The Money-Mad Holy Knight Chapter 125

Chapter 125: Secret Circumstances (5)

When a responsibility arises, it's important to clarify who bears that responsibility.

The sa was true for what the Emperor had just said.

"You killed the Third Prince, didn't you? Then it's only right that you bear the responsibility for it."

Erik bowed calmly.

Under normal circumstances, the Emperor would have attempted a deal or issued commands, but...

'So he's saying I killed him, so I bear the responsibility?'

The current Emperor demanded responsibility.

The surface reason was being the cause of the Third Prince's death, but it contained many implications beneath the surface.

'Probably synthesizing everything I've done so far.'

The matter of Erica's resurrection.

The issue with Ruelle, who had captured the empire's public sentint.

Synthesizing such flows, he must have used the word responsibility.

'To think I'd suddenly be tasked with exposing the imperial family's secrets.'

Erik had no intention of refusing.

This was a necessary task for him as well.

Everything in the world has priorities.

For Erik, finding the last remaining original Possessor was one of them.

'A necromancer.'

The series of events stemming from Marquis Aaron had made him aware of the existence of Duke Raffin's son.

Having seen him, Erik thought it would be possible to create an artificial Third Prince as well.

Having concluded his thoughts, Erik spoke.

"I shall obey Your Majesty's command and uncover the secret of the Third Prince's birth."

Then the Emperor laughed rrily.

"Krhrhr. Of course, I intend to provide appropriate compensation. However."

The Emperor's red eyes swept over the Pri Minister, then looked back at Erik.

"—Was it truly a resurrection? Before you arrived, I t the Pri Minister's daughter, and I couldn't believe she was dead."

This was 100% true.

However, he couldn't imdiately acknowledge it.

Resurrection wasn't such a simple matter.

"Compared to Your Majesty's greatness, it's a trivial power—."

Erik tried to speak that way, considering whether he might have damaged the Emperor's authority.

"Spare the nonsense."

The Emperor was firm.

At that bluntness, Erik gave a short, direct answer.

"It is indeed the resurrection of a true saint."

"Hmph!"

The Emperor marveled at Erik's bold assertion.

And asked.

"Is it possible for as well?"

Erik smiled inwardly with joy.

A thrilling mont.

"I'm not sure since I haven't tried... but I think it might be possible."

It was a refined tone of voice, but his heart was pounding.

And for good reason.

'The Emperor as a believer?'

This was truly absurd.

"It seems like it might be possible?"

The Emperor rubbed his chin with great interest.

And Erik threw his trump card.

"Your Majesty, have you considered believing in a religion?"

At that sincere question, the Emperor burst into loud laughter.

"Krhahaha!!!"

And the conclusion.

"That's too bad, older brother."

"Indeed it is."

An banishnt order was handed down to Erik.

The Emperor, whose laughter had abruptly stopped, waved his hand saying 'That's enough,' and Erik was promptly surrounded by escort forces and guided outside the imperial palace.

"Wouldn't it work out fine? Doesn't the saying go that no tree won't fall if you chop it ten tis?"

"Du-sik, the Emperor is not a tree."

Erik led the grumbling Jang Du-sik toward Earthtown in District 5.

Rather than using teleportation, he walked directly on foot, observing the state of the district.

"The effect of providing water certainly shows up imdiately."

"What are all these lines about?"

"Those are all Possessors surrendering themselves."

The words the Pri Minister had conveyed when leaving the imperial palace ca to mind.

Thanks to replacing water supply with fountains from the World Tree, they were able to discover nurous hidden Possessors in large numbers...

"P-please give us drinkable water."

"We surrender. Please, just water."

The reason was that the World Tree's fountains were no different from holy water.

Possessors lined up in rows in front of the Security Bureau, requesting edible drinking water.

"Well, that's interesting."

"What is?"

"Imperial citizens praise drinking holy water instead of water, yet Possessors lant that even their water is being taken away, aren't they?"

Erik nodded at Jang Du-sik's surprisingly sharp observation.

"Eventually, as ti passes, they too will rejoice in this choice."

Erik gazed at the crowd numbering in the hundreds.

The capital of 2 million people.

The Imperial Capital, Arman.

'Hidden ones must number at least ten thousand.'

They too would need to co within the walls of Earthtown.

Going forward, the Possessors' economy would be controlled by the [Auction House], so the larger the population, the better.

"Du-sik, we've arrived."

Soon the walls of District 4 appeared before Erik's eyes.

Beyond this wall lay 'Earthtown'.

Precisely, Erik's city.

***

Erik summoned Kang Seo-hyun, the general administrator of Earthtown, and issued several instructions.

After that, he climbed the city walls of District 4 and admired his city.

