It was the reunion Chi-Woo had waited for so longingly. It felt a bit too awkward for Chi-Woo to say that he missed his brother, and the meeting wasn’t as emotional as he thought it would be. No tears came to his eyes, and his brother seemed unfamiliar and new to him. For some reason, he even felt a bit embarrassed.
Looking back, Chi-Woo had no fond memories of sharing any brotherly bond with Chi-Hyun. The few occasions Chi-Woo saw his brother were chances for him to confirm that his brother was alive, and most of the time, he took no news as good news. They never went out to play as brothers even a single time. Of course, the fact that Chi-Woo was ten years younger than Chi-Hyun and that Chi-Hyun officially worked as a hero since the young age of four played a big factor in shaping their current relationship. And since Chi-Woo was unaware of all hero matters, he had naturally misunderstood their relationship.
Still, since they were connected by blood, Chi-Woo was glad to see his brother, and incomprehensible emotions surged inside him. Chi-Woo wondered what he should do. Should he lift his hand and wave? No, he shouldn’t. Their relationship would get found out if he did that. Then, since there were many eyes on them, should he smile slightly?
While Chi-Woo was wondering how he should respond, Apoline asked, “…Why are you suddenly acting like that?”
As she had been paying great heed to Chi-Hyun since he appeared, she looked quite taken aback. The man she knew to be cold-blooded and heartless looked visibly shocked.
‘Why?’ Is there something around here that could surprise such a man? Apoline turned to see what Chi-Hyun was looking at.
“I am Ru Amuh from the seventh recruits.” Before Chi-Hyun could reach Chi-Woo, a quite handsome blonde man talked to him first.
“I know I’m stepping out of my boundaries, but please let me make a suggestion,” Ru Amuh said carefully, “I know you are here to help us, and we are genuinely grateful for that. But let’s discuss how we should sort out our current situation first.”
In short, Ru Amuh was telling Chi-Hyun not to act on his own and consider their opinions too. Ru Amuh and the others were glad to have Chi-Hyun here, as he was able to suppress the monster alliance. In consideration of that, they would acknowledge Chi-Hyun’s interference, but only up to a certain limit. After all, Chi-Hyun wasn’t the one who led them to their current circumstances; it was thanks to the effort of many people, and most of all, Chi-Woo.
And Ru Amuh had clearly heard Chi-Woo mutter ‘Don’t do that’ and ‘Stop’. Thus, he naturally came to the conclusion that his teacher didn’t want to turn hostile to the monster alliance, and he acted accordingly.
There was nothing wrong with Ru Amuh’s suggestion, but the person he was speaking to was the legend. His words could be interpreted as something as negative as, ‘So what if you are the legend? Don’t try to reap the benefits of what we did and back off.’
And thus, some heroes were pointing at Ru Amuh, exclaiming, “How dare he…!” and “T-That impudent…!” Even Apoline looked at Ru Amuh like he was a madman. How could Ru Amuh say such words to the legendary hero, Choi Chi-Hyun? It was absurd and outrageous.
But Ru Amuh felt like something was off. Unexpectedly, Chi-Hyun remained calm, and his face looked blank. Chi-Hyun was looking in his direction, but he didn’t seem to be looking at Ru Amuh. Then…what was it?
“Hey? What are you doing?” Apoline asked.
“…” Chi-Hyun flinched slightly. He blinked fast and turned away awkwardly before looking up at the sky and taking a deep breath, like he was trying to calm himself down somehow. After a moment of silence, he finally spoke in a voice that sounded like he was purposefully keeping from trembling.
“So…what are you suggesting we do?”
“That’s…” Ru Amuh was about to turn around for Chi-Woo’s opinion when Chi-Hyun cut him off.
“No, I’ll stop.”
Ru Amuh was confused by Chi-Hyun’s sudden change of mind. Meanwhile, white foams were already flowing out of Murumuru’s mouth.
“Take it away,” Chi-Hyun glanced down at Murmuru before throwing the half-demon to Sruthos. Sruthos caught their companion; it looked greatly relieved that Chi-Hyun had granted their request.
“…Thank you.”
“We’ll converse later,” Chi-Hyun said in a hollow voice as he stared at an empty space. “And we…will return for now.”
“Return…? Then may we protect the godly city in your stead while you’re absent?”
