Overgeared Chapter 1010:
“Your Majesty, please give a word of encouragement to each of the guild members . ”
“Uh, yes . What?”
It was ridiculous . The number of Overgeared members exceeded 900 . This time, new artillerymen had joined, and the number went beyond 1,000 people . Did Grid have to give encouragement to all of them? How many hours of hard labor did he have to give in exchange?
“Isn’t this a waste of time?” Grid responded in a confused manner .
Yet Lauel added, “Please promise to make an item that suits their needs . ”
“What? I don’t even know all the guild members, but now I have to promise to make items by looking at them?”
“That’s right . Your Majesty doesn’t know all the guild members . ”
“ . . . I-It was originally like that . ” Grid noticed what Lauel was pointing out and temporarily closed his mouth . However, Grid had an excuse . “Aren’t you the one who is supposed to manage the guild in the first place? That’s why I agreed with your opinion to increase the guild members . ”
If Grid had to take care of the guild members, then he wouldn’t have increased the number of guild members . Now Lauel was blaming his indifference .
“I want to focus on increasing my level and making items . Now I have to care about the guild?”
Grid was busy . It was troublesome . There was no time . He wasn’t trying to make excuses .
“I’m different from you and don’t have your ability . I can’t do several things at once . I can only focus on one thing . . . ” The irritated Grid suddenly closed his mouth . Work . . . ? Remembering his colleagues and sharing greetings with them was considered work? Grid got goosebumps . He realized how much he had neglected the new Overgeared members .
‘I think of basic manners as work . . . ’
On this subject, he hoped they would work hard for the Overgeared Guild and Overgeared Kingdom . He shouted that they were his colleagues . Yet, from Grid’s point of view, he used a pretext to give them cheap items . Grid’s face turned red . He felt ashamed of himself and sorry to the guild members .
Lauel’s eyes trembled, and he waved his hand . “You don’t have to take it seriously . Isn’t it a hard time right now? I just thought it was an opportunity to give the guild members a sense of bonding and belonging . I didn’t mean to condemn you . . . ”
“No . I deserve to be condemned . ”
In the past few years, there were countless people who knocked on the door of the Overgeared Guild . Some had approached the Overgeared Guild to satisfy their desires while others had terrible intentions . Lauel had been the one who spent time and money to examine and select the current Overgeared members . Grid had accepted the result of Lauel’s blood, sweat, tears, and runny nose as a natural right . He hadn’t respected Lauel’s efforts to win over their colleagues .
“A person can’t change easily . ”
He was still selfish . Grid smiled wanly as he realized this .
“Y-Your Majesty . ”
Grid couldn’t raise his head, and Lauel didn’t know what to do . Lauel was troubled that he was placing pressure on the busiest person . Grid was quite for a while before raising his head again . “Okay . Let’s exchange greetings with everyone . ”
His eyes stopped shaking, and his gaze became clear . Until the foundation of the artillerymen group, he would remember all the faces of his dear colleagues who believed in him and followed him . Feeling determined, Grid was prepared to stay up all night for days . The roles of a king, a warrior, a blacksmith, a tailor, and most of all, a guild master . . .
It seemed he didn’t have enough body parts for them, but he had to perform them . Grid believed in his tenacity and enthusiasm .
***
At night, there were the direct descendant vampire and the assassins . During the day, there were the giant worms and top rankers of the Overgeared Guild . The imperial army was attacked by enemies in the desert . The pace of the march was very slow, and they couldn’t rest their minds, so they were very tired . The horses couldn’t easily adapt to the terrain, and the temperature of the desert was the worst . The cavalry lost their mobility and destructive power .
“The morale of the soldiers isn’t great . Last night, 359 people tried to desert . ”
“The enemy’s condition won’t be much different from ours . Whenever the enemy raided, didn’t we respond well and kill many of them?”
