Death to the False King!

In the car ride back from dinner at a restaurant with a representative of a famous supercar brand, Jeong-Hoon scratched his head, still at a loss as he thought about the gift he had just received.

"Do you think I really ought to get a driver's license for this?"

"There's no real need, but a license never hurts to have."

Jeong-Hoon had never imagined he would be handed a brand-new supercar, so he was seriously considering getting licensed. It hadn't been a luxury he'd bought for himself—it was a gift—and that made him feel he ought to take it for a proper spin at least once, if only out of courtesy.

"There's no need to stand on ceremony," Butler Ju said. "They simply heard the rumor that you purchased a rival company's latest model last time and decided to send you ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠one of their own."

At the mention of the rival brand, Jeong-Hoon recalled his first meeting with Yong-Ha, the head of the Organization, and nodded.

"Ah, right. I did splash out back then. Completely slipped my mind."

He had taken delivery of that car as well, but without a license he had simply left it sitting. The thought of a vehicle worth hundreds of millions gathering dust in a parking garage made him grimace. Luxury or not, at least taking it for a drive would have been decent. As it stood, it was pure waste of money.

"If you want to drive, drive."

"I'd still need a license first."

"Not necessarily. Among the private estates you own, there are some excellent tracks."

As he spoke, Butler Ju gave a light wave of his hand. Dozens of tracks belonging to the family appeared on the lenses of Jeong-Hoon's glasses. Conversation was handled by the translator, but he still couldn't read foreign text—hence the hastily procured glasses. They recognized the language of any writing and instantly rendered it into Korean, and they could also display all sorts of information just like this.

"Why more than one track?"

"Wouldn't a single one grow boring rather quickly?"

At this rate the family could host its own Grand Prix.

"Shall we? If you wish, we could even launch a racing team under the group's name."

"…Later. Let's do later."

If he refused outright, Butler Ju might simply take his flicker of interest as green light and push the whole thing through on his own, so Jeong-Hoon put the decision on hold. His gaze drifted to the Colosseum outside the window—the very symbol of Rome.

"Do you like it?"

"…I have no desire to own a cultural treasure. I was just imagining how magnificent it must have been at the height of the Roman Empire."

"According to the records that remain in the family, it was a true golden age."

Butler Ju drew up the family chronicles of that era from his memory.

"During the period when the family resided in Rome, successive Gaju took ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠such interest that they sponsored any number of gladiators."

"…Huh. Sounds a lot like the way we sponsor S-class hunters now."

"The age may change, but supporting the strong has always been a family tradition."

Knowing that the family had wandered the world before settling on the Korean Peninsula, Jeong-Hoon nodded and focused on the contemporary records Butler Ju had projected. The era, seen through the family's eyes, proved surprisingly fascinating.

Vatican City.

The entire city was a cultural heritage site, and after touring the heart of Catholicism Jeong-Hoon found himself frowning faintly, lost in thought.

"Is something not to your liking?"

"…This is the Vatican. Why isn't The Last Supper here?"

He had stood in awe of Michelangelo's masterpieces in the Sistine Chapel, yet he was disappointed that the one painting everyone associated with Catholicism was nowhere to be found. Had Michelangelo's works failed to move him, it might have been different—but the sheer scale of the frescoes covering the vast ceiling and walls had left him so overwhelmed that the absence of The Last Supper now felt like a genuine loss.

"The Last Supper is in Milan, not the Vatican. Shall we go there tomorrow?"

"Ah… so it isn't here? Well, never mind then."

One glance at the materials Butler Ju provided was enough to convince Jeong-Hoon he had no desire to haul himself all the way to northwestern Italy. He cleanly abandoned the idea of seeing the painting.

"Is there a particular reason you wished to view The Last Supper?"

"The cup in that painting looks completely different from the actual Holy Grail that's supposed to be in Spain, right? It made me curious, so I figured I'd like to see it for myself someday."

Jeong-Hoon gave the long-winded reason as briefly as he could and shrugged. It was idle curiosity, not something on a bucket list—nothing he felt a burning need to chase.

"In other words, the desire to see the real Holy Grail has been redirected."

"…Is that how it works?"

It sounded almost plausible coming from Butler Ju, so Jeong-Hoon nodded in half-admission.

"Then you may simply look at it."

"No, going all the way to Milan is still—"

"I was referring to Korea, not Milan. It is stored in the family vault."

"What?"

They had been talking about the Holy Grail—why was the family vault suddenly in the conversation? Jeong-Hoon turned his head so stiffly it almost creaked.

"The genuine Holy Grail is in the family's keeping."

"Why would the family have that? It's national treasure material—no, world heritage material!"

"We acquired it during the years when the family traveled the world, and have kept it ever since. Not only the Grail—we also hold the Lance of Longinus. Are you interested?"

It would have been a lie to say he wasn't, but Jeong-Hoon deliberately shook his head as if he couldn't care less. Why would objects that belonged only in legends actually exist?

"…I'd find the idea that Excalibur is real more believable."

"We have that as well."

He had meant it as a dry jab, but Butler Ju fielded it with perfect calm. Jeong-Hoon found he had nothing more to say. A chill of dread rose in him—at this rate the man was going to claim they ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠also had the vanished Imperial Seal of Joseon stashed somewhere.

After finishing the Vatican tour, Jeong-Hoon chose to walk back to the Lumen rather than take the car. He wanted to experience a city like Rome on his own two feet.

