Chapter 304
Chapter 304
The Iron Emperor — Chapter 304
"Taedaesaja, orc meat contains toxins and cannot be cooked. Even if it could be prepared, the envoy group would..."
"Take it."
"Oh!"
Without even letting the kitchen assistant finish, Uru tossed the glass vial. The cooks scrambled to catch it. Delviron and his assistants, clutching the vial, couldn't hide their curiosity and looked to Uru for an explanation.
"It's a detoxification reagent."
A corner of Uru's mouth crept upward as he gave the brief reply. Delviron's expression took on an odd smile as he glanced back and forth between the orc sprawled before Uru and the reagent vial. Then he bowed deeply toward Uru and answered in a confident voice.
"I will cook it so well you'll want to eat nothing but this beast."
"Heh-heh-heh. I'll be looking forward to it."
As Uru left the kitchen with Delviron's confident answer behind him, the orc's final death cry and the cooks' humming drifted out together from behind him as he departed.
It wasn't until two more days had passed after their arrival that the envoys of the Empire Coalition formally presented themselves before King Alsein and the leadership of the Four-Nation Alliance.
At this treatment, which bordered on blatant disregard, an air of displeasure quietly emanated from King Alsein and the assembled leaders. Even so, the envoys strode into the great hall without concern and made their salutations with perfect composure.
"Count Deli Carson of the Great Federal Empire pays his respects to His Majesty King Alsein of Roselin."
"Viscount Pin Cara of the Great Maritime Empire pays his respects."
Perhaps they felt at least a sliver of regret for the past two days — mercifully, they refrained from outright discourtesy during the actual salutation. The leaders, whose brows had been furrowed, were able to receive the envoys with expressions that softened slightly.
"Well. Have you rested well in the meantime?"
King Alsein's words carried a faint rebuke for their failure to show their faces for two full days. But the envoys reacted somewhat differently.
"Thanks to Your Majesty's generous consideration, we were able to rest comfortably and even sample rare delicacies."
"......."
Their smiles held not a trace of pretense.
'Rare delicacies?'
Alsein had certainly issued orders to attend to the envoys' reception, but there was no leeway to serve rare delicacies. Yet the unexpected expressions on the envoys' faces left Alsein and the other Gauri Alliance figures perplexed — though they didn't let it show outwardly.
Weren't they fortunate that, at least, the envoys weren't finding fault with them?
They could simply assume that the envoys' satisfaction with the food had led them to conclude that the King of Roselin and the allied leaders had received them with great courtesy. For the alliance, it was a good result if anything.
"By the way..."
As the envoys let their words trail off and casually surveyed the hall, King Alsein quietly exhaled.
The envoys had clearly notified the Roselin Royal House of their visit, and Roselin was officially their host. But the man they truly wanted to see was obviously Go Jin-cheon. Yet on the morning of their arrival, he had casually departed for a sudden inspection of the front as if going out for a stroll.
"I had heard that the King of the Kingdom of Gauri was also present here."
As expected.
Count Carson of the Federal Empire posed the question to Alsein with a faint smile. Alsein answered with composure.
"Of course. However, because your arrival was so sudden, the timing did not work out. His Majesty the Yeolje is presently inspecting the front lines."
Alsein's expression conveyed regret, but his words contained a subtle rebuke for their unilateral and sudden dispatch of an envoy group. It was the fullest protest Alsein could offer.
"Ah, what a pity..."
From the envoys' standpoint, it was a situation they could easily interpret as him deliberately avoiding them. But Duke Helios Baikal, who had been silently watching, found himself tempted to draw his sword at Count Carson's discourtesy — clicking his tongue before the king of a nation.
"A shame. I had wished to see the great hero who broke the arrogance of the Holy Empire."
"Indeed."
Watching the envoys exchange remarks among themselves, Alsein came to think that Go Jin-cheon's absence from this gathering was, if anything, a relief. If he had been present, given his temperament, he might have beaten every last one of them and sent them back — or, in the worst case, slaughtered them all.
