Chapter 214: The Northern Front 3
Rumors that Woohyuk repelled the Fallen Angel Cruella quickly spread.
Thanks to this, he was given the nickname of the Savior of the Last Days along with his Hero King title. He was also popularly referred to as the son of the God of Light. He received the respectful and adoring gazes from the general populace.
However, one’s public reputation is always temporary, so Woohyuk didn’t put much significance on what the general public called him.
“Greetings, my lord.”
“It’s been a while, Bailey. Did anything happen in the Rhine Kingdom while I was gone?”
Since he had to leave his home country for a long time, Woohyuk left the day-to-day ruling to his vassals.
Bailey was one of them.
As he was hamstrung by the restrictions put on him before, Woohyuk didn’t much care for constant surveillance over others, so he gave his vassals a wide berth in maintaining his kingdom.
“The Witches’ influence is spreading quickly across the land, but the witches of the Seven Major Sins have not been seen. However, due to the chaotic times, it seems some people of the kingdom have become influenced and gone over to the Witches’ side.”
“I have to talk to Joanna. She would be able to prevent the expansion of the Witches.”
After returning from the dragon tribe expedition, Joanna had the Black Dragon King Drakia in her possession.
In addition, the Dane Kingdom and Erendia Kingdom on the left and right sides of the Rhine Kingdom allowed for mutual cooperation in case of an emergency.
Now that he had to move on to a bigger stage, Woohyuk was trying to hand over the Rhine Kingdom to Joanna.
‘The status of a king or emperor is unnecessary for me now.’
Before his return, the position of a ruler was important to gain and move the vassals. His title was very useful because it had many advantages when trying to pursue a collaborative effort.
However, there was no reason to sit on the throne and take care of daily affairs since he could now fight a large-scale battle with Lemegeton.
That was why the Dane Kingdom and the Talis Kingdom had also been entrusted to the vassals while he continued to wage war.
The Holy Aperia Empire was also capable of controlling Eleonora and the Holy Pope’s Office, so it was not necessary to obtain the Emperor title.
Of course, there was a need to bring the ever-greedy Tiberius down from his throne.
‘Let’s leave Tiberius alone for now.’
It was important to clear up the mess in the Northern Front as soon as possible and find the King’s Book.
There was no reason to take down Tiberius before accomplishing those two goals.
He would believe in the false prophecies given by Mary and Brynhildr until then, so even if Tiberius coveted Lemegeton, he wouldn’t be able to express it or act upon his desires.
As he moved to the Northern Front with his troops, Woohyuk ask Maria a question,
“Did you see anything while sleeping last night?”
“… I had a good night’s sleep yesterday without any vision or prophecy. However, just because I didn’t have a foresight vision doesn’t guarantee a bright future, so don’t lose your tension.”
It seemed that Mary only received revelations about great events, such as catastrophes/disasters.
Helena spoke when Woohyuk didn’t ask any additional questions,
“According to the prophecy, Aleister will awaken the madness within you this time. So, even if he provokes you, make sure not to lose control.”
“Do not worry. When it comes to his provocations, I’ve already become used to it after experiencing it countlessly in the imaginary world.”
She sometimes lost her temper due to the influence of demons, but she now paid extra attention to this trigger.
Helena had also got on her nerves for a while, which had the effect of raising her immunity to emotional outbursts.
‘Well, I always got her back with interest whenever she pissed me off…’
She didn’t know about how it would feel on others, but it was immensely enjoyable for her to bother Helena.
As Woohyuk stared at her, Helena blinked in confusion,
“What’s wrong? Is there something on my face?”
“Nothing. I was just wondering if I had ever met you in my previous life.”
“… If we did, I’m pretty sure we would have been sworn enemies. You always make fun of me when you’re bored.”
Even recently, Woohyuk once had Helena, who complained of being cold in the mountains, mount a golden goat, and then letting the goat go up and down a steep cliff as it wished.
Ibn Rusud burst into laughter as he recalled what had happened.
“Hahaha! Have you ever thought of how inherently stupid you are, witch? What fool in the world would believe that if one memorizes a stupid spell and gets on a golden goat, one’s body will magically warm up?”
“… I just tried it once because the goat looked cute…” Helena replied while pouting. Her lips were sticking out like a sore thumb.
She felt betrayed that her own blood brother would laugh at her to become closer to Woohyuk.
Honestly, she didn’t even like her nickname, Witch of Annihilation.
“Master, if you don’t like how that girl is talking, I can give her a few whippings…”
“You better just keep your mouth shut until I ask for something, Roan,” Woohyuk responded while staring at Roan with a cold expression.
Roan looked frightened.
“Ro-Roan doesn’t want to be a ball-less freak!”
“Then it would be better to be careful about what you say. Helena has some experience in the field of ‘sheering’.”
“… Why do I come out there? I just did that to take revenge for my parents!”
Once the conversation drifted on a tangent, it continued to flow into a strange area.
Brynhildr coughed and tried to change the topic,
“Hmm… what is the situation on the Northern Front? Even though we found out the weaknesses of the Kazak tribe, it seems that the defending forces were still being pushed back.”
“I’m fairly certain that the difficulty stems with the Demon King Alliance. Aleister seems to be behind most of their troubles.”
In fact, it was very rare for Demon Kings to form a united front on such a large scale. They mainly spent their time in internal ranking fights and didn’t really have any outside forces troubling them.
As the Gods disappeared from the Eeth Continent, the land essentially became a demonic world, so they were oftentimes more wary of their own people.
