The Overlord of Blood and Iron (WN)
Chapter 144: Putting the Pandemonium Region behind

Kang Chul-In moved on with his plans of moving, while his strategist, Kwak-Jung, tried to think of methods to beat Baruk Al-Yusuf, or that ‘oily Arab’ as Kwak-Jung liked to say.

And the preparations for this mass moving was what caused the citizens and officials of Laputa to be constantly busy.

One week later, one day before finally moving out of the Pandemonium region, Hecate, along with her flying territory Temeraire, came over to the Laputa territory.

It was because today was the ‘promised day’ where the males of Temeraire and the females of Laputa would meet.

“Woo!!”

“W-Women!”

“I can see women!”

The poor subordinates of Hecate started to run rampant before even arriving on land. It was obvious how desperate these men were.

“Welcome to Laputa, Overlord Hecate.”

“Are you only going to greet me with your words?”

Hecate said, tickling Kang Chul-In’s hand.

“There are other ways you can greet me. For example…”

Just when Hecate was going to throw a sexual pun…

“Woahhh~!”

“Go go go!!”

Around 1000 of Hecate’s subordinates started to run towards Kang Chul-In’s territory, like a pack of ravished dogs.

“...These bastards.”

The veins on Hecate’s forehead bulged.

She took a musket out,

BANG!

And shot it.

“Ahh!”

One of the soldiers at the very front fell down and screamed in pain. Hecate had shot him in the leg.

“If you keep doing that, I’ll make sure I put a hole in each of your legs! Understand?”

Looking on, the other subordinates stopped in fear, and listened to Hecate’s orders.

“Y-Yes, Milord!”

“W-We’ll make sure we do that!”

This showed just how terrifying Hecate normally was to her subordinates.

The female-starved citizens of Hecate.

The male-starved citizens of Kang Chul-In.

If one looked simply, they seemed like a good match for each other. If they paired the women and men together, who knew what would happen?

...Nothing. Nothing happened.

“Hmph!”

“So dirty!”

“Can you not?”

The women of Laputa were cold to the men that they had so desperately wished for before, meaning that strangely enough, the success rate of the meetings in Laputa was extremely low.

Dammit…

Kang Chul-In rubbed his face in pure weariness.

At this rate, the alliance with Hecate wouldn’t go as planned and could lead to it being actually cancelled altogether.

Something’s different from the past. What is it…

“Milord…”

Kwak-Jung came over.

“Ah, you’ve come?”

“Yes, Milord. I’ve found the problem.”

“Very good. What is it?”

“It…”

“Speak.”

“It’s because of the dramas…”

A completely unexpected answer came out of Kwak-Jung’s words.

“The problem is that everyone’s standards have gone up.”

“.....?”

“The women of the territory have sorted their happiness through watching drama over the winter, right?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“But, how are the actors in those dramas? They’re all extremely handsome and seem like male gods to the women of Pangaea. It’s obvious that by continuing to look at them, their standards have all gone up.”

Though it seemed quite stupid, it also made sense.

“Well, though it may be different for other men, Hecate’s subordinates… Well…”

Kwak-Jung hit the main point.

“They have to make sure they keep their appearance in check, in order for the women to even take a look at them. They all seem like pirates, with scraggly beards and smelly bodies. And since they were so starved of women, it is said that whenever they converse or look at women, their ehem… stiffens, and sometimes they even wet their pants while…”

“Enough, stop.”

Since it wasn’t a very pleasant story, Kang Chul-In motioned at Kwak-Jung to stop.

“So, what can we do to solve this problem?”

“Hmmm… I think it’ll be possible, since all we need to do is make sure that the men are taking care of their appearance. Thankfully, we have just the person for that.”

“We do? What kind of person is that?”

“We have… Sir Podolski.”

“...Podolski?”

“Yes, Milord. Though Sir Podolski might look a little like a monkey, he is still quite a popular little man. If we make him the mentor of Hecate’s men, I think it will be fine.”

“Oho!”

“And through this experience, we also need to break the fantasies of the women in our territory.”

Kang Chul-In felt satisfied, seeing how Kwak-Jung had already come up with a solution.

This guy, he keeps getting better.

Kang Chul-In’s eyes gleamed.

“Very well. This time, do whatever you want.”

“Yes, Milord.”

“If you succeed, I’ll give you a special bonus too.”

“A special bonus?”

“Didn’t you want a cat-human as a secretary?”

“...No way!”

“If you do well this time, I’ll make sure two of them will become your personal secretaries. Of course, I expect that you won’t harass them sexually…”

“Of course not!”

Kwak-Jung argued back.

“Very well. Go out and sort the situation now.”

A special order was given out.

Hecate’s subordinates were to go to the barber and cut their hair cleanly. They were also ordered to go wash in the river, to make themselves more presentable.

That wasn’t all.

They were also given clean and new military uniforms. Thanks to all of this, the previously ‘disgusting’ pirates had become more like men and less like beggars.

And added to the teaching of Podolski, these former ‘disgusting’ people were able to change for the better.

There was also some education being given to the women of the territory.

The men in dramas are fake, and there are no men like that. This was spread throughout the territory.

Around 2 days from that.

“Hohoho~”

“Kuhahaha!”

The merry laughter of men and women could be heard all throughout the Laputa territory.

“Come this way~”

“T-That’s the field, though…?”

“Who cares? As long as it’s the two of us making love…”

“B-But…”

The effect was extremely clear.

[The happiness of the citizens has risen by 1!]

[The happiness of the citizens has risen by 1!]

[The happiness of the citizens has risen by 1!]

Even without Timothy’s reports, Kang Chul-In was able to see how effective the plan was.

Finally, the quick event that they had prepared was over.

Though the women and men were separated once again, they would continue their love like the Cowherd and the Weaver girl [1].

With the Soul Core of Laputa in his hands, Kang Chul-In ordered the takeoff of the territory.

T-Tzztt!!

The land that had supported the Laputa territory seemed to split open,

Vroom!!

And the machinery underneath the Laputa territory drove it upwards.

As the territory flew up, the cloaking was also activated automatically.

In order to go to Valhalla, they had to go past the Dragonia Mountain range where real dragons lived, so they had to be extremely careful not to wake the dragons underneath.

However, while they were moving upwards,

BANG!

With a large noise---

Uung…

The territory shook.

“Hmm?”

Kang Chul-In looked downward, to make sure that everything was fine.

“What is it?”

Kang Chul-In shouted at the soldiers that we keeping watch from closer to the mountains.

“It’s nothing, milord! It’s just that the territory grazed the side of the mountain.”

One soldier answered back.

“Alright!”

Since the Dragonia Mountain range was quite tall, it seemed that there had been a collision.

Let’s go higher.

Kang Chul-In thought it was just a mere happening, and used the speaker to broadcast his message.

"We’re going to go higher, so make sure you go back indoors!"

At the same time.

Crash!

Bang!

A sleeping black dragon was hit by a falling rock on the head.

The large pupils of the dragon opened, showing red, terrifying eyes. Laputa had just awoken the black dragon from its slumber.

[1] A Chinese folk talk. Read more at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cowherd_and_the_Weaver_Girl