The Emperor Has Returned

Chapter 204 – Funeral

The moon was gleaming as it emitted a green light. As the gloomy light colored the ground, people hurriedly went into their houses upon feeling a chill—it was just another ordinary winter day, but it felt especially windy today. The sudden late cold spell caused the land of Torra which had just begun to melt to freeze over once again.

Heretia let out a long breath, as she hadn’t expected the weather to get this cold once again, especially when she had thought that it was finally starting to get warmer.

The cold wind permeated every corner of Torra, even the inside the Imperial Palace, causing all the rooms without any flames burning in the fireplace to be freezing cold.

However, on this day no one could think about lighting up the fireplace.

Heretia moved her wheelchair along the corridor and stopped in front of a room. After hesitating for a while, she carefully grabbed the doorknob to open the door.

“Oh, she’s here.”

Inside the room Nienna, Pavan, and Juan were waiting for her.

To Heretia, Juan had always been a man whose sight alone was enough to chase away the cold and cause one to feel the heat. But today, she couldn’t feel any warmth whatsoever from Juan.

“How’s Anya doing?” Heretia asked.

“She’s still unconscious. Fortunately, the injury to her spinal cord was curable. But more than that… I don’t know what to tell her when she wakes up.”

Hela and Dilmond both ended up dying while trying to save Anya, while Anya ended up losing her ability to fight as well. Such a tragedy would normally be considered an excessive loss if put bluntly, but no one here thought so. The only thing they felt was pity.

“That’s something that Anya will have to take care of on her own,” Juan answered quietly.

Some would think that he was a cold-hearted person, but Heretia knew that he only said such words because he believed in Anya.

Then, Juan turned his head toward Pavan.

“You said that Hela left behind her last words, right?”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” Pavan answered in a hoarse voice.

Pavan’s face was full of severe bruises as well as scratches from the injuries he had received. He could have asked the Priests to use their healing Grace on him, but he did not even bother to visit them.

“Her last words… were about the nature of the catalyst that is used in the making of a Cainheryar.”

“Catalyst? You mean those pieces of meat? Like the ones in the carriage we confiscated from the southern boulevard?” Nienna asked.

Pavan nodded upon hearing Nienna’s question.

“Yes. According to master… I mean Duke Henna, those pieces of meat awaken the faint remnants of the divinity left behind in a body and explosively boost its strength. Rather than creating power that doesn’t exist, it can be said to be drawing on power from another world.”

“Another world… is it the Crack?”

Nienna was the first to react upon hearing Pavan’s explanation. When it came to the power from another world, the first thing that came into everyone’s minds was the Crack.

However, Pavan shook his head in denial.

“No. While the power is from another world, it follows the laws of this world.”

“But how? How is it possible to draw the power of another world while following the laws of this world?” Nienna hastily asked as she felt frustrated; she felt that it might have had something to do with the Crack.

“Nienna, let’s listen to Pavan first before asking further questions.”

Nienna bit her lips and nodded upon hearing Juan’s words.

“It’s the power of Spirit Calling,” Pavan answered in a quiet voice.

The entire conference room suddenly fell silent.

Initially, Nienna and Heretia blinked their eyes; for a moment, they didn’t understand what Pavan meant, but soon their mouths opened wide in shock when they understood what he meant.

Meanwhile, only Juan was able to remain calm as he opened his mouth to break the silence.

“Those pieces of meat must have been pieces of Dismas’ flesh.”

“Dismas’ flesh? But dad. Such a thing is…”

“It’s certainly possible. He can even regenerate easily after losing his physical body… After all, not only does Dismas have my essence, he even has the Pope by his side. Considering that Dismas is naturally gifted with the ability of Spirit Calling, of course his body would function as an effective catalyst that can even call out a dead god in just an instant.”

Nienna was left speechless as she covered her mouth with her hand.

Being able to regenerate the body and maintain an eternal life definitely sounded attractive to Nienna, since she lived a life where she fought on the battlefield almost every single day. However, the only thing that regenerative power guaranteed was an extra life on a battlefield where swords clashed and people died.

Before this, no matter how desperate Nienna was, she had never thought about cutting off her own hands or feet to use them as weapons and throwing them in her enemy’s face. But now that she thought about it, the cut-off hands and feet would work as a great weapons, especially if they contained the power of god inside them.

