Chapter 19. Majesty of Madness (2)
“Hahahahaha! Artifacts are the best!”
Yoo Jaeha grabbed his forehead at Seo Jooheon's madness.
He had never met anyone who liked Artifacts this much.
Different personality or not... I guess Seo Jooheon is still Seo Jooheon in every world.
He stared at Jooheon in disbelief.
At this rate, the man really was going to cause a full-scale disaster.
“Hey, calm down a little. Majesty might be watching us!”
“Hahahaha! Invasions and looting are the best!”
Fuck, he's not even listening!
Jooheon stood in the middle of the wine-colored plaza, threw his head back, and laughed loudly.
“What? In my world, I can't even dream about stealing Artifacts because of the Artifact Laws I made.”
Don't use this place to satisfy your suppressed desires!
But Jooheon didn't care.
He kicked one of the Artifacts lying on the ground into the air.
[Pan's Flute (A-Grade)]
“Pan's Flute.”
Jooheon examined it.
“They say playing it drives animals and humans insane.”
He looked around.
“But everyone here is already crazy. How much crazier can they get?”
He raised it toward his mouth.
Majesty Yoo Jaeha hurriedly stopped him.
“Don't blow some unidentified Artifact without checking it first, idiot.”
“Coward.”
Jooheon eventually shoved the flute into his pocket.
Then he noticed a white feather drifting through the wind.
The edges were blackened as if scorched by fire.
[Icarus's Feather (B-Grade)]
“Icarus's Feather...”
Jooheon picked it up.
“An Artifact that lets you fly for a short time?”
Cup-Ramen Jaeha immediately commented.
[You'll fall.]
Jooheon whistled and pocketed the feather anyway.
He was about to turn away when Rope returned with something in its mouth.
A golden coin.
Its front was gold.
Its back was black.
“...What's this?”
Jooheon turned it over.
“Looks like an Artifact.”
Cup-Ramen Jaeha interrupted.
[Isn't that just a piece of trash?]
The moment Jooheon pocketed it, Majesty Jaeha flinched.
“Throw that away!”
“Why? What is it?”
“I've seen those in other worlds.”
Jaeha stared at the coin.
“Other Majesties carried them.”
“Then it's probably good.”
“No.”
Jaeha's expression became serious.
“That's used for gambling.”
“The people who used it and lost were ruined.”
“The ones who won became insanely rich.”
Jooheon's eyes lit up.
“Oh?”
“Then obviously I'm keeping it.”
“I just said you could be ruined!”
Jooheon completely ignored him and stuffed even the smallest Artifact fragments into the inside pockets of his coat.
Soon, his coat was practically covered in dangling Artifacts.
Majesty Jaeha stared at him in disgust.
“Are you really Majesty?”
“Why are you collecting even the garbage?”
Jooheon snorted.
“Hey.”
“Tomb raiding starts with collecting junk.”
“The idiots who only chase luxury goods don't survive long.”
Of everything he'd collected, the coin seemed to interest him the most.
He rolled it between his fingers.
“Anyway.”
He inspected the engraving.
“If this depicts the Goddess of Fortune, then it's Fortuna's Coin, right?”
“The one that brings luck?”
“Well... yes.”
“Then I should use what I picked up right away.”
Jooheon smiled.
“That's my philosophy.”
“What?”
Jaeha's face paled.
“Don't tell me you're throwing it now?!”
“Front or back?”
Jooheon raised the coin.
“I'm choosing tails.”
“Wait! Don't actually throw—!”
Flick!
Before Jaeha could stop him, the coin shot into the air.
Pink neon light flashed around it.
The coin sparkled.
Then landed.
Heads.
“...Heads?”
Jooheon froze for a moment.
Then casually shrugged.
“Tch.”
“I guessed wrong. Does that mean bad luck's coming now?”
He sat down on the edge of the wine fountain.
As if it had been waiting for that exact moment...
A heavy rupture echoed from the heart of the city.
BOOM!
BOOM!
The holograms covering the skyscrapers shattered.
Red letters appeared in the air.
[Dionysus Artifact damaged.]
[Conquest of another Majesty's territory is beginning.]
[Durability: 83,998,908 / 93,998,908]
Jooheon tilted his head.
Then smiled leisurely.
“...A conquest battle?”
His grin widened.
“Sounds fun.”
Majesty Jaeha's face went deathly pale.
“You crazy bastard.”
“Please don't get any stupid ideas.”
