NOVEL NEXT Chapter 75
Chapter: 75
“Hey, your boss has a message for you. Open the door for a moment.”
At a glance, it seemed the other party had mistaken the room.
Clang, clang!
The doorknob shook violently as they forcibly tried to open the door, but it was locked and wouldn’t budge.
“If you don’t open within 3 seconds, I’m gonna break this door! One, two—”
Iris, thinking ‘If I just ignore them, they’ll probably wander off,’ furrowed her brow and lifted her head from Lian’s clothes at the unexpected violent shout.
“Three!”
KABOOM!
With a loud crash, the door shattered to pieces.
“Huh? There’s no one in front of the door? Ugh, so you were never planning on opening it anyway?”
Iris’s gaze shifted to Lian’s clothes. Door shards had flown and ripped the hem of the fabric. Iris’s eyes darkened with annoyance.
“Oh, I heard you girls over there are pretty cute, and it’s totally true, isn’t it? Hey, how about switching sides? I can pamper you like crazy. Hehehe…”
The huge figure that reminded one of an orc turned out to be a woman, not a man. With a look reminiscent of a gorilla, the woman radiated beauty but shamelessly projected her lust towards the young Iris.
Iris found the reckless invasion of her space, the damage done to Lian’s clothes, and that gross stare all simultaneously unpleasant. No, it was beyond unpleasant; it was downright disgusting.
Just as she was about to turn the woman into an entirely different form.
“Krheung!”
With a sound mimicking a massive beast’s cry, something lunged at the woman.
Crunch, chop!
“Gah—”
Jess, angered by the invasion of her territory, seized the woman’s head and yanked it off.
Thud!
The headless corpse tumbled to the floor.
“Aooook!”
Jess let out a long, triumphant cry, lightly licking the blood from her hand, then abruptly stood up and whipped around to face Iris.
“Gasp! Is it okay to kill this…?”
Jess, belatedly realizing, asked with sagging ears. Iris stomped over to the corpse and kicked its belly, answering,
“Yup.”
Just then, Lian’s voice called from the bathroom.
“Iris! Is something happening outside? I thought I heard a loud noise?”
Iris’s icy expression melted away in an instant. She approached the bathroom door and replied.
“Um, no. It seems someone… is fighting outside.”
“Really? Should I not go check?”
“……Yeah.”
Iris took a moment of silence, thinking if she said he should come out now, it’d be a chance to glimpse Lian’s naked body.
“Alright. If anything happens, tell me right away.”
“Okay.”
As soon as Iris finished speaking, the sound of running water was heard again. Lian had a habit of taking his sweet time in the shower.
It was partly because the shower cost was included in the inn fee— “Might as well get my money’s worth!”—and partly due to the rarity of warm water during their travels, which made him used to long showers.
So, for those reasons, Lian didn’t notice the chaos happening outside. This was pretty standard in the gag world.
Thud, boom!
Before Vienna’s blood had a chance to dry, a bunch of similar-sized folks came pouring down.
“Ugh! V-Vienna-sama!”
“Vienna has been attacked!”
“N-No way!”
They approached Lian’s crew’s room, only to freeze upon spotting Vienna’s head rolling on the floor of the corridor.
Totally stunned by the death of their leader, the big guys couldn’t move. The one at the front clenched his teeth and shouted,
“Damn it! This is war!”
“But—”
“With the captain dead and our mission a flop, do you think the boss is going to let us live? The only way left for us is to take down those two bitches!”
Clang, clink!
Realizing the point of no return, the big guys drew their swords and lunged at Iris and Jess.
“Lucky us.”
Iris muttered softly, a beautiful smile spreading across her face.
“There are plenty of things to kill.”
Iris was genuinely thrilled that there was still a chance to vent her anger.
She pulled the sword resting against the wall and charged out into the corridor. She didn’t want to stain the room with any more filth.
WHAM!
Corpses began to pile up.
*
Ten minutes earlier, in the poshest suite at the inn where Lian’s group was staying.
The spacious living room was adorned with fancy carpets, with plush leather sofas facing each other around a stylish wooden table.
On one sofa sat Noah, legs crossed, while a rough-looking older woman occupied the opposite seat. A guard from their organization stood behind each sofa.
Noah, towering due to continuous training and her lineage, looked older than her actual age—she seemed at least 17.
“I had no idea the boss of Nest was this young,” sneered the middle-aged woman with an angular jaw. It was a blatant mockery, but Noah merely shrugged her shoulders, unfazed.
“I didn’t think the boss of Vian would be such an old hag. Or is it grandma?”
“What…?!”
The woman’s face turned a mix of red and blue. Hearing the sound of her teeth grinding, Noah shot her a cold stare.
‘She’s even more unpleasant than I expected.’
