Emperor of Steel

With fierce sounds of wind moving in a calm place, a certain purple light was flashing from the north side heading to the south through the sky.

In just a short amount of time, the light reached the Rakan estates and landed in the garden of Lamer city.

Kwang-!

“What, what was that?”

“A meteor?”

Shocked at what had created the sound, knights and mercenaries hurried to the spot where the sound came.

As they went to watch, they were surprised to see a young man walking out of the crater.

“Luke, Lord Luke!”

“I don’t get it. Why is Lord Luke over here?”

The young man wearing a military uniform, which was tattered due to the speed he traveled in the wind, was Marquis Luke de Rakan—the Lord of Rakan territory.

When he suddenly appeared from the Torlot Fortress, which was at the north of the empire, everyone was shocked.

However, Victor, the head of the Kirillov Co., was calm. He just thought, ‘He has come.’

He talked to Luke who had approached him, “I guess you heard it.”

“… Where?”

“The dark elves are looking for her whereabouts. Erenes said that she was surely somewhere on the continent…”

“Where the hell is that damn High Elf!!”

A wild and shocking shout came out of Luke’s mouth.

The purple aura, which was around him, was soaring around like the flames of hell.

Surprised by the furious response of Luke, all the knights at the scene went pale and scared. Some were scared to the extent that one of them had screamed. They could’ve probably wet their pants.

‘I knew something like this would happen, but…’

Luke sighed after realizing that he was getting too furious at something he expected.

In fact, if he could, he would have asked for Reina’s whereabouts by trying to shake the High Elf.

“Understood. I will guide you. Please follow me.”

Luke followed Victor to the mansion where Erenes was staying.

In the meantime, the attendants had spread the news about Luke’s arrival.

“What, the Lord has come?”

“But he is on military service. Did he get a vacation?”

“I don’t know about that, but he could be accused of deserting.”

“Why did he come all of a sudden?”

“Was it because princess Reina hasn’t been found?”

The Argos branch in Lamer heard the news and quickly went back to their seats.

If Luke did desert his role, then letting it be known to the Imperial family wasn’t going to do them any good.

Luke heard about Reina’s disappearance three days ago.

However, the source of it was Erenes.

He asked his student Erwin to send the information through magical communication.

The moment Luke heard of the unsettling news, she began his journey toward Lamer. Three days and nights with nothing to eat and no sleep, he used every single ounce of energy he had to reach his destination as soon as he could.

Because he had to know why such a thing happened and if Reina was safe.

Kwang-!

“Erenes!!”

The moment Luke reached the mansion where Erenes was staying, he opened the door with a shout.

Surprised with his act, the dark elves intercepted him but with the intangible energy that Luke had around him, they were all blown away.

“Please calm down, I’ll explain what has happened… Kyak!”

Luke threw Erwin, who was trying to calm him down. He approached the bed and caught Erenes’ collar.

“Long time no see.”

Erenes smiled bitterly at the furious Luke.

He recognized Luke’s identity immediately. The body belonged to a young man, but the soul, the soul was his old companion.

“It’s been a long time. What have you been doing?! What did you do to her?!”

Along with Erwin, who was thrown to the ground, Victor was watching the conversation between the two.

Their unspoken tone and the behavior between them, it seemed like they were well acquainted for a long time.

‘Maybe he really is the reincarnation of Saymon?’

When Erwin was thinking to herself, Erenes opened his mouth.

“You must surely know what our fairies ultimately want, right?”

Erenes’ hope wasn’t to provide liberation to the persecuted fairies.

It was to open the closed door of the Spirit World and recover the fairies’ lost power.

That was what Luke knew, but he never thought that it would result in this.

“Just a little more studying and you would have noticed it too. The hidden power inside Princess Reina,” Erenes said.

“Obviously I know…”

Erwin said that the Spirits existed when the world was one.

“Earth’s Tears. It was left by the last Elementalist who continued the spirits use from the World Tree since the ancient times. It has been passed down from generation to generation in the Volga Royal family.”

“And so? How did you twist Reina into this?”

Luke was curious about that.

“She too was scared at first, but she did it for the person she cherishes, and she understood the wishes of the fairies.”

“She did it for me?” Luke asked.

The last war between the Baroque and the Volga Republic. While in the front lines, no information could be known, so…

… Reina asked the fairies to share information about the battlefield in exchange for helping them.

And they agreed upon using the Earth’s Tear to open the door to the Spirit World.

Luke, who heard the entire story from Erenes, looked at Erenes with a ridiculous expression.

“Just because of that? She accepted just to know if I’m alive or dead?”

“It might seem trivial for you, but that isn’t the case for the person waiting to see you. Moreover, if that person holds a special position in her heart.”

“I know, I know. But…”

Luke clenched his fists at Erenes.

His eyes soon filled with tears, which soon found their way down his face.

“Erenes, you should know this! For whom I decided to fight the world, the beasts who were residing in it!”

In the past, Saymon caused a war to create a world where all the people would be treated humanely.

But he had a more fundamental reason.

It was for his beloved Katarina who was destroyed by the Veritas Magic tower and the Baroque family.

And that act of his had failed 500 years ago because of that dumb man, Rakan.

However, because of his descendant, he once again got the chance to meet Reina, who resembled Katarina.

Reina, Katarina’s incarnation, wasn’t going to be lost, and he wanted to make a world where people could live equally.

But things happened like this!

He couldn’t understand why his colleague, who understood and supported him 500 years ago, would be the one to do it.