Seeking the Genius of the Jegal Clan
"Whoa......"
As Do-ha stepped into Paju City, a gasp of pure admiration slipped out before he could stop it.
He had expected the construction to pick up speed after bringing more dwarves over from the Artlein Kingdom, but this had blown past every prediction. Buildings now stood solid from Yadang Station all the way to Imjin River Station, transforming the whole stretch into a far livelier commercial district than anything it had been before. The port city itself was already finished, and logistics companies had begun making contact in droves.
"Well? Impressive, isn't it?"
"It really is. Amazing...... Wait, why are you here?"
Do-ha had been nodding along while looking over the buildings when something felt off. He glanced down.
A short dwarf stood there.
It was none other than Kael, the Dwarf King.
"Hahaha! Figured I'd come out and work the site myself for a change. Sitting around the palace gets stifling, you know."
"Even so, a king personally doing......"
"Your Majesty! Stop slacking off over there and get over here to cut some H-beams!"
"You brats, this is my break time!"
"......"
Watching Kael banter with the other dwarves, Do-ha simply shook his head. No matter how you looked at it, the man did not look like a king.
"People aren't bothering you?"
Do-ha tilted his head. Kael's face had already been made public earlier—he had crossed over to Earth during the welcome ceremony, after all.
"All dwarves look pretty much the same, so nobody recognizes me."
Kael laughed heartily and brushed it off as nothing. That, however, was Kael's misunderstanding. Someone who had learned early on that the Dwarf King was on-site had moved quickly to handle the situation.
"That would be the Association President, wouldn't it?"
"Yes......"
Do-ha turned to look at the Association President approaching from behind. Even if dwarves all looked similar, there was no way people would fail to notice a king acting like this out in the open.
"I stepped in because I figured it would get noisy if word got out."
He still had no idea why a king was out here doing this, but he had decided nothing good would come of it becoming public knowledge. Of course, given how close Kael was with Do-ha, he had also half-expected something this eccentric.
"We can start moving people in soon."
"?"
"?"
At Do-ha's words, both Kael and the Association President tilted their heads at the same time.
"Why?"
Seeing their reactions, Do-ha tilted his own head. Why were they reacting like that?
"People have already been moving in for two months......"
"What?"
"Only the front rows are still empty. The inner areas have been filling up gradually. The Association headquarters has already relocated, and even the Viper Guild and Meteor Guild moved over quite a while ago."
"Huh?"
Hearing this for the first time, Do-ha was genuinely startled. He spread his sensory field and let out another sound of admiration. Checking properly, he found that a considerable number of people really were settled deeper inside. When had the population grown this much?
"You didn't know?"
"Come on, the owner of Paju City not knowing something like that?!"
"I simply didn't tell him."
Selenia approached as she answered Kael's remark. Lately Do-ha's mind had seemed so crowded that she had been handling all Paju-related affairs on her own. That was why she had never mentioned the residents moving in.
"As expected, her support is second to none. Not the Elf Queen—the Queen of Domestic Support, that's what she is."
Kael clapped and burst out laughing. Do-ha scratched his head, looking a little guilty.
"You should've said something...... It must've been hard handling it alone."
"It wasn't hard."
Selenia shook her head with a gentle smile. If it had truly been difficult, she would have spoken up.
"But Do-ha."
"Hm?"
"We're going to need someone to manage things soon."
As the city's population grew, the amount of administration required kept climbing. For now it was still within her capacity, but it would not take long before it crossed the line she could handle alone. The Association President was covering some of the more complicated work, yet even that could not continue indefinitely. Kim Hee-jae was the Association President in the truest sense—his own Association duties already formed a mountain, so they could not keep asking him to take on Paju's affairs as well.
"Hmm...... someone to manage things......"
Do-ha's gaze slid sideways to the person standing beside the Association President.
"Why are you looking at me......"
It was Manager Han Jeong-soo. Originally, the reason Do-ha had kept him alive had been New Age. Now that he could pinpoint the location of New Age's leader at any moment, Han was no longer necessary for that purpose. Of course, that did not mean Do-ha intended to kill him. Han was already one of his people.
"Want to give it a try?"
"Do-ha-nim...... I'll die."
The Association President made a miserable face. Work had already ballooned lately, so he had promoted Manager Han straight to General Manager and put him to work. Promoting a mere manager directly to General Manager had caused some grumbling inside the Association, but once the employees saw Han Jeong-soo's actual workload, every mouth had shut. That was how crushing the current volume of work was—all thanks to a certain someone standing right in front of them.
"If you take General Manager Han away, I'll probably die of overwork within a week."
"That's why I'll give you a gift."
Do-ha reached into his subspace bag and pulled out a fan he had...... received as a gift from the immortals earlier.
"What is this?"
"It's a fan, and an extremely precious one. Try fanning yourself with it."
A soft flutter.
"Oh...... what is this?"
The Association President's eyes widened slightly as he moved the fan. He had waved it out of curiosity after being handed the thing so suddenly, and now his whole mood felt lighter. It was like sinking into a bathtub filled with perfectly warm water—his body loosened and his mind grew calm.
"It's a fan with magic on it, so use it often whenever things get hard."
"Wow...... thank you."
"And for you, as a congratulatory gift for the promotion to General Manager......"
"......"
Han Jeong-soo put on an expectant expression. The Association President had received something like that—what would he get?
"Here, take this."
Having already heard about Han's promotion to General Manager, Do-ha had carefully portioned out a single drop of Mi-ta-seong-su.
"What...... is this?"
Han Jeong-soo tilted his head at the tiny glass vial. Anything Do-ha gave was bound to be important, yet he could not begin to guess what it was.
"An elixir. Mi-ta-seong-su."
