Pang- Pang-

[Ah, shut up. What is with this sound?]

“What sound. I’m washing my clothes.”

[ At Home?]

“Huh.”

While balancing the phone with his shoulder, Jinsung was hanging his laundry.

And from the smartphone, Yoo-hyun’s voice could be heard.

[By the way… laundry? You’re doing housework?]

“Should I not?”

[It’s not that. It’s just that I had never even seen you sweep the floor.]

“I do it once a month.”

[What?]

“Cleaning, washing and so on. I do it once a month.”

[That’s what…]

Yoo-hyun seemed to not believe his ears and kept asking, but Jinsung didn’t seem to care.

“Housework needs to be done effectively, once a month.”

[What effectively? You just sound like a barking dog. You will wait for another month to clean?]

“If my heart feels like it, then I’ll do it once every year too… then I get to spare time for Harin.”

Yoo-hyun was dissed for not having a girlfriend.

[Huh, let’s not talk about that.]

Jinsung who was on a call with Yoo-hyun, changed the topic.

“Yah, by the way, why did you call? Is something up?”

Yoo-hyun replied immediately to what Jinsung said.

[Something is happening you know. I’m preparing for the war.]

“I know that.”

[So even then, you won’t fight?]

“No matter what, it will be hard for me to do it right now. But your opponent right now is the Red Crowe right?”

[Hmm.]

“Well, you will win no matter what.”

[Even I know that. Winning is an important thing but how we win is also equally important.]

Jinsung immediately understood what Yoo-hyun meant.

“Are you worried about the other guilds joining?”

[Yep.]

Now the Lotus Guild had the power to overthrow the Red Crowe Guild.

Even if Ian wasn’t with them, there wasn’t much difference in terms of power since the troop that was formed now had enormous power.

Recently the case of Wyvern Riders who have been a viable force, were able to demonstrate the power of the lance-class users.

If the Lotus Guild was full of power, then the Red Crowe was a walking wreck.

‘So if you manage to win easily… then immediately, the other guild will join forces.’

Even with a lot of ranking guilds united, the lotus guild won’t be easy to win over.

But that wasn’t the point.

Because the minimum losses played a role in raising the guild and fame of the guild.

So even if the Lotus Guild wants a Kingdom, the Luspel Empire would not be so supporting.

Ian once again pushed his ear close to the phone to listen to what Yoo-hyun had to say.

[So, Fiolan and I will set up the strategy, where the power will be hidden as much as possible and then let the other users protect the land. Even if it seems a bit dangerous, everyone will benefit equally.]

“If you do that, then it will seem like you’re having a close fight, and doing that will surely hide a lot of your strength.”

[That’s why we needed you as insurance… but somehow, if the Red Crowe guild and the St. Bill Guild merge, then you could be of help by pushing with your strength.]

Jinsung nodded and answered.

“That’s definitely a nice plan. Since the users will surely die.”

Unlike the users, the troops of the NPC, once they die they die.

As long as the war was carried by the users, it was possible to hide the power of the guild as much as possible and save the NPC troops.

Yoo-hyun continued what he was saying.

[So what I mean is… will you be able to join in?]

“Hmm… I’m currently helping Hoonie with his quest. It would probably take about a week or so?”

[Not sure.]

“Well maybe? Since, it isn’t a time related quest.”

[I get it. So for now, let’s make a plan for a month.]

“Okay. Deal.”

After spending more time on the strategies, Jinsung cut off the phone and started to hang his laundry.

‘I’m sure for now, it’s time to claim the Kingdom.’

It has been a few months since they have been declared as a Dukedom.

Even the conditions for being declared as a Kingdom have already been achieved long ago.

The reason why they have delayed the proclamation of the Kingdom was because of the Luspel empire.

To proclaim the Kingdom meant to escape from the shadow of Luspel empire.

Of course, they could have paid tributaries every month and take the same stance as a tributary, but that wasn’t what they wanted.

After proclaiming the Kingdom, the order they planned was to defeat the banner of the Luspel and proclaim a Lotus Empire.

‘If it starts then we need to move very quickly. At least the northern part of the Luspel needs to be taken control of.’

In his mind, he was planning to do something like that, and Jinsung had left the rest of the laundry.

“Huh, I can’t do this at all. Should I exchange in the gold and get a dryer. I will order the one that I saw in the home shopping channel.”

Jinsung who was tired of doing the housework did some stretching and lay down.

“Just one hour, I’ll roll around.”

And just then, Ian suddenly remembered Hoonie who just slipped his mind.

“By the way, that kid Hoonie, is he doing fine?”

* * *

“Oh Oh! This! Come this way and see, Mr. Han!”

“What is it?”

“This is my first mineral!”

