The Emperor Has Returned

Chapter 124 – Nienna Nelben (2)

It didn’t take long for Nienna and Juan to come out of the audience chamber. Hela and Sina were waiting for them outside the room, while Nienna was looking around as Hela approached her.

“Where’s Suvole?” Nienna asked.

“Horhell took him. He seemed like he had a lot to talk about,” Hela answered.

“You should have sent Walter with Horhell. He’s good at things like that.”

Walter was one of the knights of the Order of Fenrir who had come to Beldeve with Nienna. Hela shook her head at Nienna’s words.

“I figured that Suvole will tell us everything even if we don’t torture him. I’ll go and find Sir Walter if Suvole hides anything from us.”

“Fair enough. All right, then let me use your training ground for a while.”

“The training ground? It's a little messy right now due to post-war management. If you need an open space, the garden is empty and ready for you to use. But why do you need to use the training ground…?” Hela asked.

Juan snorted.

“Because she still can’t believe me after all the things I’ve said. Apparently, she needs to see how good I am.”

“You’re gonna have to show me how good you are if you want to prove that you’re my dad. Right, why don’t we make a bet?” Nienna said.

“A bet? Like what?” Juan asked.

“You need to get me pregnant if I win.”

Sina dropped the sword she had been holding upon hearing Nienna’s words. On the other hand, Juan glared at Nienna, not even bothering to spare Sina with a glance.

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“You’re not very much like my dad. He never thought about what would happen if he lost even before fighting,” Nienna shrugged.

“...I’m gonna go crazy if I talk to you for much longer. What am I getting if I win?”

“I’ll give you the honor to get me pregnant.”

Juan seriously contemplated whether or not he should give up on persuading Nienna and consider heading somewhere else—that didn’t seem like too bad of an idea. Juan always knew that Nienna was a little ‘unique’ compared to the others, but he had always believed that she must have hidden her true self in front of Juan in the past.

‘Or maybe she has also been encroached upon by the Crack and has lost her mind due to fighting the Crack for too long.’

Juan felt his second guess to be more convincing as someone who had seen many people that had lost their mind by being in contact with the Crack.

“Why are you so obsessed with getting pregnant? As far as I know, the Imperial law doesn’t allow incest. I thought you were only interested in the Crack—I had no idea that you were the type to chase after men like this,” Juan said.

“Let me correct you. What I want is to get pregnant, not men. I need a successor. Being seventy years old already, it’s already too late to think of a successor. The north needs a successor, and I don’t even care if the other person is a woman as long as she can get me pregnant.”

Juan remained silent.

“I’ve waited a long time for a decent man, but there were none. That’s probably due to my standards being too high because of dad. Daughters tend to look up to their dads, you know.”

“Incest is a felony,” Juan frowned

“And the seniors who will be the judge for that would be more than happy to see me get pregnant. They don’t seem to be against incest anyway. There’s a lot of incest between mythical beings, you know? The father marries his daughter, and the nephew marries his aunt. Most importantly… I’m not biologically related to dad. I’m an adopted child. Ta-da. Everything works out perfectly, right?”

“No, nothing works out perfectly. I don’t know about getting you pregnant, but there is one thing I have understood now.”

“What’s that?”

“The fact that I really failed at educating my children properly. I guess Harmon was right—I can’t really say anything back to him.”

***

The garden was filled with dead grass and desolate trees that seemed to have been dead for a long time. Nienna took the lead and stood in the middle of the garden. As Juan followed, Sina hurriedly whispered from behind his back.

“Juan, General Nienna is said to be the second most powerful person in the empire after the Regent Barth Baltic. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that she’s the strongest among humans. You might be at quite a disadvantage if you’re trying to prove your identity by fighting. You don’t have?to fight—why don’t you take your time and…”

“Are you saying that she won’t acknowledge me as the emperor, just like you refuse to acknowledge me?” Juan asked.

Sina frowned, but nodded her head as if she had no choice.

“Yes, just like how I don’t acknowledge you. I will stand as a witness for you.”

