The Demonic Chancellor
“...So, Miss Cecil.”
“Please, feel free to call me Nora. Or, if you have some other title in mind, that would be fine as well. I am, after all, your property, Master. Treat me however you wish.”
“No, no.”
Dohyun felt a headache coming on.
He was more flustered than he'd ever been meeting Sara, the Demon King of LA!
...In terms of villain class, the Gangster Queen Nora is leagues above Sara, sure. But I never imagined the infamous Nora would be like this.
She stayed hidden behind the veil, never stepping into the light, so almost nothing was known about her—just that she possessed extraordinary brilliance.
“Look, stand up off your knees and have a seat. And let's drop the 'Master' nonsense while we're at it.”
“D-do you... perhaps dislike me...?”
Nora's eyes went wide with terror.
“...It's not that I dislike you. I requested Miss Cecil as my support aide from the Immigration Bureau because I hoped you'd help me with my work—not because I wanted anything... strange.”
“Understood! Just leave anything to me! Ah, would you like to eat first? Master—ah, no, Lord Dohyun must be missing Korean food, so I prepared kimchi stew! Or, shall I serve myself first?”
Dohyun's headache throbbed again.
Who knew that terrifying Gangster Queen could be such a flustered mess!
“Calm down. You don't need to walk on eggshells—I'm not sending you back to prison.”
“...Really?”
“As long as Cecil doesn't betray me or do anything that works against me.”
The reason Cecil behaved this way was simple.
If Dohyun threw her out, she'd be dragged back to a federal cell!
She's like a total airhead. Is she really the Gangster Queen...?
Dohyun took a sip of the kimchi stew and put his spoon down.
It smelled great, but it was American-style.
In other words, it was sweet. Sweet like a donut.
Unbelievable. How much sugar did she dump in kimchi stew? If you wanted to impress me, you should have studied the recipe.
The kimchi stew from that taco joint in Washington had been better.
“Is the taste to your liking?”
“Hmm. Well, it's...”
“To suit Lord Dohyun's palate, I recreated the kimchi stew from the most popular Korean restaurant in LA Koreatown. I've reproduced it at 100%, and added a recipe of my own devising on top of that.”
So was the problem the taste of Koreatown's kimchi stew, or Cecil's added recipe?
Either way, with her eyes sparkling up at him like that, there was no way Dohyun could call it bad. Say it was bad, and she looked ready to burst into tears.
Tough customer!
He briefly wondered if this ditziness was all an act—some elaborate scheme to screw him over—but that didn't seem to be the case.
She just looked genuinely, innocently earnest.
“Did you already know Korean before this?”
“No, I studied it in order to serve you, Lord Dohyun.”
“It's been less than a week.”
“I can acquire a new language in roughly three days. I currently speak seventeen languages—the tongues used by 95% of Earth's population. Should you need any language at all, simply say the word.”
Astonishing.
Well, of course—no way the real thing would be some clumsy amateur.
Forget seeing the future; this was the woman who'd toyed with Wall Street itself.
And Wall Street, along with Silicon Valley, was where America's demons swarmed thickest.
Dohyun decided to put Cecil's ability to the test.
“Like I said, I requested you because I wanted help with my work. So tell me—what do you think Cecil should do to achieve my 'goal'?”
A deliberately vague question.
Dohyun had made a point of never explaining what his goal was.
This wasn't a request for real advice—it was an examination, meant to gauge her ability.
If Nora Cecil really has the class I suspect, she should easily deduce what my goal is. And what I need to do from here.
But then—
“...Um, pardon my rudeness, but what exactly is your goal, Lord Dohyun?”
“...You don't know?”
“You've never... explained it...?”
“...”
“...”
“I-I'm sorry for being an idiot! Please don't cast me out to prison for being incompetent!”
“...Calm down. What is Cecil's class, anyway? You're a Brain type, correct?”
Awakeners' classes are broadly divided into three categories.
Knight, Mage, and Support.
These further subdivide, and for the Support branch, the divisions look like this:
- Healer types
- Buffer types
- Crafter types
- Accessory types
The Accessory category covers abilities awakened outside of combat. Roder's class at the FBI, Seeker, is one of these Accessory classes.
Beneath Accessory, countless further subdivisions exist.
Dohyun had assumed Cecil was a Strategist class within the Brain type.
“No, my class is in the Labor category.”
“Labor? What's your exact class name?”
“...Advisor.”
Dohyun tilted his head.
Advisor was a class specialized in odd jobs and menial support.
But nothing Cecil had demonstrated could be explained by a mere Advisor class.
“Are you a standard Advisor? Or one of the higher-tier Advisor classes?”
“...A higher-tier class.”
“Which class, exactly?”
“That, that is...”
Cecil faltered and went silent.
“Cecil, I told you—it's fine to be incompetent. If you're incompetent, I'll simply find a use suited to your incompetence. But I never keep anyone I can't trust by my side. So hide nothing from me.”
“!!”
Cecil caught the warning in his words and finally opened her mouth.
“...It's the Demonic Chancellor class.”
“!!”
Dohyun was stunned.
The Chancellor class! And not just that—one with a modifier attached!
A Legendary class of the Advisor line!
One that stood beside a King, managing and handling everything beneath him.
In some ways, it's even more useful to command than a Strategist class.
A Strategist paints the grand picture. In his early runs, Dohyun had leaned on them heavily, but their value diminished as time went on.
Because his own experience and insight had long since surpassed theirs.
In America, I'll be dealing with affairs on a scale that Korea could never even compare to. I needed someone to handle and manage it all in my place—and she's exactly the right fit.
