Chapter 143 – Fakes (1)

Chapter 143 – Fakes (1)

The man flinched and ground to a halt when he found a line in front of his feet that seemed to have been drawn with ink—it was the black line that Dane had drawn earlier while blocking Juan earlier.

“Be careful if you don’t want to end up losing your feet.”

“...There are many people waiting for Master Dane Dormund’s decision. Can you tell me a little bit in advance?”

Dane turned his head toward the man.

The man looked into Dane’s eyes and flinched as he bowed his head. Dane’s eyes which seemed to have the experience of hundreds of years but ironically had the appearance of a child’s eyes, gave an odd feeling that made it difficult for one to look at him recklessly.

“What is it that you want to know?”

“...Master, you already know what I want to know. Has the emperor really returned? After all, Aruntal’s fate is at stake here.”

Dane was silent for a moment. He shuddered in front of Juan and admired his potential. The possibility of Juan taking over the capital was close to one hundred percent. Although Barth Baltic was quite strong, it wasn’t important to figure out who was stronger—and that was why Dane thought that Juan wasn’t ready yet.

Dane spat out a reply.

“He is broken. He is no longer the emperor.”

The man opened his eyes wide and looked at Dane, who continued to speak.

“I must make a new one.”

***

Gallop! Gallop! Gallop!

The horses covered in heavy armor trampled on the ground vigorously.

Freaked out by the Templars crossing the middle of the boulevard, people quickly stepped aside. They wondered why the Templars were moving so hastily. They grew even more perplexed when they saw the two flags at the front.

‘Two knight orders moving together at once... are they planning to go to war?’

Dembel, the captain of the Order of the White Lotus, rode on his horse fiercely.

Lianna, the captain of the Order of the Black Lotus, who was riding her horse right beside Dembel laughed a silent laugh through her tongueless mouth and slapped the thigh of Dembel’s horse with her sheath.

Dembel’s horse stumbled in surprise and almost dropped Dembel, but Dembel managed to calm it down.

“Damn it! I told you we need to hear them out and not kill them right away!” Dembel shouted.

[We can kill them first and ask later on if they are still alive.]

“What kind of nonsense are you spouting!”

[Move faster if you don’t want that to happen.]

Even though it shouldn’t be possible, Dembel felt as if he was hearing Lianna’s laughter.

Dembel and Lianna’s race began shortly after finding the whereabouts of the self-proclaimed emperor—this type of forceful rapid march would have been impossible if they were ordinary knights.

The Order of the White Lotus restored the horses’ physical strength by using Grace, and they even endured their bodily desires like hunger and the need to excrete by overusing their Grace. However, despite their efforts, they were only barely able to keep up with the Order of the Black Lotus.

Soon after the Templars crossed a hill, a huge structure caught their eyes.

It was the ancient Magic Tower, which was tilted at an angle.

***

[Did His Majesty spare his life?]

“He did, but only because that man knelt down and bowed his head while begging for forgiveness. His Majesty knew that he, too, was a victim of the system. Most importantly, he was a human as well. But I and all the others felt that he was more disgusting than anybody.”

[So what did you do after that?]

“We went to the safe place that His Majesty told us to go to. But I couldn’t wait until I became an adult to join His Majesty’s army. So I... created a special army—an army that could punish the kindred races. An army that His Majesty would compliment for its bravery and gladly accept as his soldiers.”

Helmut remained silent for a moment. He spent a long time in silence before muttering in a slightly subdued voice.

“We wanted to prove our loyalty to His Majesty by any means. I don’t think what I did was simply a stupid thing I did due to being young, considering everything they had done to us first.”

Helmut got up from the sofa and looked at Lianna, who was still on her knees, waiting for his next words.

“You see? His Majesty did not give superior power to humans, but blessed them by bringing all the other races down to the same level as humans. Without His Majesty, humans would have remained a race no better than bugs or even worse. After all, humans were nothing but imperfect, weak, and trifling bugs. Humans needed His Majesty. And because of that...”

Helmut suddenly closed his mouth.

Lianna was concerned about the way he suddenly stopped talking, but she didn’t ask further questions.

Then, Helmut clenched his fist and opened his mouth.

“I’ve talked too much. There are a lot of weird things going on these days that are bothering me.”

[I’ll get going now. Please make yourself comfortable.]

“All right. You may go.”

Lianna stood up and walked out of Helmut’s office. Just before she closed the door, Helmut’s voice rang out.

“Lianna, only His Majesty who sits on the Eternal Throne is the real emperor. Keep in mind that there will be no other emperors other than His Majesty who sits on the Eternal Throne.”

***

Suddenly, Juan turned his head. Heretia followed his gaze and looked out of the window, but it didn’t seem like Juan was simply enjoying the view outside the Magic Tower.

“What is it?” Heretia asked while hanging from Haild’s back.

“The Templars are coming,” Juan answered.

“The Templars? Yikes, they got here faster than I expected. I guess it’s only natural for the Church to be able to find you since even I was able to find you on my own—not to mention that the rumors about the fake emperor are getting more and more famous. But what are they going to do at the Magic Tower?”

“I feel like there were people who said similar things back in Hiveden too.”

“Hiveden is not your standard medium-sized city. On the other hand, the Magic Tower is well respected by people... well, I guess that part is quite controversial. But it still has a long history with many dangerous people residing inside it. The reason why the Magic Tower obeys the magic ban enacted by the Church is due to the fact that the Church doesn’t directly bother the Magic Tower.”

Juan nodded his head.

The Magic Tower had always been that way. The Magic Tower never paid much attention to humans even when humans were being persecuted, and they only decided to help out when humanity was on the verge of extermination. It was very much like the magicians to lock themselves up in a small room to study instead of entering political confrontations or struggling for freedom.

But once the magicians decided to take action, it would be a piece of cake for them to deal with the Templars, even with just Dane Dormund.

“I don’t think they are going for the Magic Tower.”

“Let’s wait. After all, we are the guests here.”

Juan began to climb down the stairs again. Just as Heretia had said, there was no need for them to hurry just to run into the Templars.

Juan felt that now was the perfect time for the Templars to visit. This was the first knight order that Juan would encounter after declaring his return.

And from the looks of it, the seeds he had scattered were wriggling throughout the empire, ready to spout.

Juan thought that it would be good to bring them all together.