The Emperor Has Returned

Chapter 172 – Treason (2)

People were surprised once again by the unexpected appearance of the two.

There had been a rumor that the Saintess and the Captain of the Imperial Guards were helping them. However, no one really believed the rumor to be true, since the people who were called up and gathered by Heretia had been thoroughly hiding their own identities.

One of the men was visibly perplexed upon seeing Ivy, then soon dropped down on one knee.

“Saintess… I am a trivial man who personally respects you. But if the plan succeeds, we cannot guarantee the safety of the Church. That includes you too, Saintess.”

Ivy nodded.

“Returning to the days when His Majesty directly ruled the empire. I agree with that too. My status as a Saintess was nothing but a bluff. I just think that it was an honor for me to have had several opportunities to convey His Majesty’s voice due to the times being chaotic.”

The man who was kneeling before Ivy bowed his head deeply, and soon took off his hood.

“I am Gareon Geled, the Captain of the Order of the Gold Lion. Your message has opened my eyes and I have decided to quit being loyal to the Pope. I only serve the empire and His Majesty. I promise to do my best to help you with this plan.”

The collapse was already happening from within the Church. People began to take off their hoods one by one, almost as if they were encouraged by the fact that even the Captain of the Order of the Gold Lion turned against the Church.

The people here varied from the representatives of the commoners to the nobles from the House of Peers, as well as military officers and merchants. The anti-Church figures gathered by Heretia included influential people from all walks of life.

Then someone opened their mouth,

“It won’t be too difficult to get the Imperial Army on our side with Miss Heretia’s plan. Besides, we have knight orders and the Imperial Guards helping us as well. Perhaps it might be possible to return the throne to His Majesty even before he arrives in Torra.”

“In that case, he will recognize our contribution. We need to at least avoid being branded as accomplices of the Pope. Some of the commoners have already started fleeing in anticipation of war.”

Heretia shook her head at the people’s conversation.

“It is impossible for us to drive the Pope out with just our power. The opponent is the?Pope. He wields the power of His Majesty that he stole. Do you really think we will be able to face off against His Majesty’s power?”

“But Miss Heretia. We can’t just sit back and wait until His Majesty delivers peace to us once again. Now is the best time to shake up the Pope, since His Majesty is on his way. The discontent of the people of the empire is already on the verge of an explosion. It’s been getting hard to keep them under control.”

“Stop it. We are doing enough by informing HIs Majesty of this plan, and informing His Majesty that people of all walks of life agree with him. We might end up causing unexpected damage if we went further to…”

“The Pope will try to confront His Majesty! Then Torra will turn into ruins. Doing nothing could cause much more damage. The Pope is a man who will take citizens hostage and push them into the battlefield!”

There was a commotion among the people over how to deal with the Pope. Their fear was directed at the Pope, and at the same time was directed at the emperor.

People’s opinions were divided into two for the same reason—to either stay still until the emperor returned or to step up before the emperor returned.

“The common people are only trying to take this opportunity to make a contribution so that they might end up being recognized! You are hoping that His Majesty will grant you a good status if you contribute to His Majesty’s conquest of the holy city of Torra!”

“What kind of nonsense are you talking about? Aren’t the nobles the one still contemplating whether to be on the Pope’s side or not? I bet you’re planning to wait until there’s a clear winner before deciding to serve them!”

As the debate began to turn into a heated argument, Heretia rose from her seat. Seeing this, everyone quickly shut their mouth.

Heretia looked annoyed, but she didn’t want to blame the people. This was a road that no one had ever walked on before them, and she didn’t know the exact answer either.

“It is true that the Pope is out of his mind, but at least he’s not incompetent,” Heretia said.

“But he has only one neck. If we can figure something out…”

Someone tried to intervene in Heretia’s words, but quickly closed his mouth upon noticing the gazes of the other people.

Heretia continued to speak.

“Not a lot of people remember the Pope’s reign of terror now, but I understand that he did quite a lot of crazy things in the early days of Eternal Rule. He stopped directly ruling the empire when the Church was established, the Bishops who were granted His Majesty’s Grace appeared, and the knight orders were created. But… there is no guarantee that something like the Red Footprints or the Emperor’s March won’t happen in Torra once again.”

The crowd shuddered in fear. Both the ‘Red Footprints’ as well as the ‘Emperor’s March’ were massive purges that occurred in the early days of Eternal Rule.

At that moment, one person carefully broke the silence brought about by fear and opened his mouth.

“The Pope is old. Not only do we have the Saintess and the Captain of the Imperial Guards, but we also have many prominent figures in the holy city of Torra who support the empire. The Pope alone cannot take responsibility of the empire. There’s no way history will repeat itself.”

“Let’s just hope that the Pope is a reasonable man.”

Heretia sighed and looked around at the people. The people’s opinions still seemed to be divided in two. Heretia could not push her opinion in such a situation, since there was a high likelihood that there would be a backlash that would result in an even greater uproar, whether it be good or bad.

“Let’s take a vote. Whatever the result of the vote, the losing side has to follow it unconditionally.”

