Emperor of Steel

Arthenia Imperial Magic Tower.

Not just in the Arthenia Empire, but the entire magic towers, it was known to be one of the best, and a very precious visitor had gone there.

It was Pope Veronica III of the Holy Arthenia Empire.

The Meister, Marquis Reas and the other high ranking men of the Magic Tower, heard about the visit from the Pope and went to meet her.

It wasn’t that the Pope had never been invited before, it was just that she had never visited the Magic Tower without prior notice.

Reas, who greeted the wagon of the Pope, looked at her and asked.

“Holy, Holy Pope. Suddenly a visit here…?”

“I was patrolling around here and thought about stopping by for a while, however, I feel like I might be troubling you.”

“Not at all. You could never do that.”

Honestly, Marquis Reas initially disliked the Pope.

It was because he thought of her to be a puppet in Constantine’s hand, he began to doubt if she was an angel or not, or if she got corrupted after getting involved in the politics of the government.

Which was in the past, he met with Gregory and complained about it in secret.

However, with the civil war, the Pope seemed to have changed.

She boldly defeated Constantine’s faction and recruited various talented people to promote and reform the policies and renew the Holy Empire.

Which led the Marquis to see his Pope in new colors.

‘In the end, the words of Arch Duke were right.’

Pope, well, Reina talked to him with a smile.

“I wanted to look inside, would that be alright?”

“Of course. I will be your guide.”

Reina changed into the robe of the Magic Tower before entering. It was because she didn’t want to surprise or disrupt the work the wizards were doing.

In addition, since the number of attendants around her were reduced to a bare minimum, the general wizards or the staff of the Magic Tower didn’t know that the one who visited them was their Pope.

The Holy Empire’s Imperial Magic Tower was huge in size.

It had dozens of stone buildings, various workshops, warehouses, and a lot more.

Among them, at the Gigant assembling workshop, Reas proudly presented a white Gigant

“This is a Hero class Gigant, Veda, which we are currently producing at our Magic Tower. It is very strong, however, we are going to improve the performance a lot further by using the new information obtained through our Intelligence agency from the Baroque Empire.”

“I see.”

After hearing Reas’s words, Reina smiled.

The new Gigant of the Baroque Empire was the Atlas of Veritas magic tower.

Luke, who wanted to keep the Baroque Empire under control, gave Reina a copy of Atlas’s blueprint.

And it would have surely been strange if the Pope of an empire stated that she miraculously got a blueprint of a war machine, so he asked the intelligence agents to secretly pass it to the Imperial Palace.

Marquis Reas seemed proud without realizing the full story behind it.

“Gigant’s are surely nice, but I would like to take a look at the medical mage research. Since we heard the news about the plague in the Baroque Empire.”

“Ah, I have heard of that too. They said that something terrifying had happened there.

A plague or disease was normal, but the act to control it was cruel.

Tens and thousands of patients and suspected carriers were all gathered in one place and killed, and those people who protested against the act were all labeled as rebels and executed at random.

Eventually, the spread of the disease with a terrifying infection was prevented, but the public sentiment in the capital was severe.

“There is no guarantee that such things won’t happen again. Because the epidemics are different kinds and many lives will be lost before we figure something out.”

“Surely that is, but, isn’t this nation under divine power?”

The person with the best healing power in the entire continent was the Pope. And she had already showed the miracles she could do several times in the squares and other places, but healing numerous incurable people seems to be impossible.

“It is true that I have a unique ability. However, there are many people who are sick and die of illness where my eyes can’t reach. They will need medicine and a medic who can really cure them rather than a miracle which might never reach them.”

“I understand. My thoughts were short-sighted.”

At Reina’s words, Marquis Reas nodded.

The support he gave to the Pope wasn’t because of her ability to perform miracles.

The main reason was her intent to reform the tax policies, price stabilization which eased the burden on the people and improved their quality of life.

‘And even when the strange rumors came out, her position stood strong even after facing the slander of the opposition.’

The story of the Pope being a princess of the destroyed Volga Kingdom had been spreading for quite a time.

However, there were many who didn’t believe the rumors.

In addition, there were people who defended that, since Lady Reina had been performing good deeds before coming to the Holy Empire. She had been chosen by the God as an angel, or that she acted as Constantine’s puppet to seize the power from him and do good to the people.

While Marquis Reas was in thoughts, Reina spoke.

“I heard that there are a lot of refugees coming to our nation due to the civil war in the Baroque Empire. The place where the refugees might stay seems poor in sanitation…!”

“Holy Pope?”

Reina’s words stopped and her complexion turned white.

It wasn’t just that, her pupils lost focus and her body began to tremble.

“Holy Pope! Are you alright?!”

Reas hastily held her.

The paladins who followed her were in shock.

Fortunately, before long Reina was able to regain consciousness, however, her pale face didn’t bring back the color.

‘What did I just see?’

She didn’t see it in front of her, but she saw a landscape in front of her.

A field filled with thick fog.

Countless people died like a war had occurred.

And there was Luke, who was over a body, looking miserable.

Standing opposite to him, barely being able to support his body and a broken sword, was a knight with a cold gaze exuding grey energy all over his body.

The knight, which had a lot of resemblance to Luke, was holding a sword that was giving out the Golden Aura.

The knight with the gold sword struck Luke.

‘No, NO!’

Reina screamed and ran towards Luke.

However, neither her lips or her body move. It was as if someone had taken over her body’s control.

Flash!

At the last moment, a white light passed, and her mind came back.

‘Was it a dream? What happened to him?’

Her pounding heart and the illusion didn’t sink in.

Cold sweat flowed from her forehead.

As a result, Reina tried to communicate with Luke directly with the magic crystal she always carried.

However, she couldn’t connect.

Anxiousness reaching the peak, she touched the gold ring Luke had given her and prayed.

‘Great Lord El Kassel! Mother of Earth Goddess Belize! Please protect him.’