The Emperor Has Returned

Chapter 141 – The Magic Tower (2)

People couldn’t really understand what happened when they saw the eagle statues lying flat on the ground.

Juan looked at the golems with his arms crossed and shook his fingers to the side.

“Roll over.”

The sight of the giant eagle statues rolling on the bare ground caused everyone to recall watching a comedy show. But Juan continued to give orders without laughing.

“Bellies.”

The eagle statues flipped over and exposed their stomachs.

Heretia thought that now was the perfect time to laugh out loud, but her lips couldn’t move at all for some reason.

‘He’s controlling the Golems as he pleases?’

Golems were said to be the thickest arms supporting the throne—magic soldiers that were supporting the empire. Most of them except for a few were now nothing more than legends, and they were made by the emperor to only obey him. But here Juan was, controlling them like puppies with his fingers.

What this situation meant was quite clear.

“Head.”

The eagle statues thumped their heads into the ground at Juan’s order. Then Juan gently patted the eagles on their heads.

Heretia wondered if Juan was complimenting the eagles, but he simply took out a stone piece from the wings of the golems with his bare hands. Inside the opening was something that was glowing blue.

After confirming what was inside, Juan simply covered it up once again.

“All right, well done. You can go back now.”

The eagle statues stomped around and returned to the entrance of the Magic Tower like well trained dogs. Then they once again took a dignified posture and stood still, just like before. But the people who were here today realized that they would never be able to look at the eagle statues the same way ever again.

“What trifling things they’ve done,” Juan muttered.

As Juan approached the entrance of the Magic Tower, one of the magicians jumped out in front of Juan and bowed his head.

Just as Juan was about to complain out of annoyance, he stopped when he saw a familiar face. The person standing in front of him looked very familiar.

“Your Majesty, did your business in the east go well?”

“Opert, you were present in the magic tower?”

It was Opert, the smuggler whom Juan had met back in Hiveden. He was also a magician and the vice tower master of the Magic Tower.

“I apologize if the behavior of the golems was offensive, Your Majesty. The senior magicians insisted on confirming your identity… but I was able to change their minds and convince them to use the golems instead of directly asking Your Majesty.”

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“You must have heard about what happened at the Ash Tower from Anya.”

“Yes, Your Majesty. She said that you controlled the golem from the Ash Tower, so I thought that everything would be fine this time as well.”

“That’s not the part that I found offensive. You played a little trick on the golems.”

“Sorry? Oh, yes… we did carve it into the shape of an eagle to…”

“No, not that. You played around with the settings of the golems to omit their ability to detect mana. I could also see that you have added another name to the list of people who can command the golems. While your elaborate modifications are quite impressive, it’s rather unpleasant that you tested me with something that originally belonged to me.”

“Um, I don’t know much about that part. As far as I know, it was one of the senior magicians who altered the settings. As you know, the golems attract the curiosity of many magicians, since it is Your Majesty’s legacy.”

Juan clicked his tongue; he felt that it was useless to argue about the golems with Opert. Juan took a glance at the people standing behind Opert. He felt that the hospitality of the magic tower was not as great as Heretia thought.

“These aren’t magicians, are they?” Juan asked.

“No, they aren’t. Most of them are scholars. The real magicians have locked themselves up inside their rooms for a long time. Who knows what will happen if they come out and get caught recklessly using magic by the Priests,” Opert answered.

“I see. So, you’re their representative?”

Opert shook his head at Juan’s question.

“No, Your Majesty. I’m just an envoy who is here to serve Your Majesty. There is someone waiting for you.”

“And who is that?”

“Someone who sent me down exactly on time just before Your Majesty arrived. The master of the Magic Tower is waiting for you, Your Majesty.”

***

Climbing up the magic tower was not too difficult, since the tower was tilted. But Heretia stopped several times as she gasped for air, since she couldn’t handle it. Juan clicked his tongue and got Haild to help her.

“You don’t really have to follow me to the top. Just go somewhere and take a rest,” Juan said.

“No… I’m going. Do you even know how hard it is to meet the master of the Magic Tower?” Heretia answered.

