The Emperor Has Returned

Chapter 177 – Barth Baltic

There was no one getting in Juan’s way, until he arrived in front of the Imperial Palace.

Juan frowned upon sensing that the veil of benevolence had been destroyed. The veil of benevolence was always kept turned off when Juan used to be the emperor so that anyone could freely enter and exit the Imperial Palace, since the Imperial Palace served as an administrative headquarter.

However, the true reason why the veil of benevolence was originally created was to prepare for enemy invasion during a war. It was quite ironic that the veil of benevolence had disappeared when such a situation actually happened.

Juan walked into the Imperial Palace and found blood stains scattered at the entrance of the Imperial Palace. Considering the amount of blood, the victim seemed to have suffered from severe injuries.

The bloodstains extended quite far into the Imperial Palace, and Juan could tell at just a glance that blood had fallen from a fairly high location upon looking at the bloodstains.

Juan knew only one person who was that tall.

“Barth Baltic.”

Juan didn’t know what had happened, but there seemed to have been a person skilled and powerful enough to wound Barth Baltic. Juan continued to walk along the bloodstains. The bloodstains continued to the deepest parts of the Imperial Palace, and it wasn’t long before Juan saw a huge door.

It was a huge steel gate with all of Juan’s history, from his birth, all the way to his assassination carved on it—Juan had already seen it before when he had taken over Ivy’s body. Juan recalled feeling a huge power that had almost swept him away even though he had just taken a look.

However, he felt nothing this time.

He was sure that he hadn’t gotten strong enough to not be swept up away by that power, so he could only think of other possibilities.

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Juan opened the door and entered. Soon, a huge space appeared in front of his eyes. Each of the majestic pillars in this place were carved into statues depicting beheaded gods and legendary monsters. On the ceiling supported by the pillars was a delicately drawn map of the empire with many details, including every single city.

And at the end of the row of pillars was a throne.

As Juan had expected, the throne was empty.

Barth Baltic was waiting for Juan on the stairs leading up to the throne. The blood from the wound on his right chest was wetting the stairs.

“You’re here,” Barth opened his mouth in a calm manner. “The others stole your body. It wasn’t me.”

“I know.”

Juan could already tell from the traces left behind that the body was moved quite delicately, with no rush, showing their religious piety. He couldn’t tell how they were able to move his body so fast, but the opponents seemed to have already left Torra.

Although the throne had been left unattended for a long time, not a single grain of dust could be found anywhere. Rather, it was delicately oiled such that it looked shiny. Juan couldn’t imagine what his body would have looked like, considering that even the throne was managed so carefully.

“Who took my body?” Juan asked.

“Your son.”

Juan frowned upon hearing Barth’s answer. The first son that came to mind was Gerard, since Juan still didn’t know where he was.

But Juan soon thought of someone else.

“Dismas?”

“Yes, Dismas Dilver. The Bishop General of the west and your third adopted son. He stormed in with the Order of Surtr and took your body away along with the Pope. I don’t think he was interested in seeing your face.”

Juan looked at the empty throne without saying a word. He had been both excited and afraid of the moment when he finally got to face his body. He felt as if an old concern that had been postponed might explode the moment he saw his own body.

Now that the moment was unexpectedly delayed, Juan could not tell whether he was feeling relieved or disappointed.

“But the throne still remains here. The throne is all yours,” Barth grinned and tapped on the stairs.

‘So this is how I return.’

Torra had fallen and the Pope had fled. There were no more forces left to oppose Juan, since all of the Imperial forces obeyed him. The rest of the forces would soon be reported of the Pope’s misdeeds and then they too would announce their surrender at the news of Juan’s return.

Except for the west, the empire could be said to be back in Juan’s hands.

‘I have returned.’

“Hah…”

Juan laughed despondently without even realizing it. It was a moment that he had longed for, but it had a despondent ending. He managed to eventually return, but there was not much he found out about.

‘Why did I have to die? Why did Gerard stab me? Why was I revived?’

None of his questions were answered.

Barth smiled as if he could read Juan’s mind.

“Are you disappointed?”

“How can I not be disappointed? The bastard that I planned to tear apart ran away and in the end, I found out nothing.”

