Emperor of Steel

After a while, the rebellion in the Konrad province was taken down.

Although Duke Ferrierd’s family was declared missing and some key nobles weren’t found, the army succeeded in clearing out the remnants of the rebels against both Alvera and the nearby territories.

“Tomorrow, we return to Bless.”

Philip asked Luke who had just come back from the Count’s barracks with the news about heading back.

“What happened to the rebels who have attacked Bless?”

“The one called Marquis Suleiman, Arch Duke Gregory and the Saint Guards went in time and defeated them.”

However, Arch Duke Gregory didn’t stop there, he went chasing down the army led by Suleiman.

The pursuit had continued till the provinces of Ranghel, Suleiman’s base. With constant victories, Suleiman was killed and many other rebel masses were either killed or captured.

“That is a good thing. But there were still a few other territories like that in Jackson, why not go over there and suppress them?” Asked Philip.

“That…”

Luke told him the story he had heard from Count Marcus.

When the two largest insurgents were destroyed, the rest of them were either frightened or surrendered, or they volunteered to turn into faithful servants of Veronica III.

As a result, the chaos in the Holy Empire, which was triggered over by Archbishop Constantine’s presidency and the greed of the ambitious nobles and high priests was over.

“That is ridiculous, but things went good. Are we heading back to our estate?” Asked Philip.

“Still. I have an appointment with Reina, and I need to do a few things for her.”

For that purpose, Luke was willing to extend his stay in the empire.

“I see. Then what about the mercenaries who have come all the way here?”

The mercenaries were accepted into the army to establish merit.

Now that the rebellion was down, the mercenaries weren’t needed by Luke.

But Philip felt like it was a waste to only let them be after two months of training them, leaving them strong in the Holy Empire.

They had been ripped off by the lazy mentality of the mercenaries, so a little more of training would show a lot of promise in the future.

“If we promise good treatment, many will follow us.” Said Philip.

“Really? Then, you take care of it.” Luke just went along.

“Yes, please leave it to me!”

The next day, the army began to head back to Bless, leaving behind a few troops.

“Wah! Red Wolf Mercenaries!”

“Where, where! Where is the God’s Warrior who split the meteors falling from the sky?”

“Captain Lev, I love you!”

When the army arrived near Bless, people flocked over to them for a grand welcoming.

The most popular ones among all of the army were the Red Wolf Mercenaries and Captain Lev.

Many of the capital men flocked to see the members of the Red Wolf Mercenaries, and when they passed by, they held out bouquets or threw flowers on them.

Young women, in particular, used affectionate voice to shout out Lev’s name and cheered for him.

The Red Wolf Mercenaries were bewildered by the illusion that they had never seen before.

“No, I don’t get it, how did this happen?”

“Right. It is common to cheer for knights and Saint Guard…”

They weren’t aware that Archbishop Constantine had widely promoted their success in the capital’s bulletin board to strengthen his political stand and position.

Therefore, they couldn’t help but feel weird at the actions of the public.

“Well, this is much better than cold response.”

“Right. In the past, we were looked at like robbers…”

No matter how well a mercenary fought, the perception of the common people regarding them was never so good.

No one would like to fight with them, they could either kill or rape the young women if instigated.

But the reaction they got in this war was different.

The residents of Bless greeted the mercenaries a lot more than the regular soldiers.

“I think we did well in joining the Red Wolf mercenary.”

“Same here.”

Luke was on a horse along with the Rakan Knights in the front and at the rear were the mercenaries walking and talking among themselves.

Philip couldn’t help but smile at the welcoming crowd and opened his mouth.

“Huhu, it is nice to be captain Lev. Young and pretty girls are screaming your names with fondness. Some lady threw her panty at you, what do you plan on doing?”

“Jealous?”

“Obviously I am jealous. Tch, I drew my sword against a Sword Master in the Gigantic Duel, why is there no one calling out my name?” Philip spoke with irritation.

“Why? Want me to promote it now?”

“No need. I am just fine with hearing the swears.”

Mumbled Philip and changed the topic.

“Aren’t you being bothered by the high-ranking nobles to join them?”

“Ah, that? Arch Duke Gregory had taken care of it before leaving.”

