Chapter 32: The sun has risen (5)

"What is this?"

Cale quickly scanned the note Mary handed him.

"The First Imperial Prince handed it to me a few moments ago as he walked past."

– Human! The First Imperial Prince hit Mary's shoulder as he walked past when he gave this to her! He hit it very hard! Of course, our good little Mary didn't even twitch at such a hit!

Cale did not let Raon's comments in one ear and out the other ear for once. He made sure to remember what Raon said as he scanned the note.

< All of the necromancers who lose the candidate test die as humans. However, they are reborn as something that is not human. >

< Those things that are reborn are still able to use a portion of their necromancer abilities. >

< The Emperor controls those necromancers. >

< The Emperor is their host. >

The note did not end there.

"Mm."

Eruhaben, who had been standing behind Cale as he read through the note written on the cloth with blood, groaned.

< My goal is to make sure that every single necromancer participating in this test dies. >

"Meeeeeow."

On and Hong in their cat forms approached Cale from the darkness.

"Mm. Cale."

Eruhaben started to speak.

"If the contents of this note are true, it sounds like someone is trying to kill all of the candidates except the First Imperial Prince in order to turn them into undeads that are his loyal subordinates."

It was obvious who that someone was.

"Cale, this is probably why the House of Huayans has been the instructor for generations."

Cale did not say anything to oppose Eruhaben's words. In fact, he showed his agreement through silence.

'The Emperor is dying.'

After learning about the Emperor's condition, Cale had looked into the lifespan of the past Emperors before leaving the capital.

'They lived decently long lives before they died.'

For the past 300 years, every Emperor had lived a decent amount of time in other people's eyes.

Basically, there were no instances of short or long lives.

It might seem like nothing much but it could be quite meaningful when considering the fact that the current Emperor was dying.

'…The Emperor is the only candidate who survives and turns the other candidates into undeads that are in his control.'

And…

'The Emperor changes at a set period of time.'

In addition, the current Emperor was dying.

What if all of this was being controlled by someone from the shadows?

'The Emperor's instructor.'

The House of Huayans.

'Basically, it is highly likely that the Black Bloods are the real rulers of the Empire.'

It was quite possible that they were controlling everything from the shadows.

"The Emperor should be strong. It sounds like he will be controlling quite a large army."

Cale nodded his head at Eruhaben's comment.

The Emperor controlled necromancer undeads. Those undeads then controlled skeletons.

Furthermore, the Emperor himself was a skilled necromancer.

"…It will be quite the large army as you mentioned, Eruhaben-nim."

An army of the dead that is.

"Young master-nim."

Mary started to speak at that moment.

"It sounds like the First Imperial Prince is planning on killing all of the candidates including himself."

Cale nodded his head.

< My goal is to make sure that every single necromancer participating in this test dies. >

Every single one.

That meant that he was including himself.

"The First Imperial Prince wasn't a puppet either."

The corners of Cale's lips twisted up. Mary spoke in a calm voice at the same time.

"The First Imperial Prince's goal will fail."

Eruhaben responded with a satisfied look on his face.

"Why? Because you will stop him, Mary?"

"Yes Eruhaben-nim. That is correct."

There was a strong gust of wind at that moment.

The whole group looked in that direction for a moment.

Shaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-

A white bone dragon with broken parts and many cracked bones flew up to the sky and flapped its wings.

The gust of wind was caused by the bone dragon flying up above Precinct 9.

"The tree roots have been defeated."

Cale slightly nodded his head as Mary's calm voice.

He could see Choi Han and Sui Khan walking toward them.

Furthermore, he could see Marquis Helson heading toward the wall.

– Huh? Human, the First Imperial Prince is with him too! It looked like he was going into the castle earlier but now, mm, well, his expression makes it look like he's being forced to go with Marquis Helson!

The First Imperial Prince was by the Marquis' side.

He had a confused look on his face as Marquis Helson grabbed his arm. On the other hand, Marquis Helson had a bright smile on his face as he patted the First Imperial Prince's shoulder in a friendly manner.

Marquis Helson let go of the First Imperial Prince's arm after moving to a spot where quite a lot of attention was focused on him.

"Marquis-nim!"

"No need for greetings."

The Marquis stopped people from greeting him.

The key personnel for the troops in Precinct 9 were gathered behind him.

"Raise the warning level to max right now and enter a state of emergency alert."

Marquis Helson opened his mouth.

His orders would soon be spread throughout Precinct 9 by the messengers.

"This is information Imperial Princess Olivia brought back."

He shared the information about the large tree monster. People's faces stiffened as they heard the news.

"…Those large roots are not multiple monsters but all parts of a single monster?"

"My goodness, everybody knows that the Second Imperial Princess is talented! But her team has all perished while she came back alone in critical condition?"

The people who were whispering stopped after hearing the last thing Marquis Helson said.

