With that, the judgment of the main culprits behind "the Organization" came to an end.
At last, the kingdom's reconstruction—centered on Liliana, the next in line for the throne—would begin in earnest.
There was far too much to be done. To that end, every available hand was pitching in, none more so than the members of the Third Princess's faction, who had distinguished themselves in the final battle, each leveraging their unique strengths to aid in the rebuilding.
……And yet, amid all that,
as mentioned before—the boy who had struck down the ringleader of "the Organization" and was undoubtedly hailed as the hero of the preceding battle, Ermes, was doing what, exactly?
"………Huh?"
On the veranda of the Royal Palace, its walls still bearing the scars of battle, overlooking the entirety of the Royal Capital—
—he was simply standing there, watching the dusk settle.
Why, you ask?
(……There's actually not much for me to do…!?)
That was precisely the situation.
Ever since Liliana had commissioned him to develop Enslavement Magic, he had been spectacularly at loose ends.
Now, there was no shortage of things he *could* do, and plenty that only he could do.
However, when it came to the kingdom's reconstruction, his exceptional magical abilities were complete overkill, and he had nowhere near the political acumen of someone like Katia. As for combat capability, Rose had that covered now.
In short, everything Ermes might have contributed already had a perfectly adequate replacement, and the mysterious backlog of job bookings had created a strange stretch of free time for him.
"……"
He felt a little guilty about having nothing to do while everyone else was run ragged. At first, he went straight to Liliana to ask whether there was anything he could help with, but—
"Then please do take some rest, Master! You were without question the greatest contributor to this battle, and while I understand how incredibly busy things are right now, if even you can't be granted a single day off, that would be a problem in its own right!"
—she had told him that, and every last member of the Third Princess's faction had chimed in with their agreement. And so, his stretch of idle time was born.
For Ermes, it was a rare stretch of free, idle time — the sort he had seldom experienced in life. After putting a fair amount of effort into figuring out what he should do with it──
"...Yeah, that's right."
──he arrived at the idea of taking a walk around the Royal Capital.
Through the Royal Capital, still bearing the scars of that battle. The country they had defended, the country that had embraced change — had it truly changed? And how was it changing?
He wanted to see for himself. And so Ermes set out from the Royal Palace at an easy, unhurried pace.
"Oh, Heru-kun?"
"My, how rare."
Walking through the Royal Capital.
The first people he ran into were two unusually dressed figures.
Niina and Lukius — a brother and sister who, in this kingdom, cut a rare sight carrying swords at their hips. They spotted Ermes with surprised expressions and called out to him.
"Good work out there. What are you two up to right now?"
"We've been doing nothing but helping with the reconstruction," Niina replied.
"We're the Northern Alliance — the largest group currently capable of shouldering the coordination efforts, after all. Our roles as soldiers are on hold for the time being. Right now, it's all civil engineering work."
Lukius laughed briskly. "Something like this isn't half bad now and then."
...Well, sure enough. Now that he thought about it, imagining Lukius hard at work in the construction trade actually suited him better than he would have expected. Niina seemed to be thinking the same thing, glancing back and forth between Lukius and Ermes with an amused smile on her face.
From there, they caught up on recent developments.
Reconstruction appeared to be progressing smoothly. There had been worries that the nobles might throw up roadblocks again — or rather, that they would try to exploit the chaos to grab an excessive share of power for themselves... and honestly, after seeing the state the kingdom was in, Ermes had thought that was entirely possible.
But apparently, that sort of thing had been surprisingly rare. Even Lukius said it had exceeded his expectations — and naturally, it was the incident with the horde of undead that had hit the Royal Capital the other day that had done the trick.
After going through that, even this kingdom's nobles had been forced to confront an unpleasant truth: the danger of looking only at the positive side of the past while ignoring or dismissing the negative. The danger of becoming utterly dependent on something like Bloodline Magic — an artifact so far beyond their own understanding that even they couldn't grasp how it worked.
As long as even a shred of self-awareness lingered — a recognition that they had done things they shouldn't have — the impact on their worldview had been more than sufficient. The current situation was that many noble houses were carefully considering how to move forward, how to live in the future ahead. And partly because of that, far fewer people than one might have expected were sticking their noses into the new kingdom's affairs.
"…Is that so?"
Hearing that, Ermes thought.
