Chapter 15
Chapter 15
“What the hell are you all doing?! Young master! Get Young Master Hyun-woo! Hurry!”
“The introduction ceremony ends here! D-distinguished guests, please exit the hall promptly...!”
After a silence like a nightmare had passed, even greater chaos descended.
The belated scramble to end the ceremony. The Gold Army rushing the guests out, the Sedo family heads gathering in clusters and vanishing somewhere. Something was off. It was an unnatural scene, like a badly rehearsed play.
“Daddy!”
“A-rin!”
Yu Sang-hyun leaped down into the training ground and scooped up A-rin.
The successor to the Andong Kim Clan, pinnacle of prestige among the Sedo families. The girl who had shattered Kim Hyun-woo—the greatest talent of the current younger generation—in a single blow.
Yet the culprit herself seemed oblivious to the meaning of what she'd done, flashing an innocent smile.
“Daddy, look at my aura! It was super strong, right? Right!”
“Y-yeah. It was.”
“How strong was I? Strong enough to protect you and Uncle and everyone...”
She bounced around as she chattered, but only for a moment.
Thud!
A-rin collapsed before she could finish, unable to even complete her sentence.
No external wounds, but she'd just awakened her aura and unleashed it—the backlash was inevitable.
Yu Sang-hyun caught his drained daughter. But then a low, icy voice reached him.
“General. We will secure the safety of Lady Yu A-rin. Please comply with our orders.”
Yu Sang-hyun turned at the voice.
The Gold Army—Joseon's elite force of aura users—had him surrounded, demanding he hand over A-rin.
“Secure the suspect? What does that mean?”
“Orders from above. To verify Yu A-rin's abilities, we must take her into custody...”
“Verify? So you're saying...”
Yu Sang-hyun rose slowly, cutting them off. The Gold Army tensed at his resonant voice, but in that instant—
“You dare try to take my daughter from me, the Iron Tiger Commander?”
Kuuu—!
His voice thrummed with menace, and an aura so overwhelming it numbed their senses bore down on them.
“If you can, then try it.”
“...!”
A hair-trigger situation. As the Gold Army exchanged glances, entered combat stances, and reached for their weapons—
“The lady has used aura exceeding regulation limits. She violated the rules of the group introduction ceremony.”
Another voice cut in, snapping the taut thread of tension.
The Gold Army sheathed their weapons and bowed at once.
Yu Sang-hyun turned to see Kim Jung-heon, patriarch of the Andong Kim Clan, standing there.
“She unleashed enough aura to wreck the arena, harming the Sedo guests and my son. A grave breach of regulations.”
“She's still a child. Besides, A-rin—my daughter—just awakened her aura! Detaining her like this is...!”
“No excuse changes the rules. There are no exceptions.”
“This is outrageous!”
“Outrageous, you say? Then...”
Kim Jung-heon cut him off and unleashed his own presence.
“Are you, Iron Tiger Commander, challenging the authority of the Gold Army?”
“...!”
Only then did Yu Sang-hyun survey his surroundings.
Guuuu—!
Armored helicopters hovered overhead, their heavy machine guns trained on him. Behind the Gold Army, Training Office troops stood ready, artificial bodies humming to life. And above all, Kim Jung-heon's presence weighed heavily.
Surrounded on all sides.
Gritting his teeth, Yu Sang-hyun slowly withdrew his aura.
This was practically Andong Kim Clan territory. Resistance would be futile.
“We have many questions for you about the power your lady just displayed, General.”
Figures in red robes stepped forward from either side of Kim Jung-heon.
Agents of the Royal Inspectorate.
Yu Sang-hyun's face flushed with fury. They were treating a mere child who'd shown her strength like a criminal!
“Not content with the Gold Army taking my daughter—you're deploying the Inspectorate to detain me too? What the hell is...!”
“They were nearby, that's all. The investigation will proceed lawfully. Cooperate, and both you and your daughter will be released without issue.”
“Is that so? Then let me ask one thing.”
Raising his arms in surrender as if agreeing to the investigation, Yu Sang-hyun stared at Kim Jung-heon.
