Masked Knight Chapter 160

"You mean…" Nicole was surprised as she looked at the Pope, Corsica VI. She could not help but glance back at the Empress.

The white-robed Corsica VI smiled faintly as he gently held his staff. Although he was just standing there, it was as if he was looking down at the two women. He lightly said, "You did not hear wrongly. I came here to send my regards to the Empress as the representative of Church of the Radiant Empire! I came to wish Her Highness the Empress good health and to wish prosperity and good luck to the future Emperor."

Nicole exclaimed, "Your Excellency. Does that mean you are willing to stand by the side of Her Highness the Empress?"

Corsica VI smiled meaningfully and then said, "The G.o.d's religion does not interfere with the empire's Imperial monarchy. We are just a group of believers of G.o.d. We would not sit by idly if there was anyone that defied G.o.d's will or overturned G.o.d's authority."

Nicole took a deep breath and asked, "Your Excellency, are you saying that Prince Barond…"

However, Corsica VI no longer spoke. He just looked at the Empress and then nodded his head. After that, he turned away and left.

The Empress was surprised. She looked at Nicole and whispered, "Miss Nicole. Would the Pope really support us?"

Nicole thought for a moment and then replied, "Your Highness. We can believe in the Pope's words. However, we must still take precaution."

Nicole looked at the Empress' dazed expression and sighed. She then whispered, "You should know about the G.o.ds at the Northern Continent."

In the Northern continent, the G.o.d's religion had higher authority than the kings from all the countries there. This was because the Northern Roland Continent did not have a strong central power. On the other hand, the strong Radiant Empire existed on the Radiant continent. The Imperial power and the religious power were equally matched, and neither was stronger than the other.

"Could it be that…"

Nicole nodded her head and said softly, "The G.o.d's religion constantly say that the people of the Northern Continent are heathens. However, they are actually jealous of the power held by the churches in the Northern Continent! Now, there is a struggle for the throne. The monarchy is currently at its weakest. If the Church wants to expand their influence, there is no better time than now. Prince Barond is an ambitious and strong character. If he succeeds, he would not be manipulated by the Church. On the other hand, if your son were to become the Emperor, the young child would be easily manipulated!"

At that time, Prince Barond was in Marquis Garoline's mansion. Garoline calmly said, "Your Highness. You must keep calm! It is alright even if the Pope had met with the Empress! The Church doesn't normally interfere in the fight for the throne. They would not have an excuse to give their support now! As long as you insist on the inheritance, the Pope would not be able to summon the Flame Warriors against us recklessly! Their support is just to gain an advantage!"

Prince Barond nodded. "Unfortunately, Master Autumn constantly guards the Imperial Palace. Otherwise, we could just a.s.sa.s.sinate the Empress, and all our problems would be solved!"

Garoline smiled faintly and replied, "Your Highness, it is best not to do all these things! These actions are too obvious and would affect your future image! Although the other n.o.bles may not say anything, it does not mean that they would be loyal to you. Do you want a complete empire or a fragmented empire?"

Garoline paused for a moment. He then smiled and said, "Your Highness. There is something that you should immediately do."

"What is it?"

Garoline laughed and said, "Don't you have a man working in the court, in the medical office? Although the Emperor's health was not always good, he had suddenly collapsed. It is as if… Hahaha…"

Prince Barond turned gloomy and sneered. "Marquis, you don't have to be so secretive! The past is the past! Now, we stand together, and there is nothing to hide from you! Yes. Some of my people are medical officers. The Emperor's health was not always good because over the last two years, I have given him something that I have specially prepared."

Garoline trembled lightly, but his expression remained the same. He then whispered, "In that case, this must be done immediately! That medical officer must be eliminated immediately! You must not leave any loose ends behind, otherwise your succession may be in danger!"

Prince Barond frowned. "It is not difficult to get rid of him. However, if we get rid of him now, we would no longer know about the Emperor's condition. That is because in these two years, he is the only person I could depend on."

Garoline looked at him with ridiculing eyes and said, "You do not have to worry. You have arranged this for over two years. You no longer need people to report to you about the Emperor's condition. You yourself know what the Emperor eats. Why would you need to worry? We just need to wait for His Majesty to die… then we will immediately take action!"

Prince Barond nodded his head.

Garoline then thought for a moment and said, "Right now, the people with the Empress would be more anxious than us! They are definitely anxious to acquire the t.i.tle of Crown Prince. What's more, they must do it before the Emperor dies! If the Emperor is dead and the position of Crown Prince is still empty, you would have an excuse to inherit the throne! They would start acting in about two days. We just need to wait and respond."

