Emperor of Steel

In the plains at the north of the Rakan manor.

The land where the water of the rivers hadn’t flowed. The land which had been long abandoned and turned into a wasteland.

Four new towns had been built on such barren northern plains.

The towns had been built for the Volga refugees to settle in.

The refugees were delighted to have a safe place they could live in, but they were troubled at the fact that farming was going to be hard for them.

The young Lord had said that he had found a water passage, but the refugees were reluctant to believe that.

“Did he really find it?”

“Isn’t that a very difficult task? If he has found it that easily, then it could have already been developed.”

“But Princess Reina believes in him…”

One day, the refugees gathered to voice their disbelief and expectations.

Grrrng?!

Along with the shaking of the ground, a water column soared.

After digging for three days and three nights, the water source had formed into a huge lake at the center of the four towns.

“Wat… water!”

“It is a real water column!”

The excited refugees hurriedly channeled the water into the farmlands of the villages.

“But, is this really groundwater?”

“Why do you ask?”

“I just saw a carp. If this is groundwater, then there shouldn’t be a carp here.”

“Well, that could be because the groundwater is based on the river that flows next to it?”

Luke used the golems and the monsters to build an underground channel and pulled in the water from the nearest tributary of the Nair river, which was 20 kilometers away.

Luke had kept it a secret. He was looking at the huge lake that had been created.

He had the bosses and the monsters standing behind him.

“You guys did well.”

Kkiii! Kik!

Goblins, Kobolds, and Orcs were bowing their heads.

Because of the brainwash magic that Luke had cast on them, they considered Luke as the absolute being. They were glad to receive his praises.

“Go toward the west with your races until I decide to call you again. For a while, don’t step foot into the Rakan territory.”

Luke had no intention of abandoning them.

But for the time being, there was no way that they could be helped, which was why he was sending them a little far for a while.

The alphas of the groups nodded in acceptance and withdrew in front of Luke.

After finishing the huge task of building a groundwater canal, Luke moved to the lordship by his horse.

Thud!

“Put the bricks over there.”

“Careful! Be careful!”

Large scale constructions were taking place for a month in the vacant lot to the east of the manor region.

That facility was being built under the direction of the head Wizard Mute; it was the Magic Tower Luke had asked him to do.

A triangular-shaped pyramid—the main building—was being built at the center. And around it, the lab, the library, and the wizards’ quarters were going to be built.

For starters, they were going to build the Magic Tower and made it similar to the Hallis Magic Tower in terms of size. In the future, the site would be further extended to build a giant Magic Tower.

“Why are you here, young Lord?”

When Luke showed up at the construction site, Mute approached him and greeted him.

Mute was spending all his day at the construction site for the future Magic Tower.

The Magic Tower wasn’t just a building.

What was harder was the fact that they needed people and numerous spell books to fill the architecture.

That was why Mute had gone to recruit freelancing wizards and mercenary wizards who couldn’t settle down. He even went around the estate and looked to see if there were kids with magical talents.

On the other hand, he was very eager to collect magic books, spell books and materials related to magic, which could be sold in the black market.

And for such a person, Luke had a present.

“Take this.”

Luke handed Mute a large box.

“What is this, young Lord?”

“It is a spell. It will be of huge help in building the Magic Tower.”

Mute opened the box only to be surprised.

The box was filled with books in various fields.

Each one of them was for wizards that were more than 5 circles as well.

“This, how is this?!”

As Mute tried to speak out of shock, Luke responded with a smile.

“Why? Are they not enough? Do you need more?”

“Ah, no. These are enough to attract wizards and improve their skills. Where on earth did you get these many spellbooks?”

Spellbooks for wizards above the 5 circles were items that could never leave a Magic Tower, and they could never be sold illegally.

Then, how did the young Lord manage to get his hands on such valuable books?

“Huhuhu, you might get hurt if you tried to know.”

‘Did he stole them from the top ten magic towers?’

“By the way, there is another thing…”

To Mute who was out of words, Luke took out a rolled parchment.

“What is this now?”

He handed the parchment scroll to Mute, who couldn’t help but feel amazed.

He was very surprised when he saw all the old books, but the item that Luke handed to him this time couldn’t even be compared to any kind of surprise he had ever got in his life.

“You do know that I can’t tell you where I got these things, right? It is only for you.”

The books contained information about the magical engineering elements with their uses, the essence of the materials and such.

