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It was when Jegal carried a curse on behalf of his student in PMH that I saw the pattern engraved on the robe of Avaritia of Greed.
Jegal lost his original form because his whole body was crushed to the point of almost immediate death, but he got more time thanks to the superior being Thoth’s consideration.
In the process of looking back at his life, Jegal refused to meet anyone.
However, his troublemaker of a class refused to give up.
Jegal eventually showed up to discourage the Year Two Class Zero students who persistently visited him.
[No, impossible…]
[You’re a liar, professor… You said you’d be our homeroom teacher until we graduate…]
The only thing shown by the screen is the silhouette of the unhuman-like appearance of Jegal and the words of desperation uttered by the Year Two Class Zero students.
At that time, they weren’t the only ones who saw Jegal.
[I saw what the Namok Poet looks like.]
After Jegal bids goodbye to his students, the screen transitions elsewhere.
Somewhere in the dark, people in robes were meeting.
They seemed to have been watching Jegal the whole time.
[How’s the Namok Poet?]
[Can he still use Spiritual Word?]
[It doesn’t suffice that the poet cannot move. The true power of the Namok Poet is exercised in his writings.]
[What about the possibility of reincarnation? He has many excellent students.]
The Demon Race was extremely wary of Jegal.
Their weakness is his skill, Spiritual Word, and they regarded his existence as a great burden.
Among the ones from the Demon Race, one of them said something with great joy.
[Thoth is the only reason he’s still breathing. We don’t have to do anything further. Things will settle without a problem if we wait.]
[Is that true?]
[Yes. I’ll keep an eye on him until the moment he stops breathing. Don’t worry.]
The Demon Race kept an eye on Jegal until he died.
When some time passed after Jegal’s death was confirmed, the demons celebrated with joy.
[Toast to the Namok Poet’s death and our victory.]
[Cheers!]
[That annoying Spiritual Word skill user is finally taken care of.]
[Yes, the most difficult skill user on the Korean Peninsula has died.]
The Demon Race’s weakness — Spiritual Word.
Sounds and letters bound them, a system that they use to communicate with each other.
They were vulnerable to the language of humans.
They regarded it as a humiliation that the language created by humans dominated the Korean Peninsula.
Rather than taking over intellectual power in Korea like the other clans are doing, they prioritized getting rid of the Spiritual Word skill users first.
As a result, Jegal died.
And they didn’t intend to stop there.
There was another excellent skill user in Eungwang High other than Jegal.
[Eungwang High again! I can’t believe there’s another one!]
[There’s only one more left in Eungwang High, Positive Sound Gong Cheonghwon.]
[He’s still young, and his position in Eungwang High is not high enough. It’ll be easier to handle him than the Namok Poet.]
They were displeased, but the demons took were still pleased with Jegal’s death.
There were already many from Eungwang High who joined hands with the Demon Race so they believed that dealing with Gong Cheonghwon would pose no difficulty.
They celebrated their victory and raised a glass to one of the demons sitting in the corner.
[If we were to use the term from the Players’ Association, then the biggest contributor to this victory would be Avaritia’s priest.]
[Yes, those seeds of curse worked very well.]
[The moment the seed reached the skill user, I felt so relieved!]
And then, a purple poison slowly rose around Avaritia’s priest.
Seeing this, the demons took a step back and used their energy waves to block the poison.
[What do you mean “biggest contributor”? It’s unpleasant to be referred in the words of humans.]
That’s when the demon’s robe was shown, bearing the pattern of the Demon God.
I watched the scene unfold over the screen, and the pattern was engraved in my head.
The Year Two students prioritized caring for Jegal over avenging their teacher, but as an off-screen user, I had no intention of giving up on my revenge for Jegal.
And when I came to this world, I encountered Avaritia’s pattern many times.
‘It wasn’t just Jegal… the Demon Race had been involved with Yoo Sanghee and Yoo Ssanghoon all this time!’
No, for the immortal people of royal lineage, 10 years isn’t considered a long time.
While digging into the aftermath of the Do Sihoo situation, I discovered that the Demon Race has been related to the TC Group, but I didn’t imagine that they were also involved in Yoo Sanghee and Yoo Sanghoon’s lives.
I recalled the times I encountered Avaritia’s pattern.
‘Is this the third time?’
The first was when I discovered the seeds planted on Do Sihoo’s personal belongings.
Second was when we captured the priest during the sports exchange match.
And third, was now.
Perhaps because Yoo Sanghoon’s memory was blurry, the pattern didn’t entirely match Avaritia’s, but it was very similar to what I know.
There was another similarity that was almost humorous.
‘The person who came after Do Sihoo was from TC Group, and Yoo Sanghoon says he saw the logo of TC Research Institute.’
The TC Group is currently divided into three factions.
First, the pro-segregation faction.
This faction includes the King of Ships and the heir to the TC Group.
‘Do Wonwoo and Do Sihoo’s father belong there. That side has no problem. The issue is the other two.’
The second faction is the one that opposes the divorce of the TC Group.
This faction is currently being investigated by the Players’ Association.
