Chapter 163 : Chapter 163
Chapter 163. The Emperor (2)
Accidents are common on the battlefield.
In fact, this would probably be true even if it wasn't a battlefield.
Whether at home or in the office, unexpected accidents follow people like shadows.
Stubbing your toe on a chair, bumping into someone walking towards you while you're not paying attention, or even stamping the wrong seal on a document can be considered a type of accident.
However, the damage from these kinds of accidents is minor, and if something needs to be fixed, it can be corrected quickly.
Accidents on the battlefield are different.
They are usually fatal and irreversible.
This is a fact that can be understood just by looking at the names of these not-so-rare accidents.
Friendly fire in the chaos of battle.
Spell overload.
Cannon barrel defects and explosions.
Friendly fire.
Breakdown of the chain of command, and so on.
Perhaps that's why accidents are perceived as being more frequent on the battlefield than in daily life.
Another characteristic is that these accidents do not discriminate.
The famous tale that one of the reasons Napoleon lost his last battle was due to his chronic hemorrhoids and the opium prescribed as treatment is well-known.
It's a story about how a trivial illness contributed to the downfall of a legendary commander.
It seems the emperor of this other world is not much different.
“It seems you were exposed to the plague bomb.”
A face tinged with a faint paleness.
Fingertips that trembled intermittently and finely.
Small, age spot-like bumps had sprouted here and there on the Emperor's face.
Since there was no pus or boils, and no distinct high fever, it could be seen as a light infection due to a weakened immune system, but the Emperor's personal physician was a named hero.
He saw the pathogens that others could not.
“The plague is dormant inside your body. All I could do was take measures to prevent it from being contagious and delay the onset of symptoms as much as possible.”
Was it guilt for not being able to cure his lord's illness?
The half-elf with a prosthetic eye spoke in a hushed voice.
It wasn't that his skills were lacking.
No matter what anyone said, he was the ‘Apothecary’ of the Imperial Secret Knight Order.
In an empire that believed miracles could cure most illnesses, there was no other hero who could provide comparable treatment without divine power.
It would be no exaggeration to say that in his specialties of surgery and research on infectious disease treatments, he was one of the best not just in the empire, but across the entire continent.
In fact, the Apothecary was a hero I always recruited before facing the Ratman Corruption Priesthood when I played as the Empire.
The Emperor, who had raised himself from the bed, lightly patted the Apothecary's slumped shoulders.
“It's alright. Don't worry. I'm not dying right away, am I? We have time, so let's solve it bit by bit. Isn't it thanks to you that I can talk with my loyal subjects like this?”
“…I am deeply sorry.”
“You've worked hard. By the way, I'm grateful that you've all gathered like this, but I have something urgent to discuss with Viscount Ash, so would you mind giving us some space?”
The room emptied quickly.
Olif left first, followed by the Imperial Secret Knight Order, including the Apothecary.
Finally, Archduke Gabir gently closed the door.
The Emperor said with a light laugh.
“Was it a bit of an unpleasant sight for a devout paladin to see? I heard that some priests consider medical arts that are not miracles to be taboo.”
“…You jest too much.”
“Haha, I know. Aren't you a fake believer? Sometimes, even Luark's grace is hard to understand. To bestow a miracle upon an unbeliever like you.”
I unknowingly glanced towards the closed door.
The Emperor saw this and let out a hearty laugh.
This psychopathic gentleman.
Was this something to say in another's castle, of all places?
“Still, it's interesting that you're positive about medical arts. I'd imagine many have only seen folk remedies from the countryside.”
“That's because I've benefited greatly from the 21st century.”
“…? What is that?”
“It's something.”
“Anyway, thanks to that friend, I've bought some time. The priests' miracles didn't work, strangely enough.”
That was plausible.
Divine power wasn't a panacea for all illnesses.
Miracles showed strong efficacy for external injuries or curses.
For poisons or infectious diseases, they could only cure mild ailments.
‘It would be a bit different if it went over level 10, but…’
Unfortunately, there was no priest hero of that level under the Emperor's command.
Heroes commonly called ‘transcendent beings’ could be counted on one hand, combining both the East and the West.
Like reclusive masters from martial arts novels, these individuals who lived hidden in their own abodes would only appear one by one in the very late game, giving various excuses, perhaps for balance reasons.
If you wanted to obtain a hero of rank 10 or higher, you either had to be ready to recruit them when those reclusive masters appeared, or find a hero with high potential and raise them yourself.
Personally, I thought Alina might become a priestess who goes beyond level 10 soon enough.
Randal seemed close too.
“Come to think of it, you probably couldn't greet him on the battlefield since you were busy taking care of the wounded. That friend from before, Fenilsilado, is also part of my knight order. Like Siollus or Karok. We call him the ‘Apothecary’.”
“I see. Is he also a captain-level?”
“That's right. He's one of only two non-combatants among the captains of my knight order. The other one is a shaman… unfortunately, he died in this battle.”
That dead shaman was, as I knew, a prophet who could foretell the future.
He was the number one contributor who helped the Emperor strategically prepare for the many crises that would befall the empire.
If he were alive, he could have filled the gaps in my knowledge, but he was already a dead man.
“My condolences.”
“Is that so?”
“?”
“It's nothing. I'm not one to linger on fallen chess pieces.”
His psychopathic tendencies hadn't gone anywhere.
As I stood there silently without answering, the Emperor raised an eyebrow and asked.
“Do I look like a psychopath who has lost his humanity?”
“Pardon?”
“I wanted to ask for your honest opinion.”
“…No, you don't.”
“A lie. It's alright. I understand completely. But more importantly, do you know what I'm thinking right now?”
Well, how would I know.
I only answered in my head.
I silently turned my head and looked out the window.
Through the half-open curtains, the drizzling rain incessantly tapped against the windowpane.
