Emperor! Can You See Stats!?

Chapter 125: Secret Contact

Eurius had gathered people for a purpose: to eliminate any suspicious forces before he ascended to the crown prince position.

The first one was to find the black market. 

They must have a grudge against Eurius, so he couldn’t leave any traces behind.

And the second one was to stabilize the national affairs. 

No matter how well he appeased the nobles, there might be some who had ulterior motives, and they could cause trouble someday.

He was doing his best to search for the Black market. 

And the second one was the responsibility of the bureaucrats who followed Eurius.

The beginning was a proposal that Marius brought up in the Council meeting.

“Do you mean to conduct a tax audit in the southern part of the empire?”

“Yes. There will be regular inspections from now on, so please prepare for them.”

“Huh…”

“What should we do about this?”

There were groans among the nobles. 

If it was just an intention to harass them by picking on them, they would have something to say, but this time, the reason was quite plausible.

Marius pushed the documents he brought from the north in front of them and said.

“It has been confirmed that a large amount of taxes have leaked out of the cities in the northern part of the empire. I don’t doubt you, but His Majesty is also interested in this matter, so I can’t help it.”

As he said, the emperor was sitting silently on the throne, but he was staring at the nobles with an angry expression.

The nobles couldn’t help but flinch.

‘I’m doomed. Now that it’s come to this, I have to empty my coffers and fill up the empty books, but what can I do about this?’

‘Didn’t His Highness, the first prince, embrace us? This is troublesome.’

Not all of them were dirty, but most of the southern nobles had a custom of taking some money from behind.

The problem was that there was no way that the emperor or Marius wouldn’t know that. 

This was nothing but a huge provocation to them.

Eurius also backed up Marius’s words.

“By the way, didn’t you say that there was one official who made a great contribution in investigating the missing taxes in the north?”

“You mean Bryan. He is young but very promising.”

“If he is so capable, it would be good to employ him on this occasion.”

“Of course. Actually, I was going to tell you first.”

They spoke as if it was not a big deal, but since they had already set up everything, their words fit perfectly.

In the end, the nobles couldn’t make a sound and the tax audit in the southern part of the empire was decided.

“I will send special inspectors to all southern territories with Marius as their leader. Be ready to cooperate with the tax audit.”

At the emperor’s declaration, the nobles were busy thinking. 

There were two main reactions.

First, there were those who openly complained.

“When His Grace was alive, it wasn’t like this. You are trying to break our spirit from now on. How can we live like this?”

Eurius smirked at their sight.

‘Those guys are quick with their mouths, but they can’t act. They are typical scoundrels who are only busy with their own interests.’

The second category was resignation and realism.

“What can we do? Without His Grace now, can we resist His Majesty or His Highness, the first prince, by sticking together? Don’t waste your time complaining and find a way to minimize your losses.’

Eurius thought that those people could be brought over as allies.

‘If they are quick-witted and can read the situation, they are not incompetent at least.’

And not long after, there was a third category. 

And filtering out those people was the true purpose of this tax audit.

“…”

Most of the major nobles in the south who were comparable to His Grace belonged to this category. 

They left the Daeyeon without saying anything with stern faces.

Eurius looked at them with cold eyes and clicked his tongue.

‘Tsk! They made the worst choice. I threw out the bait, so now I just have to wait for them to bite?’

It didn’t make sense to his common sense, but power, wealth and other desires tended to cloud people’s judgment.

The sweetness of power was truly scary, so even if they were old veterans who had been rolling around in politics for decades, they would not hesitate to do anything to protect it.

A few days after the shocking announcement of the tax audit.

“Your Majesty, Count Wallace has come to visit.”

“Count Wallace?”

But Eurius, who was waiting for the bite, had a strange experience of catching a fish from somewhere other than where he threw the bait.

“Your Majesty! No matter how many sins I have committed, this tax audit is too harsh for this old man!”

Wallace burst into the room and cried and clung to Eurius’s feet, and began to wail.

Eurius looked at him with a pitiful look and realized that he had forgotten about him for a moment.

‘Ah! Come to think of it, I forgot about this guy?’

