A red scythe set before his throat.
Eyes that gleamed an even deeper red than the blade stared fixedly into Hio’s.
“······Why are you doing this···?”
Meeting that gaze, Hio slowly raised both arms.
As if telling it to calm down.
—It seems to have some complaint with you, no?
“So why···?”
He would have had to do something for it to have a complaint.
This was the first time he had used Reaper Summoning since the last war.
The mood within the imperial palace had been unsettled, so he had felt burdened by the thought of using Reaper Summoning, which came with a restriction on his other skills.
The sentence written at the very end of the Reaper Summoning skill.
「Be careful. The Reaper’s scythe shows no mercy even to its summoner.」
But somehow······ wasn’t this too merciful for that?
If something had truly gone wrong, couldn’t it have simply swung the scythe the moment it appeared?
It had already been more than a minute of standing still like this.
Didn’t it look as though it were protesting, saying, “I have a complaint”?
—Who knows··· Think carefully about what you did. Why would a spirit that governs death harbor resentment toward you?
“A complaint, a complaint······.”
No matter how much he thought about it, nothing came to mind right away.
Even at the end of the war, it had been unsummoned quietly without doing anything in particular.
And if it was displeased with something now, it had pressed its scythe to his throat the instant it was summoned, so rather than dissatisfaction with the current situation··· it meant it had been holding some kind of complaint all this time.
······No way.
“Are you sulking?”
Those eyes that, the moment it appeared, did not even look around but only stared at him.
Rather than intending to cut his throat, it somehow felt more like it was throwing a tantrum.
“······Because I didn’t summon you for a long time?”
Hio looked up at the Reaper and asked, just in case.
Flinch.
The Reaper was visibly shaken and avoided Hio’s eyes.
“Seriously?”
It remained silent, then timidly shook its head from side to side.
“So you are sulking.”
At those words, the Reaper shook its head even harder, and anyone could see that it was flustered.
“Come on. Why would you sulk over something like that?”
“You look so scary··· but you’re soft-hearted, huh?”
At Hio’s continued teasing, the Reaper pulled its scythe away, whipped around, and turned its back in a huff.
The sight of it showing him its back, going to the corner of the room, and crouching down.
—······What in the world is that thing doing······.
It was so absurd that he was struck speechless.
* * *
The Eastern Alliance and Yon Torno returned to the east.
Silvia offered him one of the vacant government posts in the capital, but Yon Torno refused without hesitation.
“It is far too much for me.”
Because he had the east, to which he had devoted his entire life.
Because he had a life in which he protected his castle and his people from the monsters that poured in every year, he chose to return.
“I doubt you will forgive such a disgraceful elder brother with just this much··· so call me whenever you wish, and I will come running. Your Majesty.”
Silvia promised to expand support for the east and sent them back.
The nobles whose loyalty had been forcibly engraved into their souls also returned together with Yon Torno.
They, too, had only ever intended to make use of Silvia anyway.
Now they would devote their souls to loyalty, but they could do that well enough in the east, where they had originally ruled.
There was no shortage of talent in the capital, after all.
The date of the coronation was set.
In order to show the people, who would be uneasy because of the civil war, and foreign nations, which would be watching for an opportunity, that the empire remained strong, it would be held more grandly than ever before.
The birth of a new empress.
A girl who should originally have died met a mage and ultimately became emperor.
A knight who should have died with her met a mage and became an undying knight.
What changes would this bring in turn?
And amid the political situation flowing busily onward, Hio was.
“Hmm··· I think you’re still a bit too big?”
Completely absorbed in taming the Reaper.
The Reaper tilted its head as it looked at Hio.
“Try getting smaller.”
At Hio’s words, the Reaper’s body shrank a little more.
The huge form that had once loomed above Hio’s head had, before long, shrunk to the size of his palm.
“Now you’re finally somewhat presentable.”
A tiny body, round red eyes.
Even a toy-like scythe.
It was quite cute.
“So right now, other people can’t see you?”
At Hio’s question, the Reaper nodded while whining.
“Then switch to a state where others can see you.”
The moment those words ended, its bulk swelled up with a whoosh.
