My Wife and I Became Sages in Another World-Chapter 385: The Emperor’s Brother

On the fourth day in our warrior village, the Dawn’s Defenders were getting ready to go out and look for more settlements to help when we got interrupted by a voice message sent to Melina and me.

The Sephyr Kingdom and the Droman Empire were sending reinforcements for us, but they had to give an excuse for their intervention.

Sending a group of soldiers to another country without permission was considered a declaration of war in this world. However, every ruler and king was aware of the situation in the north, so they all turned a blind eye to their actions.

Melina’s father simply stated that he was sending people to the north to support his daughter, which was a fair reason, considering she was a princess.

Meanwhile, Empress Lyssandra said that she was sending support to her people and her most important allies, and if anyone had a problem with that, they could talk to her in person.

Still, I chuckled at Lyssandra’s message since I thought that if I were ever an emperor, I would be like her and simply do what I thought was right instead of waiting for approval from others.

When the first batch of reinforcements arrived, I was pleasantly surprised to see Harvey, Commander of the 4th Order and my good friend, accompanied by twenty other knights.

Apparently, the knights’ order had increased the number of soldiers they had, and it was all thanks to the training I gave them since it encouraged younger commoners to apply.

From Droman, we got a hundred soldiers, with one of them approaching me and saying that their orders were to "listen to Ichiro," and that was it.

I ended up telling the Droman soldiers to accompany the northern warriors in looking for survivors while the knights stayed in the village, protecting it.

We still had half of the brainwashed soldiers to treat, but we managed to do it a bit faster since the knights were helping us feed the potions and killing the imps that left their bodies.

When the sun was setting, the scouts returned to the village with a couple of families that had been camping nearby. Still, the town we built wasn’t big enough to hold everyone comfortably.

Melina and I kept healing the soldiers until late that night, and we only had around 300 more to go. However, many of the people we saved weren’t real soldiers, and they were just given armor and a weapon after being brainwashed.

To free up the much-needed space in our village, we sent anyone who wanted to leave using the magic quartz to either Sephyr or Droman and fortunately, over half of them agreed.

That same night, while Melina and I were transporting people with the magic quartz, Nessa came to us to tell us that someone had arrived.

"Jackson...?" I asked, seeing my redhead friend standing behind Nessa.

Karla was with him, as always, but they were accompanied by another man who had pretty big muscles, which I instantly recognized as a northerner.

After giving them a friendly hug, Jackson introduced me to the man accompanying them named "Thorgest Adrelmir," the emperor’s brother.

The three looked extremely tired, so I told them to relax on the side while I cooked something for them, and they could tell me what had happened.

Thorgest had been incarcerated by his brother after he successfully resisted the brainwashing spell. However, the devil really wanted to possess him for whatever reason, so instead of killing him, he was put into a cell in the dungeon.

"Well, your brother was brainwashed, right? It’s tough, but it’s not like he can be blamed for it..." I said.

"My brother wasn’t brainwashed..." Thorgest muttered, clenching his spoon tightly with apprehension.

"What? That was what I heard..." I continued.

The emperor’s brother explained that the devil wasn’t controlling his sibling but was actually working with him to control the North.

However, the emperor’s rationality changed so abruptly from one day to another that the rumor that he was possessed had spread all over the world, and Thorgest knew that wasn’t the case.

"But why...?" I asked.

It wasn’t the first time that I’d heard about humans making a deal with the devils since it was pretty much what the enslavers at Droman were doing. However, it was easier to understand their motives for doing so than an emperor, who already held the highest authority in a country.

"My brother has been acting his entire life..." Thorgest explained.

He said that ever since they were children, his brother acted like a psychotic maniac whenever they were alone. Nonetheless, he would act like a dignified emperor when others were around.

Not knowing what his true nature was like, everyone in the North believed that the emperor was a kind and smart man.

Thorgest didn’t think much of it during the first years of his brother’s rule, saying that he improved the citizens’ quality of life for some time, only making him gain more praise.

Baelzor had a different approach than Vyrazul, as he brainwashed the emperor’s subordinates one by one without casting suspicions.

When they had a force large enough to overtake all of the citizens in the capital, the emperor gave the order to his brainwashed soldiers to capture their families and enslave them for labor work.

From that moment, the people started escaping the capital and building small settlements all over the north to get away from the emperor.

Still, Thorgest didn’t know the exact reason why his brother took the deal with Baelzor, but he knew for a fact he wasn’t brainwashed, as they both practiced the Viking martial art that protected them from the curse.

"We still got a few hundred soldiers to heal, and there are probably dozens of settlements all over the place with more survivors..." I said.

"I don’t think we will be planning an assault on the capital any time soon—especially not with those Accursed Beasts around," I continued.

Even with our reinforcements and warriors, I still thought it was too risky for us to go to the capital for our last battle. However, that didn’t mean I wasn’t coming up with another plan.