CH 251

The sounds of screams faded. All that was left was the disgusting smell of blood. Eventually, the Ursus were wiped out by the Taurus’ onslaught.

Crunch, crunch.

Instead of an exhilarating victory cry, the sounds of chewing on meat and breaking bones filled the air as the Taurus silently held their victory ceremony.

Kim Jin-Woo looked away from the horrible sight; even for someone like him, who took pride in having grown up experiencing many things, watching the Taurus feasting was still unpleasant.

The Taurus envoy, who hadn’t partaken in the victory ceremony, approached Kim Jin-Woo. Perhaps he had yet to calm down from the post-battle excitement; the envoy’s attitude as it babbled on incomprehensibly with a massive smile was quite overbearing.

Kim Jin-Woo frowned, as the envoy’s attitude had completely changed from the humble image he had presented when it first entered the Grand Labyrinth. He couldn’t determine whether the envoy was still excited from the battle or if this was the Taurus’ real personality.

However, his frown only lasted for a moment. He tried to feign exhaustion while pretending to listen to the envoy. Moreover, now was the time to take on the role of presenting the Satyrs as pushovers.

“Blech.” The imp girl who was supposed to be interpreting was busy throwing up, her head buried in her hands.

Only when the Taurus envoy belatedly realized that fact did a stern look overtake his expression. “Grrr!” His anger flared belatedly; he growled, then raised one leg as if to stomp on the vomiting imp girl.

The imp girl panicked at the threat and hurriedly began interpreting without even wiping the vomit from the corners of her mouth. “Ugh. First of all, thank you for your ‘minor’ assistance in this victory.”

The Taurus was highly complacent after the sweeping victory over his old foe. He was relatively polite in his tone, but his condescending attitude couldn’t be concealed. Perhaps he wasn’t impressed with the assistance from the Grand Labyrinth in the battle, as he seemed quite disappointed. Kim Jin-Woo didn’t complain as he watched the arrogant envoy belittling him and his subordinates’ assistance.

“If this lot had given their all, the Satyrs wouldn’t have been able to last even a day…” the imp interpreted. “But they are indeed reliable. Tell them their performance today has made me trust their words.”

Kim Jin-Woo even agreed with the Taurus’ belittling of the fact that the victory over Luyang he and the Grand Labyrinth had obtained was nothing but a fluke. The imp girl was startled, even amid her frantic interpretations, but Kim Jin-Woo remained expressionless.

Afterward, the Taurus envoy began powdering his face with gold[1]; thanks to that, the talk became even longer.

“Although they had a sweeping victory, they suffered significant damage as well; thus, he can’t give you all the promised rewards,” the imp girl continued interpreting.

As expected, there was no way one would feel the same before and after going through a bad situation. The look on the envoy’s face carried no signs of regret, and he had even reduced the rewards as if it were a given.

“If you show better performance in the next battle, he promises to reward you many times over,” the imp girl said.

If a promise could be broken once, why couldn’t it be broken twice? Kim Jin-Woo didn’t protest at all as he watched the Taurus make those ridiculous promises so casually. His pretense of weakness was extremely thorough.

The envoy was extremely satisfied with his reaction, drawing a one-sided conclusion to the vague conversation and leaving.

“Mmm.” Kim Jin-Woo responded lightly.

Just then, Angela walked over and gave him a worried look, asking? “Are you alright?”

“What do you mean?” Kim Jin-Woo replied.

“Considering Master’s character, you must be feeling unhappy after hearing a mere envoy babbling on like that,” Angela said. She must have been quite worried that Kim Jin-Woo had been holding back his anger all this time. 

“Of course not. I was hoping they’d come off even more arrogant instead,” Kim Jin-Woo said as he recalled the conversation earlier. Contrary to her worries, he wasn’t angered at all.

There was no way a mere envoy would be able to determine the amount of rewards at all. Moreover, there was no way he had reported the situation to his master and been given new orders already. Ultimately, everything had been determined even before the battle commenced. 

The reason was obvious. The Taurus were quietly observing each and every one of his moves. There was no knowing why, but they were relatively clever, contrary to the Ursus’ opinion. 

“I’m curious as to what their conclusion was,” Kim Jin-Woo muttered. He could almost guess the conclusion they had made from their overbearing attitude, but decided to be careful about it.

***

The scale of the battle grew.

As the defeated Ursus brought more troops, the Taurus had increased their forces by the same amount. The battle began, and the Ursus were once again defeated.

Unlike the previous battle, however, this one was much more aggressive and a close match. Thanks to that, as the battle came to an end, the Taurus’ envoy only requested for more aggressive and forceful troops to join the battle instead of babbling away the way he had before. 

Of course, there were no rewards given this time either.

“He’s now begun to treat me as his subordinate,” Kim Jin-Woo remarked. However, it was still insufficient. He had hoped that they would treat him and his men much more carelessly. The Taurus had belittled the victory with the Satyrs since it was a lucky battle, desperately wanting to underestimate it.

