Chapter 280: Chapter 280

When Kim Jin-Woo returned, there was a guest waiting for him.

“Congratulations on the complete inheritance of your legacy.”

Catherine, the Wailing Lord, had shown herself after a long time. She was visibly nervous. She was forcing an obvious smile, visible through her pretentiousness, and the curled ends of her lips quickly hardened before she dropped the act and got straight to the purpose of her visit.

“My guess was correct. The other Highlords know her too,” she said.

To Kim Jin-Woo, who had already found out that So-Hee was the Immoral Lord behind everything, it wasn’t a surprising piece of news.

“You don’t seem that surprised. Did you expect this as well?” Catherine asked. Seeing how Kim Jin-Woo hadn’t even reacted to the information she had painstakingly obtained, she frowned deeply.

Kim Jin-Woo had no choice but to hesitate to reply. He wasn’t sure if he could truly trust her.

“How much do you know about the Ancient Underworld? No, let’s change that question. How many of the ancient memories were passed down to you?” he finally asked.

Kim Jin-Woo’s hesitation was short-lived. If Catherine had indeed been involved in all of this, she wouldn’t have been so busy wandering the Underworld trying to uncover So-Hee’s identity.

There was a possibility that it had all been an act, but he chose to make her his ally instead of doubting her. As such, he confided everything he knew in her.

“That doesn’t even make sense…” Catherine trailed off.

It seemed the Highlord’s memories that the Wailing Lord had inherited had only been of the time before the Twilight. Hearing the ambitions of the former Lords that she could never have imagined, she looked completely dismayed.

“You’re saying that all the pain and suffering we had to endure to survive until now was because we were playthings for their Halloween party or something!?” she exclaimed.

She was devastated by the fact that everything she had achieved was merely the result of someone else’s arrangement, as well as being genuinely angry at the fact that she was nothing more than a puppet of the former Lords.

“I’m not pleased either,” Kim Jin-Woo replied.

In fact, when it came to feelings of anger and hatred, Kim Jin-Woo should probably have been as enraged as Catherine, if not even more. Unlike Catherine, who was simply someone’s plaything, he had been denied his very existence.

But he kept all that anger inside of him, and didn’t let it show. All he did was further provoke Catherine’s anger in a soft voice.

“The Underworld will soon be restored to what it used to be. And when that time comes, the wraith that made a fool of us will rise from his grave and shamelessly take away all we’ve accomplished.” He expressed his disgust and anger equally, despite the air of eloquence surrounding his voice. “We can’t stop it.”

A bigger fragment would absorb a smaller fragment; that was the rule. Perhaps the Immoral Lord had taken that into consideration when she sowed the seeds.

“This is driving me crazy. This ultimately means we can’t do anything but wait patiently for the rest of the fragments to find us,” Catherine said. She had experience absorbing the fragments herself. Thus, she quickly recognized the seriousness of the situation and let out a frustrated groan.

“No, that doesn’t mean there isn’t a solution,” Kim Jin-Woo replied.

“What? Do you have a plan?” Catherine asked.

It was the perfect reversal of positions. In their last encounter, Kim Jin-Woo had had no choice but to fall behind in terms of his knowledge of the Highlords’ inherited memories and presence, but now, he was completely in control.

Catherine too must have felt the shift in momentum, as she expressed her discomfort, but she knew she had no other choice but to obediently listen to him in silence.

“First, we need to slow down the Restoration as much as possible,” Kim Jin-Woo began.

“The Restoration will eventually happen sooner or later. It’s not something we can stop with our powers alone,” Catherine objected.

“We don’t have to prevent it completely; we just have to buy enough time,” Kim Jin-Woo replied.

The question of whether there was a way to delay the Restoration aside, Catherine first asked what the point of doing so was.

“I plan to find and remove the fragments that will threaten our existence in the meantime,” Kim Jin-Woo said.

They could be easy or difficult to find, and even if he were to find them, he was certain that it wouldn’t be easy to eliminate those fragments. If he made one false move, there was a possibility that he would be the one consumed instead.

But nevertheless, he was full of confidence. No matter how great the powers of the Ancient Lords were, they weren’t omnipotent, and there were definitely many things they didn’t know either.

While the Ancient Lords waited to tear him apart, a newly named Highlord had been born. In the past, there were only ten names, but now, there were eleven.

The insatiable, greedy ‘Predator’. That was the name of the newly born Highlord.

“Bring me the fragments,” Kim Jin-Woo said.

Fragments tended to attract other fragments, so it wouldn’t be difficult for the Highlords to find fragments related to them. The only problem was, would they be able to overcome the temptation of the fragments they found?

But Kim Jin-Woo quickly brushed off his worries. It wasn’t yet time for the wraiths to be resurrected. If it were, he couldn’t have resisted the temptation of the Hypocrite’s Mask that might contain the thoughts of the Wandering Lord so easily.

Since he had overcome the temptations of the other fragments, he was certain that he would be able to overcome the temptations of the fragments of the other Highlords as well by now.

He added, “And if possible, I’d like to meet the other Highlords. If things go awry, we might have to unite and fight together, so I’d like to meet them personally before that.”

“I don’t know how much they’ll believe me, but let’s give it a try,” the Wailing Lord replied before leaving.

“Master!”

Dominique and the other summons, who had been waiting for him from the beginning, came to him when Catherine left.

“There’s something you all need to know first.” Kim Jin-woo explained all the circumstances to the summons who had been waiting for him.

“They must be out of their minds. To unite the Underworld and the surface, is that even possible?”

