#164
Hahoe Mask Rises (4)
It had already been nearly two weeks since Princess Riley had been brought to the Immortal King’s castle.
But perhaps humans truly were creatures of adaptation. Having grown accustomed to this place before she knew it, she was now leading a fairly peaceful life, quite unlike when she had first arrived.
There was no point worrying about it for the time being. Nothing would change anyway.
So, for now, she had decided to set aside all her pointless worries and first regain her peace of mind.
And there was one person who had had a profound influence on the princess’s change in attitude...
“Hmm—? Then Hesperon wasn’t your real name?”
“Uh, yes. That’s right. Still, since I was going to another world, I thought I needed at least one cool name to go with my fresh start... Ahaha!”
He was none other than the otherworlder who had recently moved in, the self-proclaimed Hesperon.
“Then what is your real name?”
“Ha Seung-hun, but you can just call me Hesperon. It sounds cooler!”
“Has... Hmm, fine. It isn’t a particularly important matter, anyway.”
Riley shot an displeased glance at the vacant-looking man before her.
With his black hair and black eyes, he was of the same race as Isea, but his personality was completely different.
Unlike Isea, who was intelligent and diligent despite her somewhat cold appearance, this man looked clever on the outside but was actually careless and rather scatterbrained.
It was a serious situation in which he had been imprisoned by the Immortal King and had no idea what might happen to him or when, yet whenever Riley saw him smiling so carefree and unconcernedly, it made her feel as though she alone had been foolish to worry.
But even he had one aspect that was astonishingly similar to Isea...
Crackle—
It was his overwhelming talent for magic.
“Ooh! It worked, it worked! Riley, look here!”
“Again? Use the proper honorifics!”
“Ah, sorry! I got excited. But look at this. This is even easier than what I did before!”
White sparks writhed above Hesperon’s palm.
She had merely intended to teach him a simple lesson, since their meeting seemed to be fate and he reminded her of when she had taught Isea...
But his rate of growth was even steeper than hers had been at the time.
‘...Could it be that these Earthlings are born with an innate talent for magic?’
Otherwise, this made no sense.
Some people remained stuck at the beginner level even after ten years, yet these humans were trying to overtake her one after another, as if they had no conscience!
‘Ugh, even if I haven’t been giving it my all... Still, it’s been ten years.’
But this misunderstanding had arisen because she did not know about his unique circumstances.
It was true that “Hesperon” was learning magic for the first time, but...
‘This much is nothing. Though its direction is different from black magic, it would be a waste of Hans’s reputation if I struggled with something as basic as beginner magic.’
He shared his thoughts with none other than Hans, the Immortal King.
Of course, due to his physical limitations, he could not imitate high-level magic, but wasn’t he merely laying the foundation for magic at present?
Moreover, he was indirectly receiving assistance from magic-related skills such as 「Wicked Wisdom」, 「Forbidden Knowledge」, 「The Path of Magic」, and 「Mana Control」.
If a Nobel Prize winner turned on a supercomputer and even gave you the answers, there was no way you would struggle with a problem barely at a middle-school level.
“...Very good. Now, let’s move on to the next step. Phew— I never thought there would be someone worse than Se-a.”
For reference, Isea, who had surpassed the princess without any such assistance during the early days after the transfer, was simply a genius.
And while Princess Riley and Hesperon were spending time together like that...
What was Crown Prince Simon, who had been imprisoned in the same place, doing?
“Your Highness, the Crown Prince? I believe I told you to finish cleaning, washing the bedding, and tending the garden... It seems you didn’t consider my words worth listening to?”
“Grrk— I, I’m the Crown Prince of the Azerion Empire! It’s not as though I’ve ever had to do things like this...”
“You’re talking back again? Perhaps your punishment was insufficient after all... It can’t be helped.”
“N-no, that’s not what I meant. I...”
“Ohoho! Come here. I’ll educate you properly so that you can become a new man. Growth is always accompanied by pain, you know?”
“No! Why are you leaving Riley alone while picking on only me?!”
