Chapter 282: The Devil at the Exhibition (1)
Translator: miraclerifle
"Well, it’s fine. I won’t get angry even if you lose to Chairman Kwon's artists.”
‘That’s right! You won’t be angry!
But you'll kill me!’
Yoo Jaeha was sobbing.
It was scary enough to get his art judged but now he had to consider the Captain-nim’s reputation as well.
‘Monarchs are showing up as well?’
That should have been expected.
All Monarchs would be trying to steal their Heirlooms right now.
They wanted the Heirlooms to monopolize the artifacts again and control world economy and politics to create their own great empire.
They wanted to be like TKBM that was now stronger than an alliance of multiple countries.
In order to do that, they needed to take down Ju-Heon and his team who were in their way.
“But why does it have to be here of all placeeeeeees?!”
‘It’s already scary enough without them!’
Well, there was nothing he could do about them. However...
“And what does she mean by a 1 billion dollar bet?!”
‘I mean, I probably would have joined in on the fun if it wasn’t my exhibition, but......’
“How can you make bets over my paintings without asking me first?!”
Ju-Heon's eyes opened wide at Jaeha’s angry rant.
He thought that Jaeha would have been fired up by it.
Had it touched his pride as an artist or something?
“If it upset you......”
“Nooooooo! Captain-nim, why are you making a bet where you’re going to loooooooose?!”
Yoo Jaeha was wailing.
He started pounding on a poster that looked like a KPOP idol's promotional poster.
[Yoo Jaeha, the shining jewel]
It was a large poster you would normally see on the side of a building.
He was happy that the princesses printed his face so large, but still!
“It’s not like I'm a hotshot whose exhibition would have people lining out the door! Who is going to buy paintings from a noob's exhibition?!”
‘Oh, it was that issue?’
"Excuse me, Captain-nim, you might not know about this but their artists are quite famous! There is even a bastard who received an award from a Prime Minister! Of course I'm going to lose! How the hell are you going to get 1 billion dollars?!”
“I'm not sure. I think they’ll give me at least that much if I sell you off to a country.”
“#$&#&!”
‘Are you really thinking about selling me off?! You son of a bitch!’
Ju-Heon chuckled after seeing Yoo Jaeha's expression.
“It’s a joke about the money bet.”
“Ah, of course. There’s no way you would make a bet like that, right Captain-nim? I was worried you would lose money because of me......!”
“Oh but I did bet some Heirlooms.”
“?!”
Ju-Heon smiled brightly and added on.
“So you know what happens if you lose, right?”
“#&##!”
‘Is he being serious?!’
Seol-A whispered to Ju-Heon after seeing Jaeha heating up.
“Don’t you think that was too much? He seems completely out of it.”
“It’s okay. I just gave him a nudge not to belittle himself.”
‘I don't know about that. He seems to be having a mental breakdown.’
Ju-Heon looked outside.
“Hey Jaeha, it's your first customer. Get ready.”
Yoo Jaeha was still frozen stiff but seemed a bit happy.
However...
“Kya, Julien and Inaba are over there.”
Something odd happened.
All of the people who looked as if they would come here started heading toward the other exhibition hall.
They were all avoiding Yoo Jaeha’s exhibition for some reason.
It truly was weird.
“Mr. Ju-Heon, nobody is coming this way.”
Irene looked anxious looking at people who were only gathering toward the exhibit on the left.
They had nobody come to their exhibit. But the artists sponsored by Chairman Kwon and the new Monarchs had over 10,000.
Irene asked while looking at the crowd.
“Isn't it weird? There’s not a single person here......”
The rest of the team members chimed in as well.
“I heard someone over there is being sponsored by the US president.”
“They’re all so famous that anything they put out sells out...”
Yoo Jaeha seemed to be getting smaller at every comment but Ilya landed the final blow.
“Well, let’s be honest. These paintings suck compared to theirs. Even I can tell these aren't that good.”
He was just provoking Jaeha as usual but Jaeha looked as if the world was going to end.
“One billion dollars...... One billion dollars......”
