Chapter 58: Declaration of War (2)
Translator: miraclerifle
A suite on the 20th floor of a business hotel in Macao.
Ju-Heon and Yoo Jaeha had arrived at the meeting location.
Even the great and mighty Edward apparently did not want to be arrested for fraud as he quickly arranged a meeting with the Monarch of War. They were supposed to meet her at this business hotel.
Ju-Heon chuckled while looking forward to seeing Keira’s face.
‘Edward is quite useful. I didn't really think he’d arrange this meeting.’
It was at that moment.
Yoo Jaeha who was looking at the news on his phone started to shout.
“Captain-nim, big news! Big news! Apparently the English Prime Minister who came to Macao went missing!”
“So what?”
"Huh? What do mean, so what?! This is extremely big news!”
“Who cares? He supposedly came on vacation. I'm not interested. He probably got swept up in the tomb.”
People disappearing was quite common in the Era of Artifacts.
What was important right now was not something like that but destroying the Monarch of War’s artifact.
‘There’s no way that woman would move around without her map-type artifact so I'm certain she will have it on her.’
Ju-Heon smiled quite viciously.
However, Yoo Jaeha continued to ramble about random things next to him.
“Wow, jackpot. Macao ordered a search as well. We might run into the search team on our way back to our hotel later.”
Ju-Heon started to frown.
“Hey. Are you still looking at that? Turn it off.”
“Why?! We might end up getting dragged into it because it is happening where we are!”
‘Why is he interested in such useless things?’
It happened at that moment.
“You, how dare you shamelessly come here!”
There was a shadow charging toward Ju-Heon as he heard the familiar voice. The nimble fist tried to strike Ju-Heon’s back but Ju-Heon easily dodged.
That wasn’t the only thing. Ju-Heon grabbed the arm and pulled the person toward him, punching the person's chin as soon as the person lost his balance.
Pow!
It sounded as if a bone was broken as the person started to groan.
“Ugh, you bastard!”
Ju-Heon did not stop there and tripped the man before elbowing the person's solar plexus. The fallen person foamed at the mouth after feeling intense pain.
“Ugh! Uuuuugh!”
"Thomas!”
Linda approached the man in shock. The person was Thomas as Ju-Heon expected.
He wondered why the CIA showed up instead of Edward who said he would be here, but it wasn't weird.
The CIA excavation team was pretty much Keira’s subordinates.
However, Thomas who was crushed by Ju-Heon in the past didn’t seem to want to settle things with words.
“You, you shameless bastard!”
Ju-Heon just sneered at Thomas who was on the floor clutching his chest.
“Let me give you a warning. Don’t try to ambush me from behind. I might accidentally end up killing you.”
“What?!”
It could be seen as if Ju-Heon was bluffing, but it was the truth. He could control his strength right now because they were not inside a tomb, but Ju-Heon was quite sensitive about ambushes after living a life in the tombs. If this was a tomb where his senses would have been fully alert, he could really kill the person.
But Thomas who thought he was being mocked shouted in anger.
“You bastard! You were the one who scammed us with the artifact! You steal, rob, and now scam!”
Ju-Heon didn’t even pretend to listen.
“I have nothing to say to you. Where is Keira Clark?”
“What?!”
Ju-Heon didn't care for lackies like the CIA excavation team. The reason he was here was to meet Keira to destroy the map-type artifact.
“Didn't you say that Keira Clark would be here as well?”
Something unexpected happened at that moment.
[Are you looking for me?]
He heard a voice. However, the voice was coming from the phone in Linda's hand.
“!”
[Let me see what kind of pathetic excuse you came up with.]
‘Shit.’
Ju-Heon scrunched his eyes at this unexpected situation.
That was indeed the case.
Kiera had not come in person but was talking to Ju-Heon over the phone. Ju-Heon who realized the situation smiled viciously.
‘Edward, that damn old man. I was wondering why he hadn't shown up.’
Edward seemed to have failed to schedule an in person meeting with Keira as he claimed.
‘That must be why he ran away.’
He would return this 100 folds later.
