The moment Alberu asked Cale why he was smiling.

Bang!

With a thunderous boom, the entrance door slammed shut.

It sealed Cale and Alberu inside.

Neither of them even moved toward the closed door.

‘The archive room door isn’t an ordinary door. High-voltage current runs through it, and if you tamper with it the wrong way, the whole thing will shut down completely. And the moment you try to break it, the door will explode first, and the inside of the archive room will be swallowed by flames.’

Cale recalled the chief secretary’s words.

Alberu, still looking at the smiling Cale, tossed out a remark.

“That expression on your face is extremely insolent.”

“What’s wrong with my face?”

When Cale erased his smile and looked back with a sulky face, only then did Alberu seem satisfied. Smiling faintly, he stepped forward.

“We just need to steal that, right?”

Where Alberu pointed, there was a small safe.

An old safe, set in the farthest corner of the archive room as if it had simply been left there and forgotten.

‘There will be countless paper records inside the archive room. The research reports are all organized as bound volumes.’

That was why the archive room was said to be an advanced facility where temperature, humidity, and everything else were kept constant.

‘But in the end, all of the information is stored on the memory card inside the safe.’

If Chief Secretary Kang Geunmok had not given him that information, Cale would have wasted quite a bit of time recording the research reports in his head.

‘And before that, the archive room would have exploded.’

It was then.

Click.

[Protection process, stage 1]

A mechanical voice rang out.

Bang!

The shut door.

And over that door, three iron barriers dropped down.

“......”

“......”

It was a perfect lockdown.

To anyone looking at it, it would have seemed like a process meant to protect the archive room.

“But it explodes in thirty seconds now?”

Alberu asked calmly, and Cale answered.

“Yes.”

“You’re watching the time, right?”

“Of course.”

Cale lowered his gaze to his wristwatch.

25 seconds—

24 seconds—

“Ha, I never thought I’d end up doing something like this in my life.”

Crown Prince Alberu walked over to the safe.

Then he plopped down on top of it.

“To think I’m cracking safes. I really do get to experience everything.”

He muttered it like a sigh.

“I put off all my work and came all the way here, and what I’m doing is robbing a safe—”

“So you don’t like it?”

Cale tossed the question out flatly, and Alberu answered without interest.

“No. It’s fun.”

Seeing the corner of Alberu’s ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) mouth twitch, Cale lightly shook his head.

Click.

[Protection process, stage 2]

The mechanical voice rang out again, and Cale looked up at the ceiling.

All at once, every bright light in the archive room ceiling went out.

“......”

A space where nothing but darkness settled.

“Ten seconds left.”

Just as Cale told Alberu how much time remained—

“D-director!”

Transparent Co. Museum’s deputy director—

no, the deputy head of the secret laboratory—

said to the director in a trembling voice.

“T-they say there’s been an intrusion into the archive room!”

“I know! I know!”

Even as the director answered the deputy director, he hurried back into the museum at incredible speed.

“Move!”

Unlike his public image as a scholar, he shoved aside the security personnel blocking his path and moved with startling quickness.

KRAAAASH—!

Even in the middle of that, in the front garden of the museum, the red serpent was still soaring toward the sky.

The deputy director glanced at it and hurriedly poured out his words.

“Those bastards were after the archive room all along! This is really, seriously bad! If even part of that gets taken—!”

“No—”

The director shot the deputy director a fierce look and cut him off.

He looked down at his watch.

A smartwatch.

“Nine seconds.”

“What?”

“After that, the archive room blows.”

The smartwatch had long since informed the director that two biological signals had been detected inside the archive room.

And along with that, that the protection process was functioning normally.

‘My job isn’t to go to the archive room!’

The protection process had already proceeded normally to stage two.

That meant the archive room was about to explode.

And it also meant the two intruders still had not managed to escape.

‘They’re about to die.’

He had no idea how they had managed to get in there, but if they could not escape, then the only thing left for them was death.

‘Director. Even I would not survive that explosion.’

The Young Master had said that not even he could survive it.

Which meant it was an explosion even that mad mage out in the garden could not overcome.

“Director, why are we going to the director’s office—?”

He was heading for the director’s office.

Now five seconds.

After that, the archive room would be gone.

‘There is only one thing I have to do right now, as fast as possible!’

He had already ordered them to contact headquarters, but that alone was not enough.

‘Young Master!’

No—

‘Chairman!’

No. He absolutely had to contact the chairman, the head of the family, first!

‘Even the Young Master doesn’t know this place’s password.’

Only Honorary Chairman Han Taeksoo and his close aide, Chief Secretary Kang Geunmok, knew the archive room password.

And yet intruders had gotten in there?

‘Kang Geunmok betrayed us!’

This was not something to tell the Young Master.

He had to tell the head of the family.

‘The direct line is installed in the director’s office.’

