Chapter 185 - The End and The Beginning (7)
Arthus had always thought the world would just continue its natural course while replacing its worn-out parts when necessary. At least, this is what he had thought until he saw the ruins of the palace.
However, the world was not that simple.
Arthus laughed at the sight of the emperor’s head being displayed in the Blessing Chapel.
“Ha…”
“D-Duke?”
“Hahahahaha!”
Arthus laughed so hard that his eyes were tearing up and his cheeks were flushed.
It was a genuine laugh.
Finally, when he couldn’t laugh anymore because of the strain on his facial muscles, Arthus wiped off his tears and straightened his back.
“Duke…?”
Kington and the other nobles were distressed and nervous seeing Arthus act like this.
“...How fun,” said Arthus
“Pardon?”
“Ah, this is fun.”
Arthus took a deep breath after finishing talking to himself.
The palace had once been filled with fresh air and delightful fragrances, but now it lay in ruins, permeated by the acrid smell of smoke and charred remains.
For an average person, this was merely the scent of destruction. However, Arthus could smell the foul stench concealed by this scent of destruction, and the underlying mocking warning.
‘This couldn’t have been the Imperial Ten Swords…’
The imperial palace was completely destroyed, which meant that the suspect was among those who hadn’t been in his line of sight.
Arthus had initially suspected that the four Imperial Ten Swords might’ve been behind this, given that they had been ordered to go to the palace first, but there was no way they’d do such a thing unless they had lost their minds.
Arthus then thought of Alfred, his right-hand man and the first person to put this rebellion in motion.
Of course, if Alfred had wanted to, he could’ve easily destroyed the palace with his spirits. However, it couldn’t have been him either. Having known Alfred the longest, Arthus knew that he wouldn’t have the balls to do something like that.
‘Then it must be him.’
Eisen Shonan was a former Central Aristocrat who was too stupid for the amount of power he possessed, so he could only take part in short-term plans. He had ultimately failed to become part of the Three Great Families, and consequently earned the nickname of ‘Forever Count.’
However, all of a sudden, Eisen had begun manipulating the emperor to execute Aubert, and now he was after Alfred. Of course, Arthus didn’t believe for a second that Eisen was this smart, given that he hadn’t even been able to stand before the throne and openly reveal Aubert’s crimes.
Arthus’ mouth curled into a grin, and he thought to himself, ‘I think his name was Henry…?’
With more pressing matters at hand, Arthus couldn’t be bothered by minor issues like Aubert’s death or Eisen’s growth. However, he now had no choice but to care because Henry had stopped his smooth sailing plan.
‘I’m sure Alfred is dead then.’
Now that he suspected Henry, Arthus could see the bigger picture, but the more he thought about it, the more questions he had.
‘Why? Just… Why?’
No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t come up with a good reason for why Henry would do this.
‘For power?’
However, if power had been his objective, Henry wouldn't have gone through all this trouble. Rather, it would’ve been more efficient to come to Arthus himself if his goal was to climb to the top. Therefore, Arthus didn’t think Henry had done this in order to become more successful.
‘Then was it for revenge?’
However, he didn’t know enough about Henry’s background to confidently say that his motive had been revenge.
‘Background aside, he’s probably responsible for Mordred’s disappearance.’
Starting from Aubert’s death, Benedict’s escape, Mordred’s disappearance, and Alfred, quite a few odd things had happened now that Arthus thought about it.
Arthus stopped pondering on it because he judged that digging even further was just a waste of time.
In addition, it hadn’t been necessary for Arthus to behead the emperor himself. He didn’t know who it was, but they had kindly hung the symbol of the old era that was going to be used for the coronation.
With his usual tone, Arthus said, “This is good. I was going to take care of the palace after the coronation anyway.”
“D-Duke…”
“So… Are you just going stand there? Whoever it was, they were kind enough to do it for us. Go and bring it here already.”
“Y-yes, Sir!”
Arthus was still smiling, but Kington saw the blue-lit madness from his smile. Flames were hotter when they were blue, and this was exactly how mad Arthus was right now.
“Rockefeller.”
“Yes, Duke.”
“Rockefeller, your duty is to go and search the entire palace. If there are any survivors, I want you to capture them alive and bring them to me. Also, search for any traces of the four Imperial Ten Swords who were sent here first.”
“Yes, Duke.”
Rockefeller Igdom was the fourth sword of the Imperial Ten Swords and the head of the second group of knights in the imperial palace.
As soon as Arthus gave him the order, Rockefeller gathered the members of the second imperial knight group and set out to investigate the ruins of the palace.
“Kington, Batz.”
“Yes, Duke.”
“Both of you will come with me to the Magical Spire.”
“Yes, Duke.”
There was no use in crying over spilled milk.
The imperial palace, which used to be the symbol of the empire, had turned to ashes, and the emperor’s head, which was the symbol of the old era, was displayed on a spike.
Arthus was not in the least bit angry about the four missing knights, and he certainly wasn’t going to lose a minute of sleep if he found out they were dead.
Whenever a new era was born, some were bound to die, and others were bound to live to laugh about it. Arthus believed that he was going to be the one to live on.
He headed toward the Magical Spire.
* * *
“H-how can this be…!”
“...!”
Arriving at the Magical Spire, Kington and Batz were left speechless.
The Magical Spire, which was considered the main repository of knowledge, had been here a few days prior, but now, just like the imperial palace, all that was left was a bunch of scorched ruins.
Kington and Batz let out a subdued groan and looked at Arthus.
Arthus was expressionless because if the Magical Spire was gone, this meant that all the wizards in the empire were also gone.
Arthus’ head was spinning again.
‘The Magical Spire has also been burnt to the ground…?’
