Emperor of Steel

When the second confrontation had been decided as a Gigant match, the Iron mages moved busily.

While they were preparing the Gigants, Luke devoted himself entirely to recovery.

It wasn’t a complete recovery, but he had recovered enough to fight.

“Be careful, Lord. If he is a mercenary rider, then he can do quite a lot of attacks.”

“Understood. I’ll keep that in my mind.”

Luke nodded at the advice from Philip and boarded his Gigant, Achilles.

Bison too boarded the Gigant which was in the fortress.

It was a warrior-class Gigant just like the Achilles, and it was named Savage, the Gigant which they had seen in the Lamer Gigant Arena.

Thud! Thud!

The two men went out of the fortress.

It was because the battlefields in the fortress are narrow and could cause disturbance to the soldiers.

Upon the excitement of the match between the Gigants, the soldiers climbed onto the wall of the fortress to see the match.

“Then, let’s start.” Said Luke.

“Sure. Then, is it okay if I make the first move?” Asked Bison.

“Do whatever that pleases you.” Said Luke.

At the words from Luke, Bison slowly advanced.

But in just one moment, one second, he narrowed the gap between Achilles and smashed his sword.

“…!”

Kwang?!

Luke almost got attacked with that shot.

In the meantime, Bison’s Savage returned back to narrow the distance between Achilles.

“Uh, Uh, Uh!”

“Lord, please be careful!” Said Philip.

After seeing the amazing and sleek maneuvering of the Gigant, the soldiers and officers opened their mouths with exclamations, and Philip just screamed out loud.

It was because a brilliant light began to burst from the big sword of Savage.

“Kuk, it’s a Fireball!” A soldier said.

Luke urgently used magic.

A Large flame burst from the left hand of Achilles, which hit Savage and made it turn back.

Bang!

With the attack, Savage wobbled and moved a few steps back.

If Luke had been late to deal with the attack, Achilles would have taken in a lot more Gigants.

“What is it with that brat?”, thought Luke.

The attack had been done, however, the unsettling feeling in the heart of Luke didn’t die just yet.

When he had received the blow from Savage a moment back, it wasn’t just the Gigant Achilles but Luke’s body too had trembled.

He never felt such pressure except for the time when he was fighting Rogers back in the estate.

‘Advanced Expert? No, his is probably the best!’ Thought Luke.

Swordsmanship, Gigant’s movements, they were all not the abilities of a mercenary rider.

What was his identity?

“Huhuhu, you are a young Lord. But even then you were able to defeat 100 knights.”

Bison, in the cockpit of Savage, smiled and made fun of Luke.

“Whatever, I need to make you pay the price for bringing shame for humiliating Cain!”

Bison’s identity was surprisingly Cain himself.

After losing his territory and running away by living under the shadow of Marquis Mayers, he entered the Torlot Fortress in disguise to assassinate Luke.

It was all thanks to Marquis Mayer’s information sources, that he found out where Luke had been ordered for his military.

Cain, who had come to the Torlot Fortress, looked for a reasonable opportunity to assassinate Luke.

But after a while of being on patrol, he knew that Luke urged the knights to an open confrontation.

That too, it wasn’t a one-on-one, it was one-on-hundred!

‘Stupid man! Thinking that he can just take on a Sword Master? It will be easy to handle him.’ Thought Bison.

At first, Bison wanted to enjoy watching Luke being shattered by the knights.

But what had happened?

The fight went on strangely.

The knights had fought using a wheel formation but were completely defeated by Luke, who suddenly showed his attacks.

After looking at Luke’s condition after the showdown, he knew that the timing to kill him had occurred.

Because of the overwhelming victory over the huge crowd, the young man seemed very tired.

Which was why he purposefully challenged Luke.

“Kaaah, I’ll get rid of you, Kid!”

Cain or Bison attacked crazily without any gap.

Luke was helpless in the wild attacks which came in his direction.

“Wah, was Sir Bison so strong?”

“I heard that the sword user was intermediate, but that is more than intermediate.” One of the soldiers said.

While the officers and soldiers were talking to themselves, Philip rushed over to the Iron Mage.

“Is there any Gigant that can be used right away?”

“Sorry, the other Gigants are all in maintenance…” Answered the Iron Mage.

“Sh*t!”

For Philip, Bison was no longer an opponent for Luke.

At best, he was more than a mercenary rider, no, he was an expert rider.

Philip had to step out, but he had nothing to ride.

‘I can’t do anything! I’ll have to step in with my body itself!’ Thought Philip.

Philip was so determined to protect Luke that he had moved out of the fortress.

The sword was moving like lasers, no Cain’s attacks weren’t being stopped.

And Luke wasn’t in a good shape to deal with the incoming attacks. His abilities with the Gigant were lacking way behind Cain.

Of course, even if the attack was stopped, the attacks couldn’t be stopped completely, there was a clear trace of sword marks around Achilles’s glaives.

If Luke hadn’t used the Marionette magic to assist his movement with the Gigant, he would have already been penetrated with the huge sword of Cain’s Gigant.

‘Who is this guy? How was he hiding such a level of skill set?’ Thought Cain.