Heretia approached the pillar and drew out a dagger. Then she made a small horizontal scratch on the pillar.

“Mark a horizontal line if you wish to maintain the current situation, and mark a vertical line if you wish for us to take action. There will be no secret ballot.”

People looked at each other; no one wanted to be the first to vote publicly.

At that moment, Ivy stepped up and made a scratch on the pillar—it was a vertical mark.

Heretia sighed unconsciously. However, Ivy bowed toward Heretia without any other explanation and returned to her seat.

With Ivy having taken the lead, the people began to approach the pillar one by one and leave a mark.

After seeing the results of the vote, Heretia fell silent. She remained silent for a very long time until she gained the courage to speak again, then finally opened her mouth.

‘Eight versus seven. Taking action it is.’

“Then let’s carry out the plan to oust Pope Helmut early in the morning tomorrow.”

People seemed perplexed by Heretia’s words.

“Wait, that soon? Don’t you think that's a bit too fast?”

“It would be better to hurry as much as we can, since our plan might be leaked. It doesn’t really matter, since this plan was designed to be implemented unexpectedly anyway. There’s no need for a lot of people to move either. Just don’t try to run away at a critical moment.”

Heretia bit her lips after uttering in a quiet voice.

“I just hope that the Pope is not crazy enough to try to kill everyone in the holy city of Torra.”

***

“I’m gonna kill you all.”

Helmut grumbled as he watched the protesters outside the Vatican from his window. He was awakened by the slogans that were being shouted by the protesters who had unexpectedly come to the Vatican since early in the morning. His nerves were more sensitive than usual, since he had barely fallen asleep.

“We demand justice for His Majesty!”

The high and thick walls of the Vatican could block the stones and rotten fruits, but they could not block the shouts from the protesters. The protest had been going on for a while now, but it was the first time that it started so early in the morning.

Helmut ordered the Templars to arrest and lock up all those who were in the square.

‘Looks like I might have to lock down the entire holy city of Torra.’

The protest, which had been directed toward only Barth Baltic in the beginning, had already spread and become a protest against the system itself. Helmut was bothered about such a series of events—he had a feeling that someone was controlling everything from behind the scenes.

Heretia Helwin immediately came to Helmut’s mind, but there was no conclusive evidence to hold her accountable.

At that moment, screams and loud noises could suddenly be heard outside. The Templars seemed to have begun a crackdown, forcing the chant to finally be stopped within a short time.

‘They demand justice for the emperor? Bullshit. There would be no justice for the emperor on this land if it wasn’t for me.’

Helmut had done all sorts of terrible things in order to keep the emperor’s will. Not only had he struggled to protect humanity and the empire, but he recklessly drove out the members of the heterogenous races who demanded for their rights after becoming losers for the first time, unlike when they enjoyed all kinds of benefits parasitizing under their gods.

Helmut has done many shameful things and made many mistakes, but it was all nothing compared to everything that he had achieved.

“I was His Majesty’s justice itself,” Helmut muttered, sitting alone in a dark room.

Helmut inadvertently realized that his own voice sounded quite old and lonely. He has lived his whole life without a family in order to maintain His Majesty’s will. The idea that he was the most loyal of His Majesty’s servants had not changed.

‘But he is going to come back to punish me?’

The emperor was returning. In fact, he was already on his way. Public gossip, as well as Barth Baltic’s warning—these were constantly driving him to a corner.

Helmut couldn’t proudly say that he kept everything left behind by the emperor, but he thought that no one else could have done as much as he had. He had built temples and statues everywhere to worship and praise the emperor, and had taught the entire empire about the emperor’s will.

‘I am His Majesty’s justice. Wasn’t the definition of His Majesty’s justice to defeat the enemies of humanity, punish the disloyal, and earnestly strive for the prosperity and stability of the empire?’

Helmut lifted his empty eyes. At the end of his sight was a portrait of the emperor. He blankly stared at the painting and muttered.

“I couldn’t be as perfect as you were. Was that a sin? I did the best I could—as the trivial boy that admired you and wished to resemble you and continue your legacy. But weren’t you the one who tried to abandon us first? You are the one who betrayed us first.”

At that moment, a sudden loud roar was heard from across the square. Helmut, who was sitting on the bed as if he had lost his mind, instantly jumped from his seat.

Unlike the small protest from earlier, a large-scale protest began to surge in the square. There were so many protesters that the torches held by them could be seen even from the Vatican.

Helmut sensed that something had gone terribly wrong.

“Your Holiness!”

Gareon Geled, the Captain of the Order of the Gold Lion, rushed into Helmut’s bedroom with a pale face.

“The apostates are coming, Your Holiness. The knight order has blocked the entrance, but I don’t think it will be possible to disband them!”

“What about the Imperial Army?”

“I don’t see any movement from them right now. However, many of the Imperial soldiers protecting the holy city of Torra have families in Torra. There’s no way that they would point their swords inwards.”

“I didn’t expect that to begin with. It’s fine as long as they’re not siding with the protesters. It seems like Pavan Peltere wasn’t behind all of this. Gather all the Templars guarding the entrance to the Vatican’s audience chamber. You follow me and protect me.”

