The Four Great Families were trying to set Il-gyu and Godou against each other.
But there were two things they had overlooked.
"Hee~~~ You people are plotting something pretty cute, aren’t you? If you’d bent the knee properly, I would’ve cooked things just right so I could eat you up."
The first was Erica Blandelli.
She was far more dangerous, and true to her reputation as the Red Devil, she was a woman with devilish competence.
The Four Great Families’ plan?
It was all in the palm of her hand.
There was only one thing she had misunderstood: she sincerely loved Godou and wanted to make him the king of Japan.
As for excluding the Four Great Families?
She knew how high and mighty they were.
Besides, when it came to fighting, Godou was overflowing with savage charisma, but in everyday life he was a completely ordinary high school student, closer to a mild-mannered herbivore than anything else.
Leadership?
Maybe later. Right now, it was nothing to count on.
Of course, there was no way a Godou like that could rein in the Four Great Families, who were practically kings that had split Japan into four.
So she would have to take command in his place and direct the Four Great Families herself.
But then again, there was no way they would listen to her either.
"No helping it. I’ll just have to educate them properly."
If they wouldn’t bend, they’d get nothing.
So she connected the Historical Compilation Committee with Godou, making it look as though Godou had no need for the Four Great Families at all.
At the same time, she took it upon herself to act as Godou’s representative and shook the board by strengthening his political standing.
It was all for the day Godou would accept for himself that he was king.
Then, when a king suddenly appeared in neighboring Korea, even she was surprised.
But after watching his actions, she decided he would be focused on Korean domestic affairs for the time being, so she did not pay him much attention.
"If anything, he’ll make a good rival for Godou."
Foolishly enough, she too, like the Four Great Families, trusted in the warrior incarnation Godou possessed and did not regard Il-gyu as a dangerous threat.
Well, that was partly because Il-gyu had ignored Greenwich’s proposal, and partly because the National Intelligence Service had worked hard to conceal information about him.
If Erica had even caught a glimpse of Il-gyu’s Authority, or even a fragment of his talent, she would never have let her guard down like this.
Anyway, setting that aside, Erica decided to go along with the Four Great Families’ plan.
This was a trap, but it was also an opportunity.
If they could weather a conflict with Korea without the Four Great Families’ help, then even the Four Great Families would have no choice but to bow their heads.
Unless they truly wanted to be quietly weeded out in Japan.
"You still don’t understand. A king’s influence is beyond anything you can imagine. If there are kings in both countries, a full-scale war almost never happens in the first place."
They knew better than anyone how far above the rest a king was.
Once a king fought another king and settled the matter, that was the end of it.
Of course, if they knew the penalty attached to Godou’s Authority, then Korea would unquestionably launch a full-scale war immediately after the battle.
But Japan was hiding the details of that Authority too.
Well, if Korea had accepted Greenwich’s proposal, they might have been able to obtain at least some basic information about Godou’s Authority.
But relations between Korea and Greenwich were still strained, so that would be difficult.
And now that conflict was all but certain again, Greenwich would never side with any particular Devil King.
"The only problem is that for Godou to bring out the warrior incarnation, I’d have to accompany him into battle..."
Normally that wouldn’t matter.
But if they proposed a duel, would Korea accept it?
No matter how much Erica was not a god-slayer, she was still top-tier among humans, a Great Knight.
And she was the master of the magic sword Cuore di Leone.
"Korea’s king is still a newcomer as a Devil King. Even if he’s been one for only a short time, he’s still Godou’s junior."
If he were an upper-class Devil King, he would probably dismiss someone like Erica and not care whether she came along or not.
But a junior Devil King was unlikely to be so relaxed.
If the National Intelligence Service wasn’t stupid, they wouldn’t just sit there and watch either.
On the contrary, they would suspect why Godou had specifically brought Erica along and realize there was a limitation on the use of his Authority.
"Then even if I allow myself to accompany him, they’ll try to eliminate me first."
