Chapter 200: The start of the war (pt. 1)

Translator: Leyy3

-M... Minerva...

Albrecht Vilhelm murmured, as if he couldn’t believe what he just saw.

No, rather than being unable to believe it, he didn’t want to believe what he saw.

Minerva was Albrecht Vilhelm’s favorite and most trusted subordinate.

The marriage with Fei Mei and the deal with Alex Rothschild to open up the dungeon gates within Seoul was done by her.

But now, she was dead.

As if showing that she didn’t die very long ago, a shocked expression could clearly be seen on her face, and warm blood was still flowing down from her neck.

It was obvious that not even 10 minutes had passed since she had died.

-How could you treat the envoy of another territory like...?

“This is my answer to what you did to me, Albrecht Vilhelm. Did you honestly think that I would succumb to your stupid little tricks?” Kang Chul-In said with a cold voice.

-...

Albrecht Vilhelm kept his silence.

Even though he was burning up inside, he couldn’t express his anger outwardly now that Kang Chul-In had shown him the evidence.

-Looks like I don’t have any more excuses.

Finally, Albrecht Vilhelm gave up.

-About the dungeon gates... I give my condolences.

“...You what?” Kang Chul-In snorted.

-I’m an Overlord. You don’t expect me to apologize and say sorry to you, right? I am also fighting for the throne...

“Shut up.”

-...

“You should stop acting like a king already. You dare to call yourself an Overlord and say things like that, while you kill the innocent civilians of Seoul?”

The only reason Kang Chul-In was angry was that the civilians of Seoul had been endangered due to the dungeons.

Even in the past, when Kang Chul-In had been 10 times more ruthless and violent than he was now, he didn’t like touching civilians. Now that they had just done that, it was obvious why Kang Chul-In had gotten angry.

“Don’t try to act like it’s okay just because you’re a Lord.”

-Isn’t that a little harsh?

“No, I’m not being harsh enough.”

-I’m sure that you’ll regret your words.

Albrecht Vilhelm said, showing his true personality. Just like Kang Chul-In, he wasn’t able to take insults sitting down.

-Anyway, I’ll consider this a statement that we will no longer communicate.

“I’m so scared that my legs are shivering.”

-Let’s see how long you can last as 1st place on the rankings.

“Well, I’m looking forward to it.” Kang Chul-In said, laughing.

Pzzt, pzzt!

After that, the call ended, and the hologram of Albrecht Vilhelm disappeared.

Soon after, angry voices could be heard in the Lord’s hall of the Laputa territory.

“T-That bastard...!”

“How dare he threaten our Lord...!?”

Even though he was overly aggressive in killing Minerva, the officials were angered by Albrecht Vilhelm’s behavior that seemed to belittle Kang Chul-In.

“Milord! We need to show that arrogant Vilhelm bastard our strength!!” Lucia shouted, her eyes filled with killing intent.

“Please send me to the front lines, Milord! This Drakan will bring back the head of that stupid Albrecht Vilhelm!!” Drakan also shouted, his golden eyes shining ferociously.

“Milord! I will also fight on the front lines, just like against Baruk Al-Yusuf!!”

As if the money that Kang Chul-In had given him had helped, James spoke. His socks were no longer damaged.

Nilus and Podolski also joined in, asking to take Albrecht Vilhelm down.

The only one remaining cool-headed in this situation was Kwak-Jung.

“M-Milord...” Kwak-Jung cautiously spoke.

“Speak.”

“This might seem a little rude, but you do know that it’s impossible for us to...”

As he was Kwak-Jung was speaking,

“Shut up! Don’t speak like that to our majesty!”

With Nilus’s shout as a spark, the other officials of Laputa started to curse towards Kwak-Jung.

“Is that something to say, Strategist Kwak!?”

“Strategist Kwak, I’m disappointed!”

“...I’m telling you, we shouldn’t do that...” Kwak-Jung murmured, depressed.

Was it because they were similar to their Lord, Kang Chul-In?

