The Overlord of Blood and Iron (WN)

• Heh… seems like you’ve arrived just in time.

Kwak Jung was extremely thankful to Hecate. She was usually cold and foul-mouthed, which made her difficult to approach. However, it was different this time. There couldn’t have been a better sight than Hecate’s grandiose appearance.

• We were about to…

• Shut up, you noisy weasel.

• Ah, okay...

Kwak Jung sulked.

He himself was a man with great self-esteem, but it didn’t matter when he faced Hecate, the female version of Kang Chul-In. To her, he was a mere weasel-like cutie.

“What does Kang Chul-In see in that weasel? I always see them together.”

Hecate mumbled to herself.

“Well, I respect his opinion, but I can’t relate with him… that weasel’s only saving grace is his brain.”

A brainy weasel. That was how Hecate viewed Kwak Jung.

“Anyways, time for some destruction! Hohoho!”

Her eyes began to flicker with craze.

Destruction.

Indeed, Hecate’s favorite leisure activity was to bomb indiscriminately using Temeraire!

• Everyone.

Hecate’s voice rang in Temeraire, the battleship.

“Yes, your Majesty!”

“Aye aye!”

“Awaiting your orders!”

Her soldiers replied instantly.

• Prepare a dose of that ‘hot stuff’. Let’s give the northern bastards a taste of hell.

“Yes, your Majesty!”

Her soldiers had unusually high morale.

There was a reason for that. For many of the Temeraire soldiers, this war was more than just somebody else’s business.

Valhalla is my wife’s country.

I refuse to turn gay again!

My dear, I will protect your country!

Damn it… how can I not give it my all when my wife’s watching me… tsk!

We are one!

They were committed to this war in one way or another.

A blood alliance!

The alliance between Hecate and Kang Chul-In wasn’t just established via signing some paperwork.

Due to severe gender imbalance, a large number of Kang Chul-In’s female citizens were married to Hecate’s male citizens.

Kang Chul-In… you cunning man… I bet you planned for this, hmph!

Hecate mocked Kang Chul-In inwardly.

Of course, she had no intention of becoming Kang Chul-In’s subordinate. She had wanted to give him the middle finger initially, but 30,000 couples had already spawned in a mere span of two years. Moreover, Kang Chul-In held control of over 70% of the Ishtar region. Hecate simply had no other choice.

Lastly, there was one more thing that Hecate was unaware of:

To: My Dear Lady, ___,

How are you?

I am aware of the difficulties of living in a foreign land, thus I am genuinely concerned about your well-being.

It may sound presumptuous, but I wish to remind you that although you’ve left Valhalla to follow your husband, you will always be a proud member of this nation. How could I not be worried about my own people?

And… I apologize for this imbalance in gender, which has caused you to leave your family and friends.

I am solely to blame for it.

Many of my people have left inevitably, and I still wake up in the middle of the night thinking of you all.

Live a happy life.

That is my only request.

PS. I’m sending you a small amount of gold. Feel free to use it to lead a happy married life.

P.S. Once my people, always my people! As an apology to your family members for sending you off, I am rewarding them with the title of ‘Grade 7 People of National Merit’. Therefore, you don’t have to worry about them.

From: The Supreme King of the West,

The King of Valhalla,

Kang Chul-In.

This letter was a total façade considering Kang Chul-In’s personality. It was written a week before the start of the war and was sent to the 15,612 Valhalla women who had married Hecate’s subordinates.

His Majesty genuinely cares about me!

Your Majesty… I will always be a proud citizen of Valhalla… sob sob!

How did you know that I’ve been struggling financially!?

H-His Majesty personally w-wrote this letter!

The letters touched the hearts of many Valhalla women who had left for Temeraire.

Surprisingly, each letter was handwritten and had a customized message despite a similar framework.

Argh! This is ridiculously tiring!

Kwak Jung was the mastermind.

He had even deployed the Valhalla Intelligence Agency to obtain the personal information of these women. He then pretended to be Kang Chul-In and wrote the letters.

It was certainly not an easy task. Kwak Jung had to handwrite all the letters, in case the receivers compared each other’s letter during their meetups to reveal that Kang Chul-In did not actually write those letters.

However, all his efforts paid off in the end.

Heightened loyalty!

There was an old saying that men dominated the world and women dominated these men. Kwak Jung aimed to trigger the loyalty factor for these Valhalla women to ultimately increase his army’s combat abilities.

The results were astounding.

Honey, my nation is in danger and you are just watching TV here?!

Go and fight!

Plead Her Majesty Hecate to help Valhalla or something!

Can’t you see that my family is in danger!

These women began to nag at their Temeraire husbands relentlessly.

It was a shocking strategy.

Kwak Jung had increased his army’s combat efficiency using letters alone. It indicated that his senses as a tactician were improving by leaps and bounds.

“Oi, you fuckers! I can’t eat my dinner because of you bastards!”

“You dare to attack my wife’s nation?! If you lay a single finger on my mother-in-law...”

“Die, you bastards!”

Hecate’s soldiers, who had to bear through the constant nagging from their wives over the past few days, were eager to win this battle.

Wiiiiiinggg!

Temeraire’s cannons began to warm up.

“Cannon number 1, ready!”

“Cannon number 2, ready!”

“Cannon number 3, ready!”

“Cannon number 4, ready!”

The gunners shouted.

“Cannon number 72, ready!”

“Cannon number 73, ready!”

And lastly,

“Cannon number 74, ready!”

Temeraire possessed 27 cannons on its left and right side each and 10 cannons at the front and back side each, amounting to 74 cannons in total. They were designed to all face different directions.

