WAAAAAAAH—!

A roar so high it felt like it could pierce the sky thundered across all of Goyard.

News of victory spread fast, rippling through territory after territory.

Territory Praham, Territory Polrko, Territory Brad, Territory Kaino, Territory Pasdana, Territory Rouk—cheers exploding from every one of them.

And there was another man watching Hyunsoo—wearing a brown coat, slowly sweeping his gaze over the soldiers and people who were cheering.

...Our country.

It was Luxiu—the one who had secretly killed the Blood Ghoul Corps supreme commander Pick.

Luxiu had thought the same thing Nell and Barad had.

That was just how humans were.

When you achieved something huge, you didn’t lift others up—you took care of yourself first.

But Hyunsoo’s words changed the kingdom’s current.

In Luxiu’s eyes, he could see the three key figures of this tiny country called Goyard, and the veteran named Lysen.

They, too, were raising their bloodstained swords and cheering for Hyunsoo—who had respected both the king holding his place in his own way and all of them.

THROB—

Luxiu remembered the country and the king he had wanted to protect even at the cost of his life.

He had only been a retainer, so he had tried to protect that king.

He had been that place’s sword, so he had cut down demons—

and still, he had been discarded.

“......”

It was strange.

A man he hadn’t known for long.

A man who still hadn’t fully earned Luxiu’s approval—

and yet, without meaning to, Luxiu was wearing a tiny smile.

...Are you different? From the king who threw me away?

Thinking that, Luxiu looked down at the sword Hyunsoo had handed him—

then moved again.

To wipe out every last one of the retreating enemy troops.

Did Hyunsoo know?

Luxiu, the undefeated knight who had been discarded—

hard to win over, but once you did, a man who would swear loyalty with chivalry so absolute he would “offer even his life.”

*****

[It is recorded in history.]

Hyunsoo’s chest burned hot.

The ones cheering while looking only at him.

And the ones who, when he first met them, had seemed like nothing but lofty beings.

Lukburg, Valo, Constinu—down to Lysen, the father of the kingdom’s knights.

All of them were looking at him with eyes full of belief.

Now, there’s no more...

There was no denial or doubt left in their eyes.

And then the history being recorded rang out.

[The Kingdom of Goyard is a nation founded 576 years ago.]

[Even without inheriting the bloodline, you advanced without end, and at last, you walk the path of a king acknowledged by all.]

[The record of Hero Hyunsoo is engraved forever, as long as the nation named Goyard exists.]

DING!

[The hero of Goyard is recorded.]

[You acquire Overwhelm 500.]

[You acquire Fame 1,000.]

And Hyunsoo was stunned again.

Saving a country that had been a breath away from falling—this was truly an enormous feat.

Five hundred Overwhelm as a legendary stat...

Of course, the stat Overwhelm was the same thing as the stat Charisma.

But Hyunsoo had never once heard of anyone receiving 500 Charisma and 1,000 Fame as a single reward.

And there was another reason Hyunsoo’s chest was boiling over.

The moment Hyunsoo arrived in Goyard, there had been a precedent.

He had wiped out eight hundred Blood Ghoul Corps on his own.

[You annihilated 800 Blood Ghoul Corps alone.]

[It is a marvelous feat.] 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

[You can acquire territory contribution.]

Territory contribution.

The territory contribution Hyunsoo gained was special.

If ordinary lords gained territory contribution to buy things from a normal “territory shop,” Hyunsoo could use the Royal Territory Shop.

And that Royal Territory Shop drew power by linking with Atlas.

And it wasn’t just the eight hundred Blood Ghoul Corps.

Only an hour had passed since Hyunsoo got here, and so much had happened.

Through Gremory’s Ring, Hyunsoo had summoned her and caused a massacre of fifteen thousand Blood Ghoul Corps.

Were those fifteen thousand killed by demon Gremory considered Hyunsoo’s kills, or not?

[demon Gremory was summoned by you.]

[You acquire part of the territory contribution for massacring roughly 15,000 Blood Ghoul Corps.]

[The amount acquired in a short time is too large.]

[It will be aggregated and displayed after the battle ends.]

It wasn’t judged as fully Hyunsoo’s kills, but the System was acknowledging that he had contributed massively.

