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[Central Africa, Orden’s Underground Kingdom]

A dark kingdom in Central Africa inhabited by monsters.

Here, Monster King Orden was receiving his servant’s report.

—...Is that so?

—I have no excuse to offer, Your Highness.

Unlike his servant, the King appeared calm. He even seemed to be enjoying this situation.

—We dispatched monsters to protect Yoon Younghwa, but they were not enough.

—You do not need to worry. Who could have known that this Black Lotus would interfere with our work? We only need to prepare better bodyguards next time.

The King said and gestured with his hand. Immediately, a bipedal rabbit emerged from the darkness behind the throne. The monster had the body of a man and the head of a rabbit.

—Gato, it is finally time for you to act.

The rabbit called Gato nodded without a word. He was Orden’s second masterpiece, slower than Kurukuru but by no means less powerful.

—Protect our allies and crush Black Lotus.

Gato’s eyes glowed red at the King’s command. His eyes were thirsting for blood and death. Gato bowed down once and disappeared. He was as fast as the wind.

—...I apologize again, Your Highness.

The monster servant, who had been watching the whole scene from behind, bowed low in front of Orden.

Orden looked down at the servant and gave his next order.

—We need to put aside the carrots and move on to the stick. Lead the monsters of Africa to the north. I shall present the disobedient humanity with their first calamity.

—Yes, Your Highness!

—You may leave now.

The servant disappeared without ever showing his back.

Monster King Orden slowly closed his eyes. The disaster that his servants would bring forth unfolded before him.

This was only the beginning of Orden’s grand ambition.

**

—...You must remain resolute, Your Highness.

This was a memory from a distant past. In a world where four seasons vanished and only winter remained, the old servant urged me to make a decision amidst the familiar cold. I looked down at him from the throne.

—...You must punish the louse and treacherous Kindspring.

The old servant took advantage of my silence and continued. Other servants concurred. Their voices resonated in union.

—...Kindspring is a petty man without a sense of priority, who failed to consider the greater cause due to personal feelings.

Thinking back now, Kindspring was a loyal servant. He wished to remain honest and moral even when the future of the continent hung in the balance. He wished to punish a noble knight for plundering his people.

But the knight was a ‘Sword Master’, destined to become an important asset in the war, whereas Kindspring was not.

—...Raylen only wishes for the punishment of Kindspring. He is a knight who pledged his allegiance to the royal family. Please desert the traitor and embrace your loyal servant, Your Highness.

I was thirteen at the time. Despite my tender age, I was the ‘Queen’, not a young princess, and I carried the responsibility of ruling my kingdom and seizing control of the war.

I recalled the face of my very first servant. His pledge of everlasting loyalty and my acceptance of his pledge clashed with each other in my mind.

—...Your Highness, please punish the louse and treacherous Kindspring.

At that time, I thought I didn’t have any other choice.

But was that really the case? Did I really have no choice but to abandon my most loyal servant?

No, that wasn’t true.

As the Queen, didn’t I wish to abandon him? Didn’t I secretly consider him useless, for he never managed to become strong?

—...I understand. I shall deprive Kindspring of any and all rights as of today. Lock him up immediately.

“...!”

Jin Sahyuk, who was no longer the Queen of Plerion, woke up in her bed. The breath that she had been holding back broke out. Jin Sahyuk gasped for breath as she grabbed her chest. Her heart was beating violently. For a while, she stayed in her bed trying to catch her breath before finally raising her upper body.

“...Haa.”

Another dream of the past. Did her seal over her memories weaken? Or maybe she was just too shaken up by that damned Kim Hajin. The memories that she had buried beneath her consciousness were leaking out like sand.

“Damn it.”

With yet another sigh, she realized her body was covered in sweat. She threw off her bothersome pajamas, and then injected a portion of her magic power into her head. Only after she finished tightening the memory seal did she crawl out of her bed.

“....”

It was early morning. Jin Sahyuk was changing into her uniform when she suddenly looked at herself in the mirror.

In the mirror was a certain woman who resembled the princess. But at the same time, she looked nothing like her. The strange sense of disharmony overwhelmed Jin Sahyuk.

“...This is all because of that little shit, Kim Hajin.”

Her confusion easily transformed into anger. Jin Sahyuk cursed out loud at the thought of Kim Hajin. Just thinking about him made her want to puke. She again pledged to herself to end his life with her own hands....

Jin Sahyuk grabbed her uniform roughly. She carelessly put it on and stepped outside her mansion. The first thing she saw was a cozy and beautiful garden. Soon she spotted a horde of knights approaching her way from a distance.

“...We humbly greet you, Commander Shin Jahyuk!”

