Lord of Training - Chapter 120



Only Krnovel

120. Homunculus.

[Lacrosse Empire Palace]

“Oh my! Thank you for coming with me, Kyung.”

“I’m the person in charge of the escort, so of course I have to serve you.”

Princess Sophia got out of the car and looked around fearfully.

“You don’t have to be so nervous.”

“Haa! What should I say when the Emperor asks me?”

“Were you worried about that?”

“What should I know······.”

Princess Sophia looked as if she was about to cry.

It’s not normal for a 13 year old girl to not feel uneasy about having a meeting with the emperor of the most powerful empire in the world.

So I told him the secret.

“It’s simple. If you have a question that you find difficult or don’t know the answer to, just say that you’d like to go back and discuss it with His Majesty King Bert. Then, just pretend to write down your question in a notepad.”

“Can’t you still keep asking persistently?”

“At that time, tell His Majesty that you are a congratulatory envoy and that you do not know much about politics. That is not a bad thing.”

“Ah! I understand. Sir Alain, don’t stray too far from me.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll always be nearby.”

Before we knew it, we had arrived in front of the largest building within the castle walls.

This is the imperial palace where the emperor resides.

“Follow me.”

We followed our guide to the emperor’s study.

The audience room was too big, and there was an open conference room in the study, so we decided to use that as the meeting place.

“Atlantic Escort Knight, please stay here.”

Inside the study, knights escorting representatives from other kingdoms were already gathered.

Sophia Russell tugged at my sleeve.

“Can’t we go in together?”

“Yes, it will be fine. The conference room is made entirely of glass, so you can see inside, so I will watch from here.”

“Ugh! Can’t help it.”

Princess Sophia entered the study conference room feebly.

The Emperor had not yet arrived, and on the conference room table were signs with the names of each kingdom.

Sophia sat down in the seat that said Kingdom of Atlan.

Then the representatives of other kingdoms glanced at her.

Still, it seems strange that the third most powerful kingdom in the world would send a young girl as the representative of the delegation.

“Hey! Long time no see. Colonel Alain.”

When I turned my head, a man who looked like a parasite was raising his hand toward me.

I bowed my head slightly to Brigadier General Michael.

He was a named-class knight from the Republic of Arica and entered together with them when they conquered the S-class labyrinth gate.

And he was the one who had been hitting on Audrey.

At the end, we even allied with the Empire’s named knights, so the last memory wasn’t bad.

‘But don’t come!’

I’ve already encountered him a few times at the shrine, but this was the first time he avoided me and pretended not to know me.

“Ah! Now you’re not a colonel, you’re a brigadier general!”

“······.”

“Commander Alain, don’t avoid me too much. After all, we are not comrades who fought together.”

“Well, once you enter the gate, the Arica Airlines magic knights have different faces, so it’s hard to trust them.”

“Haha! I heard you almost had a fight with Director Telfert at the Labyrinth Gate. Is that why?”

“A whole battle? They were going to kill us.”

“Hey! I heard you were just scaring them. Do you think we’re going to attack the Allied Forces?”

“Let’s say that’s true.”

For a moment I was dumbfounded.

If the Lutes Magic Knights had suddenly gained momentum and our men hadn’t joined forces to push forward, the battle would have probably broken out ten more times.

I ignored Michael and looked at Princess Sofia inside the glass.

‘The representatives of each country are split exactly in half.’

The anti-imperial camp included the Republic of Arica, the Kingdom of Atlan, the Principality of Nubua, and the Kingdom of Potlien on the southern continent.

The pro-imperial camp included the Kingdom of Mark, the Kingdom of Hispania, the Duchy of Novog, and the Duchy of Schweiz.

The Kingdom of Helione, which was in turmoil yesterday, and the Kingdom of Bavaria to the north naturally did not send a delegation on the Emperor’s birthday.

The Principality of Nubia was a vassal of Atlan, and the Principality of Novok was a vassal of the Empire, so even taking that into account, the numbers were the same.

“His Majesty the Emperor has arrived.”

Emperor Karl Modus and the adviser we saw yesterday entered the study together.

Emperor Karl entered the conference room without hesitation.

I glanced at the emperor’s neck.

No necklace?

Is it true?

As the emperor sat down, a little bit of his necklace was visible inside his tunic.

It was a slightly different shape than the necklace I had, but it was definitely a mirrored face necklace.

