Emperor of Steel

Luke, who had crossed the border, tried to enter the capital Bless. It was because he wanted to see Reina as soon as possible.

But due to the overwhelming rebels and troops which stopped them frequently, they weren’t able to speed up.

And because they didn’t want to get noticed, they were trying to go to Bless as discreetly as possible.

So they tried to move away from main roads whenever possible, but nevertheless, they had often crossed paths with the troops in the empty villages of trodden farmlands or refugees who were fleeing away.

“Tch, what happened to Arthenia Empire which is always called as the strongest continent…?”

“Isn’t it all because of the unfulfilled greed of the rulers in this land? Our empire too may soon turn like this.”

When Luke kicked his tongue, Philip responded to him.

As he had said, the situation in the Baroque Empire might not be so good.

At present, the conflict between the royals and nobles was lulled, but there have been constant clashes occurring over the past two years.

It was very clear that the nobles and the Emperor would soon be at the mercy of the state leadership.

“It isn’t good for normal people, but maybe a good opportunity for us?”

If the nobles fought with the Baroque Empire, both sides would end up exhausting their powers, and it was going to be a thing for the Rakan marquis.

Which was why Luke, in turn, socialized as an excuse to contact Duke Butler and the other nobles and quietly inspired their ambition.

“For us, the time will be after that.” Luke said.

Until then, it was the task of the Marquis Luke and retainers of Rakan to develop their strength as much as possible.

Although the Rakan had succeeded in increasing the title to Marquis, and the power of the Gigants and knights too had increased by a lot, but it still wasn’t enough to fight the Baroque Imperial.

Du du du du!

Luke who was riding for 2 weeks, had finally arrived at the capital Bless next to a beautiful lakeside.

The knights couldn’t help but burst into admiration as they saw the lake shimmer in pearl powers and walls made of pure white marble.

“Wah! This is smaller than Nemesis, but in terms of beauty it seems to be a lot better, Lord!”

“Obviously. It is the dwarves who have built the walls, the Palace, as well as the cathedral and the other major buildings.” Said Luke.

“Uh? They did?”

“The original name of Bless was ‘Ainzhofen’. In the dwarf language, it means the Fairy Lake. But a thousand years back, the humans captured the city and renamed it as Bless.” Explained Luke.

“Ah! Such a story!”

Leaving behind the respectful eyes of the knights, Luke approached the gates.

The soldiers of the Holy Empire were conducting strict inspections, but thanks to the mercenaries duly issued from the Castia Kingdom, they were able to pass through the gates very safely.

As they passed through the gate, a large and bustling street had appeared in front of them.

Along the wide stretched boulevard, there were numerous buildings with white tiles lined along. Shops emphasized elegance, rather than splendor, there were 2 to 3-floor buildings and at times, a 10 floored ones too.

Philip carefully looked around and opened his mouth in doubt.

“It is surprising. The city is calm unlike it is supposed to be with the cluttered uprisings.”

The policing of Bless seemed to be more established than it was supposed to be with normal soldiers.

The people who were living didn’t seem to act like the crown involved in the rebellion.

There was a rumor Luke had heard about, the knights stated it.

“Was it because of the miracle of seeing the new pope?”

“Well, if we wait a little longer, we will know.” Answered Luke.

Luke, dressed up near a lodging close to the gate and took Philip to the Mercenary Guild.

Once they were disguised as the mercenary troops, he had to pay them.

The mercenary guild was soon found near the street.

Contrary to what they thought, about it being all ugly, it looked rather sophisticated 3 storey marble building with crowded people.

It was obvious that they were mercenaries from their clothes and weapons, and they had witnessed a few familiar faces before in the Castia kingdom.

“Have you come to the guild?”

As they had entered the building, the maiden who seemed like a staff member had approached them with a smile.

Luke nodded and was pointed to the desk which was in front of him and kindly explained.

“You should go there and fill out the form.”

Luke went to the desk as explained by the virgin. He sat at an empty place.

As he took his seat, a middle-aged man with a cut on his face held out a piece of paper.

“Fill in the blanks in there.”

After filling the blanks in the paper, he handed them over, and the middle-aged man looked at the submitted documents with interest.

“Red wolf mercenaries. A total of 32 members and 10 Expert level mercenaries?”

It was actually the knights were more than intermediate level, but for trying to be less noticeable, they reduced their skills.

But even if it was, the middle-aged man looked at the matters very closely.

“This is the first time hearing the name of this mercenary group, a noble?”

“A fallen noble.”

But the middle-aged man didn’t believe Luke.

What kind of a fallen noble would carry around 10 expert knights with him?

‘It looks like they want to fight for a foreign noble and gain experience.’

In fact, it was a common thing in the current days.

The very day, around ten knights and many nobles, had disguised themselves as mercenaries.

Their purpose was to either gain money or experience in the foreign land which was experiencing war.

There were a few who intervened for political purposes, but that wasn’t the concern of the guild.

The mercenary was a place where they didn’t ask much questions.

“Registration fee is 3000 pesos.”

At the words of the man, Luke seemed a little surprised.

“3000 pesos? Isn’t that a bit too much for the mercenaries.”

“This is reliable as it connects directly with the client and does aftercare too, just a little more.”

When Luke had paid the registration fee and went back to the lodging and knights sent to the information guild had come back.

“Do you know about the new Pope?”

“Yes, basic information, same as I heard in our estates.”

“Yeah? The activity outside? That is the most important thing now. First, we need to check Reina, whether we can bring her out or not.”

“Two months ago, after a miracle had happened in the central square, no one has seen her face. Just once a week, there is a mass at the cathedral, but that was stopped due to the fear of the assassination.”

“If so, should we infiltrate the palace?”

The guards at the place were the Pope was staying was overflowed.

Sneaking in through such guards wasn’t going to be an easy task, and if they got caught, then they were done. They would have to face thousands of troops and hundreds of Gigants.

Among them, the strongest ones of the continent were called Paladins, several were Sword Masters and Sword Sage.

Even though there were a few Gigants inside the subspace bracelet, it couldn’t be possible.

“Uhm, it won’t be easy.”

He didn’t believe that it would be impossible but never thought that the beginning of their operation would be so problematic.

Luke was shaking his head and asked for the political situation in the Holy Empire.

He had received a brief report from Argos, the intelligence department which provided them last minute news.

“There are three areas that are currently in rebellion…”

In the northeast of the Empire, Saxony was seeing an uprising against the Constantine’s factions, Konrad in the southeast and Ranghel in the west.

Some ambitious nobles or the minor seven tribes of the El Kassel declared that they couldn’t join hands with their relatives and recognize the new pope.

Archbishop Constantine sent an army to defeat them. The initial suppression failed due to the incompetence of the commanders and the unexpectedly strong rebel forces.

“The rest of the empire is still quiet, but the Konrad is a problem.”

“Konrad?”

“The greatest granary of the Holy Empire was the Prince and Archbishop, Ferrierd had declared self-independence sometime ago. That is why Constantine seems to be busy dealing with rebels.”

It was stated that Archbishop Ferrierd had possessed more than 50,000 troops and 300 knights. The minor nobles too joined in and the forces he had increased exponentially because of that.

“Good work. First of all, it’s getting too late so get some rest and let’s find out more information tomorrow.”

At Luke’s command, the knights went back to their rooms to take rest.