Emperor of Steel

Splash! Splash! Splash!

On the surface of the endless water, a giant ship ran down.

Even though they were facing the waves which were strong enough to turn down the ships, no ship crashed.

The giant ship was the battleship of the Symphonia Kingdom Navy, Hyredin… well, it was the Auster.

Whatever the past was, it felt inappropriate to name their own battleship based on a pirate ship.

“Master, I never thought that you would name it after me.

Luke, smiled at the words of Hwang Bo-sung, who had turned quite good in his Rhodesian language fluency.

“It was because I couldn’t think of any other name that deserved being placed.”

Auster was the name given to Hwang Bo-sung who had come back to the past from the future.

An ancient word of South, the name which the Baroque Imperial army had placed for Hwang Bo-sung on the bounty flyers for not knowing his real identity.

Luke was grateful and sorry for the one from the future, who had sacrificed himself for Luke and died.

Which was why he decided to name the battleship of the Symphonia Kingdom on him.

Of course, those who didn’t know the things which had happened thought that Luke had just thought of some random name and named the ship.

“But, I heard that you were scolded by the Queen.”

“She said it was too much.”

After returning from the Holy Empire, he fought with Arsene without even being able to get any rest.

Right afterwards, he led the reconstruction of the cities and left his family and headed to the South.

Of course, from Reina’s thoughts, she couldn’t help but worry about her husband’s health.

“She was complaining about turning into a widow. In the past, it would have convinced me, but I feel like I am getting used to it.”

“Hahaha. Master, that is perfectly normal?”

“Normal?”

“Yes, there is a saying in my hometown, once a woman marries, she immediately turns into an aunt.”

Once married, the woman was asked to take care and manage the home.

And if a child was born, it was another bonus task over her head.

Naturally, her life force and will to live was strong, and she begins to turn tough.

A mother who wants to protect her children was stronger than any monster.

“That must be why you aren’t getting married.”

“Wh-what is that supposed to mean, Master?! I do have the intention to get myself a wife, but I need to get permission from my parents and…”

Hwang Bo-sung jumped up at Luke’s joke and began to ramble.

However, none of it entered Luke’s ears.

Because he was thinking about the past.

After losing her because of the fairies, he met Reina again after she became the Pope of the Holy Empire.

At first, he tried to bring her back to Rakan estate.

However, Reina chose to stay there, and by staying there she always helped Luke.

‘Instead of them, she took over the sick Holy Empire to help me.’

Reina was placed in charge of living in a foreign nation and to help those suffering there, she went through various hardships for him.

Not it wasn’t just that, it wasn’t just once or twice that she had helped Luke.

At the same time, they had secretly wed themselves, they hadn’t even consummated their marriage and she was already thinking about turning into a widow.

And just recently, they took in Karen as their adoptive daughter, a child who wasn’t there, a child who didn’t exist in the current world.

‘Was that why? Did she turn into an aunt now?’

The reason why Reina, who was as delicate as a flower, changed because of Luke and his ideals.

He felt like he wasn’t in the position to complain about her, nor was he qualified enough to do it.

“I need to buy a nice gift and take it to her on our return. Yemaek has a rare elixir called wild ginseng, right?”

“Yes, besides the wild ginseng, there are a lot more elixirs called the Jade wine which give the people of Moorim arts a sense of strength and long life to the normal people. And…”

“And?”

“Though not like the aunt, the Yemaek women are strong ones. Among the Kings, and nobles who insisted on polygamy, however, they were all beaten down by their own woman.”

“… isn’t the legendary woman there? What was it called, Amazon or something.”

“I didn’t hear anything of such sort.”

After talking with Hwang Bo-sung, Luke looked at the sea for a moment and turned his gaze to the deck.

Knights were engrossed in their training on the deck.

No matter how huge Auster was, there were limited places to go since most of the ship was filled with Gigants and supplies.

Which was why the knights spend their time training on the deck the entire day.

“Yeah! Tornado slash!”

“Huh. I won’t get caught in such a trick!”

Count Reynard battled with Shirley while avoiding her attack from a halberd.

