“Let’s see… So, the Industry-Academia Cooperation Group has been dismantled, and I need to report that to the Presidential Office. The opposition party’s 7-term member leader has resigned due to health issues following an unforeseen accident. We should take this opportunity to incorporate the Hunter Resource Management Office into the Hunter Association and hand it over to this Vice Minister.”
The administrative officer of the Yeon Family, Yeonju, was typing away on her holographic keyboard, issuing commands disguised as notifications to various departments.
Although she was called an administrator of the Yeon Family, her true identity was that of a power player manipulating both political and economic realms under Yeonseo’s orders. She was always ready to control everything to create the world Yeonseo desired.
It’s only natural that the Yeon Family had become one of the most influential forces globally in both the Hunter and political circles due to the existence of the world’s top-ranked Hunter, Yeonseo. However, the reason the Yeon Family was in this position today, influencing all sectors, was thanks to Yeonju, the data-management Awakened One.
Yeonju wanted to make Yeonseo the king of this world.
However, Yeonseo did not want to reign over this Hunter Age. She was satisfied with protecting people and saving the world, but Yeonju felt it was a real pity that Yeonseo had missed the chance to become the world’s king.
Thus, Yeonju had planted seeds in the roots of the world that Yeonseo had saved long ago.
If she did not want Yeonseo to become king, she at least needed the kind of power to immediately eliminate anyone who would obstruct her.
In fact, even after the Second Great Rift had occurred and the world was thoroughly reconstructed, a generation had emerged that either couldn’t properly remember the event or had never experienced it, which slowly led to forces trying to rival Yeonseo appearing.
“Who does Yeonseo think she is, to be the overwhelming number one?”
“Why is that retired grandma making waves in the National Assembly?”
“Is the Hunter Association Yeonseo’s personal belongings?”
Every time such voices emerged, Yeonju had been silently crushing them from the shadows.
Sometimes she acted actively; other times, she would bury them quietly. Utilizing the Yeon Family’s immense power, she also manipulated public opinion.
In that context, this time Yeonhwa’s purge of the ‘Fishing Club’ was a personally satisfying development for Yeonju.
The young lady, who had hardly wielded the Yeon Family’s power in her lifetime, had suddenly resolved to purge the political heavyweights.
And it wasn’t even under some grand justification.
Simply put, it was because, “Those bastards dared to send orders to Unnie Shia.”
Of course, after investigating the true nature of the Fishing Club, they found records of monopoly over strategic resources, illegal trades, and the fact that mermaids, who were supposed to be registered as humanity, had been misclassified as monsters and secretly sold to the wealthy. There were even confirmations of wrongdoing related to the laws, revealing that they had a close relationship with the San Guild in China.
Originally, that faction was a new group that had emerged after the Great Rift, which had never been touched by the Yeon Family. So, from Yeonju’s perspective, it was clear that these scoundrels needed to be ground into dust.
“Could it be that Yeonhwa is even planning to become a queen?”
Of course, even as she thought on her own, Yeonju did not envision Yeonhwa as a queen.
“No, that can’t be right.”
After all, Yeonju, who had known Yeonhwa’s temperament since her childhood, knew she wouldn’t have the slightest thought of becoming a queen.
Well, it didn’t matter.
Anyone who revealed this to the Yeon Family would have their teeth pulled out.
Yeonju wasn’t originally someone with such extreme policies, but when Yeonseo traveled the world like a hero, not showing any signs of ambition, many tried to take advantage of her and this Yeon Family.
As a result, now only Yeonseo and Yeonhwa remained as the direct bloodline of the Yeon Family. Yeonju felt it would be better if Yeonseo, even if she acted insane, seized at least the entire Korean Peninsula into her grasp instead of becoming the mad king of the world.
“I may have to thank Returnee Isia.”
That young lady, who once seemed so uncool, had grown so much, courtesy of Shia, perhaps.
Yeonju was smiling brightly while significantly holding a high opinion of Shia, who had a subtly cold side.
“The elf’s life also went to Returnee Isia. And now, mermaids will most likely join Returnee Isia’s forces too…”
In fact, Yeonju had already been preparing to re-register mermaids, not as monsters but as a new human species.
Once the legislators under Yeonju’s orders introduced a bill in the National Assembly, the mermaids would probably receive recognition as a new part of humanity, and at that point, they would become one of the forces that Isia commands.
“According to Yeonseo, her power is said to be on par or even surpassing that of the others… and the Emperor Menelapie, who came along, is apparently unfathomable? Just the two of them would be enough to overturn the world, and now with elves and possibly mermaids too…”
Of course, in the case of the mermaids, Shia did not have any ulterior motives to bring them under her power.
After dismantling the Fishing Club, which had long exploited the mermaids, the Seongun Guild and three other exploring guilds associated with the Fishing Club had also imploded, but the Dungeon of the Deep Sea Palace, where mermaids still lived, was a treasure trove where strategic resources known as Deep Sea Flowers thrived.
