“Father!”

The boy running enthusiastically down the hill was indeed Silver.

He was Silver Jackson Edward, Golden Jackson’s only son and the second emperor of the Eurasian Empire founded by Golden. Despite his background, his last years had been quite miserable. As he neglected state affairs and only indulged in alcohol and women, he relinquished all real power to Arthus.

And with his last bit of real authority, Silver had ordered Henry’s execution.

Silver hadn’t even managed to protect a small part of the nation his father had built, and he had ultimately led it to destruction. His sins were so great that one death wouldn’t be enough of a punishment.

“Silver!”

Golden got off his horse and immediately hugged his son.

“Son, did you come out here to greet your father?”

“Yes!”

“Incredible! But I never sent a message saying that I defeated the Demon King. How did you know I was coming back today?”

“I didn’t! I just waited here every day!”

“Hahaha! I like how you don’t beat around the bush!”

Silver had been born while Golden had been conquering the continent. And because Golden’s wife had passed away early due to her overall frailty and weakness, Golden raised Silver with extra love. Because of that, Silver trusted and listened unconditionally not only to Golden but also to all of his comrades, including Henry.

“Hey, Silver! Is your father the only one you see?!”

“Yeah, Silver! Come give us hugs too!”

Silver was a clever child. He was a quick learner with eyes full of life and a smile that always cheered up everyone around him. And so, Henry had also cared a lot about Silver and found him endearing.

As soon as Golden let him down, Silver came straight to Henry. Standing in front of Henry, he immediately bowed.

“You’re back, Great Uncle Henry!”

Great Uncle Henry—everyone was an uncle to Silver, but there was a reason Henry was his only

great

uncle. Henry had not only taught Silver how to speak and write but also all the manners and knowledge necessary for daily life. The two had a special teacher-student relationship unlike any uncle and nephew, which naturally made Henry stand out as a parent figure.

Henry looked at Silver, who bowed to him for a good few seconds. There was a moment of awkwardness, as the other Henry would have hugged Silver right away, just like Golden had done.

Noticing his reluctance, Silver thought there was something a bit strange about Great Uncle Henry that day. As Henry wrapped up his thoughts, he got off his horse and stood in front of Silver and gave him a noogie.

“Oww!”

Some people were surprised to see Henry act this way, as he had never laid hands on Silver before, not even jokingly.

But then…

“Silver! Look how soft your head is! Are you sure you’ve studied everything I told you to on time? Silver…!”

“Yo-you can tell…?”

“

Tsk

,

tsk

… Looks like you’re becoming just like your father, trying to avoid your responsibilities…”

“Haha! You’re really giving Silver a tough time right off the bat?”

Everyone initially thought something serious had happened but ended up laughing as they realized that Henry was joking.

This was the best Henry could think of. Of course, Silver hadn’t done anything wrong yet, but Henry still remembered all the shameful things Silver had done in the past timeline, so he figured that he could just let out his anger in small ways while warning Silver about the future.

“Hehe.”

In truth, Henry remembered Silver as a drugged-up tyrant who had disregarded state affairs. Because of how he had ended up, Henry had beheaded Silver and displayed his head from the highest point within the imperial palace.

However, in this life, Henry planned to gradually teach Silver the ways of royalty so that he could become the Golden’s successor. He thought that once was enough for the people around him to suffer because of his incompetence.

Henry put Silver on the front of his horse and started moving again, as the time to establish the empire had finally come.

***

The founding of the empire.

In fact, the groundwork for establishing the empire had already begun at Lindbergh, but construction was halted when Golden and Henry suddenly left after receiving news of the Demon King’s appearance.

As he looked at the unfinished palace, Henry thought to himself,

‘Seems like I’ll be able to build a palace with my own hands this time.’

In the previous timeline, Henry asked the craftsmen of Monsieur to build the palace. Even though Henry was more than capable of building one with his magic back then, he knew how much more meticulous and detailed craftsmen could be. That was something he wouldn’t have overlooked.

But things were different now. Henry was the only person who had seen the completed palace built by the artisans, and he had spent decades in it, making it his home. Moreover, at that time, Henry had only been a 7th-Circle, but the current Henry had awakened the 8th-Circle.

Thus, there really was no need to get craftsmen to build the palace.

Henry stood in front of the palace grounds, where there were just cornerstones laid. Golden looked at Henry with a confused face and asked, “What are you doing, Henry?”

“What do you mean? Building the imperial palace, obviously.”

“What? How about we take a break today and call in the artisans to start tomorrow? I’m sure everyone, including you, is tired from all the traveling.”

“I know, but I’m okay.”

“What?”

“Shh.”

Despite Golden trying to stop him, Henry just gestured to him to be quiet. He then took a while to draw a magic spell, eventually lifting his hand off it and casting a spell.

“Rising Grand Mansion.”

Zap, zap-!

As soon as he cast his spell, the magic circle activated immediately, blue sparks flying out. The sparks would’ve been green, but since Henry was currently just a wizard, they were blue.

Of course, Henry wasn’t concerned with the color of his magic. What was important to him was the fact that he had the necessary mana to erect the palace using the magic circle, which perfectly replicated the blueprints for the palace.

Once the magic circle was activated, sand, dirt, old tree trunks, and rocks gushed out from the ground like a fountain. They flew left and right, creating chaos within the magic circle. Or rather, it only seemed that way. In fact, the materials were getting together on their own and slowly giving shape to a palace.

