Chapter 440. Next Step

The messenger was Eval Sevaru, and he relayed to Chi-Woo that an official letter had arrived from Apertum, requesting for an emergency meeting.

‘Apertum?’ That meant Zelit had sent it. Tilting his head, Chi-Woo wondered what had happened and moved towards Apertum. When he arrived at the entrance, several people were already there to meet him. They immediately recognized Chi-Woo and politely guided him inside. On the way, Chi-Woo felt them steal furtive glances at him. It was probably because he had recently revealed his family name.

Chi-Woo smiled bitterly. Although he didn’t enjoy attention like this, he needed to get used to it now. When he entered the conference hall inside the tower, he saw some familiar faces. While greeting them with his eyes and sitting down, a few more people came in. They were all influential residents in Shalyh. Was it because the shock from the general assembly a few days ago still lingered? A strange silence hovered around the conference room. However, the silence didn’t last long as soon after, there was the sound of urgent footsteps, followed by Zelit’s appearance.

“Thank you for coming. The reason why I called everyone here is…” Zelit got straight to the point as he arrived. “A message I received from the Celestial Realm.” Zelit’s following words were definitely significant enough to justify an urgent meeting. “The Celestial Realm have completed the recruitment process of the twelfth reinforcements.”

Everyone’s eyes widened. They weren’t just surprised by the news, but also by the person who announced it. Originally, Chi-Hyun was the one fully in charge of overseeing the recruits, who regularly arrived from the Celestial Realm. However, this time, Zelit was suddenly playing the role. No, it may not be sudden after all; if they thought about it in connection with the recent general assembly, Chi-Hyun’s action could be interpreted as him delegating some of his responsibilities and obligations.

“The Celestial Realm has said this will be the last reinforcements they’ll be sending to Liber. Moreover, they have chosen the recruits more selectively this time than any other previous deployment, and it is also the largest number of recruits ever.”

The conference room erupted into a stir.

“Hmm. The last wave of recruits. It’s much earlier than I thought.”

𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

“Should we take this as good news or….”

“Of course it’s good news. They not only carefully selected the best heroes, but are sending the largest number of recruits.”

“Well, no wonder. The ones who really wanted to prove themselves are already here. Considering that heroes who had been waiting to see what would happen are coming in crowds now, it seems that even the Celestial Realm think Liber’s situation has significantly improved.”

“In that case, it’s not a bad turn of events. Although it’s a bit of a stretch to say it’s entirely good since it feels like the Celestial Realm is trying to make a final winning move. Well, just the fact that it’s now worth betting on Liber’s future is…”

Zelit waited for the murmurings to subside and continued, “The twelfth reinforcements will be sent right to Shalyh. Thus, there is no need to send an expedition team for them.”

Everyone softly exclaimed at Zelit’s words. Most of the recruits that had entered Liber were transmitted to extremely harsh and hostile environments, and each time, those who had previously entered had to secure safety around the expected transmission point for the new recruits. A prime example was when Chi-Woo successfully subjugated the Hala Forest, where unknown dangers lurked, for the tenth reinforcements. It was great to think that they didn’t have to go through such an ordeal this time.

“The arrival of the twelfth reinforcements will be organized by Apertum. Does anyone have any objections?”

They had all expected this when Zelit was the one relaying this news instead of Chi-Hyun. Of course, no one had complaints. Strictly speaking, Apertum was an area where everyone exercised equal authority, and it was also the place where meetings and recruitments were held. In fact, there was no better public institution than Apertum in Shalyh, excluding the official residence.

“Then from now on, I would like to discuss the number of coins that each organization will be allocated for the recruitment event. First of all, 100 golden coins will be set aside for Seven Stars…” Zelit granted Seven Stars the greatest authority that only one organization could receive at the recruitment event without hesitation. Of course, no one voiced their complaints. The coins were allocated according to the amount of merits each organization had accumulated recently, and during the period between the eleventh reinforcements and the twelfth reinforcements, the organization with the most achievements by far was Seven Stars.

* * *

After their meeting was over, someone grabbed Chi-Woo when he was standing up with his bag full of golden coins.

“Hello?” It was a woman with a veil over her face.

“Hello.” Chi-Woo recognized Alice and immediately greeted her.

“Yeah. It’s been a while since we last saw each other.” Alice sounded slightly cheerier than usual; she seemed happy that Chi-Woo had greeted her back. “If you don’t mind, would it be okay for us to go to a separate place and talk? It won’t take long.”

A separate meeting with Alice Ho Latea. “Yes, let’s do that.” There was no reason for him to refuse, so Chi-Woo easily nodded. Then he followed her out of the meeting room. Thus, he didn’t notice that Apoline had missed her chance and turned around with a ‘tsk’ after watching Chi-Woo move further away.

After moving to Ho Lactea’s residence, Chi-Woo began conversing with Alice, and Chi-Woo wasn’t able to hide his surprise. He had been certain that she would talk to him about the twelfth reinforcements after the meeting today, and he was expecting requests for a little concession or to form an alliance. However, Alice didn’t talk about any of these topics. Instead, she merely asked about how he was doing and brought up the general assembly recently, making small talk along those lines.

