Eurius was momentarily surprised, but soon smirked.

‘What did I say?’

The information that Jegal Hwayoung brought was the name of an organization that he knew from his previous life. It might seem like a big deal to them at this point, but it was not something that he, who had been an emperor, would not know.

“You know them? Did you have any conflict with them?”

“Your highness, you already knew about them?”

Eurius tapped his head with his hand.

“Think about my identity. It’s not something that anyone knows, but I’m sure I know better than you guys who came from the far eastern continent.”

“That makes sense.”

Jegal Hwayoung nodded with wide eyes. It was convenient for her that Eurius already knew, since she could skip the detailed explanation.

“Then I’ll just tell you the result and leave out the details.”

But he shook his head. There were some things that he was curious about.

‘I remember they were not that impressive, but their attitude bothers me.’

“First, tell me what you investigated about the Illuminati. I need to check if you did it properly.”

“Then I’ll start with that.”

Jegal Hwayoung opened her mouth again with a cautious expression.

“Our saga had been wondering since we decided to migrate to the western continent if there was any information organization here that could rival our saga.”

Jegal Saga was a group of intelligence force, but they mainly dealt with trade and information.

Trade was fine, but information was tricky if there were competitors.

Eurius asked again with interest.

“Are you talking about the information guild? From what I know, they are not comparable to Current Moon War.”

“Of course, we did not see the information guild as our rival.”

There was a hint of pride in her eyes for her saga.

There was also an information guild in this continent that bought and sold information.

But to get high-quality information, they needed proper connections and skills.

The reason why Current Moon War contacted Eurius in the first place was to make connections.

“With your Majesty’s help, we were able to see and hear most of what happened in the north through Azure Dragon Guild.”

“That’s good.”

But despite Eurius’s praise, her expression was serious.

The problem was from now on.

“But after we established our base in the north and advanced to the south, things were not easy there.”

“Is that related to the Illuminati?”

“Yes.”

The north was almost an unexplored land before the road construction.

That’s why Jegal Saga had an easy time settling there.

But the central and southern parts of the empire were the heart of the continent with hundreds of years of history.

They had to be careful when they reached out.

“As we expected, it was not easy to expand our influence after we entered the south.”

“The south is the old territory of the nobles, so it can’t be helped. It’s not your fault.”

“But we were still making progress. But the western continent was not as easy as we thought.”

Jegal Hwayoung made a bitter face and got to the point.

“As we investigated, we found out that there was a group that had been dominating the dark side of information, trade, and assassination for a long time in the western continent. That’s when we learned about the Illuminati.”

“Huh?”

“…!?”

Eurius uttered nonsense without realizing it.

‘What nonsense is this?’

The Illuminati he knew from his previous life had a grand background, but they were not such a terrifying (?) group.

“Did you investigate something wrong?”

“No, just keep talking.”

Jegal Hwayoung looked at Eurius with a puzzled expression for a moment and then continued.

“The Illuminati is not a single group. It seemed like there were at least two or three secret forces that cooperated or sometimes clashed with each other.”

“Hmm…”

“This is the main point, but it seems that one of the forces belonging to the Illuminati carried out the assassination of the imperial faction officials this time.”

Eurius looked puzzled.

“Wasn’t it grand duke doing?”

“We don’t know exactly who hired them because their identity protection is very thorough. But you remember that you exterminated the assassination group of Magyo before?”

“What does that have to do with this?”

“The level of the assassins this time was not something that we couldn’t handle at Current Moon War, but they deployed quite an elite. But except for Magyo, there is no other group that would do such a thing.”

Jegal Hwayoung finished her statement firmly and then asked Eurius a question.

“Your Majesty, have you ever heard of [Black Market]?”

It was an unfamiliar group to Eurius. He had no idea, and it would not help to pretend to know here.

“Unfortunately, I don’t know much about them.”

“Black Market is one of the secret groups belonging to the Illuminati. They control the black market of the continent.”

“What do you mean by black market?”

“They deal with all kinds of goods. But the most important thing is that they deal with ‘people’.”

