Chapter 156

“Are you… truly, truly… a genuine Grand Master?”

Faced with the Baran Empire’s Emperor, who had half-risen from his imperial throne in sheer shock, I wore a thoroughly awkward expression.

Hmm… just as the rumors specified, his race was human, and his age appeared to be roughly in his early sixties. However, contrary to a face that clearly showed his years, his physical frame looked practically robust—no, it was exceptionally sturdy.

Well, it made a fair amount of sense when I thought about it… Unlike Earth’s medieval era, this world possessed priests. This meant that no matter what someone’s dietary habits or lifestyle were like, the whole thing could be completely smoothed over using nothing but divine power. It was even easier to maintain one’s health if the individual happened to be a psychic ability user like a Steel Body user.

‘So, unless there’s a specific reason otherwise, everyone tends to enjoy extreme longevity.’

Right at that moment, a middle-aged man seated a couple of steps below the Emperor shouted toward me.

“O nameless knight concealing your visage! The Emperor Father addresses you, yet you offer no reply?!”

Emperor Father? Ah… that middle-aged ‘mister’ with the receding hairline must be the Crown Prince.

Sigh. Look at that M-shaped hair loss. How pitiful.

“Ah, did you ask if I am a Grand Master? Well… that is… indeed the case, but…”

Right. It was true that I am a Grand Master…

‘But… why on earth am I standing here right now to begin with?’

Feeling as though I had been thoroughly bewitched by something, I casually scanned my surroundings.

A massive, grand throne hall befitting of the imperial palace.

Hundreds of pairs of eyes focused directly upon me. As a point of reference, every single individual standing there was an aristocratic bureaucrat—Counts, Marquises, and Dukes.

‘Ordinarily, wouldn’t an audience for a mere Count wrap up in about ten minutes with a few questions back and forth in a small audience chamber? Why the hell are we doing this whole grand production in this massive throne hall?’

As a point of reference, the Throne Hall was the most magnificent and luxurious space within the imperial castle, where the Emperor handled matters of state alongside all high-ranking officials or presided over various grand ceremonies. It wasn’t a venue meant for granting an audience to a mere low-ranking Count.

Feeling my social energy rapidly depleting due to the sheer volume of gazes focused on me, I cast a subtle glance toward Shia, the sole instigator of this entire fiasco.

Shia promptly turned her head, thoroughly avoiding my gaze.

“I shall ask you once more. Is it true that you are a Grand Master?”

“…Swearing upon the names of all the true gods of the heavens, it is indeed so, Your Imperial Majesty.”

The moment the affirmation left my mouth, the Throne Hall instantly dissolved into a clamor.

“A Grand Master?”

“Does that mean he is a powerhouse on equal footing with Duke Orléans?”

“An unknown Grand Master? Can such a thing truly be possible?”

“What a magnificent blessing! A magnificent blessing indeed! Is the Empire poised to spread its wings once more…!”

“He has yet to declare that he will serve the Empire. To begin with, if he possessed any intention of belonging to the Empire, why would he conceal his face with a mask?”

“They said he is Sir Carmen’s master. Does that not mean he belongs to the United Kingdom?”

“If the United Kingdom possessed a Grand Master, there is absolutely no way those people would have remained quiet. They would have bragged about it until the entire continent shook.”

“As expected, is he a seeker of martial arts who pursues paths without any allegiance?”

“Regardless of his origin, the fact that he has come all the way to the imperial palace to show his respect to His Imperial Majesty means he holds a fair amount of goodwill toward the Empire at the very least, does it not?”

“His attitude is also quite courteous compared to Duke Orléans. He seems far more reasonable to converse with than that man…”

“We must pull him under the Empire’s wings by whatever means necessary.”

As a point of reference, the reasons these people believed my words so easily were, first, because I had sworn upon the names of the true gods, second, because a fairly renowned Master like Carmen Sonya Evas had introduced me as her master,
and finally… because if someone lied about such a thing here, they wouldn’t be able to preserve their life unless they were a genuine Grand Master. Deceiving the Emperor was an exceptionally grave capital crime.

“Silence! This Emperor is currently engaged in a conversation!!”

At the Emperor’s thunderous roar, the Throne Hall, which had been as noisy as a bustling market street, instantly fell completely silent.

Sweeping a thoroughly displeased gaze over his officials, the Emperor looked right back at me.

“First, I must ask you this. This current venue is an audience for Sir Carmen regarding her succession matters. What is the reason for your presence here alongside her? Could it be to lend weight to your disciple’s affairs?”

