Overlord of Blood and Iron

“Hey there, pass me an engine bolt!”

“More oil, give me more oil!”

Inside the blacksmithing workshop of the Laputa territory, a battle that wasn’t actually a battle was being waged. 

The Magic Engineers that had come from the Mecha Dome were moving around crazily, sweating while working on this massive project of theirs.

“Oh, Milord. You’ve come?”

The leader of all the workers here, Vulcanos, came to greet Kang Chul-In. 

“Have you been well?”

“Of course, Milord.”

“The armor that was designed for the monster army was incredible last time. Keep up the good work.”“Kukuku, thank you Milord!”

“Anyway, this is Kimura, who’s in charge of construction.”

Kang Chul-In introduced Kimura and Vulcanos to each other.

“Hello, I’m Kimura Hideki.”

“Kuku, nice to meet you. Call me Vulcanos.”

While the two were shaking hands, Kang Chul-In explained the future plans to Vulacnos.  

“Vulcanos, Kimura is in charge of the new plan to make a city in order to replace Laputa. Make sure to take care of him.”“Oh, really?”

“Yes, and I want you to modify 4 of the Atlases so that we can use them to help the construction.”

“...Sorry?”

Vulcanos’ face stiffened.

4 Atlases were currently being modified in order to help cut the wood in the ‘Dark Forest’. It would take a lot of effort, and time to modify them again to help with construction.

“Ehem…”

Knowing the situation, Kang Chul-In coughed in embarrassment…

“I believe in the engineers and blacksmiths within the territory.”

But soon changed the embarrassment into shamelessness.

“Milord…”

“I believe that you won’t say that this is impossible.”

“O-Of course, this isn’t impossible. However…”

“I also believe that this can be done within the following week. Ehem… There’s nothing impossible for the blacksmiths of the Laputa territory.”

Vulcanos stopped the urge to shout at Kang Chul-In, and instead dropped his head in helplessness.

They were currently in the process of modifying the Atlases to help with cutting wood, but to suddenly change that into helping with construction purposes? And do all of that, within a week? 

...Not to mention sleep, it was hard to tell whether he and the other engineers would be able to have a proper meal. Other than maybe having toilet breaks in the middle, there would only be work for the next week.

“I believe that the abilities of the engineers of our territory will match up to that task though, right?”

Kang Chul-In pressured Vulcanos and the other engineers of the territory.

I know it’s difficult, but there’s no other choice considering the fact that we need to move.

The experienced Kang Chul-In could easily tell what Vulcanos was thinking.

He knew that completing this task within a week was somewhat impossible and that it was too much work. There was no way that Kang Chul-In wouldn’t know that.

But still, he wasn’t thinking of letting them go like that.

From experience, he knew that a race against time like this would bring out the fullest efforts from all the engineers, and would normally raise efficiency to a maximum. This was true for the majority of people that were magic engineers.

“Milord…”

Vulcanos seemed as if he was about to cry.

“I think we also need time to rest, and time to eat…”

“Fine, I’ll give you an extra half-a-day. Since it’s daytime right now… 7 days from now, and at night, I’ll revisit to make sure you’re done with this project.”

“Yes… Milord…”

Once again dropping his head, Vulcanos sighed.

But what else could he do?

Status was everything.

As the Lord, Vulcanos had to do everything that Kang Chul-In ordered. If he ordered Vulcanos to act as if he were dead, he would have to do that too.

“Oh, and also. What’s the hottest furnace within our territory?”

“Hmm… That must be Furnace 0, where the Flame Toads are. But… why are you asking that question?”

“...I have something to do there.”

“Excuse me?”

“Lead the way.”

“Yes, Milord.”

Though Vulcanos tilted his head in confusion, he still led Kang Chul-In to where Furnace 0 was, with the Flame Toads situated there.

“Now, it’s time to know your place.”

Looking at the terrifying Furnace that spat fire as if it were alive, Kang Chul-In smiled in satisfaction. He took out Kaiforce, which was strapped onto his belt. 

Wiing-!!

Kaiforce vibrated.

“M-Milord… Don’t tell me you’re going to…”

Vulcanos’ eyes widened. As a blacksmith himself, he knew the true worth of a sword like Kaiforce.

“Even looking at it briefly, I can tell that it’s at least an epic item. How could you throw away a sword like that into the furnace…”

“I don’t need such an annoying and cocky piece of metal anymore.”

“Cocky…? Don’t tell me... is that a famed ‘Ego Sword’?”

“That’s right.”

“Huu… As expected of Milord, you truly have a different vision than we do.”

“I don’t know about something like that. All I know is just that this stupid hunk of metal was bothering me.”

Looking at Kaiforce with an annoyed expression, Kang Chul-In was about to throw it into the furnace…

“Goodbye.”

But…

Kaiforce begged for mercy from Kang Chul-In.

Of course I am. I’m a man of my words.

Mitra?

Oh, and is that sword useful?

Holy sword, huh… It seems like it would be better than an inferior good like you.

I’ll look for that ‘holy light sword’ that you were talking about when I get the opportunity. 

