Chapter 52: The Round Table Pt. 2

They were holding a Round Table Council.

One of the more important aspects of the Round Table was that they were still one of the few organizations in the world that allowed others to use their resources even though they worked almost exclusively for the betterment of England.

Namely, the Round Table. That object was not only their identity but also their name. It was an item created by the powerful British Hunter, who had become their focal point. The Round Table was an incredible item with a power that forced a certain degree of compulsion on those who held a meeting around it. Regardless of the result, any outcome must be completed if everyone who partook in the meeting agreed to it.

That was why the secret organizations occasionally borrowed the Round Table for meetings. However, it wasn’t an item that could be used at any time. Instead, the specially guarded Round Table was limited only to matters significant enough that required their involvement or for issues related to British security.

In fact, there was one of those elusive Round Table Councils happening at this very moment.

“Tell me about Lee Jun-Kyeong’s identity and his abilities,” Athena said in a calm, low voice.

“...”

“The power he’s shown is more than dangerous enough and heretical. Olympus wants to know the exact information about his abilities,” Athena requested.

“I don’t know,” Heimdall responded with sunken eyes. “Furthermore, there’s no reason to disclose anything about the abilities or the identity of a Hunter that isn’t under your affiliation.”

"…”

There was an invisible battle going on. The meeting was occurring at the Round Table with the Round Table Council as their witness. The same back-and-forth arguments had been repeated for several days, and it was still going on.

“Moreover, doesn’t Olympus have to explain themselves? Wasn’t Olympus the one who had violated the secret pact made with Odin, Asgard, and all of the others?”

Like a savvy negotiator, Yeo Seong-Gu skillfully flexed between topics. Asgard had been promised victory in the Battle of Champions, so he shifted the conversation by mentioning the pact broken by Heracles’ arbitrariness.

"…"

“Asgard had been promised victory in this Battle of Champions, and the Hunters that were sent to participate were chosen accordingly. We wouldn’t have sent him if we had known Heracles would have broken the pact we had made and joined,” he pressed on.

He attacked the weaknesses that had been created by Olympus, bringing the initiative over to him and to Asgard. Yeo Seong-Gu didn’t miss a single opportunity.

“As a result, our Hunter was forced to demonstrate his special ability. Accordingly, requesting an explanation of his actions is a ridiculous request. On the contrary, Olympus should be the ones explaining themselves.”

After his attack, he looked over at the observers and the members of the council surrounding the Round Table.

“Yes, it can be said that his abilities are more than dangerous enough,” he continued.

“...”

“...”

“However…” The tone of Yeo Seong-Gu’s voice became more assertive and forceful. "Aren't we all inherently a threat?"

The rationale behind Athena’s judgment that Lee Jun-Kyeong was too dangerous was simple. The fire he produced robbed the others of mana was a threat to Hunters and was an ability that had never been seen before. Furthermore, there was still the unknown secret behind how he, who showed tremendous growth, continuously grew stronger.

Heimdall raised his chin. “We are all dangerous beings. To say that it’s a threat because it’s something we’ve never come across before, well, aren’t the abilities we have a threat to all of us as well?”

"Is that not what a Hunter is?"

After finishing his speech emphatically, Yeo Seong-Gu looked over at Athena. It wasn’t over yet.

“Conversely, I think it is reasonable and warranted to demand a large compensation and for them to acknowledge their severe wrongdoings for threatening a war over these paltry reasons.”

"…"

Athena was forced to stay silent as she had nothing to refute him.

***

A break was called for the meeting that had been going on for quite some time without end. The council's initiative had fallen into Asgard's hands—no, Olympus had never had the initiative in the first place.

‘How…’

Yeo Seong-Gu felt frustrated over the entire situation.

‘Why did you have to make such an irrational stand?’

Athena had made a mistake to mention the possibility of war. She had doggedly insisted on getting an explicit explanation of Lee Jun-Kyeong’s identity or abilities. However, there was a reason behind all of this. Olympus had been the ones to propose this Round Table Council and start this negotiation.

He knew the reasons behind it all.

‘They must be trying to cover up their own mistakes with the broken pact by pushing the blame over to Lee Jun-Kyeong.’

Breaking the pact was a much bigger problem than Heracles had thought. It could eventually lead others distrusting Olympus as it was now suspect whether they were able to manage their Hunters properly or not. In fact, the situation had evolved. There was already distrust that the entire situation had been an order from Olympus themselves.

It was a situation worthy of having ignited the fires of war.

‘Asgard has the power to decide whether or not to kindle the embers.’

Olympus wasn’t in a position where they would even dare to bring up the topic of the embers. But, Athena had spoken of war, and the opinion of the observers, even including the Round Table Council, had shifted in favor of Asgard.

The situation had been completely taken over.

Lurch.

Having been given a brief respite, Yeo Seong-Gu was moving to visit Lee Jun-Kyeong. He thought about it over and over again. There wasn’t anything to be concerned about.

But still, he felt uncomfortable.

‘Damn it.’

Then, coincidentally, he made eye contact with the maiden walking towards him from the other side.

"…"

"…"

"Athena."

She looked exhausted and was most likely in the midst of realizing the mistake she had made after reporting to Olympus. Her eyes were trembling incessantly. Her appearance completely lacked the demeanor of one who was called the Goddess of the Battlefield.

“...”

Yeo Seong-Gu had called out to Athena, but he didn’t know what to say.

She was an ex-colleague, so…

“I know what I did wrong,” she said before Yeo Seong-Gu had a chance to speak. This wasn’t the Round Table, so there was no penalty even though she had admitted her wrongs.

“This is all…” Athena bit her lip and continued, "It's because of you."

