Wei Yan called his assistant Kwok Pan Wei.
“Yes, professor. Did you call me.”
Kwok Pan Wei held his shivering hands together.
Now that [Melissia Masquerade] was just around the corner, Wei Yan was as sensitive as he had ever been. There were many things that had to be done, and Kwok Pan Wei had received his orders multiple times a day.
But this time, the atmosphere was rather strange.
“I have a few of my people inside the International Hunter Association. You’re aware of that, right?”
“Yes, professor. Of course…”
“One in human resources, one in the supplies, three in the frontlines and two from the commanding group… I have a lot of ears spread out in all places, and hear many stories.”
“…Yes.”
“But most of the reports I receive aren’t interesting. Stories of high-ups with stored belly fat, are always one or another.”
Kwok Pan Wei rolled his eyes because this time, Wei Yan’s explanation was a lot longer than usual. What was he trying to say?
“But… today was a little bit interesting.”
“…?”
“There had been an official letter secretly sent to Japan’s royal family.”
In surprise, Kwok Pan Wei widened his eyes.
Japan’s royal family?
If that was true, the letter would most likely have been in relation to Melissia Masquerade.
“Well, us demons aren’t perfect existences either, and the moment Prototype X became a failure, it also became impossible to fully connect our minds. So it’s possible for there to be a little rat from the association. I understand that.”
“…”
“An official document from the association to Japan? Possible. They could have had a clue regarding it, but sending it to Japan’s royal family, and not a random guild of Japan? I wouldn’t say that’s possible. The association and the royal family aren’t close enough to send greetings are they? In other words, there is a high chance that the association is aware of every hint of ink that is on our strategic document. Aigo, but you know what?”
“…”
Wei Yan’s expression crumpled like a devilish ghost, as Kwok Pan Wei felt something suppress his breath.
“I don’t know what that ‘letter’ is about.”
“…”
There was a gap in data and intel.
The association started preparing against the strategies of the undetectables, while they hadn’t even grasped the intention of the association.
“Go and find the rat. If you can’t find it, bring me a tail at least. If you can’t even find that, find traces.”
Due to the appearance of an unbelievable existence named X, things started going south, and the assistant professor had been slapped a few times. He had already known that Wei Yan had labelled him useless, but this time, he was swept past with a different anxiety.
“If you can’t even find traces… why am I keeping you?”
Kwok Pan Wei started moving.
Spending sleepless nights, he checked the entry records and looked through surveillance cameras of the surrounding areas. He browsed through security artifacts, and crazily searched through everything that could have caused a leak in information.
However, he was unable to find any traces of outsiders approaching, and that was when something popped up in his head.
“No way, this fucking…”
With a stiffened expression, he called his assistant Hashimoto. She knew of one of the most important secrets regarding Melissia Masquerade, because he himself had told her about it. When the short Japanese woman in her twenties entered the office, Kwok Pan Wei pushed her to the wall.
“Ahk! W, what are you doing?”
“How could you do this to me, bitch.”
“What…?”
“How many years did we work together, and yet you betrayed me like that? What tempted you huh. Did the association give you money? Did they promise you a better life? Or did they allow you to live without others finding out you were a demon? How dare you! How could you betray me!”
Kwok Pan Wei was furious like fire. Instead of the certainty of Hashimoto being the traitor, his rage stemmed from his anxiety and unease.
Thus, when the fear on Hashimoto’s face immediately vanished like an illusion, Kwok Pan Wei instead felt his emotions dying down.
‘Your command on the action, my lord.’
In front of the unexpected incident, the clone waited for Yu Jitae’s command and the response it received was ‘do what you want’.
Thinking that it was fine to kill him, the clone raised its hand in an attempt to crush Kwok Pan Wei’s neck. That was when Kwok Pan Wei’s expression turned strange.