“When a Cainheryar is used to resurrect a god, it is basically using the remnants of that god’s power and Dismas’ Spirit Calling, with the body of the god acting as a medium and Dismas’ flesh as the catalyst. The process is instantaneous and controlling the god is quite easy; after all, it is all done by using Dismas’ power,” Juan explained.

Nienna opened her mouth after a long silence.

“If anyone else had been doing something like this, I would have said that they were being quite effective. But knowing that this is my little brother’s business, I would love to ask him if he is out of his mind.”

“I would still ask them whether they were out of their mind even if they were not related to me,” Heretia answered.

“It’s not worth asking. It doesn’t matter if all this is done by a stranger, by a little brother, or by a son. Dismas has gone crazy. Whatever his reasons are, nothing can justify his actions,” Juan said in a cold voice.

Of course, Juan cherished all of his children. While Hela was also a cherished colleague to Juan, it was only natural that he cared more about his children than her. However, Juan understood that he must take the lead to knock his children down if their actions started entering a realm he couldn’t understand—especially if those actions were entering the realm of madness.

“Dismas is my son and he is able to commit to his madness using my own power,” Juan said, feeling like he was squeezing his heart out.

“So I’ll be the one to kill him with my own hands.”

The room fell silent.

Then someone knocked on the door of the room where no one was able to bring themselves to say a single word. While Heretia was the one closest to the door, Pavan stood up and opened it for her, since she had difficulty moving.

Sina could be seen on the other side of the door.

Sina spoke to Juan with somber eyes.

“It’s all ready.”

***

Juan and the rest of the party headed to the front yard of the Imperial Palace.

There weren’t many people out in the front yard except for some of the important members of the Eastern Army, the Order of Huginn, as well as Juan’s colleagues.

Horhell was looking ahead with blank eyes, while Orca was letting out a small growling sound as if it was worried about Horhell.

Meanwhile, Entalucia was in her human form and standing on top of a small tower far away, looking down at the front yard. She looked quite pale, but she didn’t seem to want to miss the event.

At this moment, Dilmond’s body was placed on the top of a high pile of firewood in the front yard.

“Don’t you think the knights from the Order of Huginn might want to revive him as the Knight of the Dead?” Heretia cautiously whispered to Juan.

Up until now, the Order of Huginn had been reviving all of their dead knights as Knights of the Dead except for those whose bodies couldn’t be recollected. But this event was meant to cremate Dilmond’s body rather than to revive him.

Juan shook his head.

“The Order of the Huginn only did that to help the remaining colleagues who were in a desperate situation. No one truly wanted to become a Knight of the Dead. The Order of Huginn was a knight order meant to confront Nigrato’s Army of the Dead in the first place. Calling the Knights of the Dead ‘senior’ is nothing more than their way of showing respect—after all, the Knight of the Dead don’t even have any intelligence. But now… there are people who can get revenge for Dilmond.”

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Heretia nodded.

At that moment, someone slowly walked out amidst the crowd. It was Haild holding a wooden box in both his hands. He was no longer wearing any bandages around his face, and everyone was perplexed not only due to seeing his bare face that looked quite similar to Juan’s, but also due to seeing the huge scar crossing his face.

But most of the Eastern Army was surprised for a different reason—especially Horhell.

“Haild… Haild Henna?”

Horhell had been aware that Haild shared the same name as deceased Hela’s son, but he had only considered it to be a coincidence. However, now that Haild revealed his bare face that looked the same as a seventeen-year-old boy from his memory, he was shocked.

Haild seemed to no longer have any intention of hiding his identity. He approached the pile of firewood and lifted the wooden box to scatter the contents on top of it—they were the ashes left behind by Hela.

“Duke Hela Henna was the heir to the Arhen kingdom, the opponent of the Kaliduk dragons, the conqueror of Arbalde, the daughter of Bordeaux Benkel and Heila Henna, the head of the Henna family… and she was also… my mother.”

Haild quietly recited all of Hela’s titles.

The members of the Eastern Army were greatly agitated upon hearing Haild’s last sentence as they finally figured out his identity. It was only natural for them to be surprised, since the person who they had thought to be dead for so long had suddenly come back alive.

However Haild continued to speak regardless of their agitation.

“I bury you here—in my heart and soul. May you rest among the waves.”

Haild stepped back in silence.

Next was the time to pay respects to Dilmond. No one was able to come forward, since the Order of Huginn had lost both their Captain and their Deputy at the same time. Due to this, Juan was supposed to come forward and represent them on his own.

