“Wh-what?! What’s happening?!”
“The communications equipment isn’t working! What is this all of a sudden—!”
When the tremors that had shaken the entire building subsided, the escort guards who had been suppressing the monsters fell into disarray as well.
The equipment they wore had suddenly been rendered useless.
The escort guards’ artificial bodies, controlled by precise electronic circuits and network systems, were malfunctioning and no longer operating properly.
In the midst of that, newly spawned monsters emerging from the Rift began attacking the escort guards, and the suppression operation that had been proceeding smoothly began to unravel.
“Damn, they’re coming! Hold the firing line—!”
“The weapons system installed in the artificial bodies isn’t responding!”
Unlike the experimental monsters they had been dealing with, what was attacking the escort guards now were creatures freshly emerged from the Rift.
With the artificial bodies offline and these new specimens piling on, any proper response became impossible.
“W-wait—! At this rate…! AAAGH?!”
A monster finally forced its way through the firing line and drove its claws into a guard’s chest, and the line they’d worked so hard to establish began to collapse.
At this rate, the escort guards themselves could be annihilated.
But at that moment—
Thud—!
A massive spear launched from somewhere pierced through the body of an oncoming monster.
“Reinforcements?”
The escort commander said that—but the moment he saw the spear lodged in the monster’s body, his face went pale.
The character Royal carved into the spear shaft.
The imposing phase power contained in the spearhead, and the pressure radiating from behind.
“The royal guard—they’re here already?”
The royal guard.
The moment he repeated that name, dozens more spears of the same kind came flying at the monsters.
KABOOM-BOOM-BOOM—!
Spears launched with power rivaling tank shells.
When the phase-power-laden spearheads found their marks, the monsters’ bodies crumbled to dust and vanished.
“Monster cluster at the front—suppressed.”
“Rift location confirmed. Erosion concentration at Level 1.”
“Respond by the manual. First formation, draw blades.”
At the command of royal guard commander Gang Gamhyeok, some of the royal guard stepped forward and drew the hwandos secured at their hips.
“GRWK?! GRAAAUGH—!”
Their targets: the monsters pouring out of the Rift.
The royal guard members fixed steady eyes on the monsters and swung their hwandos without hesitation— (+) [1]
Thud—!
With a sound like plaster statues shattering, the monsters that had been threatening the escort guards vanished in an instant.
“First formation advance while maintaining phase power concentration. Second formation, switch weapons and suppress the Rift.”
The royal guard who received the order picked up the long spears embedded in the floor and charged at the Rift.
The long spears, laden with imposing phase power.
The monsters that moved to protect the Rift rushed at them in response—but it was not enough.
The royal guard advanced without pause and plunged their spears into the Rift’s core—
Fwooooosh—!
In a blaze of brilliant light, the black hole that had been disgorging monsters vanished without a trace.
“Hah, haah……”
“We’re alive…. we’re alive………”
The research facility, clean as though everything that had just happened were an illusion.
The escort guards, their tension finally breaking, collapsed to the floor one by one—but one person alone, the escort commander, kept his face rigid.
The royal guard arriving here in person meant the Administration had been informed.
And this situation—monster research, experimentation, a Rift having been opened—would leave them with nothing to say if they were charged with the crime of treason against the throne.
‘Then we, who tried to cover it up, cannot escape that charge either. In that case……!’
The moment his thoughts reached that conclusion—
Shhhk—!
The spears the royal guard held instantly transformed their appearance.
From long single-bladed spears into trident-headed partisan spears.
And those tridents were trained on the escort guards, whose artificial bodies had been disabled.
“Wh-what……!”
“Hear me, escort guards of the Pungyang Jo clan.”
The moment several dazed guards let out sounds of protest, the royal guard commander ‘Gang Gamhyeok’ looked at them and spoke.
“You will be transported to the Royal Investigative Bureau as suspects in this Rift Incident. Do you object?”
