Zhuge vs. the King of Darkness

I, Kyle, led the army of darkness, following Jegal’s army at a moderate pace.

As I approached Marquis Sainz’s castle, I connected to Winston and the Tentacle spirit network.

I called Winston.

– [Winston!]

– [My Lord! Did the battle go well?]

– [No. The humans used dwarven cannons, so our damage was significant. You and the Slime reinforcements attack Marquis Sainz’s castle, causing the humans to retreat. We are following behind them.]

– [I’m glad the timing is right.]

– [Since the humans are going to the castle now, quickly take the Slimes and Tentacles and get out of the castle!]

– [Why? We’ve almost broken through the castle walls. We’ll win even if we fight.]

– [I know that too. But right now, the human soldiers will jump into the fire to protect their families. If we collide head-on, our damage will also be significant. Offer the humans a truce for just one day and have everyone retreat from the castle.]

– [Hmm. That makes sense too.]

– [And the longer this fight goes on, the more advantageous it is for us. We have the southern granary and can use humans as food. If the Sahagins are blocking the Mermaid Sea well, the humans must be very short on food right now. Put all the humans inside the castle and slowly weaken them with hunger.]

– [My Lord! That’s a really great plan. I’ll do that.]

---

As Jegal led his army to charge through the collapsed west wall, Winston, who had transformed into a monster-human from the monster horde, came out and shouted.

“Kuaaaaaa! Stop! I request a truce!”

The human soldiers buzzed at the bizarre situation where a monster was requesting a truce.

Jegal stopped advancing for now and shouted.

“What are you talking about!”

“I am Winston, the commander of the Tentacle army! If we clash with your forces, our damage will be enormous! We will all come out of the castle and retreat our army, so I request a truce for just one day.”

Jegal learned for the first time that monsters could also request a truce.

‘These guys are smarter than I thought.’

Jegal discussed it with Margrave Claris.

“Margrave-nim. What do you think about accepting what that monster is saying?”

“It’s not a bad proposal for us either. If we don’t accept the proposal and those guys rush in, the civilians inside the castle will die.”

Another noble expressed doubt.

“How can we trust those monster bastards!”

Jegal retorted.

“We’re just stopping our advance for a moment anyway. If those guys break their promise, we’ll advance as is. And if we clash with those guys now, can we definitely win without civilian casualties?”

The noble was at a loss for words.

Whatever the monster bastard’s scheme was, they had no choice but to accept this proposal.

Jegal shouted.

“I accept the proposal! Immediately move all troops out of the castle and retreat!”

Winston replied.

“Understood!”

As the human-sized Slime next to the giant golden Slime vibrated, an incredibly intense sound echoed throughout the entire castle.

“Retreat! Retreat! Troops inside the castle, retreat to the west gate!”

Soon after, countless Slimes and Tentacles poured out of the collapsed castle wall.

The castle’s troops cheered as they watched the retreating monsters.

The soldiers on the castle wall had heard Jegal’s conversation with the monster, so they knew this was a truce and did not chase the monsters.

The monster army kept its promise and stopped about 10km away from the castle wall.

In the meantime, Jegal’s army was able to enter through the partially destroyed west wall.

The inside of the castle was a mess, with the corpses of humans, Tentacles, and Slimes scattered everywhere.

There were only minimal troops in the castle, so they couldn’t properly stop the monsters.

There was still no news from Marquis Sainz.

Jegal expected that Marquis Sainz’s army had been annihilated.

Jegal came to command the Sainz Marquis’s castle troops.

Jegal quickly ordered the repair of the west wall.

---

I, Kyle, heard the results of the attack on Marquis Sainz’s castle from Winston.

He said that there were not many troops in the castle because the humans had led most of their forces out.

This was because, from the human’s point of view, they didn’t know they would be backstabbed by the Slimes.

Winston’s army broke down the west wall and annihilated most of the guards defending the castle.

In addition, the Tentacles contaminated every food warehouse they encountered with acidic poison.

As a result, the humans were suffering even more from hunger.

I went to meet the Slimes.

