Emperor of Steel

The war hearing had been canceled, but the Victory Parade was held in a grand manner.

In addition to the Emperor, many other nobles including Duke Butler attended the event.

Luke attended the parade along with his men as well. He drove back and forth around Central Square the entire day.

“Oh my! We just looked at it.”

Philip said to Luke while speaking through his teeth.

“This isn’t done yet. In the evening, there is a celebration for the Victory Parade at the Imperial Palace.”

“We’re tired, can’t we just not go?” Asked Philip.

“No. There will be non-imperial events going on. And we might get punished for blasphemy.”

“We’re ruined.”

Eventually, Luke had to get ready to attend the victory parade celebration with a smile on his face.

“Hurry up. There might be foreign guests at the event. We wouldn’t want the Emperor to change your post to a place more spoiled than the Torlot Fortress.”

“Okay, understood, just stop with your nagging.”

Luke, who couldn’t handle the nagging of Philip which sounded like a mother-in-law’s, dragged out his aching body from the couch.

“Should I take a bath?” Asked Luke.

“Please do. It might remove some of the fatigue. Ah, there are some fragrance oils and soaps in the bathroom.”

As Philip pushed Luke into the bathroom, he heard a knock outside, and a courier from the accommodation place had come in.

“Ironed the tailcoat sir.”

“Good job… What?! Why does it look like that!?”

Philip couldn’t help but scream after looking at Luke’s tailcoat brought in by the courier.

“And the wrinkles in here! Did you fold this? Why would you make an expensive clothing look like this!”

“Sor, sorry.”

The ironing state of Luke’s tailcoat wasn’t that bad.

But Philip, who was Luke’s guardian, was obsessed with perfection since the past year.

“I will take it and bring it back neatly once again,” the courier man said.

“There is not enough time, so do it quickly… Ah, just go and bring the iron here.”

After a while, the man went and brought back the iron with charcoal, and Philip, with his skills, removed the wrinkles on Luke’s tailcoat.

In addition, the lines of the tailcoat now looked as sharp as a sword.

“You need to do it like this, understand? Why can’t you do it like this instead of making people tired.”

‘That guy needs to iron clothes to eat food,’ thought Luke

Luke couldn’t help but laugh at Philip, who was grunting to the courier man for his ironing skills.

Pong! Pong! Pong!

In the dark night’s sky, beautifully embroidered fireworks were being displayed.

The imperial palace was surrounded by magic lights everywhere. The lights were like jewels hanging in the night sky.

The road to the banquet hall was covered with a bright red carpet, and all kinds of flowers were decorated on either side.

“This is such a wonderful display.”

“Are all the banquets originally held in the Imperial Palace?”

Luke, who arrived at the palace to attend the celebration, couldn’t keep himself calm after seeing the gorgeously decorated palace.

It wasn’t wrong to say that the decorations were too much, but Luke wasn’t aware of the rumors that were surrounding Emperor Rudolf, who had prepared the banquet.

‘He is showcasing his power. Like what his ancestors did.’

Emperor Rudolf’s ancestor, Karno de Baroque, always showed his power by holding an unprecedented banquet even though they were at war with the Devil’s legion.

The banquet was held with the intention to form a human party coalition against the legion of Saymon.

In addition, the warrior Rakan joined that banquet as well.

Rudolf had a similar pattern with what his ancestors did in the past.

This time it was to show the other nobles and the foreign nobles his strength and that he still had the resources needed to rule and to win over the hearts of the emperor nobles who have been bothered with war and assassination.

‘This surely can be thought to be great, but to do all this in a short time, it’s like he is in a hurry.’

Whatever his thoughts were, Luke headed to the banquet hall with a proud smile on his face.

There was no specific reason for it. The person who led the war to their victory was him. Luke was thinking of himself as the main character of the celebration.

“Luke de Rakan and his party!”

Those who had already gathered at the banquet hall turned their eyes at the announcement of the banquet speaker.

“The young man is the descendant of a warrior…”

“He defeated 60,000 republicans with just one small Fortress in hand?”

“That too with Marquis Tyron, who was famous for being the commander during the Republican revolution.”

Philip and Alex were shrugging their shoulders at the praises and admirations which came in from both sides.

Luke too had been feeling proud because he did contribute a lot to the Empire’s victory.

Luke looked around at the banquet hall which was talking about him.

He heard that princess Reina and her party had gone first to the banquet hall but finding them wasn’t an easy task.

“Here! Over here!”

When he heard a familiar voice from behind, he found Anna and Reina.

As Luke approached them, Anna flapped her dress and turned around excitedly.

“Hehe! How do I look, old Viscount?”

“Yeah, you look good.”

Luke replied as politely as he could and looked over to her side where Reina was standing.

“You look beautiful. If I could, I would have taken you into my arms.”

“Ah, you’re making me shy,” responded Reina.

The two of them spoke with good faith and went to the center of the banquet hall to dance.

Seeing the two of them dance to the music of the Imperial band, Anna’s face turned dull.

“Tch, the effort was rather good, but the opponent has the upper hand.”

Philip, who went next to Anna, said to her.

After joining the Torlot Fortress, he had been teaching her Gold Sword, so he knew what Anna was like.

