Ascension Of The Northern Emperor (4)

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Lion-like eyes were scrutinizing Azadine.

The Northern Emperor, Cohen Rioneir. Azadine had only heard of him by name, but now that he was facing him in person, he did not panic and answered calmly.

“Well, now. I’m meeting someone whose fame is renowned.”

“Let us not say things we do not mean. You will not respect me. Is that not so? You must know that I am reincarnating Celestials.”

Azadine was actually inwardly surprised. There was no way Jan had already returned to the Northern Emperor and relayed Azadine’s words.

Unless he had set out for Sandokar almost at the exact same time Jan departed, he could not have arrived like this. Moreover, he had come without any killing intent or presence.

‘I trusted Arael’s voice too much. To think she was asleep until he approached this close.’

[He is erasing his existence and presence with a special magic. As an artificial spirit, I have no physical body, so I cannot help but be weak against someone concealing their traces with magic.]

Arael’s voice explained her own limits. Somehow, it sounded like she was making excuses that it was not her mistake.

“Are you the knight who received Sir Plank’s final investiture?”

“I probably am.”

“It is indeed something fate would guide. But why, of all things, a member of the Messenger Clan? Does fate intend to test all of us? Why entrust such a fate not to a noble bloodline, but to a person from a bloodline hated by all?”

Cohen Rioneir grumbled as he warmed himself by the bonfire.

“Do you truly think all the people can follow the Messenger Clan without despising them? Can you become the great standard-bearer who will overcome this Age of Jupiter? I will not speak at length. Sir Azadine. Pledge loyalty to me. To accomplish a great cause, one needs a birth that overwhelms people.”

Cohen Rioneir said that, then realized his words could be interpreted strangely and put on a serious expression.

“I am not saying this to insult you. I value highly what you have achieved so far. But the masses are foolish, and they have no aesthetic eye for distinguishing jade from stone. For the sole reason that you are of the Messenger Clan, the masses will distrust and disparage you. Can you enlighten all of them? Can you accomplish a great cause while enlightening the foolish masses amid the tribulations brought by the Age of Jupiter? There is no way that is possible. Therefore, pledge loyalty to me in order to accomplish that great cause.”

“What great cause are you trying to accomplish?”

“I intend to achieve the unification of the Rescue Knights Order and the King’s Church, and the prosperity of humanity.”

“Do you believe humanity’s prosperity is impossible in its current state?”

“I do. In its current state, it cannot overcome the coming Age of Jupiter. Even if it endures this Age of Jupiter while still divided, what comes afterward? Is this division valuable enough to be defended under the name of diversity? As long as human forces exist divided and split apart, humanity has no future.”

“It certainly is not a valuable division.”

Azadine also acknowledged that point.

“However, just because division has no value, does unification have value? Forgive my impertinence, but I would be grateful if you broadened my shallow view.”

“Yes. Unification has value. Listen. The King’s Church reveres the blood of god, and the Rescue Knights Order venerates virtue. But that is merely their cause. What are they actually like? The believers of the Rescue Knights Order serve the blood of angels, and the King’s Church attempts to replace even kings according to their own justice and greed. They must become one. Only then can they fill in the lacking parts of each other’s doctrines and become complete.”

“So, to accomplish that great cause, I must come under you?”

“Azadine. You are of the Messenger Clan. And the Messenger Clan is now devoting all its strength to destroying kingdoms and killing people. Do you know how many common people are dying at the hands of the Messenger Clan even at this very moment? Can you bear all their resentment and grudges alone, in full? That is your limit. As a member of the Messenger Clan, you can become the head of a small faction, but in the end, you will run into opposition from forces that hate you.”

“So Your Majesty is saying that because of my bloodline, people will not acknowledge me, and therefore I should use Your Majesty to carry out my will.”

“That is right. I can become an excellent justification and shield for you. Is that all? I will give you the position of being beneath one man and above ten thousand. It will be a higher and nobler position than those of my own sons. Carry out your will in my name. In any case, you are not interested in direct honor, wealth, or glory, are you? Not if you are the one Sir Plank made a knight in his final investiture.”

Cohen Rioneir made an extraordinary offer to Azadine. However, Azadine shook his head.

“I am sorry, but I must refuse that offer.”

“Why? Is it because you still covet wealth and glory?”

For the king of Ausander and the Northern Emperor to make such an offer to someone from the Messenger Clan was far too generous.

Nevertheless, Azadine rejected Cohen’s offer at once.

“I can believe that Your Majesty at this moment is sincere, but I cannot trust tomorrow’s Your Majesty.”

