Hunting the Mastermind (4)
The Hongsan Kingdom, nestled against the Red Mountains, rich in rare resources.
And the Cheonghae Kingdom, which possessed vast ports bordering the blue sea.
Even now, decades after the end of the war, the lingering resentment between the two had yet to fully fade, making them no different from cats and dogs. Yet there was no disputing the fact that they were the great powers representing Sabacheon.
Naturally... there was no need to explain in detail just how strict the security would be in the imperial palace where the ruler of such a great power resided.
Weeeng—! Weeeeeeng—!
That being the case, the current situation was no ordinary disaster.
A blaring alarm rang without pause through the imperial palace of the Cheonghae Kingdom, a nation vying for hegemony over the world.
That sound meant that not only the outer precincts of the palace, where officials came and went relatively easily for their duties, but even the defenses of the Blue Dragon Palace, where the emperor and members of the imperial family resided, had been breached. ‘...This is certainly no ordinary matter.’ An office prepared near that very Blue Dragon Palace.
Kursi, the chancellor of the Cheonghae Kingdom, now eighty years old, looked out the window with his deeply wrinkled face.
“Hurry up, you slugs!”
“We must block every route as quickly as possible!”
Outside, numerous martial artists, including the Imperial Guards, were rushing busily to and fro, yet he, who was also a practitioner of the Deep Layer, merely stared quietly at the sky beyond the window.
“What in the world is going on?”
The imperial palace was already covered by a sky tinged with violet.
It was a sight even he, who had lived no short life, was seeing for the first time.
The problem was that it was not merely an unusual phenomenon to behold. ‘What in the world is this chilling energy...?’ The chancellor lightly rubbed his goosebump-covered arm and frowned.
Precisely because he had reached the lofty realm of the Deep Layer, he could feel it all the more keenly.
Just how terribly pure the demonic energy dwelling in “that” was.
If a devil that brought torment, the sort spoken of only in stories, were to manifest, would it be like that?
An eerie demonic power could be felt, one that seemed capable of driving a person into heart demons simply by facing it.
A practitioner lacking in fundamentals would likely be rendered useless in vain just by coming into contact with it. ‘Is this the Black King’s doing? ...No, it isn’t. That can’t be. There would be nothing to gain from committing such madness, and no matter who he is, pulling off something of this scale would be impossible.’
An unforeseen event.
His mind grew dizzy from a variable he had not even anticipated.
He could not even guess why such a thing had occurred.
Although there had been many matters lately that had not gone according to plan, to think that he, who possessed the Chakra of Insight, had not sensed even the slightest sign...
“Your Excellency!”
Just as he was wracking his brains over the matter.
The secretary who had gone outside to assess the situation flung open the office door so violently it seemed he might break it, his face pale.
“I am told that Great General Yongseol personally led the Imperial Guards to respond to the rebels who broke through the defenses of the Blue Dragon Palace and invaded! However, immediately afterward, that dreadful demonic energy began encroaching upon the surroundings, so the result is unknown...”
He could understand well enough.
The center of that abnormal phenomenon was so opaque that even the chancellor, who stood at the end of the Deep Layer, could not see through it.
If that was the case even for him, who possessed the Chakra of Insight, then how much worse would it be for others?
“I hear His Majesty is already being moved to a safe location as a precaution. Your Excellency, you must also evacuate at once!”
At the secretary’s words, the chancellor gave a heavy nod and turned away from the window.
Since the emperor, his sole superior, had left first, there was no longer any need to mind the eyes around him. ‘I doubt the Great General, the Cheonghae Kingdom’s finest warrior, would be defeated so easily... But this ominous feeling has shown no sign of stopping since earlier. It would be best to keep myself as safe as possible for the time being.’
Something incomprehensible was happening here in the imperial palace.
The intuition that had raised him to this position was sounding a shrill alarm.
At times like this, the best course was not to needlessly try to do something, but to get away from the site of the abnormality as quickly as possible and secure one’s safety.
“In a crisis such as this, attending the side of the sovereign one serves is also the duty of a subject. I will go to where His Majesty is.”
Using that excuse, he led his attendants out of the office and hurried onward.
No matter how absolute his power was, the safest place in the imperial palace was, for the moment, naturally at the emperor’s side.
By now, most of the imperial palace’s forces would have gathered around him to protect him. ‘First, I must grasp the detailed circumstances. This cannot have happened for no reason. After collecting information, I can decide how to respond...’
But, most unfortunately.
He could not get very far before he was forced to stop in place.
“Oh my~?”
A sudden voice rang out—
A woman’s voice, somehow sticky and languid.
“Where might you be going in such a hurry?”
