Chapter 278
William was stunned to hear Abel’s declaration that he would become the Emperor of the Empire.
“Abel. What is the meaning of…”
Even though the carriage was heavily secured, William grew tense and scanned his surroundings.
Abel smirked at William’s reaction and turned his gaze back to the window.
“Look at this. You’re so surprised you're about to faint every time I say a word. How can I tell you anything?”
At Abel’s words, William said with a tense expression,
“Don’t tell me you’ve said this to the Clan Head?”
At the mention of the Clan Head, Ramon Siemens, Abel’s expression soured.
He bit down hard on his molars and said, “Ramon Siemens thinks of nothing but making me his puppet.”
“What are you talking about? The Clan Head is making every possible effort to make you the heir of the Draker clan…”
“It’s because he couldn't become the Draker Clan Head himself that he’s trying to put me on the throne in his stead. Am I wrong?”
William fell silent at Abel's words.
The relationship between Ramon Siemens and Arthur Draker was a complex tangle, and even they didn't know the full story.
But one thing was certain.
Ramon Siemens fell short of Arthur Draker in every respect.
Abel’s red eyes flashed as he spoke.
“William, I have no intention of becoming Ramon Siemens's puppet. The Draker Clan Head? Something like that is meaningless to me now. I will hold the entire continent in the palm of my hand and move it as I please.”
William clenched his fists as he looked into Abel’s crazed eyes.
‘Don’t tell me this is a side effect of the baptism.’
The baptism granted immense power in a short period, but it came with side effects.
However, those side effects were varied, and since there had never been anyone who had received a baptism as powerful as Abel’s, there was no way of knowing how they would manifest.
‘If it's not a physical side effect but a corruption of the mind, then this is becoming a very serious problem.’
In that moment, Abel leaned toward William and grabbed his chin.
“Urk.”
He whispered into William’s ear.
“I am not insane, William.”
Abel was reading his thoughts clearly.
He said to William,
“Did you think I wouldn't know that this Siemens blood flowing in your veins and mine carries the right of a Prince-elector to the throne of the Rom Empire?”
At Abel’s words, William’s eyes widened in shock.
‘How does he know that…’
Abel gripped William’s jaw tightly and said,
“Cain Siemens Constantine. My twin brother, spirited away by Ramon Siemens. He originally intended for that bastard to undergo the baptism I was to receive, instead of me. If only he hadn't died at Zeke’s hands at the Southern Continent experimental site.”
Before he knew it, William’s hands were trembling.
Following Ramon’s orders, William had manipulated information and erased traces to prevent not only Abel but also the Empire's intelligence agency from finding any sign of Cain.
Cain had been one of Siemens's most important secrets.
‘Abel… he knew everything.’
Abel’s expression became crazed again as he shouted,
“That woman always told me. Abel, everyone around you is an enemy! Keep your wits about you!”
Abel said, mimicking his mother’s voice.
William felt a pain as if his jawbone would shatter as Abel’s strong hand tightened its grip. Finally, with a trembling hand, he grabbed Abel’s wrist.
Abel glared at William with his red eyes and said,
“William, you too will have to decide who to choose between Ramon and me.”
Abel then finally let go of William’s jaw.
William clutched his jaw, which felt like it would break, and looked at Abel with fearful eyes.
A transcendent being who held everything in his hands, who held the power of life and death.
William felt not only fear but also awe towards Abel.
Silence fell, and the carriage carrying the two men soon arrived at the Imperial garrison base located at the border of the Birdfolk Ghetto.
There, a flag emblazoned with the sacred wolf, the symbol of the Rom Empire, was fluttering.
Watching that flag from inside the carriage, Abel's face was once again tinged with a subtle madness.
***
CHIIIIIIK—
Zeke got off the train and set foot in Aten Station.
‘So this is Aten.’
He looked around the main station of Aten.
Zeke had never been to Aten, even in his past life, so the region itself felt unfamiliar.
Perhaps because Aten was the home base of the Nirvana clan, its structure was quite different from that of Atlas, the territory of the Draker clan.
Of course, in both Aten and Atlas, a mayor was in charge of the city's administration.
However, while the Drakers actively intervened in the administration of Atlas, the Nirvanas were different in that they paid little attention to the administration of Aten.
The Nirvana clan, as one of the three great transcendent clans, possessed thousands of mages of outstanding skill, but strictly speaking, it was closer to a federation of mages.
The Drakers also grant the name of Draker to knights of outstanding skill, even if they are not direct blood relatives, and recognize them as members of the clan.
But even so, the distinction between the direct and collateral lines was strictly divided, and authority was clearly demarcated accordingly.
However, in the case of the Nirvana clan, although it was called a clan, the concept of a ‘direct line’ did not really exist.
As long as one possessed skills of the 4th Circle or higher and passed the test given by the Nirvana clan, they were granted the right to enter the Nirvana clan's main castle, ‘Storm Castle’, located in the Tempest Sea region.
The Nirvana mages could only leave the main castle and engage in external activities in the name of Nirvana after achieving results in their magical research there and meeting certain qualifications.
The problem was that the qualification test for Nirvana, as well as the test to pass through Storm Castle, boasted a hellish level of difficulty.
As a result, unless one specifically made a request to the Nirvana clan, it was surprisingly difficult to meet mages who used the Nirvana name.
Thanks to this, they were inevitably treated with great reverence, and so, most of the Nirvana mages were willful eccentrics who only conducted the research they desired.
Because Nirvana was a clan with a peculiar structure in many ways, they were, in some respects, more difficult to deal with than the insular Ishtar clan.
