Chapter 142
Chapter 142 . Kwak-Jung’s Foresight
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 succ.u.mb 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 succ.u.mb 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…”
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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 . ”
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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 .
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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 ma.s.sive 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 s.e.x . 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 b.a.s.t.a.r.d’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…