Meanwhile.
The crown prince was appointed as the governor-general of the Central Continent, a direct territory of the empire.
‘It never ends.’
The crown prince sighed as he looked at the pile of documents that did not seem to decrease no matter how much he read and signed.
‘How on earth did Father handle all this until now?’
It was hard enough to manage the direct territory of the Central Continent, let alone the vast empire.
He could not help but imagine how difficult it was.
Fortunately, he had the help of the imperial officials who came down with him from the mainland.
But the Central Continent was too hot.
He was already exhausted by the sheer amount of documents, and the climate here was much hotter than the imperial mainland. It tormented the crown prince.
‘But I have to do my best.’
Since he became the governor-general, he wanted to make the lives of the imperial citizens here better.
The crown prince tried to shake off his weakening will and resume his work.
But he failed to do so.
Suddenly, an aide opened the door and came in.
“Your Highness.”
“What is it?”
“Well… I think you need to see this.”
The crown prince noticed that it was not good news by looking at the aide’s dark expression.
Sure enough, the document that the aide handed over contained a serious matter.
Shiver!
After reading through the document, the crown prince’s hand trembled.
He almost spat out curses from his throat, but he suppressed his anger and asked the aide.
“…Is this all?”
“That’s all we have for now.”
“Call for a meeting right away.”
“Yes. I will deliver your order.”
After receiving the crown prince’s order, the aide quickly left the room.
And shortly after.
A meeting of the governor-general’s office was held.
The crown prince looked at the attendees with a stern eye and began to speak.
“Five more missionaries have gone missing.”
“Huh…”
“What!”
The attendees’ faces hardened at the crown prince’s blunt words.
Among them, a man who turned his face red with anger spoke out first.
“We can’t let this go any longer! How many missionaries have been sacrificed so far! We have to make them pay with blood for daring to touch our imperial citizens!”
“That’s right!”
“Who will protect them if not the empire? We have to send our troops and rescue them.”
Of course, there were not only radical opinions.
“But the places where the missionaries went missing are clearly outside of our direct territory. We made an agreement with them. Sending troops is breaking our promise. And we don’t even know for sure if they did it.”
“We can’t break His Majesty’s promise. Unless we have evidence, moving our army is too harsh. We haven’t found any yet.”
Listening to both sides, the crown prince rubbed his throbbing head.
‘What should I do?’
When Kim Ki-woo established the direct territory, he promised to respect the sovereignty of other forces.
That meant it was hard to send troops beyond the direct territory.
Especially when there was no solid evidence.
The safest thing would be to avoid sending missionaries beyond the direct territory as much as possible, but that was unrealistic.
They were people who risked their lives to spread the spirit faith of the empire.
As the crown prince of the empire, he naturally wanted the spirit faith to spread throughout every corner of the continent.
And in fact, the spirit faith had taken root quite quickly.
“That’s the problem.”
The people of the central continent also had their faith.
The most prominent example was the evil gods of the Aztec Empire.
The residents who believed in these gods were extremely wary of the spread of the spirit faith.
As a result, missionaries often faced threats or went missing.
But lately, that ratio had increased sharply and became very systematic.
Anyone could see that they were attacking the empire’s missionaries as a group.
It was impossible to not catch their tails without the tacit consent of a high-ranking official.
The governor-general’s office had warned several times about this, but all the factions were denying any involvement.
As the crown prince was thinking about this and that.
A man who had been quietly listening to the argument raised his hand.
“May I say something?”
“Speak freely.”
The man, with thick eyebrows, slowly expressed his opinion after receiving the crown prince’s permission.
“I think it’s ineffective to send some of the empire’s warriors to investigate after an incident occurs. We need to ambush them when an incident happens.”
“Wasn’t there such an attempt?”
As soon as the thick eyebrows finished speaking, a rebuttal came out.
In fact, there had been quite a few times when warriors were hiding around the missionaries in dangerous areas on purpose.
But every time, they failed.
They somehow knew about these traps and avoided them.
‘That makes it more suspicious.’
They knew all the movements of the warriors as if they were on their palms?
It meant that they had many sympathizers around them.
“How can I not know that? I’m asking what you think about disguising some of the outstanding warriors as missionaries.”
“Disguise them as missionaries?”
“Hmm… But even if they are outstanding, can they beat many enemies? We don’t even know their methods exactly.”
“It won’t be easy, of course. But it’s better than being attacked like this.”
Some people nodded at the thick eyebrows’ words.
‘That sounds plausible…’
The crown prince felt the same way.
Among them, there was a man who added to the thick eyebrows’ suggestion.
“Indeed, if someone like Golden Wave disguises himself as a missionary, he might be able to do it.”
“Isn’t he the captain of His Majesty’s guard?”
“I heard that His Majesty is also very concerned about the disappearance of the missionaries. There is a possibility.”
Golden Wave was the most outstanding warrior in the empire.
