The King's Resolve
A soft tapping echoed against the window.
A pigeon was pecking at the glass with its beak.
A small letter was tied to its leg.
The moment Dave saw the letter, he froze in place. It was soaked in blood.
“Your Majesty, please review these documents!”
Just then, Gemini knocked on the door, holding a stack of papers.
Gemini opened the door and stepped inside.
Dave opened the window and let the pigeon in.
The royal study always carried the damp, woody scent of rain.
But today, the sharp metallic stench of blood hung thick in the air.
Her face turned deathly pale.
The final port has fallen. It appears Admiral Bahu and his fleet have been completely annihilated.
Sinal Port.
The beautiful, thriving harbor south of the royal castle had been her hometown.
“...They held out for so long.”
Gemini’s eyes trembled.
Dave stared down at the map, clenching his jaw so tightly it ached.
Just thinking about the blazing flames and his dying people made his chest burn with unbearable pain.
“The orc fleet has made landfall.”
“Your Majesty. His Imperial Majesty will surely avenge us!”
Gemini tried to comfort him.
Dave looked up at the sky.
“How could this possibly be Your Majesty’s fault? It is the ancient empire’s fault for recklessly opening the rifts and bringing about their own destruction!”
Dave stood by the window, gazing down below.
Park Jo-woon was overseeing construction while Su-ah taught the children and workers how to operate heavy machinery.
Ironically, even as this devastating news arrived, the royal castle was more vibrant than he had ever seen it.
Mysterious machines roared as they dug into the earth, and food supplies—things they had never dared dream of before—were now piled high in the castle courtyard.
How long had it been since he last heard the pure laughter of children?
It had already been ten years since he ascended the throne.
Before he was even born, a great empire had ruled the continent, they said.
Their arrogance had opened the gates of the rifts.
In the blink of an eye, every nation across the continent was torn into dozens of fragments, and even Adel—Dave’s own kingdom—had been swept into the chaos.
The thought that humanity might truly go extinct on this continent kept him awake at night.
Fortunately, they had managed to survive this long thanks to a great archmage who valued forgiveness more than permission…
Dave watched the smoke rising from cooking fires all across the castle grounds.
He burned the sight into his heart with all his strength.
“Then what do you intend to do? Launch a preemptive strike?”
“...”
That kind of talk was just unfair.
Gemini briefly considered dropping to her knees out of reflex.
But there was no trace of Kim Hwang-je’s overwhelming presence here.
The explosive declaration came from Dave.
“Your Majesty, that is extremely dangerous! Defending the castle would be far wiser! Have we not failed to reforge the holy sword capable of withstanding Your Majesty’s power?!”
The king pointed at the children running around with full bellies.
Overwhelmed by the king’s intensity, Gemini shrank back.
“Y-Your Majesty…”
Ah, this was impossible to stop.
Once a king spoke his will, he never took it back.
Dave pressed his advantage.
“...In that case, Your Majesty, please wait just three days!”
“Three days?”
“If His Imperial Majesty sends us the smelting furnace, we can produce GrimGold and reforge the holy sword. Then we can subjugate the orcs while causing far less burden to the Emperor!”
Inside, Gemini cried out desperately.
‘Your Imperial Majesty, please hurry and obtain the smelting furnace! At the very least, let us reforge His Majesty’s holy sword…!’
“Huuuuurk! The rear gate?! Not the back, you bastards!!”
Kim Hwang-je screamed.
When he came to his senses, he was inside a limousine.
The seat had been so comfortable that he had dozed off right there.
He felt like he had just seen something…
Poyu rubbed its cheek against his head.
“Mister, you awake now?”
“Mm… I think I saw something in a dream.”
“Ahem. I’m a fairy dragon! It’s only natural that dreams about bonds of fate and the future come to the mister I protect. Me and Gemini worked really hard to make it! Now we can talk to the inside too!”
Poyu puffed out its round belly and planted its paws on its hips.
“But the translation magic still doesn’t work. Gotta find the cause… hehe.”
But no matter what Poyu said, none of it reached Kim Hwang-je’s ears.
Because the words ‘dream about the future’ had seized his heart in an iron grip.
“Oh my god…”
That was his first reaction.
He couldn’t speak, simply pulling Poyu into a tight embrace.
Poyu giggled and burrowed deeper.
“Ugh… Dave… you really are one hell of a guy…”
That was his second reaction.
“That’s right. Instead of just defending, we should send out an army and wipe them all out!”
His third reaction was intense.
Even after shouting, Kim Hwang-je’s fists continued to tremble.
To Seo Jun-seo’s eyes, it looked like an earthquake had struck.
“Boss! Is something wrong?!”
Poyu was completely invisible to him.
All he saw was Kim Hwang-je hugging his own stomach, shouting Dave’s name, and loudly declaring that he would send an army to kill them all.