“Hmph! Don’t bother me.”

“It is easier to give up,” he advised her.

“I told you not to bother me. If you’re bored, don’t go around bothering people and go dance.”

“Then, how about we dance together?” Philip asked.

Philip extended his hand to Anna.

Anna, who had a rather unpleased expression, seeing her scary instructor ask for her hand, blushed and grabbed his hand.

“Don’t, don’t get the wrong idea. I’m only agreeing because I’m bored,” she clarified to Philip.

“Okay, I understand.”

The band continued to play, and the banquet rang with entertaining music.

By the time the Emperor made his presence, Luke was already having fun with Reina. However, the people around him didn’t leave him.

“Greetings to the Viscount. I am the descendant of the knight Rolex, who had once fought alongside the warrior Rakan…”

“My nephew is serving under you at the Torlot Fortress. I can’t help but feel proud for being his uncle.”

“I have come from Toledo. Aren’t you aware of Toledo? The legendary Rakan had trained his sword skills there.”

When Luke turned determined that he would socialize to form a network…

Luke’s primary target was the lower nobles, who were somehow desperately trying to form a network with senior nobles.

And those who didn’t have the opportunity to talk to Luke were speaking to his partner, Princess Reina.

“My wife is from Volga.”

“I was acquainted with a rich man long ago. At that time, the man had a kid who was as pretty as you…”

“Our 5th grandmother was a Volga Princess. Princess and I could be distant relatives, we never know.”

Luke tried very hard to smile moderately at their words, but he was treating their attempt rather offensive.

Eventually, he became tired. He took Reina’s hand and went to an empty terrace.

“Oh my, the ability to make people sick is great too. Do they really want to get to know me so much?”

“They are blinded by power. You don’t really have to pay any attention to their words,” said Reina.

After talking, the two looked at each other. Their faces were closing in the distance between them.

That was when someone suddenly entered the terrace.

“This! They had come before me. I’ll keep doing what I do, huh?”

The identity of the intruder was Count Ferrero, the Vice-captain of the Knight’s of Guard.

He was one of the Sword Masters of the Empire, and he had met Luke once before in the Imperial Palace.

With a wine glass in his hand, he approached Luke the moment he recognized Luke’s face.

“Who could this be?! The war hero who broke down 60,000 enemies and took down 7 of their Fortresses! Though not right, I wanted to feel your sword the other time. Have a match with me right now.”

The Count had still not given up on Luke. No, after knowing that he had gained merit in the war with the Volga Republic, he felt even more frustrated and wanted to fight.

“This is a banquet hall,” Luke responded.

“What does a place have to do for a man to go against another. If you want to, we can move to a place that I know,” he said to Luke.

Luke had just managed to run away from the newly-rich noble tiger and hyenas in the banquet.

Annoyed, Luke flatly refused his offer.

“I don’t want to. I will never duel with you.”

“Can’t you just do it, just once? I can ask…”

Trying to convince Luke, he looked over at Reina.

With thoughts running in his mind, he looked at her thoroughly and released the radon gas.

The idea that Ferrero had was rather simple. If he put Reina in a difficult situation, then Luke would have no choice but to fight him. However, what happened instead was rather surprising.

“This man!”

Reina, who was struck by the radon gas, became lightheaded and fell to the ground. Luke shouted and stepped forward.

The moment he took a step, terrible energy poured out from his body.

The energy Luke released neutralized the magic radon gas which was released by Count Ferrero. However, the Count was taken aback.

‘Look at this now!’ Thought the Count.

Count Ferrero was surprised at Luke, who stepped ahead strong. His skin tingled upon seeing what Luke did.

Luke turned out to be better than he had imagined.

‘How dare he release radon to another person?! I need to take this guy down!’

Luke was thinking that he could beat Count Ferrero without using his dark magic.

An Expert Swordsmanship and 6th circle white magic could never beat a Sword Master.

However, Luke had a lot of experience in dealing with a strong opponent. If Luke used the right mix of swordsmanship and magic, he might not win, but he might not lose either.

However, Luke had no desire to reveal his skills in the Imperial Palace.

If the words reached the Emperor’s ears, he would surely raise his caution.

“Huhu, don’t you want to protect your beloved woman? To do that, you’ll have to fight me.”

Luke was still hesitating, and the Count kept on intimidating him.

If Philip saw this situation and Luke’s hesitation, he was bound to feel disappointed. Luke was hesitating because he was going against a strong man.

As the radon grew from Count Ferrero, Luke was forced to make a decision.

Pak!

A firework blew up in the sky.

“This is the last warning. If you don’t pull back the radon gas, you will regret it later,” warned Luke.

“Can’t I meet that regret right now?”

When his last warning had no effect on Ferrero, Luke made a decision—he was going to face him.

‘Oh, I just don’t want to look sick.’

After making up his mind, he reached for his sword which was around his waist. Right when he was about to pull his sword.

“Lord Majesty has come?!”

At the loud cry from the banquet speaker, Count Ferrero took back the radon.

“Oh, Majesty… You could have come a little later.”

No matter how strong Ferrero was, the top knight of the Empire was still no match for the Emperor.

As Ferrero went back, Luke sighed.

It was the first time that he felt grateful for the damn descendant of the enemy.