Emperor of Steel

Chapter 696: Rudolf’s Stratagem 1

Baroque Empire.

The Empire, which had been proud of its heritage and wins over the last 500 years, was entering the decline with every passing day.

The nation was divided because of the civil war, and the Emperor’s exploitation and the rebels in the various places almost turned it into rags.

Emperor Rudolf lost the support of the denominations and the people’s sentiment as a result of his effort to increase the military strength of the Empire by diverting the Empire’s funds.

The military power, which was regarded to be the strongest in the continent, wasn’t the same as before.

The power of the Sword Emperor and the SS Knights under the command were still strong, but due to the frequent wars, the power was decaying from below.

As the nation’s livelihood declined, officers and knights began to embezzle the funds to fill their vaults, and the soldiers deserted their roles whenever they felt in crisis.

Because of that, winning in a war turned impossible.

And that was why the recent war with the Volga Republic ended without any benefit to the Empire.

Enraged Emperor Rudolf, found out those rats who ate away his funds and punished them, but nothing of significant change in the Empire.

Nobody said anything, but everyone knew that the Empire was in its current state because of the Emperor.

The lower-powered nobles were often residing in their manors or took refuge in other nations.

Those who couldn’t hide or run away would sigh and wait for their savior to appear and end the hellish time they were having to endure.

That was how things were.

Strange rumors circulated in various parts of the Empire, including Nemesis.

Nemesis, Imperial palace.

There were two people in the Emperor’s office.

It was Rudolf behind the ornate desk, and Count Voltas, bowing in front of him.

“Count, did you hear the strange rumor in the capital?”

When Rudolf asked, Voltas began to sweat.

He did think that it was strange as Rudolf suddenly summoned it, but he didn’t think that Rudolf would have heard the rumors which were spreading throughout the Empire.

Voltas replied as calmly as he could.

“It is just a rumor which some spies must have told. We are searching for them and will punish them right away, so please don’t stress over it…”

“That so?”

Rudolf, who was holding his chin with his hand, remained silent for a moment and then spoke once again.

“Even then, it is a little weird.”

“Weird?”

Rudolf, who got up from his seat, continued to speak by pointing to the map in the office.

“I hate to admit it, but it is true that there are people in this world who have the power to kill me. Luke de Rakan and my half-brother Reichard…”

The Emperor who had a bitter smile on his face, soon had a frown and anger registered on his face.

The most promising candidate to kill him came to his mind.

Arsene, the indestructible monster of the Veritas Magic tower!

“Why is it? Why is the name of a princess who suddenly disappeared 500 years back leaving people alone, being heard once again?”

The last princess of the old Libiya Kingdom and her knights will return one day and destroy the blood of Karno de Baroque!

And the flag of the forgotten kingdom will flutter once again!

That was the rumor which had been circulating in the Empire.

Count Voltas released informants to investigate who was the one who made that ghost story.

Some said that it was said by an old elf astrologer, while the others said that it was heard in a temple of Goddess Belize.

There was also a story about an old priest from the South.

The bottom line, it was impossible to trace it back to the definite origin.

If it was the work of the neighboring nations, they would have immediately found out the spies and punished them for spreading such rumors, but it seemed too absurd for the neighboring nations to use a princess who died hundreds of years back.

“We are seeing it as an act of Libiya Kingdom, and we asked for a detailed investigation to be carried out.”

“Reichard’s work… is that really his?”

Instead of a princess who disappeared hundreds of years back, Reichard would have used his mother, who was killed unjustly, and emphasized his own Dragon blood and the former Emperor whose reason for death wasn’t clear.

‘Anyway, there is something which came to my mind because of that b*tch princess being mentioned.’

The ruins under the Imperial Palace.

The ruins, which were destroyed during the escape of Count Ferrero, were currently being restored and investigated.

From what Rudolf knew, the ruins were created by ancient wizards who sought after the power of Time.

The research hadn’t moved much, so he had forgotten about it, but because of the recent rumors, he got reminded of it again.

‘I need to find out how things are going on down there.’

Rudolf wanted to head down to the ruins, and if there was no progress, he would blow the throats of the wizards who were working down there.

These days, he didn’t really like the Imperial Magic Tower.

It has been several times since the production of the Gigants was disrupted, and the loyalty to the Imperial family had also declined, and some wizards were secretly fleeing away.

During the last war with the Volga Republic, the Iron Mages deserted their positions.

And escaping into the enemy camp after the desertion of post was considered to be a felony, but they had the audacity to sabotage the Gigants to run away.

Breaking the core parts and turning the magic stones into counterfeit ones.

The bigger problem was to inform Volga men of their actions, and causing the Baroque to lose the war.

For that reason, the Marquis and Meister of the Imperial Magic Tower, Kepler, took responsibility and withdrew.

Rudolf didn’t have any other people who could replace him, so Kepler was asked to return, but even then, Rudolf didn’t have the power to place his trust in the Tower.

And his patience was limited.

If they showed disappointing results again, Rudolf decided that he would clean up the Imperial magic tower.