It was an extremely dangerous sight.
Only then did Kim Hwang-je notice Seo Jun-seo sitting rigidly beside him and offered an awkward smile.
It was a smile meant to ease the tense atmosphere.
“No, it’s nothing.”
Kim Hwang-je shook his head.
But Seo Jun-seo could not be satisfied with such an explanation.
‘What on earth was that? Army? Wipe them all out?’
Seo Jun-seo was utterly confused.
Still, the contract had already been signed. There was no turning back now.
He carefully wiped the sweat from his brow and showed Kim Hwang-je the tablet.
“I’ve prepared everything exactly as you requested.”
The tablet displayed today’s schedule in perfect, easy-to-read order.
It even included the route all the way to the blockade line outside the small coastal city in the East Sea—the final destination.
Kim Hwang-je was genuinely surprised.
“Huh?”
He glanced at Seo Jun-seo’s wristwatch.
It had been less than thirty minutes since they started driving.
“How did you do this so fast?”
Just a short while ago, after getting in the car, Kim Hwang-je had handed over the list Park Jo-woon had written.
It contained the materials urgently needed to reinforce the castle walls.
He had also mentioned wanting to purchase tetrapods and concrete structures for breakwaters with their remaining assets.
The reason delivery wasn’t possible was because the destination was inside Kim Hwang-je’s stomach.
In the end, whether it took time or not, Kim Hwang-je would have to move personally.
So he had told him to prepare as much as possible on the way, but he never expected the man to map out the entire route.
How had he found companies suffering from dead stock so quickly?
“I mobilized the field teams dispatched from Lost.”
“Teams?”
“Of course, they are all operated in a cellular structure. They have no idea what I’m doing overall. Security is strictly maintained, so please rest assured.”
Of course, the person least reassured by that statement was Seo Jun-seo himself.
Kim Hwang-je nodded with an expression that said, Ah, I see.
“We will visit twelve companies with dead stock, make the purchases, and the estimated time to reach the East Sea coast is approximately eight hours. However, we were unable to secure all the construction materials. Those items simply have no available inventory.”
Kim Hwang-je’s eyes widened.
So this was the power of an elite executive from a major corporation.
He was starting to understand why being a chaebol was so great.
If Kim Hwang-je had tried to gather this information alone, he would have had to scour the internet, make endless phone calls, and painstakingly track down who had dead stock and who would sell heavy machinery.
But the moment he hired a single employee, everything was handled this quickly!
“Um, Boss. This might be presumptuous of me, but… are the tasks you plan to carry out with these materials strictly confidential?”
“Confidential? Ah, yes. Everything must be kept secret. It’s better if no one finds out.”
Seo Jun-seo nodded seriously.
“In that case, I will purchase a suitable mountain and disguise the storage of equipment and materials there. Since it will be under a limited liability company, there should be minimal interference, but I will make thorough arrangements to ensure no issues arise.”
“Whoa…”
Kim Hwang-je nodded with sparkling eyes.
After dealing with the clueless Status Window Eunuch, talking with Seo Jun-seo felt incredibly refreshing.
Your Imperial Majesty!
This is unfair!
Have I not served Your Imperial Majesty with utmost loyalty…
He never mentioned that the gates were precious, though.
These days it kept popping out at random to talk to him.
Kim Hwang-je swiped the status window away to the side, dismissing it.
“First on the list is A-East Construction, the company that supplied machinery to mines. After their mines were depleted, they’ve been struggling to find new markets and business has been sluggish.”
“What should I say when we get there?”
“Our team has already completed the negotiations. Payment has been arranged with the card you provided. Once we arrive, you can instantly transfer the goods and return to the car.”
Kim Hwang-je’s mouth fell half open.
This guy’s abilities were no joke.
Almost as if on cue, the car came to a smooth stop in front of the company.
The driver opened the door for him.
‘Ah, he’s bringing that thing. Makes sense, I guess.’
Seo Jun-seo thought as he watched Kim Hwang-je sling the golden bat over his shoulder.
Every executive in the area had come out to greet Kim Hwang-je.
When they saw the bat resting on his shoulder, they blinked, then bowed deeply in greeting.
“Welcome, sir!”
“Hello there~”
‘Wow, these old guys are really working hard at their businesses.’
‘Shit, is he a gangster?’
The executives blinked rapidly, cold sweat dripping down their faces.
They had agreed to sell off all their heavy machinery at a discount, but they never imagined a gangster would show up riding in a Rolls-Royce Phantom…
But Kim Hwang-je was in an excellent mood.
So this was what it felt like when things went smoothly.
He immediately followed the executives’ guidance toward the warehouse.
“Oh, there’s really a lot.”
Bulldozers, excavators, dump trucks, and other heavy machinery once used in the sudden open-pit mines that appeared after the monster outbreak filled the space. There were also various tools like hydraulic drills and buckets that had been used in those mines.