'Ah, Lord Eulji Uru!'
With that thought, Alsein quickly glanced toward Eulji Uru — the one man who could rival Jin-cheon in temperament alone. Mercifully, Uru hadn't stirred and was simply watching their conduct.
That wasn't all.
Every armed Gauri officer in the hall was standing guard with stony indifference, utterly unruffled.
As King Alsein exhaled in relief, the voices of the Empire Coalition's envoys reached his ears.
"No matter, I suppose. I shall now present the letters from the two Imperial Majesties of the Empire Coalition."
They delivered their provocation, declaring it didn't matter — while fully knowing that the center of this alliance was Gauri. Yet still, Hwi-garam, Uru, and the other Gauri officers showed not the slightest stir.
Count Carson carefully took out the scroll he had been keeping inside his coat and approached King Alsein to hand it over. Alsein, having received the letter, had a wizard verify that it was indeed an imperial letter from the emperors, then slowly unfurled it.
"Hmm."
Alsein's face as he read through the letter was far from bright. Observing his expression, the faces of Marquess Gaun of the Haian Kingdom and Duke Ken of the Malin Kingdom darkened in turn.
Though they couldn't read the letter's contents, it no doubt contained exactly what they had feared.
"You gentlemen should read it as well."
Once King Alsein had finished, the letter was passed through the chamberlain — to Duke Ken, Marquess Gaun, and then to Duke Baikal and Hwi-garam.
While they took turns reading the letter, Count Carson and Viscount Cara, the envoys dispatched by the Empire Coalition, were wholly occupied with studying the expressions of King Alsein and the leadership of each nation.
They had deliberately put on airs of arrogance and made a point of souring the mood. A national envoy's position wasn't merely about delivering and receiving letters — it was, for all intents and purposes, a spy who directly observed the leadership of the receiving nation with impunity. As the Four-Nation Alliance leaders' faces darkened, Count Carson's lips twitched faintly — he sensed his expectations were correct.
"The contents are hardly a departure from what we anticipated."
A clear voice.
Count Carson and Viscount Cara turned their heads calmly toward the speaker.
'Who is that?'
It was Yeon Hwi-garam.
There was no chance they had forgotten him from the first day. He was a man whose presence seemed at once readable and impossible to fathom.
But the impact of the words he had just spoken was substantial. The letter's contents were surely predictable.
Count Carson and Viscount Cara could both guess the letters' contents without reading them. What they could not understand was Hwi-garam stating those contents as a matter of course in front of the very envoys who had delivered them. King Alsein and the other alliance leaders were equally taken aback.
"Lord Hwi-garam, how could you..."
"H-His Majesty, the Yeolje Go Jin-cheon of Gauri, arrives!"
The moment King Alsein opened his mouth to caution Hwi-garam, the attendant's trembling voice announcing Go Jin-cheon's arrival echoed through the hall.
'The attendant’s voice is trembling?'
Count Carson and Viscount Cara were not the sort to miss this subtle shift. They slowly turned their heads toward the entrance where the attendant's voice had resounded.
Clank. Clank.
The rough clash of iron and the heavy reverberation of footfalls cut through the silence. And then, a strange scent rushed through the air.
'The smell of blood?'
A thick, clinging odor of blood filled the air.
"B-Brother, Your Majesty!"
Alsein, forgetting entirely that the envoys were present, called out to Jin-cheon the way he always did. But Count Carson and Viscount Cara, the envoys of the Empire Coalition, failed to notice.
And small wonder — the pitch-black armor of Jin-cheon and the officers under his command, as they appeared, was caked with dried blood. And those blazing eyes.
"What manner of appearance is this?"
At Alsein's bewildered question, Jin-cheon, who had been walking straight past the envoys, opened his mouth as if it were nothing.
"During the front-line inspection, I ran into scouts from the Holy Empire. Dealing with them delayed me a bit."
