141 Epilogue

Unlike a certain protagonist, I didn't have the luxury of relaxing in a house in the middle of nowhere, with two beautiful girls by my side. As much as I wanted to change my name to Chrome, that wasn't going to happen. I had too many responsibilities to deal with.

"My liege."

Stella bowed when she spotted me emerging from my office. I sighed and impatiently gestured for her to stand and dispense with the formalities.

"What's going on now?"

"The strategy meeting is in an hour. Your Divine Generals are getting ready to brief you on the situation at the front."

"So it's inevitable, huh?" I groaned and covered my face. Stella nodded.

"I'm sorry, my lord. Even though you turned out to be the best hope of avoiding war, we still ended up in this situation."

"That's all right. Stupid people exist everywhere." I felt like going off on a rant, but that wasn't going to help me. Currently, I had a problem to solve and I would have to focus on it. "Tell my loyal Divine Generals that I expect to see them in my office in forty-five minutes, not an hour. We don't have time to waste."

"Understood." Stella nodded and hurried off to dispense my new orders.

About forty minutes later, Larson, Claude Lyon, Lindley, Owen Wolfe, Chris Redfield, Wilson Willard, Lance Turner and all the others gathered inside my office.

"The enemy made a breakthrough," Claude explained. "They took Wallace Province and are advancing toward Bravia Province."

He traced the enemy's route of advance through the huge map that I had spread across my desk. I followed his finger and nodded thoughtfully.

"They're at the northern kingdom border, between Havan Kingdom and the Demonic Empire." Claude continued without skipping a beat. "In the east, they reached the Gottfried, Lizenberg and Tottenham provinces."

Taking a deep breath, Claude straightened up and waited for my response.

"If Stryker attacks, everything will be all right." Holding a couple of pencils in my hand, I waved my fingers around. I didn't know why the fuck I was holding a few pencils at once – it wasn't as if I was going to draw with more than one of them. Maybe I was making some sort of point.

At my statement, my trusted Divine Generals and officers exchanged uncomfortable glances. Claude cleared his throat audibly when all eyes went to him.

"My liege…" he began hesitantly. "Stryker…"

When he couldn't finish his sentence, Larson broke in.

"Stryker didn't have enough strength. The attack didn't take place."

For a moment, there was nothing but silence. I was trembling visibly as I absorbed the news. My brow twitched. Raising a trembling hand to my face, I yanked my glasses off. It took me every ounce of effort not to drop them.

"The following people will stay here. Larson, Claude, Lindley and Chris."

Everyone filed out of the room at my words. I stared at the three officers in front of me – for some reason, Chris wasn't in view. My bodyguards, Billy Cantwell and Doug Dubinski, were an exception – they remained prowling at the back, unwilling to leave the room no matter what I said.

Not to matter, right now I paid them no attention.

Once everyone was gone except these guys, I blew up, gesticulating frantically with the stupid pencils still in my hand.

"That was an order! Stryker's attack was an order!"

Outside, the demons milled about uncomfortably while I ranted inside my office.

"How dare you ignore my orders?"

All the demons glanced at each other, uncomfortable. A few rolled their eyes while others sighed at what they perceived was a farce.

"Is this what it has come to?" I yelled. "The military has been lying to me. Even the Divine Generals!"

Stella sobbed, ashamed, while Silvia stood beside her, at a loss. She quickly placed her hand on the red haired knight's shoulder in an attempt to comfort her.

Rising from my seat, I stood up and continued jabbing my finger rudely.

"I was supposed to be retired! I was supposed to have achieved world peace and coexistence! What the hell happened?! How did we end up at war?!"

"I think the king of the human kingdom was afraid of you," Lindley quickly said, his skeletal jaw clacking from the effort.

"He's a fucking idiot!" I exploded.

"My liege, that's right."

"And here I was, fighting for peace and coexistence," I growled before hurling the pencils at the map on my desk. "For what, exactly?! For a paranoid king to invade the Demonic Empire?!"

