Chapter 109
“You assholes! I told you to get to work already! Are you kidding me!”
“I guess since it’s the 1st day, you guys haven’t gotten the message yet, huh? Shouldn’t I let you guys undergo an introductory ceremony?”
Emperor Argonne’s men stomped over and surrounded Otto.
“Grrrrrrrr, Arrggghh!”
Meanwhile, Kairos was unable to contain his anger and was struggling to throw Otto and his men off of him.
Kairos resembled a pressure cooker about to explode.
‘First, I need to get him to sleep.’
Otto pulled out his [Poker of Awakening] and smacked Kairos on the head with all his might.
*Bam!*
“……!”
Kairos’s eyes shot open, and he collapsed into a dazed stupor.
Otto’s blow to the head had knocked him out cold.
It was also thanks to Camille’s long chokehold on his throat from behind.
“I guess I should have asked what happened.”
One of Argonne’s men approached Otto just in time to ask.
The voice from beneath his helmet was gravelly, and at the slightest hint of irritation, he seemed ready to draw blood.
“Ah, yes. This fellow is excellent at his job, but he has epilepsy.”
Epilepsy is a disease that causes convulsions and seizures.
People with epilepsy are prone to seizures from time to time, so it was a reasonable excuse.
Kairos, with his eyes rolling back in anger and his mouth foaming at the mouth, looked like an epileptic in the throes of a seizure.
“Epilepsy… can he still work?”
“No, but he’s a good worker when he’s not having symptoms, so I hope you’ll forgive him this one time.”
“I see.”
Argonne’s henchman turned away.
“Very well, then, don’t try to cause any unnecessary commotion, and obey my orders. Otherwise… I will kill you all.”
“‘Course we will.”
And just like that, the crisis caused by Kairos’s outburst of anger was safely averted by Otto’s appropriate lies and excuses.
“You have eyes and ears, so you must have seen and heard. This is hell. You have been kidnapped, and if you do not submit to our control, we will kill you without mercy.”
Then the magic swordsmen squirmed and begged, holding their hands and pleading for release.
“Please, let us go!”
“Kidnapping, what do you mean? Please spare my life, I have wives and children waiting for me!”
Indeed, the magic swordsman’s performance was exceptional.
They played the frightened laborers so well that even the men of Argonne were not the least bit suspicious.
If no one had been frightened, but instead remained silent and compliant, they would have had reason to be suspicious, but it fell into place as an appropriate response to the situation.
“Do your job to the best of your ability, within reason, and I promise to send you home at the end of the project.”
Needless to say, not a single one of Otto’s men believed him.
‘Bullshit. I’ll kill them all, all these people.’
The trafficking and murder of thousands of laborers was no small matter.
Although they were merely menial laborers, they were still people.
If this became public knowledge, the countries of these laborers would not stand idly by.
They would mobilize their intelligence services to find out what was going on, and then they would send in their armies to crush those behind it.
If that happened, Argonne the Great would have to hunker down even more, and if it got out….
No further elaboration on what would happen.
“Go to your quarters and get your work clothes and tools. Begin.”
“Go.”
The quarters were a mess.
It consisted of a crude campfire in a tarped tent, and an old cot that looked like it was about to fall apart.
Even the bedding was an old military blanket that looked like it might be infested with lice, and it didn’t look like they’d be able to survive the freezing winter.
“Thirty seconds to assemble, each with a shovel and pickaxe. Carry out.”
“Do it!”
Otto’s men tossed the unconscious Kairos into the quarters. Then they grabbed their gear and headed to the site.
* * * https://galaxytranslations97.com/novel/i-became-a-level-99-vicious-lord/ * * *
*Clang!* *Clang!* *Clang!* *Clang!*
*Boom!* *Boom!*
*Thump!*
The site was in full excavation mode.
Thousands of laborers were digging, breaking rocks, and clearing away dirt and stones to find the entrance to the tomb.
‘The scale is enormous.’
Otto stuck out his tongue as he realized that the construction site was even bigger than he had imagined.
It was indeed the tomb of the first emperor who unified the continent.
‘If they’re going to do such a large-scale construction, they’ll have to keep it a secret.’
