Chapter 435: Fool

In contrast to the Dragon World, which fell into heated difficulties, the ancient Bardi Empire right next door fell into a deep silence. Perhaps it should be said that this was a manmade silence.

After Bardi lost on the eastern front, the royal knights became extremely active unlike the past periods of enforced silence. The capital was placed under severe martial law. Any princes who tried to take advantage of the situation to create chaos were executed in public as an example to others. The “poison scorpion emperor” Orloss the Thirteenth who had appeared to have turned into a kind old man showed the world once again just how vicious he could be.

“Halent will succeed the throne.”

Even after Bardi lost the eastern front and much controversy stirred in the country, Emperor Orloss withstood all the pressure and heavily emphasized that his chosen successor, Halent, would be the one to inherit the throne.

Those who opposed him to the face? Executed.

Those who whispered about opposing him behind his back? Executed.

Princes who tried to ally with domain lords against this? Executed.

Nobles who simply complained in the privacy of their own mansions to servants, friends or family? Executed.

The old emperor, who had always smiled in such a friendly fashion, who always appeared so kind and friendly even during assassination attempts, now remained in his study, sipping his tea and smiling while announcing an endless amount of executions. The royal knights silently carried out his seemingly insane orders to slaughter all opposition, even to the point of hanging to death children less than ten years old on the castle walls, despite the fact that this would trample all over their knightly honor and spirit.

“Any that have doubts about Halent’s succession, no matter their status, age or previous accomplishments, will be executed.”

This was the will of the old emperor, and the royal knights silently carried out his will even if the people of Bardi couldn’t comprehend the old emperor’s sudden insanity. Nobody was able to stomach this unexpected sudden slaughter. Almost all of the major domain lords’ sons who were hostages in the capital had been executed for the domain lords’ conspiracies with the princes. This caused the border domain lords to become absolutely furious.

Looking at the current situation, the Bardi Empire would be embroiled in bitter internal warfare before the Holy Church’s allied armies or the Tark Republic would attack them. Just what exactly was the always wise emperor doing? Was he destroying the empire that he spent his entire life to create?

Even Halent’s own faction, the typically neutral dragon knights, were unable to comprehend the old emperor’s sudden lunacy. But due to the first and foremost code of their knightly chivalry—absolute loyalty to their ruler—none of them were able to stop this. However, they all knew that this wasn’t normal and couldn’t last.

At this rate, even if Halent inherited the throne, the moment old Emperor Orloss died there would be a huge rebellion from the repressed nobles due to this slaughter, leading to a bitter fight for everyone.

Meanwhile, after Miracle Hand Estrada passed away, the world was astonished, mourned and felt helpless. Yet this was a great help to Halent and Bardi.

The Holy Church vanguard army, which had been a tremendous threat to Bardi, had now been declared as heretics and dispersed. The God of Holy Light’s unstoppable will had slowed down. Even though this was only temporary, Estrada had sacrificed himself to obtain a victory for mortals. Bardi was also no longer in immediate danger.

“…This should help the old emperor calm down.”

That was what everyone expected, but things didn’t happen as they thought. Not only did Orloss not stop, but he actually became even more severe.

Those who took advantage of the situation to raise prices or stockpile goods and refuse to sell? Executed.

Those who had overly close relationships or familial ties with major domain lords? Executed.

Those who didn’t even do anything, but had too much power and might be able to influence Halent being able to succeed the throne? Executed.

The old emperor, who smiled in such a seemingly kind manner as he watched his adopted princes scheme and kill each other for the past twenty years, smiled as he always did as he declared so many executions. Rivers of blood poured out of the capital city.

In fact, the other main character of this incident, Halent, even personally met with the emperor and argued with him about this. Still, Orloss didn’t change his ways. The only end result was that Halent ended up shutting himself inside and refusing to go out.

“…Halent is the only candidate who can be allowed to succeed the throne if the future Bardi Empire is to survive. As for how he obtained the position? That’s not important in the least. As for I myself…? Hehehe—just watch and see.”