“Yes . We might suffer the same damage, but we have the superiority of our troops . The psychological pressure on the Overgeared Kingdom is greater . There are 359 deserters in our army . . . ? There must be 1,000 deserters in the Overgeared Kingdom . ”
“It is an optimistic interpretation . They have strong walls and abundant food while we have thin barracks and not enough water to drink . ”
The imperial army’s original goal was to cross the desert in two days . No matter how slow the pace of the march was, Reidan wasn’t far away, so they thought it was possible . However, reality was different . Due to the emergence of successive enemies, it took more than four days . No, it was likely they would die alone in the middle of the desert if they stuck to the march .
The lack of drinking water was a problem . Every oasis in the desert was contaminated with poison . The imperial army had to rely on the supply unit for drinking water for hundreds of thousands of troops, but how could a convoy cross the desert easily? Would the Overgeared Kingdom passively let the convoy reach them?
“ . . . ” An awkward silence flowed in the barracks of the imperial army’s leaders . There was a limit to their efforts to interpret the situation positively .
There was a long silence before a young nobleman spoke on behalf of everyone, “Why don’t we retreat first?”
“ . . . ” No one disputed it . Neither was there a rebuke .
The young noble’s courage increased, and he kept talking, “The hundreds of thousands of troops here are relatively inexperienced . They aren’t used to the terrain of the desert and can’t demonstrate their full abilities . The elite armies who have participated in all types of wars over the past decades will be different . The armies of the Seven Dukes would cross the desert like ducks meeting water . ”
“Are you suggesting to hold the army outside the desert and wait for the arrival of the elite troops?”
“Yes . ”
“ . . . ”
Dozens of imperial forces were gathered at Reidan’s border . There had been 280,000, but now they were reduced to 230,000 in their mission to conquer the Overgeared Kingdom . They had planned to attract the enemy’s attention and tie up the Overgeared Kingdom’s feet while the air force infiltrated the Overgeared Kingdom and seized their base . This was the role that had been given to them .
Then they received news that Sky King Rigal and the air force had already been wiped out . Nevertheless, the reason for their advance to Reidan was to build up achievements . Consequently, they lost the troops due to greed . Now was the time to be cautious .
“Umm . . . ” Commander Marquis Fulbas was deep in thought . He felt sick as he saw the eyes of the nobles who wanted to retreat . When had the empire become so weak? The empire, who had ruled over the continent’s losers for hundreds of years without a suitable adversary, was now reduced to a predator who didn’t know how to hunt .
“We don’t need cowards in the empire . ”
“ . . . !”
It happened suddenly . The smell of alcohol filled their nose, and blood spread through the tent . The three heads that rolled to the ground belonged to the nobles who earlier insisted on retreating .
“S-Sir Diworth!” Marquis Fulbas rose to his feet . The nobles and knights who followed his actions were astonished . With an oil-covered head, loose-fitting clothing, and a wrinkled face that was completely red, the identity of the noble drinking from a bottle of wine was Drunk Duke Diworth . It was one of the empire’s Seven Dukes .
“W-We greet My Lord!” The nobles and knights bowed in unison . None of them condemned Diworth’s killings . Who would dare speak harsh words to an existence above them? Even Marquis Fulbas couldn’t speak .
Diworth laughed grimly as he checked the marquis’ distorted expression . “Are you angry that I killed those trash?”
“They are also nobles of the Saharan Empire . They have territories, people, and soldiers . . . You can’t escape a grudge even if you are Duke Diworth . ”
“Lets see? I think people will happily accept the death of an incompetent lord . Isn’t that right?”
Diworth looked around at the several shocked nobles and knights who nodded hurriedly . Duke Diworth’s brutality was so great that even some of the Seven Dukes were reluctant to deal with it . Thus, the lower nobles didn’t even dare to face him . Diworth moved to the top seat alone . Then he took the baton from Marquis Fulbas and exclaimed, “They dared to rebel against the dukes of the empire . For those who dared to talk about retreat, killing them and turning them into dog food isn’t enough!”
A powerful magic power of alcohol spread through the barracks, and the nobles and knights quickly became drunk . Only five people . . . Only Marquis Fulbas and four earls were able to stand up and drive away the alcohol .
A smile of delight appeared on Diworth’s face .
“T-The enemy!” At this time, a knight rushed in and shouted . “The enemy commander, Chris, is coming!”
