When I opened my eyes again, a great deal of time had already passed.
Dragging myself out of the columbarium with a throbbing headache, I found that evening had already fallen.
Even after I tried to retrace what had happened to me, every memory remained blurred.
So I had no choice but to buy a canned coffee from a vending machine, sit down on a nearby bench, tilt my head back, close my eyes, and sort out my thoughts.
"First of all... this isn't a dream, right?"
No, it couldn't be.
There was no way a dream could feel that vivid.
And even if it had been a dream, one thing was certain: something had happened to me.
My body was proof of that above all else.
"My condition is too good. No, that's not even enough to describe it. It feels like I've been born again."
My body felt like it might burst.
Not in a bad way, but in a good one.
It was as if strength no longer obeyed my control and fresh blood was coursing cleanly through my entire body.
The stress and chronic fatigue I had built up over time had vanished in one blow, and when I realized it, even my ruined eyesight had returned to better than it had been before it worsened.
"What, did I get injected with super-soldier serum or something, like Captain America?"
It sounded absurd, but honestly, the power I felt made even that expression far too weak.
I felt like I could beat to death dozens of super soldiers if they came at me.
But as I calmly felt my changed body, I could tell this phenomenon was not some scientific product like a serum.
On the contrary.
It belonged to the realm of fantasy.
It was the work of supernatural power.
"I can feel something flowing inside my body. Is this like the internal energy from martial arts novels?"
It wasn't limited to my body alone.
I could feel the [qi] flowing through the entire world with startling clarity.
It felt as if my very existence had expanded.
And as I observed that, I could tell that the force I now held was so vast it could not even be compared to the people around me.
The source of it was something sleeping inside me.
"[Sinner, stand before your karma.]"
As if it were part of me.
A decree flowing out so naturally.
At the same time, something was released—no, an Authority.
Then the energy within my body, a portion of my vital force, was consumed, and in my hand appeared the judicial baton that had blown my professor's head apart.
And I instinctively understood how to use it.
More than that, I understood how to use the Authority itself.
"That's strange. It's definitely some kind of superpower I've never used before, but it feels so familiar. Like I was born with it..."
The Authority that would later be named by the Greenwich Wise Men's Council as [Judgment of the Sinner] or [Tyrfing].
The Authority that condemned sinners and evildoers.
The blade of righteous fury that had finally opened its eyes.
"Honestly, I've got a mountain of questions."
I wasn't particularly interested.
What mattered to me now was only what I could do with this power.
"Did they say he was someone who lived outside the law?"
They had said that if I kept digging into my father's death, I would eventually end up in danger too.
Then before long, they would come looking for me.
"Fine. Let's see that pretty face of yours."
You call yourself something that lives outside the law?
Then I'll pry open that skull and teach you just how merciful that law was.
The hidden side of society, unknown to ordinary people.
Magic, martial arts.
Shamanism and internal energy.
Even psychic powers.
In this world, there exists a society of people who live carrying such supernatural abilities.
Like light and shadow, it is inseparably tied to the society above ground, yet at the same time a group that can never truly mix with it.
And this was no different in Korea.
There were those who managed and protected the nation while dealing with such people.
Like the relationship between the surface and the underworld, they were familiar to ordinary people, yet distant all the same.
The National Intelligence Service was the one in charge.
"Ugh, I really should just quit."
"Can you even quit?"
"Team Leader, don't you know FIRE is all the rage these days? If you've got money, what can't you do?"
"You don't have that money."
"Damn it!"
Agents Kang Chan and Eun-bin, who worked at the NIS, were walking down its corridor today as well, talking about the rotten 3D working conditions.
Only their expressions were quite different.
Kang Chan, already a team leader with years of experience behind him, wore a detached look, while Eun-bin alone grumbled with a face like she had bitten into shit.
"Why the hell are there so many bastard troublemakers?"
The NIS's role was not actually all that different from what ordinary people knew.
Protecting the nation.
That was what they did—devoting themselves to the country in ways they could never speak of to others, from darker places.
