Chapter 302 - Chiral (4)
Eleanor, unable to gather any additional information from the knight, hurriedly started scouring the British news and the internet. Meanwhile, Kang Shin-hyuk carefully scanned the room with his spiritual power and explored the magic around them, especially for taps and cameras.
“Wow, it’s overflowing.”
“Perverts. Did they want to secure an affair scandal of my junior?”
“Huh?”
Lee Na-hee muttered in fright as she looked at the cameras in the secretly installed magic circle.
“?”
“?”
Kang Shin-hyuk tilted his head as he looked at her, feeling some intention in her words, but she greeted him with a similar expression. Kang Shin-hyuk could accuse her, but it would’ve been more annoying, so he raised his hand with a sigh. Radiant energy began to well up around his hand.
“Then, should I break it?”
“Ah, wait a second.”
“Why?”
“I want to try something.”
Lee Na-hee’s hand shone blue, a result of her trait being activated. Originally, it could temporarily increase her own or her party members’ abilities or give temporary and permanent effects to items... But now, she was holding onto a camera that had nothing to do with magic.
“What are you trying to do?”
“I was going to try some of the magic coding I learned from my unnie.”
“Magic-based programming?”
“Yes, that’s it.”
Lee Na-hee’s runic ability was as excellent as Claire’s alchemy at interfering with and manipulating objects (maybe even more so), and it didn’t discriminate between artifacts, ordinary objects, or machines. It was because of enchanters that magical based programming started in the first place, so it wasn’t strange that Claire decided to teach Lee Na-hee the technique. Wasn’t that the reason Kang Shin-hyuk thought of giving her a nanobot? Since joining Shinyoung, Claire hadn’t been participating in regular classes, but she took the time to teach Lee Na-hee.
“Now, then, like this...”
He heard from Claire that the only difference from general programming was that she coded without going through a computer, but seeing Lee Na-hee move her fingers around and put mana threads into the camera; he wanted to ask what kind of programming it was supposed to be. It seemed she had learned her master’s skill very well.
“Does it seem like Claire unnie?”
“Yes.”
Lee Na-hee seemed to recognize his thoughts as she looked back at him.
“Hahah.”
Lee Na-hee returned to her work, now energized by his affirmation. He knew what she was thinking, but the point of focus seemed to be a long way off. Should he point that out? As he grew worried...
“Oh, Oliva...”
“They said she was sick of some serious illness?”
“I’d rather that were it.”
“If it were like that, it would be okay.”
Eleanor manipulated her phone and floated a small hologram in the air. It was said that nearly three months ago, Olivia Theodora Alexis, the prince’s eldest daughter, was hospitalized in an accident.
“Huh? Uh, huh?”
“This is ridiculous. How was your sister pushed out of the race for succession? Even if they were, there’s no history of treating the royal family so violently...”
Eleanor’s eyes were shaking. It seemed obvious she wasn’t accepting the news as it was, and Kang Shin-hyuk was the first to respond.
“But it was an accident.”
“It can’t be. My sister is a fairly strong superhuman, and she always has an escort... What’s more, it’s more suspicious that this news hadn’t spread.”
Kang Shin-hyuk himself was convinced by that. Though who was next in line wasn’t immediately known to the public, Olivia was a strong candidate to be the next queen, and of course, she was a person under the public eye. If she had an accident, at least Eleanor, who was an enemy of the British royal family, would’ve been aware of this, as would Karen.
“But it was hidden. I managed to find this news. Starting from this day, all British media refrained from mentioning her...”
“And?”
“The positive comments about my brother Wilford started to increase.”
“For reference, who is that?”
“My big brother, who participated in the African expedition.”
Wasn’t that the same person who left Oliva and her superhumans alone to die? He remembered Eleanor saying that person was over. The depravity he showed in Africa would lower his authority to the ground and raise Olivia’s...
“But it was like this.”
“It’s weird. What happened in Africa wasn’t even mentioned...”
Wasn’t that a typical media play? Eleanor predicted that Olivia, having captured Wilford’s weaknesses, should’ve made sure the succession structure was assured, but somehow, Wilford had buried the brutality he had committed in Africa. Now he was in the lead.
“Well... I’m cautious about saying this. Oliva, she may already be dead.”
“It’s also possible.”
Eleanor ground her teeth. She hated her like an enemy, but she didn’t want to see that happen to her blood relatives. Of course, she had also fled from the throne to Korea out of fear.
“It’s such a dirty tactic. I can’t forgive it.”