The knights were all dressed in [Lv.7 Atalos Platinum Armor], provided to them by the Royal Knights. They were here to greet their Commander. Princess Araha’s guard, Rachel, was also among them. Rachel spotted Jin Sahyuk and gave a small smile.

“Good morning.”

“...What’s the Princess’ knight doing here?”

Jin Sahyuk replied rather gruffly. Still, Rachel did not appear offended at all and said in a small voice.

“Um, Fenrir will be coming to the Castle.”

“...?”

Jin Sahyuk’s face warped into a frown. ‘By Fenrir, she must mean Kim Hajin. But what’s that gotta do with me? ...Is she seriously still thinking I’m his fan?’

“Would you like to come along? You could, if you want to.”

“...N-no. It’s okay.”

Jin Sahyuk shook her head. She had no reason to meet him, nor did she want to meet him. And it was definitely not because he threatened her to ‘never again appear’ before his eyes. It’s just that... she didn’t want to see him, definitely.

“There’s no time. I’ll be leaving to conquer the 9th floor soon.”

Hearing this, Rachel put on a regretful expression.

“Then would you like me to deliver a message to him on your behalf?”

“Message?”

Even Jin Sahyuk couldn’t decline this offer.

‘Message....’

Jin Sahyuk looked at Rachel.

“Ask him if he’s ever heard of Kindsp... no, ‘Prios’.”

“Prios?”

“Yeah.”

Mentioning Kindspring seemed too obvious. Instead, she chose to put forth the name that anyone who was once blessed with the greens of Plerion would know. Prios, the name of her father.

“Ah, wait. No, not that....”

But on second thought, that didn’t seem like a very good choice either. If she used the name of someone who everyone knew, she couldn’t narrow down the suspects.

‘Is there a name recognized by only a handful of people?’ Jin Sahyuk pondered. Suddenly her body flinched violently. ‘I met Kindspring when I was little, and he knew all my secrets. That means....’

“Puharen.”

“...Puharen, you say?”

“Yeah.”

Jin Sahyuk nodded calmly.

“Oh, so you were here~”

Suddenly, a cheerful voice called them. Jin Sahyuk and Rachel turned to where the voice came from.

The Duchess of the West, ‘Tomer’ was there.

“Long time no see, Knight Commander. And Rachel.”

“....”

“Yes, it’s very nice to see you.”

In contrast to Jin Sahyuk who looked at Tomer with discontent, Rachel gave her usual distant yet benevolent smile.

At first, Rachel was surprised to see Tomer here, too. The Cube alumna had shown up unexpectedly and introduced herself as the Duchess of the West.

But Tomer’s explanation easily cleared up Rachel’s confusion.

And recently, the two had become very close. After all, Tomer was the first person who had told Rachel that Kim Hajin liked her during her Cube years.

Tomer scanned the knights quickly.

“Everyone knows that we’re going to the 9th floor tomorrow?”

“Yes, of course!”

The knights answered lively. Jin Sahyuk didn’t like that they seemed to like Tomer more than her. Tomer looked at Jin Sahyuk and gave her a big smile.

“Well then, I’ll be leaving now. I’m scheduled to meet with someone.”

With a smile, Rachel used a return ticket.

...With Rachel gone, a competitive atmosphere filled the space between Tomer and Jin Sahyuk.

**

I left Korea and arrived in England. I wasn’t here for vacation, of course, but to meet Evandel.

“...Invitation?”

“Yes. Anyone who is not a royal needs an invitation to enter.”

But when I tried to enter the Buckingham Palace, a ‘knight’ stopped me.

England was one of the few countries in this world that acknowledged the profession called ‘knight’.

Knights were similar to Heroes but different in that they were required to use swords and pledge allegiance to the ‘Royal Family’, instead of the Association or a guild.

“I don’t have anything like that. Excuse me for a second.”

I remembered I could enter the Palace without any restriction in the past when I was working as Fenrir. Well, I hadn’t paid a visit recently because I was busy climbing the Tower. It wasn’t too surprising that they forgot about me.

I took out two ID cards from my pocket. One confirmed my identity as Jeronimo Mercenary’s Fenrir and the other as the ‘Technical Adviser to Essential Dynamics’.

“Here you go.”

“...”

The Knight solemnly received my cards.

[Essential Dynamics Technical Adviser — Hajun Kim]

But the moment his eyes landed on the card, all weight was lifted and his eyes widened frivolously.

“Ah, I also contacted Rachel beforehand. You can ask her.”

Through Spartan, I had sent a note to Evandel, who probably delivered it to Rachel.

Gulp— The knight swallowed his saliva and carefully asked me.

“By Rachel, do you mean...?”

“You know, the Princess.”

The knight made a call right away.

After the call, which lasted for about 3 seconds at most, the knight gave a polite bow and stepped aside.

