CHAPTER 40: WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME?

"You can’t be serious..." Luke said. It was certainly funny that Alfred the Second had ended up in such a situation. It was unbelievable that the once powerful emperor was being beaten up by his five wives.

"I’m serious... Anyway, before that, when they were interrogating me, they wanted me to explain exactly what you were doing. So I explained it in great detail. I told them about your gift, how it could perform miracles, how it could provide homes for the homeless, and how it could buy live animals." Elvis said.

Luke had turned his head and was briefly annoyed with himself for not telling Elvis not to mention such things. It wasn’t his fault; it was his fault.

Still, it wasn’t a bad thing, and what Elvis said immediately afterwards confirmed it.

"When I told you what your gift was capable of, how many people it had saved, and how you could even bind other races to yourself in a very short time and create walls stronger than those of the imperial capital in a matter of seconds, His Majesty Emperor Alfred’s expression changed dramatically. It was as if he had seen a ghost."

Luke’s expression also changed with these words, and he was genuinely delighted, albeit inwardly.

The fact that Alfred had begun to see his mistakes made Luke incredibly happy, naturally. Though it couldn’t be said that he cared much about it.

He had greater responsibilities at the moment.

This city, for instance.

"To be honest, I had heard that your gift had caused trouble, my lord... That’s why I was so surprised when I saw this place. Still, I didn’t know that the reason you were exiled was because of your gift... I just thought your father was angry with you. With your permission, sir, I shall pass my line and say, I thought you had committed a crime, and that was why I was afraid of you at first," Elvis said suddenly.

He then added, "Still, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that my heart ached with sorrow when I listened to Her Majesty Empress Emma."

Luke looked curiously at Kevin first, then turned to Elvis and asked, "Why?"

"Sir, despite my appearance, I am exactly 48 years old. I have an 18-year-old daughter. She is a lucky girl... After all, she managed to win a gift that involves teleportation and space magic," Elvis said.

Luke, Kevin, and Cilla, who were hiding in the corner of the room, were quite surprised by what they heard.

Both teleportation and space magic were very powerful gifts given separately, and giving them together was as difficult as giving other gifts together, if not rarer.

"I couldn’t do something like that to my daughter," Elvis said, then paused and continued, "I know things work differently in the empire, I’m sure of that... But for a father to do this to a child, especially his child, is very..." He fell silent.

Just a few seconds later, he said, "Despite the difference in rank and wealth between us, Your Majesty, you are the same age as my daughter... It’s impossible for a normal father not to be upset upon hearing such things," and this time he truly fell silent.

Luke took a deep breath after these words and then smiled, saying, "As you said, Elvis, a normal father."

His smile was not filled with pain, nor was there sadness in his eyes. Luke had truly stopped caring about his father. He had more important things on his mind, like this city.

He needed to think about how this city, which could now be considered a ghost town, could be filled with twenty thousand or even thirty thousand people, the regional permits that would need to be issued, the buildings that would be sold or rented, the soldiers that would be recruited and trained, the guards that would be stationed, and many other matters.

His father was truly the last thing on his mind.

"Kevin, take a thousand gold coins from the safe and give them to Elvis. If what they say is true and he used nearly every gold, silver, and bronze coin he earned in my name, I think we can trust him," Luke said suddenly.

Elvis’s eyes widened, Kevin struggled not to laugh, and Cilla, who was hiding, was filled with joy at seeing her master’s kind and joyful smile once again.

Elvis and Luke continued talking for a while, and after that, Elvis left the room with Kevin.

While Luke was continuing with his work, he suddenly heard a sound. It was as if someone was tapping on the walls of the room. The sound was coming from his right.

When Luke looked carefully at the wall to his right, he finally saw someone there. His eyes widened strangely, and Luke spoke these words:

"Did you come here on my father’s orders, Cilla? Then I must tell you that I will hate you." Luke said suddenly.

As soon as Cilla heard this, the spell she had used to make herself almost invisible disappeared, and the young woman immediately knelt in front of Luke’s desk and spoke in her elegant voice:

"I dare not, Your Majesty. I have been in your service since childhood. I will not disobey your orders just because the emperor commanded it, and if you were to expel me from your service, I would rather die by cutting my own throat. Please do not hate me."

Upon hearing these words, Luke smiled and then said, "You’re still the same. Even if I were to joke about hating you, you’d be heartbroken... As if that would ever happen. I just... wanted to be sure." He then stood up and walked around his desk.

After standing in front of Cilla, he lowered the hood of her hooded garment and stroked her swan-like white hair, asking, ’Why didn’t you tell me? You were always here, weren’t you?’

When he asked this question, Cilla bowed her head and replied, "Forgive me, sir... To be honest, I didn’t dare... I kept thinking I had disappointed you."

The young woman’s delicate voice trembled slightly.

"Come on, Cilla... You didn’t do anything, so how could you have disappointed me?" he asked. He didn’t expect the answer he was about to receive.