Chapter 42: History Flows(3)

A display case installed in the very center of the exhibition hall.

Due to the red cloth covering it, the interior is completely invisible.

Only the words engraved on the golden nameplate catch the eye.

[Royal Bow]

It was the bow used by King Taejo Yi Seonggye.

At that moment, the docent in charge of guiding the exhibition raised her voice.

“Now! We will now unveil the Royal Bow, which can be called the star of this Korean Peninsula relics exhibition!”

Srrrrk-

As the cloth of the display case was lifted, the appearance of the Royal Bow was revealed.

The bow stave shining in a reddish-brown color.

The bowstring stretched taut as if it might snap at any moment.

The sight of the Royal Bow spread wide like a hawk soaring through the sky elicits gasps from the visitors.

The docent pointed to the Royal Bow and said.

“The Royal Bow is famous as a strong and tough bow that even sturdy young men could not properly draw the string of! It is said that only King Taejo Yi Seonggye could use this bow freely, and he boasted archery skills close to divine!”

Jumong of Goguryeo, and Yi Seonggye of Joseon.

In the history of the Korean Peninsula, one cannot discuss master archers without these two.

At that moment, the docent shouted toward the surrounding visitors.

“Hey! Sir in the hat, don’t come forward too much! And the lady in the back! Photography is prohibited!”

The docent continued the explanation.

“The Royal Bow was enshrined in Hamheung Bon Palace in Hamgyeongnam-do after King Taejo Yi Seonggye’s death and was preciously preserved for about 600 years. It is rare worldwide to find an item not made of metal preserved intact for such a long period.”

The explanation about the Royal Bow was all in the past tense.

This was because the Royal Bow’s whereabouts became unknown when Hamheung Bon Palace burned during the Korean War.

But.

……To think it had flowed into Japan.

The fact that the Royal Bow was in the collection of the Japanese relic collector Ogura was recently revealed.

I looked at Professor Park Ahjeong and said.

“It’s ironic that we have to borrow our cultural asset to see it.”

“I agree. Not only the government but also our guild side requested the return of the relic…… but the Ogura side is just parrot-like repeating the response, ‘Please acknowledge the effort in preserving the Royal Bow intact.'”

“That’s really…….”

It’s a ploy that’s too obvious even if the intention is visible.

They probably plan to take the Royal Bow hostage and extort a hefty sum.

Professor Park Ahjeong continued with a bitter expression.

“The problem is that this could escalate beyond a simple legal dispute into a Korea-Japan national conflict. The Royal Bow is a very meaningful and precious relic to us, and the Japanese government, knowing that, won’t easily hand it over.”

At that moment, the sound of glass bottles breaking came from outside the exhibition hall.

Clang-!

Shouting, screams, and even the dull sounds of objects colliding could be heard.

It seems the protest outside the exhibition hall is gradually becoming more intense.

Professor Park Ahjeong’s face clearly showed complex emotions.

In contrast, only one thought occupied my mind.

So how the hell do I smuggle that out?

Dozens of Japanese hunters are deployed throughout the exhibition hall.

Moreover, the area around the Royal Bow is packed with visitors with no room to step.

It’ll be difficult right now. I have no choice but to aim for night or dawn later.

While devising various plans.

“Sir in the hat! I told you not to come close! If you keep doing that, I’ll have you ejected!”

The docent’s voice mixed with irritation rang out.

This was because a man with a hat pulled low had been loitering near the display case from earlier.

But the man in the hat began openly approaching the Royal Bow.

“Hey? Security! Get that person out immediately! Quickly!”

As security guards rushed over, the man in the hat took something out of his pocket.

A small remote control with buttons.

The man in the hat pressed the remote and said.

……Operation start.

At that instant.

Pssshhhhh!

White smoke began spewing from the exhibition hall’s ventilation system.

“Cough~! Cough cough~!”

“Wh-what the, what is this?”

“Terror……!?”

Through the hazy smoke, dozens of silhouettes began to appear.

Shortly after.

As the smoke cleared, masked assailants revealed themselves.

They were all wearing black masks and black uniforms.

What particularly caught the eye was the V mark engraved in italics on the left chest of the uniforms.

Seeing that, the docent screamed.

“Vi-Vigilante!”

Vigilante.

An unauthorized group of awakeners who call themselves a “vigilante group.”

Soon, one of them opened his mouth.

“.Secure all targets before the Hunter Surveillance Bureau arrives.”

Belatedly grasping the situation, visitors began screaming and fleeing.

Professor Park Ahjeong quickly turned to the side and said.

“Hasang student, we should hurry……!”

However.

“Hasang..

……

student?”

There was no one there.

***

The sound of blades clashing echoes everywhere.

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang~!

