Read Novel Full Chapter 162: Empire VS Empire
Chapter 162: Empire VS Empire
Eurius smiled and looked over the knights.
“You’ve done well to come this far in such a hurry.”
“Your Majesty!”
“Everyone, rise.”
Shuk.
After giving them a proper salute, he asked about their well-being.
The leader of the group, Heinz, who was standing in front, asked with a worried expression.
“Your Majesty, I’m glad to see you’re safe.”
“Did you have any trouble on the way?”
“Thanks to the guide you sent us, we had no problems.”
***
“…”
The people of the Righteous Alliance who were watching this scene snapped out of their stupor.
“…!?”
“The Crown Prince?”
But most of them still looked confused by the situation.
Of course, the leaders of the Righteous Alliance had a rough idea and their faces turned thoughtful.
“What do you mean by the Crown Prince?”
“It seems that those Westerners are somehow under his command… I mean, under his majesty’s command…”
“But didn’t you say that the Western troops in the South Sea were just starting to march north?”
“Now that you mention it, our kid said it would take two days.”
Chwi Seon-gae, the leader of the Open Faction, remembered something he had forgotten for a moment because he was too surprised.
There was a beggar in the conference room who had come to report on the northward movement of the Western vanguard.
‘Grr… I saved my own life as a leader, but I couldn’t save the lives of my faction members. This is shameful.’
He looked around for the beggar’s whereabouts.
The people in the conference room had survived thanks to Eurius, so he thought there was a high chance that he was alive too.
“Did you find him?”
“Oh! You’re alive!”
A beggar came out from between the people.
It was the same beggar who had rushed in with an urgent report earlier.
Chwi Seon-gae felt relieved for a moment and then opened his mouth curiously.
“But how did you report it? Why are those Westerners there?”
The beggar was someone he had never seen before in the Righteous Alliance.
He probably came from one of the branches in the South Sea. But then he tilted his head slightly.
‘Wait? He should be good at martial arts if he’s used as a messenger, right?’
There were many beggars in the world, but it wasn’t very common to see a beggar who was a master.
Chwi Seon-gae narrowed his eyes.
“Where do you belong?”
“…”
The beggar didn’t answer.
Chwi Seon-gae became more suspicious and pulled out a cudgel from his waist.
“Hey! You need to get hit to come to your senses…”
“The one who needs to get hit is you.”
The beggar uttered a word abruptly.
Chwi Seon-gae looked dumbfounded.
“Me?”
“Yeah!”
Shik!
In an instant, the beggar disappeared from Chwi Seon-gae’s sight as if he had vanished.
He turned into a black whirlwind and rushed towards Chwi Seon-gae.
“Ack!”
His movement was so fast that it was doubtful if he could avoid it even if he knew it beforehand.
Tuk!
In a flash, the beggar passed by Chwi Seon-gae and held his stolen cudgel in his hand. But that wasn’t important.
“Could it be…”
Chwi Seon-gae started to tremble uncontrollably.
He had seen this movement many times before.
Jiiik!
The beggar put his hand on his face and tore off a finely made mask.
And his face was…
“Master!”
“Oh, you! You rotten bastard!”
The beggar’s true identity was none other than Gu Cheon-geol, the former leader of the Open Faction.
He held the stolen cudgel and started beating Chwi Seon-gae mercilessly.
Pupupuk!
“Ow! Master! Let me explain…”
“What explanation is there!”
Shiiik!
Every time the cudgel cut through the air, Chwi Seon-gae’s scream echoed.
“Aaack!”
At the same time, Gu Cheon-geol’s sigh also flowed out.
“I heard that you treated me like an old fool in the faction, huh…”
‘You didn’t learn your lesson because I didn’t beat you enough for these ten years!’
The disappointment that Gu Cheongeol felt towards his disciple was indescribable.
He glanced at Eurius.
His hands kept moving without a pause.
‘I can understand that he doubts him because his identity is uncertain…’
But still, shouldn’t he have asked Eurius for the reason and judged him properly if he was following him obediently?
The more he thought about it, the more outrageous it was.
‘I have to fix his stubbornness today, even if I have to break his bones!’
