The Emperor Who Was Chapter 82 : Chapter 82

Chapter . 82

“Who are you?”

But when a stranger suddenly rushed out from the corner, the Count reacted first.

“Giuliano…….”

“Who is this person?”

“Do, do you forget ?”

When the Count couldn't recognize him imdiately, Jero was shocked. But the Count just hadn't imagined it would be him, and upon hearing the na, he recognized him.

“My close friend whom I thought was dead was the Wolf of Petrafis?!”

Though he was even more shocked than Jero.

“Rumors were rampant that you caught a plague and died on your way back to your hotown, but you were alive! Where on earth have you been all this ti? Before your father passed away, he sent

a letter inquiring about your whereabouts! As soon as I replied I didn't know either, I heard he passed away shortly after. How heartbreaking it was! Even my wife and mother grieved, asking why such things happened!”

Poor Jero couldn't answer anything to his friend's cry.

“It is a pity, but there is sothing that must be done imdiately. I will give you ti later, so catch up then.”

The Knights of Saint Romola were coming. I had to resolve this case that was getting stranger by the minute.

“Baron Harald von Graf, did you curse Jero de Lagardi and transform him into a wolf?”

“That is correct.”

Harald answered calmly.

“Why did you do that?”

“It was for my dead wife.”

…When holding the funeral for the lord's wife, he threatened the priest to divorce her from the lord and marry her to himself. The priest, threatened with death, wrote the docunts, but it was an impossible marriage in the first place. If the lord's bereaved family raised an objection, it would be annulled imdiately.

‘But that crazy act was truly a rare revenge committed against the lord's family.’

After his wife wrote a will donating her property to him, her husband, he wrote a deed of donation giving that property to the Traneha religion along with the will and gave it to the priest. He even handed over the lord's will leaving all property to his wife together.

‘Because of that, his marriage to his wife, which seed never to be recognized, was treated as a special exception by the Holy Emperor's decision and was not annulled.’

Although all docunts were practically forged, the bereaved family of the dead lord ultimately failed to win in the long legal battle with the temple.

So he could claim here that the dead lord's wife was his wife. Whether illegal or not, since the Holy Emperor did not deny it.

“What does your dead wife have to do with Lagardi?”

If Jero was also an enemy of Harald's wife…….

“I intended to revive my dead wife.”

It was sothing that would get him burned at the stake imdiately if holy knights heard it.

“How?”

“The vessel called the body that contained my wife's soul is broken. But if I transfer that soul to another vessel, my wife can be revived.”

“Are you saying that other vessel is Lagardi?”

“No. Lagardi is my vessel.”

“What on earth are you saying?”

“Even if my wife is revived, she cannot be human. She must be revived as an animal. So I have to transfer my wife's soul to an animal. To beco such a wife's mate, I must also be an animal, and my vessel is Lagardi.”

Jero gasped. When Sir Rolf awkwardly patted his back and offered a glass of wine, he emptied it in one gulp.

I wanted to shout at him to make sense, but I held back and continued asking. Harald's eyes and words were madness itself, but his claim was sowhat familiar.

“Let's say your wife enters an animal's body. Then why must you enter Lagardi who turned into an animal?”

“Since my wife is dead, her soul can enter an animal's body, but I am not dead so I cannot. It must be a vessel like Lagardi whose body is a beast but soul is human.”

“Can't you just die like your wife!”

Jero shouted venomously. Harald said without twitching an eyebrow.

“Because if I die, there is no one to transfer my wife's soul to the vessel.”

I made eye contact with Yolande. Now it beca clear what Harald was saying. Although there was more to confirm.

“Harald von Graf, are you a mage?”

“That is correct.”

The Baron calmly admitted he was a mage. Sothing even I couldn't say yet, done by soone who wasn't even a mage.

…It wasn't that I didn't feel mana from him at all. Exerting my sensitivity to the maximum while being close, I felt it, but that energy was weaker than even Jero's. Yet he cursed Jero?

Moreover, magic that curses a human to transform into a beast... Of course, there are stories of transforming humans into cows, swans, or bears…….

‘Aren't they all legends?’

However, the existence of legends was also the existence of belief. Belief that it was possible.

“Confess how you, a Baron and renowned knight, beca a mage.”

After holding his wife's funeral, he beca a monk and wandered everywhere. He didn't cut his hair or beard. He didn't sleep or eat. He even punished himself with a whip for failing to protect his wife.

Then, on the anniversary of his wife's death, he returned to her grave. However, the lord's son, who lost his property because of him, anticipated his return and was waiting. Saying he would avenge his father.

“I didn't even resist. I was willing to die in front of my wife's grave.”

But then, a group of mages appeared, killed the lord's son and his group, and saved him.

-Our Master sent us.

Saying so, they opened his wife's grave in front of his eyes. He scread and burst into rage, but couldn't move because of magic.

“But then an amazing thing happened.”

When they opened his wife's coffin, his wife was there as vivid as before she died. Not rotting even a little, her cheeks flushed. Her lips were exceptionally red, drawing attention.

“When I kissed my wife's lips, my lips beca red too.”

He continued with a srized face. Even Jero, angry at him, couldn't close his mouth and listened to his story.

“Those lips moved. I clearly heard my wife's voice.”

Just one desperate plea, please save .

But they said his wife's vessel was barely maintaining its form and could break anyti.

“I clung to their feet and begged. Swearing I would do anything to revive my wife.”

