Chapter 41
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Chapter 41
TL: KSD
The World Tree Yggdrasil.
The homeland of all elves.
Once, tens of thousands of elves formed a civilization in this gigantic tree. That brilliant ancient civilization could not be simply described as a great nation. They were the only nation that existed in this world.
The word king referred to the Sun King of the elves, and naturally, the word kingdom referred to the only nation that existed in this world the Elf Kingdom.
And thousands of years have passed.
In the face of the trial of time, the ancient civilization was shattered to pieces.
The Demon Kings forces swept across the continent, and from the ashes of the Elf civilization, humans, dwarves, gnomes, beastmen, and lizardmen, who were nothing more than slaves, built their own civilizations. The Wizard King Reinhardt unified the continent, and even the empire he established crumbled due to the black plague.
The world, ruined by the plague, was saved by the combined forces of the Wizard Kings legacy the magic towers, and in the rebuilt world, all races gathered in the imperial congress to elect an emperor, and thus the imperial lineage was replaced amidst various historical turbulences for the third time.
Thus, history flowed rapidly like a torrential river.
But the World Tree Yggdrasil.
The homeland of all elves.
The gigantic tree of life that once housed tens of thousands of elves, still remains to this day, thousands of years later.
In the middle of a desert.
Becoming a withered old tree.
Now, not a single fruit grows from the World Tree. There are no green leaves to shade from the sunlight. Now, this tree is so dried up that it cannot sustain even a single person, let alone a civilization.
Yet, everyone desires this tree.
The barely surviving Elf Kingdom, the Holy Mother Church that has continued from ancient times, the empire of nomadic Dark Elves who worship the Moon Goddess, even the Emperor of the empire who claims to be the most devout follower.
Everyone desires the land where this withered tree stands.
The reason is precisely-
God wills it!
-Crusaders.
With the knights cries, tens of thousands of troops were approaching from beyond the horizon. They were the army of white light, bearing the Holy Mothers golden cross.
How many Dark Elves blood has soaked the desert sands under that golden cross is proven by history.
The nomadic Dark Elves living under the shade of the withered World Tree screamed as if they had encountered a demon and fell into utter chaos.
The Crusades! The Crusades!
The white-skinned devils are coming!
Goddess, bestow your mercy!
Mom! Mom!
Stay hidden underground, never come out! Mom will be okay
We must protect the holy land! Gather all the warriors of the tribes!
Meanwhile, in the meeting room under the roots of the World Tree, where the elders of the Dark Elf tribes had gathered, the situation was the same.
Tens of thousands of troops were enough to make even the wisest sage lose his reason.
Is that merely the vanguard?
The spies from the west have told me, the main force of the Crusades is crossing the sea. The Great Mage of the Blue Tower is calming the sea, so its futile to hope for a typhoon or such luck.
Damn it all! This mess started because an emperor, who boasts nothing but being a descendant of the 27th generation of Elf royalty, has risen to power! Ive said it several times, wars are started by those without legitimacy to establish it! We should have assassinated that mongrel before this war!
Its too late for regrets now. We are as good as dead
Theres still a way. Lets convert for now. We can repent later.
Shut up! Losing faith is akin to death!
The Dark Elf leadership, plunged into chaos, could not unite.
Naturally, a proper defense was not established.
The Crusaders command, through the telescope observing the chaos, realized this fact.
Half are running away, and half are gathering to fight
One-eyed Saint Rosalyn, the commander of the Crusades vanguard, put down her telescope and, swinging her mace into the air, ordered her lieutenant.
Drive the Imperial Guard Cavalry around the vicinity of the World Tree! Herd those kkamdungis as if they were sheep, make them flee in terror.
Understood, Your Excellency.
Grand Master of the Paladins! Gather the knights from the secular lords and charge! We must storm them before they can form their ranks! Archmage of the Tower! Please bless the knights with the fire of blessing!
Understood.
I strictly forbid acting before the signal- Damn it. Those crazy foals are at it again.
After months of forced marches breaking through the great desert, the holy land finally comes into view.
Whether intoxicated by religious fanaticism or by the prospect of looting at the Grand Bazaar where all the wealth of the Dark Elves is gathered, the knights were out of their minds.
God wills it!
In the name of the Holy Mother!
Kill the heretics!
Despite the Crusade commands orders not yet being issued, dozens of knights charged. Seeing this, other knights spurred their horses and rushed forward as well. Thousands of cavalry, including knights, wandering knights, and their squires, charged all at once.
Horses cannot live in the desert. Camels are incredibly valuable. And owning even a hundred camel cavalry was enough to be called a great chieftain of the region.
However, the sight of tens of times more Western heavy cavalry charging all at once was enough to instill an unreal terror in all Dark Elves who witnessed it.
Some were paralyzed with fear and collapsed, while others screamed and ran, only to trip and be trampled to death by others.
But the Dark Elf scout closest to them, through years of experience, realized it was already too late to run.
If the enemy cavalry had started charging from this distance, he was already a dead man.
Thus, the old man dismounted from his camel and knelt on the desert sand. And he prayed earnestly.
Goddess
According to legend, the goddess of the desert is the goddess of moonlight.
She cools the land with darkness, sweeping away the harsh sun that burns the world, and lulls all creatures into sleep with her song in the moonlight, so they no longer harm each other.
When the goddess is angered, its when injustice swallows righteousness, when the impure violates the pure, when justice fades, hypocrisy spurns goodness, and all creatures of the world suffer.
