Translator: Leyy3

  Not too long after, Vilhelm gave an order to the Gullveig Alliance through the voice amplificator in a depressed voice. -

  All troops, fall back! Fall back!

  “Wait, Vilhelm!”

  Ao Xin shouted at Vilhelm’s sudden orders.

  “Why are you ordering them to fall back!? What are you thinking!?”

  Ao Xin was being reasonable. Right now, they were at the advantage. If they fought for just 10 more minutes at this rate, the Deathwin fortress would become the Gullveig Alliance’s.

  However, Vilhelm replied in a depressed voice again.

  “Why would you order our troops to……”

  “The Pentagon has been taken over.”

  “Yeah, so the Pentagon has been taken over but first…… w-what?!”

  Ao Xin screeched.

  “The P-Pentagon…… has…… been taken over? By who? Alex Rothschild?”

  “Of course not.”

  “Andrei Ivanovich…… that damned bastard!”

  “It’s not him either.”

  “Then who could get into the heart of our alliance, the Pentagon……?”

  “Kang Chul-In.”

  “.……!”

  “He snuck in…… and took over it. My wife and my son…… even the sovereigns of our alliance are being held hostage.”

  “N-No way!”

  Ao Xin couldn’t trust what Vilhelm said. How could he? It was a scenario that he couldn’t believe even if he wanted to.

  “S-So if we fall back it’ll be solved?”

  “That would’ve been nice.”

  Vilhelm bit his lip.

  “We have to pay compensation for the dead and the injured, and 200% of their war costs.”

  “.……!”

  “On top of that, we have to announce our loss publicly, and for the next 72 hours, we’re not allowed to attack the Valhalla soldiers.”

  “You didn’t…… already sign……”

  “Did I have any other option?”

  Vilhelm asked in a sharp voice.

  “Kang Chul-In said that he would release the Lords after cutting one arm off from each.”

  “He couldn’t have……”

  “If we don’t stop our attack now……”

  “.……”

  “It’s the end of us. We’ll have to turn our allies into our enemies, not just Kang Chul-In. Can you handle that?”

  Of course he couldn’t. Even if Vilhelm and Ao Xin worked together, they wouldn’t last against the Lords if they all allied themselves. They say that one hand couldn’t handle ten hands.

  “So…… in the end……”

  Ao Xin’s body trembled.

  “We……”

  “Defeat.”

  Vilhelm said Ao Xin’s words for him.

  “It’s a complete loss…… while we were hitting Kang Chul-In’s body…… Kang Chul-In…… stabbed our heart.”

  It was an accurate expression. Kang Chul-In’s impulsive decision to take over the Pentagon had cut off the bones of his enemies!

  “In this way…… a war that we almost won…… argh……!”

  Ao Xin couldn’t let go of the Deathwin fortress easily. -

  All forces, fall back!

  Vilhelm felt 100% what Ao Xin was feeling as he ordered the Gullveig soldiers to retreat. There was nothing they could do. This war was the defeat of the Gullveig Alliance.

  ***

  Meanwhile, at the same time.

  “Wow! His Majesty!”

  Kwak Jung was astonished looking at the retreating enemies.

  “Kya…… this is why I serve his Majesty. He’s an item…… n-no…… he’s a great item…… yeah, a great item.”

  He was muttering weird things to himself. -

  Ah, ah! Mic test, mic test. Mm~! This is nice.

  Kwak Jung lifted the magic voice amplificator in the air. -

  Alright, soldiers?

  The Valhalla soldiers that had been confused at the sudden retreat of their enemies looked up at Kwak Jung on the control top. -

  We won.

  Kwak Jung announced their victory.

  “Hm?”

  “W-What’s our commander saying?”

  “Win? Us?”

  \r \r \r

  “.……?”

  “Uh…… can someone explain……”

  The confusion increased.

  “Mm…… I see everyone’s not able to believe it. Well, I guess that’s fair…… I only believed it after his Majesty said so, too. Huhu……”

  Kwak Jung was also confused, but if Kang Chul-In said so, it was true.

  Since when did Kang Chul-In weigh options and contemplate over pros and cons? Kang Chul-In couldn’t be understood by logic. Something good was bound to come out of him at some point. -

  Soldiers!

  Kwak Jung shouted at the Valhalla soldiers again. -

  I’ll say this again, but this war is our victory! Look! Our enemies are falling back!

  To this, some soldiers shouted out.

  “What are you talking about!?” -

  His Majesty has taken over the command room of our enemies, the Pentagon.

  The impact of that sentence was extraordinary.

  “H-his Majesty!”

  “Wow! Ah, our king~!”

  “So that’s why…… the enemies are moving back!”

  The Valhalla soldiers all understood why the Gullveig soldiers were moving back, and the Deathwin fortress was filled with cheers.

  “Woohoo!”

  “Hurrah for his Majesty Kang Chul-In!”

  “Hurrah for the great Valhalla Kingdom!”

  “His Majesty is the best!”

  “His Majesty was watching us all this time!”

  “We won, we won!”

  It was a war they had barely ended, but the victory was the Valhalla Kingdom’s since Kang Chul-In had taken over the heart of the Pentagon.

  “Hehe, how nice!”

  Kwak Jung giggled.

  “Winning at the end is indeed the best…… but still…… this isn’t enough…… yes.”

