Chapter 196 – Recovery (1)

Chapter 196 – Recovery (1)

Slam!

Juan stormed into the House of Peers and strode across the nobles.

The nobles froze on the spot and stared at their emperor; however, they couldn’t see his expression, since the speed at which he walked past them was too fast. The nobles were frozen stiff with just the aura the emperor was giving off today. Some of the weak-minded nobles even helplessly slumped to their seats.

Meanwhile, Juan went straight toward the seats belonging to the nobles from the religious faction.

The nobles from the religious faction had a feeling that the emperor must have found out about something, since they were forcibly brought in by the Imperial Army without any notice, but they thought that there was some room for compromise and making excuses, considering that they were called to the House of Peers instead of being brought into an interrogation chamber.

Then, one of the nobles carefully opened his mouth when Juan stood right in front of the nobles from the religious faction.

“Your Majesty, we know nothing about what has happened recently and...”

Splat!

With a light popping sound, the head of the religious faction noble at the very front flew across the room., causing even nobles from the other factions to be drenched in blood and brain fluid in just an instant.

One of the nobles who inadvertently caught something that was flying toward him realized that it was a head upon making eye contact with the wiggling eyeballs, and directly fainted.

Meanwhile, the corpse of the noble from the religious faction floundered and collapsed without its head.

From that moment, everyone in the House of Peers hastily moved to escape while screaming—it was chaos; however, that didn’t last long.

A sudden and intense murderous intent locked onto them as if they were frogs who were faced with a snake. Reêad latest novels at novelhall.com

While being too scared to breathe, let alone run away, the nobles had no choice but to look at the emperor as he slowly approached them.

Splat! Splat!

The heads of nobles flew off one by one every time a popping sound echoed throughout the room. Juan did not use any weapons and neither did he use his flames or magic. He ruthlessly slaughtered the nobles amidst the silence using his bare hands, almost as if he didn’t care about being drenched in their blood and flesh.

The nobles had never imagined their lives would end so easily, and the only thing they could do was gasp for breath and tremble in fear. There were no more screams, no more resistance, and no more outcry—they were all pointless once the nobles realized that they were nothing but pigs at a slaughterhouse.

After a long time, half of the nobles at the House of Peers ended up on their seats in the form of diced meat.

Juan was neither breathing heavily, nor was he even sweating. The emotions usually seen from ordinary people after killing others were nowhere to be found in Juan—he looked exactly the same as when he first came in. The only difference was that he was covered in blood all over now.

Then, Juan slowly opened his mouth.

“There was an attempt to commit treason.”

The nobles who survived the slaughter froze and listened to Juan’s words in horror; it was true that rumors of such an attempt had been secretly circulating among the nobles.

“These were the people who had joined the treason or had been offered to join and then showed positive reaction toward the offer.”

Chairman Rhymer was relieved that he had been consistently ignoring the invitations and visits from the nobles from the religious faction, but at the same time was horrified when he imagined what would have happened if he hadn’t ignored them. He had heard the rumors of an attempt at treason, but he had been doubtful about whether those who had witnessed the emperor’s power would really be so reckless.

“The disposition of the families of the people who joined the attempt is being undertaken by Nienna as we speak.”

At that moment, someone burst open the door and charged inside. It was Hela.

“Your Majesty! I was preparing to defend Torra. But the meeting for the House of Peers was suddenly called to...”

Hela hastily entered the House of Peers building with a pale expression, but immediately flinched and came to a stop when she saw the scene inside. She tried to say something to Juan, but soon froze up; she too was swept away by the murderous intent that filled the air like the other nobles.

“I saw a lot less blood than I expected during the process of getting back my throne,” Juan said as he looked at Hela. “Perhaps it was because all my acquaintances around me tried their best to avoid mass destruction as much as possible. I am quite grateful for their hard work. I do not enjoy slaughter, but there is one thing that everyone should keep in mind.”

Juan twisted his lips and continued.

“So many soldiers died, but almost all of the nobles remained safe. I think this is quite remarkable, since I have a feeling that the nobles might have driven the soldiers and commoners to death, not knowing how precious their lives were. So as the emperor leading the people, I thought that teaching all of you a lesson was absolutely necessary.”

