Chapter 48
Chapter 48: Lee Chae-rin’s fury
“Then let him in please, secretary Sledge . ”
Chae-rin had been waiting for Kang Chul-in the whole time, and wanted to meet him badly .
“So you’ve come . ”
For her, who was getting attacked by an alliance of two other lords, she was delighted to see that Kang Chul-in had come .
However… there was someone who made the happiness go away…
“Milord, why are you letting an unidentified person come into our territory?”
It was secretary Sledge .
“I’ll meet him first, and decide whether he is fit to see you or not . So please wait here . ”
Even though he was the secretary of Chae-rin, he had no respect for her .
The reason was complicated .
First of all, the dwarves were sexist, and believe that males were greater and more important than females . They had strong and prideful personalities, and would never allow a female ruler to order them around .
So the fact that Chae-rin had chosen this territory was a disaster .
Second, Lee Chae-rin had almost no charisma at all .
Third, to the dwarves, Nidavellir was a sacred place, and even though their Lord opposed trying to take it back, they didn’t listen to her .
All the dwarves thought about was taking it back .
In conclusion, all of these factors lead to the dwarves ridiculing and mistreating their own Lord, and had caused a disaster .
‘H-how dare you… . ’ thought Chae-rin, as she felt rage boiling inside her .
From the beginning of the great summoning, she was confused, and now all of her pent up feelings felt like they were going to erupt and explode, like a volcano .
Not only that, after hearing from Kang Chul-in the life and ways of a Lord, she felt humiliated and disgusted by the actions that her own secretary, Sledge was taking .
‘Calm down, me . ’ thought Chae-rin, as she fought the urge to punch her secretary in the face .
Right now, secretary Sledge was on the verge on rebelling against her for the territory of Dorado . If she raged right now and managed to irk Sledge, no-one could tell whether he would truly fight back against her .
“Secretary sledge . ” Closing her eyes, Chae-rin spoke .
“Please speak . ” Sledge retorted in a disrespectful manner .
“The one that’s here right now is someone I know from my hometown . He’s not someone to be suspicious of, so you can let him in . “Are you sure about that?”
“Yes . ”
“And how can I trust what milord is saying?”
“……!”
At that moment, Lee Chae-rin felt that all the blood in her body was rushing backwards, and felt that her head was about to explode from anger .
Chae-rin was originally a nice, kind individual, and if she was this mad at Sledge, you could tell that his attitude towards her was absolutely terrible .
“Huuu…” she exhaled loudly .
“Secretary . ”
“Yes?”
“Do I not have the right to even meet my friends?”
“Of course not . But because milord is uncooperative in taking back Nidavellir, who knows whether you’ll bring in an outside force to fight and kill us . ”
It was as if he thought of her as not their Lord, but an enemy .
“Do you know how to count to 1, but not to 2(It’s a korean idiom to express idiocy)?” She tried to be as patient as possible, and not pull out a knife and just stab him in the head .
“Sigh… Are you trying to educate me or something?”
“I’m not trying to educate you or anything . Excuse me, secretary, without me, you can’t use or access the shop for the lords . Will you be able to take back Nidavellir then?”
“…… . . !”
“If you don’t let him in, I won’t supply us with soldiers anymore . ”
This was the final, trump card that Lee Chae-rin could play .
Although they were disrespectful to her, she was still a lord, and owned the rights to the territory, with her Soul Core .
The golden necklace she was wearing right now was the Soul Core for the territory . Even the secretary couldn’t take it away from her .
“Hahaha, using underhanded methods now, are we?” Sledge laughed as if she was saying something ridiculous .
“Milord, if you do that, I have another method . ”
“Well, if you aren’t going to use that method right now, let the man in . Before I take the Soul Core and head back home . ”
“Hur hur…”
She was able to win in this discussion . But… Sledge’s final words before departing made her heart clench .
“Yes, yes . I will listen to our ‘great’ leaders orders . After all, what can you even do with one person? Haha, we’ll let him in any time of the day . ”
“…… . . !”
Just one person . This phrase made her heart clench . When he said that he had no thoughts of bringing reinforcements, he had truly come alone .
‘Mr . Chul-in, what are you thinking of?’
After making the deal with her, she truly had no idea what he would do by himself . She just wanted to meet him as soon as possible .
Then… someone stepped into the hall .
“I missed you . ”
There was a man with chains on his belt standing there, smiling at her . It wasn’t Kang Chul-in .
“……… . !”
As the man saw her eyes widening, he hurriedly sent her some inconspicuous signals . It was then that Chae-rin realized that this was a man, Podolski, was someone that Kang Chul-in had sent .
“Ah, Chae-rin to think that we would meet in somewhere that isn’t our hometown . How lovely . Since we didn’t meet in a long time, will you allow me a kiss?”
“A kiss?!”
