TME 05

Chapter 5

The man greeted Cain and then quietly disappeared. His honorific speech was different from before. It was because Cain’s title had changed.

The new family name Cain had obtained was Adrian.

His title was Baron, and he had no territory because the land belonging to the title had already been returned to the state. But that did not matter to him.

“Haah.”

Cain let out a long sigh and clenched his right hand tightly.

Without even realizing it, his fighting spirit and passion began to burn.

Whoosh!

That passion gathered at the tip of his right hand as a red aura and burned fiercely.

And his desire for the future continued to grow.

A new life was about to begin.

At the end of that life, Cain imagined himself wearing a royal robe with a black background and golden patterns.

A shiver suddenly ran through him.

His sharply opened eyes became bloodshot.

And so, Cain was stepping onto the stepping stone that would become the foundation for his next great leap.

“First, just in case, it would be good to become close with the people here. At least so they won’t become suspicious of my appearance. The common people… can be surprisingly simple, after all.”

Cain made his first plan to blend in with the residents.

It was preparation for the future.

After all, his current noble identity was originally a forged one, and from the point of view of the residents who had lived here for generations, Cain might appear to be someone who had suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

To prevent this from becoming a problem later, he needed to gain the trust of the residents, at least around the estate that was considered part of the Baron family’s sphere of influence.

At the very least, he could not give them a reason to become suspicious.

Cain made several more detailed plans.

He intended to pretend that he was a relative of the Adrian family who had come to the capital to study magic, and that since everyone from the main family he had previously stayed with was gone, he had come here to stay for a while.

To prove that he had come to the capital to study magic, he decided to buy a robe, which was also a symbol of a mage, as well as some old magic books.

He also planned to find out how the previous main family had treated the residents and treat them in the same way.

Of course, if the family had been one that committed evil deeds, he would do the opposite and perform good deeds.

His thoughts were organized quickly.

And Cain’s life quickly began to blend into the new life of Cain Adrian.

03. Hiding the Sharp Claws

1

Ashuran Territory, a territory of the Rohan Empire.

Adrian Baron Family.

A new master had entered the old castle that had been completely empty, and as expected, the nearby residents began to take an interest.

It was only natural. The estate had begun to become lively again, and someone wearing a luxurious robe was living there.

As expected, one by one, the residents began peeking around near the baron’s estate.

Whenever that happened, Cain would go outside first and talk to them as he had planned.

He was a member of the Adrian Baron family preparing to study magic, and he had not heard any news from the main family because he had spent some time traveling around the Holy Empire Union countries to study.

Although he was from a magical nation, Cain knew well which countries belonged to the Holy Empire Union.

As Cain listed names that the residents had at least heard of and continued speaking logically, the residents soon began to accept his story.

Fortunately, it seemed that the Adrian Baron family had been highly regarded in this area.

The residents said that whenever the territory suffered a bad harvest, the family had even opened its warehouses and distributed grain.

Cain did not go that far, but he bought grains and manufactured goods directly produced by the residents so that the people he met would have a favorable impression of him.

After all, he needed food and daily necessities to live here anyway.

In this way, rumors about the new member of the baron family spread among the residents, and without much suspicion, they gradually accepted the new person of the baron family as one of their own.

While building relationships with the residents in public, Cain also prepared himself to adapt to his new surroundings.

First, he explored the surrounding terrain.

Ashuran Territory had wide-open plains surrounded by rugged mountains, making it a good place for Cain to practice magic.

In a way, obtaining the genealogy of a provincial noble family had turned out to be helpful.

Cain also decided to memorize every piece of information he could find about the Rohan Empire. From now on, the Rohan Empire was the place where Cain had to adapt, and it was his stage.

At least until Cain himself gained enough power to overturn the current situation, he had to remain within the Rohan Empire.

Wasn’t it said that knowing yourself and your enemy meant victory in every battle?

Therefore, during the day, Cain spent time with the residents and gathered information, while at night, he bought every book he could find in libraries and bookstores in nearby territories that could tell him about the recent situation of the Rohan Empire.

Among all that information, the things Cain considered most important were the military, economy, and education.

Of course, all of this information was important, so most of the books only covered the subjects superficially. But even that was precious to Cain, who had returned to the world after ten years.

The world had changed greatly during the past ten years.

It was not simply a matter of the Magical Nation being destroyed and the Rohan Empire taking its place.

“Hm……”

Flip.

Flip.

Meanwhile, as Cain continued reading, his expression gradually became distorted along with the sound of pages turning.

The chronicle describing the recent history of the Rohan Empire contained one shocking fact after another that made him frown.

The most noticeable thing was the one-sided trials and massacres of the former people of the Magical Nation.

Half of the prisoners of war who had been captured in the first year after the Magical Nation Zergard fell had died.

The people of Zergard ranged from commoners to high-ranking officials, but those below the commoner class were all sold into slavery or sent to forced labor camps, regardless of the reason.

