On the next day, Jamine was finishing the files needed for the establishment and they will have a celebration in five days.
They were currently rebuilding the palace as it will be needed for the crowning ceremony. Everything was decided and Jamine will be the leader of the Astros and Lydia will be her right-hand man. Souta was going to become that guardian deity of the new country. His position was higher than the leader and he will only make a move when it was necessary.
The leader will be replaced yet the guardian deity will remain the same for eternity. It was a symbol, an icon, that represents the power of the Astros.
Everything was ready.
Souta was in his room and Torkez was in the opposite direction placing paper files on his table. Souta picked up a piece of paper and read the contents of the paper.
The contents of these paper files were about the parasitic essence eater. All the data of Gunsi, the founder of the empire, gathered about the parasite was filed here.
After reading it for a few minutes, Souta placed down the files and he looked at Torkez. "So we can't reproduce the parasites?"
"Yes, the parasite king has died and it was in the body of the emperor." Torkez nodded.
"I see..."
Souta nodded as he recalled the scene where he killed the emperor with his [Shadow Bind] spell. He remembered how angry Gunsi became when the emperor died.
"The parasite king is different from other parasites. It could take any host despite their power levels. Also, it couldn't provide any power boost to its host. Nothing will happen to the host except the slight increase in the host's lifespan." Torkez explained to him the parasite king that he learned from Gunsi's data.
"Can we cultivate a king?"
Souta asked Torkez with a serious expression. This was very important to him. He better knew if he could reproduce the parasites or not. If he couldn't then he should be careful in giving out the parasites in the future.
"There's no data about it in the files but I'll try to research it. The only problem is that I may need some parasites to conduct a research about it." Torkez said to him. He personally thinks that a king could appear once the current king died. He just didn't know how to cultivate it but he will try various methods if Souta permitted him.
"It's not a problem for me. I still have a few hundred parasites sleeping in my body." Souta nodded at Torkez. A few parasites were nothing to him. He just hoped that Torkez wouldn't disappoint him. "First, I'll give you ten parasites to conduct your research."
"That's good. I think that it will be enough." Torkez nodded his head. He will try his best to live up to Souta's expectations. It's not just about that, he was also curious about this kind of creature.
"Then, what about the fact that Gunsi could transfer his soul? Did you gather anything about it?" Souta asked another question that he was curious.
"Yes, I've gathered it. Simply, it's not about transferring his soul to another person. It was all about him controlling another person." Torkez said.
"What do you mean by that?" Souta asked as he slightly tilted his head.
Torkez slowly explained to him everything that he learned about it.
Gunsi was only controlling those people using the power of the parasite queen. Those people weren't people at all, they were similar to golems which Gunsi artificially made. Using his mana and the power of the parasite queen, also a part of his flesh he made those artificial people.
Some sort of golems or homunculus. The only difference was that those artificial people couldn't move alone. They don't have any will or intelligence, unlike homunculus who could think like humans and demis.
Those artificial people would only move if Gunsi controlled them. Just like driving a ship and his body will be vulnerable.
"Oh? So that's how it is... So, can I also use it using the power of the parasite queen?" Souta asked as his curiosity grew stronger. Although he was disappointed that it wasn't a soul-transferring art.
Speaking of soul-transferring art, maybe the reason why he came to this goblin's body was also because of the soul-transferring art. He was previously a human on earth yet his soul went inside the body of a goblin in imperium.
"Yes, you can use it with enough practice. Deep underground of the destroyed royal palace, Gunsi still had a lot of spare bodies there but you can't use any of it." Torkez paused for a moment before he added, "That's because those artificial people are made of Gunsi's energy, blood, and flesh. It's not compatible with you and you will not be able to control it. There's a chance that it will go awry if you force yourself to control it. It's better if we just made artificial people using your energy, blood, and flesh."
"And it will not be easy, right?" Souta raised his eyebrows.
"Yes, creating those things isn't my expertise. I just became a researcher because of the parasitic essence eater. I didn't study other fields so it will require a lot of time and resources before we could create another artificial person that you could control even though we have the data." Torkez explained to him.
Souta rubbed the bridge of his nose. It seems that he couldn't copy Gunsi's tactics right away.
"Okay, thanks for reporting it to me. You can go now."
He sighed as he watched Torkez's back. To think that there will be so much valuable research here in Great Astley Empire. It's just that he lacked talents to fully utilize it.
He didn't want to study it as it will take a lot of his time. His growth rate would become stagnant if he tried to learn about it. Right now, his focus was on learning Saya's ultimate skill and nothing changed about it.
"I really need a lot of people that I could trust with different talents."
Suddenly, Souta heard a knock on his door. He looked at it and wondered who was it.
"Come in."
The door opened and Alice entered the room before she closed it once again. She sat down on the seat in front of him and looked at him for a while.
Souta was curious about her business but he didn't say anything. He just waited for her to start the conversation.
Alice then looked around his room and said, "It's been a while. Two months maybe three months since we've separated. Your reputation spread out on different planets. Nothing could stop you in this place and you can leave peacefully here. Yet, why do you want to go back to Imperium which is full of unknown dangers?"
"Why, you ask? Knowing that there are countless people out there that could destroy me simply makes me feel uncomfortable. I know it and I can feel it. There are signs everywhere that the peace that we are enjoying will not last any longer." Souta said as he leaned back on his chair before he continued, "The Mechanic Country is raging war to its surrounding countries showing its might. Then, there are frequent movements from the Three Bringers of Calamity. It's hard to explain but various giant organizations that is hiding in the dark are moving this time. I don't know what's going to happen next so I need to prepare myself for the worse outcome."
"So you just want to become stronger to prevent an unexpected event just like what happened in Ibish village and Ladros City?" Alice said as she turned to Souta.
"Well, yes. I don't want to be bothered by such affairs but they kept coming at me and they will come at me. To prevent it, I just need to become stronger than anything else in this whole universe." Souta said to her.
"You've grown stronger. I'm curious about how they would react. You should rest and enjoy yourself if you have a time." Alice said to him.
"How do you look to you? I'm clearly enjoying my time here in sub-worlds. Then, what about you? You always had that stoic face. I don't even know if you're having fun here or not." Souta shrugged his shoulder and smiled faintly.
"Stoic face? I don't know what you're talking about. My time here isn't that bad. Perhaps, I should leave you here and go back to Imperium alone." Alice said as she stood up and looked at the mirror.
"I dare you to leave me here. I know that you wouldn't do that." Souta smiled and he sighed deeply.
"What's wrong?" Alice asked as she was curious at his sudden change.
"Nothing. Something just came into my mind. How good it would be if I'm born in a peaceful era that has no war? Just living peacefully and having fun everywhere." Souta said as he looked at the ceiling.
"If that's the case, maybe you wouldn't know me and the others from Dark Oculus." Alice glanced at the windows.
"Yeah, you had that kind of attitude that will ignore everyone around you. Remember how you ignore me and Bryan at first. What are you a princess?" Souta smiled as he teased Alice.
"Sort of.." Alice smiled too while shrugging her shoulders.