Chapter 104: Blue Matador (3)

Chapter 104: Blue Matador (3)

About a month had passed since Landaron usurped the throne and sat upon it.

A month is not a short time.

However, from Landaron’s perspective, this month felt especially short.

Considering the current situational characteristics of Landaron, that was inevitable.

He staged a coup and usurped the throne, which was illegitimate.

Being illegitimate meant that there were several territories that did not recognize him, and from Landaron’s position, he had to quickly subjugate them.

By any means necessary, as quickly as possible.

In that respect, Landaron was in a relatively good position.

Right away, he had numerous soldiers and demons remaining even after usurping the throne.

However, naturally, there were risks associated with borrowing the power of demons.

From the moment he used the power of demons to usurp the throne, it was clear that the Holy Kingdom would be watching this situation, and it would be difficult to establish friendly relations with other countries.

Thus, from Landaron’s standpoint, he had to quickly subjugate the territories that were rebelling against his actions.

In principle, from Landaron’s position, if he could get that far, there was essentially nothing left to do.

To be precise, from that point onwards, most situations arising from the power of the demons allied with Landaron were controllable.

Consequently, Landaron diligently subdued the rebelling territories over the past month, and currently, he had successfully subjugated about 30 of the total 54 territories.

Of course, about ten territories had already sided with Landaron before he usurped the throne, which accounts for those numbers, but subjugating nearly 30 territories in just one month was certainly an impressive feat.

However, Landaron, who had quickly subdued the territories over the month, currently wore a very dissatisfied expression.

The reason was due to the number of soldiers he had deployed over the past month.

He had deployed all the soldiers he could muster this month, and in addition, he had also sent to war all the demons that were continuously emerging from beneath the lord’s castle.

That number was already five times the soldiers he originally had.

In other words, considering the number of soldiers, Landaron should have already subjugated all the territories long ago, and the sacrifices demanded by Kelva should have been prepared in a short period.

But the reason Landaron has not currently subdued all the territories is-

“...because Red Eyes and the half-demon are killing the demons off as they come.”

-The direct reason is that Red Eyes and the half-demon are killing off the demons that Landaron intended to use for subjugating the territories.

Thus, due to their sabotage, Landaron has been unable to subjugate those he should have already brought under control.

“Sigh.”

Kelva also responded to Duke Landaron’s words with an incredulous expression.

“So, those guys are getting in the way again, aren’t they?”

“How could there not be a way?”

“......”

Upon Landaron’s words, Kelva started to feel a headache and began to ponder.

“As you know, we’re running out of time. If we don’t subjugate all territories quickly and summon the legion here as you said... the situation could become dangerous.”

Seeing Landaron speak with an urgent expression, he pondered for a long time.

Soon after.

“...Is there no other way?”

Murmuring something as if he had made a decision, Kelva said,

“Listen carefully. Gather the demons for a few days, then send them towards one territory and spread rumors, but not too loudly, naturally. If we do that and draw them out,”

he said with a dead serious expression.

“-I will materialize and handle it myself.”

“...Materialize? You?”

“Yes.”

“...Didn’t you say before? Materializing in such an incomplete state would permanently consume your power.”

“But if those guys keep interfering, there’s no choice. So prepare yourself. I too will prepare.”

With those words, Kelva quietly moved and disappeared.

The orphanage mini-game.

...At first glance, the name might make it seem like a very strange game, but the orphanage mini-game was actually one of the daily quests in Arteil that allowed players to gain honor points by sponsoring the orphanage.

And Shadra was one of the characters at the orphanage that Kim Hyunwoo had sponsored, a very grateful presence to the former Kim Hyunwoo.

The orphanage mini-game, in essence, allowed players to gain honor points through simple mini-games by sponsoring the orphanage, but also, if a player conversed enough with the characters within the orphanage or if their affinity was very high, they could gain honor points daily.

However, since the orphanage was usually determined randomly, sometimes it wasn’t easy to gain honor points because the children in the orphanage wouldn’t easily give their affection.

But in Kim Hyunwoo’s case, thanks to Shadra, just by talking to her for about ten minutes a day, he was able to gain an extra 100 honor points.

After all, even if she didn’t at first, she eventually came to prefer talking with Kim Hyunwoo over playing with her friends, to an almost strange degree.

Anyway, thanks to her, Kim Hyunwoo diligently increased his honor points, which he then converted into Red Stones to buy gifts for 5-star heroes, which is why he was able to recall that name upon hearing the keyword ‘orphanage’ and seeing the blue hair.

By the time Kim Hyunwoo wore a look of bewilderment and surprise,

on a hill outside,

Loriel and Giral, instead of going on a demon hunt to erase their infamy, were following orders and looking towards the Lord’s castle.

“......”

“......”

They watched Kim Hyunwoo and Shadra, who was tightly hugging him, and without realizing, they wore dizzy expressions before looking at each other.

“......”

“......”

Loriel and Giral recognized that they both had the same expression.

In fact, the two were well aware that, strictly speaking, they were somewhat antagonistic towards each other.

However, a subtle sense of identity that had sprouted between them beyond their antagonistic positions was enough to prompt a few words of conversation between them, who otherwise had nothing to do but eat and stare at the Lord’s castle all day.

“Normally, when you say ‘Dad,’ wouldn’t you hug around the waist?”

“I agree.”

The two idly chatted while looking at the window.

“She’s a fox.”

“I see.”

“Do you see? She deliberately hugs the neck to press her chest close.”

“An action our Leader can’t perform.”

“Unfortunately, I think our Master will have a harder time. Ah, I shouldn’t have said that.”

“...Indeed, I also misspoke.”

“Let’s both forget it.”

“Let’s do that.”

The two continued to gaze towards the Lord’s castle.

The Master of the Blue Tower, Shadra, clung to Kim Hyunwoo, not knowing how to let go.

“...If we tell this to the Master, she will be very depressed, won’t she?”

“Rather than being depressed... well... it would be somewhat troubling. Especially for us, who watch from the side.”

“...Right?”

“...Yeah.”

“......”

The two fell silent.

After a while.

“We still have to tell her, right?”

“We should tell her.”

“...It wasn’t like this before, but it’s been tough lately.”

“...I’m also going to have a hard time soon.”

With those words, the two turned around quietly, starting to move away with somewhat self-deprecating smiles on their faces.