Chapter 288: The Long-Lost
I was alone with Celeste in the empty round table room, with no windows but stained glass that glowed with their own light.
‘…Hmmm, why are you calling Egostic, can I join you?’
‘I’m sorry, Atlas, but this is a conversation we need to have in private.’
‘Hah. That can’t be…’
‘Atlas, don’t worry, you can go first. It’s not like we’re going to have a difficult conversation…’
‘Uh-huh, but…’
…Atlas, who didn’t want to leave me, and Katana, who was looking at me worriedly, finally let go, and the meeting was finally organized.
At the round table, where everyone looked at us curiously and left.
I, sitting across from Celeste, was rolling my eyes.
‘…This is fucked.’
I thought to myself as Celeste calmly served me a cup of tea.
After I stopped the Moonlight Gate incident, I had expected Celeste to mention it. I mentioned gods and dimensional beings, Eun-woo had used magic and I went back and forth between dimensions during the incident.
…But I didn’t expect her to be so blatantly asking to see me alone.
Being with Celeste on her home turf, in the middle of nowhere, with no one by my side but her, the strongest person in the original, makes my mouth water.
Of course, outwardly, I never gave it away.
I acted relaxed, as if I knew why she called me.
With a smile on my face, I sipped the tea she served, casually observing Celeste.
A woman with long graying hair, dressed in a saintly-looking robe, eyes closed, smiling quietly.
I was observing her face, which had a mysterious beauty that drew the viewer in when Celeste set down her searching glass and opened her mouth.
“Egotistic. I’m glad you stayed.”
“I am, indeed, honored to be here, Ms. Celeste. Is there a reason you called me here?”
“Well…”
She closed her eyes for a moment, smiled, and looked in my direction.
Hook-
Suddenly, a chill runs through me, as if the temperature here has dropped several degrees.
Celeste is still smiling, but with a distinctly chilled aura.
She turned to me, her voice soft.
“Egotistic.”
“What do you know about God?”
“Haha.”
I smirked, a leisurely smirk, clasping my hands together.
“…I know enough. Three gods created this world in the beginning, and they’re gone now.”
I left it at that, still smiling broadly, and looked in Celeste’s direction.
At least I’d gotten the last laugh.
A strange sensation still wrapped around my body, but apart from that, I only smiled and said nothing else. Yeah, use your powers on me.
As I stood there, unmoving, she continued.
She smiled back, and then, in her still angelic voice, said to me
“…I see, I see, so perhaps you could tell me how you knew the gods existed?”
“Well, I don’t know, I just happened to know.”
I smiled and said that.
I paraphrased a bit, but it was the same as if I had just said outright, “I don’t know.”
Even though I was smiling so casually, inwardly, I was already nervous as hell, and my mind was racing.
What was the identity of the beautiful gray-haired woman smiling with her eyes closed in front of me?
Celeste, the most dangerous villain in the world, was almost always at the top of the list.
Reigning as an almost absolute terror on the American side, she’s a villain so intimidating that even heroes can’t touch her. I don’t know how many dozens of abilities she has when everyone else has one, two, or three. If you look at her old footage, she’s pretty much a walking disaster.
But, hey, I’d rather be smugly smiling in front of her, like I know some huge secret, and act like I’m strong just like her.
As a follower of the Sun God, she probably doesn’t know much about the Moonlight Church, which involves the Moon God, and I knew exactly that.
She watched my reaction with her eyes closed in silence and after smiling briefly, then took another sip of tea and spoke to me.
“…I see, I see. I’ve only called you here today because I have something else to ask you, then, Egostic.”
“Yes.”
“I’m not going to ask you how you found out about the Moonlight Church, because everyone has their secrets.”
Hearing her say that, I paused for a moment.
…What, you didn’t call me here to ask that? I’ve got all kinds of excuses.
Just as I was thinking that she opened her mouth with a warm smile, and spoke to me.
“I just want you to know that I want to continue to work with you. I’m not your enemy.”
“Haha, how could I think of Celeste, the head of our Cathedral, as an enemy?”
I replied, laughing along with her.
She laughs, I laugh… She seems to have forgotten that she was trying to intimidate me by blasting the temperature out of this place earlier.
I got the gist of what she was saying.
This is a warning.
Maybe that’s why she called me today. To talk to me, to get my thoughts out, to say this. Whatever I do, don’t do anything to upset her.
…She also seemed to be approaching me quite cautiously. Probably because she doesn’t know how much I know and how much power I have.
It wasn’t all bad, though.
A blatant assault on me here could have gone quite badly.
I sipped my tea and smirked.
…I’m worried that she might have spiked it with something, so I’ll have to have Ha-yul detoxify me when I get home.
Anyway, after that, I had a few more words with Celeste.
Mostly useless, of course, but oh well. We’re used to laughing and saying things we don’t mean.
And then I don’t know how many minutes passed.
“Oh, my God, how much time has passed already?”
Luckily, Celeste was the first to suggest that we end the meeting.
“Okay, I should probably go, my coworkers are waiting for me. Haha.”
“Okay. Take care.”
With that, I stood up.
I smiled and waved goodbye, then ran without looking back.
…I felt mentally drained after only a few words, and all I wanted to do was lie in bed.
As I always say, it’s never easy being a villain…
After I walked out of that round table I left a message for Atlas and the other members of the East Asian Villains League, who were worried about me, and went home.
…And it turns out I haven’t been to Atlas’ city in a while. I’ll have to go later.
***
Latis City, the city founded by Atlas.
Atlas was sitting on the throne of his temple, trying to put his daughter to sleep.
“…So, brother Egostic can’t come today?”
“That’s right. He said he had a lot to think about after his conversation with Celeste, though I can’t imagine what he was talking about with that smirking white woman. Ask him next time…”
The rest of Atlas’s words were lost on his daughter, Ariel.
“…I see, he’s not coming today either.”
Ariel’s blue hair hung limply, her expression dark and helpless.
It had been a long time ago that she had asked him to join his Villain Alliance’s Egostream, but he had rejected her for being too weak.
Since then, Ariel has trained hard, and dreamed of proving her abilities to Egostic and asking him again…but only if he comes here.
But that can only happen once he arrives here.
She waited and waited for him, but he was too busy with various things, starting with the Moonlight Gate disaster, to come here… and in the end, he didn’t even come after the meeting of the Villain Alliance with her father.
In the meantime…
[Egostic. You have big hands…]
“…Ugh.”
Ariel was already up to speed on what was going on in Korea through television and the Internet, so she knew what he was up to, and she knew that at this rate, she would be forgotten.
After thinking about it for a long time, Ariel said.
“…Okay.”
Her eyes lost their light, and she muttered.
“…If he doesn’t come, I’ll have to find him myself.”
She was already beyond rational thought.
Go to Korea, in a way that he could never ignore her, and show him that she was stronger now.
And with that, Ariel was gone, her blue hair whipping around her.
“…I wonder if my daughter is a late bloomer.”
Muttering to himself, Atlas could only sigh as he watched her stomp away.
…He had no idea what his daughter might do later.
***
“…Why the chill again.”
“A chill? Are you sure you’re okay? Do you need me to heal you one more time?”
The Egostream Mansion.
I felt an uncharacteristic chill and I shivered involuntarily at the ominous sensation burning through my body.
…Celeste, what did she really put in the tea?