“Are you saying I will become senile by tomorrow?”

“Are you saying Your Majesty’s heart will never change? If so, I can trust Your Majesty’s words even less.”

“…….”

“Anyone’s heart is bound to change. But Your Majesty is trying to raise himself into the realm of god. And so, after Your Majesty unifies the two religions as one of the Heavenly King’s bloodline, no one will be able to stop Your Majesty’s change of heart. You will unite the two religions and ascend as their living god. If that happens, who will stop Your Majesty then?”

“That is a strange thing for a member of the Messenger Clan to say. Did you not submit to the Emperor? After helping him take all eight kingdoms, you now apply strict standards to me. What I am trying to do is necessary to overcome the Age of Jupiter.”

“Even after you overcome it, Your Majesty will become truth and justice itself. Without any need for human reason or conscience, everyone will have to submit to one word from Your Majesty, will they not? I want a world centered on virtue, not such a world. Not a world ruled by a single superhuman, but a world centered on law, ideals, and virtue, where each person follows their own conscience….”

“Law, ideals, and virtue, you say? Such things have no form and cannot endure. The Golden King Manza-Jadek was once someone who said the same things as you, but even he, a noble bloodline inheriting the blood of the Yaegas God tribe, failed to accomplish it and fell into frustration, becoming a fat pig, did he not?”

“But I was saved by exactly that.”

Azadine gave a bitter smile.

An outcast of the Messenger Clan, a child despised and tormented by everyone, had been saved by the Rescue Knights Order’s old books and Aldis’s love.

That was truly a miracle.

Of course, he knew. He knew that frustration awaited him on the road ahead.

A miracle was a miracle because it was rare. There was no guarantee that a miracle he had seen once could be reproduced again. It would surely be a path with more failures than successes.

But Azadine had already been saved, so it was impossible for him to betray his faith now.

“So I am grateful for the offer, but I must refuse.”

“You truly are a strange man. Why does a member of the Messenger Clan long for such things? Was there some occasion for it?”

Cohen Rioneir wondered why Azadine was resisting him to this extent.

“It would be a long story if I told it. Surely you are not truly curious about that, are you?”

Azadine asked with a smile.

Beyond the bonfire, Azadine and Cohen’s gazes collided. As Cohen looked at Azadine’s unwavering eyes, he realized that Azadine was someone who would absolutely not yield, and clicked his tongue.

“That is true. In fact, I am not particularly curious. I do not want to spend a long time listening to the story of your childhood up to the present.”

Cohen Rioneir also admitted it honestly.

“I shall prophesy, Azadine. When hunger and cold grow severe, everything you have built will vanish, buried futilely beneath the snow. The justice and virtue you love so much will not give you any answer. You may now think it does not matter and that you can overcome it, but in the end, your strength will run out, and you will cry out in pain.”

“…….”

Azadine gave a bitter smile as he listened to Cohen’s prophecy.

The god’s blood flowing through Cohen’s body shone in his eyes. This was likely not a simple curse, but a true prophecy.

“You are saying something only Shade Hags would say. I understand, Your Majesty. Thank you for your concern. It was a pleasant meeting.”

“Hmph, words you do not mean. But this is interesting. Yes, it was a pleasant meeting, Sir Azadine.”

Cohen Rioneir rose from his seat.

Then, from within the darkness, the Northern Aragasa members and elves walked out. When they spread their cloaks and concealed Cohen Rioneir’s massive body, his figure vanished after a moment, as if he had never been there in the first place.

And Azadine was left alone once again with the bonfire.

In the north, most of the winter wheat had frozen to death before the autumn harvest could even be done. People hurriedly gathered the grain, but the unripe ears were full of empty husks.

The husk-filled wheat gathered this way could be fed to livestock, but it could not become food for people.

For farmers who had endured until the spring barley ripened by relying on the autumn harvest, disaster had already begun.

Lords with conscience and discernment reduced taxes, but in places without such lords, peasant rebellions broke out.

Most nobles were descendants of the Yaegas God tribe, powerful mages and knights, so the peasant rebellions were suppressed in blood.

However, as people appeared who prayed to the Witch Covens, prayed to Kurt’s envoys of death, or entrusted themselves to Nether’s envoys of death, countless nobles also died. Heretical rebellions had begun breaking out across the land.

The King’s Church rushed about to suppress these heretical rebellions.

Naturally, the issue of the Northern Emperor and the Rescue Knights Order artificially reincarnating people as Celestials ended up buried.

No, something far more serious than that was happening.