Chapter 294
Chapter 294
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Chapter 294 - 293. 두 그랜드마스터(2)
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Translator: crow
Chapter 294: Two Grandmasters (2)
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The Empire's heavenly palace shook as if struck by an earthquake.
Far removed from there, one office in Norton was utterly silent.
A man and a woman sat across from each other at a table.
They glared at one another with murderous intent, breathing heavily.
“Keep holding out like that.”
Sharp cat-like eyes flashed between strands of black hair.
She roughly raised one hand toward the air.
“Or you'll lose everything?”
The Empire's lady knight slammed her finger down like a death sentence.
The moment her hand struck the table.
“Check.”
The queen on the chessboard had cornered my king.
“Haaah... You've gotten better in the meantime.”
I smirked at my spirited senior.
I scratched my messy back hair and yawned.
“Then, how do I escape from here to survive—.”
With my uniform jacket draped over my shoulders, I casually moved my king.
My gaze drifted to the window.
――――――.
Powerful wingbeats echoed from afar.
“Huh, it's from the palace?”
“Yeah. They haven't contacted the office much lately.”
I patted my waist and rose from the sofa.
I sauntered over to the window.
A red-feathered rock dove perched there, tilting its head.
I untied the paper from its leg, glanced at it casually, and returned to the sofa.
Then, with one hand reading the note, I moved my king with the other.
The moment I did, Miya froze.
She seemed caught off guard by a move she hadn't anticipated, her lips parting to reveal sharp fangs.
“Miyaaaaah...!!”
While my black bob-haired senior clutched her head with both hands.
I was reading the note absentmindedly when I furrowed my brow.
The handwriting belonged to Ekina Plamer.
Of course, it wasn't unusual for her to send me a secret message.
There had been a time when she played double spy between the crown prince and me.
However, even then, her handwriting had been very neat.
Yet here in the Empire's current era of peace, the writing was scrawled so messily.
It felt like an emergency so dire she couldn't even write straight.
「Lord Veil, run away. His Majesty is furious and wants you...」
I was reading the serious content with a grave expression.
When another flurry of wingbeats came from the window.
This time, it wasn't just one or two.
Three at once swarmed in, snapping even Miya out of the chess game as she turned her head.
“What's going on...? Did someone in the palace get hurt?”
I swallowed hard and straightened my dress shirt.
I tightened my tie and approached the window.
Irina's Knight Order, Lydia's Knight Order, even Richard's.
The Black Knights' ravens and Bakal's falcons followed.
I slowly untied the notes from their legs one by one.
The moment I read them.
「Master, it's Tau. Senior Batsu says you're in big trouble. What's going on?」
「You're dead now-. I knew something was off with how you looked at our First Imperial Princess-. Richard.」
「It's Allen, Master. You always called me a wastrel, but looks like you're the real playboy-. Good luck.」
「It's Lynn, Lord Veil. If you wish, I'll share our underground escape route all the way to the border.」
「Want to run together? You finally need my help, huh-? Christina.」
I drew a deep breath at the ominous signs of impending disaster.
Then, with trembling black eyes, I said.
“Senior...? Looks like I have to head to the central palace...”
“Oh, yeah.... Want me to come with?”
Miya cautiously offered, seeing my tension for the first time.
But I waved her off politely, not wanting any sparks to fly her way.
“No, why drag you into my mess-. I'll be right back-.”
I smirked like it was fine and left the office.
Draping my uniform jacket over my shoulders, I leisurely headed to the work black horse tied behind the office.
‘I played it cool, but...’
No matter how I thought about it, for all the Knight Order captains and vice-captains.
Even Princess Christina of Bakal to get the info and warn me, this was no ordinary matter.
‘No way they found out I slept with the princesses......?’
The mere thought of that dizzying future sent chills down my spine.
I needed to find him quickly and grasp the situation, so I mounted the saddle.
Then, I spurred the horse swiftly toward the soaring central palace.
――――――
Upon arriving at the heavenly palace, the guards at the entrance flinched at the sight of me.
