Chapter 335 - Legend of the High Elves (1)

“Kimchi stew is—! A sacred food!”

“Louder.”

“KIMCHI STEW IS—!! A SACRED FOOOOOOOD!!”

“Put more heart into it.”

“Hurgh... K-Kimchi stew...”

Tears flowed down Viscount Velen’s swollen cheeks. The bar had become an absolute mess. Knights that had been recruited using large amounts of money were all sprawled on the floor with all their limbs broken, and the bar that had been shabbily but neatly decorated was in shambles.

𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

“Do it right.” Oh Kang-Woo frowned in displeasure.

Viscount Velen yelled the words again with his face pale.

“Tsk,” Kang-Woo clicked his tongue and brought over a chair to sit in front of Viscount Velen.

He then placed his foot over the hands of the viscount, who was crying with his head on the ground.

“Bastards like you are a waste of page space. Were you all made from a factory or something? How do you all say the exact same shit?”

Whether it be Earth or Aernor, every single extra had the exact same personality and tone of speech, as if the author could not be bothered to give them any interesting characteristics.

‘Are they like Nurse Joy?’

Kang-Woo looked down at Viscount Velen in exasperation.

Crunch

. He trampled on the back of the viscount’s hand. Screams echoed out.

Stricken by fear, Viscount Velen said, “P-Please listen to me. There is a reason why I—”

“No, don’t say anything. Just keep your mouth shut.”

It was a waste of page space.

“I can tell who you are and why you got off your fat ass to come all the way here without you telling me.”

There was only one reason why the lord of a territory would come all the way to a shabby inn.

‘For gold.’

Kang-Woo had purposefully revealed the enormous amount of gold that he possessed when he had gone to exchange it at the bank. It had not been because he lacked caution.

‘There’s no need to be cautious.’

Kang-Woo leaned back on the chair. He would not lose even if this entire city— no, this entire nation were to attack him all at once. A nation made up of mere humans would be no match for him, who used to have the entire Nine Hells under his foot.

Not only that, Kang-Woo had gotten stronger than his former self; there was absolutely no need for him to be cautious over a mere lord of a territory when he had defeated a being of godhood that possessed Divinity, with just his demonic energy.

“Th-There seems to be a misunders—”

“I told you to shut up, my fucking friend.”

“A-Apologies!”

Kang-Woo put one leg over the other and crossed his arms. His plan of covertly gathering information in the bar had gone out the window because of this fatass.

‘What should I do now?’

He wondered if he should go somewhere else. As he was left with his thoughts, he shook his head.

‘No, I should make use of this opportunity.’

Kang-Woo looked down at the trembling Viscount Velen. He could gather information at a bar anytime he wanted; it would be more effective at the moment to rip high-quality information off of a man in a leadership position.

“Let me ask you a few things,” Kang-Woo expressed.

“Y-Yes! A-Anything!”

“What are your thoughts on Princess Iris?”

“Pardon?” Viscount Velen became wide-eyed at the unexpected question. “I-I believe she is worthy of respect. She is fair and just, and is taking care of the empire’s citizens in the place of the bedridden emperor.”

‘I can hear the gears turning in your head from here, man.’

Kang-Woo smirked. Viscount Velen seemed to have mistaken Kang-Woo for someone associated with the imperial family.

“She is fair and just, you say?” Kang-Woo asked.

“A-Ahem! Y-Yes, that’s correct!” Viscount Velen answered between coughs.

It was obvious to anyone that he was lying.

‘I guess I have my answer just from his reaction.’

Princess Iris did not have a very good reputation among common folk, and even among the nobles. Since the emperor was bedridden, it was highly likely that Princess Iris was the one handling political affairs.

‘In that case, could Princess Iris be why the Arnan Empire is in such a terrible state?’

Kang-Woo could not be sure; whatever the public thought, one could never have the whole truth unless they met with the person directly.

‘I mean, it’s none of my business.’

He already had his hands full in search of the Demon God’s corpse; he did not have the leeway to meddle with the empire’s affairs.

‘But it doesn’t hurt to know.’

Since he was in this world, it was better to know how it was turning.

“In other words, you’re saying that you nobles are having a blast thanks to the incompetent princess.”

“N-Not at all! I would not dare say such a thing about Her Highn—”

“Bullshit.” Kang-Woo chuckled. “I actually had an inkling from the moment I heard what the guard said.”

The guard at the entrance of the city had told them that they would be disposed of in accordance with Velen's laws if they caused a commotion.

‘That was weird.’

It wasn’t the laws of the empire, but Velen’s laws. In other words, Viscount Velen had created laws of his own preference to be followed in his territory. It made no sense that a mere lord of a remote territory would have enough authority to wield laws however they wanted.

‘This nation is going to the shitter.’

Kang-Woo did not know why, but he could clearly see the signs of the empire’s imminent collapse. It could not be called anything else, since a mere viscount was acting like a king in his own remote territory.

