Chapter 169
Chapter 169
The Iron Emperor — Chapter 169
When they reached the port city, King Alsein stopped at the sight of the ships and countless rafts moored at the docks. The people of the port city stood lined up there.
"You must go quickly."
Marquis Baikal looked at King Alsein and implored him to board.
As if unable to tear himself away, King Alsein only stared at the ships floating on the sea.
Just then, Gye Ung-sam, who had arrived belatedly, approached and offered King Alsein a formal salute before slowly speaking.
"When we returned to our country five years ago, Marquis Terican asked a favor of us. To protect the royal house of South Roselin...."
King Alsein turned his head toward Ung-sam.
"And His Majesty the Yeolje is keeping that promise. Through this, Gauri — whether we wish it or not — will be revealed to the continent. He is escorting you despite that."
King Alsein's head dropped toward the ground.
"Please board."
"Yes. I must go."
King Alsein's feeble steps moved toward the ship.
Dozens of ships and hastily built rafts were sailing up the coastline. The eyes of every person aboard were fixed, without exception, upon the land they were leaving behind.
King Alsein, Princess Yunias, and even Marquis Baikal — who had been called the War God of the East — and Baron Bels were all staring at the land they had departed.
Suddenly, raindrops began to fall from the sky.
"It's cold."
Feeling a raindrop land on her cheek, Princess Yunias slowly spoke as she looked up at the sky.
"The sky...."
Someone spoke sorrowfully.
"The sky seems to be weeping."
The scattered drops grew into heavier streams of rain.
Shhhhhhh.
Before long, the rain had become a downpour.
Princess Yunias was still watching the sky.
The pouring streams of rain struck her face without pause. Water that none could tell was rain or tears flowed from the corners of her eyes and streamed down her cheeks.
On the day the sky wept in grief, South Roselin fell.
Chapter 52 — Suspicions
The fall of South Roselin.
It provided no entertainment at all for the continent's gossipmongers. With the vast Holy Empire backing North Roselin, the outcome had been a foregone conclusion.
If anything was surprising, it was that South Roselin had held out and fought for more than six years.
War yields enormous wealth.
The continent's people cared only about that. Yet amid the war, one incomprehensible event after another continued to occur across the continent.
The first was the Pirate King of the Central Strait.
Rumors abounded, but neither his trace nor his location could be discovered. Still, the conjecture that someone had seized control of the Central Strait was highly plausible.
In a short span of time, the many minor pirate bands had vanished and the pirates had become organized. That force was enough to threaten even the Maritime Empire.
But pirates of that scale require a base of operations — and no one had been able to locate it.
Then, with the emergence of the Turtle Dragon, a creature known only from ancient records, the pirates' traces vanished. The gossipmongers speculated that the pirates had been annihilated by the Turtle Dragon.
The second was the disappearance of the Hawk Corps, a key fighting force in the Roselin War.
All that was known was that Revion Gowin had fled the Haian Kingdom and struck back at the North Roselin encampment.
Up to that point, people assumed the Hawk Corps had sided with South Roselin to stage a rebellion. But after that battle, no trace of Baron Gowin or the Hawk Corps remained in South Roselin.
The third was the disappearance of Gerard of Lightning and the Northern Mercenaries.
A fleet carrying the Northern Mercenaries — living evidence of secret machinations by the Holy Empire and the Federal Empire — had vanished somewhere.
The fact that the fleet was commanded by Phillian Gerard, counted among the Ten of the Continent and also called the Free Knight, further amplified the mystery.
Some claimed Gerard had perpetrated a monumental fraud, but the explanation lacked plausibility.
What could a personage of Gerard's stature lack so badly that he would swindle two great empires?
Others argued that, because the route of their movement was by sea, they too must have been buried beneath the waves by the Turtle Dragon. But that, too, remained unproven.
The fourth was the appearance, for the first time in a thousand years, of a dragon.
A dragon — a being passed down almost as legend — had appeared in the Reganza Mountains. Because of this, the Reganza Mountains continued to be regarded as an inviolable domain.
Testimony from residents near the Reganza Mountains at the time of the dragon's appearance, together with a joint investigation by imperial wizards, established this as clear fact.
Once the investigation concluded that the quantity of mana gathered in the Reganza Mountains reached a level impossible for any human, every nation grew still more fearful of entering the region.
Yet the reason for the dragon's appearance remains unclear. Something had opposed the dragon, and that entity's power, too, was judged impossible by human standards.
One wizard cautiously proposed that it might have been a territorial dispute among dragons, but the veracity of that could not be confirmed.
The fifth was the great migration of the dwarves.
Dwarves who had been living in hiding across every corner of the continent vanished in an instant.
Pursuing hunters eventually tracked down the dwarves' trail. But the place where the trail ended was the Reganza Mountains. Some large bands of hunters braved the danger and ventured in, only to suffer near-total casualties at the hands of monsters and flee.
According to survivors' testimony, the dwarves themselves had been unable to advance far beyond the mountain foothills and were massacred in a monster attack. As evidence, several dozen dwarf-made tools were collected by the surviving hunters.
In the end, this incident caused the price of dwarf slaves living in the various empires to skyrocket.
The sixth was the disappearance of the defeated royal house of South Roselin.
The royal family of South Roselin, driven to the port city, had set sail upon the sea despite having nowhere left to go.
The troubling fact was that their trail seemed to lead toward the Reganza Mountains. But given the succession of incidents in the Reganza Mountains, it was judged that even if they had gone there, survival was unlikely.
A certain scholar suggested that they might have departed in search of a new continent. But that assertion was also deemed to have scant basis, since they had been afforded neither time to prepare nor exploration vessels of adequate size.
