The Return of the Talented Monopolist is Special - C1

Three men descended endlessly into a bottomless underground prison.

Cough!

Yujin, being dragged by two heavily armed knights on either side, coughed up blood.

However, the knights didn’t even glance at him.

They merely tightened their grip on the staggering Yujin’s arms, pulling him forward with even more force.

“…….”
“…….”

Even so, their expressions carried a strange solemnity.

Though they were fulfilling their duty to imprison an irredeemable criminal guilty of treason, they didn’t treat Yujin with complete disdain.

Instead, they muttered under their breath, as though they couldn’t quite believe it.

“Just the other day, he was leading the charge to annihilate the Black Zone.”
“I never imagined it. To think he would attempt to assassinate the Pope.”

The Church of the Sun.

The continent was divided into the Sacred Zone and the Black Zone. The Church of the Sun controlled the entirety of the Sacred Zone—

An institution ruling over hundreds of millions of believers and commanding the continent’s most powerful knights.

Yujin had been the strategist who stood by the Pope’s side, overseeing the administrative affairs and battle strategies of this massive organization.

Yet now, he was on his way to Muganok—a prison where only the most dangerous traitors of the first degree were incarcerated.

“Heh…”

Yujin Robert.

He let out a hollow laugh.

“Until yesterday, I was the Supreme Commander of the Church of the Sun. It was quite the grand title.”

But.

The Pope had framed him.

“A hunting dog is always discarded.”

“Why…?”

“A clever one is like a double-edged sword.”

The brightest figure in the Church of the Sun, Yujin Robert, had become a condemned man overnight.

“Thanks to the person I trusted the most.”

They say that at the moment of death, one’s life flashes before their eyes.

For Yujin, all the struggles and achievements of his past life now felt utterly meaningless.

He was the only son of a wealthy merchant family representing the South of the Sacred Zone.

On his mother’s side, he had the bloodline of a renowned Northern swordsmanship family—he was, in every sense, born with a golden spoon.

Raised with high expectations from everyone around him

In reality, however, he was no different from an empty shell.

From a young age, Yujin had been frail to the point of being unable to complete basic swordsmanship training.

When he was deemed incapable of magical resonance, he was branded a dullard.

The discrimination and scorn poured on him from every corner of society filled Yujin with a deep inferiority complex.

Desperate to prove his worth, he struggled tirelessly.

At the age of twenty, he entered the Church of the Sun’s Strategic Support Division.

Though he had no talent for martial arts, he possessed one skill that surpassed everyone else’s.

Perfect recall.

The ability to remember scenes and information with photographic precision.

Using this ability, Yujin devoured every book on warfare and strategy he could find, until his mind became a living archive of strategies.

Thanks to this, Yujin was able to rise within the Church of the Sun, overcoming the limitations of his lack of physical prowess, until he stood directly below the Pope himself.

A man beneath one and above all others.

There was no better phrase to describe Yujin.

“Of course, all of that is in the past now. Heh…”

Yujin let out a self-deprecating laugh.

To think the idiom discarding the hunting dog after the hunt would one day apply to him.

The end of the staircase came into view.

Tap.

He stepped onto the bottom floor of the endlessly deep underground staircase.

Forcing open his one good eye, Yujin looked around.

The long corridor stretched out before him, lined on both sides with sturdy, thick iron bars.

Inside the cells were criminals—people Yujin himself had put behind bars—reduced to lifeless husks.

Most of them were already mad, staring blankly into the void, but a few retained some vitality.

Some of them turned their eyes toward Yujin, and one by one, they began to rise.

“You… You’re that guy, aren’t you?”
“Yeah, that’s him… That rat who used to hide in the back!”

Bang! Bang!

They banged furiously on the iron bars, letting out ear-piercing screams.

These were knights and mages who had once stood at the forefront of the Black Zone, resisting the Church of the Sun.

But having lost to Yujin’s strategies in the war, they were all imprisoned here in Muganok, waiting for their deaths.

And now, the tables had turned, with Yujin finding himself in the same miserable state as them.

“Got more questions to ask, huh? Come on in! Let’s see you try!”

Yujin sighed deeply as he listened to their curses and screams.

