Chapter 239: We are important people too 4

Kwon Hyuk Soo.

If the Holtens who originated from a line of English nobles had a firm grasp on the European business world, this man was the Emperor who had grasped the American business world.

The man who had been one of the Four Emperors in the past saw Ju-Heon as a cute little boy. In fact, all Monarchs were like cute children in his eyes.

That was how much of a genius he was when it came to handling artifacts.

‘It is praiseworthy how much shit he’s given to my hyung-nim.’

Other monopolizers were holding the back of their necks in anger talking about how Ju-Heon was crazy and could not be reasoned with, but…

‘He can be tamed.’

That was why he had given Ilya the order. He should be able to control Ju-Heon using Ilya, who he had been raising until now.

In some ways, it was as if he was adding Ju-Heon to his collection.

That was why he was quite satisfied while looking at the information about Ju-Heon's tomb raiding team.

The female team members were both beautiful and skilled.

‘Most importantly, Seo Ju-Heon's team has two Monarchs in it.’

This was now the Era of Artifacts. It was an era of war where people would attack each other to monopolize on benefits or prevent harm on themselves.

He believed that the final victor in this prolonged war would be the one who has a large number of people under them.

Why?

It was not because that person would be lacking in individual strength.

However, he was collecting artifact users since there was a limit to the types and number of artifacts each person can use.

Furthermore, there was a difference in the level of Dominance between talented and not so talented subordinates. For example, it was better to lead a single tiger than one hundred chicks.

A person's status would rise the more felines they had under them. The Monarch among Monarchs was called an Emperor and having these tigers kneel would make their boss's Dominance and plate increase as well.

That would increase the amount of artifacts that person could contract with, and most importantly……

‘That person will be able to use the unique artifact that only the Monarch among Monarchs could use.’

That person would be able to use the Majesty's Treasure.

‘Well, even the Monarch of Fate said that that was just a theory, but…’

Either way, it was important to procure a talented collection.

‘The Heirloom is just a step toward it.’

He was interested in Ju-Heon’s tomb raiding team but he was most interested in its leader.

‘Ju-Heon is a rare tiger among the herd.’

“Inform Ilya. Tell him to hurry up and tame Seo Ju-Heon first.”

But forget taming him…

Ju-Heon's hand was moving all around.

He was running his hand all over Ily's body from head to toe.

Ilya, being the deceitful and sly person that he is, had artifacts hidden all over his body.

They were not just visually hidden either. He had used his spell book artifact to place all sorts of traps on the artifacts.

For example, if his ring was touched……

Bang!

“Ugh!”

Ilya received a critical hit from the exploding artifact and started to groan.

And if his earring was touched……

Siiiiiiizzle!

“Aaah!”

Hydrochloric acid would start to fail.

And if his belt was removed……

“U, ugh!”

The belt started to move on its own to choke Ilya's neck.

But something was weird.

‘I put the anti-theft devices but why is it responding to me?!’

This was like putting up alarms to catch a thief but the alarm responding to the owner's movements while ignoring the thief!

‘Is it crazy?!’

Ju-Heon sneered while looking at the confused Ilya.

“Hmph, my goodness, you put so many devices on them.”

‘This bastard.’

Ilya was curious as to why his anti-theft devices were not working properly, but that wasn’t important right now.

‘I need to modify his memories.’

Ilya recalled the orders he had received.

‘Don’t worry about the means and methods used.’

‘Modify Seo Ju-Heon’s memories and turn him into my subordinate.’

Seo Ju-Heon was someone who had abducted the Monarch of Fate, the guide of the world, as well as the person who had swept the majority of the artifacts from the 7 Great Tombs. He was a hindrance to them getting the Monarch's Heirlooms. He needed to modify Ju-Heon's memories for his superior who desired Ju-Heon.

That was why Ilya activated his artifact to modify Ju-Heon’s memories. It was an extremely strong artifact.

“Ah really, where the hell did the retarded captain run off?!”

