The Overlord of Blood and Iron (WN)

“Milord, the citizens in the territory lack rest, and crave for entertainment. If this goes on, they might die of fatigue, or become zombies.”

Standing in front of Kang Chul-In, Kwak-Jung spoke proudly.

“Rest and entertainment? Explain this in more detail.”

As Kang Chul-In was looking for a reason why the happiness of his civilians was falling, he was desperate for any kind of explanation or solution.

“Everything is good right now.”

Kwak-Jung explained.

“No-one is starving, we’re getting paid lots of money, and the civilians don’t have to worry about the invasion of monsters, because of our strong military. And they also don’t have many complaints about the leaders of Laputa, since they themselves have proved themselves, and are working extremely hard. This is what you think, right?”

“And?”

“Milord, exactly how long do you sleep a night?”

“Hmm… Maybe 1 or 2 hours?”

“And are you alright?”

“What do you mean by that? Of course, I’m alright.”

“Hahaha…”

Kwak-Jung laughed, feeling awed by Kang Chul-In.

“Milord, not everyone in the world can be like you.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“A normal person… will die quickly if they only sleep 1 or 2 hours a day. They wouldn’t be able to even walk properly. And hearing from the maids, I’ve heard that you’re not having proper meals either, just eating eggs or sandwiches instead.”

“There’s no other choice, I was busy.”

“That’s true… but I think milord always overworks.”

“Hmm…”

Kang Chul-In couldn’t understand what Kwak-Jung was saying.

Working too hard was a problem?

For a ‘super’ workaholic like Kang Chul-In, this was a completely new concept.

“Explain all of this, in even more detail. I’ve come across a problem recently, and I think that this might be related to that problem.”

“What kind of problem is it?”

“The happiness of the civilians within the territory are falling.”

“Pft… Obviously it is.”

“It’s obvious?”

“It’s because milord is crazy with… I mean… sorry… hehe…”

“... Continue.”

“Milord doesn’t eat properly, sleep properly, and also ignores pleasures with women… Milord just works. Work, work, work! It makes sense for only you milord, because you’re not a huma… I mean, nothing.”

“........”

“Ehem! Anyway… for a person, being able to eat properly and getting paid well isn’t everything. Though milord might not feel like this even while working an incredibly tight schedule, this is not the same for the civilians.”

“It’s not?”

“Money and food isn’t even the most important thing. The people want to rest, and something to keep themselves entertained.”

“So basically… you’re saying that they need something to relieve their stress from all the work that they’ve been doing?’

“Yes, milord! Exactly!”

Kwak-Jung nodded his head vigorously.

“Milord, you don’t need to touch anything related to the money. The money that you give them is already over the top.”

“Well, that’s because they do a lot of work for me. It’s obvious that they get paid a lot; I can’t just let them slave away for me, can I.”

“That’s good. Labor comes with a price. I also know that this is a concept that milord is very familiar with.”

“I see what you mean now.”

Finally, Kang Chul-In could see what Kwak-Jung was talking about. Though he couldn’t understand what Kwak-Jung meant by the statement that not everyone was like him in the beginning, he was beginning to understand.

“Then… how about we decrease working hours by two every day, and also increase resting days to two days a month?”

“Hmm… Yes, I think that’s reasonable. Since you’re paying them a lot already, I think that’s all that needs to be fixed for now.”

“Alright, I’ll do that.”

Kang Chul-In readily agreed to Kwak-Jung’s proposals.

If his subordinate came running to him offering him advice and he denied that, that would be a foolish decision. Kang Chul-In wasn’t someone who was unreasonable when it came to his subordinates, as well as work.

“Oh, and…”

Kwak-Jung added.

“How about you also increase the time that the magic-engineers have in their project of modifying the Atlases? Maybe two days? Though milord takes very good care of the soldiers, it seems like you aren’t doing the same for workers of different fields. I think this might be because Milord is a Conquest Lord, and is so used to commanding the army.”

“Is that so…”

“Yes, though it makes sense that we need to hurry up since we also need to move soon… Sometimes, I feel like we should also look at the perspective of the workers.”

“You’re right.”

Kang Chul-In nodded his head.

“I’ll tell Timothy to fix all the things you told me.”

Two days later.

With Kang Chul-In’s orders, the modifications on the working plan were presented to all the civilians of the Laputa territory.

And a reward was also sent to the magic engineers that were busy working on modifying the Atlas.

“W-What an extravagant…”

“Is this the famed meat of the Peacock Dragon…!”

“Woah….”

Thinking of the bigger picture, Kang Chul-In wholeheartedly agreed to Kwak-Jung’s proposal of sending the Magic Engineers a reward, sending them a whole Peacock Dragon to feast on.

And thanks to this, he could stop the decreasing Happiness of his citizens.

“Internal affairs… are very hard.”

Kang Chul-In muttered, pressing his temples.

