Japan.
The island nation of East Asia.
In this line of work, there are two names used to describe Japan.
One is an exceedingly honorable title.
The other is a slur laced with pity and mockery.
They are the Sacred Land of East Asian sorcery and the cursed island nation.
Crack!
"Damn it! This cursed island nation! Why the hell are there so many evil spirits and vengeful spirits popping up here?!"
"Tell me about it."
"It's because there are so many hikikomori."
"Is that already three cases today? I heard Korea has a lot too, but not this many."
The number of disasters caused by evil spirits, vengeful spirits, and the like is half of China's.
And yet the landmass is only one twenty-fifth the size.
That came from Japan's peculiar environment.
For ages, it had suffered constant natural disasters, and from that sprang countless legends about an inescapable death.
Added to that was Japan's location.
With the flow of ley lines, commonly called leylines, layered on top of everything else, Japan boasted a frequency of supernatural incidents higher than any other country.
And yet, as the saying goes, a lotus blooms in the mud.
This harsh environment drove the level of Japanese sorcerers sharply upward.
It became a nation with the strength to stand toe-to-toe with Europe's great houses, almost the only one in Asia capable of doing so.
That was the Japan the world spoke of.
But even Japan had one curse of its own.
That overwhelming power had never once been united since the Warring States period.
"A bunch of Uhara idiots who can't do anything except pettily command shikigami."
"Hah? I don't want to hear that from Sayanomiya, who can't do anything except run businesses and play politics while putting sorcerers' duties last."
"You barbaric Seishuin bastards..."
"Nagi sure sounds lofty. So tell me, did your elder get utterly crushed by our princess in the last contest?"
Uhara.
Sayanomiya.
Nagi.
Seishuin.
The four great families representing Japan.
Their beginnings all traced back to the Warring States period.
In truth, the intent was admirable.
Looking at the hellscape that had become the Japanese mainland through civil war, the scattered families each guarding only their own vision judged that if they too were swept up in it and forgot their responsibilities and duties as sorcerers, Japan itself might be finished.
So they gathered around the largest family in each region, divided the light and the shadow with ruthless clarity, and vowed to protect the land where people would live by pooling their strength without being dragged into any storm or upheaval.
That was the beginning of the Four Great Families.
But at the same time, that was also the cause of the division.
As groups created solely to protect land and territory, with no special purpose or ideal beyond that, they became fiercely attached to their own domains.
So long as the extermination of evil spirits was satisfied, they neither interfered with one another nor permitted interference.
Indeed, time passed without even the slightest exchange between them.
And while the light side eventually unified into a single nation called Japan, the result was a country where four families still ruled their own lands—no, regions that were effectively no different from separate countries.
That was present-day Japan.
"Hmph!"
Ah, a king should have appeared at that point...
Unfortunately, by the time mutual exclusion and resentment had deepened between them, militarism came to Japan.
Still, do not misunderstand.
Just because militarism arrived did not mean they were all swept up in it.
"World domination? Hah! As expected, non-sorcerers who know nothing talk too easily."
"And they don't even know who the real master of this world is."
"Anyway, even those people probably wouldn't care about this petty children's game."
They had no king, but that did not mean they were ignorant of kings' existence.
Because they knew of gods, they also knew of Devil Kings.
The true rulers of humanity.
Beings capable of destroying not just the Japanese Empire, but the entire Japanese archipelago on their own.
They simply remained silent and still because they had no interest in the human world.
The masters of the world were still the kings.
And yet, they were also intrigued.
Since they had only ever fought among themselves, they became curious about the level of the world stage.
"Hmm? Should we go take a look?"
And so they went abroad, starting with Korea, then China, Russia, Southeast Asia, and more.
Riding on the backs of imperialists, they traveled to foreign lands.
There, they learned something.
"Huh? Is that all?"
That they were, unexpectedly, terrifyingly strong.
"Ah, so this is the level of the world?"
"How boring. It makes me want to die."
"Isn't there anyone strong around here?"
"I'm the strongest here, then."
They had trained in a land that was half truly cursed, so their level could not help but be exceptional.
Of course, after later confirming the strength of Europe's great houses, they did gain some sense of proportion.
But even then, their shoulders did not slump, because they had already confirmed that they could contend with those called the world's strongest.
"If our family can unify the Four Great Families and become Japan's greatest..."
"Then becoming number one in the world is no impossible dream."
"Stupid imperialist bastards. This is the time to unify Japan, not worry about other countries."
"If the others won't do it, then we will!"
It was ironic.
Japan, while preaching imperialism, was waging war abroad.
Meanwhile, Japan's sorcery world had begun a full-scale war among themselves.