Putting Edward aside, Ju-Heon did not like this current situation.
‘I didn't expect to meet her so easily, but this will cause some issues.’
He could not destroy someone’s artifact over the phone.
However, Ju-Heon did not reveal his inner thoughts on his face as he started to speak.
“This is different than I heard. I heard you would be here in person.”
He might have sounded a bit sarcastic.
Thomas started to scoff.
“The General-nim has no time to meet with a bastard like you. You fool.”
“I didn't ask you. You stupid musclehead.”
“What?!”
In some aspects, Thomas could be right. But Ju-Heon was thinking differently. The Keira that he knew would definitely show up here in person.
Keira liked strong artifact users and wanted to confirm their strength with her own eyes before trying to recruit them. That was why after hearing the CIA members’ stories, she should have appeared in front of him.
‘But why did she not come? Did she not come to Macao from the US?’
No, that wasn’t it.
Edward claimed to have handed her the artifact in Macao. She was definitely here.
‘So why?’
‘Did something big come up that she doesn't even have the time to come meet with me?’
He then noticed Yoo Jaeha fidgeting with his phone on the side. Ju-Heon then suddenly thought about something.
‘Perhaps?’
Ju-Heon pretended to check his phone as he looked through the current top searches. And lo and behold, a couple articles caught Ju-Heon's attention.
[English Prime Minister Albert missing during a secret meeting with an American General.]
[US - “He suddenly disappeared while we left the room for a moment.” Avoiding responsibility, denying abducting the Prime Minister. Not willing to share details of top secret conversation.]
‘Aigoo.'
This seemed to be the reason Keira was not here in person. This was the general scenario in Ju-Heon’s mind.
The US and the English Prime Minister were meeting to have England join Pandora when the English Prime Minister suddenly disappeared.
That must have put the US in quite the difficult situation.
Ju-Heon could only frown once he realized that fact.
‘This became quite complicated. There will be no future chances to meet with Keira if the US is in this kind of mess.’
The chances of getting close to her map-type artifact were disappearing.
‘What should I do?’
Keira started to speak in an overbearing tone like that of a Queen at that moment.
[Seo Ju-Heon is your name, right? Let me ask you a question.]
“Go ahead.”
[Did you by chance duplicate an artifact then hand it over to us?]
The one who felt his heart sink after hearing that was Yoo Jaeha, the counterfeiter. But Ju-Heon just shamelessly smiled.
“Duplicate an artifact? Is something like that even possible?”
‘It is possible you punk!’
Yoo Jaeha gulped.
Ju-Heon continued to speak.
“I guess it must be possible to duplicate artifacts if you are saying it, General-nim. But wouldn’t it be a total scam if artifacts could be duplicated?”
‘Wow, this shameless bastard.’
It happened as Yoo Jaeha clicked his tongue.
Keira laughed viciously and threatened Ju-Heon.
[You will die if you lie. Tell me the truth. What did you do to the artifact?]
The General seemed set on killing Ju-Heon depending on his response. Ju-Heon squinted after hearing that.
Something seemed weird.
If the situation was like this, Keira shouldn't have come to meet him. It made sense to focus on the English Prime Minister who disappeared while meeting with her.
But she came to meet him during this time and was focusing on the fake artifact?
Her priorities were completely wrong if that was the case.
But the US was not stupid.
Ju-Heon had an idea about what was going on and started to smile.
‘These fools, maybe...’
However, they wouldn't answer his question just because he asked it.
Ju-Heon noticed a child at that moment. It was a little kid who was peeking at them from the other room in the suite.
It was none other than Vivian, the Medusa artifact user.
Vivian jumped in shock and started to hide as soon as they made eye contact.
Ju-Heon who saw her started to smile as if he caught onto their plan.
“Waaaaaaaah! What kind of grudge does he have against me?!”
Vivian was quietly crying in the next room. It was because of the crazy bastard who had just sent her a text message.
That was indeed the case.
VIvian had received a message from an unknown number. Vivian tried to ignore it at first but could not because of the message.
[(Anonymous):
I'm going to tell them everything if you ignore me. I’ll tell them you sold the information about the artifacts the US has to me.]
