The Emperor's Inquiry
Alhazard, are you insane? (2)
Personally, I’ve narrowed down the three most famous and influential NTR incidents in human history. The first is the legend of King Arthur in Britain. When King Arthur was NTR’d by Lancelot, who stole Queen Guinevere, it became the spark that eventually led to the fall of the Kingdom of Britain. That alone makes it one of the worst NTR cases imaginable.
The second is the incident involving Uriah, a servant of David, the second king of Israel. King David NTR’d Uriah by taking his wife, Bathsheba. What makes this event historically significant is that David not only stole Uriah’s wife but also had him killed to perfectly complete the NTL. Through Bathsheba, whom he took as a concubine, Israel’s third king, Solomon, was born.
The third and final case involves Temujin, Genghis Khan—one of the most famous conquerors in Earth’s history. When the Merkit tribe NTR’d him by abducting his wife Borte, Temujin’s forces were still weak. Instead of charging in recklessly to reclaim her, he endured and waited. He patiently persuaded other tribes to join him, eventually raising an army of thirty thousand. With that force, he succeeded in both taking revenge and retrieving his wife. However, the wife he finally recovered was already pregnant with the enemy’s child…
Despite loving Borte deeply, Temujin did not cast her aside. He accepted her back as his wife and even recognized the child in her womb as his own firstborn, personally giving the boy a name. Not stopping there, he went on to ban the long-standing tradition of bride kidnapping among the many nomadic tribes of Mongolia.
The reason I’m suddenly bringing up these NTR stories is because—though some of you probably noticed the moment his name first appeared—the Khan Emperor was an NPC modeled after Genghis Khan Temujin, one of the central figures in those very anecdotes. Emperor Batur Qan. After successfully conquering most of the nations, large and small, in the eastern part of the Hamaltia Continent, it was perhaps inevitable that his ambitions would turn westward.
In Earth’s history, it would have been Subutai and Jebe—Genghis Khan’s right and left hands—who led the western campaigns. But in the official scenario of King’s Crown, Emperor Qan himself takes the lead in the western conquest. Since the West featured fantasy elements like magic and sword masters, the developers balanced it by introducing martial arts and sorcery to the East. As a result, the Khan’s army became abnormally powerful. The mere thought of martial-arts-trained horse archers firing thousands of arrows infused with inner energy from long range with terrifying accuracy was enough to send chills down anyone’s spine.
The only reason the western forces managed to repel the Khan’s hundreds of thousands of troops twice was thanks to the large-scale area magic created by the archmage Alhazard through his “magic linkage.” Though the Khan suffered crushing defeats in two major battles because of Alhazard, he refused to give up. Just like the historical Genghis Khan, he endured, patiently analyzing the main reasons for his losses in those campaigns. He quickly realized that the unknown power he had never encountered while conquering the East—magic—was the cause of his defeats.
To find a solution, Emperor Qan summoned every notable figure in his empire: martial artists, scholars, Taoist priests, and anyone with real skill. He ordered them to work together and discover a way to counter western magic. Since an imperial command was absolute, the officials tried their best to obey, but they soon ran into a major problem. None of the people gathered there truly understood magic, the very core of the issue.
Recognizing this problem himself, the Khan issued a proclamation across the entire Eastern Empire: “If anyone believes they have mastered western magic, come to the imperial palace and demonstrate your knowledge. If your knowledge proves genuine, I shall grant you great rewards and an official position in my name.”
The news was so shocking that it spread all the way to the West. Naturally, it eventually reached Alhazard, who had been keeping a close watch on the East through his own agents. When the archmage first heard the report, he laughed. “That Khan Emperor really is a stubborn bastard.” After a hearty laugh, he immediately began preparing for a journey. This was the reason Alhazard set off for the East, where he would spend the next ten years.
Traveling all the way to the distant East, Alhazard used magic to alter his appearance and boldly entered the imperial palace of the Eastern Empire, where Emperor Qan resided. Introducing himself as the “Great Sage,” he shamelessly declared, “I am the Great Sage who has mastered every magic that exists in this world. Hurry up and grant me my rewards and position.”
The various scholars and experts who had gathered in the palace at the Emperor’s command sneered, convinced that his words were nothing but empty boasting. But the Khan instinctively sensed that the man before him was no ordinary person. He decided to test the so-called Great Sage.
“Great Sage, if you truly have mastered magic, then answer me this. During the first great battle in the West, that detestable Alhazard suddenly brought down rain from a clear sky, trapping my army, and then struck us with lightning. What should I have done to defeat Alhazard at that moment?”
The Great Sage answered without hesitation. “That is a very simple question. If I had been there, the moment the rain began falling from a clear sky, I would have recognized it as magic and predicted that lightning would soon follow. I would have quickly fashioned lightning rods of iron to minimize the damage, then immediately formed a mobile unit to locate and kill Alhazard and his disciples while they were casting the spell.”
At his answer, countless people in the palace jeered and hurled insults. “How could mere iron possibly block lightning, which is called the wrath of heaven?” “What even is this ‘lightning rod’ you speak of? How could it stop lightning?”
Yet the Great Sage did not so much as blink. He answered calmly, “Lightning is naturally drawn to metal. If you place metal high up to guide the lightning there and then let its energy seep into the ground, what is there to fear?”
While everyone else was shouting that his words were nonsense, the Khan asked a second question. “Then answer this as well, Great Sage. During the second great battle, that detestable Alhazard summoned wind and spread poisonous fog to throw my army into chaos, then dropped fire from the sky, creating an explosion so massive that heaven and earth shook. What should I have done to defeat Alhazard then?”
The Great Sage replied, “That, too, is a very simple question. If I had been there, the moment the wind began to blow, I would have recognized it as magic and sensed that something unusual was about to happen. I would have immediately ordered a retreat to avoid the poisonous fog. Even if some had been caught in it, I would have recognized the fog as a flammable substance and set fire to it preemptively to minimize the damage.”
Once again, the people in the palace erupted in jeers and mockery. “How could you tell whether it was magic just from a change in wind direction!?” “And how could you know it was flammable just by seeing the poisonous fog once?”
This time, the Great Sage could no longer hold back. He raised his voice in anger. “You fools! Instead of being ashamed of your own shallow knowledge and insight, you only know how to tear others down out of envy and jealousy! Are you truly the Khan Emperor’s loyal subjects, or are you treacherous sycophants?”
“Your Majesty, everything this man says is nothing but wild delusion. Anyone can talk big—it’s something even street ruffians can do.” “That’s right. Cast out this fake sage at once, Your Majesty.”
Despite the officials’ demands to expel the Great Sage, the Khan, apparently satisfied with the answers to both questions, decided to employ him. As promised, the Great Sage received rewards and an official position. He became one of the Emperor’s closest advisors, a key figure in the Eastern Empire, and was appointed head of the ten-year-long “Magic Countermeasure” project.
Even at that point, Emperor Qan had not abandoned his ambitions. He was still filled with hope that if he could only overcome magic, he could conquer the West. Little did he know that the very Alhazard who had thwarted his western campaigns twice was right beside him, pretending to be a loyal subject while hiding his true identity…