I Became a Level -99 Vicious Lord

Otto went to Kairos as soon as he had made up his mind to get rid of Argonne.

"…What is he doing?"

Inside the barracks, Kairos was sitting cross-legged and quietly meditating.

As if savoring the doctrines he'd acquired through Maitreya's Rosary.

‘He really does look like a monk.'

Otto found Kairos' appearance somewhat unfamiliar.

He'd expected Kairos to be a drunkard on any given day, not looking so serious….

"Ruuuu."

Kairos let out a heavy snore.

"……."

"Kooooowl."

It was clear that Kairos had fallen asleep while meditating while sitting still.

"That's you for sure."

Otto woke the sleeping Kairos with a swift kick.

"W-Who!"

Kairos sprang to his feet, fuming.

"Pansy, how dare you…."

"Argon, that bastard, let's just kill him."

"Huh?"

"Let's just kill him."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean all of a sudden?"

Kairos rubbed his sleepy eyes and turned his focus to Otto.

"Weren't we supposed to play with him and then slowly wring him out and kill him?"

"That's what I was going to do."

Otto filled Kairos in on the plot that Argonne the Great was scheming.

"But I'm afraid that if we let him continue, he'll only make more victims, so I think it's better to just kill him."

"Mmm."

"We can't just let innocent people suffer for our amusement. The more cornered he gets, the more terrible things he'll do."

"You're right about that, Pansy."

Kairos agreed with Otto's opinion.

"He's not even human."

Kairos was furious.

"Now he wants to sell the people who trust him into slavery to raise money for his war campaign, I cannot forgive him."

"Right?"

"He has not only abandoned his humanity, but he has also abandoned the Heavenly Laws, and he must pay for it with his life."

"But."

Otto asked Kairos.

"Do you think you can do it?"

"Huh?"

"Can you win?"

"What did you say!"

Kairos exploded.

"My prowess has never once faltered in front of him, not for a single moment! In one-on-one combat, he's no match for me!"

"But that's not the case right now, though."

"……"

"Emperor Argonne has been reincarnated for over thirty years, and you've only been around for three. That's a tenfold difference in time."

Otto's statement was valid.

No matter how formidable Kairos' prowess was in the past, Argonne the Great was also a formidable adversary.

However, with a reincarnation time difference exceeding tenfold, Kairos was indeed at a disadvantage.

Moreover, Kairos didn't particularly dedicate himself to rigorous training.

In this life, he decided to let go of his obsession with strength and live as he pleased, so he didn't exert himself like a lunatic.

"If, you two fight now, you'll lose."

Otto brought Kairos back to reality.

"You realize you cannot win even if you came back from the dead, right?"

"Th… That."

"Right now, Emperor Argonne is two to three times more powerful than Rivolt, if not more."

"……"

"You'll get completely thrashed if you charge in recklessly.

"Y.. You…!!!"

Kairos felt his anger rising as he realized he couldn't overwhelmingly defeat Argonne after all.

Naturally, Kairos was angry because he couldn’t beat someone who used to be beneath him in the past, but now they’re completely outclassing him.

"Shall we just dig a trap and catch him? I'll drain him dry and you can kill him…."

"No!"

Kairos said firmly.

"I'll face him head-on, even if it means dying! How could I stoop to dishonorable tactics against Argonne?! I must defeat him one-on-one, to feel truly satisfied!"

"An ugly pride."

"What?"

"So, can you win?"

"….."

"Maybe you should have been training more diligently."

"S-Shut up!"

Kairos yelled at Otto, his face flushed red.

"I'll handle it myself. You just need to set the stage, Pansy! Got it?"

"So you're really going to fight him one on one?"

"Yes!"

"How?"

"There's no such thing as impossible for me! If it doesn't work, I'll make it work!"

"You will?"

"Yes!"

Kairos shouted, then picked up his mace and started walking away.

"Where are you going?"

"To train."

"T-Training?"

"If I'm going to beat Argonne to death, I need to train, don't I?"

"I suppose so."

…Otto felt a bit skeptical, despite Kairos' words.

‘I doubt cramming will do the trick when the gap is so wide.'

No matter how much of a dominant figure Kairos was in the past, there simply wasn't enough time to work a miracle.

Otto had planned to eliminate the bastard Argonne within a week, but he doubted Kairos could grow several times stronger in that time frame.

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Meanwhile, Emperor Argonne's men were busy recruiting people to be sold into slavery.

"Conscription!"

"Those who serve in the army and prove their worth will be granted noble titles when the new dynasty begins!"

"If you enlist in the military now, you'll receive three times your monthly salary!"

Argon the Great's subordinates recruited young recruits with sweet words and promises.

"I will enlist."

"I'll also join."

The young men applied for enlistment eagerly.

For them, this conscription was nothing short of an opportunity.

Already struggling to make ends meet, with immediate concerns about meals, there was no reason for them to hesitate when money was offered upfront and promises of noble titles later on.

"We'll begin training for about two weeks starting now. Everyone, follow along."

Argonne the Great's subordinates led the young recruits who had applied for enlistment to a remote area.

And there, a terrible incident occurred.

"Ack!"

"H-Help!"

The youths were subdued, restrained and gagged by Argonne's men.

"They're strong men, so we should fetch a good price for them."

"Is there any doubt?"