“Sir, I apologize for not recognizing you!”

“No, it’s okay. Your Korean pronunciation is great, by the way. How long have you spoken Korean?”

“I’ve been learning Korean at a Korean school since I was three.”

“Ah.... So they have something like that.”

‘Korea has English schools too.’

I patted the knight on his shoulder a couple of times and entered the Buckingham Palace.

I assumed the Palace would be filled with servants and maids, but it was mostly empty to my surprise. Instead, tadadada— I heard the sound of someone running towards me. With a big smile on my face, I turned to the side. The sound was, of course, from Evandel.

“Hajin~”

I picked Evandel up from the ground. With the child as light as a feather in my arms, I rubbed my cheek against hers.

“I missed you~”

“Sorry, I came a bit late.”

I walked over to the reception room with Evandel in my arms.

Surprisingly, the reception room was crowded with guests. Not only Ah Hae-In and Hayang, but also Haeyeon and Yun Seung-Ah were here as well.

I approached them, slightly confused.

“Oh, Hajin. Hi~”

“Hello.”

Yun Seung-Ah and Ah Hae-In greeted me, respectively.

I nodded and sat down on an empty chair.

“Um, I understand why Teacher Ah Hae-In is here, but why are you, Yun Seung-Ah-ssi...?”

I tilted my head questiongly and asked. Yun Seung-Ah scratched the back of her neck in slight embarrassment.

“Ah, just because I couldn’t get any sleep. Suho is fighting the Demon King on the 30th floor.”

“Ah, right.”

These days, the news that Kim Suho was about to complete the Tower of Wish was all over the place.

His journey lasted for roughly three years, or strictly speaking, two and a half years. The media was only talking about Kim Suho at the moment. There was even a bet over whether or not he would succeed in defeating the Demon King.

The current excitement over Kim Suho was similar to that of the World Cup from the Earth I came from. In other words, Kim Suho was at the center of global attention right now.

“Our stock prices shot up and investments have resumed thanks to him. But all I can do for him is pray.”

Yun Seung-Ah said with a bitter smile.

“Hajin~ Hajin~ You smell nice~”

Evandel suddenly started to sniff me.

At that moment, the door slid open, and the woman I hadn’t seen in a long time appeared.

Rachel approached us with a big smile on her face.

“You came?”

“I did. It’s been a while.”

I stood up and welcomed Rachel. She smiled happily and greeted me, too.

This was the first time we got together in a long time. We enjoyed our teatime together in the reception room.

The main subject of our conversation was definitely Evandel.

Ah Hae-In spoke of Evandel’s achievements. In terms of quantity, Evandel was already even with Ah Hae-In, and in terms of quality, Evandel was very close to the 7-star level.

Surprised, we complimented Evandel. Evandel squirmed with joy.

“Ah, right. Hajin-ssi, do you know Knight Commander Shin Jahyuk by any chance?

Rachel asked, as if the question suddenly sprang up to her mind.

“Shin Jahyuk? I do know her. Why?”

Jin Sahyuk’s alias. I had actually seen her with my own eyes, too.

“Ah, it’s nothing. She said she’s your fan.”

“...My fan?”

That was the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard.

While I was at a loss for words, Rachel continued.

“There’s something she wanted me to ask you.”

“What is it?”

“She asked if you knew ‘Puharen’...?”

But everything started to make sense the moment I heard that question.

I nodded, trying to suppress my laughter. Jin Sahyuk was up to something, with Rachel serving as her stepping-stone.

“So, do you know who Puharen is?”

“Huh? Um.”

I began to think. This had to be some kind of test....

“I don’t know. I think I’ve heard that name in a movie. He was an incarcerated royalty, if I remember correctly.”

As the original writer, I was fully aware of Jin Sahyuk’s backstory. What kind of prince, no, princess she was; what she did to become the queen; and how exactly she met her end.

Puharen was one of the members of the royal family who were incarcerated by Jin Sahyuk, the 5th Prince— no, Princess.

However, because Puharen was carrying a Devil’s Seed, just banishing her ended up becoming the reason Jin Sahyuk fell from grace.

Though, truth be told, Plerion would have fallen even without Puharen.

[Plerion was destined to fall from the day Jin Sahyuk became its ruler.]

After all, that was my official setting.

A kingdom ruled by a young queen who was easily influenced by her vassals. Its end was obviously never meant to be good.

Rachel tilted her head and asked.

“Incarcerated royalty?”

“Yes, you should tell her just that. But that’s not really important,”

I quickly changed the topic.

“Didn’t you say you want to install the Essence Barrier?”

We switched topic to the Essence Barrier.

This was the reason foreign countries were recently sending diplomatic envoys to Korea one after the other.

“Yes... Not only that, but other defensive devices as well.”

