Hugo screamed and snatched my wife away.
It happened at lightning speed.
At the same time, he shouted something incomprehensible at Lee Geon.
"Ya #**&!"
Was he trying to say, what the hell are you doing, you bastard?
"You bastard $*&*&!"
"Speak in human language. Human language."
"How #*&$#*!"
Hugo was wailing about how a friend could do this when—
"Oh my. I must have dozed off again."
Cheon Jiu, who had been in Hugo's arms, opened her eyes and blushed bashfully.
Startled by her words, Hugo looked bewildered.
"You fell asleep?"
"Yes, I've been nodding off strangely often lately. The doctor said it's a form of narcolepsy, but..."
Hugo felt relieved, but Cheon Jiu cupped her own cheeks as if in ecstasy.
"Still, to be held like this by Lee Geon-nim... my wish came true. Even though I don't remember it well..."
At those words, Lee Geon cheerfully spread his arms.
"Then let's grant that wish once more."
"Oh my!"
"Ya!!!"
Hugo initially scoffed, asking if my wife would even go to you? But even so, he desperately blocked the space between them.
And then, having frantically hidden his wife behind him, Hugo was about to kill Lee Geon.
"Are you really doing this? Pulling this is humanly a scam!"
"Why? You said your wife isn't my fan."
Hugo flinched.
"Uh... That's right! No! Jiu is my fan, you know?"
"Geez, Hugo. Move aside a little. I can't see Lee Geon-nim."
Ugh!
Hugo lifted his wife, who was trying to push past him, slinging her over his shoulder.
Cheon Jiu's small frame made it all too easy.
"Anyway, Jiu is not your fan! She's not, I tell you!"
Lee Geon watched in disbelief, while Cheon Jiu weakly pounded Hugo's back with her small fists.
She was tapping, saying when else would she have the chance to see Lee Geon-nim, asking him to turn her around, but Hugo felt utterly wronged.
"Wow, how can you want to see your husband's friend more than your husband? Aren't you worried about how I've been doing? Before that, I just came back from a dangerous battle! Show some concern!"
Then Cheon Jiu retorted as if asking what he meant.
"Lee Geon-nim said everything was fine. You told me yourself that if Lee Geon-nim says it's fine, then it really is fine, and I can trust anything he says."
"......"
Hugo wanted to bang his head against the wall.
This mouth of his was the problem. Definitely the problem.
Then Cheon Jiu smiled and added.
"And no matter what monster shows up, there's no way you'd lose to it. Because you're strong."
"......!"
In an instant, Hugo's heart swelled with emotion.
"And I don't even need to ask how you are. Just seeing your face and hearing your voice tells me."
As Cheon Jiu hugged him tightly, as if she had missed him, Hugo's chest flooded with overwhelming feeling.
Her warmth and voice were exactly the same as ten years ago.
He felt like he might even cry.
He had never thought of giving up, but it had been a whole decade.
'Never thought I'd see her again.'
After losing his closest friend, he had then lost the person he loved most.
It couldn't have been easy to endure.
As if unable to believe it even with his own eyes, Hugo looked at his wife again and again.
Cheon Jiu likewise nestled into his embrace.
"You're the best. Really, you're so cool."
"More than Geon?"
To that, Cheon Jiu laughed playfully, as if asking why he was comparing such things like a child.
"Of course. What a thing to..."
Then, Lee Geon, who had been watching them nauseatingly, cut in.
"Jiu-ssi. Earlier you said you wanted an autograph, right?"
"Oh my!"
"Should I sign the cup you use?"
"Oh my! No! Wait a moment! I have something I've kept..."
Deeply moved, Cheon Jiu started to dash into the hospital room.
"And while I'm at it, I'll give you a handshake and a photo."
"Oh my!"
As she even blushed at that, Hugo desperately grabbed her, shouting that it wasn't right.
"I'll give it to you! I'll give you mine!"
"Oh, come on, I don't need yours."
"You just said I was cooler!"
Cheon Jiu smiled shyly.
"Well, how can you compare to Lee Geon-nim?"
"......!!!"
His wife shyly disappeared into the hospital room.