With Kabbalah’s ascension, the regions surrounding this city became a godly territory. The Demon Empire would soon learn of this fact and thus, they needed to prepare defenses as best as possible before the news got out. Chi-Hyun was well aware of the situation. Although he didn’t know the exact details of what had happened because he arrived late, he sensed a godly presence in this place. If it were the usual him, he would’ve wrecked his head hard to think of several possibilities for the place. For instance, he would’ve helped draw up a future with the alliance using the city as the central focal point. However, everything seemed meaningless to him right now.
His head was in such a complete mess that he couldn’t think of anything complicated. To him, something much more important than saving Liber just appeared.
“I thought I made my intention clear to talk later,” Chi-Hyun said.
“Ah, I understand. After reporting to the rest of the alliance about what happened here, we would send an envoy to your side,” Sruthos said. Chi-Hyun also heard Sruthos ask a follow-up question about where they should send their envoy, but Chi-Hyun simply closed his eyes tightly. A sense of futility and lament filled him. He suddenly didn’t want to do anything at the moment.
* * *
The heroes would help protect and restore the city as representatives of humanity. They would also send an envoy to the monster alliance to discuss this matter soon, and they would be taking with them the god ruling over this place, Kabbalah, as insurance. After they settled the matter, the heroes made their way back to the capital.
“Super scary,” Kabbalah said while trailing behind Chi-Woo. To be more specific, she was Kabbalah, but in the state of Kabal.
“There really is a human like that… I heard of them before, but it’s my first time meeting one.” She was talking about Chi-Hyun.
“What do you mean?”
“Are you really asking me that because you don’t know? He’s a mortal that immortals can’t interfere with. It doesn’t make sense. I can’t do anything about him either. You should be careful of that human, Oppa.”
Chi-Woo wondered why Kabal called his brother, ‘that human’ and him, ‘oppa’, but he asked what he was really curious about. “Can you explain it to me more simply?”
Kabal glanced up at Chi-Woo and said, “I am saying he’s a god slayer.”
“…What?”
“A mortal soul that can even extinguish an immortal…” Kabal couldn’t finish her sentence. Her face darkened; Chi-Hyun had suddenly approached them as if he’d been summoned by their conversation.
All eyes were on them.
Chi-Hyun said, “Why don’t we talk for a bit?”
Chi-Woo almost nodded as if he had been expecting this all along. However, Chi-Hyun wasn’t addressing him—he was looking directly at Kabal.
Kabal seemed extremely surprised, and her short, black hair and eyes became frazzled. “…Ah?” She returned to being Balal, and Balal looked up at Chi-Hyun with an innocent, oblivious face.
“Come out.”
“…Fuck.” Her hair and eyes quickly changed back to black at Chi-Hyun’s harsh order, and she immediately scrunched her face. “Ha, what a shocker. Do you take me as an object? I’m an ancient god, an ancient god! How dare you order me around? Huh? You need to show some respect…ah, all-right! I’m going!” Kabal swallowed down her complaints and immediately followed Chi-Hyun after he took one big breath.
Then, Chi-Hyun quickly turned around like he had no other business except talking to Kabal. Chi-Woo watched them go and placed his clasped hands on the back of his head. The silence that had descended due to Chi-Hyun’s presence lifted as the man walked away. People were quite high-spirited as they had all survived a precarious situation. As they say, fruits gained after hard work were much sweeter. Since they had brought Shahnaz’s statue, Chi-Woo heard some people shout in glee that they had successfully raised a rank. But most of all, the heroes’ morale was sky high due to Chi-Hyun’s return.
“Heh! You saw it, right? The monsters couldn’t even let out a squeak!”
“Yeah, it felt so good to see.”
“Since he’s the first one to come here alone, he must have received the most energy and regained the most power out of all of us. It’s only expected he could at least do this much.”
“Don’t make me laugh. Even if you receive that much energy, you’ll never be able to do that.”
‘Chi-Hyun has such a big effect,’ Chi-Woo thought. After listening to people constantly talk about Chi-Hyun, Chi-Woo realized how great his brother’s influence was again. ‘If he has so many supporters, he must have a lot of haters as well.’
Ru Hiana spoke up then, “Senior, I really don’t know what he was thinking.”
She sighed repeatedly. It seemed she was still reeling from the earlier event, when Ru Amuh stood up to Chi-Hyun. “Everyone was telling Ru Amuh off for… No, wait a minute. Why the hell is everyone giving shit to Ru Amuh when he didn’t say anything wrong? It’s making my head boil now that I think about it. Uh…well, that guy doesn’t look like a good man, but…hmm, he’s not a small-hearted loser who’ll want to get revenge against someone for talking back, is he? I mean he’s supposed to be the legend, right? What do you think, Senior?”
