## Chapter 1398 – Premonition

After that day, it was just… the life of an emperor.

The country itself was on track. Buildings were going up nicely, and numerous businesses were flocking in, seeking vested interests. Large-scale farmlands were also seeing an influx of farmers, starting land reclamation.

Of course, the massive amount of grain consumed by the rapidly increasing population was solved by Aria’s brief suffering. Whatever the case, most of the farmland had been sold off or leased, so things would run on their own here.

All that was needed was time.

“Oh ho.”

I came out to tour a large-scale factory complex. Of course, these weren’t modern factories. They were factory-style handicraft complexes filled with machines. Naturally, since this other world had everything, these places seemed to be running without any problems.

“What are all those machines?”

What was in front of me now was a spinning jenny. Inside the rather spacious factory, numerous people were attached to the spinning jennies, working to spin thread.

“Ah, yes! This is a machine called a spinning jenny! It’s a machine that conveniently spins thread.”
“I see. Very excellent.”

Seeing these factories spring up was quite fascinating. As people gathered, demand naturally skyrocketed. To meet that demand, factories like this one were created, equipped with many specialized machines.

Originally, it was said that importing them in such large quantities was rare, but the factory owner seemed to have made a large investment, having moved to the Cheonma Divine Kingdom.

He was originally a baron-born magician, apparently.

It was roughly that kind of vibe.

Except for when I was handling official duties in the fortress, I would go out like this to see with my own eyes how things were running, and then I would handle the remaining work at home and focus on personal training.

Currently, the Cheonma Divine Kingdom was on track. If managed well, it would run smoothly on its own. And once it was running smoothly? I would begin to benefit this world in earnest. More broadly. Spreading the ideology of Fusion Confucianism to more places.

To do that, I had to eliminate the threats, and I…

Needed to become even stronger.

The threats hadn’t all disappeared yet. Liches were scheming in the darkness, and monsters from other dimensions were constantly eyeing this world. The demons of Pandemonium were the same.

It was quiet now, but I was strongly convinced that they would reveal themselves someday. Just like the demons had suddenly invaded and wreaked havoc. They would launch a sudden attack.

Reconnaissance and personal training were for preventing that.

* * *

The Great Temple of the Cheonma Church.

“The Cheonma-nim’s power is truly beyond comprehension! Who could ever stand against the Cheonma-nim! No one! No one can! Our Cheonma-nim, who single-handedly destroyed the demons’ aerial fleet and even slaughtered their leader, the Demon King!”

There, Hildegard, the leader of the Cheonma Church, was spewing out a fiery speech to the swarm of people gathered.

“Ooh.”

I watched the scene from the window on the fourth floor.

“He is the sole savior of the human world!”

Hilde’s voice filled the incredibly large temple. Not just the first floor, but also the second and third floors, which had theater-style tiered seating.

“Waaaaaaah!”
“Ooooooh!”

The people packed in there, with their wings spread, were enthusiastic about Hilde’s speech.

“A god made real! A god who realizes! And a god who executes! The Cheonma-nim has fought to benefit this world and has defined the correct moral compass and sense of justice! Its name is Fusion Confucianism! The scripture that we all hold!!!”

Entrusting Hilde with the position of leader was a very good decision.

“The Cheonma-nim has created and widely disseminated Fusion Confucianism, which anyone can sympathize with and nod to, ah! I am truly only moved! Do you believe!”

We believe!

“We believe!”
“We believe!”
“We believe!”

Shouts erupted.

Like that, Hilde was inciting and educating the people as the leader.
A true leader.

“Hehehe, Khatt. I’m really satisfied. Hilde is doing a great job.”

Claudie, standing next to me, said that, massaging my shoulders with a satisfied look.

“Hehehe, I know, right? No, Hilde is really good at that kind of thing. She’s a born leader. A leader.”

Gathering people in one place with religion.
That was a very good thing.

Anyway, after doing that, Hilde would return to administrative work. Hilde was handling most of the religious affairs. Of course, Kadia was doing it with her, but once the framework of the organization was somewhat established, Hilde was able to do it sufficiently.

“Good, good.”

* * *

Those days flowed by.

I couldn’t stay attached to them all the time like before, but now I spent time with them after they got off work, talking about the country’s operations and enjoying leisure.

It was a very fulfilling time.

Putting effort into making the country more perfect. It was an incredibly rewarding thing to do. More than anything, they would be giving birth to children in this country now. Almost all of their devoted efforts were for that reason.

“Kim Khatt Children.”