In the whole country, only an incredibly few number of people would be able to enter Orloss’s study and listen to him slowly speak his thoughts.

Currently, the old emperor was listening to reports from his head of spies and knight captain.

“…Judging by the information our spies obtained, Duke Kafe and Earl Bolan have both temporarily stopped organizing their private armies. They’re unsure of your goal and are afraid that they’ll be made an example of if they’re the first to act. But things are still the same as what we expected. As long as you…’leave,’ they’ll definitely be the first to rebel. They’re just temporarily holding back.”

“Ha! Those old fogeys. Forget them. How’s the trade situation within our country? Are prices still inflated to double of what they originally were?”

“The trade situation is much better than before. After executing a large number of wicked merchants, the prices have greatly improved. At the peak, prices were at twenty-five times what they should have been, but now prices are only thirty percent higher than original. Plus, with your high-pressure policies and His Highness Halent’s personal signed promise, most of them have already secretly sworn loyalty to His Highness. As long as you pull their teeth and claws, the merchants that didn’t have much status to begin with won’t be able to do anything. There won’t be any problems with them at least for the time being.”

“How about my useless adopted princes?”

“Those who might be a threat have been executed. The remaining ones have been declared to have no more relationship with the Bardi royalty. And the surviving princes are under constant surveillance. They’re no problem, but your reputation… people are beginning to call you the White Dragon.”

“White Dragon?”

“…Child-cannibalizing White Dragon.”

Orloss nodded but didn’t ask more. He didn’t even look at the report; he simply sipped his tea. Since he had already abandoned everything, what did he care about this small degree of slander? What he intended to do next would be even more ridiculous. Perhaps the history books would later call him the number one tyrant and idiotic ruler in all of Bardi’s history. But everything was for the sake of the ‘grand scheme.’ He didn’t care if others didn’t understand and insulted him.

He slowly closed his eyes and didn’t ask anything else. The head of spies and knight leader both wisely retreated, knowing that this conversation was over. Once the study fell silent, three people walked out from a secret room attached to the study. From a certain standpoint, these three people were the core higher-ups under Orloss in all of Bardi.

The first was Pope Amoya the First of the Southern Sect. Formerly the head steward of the Bardi royal palace, he had been through numerous life-and-death situations together with Orloss. Orloss viewed Amoya as a brother and trusted Amoya more than anyone. Amoya currently possessed the entire Southern Sect and all of Bardi’s religious believers.

“…You’ve worked hard.”

“Hehe, it’s already better than expected. I still have to trouble you to work hard for your church, after Miracle Hand’s sacrifice.”

Currently, the elderly Pope Amoya had a fatigued expression. The Southern Sect had sent a large amount of combat strength to the eastern front, hoping to obtain a glorious victory in their first battle. However, they ended up suffering a great amount of losses instead due to the appearance of the angels and the Cloud Giants. If it wasn’t for Estrada’s sacrifice that greatly shook people’s belief in the Holy Church, the Southern Sect would have met with serious trouble.

The second person was an old mage who wore a purple cape. His title within Bardi was the “Fool.” The head of the Bardi mage association, he typically kept a very low profile. Very few had ever seen his real appearance. Now, though, he had revealed his real appearance—a silver-haired old man with nothing unique about his appearance whatsoever. But if the heretic hunters of the Holy Church saw him, there would likely be a huge hunt organized for him with insane fervor.

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And if Roland was here to see him, they would probably have much to talk about. That’s because this person was Selis. The “insane archmage” Selis, the fool of an archmage who had told everyone the truth.

“I’ll probably have to trouble you a bit more to deal with the Bardi mage association and to communicate with the Mage Country. I caused you to break your oath to never take part in worldly affairs again, and—”

“I know. There’s no need to say anything. Some things are fated to be. Since all of you are gambling everything on this, how could I possibly retreat? It’s just… such a pity. Back when Estrada defeated me and forced me to swear an oath to become a hermit in exchange for sparing my life, he probably never expected that such a day would arrive.”

