CHAPTER 83: HOLY EMPIRE MIGHT BE IN DANGER

"You can rest for two days. Wander around the city, spend as much money as you like. Use the cheques you’ve been given so that the amount you spend can be deducted from the Hiera bank. Also, if possible, send a few dark elves to the Duchy of Wirgo, just in case, and place Kassadin Wirgo and Hannah Wirgo under protection. These dark elves will consist of three dark elves, changing every three months. These dark elves will receive the maximum payment they can get, you can be sure of that," Luke added to his own words.

With Luke’s words, Elsa’s eyebrows twitched slightly. Even Elsa, who chose not to show her feelings much, was clearly pleased.

After all, just like the other dark elves, Elsa had spent her entire life in the forest, waiting for a Hiera to reach her.

None of them really knew what fun was.

For them, fun meant hunting, and finding much to hunt in the forests at the foot of the Tholien Mountains was not easy.

As for the dark elf children, it could hardly be said that they had any entertainment beyond wooden toys carved from trees and playing tag with each other.

"By the way, Elsa," Luke said suddenly, just as Elsa was about to leave the bathroom. She stopped and replied, "Yes, Your Majesty."

"I know why Dark Elves don’t mate much, but... You’re not in that kind of environment or situation anymore. That strange desire you have... It’s time to break the rule," Luke said.

When Elsa heard these words, she felt her ears burn.

Luke’s words were actually quite realistic. They might have been a little perverse, but it had to be said that they were realistic.

After all, the Dark Elves had long since implemented population control for the sake of food consumption, regional maintenance, and to prevent their blood from repeatedly changing and weakening.

They were still in a growing city. They were in the city of Hiera.

There was no need to keep their population under such strict control.

"As you command... Your Majesty, the great Hiera," said Elsa, and then left the bathroom.

After all this, Zoey began to rub Luke’s chest with her left hand.

"Good fighters," Zoey said, in a slightly seductive tone.

"Close to perfect... Still, they shouldn’t be perfect," Luke replied and grabbed Zoey around the waist.

"Why?" Zoey asked, not resisting Luke’s grip and letting herself be held.

"Perfection is boring, unrealistic, and certainly not benevolent. A person’s flaws and weaknesses show that they are alive and unafraid to grow. Neither you nor I are perfect... Who knows, maybe even the gods and goddesses aren’t perfect," Luke said and kissed Zoey passionately on the lips.

There was little need to recount what happened next.

The pair spent a fiery time in the steam rising from the hot bath water. They had even managed to make the Chaos-Born, who were constantly watching them, look away.

After nearly four hours, the pair left the bath.

Luke walked around topless. It would be accurate to say his leg still hurt, but the pain from the three bites on his shoulder had subsided.

Perhaps Zoey’s constantly touching the wounds had healed them. Perhaps it was psychological, but in the end, that was what had happened.

At Zoey’s request, Luke’s wounds had been covered with ointment to sterilise them and then bandaged.

Then, this time at Zoey’s firm command, as his wife, Luke had been shut away in the bedroom to sleep.

Luke slept soundly for several days. By the time the first week of the following month ended, nearly seven months had passed since Luke had arrived in this region.

There were exactly six days left.

By the time the fourteenth of May appeared on the calendar, Luke had finally managed to return to work.

Cilla was now waiting right next to Luke, no longer hiding. To be perfectly honest, Luke was not particularly pleased about this.

"Cilla, I’m really fine, please either stay in my shadow or go sit on the sofa," Luke said, unable to take it anymore.

"I’m sorry, Your Majesty, I am obliged to refuse your request. It is both my own wish and the wish of Her Majesty Zoey," Cilla replied.

"You’re driving me mad!" Luke had muttered, but when he realised Cilla hadn’t even twitched a muscle, he had to get back to work.

After staying in his room and sleeping soundly for a while, some time had passed, and Elsa and a few people under her command had found everything they could about the eastern continent, Karion.

Apparently, the continent’s people had rebelled simultaneously in every kingdom. Even Elsa couldn’t figure out how this had happened, how so many people could have done the same thing with such perfection.

Still, Elsa wasn’t afraid to express her concerns to Luke that this was ’brainwashing’ or perhaps something worse, ’bewitchment’.

All regions of Karion had suddenly been divided into three main sections.

With the collapse of the kingdoms and the successive uprisings ending abruptly, two empires emerged from these three divisions, and the empire that had tried to hold everything together was left standing:

[Ekisar]

[Karikor]

[Holy Empire]

Ekisar was the empire that controlled the northernmost part of the continent.

Karikor had taken the eastern part of the continent.

The Holy Empire had become the largest landowner on the continent, managing to take complete control of both the southern and western parts.

Although according to Elsa, the Holy Empire was in a very peaceful state, they were still, as Luke could guess, in a deadly aggressive state when the reason showed itself.

To protect what was theirs.

While Ekisar and Karikor were two sides that truly embraced the possibility of ’bewitchment’ and directly sought war, the Holy Empire had somehow managed to be both peaceful and become the largest part of the continent.

Although it was quite easy to understand that the sacred powers Nyx provided them had protected them.

But this was hardly surprising... After all, as everyone in the world knew, the main temple of the Church of the Night, Nyx’s temple and the largest religion in the world, was located within the Holy Empire, obviously.

The Holy Empire appeared to have suffered great damage, and this deeply saddened and worried Luke.

After all, his beloved friend Aphelios and Saint Leonardo Marcelo, whom he valued directly, were on the eastern continent.

Where once the Holy Empire had existed as the owner of many kingdoms and continents, now there were two new empires, and the Holy Empire, which had shrunk from its imperial status but still managed to remain an empire, was there, having suffered enormous damage.

"Your Majesty... I understand your concern; you even sent a letter. Please calm down, Elsa personally teleported to the Holy Empire and learned that the war is over. You will receive a response soon," Cilla said suddenly.

The young woman’s heart broke every time she saw Luke like this... She was a very loyal person.

Luke immediately slammed his hands on the desk and then stood up, shouting quite loudly, "I CAN’T WORK LIKE THIS!!!"

He had been working on a certain draft plan for some time, and it seemed that the time had come to carry out this plan.

There was really no way for Luke to focus on his own business.

He had quickly left his room and started walking with Cilla, who had slipped into his shadow.

Luke had started walking towards the third gate in the southwest. The reason he had built this gate here was that he wanted to construct a very important building here. That was why he had worked so long on the draft plan.

In fact, he might have worked just as hard on the plans for the entire city.

This was precisely why Luke had to be more careful, because the reason he wanted to build here, and why he had ordered Kevin and Callum to quickly cut down the trees and clear the area, was to build a Magic Tower.

Magic Towers were strange structures that were a little hard to find. The reason for this was that the people in the Magic Towers, that is, those considered to be the highest-level wizards and called personal apocalypses, lived in these towers.

One of these apocalypses was currently in Great City, Selene, and was Luke’s right-hand man.

Kevin Typhoon. One of the top 100 wizards in the world.

This alone meant that Luke could draw countless high-level wizards to his lands simply by using Kevin’s name.

A Magic Tower could not be created so easily. It required an enormous amount of magical energy and incredible wealth. The countless magical tools and equipment needed to establish a Magic Tower made it practically impossible.

Apart from the Hieras, there were not many people that wealthy. Well, that was clear, wasn’t it?

Many of the Magic Towers currently in the world had been built long ago at the request of the Hieras.

Perhaps one, perhaps two were not.

Luke, however, wanted to bring another one under his control.