Chapter 490

[Translator - Night]

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Chapter 490: The Balance (7)

“Ugh… I don’t think I can do that again.”

As Yeongwoo crawled out from between the two dragons’ massive bodies, a vast sea of silver-armored figures came into view.

Clink, clank!

The royal knights directly under the command of the Shelbir Kingdom were beginning to form ranks.

Not far from the scale, the Shelbir royal family had their seating area, and the knights guarding it had hurriedly surrounded the two dragons and Yeongwoo.

Of course, given how enormous Jiseon and Jeongho were, the royal knights looked almost like dwarves in comparison.

— Must’ve been an important event. There are a lot of knights around.

Jiseon snorted out the dirt that had gotten into her nose and gave a full-body shake.

The landing just moments ago had left her entire body aching.

∴ How many aliens are even gathered here?

Jeongho, on the other hand, was more focused on the countless spectators forming a wall beyond the royal knights than the knights themselves.

It was his first time in life being the subject of attention on this scale.

∴ Not sure if this is the right way to put it… but it doesn’t feel bad.

Crack.

Song Jeongho straightened his long neck stiffly and rose to his feet, casting a massive shadow over the venue.

And then—

<Ah, ahh! P-please don't do that!>

The disembodied voice of the host came out from who-knew-where, and the crowd of hundreds of thousands collectively took a step back in fear.

∴ They’re afraid of us.

Jeongho said this excitedly.

But from Yeongwoo’s perspective, this was far from ideal.

After all, their purpose today wasn't to take over Doatel—it was to gain good press as a charity organization.

“Tch, could you stay still for a second?”

Yeongwoo lightly kicked his uncle’s forepaw and began walking toward the ranks of knights.

Clank, clank.

From the Doatel side, it looked like a bizarre man had shown up leading dragons.

Naturally, the royal knights couldn’t hide their nervousness.

Oddly, this calmed Yeongwoo instead.

As long as they didn’t make the first move, there wouldn’t be any unnecessary bloodshed.

However, it seemed he’d need to skip a few formalities to speed things up.

‘That must be where the royal family is seated.’

Yeongwoo looked toward a tall platform set behind the silver-clad knights.

That was likely where Prince Aldo and the rest of the Shelbir royals were gathered.

“Hey! Prince Aldo!”

Yeongwoo waved a hand toward the platform and called out to the prince.

Some of the knights in front of him turned toward the platform in surprise.

After all, it was shocking for someone who’d just fallen from the sky with dragons to be calling out the second prince by name.

But something even more surprising happened next.

— Huh?

Someone on the platform let out a short sound and threw a golden medal toward the floor of the venue.

Fwoosh—tiiiing!

The medal rolled a few times across the floor of white stone and stopped right in front of the knights.

At that moment—

Shiiing!

The knights, who had been ready to start a battle at any second, all sheathed their swords in unison.

“…What? Is that supposed to be a royal order or something?”

While Yeongwoo stared at the medal lying on the ground, white steps began to unfold from the outer edge of the platform.

Rumble!

Then, a caramel-colored creature with a stout body began to quickly descend the steps.

Tat-tat!

It was none other than Prince Aldo, second in line to the Shelbir throne.

“Oh.”

Recognizing him, Yeongwoo raised a hand in greeting, and Aldo raised his hand for a moment before quickly lowering it again.

Whatever the reason, it seemed he couldn’t openly greet Yeongwoo.

‘Well, yeah. I did cause some trouble.’

After all, just moments ago this venue was being used for a sacred royal ritual involving weighing good and evil deeds on a giant scale.

In other words, while Yeongwoo and his group were acquaintances of Prince Aldo, they were also technically event terrorists.

— My goodness… Y-Yeongwoo? What on earth is going on? How did you even get here?

Aldo, clearly overwhelmed, spoke in a rapid-fire pace unlike his usual self.

— How did you even…?

He repeated himself and looked up at the sky.

He was likely asking how they had broken through the blockade of the refugee fleet in orbit.

“……”

Yeongwoo couldn’t bring himself to admit they had hijacked the escort ship and broken through the inner walls.

Now that he thought about it, he was a bit curious about the fate of the unfortunate caramels left behind on the ship.

“I’m now the master of a planetary ship. There’s no place I can’t reach—except the afterlife.”

— Huh? A planetary ship…?

“I’ve completed the grand mission that held the fate of my nation.”

He then raised a finger toward the sky.

Fwoop!

“Earthship is waiting just outside the atmosphere. With coordinates, I can go anywhere.”

For this brief moment, even Yeongwoo felt a bit proud.

He now owned something that existed not just beyond the sky, but in the vastness of space.

And right then, a part of Yeongwoo’s long-standing quest, “Balanced Bonds,” was fulfilled.

Beep!

[Planetary Court] “Balanced Fate”

<Mission> Reunite with the following three individuals: (0/3)

-Aldo, the second prince of Doatel

-Amana, the guardian of Sacred Sutral

-Taru, the last hope of Pigot

<Special> Must use a family-owned spaceship.

