“I wouldn’t say it resembles him all that much...”
Looking down at the severed head on the table before him, Jörgen smiled bitterly. He had been asked to inspect the head to verify its authenticity. Jörgen had known Yuuto for nearly twenty years now—if anyone could tell whether the head truly did belong to the great Suoh-Yuuto, it’d have been him. For that reason, if he announced that the head really was Yuuto’s, there could have been no greater proof—which had been the plan all along.
“Father sure has given me a hell of a job this time.” With an exhausted sigh, Jörgen shook his head.
He recalled the events that had transpired half a year ago...
“You’re retiring?!” Jörgen said incredulously.
Upon being summoned to Yuuto’s office, Jörgen had received some shocking news. His surprise was understandable—Yuuto was only a little over thirty, an age said by some to be the prime of one’s life when it came to mental and physical prowess.
“Yeah. I’ve been here ten years, and now that the food situation’s finally stabilized, I’d say it’s about time for me to take my leave.” Yuuto gave a small shrug, his elbows on his desk and his head resting on his palms.
Despite his face still retaining the youth of someone in their midtwenties, Yuuto exuded an aura of dignity and majesty, doubtless due to the sheer number of gory battles he’d overcome. Jörgen understood why so many of the greenhorn soldiers cowered and became tongue-tied in his presence. Naturally, it had never been Yuuto’s intent to frighten his subjects, but he was now such a prominent figure that his very existence was unavoidably imposing, automatically intimidating those under his rule. However, as one who’d served under Yuuto for many years now, Jörgen was of course immune to this.
“Don’t you think it’s a little early for you to retire? Unlike an old codger like me, you still have many, many prosperous years ahead of you!” Jörgen replied.
“And it’s precisely because I have ‘many, many prosperous years ahead of me’ that I want to be free from this burden already,” Yuuto explained. A bitter half-smile appeared on his lips.
“I see. Come to think of it, you didn’t exactly become a ruler because you wanted to, did you?” Jörgen recalled the first time they’d met. Yuuto was such a natural-born leader that it was easy to forget, but he’d never aspired to be a king in the first place. He was completely uninterested in attaining wealth, power, or status.
“That’s right, and now that we’ve weathered the storm and are finally on track to prosperity, I think I’ve done enough.”
“Indeed, you’ve done an incredible amount of work.” Jörgen nodded sagely. After becoming the patriarch of the quaint mountain-valley clan known as the Wolf Clan, Yuuto had conquered half of Yggdrasil in the span of only a few years and had rescued over a million Yggdrasilians from an unprecedented calamity. Even upon migrating to the New World, he had done everything in his power to prevent his subjects from starving, and he’d done so without making use of any of his knowledge from the land beyond the heavens whatsoever. It wasn’t simply flattery—Jörgen honestly believed that Yuuto was an incredible man.
“So, I’ve been thinking, shouldn’t I just go ahead and let my successor take the reins already? After all...” Yuuto paused, a grin of self-deprecation appearing on his face. “I’m not gaining any more popularity with my subjects by sticking around, am I?”
“...I suppose not.” After a small pause of his own, Jörgen reluctantly agreed. Ever since moving to the New World, Yuuto’s approval rating hadn’t exactly been favorable. As a matter of fact, it was the lowest it had ever been.
Upon touching down on the New World, Yuuto had forbidden himself from using any of his modern-era knowledge, including letters and characters. That was because he was afraid that if he carelessly changed the future, he might inadvertently cause a time paradox and make it so that their great escape from Yggdrasil had never happened.
However, the lack of advanced technology meant a decreased standard of living for his subjects. Naturally, the public were unsatisfied with being forced to live under conditions that were clearly more inconvenient and harrowing than Yggdrasil’s had been, but faced with Yuuto’s overwhelming military might, they’d been unable to resist.
Thus Yuuto’s approval among the people had plummeted—in fact, it was currently at rock bottom. They now saw “Suoh-Yuuto” as a demonic tyrant who struck fear in the hearts of all his subjects.
On the other hand, Jörgen didn’t think a change in rulership was going to do anything to improve the people’s living conditions. Still, he understood the necessity of at least temporarily quelling their dissatisfaction.
“Then who do you propose as your successor? Your son Nozomu?” Jörgen asked.
Hereditary ties hadn’t meant much under Yggdrasil’s Chalice system, but it was a different story when it came to the þjóðann. Regardless of the actual circumstances, Nozomu was the only child of Yuuto’s that carried the blood of the previous þjóðann Sigrdrífa, which meant that he was automatically the most suitable successor to the throne. However, Yuuto didn’t seem to be too keen on the idea.
“It’d be too cruel to force this burden onto a mere fourteen-year-old.”
“You certainly managed it, didn’t you?”
“I’m not the sort of parent that wants their kid to go through the same crap they did.” Yuuto shrugged his shoulders in apparent self-derision. It seemed he really did consider the throne nothing more than a nuisance.
“Then I suppose the next choice would be Linnea, your second-in-command?” Going by the Chalice system, the second-in-command was next in line to inherit the position of patriarch. What’s more, Linnea’s potential was so great that even Jörgen could recognize it. In addition to her business acumen and high popularity, she had a gentle heart and was always looking out for her clan’s people—in some respects, she was the optimal candidate to lead the Steel Clan as the next reginarch.