The Emperor Has Returned

Chapter 9 Sand Dyeing(2)

Translator: BaeBae

Having completed her knight training which included memorising the emperor’s whole history, Sina discovered resemblances between traces she found at Colosseum and Taltere’s former religious group activities.

And yet, Daaron was clearly demonstrating that he was a faithful follower of the emperor.

Priests had given their judgement that Daaron’s a devoted supporter of the emperor.

There wasn’t any clue how many of them had received money from Daaron to say that.

Scratch that. Maybe none of them received anything.

At the Colosseum, many people were killed under the name of the emperor and people praised, glorified him. The church didn’t care about anything else other than this point.

“On that note, wouldn’t our top knight nim need to prove her faith as well?”

At Daaron’s words, Sina made a face.

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“What are you exactly implying with those words?”

“The emperor stressed the importance of obedience and discipline. From what I know, the president of your Blue rose knights order isn’t Sina nim, yet I’ve been meeting Sina nim more so than your president. It would be unlike your president to ask you to investigate so often. So I can only imagine that your actions are all but your own?”

“Do not distort the emperor’s words. ‘Obey to a better volition. There’s never a wrong thing but there’s always a better thing.’ Also, ‘the discipline that binds you isn’t submission. As an individual you are only a small stone, yet as a group tied together in discipline, you will be a formidable castle wall….’”

On the precipice of saying another quote related to the church, Sina stopped herself at hearing the door knock. Daaron frowned his eyes.

Sina momentarily felt embarrassed at herself for getting agitated and reciting a speech. She didn’t come here to lecture Daaron, she came here to investigate him.

The one who should do most of the talking was Daaron. Yet she had babbled on and on.

She felt ashamed being played to his provocation.

“What is it.”

“Da.. Daaron nim. There’s been an incident at the Colosseum.”

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“Incident?”

With an annoyed face, Daaron got up and was about to head on over when he stopped and looked at Sina.

“Sina nim, it seems like today’s not a good day. Is it alright if I excuse myself early?.”

“No, it’s not alright. If there’s a problem at the Colosseum, it’s going to be linked to violence. Why don’t I lend you an extra hand.”

An incident linked to Daaron. This might be an opportunity, Sina thought.

Daaron hesitated for a moment, but then nodded back as if it shouldn’t matter.

Swiftly, they arrived at the Colosseum’s entrance and found soldiers loudly shouting towards the central area.

“Shoot him! Turn him into a porcupine!”

“What’s going on!”

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The soldiers quickly backed off as Daaron rumbled. Daaron and Sina pushed them out the way and peered towards the Colosseum’s center.

“That’s….?”

It was a miserable state inside the Colosseum. There wasn’t a single soldier in normal shape.

Most were dead or horrified at the sight of their organs flowing out from their body. Some, glued to the wall, were shaking in fear.

The Colosseum was full of corpses which had been stacked into a pile. The blood from the bodies had coloured the sand bright red.

One person was standing at the center of the Colosseum. All around his body, there were arrows deeply stuck and yet it looked like he was standing upright.

“Daaron nim has arrived! Hold your fire! ”

As the arrows stopped, the man who had been turned into a porcupine slowly toppled over.

And hidden behind, a young boy could be seen.

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*****

(A few moments before)

When Juan stuck his sword at the inspector’s neck, soldiers initially failed to comprehend what had happened.

Their opponents usually ranged from weak slaves, maniacs to drunkards.

Occasionally, it was difficult dealing with a healthy adult male, but they never imagined a boy barely ten years old could be their adversary.

The inspector collapsed to the ground and the scene almost looked like a play. But the murderous look Juan gave them made them realise this was far from a prank.

“Euuu – Aaaahhhh!”

Only after a second scream rang out, the soldiers had realized what had happened.

Juan was already in the process of beheading soldier number three.

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It was nigh impossible to decapitate a person with the body strength of a child. Maybe, if it was a full downswing with an axe, but no chance with a sword.

