Why Did You Summon Me?

After a few ceremonial greetings, Baiyi, Mia, and Dante the hound entered the palace.

The interior of the palace was magnificent. The walls and beams were lined with many shades of gold. However, if one was to pay close attention, they would notice that the interior’s resplendence was superficial. There were no beautiful paintings, antiques, or flowers to be seen. Instead, what Baiyi saw was a badly-arranged line of aged suits of armor, stone lances, axes, animal hides, and other unimpressive accessories. This gold-painted hall made these furnishings look very out of place; it was a funny sight.

Whilst there was no doubt that the owner of the place had a poor taste in design, the out-of-place furnishing were war trophies taken by the Emperor from his many conquests. The unsightly stone ax, for example, had belonged to a famous warrior from a powerful tribe, which was once a neighbor of the Ancient Rohlserlian Empire. Rumors had it that the warrior had used the stone ax to cut down everyone and everything in his way, including Dragons.

The reason for having these weapons hung on the walls close to the entrance was clear: when envoys of other nations visit the palace — for diplomatic missions or to issue challenges — they would surely see the weapons, which should remind them why they should fear and respect the Rohlserlian Empire.

Mia turned around as she took in the interior of the palace. A frown slowly formed on her face, after which she glanced at Baiyi, as she began to understand where Baiyi got his awful taste in aesthetics from. Would she, one day, inherit the awful taste from her master? This made Mia worried.

At the end of the hall, the trio was stopped by a group of sorcerers and handmaidens, who were standing in their way. It was a standard procedure for visitors to hand over their weapons and personal belongings before meeting the Emperor.

Dante trembled a little when he was stopped. The pitiful centurion shakily dipped his hands into his pockets and fished a few gold coins and three low-ranked service badges.

Dante was about to hand over the badges when Baiyi muttered under his breath, “They are supposed to be on your uniform.”

Dante’s eyes widened, and he quickly took the badges back from the tray. Then, he smiled at Baiyi in gratitude.

When it was time for Mia and Baiyi to hand over their possessions, they began to pull out numerous storage pouches from within their garments and placed them on the handmaidens’ trays. The others could only watch on in astonishment.

Storage pouches had already been invented in this era, but they were a luxury that commoners would not possess in their lifetimes. Not even the sorcerers of this era owned them. Only the wealthiest owned them. No one used these pouches as storage tools, though; those that owned it considered it a collector’s item to show off their status.

Extremely rare items like storage pouches did not need to taken away before their owners could meet the Emperor, but, like people that became billionaires overnight, Baiyi and Mia continued to take out storage pouch after storage pouch. By the time they were done, both trays had small mounds of storage pouches on them.

The no-nonsense expressions on the faces of the sorcerers and handmaidens had long since been replaced by shock. Dante’s jaw had dropped in surprise. He knew that only very important people like the Chiliarch and the Commander owned these fancy pouches. A humble centurion like himself could never afford an item that luxurious. However, these mysterious individuals had brought out multiple pouches, which they carried too casually!

As though ignorant of the reactions that his actions had caused, Baiyi turned to Mia and said, “Can you separate yours and mine later?”

“Piece of cake,” Mia replied with a smile. “Mine smell good, and yours, Daddy, just stinks.”

‘ Why, you little brat —’ Baiyi was just to dole out some discipline when Mia stuck out her pink, little tongue at him. “Our pouches aren’t that different from each other. They all contain almost the same things anyway.”

Baiyi thought for a while before nodding. ‘Hmm. Your daughter has a point.’

Mia’s words roused the crowd’s curiosity, though. One of the handmaidens was unable to contain herself any longer and asked, “Can you show us what’s inside?”

“Sure, why not?” Baiyi said.

He took a pouch out from the pile and pulled open its strings. The eyes of the spectators widened as they stared at the pouch with bated breaths. Just how wealthy was this mysterious man and his beautiful daughter, both of whom had actually stored items in invaluable items like storage pouches? They were eager to find out!

Baiyi opened the pouch and pulled out an array of items — blankets, comforters, a frying pan, cooking woks, ladles, etc. At that point, it had become clear that storage pouches were common objects to these two. The only item that was out of place was a pair of white underwear with a teddy bear print.

When the underwear was pulled out, the hall became silent. Mia glared at Baiyi, a trace of suspicion visible in her fiery eyes.

“Uh hem! It appears this has been misplaced,” Baiyi coughed. He quickly pulled out another storage pouch from the pile and stuffed the underwear into it. Baiyi turned to the curious handmaiden and said, “That is all we have. Any more questions?”