Just before heading back to Bless, Arch Duke Gregory ordered the army to leave the Red Wolf Mercenary and Captain Lev all alone.

No one knew the exact details on the orders, but there were no nobles who had dared to go past those words of the first knight of the Holy Empire, the leader of the Saint Guards, and the Imperial Chief commander.

“Rather than that, how many mercenaries are planning on coming with us?” Asked Luke.

“Just as I said, most of them are coming, except for a few who wanted to fall out.”

“That’s surprising?”

Luke thought that even half of them and moving with them was a huge success. It was because mercenaries were used to being free spirits.

But 3,000 mercenaries said that they would stay with the Rakan.

“Especially the expert and the usable men plan to follow us.”

The two men weren’t aware, but for the mercenaries, Luke was taken in like a second coming of the Mercenary King Gilford, after 300 years ago.

It was their thought to stay by the man and be part of the legend that the king would write.

Especially the mercenaries who committed themselves to the training.

“It is glad that many are joining us, but taking them to the estate would be harder.” Said Luke.

“I plan on taking a week off. We made money and accumulated a lot of fatigue from this expedition. In the meantime, we can call for a boat from the estate and use it.”

It was impossible to go past the Castia kingdom which was needed to be crossed from the Holy Empire.

No country would like to have more than 3,000 foreign troops entering their borders.

Philip was, therefore, planning to use the Kirillov’s transport ship through the Rio river and move the men.

“I am sure the Rio channel will be faster and less noticeable. But, is the estate being run well?” Asked Philip.

At the end of the expedition, Luke called for an agent from Argos overseas branch which was located in the Castia Kingdom.

He was curious about the situation of the Marquis Rakan, and he wanted to keep his eyes on the enemies.

The agent had arrived in the morning and upon seeing Philip, he had given the full information to him, and Luke saw that.

“I thought that it wouldn’t be going smooth. Without any mistakes and troubles, Rakan estate has to be run well.” Luke spoke his mind.

“But, not long ago princess Margareta had come over, the same day, and a knight calling himself Shaikan came in and showed tremendous skill.”

“Princess Margareta?” Asked Luke.

“Yes. Sebastian, who had transformed himself into the Lord, is dealing with the situation, and are trying to find a way to get rid of her and make sure she doesn’t gather much access to us.”

The retainers of Rakan were observing princess Margareta’s moves.

Nobody was foolish enough to not know that she had moved there to try and swallow up the young lord who was turning into a promising person in the Empire.

But they couldn’t they just question the princess of another nation, so they were trying their best to treat her as politely as possible.

“Troublesome woman. I need to take action of her as soon as I get back to the estate!”

Luke wasn’t very fond of Princess Margareta. No, it was too annoying for him to keep his guard up as she always has something up her sleeve.

“But what happened with the one called Shaikan?”

Along with the question, Luke’s face tensed up.

In fact, he was shocked that Shaikan had made an appearance rather than Margareta, and it was because the name belonged to the Orc Hero from Navarre.

He was worried that the man might have come to take revenge on him.

“Baron Rogers and Kaper faced him, but both of them lost, is he someone you know?” Asked Philip.

“Hmm, he was the Orc hero who caused the monster wave in the Navarre.”

“Huh? The Orc Hero was a human?” Asked Philip.

Philip went shocked.

“I was quite surprised to know that I saw them dealing with a human. But we didn’t lose the estate, right?”

“He told his name and disappeared.”

“That so? I am glad.”

If that Shaikan person rioted the estate, then his image would have suffered considerably.

Of course, if he mobilized the knights and the silver knights, they might win, but with his ability to transform into a dragon—it was possible to lose half the estate.

There was no way they could know why he had gone to the Rakan Estates, but it didn’t seem like it was for revenge.

‘As he said, he was angry with the Baroque Imperial family. I’ll have to find him and meet him soon.’

‘Perhaps, he might be a strong ally.’

Luke’s mouth curled up without realizing it.

After talking to Philip a little more, he arrived at the wasteland outside the palace and after passing through the crowd.

The chief commander, Marquis Valentino was there to disband the army after giving a brief speech along with congratulations.