Only that phone could be used to contact the chairman.

It was a privilege he had only because he held the post of director here.

“Director! The archive room first, quickly—!”

“Silence!”

He raised his voice at the deputy director, who kept talking without knowing anything, and flung his hand away.

That was when it happened.

Three seconds.

The smartwatch informed him with a vibration that three seconds remained until the explosion.

And in the darkness, Cale spoke.

“Three seconds.”

Alberu calmly looked toward the direction the voice had come from.

Crackle. Crackle.

That place was gradually growing brighter even though the lights were out.

Crackkkkkle—

A reddish-gold light slowly bloomed and swelled around Cale.

Alberu was still sitting on top of the safe, and Cale spoke in an even voice.

“The best defense is offense.”

The best defense is offense.

And above even that—

“A preemptive strike.”

You hit the enemy first, before they can attack.

—...No way!

The Ancient Tree revealed its shock, but Cale remained calm.

Crackle.

The reddish-gold current around him surged even harder.

Click. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Some sound rang out again.

And—

[Protect—]

As the mechanical voice began, Cale thought:

If they’re trying to blow us up—

“Then we do it first.”

[Proces—]

The mechanical voice could not continue.

—As expected, you really are smart!

The Fire of Destruction exclaimed in admiration, its voice overflowing with anticipation.

Then—

CRACKLE—!

A reddish-gold thunderbolt shot upward.

“Wow.”

Alberu exclaimed in admiration and clapped.

Clap!

At the same time—

Crack.

Several top-grade magic stones inside his inner pocket shattered.

Wooooong—

And at the same time, a triple-layered mana shield formed around Alberu and the safe.

But no one saw that sight.

KRAAAAAAASH—

With a deafening roar, the soaring reddish-gold bolt of fire smashed through the archive room, destroyed the security process system, passed through basement level three, through the second floor, through the first floor—

“W-what is that?”

“Holy shit, move!”

—and up to the surface.

Because it pierced the museum—

no, the now-revealed laboratory building—

and shot toward the sky.

“Hahahaha!”

Rosalyn burst into a refreshing laugh as she watched a bolt of fire much like her own yet different—

the same red light, yet tinged with gold—

pierce all the way through the laboratory’s top floor and explode.

“W-witch!”

“Grab that crazy woman!”

And at the words hurled at her, her smile only brightened.

Crack, crackle!

Nearly half the magic stones still remained.

That was more than she had expected.

Which also meant Rosalyn had grown that much stronger.

“What is that?”

Anlomann’s voice came from behind her, and Rosalyn turned her head and smiled at him.

“Time to run!”

“What?”

You’re telling me—

the president—

me, who just showed up here in person like this—

to run?

Can’t you see the reporters closing in from every direction?

Do you have any idea how much resolve it took for me to come here?

And you’re telling me to just run?

Anlomann’s face twisted strangely with absurdity and confusion.

But then he froze.

KRAAAAAA—

A violent bolt of fire.

Its immense force made his skin crawl in a way entirely different from Rosalyn’s magic.

And within that bolt of fire shooting toward the sky, one person was rising.

‘Cale Henituse!’

His face and body were hidden behind a black mask and black clothes, but Anlomann recognized him instantly.

And he realized at once that Rosalyn was right.

It really was time to run.

‘Alberu Crossman isn’t visible!’

There had to be meaning in that.

And that meaning was obvious.

‘They found the evidence!’

Alberu Crossman had escaped with the evidence that would save Senior Aide Mary, overturn this entire game, and save Anlomann himself!

“Ha, haha—”

Laughing, Anlomann gestured in the air.

“Let’s go to the helicopter.”

Smiling, he extended his other hand toward Rosalyn, a gesture inviting their exit.

Rosalyn elegantly took his hand, then rose with dignity toward the helicopter that came at his call and boarded it gracefully.

That was when it happened.

“I am—”

Cale Henituse’s voice rang out from the air.

Maybe Alberu was hiding somewhere and helping with magic, because the voice was incredibly loud, and it was even distorted.

“Why isn’t he just running right away? Why is he standing there talking—!”

As Anlomann spoke in bafflement and rising urgency, Rosalyn opened her mouth.

She murmured the words Cale was about to say.

At the same time, Cale’s voice reached all the people who had gathered for reporting, suppression, security, capture, and countless other reasons.

“I am Dark.”

“I am Dark!”

Rosalyn rested a hand on Anlomann’s shoulder as he blankly looked back and forth between her and Cale.

“Dark?”

Anlomann muttered blankly, then flinched in surprise at the strength of Rosalyn’s grip.

“Mr. Anlomann. Listen very carefully to what I’m about to say.”

“What?”

“From today on, you’ve joined hands with Dark. The being that approached you in secret was Dark.”

“What?”

Even without Cale asking her to, Rosalyn was already busy brainwashing Anlomann about Dark.

