Chapter 66
The air in the banquet hall turned heavy from Kang-San’s statement.
“You’re insane. Have you forgotten your position, Lee Kang-San? You are the face of the human race. Do you understand what that means?” Weiguang asked.
Kang-San stared at him and smiled, saying, “Well, well, if it isn’t Gao Weiguang, the leader of the neutral faction. Of course, I do. It means I’m an eyesore to you all, right?”
“Hahaha! Awesome! Cool!” Nino Manfredi clapped excessively as he laughed.
“Bastard! Are you out of your mind?! It hasn’t even been a month since you clashed with the birdfolk World Ranker, Remus, and now you’re going for Abyete?” Bong-Seong slammed his cane down on the floor and shouted, “Can you not see that countless members of our kind will die from your reckless behavior?!”
“Is that why... You tried to have my sworn brother killed? Sir Bong-Seong, leader of the conservative faction?” Kang-San asked, smiling so wide that it almost looked demonic.
The Dual Dragon Swords on Kang-San’s waist trembled, resonating with its master’s emotions.
“Hah! You still haven’t grown out of your hooligan tendencies! You may be a World Ranker, but we are at Union headquarters! You’ll regret it if you try to solve your problems with force!” Bong-Seong shouted.
There were over forty Rankers in the hall, three High Rankers excluding Kang-San. They believed they could defeat Kang-San if they ganged up on him.
“This is the problem with the human mind. None of you know what the inner world is like,” Kang-San mumbled as he shook his head.
He was number ninety-three in the world ranking, meaning he was the ninety-third-strongest among the countless races of the Mirror World.
Do they know what that number means? Do they know what kind of individuals are near the peak? If even one of the Ten Lords and Fiends set their mind to it, they could wipe the Union—no, the entire Capital off the face of the Mirror World, Kang-San thought.
The Rankers in the hall were frogs in a well. They established ranks among humans and surrounded themselves with those similar to them within each faction, thereby preventing them from seeing the bigger picture.
“I must say, Lazarus of Clan Vatican is wise. He didn’t attend because he knew this place would become his deathbed,” Kang-San remarked.
He had business with Lazarus, fifth in the human ranking and the leader of the dependence faction. Kang-San wanted to ask him why the Bronze Cross Knights of Clan Vatican disappeared once the attack on Edu began.
“Hah! Hahahaha! Deathbed? That’s hilarious! Are all World Rankers such phonies?” the erratic Nino laughed, unhappy about Kang-San’s arrogant attitude.
Kang-San stared at Nino and said, “Do you want to see phony, Italian mama boy?”
Kang-San partially unsheathed one of the Dual Dragon Swords, and the words engraved on the blade shone.
I swear to heaven with the sword, the mountains and rivers tremble.
“Kurgh!”
“Urgh... Bleghhh!”
The skill Sword Poem was activated, pressuring everything in Kang-San’s surroundings. Although it was only the poem’s first line, the Rankers were helpless before the emperor’s aura, which made even the mountains and rivers tremble. They were reduced to mere humans stranded in a boundless sea, unable to escape from a colossal monster’s mouth as it was about to swallow them whole.
“Gurgh!”
Weiguang created a wall with his ten swords, and Bong-Seong’s hands on his cane shook with his eyes wide open. However, Kang-San’s aura was focused on Nino.
“Urrrh... Urgh!”
His slicked-back hair came undone, and he undid his necktie because he was suffocating from the aura. His handsome face crumpled, and he drooled uncontrollably.
Kang-San approached Nino and fixed his red tie, saying, “The tie your mommy gave you is loose, Nino. Try to keep a tidy appearance.”
“Urrrh... Ahhh!”
“What’s wrong? I’m just a phony, right? It’s not like I’m trying to kill you. Why would I kill my kind?” Kang-San said with a smile.
However, Nino could only see him as the Grim Reaper who had come to collect his life.
“The freedom faction, huh? It sure sounds nice. You’re a phony leader of children who want power but not the responsibility that comes with it. If you run your mouth like this next time, don’t expect me to be a phony.”
“Urhhh... Urgh,” Nino groaned incomprehensibly.
Kang-San approached Bong-Seong in the middle of the hall and remarked, “Sorry, I haven’t grown out of my hooligan tendencies, but what do you expect? Only hooligans can climb to the top in this world.”
