"Huh? Y-You're right."
Ha-eun looked at her own chest with widely opened eyes.
The stigma of Draco engraved on her left chest was blazing with radiant light.
"No way…"
There was only one case of when a stigma shone besides gathering one's mana after a fight.
"Ah!! Argh!! D-Damn, it hurts!!"
Ha-eun's expression distorted as she clutched her chest.
Thick flames covered her body.
Moments later, the explosive flames started to slowly be absorbed into her body.
"Ah…"
Ha-eun lightly clenched her fists like it was unbelievable.
Fwoooosh!—
Three flame dragons were created with just that simple action, which then twirled around her forearm.
"Wow."
The flame dragons gave off an intense heat that felt stronger than the ones she used to face the Hydra.
A sudden increase of that much power could only mean one thing.
"O-Ohjin!!! I-I-I became an 8-Star!!"
Ha-eun shouted out while charging at Ohjin with an excited expression.
"Kyahaha!!
It appeared that she was quite overjoyed as she embraced Ohjin tightly and kissed him on the cheek eight times.
"I got it, so calm down, Ha-eun."
"Does it look like I'll be able to calm down?! 8-Star! I'm an 8-Star!!"
It was a matter worth getting excited over.
The difference between each ‘star' broadened even more in higher ranks.
‘8-Star was also the final stage you could obtain as a ‘human’.
After that was the stage that exceeded humanity
The so-called ‘High-rank Awakeners' that were above 9-Star were the extreme minority out of the uncountable number of Awakeners.
8-Star was just one step before becoming a high-rank Awakener that was regarded as non-human.
It was an accomplishment worthy of getting excited and pouring kisses over. Ohjin wanted to play along with the joyful Ha-eun in his heart, but…
[Hmm. Aren't you embarrassed in front of all these people?]
Vega narrowed her eyes and glared at Ha-eun.
As she said, there were currently many eyes in the surrounding area.
"H-How did two people take down a Hydra…?"
"The Lightning Wolf is insane, but that girl is as well."
"Wow… 8-Star? Did she say 8-Star?"
"The Lightning Wolf has a lover… I’m jealous."
Ha-eun could see that the Awakeners gathered by the entrance were exclaiming while carefully watching them.
"Ah."
[Hmpf! Young one, do you have no shame?]
Vega got up on Ohjin’s hair and shook her legs in distaste. The heels of her shoes hit his forehead every time her legs shook.
"I-I just forgot!"
[There are some things you shouldn't forget! And I believe that your physical contact is rather extreme for brother and sister!]
"Heh. It's not like we're real siblings."
[It's just that you aren't blood-related, isn't the relationship between you two in truth like siblings?]
"No, it's not!"
Vega and Ha-eun growled and started to bicker.
"Easy now, calm down."
After breaking up Ha-eun and Vega, Ohjin headed to the Hydra's corpse.
He shortened his spear and cut up its flesh.
‘As expected.'
There were two starstones that spewed blue light inside.
They were each as big as a soccer ball in size.
When considering the amount of light that trickled out, they were first-class starstones that would easily exceed several hundred thousand in value.
‘Kya! Nice!'
It was highly probable that it wouldn't be difficult to complete the Black Heaven's quest with those starstones and the 1000+ starstones he obtained from Jerry Kim.
"Let's take care of the rest later and head out for now."
He had tired himself due to using Exceed, and his mana was also almost drained out.
‘Lightning Flames performs well, but the problem is that it consumes way too much mana.'
Ohjin was able to last because he had an abnormal amount of mana; other Awakeners would have trouble maintaining it for just a minute.
"Groan. Yeah, I want to return and wash up, too. I sweat too much."
"Dibs."
"What? Shouldn't your elder naturally go first?"
"Go in with me if you have any complaints."
"Oh? You think I won't be able to?"
When he was sharing a playful conversation with Ha-eun as usual…
"Uhm… O-Ohjin!"
Jerry Kim approached them.
"I was able to stay safe and sound because of you! Thank you very much!"
He bowed deeply and held out a small business card.
"It's my contacts. If you just give me the word, I'll make sure to repay this favor! And… I apologize for what I tried to do."
It appeared that he was talking about how he had asked for a competition in order to crush him.
"Well, it's alright."
Jerry Kim certainly didn't approach him with good intentions at first, but since he was able to obtain starstones and a large amount of money thanks to him, it wasn’t that bad of an encounter.
Exchanging contacts and gaining more connections would be good in the long run.
‘And moreover…'
Jerry Kim was a person with a lot of uses.
How influential a streamer with hundreds of thousands of viewers was didn't need to be spelled out.
"Th-Then before the stream ends, could you give the stream your last goodbye"
"Of course."
It wasn't difficult.
Ohjin lightly waved his hand at the camera.
"It was fun to participate in a stream like this today. I'll appear once again when the opportunity arises."
-Daddy Lightning Woooooooooolf!! You're so cooooool!! (has pp)
-Miss, give the Lightning Wolf to me!! Miss, give the Lightning Wolf to me!!
-Bye!!!
-You were so cool when you took down the Hydra! I'll cheer you on from now on!
-Haha, I honestly thought he was just gifted and arrogant from the articles, but today was really surprising.
Most of the viewers' reactions were positive.
At that point, it was safe to say that he got all he could from the collaborated stream.
"Then should we g—"
"You… you bastard!!"
A furious voice was heard from behind.
Once he turned around, Ohjin could see that the man he used as ‘bait' earlier was taking rough breaths.
"I-It's what you did, isn't it?!"
"What are you talking about?"
"Don't play innocent with me, bastard!!"
The man ground his teeth and shouted.
"It's you who made me run towards the Hydra back then!"
