I Became the Commander in a Trash Game Who Copies Skills-Chapter 162 : Chapter 162

Chapter 162. The Emperor (1)
Honestly, I was complacent.
I could make the excuse that I had a lot on my mind, but it was just an excuse.
Continuous battles, the Weird Priesthood and its high priest, the sacred relics, the surrounded Emperor, the brainwashed secret knights, the hindered expeditionary force, and the plague bomb.
If I thought of each of those as a quest, then I had missed the most important final quest.
There was a reason.
The Ratmen had rarely detonated more than one bomb in a single city.
Even those 'rare' cases were all from playthroughs where I personally played as the Plague Priesthood.
Most importantly, whether I was playing or it was an NPC faction, a bomb had never been detonated in an underground city.
First, it consumed too many resources.
Second, even though Ratmen were resistant to contamination, they weren't immune to such a catastrophic weapon.
But it had happened.
In retrospect, it was a misstep.
As I chewed on the feeling of defeat, I heard the mages who were operating the radar rush to the Emperor and urgently.
“A large-scale mana explosion was felt from a distance.”
“Its power is comparable to a joint spell from high-level mages.”
“I-It might even be another plague bomb…”
There’s a saying that disaster comes unavoidably.
I agree.
This was an unavoidable disaster.
Because the biochemical weapon, the plague bomb, was most potent in an enclosed space.
I was able to confirm this fact with my own eyes shortly after.
Before the dust cloud from the bombardment had even settled.
Through every opening in the cavern, a wave of sickly yellow plague began to pour down like a waterfall.
“Your Majesty! Please, evacuate!”
“Everyone, protect His Majesty-”
The expeditionary force evacuating to higher ground.
A mage rushing out to deploy a barrier, only to melt away.
The artillery corps collapsing a few of the passages spewing plague with precision fire.
In the midst of the chaotic expeditionary force, I thought.
Can we stop it?
Impossible.
Then can we escape?
Well.
Among the movement skills I had, Eyeball's spatial teleportation was the best.
But spatial teleportation was only possible within one's line of sight.
If I repeated summoning a doppelgänger at maximum distance and then teleporting to the edge of its vision, I might be able to get out before I died.
I might not.
The possibility of this being the end was higher.
Just like the radiation damage from any nuclear weapon, the plague bomb's power was at its strongest immediately after the explosion.
Well, personally, I thought I had prepared for my end well.
Olif would govern the territory well.
Several faces waiting for me in Wolfskrig did come to mind.
Olif, Alina, Karen, Bart, William, old man Poodle, the Princess of Blood, and…….
At the end of the faces that flashed by like a revolving lantern, an unexpected person also came to mind.
A connection from reality, not from this world.
It was my kin, whose life or death I no longer knew.
The emaciated body, lying on the bed with an oxygen mask and an IV needle, with its eyes closed as if dead, flickered before my eyes.
“…….”
It seemed I had grown attached.
To this world, and perhaps to that world as well.
I thought my heart had died along with my hopes on that day they were crushed.
But facing the approaching wave of sickly yellow plague, my heart, which was gradually picking up its pace, was saying otherwise.
I had to at least try to escape.
The plan was simple.
Teleport at the longest possible distance, quickly.
Through this, I would race to the surface with minimal exposure time.
It was then.
“Ash!”
The Emperor's voice.
I hesitated for a very brief moment.
Unfortunately, I couldn't save him.
Eyeball's spatial teleportation only targeted me.
Honestly, even my chances were slim.
As I finished preparing to layer defensive spells upon summoning, I was about to summon the doppelgänger at maximum range.
“Ash! Stay still!”
An irresistible force pulled me.
It was the power of a magitool the Emperor possessed.
I instinctively looked back.
The Emperor was reaching his hand towards me.
Among his bracelets, there was a magitool that could bind and pull a target.
Why was he using that ability now?
“Stay…!”
The question was short-lived.
The moment I saw a gray, halo-like aura spreading from the Emperor.
It was an ability I didn't know.
I could have dodged it with spatial teleportation, but I didn't.
It was my sixth sense.
Tick-Tocky cried out as well.
‘Tick-tock!’
The next moment, after the Emperor's gray halo erupted explosively.
A familiar darkness covered my vision.
***
A space like the universe.
A place I had seen a couple of times.
The place where the Outer Gods who broke their contract had conversed.
The place where I first heard Kkumteuli's voice.
