47 – Labyrinth of the Sun – 2
“Salute to His Majesty the Emperor!”
“””Salute!!!”””
Around two days after the mixed flame raid incident, Emperor Grace Hyperion, the owner of the Hyperion Empire, finally returned to the imperial castle.
“Sir Hubert, let’s check the zodiac sign, we need to make sure we know what ‘him’ really did.”
“I will follow your orders.”
Hubert, a member of the four continental powers and the leader of the Imperial Knights, escaped from the ranks and disappeared into the Constellation Palace at a speed that no one would notice.
Thump…
Grace sat on a throne full of ornate patterns and looked around with dignified eyes.
“…Let Prince Ian come out.”
“..Yes…Yep..!”
As soon as Grace sat down on the throne, the first person she pointed to was Second Prince Ian Hyperion.
Even before Grace, the emperor, returned to the imperial castle, he knew very well about the raids that took place in the imperial castle. It is thanks to the eyes hidden in the imperial castle that he watched very closely.
In other words, I was very aware of how incompetent Ian was at the time of the incident, and I was actually very angry about him.
“…Report all about the Constellation Palace raid incident.”
But Grace gave Ian a chance. No matter how much he hated it, he was willing to end it with a light probation, as long as he knew his son and the second prince of this empire and repented of his mistakes.
“…That…That’s…”
“…Why don’t you open your mouth? Prince, hurry up and report this incident.”
Ian sensed Grace’s enormous aura, causing her body to tremble and her cold sweat to break out.
Eventually, Ian came up with a foolish idea to get out of this situation somehow. Her choice came to Ian as the worst handshake ever.
“…Princess… Princess Irina made a big mistake…”
“What the hell is that..!”
Irina, who was standing by to make her report to her Emperor, screamed at her with her face pale, taken aback by Ian’s reply.
“Brother! What are you doing now..!”
“Uh huh. Let the princess be quiet.”
Irina quickly tried to argue with Ian, but Grace’s sharp eyes flew by and forced her to shut up.
“Keep reporting.”
“It’s because Princess Irina didn’t command properly…! It wasn’t me who was in the Constellation Palace at the time, it was Princess Irina! In other words, it was only Irina’s fault that her knights were sacrificed…”
“…Why didn’t the highest commanding officer direct the knights at the time?”
“That…That’s…”
The reason Ian didn’t show up at the time of the incident was very simple. Because I was afraid.
Basically, he was born as an imperial prince and lived comfortably.
He always caught only the monsters he could defeat, and when a monster stronger than himself appeared, he raised the level safely by entrusting it to the escort knights.
In fact, he never caught a monster higher than level 60 until he reached level 70. He was mostly monsters below level 50, and monsters higher than level 50 were easily hunted under the protection of knights.
The result. He was afraid to fight against the familiar of mixed flames, a powerful monster of level 60 or higher, and the terrible level of mixed flames of level 93.
“…When I arrived at the Constellation Palace, all the knights were dead…!”
“Lies! My brother has never…!”
“Shut up Irina! You don’t feel guilty after sacrificing the knights like that!”
“Hmm…”
Grace looked at Ian with cold eyes and stroked his beard.
“Keep talking.”
“This is not the end of Princess Irina’s mistakes! She tried to justify the sacrifices of countless knights by telling a ridiculous lie that she encountered a level 80 monster on her way back from the Land of Beasts!”
“Heh heh… A level 80 monster…?”
For a moment, Grace’s eyes shone with interest.
Until now, there have been very few cases where level 80 monsters have appeared. However, the emperor was well aware that Irina was not a child to tell her lies.
“What is the name of the monster?”
“Princess Irina said it was a fragment of chaos. Isn’t it a really absurd story? There’s no way such a monster could exist.”
“Fragments of Chaos… Hmmm…”
At that moment, Grace turned her head to Irina and asked questioningly.
“…If you truly encountered that monster…How could you be alive, princess?”
“…..What do you mean by that…”
“She is asking how she survived meeting the Fragments of Chaos. Jim knows very well that Fragments of Chaos are not normal.”
“…Does your majesty know anything about the fragments of chaos…?”
“I know roughly.”
Ian could not understand the conversation between Grace and Irina for a moment.
However, he is the 2nd prince of the empire and the great wizard of the 7th circle in his own way. Through the contents of the conversation, I quickly noticed that the fragments of chaos were real monsters.
“So… Prince Ian, have you said everything?”
“……”
Ian bit his lip for a moment.
She could see through Grace’s cold eyes that he had no intention of forgiving him.
“…I’m sorry, Your Majesty!! I made a mistake due to my lack of ability!!”
In the end, Ian quickly decided to take the most appropriate course of action in the situation.
Anyway, framing Irina failed. That means that all Ian can do now is to pray as much as possible to the emperor and somehow get less punishment.
However, Grace was not weak enough to forgive Ian for missing the time.
“Prince Ian. Even though he was the highest commanding officer at the time of the Constellation Palace fire incident, the prince did not properly fulfill his role. As a result, many knights lost their lives. They were also the parents of a family. I mean, this is obviously a great sin.”
