Chapter 1

「B-breaking news! China, Japan, Taiwan, and Mongolia have relinquished their rights to the 87th East Asian Gate...」

Gates.

They were doors that connected Earth to another dimension. And occupying them was a question of national power. Priceless resources not found on Earth could be found on the other side of the gates. But not without great risk—most gates led to habitats rife with monsters.

「... The incidence of new gates in East Asia remains an average of one every two years.... As per the amicable agreement signed between China and Japan, these gates have always been divided between themselves—until now. The status quo, which has stood for the last ninety-four years, has been broken for the first time... Truly, the powerful duke who managed to win a gate for South Korea is a man destined for the history books...」

***

“Uh?”

“W-what is this...?”

The crowd gathered at Incheon International Airport to welcome the hero back was in turmoil.

Kang Dae-Guk, also known as the National Treasure Yaksha, stood before them.

This was the leader of the four pillars supporting the Republic of Korea, a man whose mere presence would cause one’s chest to tighten. But something seemed different today. He looked haggard, and although he was still like a tiger standing on two feet, he seemed older somehow, more shrunken.

And it wasn’t just because he had lost an arm.

Just then, the screens in the airport cut to breaking news.

「This just in, the spokesman of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Wang Jiagun, said at a regular briefing today that ‘China has conceded the 87th East Asia Gate because South Korea’s Duke Kang Dae-Guk has shown great sincerity.’ Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also...」

「The White House spokesman, Pasnal Hurent, said, ‘We have confirmed that South Korea’s strongest power, Duke Kang Dae-Guk, has lost his strength.’ He predicts that this will serve as an opportunity to further undermine the balance of East Asian diplomacy in the future...」

...

...

...

「The Korean Players Association has strongly criticized Duke Kang Dae-Guk, stating that ‘he was blinded by the immediate gain of a gate and mortgaged the future of South Korea...’」

「The Association has placed a public wanted notice on Duke Kang Dae-Guk’s eldest son, Kang Dae-Seong. The conflict between Kang Dae-Seong and the Association continues to aggravate; there are serious concerns that an armed conflict might break out...」

「At 10 a.m. today, a spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense announced the arrest of Duke Dae-Guk’s eldest daughter, Lieutenant Colonel Kang Hyeon-Ah. She was taken into custody at her official residence. The charge is rebellion against the state. A large amount of explosives and communication records were secured as evidence...」

「The National Assembly has been inundated with petitions demanding that Duke Kang Dae-Guk be stripped of his National Treasure status...」

「The missing employee of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport has been identified as Kang Du-Na. Kang Du-Na disappeared while installing a new gate; according to the testimony of officials, who asked not to be named, Kang Du-Na showed severe symptoms of depression after Duke Kang Dae-Guk was stripped of his National Treasure status...」

***

One of the pillars of the Republic of Korea had collapsed. When the great duke returned to his home country and stepped foot on its soil, his eyes closed and never opened again. A once-towering hero was reduced to surviving on a ventilator.

At first, the people were in tears.

They thanked Duke Kang Dae-Guk for his last gift to his country and praised him as a hero. They also lashed out at the government and the Korean Players Association for failing to protect their hero.

From there, things began to go awry. Unrest broke out across various parts of the country, and the government and the Association finally responded.

They portrayed Duke Kang Dae-Guk as a sinner. Unable to see the greater picture, the best player in Korea had ignored national interest and sacrificed himself recklessly for a single gate.

The government and the Association wielded the media like a blade, debasing and excising the duke's legacy with callous precision. The campaign to denounce the duke was further bolstered by international news, which shared similar sentiments: Duke Kang Dae-Guk’s short-sightedness had cost his family and his nation too much—South Korea has fallen further from the top powers of the world.

Soon, public opinion changed.

Duke Kang Dae-Guk had become a stain on South Korea’s history, and the voices of those who resented him grew by the day.

They resented the duke’s humiliating diplomacy to East Asia, which had made a spectacle of South Korea on the national floor.

They resented the duke’s blind desperation for a single gate, which ultimately cost South Korea one of their four national pillars.

Because of the duke, South Korea was left weakened as a nation. Their future, bleak.

The Kang family tried to rectify the public’s opinion, but the actions of the duke’s eldest son, who fled after half-crippling the president of the Association, and the duke’s eldest daughter, who attempted to overthrow the regime, sealed their fate. The people had completely lost trust in the Kang family.

“Ugh, those damn bastards.”

Were his siblings enemies in a previous life?

The duke’s youngest son, who was left alone with his vegetative father, felt his vision darken.

