Chapter 582: Soldier (2)

Musashi returned to the waiting room and sank into thought.

The new duke, Freng.

He imagined what would happen if he accepted his demand.

A tax rate of forty percent.

What would he have to do to pay that?

The production classes, including miners, farmers, fishermen, and blacksmiths.

He would have to increase the working hours of those currently working an average of nine hours a day to fifteen.

Soldiers, knights, guild members.

He would have to increase the number of subjugations and force them into reckless dungeon raids.

They would be able to operate like that for a while.

But it would only be a matter of time, and eventually, among those unable to withstand the intensity, deaths from overwork would begin to increase.

Once more people began dying from overwork and more people began fleeing the territory, the economy would collapse.

The exhausted production classes, soldiers, and knights would no longer have the strength to fight.

In the end......

The territory will be overflowing with people starving to death.

Musashi.

Once, he had called Hyunsoo a fool.

He had thought forming bonds with NPCs and cherishing them was no different from being a damn idiot.

But once he came to command a large territory, he gradually began to understand why.

Even if he went somewhere else and was looked down on and trampled underfoot.

When he returned to his territory, the place was filled with cries of, “Our hero, Lord Musashi!”

And those people would starve to death.

I know the nation of Hyun once faced a crisis like this too.

The nation of Hyun had overcome that crisis and reached its current position.

Then he imagined what would happen if he refused.

Musashi would say it.

Take up your weapons.

To stand against the Parion Empire, to defend their territory, the guild members, soldiers, knights, even mere farmers and production classes would rise up.

They would fight with unbreakable will and would not retreat.

However.

Musashi knew what had happened to those who had refused to submit and fought back against the Parion Empire’s conduct in this same way.

Eighty percent of the soldiers killed in battle. Sixty percent of the knights killed in battle.

It flashed through Musashi’s mind as he closed his eyes.

Children and women made slaves, the elderly sent to the mines......

The captured soldiers and knights would become Parion’s cannon fodder and die in each subjugation.

The children and women would be violated, and the elderly would have to survive on one potato a day.

Clench—!

Before the home he had cultivated and protected for three years, Musashi found that the World Championship no longer entered his eyes.

Then.

A woman came to see him.

She was the chancellor of the nation of Hyun.

“......I heard the news.”

Musashi had planted at least one spy in the nation of Hyun himself, so he was not angry about that.

Only.

He found it absurd that she had run here in one step, saying she had heard.

He knew he had been in the wrong until now.

But had she come to mock him, knowing how wretched a commander was when he carried the downfall of his territory on his back?

Just as he was about to spew curses exactly in keeping with his temper.

“Do your best, Musashi.”

Nell offered him unexpected words.

“All of Japan has great expectations of you. The affairs of your territory are the affairs of your territory, and the affairs of the World Championship are the affairs of the World Championship. Do not let your judgment become clouded.”

“......Wouldn’t it be better for you if my judgment were clouded?”

“No. In the World Championship, a true victory is only obtained when the result is revealed after both sides’ players have fought with all their strength. No opponent would be happy to win against someone fighting with a shaken mind.”

Musashi himself agreed.

Winning when the other side had not gone all out?

There would be no victory more unpleasant than that.

“If, after revealing every bit of your strength and fighting without regret, you come to acknowledge Lord Hyunsoo, then consider this.”

She placed a sheet of paper in front of Musashi.

[2nd Corps Name: Warrior.]

“Not long ago, the nation of Hyun established its first corps. A corps is an independent group that fights by obeying the corps commander’s orders, rather than the orders of the commander or king. The first corps was a success. You heard that a considerable number of Ares’s dragon summoners migrated to the nation of Hyun, didn’t you?”

“You mean that corps called Dragon-Dragon and Friends? Their naming sense was awful.”

“.......”

For some reason, Hyein’s face flushed for no reason, but she hurried on.

