Chapter 254. Unknown Future (2) (1/2)

England, Buckingham Palace.

Rachel sighed as she watched the ocean from England’s coast.

Entry to beaches became prohibited recently due to the explosion of monsters entering England from the waters. Although the arrival of ‘Essence Barrier’ prevented civilian casualty, the situation wasn’t over yet.

In fact, it had only started.

[Dear My Precious Princess]

Rachel stared at the letter in her hands and clenched her teeth. It was from England’s greatest enemy, Lancaster.

“What’s up? You don’t look all that good.”

Ah Hae-In walked over to her and asked. Rachel quickly hid the letter and turned back to Ah Hae-In nonchalantly.

“…Um, it’s nothing… Is Evandel doing okay?”

“You don’t have to worry about that. I’m not making her do anything that will burden her.”

“Really? But Evandel’s summons are—”

“Don’t worry.”

Evandel’s army, which now numbered close to 3000, spread out across Europe to help humanity. As a result, Evandel’s creations were all called ‘mystical animals’, referring to beasts that helped humans.

“I made Evandel create a chain of command in her army. For that, she needed an especially intelligent creation.”

“…Ah, I heard she made a monkey last time.”

“A monkey wasn’t enough.”

Ah Hae-In continued with a smile.

“So she made a unicorn.”

“…Pardon?”

Unicorn. Perhaps the most famous mystical animal in the world, a winged horse with a white horn.

“Evandel’s unicorn is the commander in charge of her army. So you don’t have to worry. Evandel is having fun by herself without participating in anything complicated.”

Ah Hae-In showed Rachel a crystal ball showing Evandel running around and having fun. She seemed to be playing tag with Hayang.

Rachel smiled, just as she always did when she saw Evandel. Then, she suddenly remembered something important.

“Ah, Duchess Ah Hae-In, the Association sent us a message asking for the source of the mystical animals. I’d like to ask you for adv…”

“Don’t trust the Association.”

Ah Hae-In immediately answered.

When Rachel tilted her head, Ah Hae-In looked back at her with a slightly serious expression.

“Orden’s spies might be among them.”

“…Pardon?”

At Rachel’s bewilderment, Ah Hae-In continued seriously.

“Djinns are easy to spot, but humans persuaded by the Monster King aren’t. The Monster King should have convinced many from the Association to join his cause.”

“…How can that be? The Association carries the will of Hero Shin Myungchul-nim. It’s hard to believe that….”

“A servant of the Monster King also came to me.”

Ah Hae-In faced Rachel.

“He knew what I wanted, what I lacked. He said he’d give it to me.”

“…What do you mean?”

“He said he would give me a body that can birth a child. I’m unable to have one because of a side-effect of magic.”

Rachel didn’t know how to react, so she kept quiet. Ah Hae-In gave her a small smile.

“But they didn’t know me well enough. Even if I could have a child, what use would it be if the world belonged to monsters?”

“….”

Rachel nodded. Her admiration for Ah Hae-In grew another level. At the same time, she fixed her eyes on Evandel inside the crystal ball.

Ah Hae-In spoke once again, “Knowing the weakness of his target’s heart. That must be Orden’s Gift.”

“…Gift?”

“Yes, who said only humans can have Gifts? …,Ah, it’s time for the news broadcast.”

Ah Hae-In turned the TV on, and the 6 p.m. news came on.

—Orden’s kingdom has been found in Africa. While it stayed underground all this time, it was somehow able to move itself above ground in a single night. Experts… Tzzzzt

But before the reporter could finish the first piece of news, the screen flickered. The morphed screen became grey then black. While Rachel and Ah Hae-In were wondering what happened, a new image popped up on the screen.

—…Greetings, Humans. I am Orden, the Monster King.

Rachel and Ah Hae-In’s faces immediately stiffened.

On the screen, a huge giant was sitting on a throne. His outer appearance resembled a human’s, but he was much bigger, and his facial features were both human and non-human. His huge eyes flashed with a sharp blade-like light.

—Today, I intend to give humanity a warning and an offer.

Orden had easily hijacked the broadcast signal. All channels in England were showing the same screen.

—Now… Tzzzzt.

However, the video was cut off shortly afterwards.

Tzzzzt…

Static noises rang out, and Rachel and Ah Hae-In frowned. To figure out what the Monster King was planning, they focused their attention on the screen.

“…?”