This was…how should he describe it—yeah, it was similar to the way he visited his brother sometimes to talk about all sorts of topics. It felt like a family gathering at a dinner table where everyone chatted away. Although Chi-Woo couldn’t see her face because it was covered by a veil, judging by her voice, Alice was definitely enjoying her conversation with him. He felt this every time he saw her, but she was a strange person. First, it was clear that she thought favorably of him, and to a significant degree rather than an ordinary degree.

Ismile had told him that the Ho Lactea Family was a descendant of a god. Alice had not only sacrificed her extra life by taking the first attack from the Sky Castle for him, but had almost risked her last remaining life. At that point, it could hardly be considered basic goodwill. It was something that only family members would do for each other.

‘Family…’

[What? You really don’t know anything?]

[Your mother is a Ho Lactea…]

Ismile had let slip some information by accident, but Chi-Woo clearly remembered what he had said. The Ho Lactea, who was known as the second of the twelve Celestial Lights, was his mother’s family. In short, there was currently at least one person among the entire Choi Family who was originally from Ho Lactea. Otherwise it wouldn’t make sense.

Of course, since Ismile was the one who said this, all of it could be nonsense, but considering his brother’s reaction when he asked him about it after he said he heard it from Ismile, it didn’t seem like a lie. His brother hadn’t said a single line of rebuttal, and Chi-Woo had heard that Ismile almost died and came back from having one foot in the grave.

Then what kind of relationship did he have with the woman in front of him? Was she at least his cousin? No, since Ismile said she was not from the direct family line, they might be more distant in blood than that. Maybe she was something like his cousin twice removed, and in that way, they would be considered basically unrelated.

Besides, did Ho Lactea even bother with blood relations in the first place? Since they were descendants of a god, looking at Greek and Roman mythology… The more he thought about it, the more confused he became, so Chi-Woo unconsciously frowned.

Alice slightly flinched at his reaction. “Ah…are you perhaps busy?” she asked carefully in a slightly crestfallen tone. “Maybe I shouldn’t have taken your time…”

“No, it’s nothing like that.” Chi-Woo shook his head. “So Ms. Alice…are you my nuna?”[ref]Nuna means older sister, but men can say it to any women older than them they were close to depending on the situation.[ref/] Chi-Woo had been racking his head and wondering what to say, but the words just tumbled out of his mouth at her question. “Or are you younger?”

Alice immediately stopped talking. Judging by how her beautiful lips revealed under the veil slightly widened, it seemed as if she didn’t know how to take Chi-Woo’s words just now. “Uh…are you telling me that you don’t even consider me your nuna? Or are you warning me to not act like one after all this time? I-I’m sorry. Did I act too familiar with…” Moreover, judging by how she began to ramble, she seemed to have received quite the shock.

Chi-Woo quickly waved his hand in denial as her imagination and misunderstanding seemed to be taking flight and going wild. “No, that’s not what I meant.” He didn’t waver for long. It was time for him to get an answer. After a short contemplation, Chi-Woo said, “It’s because I don’t know.”

“?”

“I don’t know the relationship between the Choi and Ho Lactea Family. Not even the slightest idea. The only reason why I was able to find out that there was some kind of connection was because Mr. Ismile recently…” While Chi-Woo spoke, Alice’s mouth slowly closed again. When he finished his explanation, her lips were sealed tightly shut like a stone statue.

“…No way.” After a long silence, Alice murmured as if she couldn’t believe it. “Really? Is everything you said really true?”

“Yes.”

“No one ever mentioned Ho Lactea to you even once since you were born? Then you have no idea who Elrich, no, your mom is?”

Chi-Woo nodded. This was normal for him as he had lived as an ordinary person until he came to Liber. However, he didn’t reveal everything to her; he simply told her that ‘he grew up knowing nothing about Ho Lactea.’

“This is—this is completely ridiculous—” And Alice was furious. “This is absolutely ridiculous. No matter how…how can they…” She spoke in an extremely angry voice and rose indignantly from her seat. “Please wait a moment please. I’ll visit him in person and ask about his intentions.”

“No, you don’t have to go so far.”

“No, this is something that should have never happened for anyone. Why did he deliberately control and hide information…” Although Chi-Woo tried to stop her, Alice didn’t listen to him. She quickly left her zone after declaring confidently that she’d demand an answer from Chi-Hyun and told Chi-Woo everything once she came back.

Now left alone, Chi-Woo became anxious; he had a bad feeling about this for some reason, and again, his intuition was right. It wasn’t even one hour later when Chi-Woo was stunned to see Alice come back stumbling. Her clean and fresh looking veil came back soaking wet. Seeing that she was still sniffling, it seemed that she had cried her heart out.

Chi-Woo didn’t even have to ask who did this to her. “Are you all right?” Chi-Woo asked, but Alice didn’t reply. She collapsed at the table as soon as she sat down on her chair. Her trembling back as she sobbed looked extremely pitiful and sad.

