The Secretary still remembered it, the time when Lee Gun had forced her to join the Serpent Bearer’s temple.
“Good. You’re our slave starting from today.”
She remembered the laughing face of Lee Gun as he had tossed her into the stables.
That wasn’t all. He had used the weird fountain pen at a whim to pierce her hands. He even imprisoned her in a room for a day with no food. Moreover, she was tasked with organizing his bible.
This was why the Secretary had a lot of complaints about Lee Gun.
‘It wouldn’t be enough even if I kill him.’
Of course, she did understand the reason for Lee Gun’s actions.
She had tried to kill Chun Sungjae to acquire the bonus skill. From Lee Gun’s perspective, she had attacked his precious disciple and friend. There was no reason for him to treat her well. It was almost amazing that he hadn’t killed her.
Of course, it wasn’t because Lee Gun had a generous heart. He just coveted the ability of a Secretary.
In the end, the Secretary had always been looking for opportunities that would let her leave the Serpent Bearer’s temple.
It made no sense for someone who denied the existence of the Zodiacs to remain in a temple belonging to a Zodiac.
‘I’ll be able to run away if I somehow destroy the fountain pen.’
If not for the shitty fountain pen that was obsessed with her, the Secretary would be able to modify the bible to wipe out the existence of the Serpent Bearer. That was why she had searched for an ally that would destroy the fountain pen.
However…
[Please marry me, Uncle! Please marry me! Please marry me! Please marry me! Please marry me! Please marry me! Please marry me! Please marry me!]
[Uncle is so cool! Huff, huff! Uncle is so cool! Huff, huff! Uncle is so cool! Huff, huff! Uncle is so cool! Huff, huff! Uncle is so cool! Huff, huff! Uncle is so cool! Huff, huff! Uncle is so cool! Huff, huff! Uncle is so cool! Huff, huff! Uncle is so cool! Huff, huff!]
The Secretary despaired.
Was it because they had the blood of a Secretary running in their veins? Despite her not making separate pages for them, the Chun siblings automatically created pages in the bible…
‘Those idiots are a lost cause in the first place.’
They were a lost cause in many ways.
Therefore, the Secretary felt like she was losing her mind. Only someone related to the Serpent Bearer’s temple could destroy the fountain pen. Why?
The fountain pen would become vigilant when someone not possessing the energy of its parent approached it. It would become ruthless and go berserk. The other person would get attacked, and the Secretary would get attacked too. The pen meant she shouldn’t hang around with anyone not allowed by its parent.
However, the Chun siblings were out of the question, and Chun Jiwoo was also Lee Gun’s fan.
They were unlikely to free the Secretary from her captivity from the fountain pen. Of course, the Serpent Bearer had one other disciple.
Carly!
She had yet to receive her blessing, so she was an unofficial disciple. But with Carly’s power, the Secretary would be able to destroy this unusual fountain pen.
However…
‘She’s not it either.’
To check what Carly was thinking, the Secretary had made a test using the fountain pen.
When Carly was writing her application form, the Secretary had discretely handed over the questionnaire and the fountain pen to her.
[Q. What do you think about Lee Gun-nim?]
[Q. Why do you want to join the Serpent Bearer’s temple?]
Of course, Carly had grumbled when she received the questionnaire. It was for no other reason.
‘Why do I need to answer such a questionnaire if I want to enter the temple?’
She had been the commander of the number-one ranked temple, and she was quite experienced. Therefore, Carly had been suspicious at being asked to answer such questions.
However, the Secretary had acted as if she were the interviewer and hadn’t hesitated to lie.
“Lee Gun-nim personally asked me to find out the answer to these questions. He wants to know about his disciples.”
Those words had surprised Carly, and she had quickly written down the answers.
“I… I’ll write it immediately, Miss!”
[Q. What do you think about Lee Gun-nim?]
-> I respect him. From the first time I saw him…
The content was normal. However, how Carly felt, which was written underneath, was not.
[I’ll marry Dad! I’ll marry Dad! I’ll marry Dad! I’ll marry Dad! I’ll marry Dad! I’ll marry Dad! I’ll marry Dad!]
“????”
When the Secretary saw the answer, she had a mental breakdown. Carly is a fangirl too??
She was the commander of the first-ranked temple, and she was supposed to be as hard as nails!
‘Dad????’
Therefore, the Secretary had given up on Carly after investigating her. She had given up on finding an ally near her.
So why Hugo?
‘Well, he does seem to have a lot of complaints.’
Hugo and Lee Gun looked like old friends, and in recent days, Hugo had become the temporary Zodiac Saint for the Serpent Bearer’s temple. But…
“Die! Just go out and die! Go back to the tower right now!!!”
