Translator: miraclerifle
“You’re Sasaki?”
Ju-Heon looked at Sasaki in shock.
Sasaki Yuka.
This seemed to be the thug middle school student he had met right after he returned to the past.
She had been Japan's Future Diary artifact user and he had gone to Japan to personally take care of her because he was tired of her getting in his way......
‘I remember she was a fanatic for Sosuke or whatever that idol’s name was.’
This was the idiot who could not use the Future Diary properly because she couldn't read Kanji.
But she looked completely different now.
Maybe that was the reason, but Ju-Heon who had great memory couldn’t help but frown.
“Don’t lie to me. There’s no way I don’t remember a person's face. Who are you?”
However, Sasaki received quite the shock at Ju-Heon’s serious question and started to sniffle.
“Sob, you're so mean. I just...... I just used less makeup!”
“......”
This truly was the before and after world of makeup.
Of course, the after was gyaru makeup so her face right now looked much better.
‘Her base was actually cute.’
Anyway, that was not important right now. He didn't know how she snapped out of the hypnosis, but that was beneficial for Ju-Heon.
He could now use......no, get her to help him.
Ju-Heon started to smile sharply as he waved the dagger.
“You know how I am after dealing with me once before, right? Lead me to the leader’s room while I am asking nicely.”
Sasaki sighed in response.
She was thinking that Ju-Heon was still the same. But Sasaki was still thankful to Ju-Heon.
Why?
Because she would have suddenly died in a few years if she continued to use the Future Diary.
She had been so shocked when she found out about it. In that aspect, Ju-Heon was her savior.
The government let Sasaki return to being a civilian once the Future Diary disappeared because they had not told her any big secrets.
Sasaki soon sighed.
“I understand. But there’s just one thing before that.”
Ju-Heon who was checking for people outside looked at his watch.
“You have thirty seconds.”
“Ah, yes sir! Umm, when you destroyed the Future Diary in the past. Did you do it to save me by any chance? Was it because you knew that I would die if I continued to use the Future Diary?”
Ju-Heon laughed at the words that were shooting so quickly out of her mouth that she could have choked.
It was because what Sasaki said was so funny. ‘What? Save her?’
“They said people are free to misunderstand. Look at this kid speaking nonsense.”
Sasaki, who had been hoping that was the case, became upset.
She had expected this, but still...
Ju-Heon looked at his watch as he continued to speak.
“I got rid of the Future Diary because it was in my way and you luckily got to live thanks to that. Got it?”
Sasaki’s shoulders slumped at Ju-Heon's harsh words. Ju-Heon truly was a blood-less tear-less Demon King like before.
“Then are you going to really try to shut me up for good once I tell you where the leader's room is?”
“Shut you up? Why would I do that?”
“Huh?”
"Do you think I'm some kind of homicidal maniac or something? Enough, I don’t need you once I know where the leader’s room is. Chase after Sosuke or something, do whatever you want. Alright, 30 seconds is up. Tell me where the leader's room is now.”
Ju-Heon had said that because he had no interest whatsoever, but Sasaki flinched. Those words sounded oddly gentle in her ears.
‘Huh? Wait a minute. Doesn’t that mean that he’s going to let me go?
And he's telling me to live happily wherever I go.’
That was why the young Sasaki's heart was beating faster even as she had these delusional thoughts.
‘Yes, Ju-Heon oppa might be the Demon King but he might actually be a good Demon King......!’
Did that have an influence? A message popped up for Ju-Heon.
[You have met a portion of the basic requirements to use the Evangelism-type artifact.]
[Requirements: Fame: 0, Popularity: -10 (Unsatisfactory, Base 50+)] [Requirement: A minimum of 10 people have fallen for you (4/10)]
He couldn’t help but be shocked while looking at that message.
‘Why did this happen all of a sudden?’
What had he said to cause this?
Ju-Heon seriously debated for a moment before deciding that there was no need to think hard about it as the person was Sasaki.
Wasn't it good enough that he got another fan?
But it was still weird.
‘Why do I already have four fans?’
Who were the other three fans?
His novel was a failure so it was probably not Yoo Jaeha or Oh Seung Woo.
However, this traitor believer Sasaki started to tell him the information he wanted.
“Umm, Ju-Heon-nim. I know you asked to know where the leader’s room is, but it is dangerous to go there.”
“What? Why?”
Sasaki started to explain.
Simon, the American who was using Casanova's artifact to create a harem here in Kyoto, Japan, was laughing out loud.
‘Women truly are the best.’
Simon was actually a former TSOF soldier. He had left the TSOF before they were destroyed by Ju-Heon, but he was still an artifact user who had worked for Keira in the past.
