Emperor of Steel

Woong!

The space was distorted, and a man appeared from there.

A wizard, who was wearing a lily embedded brown robe, looked very proud as he saw the Veritas Magic Tower Brandon branch.

“It has been a very long time since I have been here.”

Very old memories, which he made a decade ago came into his mind. He smiled.

“You, who are you!”

“Do you know where this is…!?”

Sensing a sudden mana flow, the wizards had brought in mercenaries at the center of the garden of the branch.

They were under the impression that someone had broken into their branch and would try to attempt arson again.

However, they were surprised to see the clothes of the intruder.

“Lily emblem? Also a seven on the…”

“El… elder!”

Everyone hastily put down their weapons.

Before the seven-lily patterned robe.

It was the sign of the Seventh Elder, the next highest authority after the Meister and the Vice Meister at the Veritas Magic Tower.

“I’m Pierre Ortrand, a member of the council. I am here to meet the branch manager.”

At the words of the Elder, no Pierre, the senior wizards of the branch were astonished and soon led him to the splendid building which was at the center of the branch.

‘Oh my, it is Pierre Ortrand!’

‘We are all dead now!’

Pierre, one of the Elders among the council, was in charge of the Magic Towers.

Specifically, with the unexpected visits and the censorships, no one who faced the visits ever managed to stay rational till the end.

‘Was it because of the fire? It hasn’t been reported to the headquarters just yet. How did he know?’

‘Dammit, the branch manager isn’t feeling good too…’

A short time later when they had arrived in front of the branch manager, the wizards said,

“This is the place, Sir Elder.”

Pierre opened the door. A strong smell hit his nose—the smell of alcohol.

As Pierre squeezed his nose, the drunk man yelled,

“What? Yah, who are you?”

It was the branch manager, Jameson, who didn’t know that the elder was in their branch.

No, even if he knew about Pierre, he would have done the same.

All of his motivation fell to the ground after losing his tools for revenge on Meister Albert and the Veritas Magic Tower.

Pierre looked at Jameson then to the wizards who escorted him and said,

“Go away. Don’t let anyone enter this room.”

“Ah, yes.”

The wizards had no intention of resisting the orders of the Elders and quickly went away from the place.

When it was just the two of them, Pierre locked the door and approached Jameson.

He spoke to Jameson, who just kept drinking,

“What happened to the Atlas blueprint?”

“What?! Uh, how did you…!”

In a moment, all of the alcohol that Jameson drank seemed to have been flushed away upon hearing what the Elder said.

Flustered, he fell off his chair and tried to get back up.

Looking at him with a sneer on his face, Pierre said,

“Did you know that I was in charge? I know that you talked with a few people and made them leak the blueprint. I was just standing aside to see how many bugs were there in the Magic Tower.”

And the time was done, the purging of the bugs was finished.

The only one left was Jameson from the Brandon branch.

“All right, so talk now. The blueprint.”

“Who, who are you?”

At the question from Jameson, Pierre became rather upset.

“What are you talking about?”

“I am Pierre, an Elder. His magic wave is cold, but it wasn’t as sullen as yours.”

At that, Pierre, or the man with that appearance, smiled.

“You were a genius at Albert’s time but maybe you were not.”

“What, what did you say?”

The name of Meister Albert was never spoken without honorifics.

Jameson began to get suspicious about his identity. However, the fear started to make his body stiff.

“If you decide to not speak to me, then you’re going to force me to look for it.”

“Uhk!”

The appearance of Pierre disappeared from his face, and a sparking skull appeared.

‘A Li… Lich?!’

Jameson was about to retreat but was dragged forward when the Lich had opened his hands.

He tried to fight back using his own magic, but he was overpowered and was made to kneel down forcibly with his head near the hand of the Lich.

‘Kaaaak?!’

As the black energy rose from the Lich’s hands, Jameson began to feel terrible pain which he had never experienced.

It was like hundreds and thousands of needles were piercing through his head. Sharp pain like a knife was trying to cut his head open.

Whether the pain was real or not, the Lich was trying to get inside the memories of Jameson with dark magic, and he did find something.

‘No! That is Dark bullet!’

The Lich had recognized the magic that the intruder had used against Jameson.

Though it was different in color, it was definitely Dark bullet—a series of dark magic attacks.

‘The invader was a warlock?’

He wanted to know more, but the memory of Jameson ended there.

After a while, the Lich saw the library burning down from the inside, but the whereabouts of the blueprints were still unknown.

The Lich had certainly determined that the intruder had taken the blueprints. There was no way one would leave such a precious item to be burned in the fire.

‘Is it the Dark Moon of the Volga Republic? They are the only ones with warlocks apart from me…’

The Lich knew a lot of secrets, which were still unknown to the world.

One of them was that the Tower of Darkness was built by the warlocks of the Volga Republic.

Not known to the world, the Dark Moon was a group that was deeply involved in the founding and the affairs of the Republic.

If it wasn’t for the Dark Moon, the Volga Republic would have been crushed.

Even there too, they had a glimpse of the existence of the other side, and it was better to not say anything about them, and their massive warlocks since anyone who talked about them would get caught.

In addition, the constant conflict and confrontation between the Volga and the Baroque Empire had benefited the Veritas Magic Tower in numerous ways.

So, there was no need to ruin the opponent…

‘There is no good in trying to tilt the scale to one side. It’s annoying, but I seem to have to go to the north and get the blueprint.’

The Lich decided to free Jameson.

Of course, the work wasn’t done, but his head was infused with dark magic.

That meant that it would allow the Lich to stealthily control the host and find out everything the host was seeing, hearing and thinking about.

‘Let’s find out whom this guy was trying to contact in the Magic Tower, and who else is looking for the latest technology in our Magic Tower.’

“Uhuhuh… What the hell happened…?”

“Are you okay, manager?”

“Elder Pierre?”

Unlike before, Jameson was now convinced that the Lich was Pierre.

The Worm in his head made it look so.

“Do you have to work yourself up this much just because the library burned down? Keep working hard and be strong.”

“Uh, I’m sorry.”

After completing his work with Jameson, the Lich left Brandon and headed to the north for Volga Republic.

To recover the blueprints of the latest Hero-class Gigant of Veritas Magic Tower.

He never even gave a second thought.

That he had made a completely wrong judgment.