"What?! Mi...... Mi...... Mi-ta-seong-su......?"
Han, who already knew what elixirs were, stammered. Wasn't that the same grade of legendary elixir as Gong-cheong-seok-yu—the rarest of the rare?
"Just hold onto it for now. Once you take it, I'll help you regulate the energy. Don't drink it yet."
"Ah...... thank you so much."
Han Jeong-soo carefully accepted the Mi-ta-seong-su with both hands. The Association President looked a touch envious, yet the fan he held right now felt far more valuable than that elixir.
"Hmm...... then who should I bring over."
Do-ha crossed his arms and pondered. If this were a company, it would be like installing a professional executive. That meant he needed someone who could truly handle the job well.
"There is one person who comes to mind......"
"Same here."
"Me too."
At Do-ha's words, both Canteas and Selenia nodded at once.
"The Jegal Clan."
"I was thinking of that child as well."
"You mean Jegal Seo-wol, the son of Jegal Myeong, right?"
Jegal Seo-wol.
A member of the Jegal Clan who was not merely intelligent but an absolute genius. Belhart had no shortage of people called geniuses, yet none of them had ever lived up to Do-ha's expectations. Jegal Seo-wol, however, had been so brilliant he surpassed even Do-ha's predictions.
Brilliant in every single field.
Martial arts? Outstanding. Strategy? Outstanding. Formations? Outstanding. Everything about him had been exceptional. In fact, thanks to strategies Jegal Seo-wol had tossed out half in jest, the Demon God Cult and even entire demon armies had been led into empty traps again and again, allowing Do-ha to annihilate them by the legion.
And that was all when he was ten years old.
How much more experience and brilliance would he have accumulated by now? At a mere ten years old he had already crafted strategies that toppled the Demon God's forces.
"But will that child even come?"
"Well...... Jegal Seo-wol is a highly valued talent even within the clan......"
At Selenia's words, Canteas squeezed his eyes shut and sank into thought. Back then the Jegal Clan had blocked the Martial Alliance so fiercely that they could not take him. Of course, as the absolute powerhouse, Do-ha could force the issue if he wanted, but the problem was that if they brought him that way, Jegal Seo-wol would never properly do the work.
"I'll just have to go."
"You're really going to bring him?"
"I have to at least talk to him."
Sitting here fretting would not produce an answer. Even if the clan tried to stop them from taking him, the final choice still belonged to Jegal Seo-wol himself.
Do-ha pulled out his phone and checked the time.
"Because of the cardinal?"
"Yeah."
"There's still about two months left, so the timing's fine."
Canteas read Do-ha's mind and answered immediately. There was still some time remaining until the deadline the angel had mentioned.
"If anything special comes up, I'll let you know right away. Please go."
"All right. I'll leave it to you."
Do-ha smiled and nodded at Selenia's words.
"Let's go, Canteas."
"Huh......? Me too?"
Oh, damn it.
Again?!
"You've got nothing better to do, right?"
"I...... I do have something to do! This barrier wall sealing off Paju City! It has to come down!"
"Ah...... now that you mention it, that does need to go."
Do-ha looked at the barrier. The wall had been raised to keep monsters from crossing over. Even he had found it deeply alien when he first returned to Earth and saw it.
"We don't have to tear it down right this second."
"No, people are already living here—we need to demolish it quickly! It's a pain just going back and forth!"
At Kael's words, Canteas jumped up in protest. This damn dwarf—couldn't he just take his side for once?!
"It's the inner area, so it doesn't matter much. More importantly, if we tear this down we have to notify the nearby shops first. Dust will kick up."
"......"
"Ugh, you bag of bones."
Knowing Canteas's personality all too well, Do-ha let out a sigh. How had a lazy playboy like this ever reached the Eighth Circle?
He clapped a hand on Canteas's shoulder.
"Fine, then you stay. I'll go alone."
"Oh...... for real?"
What was this? Normally Do-ha would have grabbed him by the collar and dragged him along no matter what.
"Instead, have this wall demolished by the time I get back."
"Aww, of course I will."
Canteas smiled. With just his summons, a barrier like this would take an hour at most. Any dust raised while the wall came down could be blown away with magic, and the debris could be cleaned up by skeletons.
Heh heh, the rest of the time is all free time.
A new game had just released recently, and he had been busy playing it. If he had to travel all the way to the Moorim as well, he would have even less time to enjoy it!
"And."
"Huh? And......? What else do I have to do?"
"Disassemble the dragon."
"......Huh?"
"Separate everything you brought—the dragon bones, the scales, the Dragon Heart, all the parts by category."
"......"
At Do-ha's words, Canteas's face crumpled. With his current level, dismantling a dragon would be enormously difficult. Even if he brought out his true body, safely separating the parts would take more than a full day. And right now he did not even have his true body. He could return to it for a very short time, but as already mentioned, even the true body needed a full day.
"A-ah, what if I mess with it and ruin a part?! What if the Dragon Heart cracks or something......"
"How many dragons have you made so far that I've seen?"
"Well...... I don't remember......"
"I've personally seen more than ten. That means you've dissected dragons at least ten times."
"......"
"So there's no one better at it than you."
In the end Canteas's shoulders slumped as his face fell into a pout.
Damn it.
He should have just gone to the Moorim together......
He had tried to pull a fast one and ended up with an even harder job.
"I'll be off, then."
"Yes, please go safely."
"Canteas."
"......What."
"Do a good job dismantling that dragon. If I come back and the wall is still standing and the dragon is still whole, you're headed over there."
Do-ha pointed at a distant building.
"A building? Why there......"
"No, the place next to it."
24-HOUR BONE HANGOVER SOUP
"Ah, shit...... I got it!"
The moment he saw the restaurant sign, Canteas bellowed at the top of his lungs.