Emperor of Steel

“This is the dungeon path?”

Luke who went past the other two gates, looked around.

He had imagined the prison underground to be more dirty and frivolous, however, there were magic lights everywhere and the path was much cleaner.

Even the walls had elaborate sculptures that had inscriptions at regular distances.

“This dungeon seems to be made during the Mado era time?”

The sculpture patterns and the characters were all belonging to the late Abaron Empire time.

In addition to that, the sculptures weren’t of humans, but of fairies like elves and dwarves.

The fairies were wearing bright expressions and costumes as if they were jumping out of the wall.

“Then, there was a story about the Imperial Palace. Before the fall of the Libiya Kingdom, in the hands of the ancestors of Baroque, they were known to go to an old temple, which belonged to Goddess Belize, and serves her.”

According to the rumors which Philip heard while his time as a Knights of Guard, the past princess of the Libiya Kingdom was in charge of the temple’s well being.

It was said that the princess wasn’t properly treated as a royal family member because of her blood belonging to a fairy, and it was said that she didn’t cooperate with the extortionist, Karno de Baroque.

“When the Libiya Kingdom got ruined, some knights reportedly felt the palace and reached the temple with a royal scepter. The princess closed up all the doors of the temple and prevented the rebels from entering it.”

And Karno De Baroque was scared to spill blood on the holy place of the Goddess, so he surrounded the temple and waited for the princess and her guards to appear outside

Since the temple had very little food and water, they were bound to come out of the place.

“However, a week had passed and then a month, no single person had come out of the temple. The Duke who felt something was wrong broke the temple doors and entered, unfortunately, he wasn’t able to find anyone. There was no body found either.”

Obviously he wasn’t able to find any of them.

The Baroque Duke had tried searching every corner to find the whereabouts of the princess, however, he wasn’t able to find them anywhere on the continent.

“However, strange things didn’t end to happen. Since then, there have been multiple incidents of missing priests and knights who were there to investigate the temple. Even the youngest son of the Baroque Duke, who went there in curiosity never made it back.”

And that led to rumors.

The Goddess Belize, who took pity on the princess and her knights, punished the rebels and placed the princess somewhere safe.

“After that, the death of the Baroque Duke took place, and the eldest son who succeeded after him destroyed the temple which gave birth to rumors. And on top of that, a new palace was built, the current Baroque Imperial palace.”

“Hmm, so the eldest one wasn’t scared of God.”

Perhaps, he only feared the uprising of the last Libiya Kingdom’s descendant rather than a God.

But listening to Philip’s story, Luke dug up his past.

He knew Princess Sophia, the main character of the story, the one from 500 years back.

‘Princess Sophia’s mother was an elf brought into slavery. That was why she was never considered to be a royal family member…’

During his time as Saymon, the fairies under him asked to take Princess Sophia onto his side.

Even though she was a mixed-race, it was because she could easily help Saymon in conquering the lands, as she was the last bloodline of the Libiya royal family.

However, Luke refused their offer.

It was because she was a priest, and it wouldn’t do justice for her to stand by a warlock.

‘Moreover, the character of princess Sophia was different, no wonder she didn’t want to hold hands with Karno de Baroque.’

The problem was the truth held in the story.

It could be believed that the goddess really helped, or whether there were secrets, and Luke decided to trust the other one.

It wasn’t a huge deal, with the invasion of the devildom during that time, there wouldn’t have been time for the Gods to intervene in the New World.

‘Maybe, 500 years back, the party of princess Sophia was helped by the ancient power and magic at the basement of the temple.’

When Luke was deep in thoughts, Philip spoke while looking at the map Henry had given them.

“But, this dungeon is a place I am not aware of, how did that friend of Henry even get a map?”

“It was made from the information given by an elderly who worked here as a guard.”

The old man didn’t seem to have told Henry about the ruins.

Or maybe he wasn’t aware of it either.

In fact, the knowledge of the ancient times was usually known only to the educated scholars, wizards, and some nobles, so there wasn’t any chance for the jail guards to know about it, and it was nothing weird.

“I can feel the energy from ahead.”

Say that, everyone stuck themselves to the walls or hid behind the pillars.

Soon then, a middle-aged man in black clothes, symbolizing a jailer, walked while humming.

“Travelling the life where have I been… kuak!”

Suddenly Luke jumped out and placed his sword on the man’s neck, making the man frightened.

“Why, why are you doing this and who are you!?”

Luke was wearing the uniform of a knight, however, the jailer didn’t see him as any knight.

It was because the dungeon wasn’t a place even the Knights of Guard could enter by themselves.

Among the Knights of Guard, only those who were given power by the Imperial family had access.

“You don’t need to know who we are. Where is Count Ferrero?”

“Yo, the Emperor will never forgive… Hiik!”

As Luke’s sword preparing to stab the jailer, the jailer’s expression went pale.

“Scared of the Emperor far away from you, or are you scared on the man in front of you?”

“I, have nothing to do with this. Save me, please.”

The jailer clasped his hands and begged him.

Philip and the other members of the knights didn’t seem to understand.

Since he was someone guarding the prison inside the dungeon, they had expected him to be a Knights of Guard.

And thought that they would have to torture the man for more than 10 minutes to learn the location of Ferrero because of his undying loyalty to the Emperor.

However, the jailer was a normal human with no skills.

“I’ll save you, so take me to the place where Count Ferrero is.”

“Uh, yes! Please follow me.”

Luke continued to point the sword at the neck to keep the man from doing anything sneaky.

He was once trapped by the fairies, so he wasn’t going to let an ordinary man deceive him.