‘It was an atmosphere where the republicans and the rebels who have separated their paths would avoid the war for a time being. In this time, I need to clean up that Imperial tower and build a new one to replace it.’

Rudolf decided firmly and went to visit the ruins.

As the Emperor silently went over along with his SS Knights, the wizards who noticed them in the ruins were flustered.

However, they soon regained their calm and greeted him.

“Your Majesty, you came here.”

The assistant Meister and Count Rolex of the Imperial Magic Tower, who was responsible for restoring the ruins of Time, ran over to greet Rudolf.

To him, Rudolf spoke arrogantly.

“Do you have any results?”

“We do.”

Rudolf’s eyes went wide at the answer from Count Rolex.

He thought that their answer would be the same, ‘I need more time and money’ with their gloomy expressions.

“I don’t really like those who joke around. So be honest.”

Said Rudolf with sternness in his voice.

Even then, Count Rolex replied with a calm face.

“I will tell you this honestly, Your Majesty. The destruction of the ruins and the battles which happened here was a blessing in disguise.”

It was real. It really looked like they managed to get something.

Rudolf who was interested hurriedly grabbed Rolex’s shoulders and asked.

“Tell me, how did that become a blessing in disguise? What were the achievements you made?”

“Well, that is what I am going to tell you, so please let me go…”

When Count Rolex seemed to try and release him from Rudolf’s grasp, Rudolf let go of him.

Wiping off the sweat from his head, he guided the Emperor to a dome structure.

Inside the dome, the original ruins were almost restored.

“To be honest, when this was destroyed, we thought we lost everything. I didn’t know what to do and how to restore it back.”

However, in the process of recovering the ruins, it was said that a large bronze chest was found at the lower level of the ruins.

The chest was sealed with layers of ancient magic, and contained research materials and drawing related to the ruins.

“Oh oh! There were such things?!”

“Yes, Your majesty. Perhaps they were left behind in case a problem occurred with the ruins.”

The data was instrumental in advancing the research. Even with the Aether which Rolex found was very hard to tackle.

“I am sure that Meister reported it before. To run his ruins we need Aether.”

“Yes, the power which existed when the world was created? However, I know that it isn’t a power we can gather at this time.”

“Yes, that was what we know…”

Count Rolex smiled and presented a research note to the Emperor.

The research note was filled with magic circles and formulas which Rudolf couldn’t understand.

“What is this?”

“When the ruins were destroyed, the invaders who took Count Ferrero or the traitor Ferrero, made a tunnel of light outside the capital and escaped. The runnel of light was similar to a teleport gate, but entirely different.”

“It doesn’t only connect to the present, but also the past and the future?”

“Yes, right. The ancient wizards called it Warp.”

During that time, there were two warp gates right outside the capital.

One, used by the intruders who took Ferrero, and the other was an old Southern continent man with a child in his arms.

Count Rolex even tried to fight the man.

“I did a thorough investigation into the Fist Master right away. As a result, we found out from our merchants, priests, and warriors of the Southern continent in our Empire—that it was a martial arts user who was a Fist Master. That Fist Master used similar skill as the Trinity martial arts, which is passed down to those in the Hwang Bo clan, in the Song Empire.”

“Then, that old man is from the Song Empire?”

“No, it isn’t that simple. It was because no one in the family has even completely mastered the Trinity Martial arts.”

It was said that the only warrior, who died 300 years back, did it, and only recently—a man who appeared during the civil war of the Song Empire was able to do it.

Shockingly, he ended up becoming the limb of Luke de Rakan, the Symphonia King.

“He is very young. He was different from the old man I saw.”

“If so… that man must have come from the past or the future.”

“With that thought, we investigated into the mana waves which were open during the warp.”

As a result of it, they found out that the waves were quite different.

Probably, without the research data left behind by the ancient wizards, the waves would have been hard for Rolex to assess.

“Thanks to the research, we found out that the mana got converted into Aether to open the warp gate. That was why the waves seemed different.”

“Oh, mana got converted into Aether…?”

Rudolf was expecting something.

Count Rolex gave an answer without failing his expectations.

“Aether was already being lost under the ancient times, so the wizards of that time were working on it to solve that problem. Based on that research in the bronze chest, we were able to create Aether by combining advanced magic engineering.”

The complex magic circles and the formulas in the notebook were what needed to be gone into the device to make aether.

Rudolf, who understood what was being said, asked with anticipation.

“Then can the artificial Aether be made?”

“Yes, there is a very difficult and tricky way to react to the large amount of magic stones in a specific manner, but…”

“Hahah! Is that possible?! Ugh! Hahahah!”

The Emperor’s laughter resounded in the dome.

He was so thrilled that Rudolf couldn’t hold back his calmness anymore.

“It is possible, right? Making Aether and using the ruins and turning back the time to past…?!”

Everything can be turned back.

The Empire was torn down, and his family was dead in the hands of a monster that would never die.

‘The God’s and the Devil too have abandoned me. But I will transcend all that and achieve what I want!’

A mad smile came on Rudolf’s lips, and a spark of hope rose in his eyes.