I Thought I Might Try Using It.

Linda decided to take full charge of sending an official request for cooperation to the Apoca Kingdom, and Matilda adjusted the schedule she had entrusted to Mia, making a plan so that she could return to Ing City together with Duke Asilbar at the right time.

And when Hare, Demina, and several others reached the point of searching for and preparing a place where Mia and Duke Asilbar would meet, I asked Duke Asilbar, who had returned after finishing his investigation just in time.

“How was the investigation?”
“According to the mage who came with me, judging from the direction and distance of the movement, as well as the remaining amount of magic power used, I was able to receive certain word that the distance would roughly match.”

“As expected… So that is how it turns out….”

My head was complicated.

“Has… a place been prepared?”

“The woman who was moved is very different from what Duke Asilbar told us. But in a few days, information on the Corrupted Hero will arrive from the Apoca Kingdom… so I think it would be best to wait until then and face her together.”

“….You went that far with it?”

“I judged that a war could break out, and the Terakan Empire is close to a lump of desire…”

“They have changed.”

A strange silence settled over us. Several circumstances kept making it seem as though they were saying Mia was the former Corrupted Hero and the Demon King, so my heart felt heavy.

But what if she truly had amnesia?

What if Mia was deceiving us with lies?

Or if not even that, what if she was waiting for an opportunity?

Amid all sorts of guesses and worries flying about, I was able to finish the conversation with Duke Asilbar, and from there I had no choice but to immediately move to build the place for the Demon King confirmation procedure, packaged under the pretext of constructing academy grounds.

It was a remote piece of land about an hour away from Ing City, but the population had increased greatly recently, so many people were now living here as well.

At least a large plot of land remained, so we planned to use it to raise the academy building there.

‘The Demon King…’

If it became certain that Mia was the Demon King, then I had to punish Mia. Kill her… or if not that, perhaps I might have to take her to Romaer, called the Holy Kingdom.

I thought that there, she might be killed after receiving God’s judgment, or she might go through a purification ritual and be recycled as a Hero.

‘Well, most people would probably think of killing her first…’

It was unfortunate. She was from the same Earth, and she was a fellow Korean. In other words, she was a connection I had encountered in a foreign land from which we could not return.

Although in my case, I could return to Earth again thanks to Artemisia’s consideration… I wondered if I would try to return when the time came for me to die.

“What are you thinking so deeply about?”

At Demina’s question, I escaped my thoughts and gave a rough excuse.

“I was thinking about how to raise the building so people will say it was built well.”

“It seems like you were worrying about something else, though?”

“Will you let it slide?”

Demina smiled gently. Still, since there was work to do, I thought I should do that first and used Construction, setting the wide plot and imagining the academy’s appearance, but no matter how I added imagination in this or that form, I just could not feel satisfied.

“Hmm… Do I need to subdivide it and make it separately…?”

I thought it lacked a certain individuality. Rather than simply connecting school buildings, I thought it would be nice if it had some special shape, and I began adding imagination to suit the characteristics of our country.

“First… a lion, maybe?”

Demina looked puzzled at my words, and behind her, a giant structure in the shape of a lion began to rise. Seeing that, she looked back and forth between me and the lion-shaped structure with a shocked expression, and I said to Demina.

“I thought a building with an interesting shape would be good if possible. So this is what I thought of… First, I intend to connect buildings in the shapes of various animals that your clans transform into.”

“Would that not be strange…?”

“Well, if it is strange, we can just overturn it all. It will be a bit of work… but does it not seem like it would be magnificent?”

Demina shook her head. It was practically a denial, but I began insisting on my own way again.

All sorts of animals began to take shape. Considering the size of the first lion, I began adjusting the sizes of the animals to fit reality as much as possible, and after constructing most of the animals I knew… or more precisely, most of the animals I could imagine, I began making detailed adjustments to smooth out the connecting parts.

Because of that, the people living nearby showed interest and began gathering one after another.

One centuria that had followed me as an escort grew extremely tense and began keeping watch around us, but I wondered if there was any need to go that far.

However, since they were doing their work with their own sense of duty, I decided not to touch it, and I continued my focused work while taking recovery medicine in order to build the building I imagined and wanted.

As the number of people gathering at the construction site over the course of several hours continued to increase, I finished the exterior work and moved inside the plot, then began thinking about the interior design.

“Hmm… The exterior is animals… and the interior is… hmm…”

There were a few things I had thought of. For example, should I try making it in the shape of people holding hands with one another?

As I used my imagination while thinking that, Demina asked.

“Are you planning to handle the entire plot today?”

“It is difficult to come out once, after all. If I can get it handled, I intend to handle it.”

“Are you not tired?”

“I am tired. But as I said before, this is not a situation where I can do several tasks at once, is it? Moreover, this place… is a place where we must do quite an important task…”

I had to prepare with focus, if only because of the matter with Mia. That was why I first raised the building so that it would be difficult to see the interior from the outside.

