The Main Characters That Only I Know

Everyone was tense as they watched Kang Hye-rim.

The light that flowed from her body, where the letters had seeped in, gradually faded. Kang Hye-rim’s energy became more peaceful than before.

She opened her eyes that had been closed. Her calm eyes scanned the surroundings lightly.

“Miss Hyerim, are you conscious?”

Yu-hyun asked, checking on Kang Hye-rim’s condition.

Kang Hye-rim looked back at Yu-hyun with a clearer gaze. Her eyes captured Yu-hyun’s face.

She didn’t say anything.

“Miss Hyerim?”

Pshh.

She still didn’t answer. But there was definitely a change.

She had acted like a child until now, but she had changed a bit after receiving the story.

It was certain.

She seemed a bit more mature. Her attitude was somewhat more composed than usual.

That proved it.

Yu-hyun asked a few more questions, but Kang Hye-rim only smiled brightly at him and didn’t give any answer.

Kwon Jia, who had been watching nervously from the side, cautiously opened her mouth.

“She’s fine… right?”

“Probably. She still can’t speak, but her mood has changed a lot.”

Kang Hye-rim, who had received the story from someone else, began to regain her old self as Yu-hyun expected.

The reason she couldn’t speak properly was because she hadn’t collected all the stories yet.

Now, all he had to do was meet Yoo Young-min and Seo Sumin and get Kang Hye-rim’s story from their books.

The problem was that he didn’t know what Yoo Young-min and Seo Sumin were doing or where they were.

‘No. Let’s focus on the internal affairs of the Lord Alliance first.’

As soon as the sun rose tomorrow, the leaders of the other factions would gather. Most of them were Lord-level powerhouses, and among them, there would be Executors for sure.

They had a common enemy called the Salio Empire, but they couldn’t trust each other completely either.

Besides, when Lord-level powerhouses who were treated well wherever they went gathered in one place, there could be minor friction.

If that happened, it would only benefit the Salio Empire.

“By the way, Miss Seryeon, who are the powerhouses from Earth?”

“Oh. You wouldn’t know, Mr. Yu-hyun. There are several Lords from Earth among the people who are gathering this time. The representative among them would be Mr. Wi Muhyuk.”

“Mr. Wi Muhyuk?”

How could he not know Wi Muhyuk? Before Earth became like this, he was the only genuine collector in Korea.

He had heard that he had retired after most of his power was reduced by the shredder following the Gwanghwamun incident, but he never expected him to rise again as a Lord-level powerhouse.

“Collector Lim Gunwoo is also one of the Lords now.”

“Huh, he too.”

“And if you ask me to name one more Lord-level person that you would know, maybe it would be Black Iron Knight.”

“Miss Huang Se-eun?”

“Yes. That’s right.”

Baek Seo-ryeon told him that Huang Se-eun was his subordinate and brought Bang Sang-shi and Yoo Seong-ah with him.

He also added that they would come to Old Town tomorrow morning.

He was curious about what they were doing since they didn’t move with Choi Do-yoon, but they became Lords in their own right.

And he realized that there were many Lord-level people among the people he knew.

Of course, there were also some famous collectors and rankers from America or overseas who were now called Lords.

There were more than 50 Lords in the Lord Alliance.

Among them, only about 8 were from Earth.

The strongest one was obviously Choi Do-yoon, who was the only one among the Earth-borns who had the Executor title, but below him were Wi Muhyuk, Lim Gunwoo, Huang Se-eun and four other Lords.

And there were also subordinates of the Lords who had at least transcendent power, so if you look at it broadly, Earth wasn’t holding one of the pillars of the alliance for nothing.

“It may seem that Earth’s faction is not weak, but so are the others.”

The Salio Empire had more than half of the 50 Lords in their possession.

They lost one of their three Executors out of five in the whole alliance due to this terrorist incident, but they still had two Executors left.

And it was confirmed that the Salio Empire joined hands with Olympus and Asgard because of this incident, so they were definitely at a disadvantage in terms of power.

“Unfortunately, Old Town is the closest to the area controlled by the Salio Empire, so if this goes on, the city itself will be in danger.”

“What will you do if a fight breaks out?”

“First of all, I have to get out of the city with my main forces. There’s no chance of winning if we face them head-on.”

Kwon Jia objected to that, unconvinced.

“Leave the city? What about the citizens who are left behind?”

“It’ll be fine. The Salio Empire is not stupid. They know better than anyone that it doesn’t matter whether they touch the ordinary citizens or not. They would rather choose to spare them if they can.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because if they end this civil war, the next enemies they have to face are the great powers of Olympus and Asgard. They need to conserve their strength as much as possible. The more citizens they have in their territory, the more points they can collect.”

“They don’t think they will lose, so they act with a longer-term vision.”

“It may be annoying to see them act like that from our perspective, but it’s not bad for us either.”

After all, it was a civil war and a fight, but the chances of a large-scale war breaking out were very low.

In the fights between the Executors and the Sovereign-level powerhouses, people who couldn’t even transcend were nothing but meat shields no matter how many of them gathered.

There was no need to waste personnel.

When a fight between Sovereign-level powerhouses began, a city would easily fly away.

That’s what Sovereigns were.

Asymmetric power.

Walking nuclear bombs.

Most of the fights that took place within the Alliance had been dominated by those asymmetric powers for a long time.

“Even if the result of tomorrow’s meeting is different, my actions will not change. If they want to fight and I argue for peace, I will separate myself and fight back.”

“You said you belong to a secret organization.”

“Well, it’s a small organization that’s too embarrassing to call a secret. As soon as the meeting is over tomorrow, I’m going to leave the city and head to the base.”

