Ch.131131. Ways of Mourning

Amon took the baton from Mage and began to face the Sword Circle assassins.

While confronting them, Amon quietly observed their weapons.

‘A yodo…’

Another yodo.

Just like the Sword Circle assassins who had blocked Amon and Kathy on their way to Gyeongbokgung Palace today.

The fact that they possessed yodos was no longer surprising.

However, at this point, another question arose.

‘They’ve gotten stronger since our last encounter.’

More precisely, they had become trickier rather than stronger.

As if they had somehow analyzed Amon as a person, their movements had become more diverse.

Of course, due to the fundamental difference in specs, there was no possibility of them winning, but they had definitely become more challenging compared to before.

‘They couldn’t have shared information… Is it some kind of hive mind?’

He considered various possibilities, but in this world where everything imaginable was possible, there were too many options to even guess.

Amon filed this fact away in a corner of his mind and continued the battle.

During the fight, one piece of information was relayed to Amon through his earpiece.

[There’s someone from the Sword Circle who belongs to the Assassin Circle.]

“Levy? What, oops, what do you mean?”

Amon continued the conversation while breaking up words during combat.

Levy, being considerate of Amon’s situation, delivered sentences that required no response.

[I found out through His Highness’s pip that there’s someone from the Sword Circle among the Assassin Circle. Don’t ask me exactly who it is. His Highness doesn’t know either.]

The moment he heard those words, puzzle pieces clicked together in Amon’s mind with an audible snap.

All the seemingly unrelated incidents connected into a single thread.

Amon shouted to his companions through the earpiece.

“Sunwoo, Sunhwa! Bring His Highness here.”

[What?]

The two were bewildered by Amon’s sudden instruction.

Bringing him here when they should be evacuating him?

But Amon’s resolve was firm.

“Here, dealing with! Endlessly supplied! Assassins… I can’t take it anymore!”

He wanted to explain his reasoning in detail, but even Amon couldn’t afford such luxury during battle.

In the end, he chose command over persuasion and explanation.

“Just bring him here without arguing!”

They hadn’t known Amon for very long, but they were certain that he wasn’t the type to spout nonsense.

The siblings followed his instructions and brought Prince Hyun.

As a bonus, they also brought reinforcements as the Crown Prince had suggested.

By the time they returned, Amon had already dealt with the first wave of assassins.

“Let’s hurry, everyone. If we wait, we’ll have to defend for hours again.”

Irreverently, Amon slung the prince over his shoulder like a sack.

Feeling a familiar sense of déjà vu, the prince struggled, but there was no way an ordinary teenager with no training or combat enhancements could escape from Amon.

The Crown Prince, his guards, and the soldiers of the Royal Investigation Bureau were bewildered by Amon’s behavior,

but Sonia and Kathy simply began to follow Amon as if this were perfectly normal.

Unable to stand by, Sunwoo chimed in.

“No matter what, this is different from last time, you know? That’s disrespectful.”

But Amon calmly retorted.

“I’ve sent several Cardinals to the Mother Superior’s side before, so this hardly counts as disrespect.”

“Eh? What does that—”

“We’re departing. Follow closely so you don’t lose us.”

Amon left without waiting for a response.

Sonia and Kathy followed behind him.

The others who couldn’t keep up with the situation belatedly chased after them.

To an observer, it would have looked like they were pursuing someone who had kidnapped the youngest prince.

During this sudden midnight chase, Amon called out to the prince on his shoulder.

“Don’t pass out! Guide me to that traitor from the Sword Circle right now! What time is it clockwise?”

“That’s… currently 7 o’clock… no, from your perspective, 1 o’clock!”

Lee Hyun hung upside down on Amon’s shoulder, facing backward.

He wanted to at least ask to be positioned to face forward, but…

“Wait! This positi— Ack!”

He couldn’t make the request because he was afraid of biting his tongue again like last time.

Afterward, Amon crossed through Gyeongbokgung Palace following the prince’s directions.

“Is it 2 o’clock from our current position? Is that right?”

“Yes… wait, there?! Aaaaah!”

Amon didn’t care about obstacles in his path.