Normally, they'd bow lightly in greeting.
The closer I got to the imperial quarters, the greater my unease grew.
“Is His Majesty in his office?”
“No, they say he's at the training grounds.”
‘Training grounds...?’
After turning sixty, he'd only gone between his office and bedroom, yet now he was at the training grounds.
With puzzled eyes, I strolled down the corridor connecting the training grounds and palace.
The corridor I walked alone was eerily quiet.
Usually, ministers would exchange nods.
All the way to the training grounds, the palace was deserted.
The moment I reached the vast training grounds alone in the silence.
“......!!”
My lips parted in shock.
「Hooo....」
A man stood in the center of the distant training grounds.
From afar, he looked like a massive, muscular general.
But.
「Not like the old days.」
The closer I got, the clearer it became who owned those muscles.
The moment he sensed me and turned.
It was like beholding the king of gods from myth.
「Oh, Lord Veil.」
A menacing snort issued from his face.
His body gleamed with exquisite muscles like a beautiful statue.
Heat rose from his entire form, as if he'd been exercising in just his uniform pants and dress shirt.
「I was just about to summon you. How did you know to come?」
King of Conquest Leonhardt swept his shortly cropped white hair back from his forehead.
「Good timing.」
No, something felt off.
Who steams like boiling water just from bodyweight exercise?
My heart raced at this unprecedented healthy sight of him.
Like my first battle as a child.
“I greet Your Imperial Majesty.”
I bowed first in courtesy.
“I heard you summoned me, so I came ahead of time as a loyal subject.”
「Yes, you've been very ‘exhausted’ lately, so I apologize for calling you suddenly.」
The emperor emphasized ‘exhausted’ subtly.
He seemed done warming up, rolling his shoulders and catching his breath.
“What would exhaust me-. Your sacred Majesty and the princesses already govern the Empire wisely...”
「Is that so...?」
Leonhardt closed the distance in an instant.
So fast a white afterimage trailed.
「But you look utterly exhausted to me.」
Focus vanished from the emperor's blue eyes.
It felt like facing a massive beast brimming with killing intent.
“Yes...?”
As I blinked in confusion, he began rolling up his dress shirt sleeves.
Circling me slowly, he spoke.
「Come to think of it, you always made lounging comfortably your life's goal.」
“Yes.... As a fellow regressor, Your Majesty knows the eons we've endured across lives...? Not as many as Your Majesty's dozens, of course...”
I forced a smile and deflected.
But the emperor ignored my words, fixated only on the grand aura faintly shimmering in my heart.
「Is that right?」
Then, he halted abruptly.
With the unfocused eyes of his King of Conquest days, he spoke.
「Not because you were secretly bedding my daughters?」
Bedding.
Those three words hit my ears like a thunderbolt.
My mind blanked, as if my head had been dunked underwater for ages.
I just stared at Leonhardt in a daze.
“Yes...?”
「Your reaction confirms it was you.」
The emperor's massive shadow engulfed my face.
His blue eyes gleamed with murderous light amid the halo.
「I wasn't going to interfere with you romancing my three daughters. However.」
Nerves twitched in his thick forearms.
Legends said over a hundred continental heroes had died by those hands.
It was even in the textbooks.
「Getting all three of my daughters pregnant before marriage......!!!!」
His voice swelled, then exploded.
The training grounds' pillars shook like in an earthquake.
The beautiful-eyed princesses emerged onto the benches, sensing it.
「Just how debauched a party did you throw!!!!」
The emperor bellowed solely at me, daughters behind him.
As if I were some bestial philanderer.
“N-No, it's a misunderstanding...!!”
I shook my head frantically.
My bangs whipped wildly, faster than ever in my life.
“I only slept with each princess once. Not dozens of times each...!!”
「Does that even make sense!!!! Once each, and all conceive!!!!」
The more I protested, the louder he roared.
Unbelievable thunder from a sixty-year-old.
“Ah, this is so unfair I'm going mad...!! Please, just ask the princesses once. Father-in-law...!!”
