Emperor of Steel

“All of the Emperor’s kids got sick?”

“Yes, and because of that, the entire Imperial palace has been flipped over.”

Luke, who had gone to Nemesis, met with Henry who delivered him a shocking news.

He turned over to Henry, with a stern gaze and asked, “By any chance, is this your doing?”

“Huh? what is that supposed to mean?”

“Sometimes there are such extreme men. Those who commit useless crimes to prove their extreme loyalty to the master.”

There were such guys 500 years back, under Saymon.

Most of the men later joined the Devil king’s legion, but they all did something out of greed and need for attention.

The most common things which happened for it were slaughtering the healthy prisoners, hoarding the supplies or wiping out the civilians, forcibly recruiting young people and sending them as volunteers.

“I didn’t do it! That is the truth!”

“Really?”

And with that, Luke didn’t seem to have any more suspicions, and Henry responded sounding as if he was upset.

“I am being serious! How would I even go through the guards who are always around the Emperor’s family? If anyone does anything suspicious, we will be dragged out right away and tortured till death!”

No matter how high-ranking Henry was in Hydra, the contact with the Imperial family was strictly forbidden.

In addition, the servants and ladies who were taking care of the prince and princesses were already dragged down by the Intelligence service and tortured.

It was because of the onset of the kids’ pain were sudden.

They were concerned if the maids had given access to anyone, or they had any hidden intention for doing that, or if they had used some unknown trick to make the kids sick.

“Understood. Seeing you like this, I guess you really don’t have a hand in this.”

“Of course. But… what is with that unpleasant expression?” Asked Henry.

“Then, should I be acting like I find it nice?”

“Well, it is because the Baroque Imperial and the Rakan are established allies.”

At Luke’s uninterested response, Henry shook his head and spoke with a grin.

500 years back, the Warrior Rakan and Karno de Baroque, the duke then fought alongside for the demise of Saymon, the Devil King.

However, after the death of Saymon’s, the Duke of Baroque turned ambitious and revolted, and Rakan died fighting even while his body was slowly deteriorating to protect the Libiya kingdom.

Since then, the Rakan family had barely maintained their fame and reputation for the following years without being able to garner their past glory.

So Henry knew that Luke would be very glad to hear about the tragedy which fell upon the Imperial family.

“Is there something that is bothering about this?”

“I was already worried that something else was going to happen from what I planned. Could the hearing asked by the noblemen be canceled due to the internal affairs of the Imperial family?” Asked Luke.

“But, it can and it can’t be.”

Noblemen were people who value face and honor.

Even though the Emperor had violated the law of the Empire, it was unfortunate that affairs were happening to the Emperor, and it could be a viable justification for the cancellation too.

“Maybe the Emperor deliberately made his children sick to postpone the hearing?”

“It can’t be. It wasn’t just one or two kids, but all of them… and he would consider the after-effects for it.” Said Luke.

“It could be someone else’s handwork, this is troublesome and way too cruel. They are kids who haven’t even seen anything…”

“You don’t sound like an assassin in this matter.”

“I too am a human. Well, I might just be a demon’s slave right now.”

As Henry was in the Imperial palace for taking up works, he knew well about the Imperial family and how they worked.

Emperor Rudolf was a cool and powerful human in the eyes of the people, but he was a great father who was strict yet warm towards all his kids.

The children were called innocent princes and princesses who had yet been dreaming about living happily instead of going behind power.

If a parent was the guilty one, he didn’t understand why the kids had to be the ones to suffer.

“There has been a thing going on about the curse from the Southern continent. It says that when a man does a lot of evil, the disaster will fall upon the offsprings.” Said Henry.

“I am not sure that I understand it very well.”

“It is a very easy theory. When a parent owes debt, the child will have to suffer through hardships to pay it back. Bad behavior eventually harms people, and it is a course of debt. And ancient times they have turned into sinners.”

“Well, that sounds pretty realistic to hear.”

“Yes it does, it is a reality that not many people who are aware of it would do such things.”

Luke seemed bitter.

For the sake of revenge, and to create a world where all humans could live happily, quite a number of people would suffer from his actions.

Just a while back he had summoned a high ranking demon. Not just the wizards of the Veritas magic tower, but also the people of the capital had died in that mayhem.

‘If there is going to be a civil war between the Emperor and the noblemen in the future, innocent and numerous people will get killed and would be hurt.’

It was a reality that one had to accept.

Even if there was a good reason; let it be for revenge or justification, a sin was a sin.

And no sin was easy to erase.

If the man doesn’t pay back, the sin itself will find a way to make him pay.

‘I knew everything very well. But I won’t be afraid nor will I hesitate.’

It was something he had accepted 500 years back when he was Saymon and touched the dark magic with his own hands.

The path he chose was his own choice.

He died once, but he wasn’t going to walk away from the path.

And that was the final decision for him.

“I will be in the capital until the hearing is over. So any trends of Emperor or the noblemen, keep reporting to me.”

“Understood.”

As ordered, Henry quickly disappeared from Luke’s eyes and left Luke behind.