“We probably should get injured in the next battle,” Kim Jin-Woo suggested.

Morrigan and the other summons had incredulous looks upon hearing Kim Jin-Woo’s idea.

***

A few other battles took place, and the Taurus won them all. 

Undoubtedly the Taurus were getting more arrogant by the day, and beginning to behave more haughtily. They began to pursue the Ursus beyond the battlefield, breaking their promises without hesitation, and even expanded the battlefield to the vicinity of the Grand Labyrinth. 

The envoy’s attitude had also changed entirely. Unlike in the beginning, when he had still been pretending to be wary and careful, the envoy now treated the Grand Labyrinth’s forces like his own men.

“You’re not even the Duke himself!” Morrigan raged; the other summons were evidently angered as well. Evidently, their master’s honor was everything to them; thus, the Taurus’ poor treatment was a disgrace and humiliation.

“It’ll be soon.” Kim Jin-Woo smiled in response. Every time he smiled coldly, even toward his own troops, it even sent shivers down the spines of the thoroughly angered Morrigan and Heimdall.

Though this had all been a setup from the start, watching the fools rush in where angels feared to tread, it was still a disgrace.

The Taurus became haughtier as days passed, and the same went for Kim Jin-Woo, as he was running out of patience from maintaining his pretense.

“I should increase the stakes now,” the Ursus’ envoy said. It was apparent that he was suppressing his anger as he came to look for Kim Jin-Woo. 

“It’s worth considering going all out in this war at this rate, but those suspicious bulls don’t have any intention of budging at all,” Kim Jin-Woo replied.

“It doesn’t matter. When the troops here scale up the war, they’ll have to match it anyway,” the envoy said. Kim Jin-Woo shrugged.

“Ten thousand. I’ll send ten thousand more men, no more than that,” the envoy continued. Their losses had already hit 25,000. It was a huge number he would have never expected if he hadn’t seen it for himself. Nevertheless, he said that they could still sacrifice ten thousand more men.

The Grand Labyrinth’s few thousand troops had combat power on the level of ridiculously low-quality summons and couldn’t even compare to the white bears and bulls; it was disgusting from the envoy’s perspective.

“It’ll be up to you after that. I believe you won’t be sitting back reaping the rewards while my people are bleeding out,” the Ursus envoy said. He reiterated that Kim Jin-Woo had to incite the Taurus into engaging in all-out war after the battle, whatever it took, since they had done their part according to the plan.

“This might be too hasty, seeing that the real masterminds have yet to reveal themselves. The sacrifice from your people might be all for naught if you get too impatient,” Kim Jin-Woo reminded the white bear, despite the envoy’s concerns.

“We’ll take care of that ourselves,” the envoy replied.

“You have a solution to that, then?” Kim Jin-Woo asked.

“If we send our elites into battle, they won’t sit back and do nothing,” the envoy said. The accumulating damage must have started to be burdensome for them, seeing how they were willing to reduce it even at the expense of sending out their elites.

“Sure, then I’ll take care of the rest.” Kim Jin-Woo’s boastful reply made the Ursus envoy leave, satisfied.

***

“Thinking about it, they aren’t fools and should know that the entire plan depends on Master; don’t you find that weird?” Angela asked with a doubtful expression after the Ursus envoy left. She tilted her head curiously, as she couldn’t understand why the Ursus were willing to take all the damage when the plan had to rely so greatly upon Kim Jin-Woo.

She was right. The damage they had taken up until then could be recovered in the future, but introducing elite troops into the already tight battle would tilt the balance toward one side.

If Kin Jin-Woo betrayed Ursus and stood with the Taurus planning against them, it would be the same as bringing a loss upon themselves. There would be a few loopholes if they were to ponder it over. But despite that, the Ursus must have had their own reasons for deciding to follow through with his plans.

“Well…” Kim Jin-Woo feigned ignorance but seemed to know something. Angela was quick to catch it and hoped he would tell her the reason. Kim Jin-Woo continued, “Something in my plan must have sat well with them.”

“And what could it…” Angela probed further.

“The consecutive wins. If the Taurus let their guard down and enter an all-out war… Even if the Taurus don’t let down their guard, they’ll think they have the upper hand if they go all-out. Do you know what these have in common?” Kim Jin-Woo asked. Angela remained silent and waited for Kim Jin-Woo to continue his explanation.

“Regardless of the process, the final battlefield is set,” Kim Jin-Woo said. Angela still couldn’t understand him. Kim Jin-Woo looked at her and smiled in amusement, asking, “Don’t you get it?”

“No, I don’t.” Angela readily acknowledged her lack of wisdom and waited for his response.

Kim Jin-Woo had no further intention of keeping her in suspense and replied immediately. “The Ursus must have taken a liking to my cooperation. All they wish for is…” Kim Jin-Woo drew his right fist toward his waist and cupped it in his other palm. “...for the Taurus to dig their own graves.”

1. Anidiom that essentially means puffing oneself up, acting influential and self-important. ☜