Chapter 432. To Hell With It (6)
“You think this is funny? Is this situation a joke to you?”
Hawa’s expression froze. She could feel a clear sense of hostility from Chi-Woo that went far beyond mere irritation, and she thought—
“Why? Is it as fun as the battle arena?”
It was different. Alarms rang furiously that something was different this time. The awkward smile disappeared, and Hawa lowered her head and gaze unconsciously as she didn’t have the confidence to look at him anymore.
“Sor…” Hawa, who was about to apologize instinctively, quickly swallowed her words. Chi-Woo had already told them to not even think about saying the words ‘yes’, ‘no’, and ‘sorry’.
“What…happened…was…” Hawa’s perpetually monotonous voice came out trembling; she desperately tried to control her breathing. What she needed to do right now was give him a clear answer. “While several teams were patrolling the zone…I heard that there had been a couple of clashes. It didn’t go as far as a full blown fight, but the atmosphere was quite harsh.”
Hawa managed to continue, “At that time, I was patrolling the zone alone in the middle of the night.” Then Hawa fell into thought after discovering the arena. Originally, she would have immediately interfered and sorted out the situation, but the fact that she was alone made her rethink this decision. Of course, if she revealed that she was a Seven Stars member, it was unlikely for the situation to escalate out of hand, but it was questionable whether the half-demons would obediently listen to her.
It was a reasonable line of thinking since the half-demons had demanded to know what they had done so wrong and yelled angrily even when Chi-Woo was the one confronting them. If it had been Hawa, they would have resisted even more fiercely. As a scout, Hawa learned to consider all possible scenarios from Chi-Hyun, so it was understandable that she would have been more cautious.
After brief consideration, Hawa’s conclusion was to put herself in the half-demons’ shoes a little. She quietly watched the situation and suddenly jumped into the arena when she found the right timing. Then she overpowered all the demons who were fighting for food instantly, hitting only parts that would allow her to subdue them while minimizing injury. Her sudden intervention quickly cooled down the excitement, but surprisingly, the half-demons only grumbled a bit and withdrew.
It was the same for the demons. Originally, they would have to fight for a long time, but it ended quickly. They were hurt less than expected, and since Hawa gave healing potions to each of them, no one had any complaints. It wouldn’t be a bad method per se if the focus was on resolving the situation at hand, but the problem they were tackling was one that couldn’t be treated as an isolated incident.
“It doesn’t make sense.” Chi-Woo snorted as soon as Hawa finished her explanation. “Even if your words are true—couldn’t you have returned to Seven Stars to request help?” Chi-Woo pinpointed the gap in her explanation. As he said, that solution definitely existed.
“Hawa.”
“…Yes.”
“La Hawa.” Chi-Woo called Hawa one more time and asked, “Are you doing this so you can return to being Shahnaz Hawa?”
Hawa instantly raised her head back up. Hawa’s last name was dependent on the god she served, and thus, Chi-Woo’s words only meant one thing: it was a threat to cut off her connection with La Bella. Or in other words, take back everything he had given her so far and kick her out. And Chi-Woo truly had the power to do so, since he was La Bella’s apostle who had directly absorbed La Bella’s holy relic.
Chi-Woo asked, “Is that why you’re saying nonsense now?”
Hawa’s lips trembled. It felt as if she was being cornered at the edge of a cliff; there was nowhere for her to go further back. “I wanted…to…monopolize…the merits…” In the end, Hawa muttered her confession. This was a thought that only Hawa, who served the goddess of balance, La Bella, could think of, since Hawa’s method maximized the balance between the two. However, the problem was that her decision clearly went against the direction Chi-Woo had set for them. This fact could not be denied.
“Because of merits…” Chi-Woo repeated blankly and sighed. He leaned into his chair with an empty laugh, “Our Hawa. How amazing. You know how to juggle both sides.” He spoke as if he was proud, but everyone knew he wasn’t complimenting her. He wondered how he should address this burn. Chi-Woo tapped his armrest with his index finger and finally said, “…Hawa.”
