I Didn't Want to Become the Emperor of This World

Chapter 24

Even though I had purged the nobles, the ending of the stated that I would be executed by hanging.

I couldn't understand it—no, perhaps I couldn't accept it—so I continued to read my changed ending right away.

…….

It was not the nobles who put me on the gallows, but the ‘commoner rebels.’ The citizens of the kingdom, armed with farm tools, wooden spears, and torches, them.

Right now, instead of a crown, a dirty cloth bag was on my head, and I couldn't see well.

Beyond the cloth bag obscuring my vision, I could faintly see the silhouette of an angry mob holding torches.

Grasp—!

The rope strangling my neck tightened even more. It felt like I would suffocate from this alone before the platform beneath me even dropped.

Then, through the murmur of the crowd, I heard the clear, cheerful, yet powerful voice of a woman.

“My beloved friends of the Partan Kingdom! Please listen! Has the life of our kingdom's people changed after the nobles disappeared? It has not! Only this incompetent yet cruel king, ‘King Leonardo,’ has lived in peace and debauchery! We are still poor and hungry!!”

Perhaps because my vision was limited, her voice seemed to pierce my ears even more, and soon after, I heard the crowd agreeing with her words.

—That’s right!

—Kill King Leonardo!!

—As painfully as possible!!

—Don't even leave a corpse!!

“In the cities, thugs and gangsters treated good people like slaves! The bandits on the frontiers stole our bread and kidnapped our families!”

—That's right!!

—It's all because of that incompetent king!!

—Kill him! Kill him!!

“From the Monster Mountains, monsters came down almost every day! They burned down entire villages! Is that all? No! As if God himself sent disasters upon this land, typhoons and floods in the summer, and heavy snow and landslides in the winter overturned the kingdom! Not only the crops, but the land itself died, making it impossible to farm!! But the king did not look after us. My fellow citizens of the kingdom, do you remember your families who died from eating poisonous herbs because they were hungry?!”

—It's all because of that incompetent king!!

—That’s right!!

—There was a plague too!

“A plague, that's right! Even when that plague that turned people's skin black spread, the king closed the castle gates and hid in a cozy place by himself! But everyone! The king's sins are far more numerous than this!”

—Kill the king!

—Beat him to death!!

—Throw stones!!

—Bring my daughter back to life!!

The resentful voices of the angry crowd pierced my ears and vibrated in my head.

“Then we will carry out the sentence!”

—Waaaaaaah!!

They say they will carry out the sentence.

Perhaps because I'm about to die, many thoughts come to mind.

‘…Getting rid of the nobles was not the fundamental solution to prevent my terrible ending. It was just one step.’

Suddenly, a sentence I had seen in the a long time ago came to mind. 「In order for me to live, I had to somehow seize power and lead this kingdom correctly.」 —that sentence.

‘After purging the nobles and leading a peaceful life, I forgot. That beyond seizing power, I had to lead this kingdom correctly with that power…….’

What's the use of knowing that now.

A belated regret.

But it was too late a regret.

But who is there to blame, when this is the ending I chose.

“As the representative of the kingdom's people, I, ‘Yoanna,’ will execute justice here!!”

—Yoanna, the hero of the people!! The ‘Saintess of Harq’!

—The people's sword that even the knights fear!!

—Yoanna! Yoanna! Yoanna!

—Yoanna to the throne!!

—Kill the king's dog, Jereuth, with him!

—And that bitch Elly who sided with the king to the end!!

—Kill the witch Seria from the Mage Tower too!

The angry voices resenting me were heard endlessly. Just as my mind was about to become hazy from the resentment, the ground suddenly gave way.

Clunk! Clunk! Clunk! Clunk!

“Gak…!”

The rope endlessly tightened around my neck.

And so, I, Jereuth, Elly, and Seria were executed by hanging and died.

This was my newly written ending.

From this, I could understand. Why I was executed by hanging.

‘……This feels like a warning. A warning from the to me.’

After purging the nobles, I thought my life would be peaceful from then on. I had let my guard down, thinking that the ones who would put me on the gallows were gone.

While doing so, numerous problems arose in the kingdom, yet I took no action, and as a result, it led to a rebellion by the kingdom's people.

‘It seems I might have not just neglected to manage the kingdom, but even lived a life of debauchery. My future self said that after the Purge, my life changed 180 degrees, and I could get whatever I wanted, be it food or people.’

In other words, my future self had enjoyed whatever he pleased as a person of power. Just as he said, ‘be it food, people, or anything else.’

I was certain. The was warning me, the present me, because the future me had done so. To live cautiously and not let my guard down or live debaucherously just because I purged the nobles.

And above all, it seemed to be warning me to deal well with the many crises that would befall this kingdom.

Hoo―.

Letting out a sigh, I organized my thoughts.

‘So, according to what's in the , the reason I meet this end is because I lived a life of debauchery and failed to lead the kingdom properly. So if I lead the kingdom properly, a rebellion won't happen in the first place. Then I won't be executed by hanging either.’

But ‘leading the kingdom properly’ is not as easy as it sounds. Leading a kingdom where poverty, the problem of thugs (gangsters, hooligans) ruling the cities, bandits lurking outside the cities, monster attacks, natural disasters, and even a plague are predicted is extremely difficult.

‘And that's not all. The diary said there were more ‘sins the king committed’ than that.’

