Chapter 205
Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 205
Chapter Title: 190. Apostles
Okinawa.
"Damn it. Where the hell am I supposed to go? A warrant's out for my arrest—this is a disaster!"
The Prime Minister of Okinawa, who had long since been issued an arrest warrant, was preparing to flee from his villa.
But as he was getting ready to escape, a figure appeared behind him.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"Urk! Shinohara Yuzuki!"
The one who had appeared behind the Prime Minister was none other than Shinohara Yuzuki.
She had arrived at the perfect moment to corner him.
—This kid can open gates and teleport through them?
—Yeah. That's how I can yo-ba-i with her every day.
—Can I do it whenever I want, though?
—Hmm, no, but if you want to know which ones, you can just order Kate.
Out of curiosity, Yuzuki had been introduced to Kate, and using her, she had tracked down Okinawa. It was a stroke of genius.
Who would've thought the former Black God Cult would know the coordinates for Okinawa just to set up a branch in Japan?
He had learned too late that the Prime Minister had fled to Okinawa, and she had worried he might escape. But as expected, Yoo Eun-ha was an indispensable, lovable presence in her life.
To think she kept receiving help like this every time.
"You've plunged Japan into this much chaos. Time to pay the price."
"I've done everything for Japan!"
"Everything?"
"Yes! I was trying to end it before the shogunate could be established!"
Everything, my ass.
"You think Japan would function just fine without Shinohara right now?"
"That's—"
"Do you have any right to say that after reaching out to the Sins and getting Japanese people killed? Be honest—aren't you after power?"
"You think a shogunate is justified in this era?"
Countries change with the times.
Right now, only a strong military regime could seize control and steady the people's unrest after Eastern Japan's collapse.
"You think this is some pre-Cataclysm Cold War era? After the Cataclysm, every country adapted its system to fit. Shinohara could take power because she had the strength to fight monsters. You think that inept Self-Defense Force could do it?"
"That's—gah?!"
Heavenly swords summoned by Yuzuki began piercing the Prime Minister's body.
Dozens of them, just enough not to kill him outright.
"The moment you joined hands with the Sins, your fate was sealed. And before you die, you'll witness the worst possible scenario."
Yuzuki transformed into her oni form.
Oni horns sprouted from the head of the once beautiful woman, and her hair turned ashen gray.
"Y-You... you're..."
The Prime Minister sensed it instinctively.
The thing before him was a monster—the very oni he had seen long ago.
The existence that had plunged Eastern Japan into terror and made even him piss himself was now wearing Yuzuki's skin.
"In simple terms, it's Shinohara Yuzuki fused with the Chaos Oni."
"M-Monster... N-No... Not to a monster... Japan... Gaaahhh!"
The Prime Minister made a final struggle to escape, but now that his true nature was exposed, there was no reason to let him live.
"Watch from hell as Shinohara's oni rules Japan."
With those words, all that remained before her was a pile of ashes that had once been the Prime Minister.
I returned to Korea from Japan for a bit, and Rachel greeted me.
"What the—where'd you pop up from? Something going down in Japan?"
Hmm, looks like it's made the news here too. Well, it's that kind of world these days.
"I'm sending the monster army to Ukraine right away."
"Out of nowhere, why?"
"Got the perfect excuse."
The Sins attacked, so we investigated them in self-defense and found their base. That story holds up.
"This isn't some shady business, right?"
"No. It's for the world."
Time to slowly tighten the noose around Sloth's Sin.
For that, I need to leverage my position this time.
I used Kate again to teleport into Hunter Association Chairman Choi Cheol-sik's office.
"Hi yo?"
"What the hell are you?"
Choi Cheol-sik, who was polishing his shiny bald head, looked utterly baffled.
"Just giving you a heads-up."
I seriously explained the Japan incident and why we needed to crush Sloth, convincing him.
I made it clear we'd confirmed the bastard's identity too.
"What are you saying?"
"Exactly what I said. You know about the Sin incident in Japan, right?"
"Yeah."
"Those lunatics didn't just target Japan—they hit Shinohara Castle too, so I had to fight them. In short, they messed with the White Flower Cult. Our investigation of their base pointed to the erosion zone in Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula."
That's where Sloth was building his massive monster and fiend army.
Beings that only exist in erosion zones, stripped of reason, blindly following Sloth's authority.
To wipe them out, I don't even need the Hunter Alliance. The White Flower Cult's fiend army is enough. But since I'm technically an Association hunter, I needed permission.
"An erosion zone's fine, but... you sure about this?"
"Yes."
"Proof that's the Sins' base?"
"Here."
I handed him the intel I'd prepared from stuff at Yohana's place.
"Hmm, how'd you find this?"
"Sloth's Sin handed it over while messing around with a rebel named Shinohara Inosuke—a plan to conquer Japan."
"Got it. This should convince the Blue House."
Choi Cheol-sik approved without hesitation.
Yes! That's more like our bald hero!
Now, time to thoroughly crush Sloth.
First, let's check the Japanese news spreading in Korea.
Shinohara Yuzuki Crushes Right-Wing Forces. Self-Defense Force Dismantled and Dissolved!
