Maximilien was born in the Kingdom of Heat (Yeolguk).

A nation where everything is fake, thanks to alchemy. Even the pebbles rolling down the street are artificial creations made by someone. The land, wandered by golden mirrors, is both a blessing and a curse. Humans live under the weight of gold. It took the footprints of humans less than a hundred years to cover the nature that Mother Earth had created over hundreds of millions of years. Even the lush crops grown there were tainted with iron poisoning, and in such a land, humans were used as mere materials.

Thanks to being born in the Kingdom of Heat, Maximilien survived.

Maximilien was born without arms. Neither he nor his parents were particularly surprised. To someone born without limbs, it’s hard to understand why humans have four limbs in the first place. Besides, the Kingdom of Heat was a peculiar place where if you had three children, one was bound to be born deformed.

In the Kingdom of Heat, anything lacking was supplemented with alchemy. Even if it was a child's underdeveloped arms. His parents, who were reasonably skilled alchemists, decided to create prosthetics for their child.

They were overly ambitious for their abilities.

The Kingdom of Heat was a place where if you had three children, one would be born mad. Maximilien’s parents were such a case. From a young age, Maximilien received relentless modifications under the intense attention of his parents.

Was that love, obsession, or perhaps the mindset of scholars battling a complex problem?

In any case, thanks to his parents’ diligent efforts and the endless pain he endured, Maximilien learned the craft of alchemy. With that knowledge, he created his own prosthetic arms.

Maximilien, wandering the Kingdom of Heat with his gear-operated prosthetic arms, quickly became famous.

No matter how skilled an alchemist, it’s difficult to create a functional design for every situation. However, Maximilien, whose body was practically made of gears, could craft sturdy machinery even from low-quality materials. People were captivated by his unique creations, which had an entirely different design approach.

Alchemy is straightforward. According to the law of equivalent exchange, no matter how hard you try to reduce costs, you can’t exceed the absolute value of the materials. Those who stuck to traditional methods couldn’t compete with Maximilien.

Maximilien, with his competitive edge, gathered wealth from across the Kingdom of Heat. In a land where alchemical value was the ultimate truth, money was power. With the immense fortune he accumulated, Maximilien founded a company and rose as a new power in the kingdom…

Until the Golden Palace rejected him.

Once permission was revoked, the wolves came after him. Although Maximilien was an exceptional alchemist and skilled in combat, the Kingdom of Heat was a land of alchemy. When the balance tips, miracles don’t occur. After a long chase, Maximilien was forced to flee beyond the kingdom’s borders.

Then, one day, he heard news that his parents were looking for him. They had clearly been taken hostage. Ignoring it would have been the rational choice, but to Maximilien, his parents were both his teachers and his benefactors. He couldn’t leave them to die. So, he returned to the Kingdom of Heat on his own.

Under strict surveillance, Maximilien met his parents and pulled a gear from his pocket.

In the Kingdom of Heat, they say if you have three children, one is deformed, one is mad, and one is a genius.

Sometimes, all three are born in one child.

Maximilien hated his parents' incompetence and their irritable tempers. He couldn’t understand how they would take out their frustrations on him when an experiment failed. But aside from that, he did love them, in his way.

In the Kingdom of Heat, when something is lacking, alchemy fills the gap. Just as his parents fixed his arms with alchemy, Maximilien decided to "fix" his parents’ minds.

His parents could no longer get angry. After all, without thoughts, one cannot feel anger.

Unlike his parents, Maximilien didn’t pass the blame when things went wrong. He calmly acknowledged his shortcomings, tidied up the mess, and left.

Just before the sharp blades could tear me apart, a brown shadow fell like a meteor beside me. It was Aji, who had been hiding until now. The King of Dogs, who could unleash his fury on the gears, leaped at the spinning blades with ferocious intensity.

"Woof woof!"

Aji wasn’t foolish enough to bite directly into the sharp blades. His target wasn’t the blades themselves but the axis they were connected to. Aji dove into the heart of the Steel Beetle and bit down on the rotating shaft, shaking his head violently in an attempt to tear it apart.

