Chapter 51. A Good Reason

“What nonsense are you talking about?”

Jesuf’s eyebrows twisted strangely as he listened. A light of wariness flickered in his eyes.

“How can you take back someone you’ve dispatched and keep them close?”

“Who’s keeping who close?”

Johann reacted as if he had heard something absurd. Of course, he knew inside. This was merely a shallow evasion.

But if he truly wanted to keep her close, he must never reveal his true feelings.

I can’t bear to see Seraphina suffer, I can’t stand to see her get close to Mihail. If he voiced such personal reasons, his right and left arms, who were already glaring at him with piercing eyes, would surely send Seraphina far away.

The emperor’s right-hand man, Jesuf, spoke in an incredulous tone.

“I know Your Majesty particularly cherishes Seraphina, but still, bringing her back to the Imperial Palace…”

“There must be a good reason for it, right?”

“And what would that be?”

When Johann replied nonchalantly, Ionia, his left-hand, interrogated him as if she had been waiting for this moment.

Johann spoke in a deliberately serious tone.

“I told her to use a summons if anything happened…”

“Is that why you disappeared?”

Ionia, who now understood the reason for the emperor’s disappearance, furrowed her brow and cut off his words. Johann nodded.

“Mihail was working her too hard. It just won’t do.”

It wasn’t a complete lie.

When Mihail pushed Seraphina into the middle of the durahan legion, he really thought his blood would freeze. Even now, thinking about that moment made him feel like his eyes would roll back in his head.

“We sent them a purifier, and the Holy Knight Order didn’t lift a finger.”

“Is that really true?”

To Ionia’s somewhat surprised question, Johann nodded firmly.

“I, Marseus confirmed it with my own eyes. Seraphina purified all those undead by herself. We didn’t dispatch her for their convenience.”

“How could this be…”

“We can’t let the Holy Knight Order become lazy, can we?”

Johann spoke as if driving in a wedge. Timing was crucial for everything. Now that Ionia seemed to be halfway convinced, he had to press on.

“We can’t lose a purifier who appeared after so long. The east is fine with just Mihail, so we’ll have to cancel her dispatch to Sahar.”

“Then are you sending her to the north?”

At that moment, Jesuf asked sharply.

This was the problem.

If he had his way, he didn’t want to send her to Claude either. But due to previous discussions, he couldn’t withdraw her without a proper justification.

And Johann couldn’t create that justification.

“There, only occasionally.”

“Pardon?”

As if he had heard something ridiculous, Jesuf questioned.

“Why occasionally when you could station her there permanently?”

“She won’t be active that often anyway.”

“She won’t?”

It sounded even more absurd. Jesuf scratched the back of his head, wondering if he had misunderstood something.

“Wasn’t she supposed to be active whenever undead appeared in the Grodes Mountains?”

Of course, that’s correct.

But didn’t she faint there?

Johann couldn’t station Seraphina in the north permanently, if only out of concern.

“We’ll dispatch her only when the situation is serious. Initially, we were just testing to see if her purification ability affected the frequency of undead appearances there.”

“Oh… Was that it?”

“Yes.”

Watching Jesuf scratch his head, Johann spoke emphatically.

“The more I think about it, letting those so-called heroes whine doesn’t seem like a wise choice.”

As he said this, he nodded as if mulling over his own words.

“Yes, indeed.”

“……”

Jesuf stared blankly at the emperor.

Something felt off.

It felt off, but it also seemed to make sense.

Tilting his head, Jesuf asked with a faint doubt.

“Then will Seraphina stay in the Imperial Palace usually? Won’t she become lazy if she has nothing to do when she’s here?”

Let’s dispatch her somewhere, anywhere.

That was the implied meaning.

Of course, Johann couldn’t have missed that.

“There will be proper work for her at the Imperial Palace too.”

“If you mean special training, she’s already graduated. I’m busy.”

As Jesuf preemptively struck, worried about the increased workload, Johann smiled as if to say that wasn’t it.

In fact, he did intend to give her special training, but…

This sharp-witted bastard.

He was momentarily flustered, but if he wavered at this, he wouldn’t be the emperor.