Julian and Yoo Jaeha, the two Monarchs, were huffing while looking for Ju-Heon.

They had run over to the parking lot they had seen in the CCTV but they did not see Ju-Heon at all.

"Seol-A, you can't find the Captain-nim?”

“He’s not around here!”

Yoo Jaeha gasped after hearing that. The fact that Seol-A could not locate him quickly must mean that he was out of the country already.

“Wow, shit, did that damn Captain bastard go on a trip around the world with another man?”

He started to wave his hand as if he had no regrets.

"Ah whatever, it’s fine. It’s obvious that he doesn't need help from any of his team members. We’re done with it too. Right? Kongming?”

“Exactly. Let him do everything on his own.”

Chloe looked at the two of them before nodding her head for a different reason.

“I guess so, the Captain just wants to bring Ilya in as a team member. There probably won't be any bloodshed……”

Julian and Yoo Jaeha looked as if they had been wronged after hearing that.

“What did you say?! He’s going to take Ilya in as a team member?!”

“He's going to do that after kicking all of us out?!”

There was fire burning in Julian and Yoo Jaeha's eyes.

"Wait, even we can't return to the Captain-nim’s side but what?! What’s so good about that bastard?!”

“What’s wrong? The Captain always talked about it. Ilya’s personality is shit but he is skilled……”

The two of them looked as if they would start breathing fire out of their mouths.

“We’re skilled toooooooo!”

“We're much better than him!”

“That’s right! We are Monarchs! That son of a bitch is an Expert-Grade user at max!”

Chloe clicked her tongue after hearing Yoo Jaeha shout.

“Ilya is at the Monarch level if you look just at his abilities. He’d probably be better than you if he didn't have that trauma against risks……”

Yoo Jaeha truly became angry.

“Get lost! I'm the Captain-nim’s right aaaaaaaarm!”

Maybe she touched his pride that should not have been touched.

“Hey! Ju… Kongming! What the fuck are you doing that you can’t even find a single person?! You unskilled son of a bitch!”

“What…?”

Chloe made a comment after hearing that.

“Didn't you just say that you’re not going to pay any attention to the Captain now that you are not a part of the team?”

Yoo Jaeha started to shout again after hearing Chloe's comment.

“I can’t deal with my pride being shot! Where the hell is the Captain-nim?! Where is he?!”

Seol-A had a rare pale expression on her face.

“I don’t know. I can’t feel the Captain-nim’s aura.”

“What?!”

“……The Captain-nim should be okay, right? There’s no way that he’ll have his memories modified by Ilya, right?”

All of them became silent.

It was because they knew best about how annoying and strong Ilya’s aftermath clean-up abilities were.

Ilya had even modified the memories of everybody in the world once at the request of his backer and twisted everyone's relationships.

He had restored things to normal pretty much right afterward, but that had been a scary moment.

That was why they were scared that even Ju-Heon might end up being affected by Ilya.

It was at that moment.

Boom!

They heard artifacts clashing somewhere. The team members quickly started to move after hearing that.

‘The fact that his aura disappeared means……’

That was proof that his memories had been modified.

When that happens, the worst possible situation could be that he wouldn't remember any of them.

That was why all of their asses were on fire as they ran. They always complained about how they hated Ju-Heon, but they didn't want Ju-Heon to forget them either.

“Ilya, that son of a bitch, just watch what happens to you if you laid a finger on the Captain-nim’s memories!”

But forget putting a hand on it… Ilya was grinding his teeth.

‘The modification is not working.’

He had definitely activated his memory modification artifact. But it did not work on Ju-Heon.

He had no idea why. On the other hand, Ju-Heon was smiling.

“You’re already done? Is that it? Huh?!”

“Ugh!”

Ju-Heon was kicking his former subordinate while smiling wickedly. It didn't matter that it was hard to tell who was the evil one right now.

“Try again, you little punk.”

Ju-Heon stomped on Ilya’s head so that he could not escape.

Of course, he had not destroyed Ilya’s artifact.

