Chapter 312
Before the start of the second semester of the second year.
Though the incident in the Holy Nation had significantly shortened the break, that didn’t mean there was no time to rest at all.
If I hadn’t had any time, I wouldn’t have been able to come here in the first place.
Political affairs couldn’t take precedence over a student’s education, but Alice wanted to resolve this matter as discreetly as possible, avoiding unnecessary attention.
It was impossible to hide the fact that the Emperor’s throne was vacant. Alice had taken the position of Crown Princess, and I had become the Empire’s second-in-command. The moment the victory ceremony took place, the news had already spread widely among the citizens of the Empire, and the nobles were well aware of it—there was no way to change that now.
The Emperor’s plan had never been publicly disclosed. It likely never would be.
Seizing the goddess’s power to rule the world? There would undoubtedly be those among the citizens who found that idea appealing. If that happened, Alice’s political foundation would be shaken. And so would that of the majority of the nobility.
No matter how much they were loyal to the Emperor, the Emperor’s faction nobles did not support him with the desire to become his slaves.
A ruler who used the Relic to dominate the world would certainly not have spared the nobility from becoming his subjugated subjects. From their perspective, his plan was one they could never support fully.
Rather, with the Emperor—who had practically ruled with an iron fist—now gone, they were likely looking for opportunities of their own.
That didn’t mean we could leave the Emperor outside the Empire’s borders. Though he himself wouldn’t be swayed into becoming a political tool for another nation, anti-government factions could still use him as a justification for their actions. If even a single commoner, who had never exchanged a word with the Emperor, decided to form a terrorist organization under the pretense of reclaiming his authority, it would become a serious problem.
Ultimately, the conclusion we arrived at was to make it appear as though the Emperor was safely residing within the Empire.