“It must have failed because it was impossible.”

“But just because it failed once doesn’t mean it’ll fail the second time.”

Even the reticent Heimdall expressed his thoughts about the absurdity of the situation, while Morrigan openly ridiculed the vain ambitions of the Ancient Lords.

“I see. Master had some connection to the Ancient Underworld after all.”

Most of the summoned beasts were surprised by the ancient secret, but they weren’t too surprised at the fact that their master’s identity was that of a fragment.

“You aren’t surprised at all,” Kim Jin-Woo remarked.

“Even when we found out Master had inherited the blood of a Terran, we didn’t care. Why would that matter now?”

“To be honest, I’m more inclined to serve a descendant of the former Lords than to serve a Terran as a master.”

The Nagas, who were loyal and honest from birth, didn’t care what form their master took on. Morrigan and the other ancient summons stated that they had been initially attracted to Kim Jin-Woo’s charisma and unsatisfying lust of conquest; thus, such a revelation only added on to their desire to stick with him.

“Knowing Master, I’m sure you’ll use that hatred and despair to your advantage in the future, but please don’t fall too deeply into that dark whirlpool of hatred and lose yourself in the process,” Dominique cautioned him. Only she seemed to be able to sympathize with him, showing her concern with the amount of anger he had contained within him.

“I’ll bear that in mind,” Kim Jin-Woo replied. And with that, the matter of his past was put to rest. But still, the most important question remained.

“Angela,” Kim Jin-Woo began. Angela, who had remained silent the entire time, looked up with a gloomy expression. Kim Jin-Woo continued, “It seems I’ve placed a heavy burden on you.”

It was Kim Jin-Woo who had forcibly pushed Angela, who had refused to take the Blood Source, and made her ascend to the rank of Highlord. If he had known that the situation would turn out like this, he would have personally absorbed the True Blood’s power instead, even if that meant giving up the Red Castle.

“Please don’t say that. I may have disappointed Master once, but it won’t happen again,” Angela answered. She seemed terrified of him, as she continued to take the blame for not having saved him in time. “I’ll never forget Master just by getting consumed by the wraiths of the past.”

Kim Jin-Woo finally relaxed upon hearing those words. Considering that Angela had initially yielded even the Blood Source, which was the biggest source of temptation for any Vampire, to him, he was certain that she wouldn’t easily be swallowed up by the fragments of the past.

“If the opportunity comes, I’ll give my life just to prove my loyalty and devotion to you,” Angela insisted.

Kim Jin-Woo stroked Angela’s hair gently as she expressed her overwhelming devotion to him. He said, “Stay alive. Surviving and staying by my side is the only way to prove that to me. So, save that precious life of yours.”

At the sight of his lovely Vampire, he briefly forgot about the situation he was in, and he let out a gentle smile.

***

After the discussion with his summons, Kim Jin-Woo decided on a few priority objectives he wanted to clear.

In order to stabilize the boundary between the surface and the Underworld, he decided to retrieve the labyrinth that had been planted on the surface and move the Eternal Treasury into the Grand Labyrinth as soon as possible.

“For now, let me recover the labyrinth from the surface. I have a question for the Frost Treants as well, so I’ll set off immediately,” he said.

Among the numerous treasures he had obtained from the Eternal Treasury, the unassuming spear that had spoken to him was made from the branch of a Frost Treant. It was possible that the Frost Treants in the surface labyrinth knew something about the spear.

“I’ll be back,” he said. He ordered Daedalus to prepare a space to relocate the Eternal Treasury to before opening a portal and heading to the surface.

“Master!” Lee Jun-Young, who seemed to have been practicing calling him by that name alone, quickly rushed over to him with a greeting.

Kim Jin-Woo would have reacted awkwardly to her affection in the past, but now that he was a fully awakened Lord, he casually accepted her greeting, saying, “It’s been a while.”

He himself couldn’t remember how long it had been since he had returned to the surface. Only after he reached the surface did it dawn on him how much time had passed since.

“Why are you only coming here now after so long?” Lee Jun-Young asked.

“My bad,” Kim Jin-Woo replied. Lee Jun-Young’s eyes widened when she heard him gracefully responding to her whining.

However, Kim Jin-Woo’s friendly attitude that had almost made Lee Jun-Young want to run and hug him immediately quickly turned awkward. She was completely overwhelmed by his presence, which had risen to a whole new level in the long time since they had last seen each other.

“Um… Master. Your aura…” Lee Jun-Young began. She found herself being even more polite, as she unwittingly put her hands together and straightened her posture out of an inexplicable demand of respect.

“Many things happened,” Kim Jin-Woo said simply.

It sounded like an excuse, but that was the truth. As he grew stronger, he had found himself getting more entangled with the affairs of the Underworld, and the more he did, the more he felt comfortable being in the Underworld. Naturally, he had subsequently found himself spending more and more time in the Underworld.

“Did something happen? Something feels odd,” he added.

He frowned as he realized the atmosphere on the surface had changed drastically; something he had dismissed initially as being because he hadn’t returned to the surface in a while.

“I was waiting for Master to show up for a very long time!” Lee Jun-Young explained. Her withdrawn attitude quickly disappeared as she kicked up a fuss, just like her usual self. She exclaimed. “A war might be happening again!”

“What?” Kim Jin-Woo responded upon hearing her unexpected answer. It was as if he had been struck hard in the back of his head.

“The surface is now preparing for war against the Underworld once more!” Lee Jun-Young reiterated.