What?
For a moment, Lee Gun thought he had heard wrong. He wondered what Kevin meant. Kevin’s words had left him baffled. “What did you just say? Carly is whose daughter?”
Hugo, who was next to him, screamed. The situation was akin to lining up dominoes for three days and nights and someone having tipped it over. He wanted to rip Kevin’s hair out.
‘That bastard is never helpful!’
Hugo had gone through a lot to make sure Lee Gun never heard this! It was the same as when they were coming here. There had been a chance that the Secretary would blurt out something, so Hugo had made sure to turn the topic away from Carly as best as he could! He had desperately shut her up!
Determining it wasn’t too late, Hugo said, “Gun…!”
“Did you just say Carly is my daughter?”
Hugo froze when he heard Lee Gun’s voice. His friend’s voice sounded normal, but Hugo could feel it. It was the calm before the storm.
For a moment, the power of Death, which even Hugo’s Zodiac feared, twitched a bit.
“What are you s—”
“Has he completely lost his mind?!”
“!”
When Hugo spoke those words with a straight face, Lee Gun’s eyes turned round. Hugo was that desperate.
“Gun, he wants to spar with you, so he’s trying to get your attention! Or he got hit in the head when he went to the Libra’s holy ground. Or he thinks he’s in a soap opera!”
Kevin was taken aback by Hugo’s words. And he caught on to what was going on; Hugo knew about Carly. This only angered Kevin. “You knew— Oohp!”
“Gun! Don’t listen to him! He’s talking bullshit since he wants to win against you in a match!”
“I guess you’re right. He never says anything worthwhile.”
Kevin felt aggrieved at Lee Gun’s reply. The look in his eyes asked why Lee Gun believed the words of only the Archer Saint. Kevin was about to say something.
“Koohk!”
However, Hugo put him in a headlock and dragged him away. He whispered as he monitored Lee Gun in the distance, “Have you lost your mind?! What good would come from telling Gun about…!”
“We have to do it! Otherwise, the moral laws of family relationships might get broken!”
Moral laws of family relationships? What nonsense was he talking about?
There was a reason Kevin had spoken about Carly as soon as he woke up. Kevin glared at Hugo with a serious expression. “Carly said she wants to marry her father.”
“…?!!”
Hugo froze. What nonsense was he talking about? Hugo had developed immune tolerance toward anything that had to do with Lee Gun. However, that immune tolerance did nothing against this news.
Hugo wanted to scold Kevin, but he asked in shock, “D-Did Carly tell you herself?”
“No. Not really.”
“…???” Hugo looked at him askance.
Kevin became serious. When everyone had been asleep while camping within the Libra’s holy ground, Kevin had wanted to see whether Carly had any similarities to Lee Gun. So he had been monitoring her.
“She mumbled in her sleep that she wants to marry her father!!”
“That’s just sleep talking! Are you playing with me?”
“I’m not! What if I didn’t tell him, and Lee Gun falls for her? I have to tell him beforehand, so disaster can be averted!”
Kevin had a serious expression on his face, but Hugo had to grab the back of his neck. “Do you really think Gun will fall for someone so young?!”
“Why not?”
“Hey!!”
“What! If I’m being honest, Carly is pretty! She’s as pretty as your daughter!”
“What? My daughter is prettier! How dare you compare the two of them?”
Kevin didn’t even bother to respond to those words. “Anyway, Lee Gun doesn’t think of your daughter as someone he wants to date because she’s the daughter of a friend. This isn’t the case with Carly! Moreover, Lee Gun regained his youth again! If he doesn’t know her identity…!”
“Damn it! Gun isn’t like that! Moreover, she isn’t Gun’s type!”
“Uh? Is that so? What is his type?” Kevin asked.
“Why are you curious about that?”
“It can’t be the Scorpio Saint, right?”
“Why! Why can’t it be Hailey?”
“I don’t plan on interfering if Lee Gun likes her, but she’s the one who threw away the restorative herbal medicines I sent to Lee Gun! That’s why I have a problem with her! What about it?”
Hearing Kevin’s reply, Hugo grabbed the back of his neck. It was understandable. Kevin always had a bad relationship with Hailey. Both of them thought of each other as someone trying to assassinate Lee Gun. Things had turned sour from that point on.
Anyway, Hugo didn’t know about Lee Gun’s ideal type. In the first place, he had never seen Lee Gun get entangled with women or even a man. Women ran away when they saw Lee Gun’s face.
‘Well, he might have had someone he dated before I met him, but….’
Lee Gun never spoke about his origins.
‘There are no pictures from his past. No one knows his origin. ’
Lee Gun didn’t have something as common as a graduation photo. Of course, almost all the government data had gotten lost after the unknown civilization’s attack. So finding Lee Gun’s data would be hard.
Anyway, the Lee Gun Hugo knew didn’t show any interest in the opposite sex. Naturally, Hugo had no idea what the ideal woman looked like to Lee Gun. He only knew that…
‘The only thing I heard was when we reunited after twenty years….’
It was when Lee Gun didn’t know what Chun Yooha’s face looked like.
‘At the time, he saw the bromide photograph in my room. He did show interest, saying she’s pretty…’
Hugo soon felt a surge of anger. “Ahhhhhk! No! It isn’t Yooha!!”
“?????” Kevin tilted his head in puzzlement as he watched Hugo go berserk. However, that wasn’t important right now, so he said, “Anyway, we have to tell Lee Gun the truth— Kuh-huhk!!”
Hugo quickly kicked Kevin. “Wait a moment! Our Zodiac said to take care of Gun’s mental state. The god of calamity’s power might go berserk… That is why… Later…”
Kevin realized something when he saw Hugo’s expression. He furrowed his brows. “You don’t plan on telling him, do you? You think it’ll be an inconvenience for you.”