The archmage who was treated as insane by the world had sleek and shiny silver hair. His extravagant mage robe was also clean and tidy, a rare sight among mages. But now Selis could only shake his head with a sorrowful expression as he thought about how his old acquaintance had met such an end.

“It’s a pity. Such a pity. Truly a pity.”

In the end, Selis could only make such a comment about Estrada’s death.

“Teacher, you have my condolences. All of us are on the same side. From a certain standpoint, Estrada was simply the first to go. This should be something we should be happy about…”

Something that almost nobody knew was that the young Orloss had once studied in the Cloud Tower. In fact, with the assistance of others, he had even become the disciple of the famed archmage Selis, who was now a hermit.

“…Your Majesty Orloss.”

The third person who walked out of the secret room wasn’t even a citizen of Bardi. She was…

“It’s time.”

The luster of the green gem on Lilith Milan’s arm was beginning to disappear. Large cracks had begun to expand rapidly on it. Soon, this precious twin emerald worth several tens of thousands of gold coins would become nothing more than worthless rubble.

Twin emeralds were a special type of magical gem enhanced through magical gem craftsmanship. When one was destroyed, the other twin emerald would be destroyed too. Their karmic connection would be capable of breaking through any seal in existence. They were a tremendously rare and precious type of communication gem. Creating a pair of twin emeralds would require a mountain of gold coins sufficient enough to create half a knight order. And using such a valuable one-time communication device was the best indicator of how serious the situation was.

When the twin emerald that Lilith held became rubble, it would only mean one thing: Roland, who was in Dragon World, had crushed the other. That would be the signal for Orloss to activate the entirety of their ‘grand scheme.’

Currently, Lilith Milan wasn’t only Roland’s and the Church of Law’s representative. The familiar royal attire and royal emblem she wore indicated something else—she had officially returned to her status as a member of the Bardi royalty!

“Aunt—er—Sister Lilith, I’ll be troubling you. Please, as one of the only two pure Bardi royalty bloodline members alive, guide and make decisions for Halent as his regent until he’s truly mature.”

Lilith Milan—no—she should be called First Princess Regent Lilith with her current status within Bardi. Lilith nodded. If at all possible, she didn’t want to take on this troublesome affair. However, the people before her used their convictions and sacrifices to convince her. At this point of time, if she didn’t do anything, she wouldn’t do right towards her past friends and relatives that had died.

The old emperor looked all around him and gave a deep sigh. He knew that this was probably the last day he would be able to see his beloved study and treasured friends.

“…I never thought that after patiently waiting for my entire life, at the end I still need to wait. All of you, tell me. Am I really qualified to be emperor?”

“Of course you are, Your Majesty. There wouldn’t be the current Bardi without you. Perhaps there will still be darkness before us. Perhaps rabid dogs will appear to tear apart your body. But it’s impossible for dark clouds to forever block out the sunlight. In the end, stories of your wisdom shall once again spread across this land.”

The old pope and former head steward bowed towards his emperor. Tears could be seen through his closed eyes

“Orloss, why trouble yourself over the opinions of fools? I’ve forever been proud of you.”

Selis, who wasn’t skilled with words, paused for a moment before nodding and speaking after Pope Amoya in an affirmative tone.

“I know you don’t mind something as vague and useless as reputation, either. But I indeed feel that you’re incredible. You’re more amazing than I am.”

The old emperor smiled, reassured after receiving recognition from his teacher Selis and old friend Amoya. Perhaps ordinary people would never understand his decisions, but there was a saying that said ‘a person only needed one true friend in their life.’ He already had two people so close to him—what more did he have to ask for?

“…Alright. For the sake of creating a world belonging to only mortals, I shall now destroy all the Dimensional Doors leading to Dragon World.”

Orloss was going to destroy all the Dimensional Doors leading to Dragon World? If all the Dimensional Doors leading to another plane were destroyed, then this plane would become untraceable by any existence in the mortal plane. And destroying all Dimensional Doors leading to Dragon World also meant that the dragons would lose one of their three biggest gathering grounds and that the entire mortal plane would no longer be connected to it.