And in the meantime—

“W-what is that...?”

The director stared blankly at Cale.

The bolt of fire piercing through the laboratory had destroyed the archive room before the protection process ever could.

Flames born from that strike were spreading in every direction.

This is really bad.

The director did not merely feel cold sweat running down his back.

It felt as if his heart itself were turning cold.

“Dark?”

That was why he found himself unconsciously repeating the word the mysterious man had just spoken.

Dark.

He had never heard of such a being before.

What is that?

No, this isn’t the time to be thinking about that!

Then what am I supposed to do now?

It was, quite literally, utter chaos.

At that moment—

“The God of Chaos will soon rule this world!”

What?

Chaos?

The man in black shouted that, then swung his hand again.

Crackle.

The bolt of fire—

KRAAAAAASH!

BOOOOM!

KRAAAASH!

—came crashing down in every direction.

“!”

And the places it struck just so happened to be the areas most closely tied to the confidential research currently underway.

Of course, for the moment, because they had noticed the movements of Mary, the Senior Aide close to the president, the research itself had been temporarily halted.

So the experiments were not in progress, but—

“N-no!”

If it was destroyed, that meant it was exposed.

How many helicopters had already risen into the air for coverage?

KRAAAAAAASH!

BOOOOM!

Every place the reddish-gold bolt of fire struck was, with uncanny precision, a place connected to the research.

The hidden areas behind the facade—

the spaces that could not be disguised as exhibitions.

All of them were being revealed together with the flames.

The bolt of fire did not burn everything.

Delicately. Secretly.

It burned only what needed to be burned, and left just enough of the rest for people to see.

“Ah—”

The director collapsed to the floor.

“They’ve arrived from the Transparent family!”

At that moment, the deputy director finally reported that people had arrived from headquarters—

from the Transparent Blood family itself—

but—

“T-too late—”

Too late.

The director gave up even on the thought of contacting the head of the family.

Whether Secretary Kang Geunmok had betrayed them or not no longer mattered.

“It’s been taken...”

The most important information had definitely been taken.

He was sure of it.

With people like that, they must have carried off the safe itself.

“Ah.”

Everyone who had seen this spectacle today would ask Transparent Co. what had happened.

And on top of that, President Anlomann had appeared in person, meaning the incident would spiral completely out of control.

“Y-you bastards—!”

President Anlomann, holding the evidence.

It was obvious what direction he would take against Transparent.

“It’s over!”

The director could not contain his rage.

“It’s over!”

No—

he could not contain his fear.

It’s over. Really over.

‘I’m dead now!’

There was no way the bloodline of the Transparent family would let this pass.

“D-director, the Young Master—”

Among the people who had come from the Transparent main house was the Young Master.

The director barely lifted his head.

Han Seo Hyung, the Young Master who had witnessed everything that had happened.

He was not looking at the director.

Instead, his gaze was fixed on the only masked figure still floating in the air instead of fleeing.

“......”

“......”

Han Seo Hyung and Cale.

The two stared at each other.

And then—

Grin.

Cale smiled and waved his hand.

Wave, wave.

He greeted the expressionless Han Seo Hyung.

At the same time, a magical voice rang in his head.

—Let’s go.

He glanced downward.

The archive room had exploded and was burning.

Within those flames, the only thing still being maintained was a magical shield.

Inside it, Alberu, who had spread out a teleportation circle, tipped his chin at him.

“Time to run.”

Breaking things openly.

Stealing openly.

Blowing things up openly.

Running away openly.

Not a single member of Cale’s group seemed to find it strange enough to question whether this really counted as theft.

“Bye—”

Cale said his farewell to Han Seo Hyung, then—

Drop!

—fell downward.

Flash!

At that moment, the teleportation circle blazed with bright light, and Alberu dismissed the mana shield.

And just like that, Cale and Alberu—

and the safe as well—

three beings in total vanished in an instant.

The force called Dark, which had turned everything into a total wreck and then disappeared.

“......”

“......”

Chaos, astonishment, and shock struck Roan from early morning onward.

Later, after Anlomann learned roughly how the entire thing had unfolded, he asked Cale:

“But couldn’t you have just infiltrated quietly and taken the safe?”

To that, Cale answered:

“Then the world would’ve been far too quiet.”

“What?”

“The louder the world gets, the more Transparent’s hands and feet get tied up.”

That way, won’t it be easier for us to take what we want?

Cale did not bother to say the rest out loud, but Alberu and Rosalyn beside him both nodded with satisfied smiles.

“......”

And Anlomann, too, felt like he understood the unspoken part, so he chose silence. Only, his gaze wavered slightly.

*****

Just as Cale had expected, the world grew loud from that very morning.

Beyond Roan, beyond even the Third District, a massive incident that would later be called the “Transparent Co. Gate” began to catch fire across the entire world.