Chapter 532.2

Alveiro Verbaan was a senator who had been falsely accused and held captive.

During his imprisonment, he was under the protection of the Demon King Finar, but now that the evidence had been gathered – and the Senate’s evidence was revealed to be half faked – Alveiro had been cleared of all his charges, making his temporary imprisonment end, and he was now back in the political arena.

Not much time had pa.s.sed since we had last seen him, but he still looked a little thin.

Because he was under the protection of the Demon King, he could only live a life in the shadows for a while. He was probably exhausted.

However, his eyes were still filled with strong willpower, and even though he looked tired, his entire body was filled with vitality.

He still had more than enough spirit in his body to move on.

He was, after all, the man whom the former emperor had favored so much.

“Oh, don’t worry about it. We just did what we had to do. We even let the third round of terrorism happen, even if it was a crazy plan, for the sake of clean-up.”

By using that strategy, even though we managed to reduce the casualties to zero and catch the mastermind, it was still probably not a very praiseworthy action.

But we did it because it was necessary.

In a sense, we were in the same boat as the Senate President.

I didn’t want to be lumped in with him. That b.a.s.t.a.r.d didn’t care how many civilians died for his own purposes.

“It couldn’t be helped. Even in this time of change…no because it was a time of change, there were areas that needed rough treatment. That is to be expected. We need to be considerate of the public sentiment that comes with rapid change… but that was an event that we had to take care of.”

“…I agree.”

He was looking into the changes of the country as well.

Well, I guess it was not surprising.

Alveiro was a politician who had real ability and could understand the difference between reason and emotion.

Yes, this man understood the difference between reason and emotion, the subtleties.

Perhaps it was because he served the former emperor, who was the authority of reason, for many years… but those were qualities that would be difficult to find in a man like him.

It would be ungrateful for me to judge him on political matters.

As expected, he was that kind of guy. So, I guess, it would be alright to pick this guy as the banner holder.

–My promise to Shen was to protect this country.

And since this country had now become my dungeon territory, there was no way that my relations.h.i.+p with this country would ever be interrupted.

I would protect Alveiro as well.

After all, this was my territory now. I would not give it up.

But as a means to that end, the t.i.tle of [Emperor] itself might not be that necessary.

It didn’t matter what form it took. If I wanted to, I could have a new position created, such as [the 0th Order of Knights], and I could serve in that position.

This way I could stay behind the scenes and only show my presence when the country needed me to intervene.

In this country now…it would probably be more harmful for me to show myself as the emperor.

Or rather, simply, I was already sick of it.

I couldn’t be an emperor. It was simply out of character for me to be an emperor.

Sorry, Shen, but I might have to relinquish this throne.

I intend to protect the Rogard Empire, so please give me a break.

So, I should just…

“Okay, Alveiro, I came to see you today because of what I’m about to tell you.”

“…Ha, what is it?”

I said, “As the Twenty-Third Emperor… I say to you, Alveiro Verbaan. I shall a.s.sign you as the next Acting Emperor of the Rogard Empire.”