While preparing for the Eastern Conquest plan, Woohyuk figured out what had happened during his brief absence.

As expected, Emperor Tiberius was a.s.sa.s.sinated, followed by Eleanora's ascension to the throne.

As a result of this sudden ascension, it seemed that there was quite the confusion in the Holy Aperian Empire, but the imperial power was strong enough that it seemed to regain stability relatively soon.

Eleanora wasn't a woman who was sloppy, nor was she the type that could be beaten back by those who sought her throne.

'Granver and the Seven Paladins will take care of her.'

The Seven Paladins should have died with Emperor Tiberius, but Woohyuk told Agares to save them.

Of course, their resistance was strong, so some were injured, but that didn't mean that they couldn't perform the perfunctory guardians.h.i.+p of the Emperor.

'I'll have to visit Eleanora sooner or later.'

To start on the expedition to the east, her help was absolutely necessary.

But before that, internal maintenance was necessary.

To fill the empty Divine Throne seats, Woohyuk had to pay attention to how others were growing.

After putting down the report, Woohyuk called upon his colleagues and va.s.sals, who had been scattered, and convened a meeting.

“Now, the time has come for you all to be active. If you're lucky and deserving, you might win a Divine Throne seat, so do your best,” he said at the end of the meeting.

Until now, most of them only took on relatively small tasks, so they didn't have a chance to play around on the main stage.

Thus, this moment right now was their time to s.h.i.+ne.

Furthermore, Woohyuk hadn't poured enormous amounts of money to nurture his talents for nothing.

After speaking to the entire group, Woohyuk had a one-on-one conversation with his gathered followers in turn. As he faced Helena, she said, “Everyone has grown tremendously because you've forced them to train without any recognition or time off. You should be very proud.”

“… Are you dissatisfied with my teaching method, Helena?” he asked.

“No way. I'm very satisfied with this situation,” she responded.

He had also devised a way to prevent the impending two catastrophes. Additionally, Woohyuk had become a demiG.o.d by surpa.s.sing his human limitations.

It could be said that many of humanity's worries have decreased.

The only task left for him now was to completely rebuild the Ark of Knowledge and then interact with the Holy Grail and Verserios.

Of course, this viewpoint was purely from the standpoint of an Etheria Rodinus member.

“Don't even think about using me. The results will not be good,” Woohyuk warned, understanding Helena's undertone and unsaid meaning.

“Oh, do you think I possess such a black heart? Isn't it you who wanted to desperately change the world and point it in the right direction?” Helena said as she reiterated and emphasized that each of their ultimate purposes were the same.

When Woohyuk was arguing with her, Aris approached and spoke to him, “Asura, the study you entrusted me with today is complete.”

“Are you talking about Alice the Queen of Thorns and the Unit 1 Ishvar?”

“Yes. In the case of the Queen of Thorns, we succeeded in isolating and extracting the factor with regenerative ability, and the initial defects of the Ishvar Cavalry's artificial intelligence have been corrected. Now, ma.s.s production is possible.”

But the question was how he would use the results of this study.

Woohyuk pondered for a while and then called on Cadiz, the Death Alchemist.

“Inject the Queen of Thorns Queen regenerative strain into this guy. It would be troublesome if he died in a mishap,” Woohyuk said aloud.

“H-Heek…”

Cadiz looked at Woohyuk and Aris alternately with a terrified expression.

He thought he'd become like that monstrous woman, Alice.

Her ability to regenerate itself wasn't bad, but he was reluctant since there might be side-effects.

Woohyuk, understanding Cadiz's concerns, said to him, “There will probably be no change in your appearance. Injecting you with this strain won't mean that you'll transform into a person of the Kazak race. Just because you get the regeneration ability of the Queen of Thorns doesn't mean your life will change.”

“… If you say so, I'll believe in you,” he stuttered.

“Aris, let's start,” Woohyuk ordered.

“Okay!”

Aris opened her toolbox, which she was holding, and took out a syringe filled with green liquid.

She immediately stuck it into Cadiz's forearm…

“Ugh…” Cadiz whimpered as he trembled with anxiety all over her body.