Only, the hidden world of supernatural abilities was included in that secrecy.
But that wasn't all they did.
There was a hard rule among European magicians called the principle of concealment.
They also worked to ensure the existence of supernatural powers never surfaced into the light.
"Haa, damn secrecy. We're the only ones grinding ourselves into the dirt. The bastards running wild as they please don't seem to care at all."
The reason supernatural existence could not be revealed to the world was not merely to maintain social order.
That was, in fact, a trivial matter.
The real reason was to prevent the revival of the age of myth.
The power of the supernatural was not something that simply appeared naturally; it was born from people's beliefs.
And if that belief crossed a critical threshold, if everyone in the world became aware of supernatural existence, then all kinds of anomalous phenomena would run rampant and, quite literally, mythology itself would descend upon the world again. That was what they called the revival of the age of myth.
It was, in effect, one of humanity's extinction scenarios.
Even the supernatural phenomena occurring now were often more than humans could handle.
If those things were born all at once, in overwhelming numbers, then this was no joke—humanity might truly go extinct.
"Well, since the root of all this is still human beings, there are plenty of people who say extinction is impossible."
"But civilization would definitely collapse."
That was why the NIS worked hard to control and punish shamans in order to maintain secrecy.
In some cases, they even eliminated them.
But no matter how capable the NIS was, covering the entire territory of Korea was no easy task.
On top of that, the NIS was currently dealing with two bad developments at once, leaving them desperately short on manpower and time.
"A king was born in Japan, so they'd be busy enough over there already..."
"The seventh Devil King to appear after the Sword King of Italy."
"There are plenty of other countries. Why Japan, of all places?"
In Europe, they were called Campione.
In China, they were called Rakshasa Kings.
In America, they were called Champions.
Godslayers.
Devil Kings.
That was the title given to those who killed gods in the midst of a nation-level supernatural disaster, a divine descent.
They were beings whose very existence was no exaggeration to call yet another nation-level supernatural phenomenon.
That was because those who succeeded in godslaying were reborn as Godslayers at the end of a ritual known as the Dark Birth Ceremony.
They usurped the Authority of the god they had slain and ruled over the supernatural world as kings.
"But are Godslayers really that monstrous? Honestly, that Japanese king, that high school kid, looks like a total fluke to me."
"A human kills a god with nothing but their bare hands. By your standards, none of the Seven Kings would count as anything but a fluke. That's how impossible killing a god is supposed to be."
"But they still killed one, didn't they?"
"That's why they're also called incarnations of miracles."
Godslayers were indeed monsters.
After the Dark Birth Ceremony ended, the body they were born into had already transcended the human category.
Through the ritual, they touched the Language of Babel, the root of all languages, and acquired the language of a thousand tongues, allowing them to speak any country's language at native level after only one or two hours of listening.
Their flesh also broke past its limits, and with pure physical ability alone they could rival even a Great Knight.
And their talent exploded.
No matter how ordinary a criminal they had been before becoming a Godslayer, once awakened, they would possess talent on the same level as most geniuses.
And if they had already possessed high talent to begin with, then their level would reach a realm that could hardly be called anything less than supernatural.
And then there was the most important part.
"The Authority of a god."
The power of a god beyond the reach of human supernatural abilities.
That was why they were called kings.
"Human magic barely works on gods. Even if it does, it only works in a very limited way, and at enormous cost."
"But the Authorities seized by Godslayers are different. They're the only means by which a human can stand on equal footing with a god."
Their power was transcendent as well.
Well, that varied by Authority.
But they were not called Authorities for nothing.
Of course, these Godslayers, these Devil Kings, exerted enormous influence beyond the supernatural world and into the surface world as well.
That was because, by the standards of the supernatural world, they were living nuclear warheads.
And one of those Devil Kings had been born in a neighboring country.
Worse, it was a neighboring country with which relations were not exactly good.
For the NIS, whose duty was to safeguard the nation's security, this was a top-level emergency.
But that still wasn't the end of it.
There were those who poured oil on top of that emergency.
Figures from Korea's political and business circles.