Otto understood why Argonne the Great had done such an audacious deed.
If he did it openly, it would draw attention to himself, and there would be no lack of people eager to join in on the excitement.
Of course, that didn’t mean he could be forgiven for what he did to the workers.
“There are no breaks. You’ll be called off at lunchtime, but until then, work hard.”
Otto and the others in the field each grabbed hold of their tools and started digging.
“Eat quickly, don’t forget you have 15 minutes for lunch!”
Excluding the time he spent eating porridge or something, Otto worked until 2:00 a.m.
‘It’s just’
It wasn’t too hard for Otto’s group, as they were well-trained and powerful, but not for the average laborer.
“Cough!”
“Please, please, ten minutes. No, let me take a five-minute break.”
“Okay, I’m sorry, I’ll work, I’ll get back to work!”
Every time a laborer collapsed from exhaustion, they would be whipped, and there would always be one or two who died.
Then, as always, the necromancer would show up and turn the dead laborers into zombies.
That wasn’t all.
The haste with which the operation was carried out led to a series of safety incidents.
*Rumble!* *Rumble!*
A huge boulder rolled down, crushing the workers underneath.
“Aaaahhhhh!”
“Sa… Save me! Please!”
The workers screamed, but no one came to their aid.
Instead of helping them, Argonne’s men mercilessly killed the wounded workers, and turned them into zombies.
Then they used force to intimidate the outraged workers and talked down to them.
“You stupid bastards! It’s your job to not have accidents! Don’t you realize that every accident like this slows down our work? Wake up, everyone! Today, we’ll be working overtime for two hours to clean up the accident! Get to work! Move your asses!”
The responsibility for the safety issues was even passed on to the workers.
Early that morning.
After working until 2 a.m., the workers returned to their quarters and promptly dropped down to sleep like corpses.
But even that was just another hell.
“Grunt. Mmm. Groan. Grunt.”
“Co… Cold.”
“Ughhhhhhh.”
The workers grunted and groaned with muscle aches all over their bodies, and shivered from the cold.
Even the four hours of sleep they’d gotten was filled with pain.
‘They’ve created hell.’
At that moment.
“Your Majesty.”
A magic swordsman disguised as a laborer entered the tent and whispered as he approached Otto.
He was one of the three magic swordsmen who had split off from the Laborers Union and had been tasked with tracking down Otto and finding out the location of the tomb.
“We’ve succeeded in determining your current location.”
The mage whispered as he crouched down beside Otto.
“Where is it?”
“The western fringes of the Arad Empire.”
“Ah.”
Although it was soon to be destroyed, the Arad Empire was currently the most powerful nation in the world.
It was a place where you couldn’t even lift a shovel without the Emperor’s permission.
And even if the Emperor did allow it, the moment it was discovered that this was the tomb of the Great Aragonne, almost all of the artifacts would be taken away.
The fact that the tomb was in the middle of nowhere, in an extremely uninhabited area, made it possible to carry out the work in such secrecy…
“Thank you for your work.”
“It’s nothing, but what do we do now?”
“Let’s get 1,500 of our troops in here quickly, and we should be able to take control of this place.”
Otto quickly pulled out a map and studied it.
“Good, if we can get them through Loshan and the Haver Prairie, we can send in troops without being seen by the Empire.”
Otto had divided the Lota Kingdom forces and stationed them here and there, in preparation for any contingencies.
Since he didn’t know where the tomb was located, he had already prepared his troops for battle so that they could be dispatched quickly.
“Tell them to carefully come without being detected.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
With Otto’s orders, the magic swordsman slipped out of the tent and disappeared into the darkness.
‘Just wait a few days. I’ll kill you all.’
Otto closed his eyes in silence, burying his anger deep within.
* * * https://galaxytranslations97.com/novel/i-became-a-level-99-vicious-lord/ * * *
Meanwhile, Emperor Argonne was updated twice a day, morning and evening, on the progress of the excavation.
He couldn’t bear to go a day without being briefed, as he wanted his tomb excavated as soon as possible.
“How did it go today?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. There were a couple of safety incidents that slowed the progress.”
“What?”