“Then do as you please. But you’d better hurry, because we are not going to wait for you. You can ask Haild for a piggyback ride or something.”

“Why would I do that when I can walk on my own two legs?”

“I wonder if you will be able to say the same thing when we get to the top.”

Heretia grumbled and forced her legs to continue moving. Haild nervously wandered around her, trying to offer help, but Heretia refused his help—it almost looked like she was about to bite him. Juan ignored the two and climbed up the stairs.

The interior of the Magic Tower was originally quite simple, but became messy due to the mixing of the old structure with new stairs and spaces made due to the renovation. Almost as if confusion was the theme of the interior, there were stairs on the ceiling that should not exist and rooms without floors.

It would be extremely easy to get lost without guidance, but Juan had already visited the Magic Tower several times. Opert looked at the back of Juan who was walking ahead of him.

Juan soon arrived in front of a huge door. The wall which should have been the ceiling was tilted at an angle, but the door was still intact.

“I’ll be waiting out here, Your Majesty,” Opert said, stopping at the stairs.

Juan nodded and entered the room without knocking. The room was so large that it even felt quite empty, and the entire top floor seemed to be devoted to just this room. The walls were tilted just like the other floors, but it didn’t feel suffocating, since there were windows everywhere.

“Ah, the guest that I’ve been waiting for has arrived.”

A welcoming voice was heard as soon as Juan opened the door.

In the center of the huge room, one could see an unknown black liquid bubbling in a hole the size of a small pond. On the outskirts of the hole, a small boy was stirring the liquid with a staff that was even larger than him.

“Welcome, emperor. It’s been quite a long time, huh?”

The look in his eyes and his manner of speech did not suit his age. Looking at the boy’s round and curved eyes, Juan immediately realized who he was.

Juan’s face became distorted as he called out a name through gritted teeth.

“Dane Dormund.”

Dane Dormund, Juan’s teacher. The man who found him, protected him, and taught him magic until he became the emperor, as well as the Grand Magician who was expelled for bringing about the existence known as Gerard Gain.

He was standing in front of Juan.

***

“Good, you still remember me. I was worried that you might not recognize me, since my appearance has changed. But I guess the same is true about you as well.”

Dane Dormund, who looked like a child, giggled and continued to stir the pond. A group of glittering lights freely moved around and wandered inside the black liquid.

“I thought I told you to never appear in front of my eyes ever again,” Juan said with a firm expression.

“You sure did,” Dane winked at Juan. “When you were the Emperor.”

“I’m still an emperor.”

“Harmon would have disagreed if he were still here. Well, it would only be a matter of time, but… Anyway. Without Mananen McLeir’s heart, you can’t command me like you did in the past. The previous commands you had made were also canceled when your original body died. You no longer have his divinity.”

Dane Dormund was right. Juan had been completed as the emperor with the help of Mananen McLeir’s heart, and was able to reign over humans. Juan was quite powerful right now, but he was far weaker when compared to his time as the emperor—the time when he hunted gods.

“I can still make you disappear.”

As Juan strode closer, Dane quickly took the staff out of the pond and used the black liquid to draw a long line on the floor in front of him.

At that moment, Juan suddenly felt that Dane’s presence had gotten several hundred kilometers away. In fact, Juan could no longer feel his presence at all. Dane Dormund was clearly standing in front of Juan, but the actual distance between them had increased by who knew how much.

“This line looks just like a random scribble, but it would take more than just a day or two to cross it. The bigger problem is that your body might even break apart trying to cross this,” Dane shrugged.

“...I can see that you’re still using that trifling magic of yours.”

“You are definitely weaker than you used to be… but you’re still quite dangerous.”

For some reason, Dane had a proud look on his face, and Juan didn’t like such a look. Dane used to look at Juan with the same expression even when Juan was the emperor. Ordinary people looked at Juan with respect or fear, but Dane looked at Juan as if he was looking at a big puppy. Juan was much stronger and more powerful than Dane, but Dane didn’t even seem bothered by that part.

“What is this? I’ve never seen this kind of magic before,” Juan asked.

