Chapter 94: To the Imperial Capital (7)
The moon orbiting Earth was about a quarter of Earth"s size. In fact, the moon, which was too large of a satellite for Earth"s size, had clearly revealed its existence on Earth by reflecting the light of the sun even though it did not shine on its own.
Therefore, the moon became the object of hope for many people and the center of various cultures. Poets and writers sang about the moon, and lovers vowed to love each other while looking at the moon.
However, there was no moon on Earth-13 where Emperor Leonhardt was born.
It wasn"t as if the moon existed and then disappeared. It was non-existent since the very beginning. Even though all 100 Earths looked alike, there was a clear difference between all of them. However, in the case of Earth-13, the absence of the moon was the factor that differed it from the other Earths.
On such an Earth-13, the Golden Rose of the Golden Lion G.o.d was born.
Golden Rose, the Imperial Capital of the Leonhardt Imperial family, was similar in size to the moon. However, it was located much closer to Earth than the moon. It was also said to be more than ten times larger and clearer as compared to the moon when viewed from Earth.
In other words, if someone were to look up at the sky in the night, they could clearly see a clear and radiant golden rose.
So... Those on Earth who grew up under the giant golden rose had a sense of awe and longing for it. Stepping foot into the Imperial Capital of Leonhardt was a lifelong dream of almost all the citizens of the Leonhardt Empire who was born on Earth-13.
However...
"It"s uncomfortable... It"s uncomfortable ugh…"
A plethora of food was spread out glamorously. Among them, there were some foods I knew, such as sanjeok [1], bulgogi [2], sushi, roast turkey, and all kinds of jeons [3] and dumplings. However, most of them were rare foods that I had never seen or heard of before, nor did I know what type of food it was.
"Oh, of course, I would know if I just looked at the t.i.tle... Ughh, it"s not the time for this."
I pulled myself together as I was looking away from reality.
The sumptuous feast hanging in front of me was so luxurious that I had never encountered it in my life, but there was no way I would enjoy a meal when I was facing them. I was moving my fork and knife, but I didn"t know if the sliced food was supposed to go into my mouth or into my nose.
Clattering. Clattering.
The s.p.a.cious restaurant was filled with the sounds of cutleries.
There were three people sitting at the table. I was one of them, and I was wearing a suit that didn"t suit me well. The other one was Celestia, shining brightly in a gorgeously-designed dress, and the last one was…
"d.a.m.n it."
...A powerful being who had trained to the realm of transcendence in both magic and martial arts; a G.o.dly being who had awakened the G.o.dly bloodline of the Golden Lion G.o.d as well as eight kinds of powers. He was the current Emperor of the Leonhardt Empire, and... my father-in-law.
"Of course I should have expected this situation... Am I a mentally-r.e.t.a.r.ded kid??"
It was deplorable. It was because of the current situation. I was having a meal with a dazzling blonde-haired man with refreshing looks, and he looked more like Celestia"s brother as compared to her father.
Surprisingly, we haven"t spoken a single word from the moment I entered the place until we finished our meal. When I had just taken my seat, Celestia said, "It"s this person." Since then, it had been an awkward silent. I felt like I was going to have indigestion, regardless if it was a sumptuous feast or not.
"This is surprising."
It was the first sentence that the Emperor said one hour after he started eating. (He took his sweet time eating leisurely!).
"Right?"
"Yeah. How in the world... Where the h.e.l.l did you find this guy?"
"On Earth-34. I happened to meet him when I went sightseeing," Celestia answered.
The Emperor shook his head with a baffled expression.
"Hahh, really... That"s really unbelievable luck."
"I was born with pretty good luck," Celestia boasted.
Her tone made me tilt my head as I realized that the conversation was going in a weird direction. Because I thought he would for sure say, "I"ll never allow this marriage!" and Celestia would have then confronted it saying, "Shut up daddy! Why are you being so nosy about my life?". I expected him to angrily make a commotion saying "What did you say?!". I thought the conversation would ultimately end with a life lesson(?) which pointed out that raising a daughter was useless.
Some may think that I was overreacting, but if you look at it from an objective perspective, it was a perfectly possible situation. Imagine if one day his daughter, the universe"s most popular beauty, brought back a man he had never seen before and announced that she would get married to that man in three days? Where in the world would there be a parent who would happily accept that?