Zeke looked around Aten Station to his heart's content, then caught a carriage in front of the station and headed for Nirvana's central branch.
Although the main castle was located in the Stormy Sea region of the north, Nirvana's research institutes and branches existed all over the continent.
The one located in Aten was the Nirvana Central Branch, and the clan head usually resided there.
When Zeke arrived at the central branch by carriage, he was shocked to see the building.
‘Why is the building so small?’
The Drakers' Four Seasons Castle boasted an enormous scale, equivalent to about five ordinary castles put together.
But Nirvana's central branch felt like a few large mansions scattered here and there.
Doubting whether he had really come to the right place, Zeke approached a knight in full plate armor standing at the main gate and identified himself.
Just then, the knight's eyes flashed, and after a quick glance at Zeke's identification, it nodded.
『Zeke Draker. Identity confirmed. You may enter.』
Surprisingly, the one guarding the main gate was not a person, but a golem.
Although it wasn't on the level of Heukdungi, the guardian Hades had created, Zeke tilted his head as he looked at the quite intricately moving automated golem.
‘Why would they use such an expensive golem for guard duty? It would be cheaper to station a hundred soldiers here for ten years than to make one of these.’
For Zeke, who valued efficiency, it didn't make much sense.
Putting his curiosity aside, Zeke stepped inside, only to let out a hollow laugh at the unexpected situation. He had been worried he might get lost because there was no one to guide him, but there was no need for that.
There was only one path, and only one building he could enter.
Zeke went inside the shabby building, which looked so old it was impossible to tell when it had been built.
However, the moment he stepped inside the building, he was once again taken aback.
‘What?’
Unlike what he had seen from the outside, the interior of the building was enormous.
The building's lobby was chaotic with mages rushing past.
A mage with an aquiline nose and a bald head was flying through the air holding a test potion, and a person as tall as a beanpole muttered something, and his body flashed with light as he instantly teleported to the second floor.
A plump mage was sitting on the lobby stairs, holding a cat in her arms and sipping tea.
Zeke felt his head spin with confusion at the sight of dozens of mages, each moving about on their own.
‘What kind of place is this?’
Shaking his head once to clear it, Zeke looked around and found a calling device attached to the wall.
Zeke picked up the receiver-shaped device and pressed a button.
A beep sounded, and then a stiff voice, like the one that had come from the golem, came from over the receiver.
『State your identity and the person you wish to call.』
“Zeke Draker. I am here to deliver a letter from Cali Draker and would like to see the Clan Head, Master Jorge Nirvana.”
The receiver beeped again, and then the line went dead with a click.
Zeke stared blankly at the silent receiver.
‘Did the call go through?’
As he was contemplating whether to press the call button again, someone came up behind him.
“What are you still doing holding that thing?”
An old man with a cantankerous impression, who looked every bit a mage, snapped at Zeke.
Zeke bowed his head toward the mage.
“Are you Master Jorge? I am Zeke…”
“Do I look like a blockheaded geezer like Jorge?!”
The mage yelled at Zeke.
He looked Zeke up and down with a displeased expression and said, “I am Antonio. Proxy for that blockhead Jorge.”
‘Antonio Nirvana? Isn’t he one of the few 8th Circle Masters on the continent?’
Antonio gestured to Zeke and said, “I don’t know what the Drakers were thinking coming here, but since you’re here, follow me.”
He casually placed his hand on the wall, and a door suddenly appeared on the blank surface.
Antonio naturally opened the door and went inside.
Zeke paused, looking at the door in the wall. As a knight by birth, magic itself was unfamiliar to him.
As Zeke hesitated in front of it, the door was flung open and Antonio shouted, “What are you doing! Are you coming in or not!”
At his temper, Zeke opened the door Antonio had created and went inside.
The inside of the door was, surprisingly, what appeared to be Antonio's laboratory.
Countless pieces of experimental equipment and books were piled on the floor, and the walls were covered with chalkboards, on which were written a host of incomprehensible formulas.
‘A mage’s laboratory is always chaotic, no matter when I visit.’
Antonio roughly cleared his desk and plopped down in his seat.
“Just clear a space and sit down. Ah, you’re a Pure-blood Awakened, aren't you. Absolutely do not take off your gloves. This is a whole pile of equipment you can't get even if you have the money.”
Antonio snapped his fingers, and two cups of coffee abruptly appeared on the empty desk.
Antonio slurped down the coffee, which was as black and thick as water from hell.
“I only drink it black, so there’s no milk or sugar. Just drink it.”
Zeke took a sip of the coffee, felt a bitterness that was like his tongue was disappearing, and quietly set the cup down.
After finishing his coffee, Antonio took a tobacco pipe from his pouch, put it in his mouth, and snapped his fingers to light it.
He exhaled a puff of smoke and finally got down to business.
“So, why has Zeke Draker brought a letter from Cali Draker?”
“For continuous cooperation and exchange with Nirvana…”
“Not interested. Got it? Go back.”
Even though he had been leisurely drinking coffee, Antonio cut Zeke off before he could even finish his sentence.
Zeke nodded as if he had expected as much.
‘Nirvana mages absolutely hate troublesome things.’
Zeke looked at Antonio and said,
“In that case, our official business is concluded. Next is a personal proposal.”
Antonio exhaled smoke and said,
“Damn it, I have nothing more to say, so go back. I’m busy as hell, what kind of trivial nonsense…”
THUD!
The moment Antonio saw what Zeke had taken out of his pouch, he sat up straight.
“What is this? D-Don't tell me, is this a Fairy Stone?”