Attack on Heaven – Turbulent Times (3)

In the past, a sage who had thoroughly cleaned up a village where some pathetic people lived left these words:s are beings who cannot truly understand each other in a real sense.

That’s why people come to hate others, and as a result, pain arises.

And at this very moment, Ragna was keenly realizing what that saying meant.

So, because.

“…I’m telling you, it’s not possible.”

“Why on earth is it not possible? Why?”

After the meeting ended, Deneb was staring at Ragna with an incredibly chilling gaze.

“I’ve heard everything I needed to hear through secret routes. Three cards that even you, who created the card game called TCG, feared their power and sealed away…. Is it so difficult to put up those cards as the prize for winning this tournament?”

“No, that’s not the issue-“

“Are you that scared? Of the new era?”

“…..”

Words just don’t get through at all.

No, to be more precise, Deneb wasn’t trying to listen to Ragna’s words right now.

The only emotion capturing him now was one thing.

Just the sticky desire to get his hands on those 3 cards that Ragna had sealed away, by any means necessary.

‘This dueling-obsessed demon bastard….’

In the end, Ragna tried hard to suppress the curse rising to the tip of his throat and explained to Deneb once again, step by step.

I don’t know what nonsense you heard from where, but those 3 cards I sealed are absolutely not what you think they are.

They’ve already become too dangerous to be used as cards in a card game.

I sealed them because if you play a game with them, it wouldn’t be strange if someone really dies.

Ragna explained very kindly so that even a duel-brain like Deneb could understand easily.

But.

“To summarize… Ragna, you’re making such claims because you think someone might get hurt if those cards are used in real duels?”

“…Yes, that’s right, Your Majesty.”

“…Hmm, I don’t quite understand what you’re saying.”

The Emperor, who had been listening to his words with a very interested expression from beginning to end, tilted his head as if something was incomprehensible.

“But from what I’ve heard, duels that materialize holograms and hurt opponents have been popular in the Empire recently? Why are you pretending to be good now, when you’ve been standing by with your hands behind your back while those extremely dangerous duels were happening?”

“…..”

No… If you beat someone with facts like that, there’s nothing I can say….

“Moreover, wouldn’t those who usually duel by materializing holograms be able to handle well the cards you sealed away due to their danger? Like, you know, how knights practice with wooden training swords before handling real swords.”

“…..”

To be honest, the Emperor’s words sounded to Ragna’s ears like saying well-trained 1060 steel has strength comparable to 4080 steel.

But what can you do?

The Emperor was already showing signs of being half-convinced by Deneb’s argument.

Besides, Ragna didn’t have a better opinion than Deneb’s suggestion to hold a duel tournament….

In the end, at this moment, there was only one path Ragna could choose.

“…Sigh, alright. As the Young Marquis said, I’ll put up the 3 cards I sealed as prizes for this duel tournament. But, I have one condition.”

“A condition? What is it?”

“I’d like Your Majesty to officially approve the content and some settings of “Attack on Heaven” episode 15, which is scheduled to air in a few weeks.”

“…Approval?”

For a moment, the Emperor inadvertently expressed bewilderment at Ragna’s words.

“No, why on earth do you need to get my approval for such a thing? Didn’t I tell you? I’ll grant you creative freedom related to animation.”

Although in the past, the Emperor had a record of summoning Ragna to the imperial palace, unable to contain his anger after seeing the ending of “Machine God Chronicles”.

Basically, the Emperor loved art very much like Kaya, and was someone who thought that for art to bloom, artists should be given a free environment.

In fact, after “Machine God Chronicles”, the Emperor had never interfered with the content of animations Ragna was producing, not even once, and.

That fact was something Ragna, who had been producing animations very freely with the Emperor as his backing until now, knew even better.

So why now, is Ragna making such a request to the Emperor?

“Well… Actually, it seems there might be some content in “Attack on Heaven” episode 15 that Your Majesty might find uncomfortable. So I want to get your permission in advance.”

“Content that I might find uncomfortable? What is it?”

As Ragna spoke like this, the Emperor’s curiosity rose more than displeasure.

To the Emperor’s request, Ragna sighed and quietly opened his mouth.

“Do you remember the ‘Demon King’ among the characters in “Attack on Heaven”, Your Majesty?”

“The Demon King? Of course I remember. Isn’t he the king who leads the demon race, who can be called enemies of humans, the father of the heroine ‘Ren’, and at the same time someone who could be called the final boss of “Attack on Heaven”?”

The Emperor was able to answer Ragna’s question without any hesitation because he was a true fan who had repeatedly reviewed episodes 1 to 10 countless times, unable to forget the catharsis after watching episode 11 of “Attack on Heaven”.

“Actually… In episode 15 of “Attack on Heaven”, there will be scenes of the protagonist Cyan fighting the Demon King, and at the same time, several settings about him will be revealed.”

“…Oh. That sounds very exciting.”

From episode 1 to 12, the Demon King, a final boss candidate who hadn’t appeared many times but exuded tremendous charisma whenever he did appear.

The Emperor couldn’t help but salivate at the fact that the final battle between such a Demon King and the protagonist Cyan was scheduled to take place in a few episodes.

But.

“From here on is a spoiler… Actually, the Demon King is not a demon. His true identity is human. So he wasn’t the king of demons, but the king of all humans… In terms of the Empire, he was a human equivalent to an emperor.”

“…What?”

For a moment, the Emperor narrowed his eyes.

The true identity of the Demon King was not actually the king of demons, but the king of humans?

“Then, Ren is also-“

“Yes. Naturally, Ren’s true identity was also not the princess of demons, but the princess of humans, an existence like an imperial princess in terms of the Empire.”

“…..”

For a moment, the Emperor looked at Ragna with an incredibly skewed expression.

“…And? How is the development after that planned to proceed?”

“It’s simple. Cyan, receiving Ren’s help, infiltrates the Demon King’s palace and has a one-on-one battle with him, and after a fierce struggle, he wins the battle against the Demon King.”

That was, in a way, a huge spoiler that recited the future developments as they were, but.

In fact, that much was a storyline the Emperor had roughly expected, so he didn’t receive any particular impression.

No, rather, if Ragna had done an unnecessary drift here and made a strange development, that would have been more of a factor to anger the Emperor.

But, what was important to the Emperor now wasn’t such things.

“So, what’s next?”

“…Pardon?”

“The protagonist Cyan has freed all humans from the oppression of the ‘tyrant’ Demon King. Surely the story doesn’t end there, so how is the story planned to proceed after that?”

“Well, that-“

Ragna scratched his head and answered obediently.

“After driving out the Demon King, the protagonist Cyan rises to become the leader of humanity. In other words, Cyan essentially becomes the leader of all humans.”

In fact, in ‘that work’ which is the motif of “Attack on Heaven”, the protagonist rises to the position of commander-in-chief of the new government, not king, but.

No matter what, isn’t it somewhat inappropriate for a government system reminiscent of democracy to appear in a fantasy world?

But Ragna wasn’t crazy enough to put Cyan in the position of ‘king’, so he expressed related content as vaguely as possible.

In the end, in the work “Attack on Heaven”, there’s only a mention that the protagonist Cyan became the ‘leader’ of humanity.

He was thoroughly avoiding mentioning what specific position he rose to.

However.

“…..”

The Emperor, who had been quietly listening to Ragna’s explanation, interpreted his explanation like this through his own filtering.

So to summarize Ragna’s words in two lines:

The content of “Attack on Heaven” episode 15 is that a king who was ruling a country loses his life to a coup, and.

The mastermind who staged the coup becomes the new king, is that the content?

Hmm.

Hmmm….

Hmmmm….