Only then seeming to understand the situation, the guards’ faces drained to deathly white.
But to defy the royal guard’s decision was to defy the decision of the throne itself.
The escort commander, who in the end bowed his head in surrender, asked Gang Gamhyeok one final question.
“Young Master, what has become of Young Master Jo Seonghwan?”
Gang Gamhyeok looked at him with cold eyes and answered.
“He is currently meeting with Young Master Kim Hyunwoo of the Andong Kim clan.”
“Hah……”!
At those words, the escort commander went slack and crumpled to the floor.
A Rift opening in the middle of Hanseong, and the royal guard arriving to suppress it—the worst possible situation.
For the Andong Kim clan to have intervened at this moment, and for it to be Kim Hyunwoo personally…
“It’s over.”
All the clan’s efforts to conceal this incident had come to nothing.
“GRWK! GRRRUGH—!”
A cluster of monsters breaking free from the escort guards’ firing line and charging toward the hole blown through the wall.
Jo Seonghwan barely had time to react in surprise before—
Crash—!
Lightning that flashed from the sky incinerated dozens of monsters on the spot.
The monsters, reduced to ash, disappeared.
At last, Kim Hyunwoo leapt down from the helicopter hovering above and appeared before Jo Seonghwan.
“Explain to me what this is.”
“……!”
Like a thief with a guilty conscience, Jo Seonghwan took a step back.
But only for a moment.
Clenching his teeth and refusing to be beaten, Jo Seonghwan raised his voice at Kim Hyunwoo.
“Hahoe infiltrated our main house’s research facility. Conducting monster research was clearly wrong—but it was those bastards who turned things into this disaster!”
“Hahoe. Hahoe, you say……”
A familiar name.
A faint sneer surfaced on Kim Hyunwoo’s face as he repeated it.
“Yes. If you name those traitors, you might find a way out of a mess like this.”
He himself had invoked their name every time he needed to deal with someone inconvenient.
“But you’re being remarkably foolish.”
“What?”
That brief sneer passed, and Kim Hyunwoo’s face hardened. He looked down at Jo Seonghwan with cold eyes and spoke.
“You cannot escape responsibility for the fact of having conducted monster research in the middle of Hanseong alone—and on top of that, those monsters ran berserk and even opened a Rift.”
When Kim Hyunwoo raised his hand, the Royal Investigative Bureau agents standing at either side deactivated the optical camouflage they had been wearing.
“Hanseong—which even King Gwangjo could not breach during his subjugation of the monsters—has been defiled by monster filth. A Rift has been opened here.”
“……!”
“Excuses about Hahoe’s schemes or traitors’ plots—these are not things that can paper over what has happened.”
That gaze looking down with smug condescension, as if he were a king.
Jo Seonghwan ground his teeth at the sight, then forced out a grim smile and replied.
“I am the Pungyang Jo clan’s heir, and a member of the royal guard. You won’t take my testimony at face value?”
“You are also the owner of a research facility that was cultivating monsters, and a suspect who failed in his attempt to conceal a Rift Incident. Whatever you say about Hahoe’s schemes, it sounds like nothing but a feeble excuse.”
No rebuttal came to him.
Because it was true—that the Pungyang Jo clan had been researching monsters, and that things had come to this.
A desperate situation with no way out.
And yet, even in circumstances like these, one question filled Jo Seonghwan’s mind.
‘Why… was this uncovered so quickly?’
A Rift had opened, yes—but until that point, information control had been proceeding without a gap.
Not a journalist in sight, not even a trace of anyone unauthorized—there should have been no possibility of the Administration learning of this incident.
And yet.
How could Kim Hyunwoo have arrived at such an exquisite moment?
With a full company of royal guard prepared, no less?
This was—this was almost as if…
‘As if he had been waiting for a Rift to open in this research facility.’
The moment his thoughts reached that conclusion, one person flashed through Jo Seonghwan’s mind.