“Before you left, didn't your teammates warn you to maintain some dignity as Majesty?”
Jooheon laughed.
Dignity as Majesty?
Oh.
That thing about not arbitrarily raiding tombs or causing disasters?
“Listen carefully.”
He grinned.
“That rule says I can't privatize Artifacts in our world.”
He spread his arms.
“But this is someone else's world.”
“So if I loot everything here, I'm innocent.”
“......”
Majesty Jaeha stared.
“Your hypocrisy is insane.”
“This isn't hypocrisy.”
Jooheon spoke proudly.
“It's patriotism.”
“Once you cross the border, tomb raiding becomes foreign-currency earnings.”
So he really was insane.
Majesty Jaeha sighed.
“Please don't touch anything.”
“Destroying city infrastructure is what Majesties do when they're deliberately starting a conquest battle.”
Jooheon raised an eyebrow.
“Really?”
“So I should destroy it?”
“Are you insane?!”
“The moment you start breaking things, the Majesty protecting this city will personally appear!”
Jooheon grinned.
“Even better.”
“When you rob someone's house, you tie up the owner first.”
Majesty Jaeha stared at him.
“...This isn't a Majesty War anymore.”
“You're just acting like a thug!”
“Coward.”
“Call it caution.”
“Our objective isn't fighting.”
Jaeha frowned.
“We're after Rulebook.”
“Rulebook is with the Majesty here.”
“So we should go to where Majesty is—”
Jooheon interrupted.
“And rob the place?”
Majesty Jaeha swallowed his anger.
“Are you joking?”
“Do you know how tight the security will be?”
He pulled phones from the unconscious citizens and accessed social media.
“This is a common Majesty trait.”
“If you say you want to trade a Divine-Grade Artifact, even the worst shut-in Majesty will come running.”
Jooheon looked at him.
“And then you give them a counterfeit?”
“Exactly.”
Majesty Jaeha opened the local Majesty's social-media account.
@SDionysos234
He sent a direct message containing a signal only Majesties would understand.
[I am Majesty of <Creation>, B-148.]
[I have no intention of fighting.]
[I only wish to trade a Divine-Grade Artifact.]
A reply came almost immediately.
[I have no intention of trading with a scammer Majesty.]
Jooheon peeked at the message.
Then burst out laughing.
“Pfft.”
“Your reputation as a scammer is impressive.”
“Damn it...!”
Then...
Every holographic billboard in the city suddenly turned off.
A single face appeared across all of them.
A man holding a wine glass.
He was smiling lazily.
[Greetings.]
[I'm quite surprised.]
His voice echoed through the entire city.
It was a live broadcast.
People everywhere looked up at the screens.
Majesty showing his face publicly wasn't a common occurrence.
[To think you'd cause this much trouble in my city.]
The man slowly tilted his wine glass.
[What an interesting guest has arr—]
Before he could finish his arrogant smile...
THUD!
The man's expression froze unnaturally.
He slowly looked down at his chest.
A divine spear had pierced straight through his heart.
Gungnir.
“......”
The man couldn't even scream.
His eyes rolled back.
He collapsed.
Citizens watching Majesty's appearance through the billboards screamed simultaneously.
“What?! Majesty is dead?!”
“How?! He had a barrier!”
“W-Where did that spear come from?!”
The plaza instantly fell into chaos.
Jooheon stared at the familiar Gungnir.
Then slowly looked toward Majesty Yoo Jaeha in disgust.
“Hey.”
“If I'm a hypocrite...”
Jooheon's expression turned strange.
“You're just a murderer.”
“Isn't murder worse than robbery?”
The one who had thrown Gungnir...
Was Majesty Yoo Jaeha.
He had exploited Gungnir's ability to track and kill a target anywhere, as long as he knew the target's face.
Majesty Jaeha smiled proudly.
“I'm efficient.”
“Killing one person causes less damage than destroying an entire city.”
Jooheon stared at him.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“You crazy bastard.”
But then...
Flash!
The screen changed.
A different face appeared.
[That was useless.]
[The man you just killed was a death-row prisoner.]
“Tch.”
Majesty Jaeha looked irritated.
“So that wasn't the real body.”
Jooheon looked genuinely disgusted.
One Majesty used a death-row prisoner as a decoy.
The other murdered him instantly the moment his face appeared.
“Majesties really are all morally bankrupt.”
Cup-Ramen Jaeha immediately replied.
[Not as much as Captain.]
