The capital Granada, called the heart of the Felberg Empire.
Ever since the Empire was founded in the ancient mythic age—when ultra-advanced magical civilization shone brilliantly before the outbreak of the War of the End—Granada had never once lost its place as the unchanging capital.
Now, the clouds of war hung over it.
With the Emperor, the imperial family of Felberg, Veil Sunchaser, Count Royce Horizon, and countless other heroes horribly slaughtered at the grand banquet, an emergency state had been declared in the capital Granada.
Both the Grand Marshal who could command the Imperial Central Army and the Knight Commander who could mobilize all Imperial Guard orders had perished, so Count Steiner Landerck—the Third Imperial Knight Order commander and the highest-ranking loyalist noble remaining in the imperial palace—had invoked temporary authority to declare the state of emergency.
As a result, the four Imperial Legions stationed in the east, west, south, and north entered combat readiness to defend the capital and immediately dispatched their directly controlled knight orders to Granada.
Imperial Guard and Central Army knights seized control of every city gate, and every nearby force that could be mobilized without imperial decree was converging on Granada.
“Halt! Halt! This is the knight order directly under the Second Imperial Legion! The west gate is currently under lockdown! You cannot pass!”
It was deep night, the sky thick with darkness, when the former wastrel prince Kain Felberg—who now had to ascend the throne to stabilize the chaotic Empire—and his escort finally reached Granada.
The knight guarding the gate had failed to recognize the approaching royal party.
For Kain’s safety, his route had not been announced in advance, causing this minor complication.
Had they advanced from the start with imperial crests and banners raised high, the knights at the west gate would have recognized them from afar and cleared the way themselves.
But after the large-scale massacre at the imperial grand banquet, Kain had insisted on using the imperial carriage yet concealing the crests and lowering the flags.
Count Steiner Landerck had accepted his opinion, and they had proceeded that way until now.
Thus, to the young knight’s eyes, the scene looked little different from nearly ten thousand troops marching to assault the capital.
“I am Count Steiner Landerck of the White-Winged Charge Knight Order. Open the way.”
When the gathered knights blocked the path, Count Steiner Landerck stepped forward.
He revealed his identity, and fortunately—before he even needed to show his identification plaque or family crest—one of the dozen knights recognized the Meister of the Felberg Empire.
“I-it’s Lord Landerck! Clear the way at once!”
Count Steiner Landerck’s inflexible, notoriously strict personality was extremely well-known among all Imperial Guard and Central Army knights defending Granada.
At the urgent shout of the commander who recognized the face of the man infamous for being a pain if you gave him any excuse, the knights parted left and right.
Landerck led the column through the gate.
“It has been a long time since I last saw the capital.”
Kain murmured softly while slightly lowering the carriage window and gazing at the long-unseen cityscape.
Baron Heinrich Denver, riding alongside the carriage, spoke with a bitter expression.
“How does the capital look to you after so long, Your Highness?”
“Not particularly pleasant.”
Kain’s face was dark as well.
He had been one of the core developers who created this game world, yet because countless unpublished DLCs had been applied, he could not predict what variables might arise.
Even though he knew the game’s setting, lore, and story better than anyone, the future still felt pitch-black.
“Your Highness, you do not look well.”
“I never wanted to return like this.”
Kain answered Denver’s concern naturally, his expression shadowed.
Strictly speaking, the Emperor and royals of the Felberg Empire had nothing to do with the modern-day wanderer Kang Ji-hoon, so he felt no personal grief.
But to the Kain Felberg of this world, his entire family had just been massacred; he could not appear completely indifferent.
“I spoke out of turn. I am truly sorry.”
“No, Baron Denver. It is not your fault.”
Denver bowed his head through the open carriage window.
Kain gave a faint smile to show he was fine, then leaned back against the seat, closed his eyes, and began piecing together the scattered fragments of thought in his complicated mind.
Who is behind it all?
The most important question was the identity of the mastermind.
With so many unpublished DLCs applied indiscriminately to the main story, he could not immediately pinpoint the force behind the grand banquet massacre.
Most of the unpublished DLCs he had kept separate from the main game were ones that could cause internal system conflicts if they overlapped with others.
The “Prelude to Great Catastrophe” and “Requiem of Massacre” had even triggered fatal errors, forcing partial data deletion and reconstruction; much of the original planning had been cut, leaving them nearly unfinished right up to possession.