The one person who had been deeply involved in his plans and who could have provided Kim Hyunwoo with information about this research facility: Kim Changwoon.
The illegitimate son of the Andong Kim clan, who had killed Dokgo Seong—who had been managing the smuggling routes—to disrupt the clan’s operations, and exploited the opening to approach him.
“Ha, haha…! Hahaha……”!
His thoughts complete, Jo Seonghwan began laughing like a man who had lost his mind.
“I saved something his own clan had thrown away—and he repays my kindness with betrayal?”
Right. It was that bastard’s doing after all.
He had swapped the cargo, and through Hahoe, pinned him to this spot.
He had allowed the monster corpses to coalesce and open a Rift, and arranged for Kim Hyunwoo—who had made all his preparations—to raid the scene.
‘And what happens next is perfectly clear.’
Kim Hyunwoo would pin the charge of opening a Rift in Hanseong on him and bring a charge of treason.
He would be transported to the Royal Investigative Bureau and interrogated, and the Pungyang Jo clan, having lost its heir, would suffer a crippling blow.
No one would be fool enough to support a family implicated in treason.
Then who stood to gain the most from this series of events?
The Andong Kim clan.
If the Pungyang Jo clan—the one force that could challenge their authority—was brought to ruin, they would become Joseon’s supreme power in name and fact alike!
‘And I was dancing in the palm of their hands without even realizing it.’
The careless assumption that an illegitimate son of the Andong Kim clan would make a useful pawn.
That careless assumption had driven him to this.
What a disgraceful state of affairs.
“Allying with a band of traitors to bring down a rival clan—the Andong Kim clan has truly reached its end.”
“What?”
At Jo Seonghwan’s murmured invective, Kim Hyunwoo’s expression soured.
Allying with traitors? What was that supposed to mean?
His puzzlement was only natural.
He had only been tipped off by Changwoon about the research facility’s existence—he did not know the detailed particulars of what had happened.
But Jo Seonghwan had no way of knowing that.
An unforeseen accident.
Hahoe’s interference.
And then the royal guard and the Andong Kim clan, appearing at precisely the right moment.
To him, Kim Hyunwoo was the one who had ordered Kim Changwoon and set the trap that had ensnared him.
The shadow master behind this entire incident.
“Young Master Jo Seonghwan. We will escort you to the Royal Investigative Bureau as a key witness in this incident.”
“It would be in your best interests not to resist. Please comply with our instructions……”
Royal Investigative Bureau agents, courteous and proper, approached Jo Seonghwan.
In their hands were restraints that limited the use of phase power.
If those were fastened on him, it was over.
He would become a body unable to draw on even a scrap of phase power—tortured, turned into a tool to produce whatever testimony the Andong Kim clan desired.
Like that fool who had knelt before the enemies who killed his daughter.
Like Iron Tiger General Yoo Sanghyeon.
“I won’t end like that.”
Boom—!
The storm of phase power that had suppressed Imae mask moments before began surging again.
When the opponent was the Andong Kim clan’s heir, full power was the only answer.
Thinking that, Jo Seonghwan drove his phase power to maximum output.
“Y-Young Master Jo Seonghwan?!”
“What are you doing?! If you refuse to comply, the charge of treason will—!”
Crunch—!
Jo Seonghwan’s flail swung and crushed the faces of the Royal Investigative Bureau agents who had been shouting in alarm.
Bodies collapsing, their heads gone.
Then the Andong Kim clan’s helicopter, unable to withstand the storm Jo Seonghwan had raised, slammed into the building across from it and exploded.
KRABOOM—!
Explosion. Flames. Corpses.
Watching that, Kim Hyunwoo’s eyes narrowed.
“To resist even after being charged with treason is to defy the will of the Administration itself. Do you point your weapon knowing that?”
“The Administration? Don’t make me laugh. Not the Administration—you mean the puppets of your Andong Kim clan.”
Monopolizing the major offices of Joseon, leveraging the authority of phase power users to bend others to submission.
