When I Fell Madly in Love With the Heroine, the World Changed. - Chapter 34: The Midnight Dialogue.

“Ro, Rhode!”

“Can I call a representative of an enemy country by your title? Kenya-kun.”

It’s as if it’s so natural that it’s hard to even be alarmed.

Normally, I should have immediately raised my gun and ridden with Takemikazuchi.

And yet, Kenya couldn’t move because the situation was so natural.

“It’s okay. I don’t want to fight. Let your guard down, believe it or not.”

“You were killing each other just now and you expect me to believe you?”

“If I wanted to kill you, I would have already done it. Have a sniper on standby. I thought you were truly invincible on the battlefield, but now you’re flesh and blood.”

Rhode smiles.

Surely it would have been easy enough to shoot through Kenya, who had come down carelessly.

I don’t think Reina could do it, but I can easily imagine that I would have come down with a whoosh if she had asked me to.

If Reina asked me to do it, I’d even run into death.

” Sie, would you please get ready?”

“Ha!”

Then, from that military vehicle, a desk and a chair are prepared.

They are simple, but they are assembled as if they were camping.

“Sit down.”

Kenya silently sits in the prepared chair.

Kenya, Tanaka, Sieg, Reina and Rhode.

The main figures of this battle all gather around the desk.

But the atmosphere is not one of pleasant banter.

An important talk that could even decide the fate of this country has begun.

“We have a lot to talk about, …… but first of all, you’ve done well.”

“That’s our line.”

The representatives of the Asgar Empire, who had been killing each other earlier, and the Japanese knight who had cut everything down.

Even Kenya is angry.

How much blood has been spilled.

“I’ve never been in a fight like that before. And defeat too. But strangely enough, there is a part of me that is convinced that you are the one, the one my instincts have chosen. But you’re totally reckless.”

Rhode looks around at the wreckage around him.

“Oh, and I’m sure you’re wondering. About my sister, Yumir Asgar.”

“She’s the Imperial Princess so I let her get away. …… I’ve got to get revenge on that her one day, she caused such a mess…”

“No, that’s impossible. She’s already dead. I killed her.”

“What? Eh?!”

Kenya, Reina and Tanaka look at Rhode with astonished faces, thinking it’s impossible.

Rhode sips the tea on his desk, as if he’s not even thinking about it.

“That woman has caused a lot of problems in the Empire. She killed too many colonists in particular, for no good reason, because of her own proclivities.”

Rhode then looks around the battlefield.

Wreckage of KOG, slums, and human corpses.

“It’s terrible, I told them that I didn’t want them to fight anyone but the resistance, well, I thought it was useless.”

Hearing this, Kenya recalls a fact that he had forgotten because of so much happening.

He remembers, but immediately remembers the blood rushing to his head and his anger.

Yes, this guy is a member of the royal family. He is the one who killed Azusa and everyone else.

Immediately, he stands up and roughly grabs Rhode by the collar.

“Oh, you guys did it!

“Katsuragi!”

Sieg tries to pull Kenya away from him, but Rhode points his hand to stop Sieg.

“Look, Sieg. I understand, Kenya-kun. I know you hate us, and there is no doubt that it was us in the Asgar Empire who killed your loved ones. But don’t think that what happened today is special. It’s an everyday thing that’s still happening somewhere…”

“Gugu!”

Rhode looks straight at Kenya with eyes as if he could see right through him.

“I swear by this much. I don’t and haven’t done any senseless killing. I’ve crushed a few slums this time around, but I treat them all carefully as third-class Asgar Empire citizens.

I had nothing to do with the devastation here, either. I would never hurt those who were not prepared to fight.”

Sieg then joins in.

“That is true, Katsuragi. There have been no deaths on the battlefields that Rhode-sama has conquered. Except here.”

“But, but! Azusa! All of you! Oh, if it was you! You’re the royal family, you could have saved them! You’re the one in command!”

Kenya, distraught, grabs Rhode’s chest tightly.

But Rhode grabs his hand strongly, and Kenya is frightened for a moment.

Then, in a frighteningly low voice, Rhode says to Kenya.

“If you keep this up, the same thing will happen all over the world.”

“What?!”

Kenya unintentionally let go of his grasping hand at Rhode’s power.

“I can’t help it. Because Yumir Aasgars has more power than me. If it’s me and my sister’s orders, the army will listen to my sister’s orders and I can’t give orders to that woman. Because even though we are of the same royal family, I am lower in the line of succession to the Imperial Throne.”

“—”

The force of the situation silences kenya.

As it is, Rhode speaks out as if he were rambling.

“And my brother. Odin is a man who is willing to make what happened today happen all over the world at all. He is a man who really wants to rule the world by force alone. It wasn’t personal likes and dislikes that led me to kill my sister. It was because she would definitely side with my brother in the battle for the imperial throne.”

Rhode’s reason for killing Yumir.

The reason was that she would get in the way of the struggle for the imperial throne.

What it means.

“That’s …….”

“Oh, I killed her so that I could become Emperor. To be Emperor of the Asgar Empire. To overthrow my brother.”

Hearing this purpose, Sieg and Reina were as speechless as Kenya and Tanaka.

Originally, the first prince Odin Asgar would have succeeded to the imperial throne.

But Rhode interrupted and said.

“Father, you know that the current emperor, in other words, does not have much time left”

“I know that. That’s why the invasion of the Empire around the world has been put on pause.”

Kenya answers Rhode’s question.

Since recognizing him as an enemy, he has stopped using honorifics and has broken down. But he is not in the mood to be a friend, so he converses with his mouth.

“Oh, I was on the battlefield too, but the war was suspended. However, the EU, as I say, is already not strong enough. It’s only a matter of time before it joins forces with the Asian Union.”