"Here are the severed heads of those who appeared to be their leaders."
Alongside Jin-cheon's words, Gye Ung-sam stepped forward, lowered the bundle he had been carrying on his back to the floor, and untied it. Then, five or six heads rolled out with their tongues lolling. Whether by intent or happenstance, one head rolled across the floor and struck Count Carson's foot.
"Wh-What is the meaning of this!"
Startled and panicked, Count Carson hastily stepped back with a shout. Only then, as if he had just become aware of their presence, Jin-cheon turned his head to look at them and spoke gruffly.
"Who are they?"
At Jin-cheon's question, Alsein promptly answered.
"Envoys of the empires."
There was no way Jin-cheon could have been unaware of their existence. Yet his sudden appearance in this state and his brazen act surely carried some intention, and anticipation settled on Alsein's face.
As expected.
Shrrring!
No sooner had Alsein's words dropped than Jin-cheon's Hwandudaedo left the scabbard with a sharp metallic ring. Unlike the bloodstains on the black armor, the blade of the Hwandudaedo was clean, keen, translucent, and even beautiful.
"Ugh! Wh-What is this outrage against an envoy!"
The Hwandudaedo, drawn before anyone could intervene, came to rest against Count Carson's neck — and even Viscount Cara behind him flinched and cowered in equal fright.
The guards who had accompanied the envoy group were all still at their quarters. In the first place, they had traveled via a magic circle, and it was the Kingdom of Roselin that would suffer if any harm befell them.
Precisely because they had been careless about their security, they were now utterly incapable of responding. Then suffocating killing intent poured over the two men, and Jin-cheon spoke in a voice that seemed to rise from hell itself.
"I believe I said I have no further words to exchange with the Holy Empire's dogs. It appears the number of envoy heads I've sent back was insufficient."
"H-Holy!"
Seeing a path to survival in Jin-cheon's words, Count Carson hastily parted his lips — but the Hwandudaedo was lifted and brought down toward his neck faster than he could speak.
"Aaaagh!"
"They are not envoys of the Holy Empire — they are envoys of the Federal Empire and the Maritime Empire!"
Thud.
Count Carson collapsed limply.
"Well, it seems I've made a serious blunder."
Clack.
The Hwandudaedo, which had seemed poised to split Count Carson's neck in two, was somehow already back inside the sword sheath. And Jin-cheon, wearing an expression that anyone would read as deeply apologetic, personally reached down and helped up Count Carson, whose legs had given out beneath him.
"Huff, huff, huff!"
Count Carson was gasping for breath, his face ashen with fear.
Small wonder — the killing intent that Jin-cheon exuded was enough to make even seasoned knights instinctively recoil. That Count Carson, a civil official, had endured such killing intent alone... the fact that he hadn't fainted was remarkable in itself.
"Ha-ha-ha, you must understand. I was somewhat hasty, having just dealt with the Holy Empire's dogs moments ago. But what business brings envoys from the Empire Coalition?"
The two Empire Coalition envoys wore expressions of men who had narrowly escaped death. At Jin-cheon's behavior — far more exaggeratedly hearty than his usual manner — the alliance leadership, Alsein included, found themselves more exhilarated than worried.
"While His Majesty the Yeolje was away inspecting the front, we arrived so suddenly that we were unable to send word in advance. We dispatched a separate messenger... perhaps he failed to find you?"
"I see. In truth, the inspection was covert so I could assess the front-line preparations without drawing attention. That would explain it."
"To prevent such occurrences in the future, you absolutely must be accompanied by a communication wizard."
"Hmm. But one would need a wizard who can endure a long march, you see."
The exchange between Hwi-garam and Jin-cheon fit together as seamlessly as a rigged game of yutnori. And the exchange between sovereign and retainer, bearing its undertone of awkwardness and mild reproach, came across as unexpectedly persuasive to the envoys, whose shock had by now somewhat subsided.