Darkness filled it again. Its eyes flashed, and its scythe was sharpened to a keen edge.
“Whoa, that’s scary. Back to how you were.”
Kkingkking!
Hio placed the Reaper, now small again, on his palm and asked.
“You’re saying you want me to summon you often?”
Kking!
“But if I summon you, I can’t use my other skills?”
This was an extremely fatal penalty.
Of course, Hio had magic aside from skills, but his level was still too low to make any meaningful attacks, wasn’t it?
The Reaper needed to have enough merits to offset that before he could summon it frequently.
Kkingkking!
The Reaper waved its limp arms around to express itself.
It felt similar to Theordo.
He could not understand it precisely, but he could sense what it was trying to say.
Putting together what it was saying as it frantically waved both arms and whined.
“You’re very useful?”
Well, that was roughly what it meant.
The Reaper—no, just Kkingkkingi—nodded hard.
“Kkingkkingi. So you can replenish my mana.”
Kkingkking!
“And replenish my stamina.”
Kkingkking!
“And even bring me death energy?”
Kkingkkingkking!
“Hmm······.”
Hio narrowed his brows and fell into thought for a moment.
“This is completely···.”
No matter how he thought about it, this made no sense.
“Totally broken, isn’t it?”
Kking!
Kkingkkingi puffed out its chest with an expression full of pride.
Since it had every right to do so, Hio tapped Kkingkkingi on the head with his finger.
Second Circle magic, Vampiric Touch.
A necromancy spell that steals an opponent’s life force and converts it into one’s own mana or stamina.
However, physical contact was absolutely required, its efficiency was poor, and it took a long time.
But what about its evolved skill, Reaper Summoning?
It controlled all energy within its range.
That vast range had already been confirmed in the last war.
In other words, it meant all the energy within that range could be delivered to Hio.
For example, in a situation like the previous war, it could draw mana from every living being within range and deliver it to Hio.
Or it could draw out stamina and refill Hio’s stamina, and it could even fill him with death energy.
Of course, it was impossible to kill or attack living beings with that, and if the opponent was a small number of powerful individuals, it would not be a particularly useful ability.
But on a large-scale battlefield, was this not an ability close to invincible?
It would place a debuff on his enemies and grant Hio endless mana and stamina.
“If only I could use my other skills together with this······.”
With Thunder Emperor in his left hand.
Blue Flame wrapped around his right, and Kkingkkingi standing behind him, he could have gone on a mad rampage.
The penalty was regrettable, but it was still fine.
He had magic, did he not?
If he raised his level as a necromancer, it would be possible to summon undead endlessly, and if not, he could simply bombard his enemies with other magic at random.
An effect that shone brighter the more opponents there were.
In a large-scale battle such as a war, together with Kkingkkingi, he would be an infinite mage.
On top of that, if death energy accumulated as well··· could he not spread Darkness over a wide area without the aid of a magic circle?
This was the greatest merit of all.
“Kkingkkingi······.”
Hio’s eyes turned toward Kkingkkingi on his palm.
Eyes gleaming with excitement.
“You’re the best!”
Kkingkkingi nodded violently and grinned.
Kkingkking!
* * *
Peurnel spoke in a pitiful tone as he calmed down Hio and Kkingkkingi, who were whining and dancing around like that.
—What are you so pleased about? Even so, your level of magic is low, so you won’t be able to make use of it.
It was a criticism that struck at the heart of the matter.
What did it matter if he could replenish his mana and stamina infinitely?
He could not use his other skills and had to compete solely with magic, but his level of magic was only the Second Circle.
“That’s why······.”
Hio opened the point shop window.
「Remaining Points: 706 pt」
“I’ll have to convert all of this into mana.”
Until now, he had tried to distribute all his stats evenly.
That was because his strength, stamina, and agility were still almost at their basic values.
It would have been nice if he had focused solely on raising mana, but with his other stats that low, he would literally die if anything so much as grazed him.
“Of course, even now, it’s still close to a gamble···.”
All his stats were still practically scraping the bottom. The fact that he would die if anyone grazed him likely had not changed.
Even so, had he not gained plenty of abilities now?
