Translator: miraclerifle
The rope pulled George Holten with immense strength. However, this eldest son of a noble family could not help but scream at this treatment that he could have never even imagined.
How could there be nobody to mess with him to the point that a damn rope was treating him like this?!
“Hey, let me go! Y, you weird rope thing!”
George Holten tried his best to rip the rope but this only made the rope annoyed and made it tighten its hold on George Holten.
[#$#&#&*!]
Huh? You’re going to play with me? You’re going to play with me?
It was tightening quite a bit as if it had been going easy until now. It sulked and let George go when Ju-Heon told it to stop because it looked as if George Holten was going to die.
“Damn it, why are all artifacts like this?!”
“It can't be helped. All artifacts have the basic foundation of tormenting humans.”
George was huffing but didn't care about that. What was important right now was not talking about artifacts but his sister.
“Hold on. You left Irene back there! Why did you drag me away?!”
“At least one person from the Holten family needs to see their parents being healed. I need to make sure you can’t make any excuses about what happened.”
George Holten became anxious at that statement and started to speak.
"But you saw that General! Her opponent is not normal!”
“Why are you freaking out like that? Your sister isn’t normal either.”
"What did you say?!”
George Holten who was concerned about his sister shouted in anger but Ju-Heon smiled without any malice.
It was true that she was not normal.
There were only a few monarchs who could take on the Monarch of War.
“Stop worrying for no reason. Do you know who taught her? I didn’t teach her so terribly that she'll lose to a woman like that.”
The entire city started to shake as soon as he said that and Ju-Heon smiled while looking at the messages that popped up.
[The artifact of war is attacking the city.]
[The goddess of destruction is dragging humans into the battle and starting to destroy buildings.]
That was Keira’s doing. Irene, who had been trained quite thoroughly by Ju-Heon had forced Keira to take out her artifact of war.
‘Oh my, I remember she hated to use the artifact of war because of the risk.’
Irene must have been doing even better than he imagined.
Ju-Heon and George Holten then arrived at a 105th floor penthouse as he thought that.
The Holten couple was inside as Ju-Heon mentioned.
“Mother! Father!”
However, the room was filled with the stench of rotting corpses and the couple were groaning in pain.
Ju-Heon quickly checked the couple’s condition before starting to frown.
“They’re really at their limits now.”
"What? N, no! Hurry up with that fruit!”
Ju-Heon took some of the Herb of Eternal Youth fruits out of the glass bottle before George even finished shouting. He then ruthlessly squeezed them as if he was squeezing a lemon.
Crack!
He would normally turn it into medicine first, but there was no time to do that. Ju-Heon quickly dripped the juice into the couple’s mouths.
Something amazing then started to happen.
The couple's bodies started to glow before the rotten areas covering the couple’s bodies slowly started to disappear.
Their skin was returning to normal as if they were returning to how they were prior to being sick.
George Holten's jaws dropped after seeing what happened.
“T, the injuries!”
Ju-Heon laughed thinking this was it.
The Herb of Eternal Youth was a healing artifact that returned the body to a past condition. That was how it healed any issues.
‘I just need to repeat this.’
Ju-Heon continued to squeeze more juice into the couple's mouths. He had to do that numerous times! The oddities around their body finally disappeared and the couple lifted their heavy eyelids.
The couple had finally been fully cured.
“Huh... What happened to us?”
George Holten was in awe after seeing his parents looking normal.
“Father! Mother!”
George Holten, their eldest son, started to cry profusely in a way most men their size would never do while the confused couple started to console their son. However, the situation did not permit this emotional reunion.
Boom!
There was another large rumbling and Ju-Heon got a call.
Irene was calling him.
[Mr. Ju-Heon!]
Ju-Heon laughed to tell her to relax after hearing her desperate voice.
“Your parents are safe now.”
[!]
Ju-Heon heard some crying and instantly cut her off and sternly added on.
“Save the emotions for later since Keira is still there. It is not the time to lose focus.”
[Ah, yes sir! I'm sorry!]
Irene urgently responded.
[Umm, you see, the General suddenly disappeared. Do you think she ran away?]
Ju-Heon started to frown.
He was certain that she had not escaped. The mighty Monarch of War would never suddenly run away while attacking.
There was a message saying the following as well.
[The artifact of destitution and the artifact of war are nearby.]
If the artifact was nearby but Keira escaped...
Ju-Heon debated for a moment before his eyes opened wide.
‘Wait, hold on?’
Ju-Heon started to smile after realizing something.
‘Yes, her risk must have happened!’
She was using the artifact of war quite a lot because of Irene and the risk must have come much earlier than expected. She must have turned into something weird right now.
That was why it looked as if she had disappeared or run away.
Ju-Heon who realized that laughed viciously like a hunter and responded.
"Don't worry. I’ll be there soon.”
Ju-Heon hung up the phone and quickly ran out of the hotel.
This was an amazing opportunity.
‘It is our win if her risk activated.’
That meant that he didn’t need to work his ass off to take her on as he did in the past.
Ju-Heon quickly walked through the chaotic city. He heard Irene's voice once he walked to a part of the city that was in ruins.
“Mr. Ju-Heon!”
It seemed as if Irene’s risk had not arrived yet.
“You said that Keira did not run away?”
"She just changed into something because her risk activated.”
He was certain Keira was somewhere in this wide city. He could feel a faint aura of an artifact that other people could not feel once he started to focus.
It was at that moment.