However, Shirley didn’t stop there, she continued to swing her halberd like a top and chased after Reynard.

‘Ikk, it is no joke!’

Reynard, who first looked like he was enjoying it, soon stiffened after seeing Shirley continue to form the tornado with her aura on.

Kang! Cang! Cang! Pang!

Eventually, Halberd’s tornado attack hit Reynard’s sword and sparks splattered.

As soon as Reynard tried to counterattack, Shirley stepped back.

She was biting on her lip as she went too far with the attack.

Due to the constant spinning, she had lost sense of her balance.

“Gosh… dizzy as…”

“Uhh! That’s dangerous!”

She staggered to gain her balance, and the knights began to move away.

That was when they realized that Luke was in close range to her and shouted.

“Your Majesty, move!”

“It will be hard to avoid as she can’t stop it…”

Luke, who was well versed in both sword and magic, was the strongest person in the Symphonia Kingdom.

And from a flimsy attack from a Spear Master, Luke would be able to stop it with his eyes closed.

In addition, there was Hwang Bo-sung, the commander of Guard Knights, next to him.

Hwang Bo-sung had been practicing steadily, and he was almost a step away from turning into the first-ever Fist Sage class.

As if to show off his skills, he grabbed the halberd of Shirley with his bare aura hands.

“It is plain stupid to use a skill which you can’t even handle! Are you a master who doesn’t even know how to handle her own energy?!”

“Ughh… sorry.”

Shirley, who was still dizzy, couldn’t stand upright and ended up listening to Hwang Bo-sung yell.

After being scolded for a while, Shirley regained her balance and rushed to Reynard again.

Hwang Bo-sung who saw that, frowned on whether his efforts were worth it.

“Your Majesty, I don’t know if this expedition is really okay.”

“Even if it isn’t okay, it can’t be helped. We have already come this far and we can’t go back now.”

Although Hwang Bo-sung was dissatisfied, Luke had paid attention to the appointment of the force.

It was because they were going to an entirely different continent.

Which was why he selected those who had experience in the wars of the other nations.

As a result, among the Sword Masters, Reynard, who had experience as a mercenary in the Southern Continent, and Shirley—who frequently took on the special missions in Baroque were selected.

If it was possible, Luke wanted to bring everyone with him.

However, Symphonia Kingdom couldn’t be left empty without any protection, so he brought Hwang Bo-sung and the other two.

‘Because of the many master-level skills in Yemaek.’

According to what he heard from Hwang Bo-sung and Zegal Soha, Yemaek was a small nation, however, it produced a lot of strong people.

“The Swordsman Yeon Ga-ram is also from Yemaek, right?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. He was very great, but, it is said that King Biryu of Yemaek also shoots the bow very well.”

Traditionally, there were many famous places in Yemaek, and the bow made in the nations were said to be the best and luxurious ones in the entire Southern Continent.

“Besides the art of making weapons, the artillery making is excellent. It was that around 30 years ago, when defeating Yamatai pirates, several ironclad chips similar to turtle structures were used.”

“Oh! Ironclad!”

Ironclad ships were present in the Rhodesia continent.

Metal plates of iron or copper were wrapped around the deck and surface to prevent fires.

The problem was that such ships were slow to move and could be used for limited purposes.

Their main use was for breaking or charging through the navy battles.

Not just that, it couldn’t be used recklessly as it was several times more expensive than the regular ships.

‘I thought it was a small nation, but it might be richer than I thought.’

Maybe the expedition could do a lot more help to Luke than expected.

Luke smiled and asked while looking south, “How much time left for our arrival?”

“It takes five days to reach the southern continent and three days to travel over the land to reach the Yemaek and Song Empire border.”

Thanks to the Screw, the two-week-long voyage was reduced by a week.

Yet, they still had 8 more days to go.

“Tch, war shouldn’t start before we reach there.”

According to what he heard, Yemaek’s power was lower than the Song Empire.

If the two nations collided head-on, Yemaek was at a disadvantage.

Luke was praying in his heart for the war not to transpire until he arrives there.