Emperor of Steel

Luke, who went into Brandon, had put up a funeral for Mayers and his family.

The bodies of the queens and the princes, which no one even saw, were collected and placed in an expensive marble casket.

With the permission of Luke, the tomb was made to look extravagant as well.

‘Oh, if I could do what I wanted, I’d throw the body of Mayers into a wild beats’ herd and bury his family in the wild…’

However, in order to quickly incorporate the Milton Kingdom to his liking, it was necessary to show that Rakan troops weren’t ‘conquerors’ and ‘occupying forces’.

So he deliberately held a funeral—a great way to show how tolerant Luke was.

And Luke didn’t stop there, he also built a monument in honor of Viscount Mager and the royal guards of the palace who died faithfully while standing next to Mayers.

“The people of the Milton Kingdom are now my people, so you will be treated equally. Anyone who commits unfair things will get punished, regardless of their status!”

Luke took over the military first because he had no intention of bothering the Rakan troops, which were stationed in Brandon, and cleared off the bandits.

He also focused on gaining public sentiment by announcing a few promising words.

“Marquis Luke has freed all the young men who have been forcibly drafted?”

“In addition, it was said that he opened up a warehouse and distribute grains to the poor to stabilize the prices.”

“Huh, thank goodness. Otherwise the price of the food would have gone so high that even one meal would be tough to get.”

“And there was another thing. It was said that there would be tax reductions too!”

“Is that true?”

“No mistake! I went to the square in the morning and saw claims. It was written in there. That is why Marquis Luke is no joke.”

When the people of Milton Kingdom were gathering, they were all eager to know what else Luke had done for them.

While Milton’s people were excited with their new ruler, Luke, his officials had to work day and night to unite Milton after the post-war.

As they looked through the numerous documents and the books of the royal palace, they kept on getting new information and instructions on the current state of the Kingdom, and the days passed quickly.

“Kuek, I feel like having a nice meal and a good sleep…”

“Don’t complain, Sir Philip. Aren’t you asking for a sandwich and to sleep in the chair?”

Reynold, who was working next door, yelled. However, it wasn’t enough to stop Philip’s grumble.

“That is because I feel like I can fall because of exhaustion. Knights are meant to die on the battlefield. Are we trained to die out of working over piles of paperwork?”

“Kuekk! Then should I kill you?”

With that, Reynard got up by pushing aside his pile of papers.

“We weren’t able to see the end of our battle the last time, so how about we make it to the end this time!”

Reynard was burning out because of the work. He was struggling with the documents and decided to use the fight as an excuse to run away.

Philip, who looked at him, sighed and shook his head.

“Hu, I really want to do that… But, the Lord will then come for both of us before we even get to the end of our battle.”

“Hmm, I can already see that happening.”

At Philip’s words, Reynard sat back down.

Even though he was a mixed-race between a lycan and a human, he was afraid of Luke.

It was because he had already experienced Luke’s skills, and his brother, Reynold, spoke about the time he was overpowered by Luke in their last battle.

‘How far does Marquis Luke’s true ability go? Basing on the last fight, wasn’t he already a Sword Sage?’

While Reynard was in his own thoughts, Baron Rogers spoke in a low voice, “By the way, how long should we do this? When are we going back to the administration and assist?”

“From what I heard, the retainers and administrators remaining in Rakan have a lot to do. The Granada pirates have messed up the southern coast…”

At the response from Philip, the Gram brothers and the other officials of the Milton Kingdom weren’t able to participate in the talk and remained silent.

It was because they were the ones who brought in the Grenada.

Of course, it was all done by Mayers, but as they all joined the war, they couldn’t ignore the truth.

The first full moon after entering Brandon.

At last, the support group that Philip had been waiting for had arrived.

Butler Hans, who led the retainers and the executives of Rakan, greeted Luke, who was struggling with the pile of papers in the royal palace.

“Congratulations, Your Majesty.”

“Your Majesty, what nonsense… I haven’t even had a coronation yet.”

After stacking up the papers, Luke handed them over to Hans.

“The diplomatic documents of the Milton Kingdom. I’ve already looked into all the important and confidential documents, so all you need to do it to summarize the report and submit it.”

“Oh my, this old soul hasn’t even settled in yet.”

“Who do you think settled in? Nah, I never knew the work would be so much.”

It was very different from the time when Count Monarch fled.

At that time, it was an estate. However, now it was a nation—merged estates.

Diplomacy, administration, the legal system, and on and on.

Such a huge amount of work was something Luke had never gone through even during his life as Saymon 500 years ago.

It was because the world had developed in such a complicated manner, and the population had grown tremendously.

“Even if Mayers hadn’t done anything stupid, this wouldn’t have been destroyed in just two months after the founding.”

“Because of that stupidity, he will be recorded as the man to hold the shortest ruling in history. We should try to do that.”

