The Japanese occult world fell into panic.
It wasn’t enough that they had lost a battle they had been certain they would win; the worst possible outcome had occurred, with even the king’s divine power being stolen away.
And then came the message from Korea, driving the nail in deeper.
“You seemed dissatisfied with your king, so we took care of him for you. How is it? Do you like it?”
In other words, Korea had known everything about the Four Great Families’ scheme.
They had deliberately provoked this clash to raise their own standing.
“Ah... what are we supposed to do now?”
“We should apologize immediately—”
“Do you think this is something that can be settled with an apology?!”
“Damn it, when did the National Intelligence Service’s information network become this good...?”
If they had won, it would have been one thing.
But to lose and then get exposed was the absolute worst of the worst.
Soon, Korea’s king would come crashing down on Japan, now stripped of the emperor’s protection.
Japan had no power to stop it.
It wasn’t just the outrageous Authority of divine power theft that terrified them.
They had also witnessed just how absurd Il-gyu’s combat power became once he took Verethragna’s Boar.
It was enough to make them doubt whether he had really used the same kind of Authority as Godou at all.
He was no longer someone who could be dismissed with a word like “newcomer.”
“No! What the hell was Erica Blandelli doing?! The incarnation of the warrior! Why didn’t she use that sword that seals an opponent’s divine nature?!”
Still, their certainty that Godou would win had not been born of blind arrogance.
Verethragna’s final incarnation, the Warrior, the Golden Sword, was a sacred weapon that sealed an opponent’s divine nature.
Against a god, it could drastically reduce their overall performance.
Against a god-slayer, it could seal one of the Authorities they possessed.
If it sealed the Korean king’s Authority, and he only had one to begin with, he would be rendered powerless on the spot.
Honestly, it would have been strange not to assume he would lose.
However—
“You know, don’t you? To use the incarnation of the warrior, you need vast knowledge of the divine nature you’re cutting down. And then you have to unravel the spell based on that knowledge.”
That was an utterly brutal activation condition.
The “vast knowledge” in question was not something you could fake your way through.
You had to memorize the equivalent of three or four full books on a single god, and on top of that, read through at least ten scholarly papers analyzing that deity.
To use the incarnation of the warrior against any god at all, you’d need to be on the level of the world’s greatest mythologist.
That was why Godou had always cleared that hurdle through Erica.
Through the magic of the [Judgment of the Sinner], which temporarily transferred the knowledge she possessed to another person.
Of course, Erica didn’t know everything about every mythology.
But women born with the aptitude to serve as vessels of gods—shrine maidens, miko, witches, and the like—could use divine sight to read the essence of a god or a god’s power simply by observing it.
She would then pass that essence to Godou through the [Judgment of the Sinner], unlocking the incarnation of the warrior.
That was also why Erica had tried so hard to recruit Maria Yuri.
Erica’s knightly refinement was exceptional, but as a witch she wasn’t all that outstanding. Her divine sight was unreliable, and it took far too long for her to complete it.
Up to now, she had been able to support Godou mostly because she already knew more gods than most people did.
By contrast, Maria Yuri was the finest divine-sight user in the East.
Gods?
She didn’t even need them.
She possessed the talent to see through to the essence of divine power—or even a tiny fragment of that power.
A true-born miko.
Her lack of combat ability was a little unfortunate, but that was something he could cover for.
That was why he had tried so hard to bring Maria over to Godou’s side.
“Once the divine power was stolen, what would have been the point of cutting down the opponent’s divine nature?”
“There wasn’t even time to read it in the first place.”
“The fight was over almost before anyone could blink.”
From the start, Il-gyu had not let his guard down around Erica either.
Normally, he would have struck Godou a crippling blow, then moved in to finish him off, treating a mere knight as nothing.
But the moment he separated Godou and Erica, he subdued Erica first.
It must have been the instinct of a god-slayer called a natural-born warrior.
In the end, it was simply the result of a stark difference in level between two god-slayers.
But what use was any of that now?
“Tch... damn it...”
“Haa...”
“What are we supposed to do about this?”
“I’m going to lose my mind.”
Knowing something in your head and accepting it were two different matters.
Above all, there was a more urgent issue.
Who, exactly, would bear responsibility for this disaster?
“Wasn’t this started by Uhara in the first place? Then Uhara should take responsibility.”
“Hah? This was something everyone agreed to, wasn’t it?!”
“Hmm, I’m not sure. Our Nagi never agreed to it. We merely let it pass.”
“That’s the same damn thing, you bastard!”
Old habits die hard.
After briefly pooling their strength, they ended up fighting again, each trying to shove the blame onto the others.
They probably knew it themselves.
They knew their own words were sophistry, and that no one could be free of responsibility for this mess.
But the responsibility for the king’s stolen divine power was not something even the Four Great Families could shoulder.