'I need to gather more manpower.'

The city's growth rate seed sowhat slow.

As he was appreciating the city, suddenly Jang Du-sik bombarded him with questions.

"Brother, but how much of what the Emperor said was real?"

"What do you an?"

"So you really slept with the Second Empress? Or did you just actually sleep?"

"Du-sik, how would I know that?"

"But the Emperor said you just slept together, so how—?"

Like a pubescent middle schooler.

Jang Du-sik showed great interest in whether Erik had slept with her or not.

At this, Erik's face wrinkled completely.

"Older brother Ji-hun went to visit sister Gilma's house, I heard he slept over? So did you?"

Because the face of an extrely annoying person ca to mind.

Pak!

"Du-sik, is whether I did it or not so important?"

Jang Du-sik rubbed his head vigorously while muttering.

"But you really just slept, and yet a child appeared? I'm just curious too!"

Of course, Jang Du-sik possessed more investigative curiosity than re interest...

He genuinely just slept and yet the Third Prince appeared.

But the Emperor believed him as his own son and raised him.

It didn't make sense, and it was absurd.

'Yeah, it's worth being curious about.'

So Erik explained to Du-sik why the Emperor had regarded the Third Prince as his own son.

"Du-sik, there's a saying that imperial children are blessed by the moon."

At that, Jang Du-sik blinked.

"...Brother, are you crazy?"

"Du-sik, I'm serious."

"That's sothing you tell children. Didn't dragons bring babies? Even as ignorant as I am, I wouldn't believe sothing like that."

Erik let out a deep sigh and ran his hand through his hair.

"Du-sik, I'm telling you this is real."

"How could—."

"I'm not sure if just sleeping works, but the moon ntioned in imperial mythology is real."

"Huh... The moon can't even speak. So how will you prove that the Third Prince is a cuckoo?"

Jang Du-sik was clearly thinking of the task of finding the true father.

But the moon, of all things.

"Then wouldn't that be incredibly annoying? Why—."

"Ah, I have so expectations about it."

Erik smiled, looking at Kang Seo-hyun and her group visible far below the city wall.

'The task should be simpler than expected.'

The Third Prince's body, much like Duke Raffin's son, was likely an artificially created body.

In the process of finding the first Necromancer Possessor, he would solve the Emperor's headache as well.

Wasn't it a kind of two-for-one burning event?

'No, wait... It might even be three-for-one.'

Erik looked at Jang Du-sik.

A broad smile hung on his lips.

"What's that?"

"Du-sik, do you rember that guy Kim Su-ho?"

"The crazy bastard who kept asking if I was Park Ji-hun?"

"Yeah."

Erik told Du-sik to explain what happened back then.

Jang Du-sik began to ramble.

"Well, at first he interrogated like, 'Why did you rob the guild vault?'"

"And then?"

"I told him to stop spouting nonsense."

Erik's lips twitched.

"Then he laughed saying, 'You really are good at lying, Park Ji-hun. You're not crazy or anything.'"

"Haha! Du-sik, that guy is truly crazy."

Erik laughed heartily.

The way things turned around was very amusing.

However, at the words that followed, Erik couldn't help but stop laughing.

"Ah! That bastard whispered to that sister Gilma was doing sothing with the Chief. He said, 'Soon, Park Ji-hun, I'll create a land for you to believe in and settle down,'—."

"Wait, why are you telling this now?"

Sister Gilma, the Chief.

Erik heard words he couldn't easily overlook.

"I honestly couldn't make sense of it. At the ti, the situation was urgent, so I forgot to ntion it."

The bloody battle with the flooding monsters at the Styx River.

The armies of the Astia Religious Order and the allied forces.

The situation had indeed been urgent.

'Is it fortunate, perhaps?'

No matter how he thought about it, it seed like so of the guild mbers had gathered and ford a faction.

Moreover, they had stuck with the first Necromancer Possessor.

'Judging by the talk of "the Chief" and such, they might be trying to establish a puppet governnt sowhere.'

Erik thought of sister Gilma.

He considered her abilities and drive.

'With sister's abilities, it would be worth attempting... but it's not easy either.'

Erik felt an unfounded worry.

So he warned Jang Du-sik.

"Du-sik, keep what you just told strictly confidential."

"Understood! But how much should I keep secret?"

"Tell only , and never speak of it again."

"But brother, didn't you say a man should have no secrets from his wife?"

Erik pressed his temples tightly and continued.

"This is an exception."

"The exceptions keep piling up, but... anyway, understood!"

As they finished their conversation, Kang Seo-hyun climbed up onto the city wall.

Behind her were the Possessors Erik had instructed her to bring.

'If things go well, I'll find them in one go.'

