518 Sent To The Dungeon

Baiyi completely understood that simple tricks would not fool the Emperor.

If he wanted to get the Emperor's full attention, he would need to do more — a flourish of audacity; a veiled threat; or perhaps a little manufactured conflict. When the Emperor's grip on the royal scepter tightened, Baiyi's heart lurched.

Baiyi was sure that, at the moment, the Book of Servitude was not responding to either of them. Nevertheless, he could not help flinch at the Emperor's sudden reaction.

The Emperor knew that he could not use the book right now. He had only tightened the grip on his scepter out of habit, yet he did nothing to correct himself. Although the Emperor could not cast Forbidden Spells at will right now, his posture was still a frightening bluff.

However, moments after the Emperor gripped his scepter harder, something untoward happened.

The ruler suddenly froze mid-movement. His stop was forceful, it was as though he had struck by a Bind spell. The color drained from his face, which became as white as a sheet. His eyes turned bloodshot, and the hand holding the scepter began to tremble violently.

The Emperor's expression turned unsightly, like that of a man possessed by a demon. He trembled so violently, it was as though he would burst at any second!

Baiyi was alarmed. He was frightened by the prospect of the Emperor blowing up. If the man really did blow up, what would happen after that? Would he blow up too?

The guards in the throne room took action immediately. They drew their weapons and surrounded the three. The atmosphere was tense, and the guards were moments away from attacking.

Just as it seemed a fight would break out, the convulsing man on the throne, whose eyes had rolled to the back of his head, began wrestling for control. A few moments later, he managed to raise his hand, and this made the guards stay their hands.

"N-n-no. D-don't." The Emperor managed to let a few words, albeit with a strained voice.

As the guards skidded to a halt, Baiyi's dispersed the Void Energy boiling within him. The atmosphere remained tense, and everyone was on edge; however, their attention soon turned back to the Emperor, whose wellbeing was now in question. The Emperor's trembling hand remained in the air, so no one said a word.

They had no choice but to watch the Emperor writhe uncontrollably. It was though everyone in the room was there to watch a man undergo excruciating torment. The Emperor continued to tremble for a few more minutes, after which the convulsion slowed to a stop.

When the trembling stop, the Emperor began to pant. His forehead was covered in beads as he hurried took in mouthfuls of air. After panting for a while, the Emperor slowly reached into his storage pouch and took out a small bottle, which he quickly uncorked.

After downing the strange potion in the bottle, color returned to the Emperor's face, and the air of a ruler began to emanate from him once more. Nevertheless, the Emperor to put to rest a nagging feeling in his heart that something was off about the man standing close to his throne, who had dared to slight him.

The Emperor waved his hand at the guards in the room. "Leave. I wish to talk to them in private."

The guards hesitated, unwilling to leave their emperor with these strange people, especially after they had watched his disturbing fit. Before either of them could protest, the Emperor frowned, so they quickly left.

The door was shut with a loud bang, and only three people remained standing before the throne.

The Emperor wiped the sweat off his forehead before activating the Sound Barrier function in the throne room's magical complex. Afterward, his gaze shifted to Baiyi.

A trace of disapproval flashed through the Emperor's fierce eyes. Without a word to Baiyi, the Emperor looked at Mia, who was dressed nicely for the occasion, and grinned. "Mia?! Come here!"

"Say what?!" Baiyi and Mia were both flabbergasted. They had only been here minutes — a very tense few minutes — and Mia had not had the chance to introduce herself. How then did the Emperor know her name? Moreover, what was the reason behind the weirdly gentle smile on his face? The way he looked at her was no different from the way an old man would look at his granddaughter. It was almost as though she was right in front of the Archmage that she knew!

Although Mia was a little unsure, she still walked towards the throne, despite Baiyi's obvious disapproval. "Um… Royal Gramps?"

"Mm-hmm!" The Emperor nodded with a smile. His mana enveloped Mia and caused her to float to the throne. The Emperor dropped her just beside the throne, after which he reached out and pinched her cheeks lovingly.

"You really are adorable," he said, chuckling. "Much more adorable than that traitorous and lousy excuse of a student over there."

"Okay, stop. What the hell just bloody happened?" Baiyi asked, forgoing propriety in his shock.

The Emperor glared at him and snorted. "Can't figure it out with that head of yours? Alas, did I really choose the wrong person to be my heir?"

'Holy s**t; did this guy's brain get fried during the fit he had earlier?' Baiyi wondered. Suddenly, a light bulb turned on in his mind, and he checked on the Book of Servitude and found it responsive once more.

