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 were. 

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 continuing 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 my 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 ran 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…

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