"And that monster is aiming for our lives. It wants to devour us."

The role of Precinct 9 was to prevent the pollution and erosion of land as long as possible and stop mutant monsters from entering the Empire's territory.

However, it was different this time.

The monster was not trying to erode the land or take away the Empire's territory.

It was simply wandering around looking for 'food.'

However, that was even scarier.

It would follow them even if they ran away.

"We are the wall."

Marquis Helson continued to speak.

"We are the last line of defense."

The soldiers' faces stiffened.

These soldiers living in the edge precinct knew that they would die some day.

Most of them stayed here despite knowing that was the case.

The Margrave smiled after seeing that his numerous allies were looking right at him despite feeling fear and horror.

'They are truly the people guarding the Empire.'

It was not those bastards of the House of Huayans.

Marquis Helson continued to speak.

"We exist to defend."

From the black ground… From the mutant monsters…

The smile on Marquis Helson's face became even wider.

"Someone told me the following."

He recalled the plan that the person with the power of a god had created with him.

"The greatest defense is a preemptive strike."

Eruhaben, Mary, On, and Hong, who were hiding in the shadow of the alley and looking at Marquis Helson, all looked toward Cale.

– That's right!

Raon showed an extremely enthusiastic support for Marquis Helson's comment.

"We will now select an elite group of people to go kill what we will call the black tree from here on."

The people around him looked concerned.

"Ah, don't worry about the protection of the wall."

Marquis Helson immediately added on, as if he knew what they were concerned about.

"We plan on creating this team of elites from people who are not part of the wall's defense."

That meant that people who usually served as scouts would be included in this team of elites.

Defense and reconnaissance…

Although there were a lot less people on the reconnaissance side, these scouts were all skilled. Of course, the defense side had more of the highest skilled individuals.

The defense of the wall was the core reason for their precinct.

"However, it will be difficult to even face a portion of the monster with just those people."

Marquis Helson turned around.

He made eye contact with the First Imperial Prince.

As the First Imperial Prince's eyes opened wide as if he realized something…

"That is why I wish to ask for assistance."

Cale motioned with his hand and Mary walked out of the shadow.

Marquis Helson continued to speak.

"There are many people with strong abilities here today."

He bowed respectfully toward the First Imperial Prince. He spoke formally toward whom he had not been speaking formally to because he was treated as one of the many candidates.

"Please help us. Your Royal Highness."

The First Imperial Prince's pupils started shaking.

The corners of Cale's lips curled up.

Marquis Helson then bowed toward the other candidates around him as well.

"I ask the other candidate-nims for your assistance as well. This is for the Empire. The entire western part of the Empire will crumble if this place is destroyed."

For the Empire…

Marquis Helson had quite the dagger to justify his request toward the candidates who dreamed of becoming the Emperor.

"…Marquis Helson."

Mary stepped forward the moment the First Imperial Prince started to speak.

"I will help."

Tap.

Choi Han jumped off the roof of a building and stood behind her.

A necromancer with extremely strong abilities and the ever so rare sword master…

The two of them had joined the cause.

The atmosphere around them changed.

The two people who had been treating the tree roots as if they were nothing much had stepped forward.

The moment it felt as if Marquis Helson was not being ridiculous with his request…

"Your Royal Highness."

Marquis Helson knew that this was the moment the purifier had mentioned and started the first step of their plan.

"Will the esteemed Dragon be able to help us?"

"Ah."

Gasps could be heard around the area.

"That's right! We have the esteemed Dragon!"

"Dragon, yes, there is nothing stronger than a Dragon!"

The air around the people started to heat up.

"I also heard that young lady Huayans is quite skilled as well, your Royal Highness. We should be able to protect the western part of the Empire if you, the greatest talent of the Imperial family, the Dragon-nim, and young lady Huayans all participate."

Dragon. Everybody desperately turned to look at the First Imperial Prince after hearing that word.

The candidates who didn't want to die all looked toward the First Imperial Prince as well.

The extinct Dragons…

The Dragons who were said to be the guardians of the world and the strongest creatures in the world…

They were all full of expectation toward the strength of such an individual.

"Please, your Royal Highness."

Marquis Helson, the Margrave of the west, bowed extremely respectfully one more time in front of so many people.

The First Imperial Prince would lose all face if he rejected this request now.

There were too many eyes looking at them.

– Human, you look so evil!

The corners of Cale's lips curled up.

– Cale, then are the two of us going to follow them separately?

Cale nodded his head at Eruhaben's question.

Cale and Eruhaben were not included in the 'black tree attack team' Marquis Helson was gathering.

On the other hand, Mary and Choi Han would be a part of that attack team.

Eruhaben spoke in a low voice.

– The First Imperial Prince will have to join this attack team if he wishes to be the Emperor.