And it’s not like I only built achievements through demon Gremory.

That wasn’t it either.

The System seemed to have judged that the instant Hyunsoo barged into the battlefield, it wasn’t ordinary.

That “aggregated and displayed after the battle ends” line was proof.

Hyunsoo hadn’t built territory contribution just by riding Gremory’s coattails.

[Under your command, the Goyard army repels 14,000 Blood Ghoul Corps with overwhelming momentum.]

The Blood Ghoul Corps—afflicted with status ailments—collapsed under his command, and the enormous contribution from that would be Hyunsoo’s reward as well.

And there was one more thing he couldn’t forget.

[Sudden Quest: Kingdom of Goyard completed.]

The reward for this quest that had activated after the war broke out.

[Territory contribution x2 is applied.]

From the beginning, the “fall of Goyard” episode was the most important quest in this country.

So among the users, commander-class players had been given a chance to stack astronomical territory contribution compared to normal.

And the final piece of it: Fenrir.

Right before Hyunsoo struck Fenrir down, a sudden quest had even popped up for him.

[Sudden Quest: Fenrir Hunt completed.]

[Your contribution regarding Fenrir is multiplied by 3.]

Fenrir is the kind of monster where, if you hunt it, the territory contribution itself gets set at a ridiculous level.

If you hunted it alone, there was nothing more to say.

It might even be bigger than killing eight hundred Blood Ghoul Corps, bigger than demon Gremory slaughtering fifteen thousand, bigger than over fifteen thousand Blood Ghoul Corps being annihilated under Hyunsoo’s command.

In the middle of that rising anticipation, Hyunsoo was shocked by something else even more.

This crazy bastard...?

Before joining the battlefield, Hyunsoo had pulled one person into the fight with a single word: You.

Because he thought it would be a huge help if that person joined the battlefield.

This isn’t “helped” levels of help...

Hyunsoo realized that man was even more incredible than he’d imagined.

[Your vassal Luxiu has assassinated 52 commander-class targets.]

[Your vassal Luxiu has assassinated Supreme Commander Pick.]

Of course, territory contribution could also be accumulated through what guild members and vassals accomplished.

He killed the supreme commander...?

Supreme Commander Pick was in the 480s.

As a semi-named NPC, his level was in the same range as Luxiu’s.

So that alert was ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) real.

Hyunsoo recalled the alert he’d heard when he used Give me, your loyalty and Luxiu took his hand.

[Luxiu had been undergoing demonization for a long time.]

[Because of that, it will take quite some time to recover all your power, and your level will decrease.]

It wasn’t that Luxiu had simply weakened by going from a lesser demon to Luxiu.

In the process of demonization, a lot of his body had collapsed.

That was why he was far weaker than he’d been at his peak.

GULP—

Then just how strong was Luxiu at his peak?

Thinking about it, Luxiu was also a human demon Gremory had coveted.

No matter what Hyunsoo imagined, Luxiu was probably stronger than that.

And the achievements Luxiu had stacked—

Hyunsoo could feel it.

They didn’t lag behind what he’d done at all.

And that they would become his nourishment.

[The retreating Blood Ghoul Corps are annihilated by the Goyard army.]

[The Goyard army achieves a complete victory.]

[The battle is judged to have ended.]

[Total contribution measurement begins.]

[Contribution measurement can take a minimum of 30 seconds and a maximum of 10 minutes.]

Hyunsoo’s anticipation climbed to its peak.

And then, he saw Barad approaching with a complicated expression.

*****

Barad, as Sword King, carried the duty to protect all the people.

But he had failed.

And the one who had done it instead was Hyunsoo.

Of course, thanks to Hyunsoo’s excellent way with words, the people had truly forgotten him.

But Barad couldn’t help feeling ashamed.

A step he absolutely had to take felt as heavy as lead.

Still, as king, he had to thank him.

He opened his mouth, about to say Thank you—

but Hyunsoo spoke first.

“......Thank you, my king.”

Barad couldn’t hide his confusion.

The marquises beside him and Lysen were the same.

Barad had suffered a grievous wound in this battle and hadn’t been able to contribute much.