“Please calm down first. I’ll go and talk to him.” Chi-Woo felt bad and was about to turn around and complain to his brother, but Alice hurriedly grabbed his arms to stop him.

“No, you can’t!” She called out to him with an urgent voice. “If you go now…I’ll…” Judging by the way her wet lips were trembling, it seemed as if she had been threatened with murder.

Chi-Woo clicked his tongue. No, what the hell did Chi-Hyun say to her to make her react this way… If he had known this would happen, he would have gone with her.

“…I’m sorry…today…” She meant that he should go now. Chi-Woo wanted to send a message of complaint to his brother, but considering Alice’s position, he thought he shouldn’t act recklessly. After thinking this, Chi-Woo comforted Alice and left Ho Lactea.

He didn’t feel good while going back to Seven Stars; an uncomfortable feeling lingered in the corner of his heart. After meeting Giant First, he had thought he had found out most of the secrets about his family, but that hadn’t been the end. He felt like he had only merely scratched the surface. There was something else that was much more important, and he thought he would only feel relieved after finding out what it was.

However, at the same time, Chi-Woo had a strong feeling that he should never tread lightly with this conflict. He had felt this every time this problem was mentioned. Since his brother had never once given in and revealed anything to Chi-Woo, he would probably keep it hidden now as well. It was still not the time, and Chi-Woo probably needed to wait a little longer.

* * *

Chi-Woo had been debating whether he should turn to make his way to the official residence, but he barely managed to suppress this desire and return to Seven Stars instead. He couldn’t force something that wouldn’t work and needed to focus on the present. He had successfully gotten over a huge hurdle recently, but there was still a lot of work to be done. Among them, Chi-Woo’s top priority was his promotion to Master tier. There were originally six conditions he needed to fulfill. Since it was safe to say that he had completed two at the general assembly not long ago, that left him with the other four relatively clearer conditions; he knew what was demanded of him at least. Of course, this didn’t mean that they were easy to fulfill.

The first condition was to get stronger than he was now. This was the most ambiguous of his four remaining tasks. He had no idea how much stronger he should be. He thought that he should ask Master Byeok for help and set a time to properly train, but he’d only know once he started it. The second was to fill all three of the Seven Stars positions that were currently vacant. This was at least easier than the other conditions. Since the twelfth reinforcements were arriving soon, he would probably be able to resolve it then. The third condition was to have at least three of the Celestial Lights excluding himself follow him. Chi-Woo wasn’t sure how he should go about it. Since Emmanuel and Yeriel were already both his subordinates, he had two, and this meant that he needed only one more Celestial Light.

‘I’m also a Celestial Light too. Why won’t they count me in?’ He thought about this for a moment, his lips soon twisted into a thin smile. There was no way the condition would be so easy to fulfill considering that it was one of the requirements to raise his tier to Master. ‘As for the remaining Celestial Light…’

There were Chi-Hyun, Apoline, Alice, and Ismile. If shortcuts and tricks didn’t work, he needed to find a person who would work as his subordinate and devote themselves to Seven Stars until at least Liber was saved. In that sense, he needed to exclude his brother and Ismile, and it wouldn’t be easy to achieve with Apoline or Alice either. They were both heads of their respective organizations, so they wouldn’t easily accept his request. And they all had their individual circumstances. He needed to wait and see for this condition as well. Since the Celestial Realm would be sending out the largest scale of heroes ever, there may be a Celestial Light or two among them.

‘That guy’s a problem too.’ The fourth condition was to awaken the fenrir cub’s power. Chi-Woo hadn’t paid much attention to the cub since he brought the cub from the Hala Forest. However, the problem was that the cub didn’t want to do anything either. Chi-Woo wasn’t even joking as all the cub did was eat and wander around wherever they felt like it and then come back and sleep, and it was to the point that Chi-Woo was starting to doubt if the cub really was a descendent of that fierce Hurodivituru. Chi-Woo thought he should start paying attention to the fenrir cub from now on.

Then from the corner of his vision, one person suddenly caught his eye. He saw a silver-haired girl standing hesitantly on the other side of the open door. With a nervous expression, she seemed to be agonizing over whether she should knock or not.

Chi-Woo sighed. “…What.”

“I think you need to go in a hurry.”

“Again?” Chi-Woo frowned. There was so much to do, but the number of visitors had increased significantly these days. “If it’s not urgent business, then—” He tried to push it off.

“It’s from Goddess La Bella,” Hawa hurriedly said.

Chi-Woo shut his mouth. The story changed when it was not just anyone, but the god he served. “…I got it. I’ll go soon.”

Chi-Woo soon moved to a white space and heard something unexpected.

“Other…conditions?”

—Yes. Not only Sir General White Horse’s condition, but also the other three conditions.

Mamiya replied clearly to Chi-Woo’s question.

—Of course, you must be flustered by the sudden change in terms, but…would you like to hear the situation?