If it was a dungeon capable of providing a continuous supply of strategic resources, mermaids would eventually lose their home to humans or face fierce conflict, whether sooner or later.
Shia’s intention to protect such mermaids under her care might be due to that reason.
“Listening to her thoughts, it seems practical to bring them under her influence like with the elves. If there’s a shield called Isia, humans wouldn’t dare exploit the elves as they did before, let alone approach them…”
It was like the process of gathering followers. Following the elves, perhaps this time it would be dwarves or even liches that she would protect?
Regardless, as far as Yeonju was concerned, even if Shia did not have that intention, her power was undeniably growing.
And if a new power emerged, the existing powers would surely try to suppress it.
Not only the already established Great Guild but perhaps even in the political sphere, the situation where Shia monopolized elves and mermaids could be looked down upon.
Given Shia’s humanitarian character, she probably wouldn’t plan to squeeze countries for supplies of Deep Sea Flowers or strategic resources.
When Yeonju envisioned the saintly actions of Shia, she thought she might threaten the state with disadvantages if there wasn’t a steady supply of Deep Sea Flowers, but Shia would likely endure that disadvantage while still doing her best.
Of course, neither Yeonhwa nor Menelapie would let that slide.
“Pretty soon, there will be quite a bloodstorm.”
Though the side to bleed was already decided.
Yeonju decided to prepare a list of people she might need to take action against, just in case.
Busy, busy.
○○○○
Shia held a pretty high position in her previous world.
She didn’t have the title of a handmaiden, but a well-educated noble was sent by Menelapie to serve her closely, along with several saints and bishops who were always watching over her. They ensured that she wasn’t inconvenienced or troubled by anyone attempting to meddle with her.
And while Shia had a cheerful, almost foolishly positive disposition, she was by no means idiotic.
She treated all humans with care and dignity as a saint, but she was also aware of the many attendants surrounding her. Consequently, Shia sometimes acted as if she were in a military formation.
“What the hell, the sea? What? You little brat, say that again. After busting my ass for over a month, we’re finally wrapping the terraforming, and now you want me to create a sea? You little shit!”
Grrraaaah!!
In that sense, Lirisia seemed to be quite furious as she stretched Shia’s chubby cheeks like a rice cake.
From Lirisia’s perspective, now that she was human, she couldn’t win against Shia anyway, so she was venting her frustrations like this.
After sweating it out under the scorching desert sun with elves for over a month, working to terraform the land green, now this?
“Not a pond or a lake but a sea? A sea? A seaaaa?!”
Waaah, the sea is great…
“Your sea is supposed to be clear and blue, you little brat!”
Grrraaaah!
“Are you trying to say I should dig a hole in the ground and make the sea myself?!”
“If you don’t want to, just become a saint yourself.”
“Shut up!!! Bring your hero here instead, you dumbass!”
Grrraaaah!!
“If you keep spitting on your own face… Grrraah!!”
If Menelapie had been here, she would have defended Shia by saying, “Hey! Of course, Shia could say that! Why are you upset?” But Lirisia, who had suffered tremendously for a month alongside the lower-class elves, was fuming at Shia’s request right at the point where they were about to finish the construction.
For reference, as of now, Yeonhwa and Menelapie were dismantling the Fishing Club completely.
They were breaking the dimensional harvesting machinery and the Seongun Guild that owned it.
Not only were they disbanding the guild, but they also confiscated the storages holding the Deep Sea Flowers, which served as strategic resources. The evidence that the guild had been maintaining a close relationship with the government was handed over to the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office. The thirteen government officials who headed the operation faced “appropriate disposal” by Yeonhwa.
For Lirisia, asking Shia to suddenly create the sea was absurd.
If it had been just at the halfway point of the construction, it might have been dismissed, but they had already completed a significant portion of the green terraforming.
Ordering to create the sea instead of a simple lake or dam was a far more challenging task, and the elves who had just greeted the saint with joy earlier now wore rather stiff expressions.
“Enough… Mermaids are babies… They need protection…”
“Babies? What the hell are you talking about?!”
Waaah….
“No, come on! Stop with the baby talk and speak normally!”
Surely, when Lirisia had first met Shia, she had wielded an aristocratic tone, but now as a human, she felt a wave of emotions and managed to become quite the human herself.
“Senpai, Senpai. How about you at least listen to what the saint has to say?”
“Do you really want me to follow the nonsense of creating a sea?”
“Of course, I don’t want that either. But the saint is our benefactor who saved our Great Forest. To be blunt, even if the saint suddenly asked us to create a sea, Olgania would have to nod along.”
“No, what…?”
“That means how much the saint has bestowed upon us.”