However, someone unexpectedly came forward.

It was Anya.

Juan was a little surprised, since he had heard that she was still unconscious. But Juan easily moved out of the way for her.

Anya was almost entirely wrapped in red bandages that were soaked in blood, likely due to the fact that she was forcing her body to move.

“Deputy of the Order of Huginn. The Dilmond ‘blacksmith’ Debussy.”

Anya looked at Dilmond as he lay on top of the firewood with blank eyes.

“You didn’t have to rush forward like that when you would have eventually died when the time came anyway. I’ll see you again soon enough.”

Anya didn’t speak any longer, and turned around to step back. Blood colored the ground red everywhere she passed by, but she continued to stand upright to watch the funeral.

Then, people looked at Juan; it was his turn.

Juan slowly walked forward and Nienna handed a lit torch to Juan. This time, Juan did not use any magic. He was the first to throw the torch over the firewood.

Following Juan, other people began to throw their torches one by one.

As the torches piled up, flames slowly began to burn. Dilmond’s body quickly burst into flames.

At that moment Juan noticed some people approaching the front yard of the Imperial Palace. They seemed somewhat frightened, but they were firmly approaching the yard step by step. When Juan turned around, he saw the sight of many people marching in a long line while holding torches.

There were nobles who had admired Hela who had been guarding the East, the knights of the Order of the Capital who had left Hela and the East behind for the sake of success at the capital, as well as the refugees who were helped by Hela when Torra was turned into ruins.

The nobles among them didn’t dare to make eye contact with the emperor. However, despite their fear of the emperor, they had stepped into the Imperial Palace, determined to pay a tribute to Hela.

Despite all the conflicts, the number of people who visited to pay a tribute to Hela was enormous. The flames burned more and more fiercely as they threw the torches over the firewood. The bitter cold disappeared without a trace in the face of the burning heat.

Juan sighed.

‘Come to think of it, there was once a time when I thought that both Hela and Dilmond were already dead.’

Juan recalled the time when Dilmond disappeared during his battle against Nigrato and the time when Hela was thrown into the sea from the wall of Beldeve. He had thought that both of them were dead, but they somehow managed to survive and even came back to Torra with him.

Juan didn’t want to think like this, but he thought of the phrase ‘mother will find her grave on her own’ that was said by Haild. Both Hela and Dilmond finally met their deaths only after waiting for the return of the emperor for a long time and then seeing Juan retrieve Torra once again. Perhaps they had already been looking for their own graves ever since then.

‘Then where is my grave? When will I meet my death?’

Juan came up with a question that he had never thought about before.

He did not intend to rule forever nor did he plan to live forever. If he tried, it really would be possible; however, Juan never wanted to do so. There was once a time after he was resurrected when he was only alive because he couldn’t find a way to die. But before he knew it, he had forgotten all about his desire for death—he suddenly felt the weight of the rest of his life.

Looking at the flames burning high and the embers scattering away, Juan thought that it would be nice to know when his own flames would go out once they finished burning as fiercely as they could.

However, there was one more place that these flames needed to burn before they went out.

***

“Good job! You did great!”

Ten days ago, at Cabragh’s training ground.

Dismas smiled joyfully and patted Imil Ilde on the back. It was such a strong pat that Imil Ilde coughed in pain.

Imil forced a smile and looked back at Dismas.

“Not at all. It’s all thanks to you, Doctrinal General Dismas. It must have been difficult to make so much of that…”

“Oh, you can do just about anything as long as you have faith. All I had to do was lie still. It was my men who suffered more than I did. That work gets exhausting much faster than you would think.”

“Of course… it’s something that I can’t even imagine.”

“So, when do you think you’ll be able to send them all?”

Imil looked around at the hundreds of carriages that filled up the entire huge training ground. The carriages were all loaded with red pieces of meat, and were fully prepared to depart at any time. Soon the carriages ought to be sent to all areas of the empire along the trade routes of Ilde family’s merchants.

Imil Ilde smiled and opened his mouth.

“I will send them all as soon as possible, along with the other shipments bound for Torra. They should all have arrived by the time you return from the Loen Basin, Doctrinal General Dismas. But more than that…”

Imil looked at the huge tower located to the west of Cabragh with a concerned look on his face.

“Please take care of His Holiness so that he can properly use Telgramm. Using the Telgramm and the Cainheryars, these two weapons from the Mythological era, we will be able to overpower and defeat any opponents in this world.”