If there was a building, he ran across the roof; if there was a wall, he jumped over it in one bound.

Sonia followed Amon by flying, while Kathy used wire action with her red threads.

As for Sunwoo and Sunhwa…

“Can’t we take a more normal path?”

“This feels like déjà vu…”

Being from the Sword Circle, the two were at least accustomed to climbing walls and running across rooftops.

The soldiers following to support them were truly suffering.

“Huff… huff…”

While the people ahead were jumping over roofs and walls, the soldiers had to run around the walls to keep up with them.

Amon knew the soldiers were struggling to follow, but he couldn’t afford to accommodate them.

According to Lee Hyun, the traitor from the Sword Circle was moving farther away with each passing moment.

Amon began to hurry even more.

And just as Sunwoo and Sunhwa were becoming short of breath, Amon finally reached the traitor.

Upon arriving at the location, they saw mountains of corpses piled up by the traitor.

The traitor wore a mask and had pulled a robe deeply over their head.

Amon set Lee Hyun down on the ground while keeping a wary eye on the traitor.

“Your Highness, please hide somewhere safe now.”

“You’re the one who brought me to this dangerous place.”

Despite his words, the prince was obedient.

Amon entrusted Lee Hyun to the support troops that had followed and locked eyes with the masked traitor.

However, even while maintaining eye contact with the traitor, Amon addressed the Ju siblings instead.

“I told you before, didn’t I? That I would make you work hard later.”

Sunwoo boldly drew his sword and replied.

“Is that now?”

Nod.

The expression on his nodding face was somehow not very pleasant.

Sunwoo, who had no particular reason to worry about Amon, didn’t ask why and charged forward.

“Wait! I haven’t explained yet…!”

Leaving Amon’s words behind, Sunwoo rushed toward the Sword Circle traitor.

Sunwoo’s swordsmanship was completely different from his sister’s.

Unlike her style of fighting with minimal movement while drawing and sheathing her sword,

Sunwoo wielded a relatively short sword in each hand and used a relentless attacking style.

As a result, he moved more than his sister and prided himself on having footwork that was just as fast as hers.

This difference was most evident in how he used his doppelganger technique.

‘Try to tell us apart.’

As he charged toward the traitor, Sunwoo activated his transparency and hologram devices.

The purpose of deceiving the enemy’s eyes was the same as his sister’s.

But unlike his sister, who left a brief afterimage to target the enemy’s back, Sunwoo’s doppelganger moved independently from the main body, like a second Sunwoo.

Also, unlike his sister who used it sparingly like a joker card to catch opponents off guard, he utilized his doppelganger as a regular attack.

A shell game that continued throughout the battle.

That was Sunwoo’s swordsmanship.

“Atone with your blood, traitor!”

Sunwoo’s doppelganger shouted while swinging his sword at the Sword Circle traitor.

This was partly because Sunwoo, who admired the Sword Circle, was enraged, but more importantly, it was to deceive the enemy.

Surely they wouldn’t expect a hologram to have the ability to shout.

But the opponent attacked the real Sunwoo—the one who hadn’t spoken—without any hesitation.

As if they knew Sunwoo well.

‘What?’

Sunwoo was startled and distanced himself from his opponent.

Of course, being from the Sword Circle, they could be familiar with Sunwoo’s methods.

But since all members of the Sword Circle wore black uniforms with black hats pulled low, it was difficult to identify individuals, and missions tended to be individual rather than group activities, making it hard to know others’ sword techniques.

Above all, Sunwoo’s relationships within the Sword Circle were very limited.

Those who knew his sword style were few.

Therefore, Sunwoo, who hadn’t expected a traitor to emerge from among his acquaintances, showed considerable bewilderment.

At the very least, it meant the opponent knew Sunwoo well.

“No, that can’t be…”

“Sigh… that’s why I said to wait.”

Behind the muttering Sunwoo, Amon rubbed his face.

And behind Amon, who kept wiping his face, Sunhwa’s expression hardened.

“Amon. Is that person who I think it is?”

“I believe so.”

“When did you figure it out?”

“I was certain when His Highness told us. I had suspicions since we faced the Sword Circle members at the cathedral.”

