Overlord of Blood and Iron

The hunter does not play with its prey. 

No matter whether it was a lion or a tiger, they would pierce the prey’s throats with their sharp teeth. Like they said, the lion uses its full strength for a rabbit.

Although animals like cats half-killed bugs and mice, that was just the ‘playing’ of the cat, not it’s hunting. Not only that, a cat was just a mere housepet.

As Kang Chul-in saw it, the Lords that had taken over Nidavellir weren’t predators, but cats.

“To explain, they think that your territory is out of action now, and won’t dare to try and take back Nidavellir again.”

Kang Chul-in again spoke in a very convinced manner. 

“If not for that, they would have brought their whole army here, to launch a full offensive against you guys.”

The others nodded, agreeing with what Kang Chul-in, and showed their praise for his genius. 

“But I still don’t understand. Our territory hasn’t been attacked yet, but what made them think like that? The fights only occurred at Nidavellir, after all.”

Lee Chae-rin spoke in an unsure tone.

“Ok. Then for example.”

“I’m not sure if you will understand this example, but imagine a woman fighting against you, and holding your hair. 

“Okay.” Lee Chae-rin scrunched her face against the enemy that did not exist. 

“But at that moment, a dog appears near you guys.”

“Then… I wouldn’t really care about it? I wouldn’t have time to pay attention to a dog while fighting against another person after all.”

“Exactly. THey don’t think that you have threat towards them, so they’re just ignoring you.”  

Kang Chul-in continued speaking.

“Think about it. You guys spent nearly 2000 of your troops trying to take back Nidavellir, but failed each time. And not only that, how is the state of your territory? Even yesterday the land was full of tired slaves and was dirty. Even by looking at the state of your castle, they could tell what situation you guys were in.”

“And because we lost, they think that we won’t send our troops again? Enough to ignore us.”

“Yes, that’s right. If not for that, they wouldn’t have begun fighting for the ownership of Nidavellir. They would have probably also invaded this territory and splitten it in half too.”

Listening to these words, Lee Chae-rin’s face got darker.

“They’re looking down on me.”

“Yes, I can’t say you’re wrong.”

“Really… I was seen as a woman without any ability then.”

Lee Chae-rin spoke to herself.

‘It can be angering.’

Anyone would be mad if they got ignored.

‘She lost everything in the past to those guys. But this time, it’s different.’

Although Lee Chae-rin didn’t know, this was a kind of return match or a revenge match, against the ones that she had lost against in her past life.

It was the battle of the two lord that had defeated her in the past, against Lee Chae-rin, with a joker card, named Kang Chul-in.

‘You will win.’

Kang Chul-in definitely thought that she was going to win.

Her victory was also his victory. If the joker couldn’t do what the joker was supposed to do, then it wouldn’t be called the joker card, the ace in the hole. And with him, the strongest and cruelest Lord around, she would definitely not lose. 

“Do you want to win?”  

“Yes, Mr. Chul-in, I really want to win. I want to win, and prove to them that I am not a woman without ability, and that even I can become a proud Lord.” Lee Chae-rin answered.

“And do you have the courage to command the army when we go into battle?”  

“Of course!”

“Good, then you will follow me into battle. I will give you your orders.”

“Just leave it to me!”

As Lee Chae-rin spoke courageously, Kang Chul-in smiled, as if he was satisfied with her. He thought this might be why people took in disciples. 

“Milord, then shall we start making our strategy?”

“Not yet.” Kang Chul-in shook his head.

“Although we are sure, we need to be absolutely certain on this.”

Although you could trust yourself, you shouldn’t believe everything that you think and say is correct. This was the difference between the past Kang Chul-in, and the current Kang Chul-in. 

Even Lee Chae-rin was moving forward in progress, how could he not do so? The current Kang Chul-in had something that his past self did not, and that was cautiousness.

‘Nidavellir, no odd things. And meanwhile the other lords… Yes, they really are fighting.’

Looking at the photos coming out in the holograms, his theory was proven to be true. The two lords were fighting each other, giving them a massive chance. 

“What an opportunity!”

“To think that we would be able to see them while in our meetings hall… This cosmic force is truly amazing!”

Everyone around him praised the special ability of Laputa. Especially because they were not from earth, and they had never seen something like this before. 

‘As expected’. 

Realizing that his theory was indeed true, Kang Chul-in let out a satisfied smile.

He had waged war for the past 10 years as if he was just eating breakfast.

And he had used the experience he had gained from these wars to figure out the plan and thoughts of the enemies.

‘Hmm.. this could work.’

Kang Chul-in thought about the possibilities in how the war could go, and thought of a plan.

“We…” Kang Chul-in said.

“Will play as fishermen.”

Everyone in the tactics meeting agreed with what Kang Chul-in said. This was the most cost effective, time effective plan that there was.

While the crane and the clam were busy fighting each other, the fisherman hiding in wait caught both of them.

And that was the current situation. 

Of course, because it wouldn’t be exactly as easy as that, Kang Chul-in had to use his brain a little bit more. 

Ending the meeting early, Kang Chul-in thought to himself. And this thinking went on until late night.

“Timing… timing.”

He sat on the top of the Dorado watchtower, and thought of the key word for this battle.

If they sent their troops in too early, there was a chance that the fight would stop, and the enemies would gang up against them. 

And that would turn into a 2:1 fight. Even if Kang Chul-in was there, it would still be a tiring, tough fight. The key point here was the grasp the timing and send their army out, to make a clean sweep of their enemies.