“They say it was caused by some incompetent bums not doing their work properly.”
“Scumbags, huh. They’re a bunch of scumbags who live off of day labor.”
In truth, Emperor Argonne wanted to mobilize an army of skilled engineers.
However, no matter how much money he had, he could not justify such a regular army when he was still a merchant.
Even if it was a knightly army of private soldiers….
“So how long have they been delayed?”
“We’re squeezing them as hard as we can, so we should be able to find the entrance to the Imperial Mausoleum within ten days at the latest.”
“Hmph.”
“Your Majesty, I will go there myself and direct the excavation.”
“Gaius, you mean you’re going there yourself?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. It is an excavation of the imperial tomb where you are buried. It seems only right that I should go and get it myself.”
“Oh.”
A look of joy flashed across the face of Argonne.
Gaius was not only his brother and descendant, but also one of his most loyal subjects.
The idea of Gaius himself leading the excavation was one that Argonne was pleased with.
It made him appreciate it even more.
“Very well. I will grant you this request. But you must be very careful. The Black Crusaders could attack at any moment.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Call me as soon as the work is completed. I will drop everything and come immediately.”
“I will even prepare to welcome your Majesty.”
Gaius’s eyes gleamed eerily.
“Prepare to welcome you” It meant to neatly dispose of all the workers who participated in the excavation project, and to bury the fact that the mausoleum of Emperor Argonne was discovered.
“How can we let lowly scum welcome His Majesty to the Imperial Mausoleum, it must be neat and tidy.”
“I trust you, my descendant.”
“Then I will see you soon.”
Gaius left for the work site immediately.
He was followed by thirty of House Oberhauser’s finest knights and five hundred private soldiers.
* * * https://galaxytranslations97.com/novel/i-became-a-level-99-vicious-lord/ * * *
Two days later.
A thunderous gallop can be heard in the vast field.
Nomadic cavalry carrying Lota Kingdom troops began to gallop at a terrifying speed toward the excavation site.
“Come on, His Majesty is waiting, speed up!”
And commanding that cavalry was Amukhan.
Chapter 109
“You assholes! I told you to get to work already! Are you kidding me!”
“I guess since it’s the 1st day, you guys haven’t gotten the message yet, huh? Shouldn’t I let you guys undergo an introductory ceremony?”
Emperor Argonne’s men stomped over and surrounded Otto.
“Grrrrrrrr, Arrggghh!”
Meanwhile, Kairos was unable to contain his anger and was struggling to throw Otto and his men off of him.
Kairos resembled a pressure cooker about to explode.
‘First, I need to get him to sleep.’
Otto pulled out his [Poker of Awakening] and smacked Kairos on the head with all his might.
*Bam!*
“……!”
Kairos’s eyes shot open, and he collapsed into a dazed stupor.
Otto’s blow to the head had knocked him out cold.
It was also thanks to Camille’s long chokehold on his throat from behind.
“I guess I should have asked what happened.”
One of Argonne’s men approached Otto just in time to ask.
The voice from beneath his helmet was gravelly, and at the slightest hint of irritation, he seemed ready to draw blood.
“Ah, yes. This fellow is excellent at his job, but he has epilepsy.”
Epilepsy is a disease that causes convulsions and seizures.
People with epilepsy are prone to seizures from time to time, so it was a reasonable excuse.
Kairos, with his eyes rolling back in anger and his mouth foaming at the mouth, looked like an epileptic in the throes of a seizure.
“Epilepsy… can he still work?”
“No, but he’s a good worker when he’s not having symptoms, so I hope you’ll forgive him this one time.”
“I see.”
Argonne’s henchman turned away.
“Very well, then, don’t try to cause any unnecessary commotion, and obey my orders. Otherwise… I will kill you all.”
“‘Course we will.”
And just like that, the crisis caused by Kairos’s outburst of anger was safely averted by Otto’s appropriate lies and excuses.
“You have eyes and ears, so you must have seen and heard. This is hell. You have been kidnapped, and if you do not submit to our control, we will kill you without mercy.”
Then the magic swordsmen squirmed and begged, holding their hands and pleading for release.
