Emperor of Steel

Once they were ready, Luke took a few of his men to the city of Felipe, the capital of the Libiya Kingdom.
Since it was just a few men along with him, all Luke had to do was Teleportation magic and Fly magic, so it took just a couple of days for them to arrive.
“Y-your Majesty of the Symphonia Kingdom!”
As the envoy of Symphonia fell from the sky, the soldiers who were contacted by the guards appeared in front of the royal palace only to be startled.
Luke announced that he was going to visit there just before he departed from the palace.
However, the men of Libiya didn’t expect them to arrive so quickly.
However, he quickly recovered his composure and pointed to the inside of the palace.
“Please follow me. I will guide you, Your Majesty.”
Luke’s party followed the man into the palace.
With human soldiers and monsters like orc and trolls on the borders, Symphonia’s guard knight’s commander, Hwang Bo-sung, exclaimed while looking at it.
“Your Majesty, this Reichard… seems to be doing good.”
Even though he had lived his life in the Southern Continent and only came recently to the Rhodesia Continent, he knew that monsters were incompatible with humans.
It was because of the innate instincts that were deeply embedded in the monster against humans.
Therefore, when a monster meets a human in their path, they would attack unconditionally.
However, to suppress such nature of the monsters and turn them into civil beings alongside humans, surely, Reichard’s ability was commendable.
“In addition to controlling the monsters, King Reichard is also a man with exceptional forces.”
“Forces? How good?”
“Well, at least to the level of a Sword Sage.”
A few years ago, when Reichard was still living as Shaikan, he caused a monster wave in the Navarre Duchy, and Luke was the one that was sent there to subdue the monsters under the orders of the Emperor.
At that time, he was able to cross swords with Reichard. However, Luke wasn’t able to beat the man even after using both dark magic and his demon abilities. His Rune Knight skills seemed to have no effect on the man as well.
Of course, it wasn’t like Reichard could beat Luke either, but his power as a dragon must have changed during the time.
‘How strong did he get by now?’
Without fail, the man must have become very strong.
In the past, Luke witnessed Reichard’s hate toward the army sent by Emperor Rudolf, Sword Emperor, to take down the monsters.
“Sword Sage? I want to fight him once.”
Hwang Bo-sung, who wanted to raise his Fist Master’s level, wanted to fight Reichard if an opportunity was presented to him.
“Huh, Count Hwang Bo-sung, your skills won’t last after 10 strikes.”
Belfair, who had come there as Luke’s attendant, spoke.
“Is he that strong?”
“Yes, due to my rotten luck, I met this man and almost died.”
Belfair had gone against Reichard.
To be more precise, he fought with monsters during his own personal training and got hurt after getting hit by Reichard, who came out suddenly.
And he did try to battle against Hwang Bo-sung a while ago.
That was why Belfair was able to know the difference between the two.
Hwang Bo-sung, who was strong, could never win against Reichard who was a dragonian.
However, Belfair’s words only sparked the desire in Hwang Bo-sung.
“Huhuhu, that made me want to fight him even more now!”
When he was in the Southern Continent, he never knew that there were such strong people in the Rhodesia Continent.
Although he was deceived by his half brother for taking over the clan, he thought that staying in Rhodesia was a good thing.
‘Oh my, this puncher isn’t going to back down.’
Seeing Hwang Bo-sung smile while bumping his fists, Belfair shook his head.
Having such conversations, they passed through the garden then a corridor and entered a building that the King was using as his office.
According to the guard, the main officials and Reichard gathered there to discuss their national affairs.
“Since Your Majesty Luke’s visit is so sudden, we were unable to prepare ahead. Even though this might seem lacking, we hope you understand.”
“Ah, there is no need. We understand.”
When Luke nodded, the guide pointed to the office.
“Your Majesty, the King of Symphonia has come.”
“Bring him in.”
With a thick voice, the door opened.
Luke walked in confidently.
He looked at Shaikan, well, Reichard who got up from his seat.
‘Hmm, so this was the face he was hiding behind the mask? I thought he was a complete savage during that time.’
‘He is the king of Symphonia? The descendant of Rakan?’
Unlike Luke who was in his thoughts, Shaikan was quite surprised.
Someone with the name of Marquis Luke was rumored to be extraordinary, and there was the warlock he fought against in the Navarre Duchy.
Shaikan looked at the man in front of him.
Peculiar energy flowed from Luke, which was very similar to the warlock whom he met.
‘Wasn’t there a rumor that Luke de Rakan was learning dark magic? Well, was this why? But this doesn’t seem like a useless rumor.’
