Chapter 61

Swoosh!

Kairos's soul, which had escaped from the iron mace, seeped into the prince's body.

“...Hmm.”

The prince slowly got up.

“How do you feel?”

Oto approached the prince, or rather, Kairos who had taken over the prince's body, and asked.

“Does this body seem to be a good match?”

“I'm not sure yet.”

Kairos frowned and replied.

“My head hurts so much. It feels like it's going to explode.”

“It's because it almost did, so it hurts.”

“Huh?”

“You hit yourself in the back of the head with the iron mace.”

“Damn it!”

Kairos, feeling the back of his head, saw his hand covered in blood and exploded in anger.

“I didn’t think about that.”

“...”

“No wonder it hurts.”

Kairos grumbled.

‘Is this guy really that stupid?’

Oto doubted Kairos's intelligence.

‘Not thinking about that? Tsk tsk. I don’t understand how he managed to become an emperor with this level of intelligence.’

Meanwhile.

“Ugh. My head hurts so much.”

Kairos, holding his bleeding head, complained of the pain.

Indeed, the prince's head had almost been crushed.

If the iron mace had hit with a bit more force, it would have burst like a smashed watermelon.

“So, how do you feel?”

“My head hurts, didn’t I say that already!”

“No, I mean something else.”

Oto scowled.

“Does this body seem to be a good match?”

“Hmm.”

Kairos thought for a moment and then answered.

“It’s not bad.”

“Really?”

“Somehow, this body seems to be able to...”

At that moment.

Crack!

The iron mace, which had contained Kairos's soul, shattered.

It had held the massive soul of Kairos for too long, and its durability had finally run out.

“Eh?”

Oto was slightly taken aback by the shattered iron mace.

“What are you going to do now? Your home is broken.”

“What?”

“What if this body starts to decay like last time? Then you’ll have nowhere to go.”

Kairos's soul was so massive.

Many criminals' bodies had contained Kairos's soul, but none had lasted more than an hour.

The shortest was one minute, and the longest was thirty minutes before the body started to decay.

“This time, it seems to be fine.”

“Really...?”

“It feels light.”

Fortunately, the prince's body seemed capable of containing Kairos's soul.

“Good. Congratulations on your rebirth, man.”

Oto sincerely congratulated Kairos.

“Rebirth...?”

“You got a new body, so it’s like being reborn.”

“T-That’s right.”

“How good must it feel? You can drink as much of your favorite alcohol as you want.”

“Yeah! That’s a great thing! Hahaha!”

Kairos, already eager for alcohol, laughed with a bloody head.

‘This guy really seems like an idiot.’

Oto shook his head at such a Kairos.

Meanwhile.

“Surrender! I surrender!”

“I surrender!”

Surrender declarations from the Roshan people echoed everywhere.

And...

“Long live the Iota Kingdom!”

“Long live!”

“Wooooo!”

“We won!”

The Iota Kingdom soldiers burst into victory cheers.

Thus, the civil war of the Roshan Kingdom, which had caused massive casualties, came to an end with the victory of the Iota Kingdom, not the rebels or the suppressors.

[Notification: Congratulations!]

[Notification: You have successfully conquered the Roshan Kingdom!]

[Notification: Your experience has increased!]

[Notification: Your experience has increased!]

(omitted)

[Notification: Congratulations!]

[Notification: Your level has increased!]

[Notification: Level 92 achieved!]

[Notification: Level 93 achieved!]

[Notification: Level 94 achieved!]

[Notification: Level 95 achieved!]

[Notification: Level 96 achieved!]

Perhaps because the Roshan Kingdom was more powerful than the Iota Kingdom, Kairos's level increased by a whopping five levels at once.

Eliminating a potential enemy, expanding territory, and leveling up.

Kairos achieved a threefold success.

* * *

After the war.

“I have no intention of being a king in this backwater village. Do as you please.”

Louis Blanc, or rather, Kairos, threw the Roshan Kingdom's crown onto the floor.

As if to say, "What kind of junk is this?"

Indeed, for Kairos, who had once ruled a third of the continent, the Roshan Kingdom's crown was nothing but junk.

“...”

“...”

“...”

The Roshan Kingdom's ministers were taken aback by Kairos's sudden action but soon understood.

‘He must have gone mad.’

‘Indeed, it would be stranger if he were sane.’

They thought the prince had gone mad due to the psychological shock of losing the war.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have thrown away the crown, a symbol of the royal family, like a piece of trash.

Besides, with the Iota Kingdom's occupation, it was impossible to continue the royal lineage.

Thanks to this, the merger was completed much faster than expected.

With the prince, now Kairos, throwing away the crown, the ministers had no reason to resist.

“...From this moment on, Roshan is officially merged with the Iota Kingdom. We hope for your active cooperation.”

Camille read the declaration and introduced Oto to the Roshan ministers.

“His Majesty Oto de Scuderi is here.”