For those guys to hold hands like this…
“They must have been afraid of you, my lord. Since you’ve already sealed seven Demon Kings in Lemegeton, they won’t be able to live a day in peace.”
“Perhaps that’s the case, Sieg. For them, I must be a constant thorn in their side.”
Woohyuk’s past moves were truly unique and eye-catching for the Demon Kings.
Their reactions were actually quite natural if one were to think about the situation from the perspective of the Demon Kings.
Rather than fretting, Woohyuk viewed the Demon King Alliance as an advantageous opportunity, as he didn’t have to tire himself out looking for the 72 Demon Kings one by one.
Anyway, he’d be able to capture all of the lower ranking Demon Kings in one fell swoop.
Everyone nodded at Woohyuk’s explanation.
“Definitely, there’s nothing bad about shortening the time. Also, the problems can’t be solved by simply capturing the 72 Demon King, either.”
“According to the Prophecy, there are still two more great catastrophes left, the work of rebuilding the Ark of Knowledge, and finishing the Epic Quest.”
“The conquest activity is almost finished in the West, but we haven’t even started on the East yet. There will be a lot of troublesome guys there, too.”
In short, they’d have to work together for a long time to achieve their end goals.
Woohyuk sighed and took out a plastic bag with chocolate balls from his pocket.
He tried to refuel his caloric intake, as they just entered a cold area where a blizzard was going through.
Helena’s eyes sparkled as she saw what was in his hands.
“Oh, isn’t that chocolate? It looks delicious.”
“I can’t hear you.”
“… You weren’t planning to eat that all alone, were you?”
“This is a necessary caloric component of a single-person battle meal. Of course, I plan to eat it alone.”
Woohyuk took out a chocolate ball and put it in his mouth as if he was eating medicine.
Then Helena, making an expression as if she was possessed by the devil, made a secret proposal,
“Hey, I’ll tell you a piece of information from the prophetic book, so why don’t you give me some? Or even a secret from a divine family...”
“Don’t sell even your soul for your food, Witch of Annihilation. I’ll tell Boetius,” Ibn Rusud stated as he condemned Helena’s absurd words.
However, Helena didn’t give up as she became enraptured by the thought of sweets.
“What soul will I have sold? If anyone hears, they’ll really think I’m a witch.”
“Why don’t you wipe your mouth dry and the talk. You’re still swayed by sweets like a little child. How are you ever going to find a man to marry you?”
“You’re speaking as if you’ve already met a beautiful wife. Oh, didn’t you say your type is a blonde elf with big breasts? No wonder you decided to come to the Northern Front with us…”
The two siblings lost track of time as they revealed more and more of each other’s weaknesses.
Looking at them argue, Woohyuk felt that there were many problems in divine households.
‘Those two are supposed to be a Saintess and Sage? It’s definitely the end times.’
Suddenly, he was worried about whether Etheria Rodinus was doing well on the restoration of the ancient documents.
Since she was in charge of Helena, she shouldn’t do anything drastic, but a considerable amount of time had passed since they parted ways in the Talis Kingdom.
Listening to Ibn Rusud’s words weren’t enough, so it seemed like a good idea to meet and do an interim check on how progress was proceeding after this Northern Front war.
As Woohyuk was thinking about the Sangreal Chronicles,
Tadak. Tadak.
Several people on horseback appeared in the distance.
“Is it a friend, Lord?”
“I think so. If they’re from the imperial army, they should roughly know our position.”
In fact, the information that the Hero King would lead a support force and join the Northern Front had already been known to the Enoa Kingdom.
It was because this campaign was officially decreed.
So, there was no need for Woohyuk to hide his whereabouts.
All he wanted was a head-to-head match.
“It’s an honor to meet you. My name is Hugo, Leader of the Castle Knights.”
The other person’s identity was unexpected.
He was called the Paladin of Brilliance and had prevented numerous Demon King invasions in his past memory.
However, he was eventually killed by Baal, the Demon King who ranked first in the demon ranks.
The circumstances of his death were due to Emperor Tiberius’ eagerness to protect his own security and not sending out support forces in time.
“Nice to meet you. Where are the other Paladins?”
“Each of them is preparing just south of the enemy groupings in their own territory.”
According to Hugo, the offensive attacks happened two or three times a day, making it difficult for everyone to get out from their designated jurisdiction.
Woohyuk nodded and threw out another question,
“What is going on with Alice and the Demon King Alliance?”
“Alice, Queen of Thorns, has recently moved in and is making a move to expand her influence towards the Principality of Croix. The Demon King Alliance continues to insist on moving southward.”
The reason why Alice the Thorn Queen moved forward was that the Elven race was gentler to deal with than the Empire.
In recent years, an epidemic had spread in the Principality of Croix, and the overall power level of the Elven race had weakened.
Now was the right time to target the Elf Queen’s neck.
‘But the elves are masters of defense.’
Since the Queen was born with the ability to wield pure magic and a high level of archery skill, her castle was not easily taken away, according to his past experience.
In other words, it was not too late to go to the Principality of Croix after defeating the Demon King Alliance.
Hugo nodded as if he agreed with Woohyuk’s words.
“You have the same idea as me. Anyway, I will guide you to the fortress position at the forefront. The soldiers there are eagerly waiting for the Hero King.”
Since the current commander of the front fortress position was Hugo, the Paladin Commander, handing over leadership would be simple.
Woohyuk nodded in agreement.
“Alright. Let’s end this war as soon as possible.”
With the combat force that even ended the first great catastrophe, Woohyuk had no concern about the lowly Demon Kings in the Alliance.
As the two pulled on their reins and moved toward the north, 50,000 soldiers followed behind.