Chapter 253. It Wasn’t Just Intuition

Chi-Hyun, who seemed like he was going to immediately kill the great demons, stopped. After he heard what Ru Amuh said, the words that the last dragon said to him before he left the mountain range crossed his mind—‘didn’t you leave the work to them because you trusted them?’

Chi-Hyun stared down at the young hero who was risking his life with emotionless eyes. Were Chi-Woo not his younger brother, were they not connected by blood, would he be able to trust him as blindly as this young man? All kinds of thoughts filled his mind in that short instance. When his head began to hurt, Chi-Hyun shook his head. This was a pointless question that could never be answered in the first place; there was no point in even dwelling on it. As always, he should just continue walking on the path he believed to be right and do as he always did. He had survived and rose to this position by doing so.

Chi-Hyun moved his hand again. Ru Amuh desperately tried to resist as best as he could, but—

Bang! He couldn’t even withstand a light wave from Chi-Hyun’s hand and bounced off. Even Ru Amuh couldn’t last two hits.

Clank! Then they heard a sharp sound of metal. As soon as Ru Amuh fell back, Hawa ran after him. Of course, the daggers in Hawa’s two hands couldn’t even reach Chi-Hyun’s back. She was unable to advance further as if she was blocked by an intangible wall. The tip of her daggers shook, and although she used enough force for perspiration to appear on her forehead, there was no sign that it made any impact on the wall.

Hawa raised her eyes slightly and looked at the legend. When she was about to let out a groan, she felt a strange pressure all over her body. The next moment, Hawa flew back without even being able to scream.

“Stop…!” After seeing Ru Amuh and Hawa get beaten in an instant, Chi-Woo quickly got up, but ended up rolling on the ground as soon as he did so. With a mere shake of his brother’s hand, he was sent flying again with no control over his body.

“Chi-Woo!”

When he finally got smashed into the ground, Evelyn ran towards him with a shrill cry. She looked down at Chi-Woo, who couldn’t come to his senses, and frowned.

“Are you really his brother?” Evelyn shouted to Chi-Hyun, who was calmly trying to finish what he was doing. “Seriously, are you brothers!? How can you do that to your younger brother?”

“I’m only doing this much because I am his brother. Were he a stranger, I would have…”

“Hah! Like that’s any better.” Evelyn clenched her teeth at Chi-Hyun’s cold words. “Do you have any right to even interfere like this?”

Chi-Hyun’s hand stopped for a moment.

“The one who planned this operation and created this situation is Chi-Woo.” Evelyn glared at Chi-Hyun and continued, “But how can you just suddenly appear and act like this? Do you think you can do whatever you want just cause he’s your brother?”

‘The right to interfere like this.’ Chi-Hyun smiled blandly. He thought what Evelyn said was at least a bit funny unlike what other people had said to him so far; it was worth reacting to for a second. Chi-Hyun looked at Chi-Woo, who still couldn’t stand up, and asked, “So is that what you think too?”

Even while coughing, Chi-Woo managed to lift his head. His brother…did have the right to interfere like this. After hearing about the future, his brother had devoted himself to helping out more than anyone else. Moreover, he could understand Chi-Hyun’s actions and words, which made him feel even worse. He hated himself for acting like this even though he understood his brother. However, he was also sure that he wasn’t wrong.

Chi-Woo, who believed in his intuition, stood up resolutely, “Just…tell me one thing…” He gasped roughly and asked, “What do I need…to do…” Chi-Woo tried to think while feeling dizzy and asked with great difficulty, “for…you to listen to me…?”

Chi-Hyun’s eyes narrowed at the unexpected question. He stared at Chi-Woo for a while and said, “If you were stronger than me.”

Chi-Woo laughed in vain. “So it’s just…because I’m weaker than you…?”

“To be more precise,” Chi-Hyun clarified, “If you had the ability to handle and solve whatever arose should things go wrong.”

Chi-Woo’s breath hitched, his face blank. He had asked another person this same question a while ago—during the third future. At that time, Emmanuel had told him, “Sir, to be honest, when I first met you…I thought you seemed too irresponsible.”

In all honesty, this operation had gone extremely smoothly without a hitch. Everything went successfully. However, not everything in the world turned out like that, and it was much more common for things to not go as planned. If everything went as Chi-Woo said, it would be great, but there was a possibility that his plan wouldn’t work out. Moreover, they were in no position to make mistakes without immense consequences.

Thus, Chi-Hyun had asked Chi-Woo if he could solve the issue if things fell through, and if he could take responsibility if his plan caused hundreds or thousands of people to die. The answer was ‘no’ if Chi-Woo thought about it, and Chi-Woo currently had neither the confidence nor ability to do so. This was also the reason Emmanuel had said he was too irresponsible.

