The Emperor Has Returned

Chapter 192 – Iolin (1)

Iolin was the god of the elves and lakes. Not only was she beautiful and caring, she was also kind enough to bless the warriors with courageous and elegant attitudes, even if they were not elves. The kingdom of elves had a tradition of crowning those who were blessed by Iolin.

Juan remembered Iolin’s final appearance.

“Yes, I do. After all, I strangled her with my own hands and drowned her. What about her?”

“Her remains are said to have sunk to the bottom of the lake, unable to rise up. Ever since then, that lake was filled with the corpses of dead spirits and mud, causing it to decay. The elves lost their long lifespan and they lost the blessing of the spirits.”

“Everyone knows about that story. But what does all that have to do with Dismas?”

“Doctrinal General Dismas pulled out her body from that lake.”

Juan fell silent upon hearing Pavan’s words. All the gods were special in their own ways, but all of them were the same to Juan—except Iolin.

Iolin was different in the sense that she was well-liked by humans, despite her status as a god. Perhaps this was due to her beauty, her nobility, and the way she easily sympathized with humans. Back then, Iolin had even offered to give Juan her blessing and protection, and then she gifted him a sword as a sign of recognizing him as the king of the kings.

Of course, that same sword sank to the bottom of the lake along with the remains of Iolin. Juan’s memory of Iolin’s face slowly turning blue, and the movement of her neck that was being choked in his hands was still vivid, almost as if it had happened just yesterday.

The reason why Juan decided to drown her was to prevent others from seeing her final appearance after her death.

‘But he went out of his way to take out her remains? Why?’

“It’s not just Iolin. Ever since he was given the title of the Doctrinal General, Doctrinal General Dismas has been actively excavating the remains of the gods on an extremely large scale. Not only the gods, he also excavated the remains of many kings and heroes who were defeated by Your Majesty. The Church has also been helping him with that,” Pavan explained.

“The Church helped him?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. But I can tell you that he didn’t have any unfaithful intentions toward Your Majesty. His purpose is rather, um… close to worship in a sense. He wanted to display and insult the gods and kings that Your Majesty had conquered in the past.”

Juan’s face hardened.

“There must have been a lot of opposition from other races.”

“Yes, Your Majesty. It indeed caused several disturbances, but… it only further encouraged the destruction of those who had lost their gods and command system. Many of the minority races that still existed back then were either destroyed and scattered at that time.”

The defeated enemies might be the losing party, but excavating their remains and displaying them was a huge disgrace. Juan confronted the gods and all his other enemies, and killed them miserably, but he had never once insulted them in such a way.

“But the Doctrinal General decided to drag the remains all the way to the west, perhaps because he too understood that it would be too much to display such hideous things in Torra. Then he made a road—a road decorated with the remains of the bodies of the enemies being displayed on both sides. That road is called Cainheryar.”

“Which translates to warriors of sin.”

Cainheryar was a word made up of ancient letters, just like ‘Sutra.’ Juan recalled the countless gods he had confronted, and then he imagined the western landscape that was using the enemies’ bodies as trophies to line up the road.

The western territory was hardly a fertile land even during Juan’s reign as the emperor. Such a terrible description and the hellish landscape seemed to perfectly match with the dry land.

“The western territory that is ruled by the Doctrinal General Dismas is such a place. Members of heterogeneous races are nowhere to be seen unless they are slaves, and they cannot even survive unless they constantly prove their faith in Your Majesty. It is said that the neighbors who chatted and made jokes about Your Majesty until just yesterday now rush to report about each other when the sun rises the next day.”

“That’s just unbelievable.”

Dismas was far from an obedient child no matter how much Juan thought about what he used to be like. He was always cheerful, loved to drink, and also loved to jump around vigorously. If anything, he was more of a simple and honest fool. He often butted heads with Ras who liked to quietly read his books in the library, but he still had a caring personality and worried about many little things.

“Dismas did not hate other races. Rather, he recognized them as those who he could happily compete against. Once, I even scolded him for deciding whether he wins or loses a battle by wrestling and drinking instead of properly fighting against the king of the Giants in the west. When I did, he talked back to me, saying ‘how could I ever fight with the person who I drank with?’ So why would such a child become like that?”

“King of the Giants… are you talking about Helgrim, Your Majesty?” Pavan asked.

“Yes. Come to think of it, what happened to him?”

