Chapter 203: Preparing for War Pt. 3

“No, please, you don’t have to get up.” Lee Jun-Kyeong said, waving his hand and trying to dissuade Merlin from getting out of bed. She nodded and laid back down, her complexion pale and clammy.

“I never thought I’d ever see you look this week,” he commented as he looked at her condition.

She, who ruled the Round Table, had always been a powerful and mysterious figure to Lee Jun-Kyeong, larger than life. But, at this very moment, seeing her just lying weakly on the bed made her feel human.

“You finally look like a person.”

“Pfft… I was always a person…”

Merlin looked back at Lee Jun-Kyeong with a small smile etched across her pale complexion.

He responded with a smile in turn, “I always thought you were some sort of mysterious fairy or a yeongsu.”[1]

It wasn't a lie. Lee Jun-Kyeong had sincerely felt that she was special, as both she and Arthur had an aura that was too special to be considered human.

“Ho ho.”

Merlin only smiled incomprehensibly at Lee Jun-Kyeong’s comments. She immediately adjusted her expression as she responded to him, “Your face is full of worry.”

“...”

“Did you come to ask me something?”

Lee Jun-Kyeong cautiously nodded. Merlin was the greatest mage of the century and was as strong a Hunter as Odin.

“I understand that you’re a master of mysteries.”

She dealt with all things mysterious. There were hundreds, no, thousands of mysterious things. Lee Jun-Kyeong moistened his dry lips as he proceeded cautiously, “There is something I would like to ask you about the book.”

It was his secret, and a story that could never be easily told. That was why he had struggled and struggled some more, repeating his disconnect dozens of times.

‘But I need help now.’

He had to admit it. He wasn’t a genius. Although he could be said to be exceptional in one area, even he had to admit that he wasn’t a genius in all areas. As if amused that even he was one of the many that needed her help, Merlin smiled brightly.

“Ho ho…” She laughed before asking Lee Jun-Kyeong a question, “Is this related to your secret?”

He had to admit it. "That's right."

Merlin smiled even brighter. “Thank you. For trusting me so much.”

There were no ominous feelings as she had a warm aura that emanated around her.

“I don’t just trust you, Lady Merlin. I also put my trust in Arthur.”

“

Hmpf

. So you already knew it?” remarked a voice that came from Lee Jun-Kyeong’s side.

Although it seemed that only he and Merlin were in the room, before he knew it, Arthur was standing next to him.

“Of course," Lee Jun-Kyeong said.

Although Arthur had hidden his appearance and aura, Lee Jun-Kyeong understood Arthur well.

“Because there’s no way you would leave Merlin’s side.”

Arthur had received the real Excalibur from Zeus. He no longer needed to be bound by Merlin, but he was someone who protected her. Furthermore, he was a knight, and the greatest knight among knights. He was also someone who knew honor and loyalty.

"

Hmph

."

Arthur snorted at him and leaned against the wall with his arms crossed. He was confiding his secrets to both of them.

“So it’s a book…”

“So it’s your secret, huh…”

Merlin and Arthur murmured at the same time.

“It seems we’ll need an explanation?”

“Explain yourself.”

Smirk.

As the two of them continued to speak at the same time, Lee Jun-Kyeong smiled a little and started to talk. He began to speak of the story of the future and the past, The story of the Demon King, and even the story of

that thing

that he had seen this time.

“There is something inside of me.”

***

“You said you came from the future? And so our future is your past…”

“Then that definitely makes a lot of things make sense.”

Arthur and Merlin's reactions were unexpected even to Lee Jun-Kyeong.

“How interesting.”

“I assumed that you’d have a secret of that level.”

They were calm about it.

No.

‘They’re so calm about it all I’m embarrassed.’

Although they seemed to be a bit surprised or curious, they seemed to take it all in stride.

“Why are you making that kind of expression?”

“This is the world we live in. A world where nothing is impossible.”

“...”

Hearing them respond so nonchalantly had Lee Jun-Kyeong taken rather aback. But then he shook his head, thinking that it was rather fortunate that they had accepted it so calmly.

“So all of the secrets are from that book and…”

“And that Demon King or whatever.”

“And the person you call the Demon King…”

Merlin and Arthur locked eyes.

“Is most likely that man.”

“Should be him…”

Lee Jun-Kyeong cautiously nodded. The situation had already progressed to this point, and it would be foolish for them not to know the identity of their enemy. He wondered how long it had been since he had thought about it.

‘That the Demon King would also be alive in this era.’

The course and aftermath of history had gone in a completely different direction from what he had thought, but he was still certain of that person’s identity to some extent. There was something else too.

“He seems stronger than what I had thought he would be.”

“I mean since the timeline is out of order…”

“There must have been a lot of changes.”

The two agreed with one another, and then Merlin got to the main point at hand.

“So, you’re saying that you seem to have the book inside of you?”

"That's right,” Lee Jun-Kyeong answered and continued. “I’ve been looking at the power within me for a long time, but this was the first time I recognized it. Maybe it’s because I’m not good enough, but… I have no idea as to how any of it came about.”

It could have been a power he had found by remembering the memories he had lost through Muninn’s Authority, Memory. It was an incredible power. The book itself was serving as a source of strength from inside him. As the pages tore, they melted into him and formed into mana.

No, that was not exactly right.

“You said it felt a little different from mana, right?”

“That’s right.”

“Hmm…”

Merlin opened her mouth slowly.

“Although a Hunter’s strength comes from mana, everyone still forgets one important thing.”

“Are you talking about the Sponsors?” Lee Jun-Kyeong asked.

She nodded. “Yes. Although the power a Hunter manifests is mana, the essence of a Hunter’s strength comes from a Sponsor.”

“Hmm.”