The parchment was an item Mute wasn’t familiar with. It was an item that seemed to hold a lot of power, the blueprint of a Gigant, with the name ‘Atlas’ on top.

‘Ahh, did he really break inside a Magic Tower?’

Mute was going mad, not knowing about the details of the gifts that Luke gave him. He kept glancing at Luke, who had given him precious gifts several times.

“Thank you, young Lord. I will surely make a tower that will stand out in the entire continent.”

“Yes, but what will you name the Magic Tower?”

At the question of Luke, Mute smiled.

“It is still… I haven’t thought of a good name. To take after the name of the estate, your ancestors weren’t exactly the suitable names for magic.”

“Hmm, that won’t do. Never can do.”

Luke had learned that Rakan cared deeply for their people, yet Luke couldn’t help but feel sorry for Rakan.

Luke had no intention of putting Rakan’s name on his ambitious Magic Tower.

‘And if we name it Darkness Magic Tower or Saymon Magic Tower, it will cause an uproar… Hmm, yeah! That name will do!’

Luke with his own thought, looked at Mute and asked,

“What about Katarina Magic Tower?”

“Katarina? Are you referring to Priestess Katarina?”

“Hmm, that one.”

Actually, Luke wanted to name it after his past lover and not the priestess.

“Not bad. There are wizards who admire Katarina for her patron skills and knowledge.”

“Then, let’s name it that, Katarina Magic Tower.”

Luke, who had decided on the name of the Magic Tower, turned around with a pleased smile.

‘I’m looking forward to what will happen in the next 2 years.’

With that, Luke had done everything he could do for the Magic Tower. The rest depended on Mute and the other wizards.

‘By the way, I never thought that there was a Magic Tower built in the site of the former Knights of Cerberus.’

The Knights of Cerberus had the highest level of knights, who were devoted to Luke in his past life when he was still Saymon.

Angered by the world which was ruled by monsters, they lifted their swords to change the world.

Their fighting spirit was so strong that they went on and did not surrender even after the Golem Legion was defeated and after Saymon died.

Luke, who learned about their intense and heart moving end, visited the place where the Knights of Cerberus struggled and met their end. He lifted a glass of alcohol for them.

‘Anyway, if I make the headquarters of the Knights of Cerberus the new headquarters, then wizards will be eager to join. Also, it is right next to the mana field of the Castle.’

The Mana field was the point where the mana streams or mana waves gather.

Because of the high concentration of mana, the wizards and the knights that were training there could grow at a fairly fast rate and achieve great achievements.

The highest mana in the Rakan territory was located in the Devil King’s Castle.

That was why Luke had made his golems there in the past. His headquarters was in his Castle, the Darkness Magic Tower.

‘Some of the retainers were aware of it. They just pretend to not know about it.’

Despite the fact that the Rakan Viscount was a small estate, the number of Knights there was high.

Several Sword Masters were made in there, while the other estates had 3 or 4 Expert class knights.

Luke asked Rogers if it was the effect of the Mana Field, and his response was,

“The knights are good because of their excellent swordsmanship. Mana Field, it is all just wild noise.”

“Is that so? Then why is that everyone trains regularly at the Devil King’s Castle?”

“That is to commemorate the work of…”

Rogers shook his head and answered while feeling embarrassed.

Like Hans and Mute who knew something.

Whenever Luke asked where the Magic Tower had to be built, everyone had recommended the place where the Knight of Cerberus was located.

If they didn’t have a little shame, then they might have even asked Luke to build the magic tower in the Devil King’s Castle.

‘It is better if they pretend to not know. If it was known to the outside world, then the Rakan estate would have disappeared long ago.’

Mana Field, a place which was blessed with Mana, also referred to as ‘Cursed Land’ or ‘Blooded Land’.

It was because, in the past, armies would often fight with each other to occupy a Mana Field.

And to this day, that one fact didn’t change even after the development of Magic engineering.

‘This is a thing which needs to be kept a secret until we go into war with the Empire. But I don’t need to leave it alone because of cautiousness.’

Which was why he was building the Magic Tower, and in the castle, the mercenaries of the Kirillov Chambers, which had both the knights of Rakan and Volga were receiving military training.

‘If things go as it is, then they will be able to build a strong force to fight against the empire even when I am gone.’

Luke thought and went to Rockia mountain which had the mines.

Until he left, he had no choice but to lay as much groundwork as possible. There was no time for him to rest.