“Haha, I see you’re still embarrassed and shy as ever . ”
Podolski gave her a happy smile and walked towards her in long strides . Then… he kissed her on both of her cheeks .
This was the ‘Social Kiss’, one that many did in western areas .
Podolski told Lee Chae-rin without moving his lips, a truly hard skill to master .
She was very surprised .
After telling her Kang Chul-in’s words rapidly, he put both his arms on her shoulders and spoke while laughing .
“Hahaha . As always, you smell very nice . I can’t stop myself from wanting to kiss you, what should I do?”
And as he said that, he leaned in again to kiss her cheeks, and spoke .
With that, Lee Chae-rin finally felt relief .
———————————————————————————————————————
About 8 hours ago .
“Hmm… Adventurers?”
Near the Dorado territory were 30 adventurers doing a sort of customs check .
“Yes, sir . ”
The man who spoke was 190cm, and had a huge beard, with a bald head . He looked imposingly at the surveyors with his massive, muscular body . This was none other than Billy, who had joined in the hunt for the Peacock Dragon in ‘Team Slayers . ’
“How did you get here?”
The dwarven surveyor looked at them with an uncomfortable expression .
“I saw the recruitment poster . It seems like the Lord here wants to recruit adventurers to fight for her in the battle?”
“Oh, so you’re mercenaries then?”
“I guess . ”
“Then it’s two gold per day, and you’ll have to stay in an area that’s marked for you guys . Is that clear?”
“Why just that place? I also want to take a look at the Lord who hired us . ”
“That’s not going to work . ” shouted the dwarf .
“Our lord has no plans on meeting with you guys . If you want to work here, then follow the rules . If not, then GET OUT!”
After receiving the slightly harsh treatment from him, the adventurers felt a bit uncomfortable, but didn’t say anything .
“There’s no reason to be so mad over that . ” said Billy to the adv, scratching his bald head .
“Well, I guess not . The only thing that really matters to us is the money . Fine, we’ll stay in that area then . ”
“Good . ” That dwarf surveyor nodded his head, and after warning them multiple more times, he let them in .
“Oi you guys . Come over here . ”
A dwarf warrior beckoned them over, and lead them to an isolated area . It was a very small place, with limited space .
“Leader . ”
The one sitting next to Billy whispered to Kang Chul-in .
“This, is really weird . This is completely different from your area, leader . Those dwarven bastards are so unfriendly, and the way they look at us makes me uncomfortable . Doesn’t this mean that Miss . Chae-rin’s authority over here is very poor?”
Billy’s insight was spot-on .
“You’re right . ”
“This won’t be easy then . ”
“Then we’ll make it work . ”
“Of course, what can’t we do with leader here?”
The way that Billy looked at Kang Chul-in was full of trust and admiration . After the hunt for the Peacock Dragon last time, Billy had truly been entranced by how strong Kang Chul-in was .
“Okay, you guys be quiet for now . Let me think . ”
“Yes, sir . ”
Billy signaled the others to be quiet, and everyone turned silent .
Dorado itself was brilliant . But the situation couldn’t be worse . The tension in the air could be felt .
And even though they were mercenaries, the way they were treated was almost unacceptable .
Although they took money for it, the role of a mercenary was to fight against the enemy . But the fact that the dwarves made sure that they couldn’t meet with the person that had hired them was ridiculous .
‘They’re afraid that she would regain authority by allying with the adventurers against them . How utterly ridiculous .
Kang Chul-in now felt that all this wasn’t really Chae-rin’s fault, but everyone’s collective responsibility .
From the beginning, it was unlucky that there was a female ruler with the dwarves . And for a naive, nice person like Chae-rin, it was obvious that she wouldn’t have fought back and intimidate the dwarves .
Of course, if it was him, he would have long beaten up these disrespectful dwarves and shown them their place . But for someone like Chae-rin, this was obviously impossible . He could now see why she asked for his help .
‘If I had come here with the army of my territory, they would have disrespected her even more . Wow, it really was a good idea bringing these group of adventurers here instead,’ he thought .
A leader that tried to bring in an outer force or power normally didn’t last very long . Their endings were very tragic .
Even just for her image, they needed to dodge the nuance of bringing another army here . The fact that he wanted to save the army of Laputa and her situation fell together perfectly .
Not only that, the deal with her stated that he was to help her get out of this situation, and not create a leadership ruled by an outer force .
‘Right now, the cleansing of the inner forces are more important . We need authority . ’
As expected of an experienced veteran, Kang Chul-in could see what he needed to do first .
He needed to calm the unrest in their forces, before they could even think about fighting the other forces .
There was no way that the war would go well if there was an internal dispute .
Kang Chul-in slowly waited for the night to come, where he could finally converse with Chae-rin .
He could almost smell the stench of blood on his two short swords on his belt .