The women were turned into prostitutes or sold to men who sought women.

The punishment of the high-ranking officials was especially noticeable.

The high-ranking officials were first sent to the Imperial Palace.

Then, at a large interrogation site prepared inside the Imperial Palace, they were brutally tortured simply because they were people of the Magical Nation.

At the interrogation site, the smell of burning flesh never disappeared, and screams rose toward the sky.

During the process, the people of Zergard were forced to swear loyalty.

Many officials of Zergard who could not withstand the torture eventually swore their loyalty.

No one could remain free while suffering such physical pain.

And so, the future of Zergard gradually faded like a dying candle.

At least those people were fortunate.

Those who refused to swear loyalty until the very end were tied to wooden frames shaped like crosses and burned alive.

The people of the Rohan Empire were even made to cut pieces of their flesh and eat them. The horror was so terrible that it was impossible to watch with open eyes.

But an even greater shock was the fact that the people of the Rohan Empire greatly enjoyed these brutal executions.

They regarded the deaths of the people of Zergard as little more than catching flying insects.

That was how little they cared.

In fact, there was a reason why the people of the Rohan Empire had such a pathological hatred for the people of the Magical Nation.

It was because Emperor Asen IV of the Rohan Empire had used religion to maximize the people’s hostility toward the Magical Nation.

Rohas, one of the Four Gods of the Holy Empire Union and also the main god of the Rohan Empire, was the God of Peace.

At the same time, he was also known as the God of White and the God of Purity.

The most effective way to rule the people was not through oppressive rule, but through religion, a spiritual means that cleverly penetrated their minds.

Asen IV noticed this and held a secret meeting with the High Priest and the chief religious officials. They sought ways to make the people thoroughly hate the Magical Nation through the beliefs and policies of the Church of Rohas.

During that process, countless methods were created to criticize and despise the Magical Nation without question.

One of the main methods was telling people about the Rohan Empire citizens who had died at the hands of Magical Nation soldiers in past wars and describing the horrors they had suffered.

In those stories, the priests cleverly mentioned Alkias, the main god of the Magical Nation Zergard.

Alkias was the God of War and the God of Passion.

The priests of the Rohan Empire distorted the truth about Alkias and portrayed the people of the Magical Nation as worshipers of Satan rather than a god.

They spread the unified belief that killing the people of the Magical Nation did not go against the will of the main god Rohas, and that it was actually the shortest path toward the white world Rohas dreamed of.

This coincided with the widespread epidemic and the growing military power of the Magical Nation, quickly penetrating into the minds of the people.

Asen IV’s method worked.

By openly spreading black propaganda against the Magical Nation at public events, the people became deeply influenced by those ideas.

Eventually, they came to look at the people of the Magical Nation with almost fanatical resentment and anger.

“What exactly did we do so wrong?”

Cain felt frustrated.

The Magical Nation and the Holy Empire had different directions in the ideals they pursued.

But even after looking through the history of the Magical Nation, there had never been a single time when the Magical Nation had tried to invade the sphere of influence of the Holy Empire.

That was because of the beliefs of the Magical Nation.

They believed that differences in ideology should not be denied.

Therefore, until only a few decades ago, the Magical Nation had actively sent friendly signals to the Holy Empire Union and constantly worked to improve their relationship.

They had also made every effort not to become enemies with the Rohan Empire, the leader of the Holy Empire Union.

But the one that broke this balance was the Holy Empire Union.

The Holy Empire Union had held completely different thoughts from the leaders of the Magical Nation from the beginning.

They needed a target to unite themselves both internally and externally.

That target was the Magical Nation Zergard.

The common anger of the people of the Holy Empire toward the Magical Nation gathered their strength in an instant.

They had found a common enemy who could stand in for all the people of the Holy Empire.

And so, war broke out.

It was a terrible war that scattered the blood of hundreds of thousands across the land.

As a result, Zergard fell.

And the reality of the present day came to be.

The more pages Cain turned, the more distorted his expression became.

The people of the Holy Empire hated the people of the Magical Nation so much that it seemed almost cruel.

But it was not their fault.

It was the result of being taught and brainwashed that way.

“……Wrong thoughts must be corrected.”

Cain clenched both fists.

He wanted to build a new dream on the old land that had become ruins, where nothing remained.

But that was still something for the distant future, a future he could not yet see.

2

“Phew, is it finally more or less finished?”

Cain leaned back in his chair as he looked at the books and scrolls spread across the large desk.

“It’s more serious than I thought……”

It had already been a month since Cain came to Ashuran Territory.

During that time, Cain had been able to roughly understand what had happened through the words of the residents and countless books.

He had also become skilled at the unfamiliar magic he had been learning, and he had learned all the information about his new identity and family that he might have otherwise overlooked.

Now, it was time to decide what path he would take.