Chapter 130. The foggy forest (Pt. 1)

Overlord of Blood and Iron

After running away from the Laputa territory through the window, Kang Chul-In headed towards the Ishtar region.

Dammit, marriage?

Kang Chul-In didn’t know what to do whenever this matter came up.

Of course, political marriage was an extremely powerful method to tie and ally territories together.

Through a blood relationship, it was easier to ensure a better understanding with each other.

Kang Chul-In was also aware of this.

He also didn’t want to avoid this problem forever.

Not only that, but he was also a Lord.

Sometimes, he had to make ‘sacrifices’ in order to benefit him and the territory.

But in the back of his mind, Kang Chul-In still didn’t want to marry.

Did he have to be faithful to the saying where heroes had to marry multiple wives?

Bullsh*t.

What hero.

Kang Chul-In didn’t take any of the things that his subordinates said to heart.

Yeah, what ‘hero’.

He was just a conquest Lord, who had great ambitions.

Since he wasn’t a hero, this saying didn’t refer to him. After all, wasn’t he on his road to become the biggest villain of Pangaea, rather than a hero?

That’s not a bad excuse.

Was what Kang Chul-In thought, in order to avoid his marriage. It was his sort of self-rationalization.

But that thought didn’t go for too long.

As a villain, it makes more sense to take in more wives, milord! Was what Alfred might say to him, if that was what he said.

Dammit!

He didn’t have anything to say against marriage.

I really need to come up with an excuse to get out of this predicament.

Though he wasn’t planning to avoid this matter forever, he still didn’t want to marry before he conquered all of Pangaea. It was the life of an incredible workaholic.

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Normally, there were two types of Demi-humans.

First, there were the ‘bestials’, who had more beast and animal-like features than humans. The other type were the ‘humanics’, who seemed to be more human than animal.

For example, dog-men who had the heads of dogs, and the draconian race like Drakan were part of the bestial type.

Meanwhile, cat-humans that had the tails and ears of cats were part of the Humanic type.

These cat-humans had a keen sense of hearing, as well as terrifying reflexes and sharp claws, but weren’t exactly what you would really call a perfect cat.

This was the same for the fox-human race.

Along with the cat-humans, the fox-human race was known and famed to be the most beautiful out of the demi-human races.

If the cat-humans showed a boy or girlish charm, it could be said that the fox-humans had more of a mature charm.

In actuality, these fox-human women were truly beautiful enough to be able to charm almost any human male. There wasn’t a saying comparing pretty women to foxes for no reason.

Ninetails.

And Kang Chul-In had come all this way to the Ishtar territory to meet the Ninetails, who was the queen of the fox-human race.

Ninetails.

The queen of the fox-human race with 9 tails.

Kang Chul-In had something to talk about with this demi-human.

In Kang Chul-In’s previous life Aleister had invaded the territory of the Ninetails soon after the 1st Lord meeting. That meant that soon, there would be a collision of the Ninetails, and Aleister.

Kang Chul-In was planning on interfering during this meeting, and humiliating Aleister.

Though I want to kill you… You still have a lot of uses left.

Trying his best to suppress his rising killing intent, Kang Chul-In vowed that he would definitely use Aleister to his fullest potential, before disposing of him.

There was a reason for all this. 

Aleister had to be kept alive for the next 10 months. It was because of the existence of an item called ‘Death Calling’. 

Dragon hunting!

In the past Kang Chul-In, Hecate and Aleister had joined forces in order to hunt a blue dragon and using this as an opportunity, Kang Chul-In had joined the ranks of Overlord.

By hunting an extremely powerful monster like the Dragon, Kang Chul-In had been able to gain an explosive leap in power.

And the epic item Death Calling played an extremely big part in the hunt.

It was almost to the point where the item itself played almost the same role as both Kang Chul-In and Hecate combined. This was why Kang Chul-In was planning on saving Aleister until the hunt. 

But after the Blue Dragon hunt?

Kang Chul-In was definitely going to kill Aleister. 

And since Aleister’s part was gone, both Kang Chul-In and Hecate could get a larger profit from this hunt.

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Kang Chul-In ran at an extremely fast pace. Since he had run over 200km a day, it was almost to the point of riding a horse.

And after 10 days, Kang Chul-In was finally able to arrive in the Ishtar region’s foggy forest, where the territory of the Ninetails was located.

“Maybe I should have brought Podolski with me…”

Kang Chul-In muttered.

Though Dorian Explorer was also a good fit to be his travel companion, that idiot was somewhere in Pangaea, being forced to do things that he didn’t want to. 

And since he didn’t have anyone to talk to, he thought that the humorous Podolski might actually be a good fit here.

But there was no choice.

Since he had run out so quickly from the Laputa territory, he was unable to even take supplies and food, much less someone along with him.

And thanks to this, Kang Chul-In had to cook some game that he had hunted himself. For a famed Lord like him, it was quite a ‘poor’ journey.

“Sigh… I hate being poor.”

While the rabbit meat he had caught was being cooked in front of him, Kang Chul-In muttered.

There was actually a reason behind this.

From a young age, Kang Chul-In had struggled due to a lack of money. There wasn’t a part-time job that he hadn’t done, and he wasn’t able to wear a single piece of expensive clothing as he wanted to.

Even though he had finally become an Overlord, he was still unable to escape the fate of being a relatively poor Lord.

He had gained wealth on Earth.

Kang Chul-In had supercars that would make people gape in astonishment, and he also had a large house within the golden part of Korea. If he was willing to, he could even buy a personal plane if he wanted to. 