Before he could even savor the joy of being freed from the harassment of Andrew, his former overseer, he had become the toy of Siana, who was currently using the alias Lilith, and was passing his days in misery.
Smack—
Siana swung a small riding crop, a delighted smile on her face.
Having once disguised herself as an imperial noblewoman, the opportunity to play with the Crown Prince however she pleased was especially meaningful to her.
Princess Riley, of course, merely assumed that the Crown Prince had done something to get on her bad side again. But naturally, the Immortal King’s influence had reached even this matter.
The throne stood in the center of the Demon King’s castle’s great hall.
Seated upon it, Hans could survey at a glance everything happening throughout the castle.
‘Hmm, there’s no need to pay particular attention to the prisoners. With Hesperon there, I’ll know immediately if anything happens.’
He had left the management of the followers within the Demon King’s castle entirely to Siana, while the management of Salma, who was being thoroughly steeped in the Abyss and steadily maturing, could be entrusted to the Archlich Dwell.
As expected, there was nothing in particular he needed to do right now.
[Then I’ll entrust the remaining matters to you while I’m away, Olivia.]
[Please do not worry... I shall obey the king’s command...]
At Hans’s low command, Olivia bowed her head respectfully.
Naturally, she had questions about where he was suddenly going and why he was leaving them behind...
But she did not dare question the Immortal King and could do nothing but accept his words.
After taking one last look around the castle, Hans—
vanished from the spot.
***
Late at night.
Whoosh—
A single black shadow quietly skimmed across the dark sea beneath the night sky, illuminated only by the faint moonlight.
Something that moved swiftly and silently, blending into the darkness of night.
Naturally, it was the Immortal King Hans, who had crossed over to Earth.
‘Since I’ve never been to the place before, I can’t recklessly use spatial movement. It’s troublesome, but this is the only way for now.’
After crossing through space and reaching Busan, he immediately headed southeast and began crossing the sea.
He was traveling slowly at low altitude to avoid detection by radar or satellites, but of course, the standard for “slowly” was merely Hans’s own.
Ten minutes after departing Busan, he passed Tsushima, and after more than twenty minutes, the Japanese archipelago gradually began to come into view.
‘At this rate, I’ll reach Fukuoka in under thirty minutes from Busan. Well, it is closer than Seoul is to Busan.’
Fukuoka, located on Kyushu—the third-largest island in Japan—was the major city closest to Busan.
Still, since this marked Hahoe Mask’s first expansion into Japan, he had selected it because he wanted to begin somewhere of a certain size.
‘It’s also my first trip abroad.’
He sensed a faint security barrier, perhaps intended to monitor illegal entry along the route, but he naturally ignored it as easily as breathing and entered.
Just as he was about to head toward the harbor, which was shining brightly despite the late hour—
‘Hmm? What’s this?’
He sensed a presence extremely familiar to him at a location some distance away.
‘...Should I go take a look?’
Generally speaking, something familiar to Hans was never a good sign.
Sensing that he would probably have to get to work before even setting foot on Japanese soil, he immediately moved toward the source of the energy.
Whoosh— Crash—
The place he arrived at was a fairly large ship floating in the middle of the sea.
It swayed slowly in the periodic waves of the already-dark night sea, yet floated motionless like a ghost ship, without a single light shining from it.
From within, a faint trace of black magic and the aura of death seeped out—so faint that anyone but him would have had difficulty noticing it.
‘They must have taken some care. The barrier has been installed quite meticulously.’
But Hans entered the ship as naturally as though he were walking into his own bedroom and made his way toward the cabins.
What he encountered inside was exactly what he had expected.
Blood ritual arrays that were unmistakably evil had been drawn throughout the area, while catalysts of grotesque shapes had been placed here and there, intensifying the gloomy atmosphere.
There were even the corpses of sacrifices laid upon the altar at the center, their abdomens split open.
‘Why is it that everyone who uses black magic does exactly the same things?’
The ones he had captured in Auterica had been the same, as had those he had hunted in Korea.
It was probably natural, given the nature of their power, but he could not help lamenting it.
“......!”