Before Prince Barond could reply, someone had entered and reported.

"An order came from the Imperial Palace. All n.o.bles and officials in the Imperial Capital are to attend an a.s.sembly tomorrow in the Radiant Hall inside the Imperial Palace!"

Prince Barond frowned. "a.s.sembly? What a.s.sembly? The Emperor is on his deathbed! How are we to a.s.semble? "

His subordinate did not speak but continued to stand there with his head down.

Garoline waved his hands, prompting the man to leave. He then gave a faint smile and said, "That is an order by the Empress, issued in the name of the Emperor! In accordance with convention, before the Emperor dies, we must notify the other ministers of his illness. Although the news had spread in the past few days, there was no formal notice. I believe that during this a.s.sembly, they would first declare that the Emperor would not last. After that, they would declare that the Empress was pregnant and reserve the t.i.tle of Crown Prince! Even if the t.i.tle is not reserved, the matter would be put up. Those two women are probably behind this…"

"Hmph!" Prince Barond became gloomy. "Could it be so easy? I could immediately send troops and surround the Imperial Palace. Master Autumn would not be able to stop all of them by himself."

Garoline's expression remained unchanged as he shook his head. "No! You cannot do anything yet. The Emperor is still alive! If you attack the Imperial Palace before the Emperor is dead, it would become a rebellion! It is perfect if you can get rid of all of them in one swoop, but what if they escape? What if they escape to the Northwest or the South and make a clarion call for all the local garrison soldiers? An all out war would break out in the Empire itself! Let me ask you. Who do you think could rally the army? Do you think the soldiers in the army would choose to follow you or the Tulip Family banner?"

Prince Barond immediately became quiet. He understood that he would not be able to rally the army as well as the Tulip Family. Even if he had two out of the four biggest armies In the Empire, he would not dare to directly start the war.

The Empire has hundreds of thousands of local garrisons in various provinces. Besides that, the Northern Legion and the Central Cavalry were on his side mainly because their commanders were his own people. However, if a war broke out, would those soldiers still listen to him or follow their commander's orders?"

Prince Barond sighed as he thought about this and suddenly looked at Garoline. He then asked, "So according to your judgement, should we go to the Imperial Palace tomorrow?"

Garoline laughed and then said, "Of course, we are going! In fact, they are hoping that we would not go! That way, there would not be anybody objecting when they officially make the child in the Empress' stomach the Crown Prince! We must definitely go tomorrow. At that time, you must insist on the right of succession, and you must not give in! The child is not yet born, so could the n.o.bles trust him? We must present the counter-arguments tomorrow! We can then see who the ministers and n.o.bles support! That is why, you must be aggressive tomorrow. It is fine to also be arrogant and domineering! Tomorrow is the time to show your strength to all in the Imperial Capital! Force them to choose their faction!"

That night, two figures appeared at the streets near the Imperial Palace. Under the moonlight, a large and a small shadow moved silently.

"You. First you made me give you a horse. Now you are making me run around with you at night. What are you doing?"

The other person laughed lightly and said, "Look at you, so curious that you cannot hold it in any longer. I did say I am going to do something interesting in the Imperial Capital. You heard me say the word 'interesting', and you decided to follow me around. But now, you have become impatient."

Sky spat and then said, "You are a really strange person. If it was not because you were a little bit interesting, I would have flattened you for making me wait!"

The man then shrugged his shoulders and said, "It is not difficult to flatten me … You have a strong Domain Force. There are not many in this world that you cannot flatten. However, if you flatten me, you are going to miss something interesting!"

Sky started scratching his cheek in frustration and cursed, "Alright! Do your thing quickly! I don't even know if you are a person or a ghost. It is one thing if you can see that I have a strong Domain Force. However, it is irritating to hear you keep saying 'Domain Force'. Did I write the word 'Domain Force' on my head? Even though you don't have a strong 'Domain Force' yourself, you are also not that weak! I have been feeling you out since we entered the Imperial Capital. Don't think you can hide your strength from me!"

The man laughed again and said, "You are that boy's friend. Coincidentally, I am his friend too. If you really want to help him, I suggest you close your mouth!"

Sky gave him a supercilious look, but he finally kept his mouth shut.

Although the street was not far from the Imperial Palace, it was extremely quiet. Normally, this street would be full of security soldiers patrolling the area even at night.