However, the current Leonhardt Empire"s Emperor, Angelos III, looked at me without any changes in his expression, and asked, "Did you say your name was Dae-ha?"
"Ah, yes."
"You know whose G.o.dly bloodline you possess right?"
"...Vaguely."
In actual fact, it wasn"t vague, I had a relatively accurate idea on his ident.i.ty. However, I was ambivalent about saying it.
The G.o.d of Civilization and Information.
He was a super high-tier G.o.d who was hard to find even in the G.o.d Realm. Comparing across G.o.ds who dominate over concepts, the more extensive the concept was, the more powerful a G.o.d would be. Hence, considering that fact, I was able to know how terrifying the term "civilization" was.
"Of course, that doesn"t apply to all civilizations. The concept that my biological father dominated over was… most probably a scientific civilization."
However, even that much amounted to him being regarded as an extremely big shot. Celestia and the Emperor were also G.o.dly beings who inherited the bloodline of the Untouchables, but… the bloodline of a High-rank G.o.d -- the Beast G.o.d -- who didn"t even dominate over a concept was of a completely different realm as compared to the bloodline of a First-Tier G.o.d who ruled over a civilization concept. There wasn"t any reason to self-promote and make things more complicated than it already was, so I decided that it was best to just keep quiet and stay still.
However, Angelos III directed a question towards me, who was careful about everything I said.
"Then do you know your rate of awakening?"
"...Rate of awakening?"
"Do you not know... It seems I should have sent Rex," the Emperor said something I couldn"t understand.
Celestia replied to her father, "I"ll take care of that on my own, so stay out of it."
"You"ll take care of that on your own?"
"Yes. Since when did you ever take care of me that you"re acting like that?"
"..."
I was fl.u.s.tered by the atmosphere that turned cold in an instant. What the? I thought it was okay since they were conversing with ease, but as expected, did they not get along well?
However, the Emperor soon nodded.
"You"re right. Just do everything as you wish then."
"If so?"
"That"s right. With regards to this marriage, I…"
The Emperor laughed for an instant. It was a bitter smile that was unbefitting of a powerful man who ruled over an Empire-cla.s.s country, a rare ent.i.ty in the universe.
"I agree to it."
Just like that, the marriage between me and Celestia was confirmed.
*
After the audience with the Emperor, I met Bo-ram and Dong-min.
"How was it?"
"It was suffocating."
"Is he against it?"
"It would be great if that was the case instead. He gave his consent."
As I shook my head and stepped forward, "Taak! Taak! Taak!", Bo-ram lightly snapped her finger, and following that, the Mana around her moved and went through my body. The barrier that was deactivated momentarily when I went to meet the Emperor was reactivated.
"It might be a little late to ask now, but is "she" still protecting you?"
"Hmm. Is it okay for me to say it here?"
"You don"t have to worry if you"re concerned about someone eavesdropping," Dong-min said as he held up the Vajra Scepter in his hand.
"Jeseokcheon"s Vision is shining on us. Even a transcendent won"t be able to overhear our conversation."
"…Did it have that kind of function too?"
"It didn"t have that previously, but it"s been released since then. It"s only recently that I"ve been able to handle it properly."
Needless to say, by "since then," Dong-min was referring to the time when I unlocked the Vajra Scepter. My key, a keepsake of my biological father, had the power to lift all types of seals and restrictions.
"Well, that"s not a problem then. She promised to protect my life for her own reasons. Her promise will probably last for a while."
"It"s as I expected. That"s why that General died."
I found Dong-min"s reaction fascinating when he nodded his head as if everything had turned out well. At first, I thought he was a stuck-up person. However, in the midst of this confusion, he was relatively coping with it well.
"People with pretty high-level combat capabilities on Earth wouldn"t be able to cause a big ripple when they went face-to-face against transcendents."
Ability users with inferior skills were meaningless in the face of the absolute power of the transcendents. They were powerful enough that they only had a few enemies when they were on Earth, but they were no more than mediocre beings in the Great Universe.
Nevertheless, Bo-ram and Dong-min didn"t look to be confused or in agony. It was normal even if they were to feel a severe sense of despair, hence it felt strangely weird when they seemed to not feel anything.
"It"s like they had met other transcendental beings before."
