Elge Caiman, having failed to invalidate the contract, was completely resigned, his spirit seemingly shattered.
And then,
“Kona, take him as your subordinate, meow!”
Theo pointed at Elge Caiman and instructed Kona.
“Yes! Lord Theo! Peng! Peng! Come here, Peng!”
Kona tried to show some seniority by stomping the ground with her feet and shouted threateningly at Elge Caiman.
However,
‘To be a subordinate of such a lowly creature…’
This thought made Elge Caiman feel even more miserable. He was furious. How could he, the third prince of the Caiman Kingdom, become a subordinate to someone he was just extorting?!
“Hannibal, uncle…”
Elge Caiman, as a last resort, looked at Hannibal for help, hoping to rise to a higher position than such a person with his uncle’s assistance.
But,
“Cough…”
Hannibal turned away from Elge Caiman.
‘I should have just stayed quiet instead of doing something weird…’
Hannibal was thinking of helping his nephew a bit, but after seeing Elge’s petty actions, he decided not to interfere.
“What a disappointment, meow…”
This made Theo, who was about to get another good subordinate, pull out the contract in disappointment. Hannibal was almost dragged down to the abyss with Elge Caiman.
“Uncle…”
Elge Caiman, cut off even by the uncle he trusted, was about to give up everything when
Thump. Thump.
Moo!
The strongest being on the 99th floor of the tower, the Minotaur King, entered the wedding hall with massive footsteps.
“We greet the Minotaur King!”
The beings around kneeled and paid their respects to the Minotaur King.
Then
Thump. Thump.
The Minotaur King, ignoring their greetings, hurriedly walked towards where Elge Caiman was.
‘The Minotaur King has recognized me!’
Elge Caiman felt moved as he saw the Minotaur King approaching.
King Croker Caiman of the Caiman Kingdom had recently received a request from the Minotaur King to explore the 84th floor of the tower.
Since there were rumors that those who refused the Minotaur King’s requests no longer existed in the Black Tower, Croker Caiman readily accepted the request.
Furthermore, Croker Caiman sent his five princes, including Elge, to guide the Minotaur King and serve him.
The hope was to create a bond between at least one of the princes and the Minotaur King.
Naturally, as the third prince, Elge Caiman was also a guide for the Minotaur King and had exchanged a few words with him.
At that time, he resented his father for forcing him, but now it seemed like a way out of this situation.
‘Thank you, Father.’
As the Minotaur King approached him, Elge Caiman thanked his father in his heart.
Shake, shake.
Theo shook his head, seeing Elge Caiman thinking of escaping again. Such an unlucky guy, meow…
He might even be unluckier than Uren, thinking of playing his worst hand again.
‘I should tell Chairman Park, meow!’
With that thought, Theo looked at Sejun to tell him about Elge Caiman’s other intentions,
‘Hehehe’
Sejun, who was already aware that Elge Caiman was up to something, chuckled sinisterly. He knew such tricks needed to be dealt with. It was like being trapped in Buddha’s palm.
Snap.
‘Hehehe’
‘Puhaha.’
So, Theo also hung onto Sejun’s leg, eager to witness Elge Caiman’s last struggle.
In the meantime,
“We greet the Minotaur King!”
Thump. Thump.
The Minotaur King, receiving the respects of the surrounding monsters, was gradually approaching. Hannibal, the chairman of the Mercenary Association, also bowed his head in respect.
And then,
“Long time no see, Minotaur King-nim! I am Elge Caiman, the third prince of the Caiman Kingdom, greeting the Minotaur King…”
Elge Caiman, trying to get help from the Minotaur King before Sejun could talk to him, greeted the Minotaur King loudly.
At that moment,
Krueng!!!
Bang!
A baby bear, who had been hanging onto the leg of the insignificant person and eating food brought by a golden bat, suddenly lunged at the Minotaur King and headbutted him.
……
Everyone was frozen in shock at the sudden attack.
Bang! Bang!
The baby bear continued to attack the Minotaur King with its front paws, seemingly in a frenzy. The Minotaur King, however, remained unfazed by the baby bear’s attacks. The impacts appeared to have no effect on him.
“Kahaha! You all are now doomed against the Minotaur King!’
Although Elge Caiman didn’t understand why the baby bear was attacking the Minotaur King, he saw it as an opportunity for himself. The bear was attacking the Minotaur King on its own accord.
Elge Caiman internally rejoiced at this situation that seemed too advantageous for him.