The Slimes welcomed me.

“The hero of the Slime Kingdom! Welcome!”

Adeben approached me and offered a handshake with a Slime Tentacle, so I reached out my hand and shook it.

“Adeben! Nice to see you!”

“It’s been a while. Seeing that your spirit has increased since last time, you must have had many experiences.”

“A lot has happened.”

Lime-sensei also came over and greeted me.

“Kyle~ Hello~”

“Lime-sensei! Thank you!”

“Eung~ Friends should help each other. Tell me how you’ve been~”

I told the Slimes the long story of liberating the Demons in the south, creating the Tentacle elite troops, and establishing the Kyle Holy Kingdom.

Lime-sensei was impressed.

“Wow~~ To have accomplished all of that in such a short time. You’re really amazing!”

“I’m the type who can do it if I put my mind to it.”

“Then can our Slimes live in your Holy Kingdom?”

“Yes. But aren’t you going back to the Slime Kingdom?”

“Eung. The friends who came here want to experience the wide world and meet various races. Let them work and live in your country.”

“Of course! There are many empty houses right now, so I’ll give the Slimes houses and introduce them to jobs. And I want to conclude economic and military agreements and free entry and exit agreements with the Slime Kingdom!”

Adeben agreed.

“That’s a good idea! The Kyle Holy Kingdom is a friend of the Slime Kingdom. People from the Kyle Holy Kingdom should also feel free to come to the Slime Kingdom.”

I said with a satisfied voice.

“Now the Kyle Holy Kingdom’s trade and delicacy problems will be solved. I’m relieved.”

I discussed future plans with the Slimes.

It was decided that the Slimes would be given houses and jobs through the Archbishop after this war, and that the Kyle Holy Kingdom would pay them in gold coins for helping with the war.

It was a big picture to incorporate the Slimes into the Kyle Holy Kingdom’s economic system.

I asked Adeben something else.

“Did you not see any other race’s kingdoms on the way here?”

Adeben replied.

“I saw various races, but the only one that could be called a kingdom was the Harpy Nest.”

“Hoo. What is the Harpy Nest like?”

“It’s located between the Slime Kingdom and the Minji Holy Land. The entire giant mountain is made up of Harpy nests, and it is ruled by the Harpy Queen. We concluded a peace agreement with the Slime Kingdom so we could pass through.”

“It’s a key point that you must pass through to get from the Slime Kingdom to the Minji Holy Land. I’ll have to conclude economic and peace agreements with the Harpy Kingdom later.”

“Hahaha. I praised Kyle-nim, and the Harpy Queen seemed very interested in Kyle-nim. It will probably go well.”

In my head, a huge economic and military community consisting of the Slime Kingdom, the Giant Ent Kingdom, the Harpy Nest, the Sahagin Kingdom, and the Kyle Holy Kingdom was drawn.

Here, the Giant Ent Kingdom, the Sahagin Kingdom, and the Kyle Holy Kingdom are mine.

I decided to install the underground highways developed by the Giant Ent Kingdom in various places to revitalize transportation and trade between regions.

I talked with the Slimes and just slept there for one night.

---

The next day, I woke up and explained the plan to occupy Sainz Castle to everyone.

Lime-sensei will block the west side of Marquis Sainz’s castle with 42,000 Slimes.

Adeben will block the south side of Marquis Sainz’s castle with 50,000 Slimes.

My Tentacle army will block the east side of Marquis Sainz’s castle.

Winston will lead 10 Tentacle heroes and 40,000 Tentacle elite troops and secretly descend to Margrave Claris’s territory at night, where there are few soldiers.

If we convert the humans there into Tentacle elite troops and bring them back, we plan to completely block the castle.

The reason why the north side of the castle was left open was to give hope to the humans.

This way, humans will continue to flee north, and the castle’s troops will decrease.

If we take Marquis Sainz’s castle, the military stronghold and mining area of ​​South Gale will fall into our hands.

We had secured a tremendous number of human corpses in the battle that took place next to the mining area, so we had enough food.