The young men were immediately sold to slave traders from the Sahara Kingdom and secretly transported away.

As the days passed, the number of young men sold increased. However, none of the people in the areas occupied by Argonne realized this was occurring.

They assumed that the young men had been sent off to training camps to receive military training.

Even so, the chances of discovering the truth later on were extremely slim.

Argonne planned to report that the sold young men were deployed to the battlefield and died in action. If anyone tried to uncover the truth, he intended to kill them.

In this way, Argonne the Great sold off the young men and spared no means or methods, sometimes even plundering villages within hostile territories.

The practice was an inhumane manhunt.

Argonne the Great's soldiers didn't treat people as human beings, but merely as commodities.

They would capture people as they pleased and hand them over to the slave traders of the Sahara Kingdom, and pocket the gold in return.

However, no one noticed Emperor Argonne's misdeeds or attempted to stop him.

Why?

That's because the security in the Kingdom of Loredin was in complete disarray.

Due to famine caused by a drought and the tyranny of the royal family, the Kingdom of Lowredin had descended into complete anarchy, creating an ideal environment for lawless figures like Argonne to thrive.

However, Argonne's seemingly flawless crimes were being monitored in real-time by the magic swordsmen of the Kingdom of Lota.

"Continue tracking their movements."

"Yes."

The magic swordsmen tracked the slavers' movement routes very discreetly and managed to uncover all the ports they were using to travel to the Sahara Kingdom.

"Our mission ends here."

As soon as they had the slavers' route mapped out, the magic swordsmen returned back home.

Some time later.

"I-It's Drake's fleet!"

"Drake's fleet has appeared!"

The slave traders en route to the Sahara Kingdom with their captives encountered Drake, the ruler of a territory in the middle of the ocean.

"Ships engaged in the illegal slave trade. Capture them all."

"Aye, Admiral!"

Drake, now the Chief of Naval Staff of the Kingdom of Lota, proceeded to seize all of the trading ships, and then captured the slavers.

"Throw them all into the sea…."

*Flinch!*

Drake paused his plan to turn the slave traders into fish food and had a sudden thought.

‘The money is rotten to the core? Eh? I suppose it's enough to pay the bills?'

Out of nowhere, Otto's voice seemed to come from somewhere.

"No, Not fish food. Those slave traders will be turned into slaves and sold to the Caliphate Kingdom."

"Aren't we going to execute them?"

"If we put them to death…."

Drake answered the adjutant's question.

"We don't make any money."¹

"Yes…?"

"Criminals are money, after all. Since they're engaged in illegal slave trade, turning them into slaves is better. It's karma in action."

"Understood, Admiral."

Drake may have said that, but deep down, he also wanted to throw the slave traders into the sea.

But developing the Gurling Archipelago into a naval base and paying tribute to the Kingdom of Lota was going to cost him a fortune.

Therefore, to save every penny possible, Drake decided to turn the slave traders into slaves for sale instead of throwing them into the sea.

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Otto prepared to capture and kill Argonne the Great while managing the occupied territories.

In the meantime, he sent comforting letters to Elise.

Every week, he wrote a letter to Elise, sending it via messenger to her as she waged war beyond the Northern Wall.

That wasn't all.

‘Chocolate. Candy. Cookies. What else should I send her?'

Otto included packages for Elise.

Along with the letter, he included some snacks to munch on in between.

At one point.

"…Why do I feel like a rubber shoe?"²

Otto was dumbfounded as he realized that what he was doing was just like a girlfriend with a boyfriend in the army.

"So this is how all Korean women feel."

Then.

"Have you been well?"

"I've always been well… Eek?!"

Otto was startled to find Elise in his barracks.

"W-When did you get here?"

"I just got here."

"Haha, hahahaha."

"Are you surprised?"

"A little surprised."

Otto was writing a letter to Elise, and how could he not be surprised to have her show up like this?

‘It's been a month already.'

Otto, feeling time pass by frighteningly fast, offered a seat to Elise.

"First of all, you must be tired from traveling such a long way, so please have a seat."

"Thank you."

Elise asked Otto.

"So, what were you doing?"

"Oh, this."

Otto answered.

"I was writing a letter."

"A letter to me?"

"Yes."

This time Otto turned to Elise.

"Did you get the letter? I sent it every week."

"I received them well."

A smile tugged at Elise's lips.

"I also enjoyed the snacks you sent."

"Oh?"

“Please continue to take good care of me in the future.”

Elise seemed quite pleased with the letters and parcels Otto had sent her way.

‘Well, she must have been quite envious. Everyone else receives letters and parcels from their loved ones. She hasn't received a single one all this time.'

A smile crept onto Otto's lips as well.

"Would you like to have a cup of tea and take a walk?"

"Sounds good."

Otto drank tea with Elise and went for a night walk.

And then.

"Pansy!!!"

Kairos yelled from a distance.

Kairos, having discarded his shirt and sweating profusely, was clearly exhausted from whatever he had been doing.

"Pansy, Good timing. I have a favor to ask."

"What?"

"I need to borrow your fiancée for a little while."

"What bullshit is that!"

** ** **

TL/N:

1. First time ever doing this… Otto will surely approve and be proud of how well Drake has grown.

2. It’s a playful expression that highlights the absurdity of the assumption.