He was so powerful that he had defeated more than ten imperial warriors alone.
Therefore, the reactions of the participants were very positive.
As the atmosphere was formed like this, the crown prince nodded his head.
“Good. I’ll ask my father about it.”
That’s how the hastily arranged governor-general’s office meeting ended.
***
Kim Ki-woo heard this proposal that came from the central continent.
Kim Ki-woo was also worried about the disappearance of the missionaries.
Spreading religion was very important for coloring this continent with the empire’s colors.
Even if it wasn’t for that reason, he couldn’t tolerate those who harmed the imperial citizens at will.
‘If clear evidence comes out…’
The lives of the imperial citizens were more important to Kim Ki-woo than his previous promise.
Therefore, he had no intention of letting it go easily.
He sorted out his thoughts and called Golden Wave.
“Did you hear the news?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“What do you think?”
Kim Kiwoo asked bluntly.
If the plan from the governor’s office was executed, the person involved in it would be in great danger.
It was not easy to overcome the numerical disadvantage in close combat.
That’s why Kim Kiwoo had no intention of forcing Golden Wave to join the plan if he didn’t want to.
But Golden Wave answered without any hesitation.
“If His Majesty allows me, I would like to try it.”
“Are you sure? I won’t say anything even if you refuse. Don’t you have a family?”
“I have their permission. My humble power is not important if it can help the empire.”
Kim Kiwoo looked into Golden Wave’s eyes.
They did not waver at all.
They were very firm.
Through this, Kim Kiwoo realized that he was sincere.
“Alright. I’ll grant you permission. Please come back alive.”
“Yes!”
With Golden Wave’s spirited answer, his dispatch was confirmed.
***
Golden Wave did not go straight to the central continent.
He needed to learn more about missionary work in order to disguise himself as a missionary perfectly.
Of course, this did not take long.
Golden Wave was also a faithful believer of the spirit faith.
The longest thing was to learn various languages of the central continent with his attribute.
After finishing all the preparations.
Golden Wave boarded a ship and headed for the central continent.
‘…It’s hot.’
That was the first thought that came to his mind when he stepped on the central continent.
He put aside his short impression and headed out of the direct control area.
He could have met the crown prince in person after a long time, but he didn’t.
There was no way he would, but he didn’t want this meeting to cause any variables.
His true identity had to be hidden in this continent.
So he heard this from the imperial guard at the border of the direct control area.
“Missionary. It’s too dangerous for you to go outside the direct control area. Why don’t you move after this situation is settled?”
“I appreciate your concern. But I have to go for those who don’t know the words of the great spirits yet.”
The guard nodded his head with admiration at Golden Wave’s earnest words.
“I hope you have the blessings of the great spirits.”
“Thank you.”
That’s how Golden Wave left the direct control area and continued to go deeper into the central continent.
He never relaxed for a moment after that.
He didn’t know when or how he would be attacked.
Yet he kept on doing missionary work.
‘This is why missionaries do missionary work.’
His original purpose was to solve the missing cases, but Golden Wave became more immersed in missionary work as time went by.
It was thrilling to see the residents who didn’t believe in the spirits open their hearts to his words.
He spent his days between tension and happiness like this.
Then one day.
Rustle!
When he was staying overnight in a secluded hut.
He heard a sound of grass brushing from far away.
Golden Wave snapped out of it.
‘It’s not an animal’s footsteps.’
He had trained for a long time, so he could tell right away whether the sound was from a beast or a human.
They must have thought they were approaching cautiously, but their sound did not escape the ears of Golden Wave.
And as the sound got closer, he also guessed how many were coming.
‘About ten… no, fifteen or so.’
A group of strangers coming to a secluded hut in the middle of the night?
It was obvious that their intentions were impure.
Whirr, click!
Golden Wave took out two daggers that he had hidden in his arms, and quietly got up from his seat. He walked behind the door.
And then.
Creak…
The door of the hut opened and the sound of the wooden latch echoed loudly.
As soon as a man entered,
Slash!
“Ugh!”
Golden Wave did not hesitate and cut his throat.
In this kind of one-to-many fight, it was dangerous to show mercy.
“Damn it!”
“Everyone, charge!”
One man fell, and the others rushed in.
‘As expected.’
Golden Wave’s prediction was spot on.
They were undoubtedly warriors who had undergone a lot of training.
That is, they had come to take his life.
But Golden Wave was not afraid at all.
Swoosh!
He threw the two daggers at two men who were coming in.
Thud! Clang!
“Aargh!”
“Tsk!”
Golden Wave bit his tongue briefly.
Only one of the two daggers he threw hit its target, and the other was blocked by a sword.
Golden Wave quickly picked up the sword that the first man had brought in.
As he held the long sword in his hand, a strong confidence rose in his heart.
Squeak!
He opened his mouth with a cold smile.
“Bring it on.”
That’s how the midnight battle began.