Chapter 1

Chapter 1

After settling the debts of my ruined family, I set up an office in the Imperial Capital.

From soldier to fixer, washed my hands of it and became a detective.

By the time I had more than a decade under my belt and no longer needed to pay rent, I had in fact half-retired from the work.

Because over a dozen employees handled most of the jobs in my stead.

However, there were occasionally unwelcome guests who specifically sought me out to dump troublesome tasks on me.

Jobs that took a long time and seemed more taxing on the body than the mind.

There was no need for me to step up for those.

“Guest, is the boss stronger than the bodyguards?”

“No?”

“Yes, there are employees stronger than me. Please leave this job to them.”

“No. Please handle it yourself, boss.”

Even if I went downstairs and told them to file it with the investigators, it was useless.

In the first place, why had the guest come all the way up to my room?

It was because of the titles attached after the guest’s name—count, marquis, that lady, that madam, and so on.

They acted as if those were some sort of master key and wouldn’t listen to me at all.

After somehow persuading and soothing them into leaving, the thought would suddenly pop up: should I just retire and renovate this building I love into a comfortable mansion?

‘Should I retire?’

Around the time that feeling was solidifying, I received yet another visit from a big shot.

“Director, someone from the Holy See is here. Says he’s the Holy Knight Commander.”

“Bring him in.”

Surprisingly, it was a familiar face.

Back in my fixer days, we’d worked one job together and succeeded, but he’d run off without paying the commission.

“Well well, an unbelievable person has come. Theodore, you’ve become the Holy Knight Commander?”

The golden beard covering the Holy Knight Commander’s mouth opened wide, revealing his healthy teeth.

“Unbelievable? Where is there a person of faith like me?”

“What, have you come to at least return the money you stiffed me back then?”

“Stiffed? That’s a dangerous thing to say. Didn’t I clearly tell you when we parted? Your evil deeds were too deep, so I said I’d perform a sacrament to wipe them clean.”

“I clearly refused. Who wanted that back then? I wanted to set up this office as soon as possible.”

“Fast or slow, as long as you set it up, what’s the difference. More importantly, be grateful to this body. It’s a sacrament of the Holy See, no less. I asked them to pray that you could wash your hands clean and succeed in the light.”

He raised both arms and grinned.

“Looking at it, it seems to have gone according to the prayer?”

“So who wanted that—”

“The previous Pope, His Holiness Spandal, officiated it. Now you couldn’t receive it even if you wanted to. You can boast about it anywhere.”

I was at a loss for words.

Did that mean that, without my knowledge, the Pope who officiated the sacrament in the Holy See’s main cathedral had been reciting something like ‘Let us pray for Ronan Gradias...’?

“I asked my maternal uncle to do it. I rather liked you. Thinking about it now, I feel a bit hurt? If it was money, I actually spent more. Do you think I did it because I was short on money?”

“If you had given that money to me, you would probably have become my benefactor.”

“Haha, benefactor? A colleague is enough. The memory of us cursing each other while beating up the bandits is still vivid.”

Back then, he said he only needed me as a guide, so I went, but I almost died eight times.

The bandit group was so large it felt like a trap, and after somehow breaking through, some giant was guarding a Holy See relic.

They weren’t the type who just went around robbing merchants.

So I had cursed the holy knight while pretending to curse the bandits so he could hear, and strangely that remained as a good memory.

“...Why has the Holy Knight Commander come here? Most matters should be resolved within the Holy See.”

“We need people to search for the demon race and black mages to prevent the Demon King’s descent.”

“What? The Demon King?”

“You heard right.”

“That Demon King from a story over several thousand years old?”

“That Demon King.”

If someone suddenly shows up and spouts ridiculous talk, it’s best to avoid them since it’s dangerous anyway.

Moreover, isn’t he an untrustworthy person who already scammed me once?

“I’m sorry, but I’m trying to retire from the front lines...”

“The Demon King has already completed his resurrection.”

He took out a thick document from the briefcase he brought and held it out.

“And he’s currently piercing through the walls of the world for the descent. The demons have already crossed over in large numbers through small gaps and are operating in secret. Haven’t strange incidents and accidents increased everywhere recently?”

“They have.”