“It’s the achievement I made after a decade of work. It’s kind of like a microcosm—I set the laws of physics to be the same as the macroscopic universe and added a few more settings that I can calculate and change. It’s my own way of reducing the variables of quantum uncertainty and inducing macroscopic flows to come out within reasonable error margins, so that I can use this in different forms.”

“Stop playing with words. Why don’t you just say that you are moving the position of the stars in the swamp of the sky to weave the thread of prophecy just like you used to before?”

“I like saying it like that too, since it’s poetic,” Dane giggled. “Why don’t you stop trying to kill me and let's talk about each other’s business. So, how have you been after you were murdered by your own son? I’ve always wondered what the afterlife looks like. I’ve tried learning necromancy, but it’s never really been helpful.”

“There was nothing, and I couldn’t feel anything at all. Then, I suddenly came back to life—that’s all.”

“You’re saying the same thing as the dead.”

Juan dragged a chair in front of the black line and sat down.

At the same time, Dane once again began to stir the pond with his staff.

Meanwhile, Juan stared at Dane; he still couldn’t get used to Dane’s young appearance at all.

“Why do you look like that anyway? Were you resurrected as well or something?” Juan asked.

“No way. This is what I looked like in the first place. Well, I did get some parts from elsewhere. Ah, nevermind. I guess I can’t really say that I originally looked like this. But, this is what I looked like for at least three hundred years. I did have a different body that I used for two hundred years before this, but I like the way I look now much better.”

“Then what about the old man that I saw before?”

“I had to look old and wise in order to win your trust,” Dane grinned and continued speaking. “You know how hard it is to win respect or trust with the appearance of a child. It would have especially been hard since you were also a child back then. I had to look more like a reliable adult, and it worked quite well.”

‘What a monster.’

Juan murmured to himself. No one knew how long Dane had lived for—even Juan couldn’t figure that out.

‘Can someone who changes bodies and lives close to an eternal life even be called a human?’

Dane continued speaking as if he could read Juan’s thoughts.

“I may have changed my body, but it is true that I was human when I was born. All the bodies that I’ve used were those of humans as well. I might have lived for a long time, but I haven’t been around as long as this tower. So you can relax. This tower was already in place when I was born.”

“If you had that much power, you should have used it to fight against gods instead of me.”

“There is a limit no matter how strong I become. The threshold of the human race is limited, whether it be in terms of spirit or flesh. I wasn't even able to reach the limit anyway.”

“The limit?” Juan asked.

“Ah, it’s not a big deal. Anyway…”

Juan got a feeling that Dane was trying to avoid explaining further, but nodded anyway; Dane was right about the fact that it wasn’t a big deal. Juan didn’t even want to be with Dane for any longer than he had to.

“The reason you came to the Magic Tower is to form an alliance with us, am I right?” Dane asked.

“Yes. But I’ll have to reconsider my decision now that I know that you are here.”

“Oh, come on. Don’t be like that. I have even prepared some gifts for you.”

Dane smiled and used his staff to split the pond in half. The black liquid split apart to reveal an interior filled with bizarre texture.

Juan had felt a strong sense of displeasure when he had seen the water in the pond. Considering the structure of the Magic Tower, the bottom had to be empty. However, the inside of the pond led to a huge and endless darkness. There was only a sense of emptiness and coldness.

What soon appeared within the darkness was a small room. Juan noticed some simple bedding and a sword inside the room. At that moment, Juan saw a familiar figure on one side of the room—it was Sina Solvane.

“I found her wandering around Durgal. She was looking for a way to enter the Crack,” Dane said.

“...To find me?”

“Maybe? It's quite likely. I heard that the last time she saw you was right when you were dragged into the Crack.”

Juan had thought that Sina might be looking for him, but he didn’t pay much attention, since he believed that she would be fine on her own. But Juan hadn’t expected to find her in the magic tower. Looking at the structure of the room, Sina seemed to be in a guest room somewhere inside the tower.

At least it didn’t look like she had been abducted.

“So? What do you think? Do you like the gift I have prepared for you?” Dane asked.

“I don’t need it.”