Emperor of Steel

As Luke approached the conference room, he could hear the priests arguing from the inside.

“I don’t think that there is any problem with granting them permission.”

“Right! Don’t you know that the needle thief turns into a cow thief? If you close your eyes on this injustice, things will hit back to us later!”

“I beg your pardon? Does it mean that Mr. Bosco regards them as thieves? Those men who repent their sins and have surrendered to us?”

“Well, who knows what is inside a person’s mind? Maybe the warlocks are using it in their fight.”

“No, does that even make sense?”

“What doesn’t make any sense?”

As the debate was there, the escort announced Luke’s arrival.

As he opened the door to the conference room and entered, the priests stood up and bowed to him.

Only one, a sturdy senior priest wearing a white toga bowed his head with a sullen look.

‘That man is Priest Bosco, the head of the opposition.’

He heard the arguments from the outside and even from Johas.

Bosco was a priest of the Mars denomination, and like a priest of a denomination that worshipped the God of war, he had an excellent divine power.

However, what was more grievous to Luke was that he was a priest of the Mars denomination.

Priests of El Kassel generally supported Luke.

He was the King of Symphonia, the first ally of the Holy Empire, and was personally known to be close to the pope.

However, that political position didn’t work for the Mars denomination.

Rather, a weird feeling of betrayal could be felt from them.

The Rakans were close with the Mars denomination, but with Luke, the Rakan ended up becoming close to the El Kassel denomination.

Since the founding of Symphonia, the number of royal retainers who changed into El Kassel denomination was increasing, while the number of the Mars denomination kept on decreasing. Even though the continent was in the middle of a war.

Rather than that, the Mars denomination’s priests didn’t like Luke, that was the same with Bosco.

Luke approached him and spoke, “Are you Priest Bosco?”

“Yes, Your Majesty, I am Bosco of the Mars denomination, the Elder of Symphonia side denomination.”

The High priest of Mars denomination was on par with the elder priest of the El Kassel denomination.

Moreover, since there were many knights who believe in the Mars denomination in the Symphonia Kingdom, Luke’s troops could be shaken at the words of Bosco.

“I heard that you were arguing over the artificial muscle of the Gigant…”

“Your Majesty must not be so free to come over for these measly problems?”

“I am flustered to hear such words from you who inspect the Black Tower, even after you are supposed to look after the well-being of the Kingdom.”

Luke gave a sarcastic answer to Bosco’s sarcasm.

And to skip the quarrel, he went straight to the point.

“I will be straightforward with you. I don’t think that the artificial muscle will be a huge problem if they can be managed well.”

“I think it is the right of a priest and not Your Majesty to judge that.”

“Really? I don’t think that you actually saw my ability, right?”

Once Luke was done, his body began to radiate a gold glow.

Bosco’s expression changed when he saw the Divine power of a high priest level exude from Luke.

He heard the rumors that Luke was using Divine power, but the amount of it was beyond his imagination.

As he was confused, Luke said, “Did you know that there are martial arts training going on among the priests of Mars?”

“I know. I am practicing martial arts as it is my desire to resemble God. So the priests of our denomination know how to handle not just the words, but Gigants and artillery too.”

At those words, Luke’s lips formed a thin smile.

It was because the words Luke wanted to hear came out.

“Then, Priest Bosco must know how to control a Gigant?”

“Of course, if you are curious about my skills, I can prove it right away.”

Bosco seemed to have a strong pride in his skills, Luke spoke with his smile still stuck on his face.

“You can prove that later on. By the way… I don’t know if you know this. A Gigant’s invention was originally related to dark magic.”

“Wh-what?’

At Luke’s words, all the priests in the room were shocked.

But it was Bosco who was the most shocked.

Gigants were a war weapon that had been under use for the past 500 years. It was a symbol of romance and love for the knights.

The same was true of priests who served the God of War.

But that very Gigant was related to dirty dark magic!

Bosco’s expression hardened.

It felt as if his God, Mars, was being called the child of the Devil.

“On what grounds?”

“Well, among the dark magic, there is a magic called Marionette magic. And it is used to control golems, and it was created by Saymon, who fought with Golems on his side.”

“What do you mean by that?”

Luke continued to talk, as the frown only deepened on Bosco’s face.

“Gigants are based on Golems. Maybe the basic magic circles used in the Gigants are borrowed from the Marionette magic.”

“Th-that is ridiculous…!”

“If you can’t believe my words, do your own research. If I am wrong, I will apologize to Mars and cut off my tongue.”

At Luke’s words, Bosco went silent.

Knowing about it wasn’t difficult.

A Gigant’s basic magic circles were well known in the magic word, and the Marionette magic could be found out from the warlocks who were in the Black Tower.

However, hearing Luke’s story, there was one doubt in his head.

It was related to the first person known as the developer of the Gigant on the continent.

“In addition, the first Gigant was told to be made by Arsene, the then Meister of Veritas Magic Tower. The Dark Moon warlocks say that Arsene had intercepted the work of Saymon, the master of the golems… Don’t you think that was wrong?”

“Th-that…”

“Moreover, it was discovered that the Veritas were secretly studying dark magic. Did the answer you were searching for come out?”

At Luke’s words, Bosco turned sweaty and couldn’t respond.

“The ones I love will bloom even from the soil, and poison can sometimes become the best medicine to save people. If you are a priest, you would know how complicated the world has become and the reason for it. How about you all think about the artificial muscle thing one more time?”

Luke, who said that, left the room, leaving Bosco with his thoughts.

No one knew what the decision would be.

However, he thought that those who knew shame wouldn’t judge the same way about the situation anymore.