However, he was thinking that both Keira and the TSOF were morons.
How could he not feel that way?!
‘Why should we offer the artifacts we struggled to excavate to the government?!’
The person who had the artifact was the owner!
That was why Simon who had come to Kyoto had been spending his time with a ton of women while waiting for one of the 7 Great Tombs.
‘I need to conquer the Great Tomb that is going to appear here.’
Simon knew that one of the 7 Great Tombs would appear in this area. It would be weird if he didn't know. He had heard the prophecy about one of the 7 Great Tombs appearing here from the China-Russia cooperation.
‘I'll have the power to step on that damn Pandora as long as I have the artifact inside the tomb.’
Then he could earn points with the Chinese or Russian sides and be scouted by them.
He was not interested in the US-European collaboration that resulted in Pandora.
In fact, he preferred China and Russia that had rejected the offer to join Pandora and partnered with each other.
‘The C-R Alliance will be the new star.’
He was planning on joining up with the former Soviet Union.
And this harem plan was to help make that happen. Well, 80% of it was for ulterior motives regarding the women, but he had the necromancy artifact along with Casanova's artifact.
He could use necromancy to make the souls of past warriors possess the bodies of his believers.
This would allow him to create his own army to conquer the tomb!
The only downside to the artifact was that the souls could only possess women's bodies, but it was fine.
He gathered believers with Casanova's artifact and then they became the soldiers who would conquer the 7 Great Tombs.
‘I have around 2,000 believers. This should be plenty but King Uija was said to have 3,000 palace women so I should have at least 3,000 if I'm a man.’
It was a completely wrong thought process, but Simon started to laugh.
“Oh, necromancy?”
Ju-Heon who had heard this unexpected story from Sasaki found it entertaining.
‘I was thinking it was weird that Lee Seol-A was here as the leader’s subordinate.’
“But the leader was using that type of artifact too?”
He seemed to be causing all sorts of mischief using souls.
Sasaki nodded her head and continued to speak.
“That is why the 2,000 believers will not leave you alone if you try to approach the leader. The believers who have been possessed are no longer regular women. They are extremely strong!”
How could they not be?
The souls the leader used necromancy to possess their bodies were bound to be strong soldiers from the past. There might even be some Spartans among the mix.
‘It’ll depend on the grade of the necromancy artifact......’
But it was probably S-Grade at max.
Why?
Necromancy was the act of calling forth a human soul. There was no way it could be a Divine-Grade artifact.
Anyway, if the enemy’s artifact was S-Grade and he summoned the souls of some ssaurabis, Ju-Heon had no chance of success. [1]
He would probably be killed before he could even get to the leader.
Although he had more training than the regular civilian, there was no way he could compare to the heroes of the past.
“No, even if they were terrible fighters, I can't handle 2,000 of them.”
It would be hard even if it was 2,000 regular women.
Ju-Heon had messed with soldiers and escaped from them in the past, but how could he take on 2,000 people on his own?
‘Yeah, I wouldn't be human if I could take them all out alone.’
Ju-Heon calmly assessed the situation before coolly accepting the facts.
But there was still a way.
The only way to handle soul-type artifacts was with their natural enemy, exorcism-type artifacts or with other soul-type artifacts.
But he had no thoughts about finding an exorcism-type artifact right now. Why should he when he already had a strong soul-type artifact?
“I just need to use souls as well if that's what my opponent is using.”
“E, excuse me?”
Sasaki's eyes opened wide. But Ju-Heon didn't care and looked outside.
“There’s someone I need to call before that.”
Ju-Heon started to smile.
Even if the leader had a necromancy artifact, he was still just human.
“Excuse me? You want Anubis's artifact? That God of Death's artifact?”
Yoo Jaeha became shocked after hearing Ju-Heon’s request.
His ass had been on fire waiting for Ju-Heon outside the bamboo forest.
He was so shocked when Ju-Heon suddenly came out of a small doghole in the forest!
And then, without saying anything else, he wanted what?
“You seem to be okay...... Are you sure you're not injured, Captain-nim?”
“I'm good. So hand it over.”
Yoo Jaeha sighed and opened his inventory, no, his postcard shaped van Gogh's painting. It only took a moment to take out Anubis's artifact. “Here you go. By the way, who is this?”
Yoo Jaeha chuckled while looking at Sasaki who was next to Ju-Heon.
Ju-Heon had not been the only one to come out of the doghole. Sasaki, who had guided him to this doghole, was with him.
But the way she was looking at Ju-Heon with a look of bliss...
‘She seems like someone who would have been hypnotized by the harem artifact......so, why is she looking at the Captain-nim like that?’
