Novel Full Ch 81 - Trial of Reputation (1)
Ch 81 – Trial of Reputation (1)
[Breaking news. Do you remember the top star Ms. Jin Yuri? She had fallen into a vegetative state due to the Blood Fog incident ten years ago.]
[We have just received news that Ms. Jin Yuri has woken up!]
[Although ten years have passed since then, everyone is once again talking about the Blood Fog incident]
[Back then, the place where the incident occurred had been under the Sagittarius’s protection. Therefore, the appearance of a Red-rank at that place was shocking.]
[It was this incident where the Archer Saint lost the public’s trust as a Saint, right?]
[That’s correct. The casualties reached the thousands. The blame for the monster’s appearance was placed on the Archer Saint’s feet. The Archer Saint had taken a lot of heat from the public.]
[Moreover, one of the casualties had been a princess….]
[Anyway, Ms. Jin Yuri has awakened. Does that mean the other 5,000 people in their vegetative states have woken up….]
The world was excited at this joyous news. However, one person screamed.
“This is nuts! How can people wake up after ten years? What nonsense is this!” Yoon Siwoo was in the penthouse used by high-rank Gemini disciples. He had come here for his older brother to deal with Chun Sungjae. However, he almost fainted when he saw the news.
“I was told the hospital had turned off the machines keeping those people alive! So why would that actress awaken after all these years?”
Yoon Siwoo was one of the men responsible for the Blood Fog incident ten years ago. So this development made his situation precarious. The mere fact that the Blood Fog was killed gave rise to anxiousness in his heart.
He wondered. ‘If all the people from that time wake up…’
At that moment, a voice broke him out of his thoughts.
“This is nothing.”
“Hyung!”
It belonged to Yoon Siwoo’s big brother. Yoon Taewoo was with the Libra Saint. He was the S-rank disciple that the Libra temple had sent to Gemini temple for the past ten years so that he could study away from home.
Currently, Yoon Taewoo was working as a Gemini disciple. Of course, he was studying abroad in name only. He was a spy with a mission to steal the Gemini temple’s techniques. Moreover, he was skilled enough to be an SS-rank.
“Hyung! The situation is grave! What should we do!”
“Hey!”
With a woman in each of his arms, Yoon Taewoo gulped the alcohol. Then, he glared at his brother. “Get out! You’re souring the taste of the alcohol.”
“Ah! Hyung!!”
Boom!
In the end, the older brother slammed the alcohol bottle on the table and waved in annoyance. The women with him got the message; they quickly left the penthouse.
Kwahng!
As soon as he heard the door shut, Yoon Siwoo said with anger, “Hyung! We had to go through so much to place the blame on the Archer Saint! If… If the Archer Saint’s wife and his subordinate wake up…”
Yoon Taewoo let out a sharp laugh. “Are you playing with me? They’ll never wake up.”
“!”
“I don’t know about the other five thousand people, but those two had their souls eaten.”
Chun Jiwoo, the Archer Saint’s wife, was the one who had witnessed these brothers summon the monster. Of course, the brothers had taken care of Chun Jiwoo and Lee Jaewon.
The appearance of the Blood Fog was placed at the feet of the Archer Saint. Then, they created a narrative that the Archer Saint had been lax in his defense.
“The chances of them waking up are zero unless the souls are regenerated,” Yoon Taewoo explained.
The younger brother relaxed. “Right! Even the Aquarius Saint can’t do that.”
Suddenly, Yoon Siwoo realized he had forgotten something. “Uhh, yeah! Hyung! Chun Sungjae ran away with our magic tomes!”
“Hmph. The Gemini magic tomes?”
“No! Of all the things he could take, that bastard ran away with the <Prison Magic Tome>!”
“What?” Yoon Taewoo stood up in fright. “Are you telling me you lost that, too?”
“I mean… Huhk!”
Taewoo grabbed his younger brother by his neck. “You know the importance of that item! How could you lose it?”
<Prison Magic Tome> was one of the forbidden books the Yoon siblings had secretly taken under the nose of the Gemini Saint.
‘Numerous gods cooperated to make that prison.’
The Pisces had used the “Intrusion-proof pocket dimension” ability. The Scorpio had used the “Absolute Hell Trap.” The Gemini had added “Binding that can restrain even a god.” The Leo had chosen “The world’s most dangerous beast” ability. The other eight gods had also used their abilities.
All twelve gods had come together to make this divine prison. They had locked away important beings in there.
Yoon Taewoo had been tasked to bring out someone specific from that book. And what the hell did his brother just say?
Yoon Taewoo yelled, “You crazy bastard! There’s information about him in there…!” If that got into the hands of Lee Gun or Hugo, it would cause a lot of headaches. ‘I guess that doesn’t matter.’
Even the Gemini Saint was incapable of using the Magic Tome. Why? ‘The strongest amongst the Fairy Monarchs, the first Fairy Monarch, had sealed it.’
This was the reason the Gemini Saint Heiji tasked her disciples with making contracts using Soul Invocation. She had done that to summon the first Fairy Monarch.
