Plop! As soon as Neptune Spear fainted from over bleeding, an alarm window popped up in front of Kang Chul-In.
[King of the South Sea, Neptune Spear, completely dominated!]
[Neptune Spear]
Overlord specialty: Shipbuilding (Can be absorbed)
-You can construct the “Dreadnought Shipyard” that can create the magical iron fleet. (Cost: 10,000 Gold)
Overlord authority: Call of the Deep Sea (Can be absorbed)
-Affinity with sea monsters +300
“Mm…” Kang Chul-In stroked the beard he didn’t have. “What should I absorb...?” He couldn’t absorb them both, so he had to choose between the [Shipbuilding] specialty and the [Call of the Deep Sea].
“Shipbuilding is nice… but the Call of the Deep Sea is nice too…” It was a hard choice for him to make because both abilities were S-ranked. If he chose Shipbuilding, he could construct the Dreadnought Shipyard and grow his fleet, and if he chose Call of the Deep Sea, he could train powerful sea monsters.
“I guess…” Kang Chul-In spread his hand out over where Neptune Spear had fallen.
[Would you like to absorb the Shipbuilding specialty? Yes / No]
[Yes.]
His choice was the Shipbuilding specialty that could construct the Dreadnought Shipyard. It was a reasonable decision. It was true that Call of the Deep Sea was useful, but he would have to hunt down sea monsters himself in the great ocean to train them. Kang Chul-In was already busy enough, so he didn’t have time to catch all the Poke… no, the sea monsters.
“When would I be catching monsters?” He shook his head. It wasn’t easy to find rare monsters like a leviathan. It was only a coincidence that he was able to hunt down a leviathan in the past. How would he be able to find one just because he wanted to?
“K-Kuk…!” While Kang Chul-In was contemplating to himself, Neptune Spear gasped and grunted.
“Now should I head over to Esmeralda territory?”
“Ugh... kuk…!” Kang Chul-In absorbed the Shipbuilding specialty without caring about Neptune Spear in the slightest and…
Plop! Neptune Spear died. The King of the South King, and the ruler of the south died futilely.
“Hm?” Kang Chul-In raised his eyebrows when he discovered the corpse.
“Tsk, tsk…” Then, he clicked his tongue. “This guy… he should’ve trained his stamina some more… how bad must his stamina have been to…”
This was a fallacious argument. Neptune Spear’s stamina wasn’t bad. Anyone would’ve suffered the same in that situation. His hair was pulled out, his chest was split into 10 pieces by Kaiforce, and after his bones and flesh were separated, his Lord position was stolen, and then his specialty was absorbed. It would be a miracle if he was alive.
[You have completed the absorption of the Shipbuilding specialty!]
[You can now construct the Dreadnought Shipyard!]
Messages popped up.
[You have captured the [Trident] fleet!]
[Along with the [Poseidon], the other 9 ships have been acknowledged as yours!]
Neptune Spear’s pride, the fleet, was acknowledged as Kang Chul-In’s.
[You have received ownership of the kingdom [Aquatica] from the King of the South Sea Neptune Spear…]
[The Aquatica kingdom has been absorbed into the Valhalla kingdom! (Percentage: 90%)]
[The title of Aquatica has been adjusted from ‘kingdom’ to ‘territory!’]
“Mm…!” Kang Chul-In was surprised. “90%... isn’t that pretty much all of it…?”
It was rare to absorb 90% of the previous Lord’s land.
Aside from right after the Great Summoning when Lords first chose their territories, it didn’t happen. Right after the Great Summoning, faith from the people in a territory would be low, and the relationship between the Lord and the people wouldn’t be that deep. Due to this, it was easy to absorb the territories of Lords earlier on. However, that wasn’t the case now. It had already been four years since the Great Summoning, and Neptune Spear was a king (it didn’t show because he was compared to Kang Chul-In, but Neptune Spear was incredible too).
Such a kingdom couldn’t be absorbed smoothly. In the worst-case scenario, the entire territory would be filled with rebel forces who would fight over ownership of the territory. In fact, once in the past, when Kang Chul-In took over a different territory, people had caused rebellions, and Kang Chul-In sent an army to get rid of the territory as a whole.