Lee Jun-Kyeong nodded and then asked another question, “The essence of a Hunter is the strength of a Sponsor, and although they all have an incredible power called mana, you’re saying that the level at which every Hunter can control it is different, right?”

“Exactly. Also, about your Sponsor…”

Merlin and Arthur’s eyes met again.

“It seems completely different from any Sponsor we’ve heard of so far.”

“...”

“You said that when you killed the Hero candidate, Gunther, Gunther’s Sponsor had also disappeared, right?”

"Yes."

Merlin began to speak with a serious expression. “A Sponsor that kills other Sponsors… I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

“Also, whenever you gained the interest of other Sponsors, it threatened them, keeping you from receiving Multiple Sponsorships.”

“...”

None of this was normal, and Lee Jun-Kyeong already knew that. The two seemed to be musing over the situation as they spoke to one another, but they couldn’t easily answer Lee Jun-Kyeong’s query. It seemed to be a problem that had never happened before and something that was difficult to answer even with their knowledge.

“Your body…”

“Can we take a look?”

Lee Jun-Kyeong nodded at their request. Merlin and Arthur both approached and placed their hands on his chest. Although he didn’t feel any pain like when Zeus had done it, their touch and mana gave him a strange feeling.

“There really is…”

“Something vast seems to be sleeping inside you. It’s something completely different from your power, Mr. Underdog.”

“...”

Their inspection had ended, and Lee Jun-Kyeong waited for an answer to his questions. His questions were simple.

'Is this power safe?'

‘Also why did it suddenly appear?’

‘Finally, how much potential does it have?’

However, the smiles of the two looking back at him were peculiar.

𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

“It’s hard to give a definite answer as of right now.”

“We’ll need to test some things out.”

Amid the chilly weather, Lee Jun-Kyeong could feel goosebumps rising up his arms.

“What do you think about magic…”

“What do you think about swordsmanship…” they said at the same time.

“How would you feel about learning it?”

“Do you want to learn?”

“…?”

Their eyes met, and the two of them, who were so agreeable that they seemed like siblings like Park Jae-Hyun and Park Yu-Jin, were for the first time, showing a conflict of opinion in front of Lee Jun-Kyeong.

“Magic suits him better, Arthur.”

“I can’t for the life of me understand what you’re talking about, Merlin.”

Stuck between the burning gazes, Lee Jun-Kyeong regretted asking them the questions for a moment.

“

Whew…

” Then, thinking momentarily, he thought of a solution. “Let’s try learning both.”

“What are you saying? Are you thinking of magic as some sort of easy…?!”

“Do you really think it's possible to combine swordsmanship with magic?!”

However, it only served to escalate the fight.

***

“

Whew…

”

In the end, Lee Jun-Kyeong had no choice but to go out into the streets without having gained anything, as the overheated atmosphere had given him no chance to intervene.

‘I never knew Merlin had that side to her.’

Unlike Arthur, he had never seen Merlin, who was also so calm, be so excited.

BOOM!

Exiting out to the street, there was the sound of an explosion coming from behind Lee Jun-Kyeong, but the Hunter ignored it and shook his head.

“What just happened!”

“I think there was an explosion somewhere!”

“Isn’t that smoke over there?”

People were bewildered and chattered.

“It’s the Underdog!”

“It’s Lee Jun-Kyeong!”

But, after discovering Lee Jun-Kyeong, their attention turned over to the Hunter.

“Wow!”

Since it wasn’t common for Lee Jun-Kyeong to go outside, and as he spent most of his time alone, the people started to shout and cheer when they saw him as if they had met a celebrity that they adored. They began to rush toward him. All of them were ordinary humans with not a single Hunter among them.

However, the speed at which they flocked to see Lee Jun-Kyeong was definitely no slower than that of the Hunters.

“I’m a big fan!”

“I love you!”

Gulp.

Standing in the middle of a throng of people who were shouting over each other, trying to talk to him, Lee Jun-Kyeong just scratched his head with bewildered eyes. Even before the cataclysm, the name “The Underdog” had been popular with people. He had worked to make his name known as a Hunter and be acclaimed by the people.

However, it hadn’t been to this degree back then.

“AHHH!”

This was a fever close to Madness.

“Move!”

“Me too! I wanna see him too!”

“As long as I touch the Underdog’s hand, my leg will heal!”

There were even those with some deranged form of admiration and obsession. Lee Jun-Kyeong, who was just scratching his head in confusion, was beginning to feel the seriousness of his situation. As he opened his mouth to say something, a high-pitched voice echoed through the hall.

“Get out of the way!”

Even through the clamor of the boisterous crowd, the voice was accurately transmitted to the people.

Shuffle…

Then, surprisingly, the people backed away in all directions without saying a word. In front of him, Lee Jun-Kyeong caught sight of the person who had screamed.

‘Ungnyeo.’

Also, the reason that they had all moved at her words was from fear and irritation. Either way, it wasn’t for any good feelings. He wondered what had happened in the days that he had been away.

“Stand back, everyone! This crowding only adds to the chaos!”

Ungnyeo’s shouts eventually made people turn around and go their own way, but suddenly, someone threw an egg at Ungnyeo.

“You witch!”

Catching the egg that was coming for her face, Lee Jun-Kyeong approached Ungnyeo and asked her a question, “Why didn’t you stop it?”

Ungnyeo was an incredible Hunter.

There was no reason for her to get hit by the eggs that were thrown by ordinary people, but she wasn’t doing anything to stop them. That was why he had blocked it and why he glared over at the one who threw the egg.

“

Hiik!

”

The footsteps of the dispersers quickened as Ungnyeo looked over at him, her eyes a little tired.

“Would you like to talk?” Ungnyeo asked.

1. See reference in chapter 71. 👈