The central hall was still buzzing from Neftis's announcement, but everything shifted the moment the heavy doors opened.
Footsteps—steady, metallic, unhurried.
Every reporter, official, and mage in the room turned instinctively.
The hall quieted the moment the doors opened.
Heavy metal boots tapped against the polished floor—steady, unhurried, impossible to ignore. Conversations died mid-sentence. Quills stopped moving. Even the recording crystals dimmed slightly as if adjusting their focus.
Jin stepped inside. Still armored head to toe.
Still wearing the same mask from the battlefield.
No dramatic entrance, no flourish—just that calm, controlled presence that somehow filled the entire room.
Every pair of eyes followed him as he walked the center aisle. There was no hesitation in his steps, but no arrogance either. He moved like someone used to chaos, yet unfazed by attention.
Neftis didn't look back right away, but the subtle shift in her posture made it clear she knew he was there.
Jin reached the podium and stopped beside her—her right side, just a half step behind the mic crystal. He stood straight, hands relaxed at his sides, gaze forward.
He didn't need to say anything. His presence alone steadied the room.
A few reporters whispered to each other:
"That's him?"
"Is he the rumored new Legion Commander?"
Before any more could follow, Neftis lifted her hand slightly.
"Quiet."
Her voice wasn't loud, but it cut through the hall like a blade.
The noise died instantly—reporters froze, officials straightened, and even the recording crystals seemed to hum a little softer.
Only then did Neftis let a small grin form at the corner of her lips.
"As you know," she began, turning slightly toward the armored figure beside her, "this is Jin. The one who managed to resolve the unease at the northern border—the very incident all of you have been talking about."
A ripple of murmurs almost rose again, but Neftis lifted a finger, and silence snapped back into place.
"And I'm sure," she continued, "that all of you have a great number of questions. But before that, let me make something clear."
She glanced sideways at Jin—still silent, still unmoving—then faced the room again.
"Jin is not a Legion Commander," she said.
A few brows lifted.
"But," she added, "at the same time… he is a Legion Commander."
The confusion was immediate.
Dozens of people tilted their heads.
Some blinked rapidly.
A few of them even looked at their neighbors as if wondering if they misheard something.
And the reactions didn't stop with the front rows; the entire hall shifted with puzzled energy.
Even the "big names" watching the conference—renowned necromancers, high-ranking nobles, influential officers, and a few of the existing Legion Commanders—found themselves tilting their heads at the exact same moment.
It almost looked synchronized.
A field of question marks, hovering above every important head in the room.
"Hm, first things first—I need to explain a few things." Nefthis clasped her hands behind her back, a playful grin tugging at her lips. "I feel like a professor right now, giving a recap to my students. Hehe."
Up on the podium, a little behind both Nefthis and Jin, Jane could only stare at her in disbelief. Her expression practically screamed, "You're not a professor—you're the principal of Kizen! At least pretend to act like one!"
"For every Legion Commander, there's always an Administrator Undead assigned to them. An Administrator is an undead envoy with the authority to evaluate a necromancer's qualifications and choose who becomes a Legion Commander. The only way to rise to that position is to earn an Administrator's recognition and form a contract with it.
"But Jin," Nefthis continued, tapping her finger lightly against the podium, "doesn't have an Administrator Undead—and he doesn't need one in the first place."
The moment those words left her mouth, a ripple of shock spread through the room. Several Legion Commanders in particular couldn't hide their surprise, their expressions tightening for a split second before they quickly tried to compose themselves.
"Hmmm, some of the high-ranking necromancers and a few Legion Commanders might've already noticed the issue. But hey—seeing is believing. So, let me just demonstrate it."
With a casual flick of her wrist, Nefthis pulled a wolf-type monster corpse out of her subspace and set it on the podium floor with a dull thud.
"For necromancers—especially summoners—corpses are everything. You modify them, reinforce them, raise them, and make them your summons. In the end, no matter how strong or refined they become, a summon that was born from a corpse is, essentially… still a corpse."
She grinned. "But Jin is different. And this demonstration should explain why he is—and isn't—a Legion Commander at the same time."
Nefthis turned to her side. "Jin, if you would."
"Yes." Jin responded quietly, polite and composed.
He stepped forward, stopping right in front of the wolf's remains. Then, without any theatrics, he spoke a single word—calm, steady:
"Arise."
