Chapter 80
“Silphiner, Pyron, Nomt.”
Sssrrk.
As soon as I spat out the names of the spirits, the spirits contracted with me revealed themselves.
It didn’t really hit me when I saw the message saying I was contracted with the earth spirit Nomt.
But seeing the spirits gathered together like this, the thought that I had really stolen them suddenly washed over me.
“Only one left now, huh.”
But to think I could steal an already contracted spirit.
I figured it was only possible because the Great forest existed.
When I was curious about this before and looked up information about spirits.
Even back then, the established theory was that stealing an already contracted spirit was impossible.
It meant that while you could kill a spirit, extorting the contract itself was nonsense.
Given that this was possible, it seemed the World Tree Sapling had created a huge variable after all.
“It really feels like something will pop out if I gather them all.”
There were four spirits guarding Mirne’s side from the beginning.
Just looking at it, it seemed like gathering all four would let you summon the Spirit King or something like that.
The only one left was the water spirit, so it was safe to say the day I would face the Spirit King wasn’t far off.
“Anyway, to think recorder had such an effect.”
And I marveled once again at the title’s effect, which had created the unexpected result that allowed me to have these thoughts.
I realized that recording meant restoring data that would have disappeared through overwriting during the Save & Load process.
It was even more ridiculous that it could bring about advantageous results.
“Everything is supposed to disappear when Save & Load happens anyway… but it extracts only the advantageous results and applies them to the load point? That makes no sense.”
Come to think of it, it was something that drastically accelerated the tempo.
What if one were able to return to a past point in time and apply the benefits gained in the future?
If one could handle it freely, a perfect munchkin character would be complete right from the very beginning.
“Huh? Wait a minute.”
Could Your Excellency’s Regression be like this too?
That thought suddenly occurred to me.
He was thinking about how to become stronger every time he regressed.
He was assuming he found the shortest route to becoming the strongest and grew rapidly.
Even taking that into account, Your Excellency’s current strength was beyond imagination.
'Of course… it might not be the case, but it doesn’t seem like the recorder title exists for nothing.'
It was true that Your Excellency had become stronger through countless regressions in the shortest amount of time.
What if he had become even stronger through other means besides that?
'Honestly, it’s a story I can’t be sure of yet, and it’s highly likely that my hypothesis makes even less sense.'
The possibility of Your Excellency being able to enjoy the effects of the recorder title was extremely low in itself.
In the first place, Your Excellency had never received a single privilege from the System, and was rather in a position of being played by it.
Furthermore, the Regression Penalty was “losing the most important thing”.
Even amidst multiple regressions, His Excellency relied solely on his memories and experiences rather than external means.
All things considered, what I thought had to be seen as just forcing things to fit the result.
“Then, the only thing left is the clue about Noble.”
I muttered like that while processing the documents placed on the desk.
After the Save & Load triggered by the Mirne System,
I had moved straight to the office with Arveda’s bread in my mouth.
Telling everyone not to come in was a bonus.
“The golems Gilbart is supplying are doing their jobs incredibly well.”
Since they were easily doing the work of ten people per supply line.
At this rate, the Academy would definitely be built in the blink of an eye.
On top of this, if the Giants who were still asleep because Pavan hadn’t woken up yet joined in, the Empire’s development speed would increase even more through the knowledge of the wise Giants.
A hopeful future was visible where the Great empire could be achieved if things just kept going like this.
Anyway.
“Is Noble the main thing?”
What I had to do now was to check the reward regarding Noble that I had saved for last.
[ To become a 'Noble', you must meet all heterogeneous races and seek their acknowledgment. ]
[ In the original story, the Protagonist became a Noble simply by gaining their favor. ]
[ You must fulfill their deficiencies. ]
[ Heterogeneous races whose deficiencies are currently resolved: Dragon, Giant, Elf ]
[ You are currently in possession of a Fairy tale. ]
[ Please make contact with the Fairy race and fulfill its deficiency! ]
“…”
I have to get the acknowledgment of the heterogeneous races too?
'But if this was Mirne’s position, it would have been judged as just gaining their favor.'
While wondering if this was the difference between a Protagonist who received the System’s support and characters who didn’t.
I suddenly became intensely curious about the identity of the Great Prophet who knew this and formed covenants with the heterogeneous races in advance.
