CH 240

“I am Bekelt Bekelsus, the Deputy of the Order of Lindwurm. Who are you all?”

The knight who identified himself as Bekelt led Lenly and the others into the castle. The structure of the castle was quite strange—it was a structure that Lenly had never seen in his life. The castle was warm, almost as if it were alive and occasionally, it moved while making an unknown breathing sound.

There was no one who did not feel anxious at the feeling of entering the stomach of a giant, but Imil and Lenly tried their best to not reveal their agitation.

“We are from Aruntal, an organization which serves His Majesty to…”

“Well, I know that you all are from Aruntal. At one point in time, I, too, was a member of Aruntal because of Dane Dormund. But before that, I served His Majesty as a knight of the Order of Lindwurm. As far as I have heard, Dane was ousted…”

“Dane was ousted for his arrogance and rudeness to His Majesty. He is no longer a member of Aruntal.”

Bekelt looked at Aruntal for a moment and soon nodded. His expression could not be seen due to the helmet he wore covering his face.

“I see. I did think that he would end up like that one day. I’m just surprised that His Majesty did not kill him,” Bekelt said as he looked back at Lenly. “You have the ring representing the Imperial Guards. Are you a member of the Imperial Guards?”

“Yes. I am Lenly Loen, the Captain of the Imperial Guards.”

Bekelt reached out his hand and strongly shook Lenly’s hand.

“By looking at your build, I can already see that you are a strong warrior.”

Lenly had no change in expression, but it was clear that Bekelt was showing hospitality to Lenly.

Such a sight left Imil feeling rather uncomfortable. Not a single member of Aruntal expected the Order of Lindwurm to be here. From Imil’s point of view, he couldn’t help but feel anxious—anxious that he might lose his seat right next to the emperor to someone else.

Imil’s promise to be loyal to the emperor and to be useful to the emperor were sincere. However, he knew that there were a lot of things he had to watch out for while serving the eternal emperor. For example, those who are around Gerard now were overly dogmatic—this was especially true in the case of Lenly Loen.

The world is constantly changing, and even an immortal emperor must have to keep up with the changing flow. The world would break down if it was forced to bend according to the emperor’s will.

Imil knew that he was neither an outstanding magician nor an amazing warrior. But this was also the reason why he thought that he was the only one who would be capable of instilling tenderness within Gerard’s uprightness.

However, an entire knight order was around the emperor when Imil arrived here. This was quite a loss from Imil’s point of view, since the numbers of competitors had increased.

“Where is His Majesty Gerard? Is he inside this castle?” Imil asked Bekelt.

Now that Imil found out that there were a lot of people by Gerard’s side, he had to prove his usefulness to Gerard—it was bureaucrats and schemers who should be standing by the emperor’s side, not swordsmen.

Bekelt turned his head toward Imil upon hearing the question. While his eyes under the ink-colored helmet were subtly shining with purple, his expression was invisible.

“I don’t know.”

“Pardon?”

“We only came here with the Dragon Citadel because we realized that he had returned. I’m sure that he is around here somewhere, but I can’t sense his presence at all… no, to be precise…”

Bekelt hesitated but continued.

“To be precise, his presence can be felt everywhere around here.”

***

The soldiers’ songs echoed throughout the valley.

The Imperial Army which had followed Juan was given a proper meal and accommodation after a long time. They were enjoying their time while drinking and eating, and quite a few of them were drinking with the Northern Army.

Originally, the Northern Army was independent from the Imperial Army in the sense that they obeyed Nienna more than the emperor. At the same time, the Capital Army felt strong pride about being the best of the empire.

But the speech Juan gave today was enough to tear down the walls between them.

Meanwhile, Juan was sitting on the top of the valley and looking down at the barracks. The Capital Army was passionately singing incomprehensible words along with the Northern Army, almost as if they had learned a folk song of the Northerners.

“What are you doing here by yourself, Dad? You can still have some drinks even though you don’t get drunk, you know.”

