CH 149

The shadows crouched and sent an uppercut, but the issue was where they were aiming…

Puuuk!

The shadows’ fists struck the soldiers’ important place.

“…!” The soldiers’ eyes shot wide open.

Low Blow!

The shadows used the forbidden skill outlawed by all contact sports, which was hitting a man’s important place.

“Euaaaaaaak!”

The agonized screams of the soldiers filled the beach as they fell one by one to the ground.

“M-My balls… MY BAAALLSSS!”

“Owner punk! Hamchi can’t watch this!” Hamchi cried out in horror as he covered his eyes. He wasn’t the target of the low blow, but watching the soldiers squirm in pain while screaming in agony made him feel the pain in his nether regions as well.

‘Hey, someone passing by might think that I popped your balls or something…’ Siegfried grumbled after seeing the hamster’s overreaction, but he agreed that the shadows’ method of subjugation was very despicable.

The low blows weren’t the end of it. They poked the soldiers in their eyes, kicked their shins, scratched their faces, et cetera. The shadows did not shy away from using all sorts of despicable skills that even the most despicable and cowardly wrestler in all of history would never dream of doing. 

As expected, their method was effective as they slowly started pushing the Stone Islanders into a corner.

‘Where the hell did they learn those things? I never taught them that…’ Siegfried wondered where the shadows had learned those despicable moves, but he knew that he wouldn’t get any answers from them.

‘Ah, forget about it. Let’s just subdue them for now.’ 

With that being said, Hamchi and Siegfried joined the battle and started punching the Stone Islanders in the gut one by one.

“All right, listen up. Please calm down and listen to me,” Siegfried said.

“Kyu! Eat this, sucker! Hamster Gut Punch!” Hamchi seemed to be enjoying it.

“Bleurghh!”

“Bleurgh! Bleurghhh!”

“Bleurghhhh!”

The Stone Island knights and soldiers fell one by one as they grabbed their abdomen and puked what they had for lunch. The Stone Island shorelines were tainted with their vomit, and the stench was so horrible it was fetid beyond all conception.

Gringore was speechless. ‘Do they even have the right to call others despicable…?’

The shadows’ method was despicable to fight against the knights and soldiers, but Siegfried and Hamchi were the embodiment of devils as they deliberately punched the Stone Islanders in their guts.

‘Hmm… I have a feeling that these shadows are the reflections of His Majesty’s dark side.’ Gringore deduced that the shadows were taking after their masters.

There was a high chance that he was correct. After all, the shadows were made by Siegfried’s Shadow Swamp, and it might contain Siegfried’s dark persona.

“Phew…! That was tough…” Siegfried muttered while wiping the sweat off his forehead.

“I agree! Kyu!” Hamchi exclaimed in agreement.

The Stone Islanders seemed to have distracted both Siegfried and Hamchi enough for them to forget about the despicable things that the shadows had done to the former.

***

“O… Ouch…”

“Ugh… Bleurgh…!”

“My balls… sniff sniff…! My precious balls…”

After the battle, the Stone Island knights and soldiers were rolling on their own vomit while moaning in pain.

“Y-You said you were here on personal business, right?” asked one of the knights.

“I think I already told you three times?” Siegfried replied.

“If you told us earlier, then…”

“You attacked me without warning and refused to listen to anything I had to say. What are you trying to say here? Are you trying to paint me in a different picture?” Siegfried retorted.

“E-Ehem!”

The captain of the defense forces explained, “W-well… Those Adunyadet bastards have failed time and time again to land on our beaches, so they started resorting to sending a small detachment of elite forces to conduct subterfuge missions.”

“I see…”

“That is why we have received orders from above to kill anyone on sight that conducts any unauthorized landings on the beach.”

“Oh, I finally understand what’s going on.”

In the end, Siegfried couldn’t find fault with the Stone Islanders. After all, they were just doing their job.

“I did not kill a single one of you to prove that I’m not an enemy.”

“I am grateful for that, but…” the captain muttered before swallowing the words ‘I am now a seedless watermelon…’ with a dejected look. 

He glanced at his soldiers and said, “I think some of my subordinates would have chosen to die if they had known this outcome…”

“…” Siegfried didn’t know what to say.

“Anyway, I will report to my superiors and inform them of your arrival. After all, you mentioned that you are here on personal business.”

Siegfried went through a short interrogation, and he had to wait for quite a while before he was allowed entry to the main area of Stone Island.

***

‘Is this a city in a game…? Or is this what a city would look like if magic and science developed hand-in-hand?’ Siegfried wondered while looking around in awe at the city’s advanced technology.

The main area of Stone Island lived up to its reputation as an affluent city-state, and the word innovative could also be used to describe this place aside from affluent.

Every single street was lined up with street lamps thanks to their energy system that used mana stones as fuel, and there were numerous extravagant buildings standing proudly all over the city.

Simply put, the city could be considered unmatched when it came to how advanced they were in addition to the city’s public cleanliness.

Search tinyurl.com/2p9emv8w for the original.

If one were to pinpoint a fault in this marvelous place then that would be the gloomy faces of the people walking in the streets and the anxiety-filled faces of the soldiers standing watch in their respective stations.

‘I want to do what they have done here. Is it even possible, though? I think it’s impossible since my kingdom’s technology isn’t as advanced as theirs yet…’ Siegfried thought while looking around Stone Island with ambitious eyes.

He was dreaming of developing the Proatine Kingdom into the current Stone Island.

“Are you His Majesty Siegfried van Proa from the Proatine Kingdom?” asked a knight who walked up to him.

“Yes, I am Siegfried.”

“The President of Stone Island, Lord Angele, wishes to meet Your Majesty.”