[The mastery of the Spy skill has reached its max level.]
[The spy skill has risen to B-Rank.]
Keira’s aura became even clearer as the rank rose, but...
‘She’s hiding her aura quite thoroughly.’
Even the mighty Ju-Heon could not clearly locate her yet.
‘Damn it, it's almost checkmate.’
Where is it? Where was she hiding?
It would be easier to search if he knew at least the area she was in.
As Ju-Heon was grinding his teeth...
“Captain-nim!”
He turned his head to see Yoo Jaeha running toward him with a bright smile. But Ju-Heon could not help but scoff as the item Yoo Jaeha was holding was unexpected.
Actually, he had no choice but to laugh.
“What the hell, that’s Keira's artifact. When the hell did you grab that?”
“I swiped it since the TSOF bastards had fainted. I'm restoring it because it pained me to see the historic Van Gogh painting being destroyed, but...!”
It didn’t matter.
The important thing was that this punk was holding Keira’s item.
‘I can track her with this.’
Ju-Heon did something that made Yoo Jaeha almost faint while Jaeha was talking. He had ruthlessly ripped a part of the canvas that Yoo Jaeha was restoring!
Riiiiiiiip!
Yoo Jaeha who had been busy restoring it screamed while the artifact screamed as well.
[#$&#&*!]
Aigoo. My body!
“Aigoo! What are you doing?! I was in the middle of restoring it!”
“Does anything change because there is one more part to restore?”
“What did you say, you bastard!”
Ju-Heon took a notebook out of his pocket without any regards for whether Yoo Jaeha was foaming at the mouth.
To be more specific, this was Zheng He’s map-type artifact.
Ju-Heon then put a portion of the canvas he ripped onto the notebook. Zheng He’s artifact then tracked Keira down and showed her location on the map.
Ju-Heon’s eyes opened wide while looking at the location visible on the notebook.
‘Huh?’
Keira was unexpected around his current location.
‘She’s within 20m of me.’
That woman was that close to him? However, he could not see anywhere a person might be hiding no matter how many times he looked. It was because he was standing at an open intersection. There was debris from broken buildings, but...
"Search thoroughly. She's right around here.”
“Excuse me? She’s still around here?”
The others looked around in shock. However, they could not see Keira at all no matter how hard they searched.
‘What the hell did she turn into?’
The fact that he could not see anything meant that she had turned small or did not look human.
At that moment...
Keira was hiding within the debris and grinding her teeth in anger.
It was fine that the motherf*cking artifact of destitution forced her to use an artifact she didn't want to use. But maybe because she used so much strength that a portion of New York City was blown up, but...
The artifact’s risk had come extremely quickly.
That wasn’t the only thing.
‘This is driving me crazy!’
Keira could not see anything and had to crawl with her whole body as her arms and legs seemed to be bound as well. Actually, it might be more accurate to describe it as she was going crazy because it felt as if she was flipping over every so often rather than crawling.
‘Damn it, why did it have to!’
Yes.
Keira had turned into a white grub right now.
Furthermore, she was so close that Ju-Heon would find her if he took a few steps!
She was at least relieved that she could somehow still hear, probably thanks to the artifact, even though she was a tiny grub. That was why she was rolling her body as best as she could in the opposite direction of Ju-Heon's voice.
She didn't want to stay in place and have him find her because of the aura of her artifact!
‘This is really driving me crazy!’
She wanted to avoid getting caught by them because she had no idea when she would return to normal.
But at that moment...
A black shadow appeared over Keira who was struggling to run away as quickly as she could.
‘!’
It was not Ju-Heon.
However, it was the rope artifact that had followed Ju-Heon here and was searching this area.
The rope was staring at the short and chubby grub, no, Keira.
Was it thinking that this short but still long and white thing was similar to it? Or maybe it realized that this thing was actually human.
And lo and behold.
The rope artifact instantly swept Keira off the ground and was dancing.
[#&$#! #$#!]
Master, I found it! I found it!
The rope bound the grub and lifted it high into the air.
Ju-Heon's gaze naturally moved over to the rope artifact that was moving up and down as if it was asking him to look over there. On the other hand, Keira felt like she wanted to die.
‘This motherf*cking artifact!
Let go of me! Let me go!’
She was done for if she was caught here.
Keira who had instantly been swept up by this artifact and was being spun in the air wanted to throw up. However, the rope artifact didn’t care and excitedly called for Ju-Heon.
[$##&$! $#&$*!]
Master, over here, over here! Please quickly look here!
Ju-Heon soon became interested in the rope that was causing a ruckus. Ju-Heon's eyes opened wide after realizing that the rope was holding something.
‘That is!’
He was certain. That was Keira!
This artifact that specialized in tormenting humans must have found it easier to locate Keira. He couldn't feel it when he was blindly looking, but he could clearly feel Keira's aura now that his attention was focused on something.
Ju-Heon quickly started to move and the anxious Keira tried to escape from the rope. She was done for if she was caught by Ju-Heon in this state.
‘I need to escape!’
However, she was still a grub no matter how hard she tried to flail.
She was a grub that was used in medicine or as food!
‘Damn it!’
The rope artifact might or might not know what Keira was thinking, but it was saying, ‘human, where are you going? Where are you going?’ And mischievously holding onto Keira.
Keira truly was going crazy now.
‘Please let go of me!’
Then the worst situation started to happen.
“Oh, who might this be?”
Ju-Heon picked Keira up and was laughing viciously.
