Chapter 312. Strange Twist of Fate (2)

The drafting war began. Looking around the table where he sat, Chi-Woo almost laughed out loud. Every member of Seven Stars had a solemn look on their faces, and they kept their necks and backs completely straight. A prime example was Ru Hiana. Her entire body language was screaming, ‘I’m nervous right now’, but she was trying her hardest to look as cool as possible with her expression.

However, Chi-Woo soon understood why they were acting like this. Everyone was staring at them—not only the heroes, but the organization members as well. Chi-Woo realized that the leadership of this drafting event was placed in his hands. Everyone was sitting still now, but the moment he moved, he would be sending the signal to start.

Chi-Woo wondered what he should do. Should he sit still and wait for them to come? Or should he go look around? He didn’t contemplate for long. He was the one eager to meet and fulfill Boboris’ prophecy. He thought there must be a reason why the meeting place was decorated as a banquet hall. Chi-Woo got up from his seat and went down from the stage. Only then did the Seven Star members and the other organizations begin moving.

There were many who were eager to dig for treasures. Some were staying still, but there were also several people like him who quickly went around to find precious talents. Soon after Seven Stars began moving, a considerable number of people rose from all around the banquet room and began moving around.

“Excuse me. Are you perhaps…”

“Nice to meet you. I’m…”

There were way too many people now; it was to the extent that he needed to stop moving. Expecting a fateful first meeting, Chi-Woo made a bitter smile. He had no idea who he would first encounter. ‘If I act like usual…’ If he hadn’t listened to Boboris and participated in the draft, how would he have acted? The answer was already decided. Chi-Woo activated his Spirit Eye. It was impossible to check all 372 heroes’ user information at once, but there was no need to do that either. There was a way to filter out people without checking their user information: by looking at colors. Spirit Eye not only revealed people’s user information, but showed the unique color of a person’s soul.

In an instant, numerous colors filled the banquet hall. Chi-Woo didn’t put much stock in the color itself. Just because a person’s soul was white didn’t mean that they were good, and the opposite was true for a black soul. However, there were sometimes colors that stood out from the rest. If he had to describe it, a color like that was a bit unique. Not all colors were the same, and it couldn’t be defined simply as red, orange, yellow, green, blue, or purple like in the rainbow. The color of lipstick was a perfect example of this. Although a red lipstick could be described as just that, there were hundreds of variations of red, and there were subtle differences between them when applied to the skin.

This was the same for the color of a soul. When he looked around… Chi-Woo’s gaze suddenly snapped to a particular spot. He frowned for a moment and stared intently as if he had found something.

“For real? Are you really Mr. Ru Amuh? The hero who solved a crisis at star cluster level even before he arrived at the Celestial Realm?”

“Yes, I’m Ru Amuh.”

“Oh my! I heard your name so many times that it’s amazing to see you in person like this. Honestly, when I heard the achievements made by Seven Stars, I was doubtful, but now I see that it’s true.”

“I’m grateful for your kind words, but I’m not as great as you say.”

“Come on, no need to be so humble. Are you saying the legend lied to us?”

“No, he hasn’t lied. It’s just that I’m not the one who made those achievements.”

“What? Then…”

“It’s the person I serve and the leader of Seven Stars…?” Ru Amuh stopped mid-sentence because he saw Chi-Woo walking somewhere alone. “Please excuse—” Ru Amuh was about to follow him, but stopped. He already saw Eval Sevaru running towards Chi-Woo and thought Eval would probably be more helpful than him in this situation.

The hero conversing with Ru Amuh asked, “What were you trying to say?”

“Ah, my apologies. It’s nothing. Seven Stars…” Ru Amuh decided to stay behind and help let Chi-Woo freely move around.

Another person had the same thought as him.

“Nice to meet you. If you don’t mind, can we…” A hero blinked in bafflement when he tried to talk to Chi-Woo, and Chi-Woo just passed by him.

“Yes! Nice to meet you.”

However, the hero soon became flustered when a blindingly beautiful woman stopped and turned toward him.

“I’m Onorables Evelyn from Seven Stars. Sir Hero, you must be one of the tenth reinforcements, right?”

“Ahahaha. I feel embarrassed to be called Sir Hero when we’re in the same boat…”

“No, I’m not a Celestial Realm hero.”

“What? Then?”

“I’m a native of Liber.” Evelyn continued in a sing-song voice. “And I’m also the saintess of the White Horse General.”

The hero’s mouth slightly widened as Evelyn gave him a wink. Like this, people came flocking toward them. Thanks to his teammates, Chi-Woo was able to reach where he wanted to go without stopping. He arrived at a table a short distance away from the stage. From the time Chi-Woo first moved, most of the people in the banquet hall had moved by now. Frankly, the tenth reinforcements were more urgent than the recruiting organizations since they had lost their powers, and there were limited opportunities to get proper support.