***

“The humiliating diplomacy of Kang Dae-Guk, who bowed his head to another country and sacrificed himself, trampled on the pride of the people!”

“How can a family that produced terrorists who attempted a coup call itself noble? The government should officially condemn the Kang family!”

“The people can’t tolerate the Kang family enjoying the same benefits as other nobles! Revoke the dukedom! Revoke it!”

Most countries in the world, including South Korea, had revived the aristocracy system.

Players who became aristocrats received considerable preferential treatment: a hereditary pension and tax breaks were only a small part of the privileges that the aristocracy enjoyed. No one protested this system. It served as a measure to avoid losing top players to other countries, and everyone understood this.

As for the ducal families in South Korea, there were only three—and they received the support of the entire nation. Without the dedication of these families, South Korea would have collapsed two hundred years ago. However, the Kang ducal family had since fallen out of favor due to a series of events eight years ago. This was even though the head of the family had sacrificed himself to give a great gift to the country.

“Don’t listen to them. They are merely employees spouting the sophistry of their employers. They do not represent the will of the people,” Hwang Hong-Gi said as he closed the window.

Today, the shouts of the civic groups seemed particularly annoying.

“What does it matter now? It’s something we have to bear due to Kang Dae-Seong and Kang Hyeon-Ah’s actions: the ones that caused my father’s downfall have already been written down on the kill list.”

“The kill list? I was wondering what you were studying these days. So you were actually writing something like that?”

“Yep—I wrote down Kang Dae-Seong and Kang Hyeon-Ah’s names in the top row. Didn’t I do a good job? Ah, I died.” The boy, who was focused on his game until now, dropped his controller and sank into the sofa.

He was Kang Jae-Hyeok, the youngest son of Duke Kang Dae-Guk—and he had been living a hellish life for the past eight years. Despite his family’s devotion to the country for generations, he was left to wipe the filth and graffiti off the Kang estate's walls. Kang Jae-Hyeok was the target of cruel public opinion on behalf of his unconscious father and disappeared siblings.

He was isolated. So isolated that he couldn’t even go out properly. A normal life was out of the question. The young Jae-Heyok had tried his best. But it was because he had tried his best that he’d faced the truth: nothing would change the hate others had toward him and his family.

It was for reasons like this that Jae-Hyeok’s personality was broken.

No

, Hwang Hong-Gi thought.

‘Broken’ is too harsh a word for a young boy’s personality

.

“I want to do another gacha draw. Butler Hwang～ can I borrow your credit card? I’ll pay you as soon as I get my stipend.”

“Apologies, I am also low on funds for this month. Besides, should you really spend money on games that you only log in to enjoy a few minutes a day?”

Jae-Hyeok looked at Butler Hwang seriously. “As a respectable man who’s worked for the Kang family for over forty years, you must always remember that our Kang family’s motto is to do our best.”

“I will remember.” Butler Hwang met Jeo-Hyeok’s serious look with an equally serious bow. “Now please stop being polite only when asking for money.”

Jae-Hyeok’s noble aura vanished. “Come on, share a little with your young master. Butler Hwang—please...?”

“No.”

On second thought, this boy’s personality is most certainly broken... Or perhaps he was simply born this way.

Hwang Hong-Gi shook his head and held out a letter.

“What’s this?”

“A request letter for admission from Lion’s Castle. This is the fifth time. Why don’t you make a decision soon? If possible, do consider accepting it for the sake of your future studies.”

Jae-Hyeok reached for the letter in Butler Hwang’s hand. It happened then. Jae-Hyeok sensed something, and the windows blocking the shouts of the protestors shattered as a monster smashed through.

A monster appeared here, in a residential area of South Korea that boasted a gate control rate of 93.6%? No way this was coincidental.

"...!"

Hwang Hong-Gi collapsed without even being able to scream. His stomach was completely crushed.

If Jae-Hyeok’s outstretched hand hadn’t shifted the monster’s leg at the last second, the butler would’ve been struck in the chest and killed instantly.

“Butler Hwang!”

Jae-Hyeok jumped up from the sofa and moved without delay. The monster’s pot-lid-like hand flew in, but Jae-Hyeok accelerated instead of dodging.

A lump of flesh was ripped off from his shoulder, but he reached the monster’s feet.

“Butler Hwang... ”

He had lost his mother young before growing up and experiencing the downfall of his family: his siblings had left him, and his father had left him in all the ways that mattered. When he was unable to bear the stifling silence left in their wake, when he collapsed in the night, lost and afraid, it was Hwang Hong-Gi’s hand that he felt on his back. He was the benefactor who took care of the abandoned Kang family.