“Your Majesty… Please forgive me…”
“However, it is also true that this was the first time that Prince Ian played the role of commander-in-chief. Therefore, I will take that into account when punishing him.”
At that moment, Ian let out a sigh of relief. He thought Grace wouldn’t punish him too much.
However, the punishment Grace gave to Ian was far more severe and cruel than he thought.
“Starting today, Prince Ian, who has not properly performed his role as ruler, will weaken the authority he can exercise in the Imperial Castle!”
“That..What the hell is that..!”
“Now, Prince Ian’s authority in the imperial castle will be limited to that of a ‘prince’.”
The punishment Grace gave was practically the death penalty for Ian.
From now on, Ian’s right to succeed to the throne will be lower than Irina’s, and he will have command authority equal to that of ordinary knight commanders in wartime situations.
In other words, Ian’s dream of ascending the throne became virtually impossible.
“Please…Please forgive me…!”
“Okay. Let’s stop talking about this now.”
The emperor was calm. Even if it is your own blood.
“Then next… They say there is a person from another world who solved this case…”
Actually, Ian wasn’t that important to Grace right now. The important thing for him was the existence or nonexistence of people in the world who said he had single-handedly defeated the mixed flames that even he could not wake up.
If, as reported, he had enough power to overcome the mixed flames, Grace was determined to enlist the otherworlder on her side by any means necessary.
It doesn’t matter how much money it costs or how much the ladies-in-waiting get raped every night. It was because it was clear that it would be of great help in the future if I somehow managed to capture him.
“Princess Irina, I heard that the princess is taking care of those people from another world.”
“That…That’s…”
Grace questioned Irina, who momentarily averted her gaze and turned her head away.
I couldn’t understand why he was avoiding his eyes.
“Did you say the name of the person from the other world is… Park Ga-on?”
“Yes…Yes…”
“Park is the surname and Gaon is the given name, so I will call it Gaon. So, where is that Gaon from another world? Answer me.”
Irina hesitated for a while and did not open her mouth despite Grace’s command.
However, in the end, she could not stand Grace’s murderous eyes and declared her defeat, and she carefully brought up the story of Gaon.
“…Is gone..”
“…What?”
“To be precise, I leave only this note…”
“…A note…? Chief Chamberlain. Bring me that note.”
Grace had her chambermaid bring the note that Irina was holding in her hand.
“Here I am.”
“Hmm…”
Grace opened the note she had received from Irina and tried to check its contents.
As soon as she saw the sentence on her note, Grace had no choice but to give up reading her face with a frown.
“…What kind of letters are these…?”
“………..”
The note ‘I went underground for a bit. Don’t know how long it will take -P.S.: When the emperor comes, you should receive a reward instead.’ Was written crookedly in ‘Hangeul’.
*****
“Ohh! Arrived.”
Early in the morning, I descended into the labyrinth of the sun through the hole through which the concoction appeared.
But why are you suddenly descending into the labyrinth of the sun? First of all, the beginning of this incident was started by Veronica’s careless remark.
-Does the king know about puppet seolsam?
-Puppet seolsam? Doesn’t that just come out as a great elixir in a martial arts novel?
-It’s similar. If you actually consume it, it has a tremendous effect of increasing your maximum mana by 2 times and all stats by 1.2 Times.
-Oh…But why are you talking about that?
-Actually, in the past, there was a time when the seeds of ginseng doll were buried in the maze of the sun under the imperial castle.
-…Wasn’t stuffed ginseng originally made because wild ginseng was very old? Why are there separate seeds?
-? Of course, shouldn’t the seed exist separately? Ordinary hemp rots underground after 500 years.
– Uselessly realistic. So, what was the intention behind that statement?
-Considering the time in the past when the seeds of Doll Seolsam were buried, they must have grown appropriately by now. So what about the king taking the doll’s tongue?
-…You don’t eat?
-If you take the same elixir twice, the effect disappears. I’ve already taken the doll tongue ginseng before.
-Oh!! After all, Beroemon! I believed you!
-….If you call me by that nickname one more time…
-Yes…
…So that’s why!
I decided to look for the ginseng doll planted by Veronica myself.
I heard from Veronica that the doll snow ginseng is a special elixir that moves by itself, so you have to go around the maze to find it.
How did you get around that wide maze at first? I thought it was, but Veronica said that the doll Seolsam is not more than 5km away from the place where it was first planted.
“What is this?”
As soon as I reached the labyrinth of the sun through the hole, a large room appeared in front of me.
On the floor of the room, large chains and purple crystals were shattered and discarded like garbage.
-The sealing sphere that sealed the mixed flames. Although now it is completely broken.
“Whoa…”
Certainly, traces of mana remained in these purple crystals, albeit in small amounts.
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“So where’s the doll seolsam?”
-The place where the doll seolsam is buried is a bit far from here. Let me guide you
“Okay, let’s get it right away and come back.”
I followed Veronica’s words and opened the large door in the room.