"Ruff! Ruff ruff ruff ruff ruff!"

He hung on, barking wildly. Size doesn’t always correlate with strength, but the Steel Beetle demonstrated the sheer power of pure mass. Aji was flung around, spinning with the blades.

"Aji, even you can’t handle that."

Humans are not inherently strong. Objectively speaking, compared to other beasts, we are physically inferior. Our skin is thin, our claws are blunt, and our bones are fragile. It’s a wonder we’ve survived at all.

But humanity’s true strength lies in its ability to draw strength from elsewhere.

We take the hides of other animals and wear them. We break stones and use their sharp edges as claws. We cut trees, braid vines, and use them as bones. The strength we gather isn’t truly ours, so we can use it recklessly. Tools can be replaced, and thus, humans became the rulers of the earth.

The Steel Beetle, which utilized the principles of rotational force to the fullest, multiplied its power by thousands, even hundreds of thousands of times. Not even the King of Beasts could withstand that kind of numerical violence.

Ah, except for the Human King.

I reached out toward the descending blades that were pulling Aji along. My hand covered the side of the blades that could cut through anything.

Logically, my hand should have been shredded.

Thunk.

The meeting between the blade and my hand ended with a quiet sound. The blade, which had been raging like a storm, became as still as a stone the moment it touched my hand.

"Whimper…."

I heard Aji’s stupid whine as he dangled from the metal bar. In the silence, Maximilien spoke.

"...It wasn’t just an empty boast. You can control even the Steel Beetle."

"If you can do it, I can do it too."

Unlike the self-driving vehicles powered by thunder wheels, the Steel Beetle moves only by Maximilien’s power. The wheels, the rotating blades, and even the joints connecting the gears—all of them are under his control.

Since I use the same power, I have the same level of authority.

Maximilien flicked his fingers, a motion akin to scratching the air with his nails, and the Steel Beetle twitched. It tried to move, escape my grip, and follow its true master’s intent.

But as long as I held it, it couldn’t move. I was perfectly countering Maximilien’s control.

‘He’s resisting. I haven’t completely taken control. But this much... there’s still a chance.’

Tch. He’s quick to catch on.

Even with this much provocation, he hasn’t lost his temper. Maybe it’s because he’s got gears installed in his head—his emotions and logic seem to function separately.

"Isn’t it a bit pathetic to be provoked and not get angry?"

"I’m not angry. You have the right to say such things to me."

Don’t lie. You’re angry. You’re just keeping your logic in check by working those gears in your head!

"You attacked me without warning, and now you say you’re not angry? That doesn’t inspire much trust."

"It couldn’t be helped. You showed no intention of joining me. But I need you. Since our opinions don’t align, we have no choice but to force a decision."

"Even if you take me with you, I won’t cooperate."

"Perhaps you won’t. But what about the Human King?"

That would be troublesome.

I am the Human King, and even if I regain my power, my personality and character won’t change.

But the reason I feel threatened is because humans once drove out their king with their own hands…

"Maybe, the King of Sin will be more cooperative."

No matter how I think about it, the King of Sin that the regressor saw in the future is surely the Human King.

I am human. I am a beast. Beasts don’t destroy the world. No, they can’t. Beasts are part of the world.

To destroy the world, one must first commit suicide. But if you commit suicide, you can’t destroy the world. What a paradox.

And yet, humanity has done it. Amazing, those humans.

"I don’t know the full intentions of humanity either. In fact, I never needed to. My sole purpose was to meet the Human King, nothing more. But… if you won’t acknowledge me, I’ll have to find another way!"

Maximilien raised his right arm.

Gears emerged from somewhere, rolling down his body. Without any need for assembly, the gears found their places and moved into position. Steel interlocked with a heavy clang. In an instant, a massive steel arm was completed.

Maximilien swung his steel arm toward me. I screamed.

"You said you’d take me with you!"

"Don’t worry. Even if your limbs break, I’ll fix them."

"I don’t need that!"