“Helgrim, the king of the Giants, was killed at the hands of Doctrinal General Dismas. His remains were the first to be displayed on Cainheryar—the very first Cainheryar was made.”

Juan was speechless.

“Since when… jeez. Since when did Dismas become like that?” Juan said as he placed his hand over his forehead.

He was shocked when he saw how much Ras had changed, but he was relieved that the child’s temper still remained the same. Nienna, too, had changed only a little.

But the way Dismas had changed was unbearable.

Pavan hesitated, but soon opened his mouth carefully.

“As far as I know, he changed right after the assassination of the emperor.”

Juan remained silent.

“From what I understand, Doctrinal General Dismas was drinking with the Giants when the assassination occurred. Three days had already passed by the time he heard the news. As soon as he heard the news, he ran straight to the Capital and killed everyone involved in the assassination of the emperor. I heard that Barth Baltic was very angry at him for killing all those who were captured as prisoners for interrogation, including Harmon Helwin.”

“...Is that so?”

“Barth Baltic then kicked Doctrinal General Dismas out of Torra. At that time, Doctrinal General Dismas was deeply heartbroken, and that’s when the Pope approached him.”

Juan gritted his teeth. Anger raged within his eyes.

“...The Pope then exploited Doctrinal General Dismas’ sense of guilt and loss. Doctrinal General Dismas was the only child of Your Majesty who swore his allegiance to the Pope and he even became the very first Templar, not to mention that he was granted the position of Bishop. The very first thing Doctrinal General Dismas did after pledging his allegiance to the Church was to kill Helgrim, the king of the Giants, who he was drinking with when the assassination of the emperor happened.”

Juan couldn’t find any words to say due to his raging emotions.

“That’s how Doctrinal General Dismas became the watchman and The Fanatic of the West. It’s fortunate that his authority is limited only to the West, but other Templars often consider him and the Order of Surtr to be perfect examples to emulate. It is no exaggeration to say that the concept of purification that is performed throughout the empire started in the west.

Juan couldn’t understand where and when everything went wrong.

‘The Pope who took advantage of Dismas’ guilt? Dismas who fell for the Pope’s plan? Myself who failed to properly educate Dismas? Or Gerard who murdered me?’

He couldn’t tell where all this started at all.

However, he knew exactly how it would end.

***

The procession of merchants which had been halted in the southern boulevard of Torra, began to continue their journey at the news that the civil war ended with the overwhelming victory of the returned emperor.

People were quite excited by the rumor that the person who took over Torra might really be the returned emperor rather than the old-fashioned Church. It was still winter, but hopeful prospects had spread across the empire as if spring had already come.

Unlike the nobles who were still deciding on which side they should choose to follow and be obedient toward, the commoners and merchants were quickly adapting to the new change.

Most of the processions on the boulevard were coming from the south.

Although there were rumors that Dismas from the west was still hostile to the Capital, people thought that the empire was simply in a state of cold war and there was nothing that could cause Torra to be placed in danger again.

“...Which is why we have to take care of things as quietly as possible,” Anya said to the knights from the Order of Huginn.

Due to the fact that it was difficult to control the undead on a large scale with so many people being present, Anya had to select only a few knights of the dead and put a hood over them to hide their identity.

“The level of the guys guarding the carriage is pathetic, but we still have to make sure that we do not make a fuss.”

“That’s enough of a warning, Anya. It’s not the first time; we’ve raided carriages before, you know,” Dilmond said as if he was scolding Anya.

Anya nodded with an ambiguous smile. The Order of Huginn had been active as the official enemy of the empire to attack the empire. Not only had they done many ambushes against the Templars, but they also had a lot of experience in raiding transport carriages.

Considering their experience, facing a few merchant carriages and a few mercenaries was an easy job for them.

“I keep getting nervous for some reason. Maybe it’s because this time I’m carrying out a mission as an official knight rather than a criminal,” Anya said.

“Put your worries aside. That might cause you to make more mistakes,” Dilmond said.

Anya nodded.

Just in time, their target—the carriage—began to pass through the boulevard. Anya, who was hiding in the grass, ordered one of the undead at just the right time.

Delane Deed suddenly jumped in front of the boulevard.

“Argh! What, what the hell! What kind of crazy bastard would… S-Sir Deed?”

Delane’s sudden appearance brought the carriage to a hasty halt. The procession of the following carriages also stopped in a disorderly manner. Cursing and shouting erupted from here and there.