“It was for real huh…”
“…”
“Hashimoto. S, since when were you… No, that’s not it. Now I can’t even believe that you’re the Hashimoto I know. Damn it…”
After murmuring that, he pulled his hand away from Hashimoto’s body. He then asked with a suggestive tone.
“…So what did the association propose in return for the information? Was it money, or maybe a new life?”
His eyes changed in an instant.
‘This guy.’
A faint smile appeared on the clone’s lips. This imperfect demon was trying to forsake the society of the demons.
“I am not Hashimoto. That young female demon is no longer in this world.”
“…”
Kwok Pan Wei’s expression changed several times in the span of a few seconds from surprise, to anger, and resignation. Suddenly, he started pushing Hashimoto into the storage, and the clone allowed it to happen.
“What are you doing?”
“L, let’s talk business.”
“What business. It’s funny enough that a damned demon is talking about the likes of a ‘new life’. What kind of use does a deadweight like you have.”
“E, even if I look like this, I’m an assistant professor.”
Kwok Pan Wei quickly changed his attitude.
“I met him at the same study group as a senior and junior at Beijing. I stayed under Wei Yan and wagged my tail for over 10 years. You wouldn’t know since you’re not Hashimoto, but I barked when he told me to, and buried something whenever I was told to. There are few things that are done behind the curtains that I am not aware of.”
Within his desperate expression was an undisguisable trace of servility.
“I’m tired of crawling like a lowly dog in a place where I could lose my life any day. As long as I can keep my life, I would even gladly enter the underground prison of the association. Please tell them nicely. Please…”
The situation was unfolding in a funny manner. The clone closed its eyes, and thought to itself since its lord had left things to its own decision.
If this was the sixth iteration and the Melissia Masquerade was to end like a child’s play, and if he wanted to watch Wei Yan make a fool of himself by receiving public denouncement on the TV, the life of this imperfect demon in front might have continued a little bit longer.
Yu Jitae’s original plan had been to make Wei Yan lose everything related to the media which he believed in the most.
However, the seventh iteration was different.
“You seem to have no idea on how things are going right now.”
“…!”
“I do not understand why Wei Yan is keeping you as a watchdog. Your vision is limited; you can’t read the mood, and you’re a coward.”
Kwok Pan Wei’s eyes shot wide open from the clone’s words. Screaming out, “You bitch!”, he ran up in an attempt to strangle the clone.
It was in vain, as the clone held Kwok Pan Wei’s neck instead and crashed it into the storage wall.
Kung!
A strong grip, unthinkable to be from such a thin wrist, suppressed Kwok Pan Wei’s breath. In the seventh iteration, Melissia Masquerade was turning out to be way too big of a scene. There was no room for a mere watchdog in a place like that.
“At least a dog is loyal to its owner…”
The thick neck was crushed in an instant.
*
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While a small change beneath the waters was slowly gaining size, a slightly bigger change was starting to happen under the heavens.
“Royal Family Task Force… haha, what brings such esteemed people like you here?”
Japan’s CHC (Central Hunter Committee) requested to take part in special protection during the raid on Melissia Masquerade.
It meant that half of the forces that were meant to protect the royal family, would be protecting the cadets instead. Naturally, it was a request worth kneeling down for, but after realising that something strange was happening in the event, the principal of Lair Ha Sukmoo was about to turn their offer down.
If not for an urgent call through the VVIP line from the association, Ha Sukmoo would have rejected their offer, while cancelling the Melissia Masquerade itself altogether.
However, Lair was systematically under the command of the International Hunter Association, and due to the structure, Ha Sukmoo had no choice but to stay away from the matter.
That was how superhumans of the royal family ended up protecting the cadets of Lair.
Meanwhile, Yu Jitae took Yu Bom outside.
Despite his sudden call, Bom didn’t ask him the destination or reason and proceeded to change her hair colour and face. Since she acted as if she perfectly knew what they were going to do, there was no need for him to bother explaining it.
“A letter of recommendation is it?”