“What do you mean you found out nothing? I told you that I would answer your questions. Remember?”

Juan turned his head toward Barth.

“Are you talking about the reason why you wanted to kill me? Didn’t you already say it’s because I\'m a human god? Unfortunately, you are wrong. I’m not a god. Wasn’t it you and the Pope who turned me into god?”

“It seems like you didn’t pay too much attention to what I had said.”

Barth raised himself up with difficulty and turned toward Juan.

“You were indeed a human god. To be precise, you were made to be a human god—by Dane Dormund.”

***

Juan remained silent for a long time and then finally opened his mouth.

“What do you mean? Are you suggesting that I was made by Dane, just like Gerard?”

“No. Gerard is nothing but a clone. He was only able to be born because you existed. But you are different. You were a lump of clay that was completely designed, created, and shaped to become a perfect weapon to defeat the gods from beginning to end,” Barth said while laughing in a low voice as if something was funny.

“Dane has that much power? No. I don’t know how much stronger he has gotten now, but I was very well aware of Dane’s abilities at that time. Dane was indeed a great magician, but not to that extent. He was just a long-lived magician when I first met him. He was my teacher, but he even said that he had achieved true growth only by meeting me, to the point where he felt like he had become a completely different person after he met me,” Juan said with a distorted expression.

“Of course he wasn’t strong enough. To be exact, it was Aruntal that made you.”

“Aruntal? My teachers?”

“Yes. Aruntal and Hornsluines struggled to find a way to kill the gods. But Hornsluine wanted a weapon, while Aruntal wanted a hero. We ended up going our separate ways due to the differences in our goals. As a result, the Hornsluine were destroyed and the hero created by Aruntal survived.”

Juan looked at his own hands.

‘I was made by Aruntal?’

Juan had believed that the reason why he didn’t know of his parents was just that he was an orphan.

“I was an orphan. I didn’t meet Aruntal until I got much older. So, how…”

“Of course, Aruntal’s process of making you was not easy. They had to hide from all kinds of checks and attacks, then hide you in a village inside a remote valley. Then they showed up in front of you when they judged that you were old enough to achieve their goal. Everything was thoroughly planned.”

Juan recalled the first time he met Aruntal and Dane—the time when a strange magician and an old elf came to look up and down at Juan. They said that Juan was the chosen one, and that he must stand up to the gods for the good of all.

“Aruntal was satisfied by their achievements of designing and creating you. They believed that their plan to create a hero that would allow all races to be independent of gods was successful. But their plan had failed from the ground up.”

Juan stared blankly at Barth.

“Aruntal was perplexed when you became the emperor and led the humans, but they understood. After all, humans didn’t have a god, and they had deliberately modeled you to have a human form precisely because of their independence. So, it was no wonder that humans were attracted to you, who looked exactly like them. However, Aruntal was surprised and perplexed to see the humans led by you ostracize the other races and even slaughter them,” Barth said as if he was chewing on his words.

At that moment Juan remembered that some of the members of Aruntal had warned him about such conduct. Juan severely punished the humans involved in such crimes, but he thought different races had to endure it to a certain extent, since they had been at an advantage by relying on the authority of the gods before his emergence.

“This is obvious, but Aruntal did not make you a human god. You had to be a hero for all the weak who were oppressed by the gods. But when you absorbed Mananen McLier’s heart and became completed as the true emperor, Aruntal realized that there was a reason they failed—one among them was playing tricks.”

“Dane…” Juan muttered to himself.

Barth nodded.

“Yes, Dane. Dane Dormund. He secretly transformed you, who should have been born as a hero for all races, into a god only for the humans. He wasn’t strong enough to make you on his own, but strong enough to transform you without letting anyone know. By the time Aruntal realized what was happening, it was too late. When the members of Aruntal gathered to correct the situation, Dane set them all up and killed them all.”

Juan had a clear memory of the extermination of Aruntal. At that time, Juan believed that the incident was clearly the work of the beings from the Crack or of the gods who fled.

However, the culprit who killed all of the members of Aruntal was actually someone from Aruntal itself.

