novelThe one who dominates the Hand of Gold (3)
| ← Ch.066 | Ch.068 → |
Translator: miraclerifle
"You want to meet with them to tell them something?"
Yoo Jaeha frowned after hearing Ju-Heon say that.
"You're not planning to ask them for their precious daughter, right?"
"Excuse me?!"
Irene was the one who was shocked after hearing that. But Yoo Jaeha just started to whistle and set the mood.
"Wow, you're going to have such a beauty as your wife? I'm so jealous, ah! As your first employee, I get special perks in not having to give you a monetary gift to celebrate!"
"W, wait a minute. Excuse me!"
Ju-Heon started to mess with Irene more after seeing her being flustered.
"Why are you so embarrassed? You hugged me with your naked body not too long ago."
Irene, who recalled what happened at the tomb, seemed to have lost her mind.
"I, I'm sorry if you found it to be unpleasant! I wasn't thinking straight when I did that!"
'Why would it have been unpleasant?'
Honestly speaking, someone at Irene's level was difficult to handle for even an artifactphile like Ju-Heon. It would be one thing if he was in his sick 38 years old body, but he was currently a very healthy 23 years old man.
Ju-Heon chuckled.
"I'm joking. Please don't be so gullible. It'll lead you to a lot of trouble in the future."
Irene blanked out for a moment after hearing that he was joking.
In fact, she felt a bit disappointed.
She couldn't tell why she felt that way.
Ju-Heon received a text at that moment.
[Hey, you dull pumpkin! You're not supposed to say that it is a joke at that moment!??]
Yoo Jaeha must have been so frustrated to the point that he sent Ju-Heon an angry text.
Ju-Heon started to frown.
'I'm not supposed to say it's a joke?'
[Then you want me to seduce her on purpose?]
Yoo Jaeha seemed nervous after seeing that response.
[Huh? You're not interested in Irene?]
[She is pretty. ]
It seemed as if his subordinate wanted to swear after hearing that.
[Damn it, you damn artifactphile! Seduce her even if you don't like her! What are you going to do with that handsome face of yours?! Let's just gobble up the Holten family's wealth!]
Ju-Heon just scoffed.
'Damn it, you damn wedding scammer bastard.
[Enough. I've almost lost my life about twenty times doing things like that. ]
[What?! What the f*ck are you going around doing?!]
'What am I doing?
I just scammed some people back in the days. ' He had approached women on purpose to take their artifacts. There were professors, wealthy heiresses, Hollywood actresses, and even princesses on that list.
Although it was terrible, what could he do?
It was Chairman Kwon's orders and his job.
However, they say that the problems from foolish infatuations are the dirtiest in the world. That was why Ju-Heon had faced all sorts of terrible things as revenge.
Because of that...
'I won't make any women problems anymore. I won't tie myself to the Holten family like that either. '
The Holten household was quite amazing and Inspector Kim who has been asking him for a niece or nephew would be very happy, but Ju-Heon had no plans on dating or getting married.
He didn't even have enough time to gather all the artifacts he wanted and firm his foundation!
'A business relationship with the Holten household is good enough. '
That was why Ju-Heon said the following to Irene.
"Then please don't hug just anyone while you are naked from now on. That can be dangerous."
That seemed to have made Irene recall that moment as she quietly squealed.
"I'm sorry! And please keep that story a secret to my family!"
"Excuse me?"
Irene put her hand over her face.
She was certain that her religious parents would come charging in with a marriage license if they learned about that.
That was why Irene was in despair.
'Oh no, I might end up causing Mr. Ju-Heon harm. '
However, the plane was flying toward New York regardless of how Irene was feeling.
"Ho, now what is this?"
Richard gasped in disbelief while on the video call. It was because there was something weird going on on the other side of the screen.
Keira should have been on the screen.
Yes, he checked and it was supposed to be that way.
'Why is there an infant?'
Richard could not ask the question in shock. However, the clothes the baby was wearing was Keira's military uniform. Of course, it was too big so it could not really be called clothes for the baby.
