The Emperor Has Returned

Sina loosely held her sword while standing in a calm manner. Although Sina looked like she was full of openings, Nora couldn’t charge at her for some reason.

“Why is a Templar going against another Templar? Is there anything more important than His Holiness’ words?” Nora asked.

Nora thought that Sina was a Templar since Sina’s sword was a holy sword. However, Sina was only given Kamil’s holy sword. Sina would get in a lot of trouble and be placed under arrest if anyone found out that an ordinary knight had a Templar’s equipment.

But Nora didn’t seem to have any doubts after seeing Sina’s skills.

“There are some things that are even more important than His Holiness’ words. I’d rather prioritize them over His Holiness’ words,” Sina answered.

“Hah, you dare to treat His Holiness’ words lightly like that. You are…”

Nora tried to attack Sina as she felt that she could pick apart what Sina had just said, but soon closed her mouth. If there was anything more important than the words of His Holiness, then it would be the words of His Majesty.

Nora couldn’t help but hesitate. It was common for Templars to be assigned solo missions due to their power, and Nora felt that Sina might also be performing a mission.

“Have you also been given a mission to chase that boy?” Nora asked.

“...I guess you could say that.”

Sina looked back at Juan with a complicated expression. Sina’s pursuit of Juan has now become more of a personal mission rather than a vocation or revenge for her dead comrades. Sina had to keep an eye on Juan to see where he was headed and what values he pursued.

Nora stood up with a sigh.

“You said you can’t reveal your affiliation, so it’s only natural for me to have my doubts about you. But I will believe in your strong conviction,” Nora said.

“Thank you.”

“I believe you will understand that we have to continue keeping our eye on him since we also have our own mission. I will keep following you until the day you cut off that boy’s neck.”

At that moment, a low-pitched voice of a man came from behind Nora.

“No, you can’t do that.”

It was a bearded soldier from the Imperial Army who opened the door and walked into the room.

“This man will be arrested by the fourth division. I’m going to take him to Beldeve, where the divisional command is located,” the bearded soldier said.

Nora frowned upon hearing the soldier’s words and protested.

“The fourth division? Aren’t you just an ordinary soldier? How dare you try to intervene in the duties of the Templars…”

Nora then noticed the Templars lying on the ground outside the door. A black dragon as big as the cottage pressed down on the Templars to prevent them from moving. On top of that, Swallan was standing beside the dragon and had her horn bow aimed at the Templars; however, a female mercenary didn’t seem to be much of a threat due to the dragon’s majesty.

‘Is that a dragon?’

Dragons were one of the representatives of the evil beasts that went against the empire and fought against His Majesty. Most of them had been exterminated and only some extremely young hatchlings had been tamed by the Order of Lindwurm. However, even those hatchlings were labeled as evil after Gerard Gain was accused of treason.

It was only considered natural to exterminate them on-site; their existence itself was not tolerated within the empire. Then Nora recalled that there was one exception—a traitor who used to be a member of the Order of Lindwurm but was granted forgiveness in exchange for killing all his comrades, and who then volunteered to be the empire’s slave in exchange for the heads of his comrades.

“I’m Horhell, the centurion of the sixteenth regiment of the fourth division. It has been notified that this man will be dealt with by the Imperial military discipline. The said notice is the order of Duke Hela Henna of the eastern fourth division, who is authorized by the Regent Barth Baltic.”

***

The territory of Durgal was burning in massive flames. The fog and red forest which used to have a sweet scent were covered with ash and smoke.

Countless mercenaries in Durgal had been exterminated by the Order of the Evil Snake, and Durgal was bound to become a ghostly territory from now on.

It was Velkre’s first time carrying out a ‘purification,’ and he was shocked; this was the first time he had ever seen such a depraved place. But Velkre had no regrets about acting beyond what his duties were, since all his actions were necessary to find Juan.

However, he did regret one thing—scattering the members of his knight order to speed up the search for Juan.

“So you lost him?” Velkre asked.