Fierce battles between Vigilante and Japanese Association hunters were unfolding throughout the exhibition hall.

At that moment, a huge fireball flew toward the Vigilante members.

Then, a Vigilante who generated a blue mana wheel stepped forward and chanted a spell.

A thick ice barrier rising in an instant.

Boom!

With an intense explosion, ice fragments and fireballs scatter in all directions.

A sharp ice fragment sped toward a young visitor girl.

“Kyaa~!”

At that instant.

Paat!

A pure white protective barrier bounced off the ice fragment flying toward the girl.

“Are you okay? You’re not hurt anywhere, right?”

The one who saved the girl was Professor Park Ahjeong.

South Korea’s hunter ranking A-grade 29th, historian Park Ahjeong.

Synchronized with a historian from Lokpia, she possessed not only vast historical knowledge of the other world but also recovery and protection magic at the level of a B-grade hunter.

Soon, Professor Park Ahjeong shouted toward the visitors.

“Everyone, stay calm! The rescue team will arrive soon!”

Park Ahjeong began evacuating the visitors with skillful handling.

Even in the midst of that, she kept looking around.

“Where did he suddenly disappear to……?”

Meanwhile, there was one more person maintaining composure besides Professor Park Ahjeong.

Japan’s hunter ranking A-grade 2nd, Red Demon Akaboshi.

Around him, standing without even a minor scratch or disrupted breathing, dozens of Vigilante members lay sprawled.

Akaboshi sheathed his Japanese sword and regulated his breathing.

Shhh- Shh- Shh-

A unique breathing sound mixed with the wind.

A gentle breeze was rising at Akaboshi’s feet.

At that moment, four Vigilante members surrounded Akaboshi.

Three with swords, spears, and axes.

One mage who generated a gray mana wheel behind.

As the Vigilante mage began chanting, the other three charged from different directions simultaneously.

Akaboshi gripped the sword handle and slowly drew it.

Then.

Whooooosh~!

A fierce whirlwind began to rage.

The Vigilante members staggered in the violent gust that made it impossible to open their eyes.

In that fleeting moment.

“Four Seasons, Dance of the Maple Leaves”

Akaboshi’s Japanese sword slashed diagonally through the center of the gale.

A thin trajectory engraved in the air.

From that gap, a cool wind gushed out.

Swordsmanship utilizing wind spirits, Gale Sword.

It was the secret technique that made Akaboshi Japan’s youngest A-grade hunter.

The wind transformed into maple leaf-shaped sword energies and began tearing everything around to shreds.

The Vigilante members shredded by the blade wind.

Slash slash slash slash slash slash~!

The iron pieces forming the swords, spears, and axes break into fragments and scatter.

As Akaboshi sheathed his sword again, the raging gale subsided.

Thud!

The Vigilante members torn apart by the whirlwind fell to the floor.

Akaboshi’s gaze turned to the Vigilante mage.

……!”

The Vigilante mage quickly finished chanting and completed the spell.

Hundreds of steel stakes generated above Akaboshi’s head.

They began pouring down like a heavy rain.

Rumble rumble rumble!

But at the following sight, the Vigilante mage could only doubt his eyes.

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

He blocked them all.

……No, it wasn’t simply blocking.

Akaboshi’s sword, with wind-like swift strikes, was cutting down the pouring steel stakes.

Moreover, it was accelerating.

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

Faster. Sharper.

Thinly sliced metal pieces like paper flutter down.

Having cut down all the steel stakes, Akaboshi looked at the Vigilante mage and said.

“The protesters outside, that was your doing too, right? Who ordered it?”

The Vigilante mage gave no answer.

Instead, he raised his tightly clenched fist and slowly opened it.

On his palm lay a single red egg.

The Vigilante mage began infusing mana into the egg.

“I didn’t want to use this if possible……..”

At that instant.

Fwoooosh!

A huge pillar of fire soared from the red egg.

[Caw~! Caaaaw-!]

A monstrous cry that seemed to tear eardrums erupted from within the pillar.

At the same time, a burning bird broke through the pillar and revealed itself.

Feathers covered in dark red flames, a grotesquely twisted beak.

A monstrous bird with enormous, sharp talons like kitchen knives sprouting from its spread feet.

A-grade magical beast, Flame Crow.

As the Flame Crow spread its wings wide, dark red embers scattered and began burning the surroundings.

But the bigger problem was something else.

[Caw! Caw!]

[Caw~! Caw-!]

[Caw- Caaaaw-!]

[Caaaaw~! Caaaaw-!]

Five.

Five Flame Crows emerged from a single egg.

No matter how much of a magical beast, it was an abnormal sight.

In Akaboshi’s vision, he saw the Vigilante mage running far away.