“Thanks, Sina. But that’s unnecessary.”

Juan left Sina behind and took the lead toward the middle of the garden. Sina tried to stop him with a nervous look on her face, but failed.

Nienna stood in front of Juan, facing him with her arms hanging loosely. Nienna scanned Juan from head to toe, then tilted her head and asked a question.

“Where’s your weapon?”

“I used to have one, but it broke recently. It’s fine, I don’t need one anyway,” Juan shrugged.

“You don’t seem to use just any weapon. Well, I guess it wouldn’t matter if you really are my dad. He’s someone who is good at fighting both with or without weapons. But he did admit that it was more advantageous to carry weapons when fighting than using bare hands.”

“Well I just fought according to the situation. I never really decided on what was more advantageous or not.”

Nienna giggled as if she was satisfied with Juan’s answer.

“It seems more and more convincing that you are my dad. All right… All I’m looking forward to is for you to fight with all your might.”

Nienna pulled out the sword hanging by her waist and handed it over to Juan. The blade shone with a blue light and made the surrounding air freeze despite the winter air being cold already. Juan accepted Nienna’s sword without refusing and swung it into the air as if he was trying to get used to it. Upon seeing Juan play around with Nienna’s sword, the knights from the Order of Fenrir made an unpleasant expression.

“This is a pretty good sword,” Juan said.

“Pretty good, you say? The craftsman who made that sword would be very upset if he heard you say that. He didn’t let anything hotter than ice get near it when he was forging that sword. He said that he would dedicate it to me rather than dedicating it to the emperor.”

“What weapon are you going to use if you give this sword to me?”

“I have two weapons.”

The moment Nienna clenched her hand in the air, the surrounding space froze and created a long spear. The spear looked like it was made from snowflakes and had a rough grain and arbitrary blade. But the texture looked quite solid and indicated that it was made out of ice. The blade looked sharp enough to even slice through flames.

“It’s a spirit’s weapon. I call it Overon. I’ll lay out some constraints for this duel. I’m not going to use any magic or essence. I won’t strengthen my body with mana, and I won’t summon Fenrir either. I won’t wear a cloak of winter, won’t restore my body during the duel, and won’t make it hard for you to fight by changing the terrain. And lastly, I’ll fight you under the assumption that you are the real emperor under all these preconditions.”

“There’s no need for you to go easy on me, you know.”

“Sure. Tell me that again after you are able to withstand my attack at least once.”

Nienna held the spear high up in the air with both her hands and aimed it toward Juan.

At the same time, Juan could see some interest and pleasure in her round eyes that were smiling at him.

In the next moment, Nienna’s eyes went cold, and Juan felt a strong murderous intent.

Suddenly, Juan’s chest was pierced. Due to the spear blade being too powerful, Juan was thrown into the air instead of being penetrated on the spot. Juan felt a sharp pain.

Juan could feel his consciousness getting hazy and distant, so he examined his condition—the injury was quite severe, with a hole the size of a fist in Juan’s chest. Juan could even see his own heart. This type of injury was almost guaranteed to an average human—and it was just a single attack. Juan frowned, since he wasn’t even given the time to wrap himself with Umbra.

Juan managed to land on his feet but he could barely stand.

“You must have a spare life or something, huh?” Nienna said mockingly.

Everyone’s gazes turned toward Nienna, and the knights from the Order of Fenrir flinched upon seeing her current condition.

Nienna was also bleeding through her chest and her blood was soaking her clothing. Nienna’s pupils were shaking.

“What the heck… It’s common sense to block the attack if you can, not to stab the opponent back at the risk of losing your own life. It’s not like we are arch-enemies—why risk your life over a simple test?” Nienna asked.

“I thought you said that you’d fight me as if I’m the real emperor?”

Nienna grinned at Juan’s answer.

“Yes, that's exactly what my dad would do.”

Juan had been checking and verifying his own physical abilities until now. This meant he knew that he wouldn’t die from such an injury to his chest. In fact, Juan himself had no idea how much his body would have to be injured for him to die.