"Sigh. I don't know what you’re talking about."
As he shamefully played dumb, the man approached Ohjin and roughly held up his collar.
"Do you think I'll sit still? Huh?"
The man continued with a heavily distorted expression.
"The things that happened today! What you did! I'll go through the official procedure and file a complaint to the Association!"
"Yeah, yeah. Do whatever~ you want."
Ohjin smiled and grasped the man's wrist that was holding his collar.
"By the way…"
Crunch!—
"Ahh!!"
"Don't touch me without permission, coward."
"Let's go."
Leaving the man who crouched while clutching his wrist behind him, they headed to their house.
* * *
At first, they had planned to return to their house right away, but because of the extreme fatigue in their bodies, they headed to a hotel near the gate for the moment.
Ha-eun and Ohjin both had a light shower and gathered in one room.
"Well, then!!!"
Ha-eun raised up the beer can in her hand.
"In celebration of my 8-Star promotion and today's successful hunt!"
The appetizing chicken on the table gave off a glamorous light.
"Cheeeeeeers!"
"Cheers."
They bumped their beer cans.
"Gulp, gulp."
Ha-eun chugged down the beer can.
"Kyaaaaaaa!!! I live for this taste!!"
The phrase was fitting of an office worker tired from working overtime.
[What are you drinking?]
"Beer. Does our Goddess want to try it out?"
[Hmm. Give me some.]
Vega flew over and raised the small cup filled with beer.
[Uht! It's bitter!]
"Kyaha!! You don't know the taste of life! Alcohol is bitter since life is bitter!"
"Then try this one out, Vega."
[What’s this?]
"Fruit soju. It's sweet, so it should be okay for you."
[Well, then.]
Vega gulped down the cup filled with fruit soju.
[O-Ohhh!!!]
Her golden eyes shone.
[Delicious!! It truly is a sweet fruit wine!]
As the fruit soju was to her liking, she even hummed a tune while raising cups filled with soju.
When she had chugged down around three cups in succession…
[Fufufufu. Indeed, you are this lady’s child. You know well what this lady likes.]
Vega flew up and patted his head.
[Well done~ kind child.]
‘…Is she drunk? Nah, how could a celestial get drunk?'
Unbelievable.
[Ehehehe. This lady~ is sorry~ that she can't be a lot of help~]
"She's actually drunk?"
[Uwo?]
Vega tilted her head and pulled down his hair.
[Drunk~? What are you talking about~? This lady is the Star of the Weaver Girl! There will be no cases of getting drunk…]
Vega stumbled with her heated, red face.
Ohjin grabbed Vega, who was on the verge of falling off of Ohjin’s head, and forced a chuckle.
"Riak, can celestials get drunk from alcohol?"
"Hm. I think it's because Lady Vega’s body is weakened due to the restriction."
Riak also looked at Vega with a stumped expression.
"There shouldn't be much time left until she can't materialize. Just let her be for now."
"I guess…"
* * *
* * *
Putting the tipsy Vega behind him, he took a big bite of chicken.
"By the way, Ohjin."
"Yeah?"
"Uh… will things be alright with the guy from back then?"
Tsh!—
Ha-eun asked while opening a new beer can.
"I didn't see much, but you did something, right?"
"Mhm."
"Since that also appeared on stream, it might become a pain if he complains."
Indeed.
Although he was the first to blatantly pick a fight, the public opinion would worsen if the fact Ohjin had used him as bait became known.
"I have my ways, so don't worry."
Ohjin smiled and stretched out his cup to her.
"Kyaha! Alright, then I'll trust you. Now cheers!!"
When around an hour passed in that cheerful party…
"Hehehe… Ohjinnnn~ I became an 8-Star~ you know?"
[My child~ come here! This lady shall pat your head!]
‘Fuck.'
"Riak! Where did that bastard go!"
"A true warrior must sleep early in order to train the next day."
"…"
* * *
"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!!!"
The man with the bushy beard swore out with a heavily frowned face.
"Lightning Wolf… that bastard. I won't sit back."
He started to write a long text with his face full of fury.
It was basically about how the Lightning Wolf had attacked him and used him as bait.
"Hehehe. If I add the recording from back then on top of this…"
It would be able to deal huge damage to the Lightning Wolf's public image.
No, would it end there? Intentionally making others draw the attention of a monster was a serious crime.
As one of the members of the Association that should abide by the law more than any other group, people wouldn't hold back their criticism about him committing that kind of malicious crime.
"Kuhuhu! You messed with the wrong person."
The man recorded himself incriminating the Lightning Wolf and then logged onto the internet.
"Hm?"
He discovered his own face on ‘Trending Videos'.
"Huh? What's this?"
At the present time, he hadn't even uploaded the recording yet.
"Why is the recording up already?"
He clicked on the video with the title ‘I'm Sorry'.
[First of all, I would like to say that I'm deeply sorry for my fellow citizens that felt distaste due to my actions on the recent stream.]
Once he played the video, he could see that a man who looked exactly like him was bowing his head in business attire.
"Wh-What? What’s going on?"
Not anyone else but he ‘himself' appeared on the video.
[I'll now explain why I screamed midway and ran towards the Hydra.]
"…huh?"
[I was scared at the imminent situation and believed that I had to draw the aggro of the monster in order to make Jerry Kim and the Lightning Wolf take action. Despite knowing that it was a clear crime… I had no choice.]
"Huh? HUUH? Wh-What? What the fuck is this guy saying!!!"
The man cried out while urgently clutching the monitor, however…
[I publicly apologize for this incident and promise that I will welcome whatever the punishment is with open arms.]
The video's view count had already far past 1,000,000.
