Chapter 1: -stop (1)

Chapter 1 – I Quit (1)

Burnout is a terrifying thing that can never be ignored.

It can come to anyone.

Limits differ for each individual.

Even if it seems like nothing to others, if you run diligently, giving your best according to your own standards, the rebound is just as great.

You pour everything you have into it, but the results don’t follow, and nothing changes.

When that happens, fatigue accumulates in the body, and the mind becomes exhausted.

Having experienced this as a mere rookie employee, he thought it would get better if an unexpected opportunity allowed him to live a new life in a completely different body, in a different world.

But it wasn’t.

As fate would have it, the person he transmigrated into was the body of a workaholic final boss who hogged all the work.

****

“Your Majesty. It’s Saruel.”

The Imperial Palace of the Valtira Empire, famous for its grandeur.

Within it, at its very heart, was the Grand Hall where the Emperor personally received reports from ministers and governed this vast empire.

Someone approached a woman seated on a magnificent throne, elevated on seven tiers, in the center of that grand hall.

It was a throne that no one could simply sit upon.

Only one person in the world, the Emperor of this great thousand-year empire, could sit on this throne, adorned with gold, silver, various jewels, and the bones of ancient dragons.

Everyone who came here couldn’t help but look up at that high seat.

“Speak.”

From atop the high throne, the woman, seated askew with a cold, expressionless face, resting her arm on the armrest and propping up her face, opened her mouth with a beautiful voice.

Her half-lidded, deep crimson eyes were unfathomably profound, and her flowing, brilliant silver hair was a symbol of beauty, signifying the Empress.

Known throughout the empire and across the continent for her fatal beauty, and for the cruel and violent nature hidden within her, she was secretly called a peerless flower with poisonous thorns; at this moment, she was idly tapping the Emperor’s crown with the tip of her shoed foot.

“…I’ve detected movements from a rebellious faction once again. Please give your instructions on how they should be dealt with.”

“Are those kinds of scoundrels appearing again?”

Saruel, the Empress’s staunch confidant and the leader of the Black Shadow Corps, the Empress’s private organization unknown even to the empire’s ministers, deliberately ignored her demeanor and relayed the intelligence he had just acquired.

The intelligence was a common report: a group dared to plot rebellion against the Empress.

Indeed, as soon as the Empress heard the contents, she slightly furrowed her brows as if bored to death.

“What exactly is the content?”

“…It’s too disgraceful to utter, so I find it difficult to speak.”

“Speak.”

“Well, it’s…”

She sighed deeply and urged Saruel for an answer.

Ultimately, Saruel had no choice but to recite the information he had investigated and received.

It was an extremely brazen plot for treason: to launch a surprise attack during the upcoming National Foundation Day grand festival, depose the tyrannical Empress who was ruining the nation, and then establish a republic where no emperor existed.

“Their delusions have gone beyond all bounds; it’s not even funny. Even if those traitors were to march their forces into the capital, the Imperial Guard remains strong, and as long as our Black Shadow Corps exists, they wouldn’t dare lay a finger on Your Majesty.”

Saruel, having learned all the details, thought their plan was truly insignificant and trivial.

They had indeed used their wits, choosing the festival period when troop movements wouldn’t arouse suspicion and meticulously predicting the Empress’s and ministers’ movements, but they were unaware of the existence of the Black Shadow Corps, which even the Imperial Guard and Central Council didn’t know about.

“There’s no need to ruin the sacred National Foundation Day atmosphere and cause chaos among the people, so you don’t necessarily have to inform the Imperial Guard. Please grant our Black Shadow Corps permission to eliminate those traitors.”

Saruel knelt on one knee, requesting the Empress’s permission to eliminate the insolent traitors.

Indeed, with a single word from her, or even just a nod, the traitors would be assassinated and disposed of without a trace.

‘Their name is Equitas?’

However, the Empress did not immediately reply.

She seemed to be pondering something deeply, carefully mulling over Saruel’s report.

‘I’m sick of it, it’s hard, I want to quit everything.’

Countless anxieties were already raging within the indifferent crimson eyes that looked down at Saruel.

The 59th Emperor of the Millennium Empire, Valtira, was Elena Dren Barbatos.

Publicly, she was known as a blood-crazed madwoman who became Emperor by killing all her siblings above her in the line of succession, who ranked 8th.

And she was known as a tyrant who instigated wars at every opportunity, cruelly plundering and executing her people.

However, such assessments, which would lead to one being dragged away and hanged if spoken openly, were merely the tip of the iceberg.

For only a select few knew the secret that the Empress, who was thought to be merely cruel by nature, had reached the pinnacle of forbidden black magic, a monster who had already successfully transplanted even an ancient demon’s heart.

‘They say I’m the Emperor, the pinnacle of power. So why can’t I even properly relax and have to work like hell?’

However, even those who knew her secrets, including her closest confidant Saruel, were unaware that Elena had changed into a completely different person three years ago.