With that firm resolution, Gu Cheongeol’s clubbing became even more fierce.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
“Ughhh!”
That day, Chwi Seon-gae was beaten to death by his master in front of countless experts of Jeongdomaeng.
***
A little time passed after that commotion, and the leaders of Jeongdomaeng and Eurius were sitting in a temporary meeting room.
“Hehe… I honestly still find it hard to believe.”
“I understand. But would you have believed me if I had revealed that I was the crown prince?”
“Hmm…”
Namgoong Ilcheon let out a faint groan.
It was hard to believe even after seeing the articles, so it would have been useless to say it before.
“Then…”
Namgoong Ilcheon hesitated for a moment.
He was wondering how to address Eurius.
‘He deserves respect even as a martial artist, let alone as the crown prince…’
In his eyes, Eurius was one of the best martial artists in the world, and his identity as the crown prince made him even more so.
‘Should I use an honorific term?’
But Eurius seemed to read his mind and answered with a bitter smile.
“Just call me Daehyeop as you did before.”
“Alright.”
Eurius chuckled here.
“Just do as you did. We have a lot to talk about right now.”
Namgoong Ilcheon came to his senses when he heard that.
‘That’s right, we can’t waste time on things like titles right now.’
He looked at Eurius with gratitude.
This meant that he didn’t expect too much courtesy from him.
How could he keep looking at Eurius’s face when there were so many things to deal with right now?
Considering how Jeongdomaeng had treated Eurius before, this attitude was very generous.
‘He has a broad mind. Is this what it takes to be the crown prince of the empire?’
Namgoong Ilcheon praised him inwardly and went straight to the point.
“First of all, it’s about the imperial palace. What do you know about it, Daehyeop?”
Eurius’s identity was no longer doubtful.
But the order from the imperial palace was a scheme to make Jeongdomaeng and Eurius fight each other, so there had to be some questions.
“The imperial palace is practically in the hands of Magyo.”
“Gasp!”
“Whoa!”
“What are we going to do!”
Eurius said calmly, but it was like a thunderbolt to the people of Jeongdomaeng who gasped.
“Hehe… I had a hunch when I saw the leader’s face, but I didn’t know that their influence reached the imperial palace.”
Namgoong Ilcheon sighed and looked at Eurius with a troubled expression.
“Do you have any plans? It would be very difficult to fight against Magyo alone, let alone with the imperial palace joining them.”
The reason why he sighed was because the imperial palace was not a martial force.
“The biggest problem is that if they can control the Imperial family, Jeongdomaeng will become traitors who disobeyed the emperor’s words in no time.”
His concern was the same as Jegalseongun’s guess. How could Jeongdomaeng handle hundreds of thousands of soldiers with only a few thousand experts?
There were also outstanding experts who learned martial arts among the gold army affiliated with the Imperial family.
No matter how you look at it, Jeongdomaeng was at an absolute disadvantage right now!
“Hmm, that’s what you say…”
But Eurius seemed to have a different idea.
“If the army is a problem, I’ll take care of the imperial palace side.”
“…!?”
“Huh?”
Eurius’s answer was too cool, and everyone in Jeongdomaeng’s leadership was shocked.
Namgoong Ilcheon asked hastily.
“Is that really true?”
“Of course.”
“But how…”
Eurius tapped his chest confidently.
“I might have come here alone, but aren’t there people from my empire here now?”
“…!?”
***
The imperial palace in Jangan was very large and wide.
It took tens of minutes to walk to the main palace where the emperor lived!
But there was no time to wait for that now.
A thin eunuch was running frantically.
“Ahem… As a guest?”
“That’s right!”
Ye Sang laughed and began to explain his plan.
*
A few days later, another envoy from the imperial palace arrived at Jeongdomaeng.
“They want peace?”
“Yes. His Majesty wishes to forget the unpleasant incidents that happened recently and strengthen the relationship between the two empires.”
The envoy, who was a civil official, spoke smoothly as if his tongue was coated with oil. Eurius watched him and smiled inwardly.
‘They don’t want peace, they want to drag me into the tiger’s den. Well, I’ll bite the bait anyway.’
Eurius read the letter carefully and smiled faintly.
“Tell His Majesty of the other side that I accept his invitation.”