Emperor of Steel

Marquis Maghreb, who became the commander of the Central Army of the Baroque Empire earlier this year, was the high noble for the emperor.

Although he didn’t have much experience, he quickly seized the military as he did hard work and had great relations.

And currently, he was in charge of the Imperial troops gathered in the capital on behalf of Emperor Rudolf.

Nemesis’s Imperial troop’s commander.

Twenty high-ranking nobles were seated in a large conference room.

They were the commanders and the staffs of the Central, Northern, or the Eastern forces, the commander of the Northern army, Count Jemo, opened his mouth to Marquis Maghreb who was seated in the highest sport.

“Sire! Is it really okay to stay like this?”

The Volga Republic and the Holy Empire troops were invading the empire because of the empty borders.

And the situation was way worse in the south.

It was because the self-proclaimed continental alliance was three days away from advancing to Nemesis.

The situation was insane.

However, the Baroque Imperial troops weren’t asked to respond.

At one time, they held hands with the Libiya support troops and sent in the western troops to stop the invading army, but these men got the reports of their troops failing despite their huge number.

Marquis Maghreb was better aware of the situation than anyone else in the room, better than the commanders and the staff.

“Haa, I too kept on asking the same thing to His Majesty. However, he keeps saying that we will win the war if we can keep the capital safe.”

At those words, the high ranking nobles began to speak out.

“I don’t understand what His Majesty is even thinking.”

“That is right. Currently, the Empire is in danger, but he only wants to save the capital. Aren’t the other estates part of the Empire?”

“This capital, there are posters everywhere criticizing the empire and the Imperial family every day, and still, no one is doing anything about the public sentiment!”

Every night, there were suspicious posters all over the capital.

Words were being written about Emperor Rudolf, and the situation of the Imperial nobles were degrading too.

There was something about the last princess of the old Libiya Kingdom, which disappeared 500 years back, would appear and punish the Baroque Imperial family.

“The princess who disappeared 500 years ago can’t be alive, right?”

“Yes. It is clear that the dissatisfied factions, who don’t want to admit reality, are spreading rumors.”

“The problem is that the public sentiment is getting ugly, and we have no way to clear them off.”

The public sentiment of the empire was already in a serious situation.

With the outbreak of Vers, Rudolf’s cruel nature of suppressing the plague, the harsh tax robbery, and the forced conscripts resulting in the civil war, even the people of the capital weren’t loyal to the empire any more.

But there were still a lot of things going on, so the nobles were worried.

In the worst case, a revolt could happen right in the capital itself.

“What did Count Voltas say? Is he trying to persuade His Majesty?”

“I met with Count Voltas yesterday, and he said that it wouldn’t easy to change His Majesty’s mind.”

He worked along with Rudolf for a long time, he was a close friend of the emperor, and not long ago, he turned into an aide for the emperor, but even then, he couldn’t honestly say what was wrong to Emperor Rudolf!

“Ugh! What the hell is this nation going to turn out like?”

The military nobles were unaware that Rudolf was restoring the ruins.

Well, aside from the wizards of the Magic Tower, and Rudolf’s closest men, they were all unaware that the ruins even existed in the ruins.

Obviously, such people could never understand how Rudolf think about things.

“Can’t we just go ahead and stop the enemy?”

Count Jemo tapped his chest and spoke.

“What are you talking about? Don’t you know that we can be arrested for treason if we move from the capital!”

Count Sochi, the commander of the Eastern army, opposed right away.

“You think I don’t know that!? I can’t just see my nation fall like this!”

“But what you’re saying is impossible.”

“So, you are saying that the Baroque Empire has to be destroyed?”

“Who said that it has to be destroyed? What I meant was…”

As the two commanders raised their voices, Marquis Maghreb banged the meeting table as he couldn’t stand them fighting any longer.

“Quiet! Quiet, everyone!”

“So-sorry!”

When the entire table went silent, Maghreb spoke., “First, we follow His Majesty’s orders. Defending the capital is our top priority.”

“Sire, then local cities and estates are in danger…”

“You think I don’t know that?! I have a family, and they are in the east!”

He spoke out loud to silence the commanders.

“Instead, we will bring in the estate troops that are scattered around the capital.”

“The estate troops?”