Then, the moon turns red, and the goddess sends an avenger to punish the wicked on her behalf.
-Every Dark Elf grows up hearing such old tales from their mothers.
The wrinkled and bearded Dark Elf knelt down, relying on the stories his mother told him in his last moments.
Sing of your wrath
Thousands of Crusade knights, holding spears, charged towards the kneeling Dark Elf elder.
Holy Mother! Watch over us!
God wills it!
Eradicate all the heretic unbelievers!
The goddess did not respond to the prayers.
The Dark Elf elder murmured his prayer and closed his eyes.
Goddess, sing of your wrath
Still, the goddess did not answer.
Just as the Crusaders cavalry was about to trample and shatter the old man to pieces, that was the moment.
A swordsman jumped in between the old man and the knights.
Swoosh-!
A red sword aura swept across the desert. The curved sword strike resembled the red moon at a glance.
Tremendous magical power sliced between the old man and the cavalry, and the peculiar magic left by the sword strike formed a physical barrier.
The knights ended up charging towards that wall.
Crash-!
The Crusaders charge shattered against the wall. Horses, men, and armor were mixed together in one place.
It was a cruel scene, but even that was just a small part of what was seen from above the battlefield.
The Crusades vanguard, quickly regrouping their forces, shouted at the perpetrator who caused this disaster.
Who goes there!
No introduction was needed. The moment the swordsman, clad in an old robe, threw off his robe, there wasnt a single knight who didnt recognize who he was.
Josef!
The Sword Devil!
Why is the Emperor Slayer in a place like this!
His name in the Empire was Josef.
His name in the desert was Yusuf.
He murdered his father, succeeded the earldom, suppressed the rebellious territories around him to rise to the rank of duke, and ultimately caused the retreat of the emperors army, leading to the previous emperors death from hypertension. There he stood, the master of the demonic sword.
As it had been proven several times that he alone could confront an entire army, the Crusaders halted, and the one-eyed Saint Rosalyn came forward on horseback to negotiate.
Josef! Why are you, a Duke of the empire, on their side!
Before answering, Josef consulted with the demonic sword.
Demonic Sword~nim? Should I really answer?
-Its time for you to participate in an important negotiation. How long will you keep passing everything to me?
But Im not good at speaking in front of others
-Have confidence! Havent you even killed an emperor?
That was because Emperor collapsed from hypertension on his own. And dying at that age is just natural causes. Im being wronged here. Being called an Emperor Slayer
-Hurry up and answer! Isnt that saint waiting?
Josef answered the saint with a tense voice.
Um My mom asked me to deliver a letter to my uncle, so I left the domain with my mom and came to the desert
Baek Seol couldnt even hear the chairmans will from where she stood. Protocol dictated attendance, and the place for a family of illegitimate children was on the outermost edges.
Although she wasnt pushed out as far as the hallway, Baek Seol found it ridiculous to follow along with the others yes, yes and sobbing without even hearing the will.
Politely clasping her hands at her navel,
Bowing her head,
Dressed in an uncomfortable black suit,
She stood for hours.
The chairman died.
People in the middle started to wail. She heard cries of Father-! Baek Seol joined in the sobbing to blend in with the atmosphere.
And a little while later.
You may leave now.
An associate of the chairman, who was organizing the funeral, granted Baek Seol permission to leave.
Given the lack of specific instructions, it seemed she was expected to just take a bus home.
After being kidnapped in a limousine on the way here.
And, of course, it was so early in the morning that both the buses and subways had stopped running.
Baek Seol called a late-night taxi. These days, when you call a taxi with your phone, it shows the fare upfront, and the cost, inflated by the late-night surcharge, made her sigh.
Haah
Moths buzzed around the yellow street lamps.
Whether they were moths or some other kind of night insect, it was hard to tell from a distance what they looked like exactly.
Baek Seol thought irreverently that the chairmans death was like those night insects.
It wasnt just the chilly weather or the dawn breeze that soured her mood.
Baek Seol looked at the chairmans death from a distance.
Both in physical and social terms, she was far removed.
Being in no position to inherit anything from the chairmans death.
Thus, from a third-person perspective, the chairmans death was not,
The dimming of a significant star in the Korean economy,
Nor the crumbling of the foundation of Baekhak Group,
But merely the death of an old man.
No matter how much wealth one accumulates,
No matter how much authority one surrounds themselves with,
Eventually, everyone dies.
Baek Seol directly felt this fact today.
All humans are just like night insects in the face of time.
Regardless of their appearance or how much wealth theyve amassed, just like one cannot distinguish a single insect among a swarm, everyone dies just the same.
Then, how can one become special?
How can one make ones life worthwhile,
And how can one die differently from others?
The radio in the late-night taxi seemed to ask her.
-As time goes by, and our lives come to an end.
-If someone asks you in a soft voice,
-Can you answer? That you have no regrets about the time that has passed.
I dont know life
Even as Baek Seol threw herself onto her bed upon returning to her studio apartment, she couldnt let go of these complex thoughts.
Still in her suit, she hugged an IKEA shark plushie and stretched out under the blanket.
She might not know what life is about, but she knew this much.
She had to sleep if she was going to go to work in a few hours
Life
A wave of sleepiness swept over Baek Seol and closed her eyes.
How can one become special?
That question too flew away into the land of dreams.
Snore.