‘However, none of her disciples could make a contract with the first Fairy Monarch.’ How could disciples summon a being that even their Saint was unable to? Tens of millions of magicians existed, yet none of them could do that.
“Whatever! I want you to go to Lee Gun!” Yoon Taewoo looked at his brother.
“What? Why would I go to Lee Gun? Why!”
“What do you mean, why? You said Lee Gun might have killed the Blood Fog! What do you think will happen if they analyze the corpse!” the older brother explained.
“…!”
“So, trick Lee Gun into believing you’re approaching him as part of a research team. Or you can say you’re there for auction purposes. Just find a way to recover the corpse. I’ll chase after Chun Sungjae.”
“I… I understand!” The younger brother quickly exited the penthouse.
Unknown to the brothers, a woman was watching this exchange in secret. She was one of the women Yoon Taewoo had chased out.
‘As expected, the two brothers had the Prison Magic Tome.’
The woman brushed her front hair to the side, and something amazing happened. She turned into a young man. This young man was none other than the Korean Gemini general, Choi Sunghyuk. The general had used a sex-change spell on himself.
Canceling the Eavesdropping spell. Choi Sunghyuk ground his teeth. ‘I know I made a mistake, but I can’t believe I had to do this!’
He hated using these spells. ‘Shit. If only I hadn’t given Lee Gun the Gemini contract…!’
The Gemini temple’s elders had used that as leverage and asked Choi Sunghyuk to carry out this task. Of course, Choi Sunghyuk wasn’t doing all of this because of that disaster magnet Lee Gun.
‘Of all the things he could do, Lee Gun severed the connection to the Gemini…!’
Due to that, the Gemini temple had become incapable of using their skills; they were close to being ruined. The entire organization was in a state of panic. Currently, the temple was using their god’s stored energy to use spells.
‘We can barely maintain our temple. This is a precarious situation.’ Eventually, the stored power would run out. ‘We have to reconnect with our god again.’
The only solution to this situation was in the Prison Magic Tome. However, when the Gemini temple’s elders had tried to take out the Prison Magic Tome, they had found an irregularity.
– What? The magic tome was stolen?
– Yes…! That is… Someone stole it and left behind a fake!
Therefore, they had been looking for the stolen item, and the two brothers just proved that they had stolen the tome.
This wasn’t surprising. Why would the Libra Saint send one of her kin to the Gemini temple without an ulterior motive?
Despite that, Choi Sunghyuk had found something troubling. ‘Why did that magic tome have to fall into the hands of Sungjae?’
The general’s face turned pale. It was inevitable. ‘Shit! If the tome is in Sungjae’s hands, there is a high probability he’ll hand it over to Lee Gun! That damned god of calamity can’t have it!’ Choi Sunghyuk had to somehow entice Sungjae before that.
Soon, the space he occupied was distorted. He had teleported.
* * *
The Archer disciple Goat couldn’t hide his shock. The reason was the scene caused by none other than his Saint.
“That is right! Our Gun caught a toad as big as a house!” Hugo mumbled.
“Oh! Does that mean the Virgo Saint didn’t catch the monster? It was Lee Gun?”
“The defense force said the Virgo Saint killed it…!”
“No way! Gun beat it to a pulp!” Hugo clarified their doubts.
“Ohhhhhhh!”
The shouts of joy left Goat dumbfounded. ‘Didn’t he say we have to keep a low profile?’
Yes, Goat was in a bar right now. In front of him was Hugo, who had taken residence on top of the stage. With a mic in his hand, the Archer Saint let out triumphant yells toward the civilians.
The drunk Hugo picked up the mic. “It was a monster that even the Virgo Saint couldn’t kill! Yet, Gun killed it in one blow!”
The crowd cheered. The disciples from other temples murmured amongst themselves. They had been wondering what had happened.
“Since this is the Virgo Saint’s territory, we assumed the Virgo Saint dealt with the monster!”
“No way!”
“I don’t think the Archer Saint would lie…!”
The monster had threatened even the third dome. After hearing the rumors, the reporters had arrived as soon as they could, but they had been barred from getting close. Therefore, the public was curious to know the details.
“Did Lee Gun really kill the monster? It wasn’t the Virgo Saint?”
“The Virgo Saint wasn’t even there!” Hugo answered,
“As the Archer Saint, you probably—”
“I couldn’t kill it either! In that sense, our Gun is amazing! The twelve Zodiacs suck!” Hugo wasn’t stopping.
A Saint was trash-talking his god? Goat grabbed his head.
On the other hand, Lee Gun calmly drank his vodka. “Ah! His drinking habit is still the same.”
The words baffled Goat. “Lee Gun-nim. What the hell is he…”
“What? Your leader has been at it for 3 hours.”
“…?!” Goat was freaked out, but Lee Gun had no intention of stopping Hugo. In fact, the man cackled.
[The people’s faith toward the Serpent Bearer has significantly increased!]
[The people’s faith toward the Serpent Bearer has significantly increased!]
[The people’s faith toward the Serpent Bearer…]
Not just anyone, but a Saint was doing voluntary missionary work for Lee Gun. This was as sweet as the situation could get. Moreover, the reward was out of this world, too.
