295 Unfamiliar Old Acquaintance (1/2)

The Bardi Empire wouldn't deserve to be called a mega-empire if they knew nothing about the fact that a major conflict had erupted within their own borders.

Everything that had happened at Port Victoria had already been learned by the Bardi Empire's capital city, Stalar, through various information channels. After being incited by certain parties, even the commoners were discussing this sudden battle out on the streets—it wasn't limited to the nobles.

The current hottest topic was about how the Undead Planes had been connected to Port Victoria and that the undead armies had arrived. The topic became even hotter when one of the elders of the House of Nobles, in utter disbelief, demanded evidence from the Dragon Knight Archduke Halent. This had enraged Halent to the point where he bloodied that noble's mouth with a powerful before stuffing a memory crystal with the battle's recordings into that very noble's mouth.

Alright then. Although Halent would have to pay a price—most likely the emperor's rage and house arrest for half a year—that unfortunate noble marquis who had been pitifully beaten up was even arrogant enough to openly swear revenge upon Halent. And so, that noble's luxurious mansion was set on fire by a passing dragon… Yep, we all knew what that was really about.

”Look, it's those undead!”

Halent's memory crystal, which contained vivid scene of endless amounts of undead pouring in, was viewed time and again by all the highest-level members of the Bardi Empire. Descriptions of what was in it spread everywhere. The prevailing attitude in the Bardi Empire began changing as well, and the high-level undead in the royal capital started having a difficult time.

The biggest trouble for the undead in the capital was due to the series of events set in motion by Emperor Aso's death.

In order to better control the situation, most of the high-level undead in the capital were Aso's direct subordinates who had signed soul contracts where they would die together with their master. When Emperor Aso died, the undead that suddenly died with him astonished the fortunate survivors and made them tremble in fear. After all, in their minds, Undead Emperors were just like True Gods; they were considered undying, immortal existences. To them, it was as if the very sky had fallen.

Since the Desecration Plane was the first Undead Plane to have connected to the mortal plane, most of the undead that had arrived were from it. It was as if a huge company's CEO had died out of the blue along with many of the higher-ups. The panicking of the mid-level and lower-level employees as a result was only natural.

At this critical moment, the living's sudden increase in hostility towards the undead made the undead feel all the more lost for what to do. They became extra cautious in every little action they took as they were afraid of further increasing the enmity towards them.

Meanwhile, the most incomprehensible of all was what the master of this country, Orloss the 13th, was thinking.

While he angrily condemned Halent's ridiculous actions and didn't accept Halent's request to meet him on the surface, he didn't even give Halent any punishment apart from verbal denunciation. Orloss kept coaxing the undead with platitudes but didn't take any actual actions to control the rumors spreading around. His attitude was forceful as always yet his actions were self-contradictory.

While the capital was busy with the chaos of the storm of rumors, Orloss would either shut himself in like a hermit or suddenly desire to go out for some fun and go hunting. His retainers didn't understand just what their venerated emperor was thinking at all.

Currently, a sudden rainstorm ambushed Orloss's procession where a battle suddenly began and ended in just an instant.

”Speak! Who sent you here to assassinate His Majesty Emperor Orloss? The 26th Prince? The 8th Prince?”

The assassin's limbs had been sliced off, and the amount of blood on the ground had far surpassed the lethal amount. He was likely to die at any moment. However, the emperor's personal guard continued his interrogation without skipping a beat.

”…It was the 8th Prince!! Don't kill me, don't kill me! I've already told you who it was, please help me stop the bleeding!”

Since the guard received an answer, he ignored the assassin's pleas for help and directly reported it to Emperor Orloss, while also inquiring if they should keep this only assassin that survived out of the group that had ambushed them alive. However, Orloss slowly shook his head, telling his guard to simply execute the assassin.

”You're not going to ask more? Maybe the assassin wasn't telling the truth.”

In Orloss's carriage was Halent who should have been at his home, having been ”refused” a meeting with the emperor.

There was one other person riding in Orloss's carriage. The third and final person was a black-robed mage who always followed Emperor Orloss wherever he went. Yet, at the moment, this mage seemed to be napping.

Halent wasn't at all surprised by the surprise invitation and the ambush attempt on Orloss. After all, if Orloss the 13th didn't have some actual power backing him up, this ”Fox Scorpion Emperor” would have long been assassinated.

”It's meaningless. I meet with assassination attempts once or twice every week. Those who dare to try assassinating me—no—I should say that those who come to their deaths here are those who don't care about their lives. Since the assassin said that Little 8th was behind this, that means that apart from Little 8th, anyone else could be responsible. No, actually, from the recent reports I've been receiving, they've all made plenty of progress and have learned how to hide the truth within falsehood and make the truth seem like a lie, so maybe Little 8th isn't so innocent after all. Yep, judging from how Little 8th's personality has become more and more extreme as of late, there's over a seventy percent chance that his assassin was just acting there in order to pin the blame on one of his brothers. Ha! Little 8th's become a lot smarter recently.”

Even though he was clearly talking about something as unfortunate as the fact that his adopted princes wanted to kill him, the old emperor was smiling in such a genial fashion. He even sounded proud of the princes. It was as if he was an elder praising his children for being capable and filial.

From a certain standpoint, he was indeed quite proud. The fact that his twentyish adopted princes kept plotting and scheming against each other was actually something that this seemingly kind old man personally put them up to. It appeared that he was intending on using such a method to choose his successor.

Halent didn't reply to this as he didn't intend to care about anything in the royal palace, and nor did he have any interest. He was simply interested in why the emperor suddenly invited him over in secret, but whenever he mentioned what was currently happening with the undead in the west part of the Bardi Empire, the old emperor would only mysteriously smile and say, ”You'll find out soon in a bit.”

Actually, due to certain reasons, Emperor Orloss was in quite an excellent mood these days. He sunk into nostalgia as he looked at the rain outside his carriage window.

About thirty years ago, on a rainy night just like today's, there was also yet another internal struggle within the royal palace that had left him seriously injured, on the verge of death. At that time, he managed to meet Aso and told Aso about his unwillingness to die, which managed to change his fate.

From that day onwards, the Orloss who wasn't so respected and feared in the past possessed the secret power he received from the shadows as he gradually reached the peak of imperial authority. By today, his achievements and authority had far surpassed any Bardi Emperor in history. However, only he himself knew that he had to pay a price for that assistance he received in the past. And this debtor wouldn't be easy to deal with.

Of course, how would an ambitious and scheming individual like Orloss, who was capable of making his own adopted sons plot against and kill each other to determine the strongest, possibly stand for being controlled by someone else? Orloss always had his own plans and powerful weapons available to him, unbeknownst to all.

Even with his numerous and careful preparations, he hadn't put any of them to use yet when the situation majorly changed. The undead's greatest miscalculation was that they didn't expect the stubborn Aso to sacrifice himself. The hold that Aso had over Orloss when Aso intentionally saved Orloss's life naturally disappeared together with Aso's death.

The undead's original strategy was to control the old emperor and gradually insert the high-level undead into the various social classes of the Bardi Empire to slowly take over the country from the inside. But now that Aso was dead, and all six Undead Planes' Dimensional Doors had been opened wide—

”Ah, the situation has become completely chaotic.”

Nobody responded to Orloss's sentiment. Indeed, with the changes in the situation, some people went from chess pieces to becoming chess players, while some believed themselves to be chess players when they were nothing but sacrificial chess pieces. With all the chain reactions from Aso's death, it was very likely that nobody knew what would happen from now on.

”Your Majesty, about Port Victoria…”