The Emperor Has Returned

Chapter 156 – The Imperial Army (3)

Sina looked down at the bodies from atop the hill, her hand covering her mouth. The sight of the corpses stabbed by the rusty spears and swords used by the undead reminded her of memories from the not-so-distant past. The face of Ossrey, her deputy in the Order of the Blue Rose, came to her mind.

This situation on this battlefield was more than a hundred times worse than what the Order of the Blue Rose suffered from.

“...Doesn’t it occur to you that Anya is enjoying this situation a little too much?” Sina asked.

“She said that she will make an army that will never betray her,” Juan answered in a calm manner.

Sina turned pale upon hearing Juan’s answer.

“She will definitely not be betrayed if she turns all one million Imperial Army soldiers into the undead. Then, there will no longer be a need for provisions, no unnecessary loss of forces nor any violation of military rules,” Juan continued.

“That… that’s not what you want, is it?”

“I don’t know,” Juan replied with a smile. “It is true that Anya’s words are quite logical. Getting a powerful army that will forever be loyal to you in return for forgetting your conscience for a moment would be attractive to all rulers. Besides, it also means that I will not have to take any disciplinary actions.”

Seeing Sina’s pale expression, Juan approached her and lifted her hair up to reveal her forehead.

“Don’t worry. I don’t intend to do all that. But that doesn’t mean that I’m going to stop Anya from doing that. What she’s doing isn’t revenge—it’s war. There’s nothing we can do about the victims resulting from the war.”

Juan stared into Sina’s left eye, which still had clear burn marks that he had engraved with his own hands.

“I bet that you never imagined the black-haired kid you saved from being killed in the slave colosseum would turn out to be like this,” Juan said as he bent his head to the side and looked at Sina with a smile. “That makes me wonder again. Sina, do you regret what you did back then?”

When Juan had first slaughtered the guards at the Tantil Colosseum, Sina stopped him but did not try to kill him. Rather, she even helped him.

Sina quietly looked up at Juan.

“Do you want to see me suffer from regret? Do you wish to see me curse you in pain?”

“I’m not doing this to bother you, Sina. I’m just doing my job. I just wanted to let you know that I have been like this from the very beginning and that there is a huge gap between who you think I am and who I actually am. ‘His Majesty’ whom you worship and admire only exists inside your head.”

“I know that. I’ve abandoned that fantasy a long time ago,” Sina said as she twisted her lips.

Juan felt curious upon hearing Sina’s answer.

“Then why are you still following me around? There are a lot of strong people, and there are even more of those who want to become the emperor. I’m sure that there are some among them that fit your ideal definition of the emperor. Wouldn’t it be better to cling on to them instead of me?”

Sina couldn’t answer Juan’s question.

Of course, it would be impossible for any of those strong people that Juan mentioned to beat him. But neither would it be possible for her to get Juan to change his mind.

Juan was a massive being that Sina would never be able to move.

“Or it might be better for you to become the empress. You’re the most ridiculously good person I have ever seen. And to a certain extent, you also have the power needed to accomplish your ridiculous ideals. Your accomplishments in the Baltic Sword have improved so much that it’s not even comparable to when I first saw you. You are closer to your definition of the emperor than I am—so why are you so obsessed with me?”

Juan’s words rang true, causing Sina’s mind to be shaken.

However, she still had a stubborn belief that no other than Juan could be the emperor. Sina could clearly see the limit of her own stupid and stubborn belief.

Suddenly, Sina felt disappointed—rather than being disappointed in Juan, she was disappointed with herself.

“Why am I so obsessed with you…”

A teardrop ran down Sina’s cheek.

“I wish I knew the answer to that as well.”

***

Sina staggered over the countless corpses on the battlefield. The battlefield that had become muddy with blood and body fluids continued to stick to Sina’s ankles, while large crows that were big enough to reach her knees stared at her with glowing red eyes.

The suffocating stench made her dizzy.

Sina had been following Juan and observing him for a long time.

Juan showed the qualities of the emperor sometimes, but returned to being the little boy she saw at the Colosseum whenever he was faced with the enemy.

Sina wondered if she had to give up on him at this point. Juan had already grown to the extent where her help was no longer necessary. His tasks ought to be completed even if she wasn’t around, and the empire would eventually be reconstructed.

The process might be very difficult, but Juan would eventually get what he wants in his hand, whether it be broken or intact.

‘Ossrey.’

Sina wished she had her subordinate to discuss her concerns with. She always thought that she had to convince Juan to walk the right path for the sake of her dead comrades.

But Sina was exhausted. Juan’s strength, as well as his alliance which was getting stronger day by day, were telling Sina that he was on the right path.

“Perhaps I’m wrong,” Sina muttered with trembling lips without even realizing it.