Thus, Baek Seol fell into a peaceful sleep.
And not long after,
Baek Seol would become very special.
* * *
Reflecting on the upheaval surrounding Baekhak Groups inheritance, one must look back to the last presidential election.
That election was an anomaly.
A candidate whom no one had anticipated would become president managed to overturn the political landscape at the last moment, securing victory over the candidate most people had expected to win.
And Baekhak Group is a media conglomerate. Its impossible for it not to be involved in politics. In fact, Baekhak Group vehemently criticized the candidate who ended up becoming the president-elect.
It was naturally an attempt to intervene in the election to curry favor with the next president. It failed, however.
If one could ask the chairman why he did it, he might have said:
-I didnt know! I didnt know that guy would become president!
But the dead cannot speak.
Thus, his children inherited the consequences.
[Breaking News, Baekhak Group Inheritance Tax Warrant Hearing Concludes, Vice Chairman Baek to Detention Center]
[Vice Chairman Baek Under Arrest Arrives at Seoul Detention Center]
The eldest son, who was supposed to inherit the chairman position, ended up in prison.
It seemed natural, as the eldest son had led the election interference on behalf of the aging chairman.
The second son, however, did not let this opportunity pass by.
He decided to oust his elder brother and take over the group.
However, breaking the circular ownership structure meticulously crafted by Koreas top legal and financial minds was nearly impossible.
The control system, which allowed a family to dominate a massive conglomerate with just a few percent of the stocks through legal and illegal means, is akin to a kind of legal-economic art.
A scheme was necessary.
So, the second son allied with his distant relatives.
He brought in the illegitimate family of his fathers half-brother as allies.
Even his closest aides were shocked, but he responded:
-Baekhak is valuable enough, even if it means sharing stocks with the illegitimate family.
The presidents half-brother, that is, the founders illegitimate child.
And this illegitimate family has been in a legal battle against the main Baekhak house for a rightful share for seven years, claiming they, too, as the founders children, deserved a part of Baekhak.
Of course, the court wouldnt listen to them. Not because their argument was necessarily wrong, but because the law is on the side of the powerful. Its made by the powerful.
In the same vein, it was entirely possible for the second son to manipulate the legal system and change the outcome of the lawsuit.
[Breaking News, Civil War in the Baekhak Family Inheritance Takes an Unexpected Turn Due to Court Decision.]
The coup struck like lightning.
With the courts decision allowing the illegitimate family to finally obtain a portion of Baekhak Groups shares, they supported the second sons succession as chairman.
Once he became chairman, the game was over. The second son quickly ousted the elder brothers faction from the group and distributed fiefdoms to those who fought for him.
Naturally, the head of the illegitimate family was among the chief contributors.
Although they received a portion of the companys shares, the moment he secured the chairman position, those stocks became irrelevant. A slight tweak in the governance structure could render those shares worthless. After all, power at its extreme is indistinguishable from magic.
But neglecting a benefactor would tarnish the court.
The new chairman appointed the head of the illegitimate family, his small uncle, as a vice-chairman without any real power and placed his elder and younger sons in key positions within the group.
And the head of the illegitimate family was Baek Seols biological grandfather, and his sons were, of course, Baek Seols elder uncle and father.
As a result.
Baek Seol received sudden news upon arriving at work.
It was not a notice of dismissal but of promotion.
Ive been promoted to Deputy Head? (TL: Position of someone just below the Department Head)
Yes.
Why?
You tell me.
What?
No, its nothing.
The unfortunate princess, Baek Seol.
Integrated into the main family!
*****
TL: The chapters are getting longer and longer, now twice the length of typical Korean novel chapters.
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*****
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Chapter 41
TL: KSD
The World Tree Yggdrasil.
The homeland of all elves.
Once, tens of thousands of elves formed a civilization in this gigantic tree. That brilliant ancient civilization could not be simply described as a great nation. They were the only nation that existed in this world.
The word king referred to the Sun King of the elves, and naturally, the word kingdom referred to the only nation that existed in this world the Elf Kingdom.
And thousands of years have passed.
In the face of the trial of time, the ancient civilization was shattered to pieces.
The Demon Kings forces swept across the continent, and from the ashes of the Elf civilization, humans, dwarves, gnomes, beastmen, and lizardmen, who were nothing more than slaves, built their own civilizations. The Wizard King Reinhardt unified the continent, and even the empire he established crumbled due to the black plague.
The world, ruined by the plague, was saved by the combined forces of the Wizard Kings legacy the magic towers, and in the rebuilt world, all races gathered in the imperial congress to elect an emperor, and thus the imperial lineage was replaced amidst various historical turbulences for the third time.
Thus, history flowed rapidly like a torrential river.
But the World Tree Yggdrasil.
The homeland of all elves.
The gigantic tree of life that once housed tens of thousands of elves, still remains to this day, thousands of years later.
In the middle of a desert.
Becoming a withered old tree.
Now, not a single fruit grows from the World Tree. There are no green leaves to shade from the sunlight. Now, this tree is so dried up that it cannot sustain even a single person, let alone a civilization.
Yet, everyone desires this tree.
The barely surviving Elf Kingdom, the Holy Mother Church that has continued from ancient times, the empire of nomadic Dark Elves who worship the Moon Goddess, even the Emperor of the empire who claims to be the most devout follower.
Everyone desires the land where this withered tree stands.
The reason is precisely-
God wills it!