Our children. A large number of them, living in the Cheonma Divine Kingdom. Parents were beings who could become more perfect for their children.

These days, it was fun just deciding when to have kids.

I don’t think it’s time yet… well, the right timing will come someday. I think it’s still too early. Because I haven’t benefited the world enough yet.

「…!」

And.

“…Shit.”

The premonition was felt.
It was on a day that was no different from usual.

A vast.

An absurd.

Such an unidentified energy was felt from beyond the dimensions, and I immediately stood up.

At the same time.

ㅡWhoosh.

A gate opened in front of me, and Risha came through.

“Just now…!”

She seemed flustered.
Risha also felt something and came to find me right away.

This was a situation that I felt intensely.
It was only natural that they would also feel something, even if faintly.

“Hey, it’s okay. Risha.”
“D, did you feel it?”
“Of course.”

I immediately hugged Risha and said it was okay for now, but it wasn’t okay at all.

“More importantly, you came to find me as soon as you felt it?”
“This is something… something different was felt. This one cannot know the details, but…”
“I don’t know yet either. But, well. A little.”
“Does it seem dangerous?”
“Hehehe, do you think there’s anything dangerous to me?”
“Is that so, after all?”

An absurd energy felt after a long time. It was clear that it would cause an unfavorable future.

Right now.

I, Kim Khatt, was feeling it more strongly than ever.

ㅡThump.

An extreme sense of crisis covered my entire body.

My heart started to beat.
My body heated up.

At the same time, my mind was uplifted. Yeah. With this level of energy. It was clear that the Lich had finally done something. While running the country, I had constantly increased my strength and conducted reconnaissance, resonating with dimensions, to eliminate external threats.

“Anyway, Risha. To the control room.”
“Understood.”

There was no need to panic.

It was something I had already expected. Risha immediately opened a gate to the control room at my instruction, and I immediately approached the demon crew member holding the microphone. I didn’t hit her in the back of the head. Because everything in the control room right now were baby demon maids that Risha had trained.

“Summon all my queens. To the control room. Right now.”
“Understood.”

The maid-cum-crew member who received the order immediately grabbed the microphone and started broadcasting.

“Hehe, this is the control room. To all former queens. The Cheonma-nim is calling for you, so come to the control room immediately…”

ㅡKugung!

The maid’s words were not finished.
The door opened.

“H, hey…! Just now!”
“Did you! Did you feel that!”

They rushed in, looking flustered.

Good.

“Of course I felt it. Risha.”
“A, ah?”
“To the conference room.”
“Understood.”

I went to the conference room with the gathered women.

* * *

What was felt in that instant was a very large energy.

I felt a distortion of dimensions from it. I tried to confirm it with my ability to see dimensions, but there was nothing that could be sensed. There was nothing wrong with the dimensional rifts that I usually saw. Risha also said that she didn’t feel anything particularly strange while using gate magic.

However, our superhuman senses. Our bodies, which had reached the level of demigods, had sensitively caught that unidentified energy.

And those traces remained somewhere in the dimensions.

“…”

Then it was clear that something I didn’t know had caused it. Something that couldn’t be properly known had caused something. Had an extra-dimensional being crossed over?

Had those beings, like the Outer Gods who destroyed the Titans and were now in decline and fragmented, sensed this world and invaded? Or was it the Lich? Those thoughts swirled around.

Perhaps it was a comprehensive gift set of all of them combined.

“An absurdly… evil something was felt for a moment. That is the impression that this Saintess felt, what about you?”

The round table in the conference room.

The first to open her mouth was Kadia.

“Yes. That’s right. I felt something similar too.”
“Yeah… to the point of being startled.”

Liztina and Winia answered, and everyone nodded.

I said, looking at them.

“Kadia is right. I also felt a big distortion. It was a disturbingly big distortion.”
“What’s the situation?”
“There are no identifiable abnormalities. There are no problems with the dimensions yet.”

As I had confirmed earlier, there was nothing in particular that I could identify.

In the meantime, I continued to observe the state of the dimensions. Small dimensional rifts were sporadically created as the Lich worked hard, but I had only been monitoring them because there was nothing I could do about it.

And as much as I had been monitoring them, I could tell.

Nothing had changed in particular.

“Risha. Right?”
“This one also did not identify anything in particular.”

There was no way Risha could do it if I couldn’t.

“Then what is it? Where did it happen?”
“Hmm… well…”

Hilde answered Karin’s words.

“Khatt. Then? What could it have been?”

I said what I was most concerned about in response to Claudie’s words.

“The heretical Lich.”