He wasn’t someone who deserved thanks—

“You’re still kind. The way you reached out to me first, calling me your friend.”

“.......”

“And your swordsmanship that you taught me in the training yard, my king—today, I achieved the evolution of the power I inherited from you.”

“.......”

“It was all thanks to you.”

He meant it.

Like history itself, the day a great king had extended his hand to nothing but a lowly blacksmith.

“By your grace, I made it this far, I grew so much by your words, and because I had that teaching, I was able to kill Fenrir.”

“.......”

Words could produce different power depending on how you said them.

That was a plain fact, and it simply got dressed beautifully.

Inside that splendid dressing, Barad truly reconsidered him—and rolled the word friend around in his mind.

It was the hand I reached out first, once.

“I’m glad to be your friend, my king.”

Today, his friend was reaching out first.

And for the first time, Barad said it.

“Never kneel before me again.”

“......Pardon?”

“I want to stand at the same eye level as you.”

Hyunsoo slowly rose, met his eyes, and bowed his head.

Just a small bow—etiquette that declared he was a friend, and still a noble standing at the king’s side.

That day, the two of them became closer.

It was unprecedented.

Two people not bound by blood—one who would become king, and the king himself—growing closer like this.

And as he watched Hyunsoo walk away, Barad felt worry.

Hyunsoo...

He would be exposed to even more danger now.

What had shone brightest in this battle would spread across the continent, and there was no avoiding it—everyone would learn about him.

It was already reaching the strong in many places.

Blood King.

Long ago—when demon Gremory had invaded—there was a man who had offered up the loyal Luxiu to protect the kingdom.

“So the master blacksmith wiped out the Parion Empire’s army and hunted Fenrir?”

But the truth about him had spread differently.

Brad, the man who became Blood King.

He had offered up his loyal retainer to Gremory—not for the country, but to strengthen himself.

That was why he came to be called Blood King.

Soon, I’ll have to meet this “master blacksmith.”

A tie that had turned from connection into ill-fated enmity was now aiming for his name.

And somewhere else.

Like someone staring at a mad king.

A king who had killed countless retainers for nothing but a foul mood burned a vicious light in his eyes.

“A mere blacksmith is walking the king’s path?”

He was one of the important figures who would lead a second Ares.

A continent far away from Asgan.

[Tyrant Jabar]

A being from the distant past—one who had once threatened a Holy Lord—scoffed at the blacksmith’s story.

And it wasn’t only them.

Across the world—

[The third legend collapses.]

That world message planted a new concept into the minds of hidden unofficial rankers, and those who had been watching him from the start.

The one who killed the First Legend alone: Bahala.

The one who killed the Second Legend alone: Kabel.

And Hyunsoo.

What drew the most attention to him was this.

Bahala and Kabel were deified existences.

But Hyunsoo—unlike them—was treated as someone you could reach.

So the peaks of the world thought this.

Someone is going to break the rule.

The rule was: wait for the Great Atlas War.

And that day, Atlas might disappear.

And Atlas—

Hyun’s Forge guild members, and everyone in Atlas, knew that they had become the focus of the world.

Nell looked at Hyunsoo with a worried expression.

We don’t know what kind of strong people will come soon.

But for some reason, Hyunsoo’s face was lit up.

“Nell.”

“Yes.”

“How much territory contribution do you think I got this time?”

“......?”

From that confident expression, Nell could tell—it was astronomical.

Hyunsoo looked squarely toward the Royal Shop and said—

“Today, we’re going to awaken them like Goyard did.”

Awaken them like Goyard?

“People who will hold up the kingdom—like Valo, Constinu, Lukburg. And we’ll make an independent country that doesn’t lean on Goyard.”

“......!?”

A look of awe washed over Nell’s face.

If people like Valo, Constinu, and Lukburg truly awaken... it might be possible.

And—

No matter who comes, they won’t be able to act recklessly. We’ll awaken several enormous ones sleeping in Atlas.

But that was only hope.

Because what it would take to realize it was territory contribution so massive you couldn’t even imagine it.

“...How much total contribution did you gain?”

Depending on the number, it would decide who they could awaken—and how many.

What...?

At Hyunsoo’s next words, Nell’s mind went blank.