“Please, let us go!”
“Kidnapping, what do you mean? Please spare my life, I have wives and children waiting for me!”
Indeed, the magic swordsman’s performance was exceptional.
They played the frightened laborers so well that even the men of Argonne were not the least bit suspicious.
If no one had been frightened, but instead remained silent and compliant, they would have had reason to be suspicious, but it fell into place as an appropriate response to the situation.
“Do your job to the best of your ability, within reason, and I promise to send you home at the end of the project.”
Needless to say, not a single one of Otto’s men believed him.
‘Bullshit. I’ll kill them all, all these people.’
The trafficking and murder of thousands of laborers was no small matter.
Although they were merely menial laborers, they were still people.
If this became public knowledge, the countries of these laborers would not stand idly by.
They would mobilize their intelligence services to find out what was going on, and then they would send in their armies to crush those behind it.
If that happened, Argonne the Great would have to hunker down even more, and if it got out….
No further elaboration on what would happen.
“Go to your quarters and get your work clothes and tools. Begin.”
“Go.”
The quarters were a mess.
It consisted of a crude campfire in a tarped tent, and an old cot that looked like it was about to fall apart.
Even the bedding was an old military blanket that looked like it might be infested with lice, and it didn’t look like they’d be able to survive the freezing winter.
“Thirty seconds to assemble, each with a shovel and pickaxe. Carry out.”
“Do it!”
Otto’s men tossed the unconscious Kairos into the quarters. Then they grabbed their gear and headed to the site.
* * * https://galaxytranslations97.com/novel/i-became-a-level-99-vicious-lord/ * * *
*Clang!* *Clang!* *Clang!* *Clang!*
*Boom!* *Boom!*
*Thump!*
The site was in full excavation mode.
Thousands of laborers were digging, breaking rocks, and clearing away dirt and stones to find the entrance to the tomb.
‘The scale is enormous.’
Otto stuck out his tongue as he realized that the construction site was even bigger than he had imagined.
It was indeed the tomb of the first emperor who unified the continent.
‘If they’re going to do such a large-scale construction, they’ll have to keep it a secret.’
Otto understood why Argonne the Great had done such an audacious deed.
If he did it openly, it would draw attention to himself, and there would be no lack of people eager to join in on the excitement.
Of course, that didn’t mean he could be forgiven for what he did to the workers.
“There are no breaks. You’ll be called off at lunchtime, but until then, work hard.”
Otto and the others in the field each grabbed hold of their tools and started digging.
“Eat quickly, don’t forget you have 15 minutes for lunch!”
Excluding the time he spent eating porridge or something, Otto worked until 2:00 a.m.
‘It’s just’
It wasn’t too hard for Otto’s group, as they were well-trained and powerful, but not for the average laborer.
“Cough!”
“Please, please, ten minutes. No, let me take a five-minute break.”
“Okay, I’m sorry, I’ll work, I’ll get back to work!”
Every time a laborer collapsed from exhaustion, they would be whipped, and there would always be one or two who died.
Then, as always, the necromancer would show up and turn the dead laborers into zombies.
That wasn’t all.
The haste with which the operation was carried out led to a series of safety incidents.
*Rumble!* *Rumble!*
A huge boulder rolled down, crushing the workers underneath.
“Aaaahhhhh!”
“Sa… Save me! Please!”
The workers screamed, but no one came to their aid.
Instead of helping them, Argonne’s men mercilessly killed the wounded workers, and turned them into zombies.
Then they used force to intimidate the outraged workers and talked down to them.
“You stupid bastards! It’s your job to not have accidents! Don’t you realize that every accident like this slows down our work? Wake up, everyone! Today, we’ll be working overtime for two hours to clean up the accident! Get to work! Move your asses!”
The responsibility for the safety issues was even passed on to the workers.
Early that morning.
After working until 2 a.m., the workers returned to their quarters and promptly dropped down to sleep like corpses.
But even that was just another hell.
“Grunt. Mmm. Groan. Grunt.”
“Co… Cold.”
“Ughhhhhhh.”
The workers grunted and groaned with muscle aches all over their bodies, and shivered from the cold.