“Yeah…” Chi-Woo lowered his head. “I see…” It was because he was weak. It was because he had no strength to shoulder the full responsibility and failed to consider what would happen if things went awry. He couldn’t say anything to refute his brother. He couldn’t help but agree with Chi-Hyun that it would be a much safer and better choice to kill Shersha and Astarte instead.

A bitter expression appeared on Chi-Hyun’s face. He didn’t feel happy about the situation either, and he wanted to listen to Chi-Woo as much as possible. He might have even considered Chi-Woo’s suggestion if the great demons were mid-ranks or lower. However, he couldn’t back down this time; the risk was too great to just blindly follow Chi-Woo’s intuition. Shersha and Astarte were no longer able to even stand properly. Chi-Hyun hardened his resolve and was about to kill them at once when—

Flash! There was a sudden flash of light—strong enough to illuminate the whole area. Chi-Hyun’s eyes widened as he inadvertently turned towards the source, and then he gaped in shock.

“You…!” Light was shooting out of Chi-Woo’s whole body. The information that Chi-Woo got from Shersha was not only about the future; he didn’t know exactly what it was, but there was something that he found out about himself. He had directly experienced it, so he knew how to bring it out again.

“…What about this?” Chi-Woo said while his body was covered in light, “Can you acknowledge me…with this…?”

“Stop it!” Chi-Hyun frantically shouted. “Stop it now! Do you know what you’re trying to do right now?”

However, Chi-Woo didn’t listen to him. Instead, the light got stronger. Chi-Hyun tightly clenched his fists. He had expected the World’s Milestone, and the talisman hadn’t been difficult to steal despite him not knowing about its existence beforehand. However, he had never imagined that Chi-Woo would use his own body as a threat. Chi-Hyun’s power-based logic was now coming back to bite him.

“Choi Chi-Woo…!” Meanwhile, the light gradually increased in intensity. Chi-Hyun couldn’t stop Chi-Woo even if he wanted to. There was nothing he could do. Chi-Woo would soon break though his limit at this rate, and then…

“You…!” Chi-Hyun tried to shout something, but when the light surged again, he had no choice but to close his mouth. ‘He’s going this far to stop me…!’ Chi-Hyun tightly shut his eyes. ‘Why did I…!’ He felt foolish that he had come all the way here without rest to see his brother.

Griiit. He ferociously gnashed his teeth. For a while, an indescribable silence fell between the two brothers. It was hard to keep track of the passage of time. Chi-Hyun’s hands gradually stopped shaking, and his arms went limp.

* * *

The war was over. The war, which had begun with the Demon Empire’s invasion, ended with the Cassiubia League and humanity’s victory. The fact that they won against the main forces of the Demon Empire made it even more noteworthy. Above all, the damage against the Demon Empire was extremely significant. First, they lost six great demons, and among them were two at single-digit ranks. Considering that the Demon Empire had lost only two or three great demons during their all-out war with the Abyss, it was truly a shocking turn of events. Moreover, the death of six great demons meant that hundreds of legions under their command had also disappeared. Naturally, a huge gap in their power formed, and a hole appeared in the front lines that protected the territories the Demon Empire had gained through their conquest.

Furthermore, the shock of their defeat shook the Demon Empire to its core; for the time being, the Demon Empire couldn’t even dream of waging wars. It would be overwhelming enough for them to defend the frontlines and reorganize their internal order. But more importantly, there was more than one strong force eagerly waiting to sink their fangs into the Demon Empire’s weakened force and rip them apart. Since Bael was still alive, they were not at risk of extinction yet, but it was undeniable that they were in a dire situation.

Contrary to the Demon Empire, which had become a funerary house, humanity and the Cassiubia League were in a festive mood. They had not only won, but earned huge advantages. Thanks to feasting on a well-prepared table with a huge number of delicacies, many of them achieved significant growth. All heroes raised their rank by at least one level. The rarely seen silver hero now numbered a dozen, and there was even news that another hero successfully raised their level to gold rank. Ru Amuh was also now qualified to take the platinum tier promotion test.

Moreover, the emergence of a new god played a significant part in raising everyone’s morale. They all clearly witnessed the power of the White Horse General, and his temple was crowded every day. And like this, Chi-Woo succeeded in protecting Shalyh. It was indeed a perfect outcome. The fact that laughter rang across every street was proof of this.

However, Chi-Woo, the key figure for their victory, did not laugh or share their delight. He secluded himself in his room for many days in Ru Amuh’s district.

“Senior! Senior! I’m back to silver again!”

“Ru Hiana? Wait.” Ru Amuh stopped her.

“What? Why? What’s wrong?”

“Don’t say anything and come here. Quickly.”

Ru Hiana and several others looked at him with a questioning gaze, but the three people who had been with Chi-Woo on the day of his fight with Chi-Hyun did not dare to disturb him; they could all guess what he was feeling right now.