Destroying all Dimensional Doors leading to another plane wouldn’t be achievable in a normal situation because it would be impossible to know just how many scattered Dimensional Doors were out there. However, it just so happened to be that the dragons only set up three Dimensional Doors, all within Bardi, in order to better keep control over Dragon World! And the dragon knights were the guardians for these three Dimensional Doors… That’s right—Evelyn was one of the guardians, and she was also the strongest guardian. The dragons had quite obviously chosen the wrong individual to be a guardian.

Newly creating a Dimensional Door connecting to another plane required a large amount of time. It would typically require more than two or three years. Plus, the Titans were right about to revive, so this would cut off all potential reinforcements to Dragon World. It would be the equivalent of forcing the dragons to fight with their backs against a cliff. The dragons in Dragon World would never expect something like that to befall them. It was certain that the dragons would be furious. And choosing Halent as the next emperor was for a far simpler reason than the people of Bardi could have guessed. It was all because Halent was a half-blood dragon descendant, so he was the only possible choice the dragons would accept, allowing the Bardi Empire to be preserved in the face of their wrath.

Naturally, the dragons would take their revenge after such an incomprehensible crime was committed upon them. The Northlands would be angry with Bardi because “Roland and the Absolute Gentlemen Alliance mercenary group” all got lost within Dragon World. Still, the dragons’ fury after being betrayed would be the most dangerous. If they weren’t willing to be satisfied after only venting upon Orloss, then it was possible that all of Bardi would be destroyed by the dragons.

Bardi and Orloss wouldn’t obtain any benefits from committing such an act that risked their destruction. Instead, their former best allies, the dragons, would become a mortal enemy. The Northlands who were also allied with them would also become a “mortal enemy,” at least on the surface. In that case, just what did Orloss want from all this? Was it only to isolate Dragon World and make it into the Titans’ hunting grounds so that Bardi could escape from this ticking time bomb? Just how foolish and shortsighted could this be? Orloss would likely become reviled as the most foolish Bardi Emperor in all of history.

“Fool? Heh! Your title fits me so well, Teacher Selis. Perhaps I’ll be remembered as the ‘Foolish King.'”

“No. While others believe me to be wise, I gave myself the title of ‘Fool’ because I wanted to remind myself that I’m nothing more than an idiot who thought that he was smart. But you’re someone who sees too much of the big picture, too far into the future. That’s why fools view you as foolish, but this is the best evidence of your wisdom.”

Perhaps, for certain skilled schemers, having a foolish scheme fail for all to see with the end result of the schemer being executed would be nothing more than to conceal an even better hidden scheme.

“A world belonging to mortals? It’s a pity I won’t be able to see it.”

As he muttered to himself, Orloss couldn’t help but recall what he had discussed with Roland during their previous meeting.

“Roland, I actually love your saying in the Southern Sect: ‘This world belongs to mortals, and those Gods high up above are nothing more than hypocritical maniacs…'”

After Orloss had made his standpoint clear and opened his heart to me, discussion between us became much easier. Even I was astonished at Orloss’s true power and final overall goal. I immediately made a blood-sworn oath together with him as ironclad allies.

After a night of secret discussions, Orloss handed over his scheme that he had prepared for over several decades to me. I added modifications to further flesh it out, and in the end it became our ‘grand scheme’.

“Grand scheme? As expected of the most skilled schemer in all of Bardi’s history. He’s truly daring. But if this scheme actually succeeds, he could be called the wisest emperor in all of Bardi’s history.”

That was the assessment I gave of Orloss at the time. And currently it was unknown if he would later be assessed by history as the wisest ruler in Bardi’s history. But Orloss was in the process of ruining his own reputation and heading towards his death. Yet he wasn’t hesitant, and he didn’t regret it in the least. As he headed towards his impending doom, he had no fear.

“…Everything is for the sake of a world belonging to mortals. Everything is for the sake of creating a true heaven and hell!”