“There was nothing we could do about it,” Nora made an excuse while supporting her broken arm with her other hand.

Nora wasn’t lying; she had tried her best to stop Horhell from taking Juan away. Her broken arm was the evidence. But, the moment the dragon struck Nora’s shoulder with its front paw, she could no longer stop Horhell.

“That unidentified Templar, Horhell, as well as a dragon… There were too many unexpected obstacles,” Nora said.

Velkre wiped the blood off his sword and looked down at Nora. The members of the Order of the Evil Snake were scattered everywhere, trying to find Juan, but he hadn’t expected that there would be someone skilled enough to overpower Nora, while she had the power of the ‘snake.’

“I didn’t expect him to have another helper,” Velkre said.

“It is unclear whether he’s a helper. It seemed like Horhell was moving under the commands of the fourth division, while the female Templar seemed to have a strong grudge against the black-haired man.”

“Whether he is a helper or not, in the end he protected the black-haired man. You should have just faithfully performed your duties within the dungeon.”

Nora wanted to tell Velkre that the dungeon had been much worse than facing a dragon, but decided to swallow her words. It was questionable whether or not she would have had an opportunity to kill Juan even if they went back to the dungeon again. Considering the fact that the Lord of Durgal as well as all the other mercenaries ended up dying, it was a miracle that Nora had managed to escape the dungeon alive. If she hadn’t been injured and thus decided to retreat, she might have already died or gone mad like the former Templar, Jules.

“I have no excuses. All I can say is that I’m ashamed of myself. I will accept any punishments.”

Velkre sighed as he looked at Nora, then grabbed her by the shoulders to raise her.

“Sister Nora.”

“Yes, brother.”

“While it is true that you failed to carry out your mission, there is no need for you to blame yourself too much. We all know that Sister Nora is not the best at frontal confrontation anyway. But, if it wasn’t for you, we would have lost him a long time ago and wouldn’t even be able to find out where he was.”

“...thank you.”

Nora thought that she would be disciplined for failing her mission; after all, disciplinary action against Marco was still pending. But she was relieved upon hearing Velkre’s words.

“If that soldier of the fourth division took the sinner with him, his whereabouts are obvious. Our enemy must be in Beldeve, toward the east. That place is like a hometown to me. I will give you one more chance, sister. You’ll have to have to be careful not to fail your mission this time. Otherwise…” Velkre whispered the rest of his words in Nora’s ear. “…one of us might have to become the ‘evil snake.’”

Nora flinched.

Find the original at bit.ly/3iBfjkV.

The green flag held by Velkre waved in the air. It was a flag made of dragon’s skin.

***

“Your Majesty, why did you decide to have children?”

As soon as Juan heard the question, he realized that he was dreaming. There was only one person who would dare to ask him such a random question. As far as Juan knew, that person was already dead.

Considering that the emperor’s children were some of the most skilled and powerful people within the entire empire, not only was it a cheeky question, but also quite dangerous.

However, the person who asked the question wasn’t the type who would care about such things at all.

“That’s a pretty cheeky question, Harmon,” Juan said.

“By no means is Your Majesty a good parent. First of all, Your Majesty is a murderer, a killer. Other than that, you are also neglectful about childcare. Even if you go and meet them occasionally, you only talk about things that make it difficult to call you a good educator,” Harmon said.

“That’s a pretty harsh evaluation of me, Harmon. The bad parent standing in front of you is the emperor of the empire and the father of all its people.”

“I don’t know about all that, but I’ll admit that you’re a good ruler; you knew your own abilities and left the internal affairs to someone as capable as me.”

Juan was sitting at the desk in his office.

Harmon was in charge of most of the work in the office as he read the documents that the emperor had to review and then stamped the Imperial seal.

Harmon continued. “A good ruler is very different from a good parent. Ras is too timid, Dismas is too aggressive, and Nienna is way too indifferent about her surroundings. If Gerard didn’t exist, I would have been seriously concerned about Your Majesty’s parenting policy. All the children except for Gerard are too dangerous to be placed in power. Even Gerard tends to be overly obsessed at times; however, he is better than the other children.”