“…….”
Did the Emperor do something?
Or did the sacred relics save me?
I didn't know.
The voices of the Outer Gods couldn't be heard.
My body was paralyzed, unable to move.
I somehow managed to turn my head.
Not far away, I saw the silhouette of a person.
It was the Emperor.
Next to him was Archduke Gabir.
The knights, led by Siollus.
I also saw a few nobles and commanders.
Darkness once again covered my vision.
***
[Deploying [Warrior’s Binding].]
[Enemies defeated have been bound.]
[Ratman Weird Priest (5), Ratman Corruption Priest (31), Rat Giant (2), Obese Variant Ratman (12), Variant Ratman (192), Ratman Machinegunner (2), Ratman Warchief (61), Ratman Marksman (19), Ratman Claw Warrior (341), Ratman Hunter (77), Ratman Slave Soldier (709)]
***
Sunlight piercing through my eyelids.
The damp humidity, like mist.
The scent of wet stone and wood.
The soft, plush sensation covering my entire body.
“…….”
They say humans are creatures of adaptation.
If you lose consciousness multiple times, you get used to it.
It seemed certain that I was on a bed in a well-ventilated room.
That was a good sign in many ways.
First, let's check my body's condition.
“…….”
It seemed it would be difficult.
My senses hadn't fully returned.
My eyes couldn't see properly, and my ears couldn't hear.
However, a countermeasure existed.
I immediately scattered mana in all directions.
[Deploying [Scent of Water].]
[Deploying [Vibration Sense].]
[Deploying [Wind Vane]….]
The success or failure of the expedition could be debated, but the personal gains I made from this expedition were incomparable to any other war.
Especially in terms of skills, it was difficult to list them all one by one.
The levels of skills acquired ranged from level 1 to level 9.
The types were also diverse, including spells, miracles, martial arts, various weapon operation methods, the curses of the Weird Priesthood, and the disgusting arts of the Corruption Priesthood.
In particular, having closely observed the mages' spells during the battle in the cavern, the most intense battlefield, I was now able to use almost all spells below the middle tier of the Four Great Magic Towers.
In other words, I could deploy the ‘Mage Radar’ by myself.
That ‘Mage Radar’ began to scan the room I was in and the entire building.
Honestly, at this point, shouldn't I be called a one-man empire rather than a one-man army….
‘How can his first thought upon waking up be to boast about himself. Do you all understand?’
…If only I didn't hear that discouraging voice in my head, I would have fully savored this joy.
It was Eyeball.
Even though he was a relative newcomer, why was he always like that?
They say the eyes are the window to the soul, but since he had multiple pupils that looked like spots, his soul seemed quite stained too.
‘Look at that. Calling himself the master, but look at him belittling a sacred relic's appearance. He benefited so much from my abilities this time.’
‘Eyeball my boy. I understand how you feel, but please watch your words. No matter what, isn't the master a patient? A patient who was on the verge of death at that.’
‘A patient? Isn't he just exhausted from combat fatigue and being caught up in the Warrior's power? He doesn't have any major external injuries, does he?’
‘Didn't he resolve to die? As you know, soldiers' wounds also remain in the mind. Isn't a bit of delirium a light and common symptom?’
‘Omnyom?’
‘Tick-tock….’
“……Cough.”
If only my voice had worked, I would have told them all to shut up.
Beings who could read minds were certainly unwelcome guests.
Whether it was surface psychology or whatever, it was like I had no privacy.
Anyway, that's right.
I was alive.
I didn't know how I was alive.
My last memory was of the surging plague, the Emperor's voice, and a space of pitch-black darkness like the universe.
I would figure that out bit by bit.
My various spells and mana, in place of my not-yet-fully-returned senses, groped the entire space I was in.
Coincidentally, just as that search was ending, I heard a voice calling me.
“My lord Viscount?”
It was a familiar voice.
“O…lif?”
“Oh, my lord Viscount, by Luark, my goodness. You’re awake.”
It was certain.
I could feel his presence as my senses slowly returned.
My recovering senses and the mana scattered in all directions told me exactly where I was.
“Rest assured, you are safe here.”
Wolfskrig.
The Lord's castle.
***
It took quite a while for my senses to recover.
After almost an hour, I finally managed to open my eyes and sit up, leaning halfway against the bed.
In my past life, I had developed nearsightedness late, probably from looking at the computer for too long, and I was experiencing the blurry vision without glasses for the first time in a while.
