The Emperor Has Returned

Chapter 182 – From Harmon

Torra was a large city.

But when the Golems stood up, people could no longer see Torra as a large city. Some citizens even felt it to be claustrophobic.

This didn’t change when the Golems settled down and fell asleep again just like they had been before the return of the emperor. Thanks to this, the number of people who wanted to live outside Torra had increased significantly. As a result, the number of empty houses in Torra also increased rapidly. This too was part of the reason behind the delay in the reconstruction of Torra.

“This restaurant is normally quite a noisy place,” Pavan said as he sat on a seat opposite from Juan with an uneasy look on his face. “But I see that there are only a few people here now. Thanks to that, we won’t have to worry about eating in a rush.”

Pavan carefully placed the documents on the restaurant table.

Meanwhile, Juan chewed on his sandwich and dragged the documents closer to himself.

“I had heard that Your Majesty doesn't need to eat,” Pavan asked with his head tilted.

“You’re right. But that doesn’t mean that I can’t enjoy the taste of food, right? This restaurant is one that I often visited even when I was the emperor back in the past. They make some amazing sandwiches. They still taste great even after you order them to go. It seems like the son has inherited the restaurant, but everything still tastes the same,” Juan answered.

“...That’s a little surprising. I had heard that this restaurant was known to be the one where usually only soldiers come to eat.”

“And who do you think told the soldiers about this restaurant?”

Juan was a war hero and had been in contact with the soldiers for a long time—and the same was true of Barth Baltic. Pavan found it difficult to believe that the tradition of his military unit visiting this restaurant for the longest time had begun with the emperor.

“Wow, I had no idea.”

“That’s because the owner of the restaurant is quite good at keeping secrets. It seems like their son has also learned well from them.”

Pavan nodded and flicked his finger at the clerk.

“Two sandwiches. One to go and one to stay.”

Juan pulled out the documents without raising his head and skimmed through them. There were two different documents. Juan briefly read the first page of one of the documents, then soon frowned as he turned his gaze toward Pavan.

“This is…”

“One of them is related to the underground structure Your Majesty had requested details of, and the other one is… I brought it because I thought it’s something Your Majesty should know about.”

The other document Pavan brought was none other than the ‘Report of the Investigation of the Emperor’s Assassination.’ Juan could not take his eyes off of the author’s name that was written on the first page under the title.

‘Harmon Helwin…’

“Where did you find this?” Juan asked.

“I found it in the office on the same day that Barth Baltic died.”

“Did you search through the office?”

“No, Your Majesty. I found it on the top of his desk. Barth Baltic told me to go to his office when he died, and it seems like he had left that for me to dispose of. Oh, the document related to the underground structure was found elsewhere. It was so fragmented that it was very difficult to find.”

Comparing the level of difficulty, finding the document related to the underground structures was far more difficult. Yet Juan did not even look at the document about the underground structure.

Pavan nodded, since he could understand.

“Just to let you know, that document is not complete. There are even some parts where Barth Baltic has edited it. But considering the fact that Barth Baltic didn’t completely get rid of the document, even if put aside the credibility of the document, I think he might have intended to reveal the truth at least to some extent.”

“What an unexpected gift. Have you read through it already?”

Pavan nodded.

“Yes, Your Majesty. If Barth Baltic left it to me, he probably left the judgment of whether I should hand it over to Your Majesty or not to me. I had to read it in order to make the right judgment.”

At that moment, the clerk placed a sandwich in front of Pavan.

Meanwhile, Juan held the document handed over to him—and his eyes stopped on the first sentence.

The first sentence started with the words, ‘I knew it.’

***

“I knew it.”

Those were the first words uttered by Harmon after he quickly skimmed through the letter sent by Barth Baltic.

First, Harmon made sure to send the messenger who rushed into his room with a pale expression outside with a command to keep his mouth shut, followed by the other officials and nobles inside the Imperial Palace. They all protested and got angry since they hadn’t heard the news yet, but Harmon couldn’t help it.

The paralysis of the Imperial Administration was much less important than the emperor’s death. After doing so, Harmon activated the veil of benevolence, which was one of the dozens of protective items the emperor had made ‘just in case.’