“Please wait for a moment. I’ll come and see it!”

Ian’s magic resistance was now equipped with the mines

Dwarf Han who had been the manager of the mine under the trust of Ian, was motivated to work more than anyone else.

Ian even gave Han an additional helping hand which was Thomason—a human race miner NPC.

“Thomason, which side?”

“C sector mining area.”

“Hmm? That… side is where the dark warrior is working…?”

Dwarf Han who followed Thomason, moved quickly as he saw a white light coming from afar.

“Hoo, this is a white light…!”

And in front of the spot where the light was coming from, Hoonie was standing with a pickaxe.

Hoonie, who saw Han, spoke in a short voice.

“The shorty has come.”

Dwarf Han replied while snickering.

“I’m not a shorty, you little b*tch.”

“No way, you’re much shorter than me.”

Han shook his head and replied.

“Huh? I don’t know about you, but in the Urk family of the dwarfs’ clan, I’m the most handsome one.”

“Booo…!”

The moment Hoonie heard it, he began to crack up.

But Hoonie started coughing because of the dirt in the mines after laughing for a while.

“Kuck, Kuck…!”

However, Han didn’t stop speaking.

“A perfect man like me can take the hearts of three female dwarves.”

“Huh…”

Hoonie managed to stop coughing for a while and spoke.

“That’s enough, look at the mineral. This is something that I found, don’t plan on giving away my credit to them.”

Hoonie pointed his finger to the Ghor clan slave.

The mini-golem with a stout body made of rock seemed similar to a hunter.

He shrugged his shoulders.

Grrk- Grrrrk-

Han then spoke.

“Oh…! That’s a good point.”

He looked over at Hoonie and said.

“Are you sure that you are a really the Black Magician?”

“Why are you asking again?”

“How is it that your knowledge as a magician is so little that you couldn’t even identify a member of the Ghor clan?”

“Huh…”

“You have no mining skills, and you can’t possibly do this, right?”

Han looked at Hoonie like he was a pathetic creature.

Had Ian learned that Hoonie had already been ready to commit a crime that would’ve lost him another stone, his affinity with Han would’ve gone down by 10 points.

After Hoonie had closely removed the dirt, Han took over and went closer to the stone.

It was fun to harass Hoonie, but it wasn’t as fun as to mining the rare minerals in the mine.

Han picked the pickaxe and approached the mineral. He then showed extreme professionalism as he went close to the mineral.

“If this is the case…! Even if I don’t do it, it could be a higher grade stone!”

Hoonie’s serious expression was contrary to his cheering.

The mining pro—which was Han with the sound of the mining noise—got up took another equipment and got back to the place.

Kang- Kang- Kang-

* * *

A large scale war between humans.

The official homepage of Kailan, which had been cold and quiet for months, had started to get warm once again.

– Keu, I was curious to see when the Lotus Guild would pick the sword, I guess I finally get to see it.

– Yeah. Red Crowe vs Lotus Guild, this is really sweet to see, huh?

– Guys, who will win? I checked the betting at the Kalian site, and the bet rates are equally divided.

– The betting at Kailan was a sort of sport, a go-to site that predicts the outcome of the scheduled matches, such as guild war or duels in Kailan.

– In recent years, only in terms of guild power… the Red Crowe could have been the winner. But It’s difficult to tell now.

– Right? It is the guild that has Ian. I can’t imagine Lotus losing.

– If anyone saw the power of Ian during the dimensional war. The Red Crowe could be stopped by Ian alone.

– Then, why is the bet divided then?

– I know the reason.

– Oh, what is it?

– Before this, Ian seemed to have no intention of joining this match. So there isn’t much credibility…

– Oh, really?

– Huh? Really? There have been a lot of talks about the Lotus Guild in the Guild discussion. Since the dimensional war, the Lotus Guild has been close to 10 battles, but Ian hadn’t been seen in any of it.

– Oho…? I didn’t know that since I don’t watch the guild discussions much. But why is the veteran not coming?

– Well, Ian is doing an important quest right now.

– Hmm, then won’t he participate in the guild wars? Guild war is merely a manner to influence the guild reputation and their ranking…Empire war is an important battle that takes away a strong point at the time of death.

– That’s it. So, I guess we can say that the probability of Ian going is 50/50 then?

– LOL, it looks like it. Ian may participate or Ian may not participate in the empire war, I guess…?

– In fact, if it had been a few months ago, the ‘Empire War’ wouldn’t have been such a topic.

Even though Ian was a part of the Lotus Guild, since it was Kailan—that had been peaceful for a month without having even a single incident—this war became a huge issue.

Various game broadcasts were covering other things.

This was natural since there was not much content to air.

And with this, finally, the two guilds began to get into action.