The Overlord of Blood and Iron

What is this?

Kang Chul-In’s face involuntarily stiffened at this message .

There was no explanation whatsoever .

Just that, apparently, penalty options had been applied to him .

At that moment . a new message popped up, giving information about the item that had caused this: the ‘Needle of the Empress’ .

[Epic] Needle of the Empress

-To this marriage, I say no!

Type: Ring

Option 1: A hidden quest will occur when the user reaches level 100

Penalty Option 1: Lightning

-Terrifying lightning will fall around the user’s wedding hall (radius of 100 kilometres)

Penalty Option 2: Earthquake

-A terrifying earthquake around the user’s wedding hall will occur (radius of 100 kilometres)

Penalty Option 3: Hail

-Hail will fall around the user’s wedding hall (radius of 100 kilometres)

Penalty option 4: Cannot be taken off

-All of the penalty options will be gone after the hidden quest is cleared

What kind of item . . .

Looking at this description, one could understand why Kang Chul-In was in his rare shocked state .

To think that a penalty that would cause 3 natural disasters could exist .

If he held a marriage, the nearby 100 km would be absolutely destroyed . It seemed that it wouldn’t kill just the husband and the wife that were getting married, but also the people attending the marriage .

And the fact that he was unable to take it off before he cleared the hidden quest was a nuisance too . This meant that even if he cut off his finger, the options would still follow him until he cleared the hidden quest .

“Uh… Husband?”

The Ninetails cautiously approached Kang Chul-In .

“ . . . It’s something annoying . ”

“What is it?”

Kang Chul-In wrapped his hands around his face, as he couldn’t be bothered to explain .

Is this how they prove that not all Epic items are good?

Though Kang Chul-In trembled in rage at these ridiculous penalty options, he didn’t succumb to it .

“Let’s see who wins . ”

Kang Chul-In growled .

It said that whoever it was, they disagreed with this marriage?

Bullsh*t!

Lightning?

Earthquakes?

Hail?

Kang Chul-In wasn’t planning to succumb to the penalty options of this item, no matter what they was .

It doesn’t matter, since I’m not planning to hold the wedding soon anyway . I’ll worry about this matter later .

Kang Chul-In was planning on returning to the Ishtar region, and continue his conquest activities . He didn’t have the time to hold a wedding just yet .

If there was a problem later?

It didn’t matter, he would just beat the hidden quest .

Kang Chul-In believed that no item would be able to restrain him .

“It doesn’t matter . Just keep drinking . ”

Without caring, Kang Chul-In continued to pour the wine into his cup .

“Hmm?”

Though the Ninetails tilted her head at Kang Chul-In’s behavior, she didn’t continue speaking .

“Husband, say \'Ah~ . \'”

The Ninetails grabbed a piece of meat, and tried to feed Kang Chul-In .

“I’m not going to eat it . ”

“If you want to beat me in drinking, you need to eat . ”

“I don’t need to . ”

Kang Chul-In was also incredibly gifted in drinking, and not getting drunk .

“Hmph, you’re just acting strong . Huhu . ”

Kang Chul-In and the Ninetails spent the whole night talking about a lot of things .

And around 3 or 4 hours later .

“Hng, no way…”

The Ninetails looked up at Kang Chul-In, with disbelieving eyes . It seemed that she was extremely drunk .

“H-How could a human withstand 5 bottles of…”

-------

The next morning .

“Ung…”

The Ninetails woke to the warm sunlight .

“Where am I…? Hng… I thought me and husband were drinking the… Hmm?”

The Ninetails looked around .

“ . . . !”

As she looked around, she realized that she was in the Palace of Promise, on the bed that Kang Chul-In had been using .

“H-Husband?”

Though the Ninetails called, Kang Chul-In was nowhere to be seen . Only traces of the drinking they had done last night could be seen .

“Have you woken, my queen?”

Her servant, Emily, brought her some cool honey-water . Emily was the only servant that was allowed within the palace .

“How about my husband? Where is he now?”

The Ninetails looked for Kang Chul-In .

“He left early this morning . ”

“ . . . . . !”

“He had told me not to wake you up since you were deep in sleep…”

“ . . . So he’s gone . ”

“He said that he will send a messenger soon, so please wait, my queen . ”

“Is that so? It seems that husband has really gone, like the wind . ”

-----------

After returning to Laputa, Kang Chul-In immediately started the preparations to move .

He made sure that the political marriage was kept a secret, in order to keep the misunderstanding that he had gone and hooked up with another woman while he run away away from Skadi .

While Kang Chul-In was gone, the internal affairs of the Laputa territory were going smoother than he had expected .

The new city ‘Balnibarbi’ was extremely beautiful and large . Since this was only the 1st construction project finished, Kang Chul-In was excited to see how it would develop .

