novelraw Chapter 285: Episode 285_The Art of the Scam (6)
Chapter 285: Episode 285_The Art of the Scam (6)
8.
Epia felt no regret.
“I don’t need things like that anyway.”
All the countless jewels piled up in the Demon King’s castle. Everything of hers that the Heavenly King would destroy.
“I can just make them again. All I need are these, and my consort.”
She was tiny, barely reaching his chest, but she had a strange charm that made a person’s heart flutter.
Especially lines like this, which hit Han Simin’s tastes dead-on.
“You can have all of the Heavenly King’s treasures. That’s your payment for enhancing my armor and weapons.”
“No. We already agreed to trade those for a way to get to the continent. I can’t take them on top of that.”
“The weapons cover that. We need to calculate the armor separately.”
“Hey now. I’m not that calculating of a guy. For my consort, I’m happy to work for passion alone.”
“You’re the one who taught me to think like this.”
“Did I?”
He’d taught her well, then.
He nodded without hesitation at her words.
If she said so, what could he do?
When someone offered, you took it.
There was no need to feel guilty.
What he had done for her was worth more than any price.
Right now, the Celestials blocking their path couldn’t even touch a single hair on her head and were being mowed down in droves.
The chosen demons following behind her hadn’t even stepped forward yet.
“How did those guys even survive until now?”
Demons equipped with +15 armor and weapons.
Not all seventy sets were gathered here, but most of the demons who had bought them were alive and following behind their king.
They were nothing compared to the thousands of Celestials who had come to the Demon World, but it was still an elite force.
Their faces were full of grim resolve.
“Those damned Celestial bastards. We have to rip them all to pieces, Your Majesty.”
“Of course.”
Even now, demons were dying in droves.
Demons weren’t the type to feel much kinship with their own kind; when they met, they fought, and it didn’t matter who died.
But being killed by Celestials was different.
They would have their revenge.
For every drop of blood spilled, they would take ten, a hundred, a thousand times more.
Their mindset was no different from the Celestials’.
“First, we need to find out where the Heavenly King lives...”
That was the first thing they had to do after arriving in Heaven.
The demons were eager.
The first thing they had seen was the massacre of civilian demons.
Wouldn’t it be nice to repay that humiliation first and then slowly gather information?
Reading their thoughts, Han Simin shook his head.
“Sorry, but we have to move fast.”
It wasn’t that he disliked revenge because it was cruel.
Time was money.
Right now, the Heavenly King was heading toward the Demon King’s castle to find Epia.
Which meant he wasn’t staking his life on destroying the Demon World.
In other words, the moment he realized they had come to Heaven, there was a high chance he would rush back.
’A +15 Sanctuary plus Heaven’s buffs. Even with enhanced armor, do we really have a chance of winning? Especially if every Celestial throws themselves into the fight?’
Every second counted.
“We rob the place blind and then bolt to the continent,” Han Simin muttered.
At the same time, his gaze turned to Aria, who had been silently following along.
“Aria, it’s time for you to decide.”
“...?”
Aria looked at him in confusion.
“Tell me. Where is the Heavenly King’s home?”
The hidden card that meant they didn’t have to torture Celestials for information.
It was Aria’s turn to step up.
*
It was a direct assault.
Aria knew the location, and all the Celestials who could have stopped Epia were currently in the Demon World.
The Celestials who remained in Heaven did rush at them, but it would have taken hundreds of thousands gathered in one place to resist. Charging in piecemeal like this, they never stood a chance.
After a few such futile attacks, they seemed to realize it themselves and pulled back, waiting outside the Heavenly King’s castle for reinforcements to gather.
In the meantime, the Heavenly King’s castle fell to Epia.
They didn’t know the situation in the Demon World, but by now the Demon King’s castle had probably fallen to the Heavenly King as well.
It was a ridiculous situation: each side had walked into the other’s castle virtually unopposed.
In practice, it didn’t really matter.
In the end, it was a question of who died first.
The current Heavenly King and Demon King were the strongest in history.
There was no one to replace them.
Once one of them defeated the other, they would have no trouble sweeping through Heaven or the Demon World with their remaining forces.
If Han Simin hadn’t caused the misunderstanding that Aria had crossed into the Demon World and been kidnapped, there might have actually been fewer direct clashes between Heaven and the Demon World, as they would have been more wary of each other.
Direct conflict between Heaven and the Demon World, as was happening now, inevitably led to massive damage.
It would be a victory, but a victory full of wounds.
Between taking losses on the continent—on someone else’s land—and having their own home destroyed, the former would obviously be easier to bear.
But in any case, the situation had already exploded.
They had to see it through.
The first thing they did was loot the vault.
There was no specific place that could be called a “vault.”
Aria simply told them this:
“The place where we serve God. That is where the Divine Objects are.”
Her calm tone both soothed some of his rage and resentment over losing the Sanctuary and filled him with fresh anticipation.
They hurried there.
And they found them.
A smile spread across Han Simin’s lips.
*
The plan had been to take everything.
But there were three items placed before the statue of God, which Aria called Divine Objects.
Those alone were enough.
They were so incredible that they changed his mind on the spot.
“Epia, tell me now. How do we get to the continent?”
“Are you really satisfied with just those?”
“Of course.”
“They look pretty useless to me.”