“Then when you said you’d make us work hard in the forest, you weren’t anticipating this situation?”

“At that time, I was going to ask for your help because you said the Assassin Circle split from the Sword Circle and you knew them well. I never dreamed they weren’t simply a splinter group but a sister organization.”

Amon drew his sword with a bitter smile.

Sunhwa also drew her sword with a sad smile.

During this conversation, only the two of them seemed to have grasped the truth.

Sunwoo still only had a vague suspicion that the face behind that mask might be someone he knew.

Therefore, Sunwoo demanded an explanation from the two with passion.

“Explain what you’re talking about in a way I can understand!”

“It’s not that complicated.”

Sunhwa began to explain gently instead of Amon.

“If you think about it, isn’t it strange? The reason I was expelled from the Sword Circle.”

At first, he had simply thought it was because she was an informant from a treasonous family.

In a Confucian society, abandoning one’s family was worthy of condemnation.

Even if it was out of loyalty to the king.

But the fact that they expelled Sunhwa and then readmitted Sunwoo indicated that wasn’t a sufficient reason.

That question could be explained by the single fact that the masked man belonged to both the Sword Circle and the Assassin Circle.

“What if… he had been plotting treason from the beginning?”

“What if I happened to stumble upon the yodo at that time?”

“What if I almost exposed the plan they had been working on until now because of me?”

Then everything would make sense.

While preparing the yodos for the Assassin Circle to use, she discovered them, and the ‘traitor,’ in panic, expelled her.

Moreover, since she had already reported her family’s treason internally, keeping her in the Sword Circle posed a significant risk.

By the time Sunhwa finished explaining this much, Sunwoo seemed to have roughly realized the identity of the masked man.

“That’s impossible…”

Sunwoo muttered in shock.

He looked toward the masked man as if denying reality.

And then he said,

“That person is the Master? No! He would never do that!”

Because he was the most respected person in the Sword Circle, Sunwoo’s reaction was dramatic.

For Sunwoo’s sake, Amon nodded toward the masked man.

“The mask. It must be stuffy, so why don’t you take it off?”

“…”

After maintaining silence, the traitor eventually removed his mask obediently.

Beneath the mask was a face Sunwoo never wanted to see.

“Master…”

Now that he had seen the face, he could no longer deny it.

Sunwoo accepted reality calmly and pointed his sword.

The Master showed slight surprise at this.

“You’re recovering faster than I expected.”

“When disappointment is too great, you don’t even feel the shock.”

“I suppose that’s true.”

“Master, may I ask you one thing?”

“Ask away. Shouldn’t you clear your delusions before you start swinging your sword?”

“Thank you. Then, when did you start preparing for the treason?”

“Thirty years ago, when I was young.”

“What?”

“I too was a child from a wealthy family like you. And like your family, mine was exterminated for treason. Do you know the Jung family?”

It was a family both of them knew well.

However, unlike the Ju family, the Jung family’s extermination seemed somewhat unjust.

“Our family never plotted treason. We were simply interested in Western democracy and researched whether parts of it could be introduced to Joseon.”

Whether it was a parliamentary system or a constitutional monarchy.

The Jung family, impressed by the advantages of democracy, considered whether parts of it could be applied to Joseon.

But from the royal family’s perspective, they couldn’t accept such discussions that might weaken their power.

They declared the Jung family traitors, and thus the Sword Circle’s Master was left on the streets at a young age.

“It’s been 30 years since I abandoned the name Jung Moonju given to me by my parents. You both know well what it’s like to live a life thoroughly trampled by the state.”

So he prepared for treason.

He joined the Sword Circle and claimed the position of Master,

found the Assassin Circle and dominated them with his power,

and slowly prepared for treason by creating yodos.

“Sunhwa. When you picked up that yodo, my heart sank.”

With his startled heart, the Master expelled the siblings from the Sword Circle and ordered the Assassin Circle to assassinate them.

But Sunhwa, entranced by the yodo, was stronger than expected, and he could only hope they hadn’t noticed his plan.

Fortunately, as if heaven had blessed him, she never noticed the Master’s treason plot.

“So originally, I planned to spread yodos throughout Hanyang and use the ensuing chaos to start a revolution.”