However, not everyone had begun moving. While most heroes were talking to other people and trying to promote themselves, there were a few who were not in a hurry and enjoyed the banquet while sitting at their table. They even looked leisurely as they enjoyed the food and drinks prepared for the banquet. Chi-Wo didn’t know whether it was because they were confident to get an opportunity even if they sat back and relaxed, or they decided to not take advantage of this opportunity. Either way, the table Chi-Woo headed towards was where such heroes sat.

There were only two people at the table. Judging by how they were sitting close to each other and laughing while conversing, they seemed close. Although they appeared to have nary a care in their surroundings, they weren’t completely unaware, either. As if they felt his presence, they stopped conversing and looked back at Chi-Woo. Then they averted their eyes to take a quick glance around. It was then Chi-Woo realized that he wasn’t the only one who had approached them. After checking his surroundings, Chi-Woo flinched.

He didn’t know what was going on, but he saw more than five people—including Alice, Apoline, Emmanuel, Allen Leonard, to name a few. They were all members of different organizations. Eval Sevaru, who had hurriedly followed Chi-Woo, assessed the situation and clearly saw one of the two people at the table crack a small smile before quickly wiping it off their face.

Apoline sidled up to Chi-Woo and whispered, “How did you find out?”

‘And how did you find out?’ This was what Chi-Woo wanted to ask her.

Apoline continued, “I’m asking how you knew right away. The list should have been private, and weren’t you the last to come in? You didn’t even have much time to look closely.”

Chi-Woo didn’t really know what she meant, but one thing was clear. There was a reason all the different organization members were gathered here, and Chi-Woo had struck the jackpot. There was a saying that a person of great ability and talent was bound to stand out even if they didn’t want to. Of course, there was a big difference between knowing their name and also knowing their face. In that sense, Apoline considered herself lucky—until a few minutes ago.

Apoline had been the first to enter the meeting place today and observed the faces of the tenth reinforcements in close detail. Then one of the reinforcements exclaimed, “Uh?”

“Look at that hero.”

“Who?”

“Over there, there.”

“Who’s that?”

“Isn’t it that hero?”

Hearing this, Apoline instinctively thought she found a catch. Then she listened in on the conversation further. She was quite surprised and determined to recruit this hero. As soon as the draft began, she wanted to run and keep the hero for herself, but this was something that only Seven Stars could do. Even if she poured out all the bronze coins she received, it was only half of the amount of gold coins that Seven Stars had. And she would only attract unnecessary attention by showing urgency. She couldn’t let the hero of her choice attract the attention of her competitors. Thus, she had gone around leaving a few coins while acting nonchalant.

However, her ambitious plan to become the queen of drafting had gone awry from the start. Apoline, who had secretly kept tabs on the organizations ranked first and second in terms of priority, was shocked as she saw both Chi-Woo and Alice walk towards the same place as if they had planned it beforehand. When she ran behind them, it was already too late; all the other leaders had also noticed and were following behind them. And this was how the current situation came to be.

Soon after, one of the two heroes sitting at the table slowly rose from their seat. The hero was quite good looking in an objective sense, but it was hard to make out their sex. In a way, they looked like a handsome man from Greek or Roman mythology, but in another way, they could also look like an attractive woman at the peak of her physique. Regardless of a person’s good looks, one should be able to decipher a person’s sex based on their height, body size, and shape, but it was very hard to tell with this hero.

The hero coughed and said, “Hello. I’m—”

“Yunael Tania.” Since the situation already unfolded like this, Apoline decided to act first. She also wanted to show that she recognized the hero first.

Yunael’s eyes slightly widened. “You know who I am?” Yunael’s voice was neither high nor low, thin nor deep.

“Of course I knew, especially the surname Tania. It’s a name I’ve been hearing about since I was young.”

Looking at Apoline talk haughtily with her chin tilted back, Yunael made a furtive smile and lightly replied, “Thank you. It’s an honor to be recognized by the most precious flower in Afrilith.”

‘Look at this punk?’ One of Apoline’s eyebrows crept up. It seemed Yunael knew exactly who she was, but they responded confidently rather than acting servile. Although Apoline liked people who bowed to her on their own accord, she also liked people like this—if they had a solid background. And in her eyes, Yunael was more than qualified.

If people were asked to pick out heroes to represent the Celestial Realm, they would usually refer to the twelve Celestial Lights. However, the Celestial Lights weren’t the only well-known ones. Even outside of the twelve families, there were heroes who had earned enough recognition to leave their names on the hall of fame. And Tania was one of the heroes who would be mentioned the most.

‘Father said if Tania’s progenitor really wanted, the twelve Celestial Lights would have become thirteen, or one of the twelve families wouldn’t have been able to make it to the twelve…’ Yunael was the only direct descendant of such a family.