“Who the heck is this girl? Who is she?”
“Ah. Someone I tried to kill in the past.”
“......Excuse me?”
Sasaki urgently shouted as Yoo Jaeha blankly stood there.
“There are people coming!”
She was right as there were believers with Lee Seol-A at the center running toward Ju-Heon.
“Over there! We found him!”
“Release the hostage!”
Sasaki who saw them quickly pulled the two men.
“This way!”
Sasaki showed her experience of having been a believer as she used complicated paths to get away from the people.
She climbed over the fence of the shrine and entered a narrow path before guiding the two of them to somewhere without people.
The place they arrived at was a small abandoned hut in the bamboo forest.
Sasaki, who was looking around started, to speak.
“They shouldn't be able to get here for a while!”
“Good job. I guess you are useful.”
“R, really? Was I useful?”
“Sort of.”
The rope artifact that was in the shape of a bracelet seemed to flinch at Ju-Heon praising someone, but Ju-Heon didn't pay any attention.
He then smiled after receiving Anubis's artifact from Yoo Jaeha.
It looked like a cross, but it was an Ankh as the top was round.
This was one of the trio of Egyptian thug artifacts Ju-Heon had checkmated when he got wrapped up in the Great Tomb Appearance along with Chairman Kwon Tae Joon. However, Yoo Jaeha who handed it to him seemed extremely anxious.
There was a simple reason for it.
“Captain-nim, you told me not to even restore it because it was difficult to do. I haven't touched it at all. It’s in shambles and extremely close to being destroyed.”
That was the truth. Ju-Heon had given Yoo Jaeha an order. He said that it was fine to restore all artifacts but to never restore the Egyptian trio.
That was why Yoo Jaeha was thinking that Ju-Heon would just keep the Egyptian artifacts shoved in the corner of the storage.
But he wanted it now?
“Should I restore it now if you’re going to use it? I can at least fix it up a bit......”
“No. There’s no need to do that. It’ll actually be more of a headache if you restore it.’
“Excuse me?”
Ju-Heon started to laugh.
‘Of course it’ll be a headache. This bastard is one of the heinous artifacts that caused the Great Tomb Appearance.’
It was staying calm right now because it was on the brink of destruction, but he had no idea how these rabid dogs would run wild if he restored them.
These fools had already caused the Great Tomb Appearance and tried to get rid of humans because they didn't want humans to touch them.
He had used a plan to deal with them back then but...
‘This bastard is an artifact even the Four Emperors would have trouble handling.’
He had dealt with Anubis in the past, but it would not submit easily. Even among the Divine-Grades, they had their hierarchy. The more famous gods were stronger than the nameless gods.
An artifact’s recognition was a type of buff. The more people remembered the identity of the artifact, the more buffs it received.
‘But it is still just an item.’
Ju-Heon started to smile as he channeled his Dominance.
The Ankh shined brightly before a dying black Jackal appeared.
Anubis that seemed to be part of the canine family was the size of a large dog or a wolf.
And as Ju-Heon expected, Anubis's artifact started to growl as soon as it saw Ju-Heon.
[You motherfucking human. How dare you do this to me......!]
It looked ready to rip Ju-Heon’s neck off right now, but it could not do it as it had no strength.
But it couldn't just sit there and do nothing.
The noble predator used the last of its strength to charge toward Ju-Heon.
[I’ll kill you this time! Human!]
However...
[Ugh!]
It was ruthlessly kicked by Ju-Heon. Ju-Heon stepped on the weakened Anubis and smiled as if he found it ridiculous.
“You must be real brave to dare to attack your master.”
[W, what did you say?]
“Damn dogs that don’t listen need to be trained first.”
Ju-Heon then called forth the rope artifact and tightly pulled on it.
And then!
[Ugh!]
The rope wrapped around Anubis's neck as if it read Ju-Heon’s intentions. It even looked like a dog with a collar on!
Anubis that had instantly turned into a dog started to shake in shame.
[You, human bastard! And you, you low-grade artifact! Let go of me! How dare you put your hand on me!]
Anubis tried to get out of the rope but the rope became excited and started to choke Anubis's neck some more.
[#&#$&#!]
He said let's train! He said let’s train!
[Ugh!]
It didn’t seem to be able to even handle a low-grade artifact because it was so weak right now.
Anubis foamed at the mouth before it screamed.
[Human! What the hell are you trying to make me do?!]
“Who knows? First......”
Ju-Heon smiled wickedly and reached his hand out as if he was training a puppy.
“Hand?”
1. literally means man who fights, said to be historical Korean figures who loved their country more than themselves and gave their lives for the glory of the country.