The Imperial Palace was now accessible only to the emperor’s children and a small number of authorized personnel including Captain Winoa Weaver of the Imperial Guards, and the Grand Duke Harmon Helwin.

It was not until Harmon realized that there were no more eyes watching him in the midst of the complete silence inside the Imperial Palace that Harmon slumped down to the floor. His complexion was way paler than even the messenger who delivered the news to him.

‘It happened much faster than I had expected.’

It was said that Gerard Gain was the one who stabbed the emperor. Right after the assassination, Gerard immediately fled the scene with the help of Dane Dormund after he had suffered serious injuries at the hands of Winoa Weaver and Barth Baltic. Then Barth Baltic killed Winoa Weaver, who was in charge of the emperor’s security.

This was all that was described in Barth Baltic’s letter.

Faint signs that Gerard had been plotting to assassinate the emperor could rarely be found here and there, since it was clear that the incident in Arbalde had left a deep scar on Gerard’s mind. However, there were plenty of people showing such faint signs of rebellion. Reporting all of them to the emperor and punishing them would be no different from the beginning of a reign of terror.

If anyone nevertheless still plotted against the emperor, it would certainly be Gerard Gain who is most likely to succeed. For such a reason, Harmon had just called in Ras, the leader of the Order of Huginn from the south, since Nienna had no intention of coming to the capital from the north, and Dismas was not a suitable person to feel out Gerard, as he was too honest. Ras was certainly the most appropriate person for the job.

‘But it’s already too late.’

Harmon didn’t know why Ras was running late. But Harmon had to hold out as long as he could from now on until any of the emperor’s children came to the Imperial Palace. In such a situation where a rebellion had been secretly plotted, it was difficult to be sure about who the allies were and who the enemies were.

‘General Barth Baltic blew off the head of the most important witness, Winoa Weaver. There’s a good chance that he’s involved with the assassination.’

Barth Baltic was the only person who could interfere with Winoa Weaver’s patrol route. Interfering with the patrol route to create a gap for Gerard to enter was very much possible for Barth Baltic to do.

‘Who else could be involved?’

According to the document sent by Barth Baltic, it was said that Dane Dormund had helped Gerard to escape the scene.

‘Dane Dormund…’

Harmon did not expect to hear Dane’s name again. The time he spent together with Dane was short, but Dane was not a likable person. Harmon had heard that the emperor had expelled Dane from the empire while using his Spirit Speech. Considering that the emperor’s Spirit Speech was an absolute to the humans, it was clear that it was not a simple coincidence that Dane Dormund had made an appearance at the same time as the emperor’s death.

‘Did Dane Dormund urge Gerard Gain to assassinate the emperor?’

But Harmon soon shook his head; he knew that Gerard was not the type to be lured in by someone’s words. Harmon highly appreciated Gerard for his humanity, morality, courage, and pride ever since he was only a young child. He had a great personality that was comparable to that of the emperor.

Gerard had followed the emperor well ever since he was a child, and had tried to accept all of the emperor’s thoughts and ideologies.

‘So he did this of his own volition?’

Harmon thought the latter thought was more convincing. It was hard for Harmon to believe that Gerard had been lured by Dane into his plan, but it was possible that Dane had helped Gerard; after all, there was no way that Dane did not have any issues with the emperor.

‘The Grand Magician Dane Dormund, the emperor’s first son Gerard Gain, and the Grand General Barth Baltic… even the great emperor is bound to collapse if these three lead the rebellion.’

However, Gerard was injured and Dane fled. Then Barth Baltic may have betrayed the emperor at the very last minute for the sake of monopolizing power—this was quite dangerous, since there was no guarantee that the other children of the emperor weren’t involved. While Harmon wasn’t able to see such signs from the other children, there was a high chance that they could be exploited as well.

‘I still need more information.’