A woman in a white uniform, who I couldn't tell if she was a priest or a maid, brought me thin porridge and water.
Olif personally adjusted the angle of the bed.
My muscles hadn't fully recovered their strength yet.
“…….”
“You were the first to wake up, so you will recover quickly.”
I tried clenching my hands.
The trembling grip felt somewhat awkward.
It felt exactly like this a long time ago when I woke up in the intensive care unit after an accident in the military.
Anyway, this time, I hadn't sustained as much damage as back then.
It was just that I hadn't regained all my strength, as if I had woken from a long sleep.
While I ate the thin porridge bit by bit with a trembling hand, Olif explained the situation so far.
“Last night, a powerful mana surged from the western forest of Wolfskrig.”
An intense flash.
An explosive overflow of mana.
A gray mist had covered a part of the forest.
Karen, who had been guarding her post in the cabin in the western forest while I was away, had immediately contacted Olif through a crystal sphere.
“I immediately led an investigation team to the forest. In fact, we had been preparing for a few days. Priestess Alina said she had a dream.”
“A dream……?”
“She said it was a dream where a faint gray hand descended from the sky and placed you, my lord, and dozens of people in the city.”
“…….”
What kind of absurd dream was that?
If a saintess had an absurd dream, did it become a prophetic dream?
It wasn't like if Picasso drew something, it would become a multi-billion dollar piece of art, whether it was a doodle or not.
As my throat was hoarse and I couldn't speak, the explanation continued.
“We found survivors. You, my lord, Randal, the commanders of the Imperial Army, nobles… and, His Majesty the Emperor was there too. Everyone was completely exhausted. As it was nighttime, we immediately brought them to the Lord's castle for treatment and ordered everyone present to keep silent.”
‘It must be the Warrior's power.’
The puzzle pieces were roughly fitting together.
The high priest of the Weird Priesthood, whose soul I had captured and turned into a soul core, had said in life.
If one collected two or more sacred relics, one would gain the power of the Warrior.
The Emperor had two sacred relics until recently.
The two sacred relics that the high priest of the Weird Priesthood had obtained were originally the Emperor's.
It was not a guess, but a certainty.
It must have been the Warrior's power he obtained then that rescued us.
That power rescued us from the underground city where seven plague bombs had exploded, quarantined us in an unknown space for about a week, and then released us into the western forest of Wolfskrig.
Compared to the powers possessed by me or the high priest, it was a rather strange ability, but I would have to hear the details from the Emperor.
Anyway, I knew the whole story.
But there was also unexpected content.
What caught my attention in Olif's subsequent story was the number.
“There were eighty-seven.”
The number of survivors Olif and the search party found after scouring the forest.
“Eighty-seven…?”
“Yes.”
That day, the number of the expeditionary force that fought against the Ratmen in the cavern reached seven thousand.
***
Having expanded the Lord's castle a few months before leaving Wolfskrig was a great help.
If the building had been its previous size, it would have been somewhat insufficient to hide eighty-seven patients.
Of course, with that much medicine and food coming and going, it was difficult to completely avoid outside attention, and some administrative officials and priests mobilized for treatment couldn't help but be vaguely aware of the situation.
So, I spread a rumor with a little seasoning.
That Viscount Ash, while training in the western forest, happened to find foreign nobles attacked by beastmen and brought them to the Lord's castle to nurse them.
Anyway, among those eighty-seven survivors, I was the fastest to recover.
It might have been because I was the first to wake up, as Olif said.
Or perhaps it was because I had experience being exposed to that universe-like space several times.
From my few experiences, just being in that space for a short time made a person taste the extremity of helplessness.
It was a feeling of lethargy unique to a place where time and space were distorted, as if it were eating away at your body.
Fortunately, from the day after I woke up, other survivors began to wake up one by one, and on the seventh day, almost everyone had regained consciousness.
However, the last remaining person worried everyone who had woken up before.
Because he was none other than the Emperor.
And ten days after falling into the forest.
“My lord Viscount, His Majesty is looking for you.”
The Emperor had woken up.
Upon hearing that he was looking for me as soon as he woke up, I immediately went to him.
In the room were Archduke Gabir, the captains of the Imperial Secret Knight Order, Olif, and Alina.
The Emperor, lying on the bed, greeted me.
“Ash.”
His complexion was not good, even to be polite.