In the end, Hugo, smitten by Lee Geon's cheat key(?), glared at his friend.
"You really...! You want to go, you and me!"
Regardless, Lee Geon, as if annoyed by Hugo's fiery outburst, held out his hand.
"Alright, enough. Just quickly write down the answers to that questionnaire I gave you and hand them over. You're the only one left."
Flabbergasted, Hugo stared at Lee Geon's hand.
What? Questionnaire?
Of course, the questionnaire must be that bizarre survey form Lee Geon had handed out before coming here...
"Ya! Do you think now is the time for me to answer some damn questionnaire!"
"Be quiet. I need to use the fountain pen I lent you, so write it quickly and give it back."
"#$&*!"
Trembling with rage, Hugo pulled out the questionnaire Lee Geon had given him from his pocket.
Then, pulling out the fountain pen Lee Geon had told him to use, he scrawled rough answers furiously.
[Q. What do you think of Lee Geon?]
-> Go back to the tower!!!!!!
[Q. What do you want to do to Lee Geon?]
-> And never come back alive!!!!!!!!
"Go to hell, you bastard!"
After throwing the questionnaire and fountain pen, Hugo cursed as if saying, bring it on.
"Fine, let's go. Let's fight!"
But when Lee Geon looked at the questionnaire, he burst into laughter.
That was only natural.
[Activated.]
[The demon's ink reacts to the function of the fountain pen]
[Only the truth is revealed instead of lies]
At the same time, the content of the answer sheet that Hugo had handed over changed.
The words Hugo had written with the fountain pen automatically began to transform.
No matter what lies were written, only the truth would surface.
Perhaps because of that.
After checking Hugo's answers, Lee Geon let out a "pfft" and laughed.
"Alright. I understand your feelings well."
As Lee Geon suppressed his bursting laughter, Hugo stared at him as if he were crazy.
What? I wrote he should die, and why is he like that?
"Ya. I said let's fight?"
"Yeah. I said I got it."
Lee Geon folded the questionnaire. He had already received Kevin's answer sheet, from the Virgo.
And it was he who had deliberately provoked Hugo into writing the questionnaire answers.
He smiled as if everything was going according to plan.
'As expected, there's nothing wrong with the fountain pen's function.'
All preparations were complete.
As if on cue, he brought up the main topic.
"Taek-su."
"Huh?"
"Bring out the one we caught."
***
No sooner had Lee Geon's words fallen than Hugo's eyes rounded.
"The one we caught?"
He was wondering what he meant by that when—
Thud!
"Uncle! I'm here! Here!"
A familiar voice rang out from not far away.
It was Cheon Seongjae.
And seeing him, Lee Geon smiled.
Because standing there was a mouse of a man, with torn, blood-soaked clothes and a face black with dirt.
"You look like you've been through a lot."
"!"
At those words, Cheon Seongjae looked choked up.
It was because, after all, this was the first time he'd seen his uncle since becoming a part of Ophiuchus's holy city.
He had a renewed sense that he had truly become a servant(?) who served Lee Geon the saint.
Perhaps because of that.
"Uncle!"
"Yeah, you did well."
"!"
Cheon Seongjae covered his mouth and sobbed.
While he was overjoyed at becoming part of the same holy order, the fact that his uncle himself had praised him!
"I could die now with no regrets!"
"What a cheap life."
The one who was flabbergasted was Hugo.
As his father looked on in sheer disbelief, Lee Geon laughed.
"Go get your wounds treated. Your uncle will baptize you."
At those words, Cheon Seongjae fainted right on the spot.
He had expected it, but his dying-from-joy fanboy heart couldn't take it.
It looked like it would take some time for him to come around.
'Well, it's probably physical overload.'
And in the meantime.
A grunting sound came from behind Cheon Seongjae.
"Ugh, why is this so heavy!"
Goth was groaning as he dragged something along.
And at that sight, Hugo was shocked.
"That thing...!"
"Oh. You're here."
"Was that what you were looking for?"
"To be precise, what it ate."
"!"
That was right.
What Goth had dragged in was exactly a slime.
