Chapter 103
Chapter 103 . Finally Discovering the Truth
“M-Milord!”
Looking at Rothschild who had his back impaled, the face of his personal guards paled .
The death of their Lord .
It was the thought of this that made fear and despair creep up on the guards .
“Dorian . ”
With a determined expression, Kang Chul-In called Dorian .
“Kill them all . Don’t let anyone out of here alive . ”
“Yeah . ”
And what followed Dorian’s agreement was a slaughter .
Showing movement that made one think of a killing-machine, Kang Chul-In with the help of Dorian killed all of the soldiers that Alex Rothschild had brought with him .
‘Drink it . ’
With a complicated gaze, Kang Chul-In looked at the ground .
‘This is my apology to you . ’
He prayed for the dead soldiers and civilians that had once been part of his territory--- the proud and powerful people of Valhalla .
As Kang Chul-In had commanded, not a single one of the 500 soldiers could leave alive . Of course, that included Rothschild’s powerful personal guards .
Though they tried to approach Rothschild who was slowly bleeding out, stabbed by Kaiforce…
“Agh!!”
It was nothing more than a last ditch effort against Kang Chul-In that went all-out .
If this was still in the past, they would have been able to ‘somewhat’ stop him .
But not anymore .
Even looking at all of the adventurers and Lords that had come over through the portal, there was not a single person that could withstand the strength of Kang Chul-In .
“Get out of my way . ”
Chopping the heads off of all the personal guards that stood in his way, Kang Chul-In walked towards Rothschild without any hesitation .
Human heads started falling onto the ground, almost like dominoes .
One, two, three, four… The ones that had stood up to protect Rothschild were all butchered mercilessly .
After a bit, Kang Chul-In was finally able to get to where Rothschild was .
“Kuk… Cough!”
Thankfully, Rothschild wasn't dead just yet .
“Huk . . . Huk…”
At the sight of Rothschild gasping for breath, reminding him of a cockroach struggling to live, Kang Chul-In smirked .
“You’re going to kill him?”
Dorian asked from behind .
“Of course I am . ”
Kang Chul-In answered .
“Kuhuk!”
Kang Chul-In stretched out his arms and began to choke Rothschild .
There weren’t any words . There was no interrogation . Kang Chul-In just picked up scraps of metal that had fallen down during the fight, and then proceeded to slowly cut through Alex Rothschild’s neck, almost like he was slicing a cake .
“Kuk… Cough! Ugh…”
And as blood started to gurgle and splurt out of Rothschild’s neck…
Roll…
Rothschild’s head started to roll on the ground, away from his body .
“Wow… that’s violent…”
Dorian shook his head, quite startled by Kang Chul-In’s viciousness .
“Is that so?”
But Kang Chul-In didn’t agree with what Dorian said .
“Look . This bastard . . . he’s still not dead . ”
“Huh?! What are you talking about? Look, he’s dead . He’s not even a zombie or anything . What, do rich people not die when their heads are chopped off? Ha! That’s not even a funny joke . ”
Though Dorian crinkled his face in disbelief…
‘Something is off . ’
Kang Chul-In didn’t believe that Rothschild died .
Though he had killed his old archenemy, he didn’t feel any emotion or ‘achievement’ in his heart . Though it was just his intuition, Kang Chul-In felt that Rothschild hadn’t died from that .
Though he was Kang Chul-In’s enemy . . .
. . . There was no way that Alex Rothschild would die such a vain death .
‘Hmm… Maybe?!’
Kang Chul-In thought of what had happened between him and Alex Rothschild in the past .
Rothschild had lost to Kang Chul-In more than just a few times, and had to face the humiliation of having his territory being completely destroyed by Kang Chul-In 4 times . There were also times when Kang Chul-In had thrown Alex Rothschild into deadly places with no chance of survival .
Though it was true that Kang Chul-In hadn’t ‘killed’ Rothschild with his own hands, it’d be normal for Rothschild to have died at least 2 or 3 times .
But he had somehow survived and rebuilt his territory time and time again, no matter how much damage was dealt to him . This was the reason why Kang Chul-In had kept on calling Rothschild an ‘undying cockroach’ .
There had to be a secret .
In the ‘past’, and in the ‘present’ . There had to be a reason that Rothschild hadn’t died .