Even the four hours of sleep they’d gotten was filled with pain.
‘They’ve created hell.’
At that moment.
“Your Majesty.”
A magic swordsman disguised as a laborer entered the tent and whispered as he approached Otto.
He was one of the three magic swordsmen who had split off from the Laborers Union and had been tasked with tracking down Otto and finding out the location of the tomb.
“We’ve succeeded in determining your current location.”
The mage whispered as he crouched down beside Otto.
“Where is it?”
“The western fringes of the Arad Empire.”
“Ah.”
Although it was soon to be destroyed, the Arad Empire was currently the most powerful nation in the world.
It was a place where you couldn’t even lift a shovel without the Emperor’s permission.
And even if the Emperor did allow it, the moment it was discovered that this was the tomb of the Great Aragonne, almost all of the artifacts would be taken away.
The fact that the tomb was in the middle of nowhere, in an extremely uninhabited area, made it possible to carry out the work in such secrecy…
“Thank you for your work.”
“It’s nothing, but what do we do now?”
“Let’s get 1,500 of our troops in here quickly, and we should be able to take control of this place.”
Otto quickly pulled out a map and studied it.
“Good, if we can get them through Loshan and the Haver Prairie, we can send in troops without being seen by the Empire.”
Otto had divided the Lota Kingdom forces and stationed them here and there, in preparation for any contingencies.
Since he didn’t know where the tomb was located, he had already prepared his troops for battle so that they could be dispatched quickly.
“Tell them to carefully come without being detected.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
With Otto’s orders, the magic swordsman slipped out of the tent and disappeared into the darkness.
‘Just wait a few days. I’ll kill you all.’
Otto closed his eyes in silence, burying his anger deep within.
* * * https://galaxytranslations97.com/novel/i-became-a-level-99-vicious-lord/ * * *
Meanwhile, Emperor Argonne was updated twice a day, morning and evening, on the progress of the excavation.
He couldn’t bear to go a day without being briefed, as he wanted his tomb excavated as soon as possible.
“How did it go today?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. There were a couple of safety incidents that slowed the progress.”
“What?”
“They say it was caused by some incompetent bums not doing their work properly.”
“Scumbags, huh. They’re a bunch of scumbags who live off of day labor.”
In truth, Emperor Argonne wanted to mobilize an army of skilled engineers.
However, no matter how much money he had, he could not justify such a regular army when he was still a merchant.
Even if it was a knightly army of private soldiers….
“So how long have they been delayed?”
“We’re squeezing them as hard as we can, so we should be able to find the entrance to the Imperial Mausoleum within ten days at the latest.”
“Hmph.”
“Your Majesty, I will go there myself and direct the excavation.”
“Gaius, you mean you’re going there yourself?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. It is an excavation of the imperial tomb where you are buried. It seems only right that I should go and get it myself.”
“Oh.”
A look of joy flashed across the face of Argonne.
Gaius was not only his brother and descendant, but also one of his most loyal subjects.
The idea of Gaius himself leading the excavation was one that Argonne was pleased with.
It made him appreciate it even more.
“Very well. I will grant you this request. But you must be very careful. The Black Crusaders could attack at any moment.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Call me as soon as the work is completed. I will drop everything and come immediately.”
“I will even prepare to welcome your Majesty.”
Gaius’s eyes gleamed eerily.
“Prepare to welcome you” It meant to neatly dispose of all the workers who participated in the excavation project, and to bury the fact that the mausoleum of Emperor Argonne was discovered.
“How can we let lowly scum welcome His Majesty to the Imperial Mausoleum, it must be neat and tidy.”
“I trust you, my descendant.”
“Then I will see you soon.”
Gaius left for the work site immediately.
He was followed by thirty of House Oberhauser’s finest knights and five hundred private soldiers.
* * * https://galaxytranslations97.com/novel/i-became-a-level-99-vicious-lord/ * * *
Two days later.
A thunderous gallop can be heard in the vast field.
Nomadic cavalry carrying Lota Kingdom troops began to gallop at a terrifying speed toward the excavation site.
“Come on, His Majesty is waiting, speed up!”
And commanding that cavalry was Amukhan.
