Strange Grief Wants to Retire ~ The Weakest Hunter Dreams of a Hero ~

*Yareyare* Good grief, that man is really a pain in the ass.

The problem that has been plaguing the city for the past few days showed signs of being resolved for the time being, and I, Cross Code, the Class 9, the ruler and pinnacle of the highly mobile fortress city, sigh deeply.

For a long time, no one has been to my base, the Royal Tower, except for myself. I even get the illusion that I am the only person in the world when I am sitting alone in the deserted Royal Tower.

The battle for the throne begins after my death. By creating an environment where my children compete to become king, my final task as king is half-done. Now the only question left is when my body will stop moving.

The battle for the throne is something I had planned long ago. I decided how many children I would have, what kind of education would be given to them, and which areas they would be given to with which nobles. Code did not move much during my reign, but instead accumulated resources. The next generation of Code will have access to a much greater military force than the first Code, which attempted to take over the world.

My long-standing duties are coming to a close. My final task is to wait for death alone in the Royal Tower.

Maybe that is why I found myself checking on Alisha, who I have suddenly been interacting more lately.

Alisha Code. A spare member of the Royal Family, born at the request of the nobles. A daughter born from my genes with Code’s system which stipulates that she has the right to inherit the throne, although she has no involvement in the battle for the throne.

I randomly assigned her a minimal area and confined her to a building in the center of it, leaving all management to the city system and the nobles, refusing to meddle with any of them. I have never seen or received a message from them. I had no interest in her at all. My duty as the current King of Code that I self-imposed on myself is to connect a powerful Code to an even more powerful king, so investing my resources as king in anything other than that would be a waste. Most likely, if Cry hadn’t done something unnecessary, I would probably have never seen Alisha and my life would have ended in satisfaction.

When I first casually checked, what caught my eye was Alisha gazing out the window with a lonely look on her face, completely different from the embarrassing way she acted in order to get her hands on the snacks that are call chocolate.

A quick access to the city systems quickly revealed what had happened. That incompetent Royal Guard who has been telling Alisha unnecessary things has left the building and gone to see the city.

It was such an unimportant matter. Rather, the fact that Alisha, who was not given any resources, had converted the Royal Guard Mechanized Soldier Weapons into resources and modified them was a bigger problem. Whether this Code’s city system is a perfect reproduction or not of the era of an Advanced Physical Civilization, there are small loopholes like this everywhere. Before I became king, I often looked for loopholes in the system.

On the second day, Alisha was *furafura* staggering around the room in a daze. The results of the education system were worse than usual and the graph of her emotions which was constantly monitored also indicated Alisha’s depression.

On the third day, Alisha was hugging her knees and slumping over in her bed. And for the first time in decades, I was shaken, all because of this scene.

Her appearance gave me a sense of déjà vu. Memories that had been sealed away from nearly a hundred years ago suddenly came flooding back to me.

It is a memory from when I was not the king yet and had no idea I would become one, a memory I don’t really like to remember. Although her features and height are different――Her hair color, eye color, posture, and mannerisms were unmistakably similar to――The one and only woman I had loved before I became king.

I had completely forgotten about her. She was a beautiful woman. A strong-willed woman. Cheerful, polite, and good at finding loopholes in the system, she would sometimes do the most outlandish things, and once she made up her mind, she would be stubborn and unyielding. That was the kind of woman I chose before I was even prepared to become the next king.

The breakup was sudden, and I did feel resentful at the time. But time heals the anger and sadness.

That is probably why I felt nothing but a flood of nostalgia coming back to me.

I am undoubtedly the ruler of Code, but that doesn’t mean I understand everything about the city system. In fact, there are probably many things I don’t understand. I don’t need to know the principles to use the system.

A genetically engineered human manufacturing system.

I do not know everything about the system that I had activated at the request of the nobles after going through a number of tedious steps to give birth to Alisha.

All I did was provide my genes and set the system in motion, that is it. However, it is probably no coincidence that Alisha’s mannerisms are so similar to those of my former lover.

Over 200 years have passed since Code was activated, and all kinds of data of the city have been stored. Data on the research that has been carried out, data on the goods that have been produced and consumed, and even data about the people who have lived there――But sometimes, the city system can be unexpectedly nifty in how it works.

I now understand the horror of this human manufacturing system――And why only the king was allowed to activate it.

However, it is not the past that matters. It is the future.

The current Royal Family――All of the children have different mothers. The other party was chosen by the system and the nobles after I became king. This was because diversity was needed to allow them to compete with each other and create a stronger king. It would be a lie to say that I am completely unwilling when it comes to having children, but it cannot be denied that my main goal was to have strong candidates to be the next king.

If Alisha was created using information about my former lover, then Alisha is not just a spare, but the daughter of the only woman I have ever truly loved. ŘаＮοＢÈS̈

Alisha Code’s role is half-completed, she is a spare member of the Royal Family. At least that is how I have treated her, and the other members of the Royal Family and nobles have treated her that way too. Alisha was only given the bare minimum of resources and was treated with the bare minimum. And when the next king stepped up, how would Alisha be treated――At the very least, it doesn’t seem like a good future await her. I had made sure that would be the case.

The king is fair. Until now, I have treated the children equally. I have, equally, avoided seeing them. A king must take responsibility for the rules and decisions he makes.

There is no time left to change that principle.

Even responding to Cry was *girigiri* barely on the edge of that line. I told Nora to stop interfering with the Royal Guard and scolded Tony for spraying the incapacitating gas. Until now, I have only contacted my children for administrative purposes. The children are quick-witted so they would have already realized that something had changed.

On the contrary, even if it was how things naturally progressed――To think I would end up unlocking the door. A clear violation of the rules. Although I used Cry to do it, I wonder how far I can push through with this……

“I thought I had done everything that I could. But…… For me to have doubts now, was I…… Wrong?” (Cross)

My dry voice echoes through the throne room, but the city system never responds to my question.

§ § §

Thanks for reading! Happy New Year everyone! Of course you are wrong! How could you imprison a cute girl like Alisha like that! Sasuga Cry, he just came to Code and already table-flip all the king’s opinions about what he did until now

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