-Crusaders.
With the knights cries, tens of thousands of troops were approaching from beyond the horizon. They were the army of white light, bearing the Holy Mothers golden cross.
How many Dark Elves blood has soaked the desert sands under that golden cross is proven by history.
The nomadic Dark Elves living under the shade of the withered World Tree screamed as if they had encountered a demon and fell into utter chaos.
The Crusades! The Crusades!
The white-skinned devils are coming!
Goddess, bestow your mercy!
Mom! Mom!
Stay hidden underground, never come out! Mom will be okay
We must protect the holy land! Gather all the warriors of the tribes!
Meanwhile, in the meeting room under the roots of the World Tree, where the elders of the Dark Elf tribes had gathered, the situation was the same.
Tens of thousands of troops were enough to make even the wisest sage lose his reason.
Is that merely the vanguard?
The spies from the west have told me, the main force of the Crusades is crossing the sea. The Great Mage of the Blue Tower is calming the sea, so its futile to hope for a typhoon or such luck.
Damn it all! This mess started because an emperor, who boasts nothing but being a descendant of the 27th generation of Elf royalty, has risen to power! Ive said it several times, wars are started by those without legitimacy to establish it! We should have assassinated that mongrel before this war!
Its too late for regrets now. We are as good as dead
Theres still a way. Lets convert for now. We can repent later.
Shut up! Losing faith is akin to death!
The Dark Elf leadership, plunged into chaos, could not unite.
Naturally, a proper defense was not established.
The Crusaders command, through the telescope observing the chaos, realized this fact.
Half are running away, and half are gathering to fight
One-eyed Saint Rosalyn, the commander of the Crusades vanguard, put down her telescope and, swinging her mace into the air, ordered her lieutenant.
Drive the Imperial Guard Cavalry around the vicinity of the World Tree! Herd those kkamdungis as if they were sheep, make them flee in terror.
Understood, Your Excellency.
Grand Master of the Paladins! Gather the knights from the secular lords and charge! We must storm them before they can form their ranks! Archmage of the Tower! Please bless the knights with the fire of blessing!
Understood.
I strictly forbid acting before the signal- Damn it. Those crazy foals are at it again.
After months of forced marches breaking through the great desert, the holy land finally comes into view.
Whether intoxicated by religious fanaticism or by the prospect of looting at the Grand Bazaar where all the wealth of the Dark Elves is gathered, the knights were out of their minds.
God wills it!
In the name of the Holy Mother!
Kill the heretics!
Despite the Crusade commands orders not yet being issued, dozens of knights charged. Seeing this, other knights spurred their horses and rushed forward as well. Thousands of cavalry, including knights, wandering knights, and their squires, charged all at once.
Horses cannot live in the desert. Camels are incredibly valuable. And owning even a hundred camel cavalry was enough to be called a great chieftain of the region.
However, the sight of tens of times more Western heavy cavalry charging all at once was enough to instill an unreal terror in all Dark Elves who witnessed it.
Some were paralyzed with fear and collapsed, while others screamed and ran, only to trip and be trampled to death by others.
But the Dark Elf scout closest to them, through years of experience, realized it was already too late to run.
If the enemy cavalry had started charging from this distance, he was already a dead man.
Thus, the old man dismounted from his camel and knelt on the desert sand. And he prayed earnestly.
Goddess
According to legend, the goddess of the desert is the goddess of moonlight.
She cools the land with darkness, sweeping away the harsh sun that burns the world, and lulls all creatures into sleep with her song in the moonlight, so they no longer harm each other.
When the goddess is angered, its when injustice swallows righteousness, when the impure violates the pure, when justice fades, hypocrisy spurns goodness, and all creatures of the world suffer.
Then, the moon turns red, and the goddess sends an avenger to punish the wicked on her behalf.
-Every Dark Elf grows up hearing such old tales from their mothers.
The wrinkled and bearded Dark Elf knelt down, relying on the stories his mother told him in his last moments.
Sing of your wrath
Thousands of Crusade knights, holding spears, charged towards the kneeling Dark Elf elder.
Holy Mother! Watch over us!
God wills it!
Eradicate all the heretic unbelievers!
The goddess did not respond to the prayers.
The Dark Elf elder murmured his prayer and closed his eyes.
Goddess, sing of your wrath
Still, the goddess did not answer.
Just as the Crusaders cavalry was about to trample and shatter the old man to pieces, that was the moment.
A swordsman jumped in between the old man and the knights.
Swoosh-!
A red sword aura swept across the desert. The curved sword strike resembled the red moon at a glance.
Tremendous magical power sliced between the old man and the cavalry, and the peculiar magic left by the sword strike formed a physical barrier.
The knights ended up charging towards that wall.
Crash-!
The Crusaders charge shattered against the wall. Horses, men, and armor were mixed together in one place.
It was a cruel scene, but even that was just a small part of what was seen from above the battlefield.
The Crusades vanguard, quickly regrouping their forces, shouted at the perpetrator who caused this disaster.
Who goes there!
No introduction was needed. The moment the swordsman, clad in an old robe, threw off his robe, there wasnt a single knight who didnt recognize who he was.
Josef!
The Sword Devil!
Why is the Emperor Slayer in a place like this!
His name in the Empire was Josef.
His name in the desert was Yusuf.