This, however, did not apply when Hecate deployed the ‘hot stuff’.

All 74 cannons locked their aims onto the base of the Gullveig Alliance army.

This was the ultimate display of firepower from the ‘strategic weapon’.

• Ready, boys?

“Yes, your Majesty!”

• Good.

Hecate grinned.

A demon!

Hecate truly lived up to her title of ‘female Kang Chul-In’. Both of them were evil and cunning.

• I hereby command as the captain of the battleship Temeraire! Activate ‘Strategic Weapon Fire’!

With that,

“3, 2, 1.”

The countdown began.

“Fire!”

Instantly, 74 cannons breathed fire simultaneously.

And a catastrophe began.

Pow, powww! Pow, pow, pow, pow, pow, pow, pow, pow, pow, pow!

The massive bombardment which had once carved fear into the Gullveig Alliance and Baldur Alliance in the past was showering down upon the enemy.

Furthermore, the magic-engineered cannons equipped onto Temeraire were designed to display S++ performance upon activation of Strategic Weapon Fire. Each of them had +40% destructive power compared to a normal magic-engineered cannon!

***

Meanwhile at Bifrost in the Pentagon, a giant facility located 50m underground...

“W-What on earth is that…!?”

“Hecate…!”

“O-Our base…!”

“This is… absurd...”

The Lords of the Gullveig Alliance couldn’t believe what they were witnessing on the screen.

Footages of the battlefield were sent live via the Illusion Network. Temeraire’s brilliant firepower was showing on the screen.

“What even… it’s like a nuclear bomb...”

Someone mumbled.

A nuclear bomb, indeed.

Although that was clearly an exaggeration, Temeraire’s firepower was still a force to be reckoned with.

• Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam!

Each cannon released 10 shots.

In total, 740 shots.

The Gullveig Alliance army fell helplessly to this intense bombardment.

Even as a rough estimate, 20,000 casualties were to be expected from this attack.

In addition, the Gigantes had a large surface area for the bombs to land nicely on.

“Ah...”

“It’s unbelievable...”

“Urgh… what in the world...”

The audience in the Pentagon gasped.

All five Gigantes were dead.

20,000 to 25,000 soldiers were dead.

Artilleries were all destroyed.

That was incredible damage for a single bombardment.

“Not yet.”

At that moment, someone spoke staunchly.

“My brothers, please maintain your composure! We haven’t lost!”

It was Cordilleras, a Filipino ruler of the Ifugao territory. He was also a high-ranked officer in the Gullveig Alliance.

“Nonsense, how can we win after that intense bombardment?”

“Cordilleras! We’ve lost ¼ of our men from a single attack! How is this not worrisome?”

“How shameless. Our soldiers are getting massacred out there, and you still have the guts to tell us to maintain our composure?”

“One more attack and our alliance army may be annihilated!”

The Lords rebutted Cordilleras’ remark furiously.

“The greater the crisis, the better we have to maintain our composure! Look! The bombing has stopped!”

Cordilleras pointed at the screen.

He was right.

Temeraire had gone silent after unleashing all of its 740 bombs.

“It’s their loss.”

Cordilleras explained.

“Attacking like that multiple times? That’s cheating! Absurd, ridiculous cheating! Think about it! If Temeraire was capable of unleashing two of those bombardments in a row, Hecate would’ve become the ruler of Ishtar, not Kang Chul-In!”

He was spot-on.

Strategic Weapon Fire was powerful, but it required a long recharge time.

The magic-engineered artilleries had to be fully charged beyond their limits for the ability to activate. That was why Hecate had been missing in action despite Kwak Jung’s relentless nagging.

In addition, the magic-engineered artilleries suffered a harsh drop in durability after using this skill. They were no longer even capable of firing normal shots.

A minimum of 24 hours was needed for the recharge.

In other words, Hecate could no longer contribute to the battle.

“Look, everyone!”

Cordilleras exclaimed.

“The bombing has stopped, and chairman Vilhelm’s chimera troop is being deployed! We still have 50,000 soldiers left! A loss? Ridiculous! We can win this! No, we will win this!”

“Cordilleras is right!”

“Your explanation makes sense.”

“Right, then let’s see how it goes!”

A quick turnabout. Cordilleras was proficient in his use of words.

• Reporting. Lady Mei Ling has visited the Pentagon to encourage all the Lords personally!

At that moment, an announcement was made via the speaker.

“Everyone… keep up the good work...”

Mei Ling was being accompanied by a knight with a robust physique. She greeted the Lords in the situation room, but her face was as pale as the snow.

“Lady Mei Ling, we appreciate your kindness, but you seem a little unwell.”

Cordilleras spoke with a worried expression.

“N-No, not at all… I’m just a bit tired nowadays...”

“You don’t just seem tired...”

“I’m fine.”

“...”

“So pay n-no attention...”

At that moment,

Wah~! Wahhh ~!

Viktor Vilhelm, the son of Albrecht Vilhelm, began to cry in his mother’s arms.

“Oops, the chairman’s son...”

Cordilleras was about to complete his sentence when suddenly,

Swing!

A sharp, piercing scream of metal echoed in the situation room.

Thump, roll...

Cordilleras’ head dropped and rolled onto the floor.

“...!”

Everyone in the room was shocked.

“You bunch of trash.”

The knight next to Mei Ling took off his helmet’s face shield.

“What a shameless bunch… your soldiers are bravely fighting on the battlefield, yet you are leisurely conversing here?”

He had appeared.

The Supreme King of the West!

Kang Chul-In, who was covered with Cordilleras’ fresh blood, glared at the Lords of the Gullveig Alliance.

The demon himself had intruded into the very heart of the enemy!