The Overlord of Blood and Iron

Not too long after, Vilhelm gave an order to the Gullveig Alliance through the voice amplificator in a depressed voice .

-All troops, fall back! Fall back!

“Wait, Vilhelm!”

Ao Xin shouted at Vilhelm’s sudden orders .

“Why are you ordering them to fall back!? What are you thinking!?”

Ao Xin was being reasonable . Right now, they were at the advantage . If they fought for just 10 more minutes at this rate, the Deathwin fortress would become the Gullveig Alliance’s .

However, Vilhelm replied in a depressed voice again .

“Why would you order our troops to…”

“The Pentagon has been taken over . ”

“Yeah, so the Pentagon has been taken over but first… w-what?!”

Ao Xin screeched .

“The P-Pentagon… has… been taken over? By who? Alex Rothschild?”

“Of course not . ”

“Andrei Ivanovich… that damned bastard!”

“It’s not him either . ”

“Then who could get into the heart of our alliance, the Pentagon…?”

“Kang Chul-In . ”

“ . . . !”

“He snuck in… and took over it . My wife and my son… even the sovereigns of our alliance are being held hostage . ”

“N-No way!”

Ao Xin couldn’t trust what Vilhelm said . How could he? It was a scenario that he couldn’t believe even if he wanted to .

“S-So if we fall back it’ll be solved?”

“That would’ve been nice . ”

Vilhelm bit his lip .

“We have to pay compensation for the dead and the injured, and 200% of their war costs . ”

“ . . . !”

“On top of that, we have to announce our loss publicly, and for the next 72 hours, we’re not allowed to attack the Valhalla soldiers . ”

“You didn’t… already sign…”

“Did I have any other option?”

Vilhelm asked in a sharp voice .

“Kang Chul-In said that he would release the Lords after cutting one arm off from each . ”

“He couldn’t have…”

“If we don’t stop our attack now…”

“ . . . ”

“It’s the end of us . We’ll have to turn our allies into our enemies, not just Kang Chul-In . Can you handle that?”

Of course he couldn’t . Even if Vilhelm and Ao Xin worked together, they wouldn’t last against the Lords if they all allied themselves . They say that one hand couldn’t handle ten hands .

“So… in the end…”

Ao Xin’s body trembled .

“We…”

“Defeat . ”

Vilhelm said Ao Xin’s words for him .

“It’s a complete loss… while we were hitting Kang Chul-In’s body… Kang Chul-In… stabbed our heart . ”

It was an accurate expression . Kang Chul-In’s impulsive decision to take over the Pentagon had cut off the bones of his enemies!

“In this way… a war that we almost won… argh…!”

Ao Xin couldn’t let go of the Deathwin fortress easily .

-All forces, fall back!

Vilhelm felt 100% what Ao Xin was feeling as he ordered the Gullveig soldiers to retreat . There was nothing they could do . This war was the defeat of the Gullveig Alliance .

***

Meanwhile, at the same time .

“Wow! His Majesty!”

Kwak Jung was astonished looking at the retreating enemies .

“Kya… this is why I serve his Majesty . He’s an item… n-no… he’s a great item… yeah, a great item . ”

He was muttering weird things to himself .

-Ah, ah! Mic test, mic test . Mm~! This is nice .

Kwak Jung lifted the magic voice amplificator in the air .

-Alright, soldiers?

The Valhalla soldiers that had been confused at the sudden retreat of their enemies looked up at Kwak Jung on the control top .

-We won .

Kwak Jung announced their victory .

“Hm?”

“W-What’s our commander saying?”

“Win? Us?”

“ . . . ?”

“Uh… can someone explain…”

The confusion increased .

“Mm… I see everyone’s not able to believe it . Well, I guess that’s fair… I only believed it after his Majesty said so, too . Huhu…”

Kwak Jung was also confused, but if Kang Chul-In said so, it was true .

Since when did Kang Chul-In weigh options and contemplate over pros and cons? Kang Chul-In couldn’t be understood by logic . Something good was bound to come out of him at some point .

-Soldiers!

Kwak Jung shouted at the Valhalla soldiers again .

-I’ll say this again, but this war is our victory! Look! Our enemies are falling back!

To this, some soldiers shouted out .

“What are you talking about!?”

-His Majesty has taken over the command room of our enemies, the Pentagon .

The impact of that sentence was extraordinary .

“H-his Majesty!”

“Wow! Ah, our king~!”

“So that’s why… the enemies are moving back!”

The Valhalla soldiers all understood why the Gullveig soldiers were moving back, and the Deathwin fortress was filled with cheers .

“Woohoo!”

“Hurrah for his Majesty Kang Chul-In!”

“Hurrah for the great Valhalla Kingdom!”

“His Majesty is the best!”

“His Majesty was watching us all this time!”

“We won, we won!”

It was a war they had barely ended, but the victory was the Valhalla Kingdom’s since Kang Chul-In had taken over the heart of the Pentagon .

“Hehe, how nice!”

Kwak Jung giggled .

“Winning at the end is indeed the best… but still… this isn’t enough… yes . ”

However, he wasn’t 100% satisfied .

