#73
A New Order (3)
Bang—! Bang bang—!
"What the fuck! Why is Hahoe Mask here! I heard he's been busy as shit catching vicious criminals all over Seoul these days!"
"Shut the hell up and put the guns away! Do you think that shit'll work on him?"
Since their main job was small-time robbery and looting, they had believed they weren't important enough to warrant a visit from Hahoe Mask.
So the current situation felt incredibly unfair, but what was done was done, and with barriers sealing off every direction, there wasn't even anywhere to run.
But that didn't mean they could just sit still and take it.
"Haap!"
Thud—!
One of them bolted like lightning, stomping in and channeling that impact fully into his fist as he drove it at Hahoe Mask.
At the same time, his comrades poured all their strength into a simultaneous assault.
Boom—!
The black protective barrier rippled under the attacks laden with immense energy surging from all sides, but that was all.
Instead, darkness that had risen from the floor at some point coiled around their entire bodies, rendering them immobile.
"Kurk...."
"Damn it!"
No, not just them—every direction had already been surrounded by viscous, sludgy darkness.
A landscape that seemed copied straight from the abyss of hell.
And before them stood a masked entity, radiating black energy from its entire body...
Just as at first, it was silently staring at them.
"Puhuhu... fuck, even the Demonic Cult leader wasn't this bad...."
An overwhelming sense of pressure that made one's heart shrivel just from being looked at.
Feeling the shadow creeping over their faces, they all thought the same thing simultaneously.
...That a 'Demon King' had descended upon Earth.
***
"So I told him straight! Sunbae-nim! I don't think that's right! And then he glared at me...."
The drinking session with Taesan showed no signs of ending even as dawn approached.
I had planned to drink moderately and lay him down if he passed out, but whether because he was drinking for the first time in a while, the resentment just kept piling up and he showed no intention of stopping.
'For him to only have a strong tolerance for no good reason...!'
As I was contemplating whether to pretend to pass out first, a thought suddenly crossed my mind.
There was a problem I had been worrying about, and wasn't this a good opportunity where I could bring up anything and easily gloss it over?
'I had needed ideas from multiple people too.'
I seized the opportunity when Taesan paused in his speech and immediately brought up the topic nonchalantly, as if it were no big deal.
"Hey, Taesan. By the way, I've been thinking of writing a novel as a hobby these days?"
It was a random comment, but that wasn't a particularly important issue while alcohol was already dominating his brain.
"Oh? A novel? You? What's the occasion? So, what's it about?"
"I was thinking of writing a typical Demon King and Hero story...."
"A classic is good too. I used to write novels back in the day too, you know!"
Back in middle school when his sensibilities were exploding, there was a time when he held onto a notebook all day, scribbling something while saying he would write a novel.
Of course, I don't know what became of that abyssal lost item brimming with a middle schooler's hot-bloodedness now, but that experience should be of some help at least.
I immediately added a brief explanation.
The basic plot was that the protagonist sets off on a journey to defeat an evil Demon King resurrected on the continent, becoming a hero by resolving incidents caused by the Demon King.
"But even if it's a novel, writing about innocent people getting hurt felt a bit off."
"Hmm... well, if that's what you think."
Since I myself had been in the position of the victim, Taesan also seemed convinced without much objection.
"So I want episodes where I can beat up only bad guys while still gaining notoriety as a Demon King, but I just can't come up with any ideas."
"Right. It's weird for a Demon King to be called evil yet choose who he kills."
"That's why I'm worrying about various things. What do you think would be good?"
"Hmm... nothing comes to mind right away. I think I'd need to mull it over. Anyway, you're at the stage of outlining the plot, right? Then have you decided on all the characters' names?"
"Huh? Uh... not yet?"
I figured names would be fine to share, but I was reluctant to get too detailed, so I brushed it off vaguely.
"At the very least, you need impactful and cool names for the protagonist and the Demon King. Names like Michael, John, or Hans are absolutely out of the question!"
I flinched!
"H...h-hm. I guess it would be weird for a Demon King to be named Hans?"
"Of course! The Demon King being named Hans! That's the worst!"
"Uh... I thought it might be okay. It has a kind of twist to it?"
"To hell with the twist, it's just tacky! He's not some neighborhood extra, and it's so~ lacking in impact!"
Taesan insisted strongly with a flushed face, excited.
It was as if a switch had been flipped in his drunken state.
"Look, the Demon King appears! And then people around him go, 'Demon King Hans has appeared! Run!' How does that sound? Or 'Mwahaha! I am Demon King Hans!' How's that? It's so lame! It just makes him a laughingstock!"
"R...really?"
I hadn't thought about it deeply until now, but hearing his impassioned voice, I began to waver.
'Wait, come to think of it, he's absolutely right.'
The Disaster of Auterica, the Undead King Hans.
The name Hans was so common that you could expect one in every village.
It was true that it lacked a bit of gravity to be called the absolute evil of the continent.
'The problem is that the church already knows that name....'
My thin ears fluttered wildly, but I couldn't change the name now.
"If you really like the name, use it as a nickname. Or an abbreviation. Have the official name be something cool."
"Oh? Like what?"
"Right, let's see. Hans... Han, S... Hm... I got it! 'Hannibal Strauss,' how's that? Isn't that fucking awesome?"
He immersed himself, snorting as if the passion from his middle school days had been revived.
The problem was that I also thought the name wasn't bad.
With the accumulated alcohol from drinking non-stop gradually building up and a slight intoxication setting in, Taesan's passion seemed contagious, making the adolescent sensibility inside me flare up as if reborn.
...Yes, in fact, it was natural.
Because those words and actions that would make Hans kick off his blanket in embarrassment were also a part of me.
