37 episodes
13 The Welcome Army (2)
Hyukseonggung Palace, one of the five palaces surrounding the central Baekseonggung Palace.
Its owner, Enoch Agnes, the third prince, was buried in the chair as if contemplating something, and was tapping the armrest with his finger.
Regan, the leader of Icarus, standing behind Enoch without saying anything.
How much time has passed
When the sunlight coming in from the window is slightly slanted.
“ So, Rgan, you think that Shion has mastered black magic?”
At last came a voice without voice from Enoch’s mouth.
“ Yes.”
Legan nodded his head as if waiting for him and replied.
“ It seems that he not only learned black magic, but borrowed his power from a high-ranking demon.”
“ How sure are you?”
“It’s over nine .”
Even though he answered that way, Rgan was 100% sure that Prince Zion had signed a contract with the demons.
“ It is a well-known fact that Prince Zion, who was so weak that he could not kill an ant before that, has recently turned into a ferocious enough to take a person’s life lightly. A normal person would never change his personality so suddenly.”
It wasn’t just that.
“ The mysterious power that Prince Zion has recently used, the darkness that surrounds him, and even the unique eerie atmosphere. Black magic, no, it would be an absolutely impossible change if it wasn’t entangled with the demons.”
And one last and most important piece of evidence.
Legan clearly remembered how all of Shion’s eyes were instantly dyed black when seeing off Shion out of the Imperial Castle a few hours ago.
It was indeed a shorter time than a fleeting moment, but Lgan’s eyes did not miss the scene.
Legan knew that it was one of the typical symptoms of humans who contracted with demons.
“ Do you know how much weight that horse weighs now?”
Looking at such a ragan, Enoch opened his mouth heavily.
black magic.
This was a magic that was spread using magic.
The origin of magic was magic, so black magic was unacceptable in the Empire.
He could be sentenced to death simply because he had mastered black magic, and there was no such thing as a state of affairs.
In addition to that, beyond learning black magic, borrowing power directly from a demonic existence was even more serious.
Demons are the enemy of the Empire and the enemy of mankind.
Borrowing the power of such an enemy was no different to pretending to be with the entire human race.
What if the person who took the power of the devil is not a normal person but a direct blood relative of the Agnes family, who is the ruler of mankind?
The aftermath was unimaginable.
‘ Not only will the Agnes family be disgruntled, but the authority of the imperial family may fall… … .’
It was also an opportunity to get an official cause to kill Shion.
‘It wouldn’t be too bad to finish this guy perfectly this time.’
Then it will be easier to bring Shion’s mother into your side.
Enoch, who had pondered the importance of the two in his head for a moment, looked at Lergan and smiled.
“ Have you already made all your plans?”
“ Of course.”
Looking at the three princes like that, Rgan also smiled coldly.
* * *
The first place Shion and Liusina visited after leaving the Imperial Fortress was a famous restaurant in the capital Hubris.
“ Master, are you hungry? Do you want to eat first?”
Looking at the signboard of the restaurant that said “Feast of the Moonlight”, Riusina asked as if puzzled.
Because she’d rarely seen Shion enjoy eating.
“ I’m not hungry, but I have something to order.”
With that answer to Liusina, Shion walked into the dining room while covering her face with a robe.
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Moonlight Supper.
As a secret branch of the information guild ‘Eye of the Moon’, it was a place where Zion had stopped once when searching for information about the Black Forest.
daughter!
Did he already know that Zion was coming?
Unlike the last time, as soon as the clear bell hanging on the door rang, an employee with a handsome mustache approached Sion and whispered.
“I was waiting. Please follow me.”
“ I’ll follow you like last time and the sword won’t come flying?”
“… … It won’t happen.”
After answering that, Shion quietly followed the waiter who moved.
“ I didn’t really come here to eat.”
Liu Shina, who clicks her tongue as if she only knew now, and walks with Zion.
Has it not changed at all since then?
As we passed through the dark passage where there was only enough light to barely illuminate like the last time, a large cavity appeared.
And a desk placed in the center of such a common room and a woman with an intelligent feeling wearing round glasses sitting behind it.
It was Eileen, the branch manager of the ‘Eye of the Moon’ guild here.
“ I see you, Prince Zion.”
Eileen stood up immediately after seeing Shion who had entered the joint, and bowed her head politely.
“ It’s the same as last time, but you recognize this time?”
Shion smiled at him and took off the robe that covered his head.
The person already knew the identity of the person, but there was no reason to use it.
“ If we didn’t know the identity of His Majesty again this time, we wouldn’t be able to attach the modifier ‘Information Guild’ in the future.”
Eileen responded with a bitter smile towards Shion.
Eileen, no, ‘Eyes of the Moon’ has researched a lot about Zion since she found out about her identity.
Therefore, he was in a state of knowing everything from Zion’s past actions, recent events, and even his movements.
Because of that, the guild’s unwritten rule that it was not related to the Imperial Castle side was broken, and manpower was consumed considerably, but Eileen did not regret it.
‘ Because it’s worth that much.’
The imprisoned prince, the abandoned pure blood, the shame of Agnes.
They were all modifiers attached to Prince Zion, but Eileen did not believe in such a public opinion.
At least the Zion Agnes she saw with her own eyes was far from that.
‘ Even if the evaluation is true, Prince Zion must have been deceiving the world.’
On the other hand, the actions of Prince Zion heard these days were consistent with the Zion Agnes she had seen.
Have you decided to reveal it instead of hiding it anymore?
“ By the way, what did you come here for this time?”
Eileen stopped thinking like that and asked Shion.
“ Isn’t there only one reason to come here?”
