The Emperor's Golden Vault
The early dawn air at the Incheon docks was cold and crisp.
The Cadillac that Jung Da-yeon had arrived in carefully threaded its way through an enormous pack of dogs before pulling into the warehouse.
A massive horde of canines had been staring at the approaching vehicle from every surrounding hill.
“It’s like the wolves are all eyeing the shepherd,”
Jung Da-yeon muttered.
“Miss, please step out.”
The elderly butler opened the door first. Jung Da-yeon stepped down onto the side stand.
The air, strangely blending the scent of fresh country grass with the unmistakable smell of dog droppings, could hardly be called pleasant even as a white lie.
“Judging by the lack of food bowls or dog houses, could they be wild dogs?”
“However, their coats are far too glossy for that. Moreover, every one of them is wearing a spiked collar. It appears an animal-handling ability user is guarding the warehouse.”
The old butler’s words made sense.
“Still, controlling that many dogs at once… it’s hard to believe.”
“It must mean whatever is inside is that important.”
Jung Da-yeon tilted her head and looked around.
This warehouse, once the largest grain silo complex in Korea, had now been converted into a trading post for transactions between Kim Hwang-je and Lost.
The renovated building, formed by connecting a row of silo-style warehouses supported by twelve massive pillars, was so enormous that it looked like it might be an illegal structure.
Yet there were people willing to pay enormous taxes to own such warehouses, and one of them was Jung Da-yeon.
“Wait… when did they even build all this…?”
But Kim Hwang-je had apparently taken things even further.
Jung Da-yeon opened the iron gate and stepped inside, only to freeze at the sight of the door set into the front of the warehouse.
It was an absurdly massive titanium steel vault door.
There was supposed to be an ordinary, loose-fitting iron door here, wasn’t there?
“This…”
“Oh my goodness, miss…”
Even the old butler couldn’t hide his astonishment.
Not even the vault doors of Swiss private banks were this ridiculously oversized.
When Kim Hwang-je had first requested spears and armor, the warehouse Jung Da-yeon had provided was nothing more than a simple grain storage facility.
In other words, it was the kind of place you could kick open with your foot.
But the enormous door before them now looked exactly like the gate of a castle.
*Hsssssh—*
With the sound of escaping steam, the iron door began to rotate smoothly, like a ship’s steering wheel.
Then it cracked open slightly from within, and Kim Hwang-je stepped out.
“Welcome! You’re early.”
Kim Hwang-je greeted them cheerfully.
Seo Jun-seo stood behind him.
“When the boss first made the request, I was skeptical. But seeing it completed like this… it’s impressive.”
“Right? Anyway, the door has to be sturdy. It’s working out great.”
Indeed. This was actually a spare gate from Adel Castle.
Just in case, Kim Hwang-je had demanded that the gates of Adel Castle be “numerous enough to replace at any time,” “extremely sturdy,” and “exceptionally excellent.”
As a result, Seo Jun-seo had used the boss’s vast funds to fulfill that wish and, with the leftovers, had even created this vault door.
Thanks to that, Jung Da-yeon found herself tilting her head back, mouth agape, trying to gauge the height of the thing.
“Nice to see you. At this point, I’d be disappointed if there wasn’t something incredible inside.”
“To be honest, even I’m still not entirely sure if what’s inside is real or fake.”
Kim Hwang-je spoke with his usual shameless grin and led them inward.
They passed through the titanium vault door and entered yet another titanium chamber.
“It would be convenient if I could just take it from my house, but the place is cursed. Anyone but me who touches it dies.”
At Kim Hwang-je’s casual remark, Jung Da-yeon tilted her head.
“They really die?”
“Yes.”
Thinking of the late Bahu, Kim Hwang-je entered a complex passcode to open the next door, then went even further by using a googol-based OTP.
“These days, outsourcing security is all the rage, right?”
*Beep. Beep—*
The thick double iron door’s screws began to unscrew in elegant spiral patterns.
Slowly, the triple-layered iron doors opened smoothly in three different directions.
“The boss values this facility greatly. I’m sure you will feel the same, miss.”
Jung Da-yeon wasn’t really listening to Seo Jun-seo.
Her mind had been completely captured by the golden light pouring out from between the slowly opening doors.
“No way… No way…”
Muttering in disbelief, Jung Da-yeon stepped forward.
When the doors finally opened completely, what was revealed was a warehouse completely filled with gold.
Jung Da-yeon rubbed her eyes in disbelief, but the gold did not disappear.
Mountains upon mountains of coins made of gold, silver, and copper were piled up inside.
“What do you think? Pretty killer, right?”
There was no way Kim Hwang-je’s words could reach her ears right now.
Trembling, Jung Da-yeon walked forward.
“…”
“…”
To see a sight like this in reality?
“Gold? Is this all real gold? You’re not even Mansa Musa, how is this possible?”
Jung Da-yeon said.
Mansa Musa.
The richest man in human history.
The king of the Mali Empire, Mansa Musa, was the person who had owned the most gold in Earth’s history.
He was the legendary king who had supposedly made 12,000 slaves each carry 2.7 kilograms of gold bars while following him on pilgrimage.
His wealth, converted to the exchange rate after the Monster Outbreak, exceeded 600 trillion won.
More than the total amount of the national pension fund.
Jung Da-yeon rubbed her eyes again and looked forward once more.
The gold was still there.
“But it is true, Miss Jung Da-yeon. Yes. This is all the gold our boss currently possesses. And it will only increase from now on.”
To prepare for today’s transaction, Kim Hwang-je had taken an enormous quantity of gold coins from his Stronghold in the early morning and moved them here.
Jung Da-yeon stepped closer, pulled a handkerchief from her pocket, and carefully picked up one of the gold coins at the very front.
