Emperor! Can You See Stats!?

Chapter 107: Ready

“This is my personal preference. It might be a bit unpleasant for a stiff knight like you.”

The masked man was unfazed by the duke’s sarcasm. 

He shrugged his shoulders and opened his mouth again.

“So? Do you want me to send another assassin?”

The grand duke snapped back coldly.

“This is not a request, but a question. How many scum did you send that even the low-ranking officials, let alone knights, are all safe?”

“That was a bit surprising to me too. But we are short of manpower lately, you know? Don’t blame us too much.”

The masked man sounded slightly apologetic for the first time. 

There was a reason why his black market had a shortage of decent assassins lately.

He was grumbling inwardly at this moment.

‘If that old bastard Ismail hadn’t suddenly died, I could have just left it to him…’

“…!?”

The grand duke also looked surprised by his honest answer. 

He had known the masked man for quite a long time, but it was the first time he heard him apologize.

“Then, sending additional assassins is impossible?”

“It’s not impossible, but I didn’t have much fun this time, you know? Even if I send more, it will be useless.”

“Hmm…”

The grand duke pondered for a while with a sigh. 

He came to complain, but he didn’t think that it was entirely the black market’s fault that things turned out this way.

‘Is it the emperor’s doing? Or maybe it’s that first prince bastard.’

But how did he protect all the bureaucrats scattered in the vast north? 

And judging by the fact that the attack was not even reported, it must have been handled very cleanly.

‘Our power is already shaky. If assassination is useless, then we have no choice but to confront them head-on.’

“How about I offer you some other support instead of assassins? You seem to have trouble with your work lately. How about some high-level warriors?”

As if he had read the duke’s thoughts, the masked man made a tempting offer.

But the grand duke snorted.

“Are you going to offer me knights from your side?”

His Gladius had excellent quality and quantity of knights, if nothing else. 

He had suffered a lot of damage recently, but he could still squeeze out enough to compete with the emperor.

He thought that even if the black market belonged to Illuminati, what help could a merchant offer him?

But the masked man seemed to have different thoughts.

“Of course, I know that your eyes are high.”

Clap!

He clapped his hands lightly and a door on one side of the reception room opened.

“…!?”

Clink, clink.

Someone entered the reception room with a dull sound of metal clashing. 

The grand duke looked at him and made a slightly stunned expression.

“But this should be enough to be a force, don’t you think?”

“…”

After some time passed, the grand duke got up from his seat. 

He had no reason to stay in this unpleasant place any longer since he had finished his business.

“I’ll thank you for now.”

“Thank you for using our service every time!”

“Hmph!”

The duke glanced at the man who didn’t stop his playful act until the end and left the building.

“Phew! Did I finish one thing with this?”

The masked man who saw off the duke shrugged his shoulders and tried to leave the reception room. 

But he heard angry voices from around him.

“How dare that old man who only knows how to swing a sword!”

“Don’t you think you’re too patient? We don’t have to bow down to him like this!”

Thud!

One of the men in black hoods who was about to complain more suddenly twisted his mouth in pain as if he was hit by something.

“Didn’t I tell you to call him ‘owner’ instead of that name here?”

“I’m sorry…”

“Gladius is not an easy opponent. We are in a cooperative relationship for now, so it’s not a good choice to offend him.”

The masked man was still smiling, but he was secretly annoyed by his subordinates.

‘They couldn’t say a word against his pressure earlier…’

The grand duke didn’t like talking with him, so he dominated the room with his overwhelming presence throughout. 

But the masked man didn’t flinch and calmly finished the negotiation.

“But owner. Providing ‘that’ is too much of a loss for us.”

One of his subordinates who he usually favored because of his good skills cautiously raised his doubts again, but the masked man still didn’t erase his smile.

“That’s already agreed upon by ‘us’. And no matter what the outcome is, we won’t lose anything.”

Whether the grand duke swallowed the empire or was defeated in the middle, the original goal of causing chaos in the empire was achieved. 

What he provided to the grand duke this time was a little investment for that.

“Hehehehe!”

The masked man looked outside and saw that the duke’s carriage had already left. 

He recalled the meeting that had taken place a while ago.

‘Did he say that his target was the first prince of the empire?’

He was quite interested in whether the grand duke could achieve his goal or not.

…

A month had passed since Eurius heard about Illuminati’s secret from the emperor.

“Stop! That’s it for today’s training.”

“Phew…”

“Now we can rest a bit.”

Thump!

As soon as he said that, there were people who fell to the cold ground without caring about their knightly dignity in the training ground of the palace.

It was winter outside, but almost a hundred people were wearing armor and training hard, so the knights felt hot from the heat.

Eurius smiled and watched the scene and spoke to Jegal Unhyeon.

“You did well. It seems like you have shaped up quite well, don’t you think?”

“As you said, sir. I think they have reached a level that is enough to use in real combat, as long as they improve the problem I mentioned before.”