"Umm, are you really General Keira?"
[Waaaaaaah. ]
"Umm, General-nim."
[Waaaaaaaaaah?]
'...... There's no way we can talk like this. '
Richard sighed and tried to hang up. He didn't know what was going on, but it looked as if Keira's artifact's risk had activated again.
'I think General Keira said she had Sekhmet's Artifact. '
The Egyptian Sekhmet was a goddess of destruction who was sent to the world to punish people. She was the transformed appearance of Hathor, the goddess of love and beauty.
Maybe that was the reason.
'General Keira's risk was said to be a transformation. '
The shape of her body would change.
It was fine up to that point, but the scary part was that even she did not know what she would transform into. He's heard that she's transformed into animals, inanimate objects such as trees, furniture, dolls, and even underwear and a worm!
The time it took to return to her original appearance was different each time as well. She would remain in that appearance for months if it was serious. That was why this was quite a difficult artifact to handle.
However...
'This is driving me crazy. She turned into a baby this time......... '
Richard sighed.
"I understand. I don't think we can communicate right now so I will call again next time."
The baby on the other side of the screen started to slam down on the table in response.
[Waaaaaaah! Waaaaaaaah! Waaaah!! Waaaah!!]
The baby seemed quite angry.
But it only put Richard in an awkward situation.
'Damn it, so what if you are angry?!
We can't discuss anything if we can't understand each other!
A frustrated Keira huffed before sending a message through her cellphone. He could tell how angry she was based on the message.
[Are you luuking down on me because I'm a baby?! I may be a bwaby, but I cwan still commoonicate!]
Richard sighed while looking at the typo-filled message.
Could this really be called communicating?
"Okay fine. But it's not like you can go outside looking like that."
That was indeed the case. Although Richard coincidentally saw her like this, only a few people knew about Keira's risk.
Keira who made it so even most of her subordinates could not see her right now was shaking.
'Damn it. I can't let people know about this risk. '
But it should be okay. Only people she could trust knew about this risk and none of the enemies knew.
[Anywuay, we are invwestiguading the sweet potato we fwound. Analysus used will find out everything. You can luuk fward to it. (Anyway, we are investigating the sweet potato we found. We are using the analysis-type artifacts so we should be able to get some information on that bastard. You can look forward to it. )]
It was still a messy combination of letters, but Richard laughed as he understood what she was trying to say.
"Oh, that's one of the few good news I've heard lately."
Keira's personal secretary came into the room as if to respond to that statement.
[General-nim! Something bad has happened!]
[Waaah? (What is it?)]
[Umm, we urgently analyzed the sweet potato artifact as you ordered!]
[Waaaah!! Waaaaaaaahh! (Good. What are the results?!)]
Keira looked toward her subordinate with anticipation. She had thought that they would be able to use a reverse tracking artifact to gather information on Ju-Heon.
However...
[That...... my apologies! The entire investigation team ended up fainting because of an unknown deadly gas! I'm sorry but I don't think it is possible to analyze it!]
[Waaaaaaaaaaaaah?!]
Richard put his hand on his forehead as he listened.
'Aigoo. Is it really okay to work together with this woman?'
"Based on the file you gave me, it looks as if the Holten household is involved in this situation?"
They had naturally found out the Holten household's involvement after investigating the airport. Ju-Heon had expected as much, as they would have found out about it as long as they were not idiots.
However...
"The Holten household seems to be colluding with Seo Ju-Heon. Do you think the Holtens may be his sponsor?"
They had learned that Seo Ju-Heon was the one who had been in the tomb and that he was with some woman.
'It was that way at the auction house as well. It's likely that he was with Irene Holten, but... '
However, it made no sense that the Holtens were working with Ju-Heon.
There was a simple reason for it.
'The Holtens are Catholic and treat artifacts as the devil. '
They had tried to get the Holtens to join Pandora many times, but they were shut down each time.
Keira responded by text.