However, Juan had the same eyes that had participated in countless battles and wars during his life as emperor.

His eyes could clearly locate the vulnerable areas on a person’s neck.

Juan found his openings and with a single strike and cut it through cleanly.

The scene looked like a trick, as soldiers head’s were toppling from their body one after another.

As each fell to his doom, they thought this was all a dream.

After the sixth kill, Juan started to feel like he was in trouble. He was already running out of breath.

He was on a different level but still his opponents were armed adult males. They were bigger and still there were many of them left.

Trying to fill the difference in physicality, he shifted some of the mana that was maintaining his body towards increasing his mobility.

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It still wasn’t too late to escape if he poured all of mana into doing this.

Yet, Juan let his sword dance in his grasp.

He swung, cut, sliced.

There were no wasted movements in his swordplay. Everything was perfectly measured.

Like the hand skills of a farmer harvesting his crops. The only difference was the object being dealt with. A human’s head.

Consuming the lowest amount of mana possible, his robotic movement had injected a fear inside the soldiers’ minds.

“Don’t rush into him!”

The general didn’t have to shout this as the few remaining soldiers had already moved back far away.

A clear indication of their fear could be seen where their spears were shaking within their hands. The general briefly counted up those standing and was left in shock at how few were alive.

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Luckily, it looked as if Juan was starting to tire. He thought there might be a chance at victory if they all rushed at him now.

But he also had second thoughts whether the soldiers would listen to his command to charge at him. Even now, some were backing away while glancing at him, their faces pleading not to give a charge order.

Juan used this hesitation to catch his breath.

He deeply breathed in and out.

‘A strange feeling.’

During his reign as emperor, whenever a single person died, it deeply affected him.

Of course he understood that sometimes it was necessary to sacrifice life and even gave out orders for people to die.

Soldiers loyal to the emperor gladly accepted his wishes and Juan made sure not even one soul was sacrificed without purpose.

He mourned them and regretted that he didn’t have enough power but to sacrifice them.

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However, now he was taking away people’s lives with his own hands.

And yet strangely enough, he didn’t feel any pity for them.

In his mind all he could hear was the inspector’s voice saying he’s wanting to make an offering to the emperor, the faun’s voice making a lame joke and the voice of the crazy woman softly calling him ‘sweetie’.

Juan tightly grasped his sword once more. The handle contorted as if it would break.

‘Is this…. the feeling of madness?’

‘The one adored as humanity’s protector. I’m killing humans just because two non-human slaves were killed?’

His teacher Dain would certainly laugh at him at hearing this.

Or would he be angry?

Juan suppressed his complicated thoughts and turned his attention back to the battle.

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‘…..Whatever.’

Juan quickly scanned the situation.

Then, assessed how much mana he had left.

There was enough to kill all remaining soldiers. But the problem would come after that.

There was no end to them. Even now, more soldiers arrived, lining up their bows looking for an angle.

“Release!”

Juan quickly grabbed and threw the dead soldier over him, shielding himself. His strength had improved recently but he still had the body of a skinny nine year old boy.

Most of the arrows landed on the corpse. As for the few that found its way through, it was easy for Juan to stop it with mana. But he took into account that mana was a limited resource and he wouldn’t be able to continually do this forever.

Few arrows that passed through the corpse lightly scratched his skin. Pain could be felt with each arrow that touched, but he swallowed through it and mustered his strength.

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‘I just need one chance.’

The corpse was continuously pummeled with arrows while a few scraped Juan’s exposed calves and feet. He silently waited, looking to strike at the right moment.

And then. A loud shout was heard. It was the person he saw moments ago, Director Daaron. Juan crouched down.

“What’s going on!”

“Daaron nim is here! Hold your fire!”

The moment Daaron entered the scene and the shooting stopped, Juan discarded the corpse.

Then in a flash, his body launched forward.