The horseman driving the lead carriage was perplexed, but he couldn’t help but stop upon encountering the person he had to deliver the goods to.

The horseman got out of the carriage and approached Delane.

“What’s the matter, Sir Delane? I thought we were supposed to meet inside Torra and… wait, by any chance, did something happen inside there?”

“Nothing’s going on,” Delane answered in a stiff voice.

The horseman wanted to ask Delane why he was blocking the road, but the horseman covered his nose with his hands without even realizing it upon getting a whiff of Delane’s terribly bad breath. While it was very rude to cover his nose due to a noble’s bad breath, the horseman had no choice, since he would have to step back immediately if he didn’t do so.

“It smells like rotting corpses, doesn’t it?”

The horseman was startled at the sudden voice that came from behind and placed his hand on the dagger around his waist. But before he could draw it, the cold blade of a dagger was placed on his neck. The horseman froze and slowly looked back.

All the horsemen, servants, and mercenaries who were guarding the carriage procession were lying on the floor and suppressed. Some of those who were skilled enough to quickly draw out their weapons could not avoid death. The captain of the mercenaries had a sword stabbed into his heart and was standing in place with a blank look on his face.

All those who could not resist were lying flat on their stomachs, while all those who dared to resist had been turned into undead.

It didn’t take too long for the horseman to understand who his opponent was.

“The-the Order of Huginn… how and why?”

“Can’t you tell from the hint I just gave you?”

The horseman cursed Delane Deed inside, but he tried his best to pretend not to know what was going on.

“I-I have no idea what you are talking about. We were just told to…”

“Shut up. First of all, stop all the carriages on one side of the road so that it doesn’t get in the way of the other people.”

The rest of the horsemen were forced to move the carriage as Anya told them to. Some nosy people seemed to be glancing and trying to find out what was going on. However, they quickly disappeared when they saw the raven symbol shown by Dilmond that represented the Order of Huginn.

“What’s in the carriage?” Anya asked.

“Uh, well. It’s a variety of various types of meat butchered from Learo in the southwest,” the horseman answered.

“Meat? Oh, those southern pigs that are fed acorns?”

“Yes, yes. Learo is famous for their pigs that are grown by feeding them acorns. I was going to sell them in the cold winter since I thought that the nobles of Torra would appreciate their value.”

Anya smiled as if she was interested.

“But there is no acorn forest in Learo, you stupid ass westerner.”

Anya kicked the horseman in the shin, causing the horseman to shriek in pain and limp.

“I was going to be generous and skip the torture if you had cooperated with me, but I guess I’m left with no choice. I’ll give you one more chance. If you decide to cooperate now, I promise to cut off only one of your limbs.”

“Keuk-Keugh…”

Anya dragged the horseman and stopped him in front of the carriage. The top of the carriage was covered by a large cloth, and Anya inadvertently noticed red bloodstains visible under the thick cloth that was covering the carriage.

“Open it.”

The horseman groaned in pain, but he soon loosened the rope and carefully lifted the cloth. Pieces of red meat that were loaded onto the carriage became visible. It was a cold winter, but the meat was still vividly bright red in color.

“See? I-I told you that it’s just meat.”

“Do I really look that stupid to you? I’ve cut a lot of meat in my life. Do you think that I can’t tell the difference between pork meat from other types of meat? Even with just a glance, I can tell that this is not pork. This is… this… is…”

Anya frowned and took a closer look at the meat in the carriage.

‘This isn’t something that could be found at a place like this.’

Anya approached the carriage.

At that moment, the horseman quickly lifted the cloth.

Anya immediately cut the horseman’s neck with her dagger, but the contents inside the carriage were already revealed to the sunlight. Red bloodstains were clearly visible under the cloth that flapped and rose into the air.

Anya froze on the spot.

***

Juan, who was in the middle of having a conversation with Pavan, suddenly sprang up from his chair and stood up. His eyes were pinned toward the south.

Pavan also stood up, perplexed by Juan’s sudden movement.

“Your Majesty? Is there a problem?” Pavan asked anxiously.

“A god.”

Juan muttered in a trembling voice.

“A god just appeared in the southern part of Torra just now.”

1. Cainheryar is the name of the road made by Dismas—the road which is decorated with the statues made using the remains of the dead gods and monsters. These statues are also called Cainheryars.