“Tsk,” Kang-Woo clicked his tongue in displeasure.

Aernor’s bad political state was not good news for him in the slightest.

‘It might become a hassle while going around.’

Although he had not been to any other territories yet, if they were no different from Velen, it would become an extreme hassle to gather information about the high elves while going around the continent. The closer the nation got to collapse, the more the people in power would get ahead of themselves.

Kang-Woo asked some more questions after that, and Viscount Velen answered them all while kneeling. However, there was no other useful information.

“Well, then.”

Kang-Woo slowly raised his hand.

‘Time to wrap things up.’

He needed to extinguish the fire that was the huge commotion before it grew any bigger.

“Eek!” Seeing Kang-Woo raising his hand, Viscount Velen clenched his eyes shut and slammed his head on the floor while trembling in fear. “P-Please, spare my life...!”

“Sheesh, don’t get the wrong idea.” Kang-Woo crouched down in front of the viscount and grabbed the back of the viscount’s neck. “Do I look like the kind of person to kill people left and right?”

“Ah... O-Of course not! You are the paragon of righteousness and generosity!” Viscount Velen sucked up to Kang-Woo as much as he could for his own survival.

‘Good, very good.’

Kang-Woo smirked and slowly drew out the Authority of Fear.

“You know that you can’t tell anyone about what happened here, right?”

“Of course I do! I will take it to my grave!”

It was a lie; Viscount Velen would most definitely spill to everyone about Kang-Woo as soon as he let him go.

“And you’ll pay for this bar’s repairs, right?”

“Yes! I will even have it fully remodeled!”

It was a lie; Viscount Velen would likely have the boy and his older sister beheaded to vent his anger.

“Oh, and while you do that, lower the damn taxes. Capiche? You’ve stuffed your face enough, so I don’t see why you have to collect more.”

“Yes, sir! I will abolish the plans to raise taxes next month!”

It was all too obviously a lie.

‘But...’

Kang-Woo was not displeased, since he did not hate people that could become unsightly without a second thought for the sake of their survival.

“Good, good. You’ve made the right choice.” Kang-Woo nodded.

Darkness enveloped Kang-Woo’s hand that was holding Viscount Velen’s neck. He activated the Authority of Fear, an Authority that turned the target insane by dropping their soul into the pits of fear that they could never escape from.

“Live a long life,” Kang-Woo stated. “I’m sure even a pitiful life like yours will have an upside one day.”

“A-Aaaahh.”

Viscount Velen’s eyes widened. He trembled crazily while wetting his pants. He screamed with the last remaining sense of reason that he had.

“Oh.” Kang-Woo canceled the Authority after having thought of something. He realized that he had not asked the most important question. Without having his hopes up, he asked while sighing, “Well... I doubt that you’d know, but do you know anything about high elves?”

Kang-Woo had asked just in case, but he doubted that a mere lord of a remote territory would know something that even Uriel and Vaal Zahak did not.

“Oh... Yes! I know something about high elves!” Viscount Velen exclaimed.

“Yeah, I didn’t think you w... Wait, what did you say?”

“T-To be more exact, I know a mage that knows much about high elves. He spent decades researching high elves, so I’m sure he would know a lot about them.”

Kang-Woo’s mouth fell open from the unexpected profit.

“And where is this mage?”

“H-He lives in a small tower located a few days away from Velen in the direction of the Nightmare Forest. His temper is like no other, but... since he had once been the head imperial mage, I’m sure that there’s no one more knowledgeable about high elves than that geezer.”

“Hah...” Kang-Woo chuckled.

He recalled seeing the small tower that Viscount Velen was talking about while flying here on Echidna’s back.

‘What a score!’

It felt like having gotten an SSR character after rolling a free gacha pull without a speck of hope. Although there was no guarantee that mage would know where the high elves were, it would be better than blindly searching for information.

“Wow. Thanks, man. I never expected to get such valuable information in a place like this,” Kang-Woo said.

“Hehehe. I-It’s nothing,” Viscount Velen answered with a smile.

He seemed to have been relieved after having been of help.

“Umm... In that case, I will excuse myself...”

Viscount Velen did not know what Kang-Woo had been trying to do to him earlier, but he could instinctively tell that it had been extremely dangerous. He got up while thinking that Kang-Woo wouldn’t do anything to him since he had been of help to him.

Kang-Woo smiled and activated the Authority of Fear again while grabbing the head of Viscount Velen, who was staring at him with a pale face. “Come on, where do you think you’re going? We’re not done here, are we?”

Kang-Woo broke Viscount Velen’s mind with the Authority of Fear.

“A-Aaaahh.”

Viscount Velen’s eyes lost their light. Kang-Woo snickered. It was true that Viscount Velen had been a big help to him; one could argue that he had given Kang-Woo core information for their Aernor expedition. However...

‘This and that are two completely different things.’