“It’s an experimental subject stolen from Deus Ex Machina’s bio-fusion laboratory! Deal with it yourself!”

With those words, the Vigilante mage hurriedly fled.

At that moment, the five Flame Crows flew up simultaneously.

Fwooooooosh~!

With fierce heat, embers spread to various parts of the exhibition hall.

The Flame Crows flying in the air launching indiscriminate attacks.

Japanese hunters and Vigilante died instantly from the sharp talons and burning feathers.

“Ugh, uwaaaah~!”

Vigilante and Japanese hunters, without distinction, began fleeing from the Flame Crows.

Only one person excepted. Akaboshi.

Akaboshi leaped using a whirlwind generated at his feet as a foothold.

Akaboshi flew up to above the Flame Crow circling in the air.

He immediately pierced the Flame Crow’s heart.

[Kieeeeeek~!]

At the same time, wind blades raged around Akaboshi, shredding the Flame Crow’s wings.

Thud!

Akaboshi looked at the Flame Crow embedded in the ground.

One down.

The Flame Crow was a magical beast Akaboshi had subjugated several times in Japan.

Flame Crows that fly in the sky and maneuver quickly have very bad compatibility with close-range awakeners.

Of course, that didn’t apply to Akaboshi who controls the wind.

Before he knew it, the other Flame Crows were surrounding him.

[Caw-!]

[Caw caw-!]

[Caw caw caw-!]

The Flame Crows let out monstrous cries simultaneously and charged.

The slender Japanese sword cleaved the air.

“Four Seasons, Dance of the Maple Leaves”

A fiercely raging gale.

Riding that airflow, maple-colored wind blades tear the Flame Crows to pieces.

Akaboshi quickly dashed and pierced another Flame Crow’s heart.

Stab!

Two down.

But something was strange.

Twitch.

The Flame Crow that had first been embedded in the ground was slowly raising its body.

He had definitely pierced the heart accurately.

……Just kill it again.

Akaboshi kicked the ground and leaped.

At the same time, spinning in the air, he slashed down at the neck of the Flame Crow crawling on the ground.

Slash-

The head was cut off.

This time, he definitely killed it.

But a few seconds later, Akaboshi witnessed an unbelievable sight.

Fwoosh-!

Red flames soared from the Flame Crow’s severed neck, and a new head sprouted.

Without time to think, the Flame Crows charged again.

Dodge, slash.

Slash-!

Slash, dodge.

Splat-!

But even when he cut two at once.

When he slashed, stabbed, cut off, tore apart.

Slash! Splat-! Stab~!

The Flame Crows kept reviving no matter how many times he killed them.

Even piercing the heart, cutting off the head, mincing them finely.

A few seconds later, they rise again with crimson flames.

..Was it the fortieth time now. Or the thirty-fifth.

By the time he had killed and killed the Flame Crows to the point of confusion, Akaboshi finally realized.

The flames weren’t rising spontaneously from the corpses of the killed Flame Crows.

The embers scattered by the living Flame Crows were attaching to the bodies of the dead Flame Crows and igniting flames.

As if sharing their life force through the flames.

He had never heard of Flame Crows having such a skill.

At that moment, a thought flashed through Akaboshi’s mind.

Could it be…… unless I kill all five at once…… they keep reviving?

Impossible.

Even if Akaboshi possessed superior skills among A-grade hunters, A-grade is ultimately A-grade.

Killing five magical beasts of the same grade in one strike, without a single error, is impossible.

Fwooooooosh~!

Before he knew it, all revived Flame Crows.

Soon, the five Flame Crows began flying above Akaboshi’s head.

A circular wall of fire surrounded Akaboshi and burned fiercely.

His colleagues had all already fled.

Korean Association hunters would probably arrive only after Akaboshi died.

Di-die? Me?

Akaboshi couldn’t breathe properly.

As if reading the emotion of fear.

One Flame Crow circling in the air charged toward Akaboshi.

At that moment.

Shwwweeeek~!

With a sound tearing the air, a fierce wind pressure raged.

The flames enveloping the surroundings split in half by the intense wind pressure.

At the same time,

Thwack!

[Keeeeeeeek~!]

Something flew and pierced the Flame Crow’s heart.

A pitch-black arrow.

An arrow as if forged from shadow, seemingly without substance.

At that instant.

Step- Step- Step-

Someone began walking through the blazing flames.

A grand physique and majestic presence.

An inexplicable intimidation flowed from the steel armor covering from head to toe.

Soon, a voice overflowing with solemn dignity rang out.

[……Monsters are rampaging on Joseon soil.]

A great general from the late Goryeo and the founding monarch of the Joseon dynasty.

The hero who led new history in the transition from Goryeo to Joseon.

It was King Taejo Yi Seonggye.