“Did they even predict Noble, or did they really just obtain the covenants and did everything coincidentally fall into place”
Honestly, forming covenants by predicting the distant future was too absurd a story.
It seemed as if it would be faster to understand if I viewed it as the latter case and added the setting that they had good intuition.
But for some reason, I couldn’t shake off the thought that it might be the former.
'I should read the Empire’s history books again later.'
The Great Prophet, the more I chewed on it, the more I couldn’t guess their identity.
At first, I just thought of them as the origin of the Empire.
Starting from the setting that they swallowed the Sun, all the way to the covenants.
The more I dug, the more things exquisitely matched the current situation.
“Just looking at Noble right now… if all the executioners are heterogeneous races, then I’m already starting with five of the heterogeneous races' acknowledgments in the bag.”
I could approach the noble title before Mirne if I could just resolve the covenants within the time limit.
Was this really a simple coincidence?
I couldn’t know.
Since I decided not to deeply ponder problems I couldn’t immediately understand, I pushed this issue aside for now.
What I had to prioritize right now was obtaining the 'Noble' title.
And the fastest way to achieve this goal was to resolve the Executioner covenants first.
“But… two questions do remain.”
I raised my body from the chair and stopped in front of the full-length mirror as I was about to leave the office.
“Then what is my system message? Can it be a System but not a System?”
One was the identity of the System sending the messages, and the other was:
“If she has no memory of taking damage from me, but the damage remains on Mirne’s body, how does she sustain that damage? Does a sword cut suddenly appear on her back at the point she loaded?”
Even if my actions remained in the records, Mirne wouldn’t be able to recall the memories of when she used Save & Load.
If that was the case, I was incredibly curious about how the damage was applied.
[ A fitting plausibility will approach Mirne. ]
“Hah.”
This question was solved in the blink of an eye.
Because the system message casually tossed out an answer as if replying to my soliloquy.
If she gets hurt according to plausibility, does that mean she’ll take a huge hit later while proceeding with things on her own?
Then again, if a wound that looks like it was inflicted by me appears, she will recall future events.
If that happened, she might naturally recall the words she said, so in a way, it was an obvious measure.
Since I had resolved both my top priority goal and my curiosities for now, I immediately left the office and headed to my room.
It was getting to be mealtime, so I had to eat too.
“Rowena, shouldn’t you be going to eat soon? You must be hungry, so why don’t you hurry up and go? You have to offer your prayers too.”
“Arveda, you’re the one… shouldn’t you head to the Executioner’s Palace since mealtime is approaching? I heard that Dragons require a lot of energy.”
As I gradually approached my bedroom.
“This humble woman is not a pig! You, you’re the one walking around with those things attached…!”
“T-Those things! It’s just natural! Calling them “those things” sounds incredibly… incredibly perverted!”
As I gradually approached my bedroom.
Voices that could be identified by anyone as Rowena and Arveda could be heard from outside.
Why on earth were they fighting over something like that?
Still, it seemed like they were fighting without crossing the line, so I was going to open the door appropriately and suggest we all go eat together, but…
“Your Excellency’s First Staff! As I, Teo, judge it… if you two are feeling romantic interest toward His Royal Highness the Your Excellency, this kind of behavior is a demerit! Although His Royal Highness the Your Excellency tolerates a certain amount of commotion in his bedroom, fighting over something like this right now definitely does not look good! If it were me, Teo, rather than spending this unproductive time, I would care more about gaining direct favor by making something like a handmade lunchbox! If you capture His Royal Highness the Your Excellency’s heart, there is no reason to unnecessarily spark a conflict with your competitor!!!”
“…”
“…”
The situation was neatly sorted out by Teo’s lengthy speech.
'Why is he so good at speaking, is it because he’s really a genius Magician?'
I guess he follows his settings after all.
Muttering like that inwardly.
Clack.
“Everyone, quiet down, and let’s all go eat.”
I opened the room door and quickly sorted out the situation.
Since I had gained some free time through Save & Load, I decided to take an appropriate rest as well.
'I’ll eat leisurely for now… and have a chat with the Executioner I haven’t spoken to yet.'
After doing that, I needed to recreate the events of the future to some extent.
The Imperial Garrison was involved through this, but the Maselin Kingdom was not.
I planned to plant the Imperial Garrison in every region Mirne had to stop by.