I’d like to talk about what happened after defeating Cain. A few days passed and the impact of his death turned out to be far greater than I’d expected. With him gone, the world was thrown into chaos for a while.
There were headlines topping the newsstands such as “Members of Churdrea’s Government Missing with No Leads!”
I guess Cain wasn’t lying about having people in places of power. As a result of Cain dying, the people he’d made living corpses of—the people who conveniently controlled the world—disappeared. Now, everyone else was trying to deal with the fallout. I didn’t think Cain was a saint or anything, but I could see how ironic it was that the world enjoyed such a long era of peace while I was reincarnating. Now that his grip on the world had disappeared though, I had no doubt that the next two hundred years would be a trying time for humans.
But there was no use crying over spilled milk. No matter what difficulties awaited us in the future, I was confident that it’d be better than Cain’s world—where peace was only an illusion.
✦ ✦ ✦
It’s been five years since I defeated Cain, and it was now early spring, contrary to the currently chilly weather. As I walked down the path to school, the sight of cherry blossoms in full bloom accompanied me, and I was reminded of both meetings and farewells.
“Congratulations on your graduation, Abel,” Emerson said. “Let’s have a grand celebration for your new path!”
I graduated from Arthlia Academy of Magecraft without any issues, and, currently, Emerson was putting a crown of flowers upon my head.
Graduation, huh? To be honest, it doesn’t really feel like it at all. But that mostly had to do with the fact that starting from second year, I had earned the right to be exempt from classes, and since then had holed myself up in the school’s research facilities.
“Heh heh. Now that you’ve graduated, maybe calling you by your first name is a little disrespectful. How would you feel about me calling you President from now on?” Emerson asked.
“Pass.”
I’d founded a new company while I was still a student at the academy. In order to earn money in peacetime, the fastest way was to make my own company. I’d long since realized that I wasn’t suited to work under the instructions of others. Now that I’d graduated, I planned to make my way in the world as the president of my small company.
“How’s the progress of the project?” I asked.
In a truly lamentable development, this creepy guy had become my business partner. I’d had multiple ideas for new Regalias, but as a student, it was impossible to mass manufacture them myself. In the end I decided to partner with Chronos so that I could put out my products to the world.
“Heh heh. Thanks to your help, we’re getting tons of preorders. I knew you had it in you to become the best Regalia inventor in the world Abel. If my predictions are correct, when this product hits the markets, the status quo will be turned on its head!”
Our current project was the joint development between my company and Chronos of a new kind of communications device.
“However, I highly recommend that you change the name of the product as soon as possible. ‘Cellular communications display with built-in touch panel’ is way too technical a name! From a marketing perspective it’s completely ridiculous!” Emerson exclaimed.
“I don’t care,” I replied. “None of that concerns me. Just make up something for all I care.”
When I was thinking of a new Regalia to make, the first thing that came to mind was a communications device. There were already various models in the world, but all of them were too unwieldy to be portable, and as a result weren’t widely used. The cellular communications display with built-in touch panel was an improved version of current communications devices that also solved their existing problems. And on top of that, this new Regalia had functions that the other communication devices simply didn’t have. Individuals using this Regalia could access information they couldn’t previously. If this device was spread across the world, I was thinking that it might be possible to even ease the prejudice against Amber-Eyed individuals...at least a little.
“Oh, by the way, Elon wanted me to tell you that though it’s a bit early, he wants you to start working on the next version of the product. Apparently, preorders of the current model are already being sold out.”
Elon was the very same vice president of Chronos who I’d fought previously during the school trip. He’d since been promoted to the representative of Chronos. The previous representative had apparently disappeared around the same time Cain had. I could make a guess as to what really happened, but decided not to pry.
“With all that out of the way, let’s get down to the nuts and bolts! I’ve already compiled all the features I think Version 2 should have,” Emerson said, smacking down a pile of papers onto the table, his breathing turning ragged with excitement.
Good grief. I kind of already have other plans...
But that being said, there was nothing I could do when Emerson got fired up like this. I stayed with Emerson until I had just barely enough time to arrive at the meeting place.