Lime-sensei showed me the humans she was melting in her body, only half of them taken out of the Slime’s body, and 20 humans were groaning as they melted.

When night came, Winston led his army and quietly left for Margrave Claris’s territory.

The Slimes and my army waited, blocking the west, south, and east sides of the castle.

---

This is inside Marquis Sainz’s castle and city.

Jegal was living in Marquis Sainz’s mansion in the center of the city, which had been renovated into a executive dormitory.

Since Marquis Sainz and his son were presumed to have died in the Bohark Forest, Jegal had to control everything.

After entering the castle, Jegal realized why the monsters had just let them in.

The monsters had contaminated most of the western food warehouse, making the already scarce food even scarcer.

The monsters’ intention was to dry up the humans.

There was no way unless food sprang up from somewhere.

The west, south, and east sides of the castle were guarded by monsters, so no one could get out.

However, desertion of soldiers was steadily occurring because the north side of the castle was breached.

Jegal responded by summarily executing soldiers who were caught deserting.

Another problem that was giving Jegal a headache was the Demon slave rebels.

In Marquis Sainz’s castle, excluding soldiers, there were 261,000 humans and 192,000 Demon slaves.

The one who owned the most Demon slaves in this castle was Marquis Sainz.

Marquis Sainz was managing the mining area and using the Demon slaves for mine excavation, refining, transportation, and city maintenance.

When the war broke out, Marquis Sainz locked all the Demon slaves in various warehouses inside the castle.

The reason was because of information that the Demons were traveling with the Tentacles and massacring humans.

The Demon slaves were quiet while Marquis Sainz was there, but after the Marquis entered the Bohark Forest, they rebelled, and the Demon rebels completely occupied the southeast side of the city.

The leader of the Demon rebels was a male Demon named Rajikvaz, who was said to have both charisma and strength.

Rajikvaz had been locked in a warehouse, but after breaking out of the warehouse, he united the Demon slaves and started a rebellion.

The guards fought with the Demons, but the guards’ strength was insufficient, so they could not suppress the Demon slaves.

When Jegal came, approximately 150,000 Demon rebels were occupying the southeast side of the city.

All the humans in the southeast were known to be dead.

Jegal held a commanders’ meeting.

In this meeting, a discussion arose as to whether or not to kill all the remaining Demon slaves who had not joined the Demon rebels.

The Demon slave owners had already killed 10,000 Demons.

And 32,000 Demon slaves were locked in various warehouses in the northwest of the city.

The Demon slaves in the northwest were those who had not been rescued by the Demon rebels.

Currently, Jegal’s army was guarding the Demon slave warehouses in the northwest.

Jegal didn’t care about killing the Demon slaves, but he was worried about what would happen after they were killed.

This was because if the Demon slaves who were in charge of city maintenance and the mines disappeared, great chaos would occur.

However, it was also questionable whether they should keep the Demon slaves whose leashes had been released because Marquis Sainz had died.

They could engrave the Slave Chokers again, but it required money and Mana Stones, so it was not something they could do right away.

Jegal made a decision.

“I will make a decision based on commander competence. The lives of the Demon slaves will be put on hold for now, and we will weaken them by not giving them food.”

If they are hungry, they will not have the strength to rebel.

The others nodded because it was a good suggestion.

Now the problem was the 150,000 Demon rebels who had occupied the southeast side of the city.

The Demon rebels set up barricades with furniture on the southeast border of the city, armed with mining equipment and weapons, and dug in.

Margrave Claris suggested.

“The western food warehouse is mostly contaminated now, so food is scarce. It would be good to suppress the Demon rebels in the southeast and take their food.”

This also made sense.

Suppress the Demon rebels, who will be a risk factor ahead of the battle with the monsters, and take their food.

Jegal nodded and agreed.

Jegal instructed Vanguard Knights Commander Maudan.

“I will give the Vanguard Knights 50,000 soldiers, so please suppress the Demon rebels.”

Maudan replied.

“Understood.”

Maudan led the Vanguard Knights and 50,000 soldiers and went down, surrounding the southeast side of the city.