53 – Audience with the Emperor.
“You’re back.”
After returning to the imperial castle with Hubert, I received a suitable outfit from a lady-in-waiting.
The sight of Hubert turning a person into porridge is quite common in this imperial castle, but the lady-in-waiting gave me a pitiful look at my torn clothes.
“It’s time to go to an audience with the Emperor.”
“Okay..Let’s go see it.”
I don’t know what kind of bastard the emperor is, but the first thing I thought was to ask him why he sent Hubert.
Didn’t he have to go through a lot of trouble by sending a man with a fighting spirit to do a job that could have been done by just ordering a regular knight or an attendant?
“First of all, I’ll tell you a word of caution before meeting your Majesty.”
“Notes? What should I say respectfully, should I bow down…What?”
“There is that, but the most important thing is that you must never tell lies in front of the Emperor.”
I snorted when Hubert told me not to lie in front of the emperor.
‘Is there any law against lying in front of the emperor?’
I thought it was possible since it was set in the Middle Ages, so I ignored Hubert’s warning and followed him through the corridors of the imperial palace.
After a few minutes or so, I found a large ornately decorated door.
“That’s the audience room.”
“It’s so damn big…”
“They say the size of the door is 5m wide and 10m long.”
Looking at the size of the door, it was no different from the fragments of emptiness seen in the labyrinth of the abyss.
“First of all, His Majesty wants to meet you one-on-one. So I’ll be waiting outside.”
“Weren’t you the emperor’s escort? Is it okay for the emperor to meet outsiders without the escort?”
“You won’t be able to lay a finger on His Majesty the Emperor anyway, so stop thinking about it and go in.”
Since the emperor is one of the top 4 on the continent, it seems that it is okay to work casually as an escort driver.
Isn’t this a totally honey-sucking job?
“His Majesty says it’s okay to come in.”
“Then I’ll be waiting.”
An old grandfather, who appeared to be the chamberlain, approached me and informed me that the Emperor’s approval had been lost.
At the same time, the enormous door to the audience room started to move with a noise.
At that time, as I watched the audience room door slowly open, I began to feel a strange feeling.
‘…Mana…?’
-Quite condensed mana.
The identity of the aura I felt was very thick mana that seemed to be compressed dozens of times more than normal mana.
At this level, it was difficult for people with low levels to stand around.
Koo-ung!
‘Surprised..!’
I stepped inside and the door slammed shut with a loud bang.
‘When it opens, it opens slowly, but when it closes, it closes violently.’
Just as I was thinking about what kind of doors there were, the mana that had been gathering in the air suddenly began to gather in one place.
That place is a large and splendid throne at the end of the throne room.
‘What is that…?’
As the mana that began to gather in the throne slowly began to merge, it created the shape of a human.
The body of a man who is about 180 cm tall and looks moderately strong.
The most notable thing is that there is only one person on all continents who has such characteristics with pure white hair and bright pink eyes.
That is Grace Hyperion, the emperor of the Hyperion Empire.
“Are you Park Ga-on from another world?”
The emperor asked me a question while arranging the violent energy of mana.
“…..Are you appearing cool?”
“I’m glad it looked like that.”
I forgot to even pay her respect to her mysterious feat of creating herself by gathering mana.
Thankfully, however, the emperor just laughed and didn’t point out my rudeness.
“It’s okay not to say yes. Actually, I don’t care too much about it.”
“Is it okay to just stand there?”
“I’m willing to make a chair for you if you want.”
“…Just stand there.”
Contrary to my expectations, the emperor seemed to have an unexpectedly easy-going personality.
To be honest, I was worried that, like Hubert, he would start a fight as soon as he saw me, but fortunately it didn’t seem like that.
“Then…I have one question before we get to the point.”
“What is it?”
“Didn’t Hubert swing his sword as soon as he saw you?”
I swung it like crazy, and like a crazy bastard.
“…”
“Looking at your expression, it seems that way.”
The emperor sighed and placed his hand on the handle of his throne, using his fingers to tap the handle.
“First of all, I’ll apologize directly, because that guy has a disease that attacks only the strong. In fact, Jim is not the only one worried.”
“I was sick and I almost died…”
“So, originally, I would never have sent Hubert to you… But since you ended up in the labyrinth of the sun, there was no one but Hubert to bring you.”
Certainly, the only person who can find me in the labyrinth of the sun, which is larger than the entire imperial capital, would be only the emperor or Hubert, who is one of the top 4 on the continent.
But no matter how true it is, isn’t it too much to send such a madman?
“Anyway, wasn’t it a little too much to send such a madman?”
“I feel sorry for that, too. However, since the Labyrinth of the Sun is a place known only to a few of the highest ranking officials in the Imperial City, I had no choice but to bring you, an outsider, by force, even with force.”
“…Then at least set up security.”
If it was such an important place, you should have blocked the hole leading to the maze. Why didn’t you?
“I didn’t know you could go down through that hole. Besides, the time you entered the maze was before Jim returned to the castle.”
“Then there’s nothing I can do about it…”
I can’t help it, b*tch. One day, I’m going to put my fist in Hubert’s face.
“Still, Hubert seems to have matured a bit, so you can’t see any scars on your body.”
“…….”
“…? What is that expression?”
At the moment, the word that I was beaten like a dog went up to the top of my throat, but I somehow endured it.
“Anyway, let’s get down to business.”
The emperor looked at me strangely as I was making an expression like I was chewing sh*t, but he seemed to think it was no big deal and immediately started talking about the main topic.
“First of all, it’s a story about a reward for you.”
“If it’s a prize… It looks like it’s related to the fire incident.”
“That’s right, you protected our imperial palace… No, the entire capital of the empire, Eos, from the attack of demons, so we’re going to reward you accordingly.”