“Look here!”

And so he gave orders .

“Yes, sir!”

“Call all the generals to the strategy room . ”

“Sorry?”

“Quickly!”

“U-Understood!”

The deputy began to run frantically on Kwak Jung’s orders .

“Hehe, so it was 72 hours, huh?”

Kwak Jung made an evil smile .

***

Ten minutes later .

“You’ve worked hard . ”

Kwak Jung praised the Valhalla generals .

“But… there’s still a chance to contribute… I don’t know who to send…”

As soon as he finished speaking, the generals all volunteered to go, raising their hands .

“This Drakan will go!”

“Trust this Amur over that lizard!”

“I’ll go!”

“Me, me!”

“Give me a chance!”

“Ahem! This oldie will go!”

“I’ll do it this time…!”

“No, I’ll go!”

They were fitting of Kang Chul-In’s subordinates .

“Whew… good, very good!”

Kwak Jung laughed satisfactorily .

“His Majesty will be very glad to see everyone this responsive . So this mission…”

Kwak Jung’s words faded away .

Swallow!

The sounds of people swallowing could be heard throughout the room . They wanted to be chosen by Kwak Jung .

“I’ll specially… allow everyone to participate this time! That’s fair, right? Hahahaha~!”

However, Kwak Jung was sly .

T-That loser .

I fell for it!

I knew he was going to do this .

Let’s see how far you go, Kwak Jung .

The generals of the Valhalla soldiers all glared at Kwak Jung . Kwak Jung was always asking for it .

“I’ll brief you on the strategy . ”

Not knowing that he had asked to be beaten up, Kwak Jung continued to speak .

“The time that our enemies are prevented from fighting is about 3 days, which is 72 hours . Currently, about 10 minutes have passed . . . so we have about 71 hours and 49 minutes left . We can’t let this golden time go to waste! So we’ll…”

Kwak Jung pointed at a spot on the map .

“We’ll take over this port city, Venetz . ”

The generals of Laputa were shocked .

“T-That’s…!”

“Tactician Kwak’s insight is incredible!”

“You’re surely the brain of our kingdom!”

It was an expected response .

72 hours was an ample amount of time to attack the Gullveig Alliance soldiers .

Also, the one who had control over the port city Venetz could have the center of the ‘Hartum River,’ so it would be tremendously advantageous .

Furthermore, Venetz could be used as a strategic point to get into the heart of Pangaea, the heart of the Esmeralda territory .

“There will be resistance . They only agreed to not attacking first on the ceasefire negotiation; there wasn’t any condition not to defend themselves . So in 72 hours, we must completely take over Venetz .

Kwak Jung emphasized the “completely . ”

“Wait!”

Podolski raised his hand to ask a question .

“Even if we take it over in 72 hours, our enemies might attack Venetz after that…”

“It won’t be taken from us . ”

Kwak Jung firmly shook his head .

“Pardon? I don’t understand…”

“After 72 hours, there will be a ceasefire for 3 months . That means that after Venetz is taken over, it will be our territory, so the Gullveig Alliance won’t be able to shoot a single arrow at us . ”

It was a flawless plan from someone who said he had an electronic brain .

“Wow!”

“You’re so smart!”

“I’m amazed!”

The Valhalla generals were once again astonished by Kwak Jung’s plan .

“Exactly 5 thousand, no more or less . Five thousand of our best soldiers and everyone here will take part in this . What are you doing? We have 71 hours and 45 minutes left!”

Kwak Jung rushed them and the generals quickly ran out of the strategy room .

“Let’s go!”

“Let’s go capture Venetz!”

“Quickly, quickly!”

Alone in the strategy room, Kwak Jung sighed .

“Whew!”

He was tired .

“If we can succeed in taking over Venetz, it’ll be advantageous for us with the Esmeralda territory…”

It was then .

“Huh?”

Kwak Jung stumbled, and plop! He landed on the table with a nose bleed . From all the work and mana exertion, he had died .

. . .

Snore!

No, he was just sleeping .

***

At the same time . . .

While Kang Chul-In caused a mess in the Pentagon, Vilhelm retreated his troops, and Kwak Jung made the plans to take over Venetz, the door of the elementary school’s principal opened .

Creak!

“Goodbye~! Little Arshelly~!”

The principal watched Arshelly out the door .

“Okay…”

Arshelly’s voice didn’t have any strength in it .

“You can’t forget what I promised, okay? Do you understand?”

“Okay . . . ”

“Don’t forget!”

“ . . . ”

“Got it!?”

The principal continued to repeatedly ask her, and Arshelly turned away to return to her classroom with heavy footsteps .

“Hing…”

Arshelly looked like she was about to cry as she walked down the hall .

Drip…

A tear that looked similar to morning dew dripped down her cheek .

“Why are you crying?”

Just then, a woman who had been passing by stopped Arshelly to ask her a question .

“M-Mo… I-I mean, Teacher!?”

“Why is our pretty little Arhselly crying!”

“Teacherrrrr~!”

Arshelly jumped into her teacher, Han Ye-Sun’s, arms .