The shadow beneath the corpse stirred. Darkness crept outward, swallowing the body inch by inch as if the ground itself were devouring it. Gasps rippled through the hall.
Then—something emerged.
A wolf rose from the shadow, but it wasn't the same as when it was alive… nor anything close to a corpse. It didn't look dead at all. Its form matched a wolf-type monster, but its entire body was composed of rippling darkness, like a living silhouette given shape—an entity born not from flesh, but from shadow.
Its eyes glowed faintly, its presence entirely different from undead summons everyone knew.
The moment the shadow-wolf finished forming, the room erupted—not with noise, but with stunned silence.
People froze mid-breath.
Some even pushed halfway out of their seats before stopping, eyes wide.
A few had expressions so blank it looked like they had a spinning loading icon on their foreheads.
And the Legion Commanders watching—whether on-site or through projection—were the most shaken of all. Their faces tightened, eyes narrowing, brows lifting in disbelief. It wasn't the reaction of people seeing a new technique. It was the reaction of veterans who'd just witnessed a type of summon that shouldn't exist… something none of them had ever encountered in their entire careers.
A summon with no corpse.
A summon born from shadow itself.
Something entirely outside the rules they knew.
Nefthis planted a hand on her hip, a smug little grin blooming on her face. With her petite, almost childlike stature, the pose looked absurdly photogenic—so much so that several reporters instinctively snapped pictures in quick bursts.
"Now you understand, right?" she said, tilting her head slightly.
"Jin isn't a Legion Commander because he doesn't have an Administrator Undead. He doesn't need one. And he isn't a Legion Commander because his summons aren't made from actual corpses."
She paused, letting that sink in, then continued with a small, knowing smile.
"But at the same time… he is basically a Legion Commander. He raises an army just like Legion Commander—except his aren't corpse-based. They're shadow-based. Jin's ability creates shadow summons using a corpse merely as the medium. Their form is the same, but the thing that comes out isn't a corpse—it's their shadow given shape."
Murmurs rippled through the crowd.
Faces tensed, eyes widened, shoulders shifted.
It was another wave of disbelief—bigger than the first.
The Legion Commanders, especially, showed stark reactions. To them, this wasn't just unusual. This was unprecedented. A power that mirrored their own system, yet worked entirely outside it.
Within seconds, the expression on many faces shifted from confusion to sudden clarity—like they'd just achieved enlightenment after struggling with a problem for hours.
Now they finally understood what Nefthis meant.
Jin wasn't a Legion Commander.
And yet, in every practical sense… he might as well be.
Far from the interview hall—far enough that the cheers, murmurs, and camera flashes felt like they came from another world—a white-haired man watched the broadcast in silence.
The 5th Legion Commander.
A man known for his ambition, the kind that always simmered just beneath the surface. He'd spent years quietly building his own army, always chasing the idea of standing above the rest—of becoming the one, undisputed Legion Commander.
But as Nefthis finished her explanation, his expression froze.
Then it twisted. Not with anger.
But with a quiet, sharp disappointment.
"…So that's how it is," he muttered to himself.
Shadow summons. An army created outside the Administrator system. Something his own legion couldn't absorb, control, or fold into their network.
Which meant he—the 5th Legion Commander—had no way to take it for himself.
His fingers tightened around the armrest.
For someone as greedy as him… this revelation felt like watching a treasure chest open—only to find it empty.
"And with that," Nefthis said, lifting her chin slightly, "what I want to announce is this: from today onward, unofficially, Jin will be recognized as the Eighth Legion Commander."
She let the words hang in the air for a moment.
"But officially," she continued, tapping the podium with a faint smile, "his title will be a little different. You may call him a pseudo–Legion Commander. A shadow-type Legion Commander. Or—" her grin widened just a little, "—the Shadow Monarch."
The crowd, which had been buzzing a moment ago, fell completely silent.
And then, like a dam breaking—
Voices burst out all at once.
Reporters shot up from their seats.
Nobles leaned forward with wide eyes.
Even seasoned necromancers began throwing out questions rapid-fire, their voices overlapping in a chaotic blur.
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Character Voicelines · Jin (Knox): Interview Questions
Reporter A: Excuse me, sir, I have a question!
Jin: Sure. Go on.
Reporter A: Do you have a girlfriend?
Jin: ?
Reporter B: Do you have any specific reason for wearing a mask?
Jin: Yes.
Reporter C (whispering to his colleague): Maybe… because he's bald…
Jin: (ーー#)