The Emperor Has Returned

Chapter 144 – Fakes (2)

Lianna and Dembel roamed around, trying to find a place to stay instead of entering the village near the Magic Tower. The Magic Tower had been obeying the Church’s demands, but the way all the individual magicians felt toward the Church was a different matter.

In fact, some of the magicians often became illegal magicians at the cost of leaving the Magic Tower.

There was no need for Lianna and Dembel to enter the village and unnecessarily get on the bad side of the Magic Tower.

“It’s quite hard to find a particular entrance to block, since it’s an open wilderness everywhere around here.”

[Should we set up a campsite or something?]

“If the person who claims himself to be the emperor has allied himself with the Magic Tower just like we were worried, then it's likely that they will be staying inside the Magic Tower. Don’t you think it would be better for us to increase surveillance to make sure that they don’t leave the tower, spread out and infiltrate inside?”

[You’re being very passive; that’s not like you at all. Are you usually this timid when you hunt monsters too?]

“Monsters aren’t political beings. Why don’t you try considering the web of political matters that is connected with our duty for at least a single second? I don’t see you going inside the Magic Tower either.”

[I will, but at night. I’ll suddenly appear in front of him in the middle of the night… and ask him about his identity.]

“Perfect plan to get yourself stabbed.”

[I’ll have the time to hear his answer if I get lucky enough.]

“Lianna.”

Dembel grabbed Lianna by the arm, causing her to look back at him in wonder.

“Please take your time and seriously think about this. The opponent may or may not be His Majesty himself. We need to assume and act while considering both scenarios. If he really is His Majesty, you would basically be committing suicide. If he isn’t His Majesty, then both of us have to work together and get rid of him. That’s why His Holiness and the Saintess have sent us together.”

[You think too much, Dembel,] Lianna giggled soundlessly and moved her hand. [His Holiness has always told us that ‘His Majesty wants simple faith.’ If His Majesty has really returned, why did he show up as two emperors, testing our faith?]

“Who are we to ever think we know of His Majesty’s will…”

[Don’t think too hard. The answer is simple. One of the two is fake: either His Majesty at the capital or His Majesty near here.]

Dembel remained silent.

[You bet on this side, and I’ll bet on that side. Then at least one of us will live, don’t you think?]

“Then at least let me check his identity first.”

[What? What do you mean?]

“I mean that I’ll meet him before you do. It won’t be too late even if we have to fight him after that, right? I’d feel uncomfortable having a conversation with him after whatever fuss you make anyway.”

Lianna stared at Dembel. It was unknown as to whether or not the opponent was the real emperor, and he was known to be hostile toward the Church. No one knew what he would do as soon as he encountered one of the Templars. Considering all that, Lianna thought that it would be better to ambush the opponent in a hurry—especially for a fool like Dembel.

Lianna remained silent for a while, then slowly moved her hand.

[Do as you please.]

Lianna sent out a fist as soon as Dembel rejoiced at her answer. The moment Dembel flinched, Lianna opened her fist in front of his nose. Inside her hand hung a small rosary which had a small accessory with the figure of a strange monster attached to it.

Dembel’s expression hardened when he saw the monster.

[His Holiness made sure to prepare everything to perfection. I don't know if the Saintess has done so as well—so my advice is to run away as soon as you think it’s going to get dangerous. Or make the opponent prove himself to be the emperor.]

“Lianna, You… if you use something like that in the Magic Tower…”

[Everyone will die, yes. But wouldn’t that be better than the whole empire being engulfed in a sea of flames?]

***

Lianna disappeared somewhere as soon as the sun went down.

Meanwhile, Dembel entered the village with only three other Templars. They had hoods covering their faces. While they still had their armors on, only the bare minimum equipment could be seen.

For pilgrims who were traveling along His Majesty’s footsteps, the Magic Tower was a must-visit place. For this reason, Dembel and the other Templars wearing a hood didn’t seem particularly out of place.

In fact, it was both an advantage and a disadvantage, since it would be hard to track down the stranger who had visited the Magic Tower recently.

‘It was said that he was gathering followers somewhere in the village near the Magic Tower.’

The Church was already actively collecting information on the returning emperor. There was a lot of unbelievable and ridiculous information, but the most reasonable one was the rumor about the man wandering around this village.

This rumor was consistent with the sightings reported by Hiveden and the Fourth Division, which were known to provide reliable information. Besides, there were more than enough reasons for the returning emperor to visit the Magic Tower.