“Bastard! That’s enough!” Bong-Seong shouted as his face turned red.
Kang-San shrugged and sheathed the Dual Dragon Swords.
“Huff! Huff! Huff!”
“Gurgh. What the hell... was that?!”
The Rankers stared at Kang-San as if he were a ghost. They had witnessed a World Ranker’s true power for the first time.
“If I wage war against Humilitas, you’ll have to participate too. Like you said, I’m the face of the human race. Who do you think is keeping the Capital in one piece?” Kang-San said as he looked around.
None of the Rankers refuted Kang-San’s claims, albeit slightly forced.
He asked, “Are there humans who don’t know why I had to fight the birdfolk World Ranker, Remus?”
No one answered again.
“The Capital—Edu, in Middle Earth of all places—was attacked, and newbies were either killed or kidnapped. They were all full of possibilities,” Kang-San continued as he turned to Remy.
Remy nodded and remarked, “Indeed. Considering Clan One Tree had already discovered a dungeon, the newbies had bright futures ahead of them.”
“And the damn goblins stole those possibilities, and a few fellow humans were so hell-bent on self-gain that they sold their kind to those goblins!”
No one could meet Kang-San’s blazing eyes.
“Why don’t you show some love for your kind instead of just claiming you care for them? Is it so hard to understand that one human’s tragedy is equivalent to the tragedy of humanity as a whole?” Kang-San scanned the Rankers in the hall and walked toward the exit, saying, “You’d best remember that even if I am on the front lines, I can return here at any time.”
Kang-San, Remy, and Evgeny Lazarev left the banquet hall. Just as they crossed the exit, Kang-San heard a voice in his head through the skill Telepathy, which one could obtain from D-rank skill cubes.
— Thank you for accepting my request. You haven’t returned to the Capital for five years, so the new Rankers had to be shown the world outside the well—especially Nino Manfredi. He’s been acting out of line lately.
It was the voice of Lee Bong-Seong, the leader of the conservative faction.
— Focus on the front lines. I will handle things here. Oh, and... Don’t worry about Mikheil Gelovani. He will be held accountable for his crimes.
***
“Sly old man,” Kang-San remarked.
“What?” Evgeny asked.
“Nothing.”
The three men walked along the Empire State Building’s hallway.
Evgeny said disappointingly, “It’s a shame Lazarus didn’t attend. It was the perfect opportunity to put a bullet in his head.”
“He’s sharp, after all. I didn’t have my hopes up from the start,” Remy remarked.
“But Remy, you almost died because of him.”
“It’s no time to be bickering between fellow humans. The air in the inner zones is unsettling.”
Kang-San nodded in agreement. “The birdfolk making their move means the angels are, too. Not only that, but the dragons' and demons’ movements are just as unsettling. We have to claim as many cities as possible.”
Once Remy noticed Kang-San’s gaze, he said, “Our negotiation with Abyete is entering its final stages. Humilitas won’t give us direct assistance, but they settled for giving us information.”
“About what?”
“About the unclaimed cities Yeouido, Da Nang, and Sapporo in the fourth zone.”
“Jackpot.”
***
“So... she originally had twelve pairs of wings?” Seong-Hwi asked.
“Yeah. The Shadow Fairy Queen has ten pairs, and Dryas has two pairs. To be more exact, she stole ten pairs from Dryas,” the bald man clarified.
Seong-Hwi stared at the pale fairy staring back at him.
I thought she was too weak to be called the Fairy Queen, so that’s why, Seong-Hwi thought.
“In the first place, if you’re not a fairy, you need the queen’s permission to use the wings. You’re wasting your strength,” the bald man added.
“What?”
“Isn’t it obvious? Fairies are born with their wings. They’re not items.”
Seong-Hwi shook his head as he thought, They’re not items? That’s impossible! The Ancient Fairy Queen’s Wings were surely discovered in this dungeon in my past life.
He was certain because it had been such a famous incident. Humans wandered like hyenas around the ruins of Clan Trophy’s base of operations, which Lee Kang-San destroyed, in search of anything they could obtain. They discovered the dungeon entrance and initially kept it a secret because they wanted to explore it themselves, but such couldn’t be expected from hyenas who pursued only profit.