“Obviously.”

Luke, who was talking to Hans and the others, looked at the documents and suddenly changed the topic as if he had something on his mind.

“By the way, what is happening on the academy establishment we talked about?”

“It got suspended because of the war. The plan was to expand the villas used by the Count Monarch, but it isn’t easy to invite professors and instructors.”

“Hmm, then establishing an academy will be difficult this year.”

Upon the recommendation of administrator Zetos, Luke tried to create comprehensive educational institutions to cultivate more bureaucrats, knights, and wizards.

The role model for it was the Albain Academy, the famous private higher education institution under the Marquis of Albain.

What was different about this Academy was that it wasn’t just for the nobles but the common people and other races as well.

The undergraduate department would also be divided into administrative, knights, magic, and those who manage to graduate with excellent grades would be hired right away.

“But, I heard that the Albain Academy was closed, right?”

“Yes, I heard that it got caught in the war, and it was said to have been almost closed.”

The Marquis of Albain, the head of the Baroque Imperial parliament, was a neutral noble.

Originally, he had been staying away from the civil war. However, the situation took a change when the neutral nobles began to cooperate with Shaikan and founded the Libiya Kingdom.

In addition, since the nobles’ kids were all enrolled in there, there was no way that Rudolf would let them off.

“Decisively, as his estate is located close to the Libiya Kingdom, it was told that the Imperial Army is forcibly using the academy as a military base.”

“Oh… Then what happened to Marquis Albain and the professors of the academy?”

“It was said that they were exiled abroad. Shall we send troops to find out their whereabouts?”

When Hans asked, Luke nodded.

“Yes, ask the agents of Argos to find out.”

Luke was confident that establishing the academy would be a lot easier if he could get the Marquis to sign up.

“But, isn’t there an academy in the Milton Kingdom? Why not just draw out their staff first?”

“Of course we can, but their skills are lower than the Albain Academy, and the professors’ policies and ideas are far off from what I know.”

The Milton Kingdom did have an academy.

However, the intellectual level or ideas of the professors there didn’t satisfy Luke.

Teachers were meant to have a profound effect on their students.

The professors who fell into feudal thinking or noble’s elitism wouldn’t treat all their students equally.

The talent that Luke wanted wasn’t the trained men.

“Identifying and correcting the talent is the most important thing for us in the future. There is a limit as to how long a textbook fashion will take us, so make sure to lay the foundation that will nurture the students’ innate talents.”

“We will keep that in mind.”

Hans bowed his head and asked out of curiosity, “And how is the maintenance of the fort and the highway going?”

To take immediate control of the Milton Kingdom meant to take control of their forts and highways.

It was because the military base had to be taken in to avoid any possible rebellion, and the traffic on the highway had to be under surveillance to check if the local lords were trying to influence the public.

“It was all messed up by monsters and bandits. But there is nothing serious, and the repairs are being done quickly.”

“That is good. How about the Variand Mountains?”

The Variand Mountains held forts at the forefront that could stop the Baroque Empire, so it was necessary to replace the fort’s commander.

And Luke managed the matters of the Variand Mountains as well before doing any other task after entering Milton.

“The first was the commanders were all replaced with our own men, or they were brought to our side. And I plan to dispatch the executives brought in by the butler this time,” said Luke.

“That is good. But we’ll have to keep an eye on the remnants of Mayers and the spies of Rudolf, so they don’t mess around with us.”

“You don’t need to worry about that. I was also worried about the Baroque being involved in the war when we were in battle, but fortunately, they were either caught with their matters with the Libiya Kingdom or the Holy Empire, so they didn’t do anything.”

In addition, northern Volga Republic was going to cross borders as soon as possible.

And there was no way that Rudolf would want to battle the Milton Kingdom at such times.

“Anyway, when there is time, we need to work hard and lay some foundation. Fortunately, everything here is going smoothly. But just in case…” Said Luke.

“Is there something that you are worried about?”

At the question of Hans, Luke nodded and looked at the box that was next to him.

“Mayers seemed to have placed a secret deal with not just the Grenada but also with the Volga Republic.”

“Huh? He did?”

At the surprise of Hans, Luke opened the box and showed him the treaty agreement of the two nations.

The two nations had made a secret treaty who got crushed the other day when the fifty Gigants on the highway were intercepted.

As a result, the Gigants were searched and apart from their differently decorated gloves, they were the Knight class Gigants, Piero, the main forces of the Volga Republic.

His thoughts had been uneasy the moment he saw the treaty of the two nations in the royal palace.

“Since Mayers is dead, the Volga Republic might make a move soon.”

Princess Reina, the Dark Moon, and the fairies.

Luke had an uncomfortable relationship with the Volga Republic in many ways.

But with him occupying the Milton Kingdom, it was unlikely that such a relationship would remain the same.