Juan closed the distance to an arm’s reach to Daaron’s face, who had a look of astonishment on his face.

Just before his eyes exploded in pain, Juan’s sword was met by someone.

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The sound of two swords clashing echoed throughout the theatre.

“Who are you.. and how….”

One who stopped him was a mysterious female knight.

*****

Sina was panicking.

She instinctively pulled out her sword and stopped the boy when he lunged at Daaron.

Daaron was an official that she didn’t care if he had died. But if he had died before she could discover evidence about the cult then another perpetrator would have simply replaced him.

Yet, after meeting the boy’s sword, another problem rose.

“You’re able to use the Valte swordsmanship? How?”

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A quick run up followed by a powerful stabbing technique.

All knights in the empire had to learn the basic techniques of swordsmanship. While each Knight orders strived to differentiate their swordsmanship, the basic fundamentals came from the Valte swordsmanship which stemmed from the emperor himself.

Even till now, the royal guard still used the same Valte swordsmanship that the Emperor taught them all those years ago.

Once mastered, it was said to be on par with magic. Even if one had the basics learnt, it was a powerful swordsmanship for live combat use.

The actions Juan took, spacing, sword handling and stance, everything was immaculate. This was no coincidence.

Instead of replying, Juan swung his sword and attacked Sina.

Sina stumbled back surprised at the level of strength coming from a young boy.

But, she was someone who graduated as the top knight at the knight academy. The top knight of the Blue rose order who along with a few others administered the southern imperial army.

If experience and leadership are what’s important to a knight commander, to be the top ranked knight it was simply about skills and talent. Sina was someone who at a young age already held this title.

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“Do you have a teacher? Valte swordsmanship is something that shouldn’t be leaked. And especially to……”

Black haired outsiders.

Sina swallowed her thought at seeing Juan’s hair colour.

If it was leaked to black haired folks outside the ‘border’, this was clear evidence of high treason.

As an empire’s knight, Sina wanted to end the boy’s life there and then.

The fight started swaying in her favour after initially looking like she was struggling.

It looked as if Juan was exhausted. Sina observed his skinny limbs and noticed he had sustained many wounds.

He slew all those soldiers with this body and still had enough strength to face me?

Sina could kill Juan at any moment but she hesitated.

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She thought of the possibility that she was facing an extraordinary genius. She called out to him unwillingly.

“Surrender!”

Again, Juan did not reply and instead swung his sword at her. In frustration, Sina bit her mouth and instantly swung her sword, knocking Juan’s sword away. Having received many cracks from previous fights, his sword broke. Despite that, Juan tightly held the remaining sword handle.

He thought to himself ‘I guess this is it then…’.

He wobbled a bit before slumping down on the spot. His eyes were reversed, completely white. It was quite certain he’d lost his consciousness.

“You little bastard…..”

Once Juan collapsed, a soldier approached, attempting to stab him with a spear.

Sina urgently cried out.

“Stop!”

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Then suddenly, Juan who’d been motionless till now, quickly evaded the spear, grabbed it and pulled it towards him.

The soldier lost his footing and tumbled towards Juan.

In a flash, Juan bit down at his neck.

The soldier flailed his arms around as he tried to escape. But gradually, his movements started to weaken until it stopped.

Showered in a stream of blood, Juan was staring down at Sina.

Her hair stood on its end as she thought, ‘had she been caught off her guard she would have ended up like that soldier.

Nobody dared approach Juan who was soaked in blood.

After a while, Sina pushed herself to approach him and confirmed Juan had passed out with his eyes open.

This time it was real. As Sina lifted Juan up into her arms, Daaron came over.

“Top knight nim, who is he….”

“Appears to be a gladiator slave.”

Sina replied while giving him a wide smirk.

“Why are you so quiet? Just like you said, shouldn’t you be amazed that ‘the Emperor is here’? I believe that’s how you phrased it?”