Chapter 160 – Empire’s Public Enemy (1)
The territory of the kingdom, which had occupied a corner of the south, was now greatly expanded. The separated lands of humans were merged together by the emperor. The size of it was equal to the land of the remaining species combined.
“Everything has gone as I envisioned.”
“That is the plan.”
“Yes. I can’t say that everything obtained was just through luck.”
Keynes recalled the past as he looked at the map of the continent. He borrowed the power of a human earl and succeeded in killing the legendary orc Lenox. Thanks to that, he was able to establish a relationship with the nobles.
The plan sped up because he joined forces with Rommel, who had already been recognized by the nobles. And thus, he met the king. The young king had merely been a symbol. At the time, he was just a link that weaved the humans together under the name of the kingdom.
But Keynes was able to see the ambition in the king’s eyes. Eureka! It was a strange feeling. It felt like he developed a meaning.
He manipulated the people around him. However, he wasn’t an instructor who raised those who had stopped running; he was quite the opposite. He whispered at the side of those who were already running and lured them down the path he wanted.
“Then how did you think about making the king an emperor?”
“Akantor was originally someone with the ambition, and I had the strength to bring it out. I was lucky. My plan worked.”
“You are too modest.” Rommel whistled.
Keynes grinned. Rommel was one of the few people he could truly converse with. Rommel’s class was a War Maestro, and he was talented in many ways. Even his mind was good. Before the launch of Elder Lord, when PC games were still popular, Rommel was a professional gamer.
“Then, what type of idea do you have?”
“Here.” Keynes pointed to something on the map.
“Ha…” Rommel saw it and smiled. There weren’t many cases where Rommel smiled like this. “This is a big idea.”
“Hahahahat. You recognize it.”
Keynes was a thorough realist. He enjoyed Elder Lord in order to build wealth in reality. He and Rommel had already made huge sums of money as the leaders of Heaven and Earth. Now he wasn’t satisfied with just that.
“A species war.”
Keynes would use the genius of war, Rommel, to make the empire trample on the other species.
When considering how achievement points were gained by affecting the world of Elder Lord, the achievement points and wealth that would pour down on them would be several times higher than what they currently accumulated.
It was at the scale of Elder Lord’s devastation. Maybe it would be devastated to a point where it was impossible to play the game. At that time, the publishers would either break their rules of non-intervention or reset the server. Anyway, by the time he would’ve quit Elder Lord.
“Let’s burn down the world.”
“Good.”
The two looked at each other and grinned.
“You intend to create a cataclysm to gain marvelous achievement points?”
“That’s right.”
Keynes confirmed his status window and saw that his achievement points were constantly being updated. Even though he was still, his achievement points were accumulating due to the activities of his clan members.
But he didn’t receive any compensation that was of great use to him right now.
“I think so as well.”
People thought Keynes had an ordinary magician class. He made them believe that. He professed himself as the magician class. However, he had a hidden class that no one except for Rommel could reach.
‘Evil Whisperer’. It was a class that specialized not just in magic, but also skills that affected the other person’s mind. His words and deeds exercised control over people. People trusted him and followed his commands. With just a few words, he could turn an opponent into a loyal subordinate.
It was the ability that best suited him. He would now whisper evil words into the ears of the emperor and the nobles, and the continent would fall into the flames of war.
“We’ve already obtained many good things.”
“Oh, Brother is also a hidden.”
“Yes.”
Only Rommel knew that he had a hidden class. However, he didn’t tell Rommel the information about it.
Keynes, he was able to get the hidden class because maybe someone wanted him to.
The system messages. In the early days, the system messages were a mechanical system that transmitted elements of the game. As he fought bigger battles and earned more achievements, the messages came closer to his personal feelings.
When he first started a war and slaughtered people, he gained achievement points and the system said,
[Great slaughter! While it is a malicious act, at the same time, it is a tremendous achievement. I look forward to the bigger wars that you will cause!]
Then Keynes felt something. He had a vague feeling. The world of Elder Lord was helping him.
At that time, he heard something outside the door.
“Keynes! Rommel! Can I come in?”
“Uh, come in.”
The door opened and a clan member entered. “There is a letter.”