He murdered his father, succeeded the earldom, suppressed the rebellious territories around him to rise to the rank of duke, and ultimately caused the retreat of the emperors army, leading to the previous emperors death from hypertension. There he stood, the master of the demonic sword.
As it had been proven several times that he alone could confront an entire army, the Crusaders halted, and the one-eyed Saint Rosalyn came forward on horseback to negotiate.
Josef! Why are you, a Duke of the empire, on their side!
Before answering, Josef consulted with the demonic sword.
Demonic Sword~nim? Should I really answer?
-Its time for you to participate in an important negotiation. How long will you keep passing everything to me?
But Im not good at speaking in front of others
-Have confidence! Havent you even killed an emperor?
That was because Emperor collapsed from hypertension on his own. And dying at that age is just natural causes. Im being wronged here. Being called an Emperor Slayer
-Hurry up and answer! Isnt that saint waiting?
Josef answered the saint with a tense voice.
Um My mom asked me to deliver a letter to my uncle, so I left the domain with my mom and came to the desert
Baek Seol couldnt even hear the chairmans will from where she stood. Protocol dictated attendance, and the place for a family of illegitimate children was on the outermost edges.
Although she wasnt pushed out as far as the hallway, Baek Seol found it ridiculous to follow along with the others yes, yes and sobbing without even hearing the will.
Politely clasping her hands at her navel,
Bowing her head,
Dressed in an uncomfortable black suit,
She stood for hours.
The chairman died.
People in the middle started to wail. She heard cries of Father-! Baek Seol joined in the sobbing to blend in with the atmosphere.
And a little while later.
You may leave now.
An associate of the chairman, who was organizing the funeral, granted Baek Seol permission to leave.
Given the lack of specific instructions, it seemed she was expected to just take a bus home.
After being kidnapped in a limousine on the way here.
And, of course, it was so early in the morning that both the buses and subways had stopped running.
Baek Seol called a late-night taxi. These days, when you call a taxi with your phone, it shows the fare upfront, and the cost, inflated by the late-night surcharge, made her sigh.
Haah
Moths buzzed around the yellow street lamps.
Whether they were moths or some other kind of night insect, it was hard to tell from a distance what they looked like exactly.
Baek Seol thought irreverently that the chairmans death was like those night insects.
It wasnt just the chilly weather or the dawn breeze that soured her mood.
Baek Seol looked at the chairmans death from a distance.
Both in physical and social terms, she was far removed.
Being in no position to inherit anything from the chairmans death.
Thus, from a third-person perspective, the chairmans death was not,
The dimming of a significant star in the Korean economy,
Nor the crumbling of the foundation of Baekhak Group,
But merely the death of an old man.
No matter how much wealth one accumulates,
No matter how much authority one surrounds themselves with,
Eventually, everyone dies.
Baek Seol directly felt this fact today.
All humans are just like night insects in the face of time.
Regardless of their appearance or how much wealth theyve amassed, just like one cannot distinguish a single insect among a swarm, everyone dies just the same.
Then, how can one become special?
How can one make ones life worthwhile,
And how can one die differently from others?
The radio in the late-night taxi seemed to ask her.
-As time goes by, and our lives come to an end.
-If someone asks you in a soft voice,
-Can you answer? That you have no regrets about the time that has passed.
I dont know life
Even as Baek Seol threw herself onto her bed upon returning to her studio apartment, she couldnt let go of these complex thoughts.
Still in her suit, she hugged an IKEA shark plushie and stretched out under the blanket.
She might not know what life is about, but she knew this much.
She had to sleep if she was going to go to work in a few hours
Life
A wave of sleepiness swept over Baek Seol and closed her eyes.
How can one become special?
That question too flew away into the land of dreams.
Snore.
Thus, Baek Seol fell into a peaceful sleep.
And not long after,
Baek Seol would become very special.
* * *
Reflecting on the upheaval surrounding Baekhak Groups inheritance, one must look back to the last presidential election.
That election was an anomaly.
A candidate whom no one had anticipated would become president managed to overturn the political landscape at the last moment, securing victory over the candidate most people had expected to win.
And Baekhak Group is a media conglomerate. Its impossible for it not to be involved in politics. In fact, Baekhak Group vehemently criticized the candidate who ended up becoming the president-elect.
It was naturally an attempt to intervene in the election to curry favor with the next president. It failed, however.
If one could ask the chairman why he did it, he might have said:
-I didnt know! I didnt know that guy would become president!
But the dead cannot speak.
Thus, his children inherited the consequences.
[Breaking News, Baekhak Group Inheritance Tax Warrant Hearing Concludes, Vice Chairman Baek to Detention Center]
[Vice Chairman Baek Under Arrest Arrives at Seoul Detention Center]
The eldest son, who was supposed to inherit the chairman position, ended up in prison.
It seemed natural, as the eldest son had led the election interference on behalf of the aging chairman.
The second son, however, did not let this opportunity pass by.
He decided to oust his elder brother and take over the group.
However, breaking the circular ownership structure meticulously crafted by Koreas top legal and financial minds was nearly impossible.
The control system, which allowed a family to dominate a massive conglomerate with just a few percent of the stocks through legal and illegal means, is akin to a kind of legal-economic art.
A scheme was necessary.
So, the second son allied with his distant relatives.
He brought in the illegitimate family of his fathers half-brother as allies.
Even his closest aides were shocked, but he responded:
-Baekhak is valuable enough, even if it means sharing stocks with the illegitimate family.
