He served the throne of the Holy Emperor, and recorded their feats and accomplishments. He was also the Cardinal who commanded countless clerics affiliated with the Church of Caiolium.
In the future, though, Alice would no doubt be asked to take over all of his duties.
She was a diligent, honest kid, that’s for sure; as if she wanted to watch and learn from his example, Alice remained right next to her grandfather’s side and carefully observed everything.
These two people seemed to have their hearts set on serving the Imperial Family, from the ancient past into the distant future.
I took off the cumbersome robe and chucked it to the Paladins nearby. They awkwardly caught the robe while looking somewhat flustered.
I pressed my finger to my lips to signal that they should keep it down, and they indeed clamped their mouths shut for me.
To ensure that Raphael wouldn’t notice, I lightly tapped Alice on her shoulder. She looked at me for a bit, so I gestured for her to go ‘outside’.
She saw my hand sign and glanced back at Raphael before nodding silently.
She was first to vacate the premises, so to speak.
“Ah, by the way. Your Majesty, a report came in from the northern region.” Raphael addressed me while putting his pen down. But he still seemed to be focused on something on the book, since his eyes never left it. “Ronia’s feudal lord, Jenald, says that the report contains the plan to stop the next Tide of Death, sire. That’s why he wishes to receive aid from…”
“Got it. I shall discuss it with my brother Luan and decide on what to do.”
I too left the garden while making sure not to alert Raphael.
“By the way, Your Majesty? The next agenda requiring your attention is…”
His voice continued to rise up behind me, but I ignored it.
After leaving the garden, I began walking through the corridors of the Imperial Palace. Alice had something to take care of first, so I wasn’t able to spot her during my walk.
While striding in the corridor, I took a look outside at the practice grounds brightly illuminated by the sunlight.
“Keep swinging your swords!”
A familiar woman’s voice rose from out there; Charlotte was roaring out like the heroic warrior that she was. Even though there was no discernible expression on her face, she still came across as imposing and manly.
“Swing for the next ten minutes! However, one hour will be added to any dropouts!”
Wow, now that’s harsh…
She never showed such a side to me whenever I was around, though…
Sitting on a chair next to her was Oscal, resting his hands on his sword. There was a content expression on his face as he oversaw his disciple training the troops.
Oscal Baldur the Sword King had already retired. He told me that he’d like to spend the rest of his life watching his disciple Charlotte growing even stronger.
“Uwaaahk, I might die at this rate! My arms, it feels like they might fall off!”
I spotted a few more familiar figures among the trainees.
Gril was wheezing away breathlessly. He must’ve swung around that sword with iron ingots attached to the blade for thousands of times, because he looked clearly pooped out right now.
“Keep swinging, anyway!” Yuria next to him yelled at him.
“…”
As for Adolf, he couldn’t even say anything with how exhausted he was.
That trio had been accepted into the Heavenly Army now. Well, they had already received medals of honour for hunting down countless zombies and even vampires on the battlefield during Ragnarok, after all.
Since all three of them wanted to become Paladins, you could say that they had basically attained their dreams now.
I sneakily sent a telepathic message, [Hey, Charlotte.]
Charlotte flinched a little, then looked up at me by the window. I bobbed my lips a little to mouth some words, then pointed to the end of the corridor.
She cautiously glanced at Oscal to gauge his current mood, although a troubled expression still floated up on her face. She then sent me a reply, [I’ll be right there.]
I grinned deeply before nodding back. My steps took me to my quarters in the Imperial Palace.
However, some people were already waiting for me there.
“Ho-hay! My beloved little brother~!” the stupidly-drunk Luan called out to me. He was even waving around a booze bottle. He tried to hug me, but the stench of booze was too much to handle so I pushed his face away.
Luan was pursuing a life full of vice and earthly pleasures these days. The people around us began calling him a mangnani, but well, I wasn’t so sure about that.
At the bare minimum, I wouldn’t have gotten any work done as the Holy Emperor without Luan’s assistance. He was that good.
I looked around the interior of my room. Since it was a suite meant for the Holy Emperor, it was humongous and luxuriously appointed, with expensive furniture arranged tastefully everywhere.
However, the room currently resembled the location of a drunken party.