Uh, well… because a certain dangerously adorable Demon King wanted to take a look at your face…

…If I actually blurted that out, Grand Master or whatever, it would be nothing short of a declaration of war.

‘Sigh. I guess there’s no helping it. Since things have already turned out this way, I’ll just have to play along a bit.’

‘Which means I need to spin some kind of lie… Where and how should I weave this to make it sound plausible?’

Deliberately ignoring the downpour of gazes, I strained with all my might to gather every single drop of my social energy.

Let’s see. How should a Grand Master carry themselves?

Judging by their attitude, it seems a Grand Master receives a massive amount of respect… so playing it too humble would only end up lowering my own value, right?

And since I can’t use my real name, I should come up with a pseudonym…

Ah! Right. There was a time-honored, legendary name that had been passed down since ancient times whenever one thought of a legendary swordsman back on Earth. Let’s go with that.

“First, it would be proper etiquette to reveal my name. My surname is ‘Go,’ and my given name is ‘Gildong.’”

“Gohn? Sihin?”

“It is Go, Gildong.”

“Ah, so Gohn Sihin. Is there perhaps any discrepancy?”

“…No, it is fine.”

Seriously… Westerners(?) and their pronunciation.

“Then, should I address you as Sir Gohn? Or Sir Sihin?”

“…Let us go with the latter.”

“Very well, Sir Sihin. So?”

“Just as Carmen specified, I am indeed her master. While wandering here and there across the world, I would occasionally drop by the Kiadran domain whenever the thought crossed my mind to teach her a sequence or two. Before I knew it, she had managed to ascend to Master rank. It is quite a praiseworthy feat.”

“Sir Carmen’s martial prowess has been widely renowned since her days in the United Kingdom. This Emperor is well aware.”

“Then one day, after dropping by the Kiadran domain for the first time in nearly ten years… I was informed that this girl had suddenly married into some strange, unheard-of domain out of nowhere.”

“Ah… that story was quite famous within the Empire as well. There was a great deal of chatter that the Count of Evas had grasped a massive stroke of fortune thanks to his child. Of course, I never anticipated that fortune would culminate in a heretical cult disturbance. Haha…”

“However, the truth is, there is an untold history behind that affair that remains unknown to the public.”

“Oho?”

“There is another reason for my wandering across the world aside from merely honing my martial arts. It is to return the heretical cultists and the Outer Gods—who have crawled out into the world without knowing their proper place—straight back to hell.”

“My word, such a thing…”

Excellent. Let’s set the atmosphere right here…

“Your Imperial Majesty. The tale I am about to share from this moment onward must absolutely never leak outside these walls. Therefore… if there are any present who cannot keep a secret, I beg of you to dismiss them from this venue.”

“Uh? That… hmm…”

Faced with my unexpected request, the Emperor looked flustered, but unable to conquer his own intense curiosity, he beckoned someone forward.

“Sir Aldarion.”

At his command, a robed man who appeared to be a court mage bowed deeply to the Emperor.

“Speak, Your Imperial Majesty.”

“Erect a soundproof barrier.”

“Understood.”

And a moment later.

“I have ensured that only myself, members of the imperial family, and a select few can hear us. Will this suffice?”

“It is more than enough.”

“Hmm… I have a feeling I am about to hear an exceptionally rare tale.”

A secret story from a wandering Grand Master was apparently enough to get even the members of the imperial family excited. Jeez. Every single one of them had their eyes twinkling.

Deliberately averting my eyes from their burdensome gazes, I began to spin the blatant lie I had just whipped up on the spot.

“I am a Grand Master, but at the same time, I am an ‘Executor’ of the Lumina Church.”

“……!”

Following that, I thrust Lumina’s Divine Mark and the Pilgrim Priest Certificate—which I always used whenever the situation called for it—right in front of the Emperor’s face.

“Furthermore, this is the Pilgrim Priest Certificate signed personally by Her Holiness Glaphina, the Pontiff of the Church, granted to facilitate my convenience.”

As a point of reference, back in the Sinan Barony, the Baron had once asked me if I was a Rule Executioner. At the time, I had merely agreed just to mess with him… but later, out of curiosity, I looked into it and realized that this title of Executor was an incredibly massive deal.

“An Executor… From what this Emperor knows, that is a champion personally appointed by the deity, functioning as an Inquisitor.”

Right. To be absolutely precise, it was an Inquisitor personally appointed by a deity who went, ‘Ah, there are way too many heretics. Hey, you seem to know how to throw down, so go hunt some heretics and Outer Gods for me.’

Their authority as a champion was ‘absolute compatibility against evil’ and ‘angel summoning’ (though it required meeting some tricky conditions).