Jegal Unhyeon also looked satisfied. 

He thought it would be hard to meet Eurius’ deadline, but Scharnos’ knights did better than expected.

“I have prepared a solution for that problem. But what about your personal training? Has there been any improvement since then?”

“That’s not something that can be improved in a short time, as I said before.”

While they were having such a conversation, the person who was the main topic of their talk approached Eurius.

“Your Highness, I greet you.”

“Lize, how is your training going?”

“Thanks to your kindness, I have no major problems.”

Beatrice answered like that, but Eurius could see through her mind.

[Beatrice Dios]

Current state: Anxious, nervous

‘She seems to be suffering a lot.’

But since it was a problem that he couldn’t solve for her, he clicked his tongue inwardly and looked at Jegal Unhyeon.

“It seems that it’s not easy to overcome one wall.”

“As I said before, this is the first time I’ve seen such a case, so I don’t know the solution.”

Eurius exchanged glances with Jegal Unhyeon and felt sorry for her.

Besides the group training of Scharnos’ knights that he had just seen, there were three knights who received individual training from Jegal Unhyeon. 

His evaluation of them was as follows.

“That captain has talent, but not enough to be called a genius. Training with me will help him, but only constant effort can break through the wall.”

This was what Eurius expected. 

Heinz had grown steadily with his help, but he was not a talent who stood out greatly in his previous life.

‘But the problem is after that…’

In fact, he had high expectations for the other two. 

Beatrice and Cains were both famous talents in his previous life.

He thought that if they trained properly with an absolute master like Jegal Unhyeon, they would achieve fast results in a short time, but the actual outcome was not so good.

“First of all, that young brat has a very poor foundation in martial arts. He seems to be trying hard, but it will be difficult in a short time.”

Eurius pursed his lips in disappointment when he heard that. 

Cains would have been shocked if he heard his thoughts.

‘I should have trained him harder from the beginning.’

Cains’ problem was that he was a typical lazy genius. 

No matter how talented he was, if his foundation was weak, he would hit a wall at some point.

“Especially his inner power, or what you call force here, is not well trained. That’s the biggest factor that holds him back.”

“That’s because he’s not from a martial family. In the West Continent, unless you’re a martial artist, you usually enter a knight academy and get educated there.”

According to Jegal Unhyeon, in the East Continent, if someone was judged to have talent, they would start training their inner power from an early age.

“So his biggest problem is the foundation of force.”

“That’s right.”

‘That’s something I can help him with.’

Cains’ problem was quite tricky, but Eurius could solve it easily.

But he was stuck by an unexpected person who he thought would have no problem.

“I don’t know about that Beatrice soldier.”

“What do you mean?”

Jegal Unhyeon started to speak cautiously.

“When I checked her skills, I was honestly surprised. I felt the same when I saw the new successor of White Tiger Clan, but I wondered if all the talents in the West Continent had gathered around you.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“I don’t know why she’s stuck at the fourth stage wall.”

Eurius tilted his head at that. Wasn’t it normal for even talented people to face walls that they had to overcome?

“Isn’t that how walls are?”

But Jegal Unhyeon said it wasn’t.

“That’s… even considering that, her talent should have reached the fourth stage long ago by my standards. She has a good foundation, whether she had a good teacher or not, and she has quite a lot of combat experience for her age.”

Hearing that, Eurius recalled how things had changed from his previous life.

‘Come to think of it, she came out much earlier this time.’

Beatrice had only made a name for herself in her mid-twenties in his previous life.

But now she had been stimulated by Eurius and trained harder than before, and she had also experienced many life-threatening battles unlike when she stayed at the duke’s house.

‘So she has everything ready but can’t overcome the wall?’

Jegal Unhyeon scratched his head apologetically.

“I’m sorry I can’t help you. But there must be a reason for this. She needs constant training too, but finding that clue is also important.”

“If you say so, then there’s nothing I can do about it.”

Eurius answered coolly. 

He had too many things to do to hold on to a problem that he couldn’t solve right now.

“Anyway, thank you for the analysis. Then the reinforcement of the knight’s power is done for now.”

He had Jegal Unhyeon and Nua on his side anyway. It would be nice to have one more superhuman, but it wasn’t an urgent problem.

‘Everything is ready. Now all I need is for the duke to move as planned!’

Eurius’ eyes sparkled. And less than a week later, the incident happened.

…

“Open the door!”

Someone opened the door of the palace where Eurius was staying and ran towards him. It was a messenger from the imperial palace.

“What’s going on?”

At Eurius’ question, the messenger shouted urgently.

“First Prince, Your Highness! You need to come to the imperial palace as soon as possible.”

“Did Father call me?”

“No!”

The messenger shook his head quickly and opened his mouth with a grave tone. 

That was the beginning of the events that would follow.

“I report to Your Highness, the emperor suddenly collapsed!”