Taking a deep breath, I continued to rant.

"We were so bloody close to achieving peace, and that son of a bitch fucked up! He didn't care that I was a Hero who pulled out the holy sword. He didn't care that his citizens were suffering from poverty and starvation because of needless taxes levied upon his population just to feed his war machine! All he cares is about securing his throne and authority!"

Outside, Rose Gardenia pushed through the crowd to join Wilson, a perplexed expression on her face while she listened.

I pounded on my desk, continuing to rave angrily.

"At this rate, never mind the Havan Kingdom, even the Demonic Empire will be dragged into this mess and end up doomed!"

I raised a hand and clenched it into a fist, waving it in front of me.

"I should have had that fucking king and the entire royal family executed, just like what Viledoofus would have done."

After waving my hand about, I sat back down, heaving from rage.

"I may not have any royal blood in my veins," I growled. "But even I know how to treat my people better than that bastard!"

My officers exchanged agreeing glances. They knew that I had valued the citizens of the Demonic Empire first and had all of them evacuate to safety ahead of the war.

"There has to be a way to save both the humans and the demons!" I yelled in frustration. "Such enormous betrayal of the humans by their own rulers. By those so-called nobility and royals who were supposed to protect them! These corrupted leaders will pay for their atrocities!"

Outside the room, Silvia patted a sobbing Stella.

"Don't worry, Stella, we will definitely have a happy ending."

There was a long silence as all the soldiers exchanged uneasy looks. I slouched in my chair, staring down at the ground.

"So, what do you guys suggest I do now?" Shaking my head, I looked resigned. "Is there any way to save the Havan Kingdom from their own rulers? Is it over?"

Lindley raised a skeletal hand and rubbed the front of his robes, glancing at the other officers for help. Claude glanced from Chris to Larson, seemingly at a loss.

"It's not over yet."

Lindley raised a hand to his collar and loosened it, despite him not feeling suffocated or needing to breathe (he was a lich, after all).

I looked up determinedly, tears streaming down my face.

"There's no way I will give up. Not once have I given up, and now is not the time to start." Then I looked back down. "I'm open to ideas."

"May I suggest…Exterminatus?" Larson offered.

"That's a good idea," Claude agreed. Lindley also nodded. Chris, on the other hand, looked horrified.

"Wait, what?!"

"Don't worry, we won't destroy the whole Havan Kingdom. I'm simply suggesting that we nuke the capital. No, just the palace where the royal family is staying." Larson raised a finger. "As my liege rightly pointed out, the real culprits are the royal family. The citizens are sick of war, right? What if we just get rid of their rulers and corrupted government, and then tell the survivors that we have no intention of continuing hostilities?"

"Larson, you're a genius!"

At that moment, Stella stomped into the room. Silvia hurried after her, unable to stop her from barging in.

"Are you done with your parody?!" My aide snapped.

"Not until someone uploads a video of it into YouTube with the appropriate subtitles," I replied. All my advisors and officers groaned.

"Dude, stop the jokes," Wilson groaned, poking his head in.

"Hey, we all agreed to act it out for him," Lance pointed out.

"What was the whole point of this…parody?" Silvia asked, puzzled. I shrugged.

"It's the last chapter. I wanted to finish with a joke."

"Jokes aside, let's wrap this up so that we can finally achieve your objective." Claude sighed heavily. "I'll execute Exterminatus with your permission, my liege."

"No, no. I will do it myself."

A few hours later, atop my ice dragon, I cast a spell of mass destruction and nuked the castle where the royal family was living in. At the same time, I had Larson and Valencia assassinate the corrupted nobles who were the driving force behind the war, leaving a power vacuum.

Less than three days later, the surviving ministers and nobles in the Havan Kingdom accepted terms for peace. Even though there were demons who wanted to invade the Havan Kingdom, I successfully discouraged them.

