Translator: miraclerifle
Ju-Heon's footsteps quickened.
Yulian Miller. He had dirty blonde hair that was closer to brown and blue eyes. This face that seemed extremely stiff as if he wouldn’t be flexible at all meant it was definitely him.
If he was called an < Expert Excavator > who specialized in excavating tombs, this bastard was an < Expert Strategist > who could see through every tomb, artifact, and artifact users’ information and weaknesses. That was why this bastard’s strategies plus Ju-Heon's ability to perfectly carry out those strategies allowed them to sweep artifacts away as the greatest Tomb Raiding team.
‘And that bastard was at the Monarch-grade too.’
The Expert-grade artifacts users were called the candidates for Monarchs based on the ranking system of [Monarch-Grade (Rulers) - Expert-Grade (High-grade) - Talent-Grade (Middle-grade) - Novice-Grade (Low-grade)].
This punk was also someone who could have easily become a Monarch-grade user if he did not get his weakness found out by the monopolizers. He would have been one of the highest-grade Monarchs at that.
Flashes soon started to blast from where those bastards were standing.
“This is the scene of TKBM hiring their third talented individual!”
“Please look this way so we can get a picture of the two of you together!”
It seemed that this punk had already decided to join the TKBM Excavation team.
It was not weird since a lot of people at this Pandora gathering had chosen to join excavation teams.
But Ju-Heon started to frown.
‘That stupid motherf*cking idiot.’
Why did he have to pick that old man of all people?!
Of course it was understandable.
TKBM had a pretty good image and Yulian Miller was a poor graduate student at a German university who volunteered with nonprofit organizations.
How highly would he consider a large corporation's sponsorship? That was why Ju-Heon urgently started to run.
He was only about 3m away from them.
Ju-Heon started to hide himself as he got closer to make sure they wouldn't notice him. The reporters were busy interviewing them.
“Mr. Miller, we've heard you are doing a lot of things to use artifacts to help the needy? We heard that TKBM would give serious financial support for this matter.”
“That is correct. The Chairman-nim promises to use the artifacts Mr. Miller procures to help society.”
The reporters gasped in response but Ju-Heon clicked his tongue.
‘Why does a smart idiot like him get hooked by helping the needy?’
It was true. Yulian Miller was a man of justice among artifact users and cared a lot about people.
That was the reason he and Ju-Heon fought quite often like this.
‘Ju-Heon, I heard that you killed people again during this excavation.’
‘I didn't kill any civilians. Isn't that good enough?’
‘No. You killed more people than you told me you did. I told you so many times to be more careful!’
‘Hey! There are always incidents and accidents in tombs so I would have died if I didn't do that!’
‘That’s not the only thing. The fraud incident with England not too long ago. You used Jaeha to do that, right? I told you not to do such shady things. We were in the middle of discussions with England......!’
‘I just used a base deal because they took so long! What’s the issue?! It’s ours anyway!’
‘We would have gotten it without doing such shady things if we discussed with them! You just made our relationship with them terrible!’
‘We’ll never see them again anyway! You inflexible bastard!’
‘Ju-Heon! You're the one who always goes overboard!’
Well, it was similar to that. They worked together because they knew that each other was talented, but they really did not mesh well together.
‘That is why I will not work together with you this time.’
He already had data on tombs, artifacts, and artifact users. That was why he didn’t necessarily need Zhuge Kongming's artifact.
‘But things will become complicated if his abilities end up with Chairman Kwon.’
That was why he would cause a hindrance here even if he wasn’t planning on dragging Yulian in as an ally. It was a shameless thought process of thinking that other people should not have something he won't have.
A familiar young man who was standing next to Chairman Kwon started to speak.
“The Chairman-nim is a trustworthy person. We also have Professor Richard here who is working with us as a restorer. He is extremely talented. Restorers are really rare so our conditions should be better than any other excavation team.”
Ju-Heon laughed out loud after seeing that young man. The person talking was none other than Yoon Shi Woo.
This son-in-law of Chairman Kwon was the same idiot who had his zombie powder stolen by him and had to parade around naked through Las Vegas.
‘I guess he managed to get rid of the zombie powder.’
It didn’t matter. It was because Yoon Shi Woo then said the following.
“Ah, right. Didn’t the Chairman-nim promise to donate 1 billilon won to the orphanage foundation as a gift for signing the contract? Professor Richard, how about you donate a painting to the foundation as a sign of friendship?”
“Oh, that’s not a bad idea.”
The reporters listening started to laugh.
“A painting donation sounds amazing! A painting from the current master of the arts, Professor Jean Richard is extremely precious.”
“Furthermore, he’s sold all his paintings already so he should only have that one painting left.
But will it be okay since you don't have any paintings left? You should get back to painting, professor.”
“Uh, uhh uhh. Yes. I sure do.” Pasticheur Richard started to frown for some odd reason, but the clueless reporters quickly interjected as if they thought they found a hit piece. [1]
“Professor Richard, when are you planning on painting your next piece?”
"We can talk about my paintings later......”
“Your manager was worried that you were making slow progress on your paintings unlike in the past, did something happen......”
“That... Like I said, we are currently in the middle of a discussion.”
Ju-Heon scoffed at Richard who seemed to be in a complicated situation.
That was the limits of a pasticheur. He was able to easily paint up what he stole from Yoo Jaeha to get the title of a master, but a pasticheur could never surpass the original.
A copycat could never evolve.
He was scrutinized because he could only draw paintings in his exact copycat style and could not show anything more.
It was even worse because Yoo Jaeha’s painting style was not just based on technique.
Richard quickly thought of an excuse and smiled bitterly.
"As you know, I've been busy with Pandora lately! I haven’t had time to paint. I will start again as soon as Pandora is settled......”
