Chapter 777

So it’s finally starting.

I muttered to myself as I watched the back of someone walking alone.

Then again, it wasn’t just me. Everyone here was doing the same.

The cameras positioned throughout the room and some three hundred pairs of eyes around the round table followed Michael Silbert’s every step.

Step. Step.

He walked without the slightest hesitation.

The murmuring had long since died away. As if by agreement, everyone had fallen silent, though they watched him with very different feelings.

Some couldn’t hide their confusion at his sudden move. Others looked deep in thought. A few nodded as if this were only to be expected, or wore faint smiles.

I took them all in.

I caught every emotion that slipped across their faces, every slight movement at the corners of their mouths, and committed those faces to memory.

Then—

Swish.

Michael stopped just short of the center of the enormous round table. For decades, that place had belonged to one man alone.

His final step never came. It was as though something invisible stood in his way. He parted his lips.

“Everyone. Today, I received some deeply shocking news.”

His voice was thick with emotion. Tears glimmered at the corners of his eyes beneath the lights.

He looked from the people unsettled by this unexpected turn to the cameras recording it, then continued.

“Just before the inaugural ceremony began, two young men came to see me and delivered the news. At first, I found it hard to believe. In the end, I had no choice but to accept it, and I needed time to compose myself.”

“Could you tell us who those two young men were, and what news they brought?”

The question came at just the right moment.

Perfect timing. As if it had been planned.

No, it clearly had been.

In this scripted musical, the leading man delivered his next line in response to the bit player’s perfectly placed question.

“There’s no difficulty in telling you who came to see me. Both young men are well known, and both are here with us now. But I’m afraid I can’t be the one to tell you what they said.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m not qualified to do so.”

Michael answered calmly, then turned toward me—or, rather, toward Team Leader Choi, seated to my right.

“Unless you’re family by blood, of course.”

……!

Even the most oblivious person in the hall would have understood what he meant.

Hundreds of eyes converged on us. Amid them, a voice reached my ear in secret.

I don’t know what you came here intending to do, but remember one thing from this moment on.

Michael Silbert was looking straight at me. The crocodile tears were gone from his eyes. Only ambition shone there now.

Every choice has consequences to match.

“……”

So choose carefully. You’ll get only one chance, and you won’t be able to take it back.

His final warning came with a stare. His eyes, and all the others fixed on us, felt so hot that I closed mine.

Yeah. So this is how it turns out.

From the very beginning…

There was no other way.

I opened my eyes, feeling hollowed out. Team Leader Choi met my gaze, read what was there, and rose from his seat.

Scrape.

The chair, which had endured for ages longer than its new master, slowly scraped backward. At that moment—

“Before we elect a representative—the purpose of today’s inaugural ceremony—I must inform you that my maternal grandfather, Hunter Cheon Taemin…”

At last, his name was spoken. In the breathless silence that followed, the savior’s only blood relative continued quietly.

“…has become seriously ill and will be unable to take part in this war.”

……!

……!

An enormous, unseen shock swept through the hall.

A suffocating silence settled over the First National Assembly Hall.

Frozen by shock and confusion, the people inside could do nothing but turn those words over and over in their minds.

My maternal grandfather, Hunter Cheon Taemin, has become seriously ill and will be unable to take part in this war.

Barely ten minutes into the inaugural ceremony, a bomb had gone off.

No. In another sense, it was a catastrophe.

Sky is sick? What on earth does that mean?

How could he be? It can’t be true.

The elders—the Hunters of the older generation—rejected the news most fiercely.

They remembered Cheon Taemin, the great hero who had saved humanity from the Demon King. The shock struck them harder than anyone.

It was only natural. In their memories, Cheon Taemin had been more than human, almost a living god.

They had seen him single-handedly destroy monster armies tens of thousands strong and tear the limbs from mighty S-rank monsters. His bearing had been as commanding as his strength.

With Cheon Taemin beside them, they had willingly marched into the jaws of death. Shoulder to shoulder, they had cut through wave after wave of monsters and kept advancing.

The elders could bear to remember those horrific battlefields because Cheon Taemin was part of those memories. Because those memories held the shining glory of having led humanity to victory alongside him.

And now he was ill?

The savior who had defeated even the Demon King Asmodeus was too ill to join the war?

Shock gave way to a hollow sense of loss. Some of the elders grew angry.

“What—what on earth is this supposed to mean?”

