Emperor of Steel

Baron Jonathan was a young noble who was credited with leading the future of the Empire, and he was currently serving as the Empire’s Internal ministry.

He had an excellent ability to carry out the task at hand, and his loyalty to the Emperor was unrivaled.

Emperor Rudolf too had honored him and praised him on numerous occasions.

“Haam! Is it time yet?”

Seeing a dark shadow outside the window, Jonathan got out of his desk.

His wife had been nagging him a lot lately, telling him that he had been working too hard recently.

After leaving the Internal Ministry office, he hurried back to the mansion. He went up to the bedroom which was on the second floor and tried to soothe his wife who was upset with him being late.

“My dear, I have come…”

Puak!

Baron Jonathan, who opened the bedroom door, was shocked.

A knife had come from behind and stabbed him in the back.

As he turned his head, he was met with the resentful words of the man behind him.

“Kukk, this is for not being on the side of the Emperor.”

With a cold sarcasm, the knife, which went through Jonathan’s heart, had been pulled back.

The assassin who had stabbed him didn’t waste any more time and disappeared into the darkness.

“Honey, Honey…”

The lady, who had to see an unexpected sight of her husband dying in front of her eyes, wasn’t able to come back to reality.

Her face turned white after seeing her fallen husband in front of her.

She thought that he was just pranking her for her constant nagging.

Believe it or not, her husband’s body was getting colder with every second, and the blood flowing from his heart was turning the floor red.

“Kyaaaah!”

Later, a scream had come out of the lady’s mouth after realizing that what was happening was real.

“Tch! Pathetic writers. I don’t know what you’re doing after a day full of discussions and measures and yet can’t come to a conclusion. If we don’t do it, we are in huge trouble.”

Viscount Dugal was a noble lord of high esteem on the western side of the Empire.

At the age of forty which he had reached this very year, he was a well-established swordsman with a solid yet lean body. He was the best.

After hearing about the story of Marquis Cavanill, he stepped into a meeting with the noble lords for the night.

However, the nobles were all cranky and couldn’t jump into a conclusion.

It was because there was no evidence. They couldn’t place the blame on the Emperor nor could they let the issue go.

So, no decision had been made to convene an emergency meeting in which all the nobles on their side were present.

“Tch, frustrating.”

With a dissatisfied shout, he was about to leave the meeting room.

It was very unlikely that the Emperor or a few neutral nobles would welcome him. Whether he was meant to be killed or to share a bread with, he was stuck with the nobility to the end.

‘I have nothing to discuss with these milk-drinking fools. I should go and see Duke Butler and discuss things with him.’

When Dugal’s mind was fixed, the wagon he was riding had entered an alley in the outskirts.

“Huh? Where are you taking me?”

It wasn’t the way to his home. They turned in an unfamiliar alley instead. Dugal tried to talk to the driver.

Before the wagon stopped, the driver talked to him,

“Please get down.”

Dugal did get out of the wagon and saw a man, whom he didn’t recognize.

“You’re not my driver!”

His wagon was always driven by the same man, but this man standing in front of him wasn’t the one.

“Huh hoo, if you have just noticed it now, you’re rather duller than I thought.”

The driver’s face was a face he had not seen before.

“Are you an assassin sent by the Emperor?” Asked Dugal.

The young man smiled faintly and nodded. He pulled out his sword and looked at Dugal.

“Well, you can say that.”

At the man’s response, Dugal realized that the young man in front of him wasn’t an assassin sent by the Emperor.

‘Who the hell is this guy?’

If one was to assassinate a noble in the capital, when caught, that person would be executed. Was there another force in the Empire who had the power to do such a thing?

Dugal tried to assess his opponent.

It was very unlikely that the man would tell Dugal what he wanted that easily, and Dugal wasn’t a man who liked to talk either.

‘It is better to cut off an arm and a leg and then interrogate him.’ Dugal thought.

The man could be strong, or he could be one of those cowards who would just run away, but Dugal was confident that he wouldn’t lose a one on one fight.

In addition, he was being escorted by two Expert-class knights.

The escort knights had pulled out their swords the moment they stepped off the wagon.

“We’ll make you regret behaving like this in front of our Lord,” said one of the knights.

“Are you sure?” Asked the so-called assassin.

“Huk!”

The escort knights, who tried to rush toward the young man, fell on the ground while putting their hands on their chests which seemed to be in pain.

Dark red blood flowed down their noses and mouths.

Dugal had taken a step back as he started to feel severe pain in his heart.

“Poi, poisoned… How did you?”

“I sprayed it inside the wagon. While you were riding it, you kept taking it in,” said the assassin.

“This coward!”

Viscount Dugal grunted through his teeth and pulled out his sword.

But the moment he took out his sword, the pain became more unbearable. His body, betraying his will, collapsed into the floor.

“Even if I die, I will never forgive you.”

Dugal, who cursed the young man, fell to the ground and threw up blood only to die seconds later.

The young man, with a cold expression, smiled.

“I did it in a hurry, but I guess it did work better than what I imagined.”

Dugal’s body was filled with poison that had been made from the blood of a monster called Harpy, which was a commonly used technique by assassins.

The poison was mainly used for assassinating knights because it could spread much faster in beings who could use aura.

The poison was usually put on daggers or in food and drinks, but the young man had sprayed it in the wagon.

“I did the other thing with this.”

The mumbling young man dropped something next to Dugal’s body and disappeared into the darkness.