“Is it done now?” Woohyuk asked.

“We have to wait a minute for the cells to mutate. If he's fine after that, we can a.s.sume that we have succeeded,” Aris explained.

“Hold on, wait! Then, doesn't this mean there was a possibility of failure!” Cadiz shouted, feeling incredulous. 

Cadiz glared at Aris with the expression of a hurt animal.

He had become a live subject for her clinical trials.

However, contrary to his concern, no side effects were observed within one minute.

“It looks like it was a success. Then, shall we do an experiment?” Aris said aloud.

“H-Hey…!” Cadiz yelled. He felt like he was being used and abused like a rag doll.

When Woohyuk took out Verserios, Cadiz's face became utterly pale, completely drained of blood.

At that moment, Cadiz wondered if it was truly necessary to use the foremost demon weapon to check his regeneration ability.

He tried to stop Woohyuk, but it was too late.

Pu-Wook!

Verserios penetrated Cadiz's heart with conviction.

Yoo Kayoung, who saw this scene, hurriedly covered Song Anna's eyes, who was next to her.

“Don't peek! It's too violent.”

“… Yes, sister.”

Even though they had spent 40 years in the training hall and 20 years in the Arcane Tower together, whenever Yoo Kayoung looked at Song Anna, she still considered her a child.

Apart from her growing magic power, Song Anna still needed someone to watch over her.

Until now, Yoo Kayoung had performed this role well.

On the other hand, the others in the room who viewed Woohyuk's actions were taken aback.

“L-Lord… why did he suddenly he…”

“Was he a spy?”

It happened so quickly that everyone was lost as to why the situation unfolded as it did.

Woohyuk calmed them down and pulled Verserios out of Cadiz's heart.

Ugh.

Shortly thereafter, the bleeding ceased, and Cadiz's body began to regenerate.

“I just wanted to make sure our hypothesis was correct. There seem to be no side effects,” Woohyuk said matter-of-factly.

“Ugh… Ugh…” Cadiz groaned as he returned to consciousness. He was supported back up by Aris.

He felt like he really died and then came back to life.

Still, he was fortunate that the experiment was successful.

As Cadiz felt relief, his limbs began to rot black with a sudden onset of pain shooting up from all across his body.

The side effects occurred late.

“Ahhhhhhhh!”

“… It would be difficult to use the strain properly as it is. The side effects are too serious,” Woohyuk said as he observed the change.

“It seems that the traits of the Queen of Thorns have a detrimental effect on the human body. Next time, I'll try it on demons or monsters…” Aris said while trapped deep in thought.

“I think there's a suitable person,” Woohyuk said.

Chimera, Irene, was born from Aris' biological research laboratory.

It seemed that she would be able to completely absorb the power of the Queen of Thorns through her absorption ability.

Woohyuk used the Power of Resuscitation to restore Cadiz's body to its original state.

“Pant, pant…”

“Be relieved. It's all healed now,” Woohyuk flatly stated.

Even if a problem occurred, Woohyuk had the ability to solve the problem, so he boldly decided to start the experiment on Cadiz.

Fiona emerged from thin air as Woohyuk was consoling (?) Cadiz.

“Hero King, I have something urgent to report,” Fiona said.

“What is it?”

“It is said that Joanna of the Clavis Family line, the ruler of the Rhine Kingdom, suddenly fell ill from high fever during a /banquet.”

Joanna was one of his important figures who helped maintain his Western order.

Woohyuk's expression hardened.

“Is her condition serious?”

Fiona answered, “According to the court doctor, she was poisoned. Fortunately, she was not poisoned to the extent of immediate death, but the poison that she's afflicted with is of unknown type, and they're struggling with treatment…”

Around this era, being poisoned was a very frequent occurrence.

Realizing the seriousness of the situation, Woohyuk immediately pulled out a teleportation scroll.

“Master, are you really thinking of using that?”

“If Joanna dies, a frenzy will occur, and chaos will ensue.”

The descendants of Queen Iona were a.s.sa.s.sinated, so Drake, the Black Dragon King, would not remain still.