Some time later, however, the Unified Roselin Kingdom announced that the members of the South Roselin royal house had drifted, run aground, and perished. As proof, several bodies that had washed ashore were displayed and identified, which led people to believe the announcement.
* * *
"You expect me to believe that now?!"
"Y-Your Imperial Majesty, please quell your wrath."
"Kuk-kuk-kuk."
A bizarre laugh from Emperor Shau Hwan Millior echoed. Before him, King Vain Cadel Roselin, sovereign of the Unified Roselin Kingdom, was bowed in prostration and trembling.
"So, how is it? Now that you hold all of the Roselin Kingdom in your hands, does the world look different?"
"I have committed a sin deserving of death!"
At Emperor Millior's bored-sounding tone, King Cadel pressed his head tightly against the floor and begged for mercy. Seeming to find the sight amusing, Emperor Millior smiled broadly and rose to his feet.
"Kuk-kuk-kuk. Very well. I'll kill you."
Shinnng.
"Huk!"
Drawing a guard knight's sword, Emperor Millior slowly descended from the imperial throne.
King Cadel's face turned ashen at the sight.
The cold longsword in Emperor Millior's hand touched King Cadel's cheek.
"Cadel, Cadel, Cadel...."
Wearing a bored expression, Emperor Millior spoke King Cadel's name and then pressed the blade against his cheek before slowly drawing it down. From the flesh torn by its sharpness, a red rivulet of blood promptly began to flow.
"Y-Y-Your Imperial Majesty, grant me mercy!"
Slap!
"Hiik!"
The Emperor lifted the blood-streaked sword and, as if scolding a child, smacked King Cadel's cheek with the flat of the blade. Each time, King Cadel flinched and cried out only for mercy.
"Do you know why I did not annex Roselin and instead gave it to you?"
"I-I do not know. Grant me mercy!"
"Tsk, tsk. A friend older than I am, yet so faint-hearted."
Emperor Millior clicked his tongue and slung the sword over his shoulder. Only then did King Cadel's trembling subside, as if his terror had ebbed.
SWISH!
"U-huk!"
The sword that King Cadel had thought was resting on Emperor Millior's shoulder flashed like lightning past his head. Terrified out of his wits, he fell backward onto his backside.
Thud.
The top portion of the newly made crown was sliced clean off and dropped to the floor. At that, Emperor Millior suddenly burst into wild laughter.
"Kuahahahaha! Kuahahahat!"
King Cadel's crotch had long since grown damp.
Laughing uproariously, Emperor Millior returned to the imperial throne and sat, tossing out a remark.
"My friend Cadel, I leave you be because that spectacle of yours amuses me."
"Y-Yes, yes. I understand."
As if he had survived certain death, King Cadel wore a forced smile and kept bobbing his head in prostration.
"Don't try any idiotic tricks. You disgust me. Get out of my sight."
Emperor Millior issued King Cadel an expulsion order in a cold voice.
A short while later, Duke Schung approached and bowed his head before the Emperor in salute.
"Oh! Duke Schung. Have you uncovered something?"
At Emperor Millior's welcoming reception, Duke Schung bowed once more and then slowly unrolled a scroll and began to read aloud.
"After mobilizing the full strength of our intelligence personnel to investigate, we have a report indicating that a third force appears to have inserted itself into this war."
"A third force...."
Emperor Millior closed his eyes and listened to Duke Schung's report with an expression of savoring something. Duke Schung's voice continued.
"First, there is a report that some unit crossed the border between the Haian Kingdom and our Holy Empire, and also the South Roselin border. It was initially judged to be the work of remnants from South Roselin, but suspicious points kept being discovered."
"Continue."
Emperor Millior's voice turned flat and dry.
Duke Schung composed himself and resumed reading the scroll.
"First, our post-war investigation shows that populations — at smallest a single village, at largest an entire city — have vanished. The analysis indicates that the people who disappeared in this manner number over one hundred thousand."
"Don't stop. Continue."
A faint furrow had formed on Emperor Millior's brow, though his eyes remained closed.
"Because these were not small numbers, a detailed investigation was conducted. It found that a unit composed of Northerners disrupted the rear lines while rescuing the people of South Roselin. Reports state that this unit annihilated even a rear detachment of North Roselin forces at the Battle of Vihanen Fortress, profoundly altering the course of the conflict, and also took part at the time of the Hawk Corps' surprise assault. The conclusion is that, had they subsequently joined forces fully with South Roselin, the annexation would not yet be complete and would have required considerably more time."
"Kuk-kuk-kuk-kuk."
A cold laugh spread across Emperor Millior's previously stiffened face. Watching the Emperor's demeanor, Duke Schung grew intensely tense.
"In that case, you'll also know where they have vanished to. Please don't tell me you don't know, Duke Schung."
Emperor Millior's eyes opened. Cold eyes. Duke Schung steadied his breath and then carefully continued.
"The trail led toward the Reganza Mountains."
"The Reganza Mountains, is it...."
With his cold gaze, Emperor Millior slowly savored the duke's words, repeating them to himself. At that moment, Duke Schung looked at the lower portion of the scroll and added one more detail.
"In that same year, a Gold Dragon appeared in the Reganza Mountains. Other related intelligence indicates that the dwarves' mass migration also had the Reganza Mountains as its destination, and that the point where this time... the remnants of the South Roselin royal house disappeared was likewise on the southern coast of the Reganza Mountains."
The left corner of Emperor Millior's mouth rose in a long, thin arc.
"Also verify the disappearance of the Northern Mercenaries. It looks as though something very, very amusing is about to occur."
"I shall carry out Your Imperial Majesty's command."
Duke Schung bowed to Emperor Millior in salute and swiftly withdrew from the great hall.