Pureum was thrown into an uproar.
A single user had come face-to-face with the Nameless King in the Tower of Honor.
Originally, the Nameless King’s main story was this: if he was defeated on the 11th floor, he would recover part of the memories he had lost.
And after that?
The core of it was that the Nameless King—who was also the Overlord—would ascend to the 30th floor, wait for challengers, and at last pass down the Overlord’s secret art.
[Story Proposal for the Overlord]
FLIP-
Including Lee Sejin, every branch head who skimmed through the initial proposal for the Overlord let out a sigh.
“There isn’t a single reference to the king’s royal seal anywhere in the proposal.”
That was right.
Looking at the contents of the original proposal, there was no story involving the king’s royal seal.
Not for at least another three years.
And yet the king’s royal seal had suddenly appeared.
“The Most Beautiful Sword in the World changed a great many things.”
Groans spread from branch heads all over the place.
John, the American branch head, spoke.
“I really do find myself thinking that a user is shaping Ares itself. If I had been Master Blacksmith Hyun, would I really have looked at the Nameless King, sensed that something was strange, and tried to seek out the essence?”
All the branch heads nodded.
“We have to admit what we have to admit, but that doesn’t stop us from worrying.”
What they were worried about was the quest asking for the king’s royal seal to be found.
Hyunsoo had not heard it at the time, but the branch heads had.
CLICK-
When Sejin clicked the mouse, Hyunsoo could be seen heading toward the next floor.
Then the Overlord, who had been watching Hyunsoo’s retreating back, lowered his gaze to the Most Beautiful Sword in the World and said:
“This father only asked you to find it. I never asked you to return it.”
Those were the words the Overlord had spoken after Hidden Quest: Find the King’s Royal Seal had been triggered for Hyunsoo.
Everyone in the room understood what it meant.
The king’s royal seal was proof of kingship, and at the same time it suggested the possibility of becoming a new king.
Not asking for it back meant that if Hyunsoo found that royal seal, it would become his.
And now.
That royal seal had been inside Purung’s secret vault, and just an hour ago, Hyunsoo had received this notification.
[You will soon receive your reward.]
They were convinced that reward was the king’s royal seal.
At that moment, John, the American branch head, spoke.
“The person who submitted the story proposal for the Overlord says he wants to join the meeting.”
Everyone turned interested, and Sejin allowed it.
The one who had planned it in the first place—Anton.
He wore an incredulous expression.
He was one of the somewhat arrogant story planners, and in truth he was also a top elite whose results were recognized.
“What you’re worried about won’t happen.”
“And what makes you say that?”
Anton, a blond man with short hair, let out a hollow laugh.
“That’s obvious. When the Overlord said he wouldn’t take back the king’s royal seal, he didn’t even know whether Purung was alive. But Purung is alive, and thanks to Master Blacksmith Hyun, some of the ‘misunderstanding’ between the two of them has been resolved.”
That was true.
“Now that the misunderstanding has been cleared up, the Overlord will naturally try to reclaim his throne, and Purung will return as Ironclad Captain. In other words, there is no world in which a user becomes their master.”
Anton’s words were rational.
And persuasive.
At that, all the branch heads relaxed in relief.
But as always, there was one person.
Lee Sejin, who left every possibility open.
And so Sejin felt only unease.
Will it really happen that way?
Sejin decided to watch those three more closely.
*****
“So this is your house?”
“That’s right.”
“This is a stable.”
“The youngest always has a hard life.”
“......”
Purung had followed the Overlord to the place where they would spend the night, and he found himself speechless, but it hardly mattered.
A place where horses neighed and the smell of cow dung hung in the air.
The two sat at an old table, sharing a single bottle of liquor as they caught up.
Misunderstandings that had continued in part for hundreds of years were completely washed away with the passing cups.
The Overlord spoke again.
“I had never seen a blacksmith like that before. And thanks to him, I was able to forge the Most Beautiful Sword in the World.”
He spoke at length about Hyunsoo.
Purung was no different.
“I’ve lived a long time, but I have never seen a king like him.”
The kings Purung had encountered.
The things created by the King’s Welcome.
And beyond that, the emotions Purung had felt after seeing him, dealing with him, and living through it all.
They talked on and on as they caught up.
Neither man realized that more than ninety percent of what they were talking about revolved around Hyunsoo.
The next day.
“If I ever met you again, I was determined to craft a weapon for you with my own hands.”