Harmon constantly gathered more and more information without anyone knowing while he firmly locked himself up inside the Imperial Palace. His search for information continued even when he heard that the emperor was not dead, but in a state of suspended animation. The same was true when Barth Baltic led a grand purge, when the Order of Lindwurm was devastated lost and hid in the mountains of the East, when the ‘Church’ was born with the emperor as the god at the end of the terrible ‘Emperor’s March,’ and when the Imperial Army finally arrived and forced open the gate to the Imperial Palace.

Harmon barely ate or slept for seven days and nights to constantly read and analyze all the documents inside the Imperial Palace and record them.

Finally, by the eighth day, Harmon was able to guess where the plot to assassinate the emperor began. It was a moment that no one in the empire would have ever expected.

“Harcon’s dishonorable discharge from the military?”

Juan frowned and glared at the document as he had no idea who that name belonged to. But as he continued to read through the document, he could quickly tell who it was.

Harcon was the real name of Helmut Helvine, the Pope.

***

Harmon focused on Harcon Helvine’s name.

The man, who is now believed to have been renamed Helmut Helvine, had been labeled among the officers ever since he was in the military. He was very loyal and didn’t mind doing hard work. Yet he was not social, was very quiet, and had a strong antipathy toward the heterogeneous races which caused discord within the organization.

If this were the extent of the issues with him, he would have been simply treated as a problematic soldier who lacked social skills.

But Helmut did not stop there. His attitude which was simply considered to be lacking in sociability was much worse in reality. As he gradually settled within the army, his attitude and belief toward the emperor quickly spread. This led to the birth of a private organization within the military and it even let Helmut get away with killing other Imperial Army officers.

Helmut’s main targets were the officers and knights from the heterogenous races. Even a human officer with a native faith ended up getting killed.

Eventually, Barth Baltic found out about all the incidents caused by Helmut. Originally, Helmut was supposed to be sentenced to death, but his punishment was somehow reduced to only a dishonorable discharge along with all the members of his private organization.

The problem was that since then, this private organization had been constantly active, chasing the movements of the military. There were no more incidents of an officer being assassinated, but Helmut’s private force began to grow even bigger, to the extent that it was out of control—they no longer had any reasons to hide what they had done.

This was all the more because no one hated the emperor at that time. Even Gerard Gain was interested in this group. Harmon couldn’t believe this fact even when writing it down on the paper himself. Although rare, records of Gerard’s attendance at the meetings of the ‘Church’ were found in several places.

From the early days of the ‘Church,’ all the way until recently, Gerard was immersed in the act of serving the emperor like serving a god.

‘...is that so.’

Harmon felt bitter.

Gerard loved and admired the emperor. He constantly tried to emulate him, but he could never catch up to the emperor. It only took an instant for that respect to turn into an inferiority complex. But even if Gerard fell into the trap of worshiping the emperor, a piece of the puzzle that led to Gerard developing murderous intent toward the emperor is still missing. Gerard is a person who will not act if he has no motivation, no matter how much his emotions are eating at him. No matter what anyone says, he’s the closest to the emperor. There must be a reason why Gerard had no choice but to stab the emperor. Perhaps, although very unlikely, the crown is what Gerard…

***

Juan stood up from his seat as he stared at the last sentence of the document.

Pavan shook his head.

“That is the end of the document, Your Majesty. Harmon Helwin is believed to have been killed shortly afterward.”

“How was it that Harmon is said to have died?” Juan asked.

“Dismas Dilver and the head of the Helwin family lifted up the veil of benevolence. Then Dismas blew up Harmon’s head. Only then did the Imperial Palace begin to be restored and Barth Baltic finish the Emperor’s March.”

“Dismas…”

Harmon’s document was cut off at an ambiguous part which only fueled Juan’s thirst for the truth.

‘Did Harmon refer to the crown as a metaphor for the royal authority, or did he refer to the crown that’s hidden in my body?’

Juan did not even know about the crown when he had been the emperor in the past, and therefore it was hard for him to think that Harmon knew about it. However, the broken sentence was too coincidental.

“I’ll need the Pope and Dismas to fit the rest of the puzzle pieces together.”

Barth Batlc’s pieces had already been collected. Juan picked up the document about Torra’s underground structure.

“This will connect everything.”