"As my Lord commands."
Alessandro politely received the smartphone and answered without a hint of hesitation. His blue eyes were already gleaming like a predator that had just locked onto its next prey.
I no longer spared a glance for the others. The prostrate Chief, the fear-stricken and confused Kang Tae-jun, and the agents of the Four Divine Guardians whose lives were held as collateral—their punishment was merely deferred. However, it was certainly not a gesture of forgiveness.
"Chief."
At my call, the Chief, who had been bowed flat against the floor, jerked upright in shock. He looked halfway out of his mind with terror.
"Ye—Yes! O King!"
"I command your organization as well. Find the rat that rummaged through Kang Tae-jun's head and drag them before me. That is your only chance to buy back your lives. If you are slower than Alessandro... I will 'process' every last one of you, just as I promised."
At my words, the Chief pounded his head against the floor in desperation. A dread far worse than death weighed heavily upon his shoulders.
"Let's go."
With a short command, I turned and walked toward the heavy steel doors I had entered through earlier. Alessandro followed silently behind me. The remaining agents in the central hall could only stare blankly at our departing backs, gripped by a fear far greater than the relief of surviving—the fear of having been handed a ticking time bomb that could detonate at any moment.
That afternoon, the interrogation room located in the deepest depths of the Four Divine Guardians' headquarters resembled a depiction of hell.
Having regained consciousness, Kang Tae-jun was now bound tightly to a cold metal chair. Standing before him were the bloodshot-eyed Chief and half a dozen psychometrists, their faces pale and taut. The air in the room was as thin and sharp as a sheet of ice.
"Begin! Scour his memories, his soul, even the flow of his mana! I don't care if you have to inspect every single brain cell under a microscope; find a trace of that bastard! If we miss even a single thread, we're all dead!"
Following the Chief’s near-hysterical order, the specialists placed their hands on Kang Tae-jun's head. Blue mana flowed from their hands, boring into Kang's psyche. However, their expressions soon twisted into masks of agony.
"Chief! The memories... they weren't just erased! It's as if a specific section was surgically excised, and the surrounding neural networks and mana circuits were completely incinerated!"
"If we force our way in, Team Leader Kang's mind will completely collapse!"
"I don't care! It doesn't matter if he becomes a vegetable or dies! Our lives are on the line! Continue!"
Staking their very existence, they began to dig frantically into Kang Tae-jun’s tattered psyche, desperate to find even the faintest scent of the 'Puppeteer' who had dared to deceive the King.
Meanwhile, at a safe house of the Bronze-Black Cross.
I sat on a sofa, watching Alessandro proceed with his analysis. Several holographic screens floated before me, cascading with millions of data points and magical patterns like a digital waterfall. I had absolutely no idea what those complex formulas meant. My only expertise lay in the art of killing gods and usurping their power; such delicate realms of magecraft were far beyond my concern.
"How is it going?"
At my question, Alessandro turned his gaze away from the screens.
"It is not simple, my Lord. The opponent is extremely skilled at covering their tracks. The communication logs were routed through satellites and servers in at least twelve different countries with triple encryption. Even the traces of mana embedded in the messages were masked with multiple layers of illusion, making backtracking nearly impossible. It is the classic methodology of 'Shadows.'"
"Shadows?"
"Yes. That is what we call those who control everything from the darkness without staining their own hands. There are only a few organizations worldwide capable of such finesse. They abhor the idea of revealing their existence."
His explanation was clear, but I merely stared at the dizzying data before me. A King's role is not to know every mundane detail. It is to entrust the tasks to the most capable subordinates and make the final, decisive judgment.
After some time had passed, an urgent communication came in from the Four Divine Guardians. As Alessandro patched it through, a holographic screen revealed the Chief, looking significantly more haggard than before.
Behind him, I could faintly see medical staff wheeling out the mentally shattered Kang Tae-jun on a stretcher.
"O King! We have... we have found a clue!"
"Speak."
"Within the sorcery used to manipulate Team Leader Kang's memories, we detected an incredibly faint unique waveform! We barely managed to extract it at the cost of the sanity of several of our agents! While it differs fundamentally from the thaumaturgical systems we use, we found similarities with the Japanese systems we have interacted with for centuries. Specifically, this level of sophisticated mental interference and memory purging... it matches the methods used by the most clandestine group within Japan's magical circles!"
As he listened to the Chief’s desperate report, Alessandro bowed his head to me, confirming the findings.
"My Lord, his assessment is correct. Korean and Japanese magecraft have shared similar roots since ancient times, influencing one another. Just as the Methods of the Directions from the continent passed through the peninsula to become the origin of Onmyōdō in Japan. However, they have evolved independently over the ages. To use an analogy, they are like two different dialects derived from the same language. The Four Divine Guardians have managed, at a great sacrifice, to detect an 'accent' subtly different from their own."
Alessandro pulled one holographic screen toward me. It displayed a complex, geometric pattern that resembled a stylized cherry blossom petal.
"Furthermore, this 'sigil' matches the mana traces I analyzed from the smartphone. This specific formula is unique to the History Compilation Committee of Japan—an organization that styles themselves as the 'compilers of the nation's true history' from within the shadows."
The History Compilation Committee. The sheer gloominess wafting from the name caused me to furrow my brows.
"What do you believe their objective is?"
"If I were to speculate, they likely had two goals. First, to measure the temperament and depth of power of the newly manifested Seventh Campione—that is, your Lordship—using the safest possible method. And second, in that process, to cause the Four Divine Guardians—the representative magical organization of a neighboring nation—to be destroyed by your hand, or at the very least, plunged into uncontrollable chaos to weaken their influence."
Killing two birds with one stone. They wanted to analyze a potential threat—me—while eliminating a rival—the Four Divine Guardians—without spilling a single drop of their own blood. It was an extremely efficient and profoundly insidious plan. They had dared to use a King as their lab rat.
I slowly rose from my seat. A cold, heavy anger, different from the irritation I felt toward the Four Divine Guardians, began to stir within me. The arrogance of the Guardians had been born of ignorance. However, the actions of the History Compilation Committee were a calculated deception and an insult—they knew exactly who I was and still treated me like a pawn on a board.
"I see. It seems I have one more place I need to visit."
I gazed out the window. To the eastern sky. Somewhere over there, where the sun rises, were the fools who had dared to play with fire using me as their fuel.
"Alessandro."
"Yes, my Lord."
"Tell the Four Divine Guardians to continue chasing the Puppeteer's tail. If they value their lives, they'll move with desperate haste."
"Understood."
"And prepare for our departure to Japan. When a neighbor sends such a polite greeting, it is only proper for a King to return the favor in person."
At my words, Alessandro bowed deeply without a single question. A cold smile, signaling the true beginning of the hunt, finally played across his lips.
"I shall make all the necessary arrangements, my Lord."
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register