Chapter 17: Did you clean your neck well? (1)
Translator: miraclerifle
There are different types of artifacts. Most of them are helpful to humans, but there is probably no ability people desire more than the ability to prophesize the future.
This was the reason anybody who used an artifact with the prophecy ability had received great treatment.
‘The Future Diary is one of those artifacts.’
However, the Future Diary user could not get in the good graces of the monopolizers.
Why?
Because the Future Diary user was an idiot. In addition, the Future Diary that was a S-Grade(Hero-grade) artifact had a critical weakness.
Maybe that was the reason. It was true that j.a.pan benefited greatly from the Future Diary at first, but the Future Diary user was a.s.sa.s.sinated by a different seer in the future.
That seer would go on to become a monopolizer and make his name as the < Monarch of Fate >. [1]
That was why he had not paid much attention to her. She would end up dying anyway.
However.
‘Things are different if the situation is going to be like this.’
It didn’t matter whatever that idiot did, but it was a problem if he ended up being negatively impacted because of her.
It was quite a terrible feeling to have someone read your every action and movement.
Because of that...
‘Let’s take care of the Future Diary now.’
There was no reason not to take care of something that was getting in your way.
There was also another reason he needed to take care of her now.
‘Chairman Kwon is tied to the Future Diary.’
According to the information from Abe, the TKBM Group was involved in the Future Diary research.
That was Chairman Kwon"s company. Of course, it wasn"t weird that Chairman Kwon was working with j.a.pan. The Chairman Kwon in the past had been close with j.a.pan as well. However, Ju-Heon did not know that he had been connected to the Future Diary early on.
This was because Ju-Heon had not gotten involved with Chairman Kwon until he was already a monopolizer.
‘You son of a b.i.t.c.h. You must have used the Future Diary to gather up a bunch of artifacts early on.’
So, this would be great.
He would hinder Chairman Kwon’s path.
Ju-Heon packed his bag and headed out to the living room. It was a 20 pyeong small villa. [2] The digital clock on the wall said it was 9am.
Clunk.
His roommate Kim Dong Hyun came out yawning from the other room as Ju-Heon opened the front door.
“Where are you going so early in the morning when you said you quit your job?”
“Ah, I have something I need to do.”
“Are you going to eat dinner at home?”
“Yeah, I’ll be home by dinner.”
“I guess you have lunch plans. Is it a woman? Where are you eating??
“Hmm, j.a.pan? Shinjuku has a killer lunch menu.”
“Ah, yeah, j.a.pan"s Shinjuku is great .........enjoy your meal......?”
However, his friend questioned what he heard a moment later.
“Wait a minute, j.a.pan?! Shinjuku? The country next to ours?”
He completely woke up from the shock.
“Hey! You are going to get on a plane to go eat lunch?!”
Unfortunately, Ju-Heon was already gone.
“Kyaaaa!”
Sasaki Yuka, the Future Diary user.
Sasaki who was in her third year of middle school this year almost fainted and died from shock while reading the old book. It was because of what she read in this old book that smelled of mold.
“Ay, d.a.m.n it, what the h.e.l.l?!”
Words continued to appear on the old book she threw in shock.
She didn’t know the contents.
The words appearing in the book were in old Hanja that was not used much anymore, and even the writing style was different than modern text.
There was no way that someone like Sasaki who preferred to write even her own name in Katakana rather than Hanja would be able to read such ancient text.
‘But I can still tell what it said this time’
That was the case. No matter how stupid she was, there was no way she wouldn’t know the 死 character.
Furthermore, how could she not be scared when that phrase appeared over and over on that page and the pages after it?!
佐々木が死ぬ。(Sasaki is going to die.)
佐々木が死ぬ。(Sasaki is going to die.)
佐々木が死ぬ。(Sasaki is going to die.)
佐々木が死ぬ。(Sasaki is going to die.)
佐々木が死ぬ。(Sasaki is going to die.)
殺殺殺殺殺殺殺殺殺殺殺殺殺......... [3]
“What the h.e.l.l is this?!”
Sasaki started to cry.
At this point, it seemed more like a curse letter than a prophecy.
‘This started to happen after those old men made me do something weird!’
Sasaki was bawling now.
Her bed in this luxurious mansion that was over hundreds of pyeong in size was filled with beauty magazines, fashion magazines, and celebrity gossip magazines she enjoyed.
There was also a Hanja dictionary and texts to help her decipher ancient texts, but she didn"t care for those.
There were traces of her trying to copy ancient texts on a notepad, but it was in the trashcan as if she got tired after trying for a few pages.
She turned toward the large picture of a handsome male idol on the wall and started to sniffle.
“I wouldn’t listen to those old men if it wasn"t for our handsome Sosuke.”
She had received the Future Diary on her way home from school. This all started because she kicked the dirty book she saw on the ground.
That weird book seemed to be trying to say something like how she had been the first woman to kick it and started to follow Sasaki everywhere.
It would go into her backpack, follow her into convenience stores, and even to the restroom.
The book followed Sasaki no matter if she ripped it, burned it or threw it away. The Prime Minister and some soldiers had come to pick her up when she went to the psychiatric hospital thinking she was going crazy. They said something about how they heard about artifacts and the Future Diary from TKBM’s Chairman Kwon, but Sasaki didn’t care about that.
“Waaaah, Sosuke. Sosuke, save meeeee.”
Of course, she was not complaining about her current life. She got to live in a huge house she could only dream of, her family didn’t have to work so hard anymore, and she could do whatever she wanted to do.