It seemed like the officials also had quite a bit of a temper.

“Everyone, quiet!”

“What Kwak-Jung said is right. It is true that Albrecht Vilhelm’s territory is too far away. Though it’s a shame, we’ll have to prepare our revenge for another time.”

Kang Chul-In quickly decided to defuse the situation.

“Yes, Milord!” The officials responded with vigor.

Like expected, it seems like the difference in charisma between Kwak-Jung and Kang Chul-In was quite huge.

“Instead, we’ll go east and take out that trash, Aleister! That will be our first step to conquering the entirety of Pangaea!!”

-------------

BANG!

The armrest of the throne in the Bifrost territory broke apart.

“Kang Chul-In... KANG CHUL-IN!!” As soon as the call with the Laputa territory ended, Albrecht Vilhelm shouted in rage.

“To Minerva... You dare!!”

Brr...!

Albrecht Vilhelm’s body started to tremble in rage.

Even though he had resisted because he didn’t want to look weak in front of Kang Chul-In, it was no longer possible to restrain himself from shouting in anger.

Even though a Lord managed the territory, there were still people who helped the Lord, working in the front lines.

To a Lord, the death of an extremely resourceful subordinate was like carving out their own flesh and bones.

“...”

The servants that were near Vilhelm couldn’t open their mouths due to this abrupt disaster.

“Minerva... I will avenge you...”

Now completely his enemy, Vilhelm thought of Kang Chul-In and gritted his teeth.

“Hey!”

Vilhelm shouted.

“Yes, Milord?” The servants of the Bifrost territory responded.

“Quickly take care of Minerva’s head, and make sure it’s ready for a proper burial. She’ll be a hero of the territory even in death.”

“Yes!”

“And make sure to send a message to Laputa in order to get the rest of her body back. It doesn’t matter how much gold it takes!”

To give her a proper burial and make her the hero of the territory... that was the best Albrecht Vilhelm could do for Minerva right now.

“And...”

Actually, there was one more thing.

“We will send the 9th Division of Bifrost to the Deathwin territory within 2 hours. We’ll also send them 6 magical cannons, as well as 6 months worth of supplies. Finally, contact Overlord Ao Xin and tell him to give 5,000 additional troops to the Deathwin territory.”

5000 soldiers from the 9th Division of the Bifrost territory, as well as 5000 additional troops from Overlord Ao Xin. With these, it wouldn’t be impossible for Aleister to not only block Kang Chul-In, but put pressure on him.

-----------

After the march east was decided, Kwak-Jung asked Kang Chul-In to have a meeting with him.

The reason was simple.

Even though the generals and officials of Laputa were powerful as well as loyal warriors, they weren’t suited to talk to him about strategy.

“Milord, we’ll have to hit quickly.” Kwak-Jung said, in a desperate voice.

“And the reason for that?”

“Since we’ve provoked Vilhelm, he’ll definitely respond. Even if he himself isn’t angry at the death of his envoy, which he likely is, he’ll definitely act against Milord to show that he wouldn’t just take the death of his subordinate lying down.”

“Then...”

“Yes, it’s likely that he’ll send around 5000 to 10000 troops to Aleister in order to pressure Milord.”

“Then it’ll be difficult if we don’t finish Aleister off quickly. If Vilhelm’s troops join in, the battle would become even harder for us.”

“Yes, milord. But...” Kwak-Jung spoke again, an angry expression on his face.

“Who would’ve known that Rothschild was so good at setting things up? I didn’t know he was so smart...”

Even though this plan had come from Lee Gong-Myung and not Alex Rothschild, it was impossible for Kang Chul-In and Kwak-Jung to know that.

-------------

That night.

-Krr...!

Riding on the Altaica, Kang Chul-In led his army towards the eastern mountainous regions.

This was the signal and the start of the war that would later be known as the ‘18 Peak War.’

Overlord Kang Chul-In is leading 10,000 of the Laputa territory’s soldiers and marching towards Overlord Aleister’s Deathwin territory!