Ru Hiana bit her nails and worried about Ru Amuh’s future while murmuring to herself, her eyes boring holes into Ru Amuh’s back as he walked far ahead of them. She continued, “Really, he did such a pointless thing… He’ll see. I’m going to make sure he never does that again when we return!” Ru Hiana gritted her teeth while biting her nails.
Not too long ago, Ru Amuh told them that he had learned a lot from watching Chi-Hyun fight and wanted to think more about it, but it seemed he had purposefully stayed in the front because he knew in advance how Ru Hiana would act. Chi-Woo smiled flatly and looked at his older brother, who had returned to the lead position and was walking from a distance.
Chi-Hyun had never said a single word to him since they made a fleeting eye contact. Furthermore, his older brother never even glance in his direction. Chi-Woo thought he could understand what his older brother was thinking. ‘He must not want to talk to me with so many people around.’ Raphael and Laguel, as well as Giant Fist and Mua Janya, had all recommended him to hide his relationship with Chi-Hyun. They all said that many heroes respected his brother, but just as many were jealous of him.
‘Well, I’ll have the opportunity to talk to him later while we move on…’ Chi-Woo smacked his lips. But even then, he hadn’t expected his brother to not look at him even once the entire time they headed back to the capital. And if there was one thing he was sure of, Chi-Woo could tell from the back he had seen from time to time that his brother was extremely angry.
* * *
They finally reached the capital. The heroes scattered in all directions as soon as they entered. They had been camping outside and rolling in dirt for almost a month, so it was natural that they would want to take a long bath, have a leisurely meal, and sleep in peace. Ru Hiana asked Chi-Woo if he wanted to eat with them, but Chi-Woo quickly excused himself, saying that he had business to finish. Then he chased after Chi-Hyun, who was dragging Kabal along. Of course, Chi-Woo kept his distance while following them.
Chi-Woo was sure that Chi-Hyun also wanted to meet and talk to him. So as soon as his brother entered his room, he planned to immediately follow him in. However, there was one part that Chi-Woo failed to consider—he wasn’t the only person who wanted to meet Chi-Hyun. While Kabal was an unwilling guest, Noel Freya came running to Chi-Hyun as if she was flying. In addition, several heroes, including Ismile and Apoline, also visited Chi-Hyun’s place in a flurry. In an instance, there was already a hubbub around Chi-Hyun. It didn’t feel right for Chi-Woo to suddenly intervene, and he didn’t think that their meeting would end soon. Chi-Woo sneakily walked around the door, wondering what he should do.
‘Hmm?’ Then, suddenly, his eyes met his brother’s while he turned around. At that moment, Chi-Woo clearly saw his brother narrow his eyes and slightly tilted his head towards the outside. Judging from his gesture, it seemed his brother was telling him to stop wandering around his place and leave.
‘What?’ Chi-Hyun wanted him to go just like this? When he had been waiting for ten days? Chi-Woo, who had been standing still, bit his lower lip slightly and turned around. He understood the situation, but his feelings were hurt. ‘You come and find me then. Whatever.’ Chi-Woo left in disappointment. Running was the best medicine when he had too many thoughts in his head. It was time to train and train again.
* * *
Night came. Chi-Woo, who did not skip training even on the day he returned from a long expedition, fell asleep as soon as he got home. While he was deep asleep, he suddenly felt something squishy and cool on his face. Chi-Woo smiled because it felt nice, but his eyes flashed open when he got slapped. “What the…bag?”
“Pyu, pyupyu…” Steam Bun was right in front of him.
“Hey, why did you suddenly slap me when I was sleeping… Wait, what’s wrong?” Chi-Woo blinked. Steamed Bun was completely shriveled up and shaking in fear. Only then did Chi-Woo gain full consciousness and feel a gaze strong enough to put a hole in his head. When he turned around, he saw a figure in the dark, sitting by the table and quietly staring at him.
‘Robber? Ghost?’ This happened to him a couple of times when he was young, so Chi-Woo instinctively scanned his surroundings. He grabbed his club from his bag and was about to stand up when—
Crackle! A fire lit in the air. It was not from a candle, but a round sphere glowing with a subtle amber color.
“…” Chi-Woo loosened his grip and let his club fall when he saw who it was.