That was the threatening message Vivian had received.
Vivian immediately realized that this was Ju-Heon's number. However, Vivian fell into a state of panic at the same time.
‘How does this bastard know my phone number?’
Another text message came through as if he had read Vivian's mind.
[It’s not important how I know your number.]
‘Damn it!’
Another message arrived as Vivian looked at her phone with shaking hands.
[(Anonymous):
Be honest. The English Prime Minister disappeared while using the artifact, didn't he.]
[bibi:
I don’t know!]
[(Anonymous):
I'm going to tell the General everything.]
VIvian hesitated before clenching her eyes and responding.
[bibi:
It’s all your fault! The English Prime Minister disappeared because you sold us something weird!]
Ju-Heon started to laugh after seeing the message.
He was casually checking his messages while talking to Keira saying that he needed to respond to some business matters.
This was what had happened.
The US tried to get England involved with Pandora. It was fine that the English Prime Minister who was coming to Macao to take a look at the Chinese tomb met with the Monarch of War in secret.
But the misfortune had started there.
The problem seemed to be that the General showed the artifact she purchased from Edward to the Prime Minister and offered him to try it out.
[bibi:
The Prime Minister suddenly disappeared after touching it! But the map-type artifact that made the Prime Minister disappear went missing too! How are you going to resolve this?! We can only save the Prime Minister if we have the map-type artifact! The General-nim might be falsely accused of murder!]
Ju-Heon laughed internally after seeing the message while thinking that this had turned into a masterpiece.
He never expected that the fake he sold would do so much for him!
‘Even if it was a masterpiece created by Yoo Jaeha slaving away...’
Although it was a fake with half the original's power, that fake seemed to have created quite the accident.
Of course, it was because the English Prime Minister used Zheng He’s artifact carelessly without knowing how to use it properly.
Why?
Others did not know about it, but Zheng He's artifact came with high risk.
It showed very useful information fitting an A-Grade map-type artifact, but it was an artifact that should never be used by someone with low Dominance.
This was because this scary Age of Discovery artifact would teleport the person to a random location if it deemed the user to not have the qualifications to use it. It could send the person to a desert, an ocean, or even to another tomb.
Only Zheng He’s artifact would be able to locate the person who was teleported away. But it disappeared because it was a copy, leaving them no means to locate the teleported Prime Minister.
The Americans' asses were probably on fire.
Lo and behold, Ju-Heon smiled as he asked them a question.
"Did the English Prime Minister disappear while using the map-type artifact by chance?”
Both CIA members as well as Keira were shocked by that comment.
“You, how did you?!”
“That’s not important. Anyway, General-nim. Can you tell me whether that is true or not?”
[.....]
Keira smiled viciously at Ju-Heon’s shameless tone.
[What do you plan on saying if I say that was the case?]
Ju-Heon smiled thinking that it really must be an emergency situation for the careful Monarch of War to respond like this.
‘I got her.’
Ju-Heon thought this was his opportunity. Originally, he was going to use violent means to destroy her map-type artifacts.
But he just came up with an easier way to destroy the maps.
That was why he calmly started to sell this ‘medicine.’
“If the Prime Minister truly disappeared because of that, I will feel a sense of responsibility and offer you a deal.”
[A deal?]
“I will find the English Prime Minister for you.”
“What?!”
All of them were shocked and Keira asked with suspicion.
[You can help us find the English Prime Minister? Then you really must have the real Zheng He’s artif...]
“No. It’s a different method.”
“A different method my ass. We’ve already tried everyt...!”
[A different method? Is there another way?]
“Yes ma'am. I'm embarrassed to say this, but I am better than most people when it comes to using artifacts. I apologize, but I am better than you as well.”
[Hoh. Keep talking.]
“You can kill me if I fail. However, I must put a condition in finding the Prime Minister.”
[A condition?]
“I should be able to find the Prime Minister if I use a map-type artifact. I don't have any but I heard that you have one. Will you let me use your map-type artifact for a moment?”
Ju-Heon was smiling.