Ch.138Chapter 138 – Master (2)

“Thankfully they’re not in the imperial palace, those damn bloodsuckers.”

Covered in blood, Kwak Tae-woo roughly gulped down a potion and steadied his breathing. It had taken too long to reach the imperial palace. Normally, the distance from the east gate to the palace could be covered in an hour, but he had been delayed by vampires rampaging through the city center.

“Damn it, where did they suddenly come from…?”

Since dense fog had settled on every street, the city center had fallen into chaos. As if Duke August’s actions had been a catalyst, vampires had emerged from the darkness of the city and begun to rampage madly.

These vampires, whose origins were unknown, attacked civilian homes in a frenzied state and turned citizens into bloodsuckers indiscriminately. The guards tried to respond to the guerrilla-like vampire attacks across various locations, but they often ended up scattered and defeated while floundering about, claiming they couldn’t contact their superiors. Kwak Tae-woo had been delayed in reaching the palace to meet Behemdorf because he’d been helping those soldiers and civilians.

‘What’s happening here? I need to assess the situation quickly…’

Normally, when vampires create new vampires, they don’t make many at once. The more blood transfused, the more powerful the newly born vampire becomes, so they typically invest time in carefully creating one strong vampire rather than mass-producing weak ones.

However, the vampires rampaging through the capital were acting contrary to this common sense. They seemed obsessed with quantity rather than quality, attacking as many victims as possible to turn them into their kind. As if increasing their numbers was the goal itself.

Fortunately, after passing through the palace’s main gate, there were no vampires in sight, likely thanks to the holy relics and artifacts installed throughout the palace. Kwak Tae-woo wiped away the sticky fluid—whether blood or sweat, he couldn’t tell—from his face and hastened his steps toward Prime Minister Behemdorf’s quarters.

“Has the situation been assessed yet? The Romanian family, the Kiano family, Ludwig is definitely a traitor… Why is there no contact with the Holy Knight Order…?”

“Behemdorf!”

“Mr. Kwak Tae-woo?”

It was late at night, and the palace was nearly empty. When Kwak Tae-woo flung open the door to the Prime Minister’s office, he found Behemdorf anxiously pacing inside. Upon seeing Kwak Tae-woo, his expression immediately brightened as he welcomed him.

“You’ve come at the perfect time! What on earth is going on? Half an hour ago, I received a report from the guard post about suspicious fog and vampires swarming in the city center, which reminded me of Duke August’s incident, so I quickly dispatched troops… But for some reason, no reports have come back, and I’ve been frustrated.”

“What? You only found out an hour ago that vampires have been rampaging in the city for four hours?”

“Pardon?”

The Prime Minister’s expression hardened. Four hours ago?

“That can’t be… No, could it be? Has the communication network been deliberately cut off?”

The Prime Minister hurriedly manipulated a communication crystal, then let out a frustrated groan as if he’d realized something. No matter how he manipulated the crystal, it only rippled with murky smoke, unable to connect with any unit.

“This is absurd. Even Valencia is on the Emperor’s side? All four ducal houses…?”

Behemdorf muttered with a face clearly showing bewilderment, dejection, and shock. Kwak Tae-woo urged the Prime Minister, who seemed to have lost his senses.

“Pull yourself together, Behemdorf! You’re the only one who understands what’s happening right now!”

“…You’re right. If they’ve begun to move in earnest, it means the Emperor…!”

Behemdorf hurriedly prepared to leave, donning his robe.

“Follow me. I’ll explain as we go.”

“Wait, that’s not the way out of the palace, is it?”

“No. The commotion outside the palace is likely a ploy to disperse the Holy Knight forces. Damn it, only now do I realize this shallow scheme…”

Contrary to Kwak Tae-woo’s intention to use the palace forces to support the soldiers fighting in the city, Behemdorf’s steps were heading deeper into the palace.

“We must deal with the source of all this.”

“The source of the vampires? Surely not.”

“Yes. We are going to eliminate the Vampire Lord—the Emperor.”

***

Kwak Tae-woo’s eyes widened in shock at Behemdorf’s stunning declaration.

