Chapter 51
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 51
Chapter Title: Good Work
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In the screen, the valley where the enemies had been lying in ambush turned into a hellscape in an instant. It was perfect. Not a single margin for error—the firepower poured down right over their heads. The enemies were annihilated without even managing a proper scream.
His side hadn't spilled a single drop of blood. It was a battle that ended with just the press of a button, a flick of a finger.
As the situation wrapped up, Cheonwi waved his hand and shut off the hologram.
"See? Clean as can be. No need to go out there swinging a sword and getting covered in blood, right?"
Cheonwi leaned back on the sofa and sipped the rest of his coffee.
Iron Blood stared at him in disbelief. The man before her eyes was rewriting the very concept of war. Not by crushing with brute force, but by ravaging with overwhelming information and technology. It was terrifyingly efficient.
"You... what the hell are you?"
Iron Blood's voice trembled.
"A eunuch, my ass. Some kind of monster with clairvoyance? Or... a demon lord deceiving the world?"
Cheonwi chuckled softly and rose to his feet. He slowly approached Iron Blood, gently lifting her chin.
"Monster? That's hurtful. And definitely not a demon lord."
They were close. Close enough for their breaths to mingle. Iron Blood knew she should shove him away, but her body wouldn't obey. Her reflection stared back at her from his dark eyes.
"Just call me your capable adjutant, here to take responsibility for your nights."
"My... nights...?"
Iron Blood's face flushed red as a ripe tomato. For a woman who'd lived her life with a sword at her side, this blatant, dangerous flirtation was a first.
Her heart pounded wildly. Was it from that black liquid she'd just drunk, or from the dangerous man before her? She couldn't tell anymore.
Cheonwi didn't miss the wavering in her eyes. A massive crack called 'curiosity' had formed in the iron wall of the female general's heart.
'Hook, line, and sinker.'
Cheonwi inwardly cheered. But he wasn't one to stop there. He prepared to pull another item from his pocket—his secret weapon to melt away the fatigue of war and completely disarm her body and mind.
"General, the battle's over. Time to relax a bit. Your shoulders look really tense..."
In Cheonwi's hand was a blunt, oddly shaped mechanical device: an ultra-vibrating electric massager.
"What... is that?"
"Something that'll show you heaven. You won't be disappointed."
A wicked yet alluring smile curved Cheonwi's lips. Iron Blood felt unease at that smile, but she already knew she couldn't escape him.
It was an overwhelming victory that had ground the enemy's vanguard to dust, but Cheonwi didn't let it show. He quietly saw Iron Blood off from inside the carriage.
"See you later at the command tent, General."
With Cheonwi's farewell behind her, Iron Blood stepped out of the carriage and returned to reality.
Whoosh—
The moment the carriage door shut, the scorching desert heat enveloped her entire body once more. The heavenly coolness she'd felt just moments ago vanished like a mirage.
"Ugh..."
Iron Blood grimaced. Her body felt heavy again, and sweat began filling her armor in an instant. The coffee from the carriage kept her mind sharp, but that only made the sticky, unpleasant sweat clinging to her skin feel all the more vivid.
She trudged toward her tent. The soldiers cheered and shouted in victory, but it didn't reach her ears. Her mind was filled with that carriage from moments ago—and the enigmatic man named Cheonwi.
'That machine mass... and that black liquid... but more than anything, those eyes.'
Reaching her tent, Iron Blood roughly yanked off her helmet and tossed it aside. Her red hair, soaked with sweat, clung to her face.
She could feel sweat trickling down her back inside the armor. It was gross. A sensation she'd normally ignore now felt unbearable after experiencing Cheonwi's carriage.
"Ugh... so sticky..."
Iron Blood sniffed at her own body odor. Cheonwi's words echoed in her ears.
'Your smell is pretty rank.'
"Damn... am I really smelling?"
Iron Blood's face twisted in frustration. She irritably began untying her armor. She wanted to wash. Thoroughly. And a desire crept up to return to that cool carriage and find out what that 'thing to show her heaven' really was.
She didn't yet realize she'd already stepped deep into the 'dopamine swamp' Cheonwi had designed for her.
The inside of the tent was no different from a steam bath.
The desert sun had set, but the ground still fiercely radiated the heat it'd absorbed all day. Dry wind mixed with sand blew in through gaps in the flapping tent fabric.
Returning from yet another battle, Iron Blood roughly pulled off her helmet and slammed it onto the table.
A crude metallic clang echoed as her red hair cascaded down. Hair that would normally billow with dignity like a lion's mane now hung limp like seaweed strands, soaked in sweat and dust.
"Hoo..."
She let out a deep sigh and cracked her neck, eliciting a series of pops from her joints.
Victory was sweet. But the aftermath was bitterly exhausting.
Iron Blood slipped her fingers into the gaps of her armor and scratched around her collarbone. Sticky sweat mixed with gritty sand irritated her skin.