It was the rainy season.
“We defeated the two largest priest clans of the Ratmen and brought their city to ruin. In return, my seven thousand elite troops who followed my command without fear of death were annihilated.”
“…….”
“I believe it was a very profitable trade.”
I looked back.
The Emperor was scratching the back of his head.
A bitter smile was on his lips.
“I am that kind of person.”
He fumbled in his bosom and took out an object.
As if a pendulum had been snapped off a clock, a gray orb and an attached rod-shaped object.
The Emperor held up the object and asked.
“Do you know what this is?”
“What is it?”
“It is the sacred relic of the ‘Pendulum that Swings Between Hope and Truth’.”
The Emperor let go of his hand.
Instead of falling, the sacred relic hung in mid-air and began to swing left and right in a slow pendulum motion.
Like a pendulum hanging from an invisible clock.
“I learned who you were with this.”
“…….”
“So, to be fair, from now on, I will answer the questions you are curious about.”
***
Lui Karlos.
The 53rd Emperor of the Empire.
Ascending to the throne at a young age in place of the previous emperor who died early, he was an outstanding ruler and strategist who might appear once in a century.
The Monarch of Reform.
The One Blessed by Luark's Grace.
The Jewel-like Eye that Overlooks the Continent.
The Iron-Blooded Emperor, and so on.
Even considering he was an emperor, the countless titles attached to him, to an excessive degree, were like medals representing his abilities.
Of course, only I could make the most objective evaluation.
I thought of him as a psychopath who loved the empire.
A psychopath is a medical term for a disorder where, due to a functional decline of the frontal lobe, one lacks emotional empathy and, consequently, fails to adapt to a society built for living with others.
This was knowledge I gained from a psychiatric hospital I attended for a while after losing my parents following my medical discharge.
What's interesting is that it's possible for a psychopath to live like a normal person.
To quote the hospital director, who, with a gentle impression, would say, ‘all mental illnesses can be cured’ while billing me, it was ‘a disease that can be sufficiently overcome by trying to understand the other person's emotions logically, even if it's difficult to empathize with them’.
I didn't trust the hospital that had squeezed millions of won out of a patient in his early twenties who had lost his parents, but at least that sentence seemed to be true.
Because none other than Emperor Lui Karlos was the living proof of it.
While not viewing human lives as anything more than coins a merchant places on a scale, he perfectly acted out ‘understanding and empathizing with the emotions and circumstances’ of those coins.
On top of that, he was not an ordinary psychopath.
He possessed the emotion of love.
He loved the empire.
It wasn't a superficial emotion, as is often the case with psychopaths, but a love that burned like fire, almost too much for even a person with an ordinary heart to bear.
This love, combined with his pathological lack of empathy and the status of emperor he was born with, was the decisive factor that completed the monster that he was.
I'll put it simply.
He was a monster who could sacrifice anything for the sake of the empire.
“Ah, this? You're curious about this? You mean the church's sacred relic?”
Because I knew him in such detail, my questions were already decided.
I wanted to know the few facts I hadn't encountered beyond the monitor.
One of them was about the sacred relic he had possessed.
“There were two. One was an heirloom passed down from my great-great-grandfather. The other I came to know of while scouting for candidates for the Imperial Secret Knight Order.”
This confirmed that the Emperor had possessed two sacred relics.
It wasn't particularly strange for the ruler of the strongest human power in the western part of the continent.
The one passed down from his ancestors was the sacred relic of ‘The Aphid that Consumes the Universe’.
The one he discovered by chance was the sacred relic of the ‘Pendulum that Swings Between Hope and Truth’.
“It was a family heirloom passed down in a certain merchant family.”
The Emperor said he acquired it by paying an appropriate price.
“After the civil war, both were stolen by the Weird Priesthood. I recovered this one. It seems you seized the sacred relic of ‘The Aphid that Consumes the Universe’.”
“……Yes? The Universe what? Is that a popular snack?”
“…I won't ask for it back.”
“Thank you.”
“You're not normal either.”
“I'm often told I'm normal.”
“Anyway, use it well. It holds the power to develop a city into a nation, and a nation into an empire.”
The Emperor said, shaking his head.
Come to think of it, I was getting curious.
How much did the Emperor, and the imperial family, know about the sacred relics?
Furthermore, what did they know about the church and the Outer Gods they served, and the still vaguely perceived unknown existence?
“Aha, so that's what you were curious about.”
Unexpectedly, the Emperor readily opened his mouth to a question I hadn't expected an answer to.
“Where should I begin…. Yes, it would be good to start here. The Pendulum that Swings Between Hope and Truth, this sacred relic has two abilities. One is to sense hope. The other is to see through the truth.”
“By truth, you mean?”
“Right after the civil war, I learned everything about you through this. How you've gathered people so far. How you learned spells, swordsmanship, and necromancy. Honestly, I was envious.”
“…….”
“I learned that you had two sacred relics through this. How many is it now? Three? Or four?”
“…….”
“Is it five?”
“…….”
“Six?”
“Let's stop there.”
“It's five.”
“…….”
I neither affirmed nor denied.
What was he going to do about it now?
It's not like he was going to brand me a heretic.
What piqued my interest was what came next.
The Emperor grinned and tapped the pendulum, which was swinging in mid-air.
“Do you know? This sacred relic. The ability I just mentioned, to see through the truth, can only be used about once every hundred years.”
“Is that so? You wasted your only chance on me.”
“I apologize if you were offended by me digging into your personal life. But how about this? The personal information uncovered like this is permanently stored in the sacred relic.”
“What you mean is…”
“Yes. There have been others like you who have collected sacred relics before.”
The Emperor let out a shallow cough.
Clearing his throat, he said with a slight frown.
“If you can call them people, that is.”