He even liked the modifier.
Demonic Chancellor.
The perfect class to serve the man destined to become king of this hell called America.
“Good. Let me ask again. My plan for now is to make LA mine. What do you think is the best way to do it?”
Dohyun lowered his voice.
Cecil, sensing that he'd accepted her, answered with an even firmer face.
“First, you need your own power base.”
“How so? Would it be best to bring LA's villains to their knees?”
“If you wish to make LA yours, that is not the way. Becoming a king of villains means remaining in the shadows, forever.”
“Then what?”
“Given your current position, Master, the most fitting path is to become a businessman of the Arcane economy.”
The corner of Dohyun's mouth twisted upward.
It matched his own thinking exactly.
The Chancellor class carries not only the Advisor attribute but the Monarch attribute as well. Given a clear objective, she's fully capable of drafting strategy on her own initiative.
“Give me the specifics.”
“Building a company from the ground up takes far too long, and the competition is vicious. It would be better to target a corporation with exploitable weaknesses, break it, and acquire it at a discount. We could also make active use of Genocider's infamy to remove a few executives along the way.”
Truly, the Demonic Chancellor.
The strategy she laid out was deeply to his taste.
We'll work well together. Dohee was brilliant, but her temperament was nothing like mine—she opposed me at every turn and wore me out.
He'd been fretting that if he couldn't find a capable ally in America, he'd have to drag Dohee over from Korea to fill the role she'd played in his previous cycles.
Apparently, that wouldn't be necessary.
“I was thinking the same thing.”
“As expected of you, Master! You are wise beyond measure!!”
“...No need for useless flattery. And drop the 'Master' thing too.”
“Yes! Then I shall call you Master from now on. The shortlist of acquisition candidates is as follows.”
A stream of famous corporate names poured from Cecil's lips.
Companies well-known, yet sized just right to swallow.
But Dohyun shook his head.
“We're going to devour one of the AS100.”
“I'm... sorry?”
“Babel Palms. That's the company I'm targeting.”
“Fuck? Are you crazy?!”
She'd been startled enough to curse outright.
“I-I beg your pardon! You're joking, of course? Haha. Master, you are far too witty with your jokes. My sides are splitting.”
“I'm serious.”
“Fuck? N-no, holy shit—this is insane?!”
Well, he understood.
Even the greatest genius inevitably measures the world against her own common sense.
“Babel Palms was founded by mafia cartel bosses! The guild under its thumb, Babel Blade, is likewise a gathering of mafia-bred awakeners. Unless you can wipe out every one of those Babel Blade bastards single-handedly...!!”
“And if I could wipe them out single-handedly?”
“...Pardon?”
“Assume I can sweep away every single one of the Babel Blade bastards on my own, and think of a plan.”
Dohyun added another condition.
“Deadline: one month. Within that time, devise a concrete method to topple Babel Palms and bring everything the company owns into my hands.”
Anyone else listening would have called him insane.
But Dohyun meant every word.
To distribute Hyper-NHD before it's too late, I must acquire Babel Palms as quickly as humanly possible.
Cecil stood stock-still, silent, her blue eyes staring vacantly into space.
She was running her Strategy skill.
“If you truly can eliminate Babel Blade single-handedly, Master... then yes, there is a method to acquire Babel Palms within one month.”
“Oh? Do tell.”
Dohyun asked out of curiosity, eager to see how closely her strategy matched his own—and was soon wearing a deep smile.
Very much to my liking.
Truly the Demonic Chancellor.
She had conceived a Demonic Strategy far more vicious than Dohyun's original plan.
“We have a very special guest with us tonight!! The hero setting the whole nation ablaze—Hero Kim!!”
LA, home to Hollywood—the holy land of American entertainment.
Dohyun had appeared on a talk show.
I always did make appearances on programs like this. The easiest shortcut to popular fame, so I planned to use it aggressively in America too.
Only, today's appearance was following Cecil's strategy—
“And now, our other special guest—the pride of LA and Vice President of the Babel Blade guild, Mr. Kane!!”
A Mexican man emerged, glaring daggers at Dohyun with murderous eyes.
That's right.
The channel Dohyun had appeared on was a so-called spicy talk show—one that invited people who couldn't stand each other and let them brawl on live television.
“Babel Palms maintains that Genocider is the one who killed Falman—former CEO of HealthTech and former mayor of LA. Kim, what is your response to that claim?”
“I agree that Genocider was the killer.”
“!!”
A stir rippled through the studio, and Dohyun smiled sweetly at the camera.
“Of course, I'm not Genocider.”
“...Haha. Of course, of course. Then, Kim—why do you believe Genocider killed the former mayor?”
“Because Falman was a man who deserved to die. The Genocider I know never leaves scum like that alive.”
“!!”
That Dohyun was Genocider was an open secret the whole world had already guessed.
A suffocating tension settled over the studio.
Kane, vice president of the Babel Blade guild, glared at Dohyun—and Dohyun met that gaze with languid ease and spoke.
“There's another man here who deserves to die at Genocider's hands. Shall I make a prophecy, Mr. Kane? You won't live to see the morning. Genocider will cut you down tonight—along with those precious mafia clan brothers of yours.”
“...!!”
Then Dohyun turned to the camera once more—to the countless Americans watching the broadcast—and beamed with radiant innocence.
“Shall we all place a wager? On whether Mr. Kane survives the night? I'll put my entire fortune on it: tonight, Mr. Kane dies by Genocider's hand.”
At that public declaration of murder—
America exploded.