Not only that, even though I had successfully decapitated the leadership of the Havan Kingdom, the humans still had the bulk of the military strength intact. Not to mention, they had gotten all seven Heroes back with my help. Which included me, by the way. Originally, my existence was supposed to bridge the two nations and achieve peace, but the paranoid king and his corrupted nobles declared war because they were afraid I would use my position as an excuse to conquer the Havan Kingdom.

They paid for their paranoia with their lives. The surviving nobles and ministers, having witnessed my might firsthand, were wise enough not to provoke me. Neither were the dissenting demons stupid enough to rebel after they had seen what I was capable of.

And thus…after a while, it was finally over.

"Finally," I muttered, stretching myself. My entourage accompanied as we left the new castle where the new leaders of humanity resided. With the royal family wiped out, the humans had ended up electing their government and transiting toward a democracy instead of the usual monarchy. It would be a long process, but one secretly supported from the shadows by my empire.

It was to my benefit to install a capitalistic democracy next to my empire, for mutual profit and peace.

"Did you foresee all of this?" Stella asked. I shook my head.

"Of course not. I was just making stuff up as I went along."

"Yet somehow it all worked out in the end." Silvia pattered her chest, relieved.

"I expected nothing less from my liege," Larson said. Everyone rolled their eyes at his confidence. Chris made a face.

"You had me worried for a second. I thought the war would drag out indefinitely."

"Good thing you were decisive." Wilson sighed. "Though I can't approve of what you did, I can say for sure that the aftereffects of getting rid of the royal family were good."

"Hindsight is twenty-twenty," Rose muttered.

"Hey, Klein!"

I stopped when I heard the familiar voice. Turning around, I caught sight of Harold and his party running toward me. I waved at him and waited for their approach.

"You did it." Harold was laughing. "You bloody fucking did it!"

"Whoa." I was caught off guard by his humor. "I thought you would pissed at what I did. I mean, I literally blew up the palace and nuked the royal family and a bunch of nobles to oblivion."

"After what they did?" Maria snorted. "The citizens are grateful to you. They were dying under those bastards' rule!"

"If you hadn't stepped in, they would have rebelled before long," Arnold added with a snicker. "The military was starting to snap. They were suffering casualties for no reason other than because the nobles thought they were better at commanding the armies than actual generals."

"Yeah, we had uprisings…the military had been dispatched to deal with protests…with force." Steve didn't look pleased.

"Some of the Heroes were sent to quash the riots and protests too," Priscilla said softly. "I can't imagine it went down well with them."

"Good thing Rafaela's new party was not among them," Stella whispered.

"In any event, we are grateful to you," Harold placed a hand on my shoulder. "Thanks to you, we have a new government! One that is truly for the people, chosen by the people!"

"Corruption will still be inevitable," I warned. Harold nodded.

"I know, but we'll do our best. We're currently organizing a House where there are checks and balances. Never again will a government be immune to criticism. The citizens have a right to voice their discontent and demand for changes!"

This was going to be difficult to implement in reality, but I decided not to tell them that. Instead, I nodded and wished them well. After a few pleasant exchanges, I got ready to return to the Demonic Empire, along with my entourage.

As we prepared to depart the Havan Kingdom, Stella leaned in close mischievously.

"Now that you've finally achieved your aim for peace and coexistence, when are you going to hold the wedding?"

"Huh? What wedding?"

Stella giggled. "Don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about. I know you and Sister Silvia are getting pretty close. When are you to marry her? Now that the war is over and we have peace, you have no excuse for putting it off."

"W…what are you talking about?!" Silvia demanded, blushing. Stella laughed before running off, chased by the silver-haired elf.

I watched them both from a distance, feeling contented. Pushing my glasses up, I glanced at the rest of my entourage. Chris and his mages. The loyal Larson. My bodyguards, Billy and Doug. The mad scientist-lich, Lindley. The intelligent Claude and cunning Eleanor. The formidable Stryker and fierce Lagios. The wise Valencia.

It had been a long journey and I had met so many people along the way. Even though the war was over, I felt as if nothing had ended. Rather, a new phase in my life had only just begun.

And I looked forward to what the future would bring.

THE END