“Can you write me one?”
Yu Jitae requested for a letter of recommendation from BM.
“This is a debt okay. Please pay me back with the monthly rent fee of those guys as well.”
“Right. Got it.”
BM readily wrote him a letter of recommendation.
The two of them headed straight to the office of Japan’s Royal Family Task Force, and looked for a woman in her late thirties at the underground command centre.
“…”
World superhuman rank of 13.
The Sword of the Royal Family, Minamoto Ai, stared at the two with an acute observatory glance.
“I’m Minamoto. You guys are?”
“Demon hunter.”
“Hello, I’m the assistant.”
Yu Jitae and Bom replied, as Minamoto gave a frown.
“Fuck, are you here to have a joke with me? Give me name, affiliation, relationship with BM, and your reason for coming here!”
Since they hated being treated differently for being women, female soldiers that had survived for a long time in the battlefield tended to have tones that were harsher than men.
She was an example of that.
Yu Jitae stared deeply at Ai with a reminiscing light.
In the third and the fourth iterations, she had been Yu Jitae’s colleague. Especially in the fourth iteration where Yu Jitae had been a member of the Grand Natural Society, she had respected and followed him from behind.
Back then, he had spent a fairly long time with Myung Yongha, as well as other members of GNS including Minamoto.
Of course, that was all in the past.
“Affiliation is the association. You should know since you’ve seen BM’s letter but I came because there was something to tell you in secret.”
“…”
Minamoto gave a frown from the lack of information, but didn’t delve in deep after hearing the word ‘association’. The association had a counterpart in the shadows that was as huge as what was shown on the outside.
“Okay. Let’s hear the reason at least.”
“There’s something to say regarding Melissia Masquerade.”
“That’s to be expected considering you’re from the association. What is it.”
“‘Ysayle Khalifa’ and ‘Noah’ will be coming.”
A crack appeared on Minamoto’s indifferent expression.
Disaster-ranked demon; Demon Engineer Ysayle Khalifa.
Catastrophe-ranked demon; Seat of Deepest Desire, Noah.
They were names which were impossible to not know, as a soldier that had participated in the East-Asian Great War.
“…What?”
“The source is my own eyes. If you can’t believe it, I’ll just go back.”
“Wait.”
In a situation like this, there was only one choice for soldiers to take. They would stay in doubt, while still listening to the information.
“Go on.”
“The undetectables will invest 20% of their military power into Melissia Masquerade. Their objective is to offer 700 selected high-achieving cadets as sacrifices in order to create 100 new demons. In that process, Wei Yan who would become the owner of the 100 will pass the test given by the abyss and rise to a Seat.”
A nonsensical story began.
“…And then.”
“Since the masquerade is a dungeon, it is completely cut off from the outside. It is the best place for the demons to carry out their plan, and we can massacre all of them there. As long as it continues like this, that is.”
“If the scale grows bigger, the event itself will be cancelled so that’s why you looked for me 1 on 1?”
“Yeah.”
The masquerade was like a net; a place that gathered all the scattered demons to one place.
“…”
Stuck in between, Minamoto Ai had no choice but to attend whether she wanted to or not.
“Bring rankers that you can believe and trust, that can act in private. If you go alone, you’ll die for sure.”
His words were attacking her pride as a ranker.
“…You don’t know until you try. It’s different now from during the Great War.”
Yu Jitae shook his head.
It was still the same.
Unfortunately, there were only around 3 people amongst the rankers of the world that could fight with a catastrophe-ranked demon 1 on 1. However, none of them could be assured of their victory against them.
The reason why the demons stayed undercover despite that is because of the difference in numbers. Throughout the entire world, there were around 2 million full-time superhuman soldiers, but there were only a bit more than a thousand demon soldiers.
“There’s no need to worry. I’ll kill the catastrophe-rank myself.”
“Whaat? Haha…”
Minamoto grinned as if she found it ridiculous.