With her head down, Hawa flinched as Chi-Woo’s voice became even lower.
“You’re smart.”
“…”
“You’re a smart kid. So you must have known.”
As he said, unless Hawa was really out of her mind, she probably hadn’t carried out her actions while thinking, ‘I hate the Seven Stars! I’m going to ruin Chi-Woo’s plan!’ However, Hawa’s excuse did not impress Chi-Woo. No matter what her reasons were, the consequences of her action did not change. This was not an incident that could be excused with a simple, ‘I didn’t know. It was a mistake.’ He didn’t think Hawa was stupid enough to believe so either, which made him even angrier.
“Why would you do something that I didn’t even ask you to do?” Chi-Woo snorted again as he couldn’t understand her actions even if he thought more about it. “Hey.” Then he suddenly made a straight face and stared at Hawa. “You…do you think you’re that great?”
Hawa was not a Seven Stars team leader. She was just one of the members of the main team led by Chi-Woo. Her only justification was that she had followed Chi-Woo for a long time, but she wasn’t even the one who had been following him the longest, and her skills as well as experience was far behind the first team leader. Moreover, Ru Amuh, who could be considered the second-in-command among the Seven Stars, followed Chi-Woo’s orders to the tee.
“…No, sir…” Hawa was also well aware of this fact. A mere member had committed a grave mistake that even Ru Amuh wouldn’t be forgiven for.
“You think you can do whatever you want?”
Hawa bit her lower lip at Chi-Woo’s icy cold voice.
“Or.” Chi-Woo slowly tilted his head. “Do you have any complaints about my decision?”
“N…”
“If you had, you should have told me then.”
“No…I…”
“If you had told me earlier, then I would have let you out of Seven Stars, and then you would be free to do whatever you want without anyone telling you off.” Then he said, “Would you like to leave now? Seven Stars?” Chi-Woo’s voice softened like his usual self.
At the same time, Hawa’s breath stopped. He wasn’t just saying this because he was angry. It wasn’t a threat either; Chi-Woo really meant it. He was giving her an opportunity to settle the matter without embarrassing herself further. Of course, this wasn’t something Hawa could accept. She wouldn’t be able to do anything about it if he announced his decision to kick her out, but she sincerely desired such a thing to never happen. Now that everything was laid in the open, though, she was at the mercy of his decision. In the end, all Hawa could do was shake her head like crazy, looking at Chi-Woo with an anxious expression.
“Sigh…” Chi-Woo closed his eyes with a long sigh.
* * *
How long had it been? After being tightly shut for a while, the door to Chi-Woo’s office opened. Then one by one, the Seven Stars members filed out of the room. Given that everyone was exhaling the breath they had been holding, it would seem they had all found the meeting suffocating. The moment Evelyn, who was supporting Eshnunna, carefully closed the door—
“Ugh—” Eshnunna dropped her head and burst into tears, giving into the urge she had been suppressing so far. She tried not to cry but couldn’t help it as she recalled what Chi-Woo had just told her.
[I’ll give you one day.]
[You need to clean up your own shit, right?]
[If you can’t clean it up, don’t come back to report to me. Pack your bags and leave by tomorrow.]
[…If you understand, everyone get the fuck out. I can’t stand the sight of you all.]
His chilling last words made a particularly deep impression on her. He had said he couldn’t even stand the sight of them. It was something she had never heard from him, but what was even scarier was that Chi-Woo’s words didn't feel like a simple warning.
“Wahh…wahhhh….” Perhaps because her deep sadness rose like a tide, the tears wouldn’t stop after it began to flow.
The other Seven Stars members could not hide their mixed feelings as they stared at Eshnunna. When they first heard what she did, they had all planned to criticize her and ask her if she was crazy, but all such thoughts disappeared as soon as they left the office. She had been crushed brutally to the extent that they felt a bit sorry for her. Her confidence, which had been raised after becoming a proud member of the main team led by Chi-Woo himself, had been shattered right in front of everyone. Chi-Woo’s chilling words had been terrifying for those merely listening to the conversation; no one even dared to imagine how the subject of the verbal beatdown must have felt.