“What exactly is this 'problem' you're talking about, my lord?”
“...”
Kim Jung-heon turned away without answering.
A-rin, unconscious in the arms of the Gold Army, was carried off.
As Yu Sang-hyun watched in dazed horror, Inspectorate agents moved to seize his arms.
“Unhand me. I'll walk on my own.”
“...”
The agents stepped back and bowed.
The yangban exiting the hall murmured as Yu Sang-hyun followed under escort.
“What just happened? Young Master Hyun-woo got...!”
“More importantly, that girl A-rin—her power, could it be...?”
“Shh! Shh! The Inspectorate's watching! Watch your mouth or...!”
The chattering yangban clamped their mouths shut, glancing around warily as they fled the hall.
Maggot-like scum.
Watching them, I thought:
They can't even make a proper judgment. Their eyes and ears are blinded by fear.
Why does this nation of Joseon enjoy its status as the world's sole superpower? And why have those old pigs held the pinnacle of Joseon power for three hundred years?
Joseon's dazzling economy and boundless technology? No, that's not it.
The civil wars on the Central Plains Continent were stabilizing.
The arms conglomerates dominating the Japanese archipelago were rapidly catching up to our tech.
Then, the aura users 'produced' through rigorous quality control like this introduction ceremony? No.
Aura users from Sedo families are powerful, true—but other nations, even commoners, wield aura too.
With our already scarce population, Joseon's discrimination by class and bloodline means we'll soon be overtaken in aura user numbers.
So why, really?
Because that great King Gwangjo watches over Joseon from the throne hall, as they all claim? Lunacy.
I knew the real reason. A ridiculously simple one.
'They got lucky.'
The rift catastrophe that swept the world. Joseon was the only civilized nation untouched.
Even when rifts opened in Beijing, exterminating billions on the Central Plains. Even when Tokyo's rifts turned Honshu into a monster-infested hell... nothing happened to us.
When the tiger dies, the fox takes over the mountain. And when the fox dies too, even a stray alley cat can strut like a leopard.
They survived. And among the survivors, they were the strongest.
Nothing more, nothing less.
'What they fear most: change. Any new possibility that could shatter their vested interests.'
Yu A-rin.
If she were just a girl with strong aura, they wouldn't overreact like this.
They'd bribe, frame her, spin some conspiracy—do anything to absorb that power into their bloodlines.
But A-rin's aura was different.
The king's power. The hero's light still overlooking Joseon from the throne hall.
Reawakened in an unknown girl.
That golden radiance that once forced them to their knees.
Even after three hundred years, that's what terrifies them most.
“But in the end, it's begun.”
In the midst of the chaotic hall, I watched the sheep scatter.
The king's power—forgotten, or rather, one that had to be forgotten—had reemerged.
The senile old cats would cower in their dens, yowling in fear of the newborn tiger.
The king has returned. Their power, built over centuries, would crumble like a sandcastle.
The stopped clock had begun to tick.
The revolution that would devour this rotten Joseon.
The great storm had started.
And my role was simple.
'Slip into the eye of the storm.'
Stick right by the one stirring it up. Laugh at these idiots as the typhoon sweeps them away.
Decision made, I melted into the crowd.
With Kim Hyun-woo down and all the yangban fixated there, no one would notice me.
Thud-thud-thud-thud—!
Rough rotor noise echoed as an armored helicopter cut through the neon-lit skies over Hanseong.
Aboard were Training Office enhanced soldiers and their Gold Guard leader.
Their mission: dispose of the girl Yu A-rin, slumped in a corner, where no one would see.
“Time to target?”
“About five minutes. But...”
The pilot gripped the controls but kept glancing at the cargo hold corner. Grimacing, he asked his superior, the Gold Guard.
“Sir, are we really... disposing of that kid? She's just a child...”
“High command's orders are absolute. Don't question them.”
“Y-yes, sir.”
The brief exchange ended; the pilot shut up.
Behind him stood the Gold Army. One wrong word, and his head might roll.
“...Huh?”
In his tense peripheral vision, something caught his eye.