“I guess there’s only one way to find out.”

***

The tip of the spear grazed Juan’s throat, and the blood drops froze due to the cold air. Juan clicked his tongue, since he couldn’t even see the tip of the spear flying toward him. The only reason he wasn’t fatally wounded was that Nienna was using the techniques of the Baltic Sword.

Juan clearly remembered how to fight using a spear and was easily able to predict the trajectory. But that information could only benefit him when his physical ability allowed him to.

Nienna was getting faster and faster every time Juan dodged her attacks, almost as if she was testing Juan’s limits. Juan was also fighting back against Nienna by using the Baltic Sword, but he was certainly in a worse condition compared to Nienna.

“What… that’s just…”

Sina and the people around her had their jaws on the floor as they watched Nienna and Juan’s duel. The sight seemed more like two streams of gas getting tangled with each other rather than a duel between humans. The trajectory of the weapons being swung in the air alone seemed to make an invisible bubble around Nienna and Juan.

“I remember the stories I heard from Horhell. He said that at a certain stage of the Baltic Sword, the movements become unpredictable like the fog and invisible like the wind… I never would have thought that I’d see not one, but two people who had reached such a level. It’s extremely hard to find people on their level in the empire.”

It had been a long time since Sina had given up on her goal of chasing after Juan. In fact, that had been an arrogant thought from the very beginning. Sina had understood that she would never be able to reach Juan’s level.

Even so, Sina struggled to look closely at Juan and Nienna’s movement.

Hela inadvertently noticed Sina, whose shoulders were trembling. Hela thought that it might be because Sina was immersed in Juan and Nienna’s battle, but most of the people here, including Hela were only able to see the afterimages of the two. Hela wondered what Sina was able to see for her to be paying so much attention to it.

“What the hell are you doing? I told you to fight with all your might, didn’t I? Take out that black armor of yours and use the power of the sword in your hand! You can even use magic! I wouldn’t save a trump card until the end if I were you!”

Nienna shouted at Juan as if she was still relaxed. The tip of Juan’s sword slightly shook upon hearing Nienna’s words, and then Juan wrapped himself in Umbra, almost as if he couldn’t help it. Umbra quickly spread and covered Juan, starting from his chest—it was his first time using Umbra in its full plate armor form after the incident at Durgal.

Nienna laughed as if she had been waiting for Juan to cover himself in Umbra and swung her spear even more fiercely. Nienna was surprised by how solid and firm Umbra was. A magic armor that could be summoned was often made of soft metal. But Umbra was not only tout but also hard and flexible.

Nienna noticed that Juan’s movements became much faster and stronger after he donned Umbra. Nienna quickly dodged Juan’s sword that was being swung toward her head, but then his sword immediately turned and aimed for her side as soon as she dodged. Juan’s sword gradually cut Nienna.

“Hah,” Nienna smirked.

In general, stronger physical ability wasn’t directly correlated to the level of one’s swordsmanship. But Juan seemed to be an exception to that rule—Nienna wondered how much Juan’s swordsmanship skills would improve if Juan’s physical ability became stronger.

‘If he got stronger… then he might even reach stage five.’

Nienna had reached stage five of the Baltic Sword a long time ago, but at some point in time, she realized that she wasn’t making any more progress. So, Nienna felt joy at the fact that she had found a rival after decades. She focused and got more and more immersed in the battle and concentrated on the blade flying toward her.

At that moment, Nienna felt a sharp murderous intent toward a direction that she had not predicted. In anticipation of being fatally wounded by the unexpected attack, Nienna willingly threw herself and swung her spear toward that direction—the direction where Sina Solvane was standing.

Nienna couldn’t understand the situation for a moment. The murderous intent wasn’t coming from Juan, but from Sina. Nienna realized that she had made a mistake as soon as she appeared in front of Sina, whose eyes were still staring at the duel.

But it was already too late.

The situation couldn’t be reversed and the tip of Nienna’s spear that was pointed toward Sina was sharp.

None of the people here, including Sina herself, were aware of Nienna’s attack—except for one person.

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