“…Let’s go.”
“…”
“Ru Hiana?”
“…Uh? Uh, yeah. Okay.” Ru Hiana nodded with a dazed expression. She hadn’t regained her senses just yet. As someone who always remembered her senior like a warm and soft spring breeze, Ru Hiana was shocked to see Chi-Woo’s attitude just now.
Emmanuel also hurried along. He wanted to give his own two cents, but the other members were not under his jurisdiction, and there was no reason for him to get involved.
“Stay extra alert for the time being.” The same was true for Yunael. “There must be a good reason a guy who doesn’t even swear usually would get that aggressive.” She took her teammates down the stairs and murmured quickly. “Anyway, going outside is on hold as of now. We’ll be living in the Demon Empire’s zone for the time being.” Originally, Yunael had planned to go on a mission, but she changed her mind right away as she didn’t want to get on Chi-Woo’s bad side like those two just now.
As for the remaining members…
“Come here.” Evelyn hugged the remaining two, and Eshnunna jumped into her arms and cried as if she had been waiting for this moment. Hawa, who would have normally hated it and evaded her hug, quietly let her hold her.
“What should I do now? I really didn’t mean to…!” Eshnunna sobbed.
“What do you mean? You need to patch up the situation well, and if you can’t, you have to leave on your own. Anyway, the situation is not okay at all, but don’t cry.” Evelyn patted Eshnunna on the back and soothed her.
Hawa was quiet, but her condition was no different from Eshnunna’s. Her breathing was rough and uneven, and her shoulders were frantically moving up and down. Tears dripped down soundlessly from her eyes. Even though she had experienced what the world was like at an early age, she was still a young girl. There was nothing more scary than facing the true ire of someone who usually didn’t get angry. Since Evelyn was also taken aback, Hawa must have been surprised as well—no, she was probably extremely shocked. Just the fact that a cold and emotionless girl like Hawa was showing her tears was evidence enough.
Evalyn wanted to console them and say it would be all right and not to worry, but she didn’t do that since Chi-Woo hadn’t seemed to be joking. He would’ve said the same thing even if it had been Ru Amuh or she who had caused this incident. If they couldn’t solve this problem? Then they really would be thrown out without hesitation. Evelyn needed to save them, and there was only one way to do this—to do exactly what Chi-Woo ordered them to do.
Evelyn said, “Let’s calm down and think about the possible solutions first. We have to solve it by this time tomorrow. I’ll help you, okay?”
* * *
—Wow…
A small exclamation rang in the white space.
—Isn’t this…a new look?
The soft and harmonious voice came from Mamiya.
—I never expected him to behave like that. What an interesting sight. I think it was worth postponing our judgment just for that.
Mamiya laughed and looked at the other gods for their reactions.
—Hmph. He still has a long way to go.
The White Horse General snorted and grumbled.
—Still…it’s a lot better than his usual docile self. Yeah, if you’re a master in name, you should at least have a side like this.
However, the White Horse General didn’t seem displeased. A master was a ruler and needed to draw obedience from people. The means and methods were diverse; it could be through wisdom or virtue, or it could be through power or fear. There was no correct answer. The important part was that they should always be able to show the appropriate reaction depending on the situation, and that was the type of true master that the gods thought was the most fitting for Liber’s current situation, and the way Chi-Woo had behaved himself just now dispelled some of the gods’ concerns. The story completely changed if this type of disposition was not missing in Chi-Woo, but rather had been hidden inside him.
—If that attitude doesn’t end up being a one-time thing, and if he knows to be authoritative when the time calls for it…I think my conclusion about him will also change.
Mamiya spoke in a slightly expectant tone and suddenly smiled.
—What do you think…?
He turned to La Bella to ask, but soon realized that there was no need for the question; La Bella, who had been touching her balance scale and wondering if she should throw it, had gone back to holding the scale as usual after witnessing the recent development—as if she was going to wait and see for now.
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