He Became The Most Insane Emperor Of All Time [EN]: Chapter 193

“The Baron was exposed, so it seems. But why are you trying to help him?”

The Baron’s plan to use me, whether I was a spy or not, to save his daughter seemed to have gone awry.

But that didn’t explain why the Marionette was asking me to save him.

Out of sympathy for him? Is the doppelganger really that sentimental?

“Well, I did like the Baron quite a bit.”

“Still, just for his sake? I find that hard to believe.”

“You’re not fooled, as expected. There’s another reason. Originally, my plan was to use the Baron’s scheme to mess with the Spirit King.”

“What?”

“Isn’t it obvious? There’s no way I or the Demon King’s army would revive the Spirit King for free. Even if we did, we’d have to keep him on a leash.”

…That’s certainly true.

The Demon King’s army’s goal is to subjugate the elves, and reviving the Spirit King is secondary.

But if the Spirit King becomes too powerful, he might rebel against the Demon King’s army, and the elves might not listen either.

The demons, the Demon King’s army, must know that. Of course, they would try to keep him on a leash….

“So, the Baron’s plan itself was your scheme.”

“That’s right. Well, to be precise, I gave the Baron suggestions to make him do it. We can’t leave any evidence that the Demon King’s army did it on purpose.”

“Thorough. So, only the Baron is sacrificed.”

“Yeah… I feel a bit sorry about that, and things went wrong, so the Spirit King is about to be revived for real? I want you to stop that.”

“So, you’re telling me to clean up the mess….”

But it’s not a bad story for me either.

If the Spirit King comes back to life and opposes me, that would be even more troublesome.

“The Spirit King is going to be revived even more powerfully. He’s trying to gather the Spirit Realm, which is declining due to something, and be reborn in the doll.”

“The Spirit Realm… The spirits followed him, it seems.”

“Because they’re about to die.”

It seemed they had suffered quite a bit of damage from the Imperial Soul and the flames of purification.

Anyway, if that’s true, I must stop it.

“Okay. I’ll do as you say. But you really have to defect to the Empire.”

“If you can trust me, I don’t mind.”

There’s no way I can trust you. I have to monitor you thoroughly. If necessary, even use Mirror [a magical ability to see the truth].

You might wonder if that’s necessary, but as you can see from Mirror, doppelgangers are very useful guys.

Especially this guy knows how to make that doll. Of course, he can’t make many dolls like the ones made by catching elves, but he can change the materials a bit.

“Then shall we move again?”

“This way. There’s a bit of a shortcut.”

Perhaps because we made a deal, the Marionette began to cooperate actively.

It was better to remove the Spirit King with as little noise as possible, so I followed the Marionette’s guidance as much as possible.

“Spirit dolls are blocking the way.”

“We can’t just pass through here.”

As I continued to infiltrate several times, I learned that the spirits easily recognized the doppelganger’s disguise, as the Marionette said.

This is because the spirits residing in the spirit stones sense their very existence.

Knowing that, I became even more greedy for the spirit dolls.

What if I could use these guys as counterintelligence agents? It would probably be much easier to find spies.

Of course, the utility of dolls is endless in addition to this.

“I should disassemble one directly.”

I dropped my disguise, held Silver Rose [his sword], and walked out.

-Intruder detected.

“Yeah, it’s me.”

Shuuk! Chaeng!

The spirit dolls’ reactions were mechanical. Literally, even if they blocked the sword, their arms would bend, and blades would pop out of their elbows in an unconventional manner.

“Ha, even if they look real, dolls are dolls, huh?”

-No obligation to answer.

Shwiik! Shyaaaak!

The dolls attacked with swords in their hands and blades popping out from various joints of their bodies.

All of those blades were imbued with aura [magical energy]. Ordinary soldiers would have been easily cut to pieces by this level of attack.

No, even knights couldn’t be sure.

But their potential wasn’t just in these unconventional attacks.

Hwareureureuk-

-Flame detected. Deploying fire protection mode.

“Oh?”

The flames of purification didn’t work. It seemed that the spirits had somehow tried to compensate for their vulnerability to the flames of purification.

Chaeng! Chaeng!

Since aura could also be countered with aura, it couldn’t be a weakness.

Honestly, this was excellent. It would be great to make such realistic dolls, except for the fact that you have to use biological materials.

When the Empire uses them, they don’t necessarily have to look too much like humans, so even if you change the materials to artificial materials, it’s usually okay.

It will definitely be helpful to bring and use them. There are already golems [artificial beings], but honestly, they are too expensive and limited.

“But how about this?”

[Kerebres’ Dark Blood Unleashed]

[Shadow Blade Enhancement]

[Shadow Cut Activated]

Shyuuuuuk, Chwaak!

The shadow enhanced with dark blood unleashed a huge cut that didn’t even have time to resist and cut the doll.

-Blood, damage detected… Attempting automatic repair….

“Too late.”

Kwaduk!

I tore off the spirit stone in the heart area where the wound was exposed.

When it lost the spirit stone, the doll stopped as if frozen.

“Is this the spirit stone?”

“Yeah. But the spirit is almost gone now.”

“Hmm… Can I put something else in this?”

“Something else? What are you going to put in? A human soul? I didn’t see you that way, were you a black magician?”

Ha, I’m hearing the sound of a black magician.

Well, if you think about it, the Imperial Soul is also a soul.