Eurius frowned. He realized what that meant.

“You mean slaves. I heard that there were secret transactions going on, but I didn’t know there were crazy bastards who made a business out of it.”The slave system in this continent was completely abolished after the player’s era.

But he heard that there were secret trades in the dark places like Kali Hara that the empire could not reach.

They seemed to be the culprits.

“Dealing with people does not only mean slaves.”

Eurius caught on right away.

“So the place that sent the assassins was also the Black Market? Grand Duke must have paid them.”

“That’s right. They may have the name of a market, but they are likely to be a large force with their own power.”

Eurius realized that there were many differences from his previous life’s memory.

‘In this case, it’s more likely that I didn’t know than that it changed.’

Many thoughts crossed his mind. And finally, he asked.

“You said that the Illuminati was a coalition of several groups, but did you hear about any other places besides the Black Market?”

“I’m sorry. It seems like you need to give me more time. I haven’t learned much about them yet…”

With that, Jegal Hwayoung cautiously asked another question.

“By the way, how much do you know about the Illuminati, my lord? If you tell me, it might help me…”

“That’s a rather secretive matter, so I can’t reveal it right now. But I’ll tell you what I know soon enough.”

Eurius cut off his words sharply, but he couldn’t help feeling a bit stung inside.

‘The Illuminati I know and the Illuminati that Jegal Se has investigated are too different.’

He couldn’t give a definitive answer until that question was resolved. It was another problem for Eurius to worry about.

But surprisingly, the answer was solved in a place he never expected.

***

“First Prince, His Majesty the Emperor calls for you.”

“His Majesty?”

‘It must be about the matter I asked him.’

Eurius immediately headed to the imperial palace.

This time, too, it was a meeting with the emperor alone.

“Hehe… I heard you’ve been busy with training the knights lately. Did you achieve anything?”

“Thanks to your concern, it’s going well.”

After a few words, the emperor said with a smile, but with a serious meaning.

“I’ve prepared to make the ‘justification’ you mentioned.”

“Thank you.”

Eurius bowed deeply to the emperor.

Unfortunately, it was not possible to overthrow the archduke with his own power alone.

‘He has too much influence in the empire to just push him away with force.’

He recalled the conversation he had with the emperor three months ago.

***

“I know your ability is outstanding. But it’s impossible to get rid of that archduke bastard realistically.”

Simply accusing him of treason or rebellion was enough.

But accusations and evidence could be fabricated or overturned.

Unfortunately, there were many people who trusted the archduke more than the emperor.

That’s why the emperor had said he would even risk a civil war.

“But what if there is evidence that everyone can accept?”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Something that makes the archduke do something that clearly proves his treason in front of everyone.”

The emperor tilted his head.

“Unless that bastard suddenly pulls out a sword and attacks me in the capital, that’s impossible.”

“Of course he won’t do that, but something similar.”

“Are you not going to tell me the details of your plan again?”

The emperor grumbled at Eurius’s smirk.

“I’ll tell you when the day of action is near.”

‘I’m afraid it’s a bit difficult to tell you right now.’

To be honest, he didn’t want to use this method if possible, but he thought the emperor would accept it. Eurius began to tell him what he wanted him to do.

“First of all, what I want you to do is…”

***

“But I’m not the one who can tell you that.”

“…!?”

Eurius was a bit flustered.

Wasn’t this a secret between him and the emperor?

“You can come in now.”

But when he saw who came in, Eurius smiled.

“Marius, long time no see.”

“Greetings to His Majesty the Emperor.”

Marius bowed to the emperor first and then smiled at his wrinkled mouth.

“Your Highness, I’ve been busy lately.”

“I guess this was why you came up here.”

“Yes.”

Of course, Marius was a trustworthy and reliable person as the emperor’s right-hand man.But Eurius couldn’t help wondering.

‘Wasn’t he very busy with developing the north?’

He also seemed irrelevant to what he had asked for.

The emperor spoke as if he didn’t notice his mind.

“In fact, I called you today because there is an important handover.”

