Emperor of Steel

“It’s alright. Everything is fine now.”

A voice suddenly rang inside her head.

The voice spoke again to Erwin.

“Don’t worry and open your eyes.”

As if she was talking to herself, she opened her eyes.

The bright light, which was radiating out of Luke’s body, began to subdue itself like a lie!

Instead of the bright light, a small haze-like light was rising from his heart, giving out thousands of butterflies of light flying around the party.

‘What is this?’

‘Both my mind and body feel calm and refreshed.’

Everyone was fascinated by the mysterious effect going on around them.

However, Erwin was only looking at Luke, no, a silver-haired girl who was holding onto Luke’s hand.

She seemed to be a 3 to 4-year-old child.

‘Who is she? Where did this kid come from?’

But, there was something more shocking than the answers to that question.

And that was the energy of the Aether that could be felt from the child’s body.

The child didn’t just have Aether in her body, but she even managed to calm and stabilize the Aether in Luke’s body.

Thanks to that, Luke’s skin returned to normal, and his consciousness returned.

“Uh… Where?”

“Your Majesty!”

“You are awake, Your Majesty!”

At the words from Luke’s mouth, all his men, Philip, and Erwin seemed to get some color back in their faces.

Luke, who was slowly trying to move his limbs, felt a strange mix of feelings in his heart.

Woong!

The Aether in Luke was clustered and moving in a circular form.

And the black circle on his heart couldn’t be found anywhere.

‘What happened? Was it because of the runaway effect?’

The black circle on his heart had disappeared, but he could feel that he didn’t lose any of his powers. The Aether seemed to have filled the void.

His nerves, veins, and muscles that were strained with the changes in his body seemed to be recovering at a rapid rate.

It was a much better effect than the recovery achieved by the acceleration of the black circle.

‘Aether, the basis of all power, replaced the existing power?’

“Your Majesty! Don’t overdo yourself.”

Despite Erwin’s words, Luke tried to get on his legs. Philip came to help him.

However, Luke refused.

“It is okay, Sir Philip. I’m feeling better now.”

“But…”

When Luke shook his head, Philip eventually retreated.

Luke, who was surrounded by his knights, used the basic 1st circle light magic.

‘Will I be able to use magic properly? Even if Aether is substituted, the manner to use it will be different…’

Phat!

Contrary to Luke’s concerns, a dazzling light twinkled at his fingertips.

The sphere of light magic was bright enough to light up the entire area around him despite the fact that it was only on his finger.

However, Luke noted that the manner of using magic hadn’t changed nor did the power.

‘As I tried to use magic, the Aether turned itself into a mana circle. Then…’

Luke, who stopped his Light magic, picked up a broken branch and tried to trigger his aura.

Then the Aether mass that had transformed into the mana circle turned into a power vessel and infused aura into the branch.

‘If this is its level, I wouldn’t have to use dark magic at all.’

In his brief experiment, Luke was able to grasp three major things.

First, he managed to escape the crisis of Aether runaway.

Second, he didn’t lose his ability. And lastly, the Aether in his body could turn into mana, aura, and magi according to the man’s wish and will.

“Your Majesty, are you alright?”

At Erwin’s question, Luke nodded with a light smile.

“Thanks to you. Are you the one who released the Aether from my body?”

“No, that wasn’t me but…”

Erwin who tried to say ‘it was because of that cute kid’ looked flustered.

It was because the child was nowhere to be found.

“Where did she go?”

“Who?”

“There was a girl about 3 to 4 years old here earlier. Sir Philip, you saw her, right? The girl holding His Majesty’s hand.”

At Erwin’s question, Philip nodded.

“Ah, yes. I saw her too, but I don’t know where she went.”

While everyone was looking at Luke who just woke up, they lost track of where the child went.

‘A kid? Who are they talking about?’

While Luke was puzzled at their words, Belfair hurried back to the camp in his bat form.

“Move quickly. We need to leave this place right away.”

“What is going on, Belfair?”

At Luke’s question, Belfair turned his head, looking at Luke who just woke up.

But what was more shocking was the report he had to give them.

“The forces of the Imperial are coming here. Maybe it’s because they saw the light shining from here.”

Belfair was actually coming back to shout at the one who did such a stupid thing.

But knowing that it was Luke, he held back.

Luke didn’t ask for anything more but ordered his officials.

“Hurry up. Everyone get ready.”

“Yes, Your Majesty!”

The men weren’t completely relieved of their fatigue, but they seemed a lot more energetic than before.

It was because their King woke up and was completely healed.

In a hurry, they all moved, and Luke’s party headed south.

In the dark was a man who was still watching them.

An old Southern Continent resident with a scary face.

In his arms was the silver-haired girl, who held Luke’s hand, when he was asleep.