‘I will look again.’

He looked back at their images he had gathered from the Satellite earlier, and looked through each one. He looked at every small detail, afraid to miss something important.

He might get something big out of looking at this, after all.

‘Maybe…’

There was a smile in Kang Chul-in’s mouth.

The odd thing was that he had looked through their territories, yet the population there was very small. It was almost as if it were abandoned.

But there was a possibility. 

This was the Pandemonium region. It was a battle of dog eat dog. There was definitely a chance that they would fight each other to their deaths.

And if there was a fight like that, it would be even easier as the fishermen to swoop both of them up at the same time.

‘To get the timing… Information. Information is key.”

Kang Chul-in immediately called for Billy Halford.

“You called me, boss?”  

“I need some information.”

“What kind?”

“Take Podolski and two other adventurers, and head out of this territory right now.”  

“Where shall we go after that?”

“You should split up into two, and each go to the two lord that are fighting each other. When you see them, tell them that you would like to work as mercenaries under them. And because this is in the middle of the war, they will definitely welcome you guys.”

“So it’s kind of like a spy?”

“That’s right. Give us information about them from your barracks. If you have anything you have questions on about spying, just ask that to Podolski.”

The Podolski that Kang Chul-in knew had good fighting ability, and was talented in almost every aspect that there was. Not only that, he was even good at spying, and getting information.

“Got it, boss.”

“I believe in you guys. Your spying and information will be a key part in whether we lose this battle, or win.”

After sending the spies on their ways, Kang Chul-in used his time finishing many other things.

Setting a few buildings on fire, and getting a bunch of people dressed up as beggars that lied on the street, begging for money.

And he also told the army to take the cattle and food from the civilians forcefully.

And he even told them to litter the dead bodies of the dwarves everywhere.

“Mr. Chul-in?”

Because the territory went to absolute shi* from being stable, Lee Chae-rin was worried that something was happening. But because it was Kang Chul-in doing it, she came to ask what he was doing.

“You’ve come.”

Even while sitting down in the tactics hall and analyzing the enemy, Kang Chul-in was also playing chess against Nilus.

“Wait a moment.”

Without even turning back to see Lee Chae-rin, Kang Chul-in focused his gaze on the chessboard. And 5 minutes later, he spoke tiredly.

“...What a monster.”

The result was his loss.

“You’re praising me too much, haha.”  

Nilus laughed uproariously.

“How are you so good?”  

“Umm… this game called chess… it’s basically just like mental maths. For a magician like me, it isn’t very hard.”

“But this is too far.”

Kang Chul-in knew how to play chess, and his ELO rating for chess was even around 1900, boasting a pretty high ELO.

But he had lost against Nilus, who hadn’t played chess for even two days.

‘They said that his potential rank was SS…’

Although he didn’t know when Nilus could become like that, Nilus would become a grand, Ark Magician when he grew to the age of 87, and would stop growing older and stronger from then on. It was normal for Kang Chul-in to lose against someone like that.

“One more.”

But Kang Chul-in still didn’t give in. He hated losing, even in small things like these.

“Mr. Chul-in?”

Lee Chae-rin, who kept quiet the whole time, spoke up.

“Ah…”

And only then did Kang Chul-in turn towards Lee Chae-rin, and away from the chessboard.

“Yes, what is it?”

“The territory has become quite chaotic nowadays. There is a reason for this, right?”  

“Oh, that… sorry about that.”  

Kang Chul-in apologized to her, something that he didn’t do often. 

“Huh?”

“I should have told you earlier.”

“Then why did you give such an…”  

“It was to trick them.”

“Trick them?”

“If they send the scouting hawks and see the state of the territory right now, they definitely won’t suspect us of attacking them, and go all in against each other.”

“Oh, so it’s for making them relax their guards against us then?”

“Yes, we can backstab them and clean them up in one fell swoop if we do that.”

“You must be so tired if you even plan things like this out…”

“Well to be honest, I don’t want to do these kind of things either. Well.. there might be someone that takes care of this soon though.”

“Someone you can leave this things too?”

“Well, yeah.”

Kang Chul-in thought of ‘Black Leopard’ Kwak-jung, who would probably be lying down in a hospital by now.

Although he secretly hoped that it wasn’t him, if Black Leopard really was Kwak-jung, then he had practically earned himself a tactician that he could use.

“Lee Chae-rin.”

“Yes?”  

“Just wait a bit. According to my predictions, they should fight soon, around… here.”

Kang Chul-in pointed at a plain that was marked in the map.

“There?”

“Yes.”

It was at this moment.

“Boss!”

The adventurers that were part of Team Slayers came into the room.

“What is it?”

“Vice Captain Billy and Podolski sent us some messengers here.”  “Oh? What did they say?”  

“They said that the two Lords are fighting each other with no care or thought about their own territory. According to them, the fight is already on.”

Yes!

This was it.

“Is that it? If it was Podolski, I’m sure he would have gotten even more information.”

“Yes, boss. According to him, the Lord that’s stationed in the North, Reginald, will bring all of his forces to strike against the Southern Territory. 

‘Advantage of information… what an important resource.’

Kang Chul-in sighed at the amazingness of ‘Cosmic Force’. If he didn’t have this ability, he wouldn’t be able to look through them like the back of his fingers. 

“It’s time.”

Kang Chul-in stood up from his seat. 

The war had begun.