“A letter? From who?”
He tilted my head to the side.
“Isn’t it ‘that’ thing?”
“Ah, that.”
They were talking about the random letters sent out by Crockta. It was the latest topic in the empire. Crockta wanted all the attention to be focused on him and he was successful. He was a moderately clever guy.
Right now, the empire was seething with anger towards Crockta. The empire’s public enemy, Crockta.
“He is creative so I wonder what is written here.”
Keynes chuckled and opened the letter. He checked the contents. Then his face stiffened.
“……”
Keynes’s stiff expression melted away. He laughed and stated.
“Clever.”
Keynes handed the letter to Rommel. Rommel read it.
“He is smart. This guy is for real. If this was what he intended, it is successful.” Rommel nodded. Keynes banged the table.
“Above everything else, we have to kill this guy. That would be better. It doesn’t matter since this guy intends to draw the aggro. So I feel relieved. I can kill him.”
The NPCs of Elder Lord were realistic. They were amazingly realistic and had their own logic and philosophies. Keynes and Rommel had grown through their cooperation with NPCs, so they knew this better than anyone else.
NPCs were clever. Enough to catch up with users.
“I know this, you jerk. We are tied together.”
In the letter Crockta sent, he had only written a single line.
[Remember Lenox.]
Lenox was killed a long time ago and became a foothold for him to reach this position. But due to that, the Thawing Balhae Clan died. He thought that was the end. But the old revenge he believed was over had come back for them.
Crockta hadn’t just accidentally tangled with the empire. His two eyes were always staring straight at them. Until one of the two of them were gone, it would be a fight to the end.
‘You will never be able to bear what you have done today.’
Lenox’s voice that he heard on that day washed over him again.
***
Adandator raised his sword.
He was defeated by Crockta. Since then, every time he lifted his sword, Crockta’s illusion was staring at him. His spirit became chaotic. He couldn’t hold the sword anymore and dropped it.
“Shit.”
He threw the sword towards the fireplace. The sword rolled across the floor a few times before becoming quiet. The blade would be damaged.
‘A swordsman should think of the blade as his lover.’
His father always said so. His father saw the blade as his lover, yet he was a third-rate knight who never reached the Pinnacle. It was a time when the Paklinche’s family’s sword had disappeared. The family declined and no one remembered them.
“Look.”
They were the family that produced the most famous traitor in history. Leyteno Paklinche, the worst knight who sided with orcs and killed humans. People supported the Paklinche family when they were strong, but once they lost strength and fell, the people hit them in the face. Those were the hard days.
Adandator never forgot those insults. So he crazily swung his sword. From the moment he closed his eyes to the time he opened them, he only thought about the sword. It was a near crazy obsession. He was able to become the best knight in the kingdom.
“He’ll beat me again.”
He knew how convenient the word ‘talent’ was. People said that Adandator was a genius. He was called the best talent of the empire. However, he lived every moment with the blade. His head was calculating the sword’s trajectory, even when he was eating or sleeping. He looked at the full bloom of a rose and saw a sword in the structure of the stamen and pistil.
He didn’t believe that was talent. Humans had no limitations. It was obvious whenever he was knocked down to the ground. He would come back stronger and beat the faces of those laughing at him.
But now he couldn’t swing his sword. This was the first time.
“Why?”
He muttered as he closed his eyes. He imagined an invisible sword in his hand and thought about the formula. An image formed in the darkness. The countless enemies and knights he faced in his life passed by. Now they were easy opponents.
He recalled the sword of Earl Bendeker, a powerhouse.
His sword was flexible and couldn’t be caught. The earl seemed to be pushed back, but then he used a soft sword that reversed the attack and slashed at the opponent’s neck. It wasn’t easy when he thought about it again. Adandator concentrated.
In his imagination, he gradually got used to Earl Bendeker’s technique. Adandator received a lot of damage from the tricky skill, but Adandator’s sword eventually stabbed his heart. At least his sword could be wielded if a certain strong person was in front of him.
But Crockta was different. At the time of the duel, Adandator clearly had the advantage until he faced an unknown light. But now he couldn’t remember how he pushed Crockta.