Empty booze bottles were rolling around on the floor, while the Ariana twins were snoring away in drunken sleep on my bed. As for Marcus, he seemed to have been knocked unconscious by alcohol, judging from how his forehead was kissing a table’s surface.
“Oh, you’re here, little brother?”
“You’re here, Allen!”
Hilda was sitting in front of a dresser, while Seran was behind her, combing her older sister’s hair.
I took in this sight, and slowly facepalmed myself. “What are you all doing here?”
“What do you mean, what? We’re here to have a party with lots of booze!” Luan replied with a pair of very drunken eyes.
Seran took over from there. “Honestly, though, we’re here to make a trade. Related to our kingdom, of course.”
I nodded at that.
It had already been half a year since Ragnarok had come to an end. The Kingdom of Frants was driven to near destruction, while Aihrance was completely obliterated. Rebuilding those two nations would be a tough task, indeed.
They probably came here to request integration of their kingdom into the Theocratic Empire, so that they could rely on our resources to rebuild. Marcus was probably the royal family’s representative, while Seran and the twins just tagged along for a holiday.
The King of Frants was pretty good at taking care of his duties, so we weren’t worried about him all that much.
“Sorry about this, but I’m kinda occupied at the moment.” As I was replying to her, I began rummaging below my bed for something.
Luan watched me for a bit, then after recalling something, held his forehead. “Oopsie. Today was that day?”
“You were the one who promised me, so how could you forget?”
“That day? What day?” Hilda asked us, while tilting her head.
“Well, yes, here’s the thing.” I finally found a bag stashed below the bed and pulled it out. I took out the monk’s outfit from within and put it on. “I was thinking of going on a vacation for a short while, you see.”
The eyes of both Hilda and Seran nearly popped out of their sockets at that.
I left my room cheerfully. Luan promised me that he would take care of the Theocratic Empire’s business while I was gone. He still owed me a lot, so this would be the same thing as paying off his debt to me.
I walked down the corridor only to flinch in surprise, and had to pull my hood deeply over my head. White was walking towards me from the other way while chatting with some magicians.
He was probably here to get assistance for the rebuilding of his own kingdom.
I kept my head low and walked past White’s group.
He had been giving his everything for the sake of the destroyed Aihrance. Rumours said that he had even collapsed from overwork, too. For a mangnani father, I figured that that wasn’t so bad.
It just showed how much the country left to him by Queen Rox meant to him.
Although he still seemed to be in a bit of an awkward space when talking to Luan, maybe their relationship might get more… natural through this opportunity.
I finally stepped outside the Imperial Palace and walked along the capital’s streets.
Passersby saw my monk’s attire and stopped their journeys just so that they could offer a prayer in my direction. I reciprocated their gesture with a light greeting and drew the holy sign in the air for them.
The city’s avenues were overflowing with vitality.
Even though a horrifying war had taken place only half a year ago, everyone looked just too bright and happy. Maybe they were all putting on an act to forget the painful memories of that day.
That’s how many trials and tribulations this nation had to go through, but it still emerged victorious against them in the end. From there, it would surely develop even further.
I noticed someone familiar in the street just then. Ruppel, hiding his face under a hood, was buying a lily from a nearby flower shop.
He… probably came here to visit his mother’s grave near the capital, and to take care of it.
“Thank you. Please come again!”
And then I saw Roy working in the flower shop.
I came to a halt at that sight, and urgently alternated my gaze between Ruppel and Roy.
Holy cow! I did hear that Roy’s family had opened up a flower shop in the capital, but what were the odds of Ruppel stopping by at that very shop?
What an unexpected reunion of the brothers this was. However, the situation remained a bit weird, since they didn’t recognise each other.
Ruppel smiled gently, nodded a little and went on his way. Roy stood there in a slight daze and stared at the back of his younger brother. Laurence showed up just then, and patted his son’s head.
Roy smiled back with a happy grin.
Seeing those interactions automatically perked my mood up.
Who cares whether they didn’t recognise each other or what? As long as they were happy in their new lives, all was fine. I had no thoughts of butting in on their new lives, anyways.
Still…
“Can you get me a flower?”
…It should be fine to ask for a bit of help from the shop. What I meant by that was buying a flower, obviously.