He was crouching down on the corner thinking about being sold off.
At this rate, forget beating them, he wouldn't even sell a single painting.
Well, he never expected to sell any in the first place, but......
“Hahahaha, why don’t we set a list of potential countries to sell me off too first? Personally, I would prefer a country with a lot of beauties.”
“Hey hey, snap out of it.”
Even the rope was trying to console Jaeha.
But this truly was weird.
Why would so many people all go there?
It was at that moment.
“Kya, Inaba's work is truly the best. It has a way of mesmerizing people.”
They overheard some people walking by outside. They had stopped by the other exhibition and were leaving.
The brochure in their hands was proof of where they had just been.
Of course, they didn't even give a glance toward Jaeha’s exhibition.
That was probably the reason.
“Hand that over for a bit.”
“Kyaaaa!”
He had not purchased one because he didn’t want to help increase their profits, but he did need to know about his enemies.
‘Just how amazing is their art?’
Ju-Heon tilted his head in confusion after looking at the painting in the brochure.
Why?
‘Even if art is subjective... This shit?’
This was not something that should sell.
Ju-Heon didn’t know that much about art, however... He could tell by looking at it.
‘There's no sincerity and it shows no skill.’
Although Ju-Heon had that response, the other hall was packed and people were all praising the piece.
‘What is going on?’
As they were thinking it was weird...
“There really are only flies on that side.”
The top official restorer Julien and the rest who were participating in the exhibition sneered toward them.
“That's why you should have used da Vinci's artifact, Yoo Jaeha, you stupid retard.”
“Isn't it over if he has no customers?”
That was right.
The five artists going up against Yoo Jaeha today were all artifact users.
They used Michelangelo, Rafael, Rembrandt and other famous artists’ artifacts to create their works.
It was easy to get people to praise your work when it was created by using the artifact of a genius painter.
Their marvelous auras were being channeled into the paintings.
The artifacts were responsible for these artists getting awards, sponsors and being praised as geniuses.
“Look at those stupid pigs being fanatical about my work. My stuff is guaranteed to sell out today!
I didn’t know it was so easy to make money.”
“They get in line to buy our shit even if we don't try at all.”
They were still wary of Yoo Jaeha.
That was to be expected.
“Hey, are you sure It’s totally fine? Yoo Jaeha has da Vinci's artifact as well.”
“Isn't it game over if he uses da Vinci's artifact? We lose our sponsorship money if we lose. Only Seo Ju-Heon will benefit.”
It was hard to rank the artists but the artifacts became more powerful the more popular their namesake was to the humans.
Someone as famous as Leonardo da Vinci would mean that anything created by that artifact would be a masterpiece.
However...
“I told you. He doesn't use artifacts when making his own paintings.”
Louie was the one to respond.
“You...... Are the sixth artist to join us if I remember correctly.”
“You better be telling the truth.”
Louie shrugged his shoulders.
“I already told you. He said it's cheating to use an artifact while painting or something like that. He said that only trash do that.”
The other artists sneered at him.
“Wow, what an inspiration to all artists.”
I heard that Yoo Jaeha was going to display a new style of painting. He needs to be embarrassed by the critics to wake the hell up.”
“He's probably expecting it.”
“But I didn't know Seo Ju-Heon would be a Heirloom. Does he trust his subordinate that much? Do you think he has an ace up his sleeve?”
“Or maybe he’s just dumb and doesn't think before he acts.”
“That's true since nobody will go there as long as we have the entry restriction artifact going.
“All they will have are flies.”
But at that moment...
“Then why don’t we send those flies here too?”
“?!”
The artists who were in the waiting room were shocked.
The voice they had heard had come from the ceiling.
“Y, you are?!”
"I knew something was weird. Our pushover might be a retard but his paintings don't suck.”
“The Monarch of Devils!”
The person hanging upside down on the ceiling was Ilya. His angry gaze was directed at Louie who was with the artists.
"Ah, it's you. You’re that little Monarch of Fraud who ran away.”
“!”
Ilya frowned after noticing something on Louie.
Why?
He could feel a terrible evil god artifact on Louie.