“No, you’re not wrong.”

At that moment, she heard a familiar voice.

Sina flinched and looked back in the direction where the voice came from. There was nothing but an old ash tree, causing Sina to be taken aback.

‘Has there always been such a big tree here?’

Sina was perplexed by the fact that she wasn’t able to recognize such a huge tree even when it had become a habit for her to familiarize herself with the terrain of the battlefield.

At that moment, the voice was heard once again.

“You’re not wrong, Sina. The emperor is someone who is kind and full of love.”

A little boy was sitting inside a big hole in the middle of the ash tree. It didn’t take long for Sina to recognize the boy’s face. He was the magician who had dissuaded her when she was looking for a way to get into the Crack from Durgal.

Sina asked, looking at the face that she still hadn’t gotten used to.

“Aren’t you the master of the Magic Tower?”

“I sure am.”

Dane Dormund, the master of the Magic Tower and the Grand Magician, jumped off of the ash tree and approached Sina.

“And I am also a magician who is very much interested in you and your emperor.”

***

Pavan felt fed up upon seeing the endless array of flags leading all the way up to the horizon. He has been in charge of division-level training of the troops numerous times as the Captain of the Order of the Capital, but it was his first time such a large force that was ready to move.

Pavan shook his head; he felt that moving this many people was no different than a disaster. The fields would be ruined and the army would eat up everything around them like a swarm of grasshoppers.

Pavan got a headache just by thinking about the problems of the supply of drinking water, the garbage disposal, the sleeping facilities, and the disturbance caused by violations of large and small military rules.

But none of the uproar he expected occurred. The layout of the tents was elaborate and accurately divided.

‘He is controlling three hundred thousand people with no problems?’

Pavan clicked his tongue. Three hundred thousand—that was a ridiculous amount of people. In fact, it was enough to make up a small city. At the same time, cities built over hundreds of years were usually full of problems, but a small city that was built overnight under Barth Baltic’s call was running just fine. There was no sign of decrease in morale among the soldiers or fatigue.

‘Is the Regent a monster or what?’

Pavan inadvertently felt fearful of Barth Baltic. He was already well aware that Barth Baltic’s capabilities as the Regent and as a warrior were incredible, but this was even more than he had imagined. Pavan really couldn’t understand why Barth Baltic didn’t try to become the emperor.

At the heart of all the tents was Barth Baltic’s tent. Pavan opened the flap of the tent and entered inside. Barth Baltic, the knights from the Order of the Capital, and all the nobles who responded to Barth Baltic’s call were gathered inside the tent as if they were having a meeting.

Most of the nobles here consisted of those who used to be knights in the past, as well as the young nobles who wished to establish connections with Barth Baltic. Unlike Pavan who looked quite messy with blood and dirt all over, their appearance was neat and clean.

Then, they approached Pavan without any hesitation and removed his dirty cloak with their bare hands to help him get dressed into a new one.

Pavan then saluted Barth Baltic.

“Glory to the empire. Regent, I have just returned after performing my duties.”

“Well done.”

It was a short compliment, but Pavan was moderately satisfied, since Barth rarely praised anyone in the first place.

However, Barth Baltic didn’t stop there.

“Everyone. We were able to buy time until all of our troops gathered thanks to Captain Pavan. Let’s give a round of applause to Captain Pavan Peltere.”

The knights from the Order of the Capital clapped as loudly as they could.

Meanwhile, Pavan was quite surprised at the unexpectedly big compliment, but bowed his head to express his modesty.

“And, for a moment, let’s pay a silent tribute to Deputy Ledna Loen, Miguel, Jose, Katrina, Citrine, and Rhinelant who died honorably on the battlefield. I shall remember them forever.”

After the applause, Pavan and the knights from the Order of the Capital paid a silent tribute. Barth Baltic never forgot about the knights from the Order of the Capital who died. Pavan had a feeling that Barth Baltic probably remembered all the retired knights as well.

“Let’s begin our meeting in earnest, now that the Captain of the Order of the Capital has returned from his mission. Go ahead and make your reports,” Barth Baltic said.

“The Order of Huginn has just joined the Magic Tower.”

“General Nienna’s Northern Army is also quite close to the Magic Tower. But we received a report saying that Viscount Colter succeeded in destroying the bridge in their path.”

“I was worried, since Viscount Colter had left the army quite a long time ago, but it seems like he’s performing the mission just fine. Still, General Nienna is completely freezing the river right now to cross it. So their expected arrival is either tomorrow or the day after tomorrow at the latest. I personally think that it would be better to attack before General Nienna arrives, but… I don’t know. General Nienna might change her mind about supporting the enemy when she sees our troops.”