Soon, a strand of mana stealthily left her body. It was an extremely secretive and delicate manipulation that tried to scan through Yu Jitae, but the Regresor’s body rejected her mana.
When her mana was resisted from the front, the reactive force struck her heart, and Minamoto let out a gasp.
Playfulness disappeared from her expression.
“…Was it perhaps you that encouraged the association to move?”
“Yeah.”
“How absurd… what’s your objective?’
“Objective?”
“Well, let’s say you’re that great yourself. So why are you telling me this, when you can do it by yourself.”
He couldn’t do that.
[The planet [Earth] has entered the abnormal state [Apocalypse].]
Those were the words that had revisited him every single time the world rewound itself.
Strictly speaking, the cause of the world’s timeline going back, was not because of the death of the dragons.
When the baby dragons die, the adult dragons would come attacking and wreak havoc, which would in return result in the apocalypse of the human race. And when the human race is near extinct, the world would rewind itself back in time.
What Yu Jitae pursued the most in the seventh iteration wasn’t killing demons. A higher priority on his list was the happiness of the dragons.
The Regressor was aware of himself being targeted to pleasure of slaughter every time he killed demons.
The longer he held onto a sword, the further daily lives would be, which would serve to be a problem. Now that he was barely managing to reach ‘daily lives’, it became an aspect that must never slip out from his fingers.
He would shoulder everything related to the dragons, but the humans also had to partake in stopping the Apocalypse. And in order to share the burden, the rankers had to stay alive, since they were the ones that could shoulder the real weight.
This was the reason behind the Regressor’s plan for Melissia Masquerade.
“I can’t have you die.”
Oblivious to Yu Jitae’s inner thoughts, Minamoto frowned, before replying with a giggle.
“That’s pretty straightforward considering it’s our first meeting… you must be into older ladies with good bodies?”
“…I don’t think so?”
It was Bom that replied instead.
“…”
“…”
The two remained silent for a short while, and Bom was wearing the same strange yet indifferent expression as always.
“In any case, I understand the situation. Let’s meet here again at this time tomorrow. I’ll bring some people.”
That marked the end to their conversation.
*
Next day, she returned with two other people – two rankers who were unbound from international relations, who could be requested in private.
“To think that things would turn out like this…”
The man wearing a pair of sunglasses – BM – grumbled while swallowing vodka. Behind him came the voice of an old lady.
“Ehng. How would a granny with trouble walking like me be helpful…”
“Like I said, old hag, just listen at least okay?”
“You little girl. Are you sure you weren’t deceived?”
“Who do you think I am!”
An old lady with a gentle face, that appeared to be in her 80’s walked in. She was an Austronesian person with blanched hair, a bent back, and a limping leg that required the support of a stick.
“Who are you? Of course you’re nothing but an innocent young lady. You only know how to use your fists. Didn’t I tell you countless times that you’re too easily tricked, and that you need to filter what men say to you?”
“Ahh, like I said, that’s not it okay?”
Yu Jitae knew this old woman.
She was a member of the Grand Natural Society, who had been ranked 6th worldwide during the East-Asian Great War in the past. Being a user of the rare telekinesis type of blessing, she had been known as the best manipulator of that blessing in the past.
“Nice to meet you, Li Hwa.”
There was a flicker in the old lady’s eyes.
Due to a heavy injury during the Great War, her face had changed greatly. She was reported to have gone missing after the end of the war, and there were hardly any people that recognised her these days.
“Ai. Are you into bad men?”
“I’m not okay?”
“Alright… At least he doesn’t seem like a random con artist. Nice to meet you. Let’s hear what you have in store for us.”
Bom greeted her with a little nod, as the old lady sat next to BM with a gentle smile.
“How is it. Is that enough?”
Minamoto asked.
“Yeah.”
Having BM, Li Hwa and Minamoto was enough.
“Let’s start on the next topic.”