The Emperor Has Returned

Chapter 226 – Gerard Gain (2)

Gerard could immediately tell from the moment he touched the cover—that the book was not like any other ordinary books that were made with animal skin cover—it was made with a human’s skin.

The letters engraved on the cover were in a language that even Gerard could not recognize, despite the various kinds of knowledge he had acquired. But the more he read it, the more he could feel the letters, interpreting the meaning itself.

Gerard intuitively knew that this book was something from the Crack.

‘What are you doing Gerard? Why are you even reading this?’

Gerard looked at the cover of the book with a troubled expression. However, he could not stop reading. The amount of knowledge contained in the book was quite enormous. The knowledge consisted of the world inside the Crack, the creatures living in it, and the culture and customs of those creatures.

It was knowledge that would be of great help in dealing with the Crack if he informed His Majesty or Nienna about it. But he could not do so, since the existence of the book would be revealed if His Majesty or Nienna asked how he came to learn of such knowledge.

‘It’s not time yet. Just a little more. Just a little…’

Gerard thought that there must be a way to save humanity from the Crack in this book. He strongly believed that he would be the one to make up for His Majesty’s only shortcomings, and that His Majesty will become even more perfect through his existence.

Then, Gerard inadvertently remembered a soldier he had met a long time ago. He was a man who used to instill fanatical ideas into the other soldiers within the unit by praising the emperor. Although Gerard thought highly of the man’s loyalty, Gerard had no choice but to kick the man out, since problems would rise if people like him grew in number.

Gerard also thought that the man and his group were ridiculous. What they did was contrary to the will of His Majesty, yet they were ironically praising him more than anyone else.

However, it was their passionate loyalty and simple faith that somehow intrigued him.

‘Is there any reason why His Majesty cannot become our god?’

In order to make that happen, Gerard had to make His Majesty more perfect than he was now.

Gerard opened the book once again while fiddling with the purple gem in his hand.

***

‘If there is salvation, will it be on land or in the sky?’

Gerard stabbed a sword into the man’s heart. It was already his fifth time inflicting a fatal wound, but the man continued to laugh and tried to charge at Gerard rather than dying. The man’s distorted and clumped hands had a bizarre form, and it would be more suitable to call them tentacles.

“You’re a tough one to kill,” Gerard murmured.

Gerard tried to fight while trying to avoid blood splattering the surroundings with blood, but was eventually forced to cut off the man’s waist and arms at once.

The man fell to the floor in a grotesque motion, but continued wriggling relentlessly as he tried to bite off Gerard’s boots.

Gerard raised his foot with a frown.

“May there be a miserable death to the usurper,” the man muttered as he looked at Gerard’s foot stepping down on his face.

Gerard crushed the man’s face in an instant. Only after the surroundings became quiet was Gerard was able to look around.

Gerard was in an ancient dungeon somewhere in the Northeast. He had heard that the surrounding area had turned into a bloody forest after His Majesty caught and killed a god near this dungeon.

However, the traces of the Crack could be found in the dungeon hidden here. Gerard lit a flame on his fingertip, while lightning flashed between his fingers. The surrounding area was a library full of old books. Gerard carefully looked at the books while making sure not to cause any damage to them.

“Here it is.”

As expected, the books in the library were about the Crack as well.

Gerard had heard of a group called the ‘Thornbush Priest Organization’ consisting of humans that had been encroached upon by the Crack. It was clear that they also had the book that Gerard found and read in Arbalde.

‘This is one of their libraries…’

To keep everything confidential, Gerard had visited the dungeon alone, without informing the other knights from the Order of Lindwurm. Only one of them, Bekelt, had come with Gerard to guard the entrance to the dungeon.

Gerard rummaged through the books and searched for what he was looking for. Gerard was now able to easily read the unfamiliar language used beyond the Crack. There were still many words that he found difficult to read, but he was good enough to read the things he needed.

Gerard, who was concentrating on reading the books while even forgetting to eat, finally stopped at a page. His eyes were filled with excitement.

“As expected. It exists.”

‘A type of material from another world that allows one to even come in contact with abstract concepts.’