“!”
“I knew it!”
Hugo’s face turned pale when Kevin tried to move toward Lee Gun. “Ahhhk! I’ll arrange it so that you’ll get to spar with Gun! Please stand back…!”
At that moment…
“You’re the one who should stand back, bastard!!”
“Kuhk!!”
Hugo was hit by someone.
Lee Gun stood behind him with an angry face.
The Archer Saint felt a chill run down his back. “D-Did you hear everything?”
“You were practically yelling. I heard it even if I didn’t want to.”
“…!?”
Hugo hadn’t yelled at all, but Lee Gun had a very good hearing. Moreover, they were inside Lee Gun’s holy ground. So his senses were sharper.
Of course, the Secretary and Carly had talked in front of Lee Gun before. It might have been that Lee Gun had purposefully shut off his hearing to respect their privacy. Or maybe the Secretary’s Silence skill had been at work (Silence: Sound doesn’t escape outside of a one-meter radius.)
Or maybe he wasn’t interested in hearing them, but it was different now.
“So why is Carly my daughter? She has a mother and a father.”
Hugo trembled when he saw the light in Lee Gun’s eyes.
The Virgo goddesses, who had been listening to the conversation, spoke up.
[Ah! Was there perhaps a burning connection that Baby snake-nim forgot….]
At those words, heaven and earth rang out.
[Kyahhhhk!]
“I’ve never used it before, so why would I have a daughter?”
“Uh, uh…. That is…”
They all turned to look at Hugo, since the look in Lee Gun’s eyes felt like it could kill them.
“Is it the Chalice?”
“No! It isn’t— ahhhhhk!!!!”
Hugo screamed in fright.
When he glanced at Lee Gun’s body, black magical energy was surging forth from it. The maelstrom surged into the sky. It made the Virgo Constructs scream, too.
The beautiful and warm power that had been witnessed in the forge was nowhere to be seen. The brutal black energy surged forth!
[The requirement needed to grow Death has been satisfied.]
[The power of Death has reacted to Rage. The power of Death has grown.]
[“Death” Divine Status Level: Level 1? Level 2]
* * *
Around that time…
[Shit…!]
Having escaped the Serpent Bearer’s first trap, the Abundance general ground its teeth. It was a general rank monster for a reason. However, it had taken serious damage during the escape.
The general gnashed its teeth as it recovered from its wounds.
[Who the hell designed this…!]
Suddenly, a blue light appeared within the pitch-black trap. A blue doll appeared in front of the general.
[I wondered why I couldn’t contact you. You’re trapped here.]
[!]
The one to show up was unexpectedly a fellow general rank. However, it was from a different faction.
The general trapped within the trap was with the Abundance Monarch, while the blue doll was with the Time Monarch.
The liquid-like blue doll looked at its surroundings as it spoke.
[It seems you fell somewhere. This is troublesome. I’m only able to manifest to this extent.]
The Time general seemed to have come to rescue a fellow general-rank, but the Abundance general was less than delighted.
[The Time faction is selfish. They care about only themselves. What do you want?]
The blue doll spoke when it heard the sharp voice.
[Your faction asked us to find their missing general. Moreover, our monarch said it would be troublesome if the thirteen Knights become twelve at this juncture.]
The Abundance general ground its teeth.
The thirteen Knights! If the Zodiacs had their Zodiac Saints, the Monarchs had their Knights. The Knights were an important source of strength for the Monarchs, and two of them had already disappeared. Those two had disappeared not too long ago.
One had been killed by Lee Gun when his penalty was lifted. The monster, called the “Helmet,” had invaded the human territories once again. Its stolen body was given to Yang Wei.
The other one had died a long time ago. It was the Tower Administrator, who had been killed within the Devil’s Tower.
Of course, the seat of the Tower Administrator among the thirteen Knights had long been filled by the Time Monarch.
Therefore, only one seat was empty amongst the thirteen Knights. However…
[I heard the senior officer of the Abundance faction was killed. It had lost to a human kid. Was Chun Sungjae the name? It is easy to see the standard set by the Abundance Monarch is low. The fact that you fell into this trap is laughable.]
The voice was calm, yet the tone was full of mockery.
The Abundance general gnashed its teeth again.
[You bastard…!!]
[Anyway, you’re one of the thirteen Knights, and you’re the highest-rank general in your faction. If you die, the Abundance Monarch would lose all its generals, right?]
The Abundance general could no longer take the mockery.
[Stop speaking nonsense! In the first place, we lost a general thanks to your damn tower!]
The lieutenant general had died within the Devil’s Tower, which was the property of the Time Monarch.
There was no way the Time faction was unaware of what was going on within the tower. In the end, they had let Chun Sungjae use Reset and kill the general.
‘It was a strategy to crush our faction.’
That wasn’t all.
[It was your trap in the first place! Weren’t you guys the ones who engaged with the Serpent Bearer?!]
The blue doll scoffed at the Abundance general’s shout.
[Nonsense! Why would we help a Zodiac?]
[Don’t lie to me! The fact that you could cross into this place is proof. Also, I can feel it even now from the trap. It’s the magic of the Red Monarch and the Time Monarch!]
The blue doll flinched. It seemed to have a hunch.
[Ah! Could it be the princess?]
[Hey!]
The blue doll seemed amused. It let out a sharp laugh as it emanated murderous intent.
[If one of the thirteen Knights disappears, things will be troublesome for us. I’ll help you..]
Suddenly, the Abundance general flinched.
‘Murderous intent.’
“What the hell? There is another one here?”
The hair-raising murderous intent spread throughout the trap.