Juan picked up one of the body parts scattered on the floor and showed it to the nobles.

“Can you tell that this piece of meat was once a noble?”

The nobles could not answer.

Yet Hela bit her lips; she felt that all this was even more reason for why Juan shouldn’t have behaved that way at the House of Peers.

Hela stopped in the middle of the hallway and Juan looked back at her.

“I understand Your Majesty’s anger. But Your Majesty did something that wasn’t supposed to be done. Bringing the dead back to life in front of the nobles was especially disgusting and...”

“I didn’t bring anyone back from the dead.”

“I’m sorry?”

“All I did was stimulate the body fragments by lumping them all together. Humans can be made to move and make sounds with just that. You can try catching a dead frog and experiment with it yourself or ask Opert if you don’t believe me. On the other hand, true resurrection is a difficult task with the power that I have now. It’s not about a lack of power, and more about the rules of the world. However, I’m sure that I could do it if I got my original body back,” Juan shrugged.

Hela looked at Juan for a while and answered briefly.

“I hope you don’t do that.”

“I don’t really intend to do something like that anyway. But what if I did? Would you punish me?”

“No way. How could I? I have no intention of making Your Majesty bear such a burden.”

Juan made eye contact with Hela instead of answering her. Hela’s gaze was calm.

“I already owe Anya, so I’ll bear the burden. Your Majesty, please do as you please. However, I would appreciate it if you could acknowledge that there are people who have expectations and hopes for all of your actions.”

***

“I’ve caught all the rebels.”

Nienna had a complicated expression on her face when she saw Juan lying in a negligent position on the throne inside the audience chamber of the Imperial Palace.

Juan leaning his head against the handle of the throne while he lay across it did not look so comfortable, nor was it good for his spine. However, Nienna figured that it would be pointless to point out health problems to the emperor, someone who was even capable of restoring his limbs that were cut off.

While Nienna was contemplating whether or not she should nag at Juan, Juan was spinning and playing with the black ring placed on his chest. It was a ring found in the hands of Iolin who had turned into ash. Juan did not wear the ring. After all, Iolin had already engraved the name of the ring’s owner on the ring in gold.

“Dad, did you hear me?”

Nienna gave up on pointing out Juan’s posture and opened her mouth again, causing Juan to turn his head toward her.

“I did.”

“I have caught all the rebels and their families, burned what should be burned, and taken back what should be taken. What should I do now? Should I kill them all and hang them on a pole to display them on the walls?”

Harmon, who had created the Imperial Code, only said that he would dispose of the traitors in an extreme form, but did not set a specific norm. However, the law code, which had many concrete systems, had all kinds of terrible examples as annotations due to the gathering of many scattered systems. What Nienna had just mentioned was the most lenient of the punishments listed.

Juan pondered for a moment and asked a question.

“Are there children among those that you caught?”

“Of course there are.”

“I won’t ask them for their faults. Send the children who have not yet become adults to orphanages and interrogate the adults—quietly cut off the necks of those who are found to be involved, and deprive those who do not seem to have joined the treason of their property rights and conscript them into the military.”

“Are you talking about sending them to the Punishment Unit? I’m not very fond of that idea. Joining the military should be honorable and proud. It shouldn't be made into a punishment.”

“I’m not very fond of the idea of the Punishment Unit either, but I want to avoid the guilt-by-association system as much as possible. One’s lost honor should be recovered by themselves only.”

In fact, Juan thought it was right not to punish them all, except for those who were directly involved in the treason attempt. But the anger lurking in his heart did not allow that.

Even so, it was such a generous decision that Nienna looked surprised at his suggestion.

“Why? I heard that Hela was quite merciless to the nobles. Is it your strategy to show generosity when Hela is being ruthless?”

“Wait. What did Hela do?”

“Hela brought the Imperial Army and chopped up the nobles in the House of Peers right in front of the uninvolved nobles. I thought it was about time she tamed them properly. I mean, everyone knows that Hela had a hard time in the east. It’s rather surprising that she managed to endure it so well until now.”

Juan couldn’t quite understand Nienna’s words, nor could he understand why such a rumor had spread in such a short time. But he soon realized Hela’s thoughts and what she meant in the hallway of the House of Peers building.

Juan rose from his seat.

“Where is Hela right now?”