Now he had to lose this person as well?

𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

No. He would rather die than lose another precious person.

Ignoring the blood-stained wound on his shoulder, Jae-Hyeok cradled Hwang Hong-Gi and whispered, “It’s okay. Don’t worry.”

The roaring monster’s foot was falling toward the top of their heads.

Jae-Hyeok ignored it and pulled out a high-grade potion. This was something he’d obtained through his status and had been hoarding ever since—it couldn’t be purchased even with billions of dollars. A high-grade potion had a miraculous effect on trauma treatment.

Slash!

Suddenly, the monster’s head was separated from its neck, and the large foot that was about to crush Jae-Hyeok tilted out of the way.

It wasn’t due to something Jae-Hyeok had done.

A shrill voice entered his ears as he poured the potion on Hwang Hong-Gi’s wounds.

“Were you going to commit suicide for a mere employee? If I hadn’t stepped up, both of you would’ve been trampled to death. Pathetic guy.”

It was an unfamiliar voice.

He was the presence that Jae-Hyeok had felt from the moment the monster appeared.

It was only after the bottle of potion was empty that Jae-Hyeok slowly turned his head. “How did you manage to drag the troll all the way here from the gate?”

The man who stood on the troll’s corpse sneered.

“You should be grateful. I kicked out all the noisy trash outside.”

The man didn’t look down on the boy before him. The boy showed a pathetic appearance now, but he was still the Yaksha’s son—he would transform into a completely different person the moment he held his sword.

So the man was careful to stand between the boy and his sword, which was lodged in the rubble.

Jae-Hyeok asked, “Seeing as you don’t want me to get hurt, is my safety your goal?”

“Smart boy. That’s right. My master wants the knowledge engraved in your body and mind: the sword-drawing technique of the Kangs. You need to be intact for the time being. Now, follow me.”

A black-maned troll.

Jae-Hyeok calculated the location of the gate where the monster had come from and the distance to the mansion before frowning. He found it hard to believe that a monster could simply emerge from that gate, run through the downtown area, and reach this place just like that.

At the very least, alarms should be sounding all over the streets by now.

However, the outside was deadly quiet when he peeked through the damaged walls.

This meant that the master of the intruder was great enough to cloud the surveillance of the Association and military, delaying their actions.

Is it one of the people who ruined my family?

The anger that had been suppressed for a long time reared its head, but the more it did, the cooler Jae-Hyeok’s mind became.

His mental strength, which had been tempered daily alongside his body, was a priceless asset.

Jae-Hyeok replied, “Okay. Let’s go.”

“Young Master... ” As Jae-Hyeok obediently followed the man, Hwang Hong-Gi stretched out his trembling hand.

Amazingly, the butler had already come to his senses—although he was a pathetic sight. He crawled along the floor, hoping to reach his young master with his hand.

Jae-Hyeok didn’t dare to sympathize with him, but he was satisfied with Butler Hwang’s spirit. It was something that a person of the Kang family should have.

“Ah, it wouldn’t be good to keep the witness alive, right?” The man gave a sly smile. From the beginning, he had no intention of letting the butler live. He hadn’t said anything until now because he’d found the master-servant drama entertaining.

The man reached for his sword.

This was the opportunity Jae-Hyeok had been hoping for.

An easy chance to reverse this situation!

There is no need to keep the intruder alive either,

Jae-Hyeok thought to himself and waved his hand just as the man grabbed the hilt of his sword.

The swordsmanship of Duke Kang focused on perfecting the sword draw into an art.

And with Jae-Hyeok’s insights into the movements that preceded drawing the sword, including the reactions and flow of consciousness that accompanied it, and the time required for the process, those who drew their sword before Jae-Hyeok would show nothing but vulnerabilities to him.

The swordsman shouldn’t have allowed the boy to approach. The moment his sword left its scabbard, and before he could register why, the blade began moving in a direction different from his will.

“What...?”

Blood gushed from the dismayed man’s chest.

How?

His sword had been robbed the moment it was drawn. Was there such a ridiculous thing? Perhaps if he were a beginner, but he was a veteran player who had trained in the sword for decades. To him, his sword was an extension of his arm. He was sure he wouldn’t let go of it even if he was decapitated.

Nevertheless, his sword had been taken away.

His strength had slipped away as if his grip on the hilt were a lie; then the sword was in Jae-Hyeok’s hands, slashing at him. It was a situation he didn’t want to believe, but he was forced to.