The fight with the Salio Empire was inevitable.

Their basic ideology was too different from ours.

They dominated and exploited the inferior ones with their superiority, and used the weapons made from their blood to wage war and expand their territory.

There were people with similar ideas in the history of Earth.

You don’t have to go far, just look at the Nazis during World War II.

They knew what would happen if they lost to them.

“Well, we’ll see what happens tomorrow.”

“Yes. Fighting is not a good thing, but I hope everyone can join forces and fight back.”

The era of shouting peace with words was over.

If you really wanted peace, you had to have the strength to fight for it.

But how many people would die in that fight?

No one felt comfortable thinking about it.

***

The Elder Control, which could be called the core of the Salio Empire, was a huge mechanical city surrounded by black smoke and fog that made it look like an industrial complex.

But even in that huge smoke, there was a huge building that stood out wherever you went. It was the central palace where the emperor of the Salio Empire resided.

In the alchemy room deep inside the palace.

Patrick, the first prince who returned as if fleeing from Old Town, bowed his head in front of the emperor and sweated profusely.

“So Piren died, and you came back alone in one piece. Is that it?”

As the emperor’s gaze hit his nape, Patrick shivered and flattened himself on the floor.

He had nothing to say even if he had ten mouths.

He had lost one of the Executors who occupied the largest position in the empire’s power.

What’s more, his father, who could be called an emperor, was so charismatic and imposing even though he looked like a mummy or a pine tree that Patrick always froze like a frog in front of a snake whenever he stood in front of him.

“Patrick. You must know how big a mistake you made.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“An Executor.”

The emperor spoke with a voice full of strength that did not match his dying appearance.

“Piren may be the weakest among our Salio Executors, but do you know how many imperial magic tools she invested in?”

Piren was one of the loyal Executors of the empire.

Even though she lost one eye in a fight with Choi Do-yoon, an Executor from Earth. But that didn’t mean her strength was gone.

Rather, they implanted Laplace’s Eye, which was secretly developed by the empire, into her eye, and invested all kinds of magic tools into her, making her a walking fortress.

They had high expectations for her in the future, and although she was lacking, she was assigned to escort the first prince who could be called his blood.

“Did you say he was a bookworm lord?”

“Yes?”

“The one who killed Piren.”

“Yes, yes.”

In fact, Patrick didn’t know much.

He left after Piren said she would take care of it, and the news he heard later was her death.

He couldn’t say anything even if he did because it would be a lie anyway since he didn’t witness it himself.

‘But who else could kill her besides him?’

Patrick had no idea that Magni, the Divine Spirit of Asgard, had intervened in this fight.

He thought that Piren was killed by Yu-hyun, and he believed that and reported it to the emperor.

The emperor gazed down at Patrick, lost in his thoughts.

He had a hunch about why Piren had died.

‘An abnormal voltage was detected far away from Old Town. If there was a Divine Spirit who could handle that kind of lightning, it could only be the Great Army. Asgard or Olympus, one of them must have secretly interfered.’

They had agreed to cooperate with each other, but they were already working on their own agendas.

The emperor thought there was no need to protest their behavior, even though it was normal to do so.

After all, they would act like fools if he confronted them, and they would eventually have to cross swords with each other anyway.

As a price for their cooperation, he had made a treaty with them that he would cede some territories to Salio if he gained the hegemony of the alliance. But he had no intention of keeping that promise.

‘Once we take over the alliance completely, our next target will be you bastards.’

To do that, he had to crush the rest of the alliance’s forces first.

If they fought with each other, bleeding themselves dry, the Great Army would soon reach out with their greedy hands.

He had to choose a way to smash their heads with a small elite force to prevent that.

Fortunately, the situation had turned in his favor thanks to Piren’s death.

They were in a hurry and asked for a meeting right away, but whatever they said, the outcome would not change.

“Patrick.”

“Yes, father… No, no. Your Majesty.”

“I will give you one last chance.”

“Is that really true?”

“I will entrust you with the command of the Alpha team of the Magic Corps.”

The Magic Corps consisted of 24 teams.

Among them, the Alpha team was undoubtedly the best of the best in the Magic Corps, where only the most skilled ones gathered.

Patrick was grateful for the emperor’s grace, who gave him a chance instead of punishing him.

“That’s not all.”

“What do you mean…?”

“The production of the new type of magic device that we started developing a long time ago has finally finished. I will give you all 25 special weapons that contain the essence of our Salio Empire’s magic engineering.”

In addition to the Alpha team of the Magic Corps, he also received support from the newly developed magic device.

As the situation progressed to this point, Patrick did not rejoice but rather stiffened his face and swallowed his saliva.

“That means… this matter is very important.”

“You’re not just playing dumb. Yes. What you have to do is very important.”

“What do I have to do?”

“They will eventually split into those who will fight and those who will not. Your job is to ambush and eliminate those who can be called leaders among them from behind.”

It was a mission that could be called assassination by surprise… but it was also a task of attacking the enemy’s rear when the fight broke out.

It was easy if it was easy, and dangerous if it was dangerous.

Even if all of their forces were gone, there was no way that those who remained would not defend themselves.

However, Patrick decided that this was definitely worth trying.

He received support from the Alpha team of the Magic Corps, which could be called the elite of the empire, not just mediocre soldiers. And he also received all of the new magic devices.

This was the last chance that he gave him as an emperor and as a father.

Patrick nodded his head with a heavy face.

“I will succeed for sure.”

“Trust me.”

Patrick left the hall with a determined face.

The emperor, who was left alone, still looked coldly at where Patrick had disappeared and clenched and unclenched his dry right hand.

A dazzling golden fragment appeared on his right hand.