‘I followed orders, thinking I was doing the right thing… and yet, I’ve become nothing more than everyone’s enemy.’

The gift of ten years spent loyally serving the Pope’s will turned out to be nothing but the resentment of others.

Well, perhaps there was one more thing.

Death.

Cough!

Yujin coughed up blood once again.

The color of his blood was a deep violet.

‘The poison is starting to take effect. I’ve got… about an hour left.’

Just before entering Muganok, the Pope had forcibly made Yujin drink a deadly poison.

Now, the poison was rapidly stiffening Yujin’s body.

At that moment.

The two knights escorting Yujin slowed their steps.

They had reached the innermost part of Muganok, the first-class prison cell.

At that point, Yujin instinctively noticed something.

“Step inside,” one of the knights said, his voice trembling slightly.

Of course, Yujin understood the reason for their unease.

It was because of the man behind the thick iron bars, sitting in the pitch-black shadows, grinning with his teeth bared.

“We meet again,” the man said.

Though this was their first face-to-face encounter, the man spoke as if they were old acquaintances.

His voice was eerily chilling.

It carried the innocence of a child, yet also the cold ruthlessness of a killer.

It had the warmth of a human, yet also the monstrous cruelty of a beast that had devoured thousands of lives.

Yujin frowned in confusion.

‘We meet again? This is the first time we’ve met.’

Though perplexed, Yujin could only stare at him, overwhelmed by the man’s presence.

While the man’s unsettling smile lingered—

Clang!

The two armored knights hurriedly shoved Yujin into the cell and locked the iron bars behind him, desperately ignoring the chills crawling up their spines.

Yujin stood slouched in front of the narrow, foul-smelling cell.

He naturally recognized the monstrous man before him.

The Mad Demon, Mephisto.

Leader of the Black Zone rebels, and the man who single-handedly fought against the Church of the Sun’s elite unit White Flame, killing half of its 101 members.

“Why don’t you sit?”

The Mad Demon’s voice echoed through the stale air and reached Yujin’s ears.

Yujin smirked bitterly.

Being imprisoned in the same cell as someone he had once captured—it stirred complicated emotions within him.

But fear wasn’t one of them.

After all, he was destined to die in an hour anyway.

Out of nowhere, the Mad Demon asked, “How does it feel? Are you enjoying this?”

Leaning slowly against the wall, Yujin replied with a question of his own.

“Enjoying what?”

“The unification of the continent. It was ultimately achieved, wasn’t it? Thanks to your clever strategies.”

It seemed the Mad Demon already knew a lot about Yujin.

Yujin let out a hollow sigh.

“Unification is nice and all, but I won’t get to enjoy it myself… So what’s the point?”

Heh.

While Yujin chuckled dryly, the Mad Demon spoke with a snide remark.

“You were used up and discarded, weren’t you?”

Perhaps those with great insight could see it at a glance.

When Yujin nodded in resignation, the Mad Demon let out a low chuckle.

“You commanded the White Flame, didn’t you?”

“White Flame, Black Flame… I commanded them all.”

“You’re a fool.”

Yujin smirked faintly.

“Yeah, I was a fool… If I’d known it’d end like this, I would’ve spent more time with my family—”

“No, that’s not what I meant.”

Yujin’s head tilted slightly.

“Then what do you mean by ‘fool’?”

“The Pope you served, the one who ordered your death—that Pope is the real fool.”

“What do you mean?”

The Mad Demon laughed loudly.

The *Mad Demon* suddenly burst into wild laughter before speaking.

“From what I can see, you’ve got no more than an hour left to live, so why not just be honest with me?”

The *Mad Demon* pointed a finger toward the ceiling.

“Last night, when I was captured on the battlefield and dragged here by your subordinates, do you know what I thought about the most?”

“…Resentment, perhaps.”

“No.”

The finger pointing at the ceiling shifted, now directed at Yujin.

“I thought, ‘If we had a strategist like you, wouldn’t the Black Zone have won this war?’ The fact that someone like you was cast aside—your Pope must be a complete fool.”

Yujin glanced at the pointed finger and gave a faint smile.