“Dorian . ”
Kang Chul-In called Dorian .
“Yeah?”
“Look at the rankings . ”
A Lord’s death would immediately change the Lord rankings, so to check for a Lord’s death, there was nothing more accurate than looking at this .
“He’s not there . ”
Dorian tilted his head .
“He’s dead . Rothschild is no longer in 5th place and I’m in 8th place too . ”
“Keep scrolling down . Look through the entire list and you’ll find his name . ”
“Huh?”
Dorian questioned .
“Maybe around…”
Kang Chul-In tried his best to recall the past .
“100th place . ”
“100th Place? Ha, no way . He’s dead, so he’s definitely off this list . I doubt that it’s just his ranking that…”
And suddenly, Dorian’s face turned frosty .
“ . . . He’s there . ”
Dorian’s face was the epitome of shock .
“105th place . He’s alive . That Rothschild . ”
It finally proved Kang Chul-In’s suspicions .
-----
At the same time .
Within the hidden chambers deep inside the Cyamodus territory .
A man that seemed to be sleeping was sitting down on what looked like a throne .
No, he was sleeping .
“ . . . . . !”
And then that man… suddenly woke up .
“Cough!”
And he started coughing up blood .
“Kuk… Cough… Cough… . !”
Fresh red blood started to come out from that man’s mouth . Looking at how severe it was, it seemed that the man could die from excessive bleeding .
“Huk… Huk… Dammit… Huk…”
Alex Rothschild started gritting his teeth in frustration .
His condition wasn’t looking good right now . He had pitch black dark circles hanging over his eyes, and his lips were black from all the blood .
“Huk… Huk… You… One day, I’ll definitely kill you . ”
Though Rothschild was weakened, the madness in his eyes seemed stronger than ever .
“How dare he . . . humiliate me like this…”
After muttering this, Rothschild touched the part of his neck that was sliced through by Kang Chul-In .
It was a terrible, terrifying experience .
Who could have experience getting their head chopped off alive? What he had experienced just now was a nightmare… a nightmare that he never wanted to experience again .
“Hu…”
Inhaling deeply, Rothschild opened his Status Page .
[As penalty for the destruction of your clone, your stats will decrease by 70% . (0 clones left)]
[Lord Points will decrease by 300P, due to the sickness of the Lord . ]
[Your ranking has fallen from 5th → 105th place . ]
They were terrible losses .
Though it was thankful that Rothschild himself hadn’t died, but 10 mole assassins, 20 wraiths, and 500 soldiers had all died, not to mention his personal guards . Rothschild had just lost 20% of his territory’s entire strength with that fight .
This is significant, but… Rothschild had lost something even more important than that .
His secret, that he had tried to protect from the world forever, had been revealed .
His death, or rather his clone’s death, needed to be a hidden card left until the very end . But now that his secret had been discovered, he couldn’t stay hidden here forever .
-------
‘Cockroach-like bastard . ’
Finally realizing the unknown ‘specialty’ and secret of Rothschild, Kang Chul-In grit his teeth .
‘You were able to survive because you were probably hidden away somewhere, controlling your ‘puppets’, weren’t you? Even though I had destroyed you countless times . ’
“How is he still alive? Is he unkillable or something?”
Still unable to figure out how Rothschild was still alive, Dorian muttered, very confused .
“No, that’s not true . ”
Kang Chul-In shook his head .
“Then how is this possible?”
“There’s no way that he would go down 100 places in the Lord rankings just by losing 500 men or so . I’m guessing that it’s a penalty on his real body that was placed due to the destruction of his ‘puppet’ . For this kind of ridiculously powerful and useful ability, there has to be risks . ”
Kang Chul-In could perfectly tell how Rothschild had survived now .
“Aha! So Rothschild’s real body is somewhere else, and we just killed his ‘puppet’?”
“Exactly . ”
“Sigh… This Rothschild, he’s a cockroach, isn’t he? He won’t die no matter how much times you kill him . ”
“Pft . I like how you described him . ”
Kang Chul-In smirked .
“Yeah, but anyway…”
Dorian suddenly pointed at a hill .
“What do we do with that woman?”
Kim Sung-hee was still standing there, watching dazedly .
“ . . . That mosquito, she’s still here?”
Kang Chul-In muttered, as if he were startled .