However, Orden’s voice discontinued, and a strange symbol appeared on the grey screen. To Players of the Tower of Wish, this symbol was all too familiar.

Ah Hae-In jumped in surprise.

“…Rachel, this symbol.”

“Yes, you’re right.”

Rachel nodded. A beautifully embroidered black lotus.

“It’s Black Lotus.”

The moment Rachel said so, subtitles appeared beneath the symbol.

[Humanity will not listen to the words of a mere monster.]

[Monster, who dares to declare himself King, and his foolish underlings.]

[And the dogs who bit the meat offered by this fool.]

[I will come to kill you all.]

After the four sentences popped up, the screen blacked out.

Rachel and Ah Hae-In stood blankly for a moment. Chills ran down their back. They clearly understood what just happened.

—Holy… the hell was that? Orden and Black Lotus just…

Soon, the original news broadcast came back on.

The reporter was in a daze, clearing engrossed by the broadcast battle between the Monster King and Black Lotus.

—Huh? We’re back?

Startled, the reporter fixed his posture and sat up straight.

—E-Ehem, our broadcast seemed to have been hijacked…

Seeing this, Ah Hae-In let out a small smile.

“Looks like Black Lotus and the Monster King don’t get along.”

Rachel nodded right away. As someone of her generation would, she quickly went on the internet.

“Looks like England isn’t the only country that saw that.”

**

[Pandemonium – Chameleon Troupe’s Hideout]

“Wow, how did you hack into the broadcast stream without even moving a finger~?”

I smiled at Jain’s question.

Orden’s broadcast hijacking was part of the original story, which I just stopped by using my hacking ability.

“He shouldn’t try to hijack broadcast streams again now that he knows it won’t work.”

Orden tried to deliver a message to the whole world, but I shut him down completely. Of course, he might not give up. But I was in a much more advantageous position in this case, since I could counter-hack just by looking.

There was a good reason for me to stop him. Orden was one of the few characters that could infuse magic power into his words. Although his words weren’t as powerful as Aileen’s, it still would have been effective against defenseless civilians.

“You’re getting more and more popular, Hajin~ Look, your name is trending again~”

Jain clasped her hands together and showed me a social media trending chart.

[1. Black Lotus]

[2. Orden]

[3. Black Lotus vs Orden]

Black Lotus and Orden’s names were topping the trending chart. I glanced at my smartwatch. My SP had gone up by 407 points.

“…Anyways, Jain.”

I asked while I massaged my eyes. They were sore because I didn’t blink while hacking into the broadcast stream.

“Don’t we have better artifacts?”

“Hm? Ah~ The ones here are only presents, or offerings I should say~”

The floor I was in was filled with artifacts. They were all given to us by Pandemonium’s Djinns.

“None of them are particularly useful… Is it normally like this?”

“Yep~”

It was then.

Ding—!

The elevator stopped on our floor, and two members of the Chameleon Troupe showed up.

“Oh~ Hey, Arashi~”

Hirano Arashi, the Seat of Brown.

Arashi was a woman with long hair who liked to wear silk robes. She walked past Jain without saying anything. I let her be and turned my gaze to the giant who came with her.

“Cheok Jungyeong, I heard you lost to Aileen.”

“W-Whaaaat!?”

Cheok Jungyeong immediately let out a roar. The building shook slightly, and Jain furrowed her brows.

“You crazy buffoon….”

“Lost!? What! Who lost!? Who told you that!?”

“…Okay.”

Cheok Jungyeong began to make excuses.

“I was about to win. I only had to punch her one last time. I was this close to doing it, but she looked too much like a kid up front! Who’s going to believe she’s an adult? Not me, that’s for sure. I missed my timing to hit her because of it, and that wench used this opening to….”

I ignored his flurry of words and turned to Jain.

“So we don’t have better artifacts? We have to go meet Wicked soon.”

The strongest member of the Nine Evils, ‘Wicked’, requested to meet the Chameleon Troupe.

The goal of the meeting was to discuss assassinating Orden. Now, even Djinns were planning on forming an assassination team.

For this specific task, Djinns were more trustworthy than Heroes. It was because Orden’s persuasion didn’t work against Djinns, who already sold their souls to devils.

“Mm…. Boss keeps all the good ones to herself~”

“Oh, I see.”

“She doesn’t want to give any to me, so you should go ask her~”

“Okay, I’ll take it from her and give some to you too.”