“Doesn’t seem like you hate me very much. Are you planning to toy with me and then tear me apart?”

“Hate? Of course I hate you! If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be in this mess! And no, I don’t have any particular taste for human flesh.”

Yujin asked, “What exactly are you trying to say?”

“In the final battle, how did you figure out the Crescent Moon Formation? It’s been driving me crazy trying to understand. Absolutely insane.”

The *Crescent Moon Formation* (*Eonwoljin*).

A formation shaped like a half-moon, typically used when on the defensive and cornered.

The Black Zone rebels had modified this formation, turning it into a strategy involving suicide bombers.

By employing this strategy, the *Mad Demon* had been confident that the *Church of the Sun*’s recovery would be delayed by at least a hundred years.

But that confidence was shattered by Yujin’s counter-strategy.

Before the suicide bombers could even charge into the *Church of the Sun*’s forces, their positions were completely exposed.

Yujin smirked faintly as he replied.

“With most of the continent already under the *Church of the Sun*, how many strategies could you even have left? At most, two or three. From there, I just needed to defend against the one that posed the greatest threat to us.”

“…And then?”

“You considered the terrain at the edges of the Black Zone, the resources the Black Zone recently imported in bulk, and the mindset of desperate individuals… those were the factors I analyzed.”

“…Then how did you locate our positions?”

Yujin weakly waved his hand as if the question were tiresome.

“In such steep terrain, there are only so many places people can hide. It’s just obvious…”

“Ha ha ha ha!”

The *Mad Demon* burst out laughing, the sound so loud it seemed as though it might tear Yujin’s ears apart.

It was a moment that clearly demonstrated Yujin’s exceptional intelligence and judgment.

“You’re truly a strategist! If you’d been on the side of the Black Zone, the war might have turned out very differently—even this *Mad Demon* ended up being captured.”

Yujin let out a long sigh in response.

“Yeah… you caused me no small amount of trouble, too. Maybe I should’ve joined the Black Zone myself.”

“If you had been the supreme commander of the Black Zone, could you have toppled the *Church of the Sun* and dealt with the Pope? Hmm…”

The *Mad Demon* gazed at Yujin with sincere regret. He clearly valued Yujin’s exceptional talents as a strategist.

Yujin gave a faint smile.

“If I had your level of martial prowess… I think I might’ve been able to swallow the *Church of the Sun* whole…”

With those words, he slowly closed his eyes.

By now, the poison had spread throughout his body, leaving him stiff and immobile.

Even speaking required all the strength he could muster.

Yujin muttered softly, barely audible.

“Don’t hold too much of a grudge… I was just… doing my job…”

The *Mad Demon* stared at him intently.

“I’m also about to be dragged off and executed soon. What’s the use of harboring resentment? It’s all meaningless in the end.”

“…Thanks…”

Yujin fully closed his eyes.

One last time.

For the very last time, he reflected on his life.

Was it a problem of being too capable?

Should he have flattered the Pope more, like the sycophants?

Or would it have been better to live quietly and unnoticed?

Countless thoughts raced through his mind, but they all led to one conclusion.

*…I lacked ambition.*

What had he learned from the House of Robert?

*”Son, always remember: the moment you settle for the present, you’re not standing still—you’re falling behind.”*

Without realizing it, Yujin murmured his innermost thoughts aloud.

“If I’d surpassed even the Pope… If I’d been first, not second… I wouldn’t have died like this…”

An unexpected response came.

“Do you want to write a new story?”

Yujin, startled by the *Mad Demon*’s sudden question, didn’t reply and focused only on breathing.

The *Mad Demon* stood and grabbed one of Yujin’s hands.

“Remember this well. You have a good memory, right? I’ll trust you on that.”

“…?”

After muttering something about *Qi Techniques*, an unknown energy flowed from the *Mad Demon*’s hand into Yujin’s body.

Unable to resist or even move, Yujin passively accepted the energy.

When the mysterious energy had completely merged into his body, the *Mad Demon* whispered softly.

“I think you can do it.”

Yujin’s body dissolved into tiny particles and scattered.

* * *

“Waah?”

The return of the talent devourer is something extraordinary.