Chapter 53: I Don’t Know What’s Going On (1)

A gorgeous woman entered the conference room, causing a commotion inside the room. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that she was a knockout. She had worn an off-shoulder dress that revealed her shoulder. The dress fit her like a glove, highlighting her sleek curves. 

The dress had a slit on the side, which showed her elegant legs. Those legs looked as strong as steel, however. If someone approached her for her appearance, she could send them flying with a kick. 

She was laughing, but her eyes contained a coldness. Her eyes would go well with the glamorous night, but at the same time, she looked like she would enjoy the bloody battlefield more. She was a tiger-like magician.

She was called the master of the East. She was the most powerful authority in East Asia. She was the Gemini Saint. The Gemini Saint could withstand other Zodiac Saints surrounding her in three directions. 

As with most of the Zodiac Saints, she was like an empress. She radiated an overwhelming aura. 

When the politicians saw her, their mouths fell open. They only regained their senses when the official from the Japanese government coughed. “Are you listening to me right now?”

“H-Heiji-nim!”

Everyone sank to the ground. Then, all of them looked in a particular direction as they sweated. Their gazes were focused on Lee Gun. The whole world knew that Lee Gun and the Gemini Saint didn’t possess a good relationship.

They hated each other so much that the other Zodiac Saints had to actively stop the two of them from killing each other. In other words, the Gemini Saint and Lee Gun hated each other’s guts.

Therefore, bloodshed was inevitable, especially if one thought about the short-temper Lee Gun had earlier displayed.

‘At the very least, they’ll try to stab each other.’

It had been a long time since the Japanese government had taken Lee Gun’s assets. The Aquarius Saintess, Sophie, had been able to take Lee Gun’s items by saying she was his healer; on the other hand, the Gemini Saint claimed Lee Gun’s assets for national defense reasons. The Gemini Saint also said it was compensation for the damage caused to her.

Of course, her reasoning made no sense, but the Korean politicians acknowledged it anyway. They diverted Lee Gun’s wealth toward her. Today was another date of the scheduled payment. The Korean politicians were supposed to hand over more of Lee Gun’s assets.

That was why Lee Gun had appeared at the worst time for the politicians. However, the Gemini Saint seemed unsympathetic. She laughed as he took her seat, the best seat in the office.

The politicians gulped as they felt Lee Gun’s gaze.

‘We have to send back the delegation from Japan.’

‘Please! Don’t say anything stupid.’

Suddenly, the officials from the Japanese government laughed. 

“Ah! That’s right. Do you have Lee Gun’s tributes which the Archer Saint tried to reclaim?

“It would be great if you transfer it to us immediately.”

“?!” The faces of the Korean politicians spasmed.

The Japanese officials sighed in a patronizing manner.

“Our Saint’s holy ground was ruined, and the damage is extensive.”

“You told us to come quickly because the Archer Saint might take the tribute.”

“We don’t have much time, so let’s skip the formality. Let’s sign the contract.”

The Korean politicians started profusely sweating. Was this how it felt when one’s body temperature dropped from fear? The officials from the Japanese government were oblivious to their plight.

One of the Japanese officials asked, “I have been curious about something since earlier.”

“Yes?”

“Why is the interior of the conference room in this state?”

“!”

A portion of the conference table was broken. The door also lay in pieces. Several politicians were unconscious on the floor with foam coming out of their mouths.

“Did you guys fight each other before we arrived?”

‘It would have been great if that was true.’ The Korean politicians continued to sweat.

“That is…”

At that moment…

“Ah! I see! You planned on giving away my tribute?” A cold voice rang out. “You said you used it all. Looks like you guys were lying.”

The politicians were close to crying. They quickly clung to the Japanese side. If they wanted to live, this was the only way

“Lee Gun is here! Lee Gun is here!”

“Please save us!”

The Japanese officials burst out laughing.

“Lee Gun?”

‘What nonsense are they talking about?‘

“We saw the mess that happened at that press conference.”

“It’s questionable itself as to whether that man is the real Lee Gun. Also, why would he be here?”

“He’s really here! He’s behind—”

“Haha! This building is basically a holy item. It was built with the blessing of the Gemini. Lee Gun wouldn’t be able to enter it in the first place. Moreover, the building would automatically attack Lee Gun if— 

“Huh?”

At that moment, a dark shadow appeared in front of the Japanese minister. It was Lee Gun. The minister let out a smile of delight when he saw the young man. ‘It seems they hired a temp worker since the Gemini Saint was visiting them.’ He said, “He’s handsome— Uh?”

The minister suddenly stopped. Sweat appeared on his face. Why was he reacting this way? “I’ve seen him somewhere….”

As if to confirm his suspicion, a commotion rose around him.

“That person…”

“TV!”

“Yesterday!”

Several delegates stood up as they became silent. The Gemini Saint looked surprised too. Her eyes turned round.