Why?

Ily's memory modification artifact was a parasitic artifact. He needed to pull Ilya’s eye out to destroy it.

There was no way he would do such a thing to his own subordinate.

‘Well, he’s a twisted bastard so I don’t even know if he would become my subordinate.’

There was the question of whether someone who was having their head being stomped would choose to become the subordinate of the person doing the stomping, but……

Ju-Heon debated for a moment over using the Raven’s Tears before starting to smile.

“But to think that you tried to modify my memories with your puny skills.”

Ilya clicked his tongue after hearing that.

The modification method he had just used was the first of two levels.

Level 1 was usually enough to take care of Monarchs but it was difficult for the Monarchs with the high levels of Dominance.

Why?

The fact that their Dominance was high meant that they were firm in their self-confidence and determination.

Those kinds of people were difficult cases to modify their memories using regular means.

‘I have no choice.’

Ilya didn't like doing this because of the risk but he raised it to the max level.

‘Level 2!’

Ilya’s eyes instantly turned gold.

Ju-Heon saw some urgent messages pop up as well.

[An unpleasant power of modification is entering your mind.]

[Your memories are starting to change.]

[The things you know are starting to change.]

It was quite strong this time. It was definitely no joke since even difficult to handle Monarchs had been knocked down from this in the past.

In fact, Ju-Heon’s memories started to become weird as well.

‘Are you hurt?’

He saw an extremely familiar face.

The person he saw was Kwon Hyuk Soo, Chairman Kwon's sworn brother.

He was calmly taking a place within Ju-Heon's memories.

He was replacing Inspector Kim, the person who had taken care of him since he was young.

The face of the inspector he considered to be his family had disappeared and Kwon Hyuk Soo had taken his place.

Inspector Kim, someone who Ju-Heon cherished quite a bit, was starting to change into Kwon Hyuk Soo.

Furthermore, Ilya had changed the faces of his team members to Chairman Kwon and the bastards from TKBM. Ilya was creating memories that did not exist while erasing other memories to modify Ju-Heon’s memories.

Ilya started to smile once Ju-Heon started to frown.

‘It’s done.’

This was the sign that it had worked.

‘Now he will believe that he is that person's subordinate.’

It was at that moment.

“You motherfucking Russian son of a bitch, what the hell are you doing?!”

“!”

He heard a familiar voice. They barged in even though there was a barrier set up to prevent people from entering.

Ju-Heon’s team members had barged in.

Julian immediately started to frown after sensing the aura of the artifact.

He had realized that Ilya had used the modification artifact.

“That bastard already used the modification artifact!”

Ilya started to sneer while looking at them.

“My prey have walked in on their own accord.”

He turned toward the tomb raiding team members as if this was great.

“You guys are next.”

His smile was quite evil. Julian and Chloe looked toward Ju-Heon with concern.

‘It'll be complicated if the Captain's memories have changed.’

Unfortunately, the chances that his memories had been changed were high.

‘There’s traces that he already used the level 2 modification.’

Ilya's modification ability was strong. It was strong enough to mess with the memories of Monarchs.

Level 1 could be overcome with Dominance, but if it is level 2……

‘Level 2 would be dangerous even for me.’

Julian had thought Ilya would not use it because of the risk but he had done it.

Ju-Heon started to walk toward the team members at that moment.

The team members started to shake as they watched.

It was because the look on Ju-Heon's face was quite cold as he looked at them.

"Captain-nim…!”

The team members then started to glare at Ilya.

“Hey, hurry up and undo it!”

Ilya just scoffed and started to speak.

“Seo Ju-Heon is my subordinate now. I modified one of his memories.”

It was at that moment.

Poooooow!

“?!”

Ilya saw an illusion as if things were flashing in front of his eyes. Something dull and painful had struck his face.

He had already been sent flying away once he realized it was Ju-Heon’s foot.

“U, ugh!”

It was so painful as if his teeth would fall out.

However, what he heard after that was even more shocking.