“Hmm? Me?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Hmm…” 

Siegfried pondered for a moment, but he decided to accept the offer. There was a chance that meeting the president would help in his quest to purchase an Entropy Stone, which was known to be pretty rare and expensive.

“Welcome, Your Majesty. I am the President of Stone Island, Angele,” said Angele. She was a middle-aged woman who exuded a charismatic yet gentle air.

“My name is Siegfried.”

“I will get straight to the point. Why did you take the risk and come all the way to Stone Island? I’m sure that it had been difficult for you to break through the encirclement of the Adunyadet Kingdom.”

“I came to buy an Entropy Stone.”

“Entropy Stone…” Lord Angele muttered for a moment before asking, “Are you interested in making a trade by any chance?”

“A trade?”

“I will give you an Entropy Stone. In return, I would like the blueprint of the speedboat and the speedboat itself that you used to break through the Adunyadet Kingdom’s encirclement.”

“I refuse.” Siegfried immediately shot down the offer.

‘A person has to be loyal,’ he thought.

The Aqua Runner was an exclusive technology of the Nordic Tribe, and they were the only ones with the skills to create Aqua Runners on the continent. 

Siegfried had no intentions of giving up even a single Aqua Runner, even though he had dozens of them. 

Siegfried also knew that such actions were tantamount to disrespecting the countless hours the Nordic Tribe had spent in developing the technology necessary to create Aqua Runners. 

In the worst-case scenario, his amicable relationship with them would be ruined. In short, he had no reason to trade his relationship with the Nordic Tribe for a single Entropy Stone.

“I cannot give you the speedboat even if you put a knife to my neck, and I actually do not have the blueprint with me.”

“I see that Your Majesty is quite straightforward.”

“The speedboat belongs to the Nordic Tribe, which is an ally of mine. Their leader and the tribe itself are my sworn blood brethren, so I am afraid that I cannot simply hand over something that does not belong to me. I hope for your understanding.”

However, what seemed to have caught Lord Angele’s attention was the part where he mentioned that he was an ally and sworn blood brethren of the Nordic Tribe.

“The Proatine Kingdom and the Nordic Tribe have a blood-pact alliance? Is that true?”

“Yes.”

“Then, by any chance…”

“I do not wish to shed the blood of my brothers for my personal business.”

Siegfried what Lord Angele was going to say and instantly shot it down before she could even finish her sentence.

‘She is probably thinking of involving the Nordic Tribe to break through the blockade, but I do not wish to do that,’ Siegfried thought.

Meanwhile, Gringore was in awe of Siegfried’s complete change in demeanor and attitude. Gringore diligently wrote down every single word Siegfried used while talking with Lord Angele.

‘His Majesty employed his wisdom and revealed a side of him that is normally hidden from the public to wisely deal with the situation. He has also convinced me again that he is an upright ruler who knows how to separate personal and business matters.’

‘Following His Majesty was the right call. I have so many things to record! I should continue following him around from now on!’ Gringore resolved to become Siegfried’s shadow from now on and follow the latter until his last dying breath.

“I understand what Your Majesty means—Sigh…” Lord Angele let out a sigh of resignation. Then, she added, “I do not think that threatening you will work, so I will rescind my offer here.”

“Thank you for your understanding.”

“I would love to give you an Entropy Stone for your outstanding feat of breaking through the blockade and visiting us, but I am afraid to inform you that even we do not have any single Entropy Stone in our possession. It is impossible for us to mine Entropy Stones in the meantime because the Adunyadet Kingdom’s shelling had destroyed our mines.”

The bad news didn’t end there.

“In addition, the seal at the bottom of the dungeon where we were mining Entropy Stones had shattered, so the monsters lying dormant in the dungeon had started crawling out of the mine.” 

“The monsters and the shelling had also made rescue operations extremely difficult—no, impossible because of the ongoing war.”

Unfortunately, it seemed that it would be impossible for Siegfried to get his hands on an Entropy Stone while the war was still ongoing. However, Siegfried had never been the type to give up so easily.

‘And how can I just give up on the Quad-Turbo Set?’ he grumbled inwardly at the thought of losing the set item that would greatly amplify his class’ main abilities.

“What if I went and rescued them personally?”

“Your Majesty will rescue them personally?” asked Lord Angele in disbelief.

“Yes,” Siegfried replied with a nod and added, “I will restore the mine, kill the monsters, and assist you in the rescue operations. In return, I would like to request a single Entropy Stone.”

“Since you need it that badly, then I will not stop you…” Lord Angele muttered.

Immediately afterward, a message popped up in front of Siegfried’s eyes.

[Alert: The Quest – ‘Looking for Entropy Stone 2’ has appeared!]

It was a quest message.

[Looking for Entropy Stone 2]

[Go to the mine located in the northeastern district of Stone Island.]

[Kill the monsters there, restore the mine, and rescue the miners.]

[Progress: 0%]

- Remove Debris (0/100,000)]

- Kill Monsters (0/489)]

- Rescue Miners (0/49)]

[Reward: Entropy Stone]

The quest was difficult. Killing the monsters was one thing, but restoring the mine and rescuing the miners were tasks that could be considered extremely difficult for any adventurer out there. 

However, Siegfried accepted the quest without any hint of hesitation because he had an ace up his sleeve.

“May I use your communication device for a moment?” Siegfried asked.

“Please feel free to use it anytime,” Lord Angele replied.

Siegfried looked at Gringore. “Scribe Gringore.”

“Yes, Your Majesty?”

“Please call our kingdom and ask them to bring them over.”

“D-Don’t tell me… do you plan to call them?”

“Yes.”

“I-I understand…!” Gringore exclaimed and immediately ran toward the communication room to call them over to Stone Island.