“As long as we have this, even the Crack won’t be able to…”

“Captain.”

Instantly, Gerard leapt to his feet, drew his sword and quickly swung it at the opponent. The tip of the sword stopped at a close distance from Bekelt’s throat.

Gerard glared at Bekelt with a distorted expression.

“I thought I told you to guard the entrance.”

“I came inside to tell you something.”

Gerard’s face was full of embarrassment, shame, and confusion. His sword trembled, almost as if he would stab Bekelt in the throat at any moment.

Now, Gerard had no choice but to prepare himself for the upcoming punishment; after all, he was caught coveting the knowledge from the Crack.

But that also meant that Gerard had to prepare himself to stab Bekelt. The knowledge that he had found was something that he could never give up.

‘If one life can save all of humanity, then…’

“Forgive me, Bekelt. But this knowledge must be told to…”

“To whom?”

“To all of humanity, of course…”

Only then did Gerard realize the mistake he had just made. It was a ridiculous mistake caused by the shock and confusion of the moment. This knowledge had to be hidden. Talking about it to the others was no different from directly criticizing the emperor.

There was no reason to attack Bekelt in the first place. Gerard lowered the edge of his sword.

“I made a mistake because I was perplexed for a moment, Bekelt. But you will have to give me a reasonable explanation for breaking my order.”

“His Majesty shouldn’t find out about this.”

Gerard fell silent upon hearing Bekelt’s firm voice. After looking at Bekelt with suspicious eyes for a while, Gerard barely managed to open his mouth.

“Do you know what I saw?”

“I do.”

Gerard tried his best to stay calm, but his hand holding the sword was already trembling. It took him a considerable amount of time and effort to finally find this knowledge.

‘But Bekelt already knew about this all along and he was just watching me until now?’

Meanwhile, Bekelt continued speaking in a quiet voice.

“It is also from this dungeon that I found the gem that I gave to you as a gift, Captain. In fact, what I gave you is just a tiny fraction. But there’s a reason why I didn’t tell you about it.”

“Tell me,” Gerard said.

“It is because you need to be prepared to accept this kind of knowledge. Think about what would have happened if I had told you all of these things out of the blue, Captain. You wouldn’t have thought or understood that this knowledge was even necessary for the empire. But now, you do.”

“...You’re right.”

“Captain Gerard, you came to know how useful this knowledge is because you were prepared to fully understand the Crack and accepted the knowledge only after that. But do you think His Majesty will be willing to do the same? And I’m talking about His Majesty here, someone who even made it a felony to show an interest in the Crack?”

“...It’s all for a reason. If I give him good advice before…”

“You will be severely scolded and imprisoned. If you’re lucky, you might be locked up in that prison where not even a single ray of sunshine reaches for the rest of your life. Though, if you’re unlucky, Captain Nienna might come to visit you in person.”

If it was Nienna, she would even mercilessly raise her sword against her own family. She already had an experience of executing her own family members with her own hands.

‘She held a sword against her own blood relatives. Of course she would kill me, since I’m not even related to her.’

Gerard opened the book with a desperate look on his face. In the book, something was drawn—something that looked like a black thornbush.

“Bekelt, do you know what this is? This is called Elkiehl. It is a material that can even allow one to come into contact with abstract ideas. If we have this, we can drive out not only curses, but also abstract concepts and even the Crack. With this, humans can conquer and purify the Crack. This means that we don’t have to suffer from the threat of the Crack anymore.”

Bekelt closed his mouth when he heard Gerard’s desperate voice.

Until now, the Crack was treated like an unstoppable plague. The Crack was a place where the creatures from an unknown world constantly moved about and it was a great threat to humanity even after the gods had all disappeared.

But with Elkiehl, there would be no need for Nienna to go to war, nor would there be a need for carnage.

“I know that what I did was wrong, but there’s no way that His Majesty wouldn’t understand the value of this knowledge. With this, I can fill the gaps in His Majesty and make him even more perfect than he is now.”

“Why do you want to make the emperor even more perfect?”

“What?”

Bekelt looked down at Gerard with somber eyes.