Johann calmly opened his mouth.

“She’s had training, so now she should protect the imperial family.”

“…Are you saying the undead will appear in Elmon?”

What is there to protect here?

That’s what he meant.

However, at the same time, a faint anxiety tinged Jesuf’s voice.

Over a decade ago.

The Imperial Palace had once been reduced to ruins. The late emperor and empress lost their lives, crushed under the debris of collapsed buildings. During the process of retrieving numerous bodies for funerals, there was another undead attack.

Elmon wasn’t safe.

Not even just over 10 years ago.

Only when Johann returned, moving freely with the momentum to annihilate all the undead across the continent, could Elmon regain its peace. He mobilized priests to drag out all the undead from underground and killed them without exception.

Afterwards, the priests poured holy power to bless the tear-soaked land, and Johann, as if saying he would use everything at his disposal, later called in mages to create a large barrier.

Jesuf asked Ionia.

“The barrier is fine, right?”

“Maintenance is being carried out thoroughly.”

“When was the last time you checked?”

“This morning.”

She shot a look at Jesuf as if to say, ‘Do I really need to report such details to you too?’ He muttered, “I can ask if I’m curious,” but quickly closed his mouth after noticing Ionia’s expression.

Ionia adjusted her glasses and turned her head. Her sharp gaze focused on Johann.

“I don’t mind Miss Seraphina coming. But it’s a waste to have a purifier in a place without the threat of the undead.”

“Are you sure?”

At Johann’s question, Ionia’s brow furrowed. As if asking, ‘About what?’

Her doubt was resolved by Johann’s following words.

“There’s no such thing as a perfect barrier. There’s no better resource for protecting the imperial family than a purifier.”

“In other words…”

“We should keep at least one Seraphina here in case of emergencies.”

“……”

Ionia stared at him silently. Then she let out an audible sigh, ‘Hooh.’

Beside her, Jesuf, who had been busy rolling his eyes trying to grasp the situation, gained confidence in his doubts as he watched her shaking her head.

No matter how he looked at it, it seemed strange. While it’s true that there’s no better resource than a purifier for dealing with undead, still, the Imperial Palace has the Imperial Knight Order…

Even he, an enchanter, is here…

Moreover, the emperor himself is an enchanter…

“Your Majesty, did you perhaps suffer from heatstroke in the desert?”

How else could you worry about Elmon’s barrier breaking?

But contrary to his concern, Johann answered coolly.

“My mind is clearer than ever.”

Now he won’t have to suffer seeing illusions of Seraphina anymore.

Because he’ll keep her close and prevent her from going anywhere.

Johann secretly smiled a winner’s smile. It was only later that he realized bringing Seraphina back would be more complicated than he thought.

* * *

I don’t know how the second desert expedition passed. I had never been so glad to return to the castle after a week.

I lay on the bed, feeling my whole body crumble, without even washing up.

“Ugh…”

A groan like scraping metal escaped through my teeth.

“This expedition was truly the worst.”

Honestly, when Johann first stepped up using his enchant, I was a bit moved.

This guy really does value me. I guess I am a precious purifier. He’ll protect me well so as not to lose me.

But that feeling of being moved didn’t last long before it shattered completely.

Johann, like Mihail, started to not lift a finger. Of course, he didn’t do anything mean like pushing me from behind. Mihail didn’t do such things either because Johann glared at him.

It was just a repetition of me leading the way with a resigned face whenever undead appeared. Each time, Johann would follow beside me as if he was escorting ke, and that’s all he did.

Maybe he smashed one durahan that rushed in before I could purify it.

While I purified over a thousand.

“Damn. It’s more terrible than I thought.”

How long do I have to endure this?

Suddenly, I thought of my bank account.

Going back and forth between regions of extreme cold and extreme heat had numbed me, but enough time had passed for the seasons to change.

I must have already accumulated several hundred thousand shillings.

Maybe I’ll go to the bank tomorrow.

As I was thinking this, I heard a knock.

I raised my heavy body from the bed and said to come in.

Is it Mihail?

As I turned my head towards the door thinking this…

“Huh?”

I opened my eyes wide in surprise at the appearance of an unexpected person.