“What kind of handover are you talking about?”

“Hmm…”

The emperor continued with a heavy tone.

“This secret is something that you can never hear unless you become an emperor. But in your case, if you get rid of the grand duke this time, it’s practically no different from having no enemies.”

“That’s true.”

Eurius knew that if only the archduke was gone, he could be appointed as crown prince right away.

“So I’m going to give you a bit early, but I’m going to hand over the command of one of the secret organizations under the imperial emperor.”

‘Ah.’

Then Eurius realized what the emperor was going to give him.

And the emperor’s words were as he expected.

“Do you know anything about [Oculus]?”

“I don’t know much.”

He actually knew, but how could he say yes here?

Eurius pretended to be confused.

“What is that?”

“Oculus is one of the secret organizations under the imperial emperor’s secret organization, the Illuminati.”

This was something that Eurius knew because he was the emperor in his previous life.

He had doubts about the Illuminati when he heard Jegal Hwayoung’s report because it was very different from what he knew.

The Illuminati was a term used to refer to three secret organizations that the imperial emperor had.

The information organization [Oculus] that could be called the head.

[Gladius], which was in charge of force.

And finally, [Ecclesia], which had almost no records left but was related to the Holy Kingdom.

The emperor explained these organizations and said regretfully.

“But by the time I came to power, all of them except Oculus had disappeared when I received the handover from the previous generation.”

‘They were all gone when I got them.’

Eurius sneered inwardly.

He didn’t know what happened, but when he took the throne, Oculus and everything else were gone and he had no organization to control.

But now he knew why.

“So Marius is the leader of Oculus.”

“I’m sorry, but yes.”

He did not have a proper succession because he banished Marius, who only spoke the truth, as soon as he became the emperor in his previous life.

The emperor handed him a document with a faint smile through Marius.

“This is the information you requested about the cooperation forces of the Grand Duke.”

“Wonderful!”

Eurius exclaimed in admiration.

It was much more detailed than the information he received through Jegalsega.

It was not because they were lacking in skill, but because high-level information usually came from above.

It was inevitable that their information was more detailed, as they had been watching over the continent for over a hundred years as the eyes of the emperor.

‘If I combine Jegalsega’s current moon war and their information, I can get more detailed information.’

The current moon war was strong in military power, and Oculus had a vast amount of accumulated information.

They could complement each other’s weaknesses, as Jegalsega had not yet established a deep root in the western continent.

Eurius was happy, but he had two questions.

The first was that the imperial power was stronger than expected.

‘No matter how much I banished Marius, how could an organization with this much information power disappear all of a sudden?’

In fact, Eurius did not think much of Illuminati or Oculus.

He may have been called incompetent even after he ascended to the throne in his previous life, but judging from the fact that they disappeared without a single report in an instant, he thought they were just namesake organizations at this point.

‘But Father and others are too heavy for the name of Illuminati?’

After all, the emperor was a person who had been called iron-blooded when he was young.

He could chalk it up to his inability to handle what he gave him, but he had a hard time guessing the reason for his second question.

‘Then what are those black market guys?’

Was this Illuminati the same as that Illuminati?

It was a complicated question that even confused him.

But he had no time to be immersed in his thoughts, as the emperor seemed to have more surprising news for him.

The emperor suddenly looked embarrassed.

“Actually, this is also my shame as an emperor, so I wanted to take it to my grave if possible.”

“…!?”

Eurius opened his eyes wide.

Judging from the tone of the emperor’s words, it was likely that he had never told him this information in his previous life.

This information might be the answer to his questions.

“Did I tell you that two groups belonging to Illuminati disappeared?”

“I heard that, but…”

“Strictly speaking, one of them did not disappear. They just turned their backs on me.”

The emperor spat out his last words in a bitter tone.

“It was [Gladius], which was led by Wilhelm Grand Duke, who was the only disciple of the Grand Emperor. They followed the imperial family without question until the previous generation, but they suddenly started to harbor resentment after this Grand Duke inherited the leadership.”