“The Emperor… is a Vampire Lord?”

It was incomprehensible by common sense. The leader of humanity’s last nation is a Mein? It seemed strange that the country hadn’t collapsed already.

Kwak Tae-woo staggered, his face confused as he tried to process the information.

“How did the Emperor become a vampire? Besides, didn’t you say earlier that the Emperor was confined to bed due to illness…?”

Behemdorf understood Kwak Tae-woo’s confusion and began to explain.

“It all goes back to 100 years ago, when I had just become a court magician.”

100 years ago, the Empire experienced its last golden age through the final gambit of summoning a hero. It was a time when they not only managed to repel the invasion from hell but even reclaimed territories occupied by hell’s forces.

All of this was possible solely due to the efforts of one person—the hero, Kim Jae-min.

“At that time, I wasn’t the Prime Minister as I am now, but merely a combat magician in the Mage Corps.”

“…You’re older than you look.”

“That’s the power of magic.”

Back then, Behemdorf had several opportunities to stand on the same battlefield as the hero. That’s why he knew better than anyone that the legendary exploits of the hero were unembellished truth.

And also the dark truth that existed behind those exploits.

“The hero of 100 years ago is often portrayed as an invincible being, but in reality, he was someone who faced life-threatening dangers daily. Not just on the battlefield, but even within the imperial palace.”

The hero was considered to possess half of humanity’s military might in one person. This meant that victory was guaranteed on any battlefield where the hero was deployed, but from the enemy’s perspective, it also meant that eliminating just one hero would cripple half of humanity.

Thus, the demons employed truly demonic tactics to eliminate their adversary.

When the first attempt to assassinate the hero—a fittingly demonic and cowardly act—took place in the imperial palace, the hero consumed poisoned food and remained unconscious for a week. The perpetrator of the attempted poisoning was a low-ranking servant, a Mein who died during interrogation without revealing how they had infiltrated the palace.

The assassination attempts didn’t stop there. In the bedroom, in the bathroom, in the meeting room. Demons reached out to kill the hero in all sorts of places and at all times. By the time these attempts numbered in the hundreds, the hero’s paranoid state of suspecting everything bordered on mental illness.

‘Kim Jae-min had such a past…’

Only after hearing Behemdorf’s explanation could Kwak Tae-woo understand the sharp atmosphere that always surrounded Kim Jae-min. He had experienced the threat of losing his life at any moment if he didn’t maintain constant tension and vigilance.

At that point, Behemdorf stopped walking and looked directly at Kwak Tae-woo.

“But doesn’t it seem strange? That so many demons and Mein could easily access humanity’s heart, the place that should have the most stringent security.”

The fifth assassin, who appeared just two weeks after the first assassination attempt, was a servant responsible for cleaning the hero’s bedroom. That’s when suspicion began to bloom in Behemdorf’s mind.

Five assassination attempts in two weeks, and such a lukewarm response? Enemies infiltrating even the hero’s bedroom, which should have been his most private space?

“That’s when I became convinced. There was a traitor within the imperial palace. Not just an individual, but an organized group of Mein moving systematically.”

From that point on, Behemdorf plunged into the political quagmire. To catch the traitors of humanity, whose numbers and identities were unclear, he pursued power amidst the nobles’ power struggles filled with all manner of intrigue.

“I eventually rose to the position of Prime Minister, and based on this authority, I trained the declining Holy Knight Order while pressuring various noble families. In the process, I discovered a shocking fact.”

“A shocking fact?”

“Three hundred years ago, after Emperor Kail Leonhart, one of the 12 Heroes, returned as a Death Knight and nearly destroyed the Empire, subsequent emperors did not reveal their heirs to the public, citing assassination prevention.”

The imperial prince was raised in a secret inner palace accessible only to the Emperor, and only revealed himself for the first time at the coronation ceremony after the Emperor’s death.

When one reaches the level of an Archmage, their sense of mana changes. Behemdorf, who had become an Archmage and attended a coronation ceremony for the first time, felt fear.

