Emperor of Steel

“Congratulations, Lord.”

When Luke was done with the honoring ceremony, Philip and Mabu, the wagon driver, congratulated him.

“Thank you, let’s get out of the palace quickly.”

Luke, who had no intention of staying in the Baroque Empire any longer, hurried them to get going.

When they were about to exit the garden and enter their wagon.

They heard someone calling them from the back.

“Hold on, who could this be? If it isn’t Philip who had been kicked out of the Knights of Guard?”, said someone.

When they turned back to see who it was, three knights dressed as guards were approaching their direction.

With a grin on their faces, they were laughing at Philip.

“You, you guys are…!”, stuttered Philip.

Philip’s face hardened after looking at the faces of the knights.

It was because they were the three people who made Philip quit the Knight’s training.

“After leaving the Knight’s of Guard, are you now the escort of this little boy?”

As he glanced at Luke, the guard, who was talking, walked toward Philip.

Wiggle!

Luke moved in front of Philip, who was feeling uncomfortable, and said,

“I am Luke de Rakan. Who are you?”

“Ah! You are the descendant of Rakan who was getting the title ceremony today. I am Juan, the third son of Marquis Makrev, and these are my colleagues Jake and Carwin.”

Marquis Makrev was one of the key figures of the emperor. A large noble with a manor in the eastern part and the other were all noble figures.

Juan bowed to Luke and asked with a doubtful expression,

“But Lord, do you know? Philip had committed a sin during his stay at the Knight’s quarters.”

“What sin?”, asked Luke.

“He took out the magic stone from a Gigant which belonged to a knight and then sold it off. Lord, I advise you to please be careful around him. He might touch your Gigant too, hehehe.”

Juan responded with a mean laugh at the end. His fellow knights too began to laugh.

Luke looked at Philip who had turned stiff because of their words.

Luke looked at the three knights who were standing in front of them.

“I don’t think that Sir Philip had done that. And even if he did do something like that, I know that there is a valid reason for why he did.”, said Luke.

“Reason, what reason?! That guy is a natural born-thief, not a knight. He had the seeds and teachings of the back alley,” said Juan

‘Kuek! That bastard!’ thought Philip.

At the words that Juan had spoken about him, Philip ground his teeth.

The truth was that Juan was the one who had pulled and sold the magic stone from the Gigant at the Knight’s quarters. Philip knew that and yet he was the one who took the blame.

That led to the board assuming that Philip was betting and gambling in the Gigant Arena.

It was true that Philip had entered and attended the Gigant Arena.

However, it was the responsibility of every mercenary riders to build better controls and improve their skills. He never gambled.

Juan however, said that he witnessed the supposed rule-breaking that Philip did, despite him never meeting Philip.

At that time, the Knights of Guard had a hard time giving out their decision. It was mainly because of the fact that the witness was from a prestigious noble family.

In the end, the board decided to side with the noble and dismissed Philip.

Frustrated and irritated with the malicious acts in the Knight’s Guard, Philip eventually resigned.

After encountering a lot of problems, he had gone to the Rakan Viscount at the invitation of Rogers.

“If you are going to walk around with such a guy, then the Lord’s reputation… Uh, what would others think of you?”

Luke took out the glove which he was wearing and threw it on Juan’s face.

Juan was surprised at what happened.

Taking one’s glove off and throwing it on another person meant that the person was being asked into a duel, at least in the case of nobles.

“Philip is a knight that I trust. I don’t know if what you’re saying is true, but I won’t keep still if someone defiles his reputation right in front of me,” said Luke with a firm voice.

Juan, who had never even thought that Luke would ask for a duel, asked with an absurd expression,

“Did, did you just ask us in a duel, right now?”

“Yeah, I did. Why, scared? Because you are a guard?” asked Luke.

At the provocation of Luke, the three of them were in a huge concern.

Even if he was indeed the descendant of the great Warrior Rakan, the three guards were older, stronger and from high influential noble families.

Right when they were about to accept the duel…

“Lord! This duel, please leave it to me!”

Philip knelt in front of Luke and shouted.

“You want to?”

Luke didn’t want Philip to have a duel with those three.

Even nobles couldn’t just go and have a duel with nobles from much higher families, and Luke was just a knight, a normal knight.

If the rumors went out that a knight, Philip, had a duel with the guards of the Emperor, then Philip would be surely punished in the worst way possible.

However, the eyes of Philip were burning with determination. He wanted to settle things with them once and for all.

“… Okay. In that case, you need to win.”

“Thank you,” responded Philip after being granted the permission.

Luke looked back at Juan and said,

“I have to keep my dignity as a Lord. Hence, I will have Philip represent me in this duel.”

“Huh, we have no intention to raise our sword against a thief.”

“Are you saying that you’re going to run away with your tail between your legs? Nowadays, maybe the tongues of the knights are being sharpened instead of their swords. You can’t even deal with a thief?”

As Luke mocked them, the three took the bait in an instant.

“Kuek, fine. We accept.”