“Gravely ill? Even for someone like your maternal grandfather, that’s too much to believe!”

“Explain yourself. There’s no way he could be sick!”

But contrary to the elders’ desperate wishes, Cheon Taemin’s only maternal grandson merely shook his head, calm and composed.

“Everything I’ve told you is absolutely true.”

“Young man!”

“I understand how you feel, Seniors. I felt the same way a few months ago.”

“What… do you mean?”

“I always wondered where my grandfather was. What reason could he possibly have for not showing himself even to his only grandson, after all this time?”

Choi Minwoo looked around at everyone and continued.

“I didn’t learn the truth until after Vice Guild Master Lee Jungryong and Go Jun died. At some point, for reasons we still don’t know, my grandfather fell into a coma. A very small number of people had been hiding it.”

……!

Shock swept through the hall again. This time, the silence did not last.

“It’s hard to believe, but it’s true. I can vouch for it.”

A low voice had spoken up. A towering Black man, who had been watching the situation in silence, was looking at them.

“Magic Johnson!”

“Y-You knew too?”

Magic Johnson nodded before answering.

“Those young men contacted me a few months ago, and I came to this country. I didn’t expect to find Sky unconscious.”

“Th-Then it really is…”

“Yes. I drew on everything I know, every bit of Magic I could think of, and found no way to bring him back to consciousness. I couldn’t tell anyone else, either. If a secret like that got out, it would have caused even more chaos.”

People remembered what had been happening then. Magical power readings had begun to rise, and strange events had followed. In China, an Arch Lich had led a monster army through Sichuan, drenching it in blood. The public had grown more anxious by the day.

“But we can’t hide it any longer. The whole world is looking for Sky. Now that the World Hunter Federation has taken its first step, it has to give them the answer they want, just as the UN did.”

One word crossed everyone’s mind.

Leader.

With Cheon Taemin incapacitated, they needed a new leader somehow. A new hero who could fill the savior’s absence as much as possible. Someone who could win the support of a majority of the three hundred people gathered around this enormous round table.

Then…

By the time that thought formed, most had already made up their minds.

Strength. Fame. Popularity. A spirit of sacrifice and courage. Leadership…

Each had their own standards, and even among those already called heroes, only a handful met them.

One man in particular could not be overlooked.

Michael Silbert.

Countless eyes turned his way. Some people smiled triumphantly, as though the moment they had been waiting for had arrived. Others watched him, still weighing their decision.

Michael gave nothing away.

With only one step left to take, he was already thinking about what came after.

It’s sooner than I expected, but… I need to get rid of him. As soon as possible.

The absolute power of the World Hunter Federation already felt close enough to touch. But an obstacle that would continue to trouble him had to be removed.

Michael Silbert fixed his sunken eyes on one man.

Even as voting began, Jin Taekyung sat with his lips firmly closed. Beside him was a blond monster with a calm expression.

I looked down at the scrap of iron in my hand.

What was it called again?

Ostracism? A pottery-shard lottery?

I thought it had originated with a method the ancient Athenians used to banish tyrants, but I wasn’t sure.

One thing I did know: what I held wasn’t a piece of pottery, but a fragment of a Tower Shield. And the person whose name appeared on the most fragments wouldn’t be banished—they’d become the leader of the World Hunter Federation.

Would’ve been nice if it worked the other way around, huh?

I sent the Sound Transmission on a whim. To my surprise, an answer came back.

What the hell are you talking about all of a sudden?

Just saying. You’re answering me this time, though.

Because this will probably be the last time.

I turned the scrap of iron over in my fingers.

You crazy bastard. I wondered why you’d answered me, but you’re still on about that.

I know what you’re thinking. But it’s too…

Dangerous?

After a brief silence, the Skeleton King answered.

Yes. Even now, this body cannot be certain.

The odds are close to fifty-fifty. And this is just a guess, but I think the chance of success is a little higher.

Do you understand what that means? There’s a fifty percent chance you could lose everything.

Really? To me, it sounds like there’s a fifty percent chance I could protect everything.

……!

Trust me.

I looked around. Familiar faces. People I could trust, right beside me. Every one of them a comrade and a friend.

If you really can’t trust me, trust us.

This silence lasted longer than the first. Then, for the first time in a long while, I met the Skeleton King’s eyes.

Why go this far? Why take that risk when your family and friends could get hurt?

I answered with a truth that might have been settled the day I first met him.

Because you’re my friend, too.