Emperor of Steel

In the dark night.

Reina was looking at the night sky from the terrace of the manor, which was located in the Lamer city.

‘Could Sir Luke be doing well?’

Reina looked at the northern fortress of the city with her heart full of worry and longing.

For a while, she had no time to dwell on herself or others.

But with Kirillov’s strong growth and the Lamer city running smoothly, she began to feel nostalgic.

At least she didn’t feel it during the work hours, but once she was alone in the night, she began to feel lonely.

Luke wrote letters to her every week.

The letters contained a lot of information about the Chambers of Commerce and Lamer, but they did share a few private stories too.

The matter about the Rakan knight’s exclusive skills being taught to the knights in the fortress, trying to control a Gigant by listening to Philip’s constant nagging, and the new demon slave he got, etc.

But there was one statement in the letter that stood out in the eyes of Reina.

‘… I miss you.’

Every time she saw that sentence, Reina could feel her heart racing.

She never said those words, but every time she saw the sentence in the letters from Luke, Reina thought that Luke was having a hard time there.

Reina was having a hard time as well. She missed Luke so bad.

‘However, Sir Luke’s style of writing is very similar to that of Saymon.’

Due to the constant exchange of letters, there were a few styles that Luke used which were there in the diary of Saymon that Reina had read in the past.

It was the old-fashioned expressions and emotional passages.

‘Maybe it was because of the influence of Saymon’s diary from his childhood days?’

Reina believed that.

Seeing inspiring literary works and writing letters accordingly in that style either arbitrary or unconsciously…

Saymon’s diary was filled with words longing for his lover and intense feelings against his enemies.

It was those moments in Saymon’s diary where she was most filled with emotions.

“Kuk! What are you?!”

“…!”

Reina heard the words from Victor and the other escort knights arguing with someone.

While Reina was feeling scared and tried to move her body to escape, the door opened wide with masked men in leather clothing entering her room.

“You people are…!”

Reina’s complexion went pale after seeing the ones who entered.

She had seen them before.

They were the dark elves of the Volga Republic who tried to kidnap her the last time.

“You don’t have to be scared of us. We didn’t come here to harm you.”

A middle-aged male elf with pure white hair appeared behind them and spoke with a gentle voice.

Maybe his status among the elves was high since the dark elves showed him respect by moving aside and bowing to him.

“First of all, I have to apologize. I apologize for our unauthorized visit at this time of the night because of the urgent circumstances we have faced,” said the elf with white hair.

As the elf spoke and bowed to her, Reina spoke as well while trying to quell her fear,

“Who might you be sir?”

“I am an old man called Erenes.”

‘Erenes!’ Thought Reina.

Reina was shocked when she heard the elf’s name.

She never met him before, but she heard her father and his retainers speak of him.

He was referred to as a High Elf, not only for the elves, but he was also hailed as a prophet by the fairies too.

He himself had come all the way here to find her.

“Are you really Sir Erenes? Why would you be here just for me?”

“I heard that these hasty children of mine were rude to you. I had to check if the princess had the treasure or not. So, I myself came here to see.”

“Treasure?” Asked Reina.

“Have you ever heard of the Earth’s Tears?”

When she was asked, Reina just shook her head because she didn’t know of it.

However, Victor who was knocked down by the dark elves was starting to wake up.

He had heard the story from Peter II, Reina’s father, before he passed away.

At that time, Peter II wasn’t able to tell an important fact as that to his young daughter, so he kept talking to the old Gods.

What Victor knew about was that the Earth’s Tears had secretly descended to the royal family of Volga.

What was that thing, and what kind of history did it have?

“Ah, this man! Don’t you touch the princess!”

The dark elves hurriedly tried to take away the weapon from Victor’s hand.

However, Erenes restrained their violent actions.

“You don’t have to worry about that. We have no intention of hurting the princess. We just wanted to check.”

Erenes pulled out a small twig from his sleeve.

Approaching the princess, Erenes brought the dry twig close to her.

Wooong?!

Suddenly, with a low pitch sound, a refreshing blue light began to emanate from Reina’s body.

Along with that, a drop of water formed on her forehead.

‘What, what is happening?’ Thought Reina.

“Ohoh!”

Reina had no idea what was happening to her.

Erenes, the Dark elves, and Victor were looking at her and the amazing scene that was happening.

A woman looking down on the vast nature, and the many beings that lived on it.

Raising her arms to the sky, the lady soon projected the image of a giant tree.

It was the legendary tree that gave birth to all life.

“The World Tree… The heir of spiritualist (Nature) still exists,” said Erenes.

Erenes was thrilled to see leaves sprouting from the twig that he held onto.

What he was holding was the twig of the World Tree, a part of the World Tree that had lost its power long ago.

It got back it’s life once again.

Because he held the twig which had its power sealed, the spirit from the lady possessing the World Tree imprinted the power on the twig that belonged to it.

The Earth’s Tears could open the door to the Spirit World.

Then, it would be possible for the elves to make contract with the spirits once again; the long lost wish of the elves.

“God hasn’t abandoned us fairies… Kuk, Kuk!”

“Ere, Erenes, sir!”

Blood was coming out of Erenes’s mouth.

The surprised dark elves ran over to support him.

Reina went closer to look at his lost complexion.

In the meantime, the blue light that had shone on her forehead had disappeared.

Erenes smiled happily as he was the twig of the World Tree, which had new leaves around it.

‘Who would have thought that the closed door to the Spirit World would be opened? However, would I be there to see that day…’

Erenes had chased Lich, Arsene, but he had suffered from injuries. The injuries were from vicious dark magic, and the effect the magic had on Erenes’s body was worsening.

He knew that his life was going to end in a matter of time.

With the twig of the World Tree in his hand—a sign of hope for his people—Erenes slowly lost consciousness.