“Sigh…” While sitting on the mat, Chi-Woo stared up at the sky blankly and let out a deep sigh. Shersha and Astarte eventually walked away alive. Chi-Woo had achieved what he wanted in the end. However, in exchange, his relationship with his brother that he’d barely managed to recover became extremely strained again. Of course, this wasn’t the first time he had a falling-out with his brother. Twice on Liber alone, and countless times on Earth. However, it was different this time.

Before, he at least had been able to properly refute his brother and had the justification to keep his head high. No matter how hard he thought about this event, however, he had nothing to say for himself. He couldn’t refute his brother and thought his brother’s reasoning was right. Nevertheless, he forced his brother to step back through what would basically constitute blackmail. His actions were down-right ridiculous when he thought about it from his brother’s perspective. He wished his brother would just cuss him out, but Chi-Hyun didn’t say anything at all. He simply stared at him and quietly turned away. Chi-Woo couldn’t forget the way his brother looked at him as if he was a stranger.

[Chi-Woo.]

[This is the last time.]

[You’re my brother.]

[I don’t want to treat you like the other heroes.]

[Please help me continue to think of you as my younger brother in the future.]

[There’s no second chance.]

Chi-Woo had a hunch that it would not be as easy as before to restore their relationship this time; it might be impossible now.

“Sigh…” It was when Chi-Woo sighed again that he suddenly heard a voice.

“Well, someone looks depressed. What are you thinking about?” Evelyn slowly approached him and sat next to him. “Thinking about your brother?”

Chi-Woo tilted his head toward her. “…Ms. Evelyn.” Chi-Woo spoke in a weak voice, and after hesitating for a long time, he asked, “Was following my brother’s decision…the right choice…?”

“Yep.” Evelyn nodded easily.

Chi-Woo flinched. He blinked and looked back at Evelyn.

“I mean, it’s just my personal thought. Chi-Hyun made logical statements, but all you talked about was your hunch. That’s a little too much, don’t you think?”

“Then why didn’t you stop me?” He didn’t ask in a tone of resentment or blame. He asked out of pure curiosity.

“Because I was curious,” Evelyn said plainly.

“Because you were curious?”

“Yeah,” Evelyn said with a shrug. “Don’t you think everything went too smoothly this time?”

“That’s…” Chi-Woo nodded. It was true. Although Evelyn had said it would be difficult to carry out the operation, Chi-Woo already had a solution. He had also been prepared to use his merits to summon the White Horse General, but the traitor had brought two sacred flowers they could use instead. In the first place, it was extremely lucky that he threw the die and got to see the future. Everything was going extremely smoothly like a sailboat in fair wind—as if it was flowing the way Chi-Woo wanted.

“I told you before,” Evelyn said. “There are no results without a cause.”

“Yes, I remember.”

“Then what do you think about an existence that isn’t bound by the laws of causality and could control it however they want?”

“That would be ridiculous,” Chi-Woo shook his head and replied.

“Yeah, it would be ridiculous. But what if there’s a person who can do that?” Then she suddenly looked at Chi-Woo with a straight face.

“I don’t have an ability like that,” Chi-Woo replied with a puzzled look, wondering why she was looking at him.

“I never said you had such an ability.” Evelyn smiled dryly and smacked her lips. “It’s just that…” She didn’t finish and became lost in thought. This wasn’t the only time something like this happened. The first time she realized it was when she first made a deal with Chi-Woo. She had accepted his offer just to see how things would go, but Chi-Woo ended up making the extraordinary achievement of defeating a god modified by the Sernitas. He had also revived Kabbalah and her, who should have disappeared.

Moreover, Evelyn was sure these weren’t the only seemingly impossible achievements he had made; she could tell just by looking at what Ru Amuh thought of Chi-Woo—a hero who worked miracles no matter how difficult the situation was. Evelyn had once thought the same as Ru Amuh, but not anymore. Once or twice might be a coincidence, but it became difficult to think of such successes as mere miracles from the third time. Therefore, Evelyn thought that Chi-Woo had the actual power to make an impossibility into a possibility. Otherwise, there was no other way to explain his achievements so far.

After organizing her thoughts, Evelyn glanced back at Chi-Woo. “You know, I’m just asking because I’m curious, but can’t you show it to me a bit? I’m re~ally good at keeping secrets.” She leaned closer to him and asked in a sly tone.

“What are you talking about all of the sudden?”

“You know, I heard that you heroes have something called user information. If you really have an ability like that, it would be listed there, right?”

“There’s no way…” Chi-Woo thought there was no way he would have such an ability, but he turned on his device just in case to see if he missed anything. Of course, his user information hadn’t chan—

‘Huh?’ When he thought that nothing had changed, he noticed something was different. ‘This part…’ One of his innate abilities that was originally plastered with question marks….

[??????te ?????lity EX] [1]

Six letters were now revealed.

1. I think it has something to do with his identity and type of power; have to read more to find out! ☜