‘It feels like a Nazi artifact.
Could it be Hitler?’
Ily scrunched his eyes together.
“Well, it’s fine. It doesn't matter to me anyway.”
However...
“A battle should be fair, don’t you think? Huh?”
Something happened once Ilya’s eyes flashed.
“Ahhhhhhhh!”
“What is this?!”
There were strong gusts of wind inside the exhibition hall and a large number of flies flew in.
“Aaah!”
The hoards of flies stuck to paintings and turned the western hall into pandemonium.
“Get out! Hurry up and get out!”
The people inside started to escape.
That wasn’t all.
“Kyaaaaaa! Blood! Blood!”
Nobody was harmed but the foul stench and flowing blood made people run away even faster.
The artists in the hall all glared at Ilya.
“That bastard!”
They could tell what had happened.
What happened just now wasn't through Solomon’s devils or through a spell book.
‘This is the power of a Heirloom!’
The Heirloom Ilya got was the Monarch of Devils’ artifact.
It was Satan (Beelzebub), the devil from the Bible.
The tempter, the king of evil, the deceiver of the world, the adversary, the accuser of the people, the evil one, the lord of flies, the fallen one, etc.
It was indeed that devil who has so many nicknames.
The artists were ready to fight Ilya even after seeing Satan.
However...
“No no, stop.”
“What?
“I hope that our Captain doesn't have to use his powers.”
“!”
Ju-Heon was standing where Ilya was looking.
His eyes were red and his arms were crossed with an expression that was saying that they were dead if they tried anything funny.
The Crow's aura seeping out of him was proof that the threat was real.
Maybe he was saying that they better sit their asses down and follow the rules since he wasn’t using artifacts today against them either.
The corners of Ju-Heon’s lips curled up and they heard some things exploding.
“!”
Ju-Heon had destroyed all of the entry restriction artifacts.
[The artifacts hindering people from entering have been destroyed.]
Julien was about to use his evil god artifact after seeing people start to move.
"Why I ought to!”
The others stopped him.
“It’s fine. The Chairman-nims will be here soon so let’s not cause a fuss! The flies and blood disappeared so it's fine!”
“Let him flail all he wants. Yoo Jaeha didn't use his artifact for his paintings so there’s no way he can win.”
“That’s right. There’s no way he will sell even one painting.”
Yoo Jaeha's sunbae Julien and female hoobae both laughed.
“That is true. He was the worst artist out of everyone in our class after all.”
Back in the other hall...
The rope’s eyes flashed after hearing people's voices.
[#$_&_!]
People are here! They’re here!
The rope even had a ribbon on today.
The happy rope smacked the sulking Yoo Jaeha's back.
[$#$#&!]
Hurry up and cheer up! Cheer up!
The people walking in started to observe his paintings.
“Huh? The style of painting is different. I heard he was the original painter of Jean Richard's supposed new style.”
Yoo Jaeha tensed up after hearing people's voices.
"What the hell? I was looking forward to that style of painting. Why did he change it?”
It was the critics.
“I guess he really is a fraud. It’s not that good.”
“I had high expectations after hearing he was the true artist behind Jean Richard’s style.
“I told you. He's just a fake.”
Yoo Jaeha bit down on his lips after hearing that.
He was thinking that he really was not good enough.
He could have used that style of painting that Richard had stolen from him, however......
‘I chose a different method on purpose.’
He had used an even more developed style.
However, the famous critics were sneering and other people were talking crap.
“That last picture probably did so well because a hotshot took it. The original artist isn't that good.”
“There’s nothing more to see. Let’s go look at the other ones.”
Yoo Jaeha, who had been selling brochures, lowered his head with disappointment.
The team members all had awkward expressions as they didn’t know what to say. Ju-Heon had his usual stoic expression but it was definitely not a smile.
But at that moment...
“Did you draw that painting?”
“E, excuse me?”
An old man was standing in front of Jaeha. His appearance got people talking.
"Wait a minute, that person......!”
The critics who had been ripping Jaeha’s work to shreds suddenly became anxious.
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