They were moving quickly in response to the birth of the Japanese king.
"Korea has always had a high proportion of shamans working freelance."
"Well, the NIS doesn't exactly have a great image. A lot of people don't like being restrained."
But even they could not be free of the principle of concealment.
The NIS had its eyes wide open.
And even if the NIS's hand could not reach them, the moment they crossed the line, the central authority overseeing the entire supernatural world—the Greenwich Wise Men's Council—would dispatch an executioner.
At that point, they were as good as dead.
No matter how fierce a Great Knight or Great Witch they were, none of them could survive the Greenwich executioners.
In the end, they could not use supernatural powers and had to live and work as ordinary people...
But would a supernatural ability user really live quietly like that?
A tiny minority truly did spend their lives in silence, pursuing only their own research and training.
Most did not.
In the end, there were only three routes.
Join the NIS.
Turn criminal, or become a dark sorcerer.
Or...
"Become a servant for the people above them."
Even if the supernatural world was hidden, those in positions high enough to know about it all understood.
Just look at Europe—most of the old families with any real history were all involved in this line of work.
Korea did not have families as old or as large as Europe's, given its history, but instead businessmen and politicians used these people as private soldiers.
"They get paid, and the cleanup is handled for them. What's not to like?"
"From what I've heard, they also get supplied with grimoires and magical tools from Europe."
"We've got our own side locked down tight, so I guess they're going after European imports."
"The real stuff is probably hidden at the national level over there too, so what they get is probably nothing special, but still..."
"Even that would be enough to be grateful for. In our line of work, gear matters a lot."
Of course, there was a price.
Once you became a private soldier, you had to fight your master's enemies.
The struggles between corporations or politicians were not limited to what was visible on the surface.
In the darkness, these unseen blades were colliding with one another.
That was why they wanted more shamans, and better ones.
"The problem is that the disgusting cleanup is our job..."
"They all insist it wasn't their fault, so there's nothing we can do. Secrecy comes first, so we have no choice but to run."
"Can't we just crush them all?! We're honestly the strongest in Korea!"
"If it were up to me, I'd like to do exactly that."
But what could they do?
Unlike them, those people had one foot in both the underworld and the surface world.
If they cut them down without mercy, the backlash would be enormous.
They were managing things somehow, but now those same people were moving in response to the birth of the Japanese king.
They probably thought Korea had no chance against a king.
Sadly, that wasn't exactly wrong.
The problem was that in the process, they were causing a great deal of unrest inside the country.
A fair number of Japanese figures had also entered Korea.
They probably wanted to expand their influence in advance, knowing they would be riding high soon enough.
Apparently, Japan itself was just as chaotic over the king's birth.
"And we're the ones dying for it."
"Damn it..."
"The director says he'll do what he can, so let's just hold out for now."
"What can the NIS director do when the neighbor has loaded a nuclear warhead?"
"I just hope there won't be any civilian casualties..."
"Yeah."
Not only because of the principle of concealment.
Using supernatural powers to harm ordinary people was a serious crime.
And yet many still believed themselves to be beings outside the law.
If they manipulated traces through supernatural means, even the NIS would have trouble identifying them easily.
There were even people who handled all kinds of filthy work this way.
So even if they tried to catch them, it was not easy.
However...
Thud!!
"You entered my home without permission. Trespassing."
"Y-you... don't tell me you were a shaman?!"
"Damn it! This wasn't supposed to—Aaaagh!!"
They did not know.
Thud!!
"You were carrying a weapon, so that's aggravated trespassing."
The man swung his judicial baton and mercilessly burst open a person's skull.
The crime they had failed to suppress had already awakened something that should never have been awakened.
"And this makes it aggravated assault—no, attempted murder. Well, it's still only an attempt, so maybe you'll rot in prison for a dozen years before crawling out?"
The baton soon blazed with light and transformed into a sword of radiance.
The man.
The king newly born into the world tightened his grip on the sword and said,
"But in my courtroom, that's not how it works."
Judgment.
"All of you are sentenced to death."