There was no one else who could be scheming right now besides that bastard. And as far as I knew, the one who handled dimension-related magic the best was that bastard. If something went wrong with the dimensions, it was safe to say that bastard did it all.

Kadia said.

“It is well known that the heretical Lich is currently scheming and operating in the shadows. It is a shared matter. But in this Saintess’s opinion, no matter how much their forces stir, it seems certain that they will all be crushed by our Cheonma’s hand.”
“Hehehe, that’s right.”

The sense of crisis I was feeling was not about anything else, but about this country.

I didn’t want this country, which was on track, to go to ruin. Because this country had now become something for me to protect.

But if I erased the country from the equation?

It wasn’t a very serious matter.

Because there was nothing I couldn’t destroy.

“Because I have obtained an overwhelmingly strong power.”

Destroying a large mountain in an instant, turning it into a plain. This was almost impossible to do with ordinary methods. Even if a missile fell, it would be difficult to destroy a mountain. I did it very easily without causing earthquakes or anything like that.

Kim Khatt, who had become ridiculously strong.

I, the Cheonma who had reached the highest position, didn’t feel threatened no matter what came. That’s what I thought. There was nothing that could threaten us.

“I’m only worried about this country.”
“That’s right. Actually, I think so too. I did feel something absurd, but it won’t be a match for Khatt-nim anyway. But if a being like the Demon King attacks again, this country will be in danger. Khatt-nim’s Cheonma Divine Kingdom…!”

Aria answered Hilde’s words.

“Yes. Hilde-nim is right. But even now… there’s not much of a problem.”
“Well, besides the darkie, we’re here too, right? You all know from the tests, but even if the demon air fleet attacks again, we can stop it with minimal damage.”

Winia’s words were also correct. In the meantime, we had repeatedly conducted combat training of that kind while running the country.

We moved in coordination with me and them, assuming the appearance of beings like demons. Destruction and suppression abilities beyond imagination. And defensive power came out.

“Everything you’ve said is correct. But this Saintess wants to say this.”

What?

“Our Cheonma is unique. And peerless. Only because he is special did he obtain strong power, and he became a demigod himself.”
“Hey Kadia? Why are you suddenly praising me like that?”
“Listen.”
“Yes.”

Everyone focused on Kadia’s words.

“What if the Lich also obtained such power?”

A Lich who had obtained divine power.

“Dark Knight. You said it was the Fallen Hero Rudenkhor. The Lich has a history of creating such beings. That ultimate undead who continued to fight until he was hit with the Disembowelment Incantation. The Lich even used a giant skeleton weapon and recovered it.”

ㅡChik.

Kadia lit a cigarette and continued.

“It is a clear fact that the Lich is scheming and preparing something. He knows more than we can imagine. It is also clear that he has tremendous abilities. When this Saintess felt that ominous energy earlier, I thought that what was coming had finally come.”

Everyone said that they had the same thought.

“It’s difficult to protect the entire country.”

Karin received those words from Kadia.

“It’s not just difficult, it’s fucking difficult. Ah. I, Karin, the Chief of Public Order, will speak. Is that okay?”

ㅡTak.

Karin tapped her name tag.

“Karin unnie, why are you asking for permission?”
“You can say whatever you want!”
“Okay. Okay. I just wanted to try it once.”

Her words continued.

“As Winia said just now, we can stop it if something like demons attacks again. We can somehow protect the capital or densely populated areas. That’s for sure. Because we’ve experimented. But the land is too wide.”

That’s right.

“Now, let’s assume that something. Something with the purpose of destruction, attacks.”

Assume.

“Will those guys follow the same path as the demons? I don’t think so. Even mercenary scrubs don’t trust an operation that has failed once.”

That’s a good point.

“They’ll probably launch a more advanced attack, but I don’t know what the scale will be.”
“You don’t know?”
“If something comes, the damage scale will be fucking huge except for the capital. There’s nothing we can do about it. Superhumans are limited, and mass killings are very easy.”

That was something I was also painfully aware of.

Massacre by powerful beings was too easy.

“No matter how much you run away, it’s the end if they bomb you from the air or something, right?”

We were creating evacuation systems and air-raid shelters, but it was impossible to do that perfectly in a newly established country.

“I don’t know about extra-dimensional beings who don’t know the situation here, but I think the Lich is a native of this world. If the Lich caused this premonition, this country will be in great danger. So what I’m saying is, if you’re going to prepare for evacuation, you should do it right away.”

Damn it, how long has it been since I founded the country and this is already happening.

I will definitely kill that bastard Lich.