“Pardon me? But Your Holiness…”

At Helmut’s glaring gaze, Gareon hurriedly commanded the attendant standing next to him.

Helmut stepped out in simple clothing and hastily moved toward the audience chamber through a secret passage. However, what he encountered when he entered the audience chamber were the Templars who had been tied and forced to kneel.

Seeing the situation, Helmut’s expression hardened.

“I’m sorry, Your Holiness.”

A sharp object touched Helmut’s back—the tip of a sword was aimed precisely at his heart. Helmut suddenly had a bitter taste in his mouth.

“Gareon. Even you, the Captain of the Temple order, have betrayed me. I guess I’ve really hit rock bottom.”

“I’m sorry, Your Holiness. But it’s no longer a matter of whether the person who’s coming to Torra now is the emperor or not. We had no choice but to do this to prevent a massacre.”

Gareon pushed Helmut’s back and sent him to the podium in the audience chamber. Above the podium were Heretia, Ivy, and Lenly Loen, who were standing there and waiting for him.

Helmut glared closely at Heretia and Ivy.

Meanwhile, Heretia looked anxiously at Helmut and opened her mouth.

“You would better not move too carelessly, Your Holiness. Captain Gareon will stab you right away if we suspect that you are trying to use your Grace.”

“If you’re so anxious, why don’t you just stab me to death right now?” Helmut derided.

“I wish I could, but there are many reasons why I can’t. You should not be assassinated and killed as the Pope—you should face a trial and be killed as a prisoner. And you must tell us how you were able to draw onto and wield the power of His Majesty.”

The corner of Helmut’s lips went up.

“That?was your purpose? The source of the Grace? You criticized me for imitating the emperor, but now you want to imitate me?”

“It is necessary in order to return the stolen power to His Majesty. That power will be useless anyway once His Majesty returns.”

Heretia gave a calm response upon hearing Helmut’s provocation.

Helmut straightened his back and slowly looked around. The people who had captured and pointed their swords toward the Templars and Priests were also Templars and Priests. A few of the Imperial soldiers could also be seen among them.

Helmut figured that similar things must be happening all over the Vatican.

“I certainly haven’t made a move for way too long. It seems that there are too many people who really don't understand His Majesty’s will, since there were so many more people who were born after the Red Footprints and the Emperor’s March.”

The Emperor’s March was the incident in which Barth Baltic carried the body of the emperor to the Capital immediately after his assassination, and then purged all the people suspected to have been involved with the assassination.

The Red Footprints was a large-scale purification led by the Pope, and was conducted in cities that showed resistance toward the rule of the Church or insisted on local folk beliefs even after the Church was established.

The Red Footprints was also the origin of the name the ‘Emperor’s Foot,’ the Grace which allows the Templars to surround an entire city with a spherical barrier that was impossible to escape from. It was a ridiculous name, but it literally meant that only blood could be found in the emperor’s footprints.

Tens of thousands of people had died back then.

However, everyone gathered here in the Vatican were young people. None of them remembered the olden days.

Then at that moment, Ivy quietly opened her mouth.

“Do you think His Majesty would have acknowledged and approved of such slaughter had he been alive?”

Helmut was suddenly left speechless at Ivy’s sharp criticism. Helmut has seen the emperor in his lifetime and served under him as a soldier. He also knew that the things he had done so far were against the emperor’s values.

However, he had plenty of excuses to explain himself. He had something to back himself up even if the emperor was revived right in front of his eyes at this very moment.

But the moment he met Ivy’s eyes, he became speechless without even realizing it.

Ivy’s young eyes which looked like they were on the verge of tears made her look like she was scared and nervous, but she seemed to represent the emperor’s will with all her heart.

‘I’ve been doubting myself, but this little girl is completely certain of the emperor’s will? What the hell did I do wrong? Why does this little girl out of everyone seem to have the will of the emperor?’

“Why not me when I took the lead in serving HIs Majesty!” Helmut suddenly shouted loudly.

Everyone gathered in the audience chamber looked at Helmut in unison.

Heretia signaled Gareon with a nervous look to make sure that he was ready to stab Helmut at any time.

Helmut quickly covered his mouth with his hand to stop the words that he uttered without realizing it. But then he inadvertently smelled blood—it was a smell that he had not smelled in a long time.

.

He was reminded of the blood the former Saintess vomited on his face—no, it was like the endless amount of blood that he had seen so far seemed to be surging in waves. Helmut felt like he was going to drown in the smell of blood. It was the sea of blood that was the result of his efforts to protect the empire and the Church. Helmut couldn’t let all of that go to waste.

‘Few more drops won’t make the sea.’

Helmut reached his hand out toward the sky.

Heretia immediately ordered Gareon to kill Helmut, while Gareon swung his sword even before she gave the command.

The sword penetrated through Helmut’s chest. Gereon did not stop there—he continuously wielded his sword to further injure Helmut.

But Helmut did not collapse.

His eyes burned with a blue light.

“Come to me, Telgramm.”