It was at that moment.
“How funny. You can draw like that?”
“!”
They turned their heads in shock after hearing a familiar voice. The three people all gasped for different reasons while looking at the people standing there.
‘That bastard is!’
Ju-Heon, Yoo Jaeha, and Edward were standing there.
Chairman Kwon and Yoon Shi Woo who saw Ju-Heon started to frown as if they had seen a ghost.
That was obvious. It wouldn’t be weird for extremely proud people like them to get twisted in a knot after thinking about how much Ju-Heon beat them down!
“Seo Ju-Heon, you......!”
Yoon Shi Woo was foaming at the mouth at the fact that Ju-Heon appeared while Chairman Kwon's perfect poker face was shaken as well.
Ju-Heon was chuckling internally while looking at their reactions.
However, Yulian, who may or may not know what they were thinking, asked a question.
“What do you mean he can't paint it?”
"What else? Jean Richard's painting is actually someone else’s masterpiece or a pastiche.”
“!”
Ju-Heon threw the first card. Everyone gathered around looked shocked. However, they then started to laugh.
“Well, there’s been such lies since earlier.”
“The professor's style of painting had changed so much......”
“Be careful, you’ll be sued if you speak such nonsense. A reporter was asking a weird question earlier too......”
“But it was all dismissed because there was no proof.”
Richard started to laugh as well.
“Right, it only changed because I went through a slump but I keep getting ragged on by such stupid rumors...... It never stops.”
“Then why don't you create an even better next painting to get rid of the rumors?”
“!”
Richard started to frown after hearing this unexpected voice. It was because the person who said it was Yoo Jaeha, the original artist.
‘T, this bastard!’
Yoo Jaeha started to provoke him even more after seeing his expression change.
"What’s wrong? You used an artifact to steal my painting but you can't paint anymore?”
‘Yoo Jaeha, this bastard, he really!’
That made people start to whisper.
The reporters were getting curious, wondering what was going on.
Whether Yoo Jaeha was speaking nonsense or not, plagiarism being discussed would cause quite the stir.
Furthermore, it involved an artifact?
“R, right an article for now!”
“Using an artifact to steal a painting, what does he mean?”
"This is our first time hearing about this!”
“Professor Richard, isn't your artifact said to be an art-type healing artifact?”
“Please tell us more details......!”
Richard instantly got angry.
"What the hell are you recording?! Do you all want to get sued?! How can you not even tell apart the words of a grandstander?!”
Richard glared at Yoo Jaeha as if he wanted to kill him.
“Yoo Jaeha. You can't say such things about your instructor because you don’t like me. Hmm?”
Richard’s arrogant gaze was the same as always. He was trying to make Yoo Jaeha who had no abilities or backing to shut up.
However, the Yoo Jaeha now was completely different than the Yoo Jaeha back then.
“Shut up. Instructor? What bullshit. I even have proof that you stole my painting. Let’s meet in the courtroom if you want to fight.”
“What, he’s telling the truth?”
“Write it down for now!”
Richard’s hands were shaking at this unexpected development. He never expected that coward Yoo Jaeha to come at him like this.
“You, I must have a deep conversation with your parents. I will tell them you are trying to screw your instructor over.”
It was a threat of sorts. However, Yoo Jaeha continued without caring about it.
"Sorry, gramps. My parents will be hard to find because they are on an all-expenses paid vacation thanks to the Holten family.”
He then started to speak to Yulian.
“Ah, right, hey bro. Investigate the people you are planning on signing a contract with thoroughly. Who knows? They might swipe your artifacts away while claiming to help the needy. Don't end up a victim like me.”
Yulian Miller seemed shocked by this.
How could he not be shocked when some random people showed up and talked crap about your business partner when they were talking business?
However, any normal person would start to question things in such a situation.
Richard shouted as Yulian's expression started to change.
“You really! Don't bother me! I will sue you for defamation if you continue this nonsense!”
Ju-Heon was the one to laugh this time.
“Do it if you want.”
“But before that...”
Ju-Heon soon grabbed Chairman Kwon's arm.
“!”
“Oh Chairman-nim. I hope that you didn't use the artifact of conquest on that person?”
“!”
Chairman Kwon looked toward Ju-Heon anxiously. However, Yulian glared at Chairman Kwon before looking at Ju-Heon.
“The artifact of conquest?”
“Yes. Chairman Kwon Tae Joon is a bastard who uses the artifact of conquest. It has a clever way of controlling someone's mind.”
“You bastard, what are you......!”
“Did you suddenly have a desire to sign a contract with him? Think hard about it. You might have been influenced by that as well.”
“......!”
Although he was saying that, it was completely a lie. His goal was to just cause a disturbance.
Ju-Heon started to smile at the same time.
‘Good, even an innocent fool like him should be suspicious at this point.’
Yulian Miller seemed to feel that way as he asked Chairman Kwon a question.
“Is it true that you controlled someone's mind?”
“......There is no way that is true. It is nonsense.”
Yulian looked at Ju-Heon.
“Is there any proof that you are not lying?”
“You can slash my neck off if either the plagiarism or the mind control is determined to be a lie.”
Richard started to grind his teeth as if he was going crazy.
He had realized long ago that Yulian had Zhuge Kongming's artifact and they were easily tricking this clueless student who did not know much about society yet but what the hell?!
That was why he urgently called out to a familiar face to ask for help.
“Edward! Can’t you verify that the Chairman-nim’s artifact doesn’t have such abilities?! Please tell them!”
However, Edward pouted and said the following.
1. A pasticheur creates pastiche, a work of visual art, literature, theatre, or music that imitates the style or character of the work of one or more other artists.