Rumors about the dungeon spread like wildfire once a traitor sold information about the dungeon. The dragons claimed rights over the dungeon once it was revealed that the dungeon world setting was Pavelaya, the fairies’ home dimension.
According to the World Law, the ones who discovered the dungeon held the rights to the first exploration. If they failed the exploration, they had to declare whether to sell the rights or re-challenge the dungeon.
However, the human hyenas were the ones who discovered the dungeon and had been killed by the dragon Rankers. If the first discoverers were dead, missing, or gave up on their rights to the dungeon for whatever reason, the rights were transferred to the race that originated from the dungeon’s dimension.
Although Pavelaya was the fairies’ home dimension, the fairies were the dragons’ subordinate race, allowing the dragons to claim the dungeon rights—to be more exact, they orchestrated everything so they could claim the rights.
The one who claimed the rights at the time was Biphatogenes, a dragon High Ranker as well as a World Ranker. Back then, it was common sense in the Mirror World for World Rankers to monopolize dungeons because they had the power to do so. However, the situation changed once the Third Lord, Dragon King Regnator, came to the second zone from the inner zones.
Although they were both World Rankers, being one of the Ten Lords and Fiends carried enormous weight. Everyone was wary of Regnator because the fact that he possessed the fairies’ Race Stone was practically a poorly kept secret. His descent to the second zone showed that the discovered fairy dungeon was extremely important.
Soon after, Regnator exited the dungeon with satisfaction and revealed information about the artifact he obtained, saying he had gained an interesting toy. It was the Ancient Fairy Queen’s Wings with the phrase in its description that it held the power of the Harmony Stone, the fairies’ Race Stone. It was only natural that the fairies despaired after hearing that information.
So, how can the Ancient Fairy Queen’s Wings not be an item? Seong-Hwi thought.
The bald man noticed Seong-Hwi’s skeptical gaze and remarked, “There’s only one way to obtain the wings: for the queen to grant the wings to her knight.”
“Can you prove that?”
“Hah! Did you seriously think you could rip off the wings and use them? Can I rip off your right arm and use it instead of my prosthetic one?”
Seong-Hwi remained silent as theories piled in his head.
What if Biphatogenes asked for Regnator’s help because he knew that? Yeah, because Regnator has the Harmony Stone!
Biphatogenes would have had no way of obtaining the wings if they could only be granted as the man mentioned. However, Regnator could work around that because he had the Harmony Stone, capable of controlling the fairies.
He must have commanded the Fairy Queen to grant him the wings.
Every piece of the puzzle had fallen into place.
“And here is where we can negotiate. If you help us take back the wings from the Shadow Fairy Queen...” the man said as he turned to the female fairy.
The Fairy Queen said, “I will grant you the wings. Cough! Cough! I must reclaim the wings for the cradles—cough!”
The bald man caught the Fairy Queen as she was about to fall.
“Dryas! Dammit! If all you want are the wings, you have no choice but to help us. The Shadow Fairy Queen can technically grant you the wings, too, but that monster will never share the wings with you!” The man hurriedly persuaded Seong-Hwi after noticing Dryas was not in good condition. “Even when buying stocks, you buy them when they’re at their lowest, not when they’ve peaked! The Shadow Fairy Queen is the peak. You should take the side that will give you more!”
“Are you saying you guys are an undervalued blue chip? It looks more like you’re on the verge of being delisted to me.”
“That’s why we need an investor! I can’t simultaneously protect the queen and attack the Chaos, but it’s a different story if you help us.”
The bald man stared at Seong-Hwi in desperation. Seong-Hwi could feel his desire to protect Dryas, the Fairy Queen, in his eyes.
Has he... broken the taboo? he wondered.
“Please help her! We need your healing skill!” the bald man shouted.
Seong-Hwi silently stared at the bald man and the female fairy and grabbed a golden card—the No.2 The High Priestess card.
I at least know one thing. If one side has two pairs and the other has ten pairs, I should bet on the side that would win me ten. But... is that truly the reason?
Seong-Hwi recalled what his Calasanz clansman, Hector Jameson, once told him.
“Don’t ever get into stock trading if we get the chance to return to Earth.”