From that point on, what had once been merely a deepening rift between the Four Great Families became outright enmity.
And that continues to this day.
Of course, people who grew disgusted with Japan's sorcery world naturally emerged as well.
They broke away from the Four Great Families and preserved the culture and sorcery that had been lost in the civil war between them.
They called themselves true record-keepers.
Later, they would come to be known as the organization called the Historical Compilation Committee.
And now.
At last.
After a long and arduous wish, a king was born in Japan.
His name was Kusanagi Godou.
The seventh Devil King proclaimed by the Greenwich Wise Men's Council.
The boy who had visited Sardinia in Italy on his grandfather's errand killed the Eastern Persian war god Verethragna there and became a godslayer, one of the Devil Kings.
He even usurped all ten of Verethragna's incarnations, an outrageous Authority.
"At last, a king has been born for us!"
"Now this long war is finally over."
"If it's a little annoying to be on the same boat as those other families, well, if he's a king, there's nothing for it."
"Anyway, if we prove with our own strength that the king doesn't need the other families, that's all that matters."
In truth, they were tired too.
And because Europe's great houses had already surged ahead while they were busy fighting among themselves, the gap had only grown wider.
Right now, when naming the strongest humans apart from those beyond all measure like godslayers, there was no Japanese name there.
Princess Alice, Saint Raphaelo, Paolo Blandelli, and the like.
All Europeans.
It was the result of a world where lineage, bloodline, and talent mattered greatly, but environment and support for growth could never be ignored either.
At any rate, now that a king had been born, he would surely grab them by the collar and drag them forward.
Even if they intended to puff up their pride a little because of all the resentment they had accumulated, in the end everyone meant to fall under the king.
As mentioned above, after that they would prove their abilities to the king and, at last, guide the entire Japanese sorcery world through healthy competition among the Four Great Families.
However...
"Hehe. Godou really can't do without me."
"Ah, I don't care! I'm not doing this king thing, okay?! Stop making it such a pain in the ass!"
"Sigh, then I'll handle this for the time being. That's fine, right?"
"More than fine—just don't bring me anything weird next time."
There was some woman clinging to the king's side.
Bright golden hair.
Blue eyes that seemed to hold the sky itself.
The fourth masterpiece of Artria, hailed as the greatest work among artificially created sacred treasures.
The master of the lion's demonic sword, Cuore di Leone.
"Erica Blandelli..."
"Diavolo Rosso."
"How is that woman, the so-called Red Devil, here?!"
"We definitely blocked her entry!"
The person who had played the most crucial supporting role in Godou's godslaying in Italy.
The young lady of the famed Blandelli family, one of Europe's most distinguished houses.
The current youngest Great Knight.
That woman had attached herself to the king's side.
And then, while treating everything as a nuisance and denying that he himself was a king, she began borrowing the king's authority to do whatever she pleased.
The first thing she did was connect the Historical Compilation Committee with the king, as if the Four Great Families were beneath her notice.
Let me say this in advance: the Historical Compilation Committee did not have the capacity to serve a king.
Recently, the Four Great Families had also felt the need for unification, so they had begun supporting the committee little by little and its influence had grown.
Even so, it could not begin to compare to even the little toe of the strength possessed by the Four Great Families.
These people could barely handle the king's cleanup, let alone support him.
To connect such a group with the king of Japan as though they represented the country?
Wasn't that far too blatant?
"We're being excluded!"
"Well... if that woman is going to exercise real power as the king's consort, the Historical Compilation Committee is easier to use than we are."
"We can just take the missing strength from the Blandelli family."
"What else would you call this but interference in internal affairs?"
They wanted to deal with her immediately, but even that was not easy.
For one thing, she was the king's closest confidante, and in practice Godou relied on Erica heavily.
And as her name made clear, she was the niece of Paolo Blandelli, the holy knight standing at the summit of the human world.
The holy knight who led the magic society that divided Italy in two, the Copper-Black Cross.
Apparently, after whatever she had done in Italy, the Sword King of Italy and their own king had even become friends.
In the end, the Four Great Families had become fools who had produced a king, only to fail to serve him.
Then, in the midst of all that...
The being Uhara had learned of through Jang Seong-woo.
"What the hell is that—!!"
"That's not human prana..."
"Could there be one in Korea too? No... but there shouldn't have been any news of a god descending in Korea."
Yang Il-gyu.
The man who had come seeking revenge for his father.
The punisher who had single-handedly annihilated Jindo Group and then, before long, went around beating to death the evil men existing in Korea one by one.
Uhara sensed it instantly.
Il-gyu—that he was a king.
That he was the eighth Devil King born in Korea.
At first they had considered hiding it, but in the end they told the other Four Great Families as well.
