Book 4 Chapter 96 - The Missing Princess (1)

Surrounded by the members of the Spiritual Society, Woohyuk was taken to the Izuna Royal Palace.

He was suspected of scheming some plans that could harm the kingdom as he had infiltrated the royal library’s hidden section.

Fortunately, the people who detained him had only confiscated Grandia that was on his waist. The other artifacts were left untouched, most likely because he had turned himself in without resisting.

[Sieg, anything to report?]

[Nothing happening here. Tinia and Silvia are doing good as usual.]

[Contact me immediately if something suspicious happens.]

[Understood.]

As he walked through the hallways of the palace, Woohyuk verified the safety of the siblings.

He was worried that the head of the Witch Cult, Amy would target them.

Therefore, Woohyuk wished to finish dealing with his business in the Izuna Kingdom and to return to his country as fast as possible.

“Where are you taking me?”

“...You shall know when we arrive.”

The blond young man looked at him in annoyance.

He was probably the head of the Spiritual Society and a high-ranking priest of the Izuna Kingdom.

‘They called him Ronald, I believe.’

However, he could not rival Woohyuk as he had undone two of Verserios’ seals.

‘If they wish to fight me using holy power, they’ll have to bring the Saintess here.’

Choi Kayoon had probably run far away by now. The moment had come for him to make his escape.

Ronald was in possession of Grandia, so Woohyuk only had to subdue him.

He began to observe his surroundings and plan out his escape route, but…

“Sir, Sir Ronald!”

A knight approached them from the other side of the hallway.

“What is the matter, Sir Lannis?”

“Pr, Princess Lizbeth is missing!”

“What?!”

Ronald and the other priests were dumbfounded and couldn’t form words.

They were actually worried that the shadow killer might make his move within the city again, and now, the princess herself had disappeared!

‘So the princess went missing?’

Woohyuk had never heard of this incident while he was gathering information before his regression. He had most likely changed the future by intervening in the shadow killer incidents.

‘She didn’t run away because of her arranged marriage, did she?’

The possibilities of this incident being caused by the Witch Cult or some demons were extremely high, considering the events that were happening within the kingdom.

Although this was a foreign country to him, there were many incidents that he was reluctant to ignore.

‘There’s no benefit for us if we let the Izuna Kingdom become a nest of demons.’

The Rhine Kingdom needed to have at least one allied country amongst those in its proximity. That would allow them to avoid international isolation.

It was already too late to intervene in the Dane and Lydia Kingdoms, so the last option was the Izuna Kingdom.

Compared to the other nation, the Izuna Kingdom wasn’t victim to a lot of incidents, so Woohyuk was planning on leaving it without getting involved. However, now that things had come to this, he was about to step in and clean up the mess himself.

“Sigh…”

The priests in the corridor were angered by Woohyuk’s nonchalant sigh.

“You truly don’t understand your position right now, do you?”

“Do you know something about the princess’ disappearance?”

The timing of this incident was impeccable. Now, Woohyuk was suspected of being involved with the princess’ disappearance.

As he began to ponder his next moves, Ronald spoke up.

“We have no choice. We must bring this criminal before His Majesty.”

“Is, is that appropriate? He’s a really suspicious person…”

“Her Highness Lizbeth comes first before the library’s secret section.”

If Princess Lizbeth were to be harmed, the entire Izuna Kingdom would be impacted and shook.

As the Chief Court Magician and the king’s closest aide, Ronald had to avoid the worst case scenario as much as possible.

As Ronald rushed to the throne room, Woohyuk made a satisfied smile.

‘Right, seeing the king in person would be the fastest way to deal with this.’

He could erase all suspicions as long as he properly came up with a believable excuse about his infiltration into the library.

Soon, they stood before a grand door. Once they opened, Woohyuk stepped in and saw the throne room, where the vassals stood on each side of the hall and a grey-haired man sat on the throne.

Henry the 4th.

He was currently panicking due to the missing Princess Lizbeth.

“Your Majesty, we have captured a man who had infiltrated the royal library.”

“Bring him over.”

King Henry glanced at Woohyuk with a sharp gaze.

He was also suspecting him as one of the criminals who had conspired the princess’ disappearance.

Ronald turned to Woohyuk and spoke to him, even before receiving a royal command.

“You better reveal everything you know. Otherwise, you’ll experience pain worse than death that’ll make you wish you were in hell.”

“...”

Woohyuk thought of it as a cute and harmless threat. He was technically someone who could single-handedly destroy an entire kingdom on his own.

He scoffed on the inside as he approached the king with Ronald.

“Why did you infiltrate the royal library?”

“To find a certain book.”

“Watch your manners before the king!”

The astonished Ronald swung his staff towards Woohyuk’s head.

Swoosh.

However, the attack did not meet its mark.

Woohyuk had avoided it by twisting his body.

“This, this bastard!”

“Henry the 4th. I have an offer to propose as the Rhine Kingdom’s monarch.”

Woohyuk stared at King Henry while ignoring the raging Ronald.

He hadn’t hesitated to reveal his identity since he was being treated as a criminal.

“The Rhine Kingdom’s monarch? Is that the truth?”

Indeed, the Rhine Kingdom was the only neighboring country where the throne’s owner had recently changed.

Woohyuk nodded as the king stared at him with a puzzled look.

“That is correct. I had hidden my identity due to some circumstances.”

Woohyuk removed the jester’s mask and was back to his normal appearance.

A black-haired young man with a graceful look.

Woohyuk took out the royal seal as proof, but King Henry shook his head.

“What are those circumstances you speak of? What are you secretly scheming in my kingdom?”