  However, he wasn’t 100% satisfied.

  “Look here!”

  And so he gave orders.

  “Yes, sir!”

  “Call all the generals to the strategy room.”

  “Sorry?”

  “Quickly!”

  “U-Understood!”

  The deputy began to run frantically on Kwak Jung’s orders.

  “Hehe, so it was 72 hours, huh?”

  Kwak Jung made an evil smile.

  ***

  Ten minutes later.

  “You’ve worked hard.”

  Kwak Jung praised the Valhalla generals.

  “But…… there’s still a chance to contribute…… I don’t know who to send……”

  As soon as he finished speaking, the generals all volunteered to go, raising their hands.

  “This Drakan will go!”

  “Trust this Amur over that lizard!”

  “I’ll go!”

  “Me, me!”

  “Give me a chance!”

  “Ahem! This oldie will go!”

  “I’ll do it this time……!”

  “No, I’ll go!”

  They were fitting of Kang Chul-In’s subordinates.

  “Whew…… good, very good!”

  Kwak Jung laughed satisfactorily.

  “His Majesty will be very glad to see everyone this responsive. So this mission……”

  Kwak Jung’s words faded away.

  Swallow!

  The sounds of people swallowing could be heard throughout the room. They wanted to be chosen by Kwak Jung.

  “I’ll specially…… allow everyone to participate this time! That’s fair, right? Hahahaha~!”

  However, Kwak Jung was sly.

  T-That loser.

  I fell for it!

  I knew he was going to do this.

  Let’s see how far you go, Kwak Jung.

  The generals of the Valhalla soldiers all glared at Kwak Jung. Kwak Jung was always asking for it.

  “I’ll brief you on the strategy.”

  Not knowing that he had asked to be beaten up, Kwak Jung continued to speak.

  “The time that our enemies are prevented from fighting is about 3 days, which is 72 hours. Currently, about 10 minutes have passed……so we have about 71 hours and 49 minutes left. We can’t let this golden time go to waste! So we’ll……”

  Kwak Jung pointed at a spot on the map.

  “We’ll take over this port city, Venetz.”

  The generals of Laputa were shocked.

  “T-That’s……!”

  “Tactician Kwak’s insight is incredible!”

  “You’re surely the brain of our kingdom!”

  It was an expected response.

  72 hours was an ample amount of time to attack the Gullveig Alliance soldiers.

  Also, the one who had control over the port city Venetz could have the center of the ‘Hartum River,’ so it would be tremendously advantageous.

  Furthermore, Venetz could be used as a strategic point to get into the heart of Pangaea, the heart of the Esmeralda territory.

  “There will be resistance. They only agreed to not attacking first on the ceasefire negotiation; there wasn’t any condition not to defend themselves. So in 72 hours, we must completely take over Venetz.

  Kwak Jung emphasized the “completely.”

  “Wait!”

  Podolski raised his hand to ask a question.

  “Even if we take it over in 72 hours, our enemies might attack Venetz after that……”

  “It won’t be taken from us.”

  Kwak Jung firmly shook his head.

  “Pardon? I don’t understand……”

  “After 72 hours, there will be a ceasefire for 3 months. That means that after Venetz is taken over, it will be our territory, so the Gullveig Alliance won’t be able to shoot a single arrow at us.”

  It was a flawless plan from someone who said he had an electronic brain.

  “Wow!”

  “You’re so smart!”

  “I’m amazed!”

  The Valhalla generals were once again astonished by Kwak Jung’s plan.

  “Exactly 5 thousand, no more or less. Five thousand of our best soldiers and everyone here will take part in this. What are you doing? We have 71 hours and 45 minutes left!”

  Kwak Jung rushed them and the generals quickly ran out of the strategy room.

  “Let’s go!”

  “Let’s go capture Venetz!”

  “Quickly, quickly!”

  Alone in the strategy room, Kwak Jung sighed.

  “Whew!”

  He was tired.

  “If we can succeed in taking over Venetz, it’ll be advantageous for us with the Esmeralda territory……”

  It was then.

  “Huh?”

  Kwak Jung stumbled, and plop! He landed on the table with a nose bleed. From all the work and mana exertion, he had died. ……

  Snore!

  No, he was just sleeping.

  ***

  At the same time……

  While Kang Chul-In caused a mess in the Pentagon, Vilhelm retreated his troops, and Kwak Jung made the plans to take over Venetz, the door of the elementary school’s principal opened.

  Creak!

  “Goodbye~! Little Arshelly~!”

  The principal watched Arshelly out the door.

  “Okay……”

  Arshelly’s voice didn’t have any strength in it.

  “You can’t forget what I promised, okay? Do you understand?”

  “Okay……”

  “Don’t forget!”

  “.……”

  “Got it!?”

  The principal continued to repeatedly ask her, and Arshelly turned away to return to her classroom with heavy footsteps.

  “Hing……”

  Arshelly looked like she was about to cry as she walked down the hall.

  Drip……

  A tear that looked similar to morning dew dripped down her cheek.

  “Why are you crying?”

  Just then, a woman who had been passing by stopped Arshelly to ask her a question.

  “M-Mo…… I-I mean, Teacher!?”

  “Why is our pretty little Arhselly crying!”

  “Teacherrrrr~!”

  Arshelly jumped into her teacher, Han Ye-Sun’s, arms.