After hearing the reason, Demina sighed.

After that, I began creating an inner wall in the form of humans and beastkin holding one another’s hands. Since the theme was “harmony,” I thought this suited it the most, and I was able to finish the inner wall by engraving the thing I had resolved upon above their heads.

“What are the shapes above the human figures?”

Demina, who finally noticed that I had drawn something, asked. So I grinned and said.

“You can think of them as the ‘letters’ that should be learned as the very basics at this academy.”

“….Let…ters?”

Demina wore an expression that said she could not understand. No matter how lacking her common sense was, she must have realized that it was not the Continental Common Language. So I grinned and said to Demina.

“They are letters used in my homeland. But these letters can give form to ‘sounds.’”

“Sounds…?”

She had an expression that said she could not understand. So first, I began teaching Demina the meanings suited to each symbol, and after listening to my explanation for a while, Demina wore an expression saying her head hurt.

In truth, Demina could read and write, but it could not be said that she was fluent. So when I showed her how the letters were used, Demina looked at me in surprise.

“Literally, all you need to do is write down the words we are speaking right now according to their sound forms.”

“….It is complicated.”

I thought it would only be complicated at first. To be honest, there had been an ethnic group on Earth that had adopted Hangul as well.

I thought of an ethnic group that had imported only the letters, not as a second foreign language, but literally only the writing system, and wrote and read their own ethnic language in Hangul.

‘Were they called the Cia-Cia people…?’

I remembered that they were said to be an ethnic minority in Indonesia. It had been quite an impressive article, so I recalled that I had paid close attention to it and thought about the language of this world.

The language of this world was literally close to an “ideographic script.” This was because the Continental Common Language was used in a form where the runes called “Interpretive Runes,” which were slightly different from Chinese characters, were interpreted and transformed into various forms to contain the meaning of each Interpretive Rune.

Because of that, I had heard that at least ten years of education was needed to use the common language perfectly.

That was also the reason the illiteracy rate was high, but the problem was also that a tremendous amount of money and power was needed to learn this language.

There was probably also the intention of making politics easy through keeping people ignorant.

“The language itself will continue to be used. But how convenient would it be if one could write down the sounds of the language one speaks and read them back exactly as they are?”

“….Are letters important?”

“I think they are very important. There must be things that cannot all be conveyed through speech, and various records can be left through writing. One person’s life will be recorded and remain through the letters I intend to teach. And as it is passed down to later generations, I think people’s thoughts and knowledge will gradually develop and continue. I want the positive function. I do.”

“….I do not understand.”

Perhaps that was natural. In this world, only nobles and some privileged classes made use of that positive function.

It was unfortunate, but I intended to correct this, even if only in Ingrad. And alongside what I would do here, there was also one more plan I had in mind for the future.

After thinking of that, I first concentrated on the work to complete the academy grounds.

And at the very end, I reached the point of creating the space where Mia and Duke Asilbar would face each other by evenly using a great deal of magic power and mana, and as I looked at that place, I could only hope… that Mia was not the Demon King.

The Apoca Kingdom could not help but be flustered by the request that came from the “Minor Kingdom of Ingrad,” which had recently been carrying the biggest issues with it.

“Hmm… They ask whether there is a record with the Corrupted Hero’s face drawn on it… Why would they need that…?”

The chief mage of the Apoca royal family, who received the message, could not suppress his confusion. That was because the same request had also come in from the Terakan Empire.

So the chief mage, who had been rummaging through documents here and there to find it, had never imagined that the same request would come in.

“Chief, what shall we do?”

“Hmm… To ignore it, Ingrad’s name has risen far too high recently. Moreover, is it not a country that is actively supporting the war against the Demonic Tribe?”

That was because, just as the chief mage said, medicines bearing Ingrad’s mark were being supplied even to the front lines of the Apoca Kingdom.

Although the quantity was not large, because Ingrad’s share in the Human-Demon War was by no means small, the chief mage thought he would take this request and go find the King.

And not long afterward, there was a person who received the request brought by the chief mage, and she was Ririne von Apoca, the second princess of the Apoca Kingdom.

Her title was “Chancellor,” and her influence was great enough to contend for first or second place in the order of rank alongside the First Prince, so the request was naturally delivered to her, and Ririne von Apoca asked the chief mage.

“What do you think, Chief?”

“Would the opinion of someone like me dare to matter?”

“You are not someone who should say dare like that, are you? A Great Mage is not a common stone kicked around by the roadside.”

As Ririne said, the chief mage was not of such a simple status, but because he had no intention of getting involved politically in the slightest, he only bowed his head instead of answering.

Ririne always tried to bring him over because he was a person with powerful strength, but seeing him withdraw, she thought it could not be helped and took it to the King, her father.

And not long afterward, with the Apoca King’s authorization, the investigated real information on the Corrupted Hero “Jin So-hee” was delivered to the Terakan Empire and Ingrad.