He had forgotten for a while, but Wallace was the owner of the largest merchant group in the south, the Ryan Merchant Group. 

Of course, his greedy nature would have made him do more than imaginable.

From Wallace’s point of view, it was a bolt out of the blue! It was no different from a lightning bolt that fell precisely on him.

‘Tsk! But this person still has some value.’

He looked at him for a moment and felt a little sorry, but he felt his sympathy disappear as soon as he saw his state.

[John Wallace]

Current state: Anxiety, Conflict

‘Is there something he is hiding from me? If his only goal was to cling to me crying and whining because of the tax audit, would he have an inner conflict?’

But he couldn’t just doubt him blindly, so he decided to test him.

“Even if you think of our past friendship, at least give me an exception…”

“Wallace! Before that, don’t you have something to hide from me?”

He cut off his words sharply and Eurius snapped at him coldly. 

But Wallace was also a tycoon who ran the best merchant group in the empire at one time. 

He pulled himself together.

“What do you mean by that? I haven’t done anything that would harm Your Majesty lately.”

‘What a cunning word. Does that mean he received an offer?’

No matter how hard Wallace tried to keep a poker face, he could not hide his emotions from his eyes. 

Eurius looked at his state again and felt his doubt turn into certainty.

[John Wallace]

Current state: shock, conflict, suspicion

‘If he was really innocent, his state should have changed to resentment, right? He still hasn’t come to his senses, has he?’

[The trait ‘Emperor’s Dignity’ is activated.]

[Your charisma and charm increase.]

Eurius waved his hand lightly in the air and lifted Wallace’s body into the air. Then he looked him in the eye.

“You know the answer better than anyone, don’t you?”

“Hyeeek!”

Wallace flailed his arms and legs in the air in surprise.

He had grown as a warrior and his skills had ranked up, so the pressure that Eurius emitted from his body was incomparable to before.

But this time, Eurius had firmly fixed Wallace in the air, so he could not bow down or avoid his gaze.

He was not mentally strong enough to withstand this momentum. 

He was half-fainted, tears and snot running down his face.

Thud!

Eurius slammed him to the ground and opened his mouth with a cold expression.

“Stop beating around the bush and tell me the truth. What kind of offer did you get from whom?”

Wallace convulsed on the floor and barely spat out a scream-like voice.

“I… they didn’t tell me their names. But I never accepted their offer. I’m innocent! Please believe me, Your Highness!”

“Then can you describe their appearance?”

“Uh… I didn’t see their faces, but they were a group of people wearing black hoods. They said they would help me overthrow Eurius Your Highness.”

“Did they make the same offer to other nobles?”

“As far as I know, most of the high nobles had contact with them. That’s why we had a meeting separately.”

After a while, Eurius relaxed his cold expression.

“So you’re not lying this time? Be careful, there won’t be another chance.”

“Huk… huk… I’m sorry.”

Eurius looked at Wallace, who was gasping for breath, and sank into his thoughts.

‘As expected, even if I try to persuade them, not all nobles will follow me obediently.’

He had expected some discontent from the south. 

But it seemed that there was another force behind them. 

Of course, he didn’t have to worry much about the group of people in black hoods who contacted them from the south.

‘The most likely force that would be hostile to me in the south is the Black Market.’

He had a rough idea of their plan. 

They must have been badly burned in Heavengard, so they were trying to reinforce their power and eliminate him for sure. 

But did they have any means to kill him while he was in the capital?

‘But they must have some confidence, since they surely lured Wallace with their offer after he was dissatisfied with this tax audit.’

“Wallace! I can guess your intention this time. Did you plan to join them if I didn’t let Ryan Merchant Group go in the tax audit?”

“I… no! I firmly refused. This is true!”

“You must have been scared of me. But it’s a fact that you lied to me and tried to betray me.”

“…”

Wallace had no choice but to shut his mouth. 

Eurius spoke again with a cold voice.

“There’s only one way for you to atone. You know what it is, right?”

Wallace’s face turned blue again like a corpse. He was quick-witted. 

He realized what Eurius wanted from him.