The giant slime, having eaten who knows what, was too lazy to even move, so Goth had no choice but to haul it in.
Even an SS-rank was struggling under its weight. That's what was strange.
'Does Lee Geon-nim usually put things like this in his head...?'
He must be insane.
Of course, Goth wasn't the only one dragging that slime.
"Hey! Can't you push it straight?"
"!"
Yes.
The one pulling the slime alongside Goth was none other than the Leo holy knight, Puffin.
He was one of those Lee Geon had "evangelized" with his fine words(?), so to speak.
And Puffin, who had been pushing the slime from behind, had a very complicated expression on his face.
'Why the hell am I here doing this...'
It was already infuriating enough that he'd been scouted by Lee Geon out of the blue, and now he was acting as a guide without warning.
And now a porter too?
'If the Lord or Oliver-nim finds out, I'm dead.'
He, the main tank of Leo's 1st army, was doing this.
Lee Geon, seeing Puffin, tilted his head.
"What? Where are the other two, and you're alone?"
Puffin looked troubled.
"Ah... The other two got knocked out instantly after taking hits from Vice Commander Cheon Yuha."
"Oh."
It seemed the three Leo holy knights had already been tested by Cheon Yuha.
The test was to endure even one of Yuha's attacks.
As proof, Puffin's face was swollen.
But that was exactly what was surprising.
'He withstood Yuha's attack?'
Even if he looked like that, Lee Geon knew Yuha's skill all too well.
'Yuha is already on the level of a saint when it comes to pure strength.'
It was a level these guys couldn't possibly endure.
'I picked them roughly, but it looks like I picked them better than expected.'
"Where's Yuha?"
"She said if only you would permit it, she wanted to defeat her brother with full power and become the first holy knight."
Was it instinct that made the unconscious Cheon Seongjae tremble?
At those words, Lee Geon let out a hearty laugh.
"Alright. Tell her to go ahead."
"......!"
Puffin's face went pale at that booming laughter.
He himself had already been hit by Cheon Yuha's attack.
It wasn't even full power, just a mere 10% of her strength. The two Leo tankers, who had challenged her with bravado to test her power, were issued a 30-week bed rest verdict, and he himself was this battered.
But now full power?
Against that muscle-less little squirt who looked like a paper doll? And Cheon Seongjae was a pure mage completely unrelated to physical combat.
Being such a famous holy knight, there was no way they didn't know Cheon Seongjae's abilities.
'He'll seriously die...??'
Their reckless challenge had already racked up more recovery time, but Cheon Yuha ranked top 3 among the combat holy knights.
Was it really okay?
Well, whatever. Lee Geon stood in front of the slime.
"Open the mouth of that thing."
At that, the holy knights who had dragged the slime flinched.
Hugo stepped forward anxiously.
"Geon-ah. Will it be okay? The one inside is truly dangerous."
"That's right. You may not know this well, Lee Geon-nim, but it's a Scribe, and they're incredibly troublesome!"
Hugo was growing urgent.
The reason Lee Geon wanted to see this creature was obviously one thing.
'To tame a Scribe.'
Because a Scribe would be a huge boon to a divine throne. It would become a great power for Lee Geon.
But.
'They're the ones the gods themselves exterminated because they were too dangerous.'
Because they could delete the records of the gods and erase the existence of deities themselves.
And that wasn't all.
"They're such a hassle that hundreds of vassal gods had to step in to deal with them. Even without the Bible, they're enough to shake a divine throne...!"
"Shut up and just open it."
Lee Geon stared at the slime.
[The final trial's target exists]
[Acquire the Scribe (0/1)]
-A recorder needed to chronicle the deeds of Ophiuchus
[Caution. This is an extremely ferocious opponent]
[An entity capable of threatening the divine throne]
Well, even without the warning, it was an opponent who had given Hugo trouble.
Naturally, taming it didn't seem easy, but.
'I've made my preparations.'
Lee Geon grinned.
And right at that moment.
"One."
"Two!"
"Three!"
Finally, Goth and Puffin wrenched open the slime's mouth.
Simultaneously, something burst out from inside.
(Continued in the next chapter)