Chapter 105
Chapter 105
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 105
Chapter Title: Claiming Korea
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“Should I just lay it all bare?”
Lee Ha-yeon said it playfully, but...
“......”
The implication was anything but light.
“They’d lose their minds. At least here in Korea?”
Go Yohan, a Korean national, had already swallowed more than half of Japan.
If he wanted right now, he could force the Japanese prime minister to step forward, address the history issues, and admit to them.
“Better as a hero...”
“No.”
Go Yohan said.
A hero wouldn’t do.
“Got it. If that’s what the Captain wants...”
In the end, Lee Ha-yeon stretched with a yawn.
She hadn’t really expected permission anyway.
“Anyway.”
They returned to the original topic.
“We need to decide how to handle it.”
“They aimed for this situation from the start.”
Everyone nodded at Go Yohan’s words.
When Go Yohan had been trapped in the Black Room, his forces had moved with excessive zeal for two reasons.
First, to show off.
We have this much power, so don’t think of touching us lightly.
And second, to create this very situation.
“What’ve we got?”
Go Yohan asked.
“Demon remnants behind them. Especially the Yakuza—they’re involved. Black Mirror expanded into Japan two years ago, so their profits have been slashed to less than half.”
Lee Ha-yeon answered.
“Of course, we didn’t expect them to touch the Captain’s family.”
Power is a scary thing.
These so-called National Assembly members had planned to detonate something comparable to a nuke right in the heart of Seoul.
“Two options.”
Yoon Seung-ah said.
“Quietly take out just the ones who showed their faces.”
Or...
“Leave them be and wipe them all out at once.”
Everyone looked to Go Yohan.
“Make the call.”
In the end, the choice was his.
Until now, Go Yohan had held back on many things.
But rescuing Cheol Jung-bae this time had taught him something.
“We can’t keep fighting like this forever.”
The demons, the time to focus even more on them was steadily approaching.
Originally, Go Yohan hadn’t intended to influence the world so greatly.
That was why he’d only permitted Greed to build her forces after long deliberation.
“A lot...”
It was then.
“You’ve changed.”
Cheol Jung-bae, attending the meeting, spoke up.
“You’re very different from before.”
He, who rarely brought up Travania, now opened his mouth.
“Building forces, scheming in the shadows.”
“...”
Was Cheol Jung-bae’s words a rebuke?
“Finally...”
No.
“You’ve come to your senses.”
Cheol Jung-bae said.
“This is war.”
When he’d reunited with Go Yohan, he’d called him...
‘You madman!’
There were many reasons, but one was certain.
“That’s how it must be. Only you can do it. These Apostles here are truly remarkable.”
The mood was light, but since it was a meeting, Cheol Jung-bae spoke as he had in the old alliance conferences.
“First Emperor of Travania.”
“...!”
Everyone’s eyes widened.
They’d never heard this before.
But seeing Go Yohan’s deepening gaze, they knew it was true.
“You weren’t Emperor.”
“Everyone acclaimed you, your name was engraved on the founding stele. You simply refused.”
That much was fact.
“The founding emperor and second emperor of Travania built the empire solely for you, but you refused.”
It was absurd.
Founded it, yet second emperor?
“So this time, don’t do the same. You are...”
“Enough.”
Go Yohan said.
“My apologies.”
Cheol Jung-bae backed down with an apology.
“...In the end, our operations will have no choice but to center on Korea.”
He had been born and raised here; it couldn’t be helped.
The church was here, and the demons’ invasion would center on Korea too.
Thus...
“...As for Korea.”
Go Yohan said.
“I’ll permit everything.”
“...!”
“At the very least, on this land, you can focus solely on the war with the demons.”
Becoming a villain.
Even hiding in the shadows, seizing and shaking the country.
“Shall I make you president right away?”
He was even resolved for that.
“That’s not what you want.”
Lee Ha-yeon smiled as if joking, but her eyes gleamed like they were spewing golden light.
“As the Captain wills.”
*
*
*
Go Yohan entered the Sanctum Manor.
He hadn’t contacted the other family members separately.
“You’re here?”
He gave a small nod to the security personnel greeting him and stepped inside.
Korea and Travania were certainly different places.
But with the emergence of Players as real military power, many things had become similar.
Even without titles or royalty in this world, equivalents had arisen.
Step.
Sanctum was the same.