“That name was chosen because of the strong opinion of Lord Resil, who was the corps commander. In any case, if the guild Warrior is incorporated into the 2nd Corps, I believe we can provide a great deal of help.”

Under ordinary circumstances, Musashi would have torn that paper apart.

“I’ll be going.”

However, even after she left, Musashi had no choice but to stare for a long time at the words written there.

“2nd Corps Name: Warrior.”

*****

Hyein recalled her first meeting with Hyunsoo.

Lamas’s Bell, broken, rusted, and cracked.

The image of the twenty-year-old young man who had shattered Lamas’s Bell, an artifact that could not be repaired, and then recreated it anew in the flames of the furnace, was still etched in her mind.

One day.

Inside the mad movie created by the genius editor Ian.

Awkwardly dressed in a suit and straightening his tie, he revealed how he felt at the time.

‘I wanted to live.’

Hyun’s Forge guild.

When Nell witnessed the honest feelings of Hyunsoo, the protagonist of that small and shabby guild, she felt both a thrill and heartbreak at once.

It was different from emotions like love or admiration.

It made her feel a resolve that she would, no matter what, raise that young man who had wanted to live to the highest place.

Today, too, she simply did her utmost to keep and honor the vow she had made that day.

Slurp—

“You’re back?”

The waiting room.

When Hyein saw Hyunsoo eating ramen and a triangle gimbap, her chest tightened.

Time had passed, and the place where he stood had grown higher.

Even though no one could look down on him anymore, he still made do with cup ramen and triangle gimbap for his meals every day.

Yes. What goes into each and every mouth of the people must matter more......

Musashi was facing a crisis where people might starve to death, and the nation of Hyun had already experienced and overcome the same thing.

“Next time, eat some kimchi with it.”

Of course, Hyein did not know the truth: Hyunsoo was simply eating ramen and triangle gimbap because he wanted to eat ramen and triangle gimbap.

In any case.

Hyein had met Musashi without reporting it to Hyunsoo.

She had done it deliberately.

Lord Hyunsoo must not concern himself with anything except the World Championship.

He was someone busy enough that he had no time to breathe.

And if he fought while knowing that fact, he might feel burdened or awkward.

And as if.

As if he were an ordinary twenty-one-year-old young man.

He was eating while unable to take his eyes off the game broadcast, watching the next Throne Match duel video.

He seemed no different from other young men his age, and even felt immature.

However, at that age, it was right for him to be immature.

Hyein did not blame Hyunsoo.

I’ll tell him once the match with Valhalla ends.

The current state of affairs was not good.

The people she had planted in various places were reporting that the Parion Empire was forcing the users’ large territories into submission and taking them by strength.

Carter, the King of Monarchs.

He seemed to be holding out because he had formed an enormous force, but soon, this would spread into a massive war.

Those forces that had been made to submit would become the Parion Empire’s cannon fodder and attack the nation of Hyun.

That was why Hyein had gone to find Musashi.

But he has to focus.

It was important for Hyunsoo to fight Valhalla.

And Nell wanted to protect this innocent look of his.

One, two, three, four.

Hyunsoo continued watching the highlights of the one-on-one PvP matches that had been held second and had already ended.

Then Hyunsoo opened his mouth.

“Dmitri. He was a priest class, but an infighter-type priest with high strength stats and health stats. He had high attack power, defense, and health, and he was an absurd class that could heal himself. The strategy would be to start with ‘I take everything from you,’ dispel all his buffs, then hit him with a stun skill before he can exert any additional power, and then drive in Raging Storm.”

“......Pardon?”

Hyein realized she had been mistaken.

He had not merely been watching like an innocent child.

He had been looking at other high-rankers’ strengths and weaknesses and studying strategies against them.

And those strategies.

They were so excellent they gave her chills.

“......What about Lund?”

