Emperor of Steel

“Yo-you are the King of Symphonia, Luke?!”

Constantine’s eyes screamed in confusion when he looked at Luke who had a blade to his neck.

“What gibberish nonsense are you spewing?! Why would the king of Symphonia be here?”

“Huh? Are you really asking because you don’t know the answer? You were the one who spread the rumor about the Pope and me, and yet, you don’t know if it was real or not?”

Just before the founding of the Symphonia Kingdom, there was a question about the relationship between Luke and Reina, the Pope of the Holy Arthenia Empire.

It was a rumor that the Pope had entered into a secret relationship with the descendant of the fallen warrior who was learning dark magic, and they had already spent the night together.

When Luke heard about the rumor, it didn’t take much time for him to know who spread it.

Reina’s only opposition, Constantine.

No one would have spread the rumor of such sort unless they wanted the Pope to be sent out of the Holy Empire.

However, there was no proof of whether the rumor was spread around by Constantine’s factions after gathering the truth or they just decided to spread it after learning about the previous rumors about Luke going around in the Baroque Empire.

“Ugh! Then the reason why everything went wrong today…”

“Yes. All because of me. It was me, who met up with Archbishop Antero who was brainwashed and went into the sanctuary instead of the Pope.”

Only then did Constantine realize why his perfect plan had failed so miserably.

It was all because of him!

Everything went distorted by the descendant of the warrior.

Had it not been for the man standing in front of him, his faction would have established themselves as a strong political power in the Holy Empire’s civil war, which took place several years back, and the current pitfall would have been a success which would have removed not just the Pope but also Arch Duke Gregory.

“You-you, all because of you…!”

Constantine was speechless and rushed to Luke.

Luke was rather shocked by his movements, and the man didn’t seem to regard the sword which just cut the skin on his neck.

Ugh?!

“Kuak!”

Luke’s knees went for Constantine’s stomach making him vomit and fall to the ground while holding his stomach.

The pain which was piercing in the body made Constantine grab his stomach and roll on the ground with screams.

“Huh, you should know what your opponent is capable of by looking at him, you really are someone who can’t judge people.”

Luke, who laughed, looked at the old priest who was on the other side of Constantine.

Paladins who knew nothing assumed that he was on Constantine’s side and pointed their swords at him, however, Luke shook his hand.

“Long time no see, Saint Nanda.”

“My pleasure to see you here, Luke, no, I should start calling you Your Majesty.”

“What have you been doing all this time?”

“It is too much to say while standing. Well, I just brought you a gift with my bare hands.”

Luke didn’t have to ask what the gift was.

If he did, it would only point to stupid Constantine.

“Your Majesty, who is that person?”

As Luke and Nanda were talking with smiles on their faces, Reina approached them and asked with a twinkle in her eyes.

“His name is Saint Nanda, a high ranking member of the Arahan denomination of the Southern Continent. Saint, this is Veronica III, Pope of Holy Arthenia Empire.”

Once Luke introduced them to Reina, they both politely greeted each other.

“Amitabha. This is a real honor for me to meet you, who has been recognized by the heaven.”

“I am glad to see someone with high virtue. Just the other day, I heard something from His Majesty, Luke. You helped him get the second part of the Gold Sword, right?”

Reina knew very little about the Arahan or Saint Nanda.

She knew about the existence of the Arahan denomination, however, there were very few temples in the Rhodesia continent, and meeting the priests was even rare.

And all she knew was what Luke had held her during her visit to Symphonia for Luke’s coronation.

‘Indeed, he isn’t just a normal person. He is surely someone who holds great power inside him, he is no normal human.’

The energy flowing in Nanda’s body seemed very similar to Sylph, the Spirit King of Wind when Reina had gone to the Spirit World.

She didn’t know it by then, but now she was able to feel it.

The spiritual energy the man held was something that only those who stepped foot into the realm of God!

“I heard that the priests of Arahan aim to turn into Gods, is that true?”

“Our Lord said that if we can gain enlightenment through spiritual practice, and in that way, we will be able to achieve profit and liberation of desires. It isn’t fundamentally different from the doctrines of your denomination, which says that if we receive the teaching of God, you will be the person chosen to enter heaven.”

“You seem to be familiar with the doctrines about El Kassel.”

“Because the missionaries of your denomination are present in the Southern Continent. And some time ago, I stayed in the Baroque Empire to preach.”

It felt like she met with someone with whom she could speak openly.

Reina, whose eyes were shining, began to ask Saint Nanda about the doctrines and beliefs of the Arahan denominations and of El Kassel too.

Arch Duke Gregory approached Luke and spoke.

“Your Majesty, the battle is over, and it seems like there is no need to control the search any further, so let us go and interrogate the evil one.”

Luke nodded at the words of Arch Duke who wanted to return the zombies back to the humans.

“Let’s do that. But he will be interrogated by me.”

“Your Majesty?”

“You heard it right. It will take a lot less time if I am the one to do it.”

‘Well it is natural, since His Majesty, Luke is an excellent wizard and warlock…’

Perhaps mental magic would be excellent for interrogation, so Luke did seem very suitable for the job.

Gregory too agreed with Luke’s words.

“Then I will meet you after interrogation.”

“Huh? aren’t you going to do it here?”

“I don’t want anyone to see. I’ll come back soon, so don’t worry.”

Frankly, Luke didn’t want Saint Guard Knights to witness him interrogating, and avoid even more if Reina was going to be there.

The interrogation method he followed was violence and brutal violence.

Paht!

The light flashed as he held Constantine, and the two disappeared.

He used Teleport Magic.

“No, wait, where did he go?”

Reina who was talking to Nanda was surprised when Luke disappeared.

Arch Duke Gregory shrugged his shoulders and answered.

“Your Majesty, he would interrogate him personally to find out about the things they did and how to turn the zombies back into their human forms.”

“He did?”

“I agreed to it as His Majesty would bring out the truth much faster than us.”

“Well… while he is interrogating, we’ll have to camp ourselves and organize the troops. There are still many zombies around the city.”

“Understood, I will give out the orders right away.”

When Gregory went back to order the military, Reina and the others moved to the Bremen city hall.

Preparing the camp there, they were going to wait until Luke returns.