After the fight with the knights was over, Cain realized that Luke had been hiding his skills, so the weakness he showed after the match proved he could assassinate Luke right away.

‘Maybe the Emperor sent him?’ were Luke’s assumptions.

But it was actually the noble of Marquis, Marquis Mayers.

Luke was looking for a chance to rebound.

‘Stay calm. I still have a few useful cards to use.’ Luke kept telling himself.

Unlike Luke who was trying to keep a calm mind, Cain was already enjoying the sweetness of revenge.

“Kukku! I’ll give you exactly two breaks in the cockpit, those would be to break off your limbs. No, before I do that, I’ll make sure to instill fear in you to the extent that you piss yourself!”

Cain bellowed and wielded his huge sword.

Achilles’ right arm got cut off with the sword.

“Kay, next is the left arm!”

Excited, Cain was ready to do the second blow with his sword.

Luke, who was alert, used magic.

“Grease!”

“Aaaah!”

Grease was a magic that even a low circle wizard could be used, however, using it at the right moment made a huge difference.

Cain’s Savages’ sword slipped and he lost balance a bit.

‘Now is the moment!’

Luke took the opportunity and put the sword in his left hand into the core engine of Savage.

Bang?!

“This, oh my! No way!”

Cain’s Gigant’s light turned faint blue.

The core engine was the most sensitive part of a Gigant.

The Gigant could handle the external shock, but hitting the core engine directly would completely derail the Gigant.

The attack could be possible only by those who knew the structure of the Gigant.

Luke knew better about the structure of a Gigant than any other Iron Mage.

Paaah! Paaack!

“You can’t do this! To end it all in just one shot!”

As Cain was trying to stop, sparks broke from the core engine of the Gigant and everything turned worse.

And then came a violent explosion.

Bang!?

“Wah!”

Philip, who was almost close to approaching the Gigant battle, looked at what Luke had done.

‘Lord?’

The smoke lifted and Luke’s Achilles appeared.

There were debris and broken parts everywhere, but no fatal damage had been done to Achilles.

It was all thanks to Luke’s full-fledged shield magic.

Kung!

“What, what just?”

Philip, who sighed out of relief, went surprised when something fell from the sky.

The crashed piece was nothing but the upper half body of Savage.

Due to the powerful explosion, it soared to the sky and fell down.

“Kue… I, I… lost…”

As the hatch opened, Cain crawled out.

The impact of the explosion made the body take some damage.

So, he had no strength to fight Philip or Luke.

“Who are you? Identify yourself!”

Asked Luke while putting a sword on his neck.

“Kuak, the world is round! Round…wo…rld”

Cain was only speaking unfamiliar words.

Philip, who took a closer look at Cain, noticed who he was.

“Lord, this is Cain.”

“Cain? The one who tried to break into our territory in the war of territory?” Asked Luke.

“Yeah. But, why is he here…”

Was it to solve a simple personal grudge, or did someone gave him any incentive?

Luke couldn’t answer the questions.

Cain, who spoke something about ’round world’, died after losing blood.

Through the confusion, he managed to deal with an assassin who was about to take his life.

However, nothing could be found about Cain or his thought, and Luke began to freak out in many ways.

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“Oh my, my waist!”

“Kaaah! My shoulders are so sore that I can’t even lift my arm.”

“I cracked my ribs, ah!”

Knights were all in the hospital.

As many as 100 patients had been admitted.

They were the knights and the apprentices who got beaten up by Luke.

All of them were injured, either small or big.

The ones who had fewer injuries were moved from the rooms quickly, but the ones who were hurt bad had to undergo intensive care for several days.

Among such people was Anna.

She who had tumbled over was lying on the bed and stared at the ceiling.

“Luke de Rakan…”

Descendant of the famous Sword Emperor Rakan, who was known as the Warrior.

She didn’t know how great the Warrior was 500 years ago, but the skills of Luke were enough to shake Anna’s heart.

‘He is really amazing! A whole new different dimension than a Rune Knight who can use both sword and magic!’ Thought Anna.

The first was the punishment given to Darren, Luke’s act didn’t seem unusual.

However, even if there were apprentices, he defeated 100 knights! With overwhelming force!

And from then, he went onto the fight with Gigants.

A knight from the mercenary who recently moved in and introduced himself as Bison showed his hidden skills, yet Luke overcame that.

That too with just one strike, he took down the whole Gigant.

‘He is that strong and handsome…’

Think about Luke’s appearance, her cheeks tainted red, remembering how strong he was, made her eyes shine.

“Ah, ah, he is viscount?!” Said Anna.

A soldier who approached Anna, for the first time confirmed it was her and said,

“Sir Anna, the commander is looking for you.”

“Eht! Me, me?” She asked.

Flustered, she jumped up from her bed.

“Yes, he had asked me to let you know that, he wants you in the office right away.”

Anna smiled and left the hospital room.

She didn’t understand why the new commander wanted her in his office.

‘Well, I’ll know once I go there.’ Thought Anna.

She wanted to see him, and it seemed nice that he called for her.