Until just a short while ago, I was an extremely ordinary university student. I did not have the ability to solve the numerous problems that would befall the kingdom.

Just as the woman named ‘Yoanna’ in the said, I am incompetent.

‘……The only thing I can rely on is probably the .’

Hoo―.

Sighing again, I decided to check the front part of the diary. Perhaps there might be a way to solve the numerous problems that would come.

I read the part closest to my current situation.

…….

The ending of the has changed. An ending where I am executed by hanging not by the nobles, but by the commoner rebels.

So, for me to live, there were two ways. First, to quell the anger of the kingdom's people so that a rebellion does not occur. Second, to effectively suppress the rebellion with overwhelming military power.

Whichever of the two methods I chose, it was a really troublesome problem for me. Personally, I wanted to choose the former.

It was difficult to come up with an immediate answer on how to solve those troublesome problems. Still, I couldn't just sit back and worry, so I continued to think.

As I was spending a long time thinking at my desk like that.

Elly came into the room and suddenly asked me an unexpected question.

“Your Highness…… did you also purge my family, the ‘Heinem Viscounty’?”

In the where content about the ‘rebels’ was appearing, content about Elly suddenly appeared. Setting that aside, I was bewildered by the content about Elly itself.

‘If she's asking if I purged her family… was Elly a noble too?’

I didn't know. Whether Elly was a noble.

Her attitude towards me was so polite and proper that I naturally thought Elly was a commoner. Of course, I knew that most maids in the world I originally lived in were nobles, but I never thought that would apply in this world too.

Anyway, what was important now was not that I had mistaken Elly's status. What was important was that I had purged Elly's family.

Suddenly, my heart grew heavy. My stomach felt tight, and my breath felt bitter.

‘Did I… purge Elly's family?’

Elly was someone who had helped and protected me with all her heart so that I could survive in this world. But to have killed such a benefactor's family, I was disgusted with myself.

Wasn't it like repaying kindness with enmity?

‘Damn it… shit…’

If you look through history, there were often cases where a king purged his own family's house to protect his power. The wife's family, the son-in-law's family, the daughter-in-law's family, even the household that a son or daughter had built.

That's right. Kings purged even the families of their own blood for their own purposes.

To the extent that they purged even their own family's house, such cold-hearted kings probably wouldn't have batted an eye at purging a ‘maid's family.’

But I was different. I… couldn't shake off the burden on my heart from having killed Elly's family, my benefactor's family.

‘……Am I still too soft-hearted to be a king?’

Becoming a king was really difficult. Really. Perhaps the existence of a ‘king’ should be handled by a cruel and calculating AI rather than a human.

‘I told Jereuth to spare the families worth sparing. So there must be a reason why Jereuth didn't spare Elly's family. Yes, there must be a reason. Still… in the end, the responsibility is mine.’

If Elly resented me for this, I had nothing to say.

‘But… I hope Elly doesn't hate me too much.’

To have killed her family and then hope she doesn't hate me, it's a very selfish thought.

But I couldn't help it. Living as a crown prince was too difficult and lonely for a weak person like me, so I desperately needed someone I could trust like Elly or Jereuth.

It was then.

—Knock, knock.

—Your Highness, I apologize for disturbing your rest. I have something to ask… may I come in for a moment?

……What I expected has come.

That thought came to me.

‘Elly is coming in now… she's coming to ask what happened to her family. That's what was written in the .’

What kind of expression will Elly have? When she finds out for sure that I killed her entire family.

My worries were deep, but my conclusion was relatively quick.

‘It’s not something I can avoid by trying to avoid it. It’s something I’ve already done, so I have to face it.’

Therefore, I looked at the door and tried hard to speak loudly.

“……Come in.”

Click.

As soon as I spoke, the door opened and Elly came in. Her expression was not much different from usual, but there was a slight shadow over it.

After politely greeting me, Elly said cautiously.

“Um… Your Highness. You said you purged the nobles in the banquet hall earlier, right?”

As Elly brought up the Purge, I felt like what I had been expecting had truly come. I thought, it’s amazing how worried I can be about what one person will say to me.

“Yes.”

“By any chance… what happened to my family, the Heinem Viscounty? They weren't in the banquet hall……”

How should I say it? No, what should I say to lessen Elly's resentment towards me even a little?

My worries were so deep that my head grew hot.

‘Wait. Come to think of it, in the ending of the , Elly was executed by hanging with me when the kingdom's people rebelled. Does that mean… even though I purged her family, Elly will stay by my side?’

Harboring such a selfish glimmer of hope, I spoke honestly.

“Elly, I'm sorry. If they weren't in the banquet hall earlier, they were purged.”

“……”

“Even if you resent me for this, I have nothing to say. This matter is all my responsibility.”

Still, to at least not be a coward, I apologized to Elly.

But I couldn't bring myself to look at Elly, so I turned my gaze away. I was afraid to see Elly's expression.

But then, I heard unbelievable words from Elly.

“……Your Highness, you don't need to apologize. I don't resent you either.”

What? I don't need to apologize? And she doesn't resent me?

“……Pardon?”

“I told you before. No matter what happens, I will assist you, Your Highness.”

At her unexpected words, my gaze unconsciously turned to her. And then I saw Elly's face.

‘……She's smiling at me.’

Tears were welling up at the corners of her eyes, but they weren't falling, and Elly was managing a faint smile.