They said if he didn't keep his oath, his wife, barely breathing, would be discovered and burned alive.

“I actually saw an illusion of my wife's grave being engulfed in flas.”

He scread and lost consciousness.

When he woke up, he was in a place sowhat familiar but new. He didn't rember well after that. But he drank dicine that tasted terrible... and as a mage, perford magic to revive his wife.

“How did you perform magic when you had never done it before?”

“They taught

the thods one by one from the side.”

I pointed at Jero.

“Did they make you feed him dicine and order you to say a certain specific spell?”

“That is correct. All that process was the procedure of magic.”

The magic succeeded. Jero turned into a wolf. But he ran wild, broke through the encirclent, and disappeared, and Harald chased him but lost consciousness and collapsed.

“When I woke up, the mages told

to catch Jero and bring him back, otherwise there would be no more chance. Thus, I left to find him.”

Chasing Jero, he occasionally encountered witches. They tried to stop him, but he didn't listen, yet they taught him this and that to help him. He failed their magic, but he tried. But... chasing Jero to Petrafis…….

“I felt a mysterious and powerful force.”

“What force do you an?”

“Wandering in the mountains, I felt the existence of a force pulling

and approached it. That force was truly imnse.”

A man who wasted his life on hopelesness saw an illusion at the end of his wandering. It was an experience only I could understand.

Before the regression, wandering, starving, and exhausted, I committed suicide that wasn't suicide. Walking into death on my own feet.

Bewitched like that, thinking I was entering the center of a strange and mysterious force, into the center of danger.

If my Master hadn't sensed unusual energy, chased after , and saved , I would have died.

“Facing that force, I felt magic for the first ti. The power I couldn't feel even when cursing Jero.”

Because it wasn't a curse he cast in the first place. He was probably a scarecrow put up to take the bla for performing magic. Or, maybe he was a subject of magic experint along with Jero.

“Thus, did you use magic?”

“I almost succeeded. I failed at the last step. But I will try again.”

The madman cast a crazy glance at Jero.

“…That man is crazy.”

Jero gritted his teeth.

“That man exerted trendous force in Mount Petrafis, captured

alive, and tried to perform so ritual on . It was extrely terrible, but for a mont, I almost turned back into a human.”

“Is that true?”

When I asked back sharply, he nodded.

“I think so. For an instant, my hands and feet were human, and my body too... But because of that man's interference, I couldn't remain human and turned back into a wolf!”

At Jero's words, the Count's mouth dropped open. Because his close friend was spouting words that until now could be considered peasants' superstitions or a madman's ravings.

“Prince, Jero seems... to have suffered so much that―”

It was just when the Count opened his mouth.

Beeeep, beeeep, beeeeeep!

The horn sounded twice shortly, and lastly long. From the highest watchtower of the castle.

A fanfare sounds upon the lord's return, but usually, the horn warning of a group rushing from afar raising dust sounds more often.

Once is a single visitor, twice is multiple visitors, three tis is a group of visitors.

“It must be the Knights of Saint Romola!”

The young Count's face turned pale.

The Knights of Saint Romola, which only orphans abandoned at the temple since babyhood could enter. Among them, knights who went through strict selection and harsh training, standing at the vanguard of mage hunting with pure white cloaks fluttering.

-God's dogs.

How my Master shuddered with detest.

The loyal dogs of Traneha God who clashed not only with nobles but sotis even with royals to hunt mages.

But they were also ones who possessed mana. So were Sword Masters, but there were also mages. And all of them were knights. To be a mage and a knight too.

I couldn't even imagine how harsh training they must have received. They were powerful enough to stand at the forefront of the Traneha religion, sotis contending with monarchs.

-They are mages themselves, yet they hunt fellow mages. Saying they must be saved like them!

The biggest reason my Master hated the temple as much as the Imperial Family.

Even now, Yolande imdiately picked up her staff, intending to strengthen the barrier further beyond basics like anti-scrying magic she had already cast. But I shook my head, and she put down her staff while biting her lip.

Yolande was a powerful mage, but precisely for that reason, she shouldn't show all her power in front of the Knights of Saint Romola. Instead, she brought Vincent and Nanette, whom she had sent out while interrogating Graf. Because my side was the safest.

“Since Montova is a royal direct control territory, the Montova temple's teleportation magic circle allows only a small number of people. But there is a Traneha religion's estate nearby, so large-scale movent is possible. I thought only two or three would co at most, but it seems more knights are coming than expected.”

“But I haven't done anything wrong! Prince, am I going to be burned at the stake now? If caught by those fanatics, I'd rather wish for death!”

When Jero panicked, the Count shouted him down to silence his friend and hurriedly said to .

“Jero, quiet! Prince, we must hide all of them! Imdiately―”

But I raised my hand to stop him and continued.

“I have not yet passed judgnt. The interrogation continues.”

The Count looked at

with disbelief.

“Prince! It's not just one or two coming. This must be―”

“I know.”

What the Empress aid for beca clear. If she ended up giving a larger estate than expected, Rhiannon wouldn't be satisfied unless she expanded the board as much as possible. If the temple's hunting dogs just bite my throat, it would be more than worth giving up this much estate being pushed in negotiations with .

What else did she promise the temple. The Empress who is stingy with rewards for

but generous when investing in conspiracies.

I will find out gradually.

“If you are loyal to , follow my decision.”

At my words, the young Count's face was filled with shock not knowing what to do, but without waiting for his answer, I asked Harald.