And then,
“Minotaur King-nim, are you alright?! These scoundrels! How dare they attack the strongest being of the Black Tower, the Minotaur King?! Please be careful, Minotaur King-nim! They are very evil beings!”
Pretending to be concerned for the Minotaur King, Elge Caiman provided a pretext for the Minotaur King to attack Sejun and his group.
His goal was to kill Sejun and invalidate the contract. Elge Caiman hoped to use the Minotaur King to carry out a murderous scheme against Sejun.
“The Minotaur King-nim, behind these people, there is an evil villain named Aileen Pritani.”
Since both names written in the contract had to die for it to be invalidated, Elge Caiman also mentioned Aileen’s name.
He intended to use the Minotaur King as a game-changer to completely turn the tables.
‘Kukukuku. Now, I just need to find Aileen Pritani. The contract hasn’t been made long ago, so she must be nearby.’
Thus, Elge Caiman, not realizing he had crossed a line he shouldn’t have, was elated at the thought of finding freedom.
***
“Cuengi, go and ask the Minotaur King to play with you.”
Krueng!
[Understood!]
Following Sejun’s instruction, Cuengi used telekinesis to charge toward the Minotaur King.
To an outsider, it looked like a fight, but this was actually Cuengi and the Minotaur King’s way of playing.
Sejun thought this would make Elge Caiman act more rashly.
Bang!
Despite the massive explosion, the surrounding area was not greatly affected. The Minotaur King absorbed all the shock with his abs to prevent any harm to Sejun nearby.
Krueng?!
[Uncle Minotaur King, have I become much stronger?!]
Moo! Moo!
[Indeed! You’re becoming a bit hard for me to handle now!]
Bang! Bang!
Cuengi kept hitting the Minotaur King’s abs, and the Minotaur King continued to absorb the impact.
While the two were playing and chatting,
“Are you alright, Minotaur King-nim?! These scoundrels! How dare they attack…”
As Sejun predicted, Elge Caiman acted out his plan.
In his haste, Elge Caiman did not fully assess the situation between Cuengi and the Minotaur King and simply pushed his own agenda.
He would have been let off with just being Kona’s subordinate for a hundred years,
“The Minotaur King-nim, behind these people, there is an evil villain named Aileen Pritani.”
But he crossed the line by mentioning a name that should not have been uttered.
“How dare you bring up Aileen’s name?! What?! A vile villain? You’ve crossed the line.”
Sejun, angered, glared at Elge Caiman and spoke.
“Line?! You’re the ones who crossed the line by attacking the Minotaur King! Aileen Pritani and all of you, it’s the end for everyone now!”
Elge Caiman shouted arrogantly, completely oblivious to the actual situation and having utterly crossed the line.
“Hiss! How dare you mess with Aileen unnie, I’ll teach you a lesson, meow!”
As a result, Theo administered additional punishment,
Smack!
Elge Caiman, who was rapidly hit by Theo’s right and left front paws, fainted again.
‘One hit for daring to mention Aileen unnie, and another for talking back to Chairman Park, meow!’
Theo, feeling proud after administering the punishment, looked down at Elge Caiman.
Thump!
‘And this one, for making me, Vice-Chairman Theo, take action, meow!’
Theo delivered one more blow to the back of the head of the unconscious Elge Caiman.
Then,
Rustle. Rustle.
Theo began rummaging through the possessions of the unconscious Elge Caiman.
“Puhuhut. Chairman Park, this guy has a lot of stuff, meow!”
“Good. Start by taking back the gifts.”
“Got it, meow!”
Thus, Elge Caiman was completely stripped of his belongings by Theo, leaving him penniless. Compared to the hard life he was about to face, this was a minor misfortune.
***
99th Floor of the Purple Tower.
-Bekah, how’s the acquisition of the Black Tower’s land deeds going?
“Well… we had secured 30, but after the 80th floor was attacked, most of them were lost, and now we only have 5 left.”
-What?! An attack?! Who would dare?
“We were attacked by a White Dragon.”
-What…”
The 80th floor was where personnel, equipment, and facilities dedicated to diverting the Black Tower’s land deeds were concentrated.
If it had been the Black Dragon, it would have been understandable, but a White Dragon? There had been absolutely no involvement with a White Dragon.
-Bekah, from now on, call back all personnel dispatched to other towers and focus them on securing the Black Tower’s land deeds.
“Yes!”
Tier Peten decided to put off dealing with the White Dragon and concentrate all efforts on securing the Black Tower’s land deeds.
‘The Black Tower comes first.’