So why was Noah sitting face-to-face and having a dialogue with such an unpleasant person?
To understand, one needed to catch up on the current situation in Cardishian.
The Dwarf Boss controlled the northwestern territory, Leviathan ruled the east, and the southern region was always embroiled in warfare with the alliance of Verimosa.
The northwestern area, once ruled by the Dwarf Boss, started crumbling from internal conflicts after the boss’s demise.
People flocked in for various reasons: to grab at least a crumb, to seize a small area, to carve out new power amidst the chaos, and so on.
Initially, it was complete chaos, but over time, the weaklings either crumbled easily or withdrew, clarifying the dynamics of battle.
It became a conflict between ‘Leviathan,’ constantly at war with the Dwarf Boss over the northwestern land, and Noah’s organization ‘Nest,’ which had frighteningly gained power in a short time.
It made no sense for Nest, mostly made up of kids, to fight on par with Leviathan. Everyone agreed—this just didn’t add up.
Then came the twist. Nest went from equivalent combat to gradually swallowing up the territory.
But that was where they hit the ceiling. To push out Leviathan and engulf the vast area, bigger strength and numbers were needed.
Noah used her overwhelming charisma to absorb the relatively clean organizations, expanding her own. Despite all her efforts, it still fell short of entirely pushing out Leviathan.
In that scenario, the method she came up with was “forming alliances.” Basically, partner up with the ruthless organizations she hadn’t even glanced at, beef up her group, then push back Leviathan in one fell swoop.
Currently, there were no other solid tactics besides this one.
That’s why Noah was stuck conversing with an unpleasant character.
‘Tsk, I thought we could at least have a decent chat.’
This was a person who would mock you based on age or looks. A proper conversation was impossible with such a shallow character.
Noah picked up on the clear disdain and desire radiating from the woman’s eyes. It was clear she longed to gobble up the juicy prey that was ‘Nest,’ leaving Noah’s mood deflated.
‘Guess I should just give up on working with trash.’
Forming an alliance with someone who could stab you in the back at any moment was like digging your own grave.
Noah kept her icy stare locked on the woman but attempted to rise from her seat. No, she was going to stand up.
At that moment, the guard behind the other woman whipped out his sword. Noah frowned and plopped her slightly lifted butt back on the sofa. The guard promptly sheathed his sword again.
“Whoa, whoa, hold up! We haven’t even had a real conversation yet. Besides, I came out against my better judgment because of your request, you brat.”
“Sorry, but I think this conversation has run its course.”
“Oh dear, I must’ve come off too harsh. My bad! It’s just a habit of mine to establish dominance when bosses meet.”
She instantly switched to a warm, friendly smile as if it truly was a mistake. But Noah didn’t let her guard down.
‘Huu… alright, since it took effort to set this up, let’s keep talking to get some info on the other party.’
Even without forming an alliance, they could squeeze out information through conversation.
“…Alright. So—”
Just as Noah slowly started laying out her points, the boss of Vian signaled her guard. She pretended to scratch her neck and lightly tapped her shoulder three times. The guard grabbed the neck of his scabbard and activated the signal.
In the room right next to where they were chatting, about 20 people had gathered.
Most were burly women, their muscular builds making them appear almost cartoonishly different.
They were the orc unit from the Vian organization, there to carry out the boss’s orders.
Their directive was simple: take Noah’s subordinate hostage.
Vienna, the leader of the orc unit, grinned at the signaling device.
“It’s the signal! They said that brat’s subordinate is resting in room 2023 downstairs, right?”
At Vienna’s words, one of her subordinates shook her head and answered.
“I heard it’s room 2024, not 2023… ugh!”
Smack!
Before the subordinate could finish relaying accurate information, Vienna whacked her on the back of the head.
“So, I’m wrong, huh?! If I say it’s 2023, it’s 2023!”
“Cough… y-yes, yes!”
With a triumphant expression, Vienna proclaimed,
“First, I’ll go handle it briefly. You folks come down in 5 minutes.”
“Wait? But…”
“What? Got something to say?”
“Uh… n-no…”
The subordinate had wanted to object to Vienna monopolizing the task, but when Vienna threateningly raised her fist, she had no choice but to concede.
“Alright, off I go. Just wait quietly!”
Five minutes after Vienna left, the organization members proceeded down to the lower floor.
…And they all headed off to a place they wouldn’t return from.
Unaware of this, the boss of Vian nodded in agreement with Noah’s words while secretly chuckling deviously.
‘Hehe, stupid brat. You don’t even know what kind of trouble your underlings are in, and yet you’re just spouting nonsense.’
But the truly foolish one was her, as the main unit of her organization was being decimated thanks to that incompetent subordinate, with no way for the boss of Vian to realize this.