Hugo had just fought with Lee Gun the previous day. It was so bad that Hugo had grumbled, asking why the gods didn’t take Lee Gun away. His reaction was understandable.
‘Everyone around him is like that toward Lee Gun.’
Moreover, it seemed Hugo’s discontent was mounting after his temple had gone under Lee Gun as an affiliate.
‘He was able to become the temporary Zodiac Saint thanks to his friendship with Lee Gun.’
However, that had come to an end not too long ago. In truth, the Secretary heard it through Lee Gun’s mouth.
‘Hmmph. He’s so mad that his Faith went down by half.’
Half! It went down by half! And there was no way the total figure could be over 100%.
‘If it went down by half, it should be at least less than 50%!’
Unless Hugo was a massive pushover, there was no way his Faith toward Lee Gun was above 50% after being cut in half.
A Faith around 50% meant one didn’t like or hate the Zodiac. It was a state of indifference!! This was born out of how Hugo treated Lee Gun.
Anyway, it was a great opportunity for her.
‘I can save Hailey-nim if I get rid of Lee Gun.’
Hailey was blinded by love, so she wasn’t rational in her decisions. Above all else, the Secretary really didn’t like Lee Gun for a personal reason.
First of all, the man had kidnapped her. Then there was the incident that had happened after she had entered the Serpent Bearer’s temple.
When she was changing her clothes, the fact that she was a woman had been revealed to Lee Gun. However, Lee Gun seemed to already know this, so he didn’t blink an eye.
“Why are you surprised? I knew you were a woman from the start.”
This had shocked the Secretary.
‘Why won’t the Information Distortion not work against him?’
She had been on the run from Constructs, so she had used one of the Secretary’s skills, called “Information Distortion.” The skill dulled the perception of others.
Normally, it was easy to tell if one was dressing up like a man or a woman. However, Information Distortion made others not question such facts.
It was someone accepting a statement like “The earth is square.” There was no hesitation in accepting it. The skill was that scary.
Of course, there was the downside of the Information Distortion unraveling if the truth became known.
That skill had been the reason the Zodiacs were unable to find the Secretary for a very long time, and she was able to pass any inspection with flying colors.
Even Lee Gun’s disciples and Zodiac Saints hadn’t realized the truth! The only one that the Secretary had revealed the truth was to Hailey!
So how did Lee Gun know!
‘Did Hailey-nim tell him?’
There was no way that would have happened. In the first place, Hailey wasn’t someone who would leak a secret.
‘He’s supernaturally perceptive.’
The Secretary had wondered if she had been relying on her skill too much. So she went overboard in buying items for her disguise. But…
“Why the hell are you wearing bandages again?”
Lee Gun clicked his tongue as he spoke.
“I’ll protect you, so you don’t have to do that. It is bad for your health.”
“…!”
Because of those oddly warm words, the Secretary had wondered if Lee Gun was a good guy.
“It doesn’t matter if you wrap it up or not. There is no difference.”
“Hey!!!!!”
Lee Gun cackled as he spoke.
“Why are you doing it? In the first place, no one beside me noticed it. It’s fine. You don’t even have to use Information Distortion, and no one would know.”
“Hey, you son of a#$&#$*!”
The Secretary wailed.
In truth, Hailey was overwhelmingly stacked. Even if the Secretary were to compare herself to someone close by like Yooha, Yooha was out of her league, too.
Those words had made the Secretary sharpen her knife.
‘I’ll leave this place.’
Aside from the personal grudge, this wasn’t a bad opportunity.
‘Zodiacs are a malaise for humanity.’
She would carry out her original plan of erasing the existence of the Zodiacs.
The Secretary’s eyes flashed. She had to visit someone before she could do that.
* * *
The Libra’s holy ground in the southern hemisphere…
“Whaaaaaat? Lee Gun made custom weapons for the Archer disciples?????”
The young male Virgo disciples, whom Kevin had sent on an errand, sent him a text.
Kevin raged. “Why the hell does Lee Gun always make stuff for the Archer???”
Since the Virgo temple had become an affiliate, Kevin had wondered if Lee Gun would spar with him. He had been hopeful, but Lee Gun had completely forgotten about it.
Moreover, the members of the Virgo temple inwardly wanted weapons made by Lee Gun, but they didn’t want to bother him about it. However, Lee Gun seemed to have no plans of making weapons for them. It wasn’t as if they didn’t understand why.
“The Sagittarius temple is dirt poor.”
[!]
Kevin nodded at that reasoning.