“There is already a perfect emperor standing in front of me right now—the man who loves humanity more than anything, who is strong, and also has the necessary knowledge to conquer even the Crack. So why is such a great man tied to someone else? You are the true emperor who will lead the ignorant humanity, forever.”

***

‘No. I’m not suitable to be the emperor.’

Gerard had always thought so. He thought that he was nothing but a trivial human being compared to His Majesty.

However, such thoughts only lasted until he found out about ‘its’ existence—about the existence of the crown.

The Thornbush Priest Organization’s remark about the emperor being an ‘usurper’ had constantly bothered Gerard for a long time.

‘Whose seat did His Majesty steal? Does that mean that humans have taken over the world that used to be dominated by the gods? But there’s no reason for the Thornbush Priest Organization to say that on behalf of the gods.’

There was barely any mention of the Crown in the book. However, there was an existence that was always mentioned together with the Crown.

It was Qzatquizail—a dragon monster wearing a crown.

“What is Qzatquizail?”

***

Gerard brought the knights from the Order of Lindwurm, who supported him, to raid the home base of the Thornbush Priest Organization.

Gerard had set up an atmosphere where the rebels could be killed and the survivors could be gathered in one place to kill them all at any moment.

Then he asked a question about Qzatquizail after he had sheathed his sword.

One of the Priests from the Thornbush Priest Organization responded to Gerard’s question.

“He is a nine-headed dragon wearing a crown; he is as big as several universes. He is infinity itself. Hundreds of millions of civilizations and creatures crawl in the space where he lies. There are even those who do not know of his existence, even when they are living on his body.”

Gerard tilted his head.

“Is he like the ruler of the Crack?”

The Priest from the Thornbush Priest Organization burst into laughter upon hearing Gerard’s question.

Gerard patiently waited for the answer, but he didn’t intend to put up with it twice.

Right when Gerard drew his sword, the Priest stopped laughing.

“Sorry… I’m sorry… He doesn’t rule; he only exists. Although we serve him, he doesn’t even know of our existence. Just by stretching one of his tens of thousands of his legs, he can make a hole in space and split the world in half. The Crack is just one of those countless holes. The Crack you’re all so afraid of is nothing more than the traces left behind by the slightest of movements from Qzatquizail.”

Gerard found it hard to imagine a story of such magnitude. He had never even heard of any gods being described so grandly. While it might just be a madman’s delusions, training and knowledge would all be completely worthless if such a powerful existence truly existed.

Gerard finally opened his mouth again.

“Then what is the Crown?”

The Priest opened his eyes wide and looked at Gerard.

“At first, I thought it was just an expression used to refer to that thing called Qzatquizail. I thought it was supposed to mean the king of kings or the monster among monsters. But the more I looked into it, the more I came to realize that it wasn’t as simple as that. It must be something important, especially when you consider that His Majesty took it away. I thought it might be the source of His Majesty’s infinite power,” Gerard went on in a calm manner.

The Priest glared at Gerard instead of answering him.

Gerard sighed when he saw that the Priest had no intention of giving him an answer.

“If you don’t answer me, then that means you’re useless. You guys keep crawling out of nowhere like cockroaches, so I’m sure I can find someone else to answer my question.”

Gerard beckoned at the knights behind him, and all of them drew their swords in unison.

The slaughter, which had been stopped for a while, unfolded once again.

Meanwhile, Gerard continued to ponder amidst a sea of splashing blood and screams.

‘The crowned dragon, Qzatquizail.’

The Thornbush Priest Organization was referring to the emperor as an usurper.

‘His Majesty stole the monster’s crown and wore it, huh?’

Of course, it was not strange for anyone to kill monsters and take their belongings as a trophy. The Order of Lindwurm also had some artifacts collected in the same way. But Gerard wondered if such a thing was possible when facing the existence called Qzatquizail. And if it was possible, Gerard couldn't tell why the emperor had stayed silent about it until now.

‘If he created the Crack, then it should also be possible to close the Crack.’

Gerard’s agony did not stop there. Another possibility came to his mind.

‘Is it possible for someone else to wear the Crown?’