The Royal Investigative Bureau interrogation room on the outskirts of the Administration.
In the middle of a space packed with menacing mechanical devices, the interrogation of Yoo Sanghyeon continued.
“You stated you have a father-daughter relationship with Miss Yoo Arin. However…”
The Royal Investigative Bureau agent flipped through documents while asking coldly.
Yoo Sanghyeon raised his head to look at him directly.
“When we ran a genetic test, she turned out not to be your biological daughter. What’s the explanation?”
“A war orphan. I entered her into the family register when she was just an infant.”
“A war orphan you happened to take in just happened to be a phase power wielder. And that war orphan just happened to be a descendant of the royal family? Are you telling me this is all coincidence?”
“I clearly said she was a war orphan.”
The agent’s gaze sharpened, but Yoo Sanghyeon’s voice remained firm.
When he briefly shifted his gaze toward the forensics team, they too shook their heads.
No abnormalities in brain waves.
Confirming this, the agent narrowed his eyes.
‘Does he truly not know, or is he someone capable of controlling his emotions enough to deceive the detection devices?’
While his thoughts deepened, Yoo Sanghyeon spoke as if challenging him, not giving any opening.
“According to the data you showed, the royal blood flowing in Arin’s body is from a collateral line of collateral lines, isn’t it? Not only would phase power be difficult to emerge, but that kind of…!”
The king’s power.
Yoo Sanghyeon stopped mid-sentence.
This was the Royal Investigative Bureau’s home ground.
A carelessly uttered word could become a dagger plunged into him.
“…That type of power absolutely couldn’t emerge from such a bloodline.”
“Yes. In theory, that’s correct.”
The agent sighed after hearing Sanghyeon’s words.
Naturally.
Tracking and monitoring the royal bloodline was one of the Royal Investigative Bureau’s most critical missions.
In the midst of that, a royal bloodline they didn’t know about had appeared—the higher-ups must be in chaos by now.
“However, the ability manifested, and the fact that the young lady possesses royal blood is undeniable.”
“…”
“There was definitely time for basic genetic information testing and registration in the citizen database, wasn’t there?”
“Registration? Damn it, this is truly maddening.”
Sanghyeon shot up from his seat and shouted.
“We reported it numerous times from our side! We submitted examination applications multiple times, gathered every document needed, and filed birth registrations! It was you people in central who wouldn’t accept them properly just because we’re from the northeast—!”
The agent fell silent for a moment at Yoo Sanghyeon’s outcry.
This too was true.
He looked at the forensics team once more, but the brain waves remained normal.
The equipment currently operating confirmed there wasn’t a speck of falsehood in Sanghyeon’s words.
‘To dig any deeper, we’d have no choice but to directly access his neural network to extract information. But…’
No matter how much he came from the frontier, Sanghyeon was a regional military commander.
Even if at the bottom rung, he was a member of the nobility.
If they used methods reserved only for level 1 prisoners, who knew what might be said from above…
‘We lack justification to carelessly touch him.’
Just then, a message arrived on the Royal Investigative Bureau communication network.
A message only those with Level 1 security clearance could access.
The agent’s expression twisted after checking the contents.
“This is the interrogation room. Agent 03. I’m asking the field agent. Is the information you just sent confirmed?”
-This is Agent 37. Yes. There was an ambush midway and the armored helicopter was destroyed, but the target was handled as instructed.
“I see. So that’s how it is…”
Agent 03 looked at Yoo Sanghyeon again.
If the girl who’d been the target had been eliminated, then the risk factor had at least disappeared.
There was no reason to keep this man detained.
“Understood. Let’s end the investigation here.”
“…What?”
“I apologize for the discourtesy. We’ve prepared accommodations for you—please head there.”
The agent’s attitude flipped like turning over a palm.
Seeing this, Yoo Sanghyeon’s expression twisted.
‘The Royal Investigative Bureau agents who’d been acting like they’d devour me any moment are leaving as if they’ve finished their business. Which means…’
“Arin.”
“…”
With a razor-sharp voice, Yoo Sanghyeon glared at the agent.
“Where is my daughter right now?”
The agent didn’t answer.
But through that very silence, Yoo Sanghyeon could be certain.
Arin.
Something had happened to that child.
Crash—!
“Answer me! What happened outside?! What are you bastards doing to my daughter right now—!”
“Damn it, he’s going wild!”
“Activate the tactical module! Restrain him! Quickly!”
While the mechanical devices installed in the interrogation room bound Yoo Sanghyeon’s body, the agents slipped away one by one.
“Arin! Arin—!”
He screamed and resisted like a beast.
But no matter how much of a phase power wielder he was, he couldn’t overcome the Royal Investigative Bureau’s tactical module with his bare body.
Thud—!
In the end, without obtaining any information, Sanghyeon was locked in solitary confinement.
As he collapsed face-down on the floor, a lament flowed from his tightly clenched mouth.
“Arin…!”
If he’d known it would be like this, he wouldn’t have brought her to Hanseong.
If he’d known she would awaken this kind of power.
If he’d known she would possess such dangerous strength.
Then this never would have happened…!
Right at that moment.
-Ah, ah. Can you hear me?
A voice flowed from the small communicator hidden in his pocket.
“This voice is…”
-Oh, you kept it with you as I requested. What a relief.
It was the boy who’d looked after Arin during the welcoming ceremony.
And the boy who’d been with him on the day of the face-to-face meeting—Kim Changwoon.
-It seems the interrogation concluded safely. From your location, you appear to be in solitary. No surveillance personnel either.
“What’s the reason for suddenly contacting me?”
-I thought I’d share some good news.
Hearing that composed voice made his insides churn with irritation.
Good news?
In this situation where he didn’t even know where or what had happened to his daughter, good news?!