Apoline, who valued pedigree very much, would give Yunael a pass for just their background, but Yunael’s background wasn’t the only impressive thing about them. Yunael was already an active hero. In terms of experience, they might have just passed the rookie stage, but even then, Yunael was famous; it was to the point that Yunael’s fame was comparable to Ru Amuh’s. Yunael was someone that would always be mentioned in conversations about heroes who had recently made significant contributions. Frankly, the fact that Yunael was placed on the same pedestal as Ru Amuh spoke for itself. That was why Apoline had tried to get Yunael at all costs, but…!

“First of all, I want to thank everyone so much for coming to see me first.” Yunael continued while looking at everyone, “However, if you don’t mind, I’d like to ask you all a favor.” They spoke clearly in a cheerful voice. “If you came to give me a chance, won’t you give me just a single coin?”

Apoline, who had been full of despair, raised her head at Yunael’s words.

“No more and no less, just one each. I know it’s presumptuous of me, but I want to hear everyone out. And besides me, there are…” Yunael didn’t finish, but it wasn’t hard to guess their intention. The draft had just started. But what would happen if there was competition for just one person? Then the other heroes were bound to lose steam, so Yunael was telling them to pay attention to the other heroes as well.

“Certainly…”

“That’s a real hero, right there.”

A few nodded their heads in respect. If the opportunities were equal, there was no reason for the Celestial Lights to refuse—except for one person.

“What if someone gave you more coins by themselves?” No—two people. Emmanuel raised his voice as if he wasn’t pleased by Yunael’s request. Apoline stared at him, thinking, ‘What’s up with him?’

“You don’t have to worry about that.” Yunael spoke quietly with a smile on their face. “I won’t take it then.” Yunael officially declared that they wouldn’t accept more than a single coin from any organization. It wouldn’t be a problem since heroes had the right to decide for themselves whether they wanted to accept coins or not.

“What are you going to do?” After a brief pause, Apoline tapped Chi-Woo on the shoulder and asked.

“…Yes, let’s do that.” Surprisingly, Chi-Woo easily answered, but his expression looked a little blank. He seemed distracted.

Considering his perspective, this was not a favorable situation for Seven Stars, but it couldn’t be helped since Yunael was the one who made the request themselves. Since it was for the benefit of the other heroes, it would be difficult to criticize or object to it. Although Apoline’s plan had gone awry, she decided to be satisfied that there was still a chance to recruit Yunael and took out a copper coin. Alice, who had been standing silently, also handed over a silver coin.

Yeriel had come to them just to look around, and she turned back to Emmanuel and asked, “What about you?”

“I won’t be participating.” Rather than handing over a coin, Emmanuel turned away.

𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

“Huh? Why?”

“I won’t dare to compete with Teacher,” Emmanuel replied and left.

“What? What happened? When did your relationship with him change so much?”

Yunael, whose eyes had slightly narrowed after seeing Emmanuel leave without hesitation, caught sight of Yeriel glancing back at Chi-Woo before following Emmanuel. Although Yunael didn’t know who Yeriel was, her position was probably high as well given she could speak out like that. Yunael thought she was probably one of the Celestial Lights and considered what Emmanuel had said, ‘I won’t dare to compete with Teacher.’ While they were racking their head, they heard a clank.

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Chi-Woo was taking out a coin from his pocket; the reddish golden light caught Yunael’s eyes. Soon after, Yunael’s face was filled with surprise. Yunael had thought he would take out one coin, but he had taken out a handful. However, that handful of coins was not directed to them, but to a thuggish man behind Yunael.

Chi-Woo said, “Mr. Eval Sevaru, keep this for me.”

“What? Ah, yes.” Eval Sevaru quickly blinked as he accepted the coins with both hands. ‘Thirty? Why did he give me only thirty? No—wait.’ Besides Seven Stars, the one with the most coins was Ho Lactea. Since Alice handed one coin to Yunael, the number of coins decreased from 70 to 69. Thus, in order to safely get the advantage, Chi-Woo needed to at least use 70 coins for one person. After handing Eval Sevaru 30 coins, Chi-Woo had exactly 70 coins left. Then Chi-Woo moved forward.

“Ah, no…you just need to give one…” Seeing Chi-Woo approaching them, Yunael was taken aback and waved their hands, but they stiffened the next moment. Chi-Woo had walked right past them without any hesitation.

After taking a few more steps, Chi-Woo stopped and said, “Hello.” He was talking to the one other person sitting at the table with Yunael Tania. “My name is Chi-Woo. I entered Liber as part of the seventh recruits, and I’m currently leading Seven Stars.”

The person looked back at Chi-Woo while sitting down. He didn’t know why, but her eyes were closed. “…Aida.” She soon got up from her seat and bowed politely with her hands held together. “I’m Aida Odelia.” Her long hair flowed down as she spoke with a soft voice. Unlike Yunael, it was easy to tell her gender. Odelia raised her head again and looked at Chi-Woo; although her eyes remained close, Chi-Woo definitely felt like she was staring at him. Then she soon tilted her head and said with a very faint smile, “We meet again.”