Emperor of Steel

“Haa, what the hell was that?”

Hans exhaled as he got up the ground.

Everything was fine until someone who claimed to be another descendant of the warrior had arrived.

There were very few descendants of Rakan.

However, that man aimed his sword at the shinning king, who was a direct descendant, and turned into a monster that fluttered magi till he was killed.

The two men turned the royal palace into a wasteland, and Luke managed to overpower them, and even before the fake disappeared, he exploded.

If Luke’s Shield magic wasn’t done, then it would have turned into a devastating explosion, not just the Royal Palace but the Brandon city would’ve been wiped out.

“I’d rather wish everything was a dream.”

Three days have passed since the incident. However, it felt like it just happened.

Maron was in the temple. He was stuck with the thought of, ‘This must be a dream. This has to be a dream.’

‘Wow, even if I want to deny what happened, the scars the battle left are too huge.’

The palace was hit hard, enough for it to go under repair, and the other buildings close to the palace were broken with windows because of magi and aura.

But the serious damage was done in the palace backyard.

As the aftermath of the self-destruction, there was a huge pit that was in the size of the palace.

And because of that, repairing the palace was tough. Gigants were mobilized to close the pit, but the work wasn’t fast enough.

“Oh my, how do we make this right?”

Sebastian scratched his head in confusion.

He transformed back into a human because of Hiros’ doing.

However, no one seemed to be suspecting him as he claimed it to be a curse placed on him by Hiros, and it got lifted on his death.

Well, no one was in a state where they could even doubt another.

“Prime Minister, will this be okay”

“Well, won’t it turn into a huge lake once it rains?”

At Hans’ answer, Sebastian glanced at him.

“Do you really mean that?”

“It doesn’t look good at any angle. The kings of the other nations deliberately make things like those to enjoy royal bathing in the palace.”

Hans wanted to know what he was trying to say.

However, he was in severe emotional shock to even think about what he was talking about.

Honestly, the blow taken by Luke or the Symphonia Kingdom wasn’t as great as they thought.

Although the Royal palace was broken, fortunately, Luke and the others survived with few casualties like Auster and a few other knights.

And on the contrary, rumors spread that a dark magic user crept into Luke’s palace.

Rumors said that a man claiming to be the king’s kin turned into a monster who used dark magic.

Although Hans ordered for the rumors to be stopped, the incident was too large and loud to stop.

And since the rumors weren’t doing any damage to the king, they left them.

‘In the end, everything is fine, right?’

Hans’ heart couldn’t settle.

It wasn’t simply because of the shock or the damaged palace.

‘Hiros definitely used the Gold Sword, but it turned out that he was an evil monster filled with magi.’

Previously, the Gold auras were considered to be incompatible with magi.

But, Hiros broke the prejudice.

He used Gold aura and was hiding the Magi in his body!

Maron was shocked too at the realization.

Hans, who worshipped the warrior Rakan, was unable to comprehend that a monster made of magi was using the Gold Sword of Rakan.

‘If Hiros could do it, then His Majesty too…?’

Luke de Rakan learned dark magic.

Rumors like that have been passing around even before Luke became king.

However, Hans and the other retainers, who long supported the Rakan clan, considered it to be groundless rumors.

If Luke really learned dark magic, he couldn’t have mastered the Gold Sword.

But the prejudices were getting broken.

Once the doubt began to creep in, Luke’s past behavior began to turn questionable.

When he was dealing with the Devil King’s castle, Luke turned angry at the proposal of demolishing it and took down the statues of Rakan. He secretly went outside without letting the retainers know.

‘Does His Majesty really know dark magic? No, the Holy Empire wouldn’t treat us favorably if that was the case.’

If Reina loved Luke enough to ask for a wedding, she would have known the truth.

However, Arch Duke Gregory, who was known to be the strongest knight in the Rhodesia Continent would never neglect God and leave the matter aside.

‘But why is Arch Duke Gregory being too quiet? No, that can’t be. He would never.’

Hans struggled to answer the questions in his mind.

He didn’t want to think that the man he served, and the man who was the head of an honorable family touched the power of darkness.

By the time Hans was troubled because of his thoughts, Luke was on the eastern side of the palace.

The east was actually the queen’s side of the palace or the one’s who were next in line.

However, since the woman who should be there was in the Holy Arthenia Empire, he kept it empty and placed the wing under control.

And that was the place where Auster and Karen were asked to reside. The two people, especially Karen, couldn’t be considered normal.

It wasn’t just because she saved him from the Aether runaway or was trying to stick close to him.

Though it was hard to point out, something felt different for Luke after seeing the child.

“What do you think?”

Erwin replied while looking at Luke who was laying down beside Karen who was asleep.

“I don’t know why, but she seems to be tired. Her energy is getting weaker, and it doesn’t look like she’s sick.”

“That so? This is nothing like what I saw.”

Zegal Soha, who took a look at Karen before Erwin, shared the same view.

However, unlike Erwin, she carefully added the sad news.

That meant that Karen would die within a month.

Luke could feel that too.

He could feel the Aether in Karen’s body slowly disappearing, so he tried to give her some of his Aether, but no visible difference could be seen.

‘Karen, who are you? Why did you suddenly come and save me? Why did you try to stop the fight with Hiros?’

Was she an angel from heaven?

Though seeing Auster, in the end, was convincing, he couldn’t get the thoughts out of his mind.

Shortly after the fight, Luke asked Auster’s body to be taken and instructed his men to prepare for a proper burial.

If it weren’t for the man, he wouldn’t have been able to summon his Gigant, Avenger.

However, the guards, who checked the Puppet, came back with a shocking report—that there was no blood marks on the ground or the Puppet.

As it was unbelievable for Luke, he directly went to look at the Puppet.

And he himself confirmed that there were no traces left.

‘Like something white got mixed in the air. No, was his existence erased?’

How could that even be possible?

When in doubt, a maid came to report.

“Your Majesty, Count Hwang Bo-sung, the commander of Guard Knights, has asked for an audience.”

“That so? Understood. Wait a minute. I’ll get up.”

After saying that to the maid, Luke turned to Karen.

Holding her little hand, he tried to give her Aether once again, looking forward so that she would wake up and answer his questions someday.

He left Karen in the room and went to meet Hwang Bo-sung who was in the office room on the first floor.

“What is it, Commander?”

After confirming that no one was around, Luke asked.

“Master, there is something I have to let you know.”

“What is it?”

“I know things that Master is curious about, and Auster let me know before his death.”

“What?!”

Luke was startled as Hwang Bo-sung spoke such words with seriousness.

“You might not believe it, but I never lie, so trust me.”

“Tell me what it is. This has nothing to do with what I believe and what I don’t.”

At Luke’s words, Hwang Bo-sung paused.

He was worried if things could be told, so he thought once again and decided to speak out.

“Karen and Auster aren’t people from our time. They are from the future.”

“What?”

Hwang Bo-sung guessed that Luke would be shocked and decided to continue.

“And Auster is the future me. That was why he was able to pass his memories, well, the future to me.”

“Speak in detail. If this language is uncomfortable, you can use your native tongue.”

When Luke asked with a sincere expression, Hwang Bo-sung nodded and began to talk about the memories he was handed over from his future self.