To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from the emperor’s award.
She told Irina that she gave her enough gold coins to play and eat for the rest of her life, but Veronica said that even if she sold only one amplifying sword, she would get that much money.
“I also heard that he saved Princess Irina’s life twice. Is that correct?”
“Right..?”
Although Veronica had solved both of them, there was no way the emperor knew about it.
Besides, isn’t it true that she saved Irina’s life anyway, whether it be porridge or food?
“So, taking all of that into account, I will reward you later.”
“Wasn’t it given to you right now?”
“It will take some time because we have to discuss the reward for you with the nobles as well.”
‘The lion-eared man next door gave it to me right away, but I don’t think it’s here.’
But in fact, the beast king uncle was unusual, and the emperor was not strange.
Even the ruler of a country cannot ignore the power of the nobles, but making decisions without consulting them is the same as the king ignoring the nobles.
Of course, in the case of a kingdom of beasts, the king of beasts could have made his own decision, ignoring the meeting procedure with the nobles of Jira, where power was concentrated in the royal family, but the situation seems to be a little different in the empire.
“Then is it over now?”
The reason the emperor called me must have been to talk about the award.
So now that we’ve finished talking about the reward, can we go back?
“No, actually, there’s something I want to share closely with you.”
“I don’t really…”
“Under the law of the Empire, you cannot leave the audience room until the Emperor gives permission. By the way, breaking this is treason.”
f*ck.
“Then let’s talk about business.”
Just let it go.
****
It was late at 1:00 in the morning, and Irina quietly woke up.
‘….Is it a nightmare…’
Irina has been having very bizarre nightmares every time she falls asleep for the past few days.
In those nightmares, a person who always looked just like Irina appeared and quietly disappeared with a terrifying smile.
I don’t know what the hell the nightmare means, but Irina thought it was just that her dream was wild, so she decided to drink some water and go back to sleep.
From noble mtl dot com
‘…The water bottle…Here.’
Irina got up from her seat and placed her hand on a water bottle that was sitting on a table a short distance from the bed.
She then quenched her thirst by drinking water from a jug out of a very expensive-looking teacup.
‘…Um?’
Meanwhile, Irina found a document lying next to a bottle of water.
Her documents to be reported to Alpheon, her escort knight, were ordered to be delivered to her bedroom through her maid, but it seems that her maid put it on the table because Irina was not in her room and went away. .
“Let’s see…”
Just woke up. Irina infused her magic lantern with her mana to light her light and began reading her report.
In her report, the salaries of the direct servants of the princess and her knights were written down, and at the end, the contents related to people from another world were written down.
“…The total number of newly discovered aliens is 32…Awaiting instructions now…”
Although several weeks have already passed since the people of Earth moved, it seemed that they were still being found intermittently all over the continent.
‘All 32 members are below the status and ability standards…’
Irina decided on the treatment of the 32 people from another world without giving any thought.
‘Death penalty.’
Irina had no intention of keeping the bugs alive, who had no talent and could not adapt to the world.
But…
“…Death penalty…?”
She sensed something strange about her.
‘…..Why…? Why… Did I talk about people from another world…?”
‘Death penalty’
‘No.’
‘Immediate disposition.’
‘No.’
‘Kill it.’
‘No…!’
Irina began to feel confused.
She herself couldn’t make a clear decision about how she wanted to dispose of the people of this world.
‘Kill’
‘Save me.’
‘Kill it’
‘No, save me.’
Feeling as though she were two people, Irina quickly tore up her papers, panicking.
Jjiik-!
“Ha…Ha…”
Irina breathed heavily as she watched the torn pieces of paper.
‘What was it…’
When Irina fell into chaos, she instantly felt as if someone was watching her.
‘Who…?’
Irina looked around at the sudden glance, but there was not a single ant to be seen in her room, let alone a person.
‘…You seem a bit sensitive. Or maybe I didn’t wake up…’
Thinking that she was simply being drained by her stress, Irina, for some unknown reason, calmed her trembling hands and made her way to her bed.
But just as she was about to pass the large full-length mirror in her room, she saw herself reflected in the mirror and stopped her steps.
‘…The mirror…Seems strange…?’
There was a large window on the wall where the mirror was installed, and the beautiful moonlight was pouring down.
Thanks to that, even on a dark night, she could see her reflection in the mirror very clearly, and Irina had a moment of doubt about her reflection in the mirror.
“…Different…?”
The reflection of herself in her mirror was a little different.
Her hair was not spotless and pure silver, but silver hair with a slight purple tint, and her eyes were deep purple, not the pale pink eyes of the Hyperion family.
“This…What the hell is this…”
Irina noticed that her reflection in the mirror was different and slowly approached the mirror with her eyes wide open.
‘…Isn’t it me…?’
Apparently, Irina was approaching her mirror, but inside the mirror, Irina stood still and looked at the real Irina with her expressionless face.
The sight gave her goosebumps, but she decided to take a closer look at her mirror, thinking that it might be the work of a sorcerer.
The moment Irina arrived right in front of the mirror.
A strange thing began to happen.
“What?!”
The fake Irina, who was inside her mirror, suddenly reached out to her, and her hand came out of her mirror and grabbed the real Irina’s arm.
“What is this…! Let go…!”
Irina was startled by the sight of her fake Irina, who suddenly started pulling her own arm, and tried to pull her arm away as far as she could.
But her fake Irina’s strength was much higher than the real Irina, and the real Irina was forcibly sucked into her mirror.
“….!!”
At that moment, Irina saw it.
She sees Irina in the mirror, as she saw in her nightmares, that she is looking at herself with a very creepy smile.
“Let everything…Let go now!”
Fake Irina screamed and opened her mouth to her real Irina, who was somehow trying to get out of her grasp.
My
Let go