On the way to the fortress headquarters, she adjusted her hair and clothes.

No matter how urgently she had been called, she didn’t want to go in front of the new commander with an ugly appearance.

“Salute! Commander, you wanted to see me…?”

Opening the door to the commander’s room, her eyes went shocked.

There were familiar faces in the commander’s room.

There were 3 knights who were considered good in the 7th division knights of the Northern Army, Alex, and Kaper.

There was the Vice-Captain Kaper, 1st division head Alex, and 3rd division head Hobart.

“Came? Since you have come, have a seat.” Said Philip.

Philip pointed to a vacant seat, Anna folded her hands and sat down.

Luke opened his mouth as she took a seat.

“How are all your bodies?” Asked Luke.

“Thanks to your consideration, we have no inconvenience moving around!”

Anna was the one who responded coldly, the rest of them didn’t speak and had a blunt expression.

Luke smiled and continued,

“You guys are wondering why I called for you, right?” Asked Luke.

“Yes.”

Alex replied on behalf of Kaper who was nodding his head.

“Three days before, on the day of the match, you promised. If I win, you will obey my words.” Asked Luke.

The words from Luke immediately changed the expression of the four seated people. It was because they just remembered their promise.

“So, have you called us to receive an oath of allegiance?”

As Kaper asked, Alex held himself back, but Kaper didn’t care for it.

“The oath of allegiance… the reason I called you was to make a suggestion regarding it.”

“Suggestion?” Asked Kaper.

“You don’t have to hate it so much. I am hoping that this offer would be of help to you since, in the end, no one should lose.”

And so the lucky Luke got the attention of the people.

“Will you trust me and come under me?” Asked Luke.

‘What kind of dragon stories are you feeding us!?’ Thought the others.

The other knights except for Anna were swearing at Luke.

It was because everybody was going to return to their families once discharged.

And Luke was literally asking them to be the retainer of another family?

That would never happen unless someone shot an arrow to their head.

However, their thoughts were shaken at the next words from Luke.

“Once you come under me, I will teach you the Gold Sword.”

There was no one from the four people there who didn’t know about the legend of the hero Rakan.

The Rakan was a Sword Emperor and the Gold Sword was his own.

In other words, if one learns the skill of Gold Sword, even if the person can’t be a Sword Emperor, he is likely to become the Sword Master.

In fact, the Sword Master was born from the knights of Rakan itself.

“That, you really mean that?” Asked Anna.

“Yes. Why would I call you over to lie to you?”

The ones Luke had called for the meeting were the ones with great fencing skills, but their development had been stagnant because of the limitations they faced in the fortress.

Luke was able to understand their skills from the fight three days ago, and their personal records.

‘They are all nobles. However, not all nobles can learn Gold Sword.’ Thought Luke.

If a noble family’s fencing was insignificant or was incapable of inviting a good teacher, no matter how much of a noble he was, he would never improve.

In that sense, in the fortress, they were all learning fencing as a common axis.

However, at such a young age, they were standing out with their swordsmanship and they were also at the level to become an Expert.

And among the four, Kaper had already gone to the Intermediate level. It was inevitable, and they had talent.

‘Surely they aren’t like Philip who had graduated from the Royal Military Academy as a senior talent, but he is still outstanding when it comes to talent.’

One of the reasons why Luke had come to the military was to recruit the talented ones.

It was known that young people from all over the empire would come to fulfill their services, and it was likely to find talent.

At the suggestion from Luke, the four of them were facing conflict.

The first person to accept it.

Anna.

“I will do it.”

“You made the right decision.” Said Luke.

Anna’s face went red as Luke spoke to her with a smile, and asked,

“But would it be possible to learn swordsmanship from the commander?”

Luke noticed what she was trying to do, and pointed to Philip.

“It is a bit unfortunate since I am busy with the fortress. Sir Philip will be teaching you the Gold Sword.”

“You, you won’t be teaching us directly?” Asked Anna.

“He may look daunting, but Sir Philip has graduated from the Royal Military Academy with flying colors. An Expert in fencing. Aren’t those qualifications enough to teach the Gold Sword?”

At the words from Luke, Anna’s eyes changed along with the others and looked at Philip.

Until recently he looked like a normal man, but now they were all looking at Philip on a whole new level.

That too, a win-win.

Philip who wasn’t much older or younger than them.

“I too will do it.”

“Me too…”

“Phew, it is an attractive offer that is hard to refuse.”

Eventually, they hesitated but soon decided to become the retainers for Luke.

In fact, they weren’t the first in line or the fittest in the family, so even after being discharged, they would inherit nothing from their families.

At best, they would be turned into retainers to support their own elder siblings, or they will have to come out of the family and pave their own way.

Therefore, they didn’t miss the chance to become stronger and better.

“Thank you. The decision that you have taken today, I will make sure that you’ll never regret it.”

After those words, Luke added something more meaningful,

“Well, you might regret the process though.”

“…!”

The bunch looked over at Philip, who had a wicked look.

They had unknowingly got themselves into the trap of the most vicious teaching assistant by accepting to train below him. And they took the fall without even knowing anything about him.