“You are an artificial god, Juan. You were created by your enemy.”

Juan felt his legs wobble. He wanted to deny Barth’s words, but all the scattered puzzle pieces fit with each other perfectly—including the part about Dane’s obsession with the ‘human god’ and his constant efforts to ‘revise.’

Dane even tried to kill Juan and recreate him after realizing that he no longer loved humans.

“How… how do you know all this, Barth?”

“You left the investigation to me when Aruntal was exterminated. These were the facts obtained after the investigation. The process of finding these facts was difficult, but I didn’t even want to tell you about it when I found out, because… I came to hate you,” Barth twisted his lips.

“Hate? Me?”

“Yes. I don’t hate you simply because you’re a human god,” Barth said while staring coldly at Juan. “You could have been everyone’s hero. No, you could have been everyone’s god. You could have been the salvation of all the races that were slaughtered and all the weaklings. Perhaps you could have revived my extinct species with that power,” Barth gritted his teeth and shouted at Juan.

“YOU HAD INFINITE POSSIBILITIES! But all of those possibilities disappeared when Dane turned you into a human god! The only reason why I didn’t go insane after finding out such a fact was due to my motivation to kill you and Dane!”

“But I… I didn’t even want that for myself.”

“That doesn’t matter! I tried to understand you at first too. I knew that it was Dane who was the bad guy here! But just looking at you constantly reminded me of an opportunity that my race was deprived of! Just listening to you breathing made me feel like I was hearing the painful screams of my people!”

Barth breathed heavily after he poured out his words. The wound on his chest seemed to have pierced his lungs. Barth moaned painfully for a long time, then quietly muttered again.

“You must think I’m pathetic.”

“Barth.”

“But you will never understand the way I feel unless all of the members of your kind disappear from the world. My hatred wouldn’t have been directed at you if I didn’t find out about the truth in the first place. So there’s no need for you to empathize with or understand me. After all, I wanted you to die.”

Barth slowly raised himself up. His complexion was pale because he had already lost too much blood. Such a big wound seemed critical even with his ability to tighten his muscles to stop bleeding.

“Barth. I can see why you want to kill me. But first, let’s get you treated. We’ll talk more after that,” Juan said.

“No,” Barth answered briefly. “I no longer have to feel guilty anymore, and I also confessed to you the reason for my hatred toward you. I have already put everything down. There is nothing left in my hands now, and neither do I have anything I want to hold onto,” Barth said and slowly looked at Juan.

“It’s a perfect day to end everything. This is enough for me.”

Barth’s eyes were calm.

Upon realizing what Barth was about to do, Juan quickly tried to hold Barth down.

However, Barth immediately punched his own chest with all his might, crushing his own heart. His heart was shattered in a single blow. He coughed up blood and collapsed to the floor.

“No, damn it. Barth!”

Juan hastily rushed to Barth. But at that moment, Barth grabbed Juan’s neck with a force that should be impossible for a dying man.

Juan noticed from the amount of power in Barth’s grip as he held onto Juan’s neck that he sincerely wanted to kill Juan.

Barth strangled Juan’s neck with a fierce look in his eyes.

“Stop giving me that sympathetic look, emperor,” Barth muttered in a quiet voice. “I am the last survivor of the Hornsluines, the ones who confronted the gods. I was an officer of the honorable Palma Kingdom. I committed my soul to war in order to avenge my race and my king. Countless monsters and enemies rolled around under my feet. The world praised and looked up to me.”

Barth’s growling voice sounded like that of a beast, making Juan wonder if Barth really was dying.

“Some have said that I was nothing but a dirty heterogeneous traitor. But that’s not who I am. Even the great emperor of the empire trusted me to the extent of leaving his back to me. I was the best warrior, and I tried to be the best teacher for my disciples.”

Barth Baltic’s words soon began to slow down. Bubbles of blood flowed down his lips, and his fierce eyes that had been burning fiercely slowly began to fade into a gray like cold coal.

“I am Barth Baltic.”

Barth’s hands that were tightly squeezing Juan’s neck lost strength and opened as if a lock was slowly being unlocked.

Barth quietly whispered his last words.

“I am the Regent of the empire…”