Chapter 62 - Prelude to War 1 (1/2)

It was a good surprise attack, but they had picked the wrong opponent.

Whiric!

After using the Elder Naga’s Ancient Ring to teleport to his side, he threw the Vampiric dagger.

“Kuhuk”

Gwak Seyong twisted his body awkwardly, just barely managing to dodge the attack due to his superior Dexterity.

“What’s going on?”

As the fight between them was heating up, Han Jangmi arrived with her longbow.

Woohyuk instantly turned towards her and quickly narrowed the distance between them.

“Stop!”

Gwak Seyoung jumped down from the tree branch, in an attempt to chase him down. However Loengreen suddenly appeared to block his path.

“I’ll be your opponent.”

“You… a Demon?”

“Let’s just say that I’m his helper.”

Gremory, the Demon King whom he served had yet to awaken, so Loengreen was rather unrestricted in his actions compared to other Demons.

As a senior demon that had been ranked 3rd in his region in the past, he could easily deal with these beginner level players. Even if he was severely weakened compared to the past, it still wouldn’t affect him in a battle of this level.

Gwak Seyoung gulped as he stared into Loengreen’s golden eyes.

‘Even Demons have made an appearance here.’

The one which was with Count Ludwig was strong enough to take on hundreds of players by himself. No doubt the young looking Demon before him was of a similar strength. In such a situation, there was truly nothing he could do.

“Why are you attacking us? Have you sided with the Royal family?”

“I care little for the machinations of you humans. I’m simply attached to beautiful things.”

“ Beautiful things? Is that your aim? Han Jangmi?”

Although she had a wild personality, she was rather good looking.

Seeing that Gwak Seyoung had completely misunderstood him, Loengreen could only sigh helplessly.

“Huuu...let’s just say that it is a personal matter.”

“We have Demons on our side as well. What will you do if you encounter each other on opposite sides of the battlefield?”

“Hmm, in that case we will have to have a nice talk to work things out.”

Anyways, for those that served different Demon Kings, they saw each other more as rivals than friends. Not to mention that this would be his last time cooperating with Woohyuk, so he didn’t see any problems in the foreseeable future.

While Loengreen kept Gwak Seyoung busy.

“Kkaaahack!”

Woohyuk caught Han Jangmi, who continued to resist despite him placing his Vampiric dagger against her neck.

Checkmate.

All the archers that had their bows drawn immediately put an end to their attacks.

“What the hell do you want!?”

Like being stared at by a fearsome viper. She became so frightened that she quickly dropped her dagger.

“You.”

Woohyuk replied cheekily as he gave her a light cut on her neck. A green liquid coated on the Vampiric dagger then dropped on the wound.

[Lizardmen’s Poison]

It was a consumable item that would hypnotize an opponent.

“Ugh….”

Shortly after Han Jangmi’s eyes rolled back and turned white, bringing a smile to Woohyuk’s face.

‘Success.’

Having captured the queen bee, he now had ten thousand worker bees at his disposal.

* * *

In a luxuriously decorated study, Count Ludwig sat by the window, reading the report.

“It seems like we have suffered a small setback in our plan.”

The report explains how the Hwarang Clan had failed to capture Hayswick, and that his spies on the inside had been weeded out.

Even though he hadn’t received any message from Han Jangmi, he had a good idea what had transpired. It was due to the elaborate spy network which he had established in the Ionia province, long in advance.

“It seems like the preparation was insufficient. We were too reliant on Andrew’s skill, taking his words at face value.”

A young looking blonde haired man replied while studying the portraits hung on the wall.

Melphis

He was trying to turn the Rhine Kingdom into a Demon’s den under the orders of the Demon King Volak.

“If capturing Hayswick isn’t feasible, wouldn’t it be easier to directly march onto the capital city Heidelberg instead?”

“Sure, we can quickly poison King John. If he were to learn of our rebellion this early, he might take precautions.”

He already had some nobles from the capital that had pledged to cooperate with him. Of course whether or not they would actually succeed in such an attempt was unclear.

Originally he had wanted to first capture Hayswick before giving the order for the assasination, but now things were becoming more urgent.

“But it seems that there are other Demon in the Rhine kingdom other than yourself, Melphis. I’m worried that they might intervene.”

“There aren’t many that have awakened, and even if they have, they’d be in a severely weakened state.”

If they were to be attacked by a strong Holy spell, they might even die a true death.

Rank was important for Demons. He would have to regain his strength in order to survive the upcoming battle. In essence, even if the other side was a high ranked Demon, they wouldn’t step out into the limelight so soon.

“What should we do about Maximus? I think we could try to rope him in to our side.”

“Just leave him be, he won’t be much of a hindrance either way.”

Having received a letter from Count Huntington, Maximus was breaking camp, making haste with his Legion to reinforce the Ionia province.

Since they were planning to just go straight for the capital instead, they wouldn’t have to bother with him.

As soon as their plan had been discovered, they had to move quickly and make snap decisions on the fly.

Melphis walked to the window and spoke once more.

“I’ll go and contact the other nobles, they need to be informed of the change in the plan.”

“Okay, then I will prepare for war.”

“Oh, and I hope that the slaves I’ve requested are ready by the time I return.”

Melphis seemed to like young virgins.

Count Ludwig let out a sigh upon seeing him a black shadow disappear through the window.

‘It’s quite difficult to satisfy your taste.’

Every night he would request a new virgin, to the point that there weren’t any left. However he had no choice but to expand his search to find more, since he doubted he could achieve victory in the upcoming war without the Demon’s support.

As Count Ludwig reread the latest report once more, a woman with reddish brown hair walked into his study.