“One person? Only one?” Diworth’s eyes were clear because he had just released his drunkenness .
The knight became frightened after recognizing Diworth and hurriedly nodded . “Y-Yes! However, the sun will soon be going down!”
“What about the sun setting?”
What did the knight want to say? The moment Diworth cocked his head, some changes resolved his doubts . The ground was turbulent, and the tent rocked . The frightened soldiers screamed . There was an intense magic power that made one’s skin go numb . There was the smell of blood .
“Vampire!” Diworth quickly figured out what happened and rushed out of the barracks .
In the sky, a beautiful boy was laughing while revealing pointy molars . “Hahahaha! I’ll eat you!”
A **** magic power covered the desert . It was a magic power with the nature of exploitation .
“Uwaaaack!” The soldiers of the empire, who hadn’t managed to spread out, screamed . Blood was drawn from their bodies and into the sky as they became mummies . The vampire earl, Noll—his stomach was bloated, and he laughed with joy, “Kuhahaha!”
He felt the extreme happiness of having a full dinner . However, it was a law that happiness couldn’t last forever .
“Oof!” Noll, who was happy with the rise in his magic power from the blood, suddenly stopped and grabbed his belly . His snow white face turned red . Then his trembling gaze captured one enemy to the side . It was the source where his magic power exploited something other than blood .
A man was standing there in a relaxed manner while holding a flask . It was the Drunk Duke Diworth . “Are you drunk after drinking alcohol? Are you weak when it comes to drinking because you’re a child?”
Diworth leaped forward . The speed at which he ran through the sky was so fast that the soldiers didn’t realize what was happening . The soldiers just thought a thunderbolt appeared in the sky . They saw the vampire crashing into the ground and thought the monster had been punished . Diworth’s rough hands were holding Noll’s thin neck .
Noll’s feet kicked in the air as he was caught by a transcendent’s grip . The boy was drunk and confused . Diworth hit him with the flask . A sharp piece of glass wounded Noll’s face, and the heavy fragrance in the air made Noll lose his spirit even more .
“I guess he didn’t lie when he said this is alcohol from the roots of the sacred tree . ” Diworth pulled out a new bottle and gulped it all down at once . His face was flushed, just like when he first appeared .
“Let go of that hand!” Chris was attacking the enemy lines to draw attention away from Noll . He had been planning to retreat, but now he rushed deeper into enemy lines . Noticing what happened to Noll, Chris rushed to the center of the imperial army .
“1,000 Ton Sword!”
He dropped down from on top of the camel . The ultimate attack used by the best greatsword user fell on Diworth’s head . It seemed like it would smash Diworth’s head, but that didn’t happen . Diworth bent his upper body and easily avoided Chris’ attack . Then he kicked from a strange angle . Chris was hit in the face and fell off the camel . “Kuek . . . ! Cough!”
He thought he was going to die after being hit . Chris was scared by Diworth’s fearsome power and regretted it . He thought he was crazy for running into the center of enemy lines to die . Then he soon changed his mind .
‘Noll . . . !’
He saw Noll’s miserable figure hanging from Diworth’s hand and jumped up . Did he feel regretful? No . He could die as long as he saved Noll . Chris made a pledge and raised the power of his second class, Tyrant .
He belatedly saw the golden name ‘Drunk Duke Diworth’, but he still raised his greatsword without hesitation . Diworth laughed . “You managed to get up right away . You are a tough guy . ”
Chris also laughed . “I wouldn’t have gotten up if I were hit by Grid . You are weak . ”
“Grid . . . ?”
“The Overgeared King . ”
“ . . . The Overgeared King . ” Diworth’s face distorted in a terrible manner . He had no intention of sparing the crazy person in front of him who compared the great duke of the empire to the king of a small kingdom . Additionally . . .
“You dare to despise my master?”
The man in the shadow didn’t intend to keep Diworth alive . Hundreds of thousands of shadows scattered across the battlefield in an instant .
“I will fight for my new homeland and repay the grudge of my old homeland!”
The shadow spears and swords slashed through the entire battlefield .