Incidents where you can’t even estimate what happened at a glance. Requests that make you think ‘this will definitely be tough if I take it’ have increased a lot.

“It’s because of the black mages and the demons they serve. If we leave them be, in about five years the Demon King will tear through the void right in front of that city gate and walk out.”

I looked down at the stack of papers on the desk.

It felt like if I read it, I’d get bitten hard.

“I’ll read it first.”

“Do that.”

I checked it slowly.

Whether it wasn’t something made up, whether it wasn’t just rumors or ghost stories with flesh added on.

The opening was like a fable, but the information on the paper was serious and realistic, and rather a bit cruel.

“In the underground of the land where the demons stay, there was invariably a tomb like that.”

There was a tomb piled with countless corpses, and inside it a black wooden pot was placed.

“This is a tree I’ve never seen.”

“A Magic Tree pot. It’s said to be a branch of the Demon Realm World Tree, the Great Tree of the Demon Realm. It sucks in magic power and souls and emits demonic energy.”

Souls. Did they kill all those people to obtain that?

“Turn the page.”

It was a photo of a dissected black mage.

Inside the rubber-tube-like flesh lump, there was only one pitch-black sphere resembling a heart.

Sticky black blood was forming in the gaps between the flesh.

The inside was already closer to a demon than a human.

“Internal organs mutated like a demon. Behavioral patterns that seem to have lost humanity. The Holy See has classified black mages as demons. Humans who became demons. They call them demon-humans.”

“Are all demons monstrous in appearance?”

“Hmm?”

“If there are demons that look human, how are they different from demon-humans? It would be hard to distinguish.”

“You’re talking about Demon Realm nobles. They each have at least one characteristic like horns or tails, or unusually developed hands or eyes. They might be hard to distinguish if they cover themselves with something or hide with magic, but when it comes to fighting and they reveal their true form, you can recognize them at a glance.”

I examined the next material. In the underground of a wrecked cave or building, there was a magic circle that was unfinished and covered in blood.

It was a quite complex and heterogeneous form.

“It certainly doesn’t seem like a mana-based formula.”

“Right. It’s not human. Then check the result.”

I examined the next material.

In the clearly taken photo, there was an oval shadow floating in the void.

“That’s the rift we have to stop.”

I flipped through several photos of large and small rifts.

And I paused when I saw the photo of a massive rift that seemed about to swallow the surrounding cliffs.

In the void in front of it, a human with black wings was floating.

The distance was too far to see the facial features, but this seemed to be the Demon Realm noble mentioned earlier.

“The size of the rifts they’re opening is gradually increasing. When the formula is completed, they’ll be able to open a Great Rift that even the Demon King’s huge body can squeeze through.”

After confirming all the materials, I threw them onto the desk.

It was a request that seemed hard on both mind and body, but after seeing something like this, even if I retired, there was no way I could rest comfortably.

“What do I need to do?”

“Find the demons and black mages moving in various places.”

Theodore placed the bag on the desk.

“And this is the advance payment.”

“The bag is a bit big?”

When I peeked inside, it was all money.

“Is the world really trying to end...”

Is this because if it ends anyway, it’s just paper scraps?

“Satisfied? If you need more, say so.”

Theodore grinned, then stood up and offered a handshake.

“I’m counting on you.”

I’d taken on many missions where failure meant death, but this was the first where failure meant everyone dies.

So I put a bit more effort into it, but...

Well, unfortunately the request failed.

It was beyond our capacity.

Apparently.

***

Having received the news that the Demon King would soon descend, I was standing at the top of the clock tower in the Imperial Capital.

This was a place I mainly came to when organizing my thoughts or when there was someone I needed to find.

Looking down at the city like this and worrying about where they might be hiding, the culprit’s location would suddenly come to mind... it never did, but I would still pick out a few clues and go down in a good mood.

Today I probably wouldn’t be able to go down in a good mood.

Because I came up not to find something, but to confirm the Demon King’s descent.

13 years and half a year had passed since I considered retiring.

We succeeded in delaying the descent for a few more years, but ultimately failed to stop it.

The biggest reason for the failure was that we found out too late.

We gave the enemy enough time.

The night wind was strong.

With my hands stuck in my coat pockets, I looked up at the large red moon next to the white full moon.

Watching that warm light, a sense of peace comes and drowsiness gradually finds me.