And since the population had also increased, they were now at 20,000 .

“Not bad . ”

Looking down at his own territory from the balcony, Kang Chul-In smiled .

This was enough to start his plans .

“Milord . ”

Kwak-jung called .

“You’ve come?”

Kang Chul-In looked behind him .

“It seems like you have something to say . ”

“Yes, milord . ”

Kwak-jung started fretting, as if something were wrong .

It seems like he doesn’t have the most confidence .

Looking at him, Kang Chul-In laughed .

Dammit, how do I start?

“Kwak-jung . ”

Looking at how Kwak-jung was struggling to start speaking, Kang Chul-In called out .

“If you have something you want to say, just speak . No one will laugh at you even if you say something wrong here . I’m the one who appointed you into the position as the tactician . If I laugh at you, I would only be laughing at myself . ”

“I-Is that so?”

“Confidence maketh man . Be proud when you talk . ”

As Kang Chul-In encouraged him, Kwak-jung took a pause, before starting to speak .

“Milord . ”

Kwak-jung’s voice turned extremely serious .

“Do we really need to move?”

It was a somewhat mysterious thing to say .

------

Kang Chul-In took Kwak-jung, and moved elsewhere to have a better conversation .

“So, what’s the reason you said that?”

“Take a look at this map . ”

Kwak-jung pointed at the map, where the Valhalla territory was located .

“This was going to be our destination, right?”

“Yes . ”

“On the right, we have the Overlord Aleister’s territory, and we have our ally Hecate’s territory to the left . If milord is able to ally with these two Overlords, it is possible to create a massive power that threatens Pangaea . ”

Even though Kang Chul-In had never explained this before, Kwak-jung somehow thought of the Ishtar Coalition . This meant that he had potential, and that Kang Chul-In wasn’t wrong .

“You’re right . ”

Kang Chul-In nodded his head .

“But still, it’s somewhat unstable . ”

“Is that so?”

“Yes . ”

Kwak-jung started to explain .

“We need at least 2 years in order to gain the full support of Hecate . It’s not like people marry as soon as they get to meet with someone of the opposite sex . It’ll take, let’s say… maybe 2 years for a Pangaean couple to get married . Don’t you think that even at the very least, we should wait a year or a year and a half before expecting the full support and backing of Hecate?”

“Oh!”

At Kwak-jung’s foresight and thoughts, Kang Chul-In started to think that this former gangster was finally doing what he had brought him here for .

“Our alliance with Hecate isn’t that strong yet, and that crazy Aleister is someone… who can’t be trusted . ”

“You’re saying that if we rush to move, we might get backstabbed by Aleister and Hecate?”

“That’s not true . ”

This time, Kwak-jung shook his head .

“If Hecate was going to betray us, she wouldn’t have gone through all of this . As for that crazy necrophiliac…”

Kwak-jung pointed towards where Aleister’s territory was located .

“General Drakan has told me that milord already crushed that creepy bastard’s army . I doubt that he would go into battle anytime soon after that . ”

“Then why are you saying no to this?”

“It’s this person here . ”

Kwak-jung pointed towards the territory that was located to the north of Valhalla .

“ . . . Baruk Al Yusuf?”

“Yes, that stupid psychopath is the problem here . What can we do if he decides to invade our territory?”

“ . . . It will be a tiring fight . ”

Answering Kwak-jung’s question, Kang Chul-In realised that he hadn’t thought of this, yet .

In truth, Kang Chul-In had never thought about Baruk Al Yusuf .

Why?

Because he thought that he would be hunted down by the other Lords anyway .

In the past, that was what had happened to Baruk Al Yusuf .

And even before he had been hunted down, Baruk had never shown any interest in the Ishtar region, and hadn’t shown his face there .

“Do you have any guarantee that Baruk Al Yusuf will come south and try to invade us? I don’t think that there’s a clear reason for why he would do that . ”

“I guarantee, that a psychopath like him would definitely come . I have heard from Secretary Lucia about the kind of man he is . He has such an ego, even when ranked at just 2nd, so I’m sure that he wouldn’t be able to stand the man ranked higher than him near his territory . ”

“So?”

“But, if we just leave him be for the time being, he’s going to die after getting hunted down anyway . I haven’t seen a man like him being able to survive for long . ”

“Hoo…”

Once again, Kang Chul-In was surprised .

He had felt that Kwak-jung was starting to turn his potential into real ability .

“Milord . ”

Kwak-jung started to speak again .

“I think we should delay this move . It isn’t worth moving there right now, since others would reap the benefits without doing anything . ”

“So you’re telling me to wait…”

And Kang Chul-In’s answer to that was…