Chapter 2. Tomb Raider King (2)
“That bastard disappeared again?”
Julian pressed a hand to his forehead after noticing Jooheon's empty seat.
“The international summit is about to start! How can the person in charge just disappear?!”
The world had changed because of Jooheon.
[Seo Jooheon completes the public management of Artifacts through the 'Majesty System.']
[World Joint Artifact Research Institute takes the lead in Artifact processing and distribution.]
[Private 'tomb raiding' is a crime. Research has value.]
That was what everyone believed.
Everyone except one person.
“Hey! Tomb raiding?! Majesty can't do that!”
“What? Why not? I saw it first, so it's mine.”
“Hey!”
“Public property? If nobody's around, I can just take it.”
“This guy is Majesty?!”
Someone was still raiding Artifacts even today.
The very person who had created a treaty banning private ownership was also the first person to break it.
His name was Seo Jooheon.
The legendary Tomb Raider King.
And right now, somewhere in the world, another door was opening.
Faster than anyone.
Earlier than anyone.
Naturally, the people who suffered because of it were his teammates.
“This time... ugh... it's a closed country.”
Yoo Jaeha sighed as he stared at his map Artifact.
“Why does he always choose dictatorships, censored states, and places where trespassers get shot on sight?!”
“Ha! Our Captain's on another level, as always!”
Behind Jooheon, the man who had saved the world, stood his team.
Seol-A, who specialized in intelligence gathering.
Julian, Jooheon's right-hand man, though he'd probably grabbed Jooheon by the collar more times than he'd helped him, and the user of Zhuge Liang's Artifact.
Ilya, a former Catholic priest who somehow used demonic Artifacts.
Yoo Jaeha, a con artist turned restoration specialist and Jooheon's personal slave.
Chloe, a doctor who had a habit of beating patients unconscious.
And Dan, a tanker who was practically a human weapon.
Every one of them had once been betrayed by their employers and killed.
Jooheon had saved them.
Because of that, their bond was stronger than most families.
Still...
“He apparently went in without even getting an official excavation permit this time.”
Ilya laughed.
Seol-A tried to defend their Captain.
“Well, he was caught by the tracking system... Ah...”
She paused.
“He just disappeared from it.”
Julian's eyes widened.
“Wait. What do you mean, the tracking disappeared?!”
“The man who created the Guardian System to stop illegal tomb raiding is avoiding that same system so he can raid tombs illegally?!”
“That's about right.”
Julian covered his face at Ilya's answer.
No.
It was fine.
His head hurt, but it was fine.
“It's okay. That bastard does have some sense of responsibility as Majesty.”
He nodded as if convincing himself.
“He'll just look at the Artifacts and put them back before leaving—”
Seol-A hesitated.
“About that...”
“What?”
“Everything was taken.”
“...What?”
“Every single Artifact.”
She emphasized every word.
“Completely. Cleaned. Out.”
Julian's expression froze.
“Then you're saying Majesty independently excavated a tomb designated as public property and moved every single public Artifact into his private warehouse?!”
Everyone quietly looked away.
Julian exploded.
“What happened to the international law banning private Artifact ownership?!”
His head spun.
He'd thought Jooheon would become a little more mature after getting married.
Apparently not.
Then something even worse happened.
[Majesty has completed a 'claim.']
Every member of the team received the same message.
Sweat ran down their faces.
“A claim...?”
Yoo Jaeha swallowed.
“What did he claim this time?”
Seol-A checked the details with trembling hands.
“Ah... this time...”
Her lips shook.
[The 'Emperor's Tomb' has been claimed.]
Everyone went pale.
“D-Don't tell me it's that place...”
“The Emperor's Tomb?”
“The Number One ruin in the world that absolutely must never be opened?”
“Isn't that area still unopened?!”
“No! It wasn't unopened! Opening it was completely forbidden!”
“That country worships the Emperor as a god!”
“He claimed the tomb of their god...?”
Yoo Jaeha grabbed his head.
“Ah, this is really going to explode! There's going to be a war! They'll summon an emergency international summit!”
Ilya added quietly.
“Three neighboring countries were already holding military demonstrations around that tomb.”
Julian looked like fire was about to shoot from his mouth.
“I thought he'd finally calmed down! Why the hell has he been acting like this ever since getting Isis's Artifact?!”
Eventually, representatives from dozens of countries gathered at an international summit with one extraordinary agenda.
[Emergency Discussion Regarding Seo Jooheon's Private Use of Artifacts]
“If he personally created the law forbidding Artifact privatization, shouldn't he also be forbidden from entering those sites?”
“The tomb doesn't even have research authorization yet.”
Seol-A cautiously answered.
“No. Captain only went there to 'inspect the Artifacts in advance.'”
“Inspect them?”
“Yes.”
She hesitated.
“In other words, he planned to raid them before the researchers could... Ah, no. I mean, he wanted to inspect the level of danger first...”
“......”
Everyone's expressions turned cold.
Even Seol-A looked embarrassed by what she'd just said.
Julian looked like he wanted someone to throw him out of the room.
That was when the Egyptian representative spoke.
“Did you know that Majesty personally registered the official name of the Emperor's Tomb as...”
He paused.
“The Tomb Raider King's Break Room?”
The expressions on the representatives' and team members' faces were priceless.
Unfortunately, things became even worse.
