Let's Go Meet the Leader of the Gumiho Tribe
Every player knew that Grid had suppressed the rebellion. However, the specific details of how he had done it were never revealed.
'The developers wouldn't have bothered to write out the suppression process in detail, would they?'
That was because the official website only stated that Grid had crushed the rebellion, mentioned how many traitors he had executed afterward, and noted that by killing off his own talented subordinates with his own hands, he had sown the seeds of his own ruin.
Still, one could make an educated guess.
'I suppose he must have suppressed them with sheer brute force...'
Grid boasted such overwhelming martial prowess that he could fight on equal footing with Tie, the leader of the Tiger tribe, who had always held the upper hand in melee combat. It was likely that he had used this monstrous strength to wipe out the rebel forces in one fell swoop.
In other words, Kang-rim was capable of suppressing the rebels just as ruthlessly as Grid.
However,
Kang-rim didn't want to do that.
'If possible, I should make them submit. I won't end up like him.'
Kang-rim knew that by killing all the executives who had participated in the rebellion, Grid had planted the seeds for the eventual destruction of his own faction. For some reason, he hadn't been able to replace them with new, capable executives, and the few he did recruit were nothing but incompetent fools.
In short, it was more profitable to keep them alive if possible.
'I even made those Gumihos submit the moment I ravished them, so why wouldn't it work here? It’ll all work out.'
How could he kill such valuable talents that he intended to ravish himself? The rebellion was all a result of Grid's past sins, not his own. He didn't particularly resent them, so he didn't want to kill them if he didn't have to. He would rather force them to submit again and turn them into loyal retainers working for him. If he could do that, he wouldn't just escape his fated destruction; he might even be able to change the miserable ends that awaited them.
Therefore, he would keep them alive if possible. He would capture them all and ravish them.
Then, what kind of scheme should he use to achieve that?
After much deliberation, Kang-rim reached a conclusion.
Artria still reacted with disbelief at her master's decision.
"You're going to use yourself as bait? That's how you'll round them all up? What do you plan to do if you die doing that?"
If the rebel forces were aiming for his head, he would lure them into taking it. And once he had lured them in, he would suppress them in one stroke.
It was only natural for his secretary to be dumbfounded by such a simple, yet foolish, choice.
"So, cooperate with me."
Kang-rim was determined to carry out that absurd plan. He believed that with his own thick skull, that was the only way to navigate this crisis.
To do that, the cooperation of Artria, Grid's one and only ally, was essential.
"If you don't want to see me die, cooperate, Artria. You don't want to see me die because of this rebellion, do you?"
"...Haa."
Sensing that they would only continue to run in parallel lines, Artria sighed.
"Understood. I will follow your lead."
"Then, could you find out if there are any people in 'The Queens' who are truly loyal to me?"
The Queens.
It was the name of the pirate fleet Grid had organized after burning his hometown to the ground. Initially, they had possessed only a single ironclad ship, but based on the funds and resources obtained through looting, it had grown into a grand fleet consisting of five main ships and ten escort vessels protecting them.
With that grand fleet, Grid was currently waging war against the Beastman Union.
And Kang-rim knew that the attacks had been temporarily suspended because Grid had fallen into a coma. In fact, the game had described how the conquest of the Beastman Union had been delayed due to the abnormality in Grid's condition. Thanks to the information Artria provided, he was able to grasp the current situation immediately.
'I need to suppress them as quickly as possible. Otherwise, I'm going to get cleaned out.'
In the original game, the rebellion had ended in failure, and the counterattack by the Beastman Union, which had been attempted using the rebellion as an opportunity, had also failed. However, if the rebellion had succeeded, The Queens would have been annihilated by the Beastman Union's massive counterattack. This was a fact acknowledged even in the official lore.
So, if he didn't want to meet his ruin, haste was the best policy. To do that, he needed to know how many allies he could trust and rely on.
That was the reason Kang-rim had posed the question to Artria, but—
The answer that returned was desperate.
"Except for me, all the executives have turned their backs on you, Master. Iris is also showing signs of joining the rebellion, finding comfort in the fact that she can escape from you. Talia is the same."
"..."
"Unfortunately, the executives also hold control over the soldiers. They siphoned it away while you were in a coma. So, it is impossible to mobilize troops to suppress the executives."
"What were you doing while all that was happening?"
"I couldn't help it either."
Artria made excuses as to why she couldn't do anything until the control over the soldiers was lost.
"It happened in an instant, so I had no time to intervene."
"..."
"It's true. It's the truth. Please believe me. It's not like I wanted to just sit around and suck my thumb."
"...Haa, damn it."
He knew that Grid was a madman who killed everyone, making enemies everywhere, but he hadn't realized he was this unpopular. No, the fact that he had any popularity at all was the strange part.