People were cunning. After you have the power to fear no one, strangely, your vision becomes useless. Kang Shin-hyuk did not have the courage to say that to Eleanor right now, however. He wondered if Wilford might be connected to other things, like Jormungand’s attack on the last artifact contest.
“Hey, but isn’t that weird?”
In the meantime, Lee Na-hee, having finished her work, squeezed between the two. Glancing back, Kang Shin-hyuk noticed all the taps and magic circles were active... No, they radiated too much magical power. It was like a high school student running out of the school the day exams were over.
“Is that okay?”
“Huh? Oh, I’ve made rough dummy data flow. So whatever you do to me at night is fine.♥”
“More than that.”
“More than that?”
Kang Shin-hyuk responded to Lee Na-hee, who made a bewitching expression and deliberately spoke provocatively.
“What’s weird?”
“Ignore...”
“Na-hee, tell me. Quickly.”
“Ah, ow, ow.”
Eleanor poked Lee Na-hee in the cheek, forcing herself between her and Shin-hyuk. Lee Na-hee quietly opened her mouth as she was poked with the power of Crab Volg.
“It says the accident was three months ago.”
“If you believe this news. That would be around just after we returned from the African expedition....”
“Then, the knight who revealed your identity in March... Was that also Wilford?”
“Ah...”
It was a sharp point. Kang Shin-hyuk just thought that Olivia had disregarded their warning, but maybe that wasn’t it...
“Oh, yeah.”
Eleanor nodded as her eyes widened.
“Maybe that’s the case; he was trying to get me completely out of England.”
“Can you tell me in detail?”
“I’ll tell you on the premise that Wilford didn’t know our identity.”
Now there wasn’t a word missing between them.
“In that case, the only thing that person got was a picture of us getting along well. We’re all famous people at school, but honestly, it’s not worth the attention from a British standpoint.”
“Well... Things like those happen too.”
Given that Eleanor was directly affiliated with the British royal family, it was a fact that bringing her to England would make her compete for the throne. If you become a top ranker, you would be able to see the public’s attention from the position of royalty. Olivia, who knew her identity, promised power and honor to the two to attract them, but if it were someone who didn’t know their abilities...
“It’s not trying to bring Shin-hyuk and me to England, but it’s propaganda that I’m trying to settle down in Korea...”
Eleanor bit her tongue as she spoke. Kang Shin-hyuk listened to her as he recalled the report a few months ago. Apparently, the British royal family supported the union between them. Kang Shin-hyuk thought that it was Olivia’s masterpiece, but in general, it was... wasn’t the intention to put Eleanor in the view of the general public?
“If you think so... I’m convinced.”
“Certainly, if you didn’t know our junior was so capable, that would be a likely interpretation.”
“Then, what was that summons this time? Eleanor turned out to be a top ranker, so they wanted her back? But wait a minute, didn’t it happen before she was revealed as a member of Masked Bacchus?”
“The intention is the opposite.”
Eleanor scoffed at that. After searching several times, an article from a third-rate site had appeared.
“Eleanor Rosalyn Redlake, studying in Korea, refuses summons... Revealing an intention to remain in Korea. Aha.”
“Yes. By deliberately inducing me to reject the order, they promoted that fact... They weren’t trying to get me back to England.”
In fact, shortly after she rejected the summons, the British media was flooded with articles about it. However, unfortunately, Eleanor, unable to read England’s intentions, immediately asked Kang Shin-hyuk for help, and he believed that this was a good opportunity, so he revealed the status of himself and all of Masked Bacchus. That mysterious top ranker 6 was Eleanor Rosaline Redlake. Naturally, the royal family hurried, collecting the articles that had been scattered all over the place... But they couldn’t get all of it.
“Then, the royal family was supposed to reject Eli completely.”
“Yes... I’m grateful for it.”
Moreover, they were now a little more convinced of the reason they had invited them to the palace. From their perspective, Kang Shin-hyuk’s private life had been exposed a few months ago, and his rights were trampled. At the time, it was a disregard for Kang Shin-hyuk, who was merely an outstanding person in school, but the fact that he was actually No. 1 in the international rankings was now known. Therefore, it was necessary to reconcile with him. The treatment of Eleanor that followed was certainly strange, but it was also not odd to him when he thought of the image of her that had run through England those past months.
“They’re idiots.”
“Yes, they’re idiots...”
-Knock, knock!
That moment, the sounding of knocking was heard.
“Dinner is ready.”
It was the voice of the knight from earlier. Kang Shin-hyuk exchanged a glance with the party, then stood with a smile.
Interesting things were already happening within the palace.