“Without the saint, we might not even be breathing here right now…”
One of the elves under Lirisia showed off her cracked hand.
Below the pure white skin of the elf was skin that glimmered like a black jewel.
She was an elf from a Chaos Ant mimicry.
Though she had become an elf, she had assimilated so much that she refused to revert to her original form. Instead, she was accepted among the elves and had become one of them, blended into the Great Forest.
If it hadn’t been for Shia, she might have been breaking her jaw as a Chaos Ant and losing her identity while feeding on the sap of rotten trees.
No, she could have been treated as a monster and hunted down by humans.
Listening to her work crew’s comments, Lirisia relaxed her grip on Shia’s cheek.
“Yikes…”
“Sigh, just speak. I’ll listen first, then you can rant or whatever.”
“Well, the mermaids have a sad story…”
“What kind of story?”
With that, Shia began to share the tale of Hyung-An’s Mermaid Princess with Lirisia and the elves.
The story of how the Imugi became a sister, and the younger sister cursed the sea, her kin, and herself after losing her sister.
How, despite the curse, she became a caring princess, and how eventually the younger sister, now filled with self-hatred, was reunited with Shia after defeating their common enemy and gaining forgiveness from her kin.
“Awww…”
“What a story…”
“Oh, my goodness…”
“So sad, I can’t even…”
Although there was no falsehood in the tale, Shia exaggerated her gestures and story to further provoke tears from the elves.
“So, children of the World Tree, can you share a sanctuary similar to what you share with those pitiful girls of the sea?”
“Ooohhh…”
“Those poor mermaids… Evil humans…”
“Truly evil humans. They should only eat rice with no side dishes three meals a day!”
The dismally tragic tales of the mermaid ladies were genuinely sad, yet to Lirisia, the Witch of the Dark Star, they didn’t seem that tragic.
Nonetheless, she sighed deeply.
Already, the other workers had been delayed.
With their enthrallment in the story, creating the sea was an established fact.
Of course, Lirisia understood that Shia’s words were not lies.
The stories of the mermaid princesses were indeed heartbreaking and grievous.
But the problem was that creating the sea and relocating the mermaids here was ultimately a task for her and her work crew of elves.
“Sigh, damn it…”
“Therefore, Lirisia, the pitiful mermaids need a nest. They don’t have time to wait… They’re looking for a quick home in this moment’s chaos.”
“Fine, you little brat. And stop making those ancient jokes. They wouldn’t even show up if I searched them on the internet right now.”
“What, really?”
In conclusion, Lirisia raised the white flag.
If asked, she would have to do it, damn it.
To be honest, the fact she was still alive was thanks to Shia’s mercy.
Desiring to give her a chance, even wanting to save her despite her tainted self, that was Shia’s choice, and Lirisia had to prove with her body that Shia’s choice was not wrong.
Well, sure.
Creating a sea, why not…
First, dig a really, really big hole…
I wonder if I could get some help from the old lady Yeonseo? If she snaps her fingers a few times, it seems like I could get a good estimate…
And the ecosystem of Daesanrim, which is adjacent to the sea, isn’t too shabby.
Mermaids could likely interact with humanity as a subspecies alongside elves, meaning this new sea could potentially create a pretty decent environment.
“Sigh…”
Damn it, another sea after terraforming…
“I might just end up becoming the saint of chaos at this rate. Ah, that title sounds so awful.”
○○○○
The Skeleton Knight, Tia Lauria, was monitoring the existence of the Demon King on behalf of Yujin in Korea.
Fortunately or unfortunately, traces and fragments of the Demon King were so scarce in Korea that Tia managed to tour across the country, treating it like a tasting event with the funds received from Yujin while still keeping a vigilant eye on things.
And today.
Just after Shia had finished the Feast Ceremony at the Deep Sea Palace and the Fishing Club was dismantled.
Tia connected a direct emergency line to Yujin.
“Tia, is the information reliable? You didn’t make an error, right?”
[Yes, it’s confirmed. I am looking at it right now.]
“……..”
Yujin, at home, let out a deep sigh and removed her projection.
It wasn’t the male projection she usually wore.
Her real self surfaced, her eyes were filled with an intimidating nervousness.
After all, she had a good reason to feel that way.
The information Tia sent her through the emergency line was shockingly alarming.
[The Demon King’s Castle has invaded this world.]
“I’ll head there immediately. What’s the location?”
[Near Sinyeo Unpo Port in Busan. They haven’t started any destructive activities yet.]
“…….”
The Demon King had appeared.
In Busan…
Yujin’s projection flickered.
I’m sorry, Olgania.
We had a date tonight…
I’ll comfort you later, later.
Sigh, I guess she won’t forgive me for this. She truly hates breaking promises…
But there was no choice.
It was an emergency situation of that magnitude.
Quickly sending a message to Olgania, Yujin enveloped herself in projection and vanished.
