Ch.124124. AI, Ghosts, and the Royal Family

The youngest prince, Lee Hyun, knows nothing of human malice.

Having grown up receiving only love in the royal family, he had never been exposed to malice even once.

This would normally be impossible.

After all, the child of a concubine typically lives their life watching out for the legitimate wife.

But this didn’t apply to the youngest prince Hyun.

“Brother! What should I do to be helpful when you become king?”

This was thanks to his maternal family’s teaching to actively demonstrate his lack of interest in the throne from childhood.

Hyun’s maternal family was Chumon, a Megacorp in Joseon that handled education.

But unlike other countries, Joseon’s Megacorps were Megacorps in name only, unable to match the government in power.

In a country where private armies were forbidden, all businesses required government approval, and chips were installed in every citizen’s neck, Megacorps couldn’t possibly challenge the government.

This was why Chumon, his maternal family, educated the youngest prince this way.

No matter how much favor the king showed to Hyun’s mother, the concubine, it seemed impossible to play against the legitimate wife, who was the daughter of a four-star general in a military dictatorship.

Instead, after crunching the numbers, they calculated it would be more advantageous to actively demonstrate harmlessness now rather than risk earning the future king’s enmity.

So Hyun demonstrated his harmlessness.

As an innocent, pure, good younger brother who followed and admired his older brother.

Chumon’s strategic choice proved excellent.

Until he turned 16, Hyun had never been exposed to any malice.

The legitimate wife’s son, now the crown prince, saw Hyun as a brother, and even the legitimate wife had grown fond of him.

Furthermore, his maternal family Chumon was fully recognized as part of the crown prince’s faction.

As long as the Chumon Group didn’t plot any separate rebellion, Hyun and Chumon’s future looked bright.

But no one predicted that Hyun’s innocence would lead to tragedy.

The king decided to use the Hunt Legion for Hyun, whose political position was ambiguous.

He didn’t specifically want him to fight ghosts; he just meant for Hyun to lead his guards and observe the crown prince at work.

The problem was that the king overlooked the fact that while Hyun wasn’t incompetent, he lacked experience.

As a prince, Hyun knew about human malice intellectually, but having never experienced it, he had virtually no habit of suspicion.

Therefore, Hyun couldn’t suspect anything when the Chief State Councillor recommended Sword Circle members as his guards,

when the second prince taught him how to link the chips of Hyun and the Sword Circle members,

or even when the third prince introduced a mysterious warrior as his adjutant.

Hyun couldn’t suspect.

There were also rational reasons.

He thought they had no reason to check him, and the love they had shown him for the past 15 years seemed impossible to be false.

Above all, the crown prince’s power had grown too strong for anyone to plot against him now, so there was no reason to be suspicious unless one suffered from paranoia.

But on the day of the Hunt Legion,

when the perfectly normal Sword Circle members suddenly became possessed en masse and the man who claimed to be his adjutant kidnapped him, Lee Hyun thought:

‘Ah, I’ve been deceived.’

He didn’t know what trick had been played.

Lee Hyun couldn’t distinguish between ghost possession and AI infection, nor did he know how to selectively drive the Sword Circle members mad.

But he wasn’t stupid enough to miss how perfectly everything had fallen into place.

‘Brother…!’

The crown prince was in danger.

Hyun could feel the virus implanted in his head by the adjutant controlling the Sword Circle members through their linked chips.

Hyun could also understand the orders the virus was giving.

Eliminate the exorcist priests, break the front line, and ultimately assassinate the crown prince.

He didn’t know who had devised this plan, but it was quite sophisticated.

Normally, the Sword Circle would be quickly suppressed by the military, but right now Mount Geumgang was full of ghosts.

If the military focused on the Sword Circle, the ghosts would overwhelm them; if they focused on the ghosts, the Sword Circle would strike.

Even if the plan failed, it wouldn’t matter.

This place was full of ghosts, and no one would suspect mass AI infection rather than mass ghost possession of the Sword Circle members.

Above all, if the crown prince died in the middle of Mount Geumgang, no trace would remain.

It was a meticulously divided operation.

But there was nothing Hyun could do.

He could only be helplessly dragged away by the assassin from the Killing Sect who had once been his adjutant.

So Lee Hyun was half-resigned while being kidnapped.

Until a ninja(?) suddenly appeared.

“Eh? Why? Why a ninja!?”