They judged that, because of that woman Erica Blandelli, this was not the time to be fighting among themselves.
And naturally, the other families were stunned too.
But not long after, word came that Il-gyu had become Korea's king, and they began to formulate a somewhat dangerous plan.
"Let's make Korea's king clash with our king."
"Are you serious?"
"Then what other method is there?"
"Th-that..."
"If it goes beyond a king-versus-king duel and turns into a clash between Japan and Korea, then no matter how much that woman Erica tries, she won't be able to ignore us."
Unlike their own king, Korea's king had declared himself and immediately become the master of the National Intelligence Service, beginning his takeover of Korea.
He was condemning every kind of corruption and every resident of the shadow and the light who had crossed the line, punishing them all with his law staff and making his terror known.
The political world had bowed its head, and Taeseong, number one in the business world, had finally decided to pay for all its sins and enter under the king's rule.
Now Korea's king, Yang Il-gyu, was the undisputed master of Korea.
If he declared war, all of Korea's sorcerers would likely rise up as well.
Though there had been damage from his excessive punishments, those who had long been burdened with resentment were supporting their king more than ever.
And if this was the first campaign of a new king, they would throw away their lives to prove their loyalty.
"Even if Korea's underlying strength is overwhelmingly inferior to ours in Japan, that only holds because we have the Four Great Families, doesn't it?"
"That's true."
"Even if they're inferior, Korea can't be taken lightly. At minimum, two of the Four Great Families would have to go all-out to match them."
In other words, even if you wrung out all of Korea's superhuman world, it would still amount to the level of two of the Four Great Families.
Surprisingly, that was true.
No, if anything, it was a generous evaluation.
A group mixed together at random could never truly unite their strength.
If they really fought, two Japanese families would probably win.
Japan had simply failed to unite its power.
That was why it was called the Sacred Land of East Asian sorcery.
And of course, for a battle of that scale, the Blandelli family alone could not handle it.
In the first place, the Blandelli family was rooted in Italy.
And they had their own powerful rival, Kranzar.
They could not use all their strength either.
"If she went around boasting with her own mouth that she would serve the king, then she has to take responsibility for her words."
In the end, the only path left to Erica was to find the Four Great Families.
And the Four Great Families would tell her then.
To get the hell back to Italy right now.
To stop meddling in their king's internal affairs.
"After that, we'll somehow clean up the mess."
"We're sorry to Korea, but this is the only way for us to survive too."
"There's nothing good about making an enemy of Korea now that a king has been born there. Especially since our king gained ten incarnations at once as the price of his Authority, and that has placed far too many shackles on his power."
"Let's avoid direct conflict as much as possible. We'll just make it look like we're fighting. Afterward, we'll personally go and apologize to Korea's king, even if we have to kneel."
Their apology to Korea was sincere.
They had not paid much attention during the age of imperialist history because they were busy fighting among themselves.
But they knew Japan had done many terrible things to Korea.
They also knew that the trigger had been their own movement with the imperialists because they had wanted to see the world stage and ended up showing them the power of sorcery.
They had hurried to patch things up, but it was too late.
Still, it was a little embarrassing to call it an apology, because they had not been the ones who did it, and none of the Four Great Families had the right to represent Japan.
Unlike politics and the light side, Japan was still, bluntly speaking, in the Warring States period.
And there was another reason they could make such a plan.
"Honestly, if they fought, our king would win."
"He has a lot of shackles on his Authority. The ten incarnations are worth ten Authorities."
"Korea's king, who still has only one Authority, won't have a chance."
"Especially the warrior incarnation... that would be fatal to a Korean king who only has one Authority."
If king fought king, Japan would win.
This was not a matter of probability.
It was certainty.
They believed that if Korea's king and Japan's king fought, Japan's king would win without fail.
So even if the worst-case scenario came to pass and king truly clashed with king, they thought it could still be cleaned up.
After all, war belonged to the side of the victor, no matter the reason.
"If only our king hadn't kept that kind of woman at his side..."
"More than that, I wish he had a little more awareness as a king."
"That woman Erica came here by sneaking into the country. What were we supposed to do to stop her?"
What they were truly furious about, in the end, was Godou himself—their own king.
He didn't want to do anything.
If he wanted an ordinary daily life to continue, he could have just told them so.
Why, of all things, had he handed full authority to a woman from another country?
And why was he still contacting the Historical Compilation Committee and meeting with the Greenwich Council, doing everything he could possibly do?
"Let's hope this chance changes him at least a little."
"Yes, even if we don't expect him to become some kind of king of Korea."
"We should at least hope he becomes someone who speaks for himself."
"He can't run forever from the fate of a king."
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