The minister got up in surprise. “Why is he here— Kuhk!”

Lee Gun’s fist met the minister’s face.

Kwahng!

A scream rang out within the conference room.

Lee Gun cracked his knuckles and laughed. “It has been a while, Nakamura. It seems you’ve gotten far in life. You have a belly now.”

“You… you!”

“I remember telling you guys this a long time ago,” Lee Gun calmly said.

“!”

“Don’t you dare encroach on Korean land!”

Bbah-gahk!

The conference room turned into pandemonium. As if they had expected this, the Korean politicians massaged their brows.

In the end, the Gemini Saint stood up. The light in her eyes changed.

The politicians reacted as if they had been waiting for this moment.

“Yes. That’s him!”

“He did this to us!”

“Please help!”

“Save us!”

They acted as if they had gained a reliable ally. ‘This is a completely different ball game since the Gemini Saint is here.’

Even if Lee Gun had returned, what could he do?

‘At the end of the day, he’s inferior to the Zodiac Saints!’

‘He’s only a B rank!’

Lee Gun was one of the first awakened beings to appear alongside the Zodiac Saints. However, there existed a steep power difference between the Zodiac Saints and him. 

All of these politicians remembered Lee Gun’s status in the past. It was said that Lee Gun had barely survived when he fought the Gemini Saint. ‘He’s alive only because the Gemini Saint went easy on him.’

Of course, a rumor was going around right now that Lee Gun had defeated the Sheep Saint, the Aquarius Saintess, and the Leo Saint. 

‘The Sheep Saint and the Aquarius Saintess aren’t battle-type Saints.’

‘The Leo Saint lost because he made some stupid moves.’

On the other hand, the Gemini Saint was the monster of the East. Aside from the Leo Saint, she was on a different level compared to the saints mentioned in the rumors.

At that moment, Heiji and Lee Gun met each other’s eyes. As her gaze fell on Lee Gun, the beautiful woman laughed. She was also dumbfounded. “How did you get in here?”

It looked like she would pounce at him any moment. “You should’ve never been able to enter this palace.”

Yes. Lee Gun shouldn’t be able to enter this place. However…

“Your general was really friendly to me.” Lee Gun replied.

When Lee Gun pointed at Choi Sunghyuk, the Korean Gemini general became flustered. ‘That guy really…’

The general had thought about this matter and recalled that this man had swindled him out of his badge and had yet to return it. After finding out about Lee Gun’s identity, Choi Sunghyuk had wondered why Lee Gun had specifically gone after his badge.

‘The general rank badge contains a tissue of the Gemini Saint.’

It was a strand of hair. An S-rank badge contained a piece of the Saint. In other words, it was a free pass to use the Gemini Saint’s items.

‘He purposefully swindled it out of me. This damned guy!’

Of course, that item wasn’t something a normal person could use. However, Lee Gun had been the closest to the twelve Zodiac Saints in terms of ability; it might be possible that he could use the item.

Anyway, Choi Sunghyuk knew that if the Gemini Saint were to know of this, he would be a hundred percent on the chopping block. If a foe angered the Gemini Saint, the Saint would become a scary person who ripped away a body part as a price.

However, Lee Gun didn’t care. He burst out laughing. “What? You want to fight? Really?”

The fierce killing intent was the cherry on top. It made Choi Sunghyuk flinch. Previously, he hadn’t cared what happened to the politicians, but this was a completely different situation. He quickly got in Lee Gun’s way. “Wait a moment—”

“Get out of the way if you don’t want a beating.”

“…!” Choi Sunghyuk felt fear. As soon as he had spoken those words, a wave of powerful and terrifying magical energy had hit him.

[Caution! The owner of the Two Faces has opened its holy ground.]

[The heroic souls scream.]

Lee Gun laughed as if the warning was of no consequence. 

The woman in front of him was using Soul Invocation. She basically called forth spirits. As the dual magic Saint, the Gemini Saint had a special skill. It was a terrifying skill that separated her from the other Zodiac Saints. 

Every disciple of the Gemini possessed a second personality. They could summon a soul from an unknown land called Albhein and host the summoned soul in their body. The souls became the source of magical energy for the disciples of the Gemini.

The souls differed in features and power. The higher the rank of a disciple, the higher their chances of summoning a higher rank spirit. The problem for the opponents of the Gemini was the fact that a Saint-rank User could summon a transcendent spirit.

The politicians became ecstatic at the sight.

‘The Gemini Saint is capable of summoning a Fairy King-rank spirit at the very least.’

That was almost demi-god status. Lee Gun was nothing compared to that spirit.

Contrary to what they had expected, however, the politicians soon screamed. Something strange was happening in front of them.

***

At that moment, Chun Yooha was on the roof of Cheongwadae’s temporary official residence. She had followed her uncle to here. The roof had an unobstructed view of the surroundings, so it was a great place to observe her enemies.

