Chapter 63

Thud!

I landed at the designated landing zone behind the Central Exchange.

“Hail Lord Sungchul!”

“Sir!”

“Eh, yeah. Good work.”

After waving off my nervous soldiers, I headed towards the Central Exchange.

This establishment covered over 150 square meters with five stories above ground and two below. It was created by upgrading a rare hideout using diamonds directly under my supervision. This place served as the hub for all logistics between castles.

“Welcome, Lord Sungchul.”

A diamond merchant, who had been waiting for me, bowed deeply to greet me. For reference, ‘Diamond’ is his new name.

His original name was Mark, and he used to be a merchant with whom I had a close relationship. When Ardenia suffered from dungeon raids, he lost his business and sought refuge within my territory. Although he lacked combat skills or proven loyalty, he possessed keen insight and aptitude for calculations, so I entrusted him with running the Central Exchange.

Thud!

I poured out all the loot gathered by Kasim’s divine roar onto the prepared table.

“Stick to the usual prices. Report back after you’ve cataloged them.”

“Yes, Sungchul.”

In every castle I conquered, I established official stores where items acquired by elite soldiers could be purchased or goods brought from reality sold. These stores also served as banks, allowing me to monitor the flow of logistics at a glance through their reports.

‘The value of gold is steadily decreasing. As expected, there’s a limit to what can be achieved with enforcement scrolls alone.’

However, within Revenge, enforcement scrolls weren’t the only use for gold. Potions and arrows had to be purchased by the hundreds, food needed to be bought with gold, and repairs cost money as well. Nonetheless, the most significant expenses were crafting items and skill books.

‘Crafting isn’t feasible at the moment.’

Crafting required diverse materials, making it impossible to create anything using items dropped from just one location. Even creating a simple rare-grade armor would necessitate high-quality leather, top-tier gemstones, rare recipes occasionally dropped by rare monsters, soul crystals obtained from dismantling equipment, and a considerable amount of gold.

Everything else was obtainable. The only issue was that the leather dropped by wild boars was low-grade, but couldn’t I just gather 1,000 pieces to upgrade it to the highest quality?

The real problem lay with gemstones.

Even the closest one is 11 squares away. It’s too far.

In Revenge, teleportation gates were available in every city, making travel convenient. However, here, such gates were unlocked only when a castle reached legendary rank, rendering them currently inaccessible.

And there isn’t even a skill book shop.

Unlike Revenge, Ardenia lacked NPCs. Without NPCs, it inevitably meant no shops operated by them existed either.

The only stores we could access were the diamond store directly through the system interface and the guild shop.

‘If there was a skill book store, the value of gold might have even increased instead of decreasing.’

Skill books allowed users to automatically acquire abilities, making them highly coveted treasures among elite soldiers.

‘Moreover, they’re incredibly expensive.’

Even basic-rank skills cost 10,000 gold. Advanced rank ranged from 100,000 to 500,000 gold, while rare rank went for 5,000,000 to 7,000,000 gold. The few hero-ranked skills available at the skill book store were priced between 20,000,000 to 40,000,000 gold, taking considerable time to purchase even with Revenge’s automated farming capabilities.

“Well… I have to maintain a balance since being too reckless could also be problematic. As for skill books, it might become possible to craft them later.”

For various reasons, the market value was bound to continuously decline, but I managed to keep the gold coin’s worth at 1% of its original value. It wasn’t particularly difficult. By simply not withdrawing gold from my inventory and keeping it tied up, the value of gold remained stable. How could it plummet when all the gold that should’ve circulated in the economy is absorbed into my inventory instead?

“This wouldn’t be feasible on Earth, though.”

But here, it was possible because essentially, the entire economic flow within my territory depended on me.

With this thought, I checked my inventory:

– 5,408,744,321 gold

– 14,253,722 honor coins

The gold and honor coins stored in my inventory have no volume or weight, allowing me to accumulate vast amounts effortlessly. Moreover, these resources belong solely to me; taxes collected from citizens are managed separately for budgetary purposes.

It would be great if I could use this gold in Revenge.

Currently, I can only delete items from Revenge and bring them here. Actually, even if it were possible to transfer items in reverse, I shouldn’t risk it. Deleting an item merely removes it, but creating something out of nothing would clearly indicate hacking.

“Sir!”

“Yes, yes.”

I waved at the saluting soldiers as I entered the castle.

“You have returned, Lordship.”

“Yes. Anything important?”

“A delegation from your kingdom has arrived.”

“Oh, really? They’re early. Tell them to rest for a bit before coming to the reception room.”

It wasn’t particularly urgent, so I nodded briefly and started reviewing some documents.

‘A guild establishment application… Yes. One guild is level 8, so it’s time to start allowing them.’

With more guilds, there would be increased attendance rewards, ultimately enabling Players to self-sustain their class cards. My army now numbered well over ten thousand, making it impossible for me to purchase class cards for every soldier. Considering the numerous ways to spend gold, investing millions on class cards seemed imprudent.

The establishment fee is one million gold. It’s quite expensive but manageable. I’ll allow the Ensign Guild, along with the Silver Cross Guild, Mage Tower Guild, and Shepherds Guild.

While this would slow down each guild’s leveling speed, it was better for increasing overall capabilities. In Revenge, attendance rewards were merely bonuses, but here in the free-to-play world, they held significant value that couldn’t be ignored.

“Oh right, what about the Reapers?” Only after handling other matters did jae-yeon remember them.

I’m really swamped these days.

In truth, he had initially felt more relaxed as his systems became established, but since acquiring Kasim, he’d been hunting every twelve hours, causing work to pile up again.