But…

“I can’t do anything about being poor in Pangaea…”

The problem was that it took an astronomical amount of money in order to keep his territory running.

This wasn’t a problem for just Kang Chul-In, but also Hecate and Aleister. This was the reason the Overlords of the Ishtar Coalition had to rely on plundering the supplies of the enemies.

“Even though I’m safe for now… It’s still not enough.”

Since there was money that he was receiving from Lee Chae-rin, and the money from the Galaxy Corporation, he had enough for the time being.

But if he were to start his activities within the Ishtar Region, it would definitely cause a problem for his territory financially.

“Money, god-damned money.”

Tapping his foot, Kang Chul-In sighed.

“One day, I’ll steal a huge gold mi…”

That was when Kang Chul-In suddenly stopped.

Tuk…

Kang Chul-In’s keen senses were able to spot another presence nearby.

“Who is it?”

Kang Chul-In spoke.

“Put your hands up.”

A husky voice warned Kang Chul-In from the darkness. It was the voice of a female.

“And if I don’t want to?”

Kang Chul-In answered.

“Then I’ll have to shoot you either in your legs, or your arms.”

“Don’t do that kind of sh*t, and go where you were going. I’m not in a good mood right now.”

“That’s some confidence you have there.”

“Is that so?”

Kang Chul-In wasn’t looking at where the voice was coming from, and instead was continuing to focus on roasting his meat.

Since he was hungry after the long journey, he didn’t want to be interrupted.

But…

Psht-!

With a small noise.

Puk-!

An arrow hit Kang Chul-In’s precious rabbit meat, making it fall on the floor.

The veins on Kang Chul-In’s forehead started to bulge.

“...How dare you?”

Standing up, Kang Chul-In roared in anger.

“You put your hands on my meat?”

Kang Chul-In was super pissed.

He didn’t think that these pesky insects would actually hit the meat he was cooking.

He thought they were going to shoot him (he was confident in dodging the arrow), but to think that they would shoot the meat instead. Though it was a warning, it pissed him off more than actually directly shooting at him.

“When I say you should leave, just go.”

The owner of the voice came out of the darkness and spoke.

Sharp ears, and a large foxtail. The opponent was a fox-human.

It wasn’t just her though.

A ranger squad of around 10 fox-humans started to show themselves. Looking as they all had bows with them, it seemed as though one of them had shot Kang Chul-In’s meat. 

“Very well. Though it pissed me off, it’s fine now.”

Kang Chul-In smiled.

And there was a reason for this; the foggy forest was foggy all year long and made it incredibly difficult to find the territory of the Ninetails.

Since he was struggling to find his way and the fox-humans had just shown up in front of him, he was happy.

“What’s that response?”

Seeing that Kang Chul-In didn’t seem scared, the face of the fox-humans darkened.

“Fox-humans, right? Are you subordinates of the Ninetails?”

Kang Chul-In didn’t care about what their response was. The important thing was whether these rangers were the subordinates of the Ninetails.

“Ninetails?”

The faces of the fox-humans stiffened.

“How dare you speak of our queen’s name like that?”

“Ah, it seems like I was right.”

“Apologize for your words immediately. If not…”

As one of the rangers signaled with their eyes, the other rangers drew their arrows, ready to shoot at Kang Chul-In anytime.

“We’ll make you into a porcupine.”

It seems as though these fox ladies were extremely angry at him.

Hmph, they say that the criminal gets angry at the victim.

Kang Chul-In was speechless.

Not only had they just come up and shot his food before he had even taken a bite, they were now angry at him for just saying the word Ninetails?

If he didn’t say Ninetails, then what should he say instead?

Queen?

Sir Ninetails?

Queen Ninetails?

No matter what it was, Kang Chul-In wasn’t going to put the Ninetails at a higher position than him. They were both equals, leaders of their own territories.

“There is no apology.”

Kang Chul-In answered.

“Ehem. Even though my current state is a mess, I’m the Overlord that controls the Pandemonium region, Kang Chul-In.”

And revealed his identity.

But…

“Pft.”

One of the rangers laughed at Kang Chul-In.

“You’re a Lord? And an Overlord at that? And you say that you’re the one who controls the Pandemonium region?”

They were laughing at Kang Chul-In.

“Everyone hear that? He says with his own mouth, that he’s the Overlord that controls the Pandemonium region!”

Soon.

“Kuk. That man is so cute.”

“Hahaha! To think that a mere adventurer would call himself an Overlord…”

“Haha! Is it a new trend for Overlords to stay in a forest by themselves, without shelter?”

The rangers started to laugh at Kang Chul-In.

“Pft! What, are you a traveling Overlord? Do you really think that there’s an Overlord who just leaves his own territory behind and goes traveling? I’m sure that person’s servants would like that! Pft!”

And one of the fox-humans not only dissed Kang Chul-In, but also indirectly dissed Dorian.

And….

“It seems like you’ve come out of a hellhole, with that dust-filled appearance of yours… I can just see how poor you are by looking at you. You look as if you’ve struggled from poverty your whole life…”

There were also words that hit Kang Chul-In hard.

Yes, Kang Chul-In’s appearance was currently in a mess since he had traveled over 2000km by running, but to say that he was struggling in poverty?  For Kang Chul-In who had been worried about the economic state of his territory, his eyes nearly flipped over in rage.

And hadn’t these stupid women been the ones to shoot his meat away?

At that moment.

“YOU! F*CKERS!”

Kang Chul-In’s rage exploded.