No one asked for your opinion, you inferior good.

Kang Chul-In snickered.

You call yourself an amazing sword? As if you have the right or qualification to be called that.

A good sword is the sword that I hold.

If I am undefeated, then the sword I hold will also be known as the undefeated sword. A true warrior doesn’t rely on a stupid hunk of metal.

What?

At that moment, the vein on Kang Chul-In’s forehead bulged out due to rage.

Though Kaiforce shouted urgently…

Plop-!

Kang Chul-In didn’t have any hesitation in his actions.

“Shut up about that stupid Emperor of Blood and Iron from a thousand years ago. I’m sick of it. Goodbye.”

Wiing--!

Though Kaiforce attempted to lift itself up and get out of the pool of lava…

The sword could soon no longer be seen, lost forever in the pool of lava that Kang Chul-In had thrown it into.

“No!!! What a waste…”

Vulcanos who was watching Kang Chul-In shook his hands in bitterness, and stood there, watching as Kaiforce disappeared.

“This is the final goodbye, arrogant bastard.”

Though Kang Chul-In had just thrown away one of, if not the greatest, swords in Pangaean history, he didn’t blink an eye. He was truly a man of his words.

Anyway, the holy light sword, Mitra? If even Kaiforce thinks it’s able to compare to itself, it must also be an Ego Sword… I just hope it isn’t as arrogant as Kaiforce… 

----

The winter of Laputa went on more busily than ever.

The army of Laputa trained itself on the snow-covered-fields of the Eastern Plains, while Kimura led the workers in Laputa in the building of the new city.

It was also lots of work for the high ranking officials.

Lucia, Kwak-jung, Podolski, Drakan, James, Michael etc. also had their own ‘private lessons’ from Kang Chul-In, learning how to fight more efficiently.

The intensity of it was great.

Other than Kwak-jung, all of the people vowed that they would get stronger in order to be more of use to Kang Chul-In. It was enough for them to be drinking potions as if they were drinking an energy drink (to heal themselves), and it made anyone watching them shake their head in awe.

It also caused a synergy effect within the territory. 

“If secretary Lucia is working that hard, I can’t lose! Here we go again!”

“Wow… Have you seen General Drakan bench-pressing over there? It seemed as if he was doing at least 400 kilograms…”

“The leaders of the Laputa territory truly are working intensely. Come on, let’s learn from them, and work harder in order to not be of shame to them!”

Meanwhile, the training for Kang Chul-In to get even stronger… did not occur.

“Sigh…”

Sitting in his personal room, Kang Chul-In pressed his forehead in pain.

On the face of Kang Chul-In, which was hidden under the pile of documents… was a dark circle.

“I really don’t know what’s wrong…”

Everything was going as planned.

The food storages, economy, training of the troops, and the construction plan was going even better than he had expected. Kang Chul-In could tell that he wasn’t going to struggle in poverty like he had before, at least for a while.

But… a problem occurred.

[Your Lord Point has decreased by 1]

[Your Lord Point has decreased by 2]

[Your Lord Point has decreased by 7]

[Your Lord Point has decreased by 3]

In front of Kang Chul-In’s eyes were endless messages of his Lord points decreasing. And the reason…

“This stupid system called happiness…”

It was due to the fact that the [happiness] category of his citizens kept on decreasing. The Laputa territory’s citizens had the happiness of the following:

The control over this category was extremely important.

If this fell down, the labor efficiency of the citizens would fall, and complaints would increase. In the worst case, there could be civilian-led rebellions within the territory.

“Milord, what is it?”

A man wearing white gloves, as well as a tuxedo stood in front of Kang Chul-In, and poured some Malt Whiskey for him. It was the Vampire Butler, Alfred.

“The happiness of the citizens are falling, leading to the decrease of my Lord Points.”

“W-Why is that… how many points have you…”

“The happiness is at 61 right… actually 60 now, it just fell by 1 as we were talking.”

“Sigh… It seems that Milord is still inexperienced in managing these internal affairs of the territory. Even in the last life…”

“... Don’t poke me where it hurts most.”  

Dammit… I didn’t think that this would occur again…

Though Kang Chul-In had vowed to become the ‘perfect Lord’, it seemed like he had already hit a roadblock in the form of happiness.

But the bigger problem was that he really couldn’t tell the reason behind the falling happiness of his citizens.

No matter who looked at it, the Laputa territory was doing well.

There was nothing missing from the 3 essential components of: clothing, food, and housing, and he hadn’t lost a single battle when he waged war. 

[Your Lord Point has decreased by 1]

[Your Lord Point has decreased by 1]

[Your Lord Point has decreased by 2]

While Kang Chul-In was thinking to himself, he had already lost 4 Lord points, and happiness had fallen to 55. If this went on, it could truly pose a problem to the Laputa territory. 

“Milord.”

At that moment, a maid called Kang Chul-In.

“Sir Kwak is asking for an audience with you.”

“Kwak-jung is?”

Kang Chul-In stood up from his chair.

“Tell him to come in immediately.”

If it were Kwak-jung, he might have a method to solve this crisis, or find the reason behind it at the very least.