Though it was fascinating, there was no need to show such feelings to others, so I shook off the thought.
"Come to think of it, Bo-ram, do you feel anything? I unlocked yours too, didn"t I?"
"Ahh, that"s still on standby mode. It"s not completely unlocked."
"Why? Looking at Dong-min, it seems that it turned out well… Aha," I was expressing my doubts when I suddenly paused upon remembering what happened when I unsealed the seal on Dong-min.
"There could be some kind of side effects."
When I unlocked the Vajra Scepter of Jeseokcheon with the key, the weapon had robbed Dong-min of his body by his weapon and went on a rampage. If I had not been able to lock the Vajra Scepter again from a long distance, the controlled Dong-min would"ve killed all of us and destroyed the surroundings until he died.
Of course, if that happened, I could reactivate the seal and everything would be over. However, who could say that Bo-ram would experience the same side effects as Dong-min?
"Did I make you wait for long?"
Just then, Celestia opened the door and stood next to me. I didn"t know when she changed her clothes, but she wore casual clothes unlike the fancy dress she had on just now.
"Where are we going now?"
"Oh, of course we"ll have to go to Starlight."
"Starlight?"
"It"s the name of my palace. The original name is Seonggw.a.n.g Palace [4] but I just decided to call it Starlight."
As she explained, we got in the vehicle that was prepared right in front of the audience chamber building. I thought there would obviously be a driver, but it was Celestia herself who took the wheel.
Vroooooom-
The anti-gravity car travelled at a fast speed with a low ringing. Celestia skillfully drove the vehicle more than a few dozens kilometers across the green forest and dozens of buildings. Simply put, it was an anti-gravity car, however, it was no different from an airship. Hence, we arrived at a huge silver building that sparkled in a silver light in less than ten minutes.
"Are we here?"
"Yes, this is Starlight," Celestia answered.
I looked at the skysc.r.a.per that looked at least 100 stories… No, 200 stories tall.
"No, this... What kind of palace is this? This is just a skysc.r.a.per, isn"t it?"
"Well, it"s just a symbolic name."
Celestia answered as if it wasn"t a big deal. Then, she pulled the steering wheel and the anti-gravity car flew up towards the sky to an even greater height and halted in the middle of the building. One of the outer walls of the shining silver building opened and welcomed the car.
Shooooong.
Celestia smoothly landed the car and got off. Needless to say, my party and I followed suit.
"Ahh, is it alright to ask Bo-ram and Dong-min to standby at a separate place? We have to visit a place where you can"t bring along your guards for the meantime."
Knowing that Bo-ram and Dong-in always followed me around, Celestia carefully asked. It was probably because there could often be awkward situations if the guards stuck along, such as when we were having an audience with the Emperor.
"Will you be alright?" Dong-min asked me and I nodded my head.
"Get some rest."
"Okay then. Call for me as soon as there"s a problem."
I already had a talisman with me that could summon Bo-ram and Dong-min at any time. Of course, I was not sure if these talismans could be invoked in all situations, but I decided that it would not be that dangerous because Hawa would save my life in the worst case scenario.
Above all…
Supreme Magic Tower, Protection Barrier Cla.s.s
Growth phase, Kang Bo-ram
Baekdu G.o.dly Veins
Growth phase, Kim Dong-min
Both their condition t.i.tles were like this, so it was a little weird to force them to guard me. Should I say it feels like it was time for them to do some kind of training? Dongmin always followed the rules and principles. However, seeing that he was fine even with being excluded from guard duty, it seemed that my hunch was correct.
I grumbled inwardly.
"What the, these two... Weren"t they sent to the universe to guard me? For some reason, it feels more like they"re studying abroad…"
Of course, to be exact, it wasn"t studying abroad as in studying overseas but studying "overgalaxies." Anyways, it didn"t matter.
1. This is a Korean tri-colored Jeon (Pancake) made from artificial crab stick, green onion, ham, and/or mushroom.
2. Korean grilled marinated beef that"s slightly on the sweeter side.
3. Jeons refer to pancakes, and Koreans make pancakes out of just about everything. There"s seafood jeon, kimchi jeon, meat jeon, mushroom jeon, courgette jeons, etc.
4. Seonggw.a.n.g 성광 (星光) and it means star light in Korean.