“Why?” It was strange.
“How?” The Aquatica kingdom, no, the Aquatica territory was a vast land. Of course Kang Chul-In would consider it strange that he had absorbed a ratio of 90% of the original land. However, there was a reason behind this.
[Your charisma (S++) is high, and the people of the Aquatica territory don’t rebel!]
[The people of Aquatica, who are satisfied at the way you rule the Valhalla kingdom, support the absorption actively!]
[The loyalty of the land-owners of Aquatica and their subordinates remain at 85! (Maximum: 100)]
His high charisma prevented the people of Aquatica from rebelling, and his “give and take” method of ruling Valhalla seemed to have appealed to them.
“Yes…” Kang Chul-In nodded.
“It was good to focus on internal affairs... very good…”
Congratulatory background music should’ve been playing in the background. It was understandable. How much work had Kang Chul-In put into internal affairs after regressing? He used to shudder at just the “i” in internal affairs. All the stats related to it never exceeded C.
“I guess nothing is impossible if you work for it.”
Of course, he hadn’t mastered the area yet, but compared to the past, he had definitely improved.
And…
[The system supports the Lord who’s ahead of others!]
Another message popped up.
“Hm…?”
The system supports a Lord who’s ahead of others? He didn’t understand what that meant.
“Your Majesty.” Just then, someone approached Kang Chul-In. It was a lieutenant wearing a naval uniform of the Aquatica kingdom.
“Who are you?”
“Yes, I am the lieutenant of Poseidon, Clemenceau.”
“Clemenceau?”
“Yes, your Majesty.”
“So?”
“First…” Clemenceau bowed in front of Kang Chul-In. “Clemenceau greets the Supreme King of the West!”
“Mm…!”
“I will do my best!”
A quick pledge of faith… it seemed like the message from the system wasn’t false.
“Is that so?”
“Yes, your Majesty.”
“Why? I just killed your king.”
“I saw.”
“Is it possible to pledge your faith in such a short amount of time? Logically…”
“The heavens wish it, so how can I not follow their will?”
“...!”
“As your Majesty already knows, us Pangaeans have done nothing but accept the supernatural’s will.”
It was clear what Clemenceau was saying. This lieutenant general was saying that he couldn’t escape from the influence of the system. Yes, it was like a heavenly order. The will of the system was like the heavens for the Pangaeas…
“I guess…” Kang Chul-In nodded.
“Well, I suppose there’s no need to ask about it. Fine, Clemenceau. I will acknowledge you as my subordinate.”
“Your benevolence is awe-inspiring, Your Supreme Majesty!” Clemenceau prostrated himself on the floor before Kang Chul-In.
“Get up.” Kang Chul-In raised Clemenceau. “Here, take this.” He even gave him something.
“T-This is…?!”
“Why are you so surprised?” Kang Chul-In shrugged his shoulders.
“O-Of course I would be surprised…! This is…!” His surprise was understandable. It was because Kang Chul-In had given him the fleet, Trident, and the Soul Core, Triton!
“You are the first to have pledged your faith to me.”
“...!”
“This kind of treatment should be obvious.”
“Your Supreme Majesty…!”
“Just call me your Majesty.”
“...!”
“You don’t have to call me anything fancy like that.” Kang Chul-In winked, and Clemenceau was touched.
Ah…! His Supreme Majesty is so generous… were the rumors that he was the demon of the century just rumors...?
It was a big misunderstanding. Kang Chul-In was just a villainous boss who knew that positions were everything. The Gullveig Alliance had spread malicious rumors about him, but even the Valhalla kingdom knew that he was an authoritarian ruler.
“There’s nothing to be so glad about.” Kang Chul-In spoke to Clemenceau.
“I gave you this authority because I don’t have any skilled lieutenants for the sea. If I left it to my subordinates, it would be a waste of this fleet.”
“I-Is that so?”
“Also…”
“Yes…?”
“It’s a mystery how Neptune Spear’s secretary will act.”
“...!”
“So I left the Soul Core to you.”
“Your Majesty…!”
“I shall give you orders.”
“I will follow whatever they are!” Clemenceau kneeled.
“From now, I will appoint you as the chief fleet commander of Trident.”