“Greetings, Your Majesty.”

The ministers bowed to Oto, but it was just a formality.

‘What a country bumpkin.’

‘If it weren’t for the civil war, your head would have been on the chopping block.’

‘What a humiliation.’

The Roshan ministers cursed, belittled, mocked, and despised Oto in their hearts.

“Pleased to meet you all. I hope for your cooperation. For now, we will focus on restoring the damage caused by the war, so I ask for your active cooperation.”

Oto left the throne room after leaving this simple message.

“Just leaving?”

Camille asked Oto.

“Why stay? Is there more?”

“You should spend more time with them to build rapport.”

Camille’s advice was correct.

To the Roshan ministers, and indeed to all the Roshan people, Oto was just a conqueror.

They had been forced to submit by power, not by choice.

Therefore, Oto needed to win the hearts of not only the ministers but also the people of the Roshan Kingdom, and to do that, he needed to spend time with them and show his abilities and charm as a ruler.

Even as a king, he needed to make efforts to win the people's hearts.

“I don’t have time for that. I’m busy.”

“Your Majesty!”

“I’m busy, I said.”

Oto passed by Camille with a look of annoyance, as if it wasn’t worth the effort.

As if the people’s hearts didn’t matter to him...

* * *

Oto left the post-war reconstruction of the Roshan Kingdom to the ministers and partied with Kairos.

They were celebrating Kairos's rebirth with a drink.

Clank, clank, clank, clank!

Kairos, who seemed to have a high tolerance for alcohol, drank bottles of strong liquor without showing any signs of intoxication.

“Why aren’t you getting drunk? Burp!”

Oto, with a flushed face, asked Kairos, clearly unable to understand.

Oto’s eyes were half-closed, and anyone could tell he was drunk.

“I am a man among men, so I don’t get drunk!”

“Does that make sense? Burp! This body was originally... burp! not yours... burp!”

“Haha! How can a young whelp like you understand the drinking capacity of a man among men! Hahaha!”

“You’ll... burp! die of alcohol poisoning.”

“My words don’t apply to weaklings! Chug, chug!”

Kairos said this and then drank another bottle of 40-degree whiskey.

On Kairos’s table, dozens of empty whiskey bottles were piled up.

Even if the contents of those bottles were water, his stomach would be full and he wouldn’t be able to drink more.

“Madman... burp! I really... won’t drink... with you...”

Thud.

Oto passed out before he could finish his sentence.

“Haha! What a young whelp!”

Kairos laughed, looking at the unconscious Oto with a mocking expression.

“I am the best drinker on the continent. Hahaha!”

But Kairos had a secret...

Drip, drip.

Under the table, alcohol was dripping from the tips of Kairos’s claw-like fingers.

In fact, Kairos wasn’t a heavy drinker.

He used mana to subtly expel the alcohol from his fingertips, maintaining a constant blood alcohol level.

Thus, no matter how much he drank, he wouldn’t get drunk.

“A foolish mind leads to a suffering body.”

Kairos mocked Oto once and continued drinking, with the moon as his companion.

Then.

“I am sorry.”

A bitter voice escaped from Kairos’s lips.

“I should have protected you... but I was deceived by that wicked man and made you suffer...”

Back then.

It was obvious what the Great Emperor Argon did to Kairos’s subordinates.

Kairos kept drinking alone, thinking of his old subordinates.

Until dawn...

* * *

The Iota Kingdom, having conquered Roshan, focused on internal affairs.

With the conquest of Roshan, they had unified the western frontier of the continent, and they needed to build up their strength quietly for a while.

However, internal affairs were not easy.

In a short time, several territories and countries had merged, and various side effects began to appear.

The most representative case was, of course, <division>.

About three months after the Iota Kingdom conquered Roshan.

“Sir Camille, the carpenters are not following the regulations.”

“Sir Camille! There’s a riot in the streets!”

“Sir Camille! A fistfight broke out among the soldiers, resulting in three deaths and 69 injuries. The involved parties are currently...”

“Sir Camille! A knife fight broke out in front of the Roshan palace.”

Camille, overwhelmed by the reports, seriously considered submitting his resignation.

‘It’s dangerous.’

Over the past few weeks, Camille had been plagued by all kinds of complaints, and the root cause was ultimately the same.

Conflict and division.

The people of the Iota Kingdom were not united and often fought each other.

They formed groups based on their regions of origin and started fighting with groups from other regions.

This was due to the cultural characteristics of the western frontier of the continent.

The people of the <Pashto> region, as it was called, had almost no sense of national identity.

They didn’t even consider themselves part of the same ethnicity.

The <Pashto> region was a rugged mountainous area.

As a result, the people had stronger loyalty and community spirit to their hometowns or territories than to the state.

Moreover, the Roshan people’s resistance to Iota’s rule inevitably led to various social issues.

Fortunately, the Iota Kingdom’s army