Furthermore, she was now chatting with her idol, Nakamura Sosuke. Sasaki thought that he was the most handsome man in the world.
That was why she was happy.
She couldn’t go to school or see her friends. Other than that and the fact that these scary looking old men kept an eye on her and made her study ancient texts, everything was great.
But she had ended up like this after starting to trace a Korean Tomb Raider or whatever at those old men"s request.
“Waaaaa, even Mr. Abe ended up that way!”
Sasaki was scared thinking that the same thing would happen to her.
The ugly old men from the government were saying that she was the great priestess who would save j.a.pan, but Sasaki didn"t give two s.h.i.ts about the country.
‘Mommy, the Korean is coming to kill me, he’s coming to kill me.’
Her friends had told her that Korean men were handsome, tall, and had good manners, but he was coming as an a.s.sa.s.sin.
The most important things to her right now were her life and Sosuke, the most handsome man in the world.
‘No. I can’t die like this.’
Sasaki gulped after opening the old book again.
“Sushi at its birthplace really is delicious.”
Shinjuku.
There was a famous high-cla.s.s sushi restaurant here that people would wait hours in line to try. Of course, Ju-Heon was able to enjoy the delicious taste without waiting as it won’t get famous for a couple more years.
Ju-Heon really was eating lunch in Shinjuku.
Ju-Heon knew about a lot of delicious places because he had to travel the world for artifacts.
The only difference was that he used to fly everywhere with a private jet he received from Chairman Kwon for his excavation team to use.
Ju-Heon looked at the time visible on his cellphone as he sat in his private room and put another piece of fatty tuna in his mouth.
It had been about one hour since he came into this sushi restaurant.
‘It"s about time they showed up.’
Ju-Heon smiled as he looked inside his backpack. There was a note filled with messages about killing Sasaki Yuka in his backpack.
Why?
It was because Ju-Heon knew the traits of the S-Grade(Legendary Hero-grade) Future Diary. The Future Diary definitely read people’s futures. The effects were greater when it involved a j.a.panese person or j.a.pan, with the future being written in the book in real time.
However, all artifacts have weaknesses and the Future Diary has a critical weakness.
She could only read the future of people she saw with her own eyes.
She had to see the person face to face to be able to mark them and read their future.
‘That is why the chances of being placed in danger are high.’
This was the reason she was instantly killed by the future Monarch of Fate in the past. Of course, the fact that Ju-Heon’s future was being read right now was being done in a slightly different way. Although he had not been marked, he was being influenced by the fact that he had been next to Abe who was marked.
That would be why a bit of Ju-Heon’s future had been read, but she would not be able to read anything in detail.
‘She should come out to mark me properly.’
That was why Ju-Heon had written many pages of curses toward Sasaki.
She was the master of the Future Diary. There was no way the Future Diary would not tell her about such malice toward its master.
Ju-Heon believed that Sasaki and the j.a.panese b.a.s.t.a.r.ds would approach him on their own volition after knowing his location.
Then Ju-Heon would take care of her with Muramasa.
‘It"s about time they showed up.’
And lo and behold.
“It is confirmed. It is definitely the Muramasa kodachi.”
There was a tail observing Ju-Heon. The one who said that was the expert(?) who was stealthily handling sushi in the kitchen.
“It does seem to be that Korean Tomb Raider.”
His real ident.i.ty was a member of the JSDF excavation team pretending to be an employee.
There were at least five people like that.
They were disguised as employees or customers after hearing Sasaki’s story and stealthily coming here to capture Ju-Heon.
They did not want to cause a commotion. The enemy was a Korean person and they didn"t want to tell the world details about artifacts.
Colonel Mouri who heard the reports from the JSDF members responded.
[Good. Tell Sasaki to mark him. Remind her to do it stealthily.]
“Yes sir.”
They looked toward Sasaki after hearing Colonel Mouri’s response.
“Sasaki, are you ready?”
Sasaki started to pout. She was disguised as an employee as well. She did it so that she could mark Ju-Heon.
“Do I really have to go?”
“You’ll be fine since we are right here. You need to look into the person’s eyes to mark them anyway.”
“But what if I get caught?”
“That b.a.s.t.a.r.d does not know your face. You’ll be fine.”
The soldiers who were disguised as sushi chefs handed Sasaki a beautifully plated sushi dish.
“Make sure you succeed.”
“Tsk.”
Sasaki started to walk toward Ju-Heon"s room. However, Sasaki was frowning.
‘It"d be one thing if this was something Sosuke wanted me to do, but why do I have to listen to these ugly old men?’
However, she quickly put on a smile as she did not want to die.
Screech.
The door opened...
“Um, I have the extra dish you ordered.”
Ju-Heon and Sasaki made eye contact.
Ju-Heon and Sasaki"s expressions changed for different reasons.
‘She’s here.’
Ju-Heon was smiling with murderous intent.
‘Eek, unbelievable. He’s more handsome than Sosuke!’
Sasaki’s heart was thumping in shock.
1. I chose Monarch over King because the term is used for both male and female characters. While this is the same word used in the t.i.tle, Tomb Raider King sounds better than Monarch of Tomb Raiding... The difference in word won"t make much impact on the overall novel, so I"m sticking with TRK as novel t.i.tle and Monarch for these different t.i.tles for monopolizers.
2. Pyeong is a Korean term of measurement with 1 pyeong = 1.818 * 1.818 meters squared. 20 pyeong is approximately 712 square feet
3. 殺 is supposedly the character for kill