Goat looked like he wanted to die as he placed his hand over his face. Of course, the Archer’s SS-rank disciple could guess why these two men had come here.
‘This place is the closest to the Virgo Saint’s holy ground.’ It was the best place to observe their enemy’s movements. Goat understood their strategy, but… ‘Saint-nim’s drinking habits came out again!’
From what he heard, Goat could surmise that Hugo was telling the crowd about a variety of Lee Gun’s exploits from twenty years ago. Of course, this wasn’t a bad thing.
“I can’t believe the Archer Saint is so generous in talking about Lee Gun.”
“It seems Lee Gun isn’t the weakest amongst the Saints.”
“Should we donate to the two of them?”
In the end, Goat sighed. He was about to leave to buy some hangover cures when he heard a question.
“Are you ok with not going with Sungjae?”
“What?” Goat didn’t understand.
Lee Gun discreetly took out Goat’s credit card from his wallet. “I’m talking about the general of your temple. It seemed he was a special person to you.”
“I’m one of the Ten Stars, an SS-rank disciple. I can’t leave behind my Saint-nim!” There was no way Goat would allow Lee Gun to settle the bill with his card. He clung to the card. “Also, Jihoon and Yeorin went with Sungjae. They are both S rank. They are powerful enough. I don’t need to go with them.”
Lee Gun laughed in a knowing manner. His smile held a shrewdness. The two Archer disciples were his fans. He was thinking about bringing them into his camp at a later date.
“Well, he was the smartest amongst the fifty of us.”
Lee Gun’s face scrunched up at Goat’s words. He was having a hard time believing Oh Taeksoo had fifty disciples.
Goat grunted as he tried to extract the card from Lee Gun’s hand. Even though it looked like Lee Gun wasn’t putting any effort into it, his fingers didn’t budge from the card.
‘Shit. Why is he so strong?’ Goat wondered. “Anyway, Jaewon hyung-nim will be ecstatic when he wakes up! The general spoke highly of Lee Gun-nim too… Huhk!”
Goat fell backward. Lee Gun’s eyes turned round as he let go of the card. “What the hell? I know your general? I don’t recall that name at all.”
The expression on Goat’s face was a sight to behold. “At the very least, you should remember the names of the people who fought by your side!”
“Nope! Remembering over three characters is annoying.”
“Thankfully, you remember my name.”
“Yes. Idiot Goat.”
“……”
‘This guy…! Really!’ Goat got up. He glared at Lee Gun while dusting himself off. “Do you know this? In reality, Saint-nim considers you a nuisance. I know you’re his friend, but you shouldn’t continue to—”
He couldn’t finish as he heard something.
“Everyone! Listen to this! Gun beat up an SS-rank from our house!! Isn’t it amazing!” Hugo was still at his praises.
“Ohhhhhh! Does that mean Lee Gun is stronger than an SS-rank!”
“An SS-rank from the Archer temple is nothing!”
“That’s right! The SS-rank is nothing!”
Goat felt like crying. He slammed his head against the wall. As for Lee Gun, he cackled as he held a chicken leg.
Of course, Goat acknowledged that too. Lee Gun was amazing. Even if Goat hadn’t seen Lee Gun in action, his Saint Hugo admired Lee Gun. That was an acknowledgment in itself. However…
“Look at this! Lee Gun gave me this horse carving! It saved my life! Isn’t it amazing!”
“Ohhh! Is it a protection holy item?”
“May I touch it once?” someone asked Hugo.
“Of course!”
Boom!
The User who had touched the horse carving suddenly fainted. People screamed.
“Hey! What’s wrong! Are you ok?”
“This guy must have had a few too many drinks!”
Hugo was surprised.
“Saint-nim!” The flustered Goat approached Hugo. The item came to a stop on his feet. Surprised, Goat tried to pick up the horse carving. “Huhk…!”
The next moment, Goat was swaying on his feet. ‘M-my magical energy…!’
Half of his magical energy had left his body in a flash. As if to make matters worse, his magical energy headed toward Lee Gun!
Realizing what this holy item was, Goat glared at Lee Gun. His initial impression of the item had been right! It was an item that took away magical energy! “Lee Gun-nim! This isn’t a protection-type holy item! How can you give him this?”
That item affected an SS-rank this badly. A regular User had fallen because of his magical energy being drained. It was a dangerous item!
However, Lee Gun remained indifferent. “He’s sharing with me. I’m self-sufficient, so my store of magical energy is small”
“?!”
Of course, Hugo had made a direct contract with a god. The magical energy he had was on an entirely different level than normal disciples; his attributes were different, too. Hugo wouldn’t be affected if he was being drained by this much, but…
“No! This is a step too far!”
“It’s fine. It’s fine. He’s a bit on the slow side, so he won’t even notice it.” Lee Gun was nonchalant.
“?!” Those words baffled Goat. ‘How is this ok?’
“If you’re jealous, I’ll give you one too,” Lee Gun added.
“I don’t need it!”
Boom boom boom!
Suddenly, everyone heard heavy steps. The crowd outside was making a commotion after seeing something.
Kwahng!
“Lee Gun! Are you here!”
The door was slammed open.