Four DLCs—including those unfinished ones—had been forcibly applied without any proper balance work, creating interactions he could not predict.
In other words, not only the mastermind behind the massacre but even the identities of the experts who had breached the ironclad defenses of the capital and palace were currently impossible to determine.
This is driving me insane.
The tragedy at the grand banquet was undoubtedly the influence of “Requiem of Massacre.”
The problem was that this unpublished DLC was incomplete.
The concept of massive interference starting with the prologue massacre at the grand banquet had been roughly decided, but the final mastermind had never been set.
The Empire’s Five Pillars might not be the culprits.
His thoughts grew increasingly tangled.
The “Secret Society of Unknown Shadow Powers” would considerably strengthen the Five Pillars storyline, but he also had to consider the possibility that the DLC adding evil forces of black mages and necromancers—“March of the Dead”—had interacted with “Requiem of Massacre.”
The heavily unfinished “Prelude to Great Catastrophe” also needed consideration.
He could not rely solely on his privilege as the possessing developer and rashly point fingers; he had to calmly gather information.
“Your Highness. We will soon reach the imperial palace.”
How much time had passed?
The sky, once filled with thick darkness, was gradually dyed with the light of dawn.
Kain silently turned his gaze outside the window.
Not far away stood the imperial mage tower and the palace, piercing the heavens with majestic splendor.
Even after unidentified assassins infiltrated the grand banquet and butchered the Emperor, the royals, and most of the Empire’s high officials, the Felberg Empire’s palace and mage tower still stood intact, guarding their place as firmly as they had since the ancient mythic age.
As though declaring that for the Felberg Empire—which had even survived the War of the End—this trial was merely an obstacle to overcome, the light of dawn began to shine upon the palace and the imperial mage tower.
“Your Highness. The moment we arrive at the palace, you must prepare to ascend the throne at once.”
Listening to Count Landerck’s counsel, Kain quietly closed his eyes.
Now the real story begins.
“Your Highness. If you order the coronation schedule postponed, as your subjects it would be proper for us to obey. However… both the Ministry of the Interior and the loyalist nobles earnestly hope that Your Highness will ascend as soon as possible and bring stability to the chaotic Felberg Empire.”
A man conveyed the consolidated opinion of the capital’s nobles to Kain.
His voice was heavy and grave.
It was Viscount Alons Keilid.
As the Empire’s First Chamberlain, he was temporarily leading the Ministry of the Interior in place of the Chief Chamberlain who had died in the Founding Day catastrophe.
He was deeply loyal to the Felberg imperial house; even when searching Kain’s memories, he recalled that this man had treated the infamous wastrel Kain without prejudice.
At barely twenty he had joined the Ministry, and for over forty years—now well into his sixties—he had offered sincere loyalty to the imperial family and the Empire.
Though not from a high noble house, among the surviving chamberlains of the Ministry after the Founding Day catastrophe that claimed the game’s protagonist and most loyalist imperial nobles, he was one of the more competent.
“I fully agree with Viscount Keilid and the Ministry. Your Highness must ascend quickly and restore the shaking imperial authority.”
The man who had escorted Kain all the way here as commander of the White-Winged Charge—the Meister-level survivor among the loyalist knights—Count Steiner Landerck also spoke with resolute determination in support of Keilid.
The reason the chamberlain and the imperial knight order commander were raising their voices in unison was simple: the last remaining royal of the Felberg Empire, the infamous wastrel Kain Felberg, had declared he would postpone the coronation.
“Your Highness, imperial authority is crumbling. Before the Empire’s Five Pillars exploit this vicious chaos and make their full move, you must ascend the throne.”
Yet even after repeated pleas, Kain remained unmoved, prompting Count Landerck to press harder.
As commander of the Third Imperial Knight Order and a Meister, the Landerck family had been loyalists for generations.
Because of this, they had long been checked by noble houses aligned with the Five Pillars and harbored deep ill will toward that faction.
Moreover, Landerck was not a scheming central noble but an upright knight who had walked the path of the sword alone; his thinking was exceedingly straightforward and ignorant of politics.
Thus, his current advice was more sincere than anything.
Yet.
“Count Landerck.”
Kain began with a deep sigh.
He did not fail to understand the count’s feelings; he could even guess precisely what worried him.
But as one of the core developers—once the overall director—who had created most of this game’s world, Kain felt the need to correct the count’s somewhat extreme notion.
Premium Chapter
Login to buy access to this Chapter.