Since the recent dungeon clears had caused the open-pit mines that lived off the dungeons to disappear as well, a surplus of materials remained.
Kim Hwang-je asked,
“By the way, do you handle giant equipment domestically? I’m talking about something like the Bagger 288.”
The ultimate dream machine.
The emperor among machines.
The colossal open-pit mining excavator, Bagger 288.
Kim Hwang-je’s heart pounded with excitement, but the executives shook their heads mercilessly.
“We’re sorry. We don’t have anything like that!”
He couldn’t buy the mega-structure heavy equipment whose height rivaled a Ferris wheel and whose saw-blade disk was larger than several stacked dump trucks combined!
“Tsk. Let’s go.”
Kim Hwang-je clicked his tongue in disappointment.
Even if they had one, he didn’t have the assets to buy it right now anyway.
That thing cost as much as a fighter jet.
Still, once this auction was over, he would be able to place special orders for such heavy equipment!
Although Kim Hwang-je left while clicking his tongue, he still managed to send a satisfying amount of heavy machinery into the royal castle.
The castle residents poured out in droves to watch.
The yellow heavy machinery gleamed under the sunlight.
Rows of excavators, bulldozers, and drilling rigs looked numerous enough to tear down a bridge in a single day.
The castle had hired every unemployed person available, feeding them a hot bowl of millet porridge mixed with ketchup and gooey cheese, then employed them as heavy machinery operators.
It was a relief.
Kim Hwang-je felt satisfied, but one thought still crossed his mind.
Man, how are we going to pay for all that fuel?
They could probably buy diesel through Lost, right?
Kim Hwang-je headed to the next location.
It was a tetrapod manufacturing plant.
Tetrapods were, as the name suggested, breakwater structures.
Four-legged reinforced concrete masses that were scattered in massive quantities around docks.
Since they were originally designed to be thrown into the sea to withstand waves, their durability was absurdly, almost stupidly high.
“Oh my, the boss has arrived.”
The president of the tetrapod company rubbed his hands together, then froze in shock.
It was because of the bat resting on the visitor’s shoulder.
While it was an incredible blessing that someone was willing to buy out the entire dead stock of a company whose business was deteriorating daily and whose inventory was piled mountain-high,
it was slightly unsettling that the person carrying a bat on his shoulder wanted to purchase these ridiculous objects in bulk.
“Good. Good. I’m very satisfied. Hahaha!”
But when Kim Hwang-je saw the actual tetrapods in the outdoor warehouse, he was genuinely pleased.
And among all their advantages, the best one was undoubtedly the price.
Kim Hwang-je placed his hand on the largest tetrapod among the selection.
“So, this big one costs five million won, correct?”
“Yes. They’ve gotten so large that they don’t sell well anymore. Each one weighs a hundred tons. As discussed, we’ll let you have them for 450 each.”
“Puhuhu…”
Seo Jun-seo had worked his magic and slashed the price by five hundred thousand won per unit.
“Excellent. Since I’m buying them all, make as many as you can, as quickly as possible.”
Kim Hwang-je planned to pile the tetrapods in an enormous stack on the empty lot in front of the castle walls and pour cement over them.
He would build the outer walls within the 119 hours remaining until the next wave.
Leaving the castle gate exposed by itself was obscene.
No citizen of the kingdom would be allowed to come and go through the gate anymore.
Kim Hwang-je intended to completely seal off the gate and use a personnel elevator for all castle access.
And that wasn’t all. To block any potential attackers from the rear gate… and to stop that fleet, he planned to install breakwaters at the river mouth as well.
Kim Hwang-je shuddered.
“Are you tired?”
“No, I just remembered something unpleasant.”
Thanks to that damned Ogre Lord, the pain still crept up on him from time to time.
Was this what people called PTSD?
“Alright. Sending the tetrapods!”
The moment the deal was complete, Kim Hwang-je transferred every tetrapod stacked in the warehouse.
Four-legged concrete masses rained down from the sky, piling up behind the castle and the river.
The soldiers and residents standing on the walls stared with wide eyes.
A thick cloud of dust rose into the air.
A moment later, they discovered forests of concrete stacked at both the front and rear gates of the castle.
“Ughhh…”
But the knights clutched their aching hearts.
It had been the same with the containers.
Since there were still no people capable of operating the heavy machinery, it seemed the knights would once again have to tie these countless tetrapods together with chains and drag them.
Their eyes turned red on their own.
“Wow, these guys are really touched. Don’t worry. I’ll protect you all properly.”
Kim Hwang-je rested the bat on his shoulder as he watched the knights’ supposedly moved(?) eyes.
“Let’s head to the East Sea!”
Now, let’s hurry up, reclaim the smelting furnace, and give our good king his holy sword!