emperor of steel
“Stop all of this!”
A pretty voice stopped the behavior of the soldiers.
To the front of the soldiers had come in a girl, whose voice had ceased their actions.
An angry face which didn’t go well with the nice dress she was wearing.
Luke was kinda surprised to see her.
It wasn’t because of some bright elegance that she displayed, nor because of the beauty that she was.
‘Katarina?!’
She was someone very familiar to Luke.
500 years ago, the time when Luke was in the Veritas Magic Tower.
There he had met a woman,
Her name was Katarina Angelo.
A 2 circle wizard, who was brought in for apprentice.
She, being born as an illegitimate child of a noble, fell in love with Luke not long after meeting him.
The two had traveled together on vacations, and in that duration, they found a dark magic book in the ancient ruins.
And the two wizards resealed the dark magic.
What mattered to the couple was the journey and not the taboo of coming across dark magic.
They had a very simple dream.
To get married someday, leave the magic tower behind, and open a small magic shop in a small city to live like a normal person, it sure was a small wish but it was their hope.
But…
‘Those greedy beasts didn’t let her go.’
Even with any kind of shabby clothes, Katarina would still radiate beauty.
Which was why many people wanted to have dominance over her.
The Baroque Duke, who was under the reign of the Libiya kingdom went to the magic tower just to have a look at her, the ambitious Meister Arsene offered Katarina a position to be the concubine of the Duke.
Regardless of her opinion, Katarina was sold off to the Baroque Duke, and she eventually slit her throat before the wedding day.
At that time, Luke who was asked to go to a distant province on the orders of the Magic Tower elder was lately informed of the news, and not long after he lost all reasons to move on.
‘And I…’
The person who Luke fell in love with in that past, her voice was heard once again.
“What are you doing to the kids who are so helpless? Aren’t you ashamed of doing it despite being an adult?”
“That… we were just following the orders…”
The captain was embarrassed because of the girl who resembled Katarina. No matter how much of a noble she looked like, her actions weren’t on the mark.
“Aren’t there kids counted members by your Lord Count? If he really is the lord, he mustn’t starve but rescue the poor!”
“That, that…”
At the time when Luke was just witnessing the scenes, Philip spoke from behind,
“Seeing her in real life?”
“Do you know that woman?”
Asked Luke turning his head.
“Is young lord interested in her too? Surely, how can any man not be interested in such a beauty?”
And then Philip began to explain about that woman,
“This is my first time to see her in person. But I have heard of a few rumors. That a beautiful priestess lived in Lamer city.”
“Priestess?”
“Not like literally, but just to describe her.”
‘Thank goodness.’
He wasn’t sure why, but Luke was glad when he heard that.
“Anyway, her name is Reina Petrovna Kirillov. She looks like a normal noble, but she isn’t one. The princess of a country.”
“Princess? Then why is she here without any attendants?”
“Because that country is ruined.”
Princess Reina was the only daughter of the current Volga Republic’s last King Pyotr II of Volga kingdom.
Until 15 years ago.
In the kingdom of Volga, a revolution had broken out.
Then later, King Pyotr II along with a few of his trusted men and several servants fled to the neighboring Baroque empire.
“In Lamer and a lot more, there are quite a few refuges of Volga who have migrated here and the empire too. And as people of exiles, they live their daily life by doing labor.”
At first, funds were released for the exiled royal family.
But as time went by and the giving hands changed, people began to move away from them. In the end, the lives of the refugees were turning into lives in poverty.
“Didn’t the nobles or the empire help them?”
“Instead of helping, they thought of it as a disturbing factor. If the empire hadn’t been given the right to be a dominant body over the Volga kingdom, it would have been long expelled.”
Pyotr II, who couldn’t forget the glory of the past, would visit the country whenever he had the time.
Emperor Rudolf of the Baroque Empire insisted on the exiled royal family to move to Lamer and relax.
“Honestly he sent them here because it was annoying to have them there.”
“Yeah, seven years ago when the Baroque empire lost the war with Volga, all the chances for reviving the monarchy disappeared, and King Pyotr II died.”
And as a result, all the exiled people decided to scatter away.
Anyone would say that the exiled royal family will disappear into history.
But princess Reina, the last lineage of the Kirillov, didn’t plan on giving up until the end.
She sold off the treasures as well as her royal belongings to distribute the food and daily necessities at free for the refugees and to provide them with jobs.
Whenever she had time, she would visit the refugee camp and worked hard as a volunteer.
“The people of Lamer praise the princess as a priestess because she didn’t just help the Volga refugees, but also the sick and poor of the empire. All those spread as rumors crossing the southern empire and she became a celebrity.”
‘She still is the same.’
He thought that she only looked similar to Katarina, but the character too went well.
Katarina too couldn’t help herself whenever she saw any poor people.
“Tell the Lord Count. If he wants the development of Lamer, then he’ll have to look at the people living in it and not the outwards development.”
While Luke was looking at all this stuff very closely, Reina managed to chase away the soldiers. And took care of the injured children.
“Does it hurt a lot?”
“It is fine. I am hurt less because of that brother.”
The princess ripped off her dress and began to tie up the wounds on the children and looked away.
As she approached, the heart of Luke was beating uncontrollably.
But the moment the princess stood in front of him, not knowingly, he took a step back.
‘This, this energy…?’
It was like he was being overwhelmed by some unknown power like everything was disappearing.
But when he tried to calm himself, all he could see was Princess Reina politely greeting him.
“Thank you so much for looking after the children.”
“Ah, it was nothing, I didn’t do much.”
Luke’s hand went down as a sign of dignity.
Right then, two old men ran over towards them.
“Princess! What are you doing here?”
“You need to go right away, or you’ll be late for your evening plans with Andrey!”
As the two servants approached her with screams, Reina looked up at the clock tower which was on the side of the street.
“Oh my, it’s already time… I need to go away now, but watch out for the scary uncles like that from next time, understand?”
Princess Reina, waved her hand to the children and disappeared as she moved across the street with the elderly servants.
Luke kept on staring until his eyes couldn’t see her anymore.
The appearance of Reina and the warm-hearted nature which very much represented Katarina couldn’t be removed from his heart so easily.
And…
‘What was that energy before?’
Luke smiled while shaking his head.
When the princess approached him a while ago, he felt some weird energy.
Luke felt like a moment of great, deep and unfamiliar vitality of Mother Nature sort.
‘But can humans be able to produce such kinds of energy?’
According to the knowledge that he possessed, he knew that it wasn’t a possibility.
Which was why he shook his head.
‘I must have been mistaken. Is it because my body has changed?’
And there was no way that an energy of sort could quickly disappear.
‘If she hadn’t left so quickly, I could have tried to look into it, but this is too bad.’
“Young Lord, let’s go.”
“… yeah.”
Luke was back into reality.
After being revived, that was the first time ever for him to feel glad about being resurrected.