‘If you really are His Majesty, why won’t you go and look for your servants…’

Dembel muttered to himself, but he already knew the answer.

Amidst all the internal conflict of the Church, as well as the amount of fuss the people were making regarding the rumor that the emperor would be returning, hardly anyone would want to deal with them.

Dembel didn’t want to make any mistakes. He wanted to believe that the rumor was true as much as possible, especially because of the fact that Lianna was planning to take some extreme measures.

“Captain, it’s somewhere around here,” one of the Templars whispered in Dembel’s ear.

Dembel could see a huge mansion over the big wall. It was in the middle of the night, but the lights inside brightened the surroundings everywhere. Seeing that it was still quiet around the mansion, Dembel figured that he had arrived earlier than Lianna.

“Should we enter through the front door? I’m sure they would welcome us if we prove that we are servants who serve His Majesty.”

Each knight order was strongly influenced by the thoughts of their captain, and Dembel noticed that his Templars were thinking in the same direction as him. Dembel also had a strong desire to be recognized and acknowledged by His Majesty, but refrained himself as much as possible.

“We are not sure who the opponent is yet. Let's look around for a little longer.”

Dembele started moving. However, it wasn’t long before he stopped walking upon seeing a stranger standing in their way. Dembel was about to anxiously draw his sword, but simply placed his hand on the handle instead, just in case the person in front of him might be His Majesty.

“Who are you?” Dembel asked.

“That’s my question. Who are you people?”

The face of the opponent, who was dressed simply, was hard to see due to it being quite dark in the alley. However, the opponent’s dominating aura itself told Dembel that he was no ordinary person. Dembel inadvertently saw a sword hanging at his opponent’s waist. Then it occurred to him that the opponent might be another Templar who was performing individual duties, just like themselves.

“I am Dembel Dorkmel, the captain of the Order of the White Lotus. Are you a Templar?”

There was no answer from the opponent. The opponent seemed to be hesitant to answer rather than refusing to answer, so Dembel decided to pressure his opponent a little more.

“We are carrying out the orders of His Holiness the Pope. If you interrupt our duties, I will treat that as you betraying the Church.”

Only then did the opponent slowly step out of the alley. The bright light that lit up the mansion shone on her golden hair and blue eyes. A large burn scar covering her left eye was also clearly revealed under the light.

“...I am Sina Solvane from the Order of the Blue Rose. What are the Templars doing here?”

Dembel and the Templars exchanged puzzled glances. If she was from the Order of the Blue Rose, it was highly likely that she was an ordinary knight from the outskirts of the empire that none of them had even heard the name of. Nevertheless, the energy she gave off was enough to mistake her as the captain of a knight order led by Templars.

“What is your relationship with… the emperor?” Dembel asked carefully.

Sina frowned upon hearing his question.

“Juan?”

The Templars became agitated for a short moment.

‘How dare she mention His Majesty’s name just like that?’

It could be that she was referring to someone else with the same name, but it was clear that the name referred to the emperor, given the situation they were in.

So, Dembel’s expression hardened.

“Oh, excuse me. I have my reasons,” Sina answered quickly as if she was making an excuse.

Dembel raised his eyebrows but decided to accept her apology.

“We are looking into the rumors about the return of the emperor. Is that what you are up to as well?”

“I guess you could say that. In fact, I don’t know too much about the rumors, since I had been wandering around the remote areas for a while and then had been inside the Magic Tower. But I came out in a hurry to find out about the return of Juan—no, His Majesty,” Sina said as she turned her gaze toward the mansion that Dembel and the Templars were looking around. “Is His Majesty inside this mansion?”

“...We are in the middle of checking.”

Sina and Dembel exchanged intense glances, as if they were trying to figure out the other’s intentions.

However, their goals were the same and the amount of information they had was also similar.

Dembel was the one who opened his mouth first.

“Then I guess there’s only one way to find out. I have no choice but to meet His Majesty in person.”

“Oh, yes. You’ll be able to tell right away.”

“We will be able to tell right away? Are the signs that clear? I mean, I guess it would rather be strange if no one could tell his identity when he gives off such an extraordinary aura. That must mean… Hmm. Has His Majesty really returned…?”

“Um… that’s not really what I meant… but I suppose it doesn’t matter. I hope you will be able to acknowledge him.”

***

There was a shadow hanging over the outer wall of the Magic Tower.

Lianna moved quickly using the darkness caused by the tiled Magic Tower. It was quite steep, but Lianna and the Templars were moving at a speed similar to that of running. At the same time, they only made a barely audible tapping sound.