If anything, it was like a noble house holding a ducal title in a minor kingdom.
Just looking at the manor, it was a noble space.
Step.
Go Yohan crossed the manor and headed to the second floor.
There.
“I’ll enter.”
Was his father’s room.
Creak.
The opening study.
In truth, this was the place in Sanctum Manor most distant from Go Yohan.
In his childhood, he’d tried not to get involved in guild matters at all.
It was also the time he’d been called the wastrel of Sanctum.
Unlike his close mother, his father had always felt distant.
Even so.
“Come in.”
He’d always known they cared for each other.
“Sit.”
Only Go Jaehan was in the manor.
They’d exchanged prior contact, or not.
“It hasn’t been that long.”
Normally he’d say it’d been ages, but thanks to Shin Su-kyung’s efforts, Go Yohan had set foot in the manor again.
“Still nonsense.”
Go Yohan flinched at Go Jaehan’s words.
“You’ve changed.”
The man who’d always felt close yet distant now felt near.
“I had to.”
Go Jaehan said.
“I never intended to change in the first place.”
“......”
“I was just waiting.”
Simple words.
Like what he’d said at the dinner table then.
-I’m proud.
Just that one phrase.
Yet.
“......”
He couldn’t understand why his heart stirred so.
“Anyway, I need to hear why you wanted to see me alone, even keeping it from your mother.”
Go Jaehan said.
Busy as he was, he’d made precious time for Go Yohan.
“Have you made up your mind?”
Go Jaehan asked.
*
*
*
“......”
“......”
Go Jaehan and Go Yohan faced each other.
The King—a childish epithet.
But that was just for civilians.
Whooo!
No need to ask how grand the title “King” was among Players.
Countless chased rankings for that childish prize, striving to be the best.
Go Jaehan wasn’t Korea’s Rank 1.
Among association Players, only a select few held it: Unranker.
“Have you...”
Go Jaehan was an unranked Player.
Exactly seven such in the world.
Measuring their rankings was meaningless; they possessed strength beyond levels.
And that was...
“Made up your mind?”
The truth.
Go Jaehan before him—even as a child, Go Yohan had realized.
‘He’s strong.’
And he wasn’t even showing his true power.
He’d faced an Unranker before.
Gu Seunghun.
The Player Association Chairman, called a legend, but in reality, unimpressive.
Even if levels couldn’t explain it, that was it.
Someone he could slaughter in one strike.
“......”
But Go Jaehan was more.
“Do you know?”
Go Jaehan said.
“That it’s been over ten years since we last talked alone like this.”
“......”
“And back then, you said it.”
Shin Su-kyung knowing Go Yohan’s secret had been unexpected for him too.
Thus he’d been swept in passion, moved.
But.
“Sanctum will become Korea’s top guild.”
Not as much as Go Jaehan.
“So don’t hide anymore, step forward.”
For a very long time, as Go Yohan had watched Go Jaehan, Go Jaehan had watched Go Yohan.
And they knew it.
“A ten-year-old kid said that to me. Blood ties aside...”
Heh.
“What’s special about blood? You were special on your own.”
“I needed to.”
If asked why, he could answer.
‘Because I needed to.’
Even then, Go Jaehan had ample skill and ability.
If he’d just straightened his hunched form, Korea’s top guild would’ve been easy.
‘The King.’
Go Yohan knew the power in that name.
Yet he hid as much as possible, seeming content with a middling position.
That was why.
He wouldn’t want Sanctum’s growth from external factors, so accept that growth and advance himself.
“Yes, and so it became No. 1.”
Korea’s No. 1 guild, Sanctum.
That was the story of its birth.
“And now you sit before me again.”
The ten-year-old boy now a twenty-year-old youth.
Recalling that old request, he wondered what this one would be—exciting, trembling.
For Go Yohan...
‘You’re that person to me.’
To Go Jaehan too, indescribably special.
“Do you want me to step aside now?”
Go Jaehan asked.
“Or be your shield?”
He asked again.
“Or perhaps... become your blade?”
“......”
“Whatever it is, compared to what you have, it’ll be lacking. But.”
Go Jaehan said.
“Above all that, I’m your father.”
Go Yohan opened his briefly closed eyes and said.
“I need to take Korea.”
“Is that so.”
And the answer.
“Do it.”
Go Jaehan said.