And if they couldn’t shoulder it, they could no longer survive as the Four Great Families.
That was why they were thrashing about like this.
In the end, the Four Great Families, still locked in a filthy brawl, pulled out a desperate measure.
Since no one could bear this responsibility, they decided to hand over full authority to someone else.
“For now, isn’t the Historical Compilation Committee in charge of advising the king? Let’s send them to Korea and ask whether they might be able to return the divine power.”
“Would they give it back? No, even if they did, do you think it would be free?”
“Then what, are you going to go? Now that everything’s already been exposed, if we go ourselves we’ll only make his anger worse.”
“Hmm... well...”
“We should give full authority to the Historical Compilation Committee. That way, at least, they can go and talk.”
“The family is already noisy enough as it is. I’m worried we’d be giving them too much power.”
“We have no choice. This isn’t a situation where we can walk away without losing anything.”
Besides, shouldn’t they bring back the fallen Godou and Erica first?
Even if he had lost half of his divine power, the king was still the king.
And Erica was the favored close aide of such a king.
More than that, Erica was actually the important one to them.
She was the only person who could share this insane burden with them, even a little.
They couldn’t say for certain that the information sent by Korea was accurate, but if it was true, Erica had also been complicit in this affair.
In a sense, she was the true culprit who had deceived their king.
And if Godou learned the whole truth, there was a high chance he would explode as well.
So they could only hope she would at least stop that.
“Then who should we send from the Historical Compilation Committee?”
“Isn’t that obvious?”
“The current chairman is from the Sayanomiya family, so that’s out of the question.”
“Since this is a meeting where Japan will be represented before the king, the person needs to have at least a minimum level of dignity... there’s only one person, isn’t there?”
Of course, she was someone who despised this kind of political game to the core.
But she was a miko, and above all, a patriot who loved her country more sincerely than anyone else. She would grit her teeth and accept the role.
“Maria Yuri. Let’s send her.”
Meanwhile, the atmosphere in Korea was the complete opposite.
Just the fact that our king had crushed the Japanese king was enough to send national pride soaring to obscene heights, and on top of that, he possessed an irregular-class Authority called divine power theft.
What’s more, his talent was so extraordinary that he used the stolen divine power in a quality far beyond the original owner’s, and won against the Japanese king with it alone.
What better reversal could there be? What better source of catharsis could there be?
“That was insane.”
“He tore them apart.”
“I’m done for.”
“Uh, maybe not phrased like that.”
“Sorry, I’m going to go change my underwear.”
Korea’s prestige shot upward with the momentum.
Even the two great figures known as the strongest Devil Kings showed interest in a fellow born on the peninsula.
And Italy was doing everything it could to stop its king from heading to Korea at once.
“A... Andrea! I’m really just going to show my face, that’s all! Just say hello and come back. You don’t trust me?”
“If it were you, would you trust your own damn self?”
“Come on!”
“From this moment on, we are entering a 24-hour surveillance state. The instant Doni enters the airport, halt every aircraft’s takeoff. Shut down the runway itself. If he tries to sneak out, just fire a torpedo and shoot him down. He won’t die anyway.”
“““Yes, sir!”””
“Yaaah—!!”
“If you go through all this and still get your divine power stolen in Korea, I will no longer treat you as human.”
“Uh... does that mean I’m fine because I’m not human, but a god-slayer?”
“You son of a bitch!!!”
England was much the same as Italy.
Everyone knew Greenwich and the Korean king had a deeply regrettable relationship.
Still, since there wasn’t much to worry about on that front, Korea was satisfied with a more sincere apology.
But the problem was England’s king, the Black Prince, Alec.
Korea had taken plenty of losses from that world-class thug.
They had demanded that the Royal Arsenal, which he led, return everything it had stolen over the years, and do it while they were still speaking politely.
Like the thug he was, Alec ignored Korea’s demand.
Thanks to that, Il-gyu and the National Intelligence Service were grinding their teeth at him, and the British government and Greenwich, caught in the middle, felt as if they were walking on thin ice.
“He doesn’t seem to realize I’m the kind of man who sentences thieves to death once they cross the line.”
Well, there would be time to settle that someday.
It wasn’t the urgent matter right now.
In truth, Korea wasn’t in any great hurry either.
Japan would react first anyway.
All they had to do was hum happily until then and keep running the numbers on how much they could squeeze out of them.
The only small problem was that they couldn’t quite tell how much that “how much” would be.
And although they did need to return some of the divine power to Godou because it was straining Il-gyu’s body, it was still a shame to spit out three of the five incarnations they had finally stolen.
But then, an unexpected relief pitcher appeared.
“Pleased to meet you. I’m Han Ga-eul, here from Taeseong as an advisor. It’s an honor to meet the king whose fame is so widely known.”
So the number one conglomerate in the country really wasn’t just empty prestige.