“Yes, there are many unoccupied estates, and I know that some troops are there in those places. We will bring those troops and make them stop the Volga Republic and the Holy Empire, and those brazen continental allies.”

Marquis Maghreb didn’t know of the emperor’s intention, but he thought that sooner or later, an order would come asking them to stop for the invading troops.

“You only have to make time till then.”

“However, even if we use the troops of the estates, they will be short on power.”

Gigants and cannons, everything that was usable was brought to the capital, and those who remained in the estates were the old knights and soldiers.

It was impossible to block the enemy troops by gathering such a small number of estate forces.

Maghreb nodded at Count Jemo’s words.

“As you said, it will be difficult. So I plan to covertly send in one squad of knights to each.”

According to the formation of the Imperial army, one squad of knights had 100 Gigants for us.

And that meant they were sending in Gigants for support.

Only then did the nobles, who reach Marquis Maghreb’s thoughts, nodded and asked, “That doesn’t sound bad… Shouldn’t we think about how to send them in secret?”

“We will take it for granted. Your Majesty did tell us to do all we can to secure the capital, and he never really told us to not support for estates.”

“Indeed! Support! We are sending the knight troops to support the estate troops!”

“I think that is a good idea. I agree with it.”

As the people began to agree, Marquis Maghreb tried to make up a detailed plan, including the list of knights to send.

However, something terrible happened.

Bang! Bang! Pop!

Rumble!

All of a sudden, the ground began to shake with sounds of explosion coming in from all four directions.

“Wh-what was that?!”

“What is this…?”

When the commanders were confused and tried to look for the cause of the shaking, the door opened with the lieutenant of Marquis Maghreb rushing inside and crying out.

“We are in trouble, Sire! Fire is rising all over the capital and explosions are happening all over. It seems like someone invaded and caused an uprising.”

“What? Who would…”

Right when Marquis Maghreb was going to give orders for the troops to advance to battle… this time, two messengers ran in at the same time and yelled in panic.

“It was said that the security magic circles installed on the walls of the capital suddenly started to run wild.”

“It was said that a monster was seen appearing from the sky and attacked the barracks in the south! They have been calling for support troops!”

The sudden series of the events left Marquis Maghreb and the high ranking nobles confused.

However, one thing was clear.

Regardless of what it was, they had to stop their plan and watch what was going on.

If the mess increased and the news entered the ears of Rudolf, they would surely be punished for it.

“After suppressing them with all means and methods, seek out those who made this mess and destroy them.”

“Yes, Sire!”

The commanders and staff of each military commander, who took in the military order from Marquis Maghreb, hurried out.

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

“Hurry! We need to save our allies before they are attacked by the monsters!”

“Arrest those who made a fuss and shoot them! If you are in doubt about the person, arrest them!”

“Gather all the cannons! We need to shoot the monster that appeared in the sky!”

Gigants and the soldiers moved out of the barracks.

Their goal was to clear the mess, mainly outside Nemesis, and protect the walls of the city.

Thanks to that, the entire center of the city turned empty.

“Whoohoo, it is going just as planned.”

Luke smiled as he climbed to the bell tower of a temple and watched the events happen.

The series of mess was all his doing.

The servants hiding in the Intelligence, such as Henry, set fire to the government offices and mansions of the other high-ranking people to divert the attention.

And then, the security magic circles, which had been sabotaged, were the result of the zen users, Jo Mimi and Karen, before placing circles being activated.

As things erupted in succession, the Imperial army that was stationed in Nemesis was confused and didn’t know how to react.

‘As a result, only the Knights of Guards remained in the Imperial Palace.’

During that brief period, Luke was planning to destroy the remains of time and escape from Nemesis.

“Kay then, shall we start?”

At his gesture, Arch Duke Gregory and the other members of the Saint Guard and his secret troops ran toward the Imperial Palace.

Various units moved back and forth and were all disguised as the Baroque Imperial troops, so no one was stopping and checking them.

But did they reach around halfway?

Suddenly, they felt a familiar wave of energy from the Imperial Palace.

It was the Aether.

‘No! did they get the ruins to work? Already?!’

At that moment, when Luke’s heart began to shudder, Karen shouted, “Dad! We are done! It looks like Rudolf has started the ruins!”

“All this! Everyone move at full speed!”

Luke raised his mana as much as he could and started to dash ahead to the Imperial Palace.