At the same time, the attendants’ movements all came to an abrupt halt.
Then, regardless of whether they were men or women, they wore dazed expressions as though bewitched by something and blankly let their mouths hang open. ‘Kuh, what is this?’
A chill ran down the spine of the chancellor, the only one able to maintain his sanity thanks to his firm mental strength.
His danger-detection radar was screaming, and the ominous feeling that had been crawling up slowly suddenly surged, beginning to choke the breath from him.
“Mm, from the looks of it, you seem very busy. Still, I came all the way here with such effort... Couldn’t you spare me just a little time?”
His face stiffening, he slowly raised his head.
On the roof of the building beside them, which they had just been passing.
At the eaves, the owner of the unfamiliar voice sat with a bright smile, legs crossed and chin propped in one hand, looking down at him. ‘...A monster.’
A pair of horns rising high, black wings folded neatly behind her back, and mischievous inverted eyes glittering like jewels.
The moment he faced her, he instinctively sensed it.
That thing was something that should not exist in this world.
“If you stare that intently, even I get a little embarrassed, you know.”
Contrary to her words, Hella smiled playfully and gave a wink.
It was a gesture so familiar it seemed to have been ingrained into her body.
“...What happened to the Great General?”
The chancellor, making an effort to ignore it, barely managed to open his mouth.
From the moment he recognized his opponent, a strange pressure had been rushing over him without pause.
If he let his guard down even for an instant, he would be swept away by that intangible storm.
Right now was the time to hold tightly to his reason at all costs.
“Hm? Aah~ that energetic old man?”
At the chancellor’s question, Hella’s eyes widened.
As though she had not expected him to ask that.
“Don’t worry. I’m not that bad a person. There’s no way I’d carelessly harm someone who came to do the job he was entrusted with, now would I?”
The Demon King who had crossed over from another world and unlawfully invaded the imperial palace of a nation declared so with confidence.
A very trustworthy sight indeed.
“Well... he did get hurt a little because he kept resisting pointlessly, but he’s so sturdy that if he rests well for about a month, he should recover completely.”
Even so, she kindly answered the question she had been asked.
After all, something so trivial was not worth hiding.
“...Hah, hahaha... Is that so?”
The chancellor wore a subtle expression.
Within it were complicated emotions that seemed both relieved and regretful.
Hella let out a meaningful laugh as she looked at him, then continued speaking.
“In any case, you’re the chancellor of the Cheonghae Kingdom, right?”
“It seems you already came here knowing everything, so what more can I say at this point?”
“That’s true. If you’d resisted uselessly here and played dumb, I was going to punish you a little painfully. So, as for what I want...”
Just as she was about to state her business in earnest.
The chancellor, who had seemed to be obediently engaging in conversation, formed a hand seal and brought out the trump card he had been secretly preparing.
“Mujin, Open!”
The chakra he had mastered, “Insight,” was the power to see through truth.
By itself, it could hardly be called a particularly offensive ability, but when a special secret art was added, the story changed.
Kwadududuk—!
A stone wall surged up from the ground and separated them.
No, not only that—the walls that rose throughout the surrounding area as though drawing a particular pattern began to resonate with one another.
Wooooong—
Along with a fine, trembling vibration, an immense pressure slammed down upon Hella’s body.
In an instant, restraints that had repeated overlap and amplification poured down upon her.
“This is...”
Hella, who had been about to seize her opponent by the collar the instant the anomaly occurred, flinched.
As the principles of the world twisted and gave rise to errors, it became difficult even to control her body.
It was not a level of suppression that could be ignored simply by having power.
She immediately realized what the chancellor had done. ‘He used the imperial palace itself as the medium for his technique.’
The imperial palace of the Cheonghae Kingdom, which had maintained its position as a great power for many long years and undergone repeated reconstruction and reinforcement, was itself practically the crystallization of Sabacheon’s mysteries.
To put it simply, he had hacked the imperial palace’s security system and used its resources to twist the laws within a certain area.
All for the sake of holding Hella back, even if only for a short while. ‘My opponent is a formidable enemy even the Great General could not defeat. If I fight head-on, I have no chance of victory.’
He did not know why, but it seemed certain that what she was aiming for was none other than him.
At times like this, the best course was not to attempt a fight, but to withdraw as much as possible and go into hiding. ‘It’s a shame about everything I’ve prepared so far, but it can’t be helped. I must stay alive first to do anything at all. Regaining my position later will not be difficult.’
The plan was perfect.
Now all that remained was to use the passage opened amid the chaos and slip away.
“...You know, I told you, didn’t I?”
But as always.
At first, everyone had a plausible plan.
Until it collapsed before they could do anything about it.