Rhode, who himself almost destroyed the EU, but the war was suspended due to the emperor’s illness.

And it was Rhode’s prediction that it was only a matter of time before the dying EU and the Asian Union joined forces.

The two allied states were originally not on good terms.

But in the face of a giant common enemy, Rhode saw no choice but to join hands.

“Back to the story, the current emperor will die, soon. And what happens next is a struggle for the imperial throne. To be clear, if things continue as they are, my brother will become emperor.”

“I think so too, since it is Odin-sama who holds most of the power now …….”

“Yes, but I will be emperor.”

“Rhode, does that mean you’re going to stage a coup d’etat?”

“No, no. This is the main topic of today’s discussion. I will tell you about my plan to become emperor. You can say that this was proposed to me by my father: ……. Father wants to make me emperor in the first place. But my brother’s camp has anticipated this and taken in powerful nobles, and with my father, who is sick and has no future, he has gained enough power to make his share of the power.”

Odin has already begun preparing for his ascension to the emperor’s throne, he says.

The emperor is an absolute power, but he already has a long way to go, and some nobles have started to join Odin’s camp, so he is not in control.

“I can’t think of any way …… to do that.”

“Sieg should know better. In the Asgar Empire, there is a centuries-old tradition of the Imperial Succession Ceremony. A traditional battle, a duel, whose true meaning has now been forgotten.”

“Dueling? …… You are not talking about the Imperial Sword and Warrior Festival? That’s already just a festival event!”

Then Sieg, who had been silently listening, raises his voice.

Kenya and Tanaka ? Reina also shows a look of no way.

“That. Our country’s greatest martial arts festival. A tournament to decide the strongest KOG knight of the year, now that the original meaning has been lost.”

“Explain it to me, Rhode. Why does a mere festival have anything to do with the succession to the throne?”

Kenya, who is unable to see the story at all, asks Rhode.

“Ah, let me explain.”

The Imperial Sword and Warrior Festival is a tournament created by past emperors who used to kill each other incessantly with their brothers.

He made a rule that the emperor was the one who had the best subordinates fight, and sometimes even fight himself, and win, and from then on, all assassinations were prohibited.

The tournament has now been reshaped and has become an imperial pastime and a competition for the best of the best.

The battle embodied the imperial idea that the emperor should be the strongest of all.

The emperor’s instrument is to use the best people, gather the best subordinates, and win.

As if to embody this, the winner succeeds the emperor, so that the brothers who fought for the imperial throne do not have to shed meaningless blood, and the festival was born out of this thought.

“I will win my brother’s camp there. On that condition, my father decided to declare me emperor. To all the people, I am the next emperor. Father knows that the empire will be divided.

That’s why I need an achievement to declare, an achievement of winning over my brother, and only then can I declare myself the next emperor.”

“How can that happen? How can you decide who the emperor is based on the result of a mere duel? ……”

Kenya wonders and asks Rhode.

He feels that it is only an old tradition, and that such a thing should just be ignored, no matter what the outcome.

He wonders if he should just ignore it and use his power and strength to get them to recognize him as emperor.

“No, no. Katsuragi. If it’s a matter of luck that wins the day, then you’re right. But if Rhode-sama is the victor, it will be a different story.”

Then the surprised Sieg speaks out, the result of his contemplation.

“Rhode-sama’s name is feared all over the world. With his brains, his battle record and his results…! …You don’t mean to say that the EU wars were for that reason!”

“Oh, yes. Because without results, no one would follow you.”

“You must have been only 10 years old at the time, don’t tell me it’s been since that day? Rhode.”

He answers Sieg’s question in silence.

Recalling a past that only Sieg and Rhode could know.

“What do you mean?”

Reina, who has lost track of the conversation, asks her father.

“The Imperial Sword and Warrior Festival is indeed a tradition, but it is not legally binding as such. In the first place, there is no law to decide who is emperor. However, if Rhode-sama wins, it has a different meaning.”

“The winner will have better subordinates than the loser, which is proof of power. And Rhode-sama’s outstanding power of command will be known all over the world and all Asgar Empire from the former EU wars.

And if what was said earlier is true, he will be proclaimed the next emperor by the current emperor, which means that if Rhode Odin rebels, it will be a coup d’état. You know what will happen if those conditions are met? Reina.”

“The other nobles will switch sides ……?”

“Yes, if there is going to be a battle that divides the empire in two, there will be many nobles who will join Rhode Odin. This is why his record in the EU. A commander who has won all battles and is undefeated.

We, the Empire, have learned too well from the biggest war in history that we are going to make an enemy of the Rhodes. And the cause of the recommendation of the current emperor is here.”

It is not just a matter of seizing real power in a coup, apparently.

Come to think of it, in the history of the previous world, the brocade was the emperor’s army, i.e. the official army.

Which side justice lies on is probably very important.

That’s why they even incorporated the Imperial Court into their history.

In this case, it is easy to understand: the Rhode is justice for the people, and evil is Odin.

“Yes, I can fight my brother head-on under the banner of justice. As a regular army. With the army of the rebellious First Prince. But when I thought of this plan, I have to admit, it was a pipe dream. I myself was reckless to the point of insanity.”

Rhode affirms Sieg’s explanation.

But at the same time denies it, that it was impossible.

Because.

“In the military, my brother has more power than me, and all the holy knights and chief holy knights are held down. Well, Sieg is retired as a knight, so it doesn’t matter, but some of them are probably more powerful than Sieg in the first place.

So I heard rumors and came to this country with high hopes for Reina, the White Silver Ice Princess, who is still an apprentice and does not have my brother’s influence. But I knew that she was still not strong enough to fight against the chiefs of the Holy Knights. However…”

So Rhode straightened up Kenya.

“I then found you”