He'd probably run rampant in the Rhine Kingdom and turn the place upside down to find the culprit.

Woohyuk wanted to avoid any turmoil in his current situation, when he needed to set off for his Eastern Conquest and the attack the epic dungeons. In other words, he needed stability to be maintained.

Woohyuk tore the teleportation scroll that he had saved for a long time and teleported to the Royal Palace of Rhine.

“H-Hero King. How are you…”

The court doctor, who was nursing Joanna in her bedroom chambers, jumped up in surprise.

“Don't make a fuss. Each second is precious and urgent right now,” Woohyuk stated.

Even though he was relatively close to the Rhine Kingdom, the reason Woohyuk used the teleportation scroll was that he didn't know when Joanna would die.

Woohyuk took out a poison remedy from his pocket and fed it to Joanna, who groaned.

“Ugh…”

The poison remedy was obtained as a loot reward while he traveled around the continent in the past.

When Joanna woke up, the court doctor stared at her with a happy expression.

“The poison phenomenon has completely disappeared. What did you do?” he asked in astonishment.

“I just had the cure,” he responded.

As a DemiG.o.d, he no longer had a use for the poison cure.

Furthermore, he had just used the Power of Regeneration a moment ago on Cadiz, so it was down on cool time.

Woohyuk looked around and sat next to Joanna.

“Are you feeling better?”

“Oh, Hero King. Sorry for making you worry. I have a lot of things to care about lately, so I've been overwhelmed…”

Joanna was unaware that she was about to die from poison.

As Woohyuk explained the situation, her expression froze.

“Are there any people who would do this to you?”

“… I do not know. I don't have an idea on who would lead this sort of action and who would support it.”

The Queen's a.s.sa.s.sination plan was not something that one or two people could do together.

Woohyuk decided that he needed to get to the bottom of this case by himself.

'The Rhine Kingdom is the most important of the western small kingdoms.'

Right next to it was Inotia, the City of Magic and Engineering, and because of that, the economies of the two countries worked closely together.

Well, if one moved the floating island to another place, Inotia would be able to work with another kingdom, but it was difficult to find a better location than the current one.

Of course, another purpose of the Rhine Kingdom was to prevent the Black Dragon King Drake from going crazy.

'At least one of the leaders of the Queen's a.s.sa.s.sination plan should still be in the palace.'

Even if he wasn't a detective like Sherlock Holmes, it was easy to recognize the perpetrators.

Woohyuk wore his disguise and transformed into Joanna.

“I will pretend to be you for a moment. I'll have Leifina tend to you, so rest here in the meantime,” Woohyuk explained.

“… Please…”

Joanna raised her torso and showed a pitiful expression. She wanted to state her thanks but was only able to say and do this much.

Woohyuk summoned Leifina and left Joanna's bedroom once Leifina arrived.

A royal guard, who was guarding the entrance, was amazed at the Queen's appearance.

“Q-Queen. Is your body well?” 

“Someone tried to poison me,” Woohyuk said offhandedly as if it was bothersome to deal with the royal guard commander.

The face of the royal guard commander turned cold.

“Who would…”

“I have to find the culprit, so close off the royal palace immediately. No one is allowed to leave,” Woohyuk, disguised as Joanna, ordered.

An eye for an eye.

A tooth for a tooth.

He didn't know for what purpose the perpetrators tried to a.s.sa.s.sinate Joanna, but they would have to pay the price for taking his time.

He had to show up in a public place first to find them anyway.

[Reinforced Andvaranaut].

By using the reinforced artifact's ability, he'd be able to identify those who were hostile to him.

Woohyuk made the royal guard commander gather all the people inside the palace inside the banquet room.

“Is this all?” he asked.

“Yes, no one tried to sneak out of the palace,” the commander dutifully replied.

Since the turmoil, the royal guard commander had been responding appropriately.

Woohyuk nodded his head and looked at the gathered n.o.bles and statesmen.

'That's him.'

A man stared at him/Joanna like a wild beast waiting in a bush, ready to pounce and extinguish the other's life at any moment.

No one else had feelings of hostility toward him/Joanna.