The presidents half-brother, that is, the founders illegitimate child.
And this illegitimate family has been in a legal battle against the main Baekhak house for a rightful share for seven years, claiming they, too, as the founders children, deserved a part of Baekhak.
Of course, the court wouldnt listen to them. Not because their argument was necessarily wrong, but because the law is on the side of the powerful. Its made by the powerful.
In the same vein, it was entirely possible for the second son to manipulate the legal system and change the outcome of the lawsuit.
[Breaking News, Civil War in the Baekhak Family Inheritance Takes an Unexpected Turn Due to Court Decision.]
The coup struck like lightning.
With the courts decision allowing the illegitimate family to finally obtain a portion of Baekhak Groups shares, they supported the second sons succession as chairman.
Once he became chairman, the game was over. The second son quickly ousted the elder brothers faction from the group and distributed fiefdoms to those who fought for him.
Naturally, the head of the illegitimate family was among the chief contributors.
Although they received a portion of the companys shares, the moment he secured the chairman position, those stocks became irrelevant. A slight tweak in the governance structure could render those shares worthless. After all, power at its extreme is indistinguishable from magic.
But neglecting a benefactor would tarnish the court.
The new chairman appointed the head of the illegitimate family, his small uncle, as a vice-chairman without any real power and placed his elder and younger sons in key positions within the group.
And the head of the illegitimate family was Baek Seols biological grandfather, and his sons were, of course, Baek Seols elder uncle and father.
As a result.
Baek Seol received sudden news upon arriving at work.
It was not a notice of dismissal but of promotion.
Ive been promoted to Deputy Head? (TL: Position of someone just below the Department Head)
Yes.
Why?
You tell me.
What?
No, its nothing.
The unfortunate princess, Baek Seol.
Integrated into the main family!
*****
TL: The chapters are getting longer and longer, now twice the length of typical Korean novel chapters.
Also, thank you to everyone who has left a review on NovelUpdates. To those who havent, if you can, please leave a rating and review on Novelupdates.
*****
Join our Discord to receive chapter announcements or to report mistakes: https://discord.gg/GGKyZWDuZM
Chapter 41TL: KSDThe World Tree Yggdrasil.The homeland of all elves.Once, tens of thousands of elves formed a civilization in this gigantic tree. That brilliant ancient civilization could not be simply described as a great nation. They were the only nation that existed in this world.The word king referred to the Sun King of the elves, and naturally, the word kingdom referred to the only nation that existed in this world the Elf Kingdom.And thousands of years have passed.In the face of the trial of time, the ancient civilization was shattered to pieces.The Demon Kings forces swept across the continent, and from the ashes of the Elf civilization, humans, dwarves, gnomes, beastmen, and lizardmen, who were nothing more than slaves, built their own civilizations. The Wizard King Reinhardt unified the continent, and even the empire he established crumbled due to the black plague.The world, ruined by the plague, was saved by the combined forces of the Wizard Kings legacy the magic towers, and in the rebuilt world, all races gathered in the imperial congress to elect an emperor, and thus the imperial lineage was replaced amidst various historical turbulences for the third time.Thus, history flowed rapidly like a torrential river.But the World Tree Yggdrasil.The homeland of all elves.The gigantic tree of life that once housed tens of thousands of elves, still remains to this day, thousands of years later.In the middle of a desert.Becoming a withered old tree.Now, not a single fruit grows from the World Tree. There are no green leaves to shade from the sunlight. Now, this tree is so dried up that it cannot sustain even a single person, let alone a civilization.Yet, everyone desires this tree.The barely surviving Elf Kingdom, the Holy Mother Church that has continued from ancient times, the empire of nomadic Dark Elves who worship the Moon Goddess, even the Emperor of the empire who claims to be the most devout follower.Everyone desires the land where this withered tree stands.The reason is precisely-God wills it!-Crusaders.With the knights cries, tens of thousands of troops were approaching from beyond the horizon. They were the army of white light, bearing the Holy Mothers golden cross.How many Dark Elves blood has soaked the desert sands under that golden cross is proven by history.The nomadic Dark Elves living under the shade of the withered World Tree screamed as if they had encountered a demon and fell into utter chaos.The Crusades! The Crusades!The white-skinned devils are coming!Goddess, bestow your mercy!Mom! Mom!Stay hidden underground, never come out! Mom will be okayWe must protect the holy land! Gather all the warriors of the tribes!Meanwhile, in the meeting room under the roots of the World Tree, where the elders of the Dark Elf tribes had gathered, the situation was the same.Tens of thousands of troops were enough to make even the wisest sage lose his reason.Is that merely the vanguard?The spies from the west have told me, the main force of the Crusades is crossing the sea. The Great Mage of the Blue Tower is calming the sea, so its futile to hope for a typhoon or such luck.Damn it all! This mess started because an emperor, who boasts nothing but being a descendant of the 27th generation of Elf royalty, has risen to power! Ive said it several times, wars are started by those without legitimacy to establish it! We should have assassinated that mongrel before this war!Its too late for regrets now. We are as good as deadTheres still a way. Lets convert for now. We can repent later.Shut up! Losing faith is akin to death!The Dark Elf leadership, plunged into chaos, could not unite.Naturally, a proper defense was not established.The Crusaders command, through the telescope observing the chaos, realized this fact.Half are running away, and half are gathering to fightOne-eyed Saint Rosalyn, the commander of the Crusades vanguard, put down her telescope and, swinging