The man felt a chill go down his spine, but he was also relieved.

I’m glad he is still a child.

It wasn’t that he doubted Jae-Hyeok’s abilities. How could he not acknowledge them after what he had just gone through?

The opponent was Yaksha’s son. Of course he had been training steadily since he was a child, and he probably pushed himself all the more harshly since he was alone with no one to rely on.

However, this should be his first time slashing a living, breathing being.

He must be under a pressure that he's never imagined.

Hot blood on his skin, feeling the weight of a life for the first time.

In addition...

The man jumped back and picked up the sword buried in the rubble.

He pulled it out from the scabbard and found that it was a single-edged sword. It was the symbol of the Kang family, and it was made of a special metal that allowed it to gain acceleration when it was drawn.

Just as this sword is unfamiliar to me, my sword will be unfamiliar to you.

The man was only robbed of his sword. The scabbard still hung from his waistband.

Jae-Hyeok’s sword-drawing technique was blocked.

I was planning to take him away without any harm but...

He had no choice but to bear his master’s anger. He caught his breath and widened his eyes as he took a stance. He would teach this boy a lesson in experience.

It was then that Jae-Hyeok stepped forward.

Bang!

The floor cracked under Jae-Hyeok’s feet. His big toe, which was bent as hard as possible, dug into the hard wood.

Just how much did he train his lower body? Isn’t he just a sixteen-year-old boy?

Uncertainty crept into the man’s heart. On second thought, it would be best if he could persuade the boy to come along.

“Come with me. If you are willing to teach my master your swordsmanship, you won’t be treated badly.”

“Who’s your master? If I receive a disciple, I should know who it is.”

“Follow me and you will know.”

“Yeah? Why should I follow a bastard who is about to kick the bucket?”

“Such unbecoming words from a noble’s mouth.”

“How can you say something like that after looking at my family? You think I’ve had a proper education?”

“Young Master... I’m not good enough... sorry... Cough!”

Jae-Hyeok turned to Hwang Hong-Gi. “Butler Hwang, I’m better than him, right?”

“O-of course... Cough, cough!”

The swordsman stared at them.

Are they crazy?

A dying old man and a young boy on the verge of being kidnapped. And yet they continued to yap in a situation where it wouldn’t be enough even if they kneeled down and begged.

A sudden attack. A real battle that he is experiencing for the first time. The variable of his sword-drawing technique being blocked. Being confident even when it is hard for him to perform at his best... He must be proud of all his hard training.

In short, it was arrogance—a common tendency in the children born into aristocracy. It was the arrogance of a plant grown in a greenhouse. The man had experience with over fifty gate attacks and had seen plenty of the ugly side of the world. He was no greenhorn.

Jae-Hyeok said, “You are saying you don’t want to talk, right? Then die, you crazy bastard. Don’t worry. I’ll find out what kinda son of a bitch your master is later.”

This brat has such a filthy mouth...

Wasn’t East Asia supposed to be the land of etiquette? He opened his mouth, intending to say as much before he was stopped by what he saw.

Jae-Hyeok had taken off his belt and wrapped it around his left hand in several layers; then he brought the sword to his waist and pressed it against his side with his leather-bound hand. It was as if the blade were resting in a scabbard.

He’s drawing the sword!

The man honed his concentration until every aspect of the boy before him filled his mind.

The size of the stolen sword, the range of Jae-Hyeok’s stride, the length of his arm, the direction of his gaze and his elbows, and the angle at which he tilted his upper body were all observed at a glance.

He only needed to measure the direction and distance of the upcoming attack.

Sword-drawing techniques couldn’t be linked together. So long as he could neutralize or evade the first move, the boy’s power would drop significantly and the advantage would be his.

Indeed, the man understood the weakness of the sword-drawing technique well. However, understanding alone was not enough.

As he stepped back to widen the distance, the man caught a blurred silver line in his vision. It was a sword light that was too fast to be blocked and too fast to be evaded.

Extreme speed.

At some point, Jae-Hyeok had already drawn the sword. Blood dripped from his hand, and the shredded belt hung loose to the ground.

But how? How could he reach me from there?

He had kept his distance, and Jae-Hyeok hadn’t even bothered to come close before he drew.

It wasn’t until his vision began to dim that he noticed it.

Jae-Hyeok’s hands were empty.

“You... abandoned it? This... is this what a swordsman would do...?”

It was an act that defied common sense.

The man glared at Jae-Hyeok before collapsing helplessly.

Softly, Jae-Hyeok spoke, “I’m not a swordsman.”