“The Sagittarius temple is so poor that they almost wear nothing in battles. Even the mighty Lee Gun took pity on them. He’s doing a good deed. They are a battle-type temple. They need good weapons so that they don’t embarrass Lee Gun as an affiliate. It isn’t something we should be envious of…”
[Oh, yeah! Baby snake-nim sparred with the Archer disciples.]
[Oh my! Really?]
“I’m so fucking jealous!!!”
Spark flew in Kevin’s eyes. How dare those disciples get a chance to spar with Lee Gun!
In recent days, Kevin had offered Lee Gun all kinds of meat and vitality medicine as tribute, all to fight Lee Gun.
But when Kevin brought up the promise for a sparring session, Lee Gun said the following words.
“I never said when I’ll spar with you.”
He was telling the truth.
When Kevin had despaired, Lee Gun told him, “If you steal the Libra’s Constructs, I’ll spar with you.”
It was said that a portion of the Libra’s Constructs were locked up in the Libra’s prison. Therefore, Kevin had mobilized the Virgo Constructs and secretly come to pilfer the Libra’s prison.
[You are trying to steal my servants. It seems you have no fear.]
“!”
Kevin and his Constructs became guarded when they heard a familiar voice in the prison.
‘Giselle!’
However, they were soon surprised.
‘Why is she imprisoned?’
Yes, Giselle was locked up in prison like the other Constructs. Moreover, her outer appearance was unexpected.
Was it because Lee Gun had fought and injured her? She looked completely different from the Giselle they knew.
Zodiac? That wasn’t it.
‘Monster?’
Giselle looked like half-Zodiac, half-monster.
They wondered who had locked her in the prison, but the culprit was quickly identified.
[I heard you lost to the Time Monarch. That seems to be true.]
“!”
A man appeared on the other side. He was a half-monster with the face of a goat.
Kevin raised his guard, and his brows furrowed because of the monster’s words.
‘Time monarch?’
The Time monarch was said to be the owner of the Devil’s Tower.
‘He’s the one that kept Lee Gun in the trap and conducted experiments on him.’
The Time Monarch was also the one to imprison the undead monarch in the tower’s basement.
Well, it didn’t matter. The important thing right now was the enemy in front of him.
“I don’t care about the Time monarch. But it’s quite convenient that you guys imprisoned her in the cell.”
Kevin unsheathed his royal holy item, Winter Frost.
“Good. We got rid of Jean-Louis. You guys are next. I’ll kill both of you at once…”
[Jean-Louis is dead?]
“!”
Giselle asked as if she were surprised. It didn’t take long for her to burst out in laughter. She seemed incredulous at the news.
[Yes! You killed a blood relative of the Time monarch! It seems you aren’t worried about future retaliation…]
Kwah-jeek!!!
Cold air pierced through Giselle’s body.
“You are the one who should be afraid of future retaliation.”
It was hard to move past those suspicious words, but that wasn’t important right now.
“Become Lee Gun’s tribute.”
The savage cold air moved past Giselle to head toward the monster who had come to visit her.
“!”
However, the body of the monster blurred. Kevin’s attack passed right through it.
The monster smirked as if it was amused.
[Lee Gun is the one from twenty-four years ago. He is the one who the cruel Time monarch kept a special eye on.]
Twenty-four years ago? That was when Lee Gun and the others had appeared as awakened beings for the first time.
[Well, this has nothing to do with our monarch.]
The monster suddenly emitted skin-crawling magical energy. The energy was powerful enough to swallow even a Zodiac!
‘This isn’t an ordinary one.’
It was unclear if the monster was here for Giselle’s Constructs. Or maybe it was here for Kevin and Giselle. Whatever the reason was, the monster showed murderous intent toward both of them.
Kevin and Giselle vomited blood at the same time.
The monster’s eyes flashed as it spoke.
[Don’t worry! I’ll send Lee Gun after you guys soon.]
At the same time, Kevin scoffed. “You’re wrong to look down on our Zodiac. He won’t be easily—”
[Ah! It doesn’t matter. We have already recruited a traitor from within his ranks.]
“…!!”
Kevin flinched, and Giselle smirked.
This monster was with the Monarch of abundance, who had kidnapped Sophie. It was probably here to steal her Constructs, yet Giselle became happy when she heard that they would attack Lee Gun.
The fact that the monster spoke in such a way meant it had already secured someone. Sorrow and joy appeared on the faces of Kevin and Giselle, respectively.
[Cough… Ha ha! I thought you guys only slept, so I thought you were useless. However, it seems you have been busy! It serves him right!]
“Shit….”
[Yes! We turned the Archer Saint, who’s the closest to Lee Gun. Lee Gun will die at the hands of someone he treasures the most.]
The expressions on Kevin’s and Giselle’s faces were a sight to behold.
What? Who did they turn over?