However, these soldiers had been replaced by the Central Cavalry soldiers. In order to avoid unnecessary conflict, Prince Barond had ordered them not to get too close to the Imperial Palace. Besides that, Nicole had also ordered the Imperial Guards not to step out of the Imperial Palace to avoid unnecessary trouble. As a result, the streets near the palace became a small buffer zone.

"This is the place!" The man suddenly smiled and pointed at a residence. He then rushed up and jumped over the walls. Sky cursed but he decided to follow the man. The house was not big, but the fittings didn't look simple. It seemed like the owner of the residence had a fairly high position. Besides that, living so close to the Imperial Capital also meant that the owner was not a simple person.

Sky and the man had walked two steps in when the man suddenly whispered, "Huh? Strange…"

Sky also nodded and frowned. "Why is there a smell of blood?" He looked at the man beside him and gave a strange smile. "Have you set a trap for me? If this is the case, I will twist your head off!"

The man glanced at him and said, "Shut up, fatty! I don't even know what you use your head for!"

The two then strutted into the courtyard without any attempt to hide themselves. Sky had said, "If anyone spotted us, we could just knock them unconscious with a kick in the head. I never sneak around... ever!"

They followed the stench of blood and entered a room. That was where they saw a corpse.

"Who is this man?" Sky frowned. "Did you drag me around at night to see a dead person?"

The man showed a contemplative expression before looking back at Sky. He then said, "This is a medical officer from the Imperial Palace. Sigh… I did not expect it to be him… Looks like my luck is really good.

I only picked a house at random, and I have already found the house of Prince Barond's spy henchman."

Sky shook his head. "What are you talking about? What do you want to do?"

The man laughed. "What do I want to do? Let me tell you. I want to sneak into the Imperial Palace. I intended to find a medical officer close to the Emperor. After that, I would pose as him to enter the Imperial Palace. This guy is the person I was looking for tonight. I did not expect to find him so coincidentally. From his appearance, I can tell that he has just been killed. Do you understand? The Emperor was fine all this while, but he is suddenly dying. Prince Barond must have ordered this guy to tamper with somethings . This guy is also dead now. He was most likely silenced by Prince Barond. Such a simple matter that an old man like me can easily deduce. Your head is so big…" At this point, the man noticed Sky's resentful expression and changed the topic. "Fatty. Do you want me to show you something interesting?"

Sky coldly grunted.

The man smiled lightly and said, "Let me tell you. I a.s.sembled this body of mine together a few days ago. I feel that it is difficult to use because this carca.s.s is… Sigh. On the other hand, that body is good, and the person had just died. Let this old man borrow it!"

At this moment, the man started to laugh in a strange manner.

Sky's face revealed a strange expression and asked, "What did you say? Your current body is… not yours?"

The man smiled as a strange light suddenly shone from his body. His clothes started to gradually break into pieces. His muscles then started dropping piece by piece to the floor...

Sky was stunned, and his skin broke into gooseb.u.mps. He immediately moved far away.

The man continued to laugh until all of the muscles dropped off and revealed a set of skeleton. However, his bones were not white like an ordinary skeleton. Instead, they had a metallic l.u.s.ter.

Sky could not help but murmur, "What the h.e.l.l. What strange creature are you… I have never seen this… this...this breed!" He then cursed. "d.a.m.n! A real ghost."

The skeleton was finally visible in full, and its lower jaw started to move. It looked at the broken body parts on the ground and laughed. After that, it said, "Sigh. I had to use a lot of my power to get that body. Its a pity that I have to abandon it. After all, it was just an experiment."

The skeleton then looked at the dumbstruck Sky and gave a strange laugh. "Fatty, why are you in a daze? You are looking at the results of my long studies! If it was not because I saw that energy conversion of that Mystic Dragon's body in the South, I would not have thought of a way to get a body for myself!"

After that, the skeleton creaked as it walked up to the corpse of the medical officer and a strange light burst from it. After that, the skeleton gradually turned transparent.

The skeleton then lay down on the corpse. Its body became transparent like air and seemed to enter the corpse...

In the South, a mighty convoy of cavalry galloped swiftly towards the capital. Leading the cavalry was a blonde young man riding a dark horse. His blue eyes revealed his anxiety. Numerous heavily armed cavalrymen followed tightly right behind him. They followed the leading horse quickly with a resolute expression and a glint in their eyes.

The person on the dark horse was Rody. At that moment, he had once again changed back into Seth's appearance.

As he rode quickly, he could not help but touch his face with one hand. "I really did not expect to need this mask again!"