Until just a few moments ago, Arthus had assumed that Eisen’s new vassal, Henry, had been responsible for all of this. However, as soon as he saw the ashes of the spire, a new set of speculations washed over him like a wave. He thought that all of his previous theories were completely off the mark. However, Arthus believed that if this was the Magical Spire’s doing, a fully independent entity, that would explain everything and overturn all of the speculations that he had previously made.
‘...Whatever it is, it's certain that they’re after revenge.’
The wizards of the Magical Spire were passionate followers of the late Archmage, Henry Morris. Therefore, Arthus thought that they might have taken the opportunity to pull off this stunt when he had announced his intention to rebel. If not, there was no other way to explain this because wizards were known to be greedy, but only for knowledge, not for power such as the throne.
Arthus decided to forget about all the speculations he had made so far, and start from scratch.
Just then, he remembered the old man, Lore Gillian, who had once stared back at him with expressionless eyes.
‘I see. So this is how you want to play, huh?’
Wizards were quite troublesome, but that didn’t mean he was scared of them. Besides, when it came to wizards, he had a talented one himself.
“...Everyone, we’re heading back to the mansion.”
Arthus had a rough idea of who the culprit might be, so he wasn’t in a rush to track them down. As long as the culprit stayed within the Eurasia continent, he knew he would eventually track them down and behead them.
Arthus decided not to postpone the coronation any longer. The announcement of his new era was more important to him than some wizards who merely dealt with magic.
Oong!
Everyone tore their teleportation scrolls on the spot.
* * *
“This is…”
The first to come out of the gate was none other than Lore Gillian.
Lore stepped out of the gate with a dumbfounded expression, and looked around his surroundings.
“The Magical Spire?”
It looked similar to the Magical Spire in the palace, but it was much grander. This was none other than the Snow Spire in Salgaera that Henry had built.
Wizards continuously emerged from the White Gate inside the Snow Spire
Soon, when the last wizard finally walked through the gate, Henry placed his index finger over his lips as he watched the wizards make a fuss.
Everybody went silent and all eyes turned to Henry.
“As you can see, this is my spire, modeled after the Magical Spire in the palace. It’s located in Salgaera, the northern part of the continent. Thus, I have named it ‘the Snow Spire.’”
Wizards were qualified to build their own spires once they became an archmage, but until now, no archmage had ever built their own spire.
After the death of Henry Morris, the first head of the spire, the wizards had come together to protect each other rather than act upon their greed under the leadership of Lore and other school heads.
Therefore, the Snow Spire was the second official spire built in the empire.
“I’ve modeled this spire after the Magical Spire in the palace, but fixed parts that needed fixing and made it overall bigger. So, I hope you’ll all adapt well to this spire.”
Henry knew that it was hard to change one’s way of life so suddenly, but as the most intellectual people in the empire, the wizards also knew they couldn't just whine about how difficult it was.
Henry checked the time, then turned to Lore and the school heads.
“I’d like to speak to all the archmages for a moment.”
“Yes, Archmage!”
A new archmage, one that had successfully fulfilled the dying wishes of the late Henry Morris, had been born. Now that Henry had become the new leader of the wizards, he wasn’t about to let his powers as a wizard go to waste.
‘In order to do that, I’m going to have to reveal some secrets.’
Henry felt the need to reveal the secrets that had been hidden behind the storm of history that was now sweeping over the fallen empire.
Keep friends close and enemies even closer. The more one knew about their enemy, the more likely it was for them to win.
Of course, before he let them in on this secret, he needed to clarify some things.
Soon, Henry and the archmages moved to the top floor of the Snow Spire.
* * *
The top floor of the Snow Spire looked exactly like the one from the old Magical Spire. It was so similar to the point of awkwardness.
Snap!
Henry snapped his fingers and summoned a round table.
“Everyone, please have a seat.”
A total of seven archmages sat at the round table.
Seated at the table were, in order, the head of the Magical Spire, Lore Gillian, who was now the deputy of the spire.
Stan Hardiradi, the second headmaster of the Magic School, naturally had lost his position as the deputy when Lore had taken his place.
Douglas Kincaid, the head of the elementalist school.
Argus Druid, the head of the biology school.
Linky Black, the head of the movement school.
Maker Swarth, the head of alchemy school.
Junky Rubis, the head of the liberty school.
Finally, Henry Morris, the new head of the spire.
Including Henry, there were a total of eight wizards around the table.
With a gentle look, Henry scanned the faces of the school heads sitting around the round table. He was happy to see all of them.
The fact that there hadn’t been a change in the school heads meant that everyone had done a good job of leading their respective schools without internal conflict.
After making sure that everyone was seated, Henry said, “First of all, I’d like to thank you. I’m sure all of you are capable of speaking out loud when something is bothering you in the Magical Spire, but you’re all listening to me, a young guy, who has suddenly appeared out of nowhere.”
“You’ve proven that you’re the only disciple of the late Archmage, and you’ve shown us firsthand how to reach the level that none of us have ever reached, so what more could we need?” answered Lore on behalf of the school heads, who in turn all nodded in agreement.
“Really? That’s nice of you to say. Then I’d like to try and repay all of you for trusting and following me. I’d like to do that by advancing you guys to the 7th Circle.”
“...!”
Henry had uttered those words calmly, but they couldn’t be taken calmly at all. All the school heads stared at Henry with wide eyes.
“Why are you all so surprised?”
Their reactions were amusing to Henry, and of course, he had expected them to react like that.
“My master was the first human to ever reach the 8th Circle, but that doesn't mean that I can't. If anything, I already know how to reach the 8th Circle.”
“H-Huhhh…?!”
Thud!
Henry continued with the shocking remarks.
Maker Swarth, the head of the alchemy school who was known to have a weak heart, fainted at Henry’s shocking statement.
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