Debuff Master

The Proatine Forces ambushed and crushed a territory located near the border before immediately mobilizing their Marines. The five hundred Proatine Marines used the Aqua Runners to zip across the Lexus Kingdom and occupy the forts with anti-air cannons.

The Proatine Marines were extremely well-trained on top of being armed with all sorts of expensive gear. There was no way the Lexus Forces could hold a candle against the Proatine Marines, which made the invasion much easier.

What was the next step after the Marines captured the forts with anti-air cannons?

It was time for the Air Force to make its move.

The Proatine Air Force\'s armada managed to fly safely to the enemy kingdom’s airspace as the Marines had captured the enemy’s anti-air cannons. They were able to leisurely cruise all the way to the capital of the Lexus Kingdom.

However, that was not the end of it.

The Weapon Maestros were dispatched alongside Oscar and Carell to participate in the war. On top of that, Michele had even allowed the enraged Reventon to participate along with his golems.

Thus, the capital of the Lexus Kingdom was reduced to rubbles in almost an instant.

“W-What in the world?!” Duke Alto exclaimed as he found this bizarre turn of events quite hard to believe. His reaction was understandable as he was oblivious to how powerful the real military of the Proatine Kingdom was.

“What in the world is…”

It was then.

Whoosh… Bam!

The roof of the palace Siegfried was staying in abruptly collapsed. No, it was more accurate to say that a gigantic Iron Golem ripped it off as if taking the lid off of a can.

“Your Majesty.” Golem King Reventon said as he knelt in front of Siegfried. “I, your loyal servant, Reventon, have come to rescue my lord.”

The Golem King’s chest and shoulders changed as it was now adorned with the insignia of the Proatine Army as well as the Proatine Royal Family.

Reventon didn’t come by himself.

Whiiing!

His chest opened—

“Hyung-nim!”

—and Seung-Gu emerged from it…

“Huh? Seung-Gu? Why are you coming out from there?”

“I managed to class up!” Seung-Gu proudly replied.

“Class up? You mean class promotion?”

“Yes!”

Siegfried flashed his Rune of Insight at Seung-Gu and discovered that Seung-Gu’s class was now Iron Pilot.

“Don’t tell me… Your new class is becoming Reventon’s pilot?”

“I think so!”

“No wonder… I noticed there was something strange about his chest…”

Siegfried noticed in the battle that the inside of the Golem King’s chest was oddly hollow, and it turned out that Seung-Gu’s quest rewarded him with a new class that gave him ownership of Reventon.

“He is closer to an imbecile than a pilot, but I have decided to allow him to control me to show my loyalty toward Your Majesty.”

“What did you just say?! Who’s an imbecile?!”

“Silence! You maggot!”

“This piece of iron dares to…!”

“I gave you a ride despite being unqualified! Just shut up and be grateful for your privilege! I don’t need an imbecile like you to control me!”

The two started bickering. It seemed that Seung-Gu’s level was too low, so he was struggling to control Reventon.

“It’s good to see you two getting along… Hahaha…” Siegfried muttered while laughing in disbelief. Then, Reventon picked up Duke Alto by the scruff of his neck with two fingers and asked, “Your Majesty! What should I do with this ingrate?!”

“Ack! Aaaack!”

“May I squash him?”

“Not yet,” Siegfried shook his head and replied, “He needs to see what he did first.”

“As you wish, I will keep him alive for now.”

Siegfried decided to keep Duke Alto alive—for now.

“By the way, I wonder where their king is hiding…” he muttered while rubbing his chin.

“I shall lead the way, Your Majesty!” Reventon said as he raised his left hand.

The Golem King’s left hand was quite large, and the engineers of the Proatine Kingdom fitted it with hand cannons that the kingdom had developed. They were custom-made for Reventon.

Boom!

The hand cannons in Reventon’s left hand spat fire.

Krrwaaang…!

