Emperor of Steel

The next day, Luke had a good time with Reina while visiting the famous attractions of the capital.

“Aren’t you going to attend the Victory Parade in the Central Square?” Asked Reina.

“The guys will attend it.”

“Even then, there will be a lot of people who would come to see the War Hero.”

“I did put up a reason, told them that my body isn’t feeling good. So it won’t be a problem.”

And whatever the situation, the Emperor was surely having trouble handling the nobles, so he won’t be having time to worry about Luke or his absence.

So, Luke had decided to use that time while spending it with Reina as much as he could.

“The old Imperial Palace…”

Luke and Reina had entered the white marble fort near the Imperial Palace.

It was formerly the royal palace of the Libiya kingdom, and it had been preserved till the current time because it was used by the first Emperor, Karno de Baroque, and his coronation had happened there.

It was said to have been opened for the tourists for a lot of years and been used as a villa for certain visitors too.

“I know this place. It is like that place where I lived when I was young.”

As the old memories of her childhood surfaced, a longing smile rose on Reina’s face.

“The cherry tree is the same as it used to be. I used to go up there and worry Sir Pavel.”

“You seem like a tomboy.”

“Yeah, maybe if I wasn’t all alone, I might have made it to being a knight.”

“Hmm… not that is something I have a hard time imagining.”

With the memories that Reina brought up, the two people looked around the old palace and moved to another location.

The place was pretty busy, with an old temple on top of the structure.

“Wah, I can see the entire capital from here.” Said Reina who was excited.

“The sunset we see from here is amazing.”

Not long after Luke had said that the sun began to set.

The red glow began to color the whole sky.

The same magnificent landscape hadn’t changed even after 500 years.

“Oh my, this is really beautiful.”

“This was one of the secrets of Nemesis that was introduced to me by someone I know.”

Luke smiled a bitter smile.

It was Katarina, who had taught him to explore nature.

Ironically, she was the same person who had introduced Luke to the place, and Luke was telling that to the person who looked like her.

“But it is a bit weird.” Reina said.

“Weird?” Asked Luke.

“I lived in the capital for years when I was young and asked to move from my country, but I rarely went outside the villa. But for some reason… this landscape is different. A feel like I have been here before?”

At the words of Princess Reina, Luke could feel his heart race.

Reina looked a lot like Katarina, but he knew that the two weren’t the same person.

However, after hearing those words, he felt weird.

‘Could this really be reincarnation, the one the people in the Southern continent talk about?’

If indeed, Reina was Katarina’s reincarnation, Luke could truly thank God.

“We need to go now. If you’re late, you’ll be upsetting Sir Pavel like you used to when you were young.” Said Luke.

“I want to stay here a little longer as I feel happy.”

Reina held Luke’s hand.

Luke, with his smile as pleasing as ever, took her down the structure.

Luke went back to the accommodation after having a date with Reina.

“The Imperial war hearing had been canceled.”

“What?”

“I heard that there was going to be something in place of the hearing, and the Emperor was the one who canceled it.”

“Is that even possible?”

“According to the Imperial law, it is possible.”

Luke was pretty upset.

However, those weren’t the end of Alex’s report.

“And this was what I had heard from my father this morning, the Noble forces are forming two forces for their governance, Duke Butler and Marquis Mayers.”

Externally it was claimed to be a united force to clean up the monsters who were among the nobles, and there was no one who could even point to one and call them a monster.

And there was no reason for a monster sweep to be considered that huge.

“And the Emperor?”

“He asked for the training of the men to be stopped and disband the so-called group right away, but the nobles had up-straight refused to do so.”

The Emperor’s plan was to move some of the proximal knights and the central units into the vicinity of both the provinces.

“Would a civil war even happen in this case?”

At the question of Alex, Luke thought for a moment and shook his head.

“Unfortunately, it won’t happen.”

“Why?”

“Since both sides are stupid, they won’t drag the issue till the end. And if a civil war was going to happen, the army wouldn’t have been moved.”

If they were waiting for a civil war, the army would have been moved secretly without the others knowing.

“Then, is this a demonstration of force?”

“A kind of cliff-end tactic. It means that if one doesn’t yield now, the party had no intention of staying quiet anymore.”

Luke had given more thoughts of trying to stir both sides. If he wagged his tail nay longer, he was bound to get caught, and there was no guarantee that he wouldn’t be exposed.

Both sides were looking through the capital to find the assassin who was taking down the nobles of both sides.

‘So, I shouldn’t take any immediate action. If I don’t do it right, I won’t have any more chances to sprout seeds of doubts anymore.’

As Luke expected, rumors spread over the entire Nemesis that the Emperor and the Nobility were deciding to reconcile the next day.

Alex had found out what kind of a promise the Emperor had made to the nobles and the nobles who gathered for their meeting have returned back to their respective territories.

“Surely, it happened as I thought.”

Unfortunately, nothing could be done.

But all of Luke’s work didn’t go to waste.

The two factions did make a last-minute compromise, but the conflict was deeper than it used to be.

Indeed, the small nobles on both sides had complained about the result, and it increased internal hostility toward others.

And if something happened in the future, the two sides were bound to pull out their swords at each other rather than talk it out.

Which was why Luke wasn’t so anxious and decided to wait for a time that would be better than this.