“ I know you want information, but what kind of information is important. If it’s about the ‘Welcome Army’, we can’t tell you either. I can’t figure it out.”
The phantom army of Kronos.
This time, it was one of the seven major disasters that Prince Zion was in charge of solving, and it was more difficult and difficult to deal with than any other disaster.
The other catastrophes had at least been fixed in their locations, but they didn’t even know where this one came from.
There was no known cause, pattern, or identity.
A force that appears suddenly, without warning, in one of the empires’ campaigns, and vanishes like a mirage immediately upon erasing all life within range of a single city.
That’s why people called the army the ghost army, or the phantom army.
To be honest, Eileen did not understand why Shion chose the welcome army.
There were many disasters that were equally difficult, but easier to solve.
“You already know that.”
Shion shook her head toward Eileen and answered.
Sion already knew where the phantom forces would appear next.
Not only that, he already knew the cause and origin of the illusionary force.
A myth-level Noble Phantasm related to the ancient god, Kronos.
The phantom force was a phenomenon caused by such a Noble Phantasm, and it was the Noble Phantasm that Zion was targeting.
‘ Originally, it was resolved by the hero and the party later than now, and the Noble Phantasm was also obtained by the hero… … .’
Shion had no intention of yielding the Noble Phantasm to the hero.
“ Yes? you know? what is that… … .”
When Eileen asked back with a blank expression at Shion’s unexpected words.
“ I want you to find something else.”
Zion turned the subject and held out a piece of paper.
“ Know all the people on this list until I return to the Imperial Castle. Even the smallest things.”
“ This is… … .”
Eileen’s eyes fluttered when she saw the names written on the list that Shion brought out.
After the emperor, the Gwangseong Parliament was the most powerful institution in the empire.
The list was full of names of the members of such councils.
“ Are you sure you want to make a killer?”
“ Well.”
Shion just smiled meaningfully at Eileen’s question.
He had already given the same instructions to the shadows of eternity.
Sion thought that information from other sources was also needed for cross-validation.
‘ And the more information, the better.’
Eileen, who had been thinking about something for a while, looking at the list with Shion alternately, nodded slowly as if she had finally made a decision.
“… … Yes.”
Shion, who stood up from his seat as if his business was over, looked at Eileen again as if he had remembered something.
“ Oh, by the way, who was the informant you put on me last time?”
“ Are you talking about Nari?”
“ Yeah, let’s put it on again. I might make additional quests.”
“ I see. Speaking of the last story, how was your visit to the Black Forest?”
Eileen also asked Shion as if curious.
A mysterious incident in which the entire Black Forest disappeared overnight, but the contents were not known at all.
Eileen knew that Zion was involved in the incident.
Because I was one of two survivors who went into the forest and survived.
Since he was guessing the identity of the being sealed in the forest, he couldn’t help but wonder more.
“ Yeah, thanks.”
Shion gently nodded at the question.
With him, Zion’s gaze stayed on Riusina for a brief moment.
Following that gaze, Eileen’s eyes were looking at Liusina together.
“… … !”
Soon after, as if realizing something, it started to grow bigger and bigger, and eventually it started to color with astonishment.
“ Are you going now?”
A woman who has been yawning as if bored all the time next to Prince Zion.
She knew who that woman was.
The red-eyed woman who has been next to Prince Zion since not long after he returned to the Imperial Castle.
Obviously, the power that woman was dealing with was blood magic.
‘ Come on, maybe the thousand-year-old witch isn’t dead… … .’
Goosebumps rose from Eileen’s whole body.
At that moment, Eileen could see.
Sion smiled as she put her finger to her lips before he knew it.
* * *
“ Madam, what were your thoughts on accepting that request?”
After Shion and Liusina left the underground cavity, Allen, an employee with a mustache, who was standing next to him, asked Eileen.
His eyes were tinged with doubt.
Prince Zion’s request a while ago meant that the eyes of the moon would come under him.
Regarding the battle for the throne and the conflict, the quest that should have been rejected as it was originally because it did not match the direction of the ‘Eye of the Moon’, which had been neutral for a while.
“ A little while ago, Prince Zion tested us.”
At that, Eileen slowly opened her mouth with a heavy tone.
“ Whether we will come under him or reject it.”
What would have happened if he had refused on the spot?
Eileen, who had thought of Shion’s eerie eyes with that thought, shook her head once to shake the thought.
“ The emperor will die soon. Then the full-scale mayhem will begin, and we too have to change if we want to survive.”
Until now, it was somehow possible to remain neutral, but it was unclear whether that would be possible even after the emperor’s death.
‘ Eye of the Moon’ is one of the leading intelligence guilds in the Empire, many forces will try to attract them as they do today.
“ It’s like you’re already connected with the imperial family anyway, so it’s better to choose a route clearly at this point.”
“… … If it is the lady’s will, then I will follow it, but why did you choose Prince Zion? There must be many other prominent royal families.”
Yes.
No matter how much Prince Zion has been making his mark recently, he was a new kind of blood compared to other members of the royal family.
Because the starting line was already very different.
“ It’s a feeling.”
Eileen answered Allen’s words without hesitation.
“ No one has ever made me feel this way.”
In addition, if the woman who was next to Prince Sion a while ago was the one she thought was correct, then Prince Sion’s abilities were beyond imagination.
“ Still, I plan to wait until this disaster.”
welcome army.
The worst calamity that even Eileen herself, who knows the true nature of Zion, can’t solve it, shouting that the whole world is impossible.
Will Prince Zion be able to break the judgment of this world again this time?
‘ It doesn’t make sense, but if you really, really solve this… … .’
In Eileen’s eyes as she thought that way, an unknown expectation was slowly spreading.