Darkness had always been Kang Jin-Ho's partner, and it was easy to figure out why.

Humans had always been accompanied by darkness even before their consciousness could form. Some said that a human's life only started after they emerged from their mother's womb and into the light, but that was incorrect. In reality, it would be more correct to say that darkness was already with humans from inside their mothers' wombs.

Even if that example was excluded from the discussion, darkness could still be found everywhere around a human being.

As a person, Uchimura Masashi was especially close to darkness than many others. That was a part of a shinobi's job description, after all.

The same job description said that shinobis were supposed to stay in the darkness found throughout the world. And Masashi was quite proud of his ability to do so. All the bone-breaking physical and obsessive self-restraint training he had done throughout his life ensured that his pride would never be misplaced.

'Hmph!'

And that was why he didn’t like this assignment, not one bit.

'In Joseon, of all places?' [1]

Even on the surface world, Korea as a nation couldn't even come close to Japan. Sure, Korea had been chasing down Japan at scarcely-believable speeds in recent times, but the gap between the two countries was still so huge that comparing them seemed like a waste of time.

That was the story on the surface world. However, the gap in status between...