“He’s someone with incredible wide-area magic. His casting time is also short, so he has the power to burn even thousands of soldiers in an instant. If wide-area magic begins against me, I’ll summon Grout, hide behind Grout, use Full Bloom to receive Grout’s HP, reach the caster Lund, and immediately one-kill him.”

“Tai, who fought Divine Archer Mio. The title of Thailand’s No. 1 ranker wasn’t wasted on him. They said he had been good at fighting since childhood to survive in the slums, and that was true. His control, skill, and skill utilization ability are all above mine. In that case, I’ll have to use the abilities of my artifacts, create an opening in his fast movements, and pour all my power into that moment.”

“.......”

Again and again.

On the TV screen, the protagonists of the second PvP highlights flashed past.

Valhalla vs. Dmitri.

Naturally, Valhalla won.

Hyeji vs. Lund.

Amid the three area spells pouring down like a storm, the bowstring of the Evil-Slaying Greatbow was drawn, and dozens of arrows pierced Lund in succession, giving Hyeji the victory.

Mio vs. Tai.

The strongest assassin and an archer were the worst possible matchup.

Breaking through those unfavorable conditions, Mio induced Tai to approach her, and astonishingly, she struck him with her bow.

It had looked like a ridiculous scene, but it was not.

She had the power to protect herself with her bow, and her instant damage rose by up to four hundred percent, striking Tai in the jaw and throwing him off balance, which led to her victory.

Like that, through the dozens of matches that followed.

Lord Hyunsoo wasn’t watching them like other kids his age. He was thinking about their strengths and weaknesses, and how he himself could break through them. He wasn’t simply watching. He was studying.

And he was fast.

With a startled expression, Hyein looked at Hyunsoo as he drank the cup ramen broth and set it down.

“I know we’re actually facing the worst possible situation.”

“.......”

“I also know that if even the users join the Parion Empire in a situation where we don’t know how long we can hold out, we won’t be able to endure it. You met Musashi, didn’t you? Even if you persuade Musashi, my personal judgment is that it won’t change much.”

It was true.

Hyunsoo, who had said himself that they were facing the worst possible situation, understood everything all too well.

“If Musashi comes to the nation of Hyun, all his people, knights, and soldiers will be able to live. But Freng and the Parion Empire Army will occupy everything in Musashi’s territory. That place holds an important position even on the Japanese server, and like that, one by one, after succeeding in taking the users’ homes and winning over the users, they’ll use those ‘users’ to strike the nation of Hyun.”

Hyein’s idea had been nothing more than a way to delay time, and Verd Territory was only the beginning.

Hyein felt powerless.

I had vowed that I would, no matter what, raise the one who had wanted to live into a magnificent king.

However, before the encroachment that had begun with Verd Territory, Hyein became small and shabby.

“Thank you, Hyein. For doing your best.”

Was she qualified to hear him thank her?

No, she was not.

She should have prepared thoroughly from the start and moved before such an offer ever reached Musashi’s territory.

Beyond that.

She should have stopped the Parion Empire before it devoured the users.

However, Hyein came to realize.

I’m only one user......

This Ares was ultimately a world ruled by NPCs.

Before the Parion Empire, which had reigned since before the game even began, they, who bore the name of users, were infinitely insignificant.

Preparation, anything at all, had been impossible from the very beginning.

But then.

“But there is a way.”

Hyunsoo rose and stood in front of the whiteboard.

Rattle—

When he turned the board around, the contents written on it were revealed.

[Second Atlas War Plan.]

[Location: Verd Territory.]

[Soldier List.]

[Dmitri, Tai, Mio, Lund, Hyunsoo.]

[Commander-in-Chief: Musashi.]

“......!?”

Hyein’s pupils trembled when she saw it.

What?

She had been mistaken from beginning to end.

The things Hyunsoo had analyzed.

They had not been for the sake of fighting those people later if he met them.

They had been for the sake of forming a team that could oppose those who were encroaching on, oppressing, and threatening this land called NPCs.

The users’ counterattack......

Was beginning.