her mace into the air, ordered her lieutenant.Drive the Imperial Guard Cavalry around the vicinity of the World Tree! Herd those kkamdungis as if they were sheep, make them flee in terror.Understood, Your Excellency.Grand Master of the Paladins! Gather the knights from the secular lords and charge! We must storm them before they can form their ranks! Archmage of the Tower! Please bless the knights with the fire of blessing!Understood.I strictly forbid acting before the signal- Damn it. Those crazy foals are at it again.After months of forced marches breaking through the great desert, the holy land finally comes into view.Whether intoxicated by religious fanaticism or by the prospect of looting at the Grand Bazaar where all the wealth of the Dark Elves is gathered, the knights were out of their minds.God wills it!In the name of the Holy Mother!Kill the heretics!Despite the Crusade commands orders not yet being issued, dozens of knights charged. Seeing this, other knights spurred their horses and rushed forward as well. Thousands of cavalry, including knights, wandering knights, and their squires, charged all at once.Horses cannot live in the desert. Camels are incredibly valuable. And owning even a hundred camel cavalry was enough to be called a great chieftain of the region.However, the sight of tens of times more Western heavy cavalry charging all at once was enough to instill an unreal terror in all Dark Elves who witnessed it.Some were paralyzed with fear and collapsed, while others screamed and ran, only to trip and be trampled to death by others.But the Dark Elf scout closest to them, through years of experience, realized it was already too late to run.If the enemy cavalry had started charging from this distance, he was already a dead man.Thus, the old man dismounted from his camel and knelt on the desert sand. And he prayed earnestly.GoddessAccording to legend, the goddess of the desert is the goddess of moonlight.She cools the land with darkness, sweeping away the harsh sun that burns the world, and lulls all creatures into sleep with her song in the moonlight, so they no longer harm each other.When the goddess is angered, its when injustice swallows righteousness, when the impure violates the pure, when justice fades, hypocrisy spurns goodness, and all creatures of the world suffer.Then, the moon turns red, and the goddess sends an avenger to punish the wicked on her behalf.-Every Dark Elf grows up hearing such old tales from their mothers.The wrinkled and bearded Dark Elf knelt down, relying on the stories his mother told him in his last moments.Sing of your wrathThousands of Crusade knights, holding spears, charged towards the kneeling Dark Elf elder.Holy Mother! Watch over us!God wills it!Eradicate all the heretic unbelievers!The goddess did not respond to the prayers.The Dark Elf elder murmured his prayer and closed his eyes.Goddess, sing of your wrathStill, the goddess did not answer.Just as the Crusaders cavalry was about to trample and shatter the old man to pieces, that was the moment.A swordsman jumped in between the old man and the knights.Swoosh-!A red sword aura swept across the desert. The curved sword strike resembled the red moon at a glance.Tremendous magical power sliced between the old man and the cavalry, and the peculiar magic left by the sword strike formed a physical barrier.The knights ended up charging towards that wall.Crash-!The Crusaders charge shattered against the wall. Horses, men, and armor were mixed together in one place.It was a cruel scene, but even that was just a small part of what was seen from above the battlefield.The Crusades vanguard, quickly regrouping their forces, shouted at the perpetrator who caused this disaster.Who goes there!No introduction was needed. The moment the swordsman, clad in an old robe, threw off his robe, there wasnt a single knight who didnt recognize who he was.Josef!The Sword Devil!Why is the Emperor Slayer in a place like this!His name in the Empire was Josef.His name in the desert was Yusuf.He murdered his father, succeeded the earldom, suppressed the rebellious territories around him to rise to the rank of duke, and ultimately caused the retreat of the emperors army, leading to the previous emperors death from hypertension. There he stood, the master of the demonic sword.As it had been proven several times that he alone could confront an entire army, the Crusaders halted, and the one-eyed Saint Rosalyn came forward on horseback to negotiate.Josef! Why are you, a Duke of the empire, on their side!Before answering, Josef consulted with the demonic sword.Demonic Sword~nim? Should I really answer?-Its time for you to participate in an important negotiation. How long will you keep passing everything to me?But Im not good at speaking in front of others-Have confidence! Havent you even killed an emperor?That was because Emperor collapsed from hypertension on his own. And dying at that age is just natural causes. Im being wronged here. Being called an Emperor Slayer-Hurry up and answer! Isnt that saint waiting?Josef answered the saint with a tense voice.Um My mom asked me to deliver a letter to my uncle, so I left the domain with my mom and came to the desertBaek Seol couldnt even hear the chairmans will from where she stood. Protocol dictated attendance, and the place for a family of illegitimate children was on the outermost edges.Although she wasnt pushed out as far as the hallway, Baek Seol found it ridiculous to follow along with the others yes, yes and sobbing without even hearing the will.Politely clasping her hands at her navel,Bowing her head,Dressed in an uncomfortable black suit,She stood for hours.The chairman died.People in the middle started to wail. She heard cries of Father-! Baek Seol joined in the sobbing to blend in with the atmosphere.And a little while later.You may leave now.An associate of the chairman, who was organizing the funeral, granted Baek Seol permission to leave.Given the lack of specific instructions, it seemed she was expected to just take a bus home.After being kidnapped in a limousine on the way here.And, of course, it was so early in the morning that both the buses and subways had stopped running.Baek Seol called a late-night taxi. These days, when you call a taxi with your phone, it shows the fare upfront, and the cost, inflated by the late-night surcharge, made her sigh.HaahMoths buzzed around the yellow