Chapter 27
CHAPTER 27
Seo Ju-Heon from Another World (1)
BOOM!
At that moment, someone appeared in the sky.
It was a woman dressed in a white coat.
She had long hair and an extraordinarily beautiful face with cold, feline features. She vaguely resembled Joy, her twin younger sister, yet felt completely different. Somehow, her silhouette looked strangely familiar—as though he were looking into a mirror.
Me?
Ju-Heon suddenly realized something.
Then, the sky split apart.
No... to call her me would be—
[Warning: An identical signature has been detected.]
"...A woman?"
"...What?"
An identical signature?
Only then did Ju-Heon furrow his brows.
The woman did exactly the same, staring back at him before brushing back her long black hair in the exact same manner.
"What's your name?"
"So it's one of them."
Her eyes locked squarely onto Ju-Heon.
"Weak."
"A candidate for disposal."
"...Huh?"
Her voice, looking down from the sky, was ice-cold.
A long saber swayed behind her back in the wind. A crimson scabbard. A hilt engraved with relic markings. A flawless combat stance.
A perfect Majesty.
"...Me?"
Ju-Heon was dumbfounded.
I finally got away from Julian, and now this freak shows up?
Cup Ramen Yu Jae-ha also looked shocked.
Ju-Heon brushed the dust off his pants and stood up.
"I'm Seo Ju-Heon."
[Damn... she's beautiful. She's beautiful, but she's not Joy... Why does she look so much like Captain?]
At those words, one of the woman's eyebrows slowly rose.
"Hah. You're 'Seo Ju-Heon' too?"
"Then that explains it."
She slowly drew her saber.
The blade gleamed sharply beneath the sunlight.
"So you're a pathetic creature who gets swept away by cheap emotions, can't even handle a weapon properly, and survives by petty theft."
"No wonder they asked me to deal with you."
BOOM!
Cup Ramen Yu Jae-ha immediately shouted.
[Who the hell is she?!]
"What else? She's the other version of me that Majesty Yu Jae-ha was talking about."
[...What?! A female version of Captain?!]
The saber carved through the air without the slightest hesitation.
Was that last strike merely a warning?
Blood trickled down Ju-Heon's cheek, making his brow twitch.
"You..."
"Shut up."
Her expression didn't change in the slightest.
[Collect more relics.]
"I don't need words to kill you."
The hell did you just say?!
Crow!! What do you take your master for—
And then—
"Tch... damn it...!!"
Whoosh!
Ju-Heon instinctively leaped backward, drawing Muramasa.
Her saber sliced through the air.
Clang!
Fast!
[Evasion failed.]
[Danger.]
[Recommended defensive relic... None.]
He barely deflected her next strike.
The impact threw Ju-Heon backward in a roll.
Before he could even regain his footing, she had already spun once and was preparing another attack.
"Die."
"Ugh!"
Flame-like relic energy ignited along her saber.
The air surrounding its blade sharpened as though it itself had become a weapon.
Ju-Heon clenched his teeth.
The blade grazed past the tip of his nose.
At that instant, the Rope Relic kicked it aside.
Using the opening, Ju-Heon hurriedly pulled Cup Ramen Yu Jae-ha out of his bag and activated him.
"Damn it! They say if you run into a duplicate of yourself, you're dead!"
[Stealth activated.]
Her speed...
The distance she crossed...
Neither made any sense.
A black blur crashed down like lightning, embedding itself into the ground before Ju-Heon.
BOOM!
The stealth worked well.
The female Seo Ju-Heon couldn't find him despite slashing wildly.
But only for a moment.
She twisted the corner of her lips into a cold smile before drawing another relic.
The concrete exploded.
[Gram (SS-Rank Relic)]
Gram was the weapon Odin thrust into a tree.
Like Excalibur, only a true warrior could draw it.
It was also the sword that slew the dragon Fafnir, who had been consumed by greed.
Precisely because it specialized in cutting down greed...
It could do something like this.
[Aaaagh!]
The instant Ju-Heon lost hold of Cup Ramen Yu Jae-ha, his silhouette was exposed.
The female Seo Ju-Heon chuckled.
"...Heart Tracker activated."
The moment she spoke, a chill ran down Ju-Heon's spine.
His stealth was perfect.
And yet—
"Found you."
"Damn!"
Ju-Heon rolled away.
"There you are."
[Damn it! It can detect even this?!]
The wall Ju-Heon had been hiding behind exploded into pieces.
Debris scattered everywhere.
Cup Ramen Yu Jae-ha ended up skewered on her blade.
"Gram tracks hearts."
"Especially the hearts of the greedy."
[Damn it, that's because of you, Captain! You brought this on yourself!]
Yu Jae-ha screamed.
Her combat ability was overwhelmingly high to begin with.
And as though she enjoyed cornering frightened mice, she leisurely swung her saber again and again.
Ju-Heon barely managed to evade, but another thin line of blood appeared across his cheek.
This was an extremely troublesome opponent.
[She looks stronger than you! How are you supposed to beat her?! Captain, run! Let's cross into another world!]
Ha... they say when you meet another version of yourself, you either awaken... or die.
"Shut up."
She was strong.
The female Seo Ju-Heon curled her lips into a crooked smile.
BOOM!
Her relics were formidable enough...
But beyond that, her movements themselves were like a work of art created around the sword.
She was completely different.
Nothing like him.
"So this is the pitiful sight of a Majesty rolling around like a cornered rat."
"...Hey."
"Did you just look down on me?"
A vein twitched near his eye.
At that moment, Ju-Heon scattered something.
Pah!
"There."
"Now you can't attack me either, fake."
"...What?"