While she was doing this, she received a torrent of messages from her father. A staggering 1,493 messages reached her phone, but she easily blocked them. Then, there were the other messages.

 [Vice-general! We’ve located the Leo Saint!] 

[The government is having a meeting about conducting a search. Why aren’t you participating in it!] 

She received many messages in a similar vein, but she ignored those too. Above all else, she hated the Leo Saint. 

Suddenly…

“Oh my! It has been a while.”

“!”

Someone approached Chun Yooha on top of the roof. This newcomer was quite pretty, and she had once been Chun Yooha’s comrade. Of course, Chun Yooha was affiliated with the Korean Leo temple, and Fujioka Rei was affiliated with the Japanese Leo temple. Their nationalities differed.

“Are you here to guard the conference because you’re a general?” Fujioka Rei said this, but then let out a trilling laugh as if she had made a mistake. “Ah! I’m sorry! You aren’t a general. You’re a vice-general, right! I forgot. I got elevated to general status recently.”

Chun Yooha tilted her head in puzzlement. “I haven’t heard any news regarding any changes to the rank structure of the Japanese Leo temple.”

“Ah! I signed up with the Gemini temple. I’m sure the Leo temple lost a lot of power for losing me.” Fujioka Rei replied.

“I heard it went up.”

“?!” Fujioka was baffled. “The Magic Association recognized me. I’ll soon be an SS-rank disciple. I won’t be like someone who used a trick as an S-rank disciple to get recognized as one of the Ten Stars.”

She looked over Chun Yooha with a wicked expression in her eyes, then continued, “I feel sorry for the Leo general who was pushed aside by an S-rank disciple. He’s an SS-rank User, yet he was unable to join the Ten Stars.”

Chun Yooha pretended as if she hadn’t heard her. This made Fujioka Rei’s face crunch up. She would have preferred if Chun Yooha had reacted by crying or being bummed out. At the very least, Fujioka would have found that reaction cute.

“Oh right! I saw the footage of the press conference. I’m sure you went nuts after seeing it. It was a masked version, but…”

As soon as the story about her uncle was mentioned, Chun Yooha whipped her head around at frightening speed. Shock appeared in her eyes. It was to be expected. “I haven’t seen it.”

“What?” Fujioka Rei was baffled.

“I thought all the footage was deleted from the internet.

“Where?” Chun Yooha hurriedly asked.

“What?” Fujioka was still baffled.

“Where did you get it?”

“What?”

“Do you have it?”

“H-hey! Why are you being like this! You’re scaring me!”

Chun Yooha hadn’t even reacted this way when she was being insulted! When Chun Yooha terrifyingly approached her, Fujioka Rei yelled, dumbfounded at Chun Yooha’s reaction, “This is why you never get a promotion! It’s because you like Lee Gun!”

Fujioka scoffed. She knew Chun Yooha was a little bit strange when they trained together. Despite possessing great beauty, Chun Yooha was a weirdo who focused only on getting stronger. Moreover, she liked Lee Gun of all people. It had all been revealed when Chun Yooha had conversed with the people of her temple.

[His face is too much! I truly want to throw up just by looking at his face.]

[Ah! I hate it! How did he have the will to live with such a face?]

Everyone derided Lee Gun, but Chun Yooha was different.

[I think he’s cool. Those scars are like badges of honor.]

[What?]

[His face became like that in the process of saving people. It was the cost extracted for his ability.]

[…!]

[How many people in the world would continue to use their ability to save people when the ability makes them ugly? He helped people unrelated to him.]

[Huh… Look at him! He’s a monster!]

[You are right!]

Thinking about that exchange, Fujioka snorted as she looked at Chun Yooha’s arms. ‘Well, she’ll never become an SS-rank disciple because of her arms.’

Fujioka Rei triumphantly laughed. “Anyway, there is no way it was Lee Gun who showed up at the press conference.”

“!”

“Even if it’s him, that won’t be a problem. The generals from other countries won’t accept that.”

“What?”

“Tell me the truth. You caught the Flame Monarch, right? Anyway, the great Gemini Saint is below our feet. She’ll test his skill with the other generals. You can continue to fangirl over Lee Gun-nim—”

Fujioka Rei had yet to complete her sentence when…

Kahng!

The roof was ripped away as something flew out from below.

“!?” The object that exited the building hit Fujioka Rei as well, sending her flying.

“Kyahhhhk!” 

The surprised Chun Yooha looked toward the hole in the roof. A cloud of dust rose from within. When Chun Yooha looked through the hole, the sight surprised her. “Uncle!”

“Ah, Yooha! You were there?” Lee Gun was around a hundred meters below her.

At the same time, Chun Yooha looked toward the direction where Fujioka Rei had been sent flying. However, Fujioka Rei wasn’t important right now.

What had come flying out from below?