Roy looked rather flustered, but I brushed that aside without a care.
“Thank you!”
Although I should’ve bought only one, uh, I ended up buying a lot, all thanks to me feeling rather good at the moment.
What should I do with them now?
I continued to walk down the street and spotted the Paladins going on patrol around the city. Harman and Tina the Dark Elf were leading them on their patrols.
Still the Guardian of the World Tree, Tina, had been enlisted in the Empire’s army. She was ordered to guard the Imperial Capital.
She was diligently carrying out her task even now, it seemed. She was chatting to Harman as they walked the streets.
It looked to me like they were also doing well. I was basically imprisoned in the Imperial Palace for the past half year to do paperwork, so there was little to no chance to find out how well all of my acquaintances were doing.
I smiled softly and brushed past Tina. While doing that, I also sneakily placed a flower on her ear.
She froze up, and looked at me. I turned my head slightly and held her gaze, before grinning brightly at her.
“What’s wrong?”
I could hear Harman asking her something, so I walked away. If Mister Inflexible, by-the-book Harman discovered me, no doubt I’d be sent back on my way to the Imperial Palace.
“E-eh? No, well, that’s because, His Ma…”
[Shh-!]
Tina flinched and stiffened up when my telepathic message reached her. She was a little flustered, but still shook her head. “N-no, it’s nothing important.”
My steps remained light. I was now free from the warfare, endless battles, and even the oppressive atmosphere of the Imperial Palace.
Honestly speaking, some vampires still remained in the continent. The stories I’d heard said that they were still secretly congregating and cooking up more nefarious schemes even now.
However, they shouldn’t be too big of a problem. There was no individual like the Vampire King to bring them together and unite them under one banner, after all.
Before long, I had stepped past the outer gates of the capital. What greeted me was a wide-open field. I spotted a certain parked carriage there.
Charlotte had arrived before me, and was standing by next to it. Alice was already inside the vehicle and waving her hand at me, while Hans was inspecting the wheels for their sturdiness.
I grinned and walked up to them. Charlotte climbed aboard, then extended her hand to me.
I also climbed inside, and didn’t forget to hand over a flower to Charlotte. She made a puzzled face. “What’s this flower for, sire?”
“A present.”
“Pardon?”
For the first time in a while, Charlotte’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. She stared at that flower for a long time.
Hans settled down on the carriage driver’s seat and shook the reins around a bit. “You know, sire, I had a ton of stuff I wanted to research, but this…”
He made his dissatisfaction known. He was still obsessed with interdimensional warp magic. His goal was to open that gateway someday.
He hadn’t changed, in other words.
The horses got going. I looked back at the sight of the Theocratic Empire’s capital gradually getting further away from us and let out a hearty chuckle. “Ahaha! Man, we really went and did it, didn’t we!?”
Charlotte made a wry face. “My teacher and Cardinal Raphael will no doubt fly into a rage, sire.”
Even then, she still held the flower closer to her.
“Well, it’ll be fine. It’s a vacation after a long, long while, after all!”
While feeling quite pleased about myself, I took out a certain piece of paper tucked away safely within my item window all these years.
The time had come to put my plan into practice.
Alice next to me asked a question. “What’s that, sire?”
“Oh, this?”
I grinned and stared at the words on top of the paper. Words written in Korean, no less.
[Golden Loaded Bum Plan].
I had compiled this ‘list of actions’ a long time ago. Although it all sounded rather grandiose, it was actually nothing more than a travel guide of sorts.
It was a guidebook for all those places I wanted to stop by in this world. A guide that would take me to the unknown world that I still hadn’t seen properly yet.
“It’s the names of the kingdoms I’d like to pay a visit to.”
I was running away from home. No, hang on; this was a vacation, wasn’t it? Right, and since it was going to be a very short one, I might as well…
“…Travel around the world, then!”
It was now time to go on an adventure somewhere in the world that I hadn’t been to yet.
< 202. Epilogue – The End and the Beginning > Fin.
(TL: Thank you everyone for sticking with us during this journey. It has been an honour to translate this novel for Shadow-kun, not to mention I had fun in the process, as well.. Although this journey has come to an end, a new one will soon begin. Until then, goodbye!)