"If Muramasa cuts you, madness spreads through your body. The bleeding never stops. The moment you try to fight, your body will explode first."
It was sand.
[It doesn't have an ability like that...]
[Wow, that's so underhanded! Pathetic! No wonder she looked down on you!]
Shut up!
Ju-Heon cursed under his breath as he pulled Muramasa from his coat.
The tip of the blade lightly grazed the female Seo Ju-Heon's arm, leaving only a shallow cut.
Seeing that, Ju-Heon smirked.
Quiet, Cup Ramen.
The female Seo Ju-Heon, however, seemed to become slightly more cautious.
Keeping his distance, Ju-Heon caught his breath.
"Were you the one who brought Julian here too?"
Looking completely uninterested, she glanced at the small wound on her wrist.
"Oh, that?"
"The Majesty of this world hired me."
"He asked me to dispose of his relics... and an intruder."
"I just didn't know that intruder would be you."
"The Majesty of this world? The one who turned the city into a giant drug den?"
"That's right."
"Well, I suppose he was furious that the Dionysus relic sustaining this world had been damaged."
Her gaze shifted toward the relics in Ju-Heon's hands.
"They don't suit you."
"Those children are far too kind."
As she stepped forward, Ju-Heon tightened his grip on Muramasa and retreated.
Shrrk.
Her saber slowly rose through the air.
"Whoa there. If you attack—"
"You'll die from excessive blood loss the moment you try to fight?"
The woman standing before him smiled coldly.
Then she chuckled.
With that smile...
Her sword flashed.
Crunch!
With a single slash, Ju-Heon felt something inside him snap.
At the same time, the Rope Relic reverted into the form of a simple string bracelet.
Muramasa hanging at his waist instantly became nothing more than an old, worn-out sword before dropping to the ground.
She spoke calmly.
"I sever..."
"And steal at the same time."
"That's the Majesty ability I possess."
"...!"
That's... her ability?
What was that just now?
...My contracts were severed.
The female Seo Ju-Heon smiled.
"This is my 'Severing Theft' skill."
"!"
"Exactly."
"Bound relics have their contracts with their owners cut apart."
"And consumable relics become unusable."
"That's how I've stolen relics until now."
"For the sake of others."
"For the sake of others?"
"That's right."
"I'm merely a distributor who delivers relics to people more worthy of them."
"So..."
"You're stealing my relics just to hand them over to someone else?"
She smiled, seemingly impressed by how quickly he understood.
Sure enough...
Ju-Heon's gaze toward her turned savage.
"Muramasa and the Rope Relic are excellent relics."
"I'll find them owners more deserving than you."
"So in the end..."
"You're just another thief."
"I'm nothing like you."
"I seek justice with my blade."
"Aren't you ashamed that someone like you was ever called a Majesty?"
"Your story ends here, petty thief."
"...Petty thief?"
Those words tore open the pride Ju-Heon had buried deep within himself.
In that instant...
The faces of everyone he had been forced to trample in order to survive...
The convictions he had abandoned...
The people he hated...
Flashed through his mind like a panorama.
Then—
Crackle!
An unfamiliar light burst from Ju-Heon's body.
As though the rage he had kept bottled up...
As though the power that had been waiting to awaken...
Had finally begun to stir.
"So..."
"You think everything happening in this city is justified?"
The female Seo Ju-Heon let out a faint laugh.
"Every Majesty has their own method of ruling."
"Not something a thief like you would understand."
"Would you still say that if your daughter had been kidnapped?"
"How inefficient."
As she spoke, she remembered her own world.
A city of replaceable parts.
The cowardly Majesties had chosen obedience before the invasion of the relics.
Every morning, the system distributed relics.
Citizens simply performed the jobs assigned to them.
If their efficiency dropped by even one percent, their relics were confiscated.
And anyone without a relic was designated a useless human being...
And executed.
She had survived in that city.
By cutting away her emotions.
By abandoning all attachments.
As a king, she had chosen to protect the citizens rather than her own family.
Yet this man...
Had crossed worlds simply because his daughter had been kidnapped.
To her, it was the height of inefficiency.
Ju-Heon smiled leisurely.
"So you really think the peace gained by kneeling before relics is righteous?"
"Do you even realize that the relics are carving up the world however they please?"
"Humanity can never overcome disasters."
"So your answer was to beg disasters for mercy?"
"What a wonderfully medieval mindset."
"Go spend your whole life failing to understand nature while leaving bowls of water as offerings and praying."
"I'll do things my own way."
"Hah."
"And what would a thief sneaking around a city know about any of that?"
"You're the perfect example of a loser ruled by emotions."
"A king should think of the citizens before their family."
"A bastard who can't even protect his own family has no right to talk about protecting citizens."
"Throwing them away isn't responsibility."
"It's just giving up."
Ju-Heon chuckled.
"You keep calling me a thief."
"I guess you're trying to humiliate me."
"But honestly?"
"I like being called a thief."
"Because history..."
"Has always belonged to those who take."
"...What?"
[Majesty ability activated.]
[Theft: Hand of Redefinition]
Before she could even finish questioning him...
Ju-Heon shot forward like lightning.
Straight into her arms.
There was only one reason.
[The opponent possesses power identical to 'Seo Ju-Heon.']
[If you get close, it may be possible to steal that power.]
Crackle!
"So."
"You said you steal relics through your sword hilt?"
"!"
"I rewrite the rules to suit myself."
"That's my way of stealing."
"...What did you say?"
Ju-Heon placed his hand on the hilt of her sword.
Following the Three-Legged Crow's advice...
He pulled her into an embrace.
At that very moment...
Something astonishing happened.