Emperor of Steel

“You met with Arch Duke Gregory and his party?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. There was a bit of a problem that came in, and he helped.”

Upon hearing Shirley’s report, Luke ran back to the mansion.

There he could see Gregory and Saint Guard’s disguised as the Elder Knights of the Baroque.

And Karen’s expression didn’t seem great.

“Ugh!”

“Don’t bend your arms bending, lift them high a little more!”

Karen was kneeling down, facing the east towards the Holy Empire, and was whining with hands raised high.

When Karen’s arms went a little down, as if she wanted out, Gregory struck his sword to the floor and pointed out.

Luke looked at that and sighed.

Hwang Bo-sung, who was behind him, was shocked.

“Your Majesty, that is a little too…”

“Let it be. When you do something bad, you need to be punished.”

Luke didn’t want to say the words of ‘Why are you killing my poor child’, like every other noble parent he hated.

At that time, Arch Duke Gregory approached him and spoke.

“Greetings Your Majesty. I never thought that I would meet you in such an unexpected place.”

“It is nice to meet you. When I heard Karen’s words, I thought that Reina would definitely do something but to send in Arch Duke Gregory…”

“I never expected that this would be the reason for me to enter Nemesis.”

Gregory, who spoke to Luke, glanced over at Karen.

Karen, whose feet seemed to be tingling, tried to straighten her foot and then corrected her posture.

‘Dad, please help me.’

Karen glanced over at Luke with pleading eyes, but Luke ignored her daughter’s plead.

“Aren’t you supposed to scold her more severely?”

“Not that, but Her Holiness has asked me to spank the child when I met her.”

“Really? Then why…?”

“The princess has a rather adult-like personality, right? I thought it would be too much to do that.”

‘And making her kneel and raising her hands, isn’t too much?’

Hwang Bo-sung thought, but didn’t say it out loud, it wasn’t a discussion he could interrupt.

“I see. But how did you get into Nemesis? The security is pretty tough.”

Luke was really curious.

He knew that the Saint Guards had immense power.

However, that didn’t mean that the security magic circle or the checkpoint artifacts in Nemesis would let them pass.

Even Luke had to spend some time and break those circles.

“Did Marquis Reas of the Arthenia Holy Magic Tower accompany you? With his ability, it might be possible, so?”

“No, Marquis Reas is with Her Holiness. We hid under the ground.”

“Underground? You mean that there was something like a secret passage?”

At Luke’s question, Gregory nodded.

“Behind Nemesis are catacombs which were built long back. It is connected to several temples on the ground, it is pretty complex and very extensive, almost like a labyrinth.”

‘Right, the catacombs!’

The catacombs, the paths for the sanctuaries, were created by remodeling the underground dungeons or sewers built during the Mado Empire.

After the fall of the Mado Empire, the world was so chaotic and lawless, so priests of that time used these passages for refugees or escape routes.

Luke knew about the existence of these so-called catacombs during his time as Saymon.

High-ranking priests of the esteemed estates would escape through the catacombs, but even after men were sent to catch them, no one could actually find the persons who went in.

“The priest of the temple near the Nemesis guided us. And the Elder Knight uniforms were borrowed from a few believers.”

“Indeed… you came in without strain because you had help. Is there a catacomb to the basement of the city?”

“Huhu! Well, why would you want?”

At Gregory’s question, Luke glared at him.

“You are being too savage with me.”

He knew very well why the old man was known to be scary.

It was because this man had connections with people everywhere because of the denomination, and he had the profound knowledge he had accumulated all over the years, he wasn’t someone who could be ignored.

While he was trying to pull Luke’s leg, Luke asked seriously.

“When you use the catacombs to go out, is it fine if we accompany you?”

“It doesn’t matter, but I heard that Your Majesty is planning to destroy the ruins in the Imperial Palace? Is it so dangerous that you had to come over and destroy it?”

Gregory too heard that the Baroque Empire was trying to weaponize the Vers.

Marquis Reas explained what Vers was and how dangerous that plague could be, but Gregory didn’t understand Luke’s actions.

Luke seemed to be in a hurry to do something.

Moreover, Luke was over here, when he should have been trying to help in containing that zombie poison which was spreading over on the other side of Baroque.

“This is very dangerous. Incomparable to all the crises we have faced till now.”

“Uhm…”

Luke didn’t give out any specific information.

However, from his glances itself, Gregory knew that Luke wasn’t making things up.

“There must be a reason why the Princess had to react like that.”

Gregory didn’t know the details, but thought Karen must have heard something from Luke.

He thought that she must have run away from home for her father, so wanted to be forgiven for doing her filial duty.

However, since it was a betrayal to her mother, he decided to discipline the child.

“If the situation is that urgent and dangerous, we will help. But how are we going to enter the Imperial Palace? Even if we dress up as elite, there will be entry to only a few.”

Rudolf was currently concentrating on his remaining forces in Nemesis.

Not to mention the defense against the Imperial palace, as Luke too looked a while back, it seemed impossible to penetrate through the troops which were stationed outside the Palace.

Unless something very important came up to divert them, Luke wouldn’t be able to move in.

“Even though it was, we were trying to find ways to infiltrate from then, but I think that it will be easier to solve with Arch Duke Gregory’s help.”

“Easy you say?”

Arch Duke seemed puzzled, and Luke laughed out loud and slowly explained.

“Actually, I was about to use my hand to secure it as a retreat. You know, this path…”

Having decided that the catacombs would be used as a retreat, Luke decided to use the magic circles and the zen users in the groups to infiltrate the Imperial Palace.

The same method as before.

They were getting prepared to attract the attention of the enemy, so it didn’t matter where they used the trick.

“And we have our agents from the Imperial Intelligence Serve. If they can create a little mess, we can keep the baroque troops from paying attention to the Imperial Palace for a small while.”

“Indeed! If you do that, it won’t be that reckless.”

‘Hiig, I will have to help it too….’

Karen glanced at Luke with joy in her eyes as she heard Gregory’s question. Because she believed that her dad would save her.

For the first time, she regretted following her father.