“Ha, you’re even building the palace by yourself?” asked Golden, slightly bemused.

“We should do whatever we can on our side. It’ll be the country we’ll be living in.”

“You know, sometimes it feels like you’re more of a king than me. Henry, are you still reluctant about taking the throne?”

“The throne?”

In the past, Henry always rejected the idea of taking the throne whenever Golden brought it up. He would always say that being a king was boring and that he would rather spend that time in his lab doing magic research, as it would be a better use of his time.

Following his resurrection, Henry eventually created a kingdom named after himself, the Kingdom of Morris, in order to take full responsibility for what he had done in his past life.

That kingdom had convinced Henry that the throne did in fact not suit him. Thus, he firmly believed that his attitude regarding that position had always been right.

“I’m not interested. Instead, I’ll be right next to you, watching over your every move so don’t you start complaining.”

“Haha, you’re more than welcome to do so, Henry.”

“It’ll probably take two full days for the imperial palace to be completed. Building a palace of this size takes some time, even for me. In the meantime, you can let your soldiers rest.”

“How about you? You talk like you’re not going to take a rest.”

“I have somewhere to go in the meantime.”

“Where?”

“Somewhere.”

“Alright, whatever. If you say so. You don’t have to tell me where you’re going, but if you’re feeling nervous, I can accompany you.”

“Nervous, my ass…”

“Haha, I’m kidding. Who’d try to kill the number one wizard on the continent?”

At that moment, Henry looked at Golden straight in the eye.

‘

Your son did, you bastard!

’

Of course, he didn’t say that out loud, but the gods knew how hard it was for him to swallow those words.

At this, Golden looked at him with a rather confused face, wondering why Henry looked so serious all of a sudden. But still, what Henry had on his mind was true. Silver had in fact tried to kill him in his past life.

As everyone else had their attention directed at the self-constructing magic circle, Henry mounted on Jade.

“Jade, you and I have somewhere to go.”

Neigh-!

The real Jade answered just the way Henry remembered. This horse wasn’t the fake Jade that Henry had once made from taking some random horse and applying Fine Horse Restructuring, but the Jade that Henry used to ride all the time whenever he went out on the battlefield.

Once Henry was ready, he opened a teleportation gate.

“Let’s go.”

𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Neigh-!

With that, Jade and Henry walked into the gate.

***

Now that Henry thought about it, he remembered that the process itself of founding a country was rather easy. Back then, all he had to do was to call in the technicians of Monsieur to build the capital along with all the famous artisans from all regions to make the capital more lively.

And in regards to state administrative matters, such as law and order, the wizards underneath him had always achieved decent results.

On top of that, Henry had promised immigration to those he had met during his expedition so that they could be citizens of the new country. As for national defense, that wouldn’t even be an issue because the entire continent had been conquered.

But the real problem lay within. Henry had overlooked certain individuals, not realizing they were the root of evil.

They were the Central Aristocrats who followed Arthus. Unlike the State Contributors, the Central Aristocrats were people Henry had brought in from the regions he had conquered, and when a full-fledged cabinet system was established, those aristocrats were appointed as members.

Henry initially appointed them because he believed that if the Cabinet consisted solely of State Contributors, their perspectives would be narrow and they would grow too comfortable, ultimately becoming susceptible to corruption.

But unfortunately, the Central Aristocrats became the fundamental cause of imperial corruption, and when Henry realized this in the past, it was already too late. And so, Henry was planning to make it right from the start this time.

‘Wait, no. There’s no reason to even get it fixed. I can just make it so that outsiders can’t be appointed to the Cabinet from the start.’

After thinking about it, Henry made the decision to form the Cabinet from people he was sure possessed the integrity and upright character he sought.

However, Henry still had one thing he wasn’t sure about. He still couldn’t figure out why Arthus had been so cruel to him. This question had never left Henry, and even during their last confrontation on Lizark Hill, he hadn’t managed to get an answer out of Arthus.

‘Was it simply because of his desire for power? It can’t be…’

If Arthus had merely been greedy for power, he wouldn’t have dabbled in things like dark magic in the first place. Henry’s curiosity about Arthus suddenly piqued, which was why he took the time to look into him in detail while the palace was being built.

Through his teleportation gate, he arrived in the region that would later be called Highlander. This was where Arthus would reign as a lord.

It was known that there used to be a small kingdom in this region. However, the place had already been deserted long before Henry and his comrades had come here, everyone having either died or moved somewhere else.

However, Arthus had once told Henry that he was one of the remaining people of that small kingdom, although Henry couldn’t say for sure whether that was a lie or not. In any case, that was why Henry had appointed Arthus as a member of the Cabinet.

However, the current Henry remembered that there would be a couple of days until Arthus’ appointment.

‘I thought he was clever back then. I’m not sure how he found out about the establishment of the Cabinet, but he did come on his own and applied.’

As Lindbergh established itself as the capital and the imperial family was starting to fulfill its roles, Arthus unexpectedly asked him to be appointed. But now that Henry thought about it in retrospect, Arthus had been a mysterious figure from the start.

Thus, he decided to investigate everything about Arthus, starting from this point, exploring every nook and cranny until he perfectly understood his character.