CH 283

There was a saying that went—like father like son, but this situation was more like—like king, like subject.

“Ugh… Ughhhh…”

A few days ago, Michele was struggling to come up with a solution to the mess that Siegfried had caused. Then, he suddenly came up with a brilliant solution.

“Hold on… The papacy has the overwhelming advantage in this civil war, so we will be forced to send our army one way or another…”

Michele foresaw that the civil war was going to end with the papacy’s victory no matter how splendidly Siegfried performed in it, and it was going to take a miracle for the imperial faction to win.

“If Emperor Frederic loses both battles at Crane City and Tenshall Territory… then that means the situation where our army will be required will definitely come…”

Michele immediately commanded the army to prepare for war and invade the Constantine Holy Empire at a moment’s notice.

However, that wasn’t the only thing that he did. Michele requested help from the Nordic Tribe and Stone Island, and the two immediately agreed.

Unfortunately, Elondel was the problem.

“We need Elondel’s help, too, but how am I going to convince them…?”

Michele pondered for quite a while when a brilliant idea popped up.

“Hold on! They might just agree if we sign the royal marriage agreement!”

The marriage proposal from Elondel was another source of headache for him, but the perfect opportunity to resolve it popped up in his head. He planned to accept the marriage proposal and make the Proatine Kingdom benefit tremendously from it.

“This is it! His Majesty won’t be able to say anything with this! What’s he going to do if I told him we don’t have a choice because of the mess he created? Hehehe… Your Majesty… I’m going to make you feel the price you have to pay for causing this mess…!”

If the pope was a 999-year-old master politician imugi, then Michele was already a dragon.

After all, there was a reason he was a prodigy. Michele was so smart that he could easily backstab the King of Backstabbing, Siegfried, without even lifting a finger.

“You have to accept your fate, Your Majesty! Hehehe… I’m such a loyal servant for getting you an elven princess to be your wife. Hehehe…!”

Michele was happy right now, thinking about the immense economic benefit the Proatine Kingdom was going to enjoy once Siegfried agreed to marry the elven princess. Their budget problems would definitely be resolved immediately.

“Your Majesty, please devote your body for your future—no, for the kingdom’s future! With your body! Kekeke! Ah, you are truly admirable for sacrificing yourself for your kingdom, Your Majesty! Hehe… Hehehe… Mwahahahaha!”

Michele’s laughter resounded throughout the hallway.

***

While Michele was busy planning to backstab his king…

‘Ah… It’s all my fault… I’m just nothing but a troublemaker…’ Siegfried was reflecting on his actions while completely oblivious to what was coming his way.

‘Yeah, I have to protect that scumbag and make sure we win this war. Ah… I really don’t want to see this place ever again. No, I’m not even going to pee facing this direction…’

It was understandable why he was so upset, as he initially joined this civil war content to level up and loot dropped items, but he probably never imagined in his wildest dreams that he was going to end up in such a mess.

— Warning! Warning!

The speakers installed all over the fortress started blaring.

— The papal forces have besieged the fortress! I repeat! The papal forces have besieged the fortress! All forces are requested to prepare for battle at once!

— All forces are requested to gather at the fort walls!

The Amalone Forces that were gathered at the border finally crossed into the Constantine Holy Empire, and the papacy finally obtained the justification they were looking for.

“Damn it! It’s too soon!” Siegfried cursed as he ran toward the walls.

“Prepare for battle!”

“Man the walls!”

“We have to protect His Majesty!”

The Vaper Fortress was turned upside down at the news that the siege had started.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The sound of the papal troops marching in unison could be heard from beyond the walls. Their marching sound was so loud that anyone could tell that it was a great army from the sound alone.

‘Alright, let’s fight till we drop,’ Siegfried gritted his teeth and resolved to see this battle till his last breath.

“Hyung-nim! Hyuuuung-niiim!”

Seung-Gu suddenly came running and screaming.

“We have a problem!”

“I know! The enemy is right at our doorstep! Where’s Emperor Frederic? Hurry up and tell him that our army will soon…”

“That’s not it!”

“Then what? What’s the problem?”

“Emperor Frederic has run away!”

“What?!” Siegfried was shocked at what he heard.

“He said he’s going to get caught if he stays here, so he wants to run away!” Seung-Gu added.

A vein popped on Siegfried’s forehead.

Kwachik!

“That fucking scumbag! He didn’t even think about defending this place?!” Siegfried screamed in anger, and then he asked, “Where is that bastard?!”

“He gathered his elite knights and officials, and they are currently discussing how to escape!”

“Where?! Lead the way!”

“Yes, hyung-nim!”

Siegfried followed Seung-Gu to where the emperor was.

‘This scumbag is worth less than a speck of dust… I’m going to fuck you over one day!’ Siegfried gnashed his teeth while stomping along the way.

***

“Where is this bastard…?” Siegfried asked in disbelief after seeing the empty meeting room.

“H-Hyung-nim…?”

“Yeah?”

“I think they already escaped through the secret tunnel.”

“Ah… Only a day… That’s all he had to wait before our army arrived… He couldn’t even wait a day and ran away…?” Siegfried muttered as despair showed on his face.

He could feel cancer cells growing in every corner of his body.

“And please stop Emperor Frederic if he ever tries to escape. He is dancing in the pope’s palm, so I’m sure the pope already knows the emperor’s next move.”

Siegfried suddenly remembered the one thing Michele had asked of him.

“Hyung-nim… What are we going to do now?” Seung-Gu asked.

“What else? We need to chase after him to either protect him or drag him back by force. It’s obvious that he will get caught sooner or later,” Siegfried grumbled in response.

“Isn’t this too frustrating…?”

“Yeah, I feel suffocated by that scumbag.”