At that moment, the dozen or so men and women gathered around the altar, laughing and chatting among themselves, belatedly noticed him and began to cause a commotion.
Caution, warning, tension, murderous intent...
All of it was far too insignificant to amount to anything against Hans, yet he did not deal with them immediately. Instead, he fell into thought for a moment.
[Hmm, this is troublesome.]
“%*#%&!”
“@&*#%#?”
They were shouting something, but he could not understand a single word.
He had grown so accustomed to places where communication happened naturally that he had temporarily forgotten.
Of course, they were presumably warning one another about the intruder who had suddenly appeared, but he intended to operate in Japan for some time. Smooth communication was essential, wasn’t it?
‘If I judge recklessly based only on the circumstances, I might make a mistake.’
Whatever one was doing, language was essential overseas.
But even this was not really much of a problem.
[Heh heh— If necessary, I can simply learn from this point onward.]
If he did not know the language, he only needed to learn it.
It was a simple matter.
Rumble—
At least for him.
“Gasp!”
“Ghk!”
A tremendous presence filled the cabin.
The men, who had been tense and raising their spirits, clutched their chests and staggered as one.
They struggled to resist somehow, but the black magic within their bodies ran wild of its own accord, slipping beyond their control. They could not even properly move their hands and feet.
Looking at them, no different from fish laid out on a cutting board, Hans slowly approached and seized one of them by the head.
“Aaaaargh!”
Then, in an instant, he read the memories within his mind.
The difference from usual was that rather than searching through memories of intense incidents and the like, he was primarily combing through the man’s linguistic system.
However, acquiring an entire language could not possibly be so easy.
‘It seems I’ll need to raise more than just my mental strength. Memory, reasoning, thinking ability, and so on...’
They were all abilities that would continue to help him once raised.
He happened to have a great many points left, and they were still steadily increasing, so there was no reason to conserve them.
‘And since I’ve just begun learning magic in earnest, the timing isn’t bad either.’
While his main body busily spent points, Hans leisurely looked around.
The others had shrunk back in fear after seeing one of their companions sacrificed before their eyes.
Their gazes, confronted with such sudden misfortune, even contained a sense of grievance.
‘...The nerve of them.’
He casually shifted his gaze to the corpses of those who had been sacrificed, looked at them for a moment, and then resumed the serious process of “learning.”
Fortunately, there were still plenty of native instructors left to teach him.
And they were extremely devoted ones at that.
***
Unlike the brightly lit harbor, which was always ablaze with lights, the warehouse district on the outskirts had a gloomy atmosphere hanging over it.
There, a group that had met for an exchange engaged in a meaningful conversation.
“Hey, how’s the condition of this shipment?”
“Take a look for yourself. We prepared the fresh ones.”
At those words, several members of the group opened the container themselves and inspected its contents, soon breaking into satisfied smiles.
Inside, young men and women trembled in terror, bound and sprawled across the floor. Some even appeared to be minors.
“Heh heh— Thanks as always. We’re in no position to act directly, so even getting one meal is a chore. You’ve made things very convenient for us.”
“We’ll do anything as long as we’re paid. Keep using our services in the future.”
The transaction was completed in an instant, and a demon with blood-red eyes and a human covered from head to toe in tattoos exchanged a cordial handshake.
But then—
Amid their warm atmosphere...
[It seems I can understand you to some extent now. As expected, this is quite effective.]
A frigid voice, as though echoing from deep beneath the earth, mingled with the air.
“What?!”
“Who are you?!”
This place was protected by multiple layers of security and control, making it impossible for outsiders to approach.
Sensing danger instinctively, they heightened their vigilance and turned toward the direction of the voice.
Ssssss—
As a chilling, cold air swept in, something slowly emerged from the shadows.
A pitch-black body that seemed to blend into the darkness, and a grotesque, grinning wooden mask that stood out all the more because of it.
And within the mask, a pair of blue eyes burned like will-o’-the-wisps.
[Heh heh— But I feel my knowledge is still a little lacking. I would appreciate your assistance.]
This was the moment the Hahoe Mask, having crossed the sea, finally set foot in Japan.