A high-rise on Hanseong's outskirts. Something was flying from it.
Weird. No alarms blaring?
As the pilot narrowed his eyes—
Crack!
An arrow pierced his forehead dead center. He died instantly.
A hole through the cockpit armor plating—the plating that shrugged off anti-tank rounds, punctured by an arrow.
“Ambush?! Damn it, what the—!”
Zzzzt-crackle!
The moment the pilot flatlined, the arrow's signal device unleashed an EMP.
The cockpit flooded with red warning screens.
The Gold Guard ground his teeth.
That arrow had hacked the entire control system.
'Gear with Level 1 security modules, hacked in seconds. Only Inspectorate agents could pull that off...!'
Sudden chaos, but he assessed fast. Timing of the attack meant one target.
He whipped around to the unconscious Yu A-rin and bellowed.
“Eliminate the target! Now...!”
But too late.
“No. Too slow.”
A murmur, and the enhanced soldiers guarding A-rin dropped one by one.
Amid them stood a masked assailant staring him down.
A bizarre mask devoid of a mouth: an Imae mask.
“Hwae! Traitors I’d tear apart and it still wouldn’t sate me!”
Boom!
The assault didn’t end there. The transport chopper’s ramp door exploded, and masked thugs poured through the breach.
They grabbed the disposal target A-rin and leaped out.
The man lunged without hesitation—but—
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Clang!
The Imae-masked attacker intercepted, body-checking his charge.
No warning, just inside the chopper. And that prickling aura flowing through him.
An aura user.
Boom-boom-boom-KABOOM!
Dozens of clashes in a blink.
“Tch.”
She took his Gold Army strength head-on.
No mere aura dabbler.
'Hwae elites. Cadre level.'
The intruders who'd jumped first were already groundside.
The Gold Guard's face hardened. He'd lose the target at this rate.
No way.
He reset his stance, regulated his breathing, concentrated his aura—and—
Flash!
A shockwave erupted from him, obliterating the chopper's rear.
A technique releasing pinpointed aura in one burst—feats few in the Gold Army could match.
“Damn! Gold Army lives up to the name—freakin’ tough...!”
He blocked with both hands, but the Imae mask flew back into the air.
Confirming it, the Gold Guard vaulted out, bounding off floating debris toward the ground.
'They’re in the vehicle.'
The Hwae who'd snatched the target were already loaded up. Eye scanner confirmed: Yu A-rin aboard too.
Too late if he delayed.
Gritting his teeth, he drew his hip pistol and fired at max power.
KABOOOM!
The high-pressure plasma round hit; the vehicle exploded on the spot.
Wreathed in flames, reduced to ash.
No life-support device could save anyone from that blast.
Thud!
The Gold Guard landed from the sky and checked the burning wreck.
Rear seat: a charred child corpse.
Even amid the horror, he scanned the teeth and hair.
Identity confirmed. Two Hwae agents and disposal target Yu A-rin: dead in the inferno.
“Meant to dispose of her anyway, but Hwae sniffing it out? Unbelievable...”
And that arrow?
He glanced at the chopper wreckage—futile. Debris scattered across the city; no checking every piece.
“A tale to make ghosts weep. What the hell...?”
“Gold Guard, sir.”
A voice from behind. He turned to see Royal Inspectorate agents in red saluting.
“We confirm Yu A-rin's death. Case transfers to the Inspectorate.”
“...Understood.”
The agents dispersed to scour the site.
From a distant rooftop, Chang-un stowed his bow and muttered.
“Yeah. You’ve done your jobs.”
Hwae ambushed mid-transport, but Gold Army repelled them. He personally destroyed the escape vehicle and killed two agents.
No suspicions left.
As he thought that, an old sedan pulled up below.
He descended to the first floor, opened the door: unconscious Yu A-rin lay inside.
“Mmm... D-Da...ddy...?”
“Oho.”
Slept through the chopper exploding and aura duel, huh? Some nerves.
Seeing her rub her eyes brought a grin.
“Awake now, baby tiger?”
Primary objective: Yu A-rin secured.
Mission accomplished.