Compared to warrior champions or priest champions (Saintesses and Saints fell into this category), the ability felt a bit niche, but when it came to beating heretics and Outer Gods to a pulp, there was no better trait.

Ah, of course, I didn’t mean that I actually possessed that; I was just talking about what an Executor was.

“I see… Now I understand why you demanded secrecy. To a heretic, an Executor is said to be more terrifying than a hundred Inquisitors… They would surely try to harm you by any means necessary.”

“It matters not if they come at me. In fact, it is a welcome opportunity to catch their tails. What I truly fear is them catching wind of my presence and slithering deeper beneath the surface.”

“Ah… Indeed. Indeed. You are performing a truly holy deed. If I may ask, how many Outer Gods and heretics have fallen to hell by your hand?”

“I do not keep a precise count of every single one, so I cannot recall the exact number… but swearing upon the name of Lumina, the Outer Gods I have hunted and killed number in the dozens, and the heretics exceed the thousands.”

Gasps of admiration erupted from all around.

In this world, an Outer God was equivalent to a grand archdemon on Earth, so hearing that someone had hunted dozens of them was bound to elicit gasps.

Of course, it was all a complete lie.

For the record, both Carmen and Shia had their eyes wide open, thoroughly flabbergasted by the sheer volume of bullshit flowing out of my mouth the moment I opened it.

“Let us steer the conversation back slightly. At any rate, this child, Carmen, was heavily influenced by me and grew to utterly despise Outer Gods and heretics. She even made it a habit to say she wished to become an Executor herself one day.”

“However… one day, she detected the faint aura of an Outer God and a heretical cult from that Count of Evas fellow and his son when they came to propose a marriage alliance.”

Having heard only that much, the Emperor let out an exclamation as if he completely grasped the plot.

“I see! Is that why she abandoned her territory and everything else to pursue them?!”

“It was an affair that would have concluded easily had I been by her side… but upon learning that I was operating on the Western Continent rather than the Northern Continent, it seems she felt she should somehow handle it with her own hands rather than troubling her master.”

“Oh…”

“And after enduring for a whopping ten years to secure evidence, she finally brought down the hammer with her own hands this time. By the time I arrived, everything had already concluded. Is it not truly magnificent?”

“My word…”

“I looked into the matter separately, and those bastards were in the middle of conducting a ritual to summon the Labyrinth Lord of the Kuscam Labyrinth onto the surface. Swearing upon the name of Lumina, had Carmen not intervened, tens of thousands of casualties would have occurred before the year’s end.”

Right. I said Lumina guaranteed it. So just believe it. It’s a lie, but believe it anyway.

“To think such a hidden history lay behind the chaos that erupted in the Marquisate… You have achieved a great feat, Sir Carmen.”

“I-I am deeply honored, Your Imperial Majesty.”

Flashed a warm smile, I gently patted Carmen’s head as if she were my own daughter. At that, Carmen’s face flushed a deep, bright crimson.

“She is a truly praiseworthy child.”

“Haha… It seems even a brave knight who is a Master finds joy in her master’s praise.”

“……!”

“That is exactly what makes her all the more endearing.”

“……!!”

Hmm? Seeing how she’s trembling and twitching, it looks like she’s feeling a bit restless too. Time to wrap up the story.

I gestured to the mage named Aldarion. Receiving the Emperor’s nod, he deactivated the soundproof barrier.

The sensation of my ears popping accompanied a wave of low murmurs from all directions. The faces of the officials were thoroughly packed with curiosity over what on earth had been discussed inside.

I raised my voice slightly, ensuring they could all hear.

“At any rate, that is the essence of my request. Where there is merit, should there not be a reward? Therefore, I advised her. Since she has already integrated the Viscounty of Iden and the Harpun Count’s Domain, rather than merely succeeding the territory and titles, she should outright establish a Countdom and become its ruler.”

“Having cast aside all the wealth and glory of the Kiadran domain to throw herself into eradicating evil, she fully deserves this level of compensation.”

“Hmm…”

“Naturally, it requires Your Imperial Majesty’s sanction. That is why I have taken this seat today—to lend weight to my disciple’s cause.”

Silencing the surrounding clamor that erupted once again at the mention of a Countdom with a single gesture, the Emperor stroked his snowy white beard.

“Mmm. A Countdom, a Countdom… Given her magnificent merit, I cannot simply ignore it, but…”

Look at this old man… his intentions are transparent. Jeez. Fine, I’ll point blank deliver the exact words you’re waiting for.

“Of course, I am not saying this comes for free.”

“Oho…?”

The Emperor’s eyes gleamed with intense anticipation.