"Then, let's start by taking down the core ones."
Kang-rim decided on his policy for the first step.
"First, we break Iris and Talia. Only then will we get our hands on the control of the soldiers. So, help me, okay?"
"Understood."
"And, what happened to Sua?"
Kang-rim asked about Sua, the Gumiho leader whom he had used as his main character in the game and whom he wanted to dye in his own colors and make his own.
"Ah, that fox bitch..."
At those words, Artria's expression turned sour in an instant.
It was a natural reaction, as she had put their master, Grid, into a coma and, furthermore, provided the pretext for the organization itself to collapse.
Artria answered as if it were a nuisance.
"I tied her up on a cliff where heavy waves crash. By now, she's probably dead, isn't she?"
"Hey, Artria. Loosen up your expression. How long are you going to keep that sulky face?"
"I'm not."
Artria denied it at Kang-rim's words, but her expression remained sour.
"Is it that hateful to release Sua?"
"Yes."
Releasing Sua, who was waiting for her death on the cliff. Artria was dissatisfied with such a decision.
It was inevitable that she would be dissatisfied.
To Artria, Sua was nothing less than the root of all evil that had driven The Queens into crisis.
If it were up to her, she would have wanted to leave Sua to die.
To appease such an Artria, Kang-rim made a suggestion.
"Then, do you want to train Sua with me?"
"Train her?"
"Yes, she's a traitor who tried to kill me, so we'll train her mercilessly, telling her to pay for her sins. Wouldn't it be good in many ways if she submits to me like that?"
"That's impossible."
Artria shook her head.
"Do you know how stubborn that fox is? I don't know why you cherish that fox so much, Master, but no matter how much I join forces with you, the possibility of that bitch defecting is zero."
"I'm going to turn that zero into a hundred."
No matter how much Artria opposed it, Kang-rim had no intention of breaking his stubbornness.
"If you can't even do that, how can you conquer the world?"
"..."
"And there must be many bitches even more stubborn than Sua; if you can't break Sua, how can you make every woman your slave? You have to push them until they break, don't you think?"
"...As expected, you're different."
Artria muttered at such a sight of Kang-rim.
"Is it because you brought a new soul from another world? You're so different from the old Master. If it were the old Master, he would have definitely killed that woman and then some..."
"Hmm, what did you say?"
"Ah, it's nothing."
"..."
She seemed to be hiding something.
Kang-rim was suspicious, but—
'Let's ask later.'
For now, solving the situation right in front of him was the top priority, so let's think about it later. If she was doing something strange, he would break her in the same way he did in bed.
Kang-rim decided to follow that policy.
"More than that, where is Sua? I feel like we've been walking for quite a while..."
To release Sua, Kang-rim was currently heading to the cliff where she was tied up with Artria. He felt like he had been walking for a long time, but he couldn't even see Sua's shadow, so Kang-rim doubted if this was the right path.
"I put her in a very remote place. A place where no one would dare to even attempt to rescue Sua."
"Is that why the executives don't come either?"
"No, that's separate."
Currently, the only person accompanying Kang-rim was Artria.
In this situation, they would surely be aiming for an assassination. However, there hadn't been a single attack so far.
-Die, you enemy of my sister!
When they passed the village where the Gumiho tribe was housed, one Gumiho had attacked Kang-rim, but—
-Sa, save me! I don't want to! Let me go, I don't want to, I don't waaaant to!
In return, he had ravished her until she completely submitted.
-Yes, I will follow you. I will give you my loyalty. I won't take revenge. So, pl, please save me.
Only after receiving more than a full load of semen, and reaching the point where it spilled from her mouth and between her legs, and only after her mind had completely collapsed, did that Gumiho submit. It was unintended, but Kang-rim was able to gain a new slave to command.
Since that Gumiho, no one had attacked him; was there a reason?
Artria explained the reason for that.
"It's because everyone fears you, Master."
"..."
"Everyone knows how terrifying you are, so would they dare to attack you recklessly? If they attacked for no reason, they would be crushed."
"Well, that's not wrong."
Grid himself was a villain with immense power, so who would dare to attack him? The protagonist, Seol-hwa, hadn't just been defeated by Grid; she had even suffered the humiliation of being raped.
Of course, once they had decided to start a rebellion, it was unknown how long the advantage of fear would remain valid.
"It's over there."
After walking for a few more minutes, Artria pointed to a cliff.
"Sua is over there."
As Artria said, waves were constantly crashing into the place she pointed at. It looked like if one stood on the cliff for no reason, they would be hit by those waves and swept away.
And, on that cliff, a Gumiho was bound.
"..."
A brown-haired Gumiho, her limbs bound to an X-shaped log, was being tortured by the waves that were constantly crashing against her.