street lamps.Whether they were moths or some other kind of night insect, it was hard to tell from a distance what they looked like exactly.Baek Seol thought irreverently that the chairmans death was like those night insects.It wasnt just the chilly weather or the dawn breeze that soured her mood.Baek Seol looked at the chairmans death from a distance.Both in physical and social terms, she was far removed.Being in no position to inherit anything from the chairmans death.Thus, from a third-person perspective, the chairmans death was not,The dimming of a significant star in the Korean economy,Nor the crumbling of the foundation of Baekhak Group,But merely the death of an old man.No matter how much wealth one accumulates,No matter how much authority one surrounds themselves with,Eventually, everyone dies.Baek Seol directly felt this fact today.All humans are just like night insects in the face of time.Regardless of their appearance or how much wealth theyve amassed, just like one cannot distinguish a single insect among a swarm, everyone dies just the same.Then, how can one become special?How can one make ones life worthwhile,And how can one die differently from others?The radio in the late-night taxi seemed to ask her.-As time goes by, and our lives come to an end.-If someone asks you in a soft voice,-Can you answer? That you have no regrets about the time that has passed.I dont know lifeEven as Baek Seol threw herself onto her bed upon returning to her studio apartment, she couldnt let go of these complex thoughts.Still in her suit, she hugged an IKEA shark plushie and stretched out under the blanket.She might not know what life is about, but she knew this much.She had to sleep if she was going to go to work in a few hoursLifeA wave of sleepiness swept over Baek Seol and closed her eyes.How can one become special?That question too flew away into the land of dreams.Snore.Thus, Baek Seol fell into a peaceful sleep.And not long after,Baek Seol would become very special.* * *Reflecting on the upheaval surrounding Baekhak Groups inheritance, one must look back to the last presidential election.That election was an anomaly.A candidate whom no one had anticipated would become president managed to overturn the political landscape at the last moment, securing victory over the candidate most people had expected to win.And Baekhak Group is a media conglomerate. Its impossible for it not to be involved in politics. In fact, Baekhak Group vehemently criticized the candidate who ended up becoming the president-elect.It was naturally an attempt to intervene in the election to curry favor with the next president. It failed, however.If one could ask the chairman why he did it, he might have said:-I didnt know! I didnt know that guy would become president!But the dead cannot speak.Thus, his children inherited the consequences.Breaking News, Baekhak Group Inheritance Tax Warrant Hearing Concludes, Vice Chairman Baek to Detention CenterVice Chairman Baek Under Arrest Arrives at Seoul Detention CenterThe eldest son, who was supposed to inherit the chairman position, ended up in prison.It seemed natural, as the eldest son had led the election interference on behalf of the aging chairman.The second son, however, did not let this opportunity pass by.He decided to oust his elder brother and take over the group.However, breaking the circular ownership structure meticulously crafted by Koreas top legal and financial minds was nearly impossible.The control system, which allowed a family to dominate a massive conglomerate with just a few percent of the stocks through legal and illegal means, is akin to a kind of legal-economic art.A scheme was necessary.So, the second son allied with his distant relatives.He brought in the illegitimate family of his fathers half-brother as allies.Even his closest aides were shocked, but he responded:-Baekhak is valuable enough, even if it means sharing stocks with the illegitimate family.The presidents half-brother, that is, the founders illegitimate child.And this illegitimate family has been in a legal battle against the main Baekhak house for a rightful share for seven years, claiming they, too, as the founders children, deserved a part of Baekhak.Of course, the court wouldnt listen to them. Not because their argument was necessarily wrong, but because the law is on the side of the powerful. Its made by the powerful.In the same vein, it was entirely possible for the second son to manipulate the legal system and change the outcome of the lawsuit.Breaking News, Civil War in the Baekhak Family Inheritance Takes an Unexpected Turn Due to Court Decision.The coup struck like lightning.With the courts decision allowing the illegitimate family to finally obtain a portion of Baekhak Groups shares, they supported the second sons succession as chairman.Once he became chairman, the game was over. The second son quickly ousted the elder brothers faction from the group and distributed fiefdoms to those who fought for him.Naturally, the head of the illegitimate family was among the chief contributors.Although they received a portion of the companys shares, the moment he secured the chairman position, those stocks became irrelevant. A slight tweak in the governance structure could render those shares worthless. After all, power at its extreme is indistinguishable from magic.But neglecting a benefactor would tarnish the court.The new chairman appointed the head of the illegitimate family, his small uncle, as a vice-chairman without any real power and placed his elder and younger sons in key positions within the group.And the head of the illegitimate family was Baek Seols biological grandfather, and his sons were, of course, Baek Seols elder uncle and father.As a result.Baek Seol received sudden news upon arriving at work.It was not a notice of dismissal but of promotion.Ive been promoted to Deputy Head? TL: Position of someone just below the Department HeadYes.Why?You tell me.What?No, its nothing.The unfortunate princess, Baek Seol.Integrated into the main family!*****TL: The chapters are getting longer and longer, now twice the length of typical Korean novel chapters.Also, thank you to everyone who has left a review on NovelUpdates. To those who havent, if you can, please leave a rating and review on Novelupdates.*****Join our Discord to receive chapter announcements or to report mistakes: https://discord.gg/GGKyZWDuZM