There was no question it had been a bad thing. But still… Yurgen's actions, and the disaster caused by Chrono and Laplace—
Their intentions may have been different, but perhaps they had genuinely brought meaning to this country after all.
When he thought about it, the faint pain in his chest seemed to ease, just a little.
"That said, though—"
To Ermes, Lukius continued.
"The pushback isn't zero, naturally. There are those who aren't happy about some upstart northerner calling the shots."
"That's… I suppose so."
"The fact that our fight with the Organization ended in a showdown underground where nobody knows what happened probably didn't help either. 'Are you really heroes, or just con artists who latched onto some lucky coincidence to take credit for defeating that horde of undead?'—that's what the people who've held power in the Royal Capital have been stirring up lately. Honestly, it's a headache."
Such pushback, perhaps, was only natural.
It might even be healthy. If everyone simply rolled over and changed their minds after such a shocking event, that would be eerie in its own way. Dealing with people like that would remain an ongoing challenge.
And as Ermes was thinking this—
"—So anyway,"
Lukius said with a bright smile.
"Ermes, if you've got time on your hands, there's something I'd really like your help with. How about a fight with me, starting now?"
"Huh?"
"In short, the ones making a fuss are probably doubting our real strength, right? So we should just show them clearly. With a half-baked opponent, they'd only be more suspicious, but someone of your caliber as a mage should be convincing enough."
"Says you, but aren't you just using this as a chance to blow off steam from the reconstruction work by fighting El too, big brother?"
"I won't deny it!"
Lucius laughed — ha ha ha.
Ermes didn't deny it either. He'd been looking for ways to contribute, and if simply fighting was enough to be useful, that was exactly what he wanted.
Besides, it had been a while since his last bout with Lucius, and he'd be lying if he said the prospect didn't excite him.
Weighing all of this, Ermes nodded without hesitation.
As if to say "if so, then hurry," Lucius whisked him away, and Ermes found himself led to a nearby plaza where, before a growing crowd of onlookers, he threw himself wholeheartedly into a bout of sword and magic —
It seemed he'd gone a bit overboard.
"H-ha… Th-thank you for your hard work!"
"That was unquestionably the strength befitting a hero. I'm terribly sorry for underestimating you as nothing more than a child…!"
After putting up a fierce fight against Lucius that was nearly dead even —
A number of nobles hurried over to bow deeply to Ermes as he caught his breath.
They seemed to have grasped the extent of his power, but he couldn't shake the feeling that they were now more frightened than was strictly necessary.
Maybe bringing out the World Tree of Ashes had been a mistake — Lucius's swordsmanship had sparked his competitive fire, and he'd escalated without thinking.
Looking back, even Niina had seemed a touch exasperated at the time.
(…That said,)
he also thought this: in the kingdom as it used to be, they never would have acknowledged him so readily.
Nobles like these would have kept grumbling no matter what proof he showed them. Their conviction that they were absolutely right always came first, unshakable, and all they could think about was tearing others down from that position.
But that had changed — was still changing. The tragedy that befell the Royal Capital and its impact had shattered every last piece of the old "common sense."
…Thinking about it that way —
the reform had truly been accomplished. Not just by them — not just by the Third Princess's faction led by Liliana alone. Including what that "organization" had done, everyone together. Perhaps they could say they had achieved the greatest and most difficult transformation of the current era.
…At that thought, a smile briefly crossed his face. Ermes bowed to the nobles, thanked Lucius, and resumed his stroll through the Royal Capital.
El-kun got so caught up in the fun that he accidentally fired off his maximum power. The moment the fight ends, he just pops right back to normal, doesn't he? Whose influence is that, I wonder?
Next time, another afterstory. Who will El-kun meet? I hope you'll give it a read!
I've also started a new series on another site!
"The Perpetual Second-Stringer Ridiculed as an Idiot Who, for Some Reason, Gets Chosen Over His Childhood Friend to Join a Genius High School VTuber Unit"
A passionate, hot-blooded creative coming-of-age story about a (self-proclaimed) ordinary boy who could never come in first at anything, getting scouted by a genius beautiful-girl streamer.
It's got youthful romance, sweet schadenfreude, and rom-com goodness — a buffet of everything I'm confident in! It's currently charging up the rankings at an all-time high!
There should be a link at the bottom of the screen, so along with Creation Magic,
if you could read this one too, and follow ★ rate it, I'd be so happy...!