Emperor of Steel

After all the urgent work and reports were done in Brandon, Luke had returned to Anbury city.

It was to direct the reconstruction of the city, where more than half of the structures were destroyed and burned during the battle with Arsene.

Honestly, he didn’t do all that.

However, unintentionally, he ended up volunteering to increase the morale of the people who were in a slump after the sudden battle, so he wanted to help to wash away their feelings.

Tak! Tak! Tak!

Pull! Kang! Kang! Kang!

Many people, from all over the kingdom had come to volunteer.

The number of fairies too were huge, and the dwarves, in particular, boasted their construction skills.

Volunteers, like regular people, diligently helped in rebuilding the city.

Building the broken houses, the buildings, rework on the pavements on roads, everyone moved with no rest.

Luke too used his magic to clean up the places which were filled with rubble.

And if the King of the nation was using his own hands and helping his people, there was no way that the Central Army Knights would stand still.

A number of knights pulled out their Gigants to help with the construction.

As a result, the construction speed had increased several times.

It was when Luke was smiling.

A knight went close to him and announced.

“Your Majesty, Count Joon, and three other nobles have applied for an audience.”

“Huh? Count Joon?”

Count Joon was a former Milton Kingdom noble, he was an influential noble with a manor near Brandon.

After the Rakan invaded the Mayers’ estates, he was reluctant to serve Rakan and resigned from his post with an excuse of being ill, which allowed him to maintain his power and his position along with the estate.

Of course, because of the recent military reform placed by Luke, the military power of his estate was greatly reduced.

The rest of the nobles who had asked for the audience with the King were either rich or influential.

“Would they like to have a meeting with me?”

Why did they have to come all the way there and ask for a meeting with the King?

Luke, who was curious, accepted their request.

“Bring them to the city hall.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Luke headed to the city hall’s meeting room, which was being used as his temporary office.

And after a while, he was able to meet the nobles.

“Your Majesty, you must have been through a lot.”

“There would never be any leader who would work on the reconstruction of the city for the sake of the people, I guess only Your Majesty can do that.”

At the words of the nobles, Luke only shrugged his shoulders.

“Could what I have been through be worse than the people who have lost their homes and lives? For what reason did you come here and ask for me?”

The Count took out a box of jewelry which was in his hands and pushed it forwards.

“I and the other nobles too have been collecting the money. To help rebuild the city.”

The gold was changed to reduced sizes to increase the volume.

‘Oh ho, so these were the ones.’

Luke was told by Sebastian the other day that a few nobles were raising the money for the sake of the Kingdom.

But, it looked like it was Count Joon and the other nobles.

“Uh, thank you. I won’t forget your help.”

Thankfully, Count Joon who came to Luke and handed the box, added a word.

“But, Your Majesty. If you can listen to my ideas, we are willing to pay more.”

“Huh? Ideas?”

“Yes.”

“Fine, I’m listening.”

When Luke was listening, Count Joon gulped and opened his mouth.

“It was always the nobles who have sustained the nations by helping out the Monarchs who had their own wills. There were countless nations which ran like that, including the past Libiya Kingdom, even the Republicans.”

The noble system of the Volga Republic was a little different from the other nations.

If the nobles supported their principles of republican aims, those nobles weren’t deprived of their titles or positions.

However, they weren’t given any independent military power, and very few nobles were given any privileges.

The nobles who rebelled and tried for more power were punished, and their positions were immediately deprived.

However, Luke didn’t point out the details.

“So? Could you get to the point?”

When Luke asked them what they wanted, Count Joon spoke.

“The monarch alone cannot rule the nation, even the power of a single monarch would lead to corruption. Even the Baroque Empire had a parliament, and I want our Kingdom to have a parliament for the nobles.”

‘In the end, they want power.’

The Symphonia Kingdom currently had the power concentrated between the King and his followers.

In other words, the local lords had limited power.

There was no way they would remain like that, Luke had the entire military under him.

In the Baroque Empire, the nobles began to work together and rebelled, they wouldn’t have managed to live past a day without it.

Which was why the parliament came up.

Since the Symphonia Kingdom was in a financially difficult situation, they were going to give in money and take some power under them.

Once the parliament got created, it wouldn’t be easy for Luke to dismiss the opinions of the local lords.

In other words, they could legally take over some of the nation’s power from Luke.

Count Joon and the other nobles looked at Luke with a nervous expression.

Would their King yell or accept it?

Contemplating, Luke spoke.

“Well, that sounds like a good idea.”

“Your Majesty, are you sure?”

The faces of the nobles went bright.

“I will not accept it right away. But I will surely review it.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty!”

“We will pay 10 times more than what we gave now!”

The nobles returned, feeling good that their plan was successful.

Hearing it from Luke, Hans and the other officials jumped out and opposed.

-Majesty, why would you even give them the power?

-Right. Once that parliament gets created, they will start acting like the nobles in the Baroque Empire. It is clear that they are trying to gather power under them.

Looking at his retainers who were complaining through the magic communication, Luke smiled.

“You have nothing to worry about. I have something to use.”

-Haa…

“Enough of that, how is the restoration of Lamer city and other port cities going on?”

-Firstly, we are giving in materials and manpower, but we ended up using a lot of the budget.

Large scale constructions were currently being pursued, and that meant that the budget would turn insufficient.

However, the port cities needed to be restored very quickly.

To reduce the loss which was coming because of the trading halt with the Southern Continent, the Symphonia Kingdom was funding the port cities.

“I will soon send some money over.”

-Understood.

“And what happened to finding the base of the Veritas Magic Tower remnants?”

After defeating Arsene, Luke had instructed Argos to find the base where the remnants of Veritas Magic tower were hiding.

It was to destroy Lich Arsene before he could completely heal his body and restore his original strength.

-Sir Hudson is trying to mobilize all the agents in the branch, but he still hasn’t figured it out. We were planning on sending more agents into the southern continent.

“Please do that.”

After the magic communication ended, Luke approached the window in the room and looked at the sky.

The sky was clearer than ever.

‘Huh. Foolish nobles. Who do you think will be the council members in that?’

Luke’s mouth soon formed into a sly smile.

The nobles, including Joon, were all thinking only about the existence of the parliament.

However, Luke had a different point of view.

Even if the parliament was created, he had no intention of creating the feudal style parliament which shared the power with the nobles.

It was when Luke was smiling, he suddenly frowned.

‘Huh? That is?’

Dark clouds were appearing at the other side of the sky.

These clouds seemed rather unusual.

It was like darkness was the source of it—a dark and sinister energy was rumbling around it.

The direction where the dark clouds seemed to move was to the northwest, where the Libiya Kingdom was located.