“You only talk about their flaws.”

“Why would I talk about their strengths when everybody already knows about them? Although they are better than your average human being, they shouldn’t be compared to ordinary human beings considering the power that Your Majesty’s children have.”

Harmon’s eyes seemed to be saying that just like the emperor who had the power to fight and defeat gods was expected to have a humanity greater than that of other humans, more should be expected of the children of that emperor.

Juan sighed and shook his head.

“I know all of that, Harmon. But they’re not as bad as you think they are, so you shouldn’t be too worried. I think I know my children well enough.”

“All parents say that, but they don’t realize that such beliefs are bound to be broken. I would like to know, Your Majesty. Why did you decide to have children? I would understand if Your Majesty adopted these children for the sake of having future generations, but I’m not sure if that was your purpose. If you were thinking about having a successor, couldn’t you have gotten a biological child?”

The emperor’s successor was the most sensitive topic in the empire. However, Harmon nonchalantly brought up the topic as if it was no big deal.

The room fell silent, and this silence lasted for a long time. Juan could understand that Harmon’s question was quite a difficult one, and that he had contemplated it for at least a few years before bringing it up to Juan.

Clarifying the matter of his succession was an important matter. No one thought about the situation after the emperor’s death and the danger of him getting into an accident—in fact, no one tried to mention it in the first place.

But Harmon was different.

Harmon regarded the empire’s existence and future to be more important than Juan who was the emperor. If Juan was the one to defeat the beasts and flatten the mountain, Harmon was the one who sowed the land and built houses. With that in mind, it was only natural for Harmon to wish to know about the emperor’s biological child who might already exist or might be born later on.

“I don’t plan to have a biological child. I have only four children, which are Ras, Dismas, Nienna, and Gerard. That won’t change,” Juan said firmly.

“Then I won’t ask why you don’t want a biological child, Your Majesty. Instead, I want you to tell me the reason why you adopted these children. They are compared with you too often just due to the fact that they have been adopted by you.”

“I didn’t expect you to compliment me.”

“Are you that happy about the fact that you are better than your children?”

“How cold-hearted you are. Well, the answer is simple. It’s to keep the children by my side and keep a watch over them.”

“Please elaborate.”

“Those children have the potential to become some of the biggest threats to the empire if left unchecked. Ras is closer to Nigrato than anyone else, and Dismas is so powerful that even the strength of the powerful gods that have already died became his own strength. About Nienna… well, I don’t know about her. I can’t even estimate how much potential she has. I’m just glad that she’s only interested in the Crack.”

“What about Gerard Gain?”

“Gerard is…”

Juan hesitated to answer as if he didn't know what to say. Gerard was the first son Juan had adopted. Gerard was the child who followed Juan the most, was the most loved by the people, and was the textbook example for the knights. No one would think that child could be a threat to the empire.

“No one would have questioned that he was your biological child if Your Majesty hadn’t said that he was an adopted son. But Your Majesty has declared Gerard to be an adopted son, and that’s what everyone believes. And yet people still talk about him. Gerard is too similar to Your Majesty to not be considered to be your biological child. This is getting even more evident as he ages. His personality, the way he talks, his abilities, and even…”

“Harmon.”

Juan interrupted Harmon’s words. Juan already knew exactly what Harmon wished to say.

“Your Majesty, Gerard is the eldest son and the son who resembles Your Majesty the most. Was the reason you kept him by your side because you felt that he too might become a threat to the empire?”

Harmon’s question was no different than asking Juan if the emperor himself could also become a threat to the empire. If the emperor became a threat to the empire that relied too much on the emperor, it would only be a matter of time before the empire completely collapsed. An empire without an emperor couldn’t stay stable in the first place.

“Of course,” Juan answered.

“Your Majesty…”

“Gerard is no different from the other children in that he could also be a threat to the empire. But Gerard is special.”

“How is he special?” Harmon questioned.

“That child is…”