"And for the Demon King's army executives, something like the Four Heavenly Kings...."
"Then if we do it like this...."
And so, we drank through the night, engaged in passionate discussion.
***
'Damn it! Daaamn—!'
A figure was sprinting through pitch-black darkness.
He spat curses inwardly over and over, looking back and running with bated breath to minimize his presence as much as possible.
'How can such a monster exist! That's not Level 7! Could it really be Level 8? So it wasn't just a rumor?'
The comrades who had shared his will had all died at the hands of that single man.
If it weren't for his unique skill specialized in escape, he too would have failed to get away and perished alongside them.
'Damn...! I thought freedom had finally come now that Alpha disappeared! And yet something worse shows up!'
He had enjoyed privileges as the Gamma of the Hardliners, but more than that, he had longed for freedom.
Living within an organization while minding others had been incredibly stressful.
'That's why I moved quickly, taking the Hardliners' collapse as an opportunity.'
Those summoned to the villa on 'that day' had all died and disappeared.
He, who had luckily avoided being there, judged this as an opportunity and immediately led those who followed him to independence.
'Heterosis? Joining the Moderates? That means being bound by even stricter rules than before! I'd rather die than live like that!'
Being subordinate to a new Lord and unable to feed on blood freely was utterly horrific.
'Someone of my level has the ability to live more freely, so why should I?'
They said Seoul was suffocating because of Hahoe Mask these days, so he had hidden in the provinces and continued his activities bit by bit...
How their location was known...
Today, the Lord of Heterosis had visited personally.
And at a tasting party where they had kidnapped humans to their followers' tastes for the first time in a while.
The result afterward was exactly this situation.
The subordinates who had followed him had all turned to ashes, and only he was hiding and fleeing.
'At this distance, he can't chase me anymore, right?'
Using his unique skill was reaching its limit too.
His ability to temporarily make his existence unrecognizable was powerful, but its duration was short.
When activated to its maximum, even those with the sharpest senses couldn't recognize him right under their noses, and he could ignore barriers and escape, making it the greatest contributor in keeping him alive to this day.
"Whew... whew... Damn, what the hell is this."
He had been running in a state of extreme tension while suppressing his presence to maximize the skill's effect, so he slumped in place to catch his breath.
Though he had succeeded in escaping, he didn't have many paths left.
His future looked bleak, so he let out a deep sigh and was just getting up to move again when...
"So you were here."
An icy voice froze his thoughts.
"H...huh? How...!"
"It's an interesting ability. To have your existence vanish instantaneously. I was quite flustered thinking I'd lost you until you reappeared here."
Heinz II, who had appeared beside him at some point, slowly approached him with a calm expression.
"You sensed where I appeared...? I moved a good ten kilometers!"
Not a single trace like footprints remained while his unique skill was active.
In other words, it meant Heinz had found this place immediately from where he disappeared without any clues...
"What's the problem with that?"
But Heinz simply showed a reaction as if it were no big deal.
Having evolved continuously and possessing transcendental senses paired with [Insight], how could he lose someone he had already faced at merely this distance?
"Ha... hahaha."
The one unaware of that fact could only let out hollow laughs repeatedly.
"Even if I beg for mercy... it's useless, isn't it?"
"Yes, you're already far too late."
Even if forcibly subordinated, he was the type to cause various problems and be a headache at every turn.
The ability itself seemed good, but he wasn't the type of talent Heinz wanted, who wished for Heterosis to run smoothly on its own.
"But that doesn't mean I can just quietly accep—, kuk!"
Puk—
The moment he tried to muster his strength to resist, Heinz's hand blade was already piercing deep through his heart.
"Kurk... why... go this far..."
"Because this is the new order. If you won't follow, I simply eliminate you."
To his final question as he was being drained of blood and gradually turning to ash, Heinz answered with a calm voice.
The expression of wanting to argue scattered away, and silence engulfed the surroundings for a moment.
'This side is all cleaned up too. Shall I head back now?'
Today had been another busy day.
Feeling dawn slowly breaking, Heinz threw his body toward Seoul.
***
"Welcome back? You've worked hard, Lord."
"Yes. Any other problematic places?"
"None that are immediately problematic. Thanks to you looking after various matters these days, I believe Heterosis has fully established itself within the Blood Alliance now."
"Is that so...."
Morning with the sun rising.
Heinz arrived at the office where Jin Soran was and sank into a chair.
More than three weeks had passed since he founded Heterosis.
Thanks to him personally running around day and night with his strong stamina, it had now developed the autonomy to handle reasonably serious problems on its own.
He had already taken care of matters that could become big problems, so from now on, he only needed to step in personally for problems his subordinates couldn't solve.
'Which means, things I need to do on Earth are almost done now.'
The stabilization of Heterosis, which had been Heinz's top priority, had just concluded.
The work of expanding influence in the underworld through the Blood Alliance was also proceeding smoothly, so even his initial goals could be considered exceeded.
Seoul was now... establishing a new order through Hans and Heinz.
And that would soon spread throughout all of Korea.
'Now Heinz can focus on Auterica as well.'
It was a time when a separate force from the other world was needed for the scenario's progression.
He was the most suitable for gathering information from the shadows.
Having already swallowed an entire organization whole, he felt confident he could do even better this time.
"Then I'll be going now. I'll be resting for a while, so contact me separately if anything happens."
"Huh? You're not planning on coming out anymore?"
"I have personal matters to attend to. If something requiring me comes up, I'll come then. Handle the rest yourselves."
After all, that was exactly why he had placed her in that position.
Heinz II left the office with much lighter steps.
Fully savoring the feeling of a boss with a competent subordinate....