The mysterious faction with an unknown chief and sister Gilma.

Since they found Park Ji-hun first, Erik intended to find them as well.

***

On the far side of the moon, Erik stood in the Empire's shadow.

All around was filled with death.

From within the shadows ca screams and agony.

"Hmm."

Yet even amid such hellish chaos, Erik remained composed.

He was rely contemplating his [Skill Tree].

'Surely the Necromancer third-class advancent skills...'

In the ga, the Necromancer was a class without outstanding advantages.

Once you reached max level and perford the third-class advancent, you could barely pull your weight.

The very basis of that one person's contribution was diocre at best.

'The ability to control dead allies in raids.'

Originally, Continental Online had no Paladin class.

Wasn't it the class that appeared last?

From the start, the resurrection system didn't even apply within the Labyrinth.

'So there was so demand in its own right.'

The strategy of having two tanks and trading aggro from a boss monster.

But if one tank stumbled here, disaster would ensue.

The class designed to prevent this was the Necromancer.

'Plus, with overwhelming numbers, you could tank for a mont.'

It had its uses, but due to the disadvantage of difficult summon control, there wasn't great demand.

However...

'In reality, it will be different.'

Erik saw new possibilities.

The existence of Duke Raffin's son.

And the truth of the Third Prince.

Erik believed that by unraveling these, he could find the threads of the Necromancer.

"Hey, brother, what are you doing in such a grueso place?"

What Erik was thinking couldn't be understood by others.

This applied not only to Jang Du-sik but also to the Possessor brought along.

Necromancer Possessor Lee Ji-hyun was terrified.

'I haven't even made a mistake.'

The sincerity of 24-hour full-ti work.

Thinking she might be comnded for her effort, she was dragged to this hellish place instead.

All around, people were imprisoned.

Horrible space with all sorts of things in long cylindrical tanks.

'Ugh. D-does the Empire really have such a terrifying place...?'

The rumors circulating among Possessors about Possessor research.

It resembled that landscape.

"Well, the imperial family has such a frightening side too."

Yet even in this dreadful landscape, Erik and Jang Du-sik remained serene.

"Du-sik, this great empire's shadow is as dark as its brilliance is radiant."

"Like brother?"

"...Du-sik."

"I-I'm joking!"

That serene conversation only filled Lee Ji-hyun's heart with greater terror.

'Is this normal routine for these people?'

Shiver!

Her body trembled.

"Brother, what are you trying to figure out here?"

"Ah, I'm wondering if skills can be used even on dead people."

"Are you planning to kill soone else and resurrect them again?"

Jang Du-sik pointed at Lee Ji-hyun with a club.

At that, she collapsed to the ground with a thud.

The brown hair of Lee Ji-hyun, a plain village girl who had beco a Possessor, beca stained by the Empire's shadow.

"Heieek."

A brilliant golden light approached her.

The figure of Erik, drawing forth radiant brilliance, seed infinitely sacred—

"P-please spare !"

Contrasted with the darkness of this space, it felt all the more terrifying.

Lee Ji-hyun clenched her eyes shut.

Then ca a voice.

"Raise that corpse."

She opened her eyes calmly.

A field of corpses and blood spread out following Erik's fingertips.

'What does the Empire do to gather so many people...?'

The number reached nearly a hundred.

A heavy voice descended upon the terrified Lee Ji-hyun.

"Level 52, Lee Ji-hyun. You're the only Necromancer who completed the second-class advancent. And you even learned the [Puppet Master] skill, didn't you?"

She felt as if all of herself had been seen through.

Lifting her head, she found a more radiant and sacred being looking down upon her.

'Aah.'

She understood.

This wasn't fear.

The gaze of an omnipotent sothing looking down upon her.

In those piercing eyes.

Lee Ji-hyun rose to her feet.

And she approached the corpses.

She lifted both hands, taking the skill motion.

And spoke.

"Rise."

At her words, a freshly dead corpse rose to its feet.

And it moved vividly as if alive.

Erik brought a long ticket over it.

Psssss!

Golden paper changed to gray light and vanished.

[ 1 Reinforcent has failed.]

It was a reinforcent failure effect.

At that, Erik looked to the side.

"Du-sik."

"Krhrhr, brother, your luck truly is art!"

Jang Du-sik smiled brightly and accepted the ticket from Erik.

And without hesitation, he inserted it into the corpse Lee Ji-hyun had raised.

Then.

Saaaaaaa!

A brilliant golden effect shone over the vagrant's corpse.

And what appeared was.

[Necromancer's Puppet Master 1]

'A Necromancer who had lived for decades.'

Through this, Erik understood the danger of that existence called 'the Chief.'