The knights from the Order of the Black Lotus looked more like wolves with spider legs made of darkness rather than humans. Some people regarded their appearance as profane and misunderstood them to be users of dark magic, but it was actually a kind of a Grace.

The one that serves closest to the light is often a shadow. When the light gets brighter, the shadow gets darker. The Order of the Black Lotus had served the Church as its most faithful servant for a long time. Not only did their strength and speed improve when they assumed the form of a shadow, but ordinary people could be mesmerized by them with just a simple eye contact with them.

It was almost impossible to find them in the dark, but even if one did, meeting a knight from the Order of the Black Lotus only meant death. Thus, the secret of the Order of the Black Lotus continued to remain safe, and the only thing that remained was a pile of corpses that seemed to have been torn apart by beasts.

[Stop.]

Lianna, who was crawling with her nails stabbed into the outer wall, sent a signal to the Templars, causing the other Templars to stop moving instantly. Lianna looked into the window next to her; she could hear the loud voices of a young man and a woman who were talking inside.

Lianna and Dembel had about the same amount of information regarding the return of the emperor. Neither of the two knew what he looked like, where he was within the Magic tower, or even whether or not he was actually in the Magic Tower.

Lianna had a hunch that he was inside the Magic Tower rather than the village, and something that stimulated her senses was happening inside the window she was looking at; Lianna’s senses were sharpened to the extreme level when she assumed the form of a shadow.

Lianna stretched her neck and looked inside the window.

“Where’s the emperor?” a woman with long straight red hair asked while leaning leisurely against a chair.

Lianna’s expression hardened upon recognizing who the woman was. The owner of the voice was Heretia, a famous noble who was active in the empire’s politics and was known for her rebellious nature toward the Church in the holy city of Torra.

The fact that Heretia was at the Magic Tower was surprising enough, but what was more surprising than that were the words that were coming out of her mouth.

‘Did she just say the emperor?’

“Lady Heretia. Please refrain yourself from referring to His Majesty like that. There is a possibility that other people might misunderstand and…”

Lianna turned her gaze toward the owner of the other voice—it was a strange-looking man with bandages all over his face. Lianna couldn’t tell who he was, but he gave off a gruesome energy.

“Don’t be stupid, Haild. Of course I’m not going to refer to him like that in public. I’m only calling him that because we all know each other here. Go ahead and set up a formal occasion and try to test me. You won’t be able to find someone who’s more polite toward the emperor than me.”

The woman next to Heretia chuckled as Heretia grumbled.

“‘Tis rather interesting how humans are obsessed with honorifics and convoluted oration. My, would those be of such momentous importance? ‘Tis the wish of the emperor that all who are human be thus honored. He himself cared little about such trifles, so why must those around him trouble themselves?”

“Ah, yes, Dame Dragon. Great people don’t have to try so hard since people already know how great they are, but for ordinary humans, they desire to make sure that they are in a higher position than others by claiming that they are better.”

Lianna was even more shocked upon hearing Heretia’s sarcastic words.

‘Did… she say a dragon?’

Only then did Lianna take another look at the man with bandages wrapped around his face. The dragons were originally situated in the east, and the east had been heavily encroached upon by the Crack. Lianna realized that the gruesome energy she was feeling from the man was none other than the aura of the Crack.

A rebel against the Church, a man who had been encroached upon by the Crack, and a dragon, the official Evil Beast of the empire, were talking about meeting the returning emperor so casually.

Lianna thought that she had to hurry up and let Dembel know about what she found out. She had no idea where the returning emperor was, but she either had to stop him before he ran into Dembel, or at least stop Dembel from fighting against him.

However, due to her anxiousness, Lianna made a mistake before she even knew it.

“Huh?”

The first person to react was Haild. As soon as he felt something suspicious, he immediately drew out Elkiehl and stabbed it into the wall. Elkiehl passed through the wall of the Magic Tower as if it was made of soft tofu, and then it penetrated into one side of Lianna’s arm which was made of shadow.

Most weapons wouldn’t even be able to leave a scratch on Lianna, but her arm started disappearing without a trace as soon as Elkiehl touched her. As more and more of her arm continued to disappear around the affected area, Lianna quickly cut off her own arm. However, she still had seven shadow arms left.

“Who is it!?”

Ignoring Haild’s shout, Lianna sent instructions to the other Templars.

[Kill them all.]

Lianna couldn’t waste a single second. Lianna left the rest to the Templars and quickly climbed down the outer wall of the Magic Tower.