Because the mana pattern of the supposedly deceased former Emperor and the newly crowned imperial prince were chillingly identical.

“Mana patterns are like fingerprints—unique characteristics based on the flow of mana within each person.”

“So if the current Emperor’s mana pattern matches the previous Emperor’s…”

“Yes. It means there’s a monster wearing the Emperor’s skin, occupying the throne for decades, perhaps centuries. Changing identity and face with each generation…”

During the interrogation of one of the Emperor’s minions, Behemdorf discovered that the Emperor was a Mein, specifically a Vampire Lord who commanded all vampires. Behemdorf couldn’t determine whether the Emperor had somehow become a Vampire Lord, or if a Vampire Lord had infiltrated the palace pretending to be the Emperor.

However, it was clear that the Emperor was behind all the assassination attempts on the hero.

“The identity of the enemy became clear, but I couldn’t act rashly. According to literature, a Vampire Lord possesses near-immortal regenerative abilities… Moreover, I didn’t know how many nobles the Emperor had recruited to his side.”

If he alone claimed the Emperor was a Mein, he would more likely face backlash, being branded a traitor by the Emperor’s forces. Therefore, Behemdorf spent decades quietly focusing on training the Holy Knight Order and identifying traitors.

“After decades of building strength under the false Emperor… Finally, five years ago, I seized an opportunity and, under the pretext of strengthening palace defenses, mobilized the Holy Knights without the nobles’ knowledge to subdue and seal the Emperor.”

“Sealed him? Why didn’t you kill him?”

“The Emperor’s demonic energy was so powerful that even when inflicted with near-fatal wounds, he recovered immediately, leaving us no choice. To eliminate the source of that terrifying regenerative ability, we had to confine him in a mana collector and drain the Emperor’s power.”

“…So one of the two mana collectors that supplied energy to the wall’s mana cannons was used to seal the Emperor.”

To convince those who didn’t know the circumstances, Behemdorf spread rumors that the Emperor was bedridden with illness, thus obtaining regency authority. However, even the Emperor’s followers wouldn’t have been fooled by this propaganda.

The reason they didn’t act was because Behemdorf was holding the Emperor hostage, not because they believed Behemdorf’s story.

But from Behemdorf’s perspective, he had bought time to regroup. Time to recover the Holy Knight Order’s losses from the battle with the Emperor and to root out all the Emperor’s followers hiding among the nobility.

While waiting for the opportunity to eradicate the Emperor and his followers in one fell swoop, the gate connecting to Earth opened.

“I expected that with increased forces against demons, the Mein wouldn’t move recklessly… but I was distracted by the recent large-scale demon attack and failed to anticipate their actions. It’s my mistake. Their ultimate goal must be the Emperor, so we need to secure him now…”

“Will killing the Emperor solve this?”

“No. First, we need to deal with the trouble in the city. A Vampire Lord can force absolute commands on the vampires under his control. We’ll use that characteristic to neutralize the rampaging vampires in the city.”

By the time Behemdorf finished his explanation, the two had reached the deepest part of the imperial palace. A place where ordinary servants couldn’t even set foot, guarded by Behemdorf’s elite Holy Knights. However, the Emperor’s chamber, which should have had the most stringent security, was shrouded in an ominous silence.

“The guards…”

Bodies of Holy Knights scattered everywhere. Signs of an intruder.

Behemdorf’s gaze hardened gravely. The guards’ bodies appeared as if they had been struck down with a single blow while rushing to confront the intruder.

“…An intruder of alarming skill was here. Let’s hurry. The seal is managed with multiple layers of high-grade holy artifacts and spells, so it will take time to completely release it.”

“That won’t be necessary.”

A voice from beyond the bedroom door pierced their ears clearly.

Behemdorf’s face turned pale upon hearing the impossible voice.

“Im-impossible… How already…?”

The heavy bedroom door slowly opened with a scraping sound against the stone floor. A faint crimson mist flowed out from the bedroom.

The master of the bedroom called to them.

“Enter. Prime Minister Behemdorf, and the foreigner.”