Nienna’s voice came from behind and Juan turned his head. Nienna’s face had turned red as if she had already had quite a few drinks. Of course, she could get sober whenever she wanted, but she wanted to stay drunk tonight.

Juan just shook his head.

“The alcohol here is too bitter. Also, what’s the point of drinking if I don’t even get drunk off of it?”

“The North’s alcohol must be too strong for even my dad who sent gods to their deaths, huh?”

“I can’t deny that.”

Nienna smiled and slumped down beside Juan. She was basically sitting on the snowfield, but the thought that she might feel cold or catch a flu didn’t even cross Juan’s mind for a second.

Nienna followed Juan’s gaze and blankly stared down at the valley.

“Oh, yikes. There’s a lot of them now that I see them from all the way up here. Walter, that punk. He's been whining that he might not be able to gather this many troops because of the restoration work left behind in the wake of the Cainheryars. But is it okay to let them just have fun like this? I thought we were in an urgent situation?”

“We sure are. But an army that has eaten and rested well fights better than one which hasn’t. Besides, I heard that most of them are volunteers.”

Nienna grinned and nodded.

“Who would turn down the opportunity to fight alongside His Majesty? No matter how famous I am, you will always be more famous. Of course they want to volunteer, especially when His Majesty is on his way to fight against the Crack. It’s the first time since the emperor’s direct lead from forty-eight years ago, after all.”

The emperor’s direct lead from that time ended as a failure due to Gerard assassinating the emperor. It was quite ironic that the emperor who was taking the direct lead again after many years to fight against the Crack got killed by Gerard.

Juan exhaled a deep breath, causing a white breath to flow out in the wind.

“They wouldn’t have to risk their lives if I hadn’t messed up.”

“Dad,” Nienna frowned.

“How many of them do you think will end up dying? What do you think would have happened if I had just directly destroyed the Holy Body, saying that I don’t need the emperor’s power? There would have been no reason for them to gather like this if I had given up on resurrecting Sina. No matter how successful we are, given that our opponent is Gerard, only a few of them will be able to go back to their families safely. It will be even worse if we fail.”

Juan let out a deep breath and continued.

“They don’t have to die.”

Nienna tried to refute Juan angrily, but the speech he gave during the day suddenly came to her mind. Juan seemed to have really meant his words—he really meant that he wasn’t the emperor. He had been silent until now because the people around him got angry and frustrated whenever he said so, but it was true that he had mentioned it a lot of times already.

Only this could cause Juan’s declaration that he is a warrior rather than the emperor to sufficiently touch the hearts of the Northern Army.

Nienna sighed and opened her mouth.

“If someone could decide who will live and who will die, then they would be referred to as a god, not the emperor.”

Juan looked back at Nienna.

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“Um, well. I don't really know what to say, but there have been a lot of times when I had to decide who was going to die and who was going to live. There was a time when I could have saved two hundred people if I went to the Yunghell Valley, and I could have secured the provisions if I had gone to the Altern Peak. In the end, I went to the peak because I thought that more than a thousand people might end up starving to death if I lost the provisions. However, there were no enemies when I actually got there. War forces you to constantly make decisions. Someone’s life depends on your decision, and there is no guarantee that your choices are always going to be right. You’ve experienced that countless times, Dad. Haven’t you?”

“I have,” Juan answered.

“I understand your worries, Dad. It is about deciding who will live or die. But we don’t consider that to be the god’s domain. After all, someone has to decide at the end of the day. Even a shepherd thinks about which sheep he should kill. Such decisions have to be made due to the situation, not necessarily due to your authority.”

“Are you suggesting that it was the situation that made me, the emperor, have to make decisions like this?”

“Yes. So regretting your decisions is not necessarily a bad thing. The decision maker will always be criticized regardless of the results anyway. It can’t be helped even if the result of your decision leads you to the guillotine. But, who else can handle such a heavy position besides you? Your refusal to be the emperor is proof of your negligence, Dad. For your information, in the North, those who neglect their work are whipped on the butt.”

Juan was left speechless for a moment upon hearing Nienna refer to him as someone slacking on his job. Juan felt this to be a false accusation, since he had his own reasons.