Though the citizens of his territory could take a rest due to the changes made, Kang Chul-In himself was still buried under the pile of documents.

But… that wasn’t it.

[Your Lord Point has decreased by 1]

[Your Lord Point has decreased by 1]

The already fallen Happiness for some reason wasn’t going up. In fact, it was still slowly going down.

“Do we… have to start a war or something?”

As the happiness of his territory kept on decreasing from unknown reasons, Kang Chul-In tried to think out of the box.

“This is Timothy, I have something urgent to report to milord!”

Maybe he could hear about the problem from Timothy.

“What is it, Timothy?”

“Something big has happened?”

“Big?”

“The ratio of men and women has become 4:6 just now! At this rate, it seems like it’ll maybe even become 3:7! If this goes on, the majority of the women within our territory might die unmarried!”

“...Was this the reason…”

Kang Chul-In snickered, feeling stupid.

“Have you written a report on this?”

“Yes, milord.”

“Give it to me.”

Reading the report, Kang Chul-In didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

“... Even 8-year-old boys are getting teased if they don’t have at least 2 girlfriends? What is this?”

The contents of the report were ridiculous.

There were lots of cases of women fighting to the death over men, and a severe increase in cheating across the territory.

“Don’t tell me… is this because of the wars that we’ve waged?”

“Yes, milord.”

Timothy nodded.

“Since milord leads an undefeated army, there weren’t many losses in the original population of men within the Laputa territory. However… that cannot be said for the territories in which Milord has conquered.”

Kang Chul-In didn’t need to listen any further to understand.

Basically, Kang Chul-In’s army was too powerful, and they destroyed their enemies easily whenever they went into battle.

And due to this, though Kang Chul-In’s army didn’t lose many men, the opponent’s army suffered terrible casualties. And when Kang Chul-In eventually conquered the territory, there would be a significantly larger number of females than males.

Unlike Earth, where marriage was more open and free, Pangaeans were extremely strict with marriages, and wanted to marry as soon as they got the chance.

Therefore, the reason behind falling happiness within the Laputa territory was actually due to Kang Chul-In and his army’s overwhelming strength. It was quite ironic.

“There is a solution to this…”

Kang Chul-In muttered, shaking his head.

“Timothy.

“Yes, milord.”

“This isn’t a problem that can be solved immediately.”

“If we summon more troops using the Lord shop…”

“No.”

“I-Is that not a viable option? Since we aren’t low on money like before, we have around 2000 gold to spare…”

“No, that doesn’t work.”

“W-Why not?”

“Though that works in the short term, we have to look at the bigger picture. Think about it. From our last conquest, we took over the whole Eastern Plains with our army. Now that it’s even bigger, what we lack isn’t strength.”

“T-Then… if we summon civilians instead…”

“Even if we do that, the ratio would go back to 5: 5 again. And, over time…”

“T-That makes sense…”

“We… will leave this be for the moment. I have a plan.”

Though Kang Chul-In might not be able to solve other problems regarding the internal affairs of his territory, this was one that he had confidence in.

Hecate…

The answer lies within his former ally, the Lord of Temeraire: Hecate.

When one first summoned their civilians, the ratio of men to women was at a rough 50:50, but this wasn’t the case for poor Hecate. She had to struggle quite a bit, summoning a ridiculous rate of 90% being men.

Since Kang Chul-In was struggling with having too many women and Hecate with too many men, this was a perfect alliance.

Even in the past, Kang Chul-In had to ally with Hecate due to similar reasons. They had made the citizens of their territories marry each other, forming a sort of political marriage.

Hecate… is an ally that I need. Allying with her would be best using the method that I did in my past life, but… I’ll have to wait until the start of the Lord meetings for that.

The question was how he would solve this problem before he could talk to Hecate about this.

It was at that moment.

[Your Lord Point has increased by 1]

[Your Lord Point has increased by 1]

[Your Lord Point has increased by 1]

[Your Lord Point has increased by 1]

Suddenly, a message showing that his Lord points, which had been continuously falling until now, had actually increased.

[The happiness of your citizens have increased by 2.]

At this peculiar situation, Kang Chul-In tilted his head in confusion.

“...What the hell?”

Was there something wrong with the system now? How had his decreasing Lord points and happiness increased all of a sudden?

“Milord!! Milord!!”

Kwak-Jung scrambled into Kang Chul-In’s room.

“It’s Princess Arshelly, she has…”

“Arshelly?”

“She’s created a mess! Hahahaha!”

What Kwak-Jung said didn’t make sense.

“Arshelly has? Stop lying.”

Arshelly was kind, mature, and cautious. There was no way that Arshelly would create a mess.

“Yes, milord! Hahaha!”

Kwak-Jung spoke, laughing.

“Come on, follow me to the Central Plaza!”

“The Central Plaza?’

“Yes, milord. Arshelly has done something ‘big’!”

“...Alright. Lead the way.”

Kang Chul-In quickly headed towards the Central Plaza.