<Reward> Adjustment of karma score guaranteed by the Planetary Court.

“…Oh.”

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

He had now officially reunited with one of the "three fools."

‘One assignment down.’

Now, all that remained was a meeting with Chancellor, and then a trip to North America to finalize the Golden Ratio achievement.

There was only one condition left to fulfill the Golden Ratio-related achievement, Golden Tempest.

[Golden Tempest]

|Summon the Golden Ratio in the following four ways. (3/4)|

– On the continent of North America.

– When a Level 2 or higher extradimensional being appears.

‘I never did end up encountering a Level 2 entity.’

Of course, at his current level, facing a Level 2 being might very well crush his mind to pieces.

‘Hmm.’

As Yeongwoo stood there, staring off into space and stroking his chin, Prince Aldo cautiously spoke up.

—Um… Sir Yeongwoo?

“Ah, yes, Your Highness.”

—You still haven’t… told us.

“Sorry? Told you what?”

As Yeongwoo asked this, he quickly snapped out of it and looked directly at Aldo.

“Oh, you mean why I came here?”

The moment he said that, a loud noise erupted behind them.

Boom, craaaash!

As Song Jeongho rose to his feet and then Jiseon followed, the already-ruined scale began collapsing further into the ground.

“Ah.”

Yeongwoo instinctively realized that whatever that was, it had been quite important to the Caramels, and he made a troubled face.

Sure enough, Aldo was sweating buckets, wiping his yellowish forehead nervously.

—Whatever reason brought you here… my father is furious.

It was the first time Aldo had ever spoken with such bitterness.

“I know I’m in no position to say this after ruining everything, but… what even is that thing?”

Yeongwoo pointed to the object that no longer resembled a scale and asked, prompting Aldo to look up at the sky.

—It’s the Scale of Balance.

“The Scale of Balance?”

—Yes. We periodically weigh the good and evil deeds that have spread throughout the universe.

Aldo added that this weighing was one of Doatel’s major ceremonial events.

But during that crucial moment, Yeongwoo’s group had shown up and not only interfered with the weighing but also completely ruined the ceremony itself.

“No, but… how do you even measure good and evil? Is that something you can actually quantify? It’s not like it’s visible or tangible.”

Of course, he knew that "good points" and "evil points" existed as actual numerical values within the system.

So did that mean the scale was connected to the central system of the universe—the Blueprint?

“You Caramels aren’t secretly peeking into the records, are you? Even Remu spent his life trying to study that.”

—Ah… weighing the balance doesn’t require methods that complicated.

“What? Then how?”

—Everywhere in the universe, traces of good and evil remain. Our scale simply has the ability to detect those traces.

“What are you saying—like how air is made up of oxygen and nitrogen, you're saying space itself is composed of something too?”

At that, Aldo looked at Yeongwoo with a hint of surprise.

—Something like that. Every corner of the universe is made of something.

And one of those somethings is karma.

While factions like Remu's struggle to peek into the Records, the Royal House of Shelbir in Doatel has been studying the “karma” that permeates the entire universe.

“So you really can see the balance of the entire universe?”

—Our detection range doesn’t extend that far yet. For now, we can only collect data within a galaxy cluster centered around Doatel.

A galaxy cluster.

A massive cosmic structure made up of thousands of galaxies—a level above a galaxy group, which contains dozens.

Still, that's broad enough to call it “the universe.”

Most beings never even leave their own galaxy, and here we’re talking about thousands of them grouped together.

“So you’re not watching the whole universe, but you’re still monitoring a pretty huge region.”

—Yes. But the balance has never been in favor. There’s always been far more evil than good.

Until now.

For the first time, the scale had started to tilt in the opposite direction, Aldo explained.

—But then you…

Unable to finish the sentence, Aldo just stared at Yeongwoo, at a loss for words.

But by then, Yeongwoo’s eyes had already begun to glint mischievously.

“Heh. You're only seeing half the picture, Prince Aldo.”

—Pardon? What do you mean…?

“Don’t you get it? Why do you think the scale suddenly started tipping toward good today?”

—…?

Seeing that Aldo really didn’t understand, Yeongwoo straightened his back and raised his shoulders confidently.

“What day is it today?”

—Well, it’s the Balance Ceremony…

“Nope.”

—Then… what day is it?

“Today is the day the Guardian of Balance, Jeong Yeongwoo, arrived.”

—…?

“There’s no need to weigh good and evil anymore. From now on, balance will always be maintained. That’s why I sent the weight flying.”

Yeongwoo drew a large arc in the air with his hand, illustrating how the weight of good had been launched into the sky and vanished earlier.

—…That’s insulting.

“I came with an incredible business proposal, so please escort me to your king.”

—I told you earlier… my father is extremely angry right now…

“He’ll calm down extremely fast after hearing about my miracle laundry technique.”

[Translator - Night]

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