Emperor of Steel

In the woods near Angyong, Nanjing.

Two men were lying in the middle of a vacant lot which looked like it had been recently cut.

One man had an exotic outfit but was southern.

However, the other one was blue-eyed and unfamiliar with the looks in regard to the place.

He was Luke.

After getting sucked in by the subspace created by Aura and Magi, he lost consciousness. He was only then regaining his consciousness.

However, he could only see a strange landscape unfold before his eyes.

“Uh… Where is this?”

He shook his head because of the exhaustion his mind was in after passing through a subspace.

‘I don’t know where we are, but this isn’t Melvin valley.’

The scenery of the forest was different.

Instead of the iron bars, not a single piece of stone could be seen, and the remnants of strange stone statues and tombstones were scattered around.

‘An ancient artifact related? This looks similar to the Abaron era…’

Luke, who was interested in those artifacts, put the monuments and the stone statues into his subspace bracelet to study them later.

He then began to look around the forest.

There were many plants and beasts scattered around, even grass worms were moving.

“This must be the king tree. Obviously, the book says that it only grows in the southern conti…”

“Ahhh!”

Amazed at the sudden scream, Luke turned around.

There was Hwang Bo-sung standing.

Just before getting sucked into the subspace, he remembered his hand being held by someone. Of course, the hand didn’t help him much.

However, Hwang Bo-sung seemed very excited.

As he touched the soil and looked at the flowers and trees, he was literally crying.

“I’m not mistaken! This is my homeland!”

Because he spoke in his native language of the Song Empire, Luke couldn’t understand what Hwang Bo-sung was talking about.

However, he was pleased to see Hwang Bo-sung like that.

“Sir Hwang Bo-sung, what is going on?”

“Lord! This is my homeland, the Song Empire. I am home!”

“Huh? This is the southern continent?”

Unlike Hwang Bo-sung who couldn’t hold his happiness, Luke’s face stiffened.

He had suddenly moved to the Southern Continent that was thousands of kilometers from Rhodesia.

A place with completely different cultures and environments.

‘The Song Empire… That damned subspace dropped me this far…’

It wasn’t that he couldn’t go back.

There were frequent trades between the Kirillov co. that worked for Luke.

However, going back would take a lot of time.

And there was the limited distance the teleport magic could be used.

No matter how excellent a wizard was, it was impossible to cross over a vast sea.

‘How could this happen when I had a lot to do…?’

It wasn’t just one or two, there were rumors about him, and then there was Reina who would get worried about his disappearance, and the civil war in Baroque and the things with the fairies.

In such a time, he had fallen in a distant place with unfamiliar surroundings.

‘Well, I should feel glad to be alive, right? Besides, I haven’t lost all my power…’

Fortunately, his Black Circle was back to normal even after exhausting all of his power to break past the barrier. The forces of Magic and Aura didn’t affect him much.

All he had to do was get enough rest, and Luke would be as good as new.

‘Did Gregory’s men and himself escape as well?’

His thoughts were hazy.

The only thing he remembered was breaking out of the cage. It looked like the men had escaped from the fairies since their skills weren’t so bad.

“First, I need to find the branch of Kirillov co. in the Song Empire. Sir Hwang Bo-sung, do you know this area?”

“…”

“Sir Hwang Bo-sung?”

Looking at Hwang Bo-sung’s puzzled face, Luke took a close look at him.

The man, who was so happy just a moment ago, was frowning with a dark expression.

“What is it? Is there a problem?”

“Nothing Master. It is nothing.”

‘Why do I feel like there is something?’

As Luke thought, Hwang Bo-sung was indeed in a mess.

It was indeed a pleasure to get back to his homeland, but his family had issues.

Hwang Bo-kwang, his other brother, who was envious about his father’s attention toward Hwang Bo-sung, had taken him to another nation and tried to assassinate him using a curse, a poison, and the apostate.

Luckily, he survived that time and met his master and regained his old skills back.

He had gained a lot of skills and experiences after competing with different people in the unknown land.

‘I still don’t intend to succeed the clan. But…’

He wanted to set the past straight.

So, he wanted to get back to the clan and get his revenge.

However, talking to his brother was useless.

He didn’t want to hurt his father nor did he have any intention to shake the hearts of his poor family members.

‘It will be very wrong if master will be involved in all of this.’

Hwang Bo-sung was determined to not drag down his savior into his trouble and decided to cover up his revenge plot for a while.

“If we go to the harbor, we can catch a huge ship to the northern continent, Rhodesia, and fortunately for us, there is a huge port town nearby.”

“Really?”

“I am sure. There is a large city overlooking the clouds over there. The Hwayong Mountains, one of Song’s five famous mountains and the last gateway to Nanjing.”

Nanjing was a port city located on the Yangtze river, and they could escape from there by taking a boat to the sea.

“Nanjing… I read about it in a book. Was it a thriving city of the Song Empire? Seeing that you know your way around here, you must have visited the place.”

“Right. When I was a kid, I used to follow my father around.”

Hwang Bo-sung, who felt nostalgic, smiled upon remembering the memories of the past and soon pointed his finger to the side.

“If my memories haven’t betrayed me yet, the road isn’t much far from here. I will guide you from here, master.”

“Okay.”

Luke wondered what Hwang Bo-sung was so concerned about, but he didn’t take the liberty of asking.

People had their own secrets, and there were things that they couldn’t confide to others.

Luke knew that feeling better than anyone and decided to respect Hwang Bo-sung’s will.