Ivan is the son of a billionaire, and the black sheep of the family. Whereas his siblings work hard to prove that they're ready to take control of their father's empire, he's satisfied with partying and has no plans in joining the family business. His entire life changes one day when at a party he accidentally helps a young woman who appears to be around his age steal a golden apple from a secret garden his father owns. The girl escapes by revealing that she has wings and flying out of an open window.
This fruit could be the key to destroying his father's empire and could devastate the country, but Ivan doesn't care about that. Because of his actions, the security staff for the building was fired. Ivan then leaves his family and sets out on a journey to track the girl down and prove that the events of that night were supernatural, so that he can get the guards their jobs back. On the way, he winds up stumbling upon a magical conspiracy that stretches back to the earliest days of civilization.
The Red King is a webcomic that's available to be read on the Webtoons app. All chapters save for the latest three can be read for free.
Not to be confused with the iconic Ultraman kaiju sharing the same name.
This work contains examples of:
- Awful Wedded Life: Ivan's mother clearly didn't enjoy her marriage, as her husband seemingly married her to get exclusive control of the fruits of her research and promptly forced her to change her style and demeanor, and even get her tattoos removed. A flashback shows that when they argued, he wasn't above yelling loudly enough to be heard in the next room and throwing things around. Ivan also suspects him of murdering his mother. And it turns out she may have been the opportunist who married him in the hopes of getting funding, rather than him marrying her to get control of her research. The tattoo removal may have even been a choice on her part in order to convince him that she no longer had romantic feelings for the man who designed the tattoo.
- Abusive Parents: Ivan's dad punches him in the face at one point.
- Cassandra Truth: Nobody believes Ivan that a girl with wings stole the apple. He wants to get proof that something supernatural was involved just so the security guards can get their jobs back, because in his mind he's thus proven that there was nothing anybody could have done to stop them.
- Deceased Parents Are the Best: Ivan still loves his mother and looks up to her. Season two deals a lot with him finding out that she may have been as unscrupulous as her husband.
- Half-Human Hybrid: In a sequence that teaches us about the roles that the supernatural beings played in ancient history, we find out that they often had relations with and married humans, having children in the process. We have yet to meet a confirmed hybrid in the present timeline, however.
- Half-Sibling Angst: Averted with Ivan's half-sister. She is actually more welcome into the family than Ivan and her brothers love her unconditionally.
- Luke, I Might Be Your Father: Ivan's efforts to track down the girl lead him to one of his mother's former colleague's, Alexander, who bears a striking resemblance to Ivan. He was also sleeping with her.
- Mercy Kill: Ivan is forced to put down his dog after they get into a motorcycle accident.
- Muggles Do It Better: Ivan stabs an ancient magical creature with a broken umbrella, critically injuring him.
- The Unfavorite: Rebellious, unmotivated Ivan is referred to as the black sheep of the family by the webcomic's official summary. He may not even be his father's biological son.