The cannons displayed jaw-dropping firepower as they obliterated an entire wall in a single blow. Siegfried judged that most defensive walls would definitely collapse after taking just a single attack from the cannon.

“Let’s go, hyung-nim!”

“Okay,” Siegfried replied as he followed behind Seung-Gu, who was still riding Reventon.

“Ack! Aaaack!”

Of course, Duke Alto was tagging along with them—as a captive.

***

Siegfried was not able to fight a proper battle after leaving the palace he was imprisoned in, as the Lexus Forces had already been completely decimated by the Proatine Forces.

On the way to Fernandes the Third…

“Salute to His Majesty!”

“Loyal—ty!”

Siegfried was greeted by the Proatine Troops wherever he went in the Lexus Kingdom’s capital city.

“Thank you for your hard work. You have it hard because of your incompetent king, right? I will make sure to reward you when we get back, so please hang in there.”

“Loyalty!”

Siegfried walked around the enemy’s castle as if it were his own, and there were no dangers anywhere as the castle was completely occupied by the Proatine Forces.

“Your Majesty!”

“Hey! Carell!”

Siegfried was greeted by Carell in front of the Lexus Kingdom’s throne room.

“Over here! I will lead the way from here!”

“How are you these days? You seem so busy these days that I couldn’t catch you anywhere!”

“I am always busy trying my best to strengthen Your Majesty’s military.”

“Thank you, Carell.”

“Not at all! Your Majesty has saved me twice! My dream is to dedicate myself to Your Majesty until my last dying breath!”

“Hey, don’t dream about things like that and pursue your own happiness, too.”

“That is my happiness, Your Majesty,” Carell replied with a big smile.

“Sigh… I guess I can’t convince you otherwise,” Siegfried replied with a smirk. Then, he turned to the doors of the throne room and asked, “Who’s inside?”

“Dame Oscar is waiting for Your Majesty,” Carell replied.

Siegfried entered the Lexus Kingdom’s throne room, where Oscar was waiting.

“His Majesty, the Great King of Proatine, King Siegfried van Proa, has arrived!”

The officers of the Proatine Forces lined up and greeted him with a loud booming voice in unison.

“We greet His Majesty the King!”

“We greet His Majesty the King!”

“We greet His Majesty the King!”

Oscar took a step forward and knelt in front of Siegfried.

“Your Majesty’s loyal servant, Oscar, greets her liege!”

‘Oh?’ Siegfried couldn’t help but be impressed by Oscar’s appearance. It had been quite a while since he saw the latter. Her flowing blonde hair, cold smile that made her look even more beautiful, pearly-white armor, and even her sharp sword.

Oscar looked just like a knight that would appear in legends.

However, her looks were not the only thing impressive about her. She seemed to have trained so hard that her level was now a whopping Level 230. It was a testament to her diligence in training every day while Siegfried was away from his kingdom.

“Thank you for your hard work as always, Dame Oscar,” Siegfried said while looking at her with warm gentle eyes,

“Not at all, Your Majesty,” Oscar replied with a smile. Then, she said, “Please, sit on your throne, Your Majesty.”

“Should I?” Siegfried replied before walking up to the throne and sitting on it.

‘Wow… This is quite uncomfortable…’

He found Fernandes the Third’s throne to be quite uncomfortable, which was a given since he was comparing the comfort level of a normal throne to his throne, which had been crafted from the skull of the Chromatic Dragon.

‘They call this a throne? They should’ve invested a bit more and got a proper one… Geez…’

Siegfried couldn’t help but grumble at the comfort level of the throne, and he even went as far as imagining the rulers on the continent grabbing the back of their heads and collapsing after sitting on this uncomfortable seat.

“Bring in the criminals!” Oscar shouted, and the Proatine Marines brought in the criminals.

“Lower your heads!”

“How dare you raise your head in the presence of His Majesty?!”

“Walk faster!”