Depending on how Hio used them, it was a gamble worth trying.
“It feels like pulling future strength forward.”
The limit of what could be raised through the point shop was 500 for each stat.
Since he had to raise all his stats eventually anyway, he would raise mana in advance, draw that power forward, and use it to earn even more points.
“Then I think I can just barely reach the Third Circle.”
Each time a circle rose by one, the amount of mana required more than doubled.
Even if he raised his mana stat to 500, he might not be able to reach the Fifth Circle. That was how drastically the required amount of mana increased.
—Certainly, things will be different from the Third Circle onward. Though the Second Circle is called an apprentice mage, in truth, one is not treated as a mage. A proper mage can be said to begin at the Third Circle.
“I suppose the Second Circle is a bit··· lacking?”
There were no proper attack spells in the Second Circle, nor any particularly versatile magic.
But from the Third Circle onward, things changed clearly. It was the stage at which one was recognized as a proper mage.
—And from the rank of a proper mage onward, there will be many more places you can go within the Magic Tower. The Magic Tower’s portal seems to have changed somewhat from what I knew······ In any case, the fact that mages begin at the Third Circle remains unchanged.
There were many spells that sounded appealing just by name.
First were the basic elemental spells.
—Fireball, Ice Ball, Wind Cutter, Stone Spike, which makes stone thorns shoot up from the ground···.
There were also many other useful spells.
Feather Fall, which reduced falling speed. Flash Bomb, which burst with blinding light. Air Hammer, Fog Cloud, Burning Hands, Pain, and so on···.
Even the sheer number of them could not be compared to the Second Circle.
“The problem is that I need to find a portal to the Magic Tower.”
Since this lousy master only knew necromancer magic, Hio had to go to the Magic Tower in order to properly learn other magic.
—······Necromancy has many good spells too···.
“The efficiency is bad. The efficiency.”
Necromancer magic required far too many things.
Corpses or souls were basically necessary, whether one was making Phantoms or creating undead.
“There seems like there should be one somewhere in the imperial palace too··· Do you know anything?”
—Other than the necromancer branch, I do not know much about other mages’ houses.
Even if it was not in the imperial palace, a mage’s house was surely hidden somewhere in the capital.
Finding that was the first task.
In truth, there were a few places he could guess.
Because he had roamed tirelessly through the capital in the game in order to protect it.
And the second task was meeting Sirbert.
What had been his reason for heading to the capital in the first place?
Was it not to meet Sirbert and ask him this and that?
So that was the second task.
The third task was to go to the Magic Tower and ascend fully to the Third Circle.
It would be fine to set these three as his short-term goals.
“Then, first, the mana······.”
The moment Hio was about to use his points.
Knock, knock— The door opened along with the sound of knocking.
“Lord Hio Pavlenko. Her Majesty Silvia is looking for you.”
* * *
In Silvia’s room, where he went after being summoned, he received an unexpected item.
“Can you really give this to me?”
Within an octagonal border was the emblem of a roaring lion engraved in gold.
A medal symbolizing the Imperial Guardian Knight.
Silvia smiled and nodded.
“I talked it over, but as expected, there’s no one to give it to except you, Hio.”
“Why? There’s Vitalianus, and there’s that pitch-black knight behind you.”
“The Sword Saint stubbornly refused, and my escort knight···.”
Silvia looked at Theordo, who was standing motionless behind her.
“He said honors like this were not important.”
Seeing the Death Knight nod, Hio let out a small laugh.
“Right. Unless something happens to me, your escort knight probably won’t be unsummoned. And if there’s ever an emergency, unsummon him and send him to me.”
“Mm. I will.”
“Then······ I’ll keep this safe.”
When he accepted the Guardian Knight’s medal and placed it inside his clothes, a notification sounded, just as expected.
「Achievement Accomplished! - The Emperor’s Guardian Knight」
「You have obtained 400 points for accomplishing an achievement.」
The corners of his mouth rose into a grin.
With this, his remaining points were now a whopping 1,100.
Enough to raise his mana stat by a whole 110 at once.
Now he had enough mana to reach the Third Circle.
—The imperial palace library! When on earth are you going to bring up the imperial palace library?