It would be nice if she could remove the warrior incarnation’s restriction right away.
Unfortunately, to break the shackles on the warrior incarnation, she would have to observe Il-gyu’s Authority for quite some time.
And honestly, if she still couldn’t identify the nature of the Authority after that, there would be nothing she could do.
Her spiritual vision simply wasn’t that exceptional.
"Hmm. It’s earlier than planned, but should I meet that woman after all?"
In terms of spiritual vision alone, she was said to rival Princess Alice herself: the greatest spiritual vision user in East Asia.
Of all people, she was the one recruit Godou absolutely had to secure first.
In fact, connecting Godou with the Historical Compilation Committee had also been for that purpose.
Since she was already working with the Historical Compilation Committee for the time being...
"Ah, now that I think about it, spiritual vision alone isn’t enough, is it? To pass the deity I discover through spiritual vision on to Godou, I’d need to use a priestess’s rite..."
The body of a god-slayer repels all supernatural powers except Authorities.
Even those wielded by gods themselves.
To get past that and cast a rite on him, it would have to be done from inside his body.
And the only way she knew to perform a priestess’s rite from inside was through oral contact.
"Oral contact..."
That was a polite way of saying a kiss.
And not just any kiss, either. It would have to be a deep one, tongues and all.
"If I ask for something like that the first time we meet, even Godou would probably slap me, wouldn’t he?"
At least the good news was that the spiritual vision user was a girl the same age as Godou.
"Well, no helping it. I’ll just have to trust in Godou’s toughness once he gets going."
For the record, she wasn’t worried about persuading the spiritual vision user.
She was a shrine maiden.
She knew that once a king appeared in Japan, one had to obey that king.
And there was no way she would refuse to cooperate in a battle between kings.
It was only that Erica had wanted voluntary cooperation rather than this kind of obedience, so that was a little disappointing.
Still, there was nothing for it but to hope time would solve that.
And then came the second mistake of the Four Great Families.
That was the National Intelligence Service.
"Do they think we’re idiots?"
"I’m already pissed off, and now they’re acting like a pair of lunatics too."
"Those bastards backing some brat who isn’t even fit to be called a king while insulting Il-gyu-nim..."
The National Intelligence Service was at the peak of its momentum now.
It had already grasped the Four Great Families’ plan.
And it had also figured out that Erica had noticed and was trying to exploit it.
Of course, once they realized that, their anger shot straight to the ceiling.
Both sides had planned this whole affair on the assumption that Il-gyu would naturally lose to Godou.
They wanted nothing more than to teach them what a counterattack really looked like.
But they were the king’s sword and his retainers.
If there was even the slightest danger, they could not send Il-gyu there.
If anyone was going, they would go first.
"Tch. I’m angry too, but hold it in. The best thing right now is not to get played."
"Hah, and you’re the one grinding your teeth the hardest, Team Leader."
"Beyond being a king, Il-gyu-nim is now the pride of our Korean supernatural world. They’re insulting him. Are we really supposed to just swallow that?"
"Then what do you want us to do? They didn’t officially insult him to his face. If you think about it, you just called the Japanese king a brat who isn’t even fit to be called a king."
"Th-that was because I got worked up all of a sudden..."
"No matter how little anyone’s watching, that’s disqualifying for an agent. Well, I’m not exactly in a position to talk, either."
Still, they were not so irrational that they couldn’t tell right from wrong.
As Team Leader Choi Hana said, the best thing they could do right now was refuse to play along with their scheme.
Il-gyu was formidable enough, but the other side might be hiding some trump card.
They could not send Il-gyu into a battlefield like that.
"Let’s pull back."
"Ugh..."
"No choice."
No matter what provocation Japan threw at them, they could just ignore it.
Besides, the Four Great Families had kept within the line.
They genuinely did not want an all-out war between Korea and Japan.
As for the MH Group matter, after Il-gyu investigated it, it turned out Japan had not been the cause.
