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Chapter 482: Intruder?
"I see. I truly hope you can stay longer, but if you still have things to do, then I can only wish you the best on your journey," Emperor Raymond said.
"Thank you, Your Majesty," Aldrian replied. "Then I will meet with the people now." He looked at Prince Ferdinand and the two barons.
"Until next time, Your Highness, Your Excellencies."
With that, Aldrian’s figure vanished, leaving the emperor and the others behind.
Emperor Raymond sighed as he looked at the spot where Aldrian had just been.
"What a strange young man. Even though we finally know his origin, there’s still something that doesn’t sit right. Don’t you think so?" he said.
He had not directed the question at anyone in particular, so the other three offered their opinions in turn.
"I agree, Your Majesty. Although he said his parents are Aldrey and Irene, I still feel there’s a great secret hidden within him—a secret that might explain why someone like him exists," Baron Rosalind said.
"Yes, I feel the same. He appears simple, yet mysterious, which is strange. He doesn’t seem to answer to anyone, yet he still acts with humility," Baroness Weilmar added.
"He’s like calm, clear water, but so deep we can’t even see the bottom." Prince Ferdinand said.
Emperor Raymond nodded. Yet, there was something about facing Aldrian that stirred a feeling he had not experienced in a very long time. It could be called instinct or intuition, but to him, it felt as though he were standing before someone who held a higher authority than himself. Aldrian’s presence seemed to belong to someone of far greater status and stature.
He could not help but feel the urge to kneel, as if he needed to prove his worth and loyalty.
The last time he had felt that way was when he stood before his father, the previous emperor.
He knew that this feeling and instinct were not without cause. Something within Aldrian had triggered it. If his father had carried the authority of the imperial crown and used it to inspire such reverence, then Aldrian possessed something much powerful. Perhaps it was his strength. Perhaps it was his charisma. Or perhaps it was simply the weight of his presence.
He did not know what it was, but whatever it might be, Emperor Raymond believed one thing for certain: Aldrian was not someone meant to serve beneath another. He was the type of man who stood above, a leader by nature—someone destined to stand at the peak.
At that moment, Raymond sensed Aldrian’s presence high above the city, floating in the sky.
"To the people of the Atria Empire,"
Aldrian’s voice echoed across the city, causing everyone to stop in their tracks, shocked. They recognized the voice because they had heard it just yesterday. They looked around, trying to find the source of the voice. One by one, their gazes turned skyward, and there, they began to notice him—floating in mid-air, high in the sky.
When they saw Aldrian’s figure, many expressions turned to one of admiration and even piety. To many, Aldrian had already become their guardian deity, which caused him to feel a strong surge of faith from them. From the mortal point of view, Aldrian had shown something beyond their understanding—a strength that had never before appeared.
He had come to end the war and restore peace to the empire by himself. It was no wonder that he had become the subject of worship for these people.
"The civil war caused by the greed of one man has ended. I know the war has left many of you mourning the loss of loved ones. I understand that some of them may have fallen by my hand, and you may hate me for it. For those whose loved ones were killed by me, I will not offer a thousand excuses to evade the fact that I took their lives. But I can speak on behalf of the dead who were lost in this civil war."
"Do you think any of this would have happened if it weren’t for the greed of the second prince, Wilmar?"
"He is the one who led your loved ones to their deaths. He is someone who will feel no remorse, even as he sends his men to die. Your loved ones had no choice but to jump to their deaths. Worse still, he worked with the devils to achieve his purpose."
Many people gritted their teeth as they remembered how Wilmar had caused all that destruction and how they had been coerced into war.
"Because of that, there is no punishment more appropriate or more fitting than death—the painful kind, one that will make him regret everything he has caused."
"Yesterday, I executed Wilmar, Grand Duke Donovan, and Carlson Harris for their actions and their treacherous nature in working with the devils. They died excruciating deaths, regretting even the fact that they had lived—a death better left unseen by any of you."
When they remembered how Aldrian had made a human body vanish with terrifying dark energy, a chill ran down their spines. If Aldrian had the power to kill so swiftly, they had no doubt that he could make death slow and agonizing.
"However, with the death of those three, your job is not yet done. The devils still hide in the shadows within the empire, and I, along with the imperial family, are already working together to rid the empire of every devil. There are others who have worked with them as well, beyond just those three."
"You don’t have to worry about a senseless purge, because we have already identified those who worked with the devils, with irrefutable proof."
"For my final words, I hope that this empire will rise again after what has happened to you all—to become a ’cleaner’ and stronger empire than before. You are the survivors of a great event that will be written into the history of this empire, and you must take pride in that."
"Make this empire greater than before."
After that, Aldrian vanished, leaving many people gazing up at the sky with determined eyes. What Aldrian had said gave them a sense of relief and hope for the future of the empire. They were relieved that Wilmar and those who had conspired with him were dead. Though it was a shame they couldn’t witness it firsthand, they chose to trust in Aldrian’s words and believe in him.
Although many still questioned Aldrian’s origin and other aspects of him that seemed mysterious and suspicious, his actions provided solid proof that he had helped the empire and its people avoid falling into the wrong hands. They had to swallow their doubts, realizing it was wrong to question someone who had already done so much for their empire.
After Aldrian’s brief speech, the people resumed their activities. Those who had recorded his words with information crystals would spread his message across the empire.
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Aldrian had already returned to his mansion—or more precisely, to the dungeon beneath it. He stood in the room where he had tortured Wilmar and the others. The room was now stained only with blood, as Aldrian had obliterated every body part of Wilmar, Grand Duke Donovan, and Carlson Harris.
But why had he come back here?
Just moments ago, he had sensed a slight disturbance in the energy of the room and the sudden appearance of unknown beings and foreign energy that should not exist on this continent. Unfortunately, before he could see them with his Eyes of the Heaven, the beings had vanished, leaving him no time to determine what kind of beings they were.
He also sensed a lingering aura of death and traces of death laws, which only raised more questions. Who were these individuals that dared to appear and infiltrate this place?
Then he remembered beings with this very description, ones he had seen in his visions.
"Beings from the underworld?" he thought.
He frowned, puzzled. Why would beings from the underworld appear here? And how could they even get here? There was a barrier—one that could not be crossed freely by beings of a different realm unless something extraordinary had occurred. So, what had happened?
After a moment of thought, he finally arrived at a possible answer.
"Was it because I killed Wilmar and the others by destroying their souls completely and severing their karma with the underworld and the entire world?" That was the only possibility that came to mind.
He knew the underworld could sense the disturbances, and he suspected that his actions had weakened the barrier between this place and the underworld. By severing their karma and erasing their souls entirely with death laws, he might have triggered the disturbance that allowed the underworld’s beings to come and investigate.
However, despite all of this, he simply shrugged.
"Well, unfortunately, they’re already gone. I really would’ve liked to talk to them if I had the chance. Maybe next time," he thought.
He wasn’t sure why, but he felt no fear—even with beings from the underworld appearing in this world. Even if they were far stronger than him, he only saw it as a chance to ask questions, to gain information.
He then turned and walked out of the room, heading toward another room at the end of the corridor.
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In an unknown place, shrouded in darkness and filled with an ominous atmosphere, two figures gasped for breath as if they had just narrowly escaped something.
After a few moments of silence, one of them finally spoke.
"Shit, that was close. I thought we were going to get found out."