The coin had no special patterns or symbols. In fact, it looked as if it had been polished to a mirror shine.
She cast an Appraisal spell to examine the gold.
“This isn’t anti-magic gold… but… it’s 99% pure gold.”
Compared to anti-magic gold, it was much lighter and simpler, with no magical processing.
That was because these were not the coins circulated by the Adel Kingdom. They were purely gold obtained from killing monsters.
The skill The Castle Becomes Me had such a strange function.
Hunting monsters produced gold. Giving food to passing people also produced gold.
Thanks to that, after Kim Hwang-je had recently distributed an enormous amount of meat, he had gained yet another huge quantity of gold.
It was like a game that showered players with gold.
Kim Hwang-je smiled and said,
“I won’t be able to make anti-magic gold for a while, so I’ll sell it to you again later. For now, please be satisfied with regular gold.”
“Oh dear. Many mage tower clients were specifically hoping for anti-magic gold. What a shame.”
“There’s one matter I need to take care of first.”
Kim Hwang-je looked at the massive Ruby Salon still covered in meat inside his World Observation.
If yesterday it had looked like a hot bar skewer, today it resembled a chocolate Pocky.
Though the meat had grown thin, it was still dripping with juices, and the mages didn’t dare approach the tower.
Still, thanks to that, the royal castle had been throwing a meat festival for two whole days.
As long as that mage tower remained unrepaired, he couldn’t enchant the gold to turn it into currency.
“But even this pure gold is truly incredible… The amount must easily surpass several trillion won…”
Jung Da-yeon said as she gazed at the shimmering gold.
Various worries began sprouting in her mind.
The first one to grow was the sheer volume of gold.
“We explained the anti-magic gold as something mined from monster bodies. That allowed us to distribute it under the Hunter Special Act.”
She set the pure gold coin down and continued.
“But this is all pure gold, so we’ll have to seriously consider the laws regarding gold distribution. This much gold can’t suddenly appear within the country… If we try to cash it in, we’ll immediately be suspected of smuggling.”
It was hard to hide, yet also hard not to hide.
No matter how much of a limited company it was, one could not freely handle gold as they pleased.
Kim Hwang-je spoke up.
“You’re right, Miss Jung Da-yeon. That’s why Secretary Seo and I have already thought of something.”
At his signal, Seo Jun-seo pulled out a large map and spread it on the floor.
“This gold will officially be coming in from abroad.”
“How?”
“Because this is my country.”
“Ah, a country. I see. I suppose establishing a country is possible for you…”
Was there anything left that could surprise her?
His name was Kim Hwang-je and his company was Empire Company.
Even if he said he was founding a real nation, it somehow seemed plausible.
But Jung Da-yeon examined the map closely.
It showed a small island floating in the distant sea south of Australia.
In the middle of the empty open ocean, something white that resembled an island was floating.
Could this even be called a map?
Wasn’t this just an aerial photograph?
She had never seen this island before.
Wait a moment… why did it look like pale green ice?
Yet Kim Hwang-je declared confidently,
“This island is a sovereign state, and I am its ruler.”
Jung Da-yeon felt like she was listening to the nonsense of a conspiracy theorist who had abandoned common sense.
However, because Kim Hwang-je’s abilities and this mountain of gold were both undeniably real, she decided to listen a little more closely to this scheme.
What he said wasn’t technically wrong.
Yes. It was possible for the owner of an island to declare independence and claim its territorial waters.
“But that’s a glacier!!”
In the end, Jung Da-yeon couldn’t hold back and shouted.
In all of history, had anyone ever seen a Korean who claimed a glacier as territory and declared an independent nation?
While Jung Da-yeon was left speechless by the absurdity, Kim Hwang-je continued.
“And in accordance with international law, I have claimed the twelve nautical miles surrounding this island as my territorial waters. Everything that comes from those waters belongs to me.”
After mentioning the glacier, he had doubled down by claiming the surrounding sea as his own.
“This nation has joined the Commonwealth, received Australia’s approval, and Australia will share defense responsibilities.”
He was now on his third spoonful.
“And there will be a gold mine beneath this sea.”
Jung Da-yeon nodded at Kim Hwang-je, who had now taken a fourth spoonful.
There was no gold mine.
This was all camouflage.
It was chameleon-level camouflage that would make even a chameleon cry.
“…How exactly did you cook Australia?”
“I didn’t boil them. I grilled them, and they told me to go ahead. I caught an Evil Spirit Class, you see.”
Only now did Jung Da-yeon understand.
Considering how much national power Australia was expending to deal with an Evil Spirit Class, it wasn’t difficult for them to shelter one powerful mage who wanted to evade taxes.
But to hand over a glacier instead of land and even agree to protect its surroundings…
It seemed they had never imagined Kim Hwang-je would actually do something like this.
Suddenly, Jung Da-yeon felt a little sorry for Australia.
Because Kim Hwang-je was about to become one of the people who handled the most gold in the world…
“Australia will have to bear the consequences of distributing this enormous quantity of gold.”
Smiling, Kim Hwang-je handed Jung Da-yeon a pouch filled with anti-magic gold and another pouch filled with powder from the Devil’s Scum.
“One is anti-magic gold… and the other is powder… I’ll appraise it and give you the price.”
Kim Hwang-je decided not to say out loud that it was Devil’s Scum.
No matter how you looked at it, it looked more like powder than scum.
While he repeated that to himself, she asked again.
“So, Korea’s Mansa Musa. What do you plan to do with this anti-magic gold?”
Kim Hwang-je answered.
“Well. Probably founding an army?”
Jung Da-yeon found it difficult to tell whether he was joking or serious.
But Kim Hwang-je continued.
“The black market. You know it, right? I need weapons.”
Another Wave was approaching.
***