But a few years ago, he met someone and completely revised his plan.

Amon interjected at this point.

“It was a demon from Goetia, wasn’t it?”

“You know well.”

“We have quite a deep grudge. Is it also thanks to him that the Assassin Circle’s assassins aren’t entranced by the yodos?”

The Master nodded.

“That demon and the other demons he brought knew how to handle ghosts.”

Thanks to them, he could operate the Assassin Circle with only the power of the yodos without being entranced.

With this development, the Master decided to revise his plan.

First, he injected an AI into one of the ministers to assassinate the Crown Prince.

The AI, which took over the minister’s body, manipulated the second and third princes to plot an assassination using the Hunt Legion.

But that operation, which seemed perfect, failed due to the variable named Amon, so he planned a frontal assault using AI as a backup plan.

“I predicted that the Crown Prince would weaken digital security and increase manpower to counter the AI.”

During that time, he inserted Assassin Circle assassins and disabled the security network from within.

And that led to the current situation.

“Have all your delusions been cleared now?”

“Not yet. One remains.”

“Ask away.”

“Then why did you readmit me to the Sword Circle? No matter how I think about it, there seems to be no reason.”

“You were a hostage.”

“What?”

“In case your sister noticed first and informed the court, you were a hostage as a precaution.”

“I see…”

Crack

The tips of the two swords Sunwoo held trembled slightly.

Sunwoo bit his lower lip firmly and took his stance.

“Now all my delusions have been cleared. You are not the Master I knew.”

“What do you mean? I haven’t been infected by AI…”

“Of course not. But it’s also true that you’re not the Master I knew.”

Clang.

Sunwoo spoke as he clashed his two swords together.

“If the person I remember is no longer there, then there’s no problem with cutting you down.”

“I’ll join you.”

Sunhwa placed her hand on her sword handle as if ready to draw it at any moment and stood beside him.

Amon looked at the two and nodded.

“Then I’ll leave this to you two.”

“What about you?”

Sunhwa asked without taking her eyes off the Master.

“We have two opponents to deal with.”

Amon pointed in one direction, indicating himself, Sonia, and Kathy.

In that direction, even after the internal security network had been breached, the military was still desperately holding off ghosts with field guns and blank shells.

“The AI core and the demon must be beyond there.”

“Leave this to us, then.”

Eventually, Amon left the siblings to deal with the Master and went to confront the demon and AI.

On the way there, Amon shared information with his lovers.

“I discussed something with Father Gregory before coming here. I have a pretty good idea about the demon and AI over there.”

“Really? I’ve been deliberately not looking into the future.”

“Don’t look until we arrive. Your threads need to play a role there.”

Kathy nodded.

Amon then made a request to Sonia as well.

“Can you fold your wings from now on?”

“Why?”

“We know the identity of those guys, right? We should use that to our advantage.”

Amon made eye contact with the two women and smiled subtly.

*

Beyond the wave of the dead.

There, a gaunt young man riding a donkey gazed at Gyeongbokgung Palace.

Without taking his eyes off the palace, the young man spoke to his smartphone.

“Is there nothing we can hack?”

[Nothing. They’ve blocked all devices that could be used as terminals.]

“Hmm… that’s unfortunate. That human called Mage could have been quite useful.”

[I didn’t expect someone who became a security director to fall so pathetically either. Humans are too ephemeral.]

“It’s because you were too careless, Descartes.”

[Me, careless? Carelessness is the exclusive property of demons like you, not AIs like me.]

“Didn’t you base your strategy on the premise that this human called Amon was an ordinary human? I warned you.”

[I only believe what I’ve seen and heard directly. What guarantee do I have that the information provided by demons like you isn’t false?]

“Are you forgetting that we’re allies?”

[Yes. I believe you’ll be friendly to me. But who knows? There might be beings that can deceive the sensory organs of demons like you.]

“No, if you set the premise like that, how are we supposed to have a conversation… sigh…”

The young man, referred to as a demon, started to object but stopped.

When he considered the AI’s identity, he understood why it spoke this way.

As the young man heaved a deep sigh, the donkey carrying him passed through the fishy-smelling specters.