The puppets built by the Andong Kim clan, fashioned just so.
“Things like that dare charge me with treason? Haul me to the Royal Investigative Bureau? Me—the heir of the Pungyang Jo clan?”
Unacceptable.
My clan. My plans.
I cannot surrender all of that!
“Very well. That means….”
Jo Seonghwan ground his teeth, and his flail turned to point at Kim Hyunwoo across from him.
Phase power overwhelming the entire space. A storm in which not an inch ahead could be seen.
Standing at the center of that lethal scene, Kim Hyunwoo’s expression was perfectly composed.
The phase power threatening him.
This raging storm.
His expression was that of someone watching a child’s tantrum.
Incensed at that sight, Jo Seonghwan leveled his weapon and began to growl—
“So it comes to bloodshed.”
Crash—!
A magnificent peal of thunder split the air, and phase power so dense that even breathing became difficult began pressing down on the entire space.
Output that was beyond any comparison with Jo Seonghwan’s.
Kim Hyunwoo, standing at its center, radiated a majesty too overwhelming to meet with an unguarded gaze.
“Kim Hyunwoo, you couldn’t possibly—!”
Kim Hyunwoo—born with the most powerful phase power in Joseon’s history.
Meeting that force, Jo Seonghwan clenched his teeth.
Because he had perceived the killing intent showing in Kim Hyunwoo’s face as he looked down at him.
“You weren’t planning to take me in from the beginning. You were going to kill me?”
“……Well. Shall we see.”
Kim Hyunwoo gave no straight answer.
“If I were to transport you to the Royal Investigative Bureau as you are, the Pungyang Jo clan’s team of counsel would begin to move.”
What would follow would be a drawn-out legal battle.
‘We knew nothing of it.’ ‘A few employees acting on their own authority.’ ‘Young Master was not directly involved.’
With excuses like those turning the argument this way and that, they would work to extract Jo Seonghwan from prison.
“And then Father would, through an appropriate transaction, secure your release, and use that as leverage to press down on the Pungyang Jo clan’s influence.”
However heinous the criminal, the Pungyang Jo clan would try to wrap things up at some convenient point under the banner of being fellow nobles.
“But I am not like Father.”
The one present here was Kim Hyunwoo, not Kim Jungheon.
The new master of the Andong Kim clan, and the one who would lead Joseon into the future.
And in the Joseon he would build, there was no place for someone like Jo Seonghwan.
A man born to a noble bloodline who did nothing but give himself over to his own desire and pleasure.
Such a creature was nothing but a parasite gnawing at the Joseon of the future.
“Jo Seonghwan, twenty-fourth generation of the Muuigong branch of the Pungyang Jo clan.”
Kim Hyunwoo, having addressed him, declared in a solemn voice.
“You have committed the grave crime of conducting monster research and generating a Rift in Hanseong, Joseon’s capital. Furthermore, you killed Royal Investigative Bureau agents who mobilized for your arrest, and raised a weapon against a fellow noble.”
“……!”
“Therefore, as a member of the noble class that safeguards Joseon….”
The hwando fastened at Kim Hyunwoo’s hip revealed a blade of pure white.
Jo Seonghwan’s face, drained of all color, was reflected in the blade—and blue lightning coiled around it, flashing as though ready to detonate at any moment.
“I will cut you down, and set the laws of Joseon aright.”
- 1. TLN: By the way, you can think of Hwando as the same with Katana. BUT! They’re completely different in shape, naturally. I was translating them at first to be just sword, but I actually now think that I would like to use it as is “hwando”. In Wikipedia, it is mentioned as well that Hwando is used in Joseon period. Fitting with the setting of this novel.
Hello! If you any questions and if you found any errors on my translations, please do @ me on our discord server (@_dawn24) since I might miss your comment here. FYI, you can periodically check my Patreon page where I usually uploaded the completed version of the novels that I translated (including regular and advanced chapters), they come with a discounted price too!
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