“They have no reason to acknowledge me as the emperor. Yes, it is true that I was the emperor at one point in time—but that was decades ago. It was a position made unintentionally with the wrong motive from the very beginning.”

“Oh, come on. Stop talking nonsense, Dad. Who do you think can be the emperor besides you? His Majesty Gerard, who is in the sky? Or Pavan Peltere, a career-oriented punk who is devoid of any empathy? I’ll really smack you in the head if you say something frustrating one more time. Heretia would have already hit you if she were here.”

“Damn it. Is there no one around me who can give me proper counseling? Everyone just tries to hit me if I tell them about my frustrations. You all call me the emperor, but where the hell is my authority?” Juan let out a sigh of lamentation.

Nienna slapped Juan on the back.

“Stop whining and just show off how powerful you are. You’re good at things like that, aren’t you? People like you more when you are showing off anyway. I don’t care if you consider yourself the emperor or not, but make the people around you acknowledge you as the emperor. That is the duty of the emperor.”

“It’s just like the question of whether the chicken came first or the egg…”

“I know you understood what I meant. But what can we do? You can do whatever you want once we kill Gerard, that fucking bastard. Pass on the throne to a decent person and go on a trip or something. Others won’t be able to say anything to your retirement if you prepare a clear succession structure. There will be no one telling you to stay as the immortal emperor.”

“All right.”

Juan sighed once again and stood up from his seat.

“I have made up my mind. Once this war is over, I’ll go back to my hometown and farm for the rest of my life.”

Nienna didn’t respond to Juan’s words.

Juan looked back upon feeling the strange silence. Nienna had a very uncomfortable look on her face.

“What’s wrong?” Juan asked.

“Dad, I feel like what you’ve just said is some sort of ominous foreshadowing.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Nevermind, it’s nothing. But I’d like you to cancel your declaration to become a farmer. You can think about it, but don’t say it out loud. So take back what you said. Come on, take it back.”

“...Fine. I'll take it back.”

Nienna shook her head, looking much more relieved upon hearing Juan’s reply.

“You need to get a hobby instead of thinking about such useless things. Something other than killing monsters or humans… how do you feel about woodworking or writing? Oh, how about singing?”

“Singing?”

Nienna beckoned as if to refer to the singing coming from the bottom of the valley.

“That song is an epic poem about the achievements of the tribes from the North. The melody is simple, so it will be easy to learn.”

“Isn’t that too simple to have as a hobby?”

“What’s important isn’t the melody but the lyrics. There are one hundred and twenty-two verses. The lyrics have gotten longer and longer as the generations passed or the tribes constantly merged. Usually, only the first and second verses are sung, but it will take a long time to memorize them all. By the way, I have managed to memorize all of it.”

“When was this song made anyway?” Juan asked.

“There are lyrics about the Ancient Dragon. It also talks about Nulvin, who explored the Crack, the first king of the North, and even the Winter Duke. It’s a song that covers all of the mythological era.”

Nienna smiled and tightly hugged Juan’s shoulders.

“I’m just letting you know, but I won’t let you think about anything else until you learn the song in its entirety.”

***

Chaos was raging like a storm.

Lenly couldn’t think of any other way to describe it upon seeing the scenery before his eyes.

Outside the Dragon Citadel where the Order of Lindwurm stayed, lay a huge circular Crack extending all the way to beyond the horizon. Above the circular Crack was a purple space that soared like a bubble, and inside it swirled various forces.

Inside the vortex, small pieces collided and clumped together to create a flow. But it was such a sight that gave Lenly goosebumps; to think that even the smallest piece swirling around was made by pulling out the mountains of the North.

Unidentified creatures that were rarely seen swirled inside the vortex and turned into debris when they smashed against the mountains.

The Dragon Citadel was hovering around it in a circle. And Bekelt was convinced that Gerard had to be somewhere inside this circle.

“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to this castle,” Imil said as he approached Lenly’s side with an uncomfortable expression on his face.