“They’re waiting in the reception room.”

“Ah, they must have been waiting patiently. Tell them I’ll join them shortly.” With that, jae-yeon rose from his seat.

With that thought, I rose from my seat. Changing clothes was simple enough; I just swapped out for the best mage attire available in my inventory.

“Lord Sungchul has arrived,” announced one of the soldiers as I entered the reception room. Inside, eight men and women awaited me. It seemed Flower had limited each faction to two representatives.

‘She’s quite resourceful. Considering she worked in a noble household until age fifteen, it makes sense.’

Like most people residing in our territory, Flower possessed her own unique backstory. She was a girl I discovered while searching for someone skilled in surgery. Despite her exceptional intellect and decisiveness, she faced constant frustration due to societal limitations imposed by her gender and birth status.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you all. I am Han Jae-yeon, the castle lord of Starting Castle and guild master of the Starting Guild.”

While her name might sound foreign to them, it wasn’t as if she had some ridiculous cliché of a name like ‘Han-dae-yo-on’ that would make her sound like a beggar. As I’ve mentioned before, Revenge is a South Korean game, and its characters use hangul names. Moreover, since they live under the Ming Empire, they’re accustomed to hearing surnames such as Nangong or Murong, making Han’s pronunciation familiar to them.

“You have forsaken your noble surname bestowed upon you by His Majesty for your glorious deeds,” said a middle-aged man with a dignified appearance, his voice low and admonishing, akin to reprimanding a subordinate.

The envoys from the three kingdoms, excluding Chrome, subtly exchanged glances. They chose not to interrupt him but also refrained from adding their own input, seemingly adopting a neutral stance.

I couldn’t help but chuckle. The relentless power struggles, the absurdity of nobility, and above all, the sheer frivolity of this moment made me burst out laughing.

I couldn’t help but smile. The tiring and blood-boiling power struggles, the irrationality of nobility—it all seemed so trivial now that I found myself laughing uncontrollably at this absurd situation.

“Snap out of it, Illain. Are you completely oblivious? Or is your stubborn mind unable to adapt to the new circumstances?”

“W-What…?” Illain Silver Sword, the strongest warrior from the previous generation of the Chrome Kingdom and head of the Silver Sword Count family, scowled bitterly. He likely didn’t expect such harsh words since he remembered me from before my rise as a noble.

“A modicum of respect demands adherence to proper etiquette. Despite being incredibly busy, I’ve endured your subpar behavior… And you three.” I turned to gaze at the silent envoys from the other kingdoms.

“Yes? Ah, indeed. This is truly regrettable.”

“You seem to have given this much thought. Yet you couldn’t even decide on your approach before coming here. This audience is over. Everyone, leave immediately.”

“W-What?! No!? We don’t care about…”

“Wait! Wait just a moment, Sungchul!”

Ignoring the uproar from the silent envoys, I rose and exited the reception room. It was a blatant breach of diplomatic etiquette, but there existed an ‘abnormal’ disparity in power between me and these emissaries of doomed kingdoms. If they were unaware of it, then they must face the consequences accordingly.

“Han.”

As I ascended to my study from the reception room, Haze followed closely behind. Looking back, I noticed the other envoys were nowhere in sight. They couldn’t have restrained themselves voluntarily; it meant my soldiers had intervened, allowing only Haze through despite no explicit orders from me.

Flower is really good at her job.

I internally marveled at Haze as I turned to face her.

“Long time no see.”

“Long time no see? You heartless bastard! We haven’t seen each other for ten years, and all you can say after flying off without even exchanging pleasantries is ‘long time no see’?” She laughed boisterously while playfully slapping my back. Then she gradually moved closer until our proximity was uncomfortably intimate for a casual conversation.

As we stood almost nose-to-nose, Haze whispered softly:

“The knighting ceremony of Chrome Kingdom involves casting a curse using an ancient artifact. With the brand on your forehead and possessing that artifact, they can activate the curse anytime. Avoid engaging in private conversations or one-on-one confrontations with Old Silver Sword.”

Haze stared intently into my eyes, so close our noses nearly touched. Instead of stepping back, she took another step forward.

“…”

She wrapped her well-toned arms around me and pulled me close. I felt something enormous pressing against my chest, beyond just being big. After a moment, she stepped back, her face flushed with excitement, which looked amusing.

“Is this okay for you? You have your position in the Chrome Kingdom.”

“Haha, are you worried about me? Inma! Have you forgotten that I am the master of the holy sword Stella? I’m a duel knight, a duel knight! The Duelist of Chrome!”

Although Haze was now a 40-year-old woman, her robust arm muscles were still evident as she laughed heartily, reminiscent of her youthful beauty from the past.

“Hm?”

A familiar term caught my attention.

“Duelist?”

“What, you don’t know my nickname? Even though we’ve been apart, isn’t it harsh considering our past bond?”

”…Wait a minute.” I briefly manipulated the interface and flipped over a card.

“Take this.”

“Huh? Wait, is this the legendary…”

“Accept it.”

Flash!

When the card entered her hand, there was a purple light indicating hero rank. However, the light didn’t end once.

Pap! Pap! Pappapapap!

The violet light burst wildly. It was different from simply acquiring a class. Haze’s eyes widened and she started trembling. I realized something:

“It’s you.”

The jobs of Revenge were created by gathering all the traditions that existed in Ardenia’s past or future. The empire knight had history and tradition, while musketeers and cannoneers hadn’t yet emerged. Now, Haze standing before me—she undoubtedly possessed the qualities to become a hero.

“You…are the prototype for the Hero Class, Duelist.”