"In the end, though, it's still just a city where people live."

"It may be a tourist destination, but it is also the capital of one of the world's top ten powers."

While Jeong-Hoon strolled, half-distracted by the scenery, they caught several pickpockets who had been eyeing him, and drunks were visible in every direction. It was a city steeped in thousands of years of romance, yet the simple truth that ordinary people lived here kept asserting itself.

"Huff… huff…"

"…Looks like that one's had quite a bit to drink."

An odd breathing sound drew Jeong-Hoon's attention. He turned that way, raising a hand in wary readiness for anyone who might approach. He already knew the routine—someone creates a distraction while a pickpocket lifts your wallet.

"It is not alcohol, Gaju. We should leave at once."

"What? Not alcohol…?"

Butler Ju had studied the man's eyes and spoken with a tight frown. Jeong-Hoon, about to ask again, understood and nodded, stepping back. Dilated pupils. Ragged breath. Not drunk—high.

"Isn't drugs illegal in Italy?"

"Illegal or not, addicts pay no mind to such things."

Standing close to guard Jeong-Hoon, Butler Ju weighed how to handle the man. If he attacked, they could simply counter. If he was merely reeling and dazed, laying hands on him would be awkward. A careless move could drag them into a feud with Italy's drug-trafficking organizations. Worse, the man was an Awakened. A clash with Italy's guild-ized mafia would leave a nightmarish mess to clean up.

"Heh! Heh-heh-heh!"

Seeing the two of them on guard, the addict let out a grinding metallic laugh and drew a short dagger from his coat.

"Release the seals…"

"What…?!"

The addict swayed, grinning vacantly as he spoke—and not only Jeong-Hoon but Butler Ju froze solid. He was speaking of the seals. And those words—

"Death to the false king…"

The same cry the vassals had raised at Jeong-Hoon's enthronement.

"Reveal the world's true form!!!"

With the final words, the addict drove the dagger into his own heart.

A dying declaration that stood in perfect opposition to the family's own motto.

As the addict plunged the dagger into his heart while chanting that reverse creed, a brilliant light erupted from the pommel of the blade. The two of them stood frozen—never having expected to confront something like this, here, so suddenly—while the light from the dagger wrapped around them.

"What is this?"

"…Magic."

As the family's head butler, Ju identified the magic at a glance and one eyebrow twitched. It was an application of a traitor's magic—different from Kang Hyun-Joong's. He could tell it was derived, but its purpose and construction would only become clear once it fully activated.

"Woof! Woof! Woof! Grrrrr—"

"Bark! Bark! Bark!"

A magic circle roughly two meters across unfurled, and from beyond it came the deep, resonant baying of dogs.

"Don't tell me—is this an Incursion?"

"It differs from every Incursion the family has recorded so far."

Butler Ju denied that it was an Incursion, but Jeong-Hoon shook his head with a scowl.

"…I've seen this before, though."

The memory had been so searing that he recognized it at once. Butler Ju immediately understood what he meant.

"You mean the Ogre Lord's Incursion at Diana Theme Park?"

"Yes. It's the exact same magic circle I saw then."

Having once looked down on the entire circle from the sky, Jeong-Hoon remembered it perfectly. Butler Ju, hearing that, could now place the dead addict—if not by name, then by affiliation.

"One of the Organization's dogs, then."

"Speaking of dogs…"

Click.

As he spoke, Jeong-Hoon pressed the button that deployed the suit sealed inside his formal wear. A mechanical voice answered, and the suit unfolded to encase his entire body before the helmet locked into place.

The faceplate of the sealed helmet lit up, and the drive systems mounted across his body whirred to life.

The moment the suit fully activated, Jeong-Hoon drew a handgun, leveled it at the dog-headed monster pushing through the magic circle—a Kobold—and pulled the trigger.

Bang!

"Conveniently, dogs showed up."

"…Indeed. A dog, so he summoned dogs."

Butler Ju watched Jeong-Hoon deploy the suit in an instant and blow the lead Kobold's head clean off, then smiled and deployed his own. They could hardly show their faces while operating in Rome, capital of Italy.

"They're only Kobolds, but don't let your guard down. We have no idea what else might happen."

"Of course."

While Butler Ju nodded in agreement, cracks spidered across the magic circle still holding more Kobolds. Then the corpse with the dagger buried in its chest crumbled to dust and was absorbed into the circle. Fed on that dust, the magic circle flared with brilliant light and burst outward, vanishing as it wrapped the surroundings.

It was the harbinger of a full Incursion. Butler Ju swung a fist to shatter the circle—only for his blow to pass straight through it, empty and futile.

"It appears to be a magic circle engineered for safety so it can trigger an Incursion."

"I can see that."

As the circle settled, Kobolds began spawning from every direction. F-class, the absolute lowest tier of monster—even an ordinary person could subdue one with a club if they kept their wits about them. The problem was that they had appeared, without warning, in the middle of Rome.

"Ah—and call up all twelve of the 12 Vassals at once. Have them fly here immediately."

"…Understood. Time to grab the Organization by the tail."

The moment the circle vanished, Jeong-Hoon lunged to retrieve the fallen dagger and issued the order. Butler Ju inclined his head. Even if they were only the lowest-grade monsters, the Gaju himself was charging into danger—yet the butler felt not the slightest worry. As Jeong-Hoon stood now, nothing short of an S-class monster erupting among them could possibly put him at risk.