Barth Baltic could easily win by simply stomping and pressing down on the enemy using their numbers, considering the fact that they had three hundred thousand troops.

But there was no way that Barth Baltic would conduct such a simple and ignorant operation.

Pavan also felt that annihilating the enemy using a siege would be optimal when considering their overwhelming number of troops. Just surrounding the enemy with countless soldiers would bring down the enemy’s morale even if they didn’t fight. There were better ways to achieve victory than to fight.

Most of the knights from the Order of the Capital had similar thoughts. They also seemed a little excited and thrilled, perhaps due to the sense of exaltation that they were leading such a huge number of troops.

The only one that remained silent was Barth Baltic.

Meanwhile, Pavan did not miss the sight of Barth Baltic quietly listening to the others speak.

“Do you have any other thoughts, Regent?”

“I’m thinking about what to do if the opponent really turns out to be the emperor.”

The tent fell in silence for a moment. Everyone inside the tent had also heard the rumors about who they were dealing with. Some of them were also those who had attended the assembly at the House of Peers when Barth Baltic made his remarks about the emperor.

Pavan hadn’t been there at that moment, but he knew that Barth had always held a subtle hostility toward the emperor.

“If the opponent turns out to be the emperor… but we’re not even sure if he is the emperor or not?”

The Order of the Capital was called ‘the Sword of the Empire’. However, it was only natural for them to trust Regent Barth Baltic, who had led them for a far longer time than the self-proclaimed emperor who had suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

In fact, their allegiance to Barth Baltic originated from something entirely different.

“So what if the opponent is the emperor? Haven’t you all seen the numerous misdeeds that the Church has been doing under the name of the emperor? Also, are we supposed to worship the emperor who is leading the army to start a civil war?”

“We will not let a mysterious man who suddenly fell from the sky and started performing magic with a burning sword become our object of loyalty. It was, is and always will be the one who served our empire and led us for a long time.”

All these people were thinking of using this situation as an opportunity to blow a new wind into the empire—many within the empire were already very dissatisfied with the negligence of the evil deeds done by the Church, despite Barth Baltic holding more authority.

They took Barth Baltic’s declaration as a sign that he would be cutting ties with the Church and the emperor.

“The emperor is already dead. We must stop worshiping a corpse now!”

“The new emperor of the new empire should be Regent Barth Baltic!”

At long last, such words came out of people’s mouths.

The knights from the Order of the Capital shouted for ‘the new empire,’ as if they had already reached a consensus among themselves. The desire to build a new empire was already widespread among the young knights.

The knights thumped on the desk and waited for Barth Baltic’s response.

Meanwhile, Barth silently made eye contact with the knights one by one. Then finally, his eyes met with Pavan who had remained quiet while sitting at the end of the desk.

“Pavan Peltere.”

“Yes, Regent.”

“What do you think?”

Pavan smiled vaguely upon hearing Barth’s question. This civil war was most likely going to get way nastier than what anyone could imagine, especially when considering the people he had met and fought with so far. Above all, the so-called emperor had not even revealed himself yet.

“It seems to me that the younger knights are being quite hasty. If the opponent really turns out to be the emperor, it is too hasty to think about what we should do next. Even if we win, it is not very likely that General Nienna or General Dismas will accept our views. Everyone’s opinions will be split again.”

The atmosphere inside the tent quickly cooled down. The knights from the Order of the Capital alternatively looked back and forth between Pavan and Barth with perplexed expressions on their faces.

Then Pavan added a few more words.

“But I mean, it’s nothing new for humans to fight and destroy each other. So, let’s do it. I suggest ‘The Baltic Empire’ as the name of our new empire to come.”

All the knights rose to their feet with cheers upon hearing Pavan’s words.

Pavan simply smiled as he heard their cheers. The upcoming battle will not be an easy one, but there would be nothing good about lowering the morale of the army when the enemy was just around the corner. Pavan had no doubt about their victory, considering that a legend such as the Regent Barth Baltic was leading three hundred thousand soldiers.

However, he expected the victory to come at a heavy price.

“The Baltic Empire!”

“Emperor Barth Baltic!”

Barth quietly rose from his seat.

At the same time, the knights thumped on the desk and waited for him to open his mouth.

On the map in front of him was the continent. And in the center of the map was a red dot which symbolized the Magic Tower.

Barth Baltic looked at the map and slowly opened his mouth.

“If we win this battle and return to the empire, I will become the emperor.”

The cheers of the knights reached a climax. Pavan also smiled and clapped with the other knights.

‘Emperor Barth Baltic.’

It was the title that Pavan had longed to hear.

However, Pavan felt quite uneasy about Barth’s eyes, which made reading his emotions quite difficult for some reason.