Could he now use it? Baiyi summoned the book, and to his surprise, a big, black tome appeared in midair in front of him!

That was all the book seemed to do, though. No energy pulses emanated from it. If it were not floating in the air, it could pass off as an ordinary book. Although Baiyi had summoned it, he could no access its functions.

"Ha! That is because I'm still the Emperor right now. It's not your turn yet!" The Emperor said haughtily, and his royal scepter emitted a blinding gold aura. His Book of Service had also returned to normal.

Baiyi was quiet for a while, after which he said, "So… I take that, somehow, you knew everything that was going on."

"It told me everything." The Emperor raised his scepter. "I also learned about your accident and everything that happened after. I know that you call me 'old geezer' when my back is turned, and I know that you have been secretly plotting to reduce my allowance!"

"H-hey now! That's totally not what you think it is! Every time I give you money, you spend it on useless things, like that unhealthy card game you play with the students," Baiyi explained helplessly.

"Oh! You dare mention that incident with my cards?! You burned my precious cards into a crisp; I am still angry about that! Let's see if you enjoy burning my things now!" The Emperor waved his scepter, getting rid of the sound barrier. "Guards! Arrest this man, and throw him in the dungeon! Do not even give him any food!"

The guards, who had been itching for some action, barged into the throne room and seized Baiyi. As the Fifth Walker was dragged out of the room, he screamed, "Put me down! Put me down right now! You cannot treat your hero like this! I've contributed greatly to the Empire! I wanna see the Emperor! I wanna see —"

The door was slammed shut moments later. The Emperor looked at Mia and saw an expression of confusion on her face. "You don't get it, do you?"

Mia nodded.

The Emperor did not treat Mia as he had Baiyi. The man smiled kindly and transformed the royal scepter into a big, black book, after which he elucidated, "In every point in time, there will always be one Book of Servitude — just one. It is impossible for two to exist simultaneously, so when that traitorous student of mine brought his copy from the future, he created a paradox that rendered both our books inert. It was remedied today only because he and I finally met, which caused both copies of the Book of Servitude to merge into one.

"As a symbol of one's status as the emperor of the Rohlserlian Empire, the book records the life and passing of each and every emperor. When it became active once more, everything it has recorded so far was passed on to me, including the memories that my future self left behind. This is why I now hold knowledge of the future and know who you are.

"However, my knowledge of the distant future starts the moment Hope claimed the book. Beyond that, there is nothing else but the book's own content," said the Emperor, finishing his lengthy explanation. His explanation did shed light on how Baiyi had managed to know of all his trump cards.

Mia nodded slowly. Despite the lengthy explanation, Mia did not fully understand what was going on, as Baiyi had never discussed the Book of Servitude with her. Even when Baiyi had gone seeking for the book, he did take Mia with him.

However, she was not the only person in the dark about the Book of Servitude's functions. Even the future owner of the book, Baiyi, did not know that it could record memories.

"So, Royal Gramps. Um, who exactly are you now?" Mia asked.

"I am me. Be it from the past or the future, I will always be me, your Royal Gramps. The only difference is that I have been given the knowledge of the future," the Emperor replied. "If I may borrow words of those novels your Master loves to read, this is a case of 'memory convergence'. You could even consider this my rebirth. The future me has been given a chance to redo his past."

The entire situation still baffled Mia, but at the very least, she understood that her Royal Gramps had returned. That was all that she needed to know.

Mia looked up at the Emperor and softly said, "Please, Royal Gramps. If you now know about us and everything else, can you… be a little nicer to Mr. Hope? You must know how much he respects you—"

"You're pleading for his sake already? Hmph! So, I guess my doting on you was all for naught, then. Boo-hoo!" The Emperor snorted, feigning anger, and pinched Mia's cheeks. "Really, all I have done is giving him a quiet place to think things through. You know your Mr. Hope, don't you? If he uses his power, even I'll be in trouble! Really, there's nothing to worry about."

"But, you asked them not to give him food... Oh!" Having just realized that Soul Armatures did not need to eat or drink, Mia stopped. She stuck out her tongue in a cute manner to dispel her embarrassment.

The Emperor laughed out loud and held Mia's little hand. "Alright, come on. Grandpa wants to show you around his awesome palace."

With that, he took Mia on a tour of the palace.

Meanwhile, poor Baiyi sat gloomily on the floor of his dungeon cell, literally, and figuratively, in the dark. After replaying everything that had happened multiple times, he raised his head. "What the hell just happened?!"