# Chapter 69
“Once the Delos Empire swallows up the Caron Empire, it will surely be our turn next. The Caron Empire’s presence has been the only thing preventing them from recklessly interfering with other countries, but now that they control everything, they’ll be pointing their swords at us while calling for continental unification!”
The King of Altia, thinking of Tis, the young emperor of the Delos Empire, could not contain his boiling anger and stood up from his seat to shout.
“We must establish some countermeasure to survive! Otherwise, we’ll be brutally murdered by them just as my son was!”
As if the atmosphere wasn’t tense enough, the King of Altia’s shouting prompted another king to rise from his seat and raise his voice.
“If there were any countermeasures to establish, we would have done so already! What good is planning when they have an Immortal Army that defeats armies of 100,000 with just 5,000 troops standing right there? No matter how much force we throw at them, none of them will die!”
“So are you suggesting we just sit back and all die?!”
“That’s not what I’m saying at all!”
As voices continued to rise without any viable solutions in sight, the atmosphere in the conference room seemed to grow even more gloomy.
At that moment.
Someone knocked on the door of the conference room. Since all expected attendees had already arrived, the kings in the conference room were puzzled by this new visitor’s knock.
When the Grand Duke of Merkia, who had called this secret meeting, granted permission to enter, a man in black clothes who seemed out of place in a gathering of kings respectfully bowed. His blue hair, which fell forward as he bowed his head, was particularly eye-catching.
“I apologize for being late to the meeting.”
“It’s fine. I’m only grateful that you came all this way in response to my invitation despite the ongoing war.”
The Grand Duke seemed to recognize the man and looked somewhat relieved.
The young man straightened up after his bow and scanned the attendees with his eyes.
“I am Marquis Anton Reifley, Prime Minister of the Caron Empire. I’ve come to participate in this secret meeting on behalf of His Majesty the Emperor.”
Anton Reifley, one of Emperor Raziel of the Caron Empire’s three close aides, inwardly swallowed a meaningful smile as he observed the perfectly heated gathering.
❖ ❖ ❖
Levi and Chepel, who had retreated from the Iron Fortress, urged their horses on and rode for nearly three straight days. After riding without proper rest, they arrived not at the next target candidate for the Delos Empire’s forces requiring defense, but at a small commercial city a bit further away.
Staying in the mansion of the young baron who was the lord of the city, Levi looked out the window of a surprisingly well-decorated bedroom for a guest room and asked Chepel:
“Is the enemy coming here?”
“Since this isn’t a strategic point, they won’t attack this area right away. But if they continue to conquer territory, they’ll eventually reach this place too.”
At Chepel’s calm words, Levi narrowed his eyes and glared out the window. After silently looking at a distant place outside the mansion from the third-floor height, he tightly gripped his two hands that were resting on the windowsill.
“I’m fully recovered now. I can fight.”
“No.”
Chepel, who had approached unnoticed, grabbed Levi’s left hand and pulled it. Though Levi was wearing new gloves to replace those torn in the previous battle, Chepel knew that the wounds on his palms hadn’t fully healed yet. Sure enough, when the glove was removed, only bandages that had turned red were covering the black palm.
When he removed the reddened bandages, as expected, ugly torn wounds centered around the red mark on the palm were visible. Although the blood wasn’t flowing profusely, they were severe enough to cause considerable pain.
After seeing the wounds with his own eyes, Levi quickly closed his palm to hide them. He had said ‘I’ve recovered quickly,’ but Chepel shook his head.
“Judging by how slow these particular wounds are healing, there seems to be an important reason. His Majesty will be here soon, so we’ll know once he takes a look.”
“Raziel is coming?”
Just as Levi asked with wide eyes, someone knocked on the door. The black-clothed knights standing guard outside the room opened the door wide and bowed deeply to the visitor.
Seeing the man who entered the room, Levi walked past Chepel toward him.
“You shouldn’t have come. It’s dangerous outside the imperial palace.”
While showing signs of being glad to see him, Levi’s words contradicted his feelings as a large hand was placed on his head.
