Chapter 111: Reinforcements Office (3)
For a moment, the temperature inside the office seemed to drop by 10 degrees Celsius, causing a chilling sensation, but Kim Hyunwoo couldn't understand why he felt like he was being ripped off.
However, he clearly realized one fact.
That if this situation continued for long, it wouldn't be good.
"I was actually about to speak a little about that matter."
"Yes?"
Therefore, Kim Hyunwoo immediately began to speak, directly addressing Rania, who soon wore a puzzled expression.
And then,
"Resources, you say?"
"Yes. I thought perhaps the Duchess of Tesnoka would prefer this over marriage."
"Certainly, that seems better..."
What Kim Hyunwoo proposed to Rania was the purchase of resources.
A proposal to buy resources from the Tesnoka territory at virtually cost price.
'Actually, I initially thought it would be better to just take a large amount of resources at once.'
Naturally, receiving resources without spending any money would be ideal, but that was a short-sighted thought.
After all, Lartania would need a tremendous amount of resources to consume for its future growth.
Therefore, Kim Hyunwoo made a proposal to Rania to purchase resources at a price close to cost rather than receiving them for free once.
"Of course, we need to agree on a timeline, and honestly, discussions about such compensation are better left until after the work is completed, but somehow we're talking about it now."
"Anyway, since I brought this up rather suddenly, and you, the Duchess, need time to consider, you can give us your answer after this matter is concluded."
Kim Hyunwoo, who spoke with an awkward smile, immediately stood up after finishing his words.
"Then, I'll start the preparations right away."
Before Rania could say anything, Kim Hyunwoo, who had already stood up, quickly exited the office.
And then.
"Dad."
"Yes?"
"It's not something you decided on belatedly, is it?"
"What is?"
"The talk about marriage."
At Shadra's words, Kim Hyunwoo spoke with a smile.
"Of course, I had no intention of getting married now in the first place."
"Really?"
"Yes."
"At that, the Duchess seems to have an awkward smile."
Elena quickly came in right after Shadra's defense.
"Awkward? I never had such thoughts in the first place."
"I see."
"Yes."
"For that, you spoke too hastily."
"...It's really not like that."
Kim Hyunwoo, sweating coldly, turned his gaze slightly to look at Shadra and Elena, who were staring at him intently.
'No, you two weren't close.'
At least, during the past five days coming to the Tesnoka territory, the relationship between Shadra and Elena didn't seem good.
After all, during the somewhat long journey of five days, Elena and Shadra didn't exchange even a single word.
But what about now?
A sigh was all Kim Hyunwoo could muster, not understanding why he found himself in this situation, seeing them attacking as if they were soul duos filling the void of plausibility.
Landaron had become king.
He killed the king of Norba Kingdom, usurped the throne, and although with the help of demons, he was in the process of subjugating most of the territories belonging to the kingdom, nearly achieving complete success.
At this point, only eight territories remained for Landaron to subjugate, and the subjugation would be completed once the 'Tesnoka territory', the center of that faction, was taken down.
Thus, by toppling and subjugating Tesnoka, Landaron would be able to successfully ascend to the throne as king.
However, despite such a situation, Landaron's mood could not be said to be good.
The reason was that the Tesnoka territory, which should have been falling apart by now, had yet to do so.
In truth, there would be no reason for Landaron to be this urgent if there was time, but unfortunately, as long as the holy kingdom existed, Landaron needed to stabilize the kingdom as quickly as possible.
From the moment the holy kingdom arrived, Landaron could no longer afford to spend time recovering the territories.
Realizing this, Duke Landaron had deployed most of the troops he could mobilize right away to the Tesnoka territory.
After all, once the Tesnoka territory fell, the other territories belonging to that faction would naturally collapse as well.
Because of the monsters.
"Tsk."
In truth, Tesnoka should have fallen long ago if things had gone as originally planned.
However, the reason the Tesnoka territory had not been subjugated yet was because Landaron was currently unable to use monsters, one of his leading forces.
Certainly, over the past month, Landaron had extracted tens of thousands of monsters from a 'gate' located beneath the Lord's castle, and these tens of thousands of monsters could definitely be considered his greatest force.
Yet, he had not been able to use monsters even once during the last month.
That was because two heroes, who appeared from somewhere, killed all the monsters as soon as they were brought out for war.
Thanks to that, Landaron had to subjugate the territories bearing a tremendous consumption of troops without the monsters, and furthermore-
"......"