“N-none, whatsoever,” the handmaiden quickly replied in a stiff manner. What kind of idiots would store common objects into storage pouches — items owned only by those at the very top? What was a pair of underwear doing inside the pouch? Could it belong to the armored man before her? How come such an item was stored inside a luxurious storage pouch?!

The handmaiden was not the only one nursing many thoughts.

After that little incident, the three were let into the main hall, where they had to undergo more security checks. Afterward, a valet led them into the throne room.

The throne was the first thing anyone that entered the room would see, and on it sat a man in his forties, whose The first thing that came into view was the throne, and on it, a man in his forties, who exuded an aura of pride. Despite his many troubles, the man was quiet, and his expression was one of solemnity. His face was perfectly chiseled; one may wonder if it had been sculpted with a knife. The man was holding a scepter — the royal scepter.

This was Mia’s first time seeing Royal Gramps, who was now middle-aged, in the flesh, and she could not hold by a wave of surprise. From what she had read in history books and learned from Royal Gramps himself, when the First Walker was still an Emperor, his face was the perfect blend of brooding gentleness and imposing arrogance. However, the man in front of her was middle-aged, with a face similar to a four-sided polygon. Mia definitely did not find him hot.

‘This is the moment your dreams crumble,’ Baiyi snickered in his mind when he saw Mia’s reaction.

Baiyi took a step forward, intent on standing before the Emperor. However, before he could take another step, he stopped. Baiyi could feel strong pulses of energy emanating from the magical complex within the throne room.

In the Archmage’s memories, Baiyi had learned that the throne room’s hidden complex contained an assortment of magic. When activated, the target would be struck with Silence, Enfeeble, Bound, and other locking magic spells, after which they would be bombarded with some built-in offensive spells. Furthermore, the magic complex could be used for emergency teleportation and other contingency functions. It could also be used to erect a soundproof barrier, which will prevent the words of those within it from being heard by those outside it.

If Baiyi did not use Void Energy, he could not hope to overpower the Emperor in this complex, even though the ruler could no longer use the Book of Servitude.

This was the reason for the Emperor’s confidence, and why he did not mind summoning them to the throne room. Here, he had the protection of the Fort of Rohlserl, whose construction he had personally overseen.

As the Archmage’s protégé, who had inherited all his knowledge, Baiyi knew the structure of this magical complex like the back of his hand. In fact, the defensive barriers at Da Xue were based on the Fort of Rohlserl, albeit with minor simplifications. Even the Massive Empire Complex that the Empire built before its downfall was just an enlarged version of the magic complex in the throne room.

Thus, Baiyi knew its weakness. Without saying a word, Baiyi walked towards a specific spot and looked up at the Emperor.

The Emperor’s expression changed. Only he knew that the spot Baiyi had walked into was the complex’s only weakness. If one was to attack the complex with magic while standing at that spot, it would begin to fail. If the attack was strong enough, the assailant could completely destroy the complex with a single strike!

That weakness was a secret that the Emperor guarded closely; he had never told anyone about it. Anyone that entered the throne room would not have expected the complex to have such a weakness. Even the sorcerers that helped him build the complex believed it to be flawless, yet this mysterious man saw through it in seconds!

Was it a coincidence, or had the Emperor truly underestimated him? Was the man so powerful that he needed only a glance to spot the weak spot?

Or was it providence? A feat only a true prophet could achieve by looking into the future to take a glimpse at the complex secrets.

The Emperor became confused. Although he looked unperturbed on the outside, his mind was in turmoil. Knowing that his trump card had been defeated, the Emperor resorted to exerting his dominance. With a bellow that shook the throne room, he ordered, “Kneel!”

Dante crashed to the ground, and Mia collapsed right after him. The guards and attendants hurriedly fell to their knees in terror. Baiyi raised an eyebrow, after which he reluctantly dropped to one knee.

The Fifth Walker did not need to hesitate. After all, the geezer had passed every legacy he owned to Baiyi. He was now the crown prince, so he was right to give a half-kneel. The Emperor before him felt so unfamiliar. Baiyi could not make out any similarities, other than looks, between the Emperor and the kind old man, who was both his master and surrogate father.

“Off with your helmet!” The Emperor bellowed.

Baiyi obeyed and removed his helmet, revealing his fake face.

Despite not being adept in illusion magic, the Emperor instantly saw through Baiyi’s disguise. “You dare show me a mask of illusion?! What do you hide?!”

“I am beginning to think that this is beside the point,” Baiyi replied calmly as he put his helmet back on. Without the Emperor’s permission, he rose to his feet and said, “Your Majesty, the thing you truly care about simply isn’t here.”

“Is this a challenge?” The Emperor was so angry that he smiled and gripped his royal scepter even harder.