“Thank you, your Majesty!”
“Also, I will assign you as the prime overseer of the territory of Aquatica as a representative for myself.”
It was a shocking announcement, but it was reasonable. Kang Chul-In had no way of knowing about the southern military, and he was in war right now. He had no time to look around the territory. Because of this, choosing a high-ranked lieutenant general from the Aquatica territory was a wise choice. As a local, he would know well about the land.
“I shall follow through with your order!”
“And…”
“Yes, your Majesty.”
“First, contact those in Atlantica that you can trust and have them observe Neptune Spear’s secretary for any signs of rebellion. I don’t know about anyone else, but that secretary will never serve me as king.”
“Of course, sir.”
Other than a few special cases, secretaries were like the shadows of their Lords, so it was likely that Neptune Spear’s secretary would attempt to revolt.
“The Esmeralda territory now…” Kang Chul-In muttered to himself. “That guy…” Kang Chul-In grinned. “He left me behind and went to Esmeralda? It’s definitely a decision that befits my tactician… but since he decided to do something that offensive, he better have a red carpet waiting for me.” A vicious smile spread on Kang Chul-In’s lips.
A villainess boss. No, it was the smile of a villainous Lord.
“Oh, and also.”
Kang Chul-In added on.
“That dead fisher… I mean...”
“Pardon?”
“Take care of Neptune Spear’s body and hold a proper funeral for him.”
“...!”
“It’s something that should be done. He was an enemy king, but a powerful commander who ruled a peerless kingdom. I don’t have any bad feelings towards him. I just couldn’t do anything else but kill him because I met him as an enemy on the battlefield…”
“Y-Your Majesty…!” Clemenceau almost looked like he was going to cry at Kang Chul-In’s unexpected statement.
“I don’t want to damage his body or mock the accomplishments he made in his lifetime.”
“...!”
“So I hope you hold a proper funeral fitting of his status.”
Thump!
At that moment...
T-This person is…!
Clemenceau was completely enamored by Kang Chul-In.
A true saint… he’s different…!
That was also a big misunderstanding. Actually, Kang Chul-In was thinking, ‘those kinds of funerals are a waste of time and money,’ but revealing those thoughts was something that only an amateur would do. Kang Chul-In’s political skills were maxed out.
***
In the Bifrost territory...
“Andrei…!”
Mei Ling frantically went to search for Neptune Spear after news of his death was spread.
“Oh now! Neptune Spear has…!”
“Calm down, Mei Ling.” Milenius, who had on the face of Andrei Ivanovich, tried to calm Mei Ling down,
“What should we do now? Neptune Spear wasn’t able to buy us the time that we needed…! Also, Kang Chul-In’s main forces are coming to the Esmeralda territory!”
But Mei Ling didn’t listen to what Milenius was saying because she was too shocked by the loss, and this was understandable. Even Milenius hadn’t been able to expect Neptune Spear’s loss. According to the report, it wasn’t a fight between one army and another. Kang Chul-In alone had beat up Neptune Spear after going against Neptune Spear’s fleet. That meant that Kang Chul-In’s combative power was equivalent to one of a nuclear bomb.
“We’ll be too late…! The speed of our enemies is faster than our Alliance’s! At this rate…!”
“Mei Ling.”
“If we lose Esmeralda…!”
Tsk tsk.
Milenius thought that Mei Ling was pathetic.
Why are human girls so dumb… well… she’s perfect for using as a puppet…
However, Milenius didn’t express his thoughts and tried to calm her down by pulling her close to him.
“Mei Ling.”
“A-Andrei…!”
“You don’t need to worry.”
“B-But…!”
“That Esmeralda territory, we can give it away.”
“...!”
“Instead, we can take something else.”
“W-What? Will we gain something from giving Esmeralda…?”
“Of course, Mei Ling.” Andrei whispered in her ear. “We…” What he said after that was extremely shocking. “We will give Esmeralda…”
“Yes…”
“The white knight Brynhildr…”
“...!”
“And take Kang Chul-In’s life.”
“W-What are you talking about? Andrei?”
“I have a way.”
Heh.
Smiling a red vampiric smile, Andrei began to explain his plans to Mei Ling.