“Hey. Maybe to you. Once I get to the continent, I can use these to earn enough money to live easy for the rest of my life.”
One shouldn’t be too greedy.
They had already secured plenty of valuable treasure; if he got too greedy now, he might end up losing what he had.
Han Simin, who had come in ready to strip the Heavenly King’s castle bare, put on a solemn expression, as if he had a split personality.
Epia nodded.
If he said so, she had no intention of arguing.
He had already earned her trust as her consort, but still, he wouldn’t suddenly claim there was no way to get there... right?
He waited, worried.
Fortunately, instead of the reaction Han Simin feared, Epia presented a solution.
“We just have to open a Gate. One that leads to the continent.”
“...”
He was speechless.
“Simple, right?”
The answer was so anticlimactic he wanted to ask if she was serious.
“Simple enough.”
But he didn’t doubt her.
She had no reason to lie, and more importantly, while she had called it simple, if you thought about it carefully, it was anything but.
“Then we have to go back to the Demon King’s castle?”
Open a Gate.
Easy to say, but there was no way you could just open one anywhere, anytime you felt like it.
If that were possible, Epia could have just opened a Gate by herself, swept across the continent with her true power, and that would have been that.
The Heavenly King would have done the same.
There was no rule against it, but as history recorded, the demons had always chosen to cooperate with the warlocks, using the Gates they opened despite the penalties incurred. That meant it was never easy for the demons to open a Gate unilaterally, whenever and wherever they pleased.
Yet Epia spoke of it so casually.
Which meant there was another way.
Surely she didn’t mean they should sit around and wait for the warlocks, who had burrowed into hiding like cockroaches in winter, just to cling to life.
There had to be conditions.
The most likely condition involved the Demon King’s castle, where she had once lived.
But the Demon King’s castle was currently occupied by the Heavenly King. He would return once he heard the news, but when would that news even reach him? And even if it did, what if they ran into him on the way?
Unless some demon was secretly watching them and relaying information, this was an insanely risky gamble.
Han Simin’s expression darkened.
’Can we really go back?’
Everything he had done in the Demon World so far had been a massive success. The videos still being released were breaking his own records day after day, and the upcoming base-race was sure to be incredibly entertaining, even without any editing.
But now, the real problem began.
From here on, it was an unscripted drama, a movie in the making. The lack of a pre-written plot was, in itself, incredibly compelling, as it meant the viewers could never predict what would happen next. That was the appeal of the unexpected, the very reason reality shows were so popular.
However, there was a reason 100% real reality shows didn’t exist, and this was it.
You had no idea how the story would end.
A story needed a clear arc—a beginning, development, twist, and conclusion—to paint a truly great picture, yet at this crucial moment, the path forward had become completely uncertain.
Ultimately, it was a matter of quality.
An open ending, or a hyper-realistic twist. Some people liked that sort of thing, but plenty of others would find it unsatisfying.
Chief among them was the man shooting this movie: Han Simin himself.
“Ah, damn it. This can’t happen.”
He was the one who felt the most frustrated. In truth, he didn’t particularly care about the viewers’ reactions.
The story simply could not be allowed to unfold this way.
As Simin scowled as if he had a mouthful of something foul, Epia tilted her head.
“What are you talking about? Why would we go to the Demon King’s castle?”
“Huh?”
“The warlocks don’t have the power to open a Gate for us.”
“...Huh?”
“The method I was talking about was opening it from here.”
He looked at her in confusion.
“Isn’t that why we came to Heaven? I thought you already knew and suggested it.”
He gasped in realization.
Epia’s words tumbled out, one after another, giving him no chance to breathe. As she spoke, the pieces clicked into place in Simin’s mind. He suddenly remembered what Aria had told him about how Epia had crossed to the continent without any penalties.
“Wait. Is that possible?” he asked, turning to Aria.
Aria hesitated for a moment, then nodded. “With two of the Divine Objects you brought, we have more than enough Divine Power to open a Gate from this side. The problem is the other side...”
“What? Two?”
“Yes.”
He fell silent.
He had brought three Divine Objects. It wasn’t that his conscience had pricked him and he’d only taken three; there had only been three of them there, period.
And now she was asking for two.
Naturally, he didn’t want to hand them over, but he had no say in the matter. Even if he did give them to her, it wasn’t even certain it would work. It was the kind of situation that made him sigh involuntarily, but what could he do? Still, if it meant they could save at least one Divine Object and still get home...
He steeled himself and asked, “When you say the other side, you mean the temple?”
“Yes. No matter what, the amount of Divine Power we can sustain here is overwhelmingly less than what the Heavenly King uses to open a Gate himself. The one we open will be the bare minimum. The rest has to be opened from the other side.”
“If that’s all it is, then we probably don’t have to worry,” Han Simin said with a smile.
’Seriously? That’s it?’
“Get ready right now. We’ve got plenty of Divine Power.”
“Oppa, how are you going to do it?”
“We’ve got Scree over there, don’t we? We’ll make it work. Luckily, I’ve already stocked up on plenty of Gold.”
“But how will you contact them?”
“He’s right there. Our excellent Fool.”
She looked at him quizzically.
“The gentleman who’s holding the Kingdom Conquest War tomorrow.”
She remained silent.
It wasn’t the tone of someone asking for a favor. It was the absolute certainty of someone who hadn’t considered the other party’s wishes in the slightest.
*