[No chwance they are hees spwonsor. But bwased on wuat I've heard, only bwad dings happen to those around the Hulten waomen. (No chance they are his sponsor. But based on what I've heard, only bad things happen to those around the Holten woman). ]
"Do you think it is the power of an artifact?"
[The chwances are high but I wunt it if it is an artwifact that can spwead daster. (The chances are high. But I want it if it is an artifact that can spread disaster). ]
Richard chuckled at her statement.
"I told you to leave them to me. Today happens to be that day."
[Nwo that I tink abuat it, yesterday was d-day. Will it bue okay? (Now that I think about it, yesterday was d-day. Will it be okay?)]
"Yes ma'am. No matter how they try to fly or crawl, they are simple civilians in the face of power."
Richard started to smile.
He had a certain way to tie Ju-Heon's hands and feet.
As expected, Ju-Heon's group was frowning once they arrived at the airport.
"This is an investigation! Nobody can leave the airport until the search is completed!"
They were currently at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. It was because the Holten private plane was a giant jet and not a small plane, so the plane was maintained at the airport.
That much was fine.
However...
"We found an artifact user!"
"Get them!"
"Let go of me! You bastard!"
They saw some pests that had shut down the airport and were using search-type artifacts. They were using artifacts to search long distances at once. Anyone in possession of artifacts who were noticed by those artifacts were dragged away.
Most of the soldiers were TSOF while there were people wearing uniforms they had never seen before going around the airport as well.
They seemed to be Pandora soldiers.
Of course, the news was saying the following about this situation.
[There was a ~ Join Declaration for Pandora ~ at the G20 Summit Meeting in Paris yesterday. ]
[Artifacts are a social evil at the level of nuclear weapons, a pandora's box that will bring chaos into the world. That is why we are forbidding civilians from approaching tombs or owning or selling artifacts. ]
[All tombs and artifacts will now be handled by ~ Pandora ~, the international tomb administration organization, and anyone in possession of artifacts will be arrested without exception and the artifacts will be confiscated immediately... ]
[Anyone who opposes will be labeled a terrorist. Regardless of their nationality, they will be punished in the country where the incident has happened. ]
In short, there were now restrictions and suppression of artifact ownership throughout the world. Many artifact users were discovered and ruthlessly arrested as if the soldiers had been waiting for this moment.
Ju-Heon also received the following message.
[The eyes of the wide-area search have discovered your artifacts. ]
[Artifact users are rushing over. ]
'Damn it, even though I have been hiding the artifacts' auras?' The fact that they were discovered probably meant that they were using a high-grade search-type artifact.
The news on Yoo Jaeha's tablet continued as that happened.
[Tombs and artifacts will be safely investigated by the best excavation team that Pandora will create... ]
[Pandora will use the artifacts for the safety of the people. ]
[These new regulations are being enforced world-wide since the Joint Declaration for Pandora, so we ask for everyone's cooperation. ]
Yoo Jaeha shouted after seeing people being dragged out of the airport.
"What do we do? They're going to take all of our artifacts and treat us as terrorists at this rate!"
Ju-Heon then started to scoff.
These bastards had come earlier than he had expected, but they really were annoying.
Based on this broadcast, nobody other than people Pandora dictates could even touch an artifact or go into a tomb.
'It didn't matter in the past since I was under Chairman Kwon who was part of Pandora, but... '
Yoo Jaeha looked around and started to grind his teeth.
"Damn it, what do we do? If it is like this... !"
Ju-Heon sighed at that moment.
"I have no choice if it is like this."
"Excuse me?"
"Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. We can't just sit back and let them do as they please."
Both Yoo Jaeha and Irene gasped.
"Excuse me? But how can a person go up against an organization made up of multiple countries... !"
Ju-Heon smiled and grabbed Irene's hand instead of responding.
"Shouldn't we properly test out the precious artifact we just gained?"
It was time to test the Monarch of Destitution's artifact as Ju-Heon mentioned.
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