The Killing Sect member who had kidnapped the prince was shocked. (The words were somewhat distorted, but the meaning was roughly similar.)

Climbing trees and suddenly attacking from the darkness—anyone would think of the word “ninja.”

The ninja who cut off both arms of the kidnapper.

Lee Hyun belatedly realized that the ninja was Amon,

and a beat later, he realized that what was warmly soaking his head was human blood,

“Urk…”

And losing consciousness as he realized for the first time that he was weaker-stomached than he thought.

*

“Mmm…”

Lee Hyun regained consciousness amid a pleasant swaying.

He instinctively realized that he was hanging upside down like prey on someone’s shoulder, being carried.

“You’re awake. Don’t open your mouth. You’ll bite your tongue.”

From the voice coming through the drab priest’s robe, Lee Hyun realized that the person carrying him was Amon.

Lee Hyun understood Amon’s warning and kept his mouth firmly shut.

Then he lifted his head slightly from Amon’s shoulder to look behind.

Sunwoo and Sunhwa were following Amon with faces heavy with fatigue.

“Huff… huff…”

“Why so fast…”

Lee Hyun marveled at Amon, who maintained a pace that even the Sword Circle members struggled to keep up with, despite carrying him on his shoulder.

Like many middle school boys, Lee Hyun had an instinctive admiration for unknown skilled individuals.

So he unconsciously asked Amon:

“I thought it was strange when I saw you before, but what are you really?”

“A Taoist sage, Jeon Woochi.”

“Jeon Woo… ugh!”

“Oh my. You bit your tongue.”

Amon chuckled and shrugged his shoulder.

Lee Hyun wanted to say it was his cheek, not his tongue, but the pain made it difficult to speak.

He blushed with embarrassment. Then, being careful with his tongue this time, he said:

“Could you maybe put me down now…”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“I recommend you just close your eyes and pretend not to know.”

“???”

Hearing that answer, Lee Hyun suddenly realized that the vibrations coming from Amon’s shoulder felt strange.

‘It doesn’t feel like he’s just running…’

As if his other arm was moving violently…

That wasn’t the only strange thing.

The screams coming from around them,

the pale faces of Sunwoo and Sunhwa following behind,

and…

[Holy Mother in heaven…]

Amon’s muttering.

Lee Hyun found all of this difficult to understand.

Finally, unable to suppress his curiosity, he turned his head to the side and…

“Kyuu?”

He made eye contact with a faceless ghost flying alongside them.

“Hiccup!”

Lee Hyun’s heart sank at the appearance of a ghost straight out of a horror movie.

Immediately after, the ghost smiled grotesquely.

“Finally looking this way…”

Slash.

Before the ghost could finish speaking, its head was severed.

Amon sighed and said:

“I told you to just keep your eyes closed.”

“…”

“Your Highness?”

Instead of Lee Hyun, Sunhwa, who was following behind, answered:

“He fainted. With foam on your clothes.”

“Sigh… At least he’s not cut out to be king.”

“That’s disrespectful.”

“It’s okay to curse when the king isn’t listening.”

*

Amon’s group traversed the forest full of ghosts.

Unlike when they went to find the prince, the return journey was met with even more interference from ghosts.

As if…

“They seem to be targeting Prince Lee Hyun.”

Sunwoo and Sunhwa nodded, having received a similar impression.

Amon carried the prince with one hand while slashing ghosts with the other.

Meanwhile, Sunwoo and Sunhwa did nothing but follow Amon’s back.

“Um… Amon…”

“Not yet.”

Sunwoo wanted to take the prince to reduce his burden, but Amon continued to refuse.

“I’m sorry to say this, but it’s safer if I do this.”

Amon knew that the already slow pair would become even slower if they took on the prince.

While grateful for the implicit premise that he absolutely couldn’t abandon the two, they felt helpless knowing they were more of a burden than help.

Amon seemed to guess their feelings and added:

“No need to be anxious. From what I can see, there will soon be a time when your help is needed.”

“You don’t have to comfort us.”

“It’s not comfort. When this is over… Oh, that’s a flag. Well, since I’ve started, I’ll say it all. When this is all over, I plan to properly put you to work, so save your strength for now.”

Amon said this without stopping his pace.

The siblings quietly watched his back as it kept trying to move away from them.

Denying the faint admiration that had bloomed in their hearts.