Chapter 148 - King of Cooking Hans 1 (1/2)
After delivering the food, he secretly got him aboard the carriage returning to the Lydia Kingdom.
There were several checkpoints before crossing the border, but since Dexter was hidden in the Banshee Queen's cloak, complicated situations did not arise.
After arriving at the Royal Palace of Lydia, Woohyuk immediately prepared his next plan.
'I just need to find Hans now.'
King of Cooking Hans.
He was originally from the Enoa Kingdom, but was unable to endure the tyranny of Alice, the Blood Queen, and left his hometown. He was under the command of the Chinese overlord Zhang Wei, who took control of the Lydia Kingdom.
However, those events were from his past life.
Back then, Hans died along with Zhang Wei while fighting against the undead army of Necromancer Logan. Logan and his army were marching south and devastating everything in their way.
His death was similar to Runesmith Dexter.
It was their mistake to choose incompetent monarchs.
'First of all, I need to get Hans' favor.'
Hans had a picky personality.
However, if he showed him the Stymphalian Bird meat obtained from the Stymphalos Lake in the past, Hans would be interested.
He could also just kidnap him without going through that much trouble as he had done with Dexter.
The problem was Alice, the Queen of Thorns, and the Kazak race.
The Norton Kingdom was still standing today due to Logan's loss of the Necromancer class, but the Enoa Kingdom was already completely in the hands of the Queen of Thorns.
In other words, it was impossible to infiltrate as a mercenary like he had done to find Dexter.
“Is there any good plan?”
“I’m not sure. Our people have never sent spies to the Enoa Kingdom, so I have no idea.”
The Elves and the Kazak were polar opposites in terms of physical appearance.
If the Elves boasted a graceful and curvaceous beauty, the Kazak were the incarnation of grotesque.
It was impossible to send elves as spies in the first place.
“Then we have no choice but to ask the refugees who emigrated from that country.”
There were some people who had recently escaped from the Enoa Kingdom.
As they entered the stone chamber, Helena expressed deep grief at the sight inside.
“Oh, these poor people. They’re all skin and bones.”
Most of the refugees were women.
Woohyuk asked the black-haired woman in front of him a question.
“What's your name?”
“I am Sarah.”
“Sarah, tell me everything you know about the current situation in the Enoa Kingdom.”
“The Queen of Thorns… is treating the citizens like livestock.”
Those who did not obey her orders were sent to extreme northeastern regions for manual labor, and when people died in those areas, the bodies were used as food for the Kazak tribe.
In addition, she tried to increase the population by ordering compulsory marriage between men and women.
Similarly to vampires, the Kazaks were unable to reproduce on their own, so they needed to infect other humans to increase their population.
Reina nodded as she listened to the black-haired woman.
“That's right. When my people got infected by the Kazaks during our battles, they changed into kazaks themselves. It was so difficult to deal with.”
It was hard for the elves to attack their comrades they had fought with until a short while ago.
Woohyuk comforted Reina and turned to Sarah again.
“If you had to go to the Kines Castle in Lazania right now, how would you do it?”
“That castle is at the border of the Lydia kingdom, so the Kazak army is always stationed there. But it is not their main force.”
Currently, the Queen of Thorns’ attention was directed towards Orphelia, the Elf Queen of the Croa Principality, and the Five Paladins of the Holy Aperian Empire who were helping her.
So, Woohyuk had an army, he could advance and attack immediately and capture the castle. But if he wanted to carry out the operation covertly, he could cross the wall and pretend to be a prisoner.
Basically, it was impossible to pass through the gates disguised as a mercenary or a traveler from another country.
After listening to Sarah's words, Woohyuk nodded.
“Those aren’t bad ideas. But King Philip II would be opposed to mobilizing the army. The Lydia kingdom’s internal situation is still chaotic, so he wouldn’t want to start a war.”
Therefore, secretly infiltrating the Kines Castle was their only option for now.
The problem was that he needed to know the approximate structure and internal situation of the Kines Castle in advance.
At Woohyuk's words, Sarah brought along a brown-haired man.
“This man is Ethan. He was born in Lazania and worked as a guard at the Kines Castle for a long time.”
Ethan knew very much about the Kines Castle.
Woohyuk learned the necessary information for the infiltration from him.
“So they don’t place their troops on top of the high walls?”
“Yes, it’s difficult for humans to climb up there.”
And the climate in the northern part of the Enoa Kingdom was as severe as the Norton Kingdom.
Even if they were monstrous Kazaks, if they stood in an open area with a strong blizzard blowing, their whole body would freeze.
While it would be possible if the kazaks were infected frost giants, they were large and would find it difficult to stand on the wall.
“The best way would be to climb the wall with a minimal number of participants in the operation.”
“What about that female cat you left behind at the Ecclet County? You didn’t bring her with us because she stands out.”
The female cat Helena referred to was Catsy.
Currently, Woohyuk's goal was to infiltrate different countries while bringing only the necessary people with him.
The smaller the group and the more ordinary the members looked, the better. He didn’t want to attract attention
“It would’ve definitely been easier if she were here. It would’ve also helped a lot if I had the Jester's mask with me.”
With the Jester's mask, it would have been easier to get in contact with Hans, the King of Cooking, by changing his appearance as he had done when rescuing Izuna's Princess Lizbeth.
However, Choi Kayoon was still using it.
He had to find another method.
“So how are you going to climb the walls? You can wear those airwalker boots, but we don’t have a way.”
“There is a way.”
Woohyuk flicked his finger toward the empty space in front of him.
Then, the surroundings instantly lit up, and a golden goat appeared in front of them.
“Meeeeeeeeeeeeeh!”
“Wha, what the?! A mountain goat?”
“I picked him up at the Valley of Kings before.”
The golden goat was strong enough to climb a cliff even with an adult man on its back.
Woohyuk lifted Helena and placed her on the golden goat and took out a golden horn from his pocket.
Eventually, he blew into the horn, and the golden goat began to energetically climb up the stone wall next to it.
“Wha, just what the hell did you order him to do?!”