An artificial moon if ever there was one, that feels like someone’s heart caring for those who can’t sleep at night.

It makes you click your tongue. Where is the living god who can float something like that, and what is he doing that he doesn’t return even as the world becomes like this.

One who was born human and by his own power became the emperor of all humanity.

One who, through repeated training, ultimately became a god as a human.

If not for the numerous historical records, if not for that red moon still radiating its presence, I would never have been able to believe the story of the First Emperor.

He sat on the imperial throne for ten thousand years and ruled, created and floated the red moon, and one day climbed the stairs connected to the sky and disappeared, they say.

“He’s not coming until the end.”

There is a legend about the red moon.

There was the empire’s greatest clown who had acted out countless heroic tales.

He became terminally ill but wanted to live so badly.

Thus he went before the Emperor and said.

[I heard the moving story that you grant authority to heroes.

However, how many hidden heroes there must be in the world who never saw the light.

Please allow this foolish me to sing forever for the hidden heroes.]

The Emperor said it was interesting, and answered that he would grant your wish.

That day, a red moon carrying the Emperor’s authority rose in the sky.

The story is that the clown who begged the Emperor for eternal life became the red moon, and searches for the world’s heroes to bestow blessings upon them.

I don’t know if that legend is real or just a tale, but if it’s real, the clown must be going crazy by now.

I heard that until several thousand years ago, the red moon bestowed appropriate blessings on heroes who overcame trials and accomplished feats.

At some point, through bizarre acts that could hardly be called trials, even non-heroes received blessings and were causing all sorts of incidents and accidents.

Among them, a few bastards were hired by the black mages and helped them.

Troublesome guys who, even if told the world was ending, shouted ‘so what, just do well yourselves.’

The broken moon’s share in the Demon King’s descent is probably not small either.

“He’s here.”

Beyond the capital’s city walls, a black dot in the void writhed and grew in size.

The rift taller than the walls was like a spire made of shadow.

Some people on the ground who felt the anomaly pointed at the rift with their fingers and murmured.

Soon, a huge hand came out from inside the rift.

A giant head, body, legs came out.

A sharp scream rose and then cut off abruptly.

I tried to look around sensing the anomaly, but it was impossible.

My body stiffened, and my voice wouldn’t come out.

Those who were screaming were probably the same.

The Demon King destroyed the city walls of the now-quiet city and walked in.

Every time the Demon King took a step toward the imperial palace, everything his body touched crumbled and scattered.

Seeing the Gradias Detective Office that I had built over my lifetime collapse like a sandcastle, even though it was expected, I couldn’t help but curse.

That dog-like bastard Demon King. How did I even build that building.

But not everyone was stopped.

From the capital’s imperial castle, from beyond the walls, from the towers, from the great cathedral, those who appeared charged toward the Demon King.

They were magic practitioners.

Those born human, harboring magic power, and training toward godhood.

Those following in the First Emperor’s footsteps.

As they approached, black fog flowed out around the Demon King.

The foremost magic practitioner exploded in all directions at the Demon King’s gesture.

The magic practitioners who charged in after were swept up by the black fog surging like a tidal wave.

The fog didn’t stop there and passed through the city streets, the library, and reached the clock tower—

Freezing cold darkness covered my body.

***

The silence was but a moment.

As my body warmed, the sound of birds chirping, people’s footsteps, and cicadas crying began to be heard all at once.

“...Viscount?”

Someone’s voice was heard.

Opening my eyes quietly, it was in front of an open carriage.

My body, as if frozen while trying to board the carriage, stopped.

Turning my gaze, the coachman was looking at me with a worried face.

“Viscount? If we don’t depart now, we’ll be late.”

After raising one hand to stop the coachman, I pressed my throbbing head.

Cool air and a clear sky.

Behind me, the mansion I lived in as a child.

Unable to believe it, I checked the carriage window, and my childhood face was faintly reflected.

Why? How did this happen?

Why, when was this blessing bestowed on me?

It was the first time I’d received a blessing, and there was no omen.

However, in my warm head, a stranger’s voice was left behind.

The eye that looks down on the world, raised by the Almighty Emperor.

The red moon that honors heroes declares.

You have regressed.

© Rovin#1p34l