“I’m sorry, but I’m not in the mood to talk right now…”
But he couldn’t show his anger to a boy who had no connection to this.
While Sanghyeon struggled to swallow his rage—
-Miss Arin is under our protection.
“What?!”
At Changwoon’s next words, he couldn’t maintain his composure.
“Protection—where is she right now?! What happened to Arin…!”
-Please calm yourself, General. I’ll explain slowly.
Sanghyeon listened closely to the voice flowing from the communicator.
“While playing together at the welcoming ceremony venue, I was able to obtain Miss Yoo Arin’s biological information… her hair.”
Having opened with that, I slowly explained what had happened.
That I’d manufactured her clone using Arin’s hair.
That the royal guard had tried to ‘dispose of’ his daughter on the city outskirts, and the fact that I, in cooperation with Hahoe, had switched her out.
-That Arin is of royal bloodline… how did you find out?
“The young miss told me herself? She said her real name was Yi Bangseon. It’s a good thing there were no ears nearby to hear, or else I might have died.”
-Hah.
Having learned the full story, Yoo Sanghyeon felt both relief and rage.
As expected, the reason those bastards released him was because they thought Arin was dead.
Because they believed the newly emerged royal bloodline had disappeared.
“Since the young miss who was the seed of discord is dead, the Andong Kim clan will soon summon you, General, to inform you of Arin’s death and gauge your reaction.”
Sanghyeon on the other end of the communicator agreed with my words.
-They hope I’ll go mad and rampage. To catch me in the act and eliminate me.
“Yes. So, General, you will need to…”
Here I hesitated for a moment, stopping my voice.
“Perform a difficult act.”
-An act?
The moment Yoo Sanghyeon expressed doubt, I spoke in an unusually serious voice.
“Prostrate yourself before them and beg for your life.”
-…What?
Yoo Sanghyeon’s voice stopped.
A difficult act.
He seemed to realize why I’d said that.
But I continued speaking regardless.
“Fortunately, you were quite cooperative during the Royal Investigative Bureau’s investigation, General. During the welcoming ceremony and face-to-face meeting, you were wagging your tail and flattering the power clan aristocrats.”
-Right. I was.
“So maintain that attitude. You didn’t know your daughter was such an existence. You simply took her in out of compassion, and she has nothing to do with you. So please spare your life. Beg them like that.”
-You want me to bow my head in servility to those who plotted to kill my daughter? Me, the Iron Tiger General?
“Yes.”
Because that’s how you’ll survive to see your daughter.
When I added that, Yoo Sanghyeon exhaled deeply.
-If we meet, what happens after that?
He spoke in a gloomy voice.
-Either way, our Arin will just… have to return to that cold northeast, won’t she?
A self-deprecating voice.
I maintained silence without answering.
-A land teeming with monsters, filled only with battle and death. That young child will have to spend the rest of her life in such a place. Giving up everything children her age should enjoy, everything kids that age want to do, just like that…!
Yoo Sanghyeon’s voice trembled across the communicator.
He wanted to let her live like an ordinary aristocratic daughter.
For that purpose, he’d come all the way to Hanseong and endured that humiliation, yet it ended up like this anyway.
He must be thinking roughly along those lines.
‘How enviable. Such devoted love for a daughter.’
Having grown up with such devoted care, of course she’d burned Joseon for her dead father.
But I couldn’t let him become discouraged here.
I spoke into the communicator.
“Talent you cannot bear is a curse. Words left by some ancient sage.”
There was no answer, but I continued speaking.
“The moment she awakened the king’s power, the young miss can never live an ordinary woman’s life. The precarious war situation will require the young miss’s power, and whether she likes it or not, she’ll go to the battlefield and fight monsters.”
Because phase power wielders were beings with that much power by nature.
That’s why central was so sensitive about managing phase power wielders.
However.
“So what you need to do, General, isn’t protecting the young miss.”
What are you saying?
Yoo Sanghyeon asked back.
I spoke in a calm voice.
“After waking up, the young miss said this. She’ll become stronger. Get stronger and beat up all the monsters that trouble her dad… and her uncles. If she does that, her dad won’t have to come to places like this because of her anymore.”
-Arin said… she really said that?
“Yes.”
No, it was a lie.
The hero ‘Yoo Arin’ I’d clashed with dozens of times while living as the power clans’ dog.
This was just something I made up while imagining her.
But what could I do?
If Yoo Sanghyeon said ‘My daughter’s alive so I’ll go into hiding with Arin!’ here, all my rolling around like a hoop would be meaningless.
‘If I saved you, you need to be worth what I saved you for.’
Since I’d decided to start a revolution, Yoo Arin and the Iron Tiger Army needed to incite revolution in Joseon.
Whether the parties themselves wanted it or not.
“Now that the young miss has displayed her power, you and the nobles can no longer live under the same sky anyway, General.”
They’d either be devoured by them, or devour them. One of the two.
So.
“If it’s going to be like that anyway, raise the young miss instead.”
Hearing my words, Yoo Sanghyeon gasped across the communicator.
“Temper her with the harsh cold of the northeast and help the young miss’s phase power bloom. Make the young miss so strong that neither monsters nor nobles can threaten her.”
…!
“And later, when the appropriate time comes.”
I paused briefly.
“Arrange things so the young miss can change the world she’ll live in herself.”
-…You, those words, don’t tell me.
Change the world.
Hearing those words, Yoo Sanghyeon’s atmosphere changed.
-Are you plotting treason? Using Arin?
A tense voice.
And simultaneously a question that struck right at the core.
I spoke with a slight hint of laughter.
“Since we’re speaking anyway, let’s use prettier words.”
If you put it like that, it makes us look like the bad guys.
“I’m trying to start a revolution.”
I answered with a smile.
“For the young miss’s sake.”
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