If he could take down the Baroque Empire, Shaikan was willing to hold hands with even the demon or warlocks.
With such thoughts, Reichard welcomed Luke with a happy expression.
“Welcome, King Luke.”
“Nice to meet you, Your Majesty.”
The two of them greeted each other and sat down. The attendants, who followed Luke, went to the empty seats while the others stood.
“I heard from Count Felipe that the Pope gave you the crown? I really envy you.”
“I have a personal connection with the Holy Empire. By the way, on the way here, it seemed like monsters and humans are living in harmony. It looked really nice and amazing.”
After a certain amount of time, Shaikan had proposed to sign a cooperation and mutual defense treaty with the two nations.
“A mutual defense treaty?”
“Exactly. In case the Baroque Empire wage war, the treaty will state that the other nation would actively help the other when under invasion. How is that?”
It was a bit worse than the Alliance treaty of attack and defense. However, the conditions weren’t bad.
In the end, both nations were created to overthrow the Baroque.
And once the Baroque Empire was removed, there would be no reason for the two to abide by the treaty.
Also, economic cooperation met the interests of the two nations as well.
There was much to exchange between the Libiya and Symphonia since one had too many plains and the other had too many rugged mountains.
“The trade between the two will have no taxes.”
At Luke’s words, Reichard seemed puzzled.
“You mean no tax at all?”
“That is right. We shouldn’t be burdening a comrade when the common enemy is Baroque, right?”
Shaikan, who contemplated briefly, nodded his head.
“Fine. Since we need to remove the thorns, let’s write the treaty right away.”
“Yes, let’s do that.”
After the agreement, the two Kings started with the documentation.
The terms and clauses were all included in the documents of both sides.
After confirming the drafted document, Luke and Shaikan signed on both sheets with their seals.
“And with this, we have now become allies. Tonight, we will have a party to celebrate this, so please make a room for King Luke.”
“Sure. But before that, I have something that I personally want to share with His Majesty.”
“Haha, sure. That was what I wanted too.”
Shaikan and Luke got up and headed to the personal office.
The two entered the office away from their attendants.
Once they were inside, Luke immediately placed Silent magic in the room.
After taking a series of actions, he talked to Shaikan in a more stern voice than before, “Now we can talk comfortably.”
“Huhuhu. You must have been very uncomfortable. Living with secrets that not everyone should know,” said Shaikan.
“Right. I wasn’t born as royalty like someone in here.”
At Luke’s words, Shaikan refuted with a smile.
“What are you talking about? You have the blood of Rakan, whom everyone is envious of. However, if you keep living under the shadow of your ancestors, we will stand still.”
“Right. There is a huge problem coming around. Something that’s beyond your imagination.”
The words changed.
Luke had no intention of telling others what the truth was. If he did, it would be the reversal of the divine destiny and fate would be swayed.
Shaikan spoke as he had no intention of asking any more questions.
“You don’t have to worry about your secrets. I have nothing to benefit from troubling you.”
‘Huh, does he plan on playing hard to get?’
Luke had no idea as to what Shaikan’s intentions were.
But until the Baroque fell, it was certain that Shaikan wouldn’t create problems for Luke because doing that would benefit him and the Libiya kingdom.
“But what brings you here suddenly? I do know that the state of Symphonia isn’t so at stake.”
The Baroque Empire constantly attacked the borders of Libiya. However, it didn’t cross sides with Symphonia.
The Baroque Empire wasn’t strong enough to fight with two kingdoms at the same time, and since Shaikan was a royal lineage to the Baroque, he was considered to be more dangerous than Luke.
“Of course, my nation isn’t at stake. But, your country is… well, the entire Rhodesia could be thrown into ruins.”
“Hmm, I don’t know what you mean, but it seems a bit exaggerated.”
“Well, let’s see if you think of this as exaggeration after listening to the whole story.”
Luke told everything about the plot that Rudolf had planned out.
At first, Shaikan didn’t seem so concerned, but with the concrete details and evidences, the glow on his face disappeared.
“That man…!”
“As I said, it isn’t just the Libiya Kingdom. Even if you think about the future of the continent, that needs to be stopped. You and I joined forces too.”
At Luke’s words, Shaikan nodded.
His eyes were a lot serious than before.
“We will look into it, and we’ll plan something out. So please be prepared for anything.”
“I understand. Thank you for the information.”
After talking with Shaikan, Luke unlocked the Silent magic.
Luke finished all his business. However, he wasn’t heading back right away.
He was going to enjoy the banquet prepared by Shaikan while staying in the royal palace for 2 to 3 days.