“I’ll accept their offer.”

“That’s a wise choice. Then report to me regularly.”

Eurius smiled and patted his shoulder. 

He had found a clue from an unexpected place. 

If things went well there, he could gain some extra benefits.

‘It turned out well. It’s a good opportunity to stabilize the south while hitting the Black Market.’

***

In the knight dormitory of the palace annex, there was a man who couldn’t sleep tonight either. 

He wandered around his room with a puzzled expression on his face.

‘It’s such a strange thing.’

The man looked young and fresh-faced. 

His name was Cains. 

He had joined the Scharnos Knight Order and quickly improved his skills to become a squad leader. 

To others, it was nothing short of a meteoric rise.

At first, he was treated as a troublemaker in the knight order because of his reputation and personality. 

But lately, he felt envy pouring from all sides.

But ironically, his worry was there.

‘His Majesty the Emperor… no, I should call him His Highness the Crown Prince soon, right? Why would he push me so hard like this?’

He had been living peacefully, which was his life goal, and he didn’t care much about Eurius’s favor until recently.

‘Well, how can I understand the thoughts of someone so high? He must have a peculiar taste.’

But his carefree thoughts didn’t last long. The trigger was a few weeks before the palace raid.

He was suddenly summoned by Eurius and he felt uneasy from the first word.

“How is your training in the formation going?”

“Actually, I think it’s still too much for me.”

“Is that so?”

He was in charge of one of the three central axes in learning the formation, but unlike the other two, he couldn’t get used to it easily.

‘Please don’t tell me it’s another special training where I get beaten up.’

Cains was nervous, but he thought it wouldn’t be that bad. 

The reason he was struggling was not because of his mental strength or swordsmanship.

“Hmm… You have talent, but your inner power is too weak. That’s why you get exhausted by my force and fall behind.”

That was what the monstrous easterner who taught him the formation said. 

As he said, Cains’s foundation of force was not very well polished.

That was also why he couldn’t reach the master level despite his excellent swordsmanship.

‘I have an excuse this time. How can I increase the absolute amount of force by rolling around and getting hit!’

“Hmm?”

As Cains was tense, Eurius seemed to think for a moment. 

Then he took out a small box from his pocket.

“I heard you’ve been working hard. I hope this will help you.”

“Your Highness, what is this?”

Cains opened the box he received from Eurius and was speechless. 

There was an object emitting a brilliant golden light inside.

“It’s a force stone, as you can see.”

“…”

Cains looked back and forth between the box and Eurius, conflicted.

‘This looks very expensive at first glance. Can I really accept this?’

What Eurius offered him was the core of the weapon that he had used half of in the desert and now only had half left. 

Of course, a force stone of S grade was so precious that it couldn’t be converted into money.

‘But no matter how precious it is, it’s meant to be used. It’s lucky that it found its owner.’

He urged Cains with a casual expression.

“It’s not that valuable to me, so don’t feel burdened. Actually, you’ve been suffering for a while, but you only got a vacation, right?”

“Is that so?”

Cains fell for Eurius’s sweet talk and took the core. 

He realized that his words were lies in a few weeks.

It was because Jegal Unhyeon, who had been giving him personal guidance, laughed and asked him jokingly.

“Did you fall off a cliff somewhere and get lucky?”

“…”

Cains looked at his sword with a dumbfounded expression. 

He felt his body lighten as he swung his sword mindlessly, and soon streams of materialized force flowed out of his sword.

‘I broke through the master’s wall…’

In fact, Cains was so good at swordsmanship that there were few who could match him in the knight order.

The problem was, as he said before, that his foundation of inner power was not well developed and he was stuck. 

But after taking the core, he solved that weakness and crossed the wall in one breath.

Of course, it wouldn’t have such an effect if he just picked up anything and ate it.

From then on, Cains felt an unidentified chill whenever he thought of Eurius. 

The mysterious meeting that he had been invited to lately also fueled his suspicion.

“Eek! I just remembered the time. I have to hurry.”

The meeting was held tonight. 

Cains hurried to the inner part of the palace annex.