Anyway, I focused my mind on the spirit stone and blew in the Imperial Soul.

Shyuuuuuk-

“…What is that? No, what are you?”

“I’ll tell you when this is over.”

After blowing the pure white Imperial Soul into the spirit stone, I put it back into the doll’s heart.

The doll, which had regained its power source, began to move again.

-Enemy detected… Correction, ally detected. Please give me orders.

“That’s it.”

It was the moment when the Empire gained another asset.

* * *

“The power is not complete.”

“I am sorry, but it seems that it is because it is still a small body to contain His Majesty’s greatness.”

“That’s right. But the scars left on my soul do not allow a body beyond this.”

The Spirit King, in the form of a child, said with a cold, calm expression.

It was awkward to see the elves bowing to a human child, but no one dared to point it out.

The Baron’s butler said to him.

“We will create a new body as soon as His Majesty’s soul is restored. We have imprisoned the Baron, so we will soon find out the technology for making dolls.”

“Did you miss that Marionette doppelganger?”

“…His whereabouts have become obscure.”

“Hmm, it seems he noticed. Well, we can’t do anything about the Demon King’s minion now, so even if we catch him, it won’t help.”

The Spirit King spread out the small child’s hand as if testing it and said.

“Well, there’s no rush. This body of mine has its good points.”

Hwareureureureuk!

Soon, he created the flames of the spirit. The intensity of the flame was extraordinary.

“Humans also have spirit affinity. This child is quite good. It may have been strengthened because it is a doll made of an elf’s body, but the affinity of the soul must be the original talent.”

“…Do you like the body?”

“Of course not. It’s not the body of a noble elf, but the body of a lowly human girl. But it’s worth watching once. If it grows up well, I want to copy the form of an elf.”

The gender will change, but that’s not a bad price to pay for a more powerful revival.

“Your Majesty, excuse me for a moment.”

At that time, someone was urgently informing the Baron’s butler of something.

“What’s going on?”

When the Spirit King asked, the butler bowed his head and said.

“I’m afraid there is an intruder inside. Judging from the circumstances, it seems to be a doppelganger….”

“Is it that doll’s doppelganger? Or were there more guys? Well, what he’s aiming for is obvious.”

Preventing his revival.

That way, the elves will depend more on the Demon King’s army.

“We have to stand up to the Emperor, but the Demon King’s army is also foolish and narrow-minded. They are not a race to be friends with for long.”

“That’s right, Your Majesty. Then we will further strengthen Your Majesty’s security-”

At that time, someone else hurriedly approached the butler and whispered in his ear.

The butler’s expression hardened when he heard those words.

“…What’s wrong?”

“Your Majesty, I am sorry, but… the prison where the Baron was imprisoned was attacked by a doppelganger. He disguised himself as me, so he was helpless….”

“Hoo… As expected, doppelgangers are cunning guys.”

He didn’t aim for himself right away.

But he aimed for the strategic elements needed by the elves. That’s the Baron.

“The Baron may have escaped.”

“It is my fault. Please kill me.”

“No. I cannot punish a loyalist for such a thing. And….”

The Spirit King said with cold eyes.

“Isn’t it a good thing? To test my strength.”

* * *

Pook, Seokeok!

-Threat eliminated.

“That’s the last guy.”

While infiltrating using the doppelganger disguise, I actively used the memories gained while stealing appearances for infiltration.

So, I decided to rescue the Baron first without aiming for the Spirit King right away.

Of course, I ultimately have to kill the Spirit King, but just rescuing the Baron can significantly disrupt the elves’ plans.

These guys are trying to mass-produce dolls to replace the army, but they don’t know the doll manufacturing technology without the Baron or Marionette.

Deolkeong-

“Baron, I came to save you.”

“….”

The Baron, who was imprisoned in the prison, was just sitting silently even at the Marionette’s words.

“Baron? What are you doing? I said I came to save you?”

“…It’s already too late, Marionette.”

“Too late….”

The Marionette looked a little pitiful. On the other hand, the Baron looked desperate.

“The Spirit King even took my daughter’s soul. I’m just a powerless father again.”

“Baron….”

“Go back. I’m going to die here.”

The Baron seemed to be in despair after the plan failed.

No, maybe he didn’t really desire success in the first place. Because the probability of success would have been weak.

“Are you giving up?”

“You are… Shadow.”

My appearance after releasing the disguise was the appearance that he saw as Shadow.

“Don’t you want to save your daughter? Was it so easy to give up?”

“…I’m already a guy who failed to protect his family.”

The Baron said in a gloomy voice. It was the voice of someone who had fallen into the abyss of despair and had already struggled as much as he could.

“Does giving up apply to someone who has already failed? In the end, it was just a futile act of someone who was already too late.”

“What if it’s not too late yet?”

“Ha, I thought about that. Even during the civil war. But no one came to find me. When the Emperor’s army came, I had already lost my family.”

…His words seemed to pierce my heart for some reason. I didn’t save all the people of the Empire.

“It’s the same powerless thing now as it was then.”

“No, it’s not.”

I released the disguise.

“You are….”

The Baron seemed to recognize me. Is it anger that he feels, or is it the awe of someone who has seen the Emperor? Or maybe not….

“I am not late this time. I ask you. Do you want to save your daughter?”

“…I want to save her. Can you save her? No, will you personally save the daughter of this traitor?”

I answered the question.

“I grant your request.”