Chapter 256 – The Rule of the West 2 (1/2)
As expected, Emperor Tiberius was assassinated, followed by Eleanora’s ascension to the throne.
As a result of this sudden ascension, it seemed that there was quite the confusion in the Holy Aperian Empire, but the imperial power was strong enough that it seemed to regain stability relatively soon.
Eleanora wasn’t a woman who was sloppy, nor was she the type that could be beaten back by those who sought her throne.
‘Granver and the Seven Paladins will take care of her.’
The Seven Paladins should have died with Emperor Tiberius, but Woohyuk told Agares to save them.
Of course, their resistance was strong, so some were injured, but that didn’t mean that they couldn’t perform the perfunctory guardianship of the Emperor.
‘I’ll have to visit Eleanora sooner or later.’
To start on the expedition to the east, her help was absolutely necessary.
But before that, internal maintenance was necessary.
To fill the empty Divine Throne seats, Woohyuk had to pay attention to how others were growing.
After putting down the report, Woohyuk called upon his colleagues and vassals, who had been scattered, and convened a meeting.
“Now, the time has come for you all to be active. If you’re lucky and deserving, you might win a Divine Throne seat, so do your best,” he said at the end of the meeting.
Until now, most of them only took on relatively small tasks, so they didn’t have a chance to play around on the main stage.
Thus, this moment right now was their time to shine.
Furthermore, Woohyuk hadn’t poured enormous amounts of money to nurture his talents for nothing.
After speaking to the entire group, Woohyuk had a one-on-one conversation with his gathered followers in turn. As he faced Helena, she said, “Everyone has grown tremendously because you’ve forced them to train without any recognition or time off. You should be very proud.”
“… Are you dissatisfied with my teaching method, Helena?” he asked.
“No way. I’m very satisfied with this situation,” she responded.
He had also devised a way to prevent the impending two catastrophes. Additionally, Woohyuk had become a demigod by surpassing his human limitations.
It could be said that many of humanity’s worries have decreased.
The only task left for him now was to completely rebuild the Ark of Knowledge and then interact with the Holy Grail and Verserios.
Of course, this viewpoint was purely from the standpoint of an Etheria Rodinus member.
“Don’t even think about using me. The results will not be good,” Woohyuk warned, understanding Helena’s undertone and unsaid meaning.
When Woohyuk was arguing with her, Aris approached and spoke to him, “Asura, the study you entrusted me with today is complete.”
“Are you talking about Alice the Queen of Thorns and the Unit 1 Ishvar?”
“Yes. In the case of the Queen of Thorns, we succeeded in isolating and extracting the factor with regenerative ability, and the initial defects of the Ishvar Cavalry’s artificial intelligence have been corrected. Now, mass production is possible.”
But the question was how he would use the results of this study.
Woohyuk pondered for a while and then called on Cadiz, the Death Alchemist.
“Inject the Queen of Thorns Queen regenerative strain into this guy. It would be troublesome if he died in a mishap,” Woohyuk said aloud.
“H-Heek…”
Cadiz looked at Woohyuk and Aris alternately with a terrified expression.
He thought he’d become like that monstrous woman, Alice.
Her ability to regenerate itself wasn’t bad, but he was reluctant since there might be side-effects.
Woohyuk, understanding Cadiz’s concerns, said to him, “There will probably be no change in your appearance. Injecting you with this strain won’t mean that you’ll transform into a person of the Kazak race. Just because you get the regeneration ability of the Queen of Thorns doesn’t mean your life will change.”
“… If you say so, I’ll believe in you,” he stuttered.
“Aris, let’s start,” Woohyuk ordered.
“Okay!”
Aris opened her toolbox, which she was holding, and took out a syringe filled with green liquid.
She immediately stuck it into Cadiz’s forearm…
“Ugh…” Cadiz whimpered as he trembled with anxiety all over her body.
“Is it done now?” Woohyuk asked.
“We have to wait a minute for the cells to mutate. If he’s fine after that, we can assume that we have succeeded,” Aris explained.
“Hold on, wait! Then, doesn’t this mean there was a possibility of failure!” Cadiz shouted, feeling incredulous.
Cadiz glared at Aris with the expression of a hurt animal.
He had become a live subject for her clinical trials.
However, contrary to his concern, no side effects were observed within one minute.
“It looks like it was a success. Then, shall we do an experiment?” Aris said aloud.
“H-Hey…!” Cadiz yelled. He felt like he was being used and abused like a rag doll.
When Woohyuk took out Verserios, Cadiz’s face became utterly pale, completely drained of blood.
At that moment, Cadiz wondered if it was truly necessary to use the foremost demon weapon to check his regeneration ability.
He tried to stop Woohyuk, but it was too late.
Pu-Wook!
Verserios penetrated Cadiz’s heart with conviction.
Yoo Kayoung, who saw this scene, hurriedly covered Song Anna’s eyes, who was next to her.
“Don’t peek! It’s too violent.”
“… Yes, sister.”
Even though they had spent 40 years in the training hall and 20 years in the Arcane Tower together, whenever Yoo Kayoung looked at Song Anna, she still considered her a child.
Apart from her growing magic power, Song Anna still needed someone to watch over her.
Until now, Yoo Kayoung had performed this role well.
On the other hand, the others in the room who viewed Woohyuk’s actions were taken aback.
“L-Lord… why did he suddenly he…”
“Was he a spy?”
It happened so quickly that everyone was lost as to why the situation unfolded as it did.
Woohyuk calmed them down and pulled Verserios out of Cadiz’s heart.
Ugh.
Shortly thereafter, the bleeding ceased, and Cadiz’s body began to regenerate.
“I just wanted to make sure our hypothesis was correct. There seem to be no side effects,” Woohyuk said matter-of-factly.
“Ugh… Ugh…” Cadiz groaned as he returned to consciousness. He was supported back up by Aris.
He felt like he really died and then came back to life.
Still, he was fortunate that the experiment was successful.
As Cadiz felt relief, his limbs began to rot black with a sudden onset of pain shooting up from all across his body.
The side effects occurred late.
“Ahhhhhhhh!”
“… It would be difficult to use the strain properly as it is. The side effects are too serious,” Woohyuk said as he observed the change.
“It seems that the traits of the Queen of Thorns have a detrimental effect on the human body. Next time, I’ll try it on demons or monsters…” Aris said while trapped deep in thought.