「What...?」
At my desperate cry, rationality snapped from his eyes, luster gone.
I pressed on urgently.
“It's true. And I was the victim...”
「Father-in-law!!! Who’s your father-in-law!!! You fox!!!」
Cold sweat poured down my forehead.
At the escalating doting father, I waved desperately at the princesses.
“Your Highnesses...!! Please explain for me!!”
My bangs swept back by his fierce aura, exposing the scar on my forehead, I shouted at them.
“I didn't seduce the princesses on purpose...!! Clear up the misunderstanding...!!”
The emperor paused, regaining some reason, and turned.
Lea reacted first to our gazes.
The Empire's First Imperial Princess eyed me sensually, lips mischievous.
“That night... Veil was amazing....”
Lydia and Irina nodded too.
Recalling their sweet nights, they showed womanly shyness never revealed to their father.
‘Ah....’
That instant.
Leonhardt's eyes twitched.
I swear I heard his sanity snap in his mind.
「You bastard!!!!!」
The emperor raised a clenched fist toward the air.
Swinging at my temple.
“Eek......!!”
I instinctively backpedaled, barely dodging the strike.
But.
――――――!!
The punch rent the air, a razor wind following.
The killing intent prickled my skin, raising goosebumps.
「Indeed, sly as a fox...!! But no matter how fast......」
The emperor reached out again.
The massive spear embedded in the training grounds' center writhed.
「Can a mere beast dodge lightning...?」
His outstretched hand drew the great spear Eclair to him.
Soon, the emperor erupted with condensed grandmaster aura, like the god of thunder.
So majestic, his pupils vanished, whites flashing.
「For the son of loyal Marquis Vertie and Empire's hero, I'll try to understand you.」
Leonhardt's voice boomed like amplified magic.
Fully revived, his presence tensed even the princesses.
「What you did... You must have thought you could handle all my daughters alone, right...?」
When the emperor assumed battle stance.
No opponent had ever survived.
「Then today, as their father, I'll test that ability of yours.」
The King of Conquest raised great spear Eclair skyward.
Grand aura gathered at the menacing tip like lightning.
「Whether you can protect them all alone...!!」
The emperor thrust the spear down powerfully.
That moment.
Faster than when we first met, the lightning surge parted my lips.
Pajijijik――――――!!
A massive bolt screamed toward me.
Eyes contracting at the overwhelming speed, I hastily drew Hector from my waist.
Gripping the blade with both hands, I blocked the emperor's strike.
But blocking didn't negate the shock.
My hands numbed, sleeves scorched by the sheer force.
Seeing his amplified power, I realized anew.
His current form might rival his forties.
As father to three daughters, he was testing me in earnest.
“What do we do, should we stop them...?”
Lydia watched from afar.
Unlike her usual confidence, her eyes held urgency.
“It's fine. It's something that had to happen eventually.”
Lea crossed her legs sensually, unconcerned.
“Yeah. Veil can handle it.”
Irina smirked, watching leisurely.
But.
She sensed something odd and furrowed her brows.
She'd taken the werewolf elixir and chosen her perfect day to conceive successfully.
Yet how had the two beside her...
Lea and Lydia wore sly smiles, as if answering.
As if they'd also conceived through meticulous plans and love like Irina.
“Ha, you two are really thorough, huh?”
“You weren't any less, Irina.”
The two princesses giggled at Irina, who'd gone first.
They soon wore meaningful expressions.
As if the competition was just beginning.
They licked their lips, gazing fondly at the man in the training grounds.
“Haaa......!!”
Oblivious, I dodged the emperor's lightning and scrambled back.
Desperately fleeing with an utterly wronged expression.
「You bastard......!! How long will you just run, you fox......!!」
“Father-in-law, calm down......!!”
I couldn't swing my sword in earnest at my future family.
I just played tag desperately until his stamina waned.
「Who’s your father-in-law!!」
I wanted to say read my memories with magic.
But the emperor, unwilling to give me a chance to speak, pursued like a pride leader.
Only the harsh footfalls of two men echoed through the noble central palace.