In fact, Korea had been the cause.
The ending was unexpectedly anticlimactic, but by then they had already smuggled the ritual implements and ritual tools they had obtained through bribery overseas.
They had even sold them.
They had been frantic trying to hide the evidence, but the buyers of the smuggled ritual implements voluntarily returned them to the Korean National Intelligence Service, and the whole crime was exposed.
As a result, MH decided on a full dissolution.
And under the condition that the damage be minimized, Taeseong Group swallowed up all the spoils.
Apparently they really wanted to get on Il-gyu’s good side, because along with the merger and acquisition they boldly promised full employment succession.
"The number one and number two conglomerates have merged. Taeseong’s got wings now."
"If I’d bought some stock, would I have made a killing?"
"You probably still aren’t too late."
There was, however, one question that remained.
"But how exactly were they planning to make kings collide?"
"If they intended to make it look almost like a full-scale war, even if it wasn’t the real thing, that wouldn’t be easy by normal means..."
Honestly, even if they tried to provoke them, it was doubtful it would work.
Anyone who knew Il-gyu would know he wasn’t the sort to be baited by half-baked provocation.
And Japan wasn’t North Korea, so it didn’t seem likely they would suddenly fire missiles as provocation either.
"Just a guess, but maybe they’ll provoke the Japanese king instead?"
"What?"
"What the hell kind of nonsense is that? Why would they provoke their own king?"
"Uh... because they say he’s still a student."
The person they had investigated, Kusanagi Godou, was actually a pretty decent guy.
Of course, that was only his record before becoming king.
Still, if he hadn’t become king, he probably would have lived a perfectly normal life without any major problems.
He had even been on the track-and-field team and the baseball team, and apparently he was so good with people that he had never even gotten into a single fight.
"Guys like that are usually clumsily righteous. They don’t know how to consider the circumstances."
In other words, Japan would claim that Korea had done something to them.
Then they would go to Godou and say it outright.
They’d tell him they’d been hit by Korea, but because Korea had a king, they couldn’t even say anything about it.
So please, just help them once.
"Because only a king can deal with another king."
Erica would gently scratch at Godou’s side here too.
Her true goal was Godou’s awakening, so a slightly resentful look would probably work best.
And then, if she looked at him like that and pressed him by saying this was because he wasn’t acting like a king?
And if she said it in a sorrowful tone, as though this was the misery of a country that did not possess a king?
"You say you’re not a king, but you still do everything you want anyway."
Godou would probably come to Korea and complain about it reluctantly.
Besides, even if Il-gyu was older than Godou, as a Devil King he was still the junior.
Not just in Japan, but everywhere in the world.
It was the senior’s job to teach the junior proper manners.
Something like giving the junior Devil King a good beating?
"After the two of them have a nice, clean fight, we just say it was all a misunderstanding at the end."
"And you think that would end as a misunderstanding?"
"Japan doesn’t doubt its own victory, does it? And given the Japanese king’s personality, if he found out it was a misunderstanding, he’d apologize on his own. If Korea has already lost to a king and the king himself apologizes, what are they going to do—refuse the apology?"
The order of the international world comes from force.
If things really played out that way, Korea would indeed have no choice but to accept the apology.
But...
"Come on~~~ That’s going too far."
"Yeah, we can insult them, but a king is still a king."
"Unless they think their own king is a complete idiot, there’s no way they’d go that far."
It was a move that showed not even a shred of respect for Godou.
So everyone rejected the idea.
"Th-that’s true, right? Heh heh, even I thought I was going too far when I said it."
He scratched the back of his head, looking embarrassed.
Then, exactly three days later, every agent in Supernatural Team 4 stood there with their mouths hanging open and said, "Are you a fortune teller?"
"Huh? Why was that right?"
Later, that agent was transferred to the strategic affairs division.
More precisely, to the strategic affairs division directly under the king.
thanks for the chapter