The Overlord of Blood and Iron

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 .