Emperor of Steel

The Central Square of the capital, Nemesis of the Baroque Empire.

Out of the very few statues of Karno de Baroque, one statue stood in the middle of the square.

“Are those the Volga Republic military equipment?”

“Huhu, when we all serve at the border during the active duties, you’ll see that those things look better if you look at them up close.”

In the central square, there were a lot of war weapons from the Volga Republic that Luke had captured.

The most eye-catching of them were the ten Gigants.

The Volga Republic’s Gigants had a distinctive dark green crest. The heads of the Gigants were bowed down as if they were held captive.

However, not all the Gigants were like that.

Some of them were painted like clowns and were clothed like one. They were moving around the square with people placed on both of their shoulders.

The clown Gigants was meant to walk around, making children enjoy their time.

“Sir Knight, please give me a ride.”

“Me, first! I have been waiting for a long time!”

“No! I was the one who waited longer!”

Luke looked annoyed at the kids who were screaming.

It wasn’t possible to blame the kids as they were all overjoyed with the situation.

Luke came to Nemesis the day before and handed over the loot to the Imperial family.

Then, as if the Imperial Court was waiting for it, the loot Luke brought was immediately displayed in the central square as evidence of their victory.

In addition, the Emperor attracted the people’s attention by creating an interesting event, which included the enemy nation’s military equipment.

‘Well, it was hit badly…’

The northern part of the Empire was devastated and the Northern army was hit very hard, hard enough that it was impossible to rebuild.

As a result, the Emperor had received blame and grief from the nobles.

After causing the military actions which incited the enemy, he was obviously blamed for the result as the aftermath of his act was huge.

It was argued that the Imperial parliament needed to reduce the Emperor’s authority.

The Proof was the triumph of Torlot Fortress.

The Emperor used the sweeping of 60,000 of Volga Republic’s ‘elite’ soldiers and knights by hand and then crossing the border and defeating 7 more of the enemy Fortresses to proclaim that the Empire was victorious.

At the same time, to make the victory look triumphant, the Emperor’s nobles stated that Luke would be given the title of ‘War Hero Luke’.

The Emperor’s response was fast. It was so fast that even before Luke had even set foot in Nemesis, his portrait and the battle scenes were being played on the streets.

Of course, it was all prepared in a hurry. The portrait on display looked more like the Warrior Rakan than Luke, and the man who drew it did the task not knowing the situation.

‘It looks like the disparities between the Emperor and the nobles are more than what I had imagined. Well, surely the Northern estates of the Emperor’s nobles were indeed smashed…’ Thought Luke.

Due to the collapse of the North, the power of the Emperor and the other nobles became the same.

Because of that, the nobles were trying their very best to tip the scales of power, and the Emperor’s side was trying to hold onto their power and keep themselves ahead.

‘What I am looking forward to is the scenario after the Victory Parade…’

Until then, the Empire had been constantly awarding the veterans whenever a war broke out at the end of the Victory Parade.

And this time, it was stated that Luke had played the biggest role in the war, and the Emperor, who made the ceremony, had no other option but to reward Luke handsomely.

Not awarding the victory to the War hero was the same as accepting the defeat.

“Viscount, are you tired? I can ride the Gigant for you.”

“You would?” Asked Luke.

At the question from Anna, Luke got off the cockpit. He looked a little bit pale.

Luke, in the clown Gigant, put the children down who was riding his shoulders, and Luke stepped forward.

Thud! Thud!

“Wah! The Gigant moves!”

“Run, run fast!”

The kids on the Gigant shouted with excitement. The children followed the Gigant, like chicks following the hen.

Seeing the naughty kids, Luke became tired.

“Phew, I didn’t know that dealing with kids was going to be harder than dealing with 60,000 enemies,” muttered Luke.

“Huhu, even then, aren’t they cute?”

Alex spoke from the side with a grin on his face.

Though it was unexpected, he liked the kids quite a bit.

Even when the children were all eagerly asking questions, he responded to each of them very kind and patiently.

“By the way, the dynamics of the nobles?”

Luke asked with his head full of thoughts.

Alex’s father was a nobleman in the capital, and he had a wide network.

Luke asked for the information, and Alex went to his father right away and gathered the information.

“According to my father, the nobles are now preparing for a full-on war which will be held in the Imperial parliament after five days.”

The nobles, who trusted the Emperor, were said to be preparing for a huge counter-attack brought about by Marquis Cavanill.

“Marquis Cavanill?”

“He is said to be one of the three head noblemen along with Duke Butler and Marquis Mayers. It has been said that he served on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Justice for the former Emperor.”

Cavanill was a descendant of a noble, and he was self-reliant which made it obvious for him to join the noblemen.

“Well, I have no intention of going to war even if such a man stands on its head.”

“Whatever be the case, a typhoon will come.”

It wouldn’t be just a typhoon if the nobles were dead set on something.

“I’m thankful that they are fighting amongst themselves. By the way, what is Erwin doing right now?” Luke asked.

“It looks like she just stayed in her room all day long, but I am not sure what she is doing,” said Alex.

“Yeah?”

Erwin disregarded Luke’s words to remain in the Fortress and followed him to Nemesis.

However, on the first day of their arrival, she made a magic communication with someone, and Luke’s face darkened because of that.

It seemed like something bad had happened, but Luke hadn’t drilled her on what happened.

“We never know, so keep your eyes on her and avoid any accidents. There will be numerous wizards in the capital who recognizes her.”

A hundred years ago, she manufactured artificial magic stones and caused a new wind in the magic world.

It surely had been a long time, but she was still one of the most memorable faces that any wizard could remember.

In particular, the capital sheltered five out of the ten famous Magic Towers on the continent.

‘If we get tangled up in here, it would turn very tiresome, so we need to be very cautious.’

Luke thought back and smiled at the people who gathered there to get his signature.

Unfortunately, he had to do the same task again and again until the end of the Victory Parade.