It had already been half a year since the Overlord had become the youngest blacksmith, Rock.
Purung explained that the first reason the Overlord had learned forge work was to forget his suffering, and the second was as an act of apology toward those he might someday meet again.
The Overlord was brimming with confidence.
“Not long ago, everyone saw the silver dagger I made and marveled, calling me a genius.”
“......!!!”
Purung was awestruck.
As expected of his king.
As expected of the Overlord.
“Of course, at first I had no talent, but as time passed I improved by leaps and bounds, to the point that I am now called a genius blacksmith. And today, I have a particularly fine feel for what blacksmiths call instinct.”
The Overlord felt a confidence he could not explain.
And Purung felt anticipation.
The finest weapon, crafted by the Overlord himself!
RUMBLE-!
After lighting the furnace, the Overlord immersed himself as though forgetting himself today.
Like Hyunsoo when he fell into Trance, he forged the finest weapon.
And when he finally finished it—
Purung gasped in admiration.
“It’s a hairpin.”
“It’s a sword.”
“......?”
Purung was flustered. It was long, pointed, and a little short.
To anyone’s eyes, it looked far closer to a hairpin.
And yet it was a sword?
Purung stared, bewildered.
The Overlord spoke to passing blacksmiths.
“......What do you think of the sword I made?”
“Oh, o-ohhh... a genius for the ages...”
“A genius blacksmith sent down by heaven!”
“......”
Last night, the Overlord had definitely said this.
No one knows I’m the Overlord.
“......?”
Anyone could see they all already knew.
Only he didn’t know it himself.
The blacksmiths, sweating rivers of cold sweat, kept avoiding the Overlord.
“It’s a gift.”
But it did not matter what kind of sword it was.
Purung received it and was sincerely overjoyed.
To him, this felt like the second installment of the Most Beautiful Sword in the World.
“I will... cherish it forever, Your Highness...”
Purung hugged the gift the Overlord had given him and wept, then went out to the hunting grounds to test the sword and immediately threw it away.
Damn it, this is unusable.
He ran straight to the forge, bought a Brand Hyun series sword, and equipped it.
That was right.
He had said he would treasure it forever.
He had never said he would use it.
And also—
As expected, when it comes to swords, nothing beats Brand Hyun!
Purung was extremely satisfied with the Brand Hyun sword he had just purchased.
In any case—
Purung was happy to have met the Overlord again.
He reached into the secret vault and presented the king’s royal seal, its gold and black harmonizing beautifully.
When the Overlord received the royal seal and turned it over in his hand, Purung prostrated himself.
“Your Highness’s country, Bardrei, vanished into history after hundreds of years, but its descendants still live on in a distant and safe land. In accordance with the words I left behind—that I would find a new king—they have been waiting for a king, and I will personally seek out the scattered remnants of the Ironclad Corps as well.”
“And though the Ironclad Corps is made up of their descendants, they are by no means lacking in strength. They can only be counting the days until the Overlord returns.”
Purung spoke, overcome with emotion.
“Will you come with me?”
The Overlord nodded.
And then the Overlord and Purung left Atlas.
Watching them from one side, Hyunsoo wore a gentle smile and said:
“And my reward...?”
PATPATPATPAT-!
Hyunsoo ran to Nell in a single bound.
“Nell, can they just make off with my reward?”
“???”
Nell could not understand what Hyunsoo was talking about.
*****
The Kingdom of Bardrei.
A small but mighty kingdom once ruled by the Overlord.
It was a remnant of the history the Overlord had engraved upon the world, and one of the few records of him that remained.
All of Bardrei’s people from the past were dead.
But among the dead, one thing had been handed down through the generations.
The one who held the king’s royal seal.
Would prove their qualifications as king.
At the same time—
The legend had also been passed down that Purung, once the captain of the Ironclad Corps, had gone out to find a new king.
The present Kingdom of Bardrei was no more than a place barely prolonging its life.
And yet, perhaps as proof that they were descended from the Overlord—
its people were remarkably tenacious.
They survived by any means necessary, and became adept at countless things.
And what of their soldiers?
Drawing on swordsmanship created in imitation of the Overlord’s own, even the finest elite soldiers of most kingdoms were far inferior to the soldiers of Bardrei.
Small kingdom or not—
Bardrei had once been a nation of 4 million citizens and 500,000 troops.
Now, only about 500,000 citizens and 30,000 soldiers remained.