As Chepel had mentioned, Raziel, who had come all the way here in person, silently stroked Levi’s head before removing his outer garment. Then he whispered something in a very soft voice to a waiting attendant as he handed over the clothing. The attendant, who had respectfully received the clothes and orders, left the room with the others.
Only Levi, Raziel, and Chepel remained in the room.
Raziel silently took Levi’s black hand and examined the palm. He lightly rubbed the wound site with his fingertips, looking at the palm that was so badly mangled that the mark was barely visible. A small amount of blood stuck to Raziel’s fingertips.
Chepel, who had been standing quietly, reported on Levi’s behalf:
“All other wounds have recovered, but only the wounds in this area are not healing properly.”
“That’s to be expected. He kept inflicting wounds with the sword he used to cut down Grand Duke Verdit’s subordinates.”
All of Ion Verdit’s subordinates had received his ability. Just as Levi had used his blood to negate the power of life that had taken root in the immortal soldiers, they too were capable of the same. The blood of these immortals, which had clung to his dagger as he cut them down, had taken hold in the wounds on Levi’s palm like a desperate last struggle at the moment of their death.
But the reason why the blood of the immortal soldiers, who were merely recipients of Ion Verdit’s power and not Ion himself, was still affecting Levi even after two days wasn’t just that.
Raziel now looked at the ring fastened around Levi’s wrist. It had been densely covered with characters when he had sent Levi out, but now it was so completely filled that it was difficult to distinguish the individual forms.
Though Levi wasn’t aware of it, he had currently reached a state of ‘starvation.’
Nearly four months had passed since Raziel had brought Levi to the imperial palace. During that time, Levi, who had not consumed humans with his black hand, had essentially been sustaining himself on the ‘nourishment’ he had consumed during his rampage. By blocking the power of death spreading from his black hand, the ability had remained solely within his body, minimizing the energy demanding nourishment.
But in this recent battle, instead of using the black hand that had been restrained all this time, he had killed enemies using ‘blood’ with the power of death as a medium. The more the power in his blood escaped, the more his body would have been demanding nourishment to replenish it.
Looking down at the white ring that had been blocking Levi’s instinctual desires, Raziel said:
“You’ll be fine once we replenish your nourishment.”
“Nourishment?”
Levi flinched and withdrew his black hand. With anxiety on his face, he shook his head and stepped back.
“No. I won’t eat it. I don’t need to eat.”
Even though he had killed hundreds of immortal soldiers in the recent battle, that was ultimately ‘to protect Raziel.’ Since nourishment was clearly ‘for himself,’ it was inevitable that Levi would be reluctant. After all, he had vowed not to kill any human to satisfy his own hunger because of the rampage incident that had occurred when he was in a state of starvation.
Seeing Levi’s sensitive reaction to the word ‘nourishment,’ Raziel approached him by the same distance that Levi had stepped back.
“It’s alright. It’s not the kind of nourishment you’re thinking of.”
“…Then what?”
Raziel gently grabbed Levi’s black hand, which still couldn’t erase its anxiety.
“It’s just filling in the fragments of what was broken.”
“…?”
Looking at Levi, who didn’t readily understand, Raziel placed his hand on the seam of the white ring fastened around Levi’s wrist.
“Chepel, step back.”
As Chepel stepped back several paces to create distance according to Raziel’s command, he could hear a small click sound.
One side of the ring encircling Levi’s wrist opened in half and fell to the floor. Along with it came the sound of Levi inhaling sharply.
The focus instantly disappeared from Levi’s wide-open eyes, and red bloodshot veins appeared. His body, stiff as if he had consumed a paralyzing drug, trembled slightly.
Then suddenly, in the blink of an eye, he gripped Raziel’s neck with his black hand.
“Your Majesty!”
Chepel, startled, drew his sword, but Raziel remained calm.
“I told you to step back.”
After giving Chepel a short, warning-laced statement, Raziel faced Levi, who had been consumed by instinct in that short time. He was clearly targeting the ‘core’ in Raziel’s collarbone, applying full strength to his black hand as if about to snap Raziel’s neck in one go.