“I have already mentioned this earlier, but I was looking for a certain ancient book.”

Woohyuk spoke of the events at Count Oswald’s mansion and appropriately explained his situation.

King Henry was surprised after listening to the end of the story.

“You were the one who saved Count Oswald from the shadow killer? I was not aware of that information.”

“The Witch Cult is probably also the culprit behind Princess Lizbeth’s disappearance.”

The Witch Cult was trying to intervene in the Izuna Kingdom.

But with the presence of a variable they had not predicted, their plans had changed.

King Henry nodded at Woohyuk’s explanation.

“No wonder you took the Rhine Kingdom’s throne with your own abilities. I understand, Chun Woohyuk. I shall trust your words. I will also forget about the fact that you were inside the secret section.”

“A wise choice. Now, would it be possible for your subjects to leave this hall other than your most trusted subordinates?”

“That is preposterous! Your Majesty, you must not believe this man’s words! We must immediately torture…”

“I understand. Everyone, leave this room.”

King Henry waved his hand at his vassals. Soon, they left the hall in an orderly manner, and Ronald’s eyes went wide at this sight.

“Your, Your Majesty…”

“Please stay silent, Sir Ronald.”

King Henry was currently only interested in the safety of his daughter.

If he could learn of her whereabouts, making his vassals leave was but a small request to him.

“It’s become a lot quieter.”

Woohyuk was now satisfied.

“I’ve done as you have requested me. Now, what is this offer of yours?”

“Allow me to help the search for Princess Lizbeth. Instead, please promise that you will come to my kingdom’s aid with sufficient military reinforcements in times of crisis.”

“Military reinforcements… Indeed, that would be acceptable if you were to bring my daughter back safely.”

“Are you accepting the offer?”

“Indeed. However, I will come to your aid through military support only once. If we keep dispatching the army to the Rhine Kingdom, our own nation will be in jeopardy.”

“Alright. Let us do as such.”

“Ronald, return the weapon to its owner.”

“Yes? Yes…”

At King Henry’s order, Ronald handed Grandia to Woohyuk with a dumbfounded face.

He was confused as the person he had been treating as a criminal was in fact the king of a neighboring country.

“Could you assign this man to me as well?”

“Take him if you need him. He is called Ronald, the chief court magician.”

Other than him, there were also the royal knights and the city guards who were at his disposition.

After receiving the rights to command them in cases of emergencies from the king, Woohyuk left the throne room.

“Ronald, where was Princess Lizbeth when she disappeared?”

“At the fountain garden in front of the palace.”

As the fountain garden was quite large in scale, it was the perfect location to kidnap the unarmed princess.

Woohyuk went to the crime scene with Ronald and the other members of the Spiritual Society.

‘I sense demonic energy here.’

Although the incident had happened a while ago, the turbid energy was still hanging in the air.

Woohyuk spoke as he scanned the surrounding area with the Archeologist’s Golden Magnifying Glass.

“It appears that they used a flying monster.”

“Why do you think so?”

“I’ve found the footsteps of a gargoyle.”

In reality, there was only a small hole in the ground, but the magnifying glass drew the outline of a footprint.

Following the gargoyle’s traces, Woohyuk discovered that the location it most likely flew off towards was…

‘The wasteland.’

A place the notorious and infamous alchemist called Lucas had secluded himself in his past life.

Hidden there, he used the forbidden human transmutation technique to mass produce chimeras.

But then, he caught the attention of Necromancer Logan and left for the northern Norton Kingdom...

‘Using the results and information from his countless experiments, he created the undead guards.’

Woohyuk wasn’t sure if Lucas was currently living in the wasteland.

But the possibility of the Witch Cult using it as their base was extremely high.

‘If both of them are located there, it’ll be advantageous for me.’

Lucas was needed to strengthen Woohyuk’s army of undeads in the future, while he had to find the Witch Cult to rescue Princess Lizbeth.

Woohyuk turned around to face Ronald.

“We must gather people for the Witch Cult Subjugation Forces. How many can you gather before the sun sets?”

“If we mobilize the kingdom’s army, I can get ten to twenty thousand troops.”

“Gather as many cavalrymen as you can. Time is greatly limited.”

This was no ordinary war. Their mission was to rescue Princess Lizbeth.

Even if they had an overwhelming number of soldiers, if they were unable to give chase and catch up to the kidnappers, they would be useless.

However, since the Witch Cult had gotten involved with the monsters as well, it was dangerous to take cavalrymen only.

“Should we inform the clans about this? They are not regular soldiers, but when gathered, they make quite a powerful group.”

“Of course. But we’ll have to give them another mission.”

If Woohyuk mobilized the national army, the capital city of Neferti would be left defenseless.

It was best to prepare themselves for the worst and make the clans protect the city while searching around its vicinity.

“Then will you let the other mercenaries move autonomously?”

“I cannot afford to command over everyone individually.”

Clans and their members could use their unity rings to exchange information in real time, but mercenaries took longer to send information between one another.

In either case, mercenaries were a minority amongst his forces, so there was no need for Woohyuk to worry too much about them.

“We shall go prepare ourselves immediately. The wasteland is quite the far destination.”

“Return before the sun sets.”

The sun had already begun its descent as the sky turned orange.

Woohyuk wanted to depart immediately on his own, but he needed a lot of people with him to find the princess.

He had to operate with the people of the Izuna Kingdom for a while.

‘Finally, another chance to eliminate Amy.’

He was a bit bothered by the fact that the head of the Witch Cult was monitoring him and his companions.

As the members of the Spiritual Society ran off in a hurry, Woohyuk stared into the warm horizon.

Tonight was going to be a long night.

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