Of course, he might not participate for his own safety, but…

– At least the 'Dragon' will have to join the attack team. He couldn't lose all face if he wanted to be the Emperor.

Eruhaben and Cale made eye contact.

The Dragon and the human both had big smiles on their faces.

– Cale, are you planning on capturing the First Imperial Prince's side?

Cale calmly nodded his head.

– Kahahaha! Are we finally going to destroy that monster?

They would destroy the monster as the cheapskate mentioned…

While also capturing those on the First Imperial Prince's side.

'It is possible to turn people into your subordinates without turning them into the undead. But they don't seem to know that.'

As Cale's smile twisted to one side…

– Human! You look very, very evil! I can't help but wonder how many people you are planning to smack in the back with such a smile on your face!

He ignored Raon's comment and focused on Helson's voice.

"Your Royal Highness!"

"…I understand."

First Imperial Prince Sanders showed his support in the end and Helson raised his voice. He spoke as he looked around.

"We will select the members for the black tree attack team in one hour and then head out!"

He continued to speak while looking at the candidates.

"Anybody else who wishes to help out, please come find one of the top executives!"

He then added on.

"However, we will not be able to guarantee your safety and those who are not skilled enough will not be selected for the attack team."

He was telling those who were not skilled to not even think about joining the team.

Cale looked at Marquis Helson and thought to himself.

'He's quite skilled at dealing with people unlike what you would expect from how he looks.'

Just by looks alone, he gave off the aura of the typical cold and rational swordsman who protected the border.

However, he had a calculated and sly side to him as well.

'It's nice.'

He now had a helper who would be easy to work with.

"Let's go."

Marquis Helson took his subordinates and headed back into the Lord's Castle.

The team of elites would be sent beyond the wall in an hour.

Cale was watching him before confirming that the First Imperial Prince walked into the Lord's Castle with a stiff expression on his face. He then moved deeper into the alley and started to speak.

"On. I leave the Imperial Princess and your younger siblings to you."

"Meeow."

"Hong, put some poison in the hallway and windows by our lodging. Make sure nobody can come to spy on us."

"Meeeeeow!"

"Raon."

– I know! Continuing the video communication! Preparing to take everybody and run just in case!

Cale then looked toward the black Hawk.

"Don't worry."

Cale nodded his head instead of saying anything.

Sui Khan, the team leader, would do his job properly to keep an eye on the movement of the top executives and the people in Precinct 9 to immediately have Raon contact Cale if anything weird happened.

Furthermore, as long as Sui Khan was here, the children would be safe as he would be able to ensure that they at least run away.

'Of course, I don't know the team leader's current sword art abilities though.'

Lee Soo Hyuk was the type of person who would not have come to see Cale if his skills were not at least at the level they had been when he was the team leader.

He would have only come to find Cale since his skills were better than back then.

"Eruhaben-nim."

"Yes. Let's go get ready to stealthily follow them."

* * *

"Let's go, Eruhaben-nim."

"Okay."

Cale and Eruhaben put on robes to hide their faces.

"Are you going?"

Cale turned around. Marquis Helson was standing there with a stiff expression on his face.

"Yes sir. We are heading out now. Marquis-nim, please protect the wall."

"…Of course."

The Marquis was skilled but could not be included in the team of elites.

His position required that he protect this wall until the end even if everybody else left.

"I'll deal with the Imperial Palace as well."

Furthermore, Marquis Helson was the only person capable of dealing with the Imperial Palace.

"…They're going to be really angry when they find out that the First Imperial Prince went out to fight. I-"

He thought for a moment before continuing to speak.

"I thought that he would only send the Dragon but he is also going. How surprising."

The First Imperial Prince was included in the team of elites. It was obvious when simply considering his abilities.

Furthermore, the Dragon was participating as well along with the young lady of the House of Huayans and his third helper.

"Oh Purifier."

Marquis Helson bowed.

"I leave it to you."

Cale could sense Eruhaben holding himself back from saying something behind him but ignored it and nodded his head.

"Yes sir. You have nothing to worry about."

Cale then stood on top of the golden teleportation magic circle with Eruhaben.

They were going to teleport outside the wall and then follow behind the attack team.

Cale looked out the window again.

He could see the attack team quickly moving in the distance.

First Imperial Prince Sanders, the Dragon and the other two helpers…

Mary and Choi Han…

And even Fourth Imperial Prince Noi and Zero.

"A lot of things are going to change because of this battle."

Cale did not say anything to the comment Eruhaben mumbled in a low voice.

Paaaat!

Along with the bright light, Eruhaben and Cale…

The true leaders of Operation Black Tree started to move.

—
Translator's Comments

Da truest of da leadas

***

If you find any errors or have suggestions, please feel free to provide feedback.

Thank you for reading!

[Author – Yu Ryeo Han]

[Translator – Anowa]

[Proofreader – Rai_Mayank]