-Despite becoming a king, he found himself having to be cautious.
He had to be wary of Kelva, who was sitting next to him, looking very displeased.
A few weeks ago, Kelva, who had materialized to kill the two heroes obstructing the subjugation of the territories, faced forced death and since then, had suffered significant losses.
Not only did he waste time by gathering the monsters then, but he also permanently lost his power, and after materializing, he was killed by that hero along with the monsters.
In essence, having been killed twice by the same hero, his mood was understandably not good.
Landaron had no choice but to be mindful of Kelva's mood despite his own displeasure.
Kelva,
Crack!
would let out a light sigh, but every time he remembered that moment, his anger seemed to flare up, breaking the armrest of the chair he was sitting in, which was the eighth in a row he had destroyed.
This was because he had heard it at the moment Kelva was killed, if it were immediate death, perhaps he wouldn't know,
the sight of the hero shouting, "Infamy Potion again...!"
"......"
In the demon world, where Kelva could not be ignored by anyone, he felt genuine shame and thus true anger for being mocked as an Infamy Potion by mere heroes.
Yet, despite this, the reason he could not come forward any further was likewise because of a greater cause.
If he acted rashly here, everything ahead could become entangled, so these days, he restrained his boiling intent to kill as much as possible, letting out an unknowable number of sighs before asking,
"Have you sent the personnel?"
"Yes."
"You know, right? This time, it must succeed without fail."
At Kelva's words, Duke Landaron nodded in agreement.
"I'm aware of that. If we don't take them down this time, the holy kingdom will come. To ensure a definitive outcome, I've sent eight heroes and over ten thousand soldiers. Even among those, 2,000 have received the power of demons."
Landaron continued,
"Furthermore, the walls of the Tesnoka territory have already fallen. No matter how quickly they rebuild, they won't be able to subdue a magical barrier that quickly."
"I hope things proceed as expected."
Upon hearing this, Kelva nodded and then spoke,
"Don't worry, it's a bit unsettling without the monsters, but we've already expended over twenty thousand troops on the Tesnoka territory, so it should go as expected. And-"
With that, Landaron looked towards where the Tesnoka territory was and smiled slyly,
"The commander leading the troops right now is a hero I quite cherish. He'll probably do well."
Muttering so, he erased any sign of anxiousness with a faint smile.
Under Landaron's command, a hero known by the nickname 'The Invader', Areidros, looked at the Tesnoka territory with a confident expression.
The Tesnoka territory he was looking at was a mess.
Immediately, he saw that the territory was littered with crudely patched-up broken walls, and the soldiers on the walls all looked this way with grim expressions, making it clear there was no need to divide his forces.
In other words, in terms of morale, they were no match.
Moreover, as far as Areidros was aware, the number of soldiers remaining in the Tesnoka territory didn't even reach 5,000.
In contrast, the troops led by Areidros numbered over ten thousand, and among them were a few who alone could significantly sway the course of battle, including heroes with titles and those who had received the power of demons.
Even if Areidros wasn't confident in his own abilities, any commander in this situation would inevitably feel confident.
After all, even without any special strategy, a mere shout of "Attack" from Areidros would suffice for the mages' magic to shatter the broken walls and for his forces to enter and occupy Tesnoka.
Therefore, with a smile, Areidros immediately led his more than ten thousand soldiers forward, using the mages' large-scale magic to attack the crudely patched-up walls.
Boom!
Seeing the walls crumble helplessly with just one large-scale magic attack, likely due to the absence of magical defenses, Areidros chuckled and without hesitation declared,
"Attack."
Whoosh!
As soon as Areidros opened his mouth, the soldiers, each with a confident smile, began to rush towards the location of the broken walls.
Similarly, the wyvern riders they had prepared in advance took to the skies.
Dozens of mages fired spells towards the empty walls where the Dispel was not maintained.
The Tesnoka territory was instantly plunged into crisis at the start of the war.
Looking at this, Areidros, who was smiling,
"...?"
suddenly saw a giant golem appear in front of the walls.
Looking at the very solid-looking iron golem that seemed impossible to damage by any ordinary means being formed from the broken walls, he-
"...Hmm?"
-glanced around as if watching the soldiers pushing towards the walls and smirked.
With a puzzled expression, Areidros looked at the man - no, at Kim Hyunwoo - as he took something out from his bosom.
A small button.
And then.
Pressed it-
The moment Kim Hyunwoo pressed the button-
Boom!!!!
The once calm ground began to burst open.