Chapter 0: Prologue

I killed my precious friend.

It wasn’t the first time I had killed someone I cared for.

Because I was used to it, I wasn’t particularly sad, yet I stared down at my friend’s corpse for a long time.

It was because of the absurd last words he uttered as he died.

“Live… live a good life.”

Live a good life? To someone born with malice?

I wanted to shake my head and tell him it was impossible, but I held back.

There was a promise I had made with my friend when he was alive.

–If I help you seize the world, you will grant me any one request.

I definitely made such a promise.

Even though he betrayed me in the end, he was the man who helped me reach the summit.

It was only right to repay him, at least for the promise that was kept.

As someone walking the path of tyranny, I had to keep the words I spoke.

“You left me with a difficult request…”

Sitting at the highest point of the Empire, looking down, I could see thousands of corpses, not yet decayed.

Were they the resistance gathered to overthrow the tyrant?

In a way, they might have achieved victory.

‘Is this seat also the last?’

Beside the silent throne.

I gently laid my friend’s body there.

This most glorious place in the Empire was his grave.