When I turned on the dimensional detector behind the bookshelf, a red light flashed from the Emperor’s seat.

It was certainly the elven heritage that dimensional energy could be captured.

Yesterday, I was trying to avoid a bullet by moving my body so hard that the necklace fell out of my clothes, but today I hid it well.

‘But today was fake again. Where is the real emperor?’

Even the commander of the imperial guard did not enter the conference room.

And the young torturer Erickson, whose detector still glows red with a dazzling light.

He also waited outside.

If the Emperor’s knights or advisors entered, they would have to send knights from other kingdoms to enter, and the small conference room would be full.

Instead, the Emperor’s knights were guarding the entrance to the conference room and everywhere else.

I’m not sure if it was a meeting or a conference, but the Emperor and the representatives of the diplomatic delegations from each country began talking.

I moved little by little and approached the emperor’s advisor.

“My name is Alain Bombard of the Atlantean Kingdom.”

The young adviser glanced at me.

“My name is Ericsson.”

“Don’t you have a last name?”

“Yes. Just call me by my name.”

I tried to find out what family he was from, but he wouldn’t tell me.

Besides, I guess you have no desire to deal with me.

He turned his head and kept looking into the conference room.

I needed to talk to him to find out something, but he was blatantly ignoring me.

I examined his body closely.

But there was nowhere to hide the small dimensional core.

That meant there was a small dimensional core inside his body.

‘Has the Empire succeeded in human transmutation?’

no!

That can’t be true.

In order to attempt human transmutation, a dimensional core is needed, but the Empire acquired the dimensional core after exiting the S-class labyrinth gate.

The time is too short to successfully achieve human fusion.

And judging from the condition of the corpses I saw in the underground secret lab, it still had a long way to go before it could be developed.

If that was the case, then Ericsson in front of us had come from a destroyed world.

Because there are no humans in the elf dimension.

‘Could it be that this guy was in the mobile dimensional capsule in the secret underground storage room?’

As Iris was discovered in a capsule in the elf secret base.

The elves could have also gone to the labyrinth gate created in the destroyed world and brought back humans who had succeeded in human transmutation.

And somehow the Emperor of the Empire seemed to know where this guy and the capsule were and brought them.

‘Wait a minute, so this guy is a homunculus?’

In an instant, every hair on my body stood on end!

Why didn’t I think of that?

Yeah, this is a homunculus!

Homunculus, a unique ability of S-class alchemist hunters.

The reason he took human form was because he had drawn his soul from the Gates of the Abyss into the body of a recently deceased human.

And the Philosopher’s Stone was a dimensional core, so he put the dimensional core into his body.

When I first reached S-rank, I was locked up and didn’t have the materials to make a homunculus.

Because there were no freshly deceased corpses, which would have been the easiest to create a homunculus from, and no dimensional core had been formed.

So, in the end, the destroyed world was Earth.

‘Ha! These little bastards! They fought amongst themselves like that, and in the end they were defeated by the dimensional monster!’

For a moment, the strength left my legs.

I needed a place to sit.

I sat on a chair on one side of the study.

In fact, I had guessed that the world that had been destroyed was Earth, based on the form of the elves’ weapons. However, when I saw the evidence before my eyes, my anger boiled inside me.

‘Then is High Elf Iris also a homunculus?’

No, elves don’t have alchemist hunters!

Or are there humans or Hunters from Earth living in another dimension somewhere?

Just as the elves fled to the spirit realm, humans could also escape to other gates.

If Iris is a homunculus, there should be traces of the dimensional core inserted somewhere in her body······.

But I have seen Iris naked.

‘Ah! I didn’t see the back.’

When Iris was discovered, she was lying flat on her back, so I couldn’t see her back.

Next time I see Iris, I’ll have to check her back.

More than that, I felt bitter that the Earth was destroyed, even though it wasn’t my problem anymore.

So did Nicola Flamel create the Labyrinth Gate?

Honestly, I don’t know much about the abilities of a SSS-class alchemist.

If you reach S-rank, you can create homunculi and use external fusion circles. However, it is not easy to get there.

And as far as I can remember, there were only four known alchemist hunters on Earth.

Maybe someone among them survived and created the labyrinth gate.

Honestly, I thought I would have to reach SSS rank to find out if I could create a labyrinth gate.

However, judging from the fact that he had created a dimensional gate generator, it was clear that the alchemist’s abilities could create gates.