The officials of the Lexus Kingdom were chained together like a string of Vienna sausages, and they were forced to kneel in front of Siegfried.

“Your Majesty, we have brought the criminals into your presence,” Oscar said.

“I see.”

“Do you wish to question them?”

“Who’s their king?”

“It is that person over there,” Oscar replied as she pointed at a middle-aged man who was dressed like a king.

The man was wearing expensive-looking clothes, but he was not wearing a crown. The Proatine Forces took his crown away as he was no longer worthy of wearing one after losing his kingdom to them.

“Did you say your name was Fernandes?” Siegfried asked, and then he added, “Raise your head. I believe we should at least see each other’s faces.”

“…”

“Hmm… I think I just told you to raise your head?” Siegfried repeated.

However, Fernandes the Third pretended to be deaf as he ignored Siegfried.

“This insolent bastard! His Majesty has commanded you to raise your head!” an officer of the Proatine Forces shouted before smacking Fernandes on the back of his head.

“Kuheok!”

“I will personally pluck your eyes out if you dare to keep defying His Majesty’s commands!”

“A-Alright…” Fernandes replied and slowly raised his head after getting threatened by the officer.

“Nice to meet you; my name is Siegfried van Proa.”

“I… I know…”

“So how? Are you satisfied now?” Siegfried asked.

“…”

Fernandes the Third was absolutely speechless, and he couldn’t utter a single word in response to the question.

‘Damn it! Duke Alto… You fucking son of a bitch! This wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t blown air into me!’ He couldn’t help but regret falling for the duke’s temptation.

It made sense because this tragedy wouldn’t have happened if he had thanked and rewarded Siegfried for the help and had maintained a good diplomatic relationship with the Proatine Kingdom.

He couldn’t have imagined—even in his wildest dreams—that the price he had to pay for stabbing Siegfried in the back after getting tempted by the words territory expansion would be this steep.

“Hmm… Why aren’t you responding?” Siegfried smirked and asked, “Isn’t it normal for you to respond so that we can call it a conversation?”

“I… I have no excuses…” Fernandes replied, and then he lowered his head and continued, “I originally wanted to thank and reward you for the help so we could have good diplomatic relations but… Duke Alto influenced me, and I ended up…”

It was then.

“Your Majesty! Why are you putting the blame on me now?!” Duke Alto retorted, and then he lashed out, “Your Majesty gave the command! I am not the king!”

“Silence! This would not have happened if you hadn’t tempted me with that vile tongue of yours!”

“No, you shut up, Your Majesty! A king is supposed to take responsibility in these kinds of situations!”

“You fucking son of a bitch!”

“Hey, you fucker! You call yourself a king?! You’re no longer anything, you fucking loser!”

The two started hurling curses at each other. The two of them desperately tried to avoid the blame, which ended up in them having a heated argument.

“Oh? Look at these two,” Siegfried muttered in disbelief while looking at Fernandes the Third and Duke Alto.

‘Wow… These two are quite the pieces of trash…’

The reason behind thinking this way was quite simple. The reason the Lexus Kingdom was in this state was all because of the top decision-makers of the kingdom, Fernandes the Third and Duke Alto.

But who were the ones that paid the price?

It was none other than the knights, soldiers, and some citizens of the Lexus Kingdom.

Fernandes the Third and Duke Alto were the ones that shat the bed, but here they were, busy trying to pin the blame on the other.

‘What’s the difference between these bastards and that cult leader and Emperor Frederic?’

Siegfried found the way Fernandes the Third and Duke Alto were behaving was no different from what he witnessed at the Constantine Holy Empire.

‘What a pair of repulsive bastards…’

He could not help but feel repulsed at their actions right now, and he was about to give the command to execute both Fernandes the Third and Duke Alto but…

“Look here, King Siegfried! Please punish this evil snake! I will lead you to my personal secret vault if you do that for me!”

Fernandes—no, King Fernandes the Third abruptly made an interesting proposal.