The current Elena was not the meticulously thorough final boss who had to personally initiate and manage everything.

She was merely a pitiful transmigrator whose tired mind had transmigrated into a completely different body, and instead of living a hopeful new life, she had become even more exhausted by the overwhelming work.

‘I’ve tried to make it work until now, but I can’t bear it anymore. I haven’t even committed massacres or human sacrifices yet, but I’m constantly getting cursed at from all sides…’

While meticulously acting as the original Elena, she was also formulating her own plan.

The original Elena was a final boss who awakened into a complete ancient demon and, at the same time, massacred countless individuals to become stronger.

While many innocent people were included in those massacres, there were also many villains who opposed the protagonist.

The current Elena, unlike her past self who would slaughter anyone for her goals, did not kill indiscriminately; she was striving for her own safety and the balance of the world.

However, the problem was that she herself was utterly exhausted by the overwhelming workload this caused.

It was not strange that she felt fed up, hearing through the Black Shadow Corps about the countless people who, unaware of these secrets, dreamed of overthrowing the Empress and constantly plotted schemes to defame and depose her, just as in the original story.

And at this very moment, that exasperation finally reached its limit.

“I’m not doing it.”

“…Pardon?”

“I’m not doing it anymore. I’m exhausted. Emperor or whatever, the pinnacle of Profound Demonic Arts or whatever, I’m just too tired now. Saruel, let’s just quit everything.”

Her words finally burst out.

Saruel looked up at her with a blank expression.

Her face was clearly sincere.

After all, jokes had never suited that cruel and ruthless Empress.

“Yo-Your Majesty.”

Saruel couldn’t properly form his words.

The Black Shadow Corps originated with Elena when she was a princess and existed solely for her.

Even Saruel, its leader, was a vagrant whom Elena had recognized for his talent and taken in during one of her incognito travels.

They were individuals who would stop at nothing to achieve the final stage of black magic that she dreamed of, the realm of Profound Demonic Arts, which was beyond merely transplanting a heart, but a complete fusion with an ancient demon.

But now that Elena had declared she was giving up everything, the Black Shadow Corps was instantly rendered an organization without a reason for existence.

“Isn’t it unfair? I’ve been doing my best for everyone in my own way. All I’ve done is seal the rifts to the demon realm, capture and execute villains who would bring chaos to the world, and eradicate the pests that plague the nation.”

“Your Majesty… no one can disregard your achievements.”

“That’s not what’s important. It’s that I can’t do it anymore. That’s what’s most important.”

Her tone of voice began to waver, and she wasn’t just talking about the work she had done as Empress.

As a transmigrator, even her resolve to adapt to her newly gained life and live well in this world had crumbled.

“The name of that traitorous organization… Equitas? Let those scoundrels try to do as they wish. Depose me, change this empire into a republic, and rule it themselves? We’ll see how well that goes.”

The name Equitas, mentioned in the torrent of words she spewed, was in fact the organization that the original protagonist, Len Knaits, belonged to in the original story.

It wasn’t for nothing that she reacted with such particular sensitivity.

Of course, at this point, there were still over 10 years left until the ending with the death of the final boss, Elena.

Len Knaits, the reincarnated original protagonist, was still an immature opponent, remaining at the lowest ranks.

According to the original history, the main plot was for Len Knaits, whose parents were massacred and who was filled with rage, to reorganize the Equitas organization—whose rebellion would be discovered and leadership wiped out this time—and burn with a desire for revenge against Elena.

Knowing all of this, Elena, in a fit of pique, intended to let herself be captured by them, thus accelerating the ending.

And she planned to observe the world after the ending, a world no one else knew.

“Y-Your Majesty…! You should rather abdicate to a suitable collateral royal family member and depart far away. We don’t know what those traitors might do to you…!”

“Why should I run away disgracefully? I decide everything. At this point, there’s no one who can dare to do anything to me. I’ll just play along for a bit, I guess.”

A terrified Saruel trembled and told her to hide rather than let herself be captured by the enemies, but Elena scoffed.

This was 10 years before the original ending.

Unlike Elena, who already possessed most of her strength as a final boss, including her transplanted demon heart and perfected black magic, everyone else, including the original protagonist Len Knaits, was too weak to even touch a hair on her.

Originally, it was through fierce battles with Elena and her subordinate forces, progressing through stages, that these individuals rapidly grew and eventually brought down the final boss, Elena, at the very last moment; thus, if Elena were to be defeated now, that dramatic growth would not occur.

‘Let them try as they please. Though I doubt they’ll be able to do anything.’

Elena chuckled, leaving a despairing Saruel behind.

Just thinking about quitting everything she had done so far, her mind and body, which had been too exhausted to bear it any longer, seemed to recover rapidly.

Instead, she began to feel a sense of interest and fun she had never experienced since transmigrating.

Imagining how the world, where the indispensable final boss of the story had departed before it even began, would unfold differently from the original.