Kim Shinrok directly interrogated the nursing officer and found clues from his confessions.
They planned to destroy Do Sihoo’s mind and manipulate him to assassinate Do Wonwoo at the opening ceremony of the sports exchange match.
It was a vicious ploy to defeat two powerful players at once and drive a wedge between the next heir of the group and the King of Ships.
They are now being dealt with by the law and the fathers of the players they aimed for.
‘The King of Ships and the next heir are aware of the incident, so it should be okay. They can’t afford to put pressure on Yoo Sanghoon through the TC Research Institute now.’
I didn’t have to worry much about that faction anymore.
Although they joined hands with the Demon Race, if everyone is going to jail, there’s really nothing much they can do.
The only faction left is the one I’m most suspicious of.
‘The third one… It’s possible they also joined hands with the Demon Race.’
TC Group’s third faction, the Cheon Family.
Once at the top of the Four Major Groups of Korea, the TC Group fell to the bottom after the divorce case between the T and C families.
Because of that case, the Cheon family separated from the Do family.
‘When Hong Gyubin was still Namgung Gyubin, he said he once interacted with the Cheon family and saw him involved with Do Sihoo.’
Hong Gyubin investigated things, but he failed to weave the incidents together.
But the clues don’t end there.
‘Hwang Jiho said he supported the Cheon family during the divorce. That’s why it was easy for him to get insider information, and if we exploit that…’
While thoughts were going crazy inside my head, I made eye contact with Yoo Sanghoon who had been looking at me without saying a word.
I think I became too immersed in the clue about Avaritia’s priest.
I wanted to paddle back, but it seemed too late.
“You recognize it.”
Yoo Sanghoon smiled and turned off the hologram in front of us.
I felt a firm will from him to hear what was going on.
“This picture that I remember. What’s it related to?”
The answer to Yoo Sanghoon’s question is simple.
All players knew of the Demon Race.
However, those words couldn’t easily leave my mouth.
‘Talking about the Demon Race means getting Yoo Sanghoon involved further.’
It might be more dangerous than when Jang Namwook got involved with Do Sihoo’s case.
There are several other cadets in the military academy other than Jang Namwook, but Yoo Sanghee only has one brother.
If I fail, or if the Demon Race retaliates later on, Yoo Sanghoon could be targeted.
Knowing how pervasive and powerful the seeds of curse and the Demon Race’s Eye are, I was reluctant to speak.
“…So it’s something dangerous since you can’t say it easily.”
Yoo Sanghoon isn’t a man of many words.
Even when I act suspiciously, he doesn’t ask many questions.
But he doesn’t seem to have any intention of backing down now.
“…”
“…”
We sat there for a while, neither of us speaking.
Yoo Sanghoon usually gives up and changes the conversation at some point, but there was no sign of that happening here.
He spoke first.
“…I heard that my illness has something to do with my abilities. I became better after my abilities awoken, but I heard that I didn’t have to be so sick without my abilities in the first place.”
Yoo Sanghoon looked at me as he chose his words carefully.
‘I think Yoo Sanghoon and I are thinking the same thing.’
The process of Yoo Sanghoon’s energy wave awakening is somewhat strange.
Yoo Sanghee’s actions just before that, and the TC Research Institute and the Demon Race that seemed involved in the process.
The strange disease that tormented Yoo Sanghoon.
If there’s anything that is key to revealing the secrets hidden in how his energy wave was awakened, it would be Yoo Sanghoon’s energy wave and abilities themselves.
“I’ll tell you about my abilities. Skills, light skill, order. Everything. So tell me what you know.”
Revealing one’s abilities is like showing one’s hand in a poker game.
Eungwang High only checks a person’s combat skill for the sake of combat education, and the student has full autonomy to disclose their skills and light skill.
Yoo Sanghoon is saying he will reveal everything to me.
‘What is he…!’
I don’t know if it’s because Yoo Sanghoon trusts me, or he’s just very worried about Yoo Sanghee’s safety.
Knowing Yoo Sanghoon’s abilities will definitely help the reasoning process, but I couldn’t seem to open my mouth.
Dingdong.
At that moment, a notification sounded from my device.
I ignored it, not wanting to check it in front of Yoo Sanghoon, but my device kept ringing.
Looking at the pop-up notification, it seemed to be from Hwang Jiho.
‘Hwang Jiho knows I’m talking with Yoo Sanghoon now though…’
Hwang Jiho isn’t foreign to sending useless messages, but I had an ominous feeling.
I asked for Yoo Sanghoon’s understanding before checking the message.
“…Okay.”
Perhaps he thought I was buying time, Yoo Sanghoon looked displeased.
[Hwang Jiho] Jo Euishin.
[Hwang Jiho] I apologize for messaging while you’re talking with a friend.
[Hwang Jiho] I think it’s something you need to know right away so I contacted you.
What in the world is it?
I felt a strong sense of urgency from Hwang Jiho’s short message.
From the message at the very bottom, I saw what was going on.
[Hwang Jiho] Do Wonwoo is on the move.
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