Because there was a filament engraved inside the dimensional gate generator.

And it seemed like the elves were trying to make this too.

“Sir Alain, I think the meeting is over.”

“yes?”

I came to my senses at Brigadier General Michael’s words.

I stood up from my seat.

Michael and I moved to the front of the conference room.

The fake emperor left first, and the knights and homunculus Erikson also left the study.

And then came Princess Sophia Russell.

“Your Highness, thank you for your hard work.”

“Haha! I didn’t have to pay. I just kept listening.”

“Well done. You may go now.”

We left the castle and waited for a while for the magic car.

“What did the Emperor say?”

“Oh! Don’t be ridiculous. Crown Prince Stefan is on the verge of death, and he’s lowering his head and sobbing. For a moment, I almost burst into tears.”

“The Emperor of the Empire?”

Sophia Russell nodded.

“I was very surprised too.”

Are you even acting like a fake emperor······?

“And he was furious that he could not just sit by and let the Kingdom of Helione do what they did to the Crown Prince, and he said he would send troops to the southern continent. He also warned that if there was any place that helped the Kingdom of Helione, he would not let it go.”

“Haha! That’s funny. The troops are already there. Two legions at that.”

“I know that too. And I understand why the Kingdom of Helione sent assassins. If their country is about to be invaded, what wouldn’t they do?”

“That’s right. The place where they are gathered now is the port of a kingdom that was destroyed by orcs in the past, but four days away is the border of the Kingdom of Helione.”

“Alas! Even at his age, the emperor still can’t let go of his greed······.”

Sophia Russell clicked her tongue and shook her head.

At times like this, I feel like an old man.

Brrrrrr!

As we drove out of the castle, we saw many soldiers gathered in a large circular building.

Is that where the ventilator is?

Why are you investigating there?

‘Huh? You don’t know that I went into the secret passage?’

Well, it was a place that hadn’t been used for 30 years.

One flower pot was broken, so I guess they didn’t investigate. And even if they did, I would have put it back the way it was, and since the passage was passed at low speed, there wouldn’t have been any traces like footprints.

After thinking about many things, I quickly arrived at the shrine.

***

The meeting ended earlier than expected, so there was nothing to do from noon.

Departure for the Kingdom of Atlan was tomorrow morning.

‘But where is the emperor?’

The mirrored face necklace worn by the fake emperor was a little different in shape than the one I had.

Somehow that one looked more up-to-date.

Because it looked more sophisticated.

How good is Ericsson’s Homunculus?

The technique he used yesterday didn’t seem like a defensive technique, and for some reason it felt like a hunter’s skill rather than a technique.

The drawback of the human homunculus was that its physical abilities could not exceed those of its living counterpart.

However, the advantage was that if you made an S-class hunter into a homunculus, it would take some time, but you could raise his skills to the level of an S-class hunter.

So, if they trained enough and their ego was properly formed, an S-class alchemist could have an S-class homunculus as his subordinate.

If you have the ability, you can create many of them, and in the case of SSS-class Hunter Nicola Flamel, he had so many homunculi that the term “legion” could be used.

‘Huh? Wait, that’s the giant laboratory we passed by at the secret base a while ago······!’

For a moment I thought I knew what they were trying to make.

If there is a homunculus, which is an alchemist’s ability, then that could be possible too.

“Your Highness Princess Sophia!”

“Why are you like that?”

“Don’t wait until tomorrow, leave tonight.”

“today?”

“Yes. And instead of going north to the Kingdom of Lutes, go south, via the Kingdom of Hispania, across the sea to the Kingdom of Hylione or the Kingdom of Potlien on the southern continent. From there, take a ship to Nubua and return to Atlan.”

Princess Sophia stared at me.

“Is there a reason to go back so difficultly?”

“A new mission has arisen.”

“Ugh! What can I do about a mission? I have to listen to the king.”

“And I will join you later.”

“I understand. As Sir Alain wishes.”

I went straight to the accommodation where the Arica Republic delegation was staying.

And then he called Brigadier General Michael.

“General Michael, I have come to make a proposal.”

“proposal?”

“Did you know that there is a secret base and research lab underground in the Imperial Palace?”

“Of course. I heard that our informants are also trying every possible way to get in there.”

“I know a secret passage that leads there. Would you like to go in with me tonight?”

“What, what?”

Brigadier General Michael opened his eyes wide.

End