"…" Yeo Seong-Gu stayed quiet.

She snarled quietly, “Why the hell are you here, of all places? If I had only seen you fir…”

‘Your hair has turned stark white. You’re only responding emotionally. Your priorities are getting wholly messed up.’

He wanted to say all of those things, but he couldn't.

She continued, “I’m so pissed that I can’t seem to apologize properly.”

"This negotiation…" Athena was about to say something, but she immediately shook her head. “I hope we never see each other again after the negotiations are over."

Just like that their interaction ended. Yeo Seong-Gu had stopped her, but Athena was the one who had spoken and left.

Lurch.

With an indecipherable expression on his face, he headed to the room where Lee Jun-Kyeong was, walking through the empty hallway.

***

‘It seems to be a little difficult to see Mr. Jeong after I woke up.’

It had been a while since Lee Jun-Kyeong had woken up, but he couldn’t see where Jeong In-Chang had gone. The swordsman had been there when he had woken up.

‘It might have been a coincidence.’

Jeong In-Chang might have just shown up to check on his status after wandering around for a while, and Lee Jun-Kyeong could have coincidentally woken up at that moment.

Well, he was a little hurt by being left alone, but it was okay. No, instead, it was what he had been hoping for. To be alone in a room with no one.

Lee Jun-Kyeong closed his eyes after being resigned to being alone. He wanted to sit down, but as his body still refused to listen whatsoever, the next best thing he could do in this state was to close his eyes.

After he closed his eyes…

[The mana stream has been activated.]

…he ignored the notification that brushed through his ears and let his mind drift to a more distant place. He wondered if it was because his talent couldn’t even reach the Demon King’s ankles, but the mana stream he had felt was completely different from the one he had read about in the book.

‘Read and use the flow of mana.’

That was the basic gist of the mana stream. To manipulate the vast quantities of mana that most Hunters couldn’t use, awakening all of the dormant mana that existed inside of oneself and using all of the power within one’s body.

If he was able to maximize it and activate it, he could use the surrounding mana as well.

Whether it was inside a gate full of mana or even on Earth, where mana was starting to gather due to the gates that appeared, he would be able to amplify his power by using the power of the naturally existing mana that was everywhere.

This was one of the few ways that Lee Jun-Kyeong could quickly become strong after falling behind.

'I succeeded.'

It had been a coincidence, but it worked. Amid the side effects of the Dragon's Bloodstone that had almost killed him, Lee Jun-Kyeong had succeeded in grasping the flow of mana. Consequently, a skill called Mana Stream had been created thanks to the flow he had emulated unconsciously.

Lee Jun-Kyeong was currently using that very power.

‘Recovery comes first.’

The uses of mana were vast, but the basics were attack, defense, and recovery. If a person used mana for attack, then their offensive capabilities would increase, and if a person used it for defense, then their defensive capabilities would increase. If it was used for recovery…

[The compatibility with the skill, Regeneration, is good.]

[The recovery speed is maximized further.]

The notification he heard was confirmation that the method of recovery written in the book of the Demon King that Lee Jun-Kyeong had attempted to use worked correctly. It was a difficult thing to understand when he hadn’t learned the mana stream, but after having seen the flow of mana, he was experiencing firsthand the effects.

Slowly, mana began to spin around his body.

However, he suddenly vomited blood.

Cough!

Black blood.

A large volume of necrotic blood had been splattered on the white blanket.

[The recovery speed has been maximized.]

“

C…cough!

”

Chunks of what seemed to be flesh began to rain from Lee Jun-Kyeong’s mouth. His vision blurred from the dizziness.

‘That’s…’

But, once the dizziness had passed, he was able to tell that his body was now in a better condition than before. The stuff in front of him was the impurities that had filled and invaded him due to the reversal of the Dragon's Bloodstone. They were fragments of those he had hunted, and they had now been expelled from his body through his mouth.

His mana began to move and restore the space left behind by the impurities. As the recovery continued, something felt uncomfortable.

‘What is this?’

The flow of mana had stopped somewhere and couldn’t move properly. Although the treatment of his upper and lower body was still going smoothly…

'My neck...'

As if there was something caught in his neck, the mana was only blocked in that part. Through his closed eyes, the flow of mana seemed to be visible, and on his neck was an unknown blemish stuck on it.

'A black bead…?'

Eventually, his mana had found another path and started moving away from his neck, and the recovery proceeded again. Still, he couldn’t figure out what had appeared on the back of his neck.

Then, that wasn’t the end.

'Again…?'

The flow of mana had been blocked again. The black beads weren’t only on his neck.

As he tried to focus more on this, he heard a familiar voice.

"I’m coming in."

Yeo Seong-Gu opened the door and came in.

"This…"

The blood on the bed, it was an amount of blood so vast that any ordinary person would have been dead if they had lost that amount.

Lee Jun-Kyeong looked to be much better as he opened his mouth."You’re here, Hyung."

***

As the meeting progressed and Lee Jun-Kyeong recovered, someone else was working hard.

"Ha-a-ap!"

"Ha-a-ap!"

In the secret garden of the Round Table Council, especially in the training room, the sound of two men’s roars could be heard. The burst of spirits echoed throughout the training ground.

Alongside it, the sound of metal clashing rang out.

Clang!

It didn’t only happen once.

.

Kaang! Kaang! Kaang! Kaang!

The sound of clashing metal repeated over and over again.

"You’re slow!"

“You’re saying

I’m

slow?"

"That’s right!”

Two men were talking while exchanging blows, one with a giant greatsword and the other a blue gladius.

It was Jeong In-Chang and George.

The two men who had failed to keep their comrades safe were competing against each other.