And while they endured, sustained by the belief that someday a new king would appear and save them—
“His Highness the Overlord has arrived!”
A man bearing the emblem that marked the captain of the Ironclad Corps.
Wearing silver armor, Purung entered among the filthy, precariously surviving citizens.
Bardrei was thrown into chaos.
“His Highness the Overlord bearing the king’s royal seal has arrived!”
At that cry, which rang out once more, all the people and all the soldiers came running at once.
Toward the old castle, on the verge of collapse, he took one step, then another.
The king’s royal seal in his hand was proving that their king had returned.
However—
there were also many who distrusted him.
They too knew the stories that had come down about Prince Barsen’s death and the mad king.
But as Purung watched the Overlord standing boldly atop the castle, he smiled.
It was all a misunderstanding.
Master Blacksmith Hyun had apparently seen Barsen’s diary.
And once the truth of that day was told to the people with the Most Beautiful Sword in the World hanging at the Overlord’s waist, that would be the end of it.
Yes.
They would start over from the beginning.
But then—
“......Disgusting.”
The Overlord covered his nose with one hand and frowned as he looked over the filthy citizens, soldiers, and knights.
“These things are my citizens? Where is the resplendent Ironclad Corps of the past? Where are the children who once ran about in elegant clothes? Where are the warriors who bore dazzling armor and well-kept swords? What, exactly, is left?”
The Overlord looked at them as if he were looking at insects.
Purung could not understand.
Neither could the citizens.
“What are you talking about?”
“Are you calling us beggars right now...?”
“We have waited for Your Highness for hundreds of years!”
“My father! And my grandfather! And my great-grandfather told me your story!!!”
“Overlord! Our king!!”
The citizens cried out.
And the Overlord said, just like the madman of that day:
“I am the Overlord.”
“......”
“The unmatched king who never loses, and the strongest king of all.”
Purung could not understand those words.
You need to speak about Barsen... You need to tell them it was all a misunderstanding. You need to say you were not mad. That you loved your people, that the battle that day was fought to protect the kingdom!
That was what Purung truly felt.
The Overlord’s gaze landed on Purung.
It was only then, through the faint, nearly invisible nod he gave, that Purung finally understood.
The Overlord was no longer in this world.
There was only a blacksmith who did not know when he would return to the Tower of Honor.
If he stayed beside them, the people would only be wounded again, harmed again, and forced to live on in endless waiting.
“I have no need of the likes of you.”
He cast away his people with his own hands.
“You do not suit me, the Overlord.”
He laid down the name of the Overlord with his own hands.
“Do not ever call me Your Highness again. It sickens me.”
He threw the king’s royal seal to the ground with his own hands.
THUD, TAP TAP TAP...
Then, after looking once at the people, and then at Purung, he disappeared.
“......”
Tears streamed from Purung’s eyes.
From the hand that had thrown down the king’s royal seal, Purung understood everything.
Purung picked up the royal seal from the ground.
“What is the meaning of this?!”
“That man is still a madman!”
“What about all the waiting we endured?!”
Purung decided that he would remember the Overlord who had chosen to remain a madman forever for the sake of his people.
And for their sake, Purung decided that he too would become a madman once more.
With a bright smile, Purung shouted:
“Did I not say that ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) I would find a new king!”
Then he cried out even more loudly, so that all of them could hear.
“There is a king better than that man! How could a madman like that possibly be our Overlord? Hahaha!”
Purung left the ruined Kingdom of Bardrei behind, together with its hundreds of thousands of people.
Alone, he commanded the soldiers and fought against the monster hordes that attacked them.
He walked with them through the brutal cold and endured it together with them.
He led those on the verge of collapse to a new land.
And at last—
they arrived before a castle gate.
Together with the hundreds of thousands of citizens, Purung looked up at him.
The Overlord’s Armor, the Overlord’s Helm, the Overlord’s Boots.
After the long turning of hundreds of years—
Unparalleled at his waist, and the Sword for the One Who Follows the King beside it.
“Will you take us in?”
Kneeling and prostrating himself, Ironclad Captain Purung offered up the king’s royal seal as he spoke.
The people who had followed him also knelt and prostrated themselves.
TAP-
A man descended with light footsteps and accepted the royal seal.
“Any time.”
At the sight of his bright smile, Purung’s chest swelled as he announced that a new era was opening.
“I greet the new Overlord.”
The age of the new Overlord was beginning.