If more than half of the Black Tower’s land deeds were secured,the ownership of the Black Tower would be usurped, making the Tower Farmer theirs.
Then, the crops grown by the tower’s farmer, including the beans Kaiser had eaten, would also belong to him.
-And Bekah, from now on, you start cultivating crops.
Tier Peten wanted to obtain other crops as well, so he instructed his tower’s farmer to begin farming.
“Me?! But…”
Bekah was taken aback by Tier’s instruction, as her main task until now had been securing land deeds from other towers, not farming.
-Yes. Cultivate crops that can even affect dragons.
“Crops that can affect dragons? Are there even such crops…?”
-There are! The Black Tower’s farmer has cultivated them! So you too figure out a way to do it too!
Tier Peten, recalling his moment of powerlessness when Kaiser easily defeated Halphas, shouted in anger.
“Okay…”
Thus, Veronica, the Dark Elf tower farmer of the Purple Tower, began her farming. (TL: It seems the real full name of the purple tower farmer is Veronica (베로니카), but so far the shortened name used has been 베카, which is translated as Bekah or Becca. Therefore, I will continue using Bekah where the shortened name is used and use Veronica where the full name is used.)
However,
“Huh? Why aren’t they growing?”
Finding crops that could grow in poisoned land was the first challenge.
***
“Are these the gifts you guys lost?”
Kwieek!
Ook!
Doodoo!
About 20 animals lined up in front of Sejun, responding to his question. He had taken quite a lot from them.
“Here, take these.”
While Sejun was distributing the gifts back to the animals who had it stolen by Elge,
Thump. Thump.
Moo!
[Sejun-nim, you arrived early.]
The Minotaur King, having had enough playtime with Cuengi, approached Sejun to greet him.
“Yeah. You must be tired from playing with Cuengi.”
Moo! Moo!
[Not at all! It was good training for me too!]
To think that the Minotaur King regarded being headbutted by Cuengi as training… He truly was the strongest on the 99th floor of the tower.
However,
Throb. Throb.
The Minotaur King’s skin was black, so it wasn’t visible to Sejun’s eyes, but his entire abdomen was severely bruised.
While Sejun was talking with Minotaur King,
“Meow… There’s one more item, but I’m not sure how to get it out, meow!”
Theo was deep in thought, looking at the solar plexus of the unconscious Elge Caiman. He felt a pull from the solar plexus, but there was no way to extract it.
Then,
Dadada
Krueng? Krueng?
[Big brother, what are you doing? Is there something fun?]
Cuengi, having relieved his stress by playing with the Minotaur King, excitedly ran towards Theo.
But then,
Press.
Cuengi, not seeing Elge lying on the ground, stepped hard on his stomach.
Gurgle!
The pressure on the stomach forced out a black bead from the solar plexus, and Elge spat out a black bead.
Snatch.
“Puhuhut. Good job, Cuengi, meow!”
Theo caught the floating bead and praised Cuengi.
Krueng?
[Did Cuengi do well?]
“Yes, meow! Cuengi, let’s race to see who can reach Chairman Park first, meow!”
With no more business with Elge, Theo shouted and sprinted towards Sejun,
Krueng! Krueng!
[Understood! Cuengi won’t lose!]
Excited that Theo was playing with him, Cuengi also hurriedly ran towards Sejun.
After Theo and Cuengi left,
Slap. Slap.
“Peng! Peng! Subordinate, wake up, peng!”
Kona, having unfinished business with Elge, woke him up by slapping his cheek with her short wings.
“Ouch! That hurts!”
Elge, in pain, regained consciousness.
And then,
“Peng?”
‘I hurt him with my slap?!’
“Huh?!”
‘Why does it hurt when she slaps me?!’
Both realized something was odd.
Then,
“Huh?!”
Elge felt something was wrong with his solar plexus. It should have felt heavy, but now it felt eerily empty.
‘My… my core…’
What Theo had taken earlier was Elge’s core.
“Peng! Peng! Subordinate, come quickly, peng!”
In the meantime, Kona, realizing she didn’t need to be afraid anymore, started to drag Elge along.
“Chairman Park, look at this, meow! Vice Chairman Theo and Cuengi found this, meow!”
As Elge was being dragged away by Kona, he saw Theo handing over his core to Sejun.
“Wait! No, stop!”
Elge shouted, trying to stop Sejun from taking his core, but his voice was drowned out by the fanfare signaling the start of the wedding ceremony.
Despite the chaos, fortunately, everything was peacefully (?) resolved before the wedding ceremony.
*****