Rachel’s face was grim. It seemed England only had a little prospect of securing defensive devices.

“We’re trying our best, but our connections don’t extend far. China and the US are very aggressive. The order will be China, US, Japan, Germany.... We’ll probably come in fifth at best.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. But that’s okay. We have a few interests in the Tower of Wish that we can use for negotiations....” Rachel said in a sullen voice.

I wasn’t surprised, since the English Royal Court’s investments in the Tower of Wish were much more valuable than a mere barrier. But she couldn’t simply ignore the complaints and the anxiety of her people.

The number of monster attacks had recently skyrocketed. In other words, she had few choices.

“No, there’s probably no need for you to go that far.”

I gave a confident smile.

In reality, Essence of Strait already possessed enough facilities to manufacture ample amount of Essence Barriers. Yoo Yeonha was simply playing hard to get in order to attract more lobbyists.

“Don’t worry.”

But England definitely needed a Essence Barrier.

“I’ll...”

I, Kim Hajin, was about to exercise my right as the ‘Essence of Strait’s Technical Adviser’, when the reception room’s door swung open.

Thud—

A number of men in suits suddenly flooded into the room.

“D-Dad?”

“Pardon? Dad?”

“I, I mean, Father....”

Even Rachel’s father was there.

Amidst our confusion, the men in suits started to introduce themselves politely and respectfully. The group was comprised of the Minister and Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs, members of the House of Lords, etc....

Their introductions were all directed to me, and I realized their intentions soon enough.

“As representatives of this nation, we would like to welcome Sir ‘Hajun Kim’, the Technical Adviser to Essence of the Strait. We have a sincere favor to ask of you. Currently, the citizens of England are suffering from the greatest surge of monster attacks in history. The number of low-rank monsters have increased dramatically in urban areas, and....”

As expected, they were asking me to help them secure an Essence Barrier to place around England.

On a side note, ‘Hajun Kim’ was my alias.

“...Excuse me, Hajin-ssi? What is... happening?”

‘Essential Dynamics Technical Adviser’.

Not only Rachel, but also Ah Hae-In and Yoon Seung-Ah were oblivious to my position. The trio looked at me in a daze, and I let out a bashful smile.

**

[4 hours later, Seoul, South Korea — Yoo Yeonha’s Mansion]

...Last night’s events unfolded in my head once again.

—Dead? What do you mean?

Chae Nayun, who screamed in misery, and me, who couldn’t answer her despairing screams.

—D-Dead, so suddenly? He can’t be dead. He can’t be dead! It doesn’t- it doesn’t make any sense! He’s really, really strong!

I showed her the video. Kim Hajin was definitely in it. His body was cut in half by a being moving at an undetectable speed. His eyes lost all signs of life and faded into an ash gray color. It was death without a doubt.

—This can’t, this can’t be. How can this be Kim Hajin, how....

That’s when Chae Nayun completely lost it.

She tore her hair out, bawled like a child, hit the floor with her fists, and agonized over his futile death.

—Ah, aaah. Why, why, why.... Why...!

In the face of his death, Chae Nayun regretted everything she had ever done.

“I shouldn’t have been so mean to him the last time we met. This wouldn’t have happened if only I was smarter. Please, please, please....” She wailed miserably.

Watching Chae Nayun in pain, I..., I....

“Hey, wake up.”

I said, ‘Hey, wake up.’

...No, wait.

That’s not right.

“Uuu....”

A frown spread across Yoo Yeonha’s face amidst the nightmare. The tip of her nose and the space between her eyebrows trembled slightly as she continued to wander in her nightmare.

“...Wake up.”

However, Kim Hajin didn’t intend to let her suffer any longer.

He tapped Yoo Yeonha’s forehead lightly. Yoo Yeonha shook her head. Yet another nightmare seemed to have taken over her.

Left with no other choice, Kim Hajin infused his magic power into Yoo Yeonha’s head.

“Haauuuu....”

A strange moan flowed out of Yoo Yeonha’s mouth. The Stigma helped release her from her nightmare, and she finally opened her eyes.

But her gaze was still fixed at the empty space above.

“You’re finally up.”

Kim Hajin spoke, smiling.

“...?”

Yoo Yeonha turned her head to the side and faced the man talking to her.

“...Huh?”

She blurted out a single exclamation in a daze.

Kim Hajin was in front of her. Kim Hajin, who was already dead, was lit up by the sunlight.

‘This must be a dream too,’ she thought.

“It’s not like you to fall asleep during the day.”

Kim Hajin, who appeared too real, muttered.

...Still Yoo Yeonha didn’t say a word.

“Ah—”

Suddenly, her eyes rolled back and she lost consciousness.

She currently lacked the mental strength to deal with this kind of situation.

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