Whether she had heard about it somewhere or simply guessed, she had understood Il-gyu’s and the National Intelligence Service’s dilemma and approached them first.
She said she was confident she could ease their current problem, if not perfectly then at least somewhat.
“If your surname is Han...”
“Yes, as you guessed, I’m a member of the Han family. I’m the eldest daughter of the Taeseong line, and I currently serve as president of Taeseong Electronics as well.”
She opened the box she had brought and held it out to Il-gyu.
Inside was a faded, old bead about the size of a fist.
She said it was one of the treasures the Han family had kept for a long time, and identified it as a wish-fulfilling jewel.
“A wish-fulfilling jewel? This thing?”
“Of course, it isn’t a complete one. As you can see, all the power inside it has already vanished. It’s practically closer to something that used to be a wish-fulfilling jewel.”
Still, it had once been a vessel that contained the power of a dragon, so from a magical standpoint it was unquestionably a highly valuable object.
“With this, you won’t be able to fully contain a god’s divine power, but you should still be able to store one incarnation.”
If Il-gyu kept two for himself and stored one in the jewel, then Japan would only need to get back two incarnations.
That would leave him with more than half the spoils, and both Il-gyu and the National Intelligence Service would feel far less bitter about it.
But there is no such thing as a free lunch.
In truth, now that they knew the jewel existed, they could have simply taken it by the king’s authority. But Il-gyu was not that kind of person.
He wanted to pay a fair price.
And ironically, that also solved another problem for Il-gyu and the National Intelligence Service.
“We’d like to ask that Taeseong be appointed as our representative in the negotiations with Japan.”
“You want royalties?”
“No. We don’t want any financial gain at all. If you simply appoint us as your representative, I swear on the honor of my Taeseong family that we will deliver the best possible result.”
What company in the world would say it didn’t want money?
Who would believe that?
But in Han Ga-eul’s case, it was a little different.
Because this was also a deal from which Taeseong stood to gain plenty.
To negotiate right away, they would need detailed information about the incident, and in the process they could build a closer relationship with the National Intelligence Service.
And in a sense, as the first representative of Il-gyu, who had always worked on the front lines until now, Taeseong could also announce to the entire industry that it stood under the wing of that king.
Furthermore, if they brought back a satisfactory result, then from Il-gyu’s perspective there would be no need to look for another card, and naturally he would call on Taeseong again the next time something similar happened.
And by narrowing their distance to Il-gyu in that way, Taeseong could also establish itself as one of his closest inner circle, much like the National Intelligence Service.
Han Ga-eul did not hide these aims.
After all, they were obvious enough.
And she knew that Il-gyu hated unfair greed, but did not reject legitimate greed.
“The National Intelligence Service is, of course, an excellent organization. But it would hardly be a bad choice to keep an organization like ours, one that can also stand in the light, beneath you.”
“That’s true. The range of what you can do would change immediately. But are you sure? As you probably already know, I’m not exactly favorable toward corporate types.”
In truth, once you run a company, it’s actually harder to live while protecting everything.
Because at its core, it’s a profit-seeking group.
And the weight of the law binding ordinary people and corporations is different as well.
But given Il-gyu’s personality, he would never tolerate that.
If they stayed at a distance, maybe.
But if they became his true inner circle, Il-gyu would never be a sweet presence to them.
Still, Han Ga-eul had already prepared herself and nodded.
She also said this was the path corporations now had to take.
“You know this, Il-gyu. The world is full of corruption and rot, but in truth, it is getting a little better.”
“That’s... true.”
“The reason the world looks so filthy is only because that filth is being dragged out into the open one by one. It didn’t suddenly appear out of nowhere.”
Corruption.
Collusion between politics and business.
Buying and selling official posts.
It had all always been there.
That had been the natural order of the world.
Only now had the world become one where people could shout that it was wrong.
In that sense, the world really was improving.
“I think you, Il-gyu, are the being this current has produced.”
“That seems a little far-fetched...”
“Maybe. But don’t you want the world to get better?”
“........”
“Most people do, in fact. They want it to improve. I believe that wish is the reason someone like you appeared.”
So then—
“The day will surely come when better people receive better treatment.”
For Taeseong to still be standing tall when that day arrived,
“Shouldn’t we also become a little better?”
If they stayed beside Il-gyu, they would become that way whether they liked it or not.
Otherwise, he would bring down his law staff on their heads.
Even if they staggered and swayed, Il-gyu was not the kind of man who could leave a better person alone.
“Wouldn’t that be a truly worthwhile business deal?”
When she finished speaking, Il-gyu let out a short laugh.
Then he reached out his hand toward Ga-eul first.
“If you get beaten so much that you end up with dementia, I’m not taking responsibility, so hurry up and get better.”
“I look forward to working with you.”
After the National Intelligence Service, Il-gyu had obtained his second subordinate.
thanks for the chapter