“Ah… Let’s hurry up then.”

“Yeah, and we should bring some of our guild members too.”

Siegfried and Seung-Gu decided to chase after the emperor instead of defending against the siege.

Why?

Because the emperor was one hundred percent going to get caught by the pope.

***

“Hiyah! Hiyah!”

“Let’s go!”

“Protect His Majesty!”

Emperor Frederic left Vaper Fortress through the secret tunnel together with five hundred elite knights. The secret tunnel connected to a cave in the forest around five kilometers away from the fortress, and the tunnel was so large that the entire group could travel on horseback.

‘That fucking cult bastard! Just wait and see! I’m going to have your head even if I end up as a puppet emperor!’ Emperor Frederic vowed to destroy the papacy.

He was absolutely certain that he could destroy the papacy as the Amalone Kingdom was known to be a military powerhouse on the continent.

‘I’m going to make sure you’re dead even if I have to hand over half of the empire to the…’

While the emperor was running as fast as he could and vowing revenge…

“Catch the fake emperor!”

“Catch him!”

“The fake emperor is running away!”

“Purge the heretics!”

The papal troops suddenly appeared out of nowhere and chased after the emperor, and they numbered at least fifteen thousand strong.

And the one leading the chase was none other than…

“Ha! How far are you willing to go just to avoid paying for your sins in front of god?!”

It was none other than Pope Theopilus the Fifth.

“Y-You!”

“Foolish heathen! Hurry up and kneel before His Holiness!”

“Damn it…!”

Emperor Frederic finally realized that he got caught in a trap, and he whipped his horse as hard as he could in a bid to escape. However, his knights fell one by one, and they were dwindling fast in numbers the longer they ran.

The chase continued for five hours until…

“Damn it! I need to survive no matter what!” Emperor Frederic grimaced and cursed while running away. He was able to get away from the pope thanks to the sacrifice of his elite knights, and he was successfully able to hide in a village called Soosunhwa Village.

There was nobody around the emperor.

“Your Majesty! I will lure them away!”

“Please take care of yourself, Your Majesty!”

Most of his loyal knights fell in battle, while the few remaining wore clothes similar to him and went the other way to lure the chasing papal troops away.

‘Damn it… Why do I have to suffer such humiliation? Just wait and see… I’m going to survive and repay you a thousandfold for this…!’ Emperor Frederic vowed to get his revenge while hiding from even the villagers.

He searched for a place to hide where nobody would find him, and the hiding spot he chose was none other than the septic hole of the village.

Buzz… Buzz… Buzz…

There were swarms of flies flying around and maggots crawling all over the septic hole, but the emperor patiently toughened it out while thinking of the revenge he was going to have against the pope.

Spurt! Spurt! 

Some of the villagers came to defecate, but the emperor didn’t utter a single word while he was getting showered by their feces.

Around two hours later…

“We come in the name of god to arrest the fake emperor! You are required to cooperate!”

The papal troops completely occupied Soosunhwa Village.

“The fake emperor is hiding somewhere in this village! Find him at all costs!”

The pope was confident that the emperor was hiding somewhere in this village, as his personal mount was found not too far away from it. This was also the only place that the emperor could find refuge in, which made the pope certain that he was hiding around here.

“Heed my words, servants of god! Join me in this holy task of finding the fake emperor! I, the pope, believe that one of you has been possessed by demons and is hiding the fake emperor! Therefore, I will execute one of your children for every minute the fake emperor is missing!”

The pope held the children of the village hostage and commanded the village people to find the emperor.

A minute later, Pope Theopilus the Fifth screamed, “A minute has passed! Where is he?! Guards! Grab one of those spawns of the devil and beat them to death!”

“Yes, Your Holiness!”

The guards grabbed one of the village boys and beat him to death with their maces.

Of course, Chae Hyung-Seok was present as well.

‘Wow… He’s basically the devil himself…’ he thought after witnessing the atrocities of the pope. He knew that he was a piece of trash, but the pope was ten times worse than him in his own estimate.

The pope diligently commanded the guards to beat one child to death for every minute the emperor was missing.

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Thirty minutes passed, and the lifeless bodies of children who had been beaten to death had piled up into a stack. Ironically, Emperor Frederic refused to come out and continued hiding even though he could hear the pleas and screams of his people.

“Your Holiness! P-Please give us more time!”

“We’re finding him to the best of our abilities! Please! Mercy! Mercy!”

The village people cried out to the pope while frantically searching for the emperor.

However, the pope did not even bat an eyelid.

“Die.”

“Your Holiness!”

The guard that acted as the pope’s executioner swung his mace only to stop halfway.

The reason was that…

“Waaah! Waaaaah!”

The thirty-first victim was a newborn infant.

“Y-Your Holiness… May you show mercy to this child…? This child is simply too young…”

Even the guard who mercilessly beat thirty children to death seemed to have drawn the line at killing an innocent newborn infant.

“Tsk tsk… You foolish one…” Pope Theophilus clicked his tongue and said while looking at the guard with visible disdain in his eyes, “The demons don’t care about the ages of who they possess. Do you plan to let that spawn of the devil live?”

“B-But…!”

“Are you disobeying me?! Hurry up and kill that demon!” Pope Theophilus roared.

‘I’m going to hell…!’

The soldier wrestled with his conscience and guilt, but he ended up swinging his mace at the infant.

He had no choice but to do it, no matter how much he hated it.

Why?

It was all because the pope would certainly brand him a heretic and kill him along with his family and relatives.

‘I’m sorry, child! I’m really sorry…!’ the guard closed his eyes as his mace was about to make contact with the child’s head.

Shwiiiish! Clang!

An arrow flew out of nowhere and struck the guard’s mace before embedding itself into the ground.