Japan's Shinohara Shogunate Established! Return of Military Rule?
The news from Japan was all about the civil war and the shogunate.
Not bad.
["Next up: White Flower Cult's Second-in-Command Yoo Eun-ha was ambushed via a gate opened by Sloth's Sin at Shinohara Castle in Japan. The Cult has declared war on the Sins and is expected to collaborate with the Blue House and the shogunate moving forward."]
The news about me wasn't bad either.
After the Korea-China War, Korea and the autonomous White Flower Cult had gained massive influence internationally.
No one could refuse involvement with the Sins.
The full-scale assault on Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula was greenlit.
Support from Japan's shogunate hunter forces and the Association poured into the White Flower Cult. Tens of thousands from the fiend army and shogunate hunters launched a surprise gate attack on Crimea.
Crimea was Sloth's Sin's stronghold, teeming with monsters and fiends.
In the original story, they swelled even larger to invade the world.
Better to smash them now.
"Slaughter every fiend and monster in Crimea!"
"Avenge our comrades!"
The White Flower Cult's fiend legion and the shogunate hunters began ravaging Crimea.
Sloth's army, which would have been a late-game threat in the original, crumbled helplessly against the unified, strengthened fiends under me since the Black God Cult and the shogunate hunters burning with vengeance against Sloth.
"This is where the Sin resides! How dare you humans—!"
"Yeah, about half are fiends."
I ripped out the hair of some loser who looked like a Sloth follower.
I jumped into the fray myself, setting Crimea ablaze.
With the sheer numbers here, we couldn't fully suppress without the Cult's executives and Shinohara's elite.
"Damn you! Yoo Eun-ha! What grudge do you have against me?!"
The loser vented at me.
You? Mad?
You don't get to say that when you're the one plotting world conquest.
"You have the nerve to spout that crap? You fucking pathetic loser? You dared touch Yuzuki's body? If you weren't Geum Tae-yang, I'd be ripping your dick off and torching it right now—be grateful."
If it were Geum Tae-yang, I'd have done exactly that.
I can't forgive anyone who touches my heroine!
And thinking deeper, if not for this bastard, I could've claimed Yuzuki back when she was still human before fiendification!
Ah, pissing me off now?
You're done. I'll fuck Yohana raw right in front of you and get her pregnant.
"Over something so trivial?!"
Trivial? Shows you still haven't learned.
"It means it's disgusting that a loser like you touched her. Why not run away again? Coward."
"Kuh."
In the end, he pulled out some space-time trick and fled again.
Can't be helped. He never fights a losing battle.
I couldn't resummon the hell gate either.
With all his minions dead, mental breakdown next?
"Groooaaar!"
Occasional massive monsters blocked the allied forces, but they couldn't beat the fiend army led by Elise and Rosemary.
Crimea fell in an instant to the shogunate army and White Flower Cult fiends.
"Anything to gain from this?"
"Gotta make sure the Cult doesn't look like troublemakers later."
Submit some results to prove our actions are justified.
Then, a group appeared ahead.
Three of them: one old man, and two young man and woman.
"Good work out here."
The old man in the group said that.
"Who are you?"
"We're the Apostles. We'll take it from here."
Apostles, huh. Interesting to see them in person.
"The Apostles are handling the Sins now?"
"That's right. You've done well so far."
The white grandpa in the coat praising me was laughable.
The oldest among the Apostles.
His face looked kindly, but he's a rigid, frustrating type.
The Apostles had been passive on the Sins because Wrath was one of them.
They only moved now because things got this bad—probably figured Wrath couldn't block them anymore, and Sin intel couldn't leak.
No need to work with them, then.
"You sat idle when Gluttony's Sin showed up in Korea, and now you crawl out?"
"We didn't know the Sins were this dangerous back then."
What a joke.
"Then stay in the back room like always."
"What kind of language is that? Think you can act like this toward your elders just because you're hot stuff lately? Want to get dropped from Apostle candidacy?"
I turned down that lousy Apostle spot anyway.
At best, they live lavish lives playing world police in nice spots.
Sure, they hustled during the Four Heavenly Kings era, but failing to notice Wrath's antics and only meddling after the Sins? Pathetic.
"I have no interest in joining tax-leeching spectators in the back. We found Crimea. We cleared it. Korea and the shogunate will handle the Sins, so step back like you always do."
"You won't regret this?"
Regret? If I handed it to you, you'd destroy all the evidence on the Sins.
"You'll be the ones regretting your image crash later, fuckers. The Sins are just midlife crisis world-conquest LARP by losers—odd if we couldn't crush them."
The old fogeys don't get it. One of their own is a Sin.
"Exactly. Stay out of it."
Yuzuki, fighting beside me, chimed in.
"Even Shinohara's shogun sides with this immature girl? Youthful folly."
The old Apostles were arrogant fools who thought anything was possible just because of their rank and age.
"I'd trust her more than some organization with a fancy Apostle title."
"What insolence! How dare you meddle in national affairs!!"
National affairs are why we can't leave it to boomers like you.
Seeing hacks with no frontline Sin fights or governance experience butt in pissed me off.