"Ugh... so gross. Sand's gotten inside my undergarments."
Her whole body itched. Inside the armor, she was drenched in sweat—like wearing a soaked cotton blanket in a sauna.
Just then, her adjutant timidly approached with a bucket of water.
"General, I brought water for washing your face."
Iron Blood wordlessly took the bucket and splashed it over her face.
"......"
It wasn't cool.
Lukewarm at best, thanks to the sun-heated bucket. The dust on her face washed away, but the heat felt even more oppressive.
"Hey."
"Yes, ma'am! General!"
"Is this water or soup? Go fetch some cold water right now!"
"W-Well... the water storage is hot too, so everything's warmed up..."
The adjutant was making excuses with a miserable face when—
"Good work, General."
The tent flap lifted, and a familiar, infuriating voice rang out.
It was Cheonwi.
He stood there with a fresh face, as if the desert heat were someone else's problem. In his hand was a towel billowing with white steam—not hot steam, but cold mist.
"The glory of victory always comes with these troubles."
Cheonwi approached and draped the towel over Iron Blood's nape.
"Hik!"
Iron Blood involuntarily shrugged her shoulders.
It was cold. An ice-cold towel that made her head spin. The pleasure of the sweat droplets on her neck freezing instantly drew a groan from her lips.
"Ooh... that's good..."
Forgetting all decorum, she buried her face in the towel. Cheonwi grinned mischievously at her.
"Feel refreshing?"
"Yeah... I feel alive. Where do you even get something this cold?"
"My carriage has everything."
Cheonwi thumbed toward outside the tent. Even in the darkness, his massive carriage gleamed faintly.
"I've prepared warm water and plenty of bubbles on the second-floor terrace of my carriage. Go unwind."
Iron Blood's eyes lit up.
Warm water. Bubbles.
Words that melted her muscles just imagining them. But she quickly shook her head and hardened her expression.
"No."
"Pardon?"
"I'm an imperial general. I can't keep casually entering some outsider's quarters—especially a eunuch's. It violates military law, and more than that, it ruins my dignity."
Iron Blood put on a stern face and refused. Of course, inwardly, she was screaming to rush to that carriage right now.
Cheonwi stepped closer, as if he'd expected it.
"Military law, huh..."
He brought his lips close to her ear.
"Just keep it secret. My carriage is perfectly soundproofed and shielded from view."
"But..."
"Besides... sleeping like this will ruin your skin. You know how harsh the desert sandstorms are. A woman's skin is her life."
Cheonwi's gaze brushed over her roughened cheeks.
"If you don't wash now, sand'll clog your pores and cause blemishes. Oh, and pimples too. That red hair'll turn brittle like a broom."
"B-Broom...?"
Iron Blood's pupils shook.
She was the ghost of the battlefield, but like any woman, she sighed at her mirror. She knew better than anyone how her skin had suffered from days of forced marches.
Iron Blood glanced down at her sticky armor sleeve, then at Cheonwi's smooth skin.
She couldn't lose. No—she wanted to wash. Desperately.
"...No one will really know, right?"
"I stake my neck on it."
Iron Blood hesitated, then finally nodded.
As she'd seen before, Cheonwi's carriage was far larger inside than it appeared from outside. Whether due to spatial expansion magic or masterful mechanical engineering, Iron Blood had no time to marvel—she was led straight to the second floor.
"Right here."
What Cheonwi pointed to was an unbelievable sight.
The carriage roof was open to the starry night sky, and below it sat a massive round bathtub emitting white steam.
A mobile jacuzzi.
Bubbles rose gurgling inside, with fragrant petals and thick foam floating on the surface.
"Enjoy yourself. I'll wait downstairs."
Cheonwi bowed politely and vanished down the stairs.
Iron Blood glanced around. No one in sight.
She sighed in relief and began unbuckling her armor.
Clank, thud.
The heavy pauldrons hit the floor. Then the breastplate, arm guards, and greaves followed one by one.
Peeling off the sweat-soaked undergarments clinging to her skin, the cool night air kissed her bare body.
She stood before the full-length mirror by the tub.
"......"
The reflection of her nude form was alluring. Taut muscles without an ounce of fat, a slender waist, voluptuous curves. But Iron Blood's gaze lingered not on her figure, but on the marks etched across it.
Countless scars crisscrossing her body.
Sword gashes, arrow grazes, spear punctures—they were the brutal tolls she'd paid to survive.
Especially the hideous burn scar running from her shoulder blades down her back to her waist—it always made her shrink whenever she saw it.
"Ugly."
Iron Blood muttered bitterly, covering the scar with her hand.
That was when—
"Ugly? Hardly."
The voice from behind made Iron Blood whip around in shock.
It was Cheonwi. He'd appeared with a wine bottle and glass, standing at the stair landing. He'd pretended to pour wine facing away, but the decorative mirror in front clearly showed he'd been watching her.
Iron Blood frantically covered her chest with her arms and shouted.