“That if you resisted pointlessly, I’d hurt you.”
When on earth had she gotten this close?
The chancellor stiffened as he stared at the two differently colored odd eyes that had approached right before his nose. ‘...How?’
He could not understand.
But that was only natural.
No matter how powerful the Chakra of Insight was, there were limits to what it could see through.
And if that was the Demon King’s “Seven-Colored Mystic Eyes,” it was certainly not strange that he had failed to recognize it.
The White Eye of Annihilation and the Blue Eye of Stillness.
Using them, Hella had easily torn through the closing intangible net and reached out her hand.
“Caught you.”
A faint smile spread across the hunter’s lips as she finally got her hands on the prey she had been aiming for.
***
In the middle of the imperial palace grounds, which had become a complete mess from the fierce battle, with buildings collapsed and the ground overturned.
“Ugh.”
Great General Yongseol, lying sprawled on the ground, groaned as he clutched his head with one hand.
From his overloaded head, heat kept puffing out along with a throbbing headache.
If he had not been the Cheonghae Kingdom’s finest warrior, it would not have been strange for him to have died long ago. ‘Though at this point, that is nothing more than a meaningless assumption.’
He slowly looked around with a frown, then let out a small sigh at the sight of the Imperial Guards strewn across the disordered ground like trash.
They had come with him, but most of them had not been of much help in dealing with the intruder.
In truth, that was unavoidable.
To properly exert one’s abilities while facing that existence, one had to be at least at the level of the Deep Layer.
If one fell short of even that, approaching recklessly would only result in collapsing one after another without lasting long, getting in the way of allies.
...Just as they had done moments ago.
“Great General! Are you all right?”
As Great General Yongseol was calming his breathing and reviewing the battle that had just taken place.
His subordinates, who had just arrived as reinforcements, ran over and supported him.
Though he frowned, he did not refuse their help and rose to his feet.
“His Majesty?”
“He is safe. Thanks to the time you bought us, Great General, the defensive preparations were completed properly. They were sufficient to repel even a Heavenly Gate practitioner if one were to push in.”
At those words, he nodded and thought once more of the culprit.
Just why had she invaded this Blue Dragon Palace?
One thing he could be certain of right away was that the emperor, the sovereign of this nation, had not been her target.
Of course, there was one thing he could guess at separately.
“The culprit?”
“...Well.”
The evil spirit that had suddenly stormed into the imperial palace, breaking through with unstoppable momentum before revealing her true nature.
Her target had been Kursi, the chancellor of Cheonghae.
“She kidnapped the chancellor and disappeared?”
“That is correct.”
It was an extremely grave matter.
After all, given that his position was effectively at the very pinnacle, he was also thoroughly versed in all manner of state secrets. Each time he opened his mouth about one of those secrets, Cheonghae would have to brace itself for astronomical losses. ‘But right now, something else bothers me even more. The bastard was after the chancellor from the very beginning. And he was...’ Unlike Great General Yongseol, who represented the military officials, the chancellor stood at the apex of the bureaucrats who controlled the nation’s policies, wielding tremendous power as he governed as regent.
To be honest, the great general had long suspected him.
There was no concrete evidence, but he had been keeping a close watch, wondering if the man was plotting treason—or something tantamount to it.
And so, while acting according to the emperor’s will, he had also been quietly keeping the chancellor in check... ‘So this is how it turns out. Kidnapping, is it...’ It was certainly an unfortunate incident, yet it was also true that he felt something subtly complicated.
Of course, this kidnapping of the chancellor would undoubtedly be bad news for the military officials, himself included.
Whatever the circumstances, guarding the imperial palace was the duty of the military officials. ‘And if Hongsan learns of this...’ The second most powerful man after the emperor had been openly kidnapped from the imperial palace, the very heart of the nation.
This was an enormous national disgrace, one for which there was no possible excuse.
His vision went dark at the thought of what kind of ridicule they would face.
The commotion had been far too great to hide the truth.
Hongsan must have at least a few spies planted on their side.
They had done the same, after all, so before long this news would inevitably reach their ears as well. ‘Haa, what a headache. We’ll have to draft a rescue operation as quickly as possible, too.’ Great General Yongseol let out a deep sigh.
It was not long after that
that he received a certain piece of news from a spy on the Hongsan side.
“Wait, what? What happened to that viper of a woman?”
The intelligence said that Great General Juryeong, the Heavenly Gate cultivator Hongsan boasted of, had been thoroughly beaten by a mysterious figure and kidnapped. ‘Just what in the world is happening right now?’ The state of affairs was plunging into chaos, impossible to predict even an inch ahead.
But amid all that, one thing was clear.
He had been extremely lucky before.