A dead wall. He couldn’t defeat Crockta, no matter how many times he repeated it in his head. He couldn’t even imagine it. This was the first time.
“Don’t make me laugh…” He raised a new sword. Then he swung it in the air. A wave of energy ripped through the air. “The orc who follows Leyteno…”
He learned all the swordsmanship techniques of the Paklinche family. Therefore, he was able to recognize Crockta’s swordsmanship. The orc’s greatsword style was clearly taken from Leyteno. Now it had developed into his own technique, but the base was definitely from Leyteno.
And the root of Leyteno’s swordsmanship was the Paklinche family. In the end, it was a swordsmanship associated with Adandator’s family.
“Shit! Shit!”
He shouted and the sword hit the ground again.
Kaaang! Kaaang!
He relentless threw the sword against the ground. There was no sword capable of enduring the abuse of the empire’s strongest knight. The blade was broken. He kicked the fragments and threw the handle.
Complete despair. It sank down on him. It was a terrible feeling he had never felt before. He couldn’t understand Crockta and the light that was produced. Trying to understand the unknown concept caused an obsession that was close to madness.
“Shit…”
He flopped down. He took deep breaths and tried to calm down. He barely managed to calm himself.
Then he asked, “What’s going on?”
“……”
His butler was approaching. He stood where the sword had been broken. “There is a letter.”
“That thing.”
Crockta’s letters were a hot topic in the empire. Each letter insulted the emperor in a novel way. Some nobles of the empire were secretly collecting them.
The butler approached and handed it over. Adandator opened the letter. Then he started laughing. The emperor’s features were surprisingly alive. The emperor was in wet bedclothes and speaking insulting remarks. There was no context so he couldn’t help laughing.
“This is like a child’s game.” Adandator burst out laughing. “I lost to a child like this?”
He got up from his seat.
The butler said, “The imperial empire has got in contact.”
“What is it?”
“There is an army forming to deal with Crockta. The commander is Rommel. The White Lion Knights have also been called.”
“The knights…” He was the leader of the White Lions and they were the best power in the empire. “This letter has angered His Majesty.”
Adandator laughed. Emperor Akantor was still young. He didn’t have the qualities of an emperor yet.
“Crockta?”
“According to reports, he was recently sighted near Nataliya Forest.
“Not Espada?”
“That’s right.”
“I see.”
Adandator closed his eyes. The feeling simmering in his chest constantly tormented him. It was making one demand. If he followed it, this crazy feeling would disappear. He couldn’t lift his sword on his own. He couldn’t see the answer. An unreachable enemy. All of these things were making him breathless. An answer was needed.
“Listen carefully.”
“Yes.”
“I’m going somewhere now.”
“…Huh?” The butler’s eyes widened. “I told you that the White Lion Knights are convening.”
“I am sick.”
“His Majesty…”
“If he comes to find me, tell him that I am sick and I can’t move.”
It was the truth. He couldn’t concentrate on anything. At this rate, he might go crazy with frustration. He had already ruined two swords. There was no other way. He needed to resolve this.
“For the time being, Adandator Paklinche is ill. I went to see a famous healer in the land of the elves.”
“……”
“Do you understand? I won’t change my decision.”
“Hoo, I understand.” His faithful butler nodded. He absolutely followed Adandator Paklinche. Adandator was the one who brought the family back from the brink of ruin.
“Then prepare my baggage.”
“Where are you heading?”
“Nataliya Forest.”
“Surely you aren’t going to Crockta! That place is dangerous!”
“I’m not going to fight.” Adandator grabbed his head. “I need an answer.”
He was going to ask Crockta. The shape of Crockta that blocked Adandator every time he lifted a sword. The despair that made him unable to swing the sword. He had to ask that person for the answer.
“Crockta is the empire’s public enemy. If you get in touch with him without fighting…”
“That is why I need to meet him even more. Of course, that isn’t the only reason.” It wasn’t just to help Adandator. “The emperor is currently mistaken.”
Crockta had shown that ‘light.’ Adandator experienced it directly so he could tell. If Crockta could use it freely, the empire might collapse. The White Lion Knights, the Blue Dragon Lancers and any other elites, they couldn’t endure that light.
“It is also for the empire.”
The butler bowed.