"So, did you stab me?"
A low voice, laced with murderous intent.
It was only natural.
For the others, they were just cutting off limbs because they didn't want to be saddled with the hunting, but for the one who stabbed him, the story was completely different.
The proof was in Lee Geon's eyes, which had changed.
His tone of voice had completely changed.
Murderous intent. Anger.
Cold. And terrifying.
And the Cheon siblings and Han Jimin, hearing that voice, froze.
Without a doubt it was a voice with a smile, yet the goosebumps that felt like a knife slicing ears—what was this?
Moreover, it was a familiar voice they had just heard, yet as unfamiliar as meeting someone for the first time.
But the adults were different.
Agwi Yang Wei hid inside a bag. Hugo stood frozen with his arms crossed.
They were all familiar with this demeanor.
Even Hugo, Lee Geon's best friend, glanced at the front door, his buttocks twitching.
Honestly, he wanted to run away. Because when Lee Geon had that voice, even he found it hard to handle.
It would be lucky if he just didn't get stabbed for no reason while standing nearby.
That wasn't all.
'It feels like his temper has gotten even nastier than before.'
More like, wouldn't it be strange if he'd gotten milder after being trapped in the tower for that long?
It was only natural that he was hiding a knife in his heart.
In particular, Heiji bit her non-existent lip.
Being his adversary, she knew better than anyone. Lee Geon at times like that was extremely bad news.
But.
"Stab? What do you... Kuheok!"
Heiji's mind grew hazy. She saw red blood nearby.
Lee Geon was stabbing Heiji's physical body with a knife.
It must have been that the connection with the Constellation God was severed, and the protective blessing vanished.
And as he pulled the knife out, red blood splattered.
"Keok!"
The empty body jerked.
It wasn't dead yet, so it was taking the full brunt of the damage.
Even Heiji's soul, not yet dead, took a blow.
"Hu-euk...!"
It wasn't physical pain, but dizziness hit her, which was worse than being hit.
So she was about to tell him to stop, but Lee Geon swung his arm again.
Stab!
"Kuheok!"
Lee Geon grinned fiercely at Heiji.
"My patience isn't that long. I'll just slit this throat and be done with it."
As Lee Geon moved to pull the knife out again, Heiji screamed.
"W-Wait!"
If blood kept flowing like that, the body would truly die. She would never be able to return.
"Stab? What... keok!"
Lee Geon laughed.
"Don't play dumb. After we caught the Red Eye, you stuck this in my back. You think I fell into the trap by accident?"
"......!"
Lee Geon still gritted his teeth when he recalled that moment.
Of course, it wasn't the pain of betrayal. They weren't even in a relationship where he'd feel that in the first place.
It was just that the memory of being tormented like a test subject in the infinitely resetting tower made his blood boil.
Well, thanks to completely conquering the tower, he'd gained a hefty amount of experience points and even obtained the ability of Ophiuchus, but still.
"If you shoved someone into a trap like that, it means you were ready to pay the price, right?"
"......!"
Heiji felt her heart shrivel.
That was because the Blue House was a vessel of Gemini.
She figured out at once what Lee Geon was trying to say.
As expected.
"It wasn't me! From the start, I didn't even know the sword was the cause of you falling into the trap... Kuheok!"
Lee Geon smiled as if telling her to go on.
Heiji was aggrieved.
"Fine! Keok... I...! It's true I ordered the Presidential Chief of Staff to blow up the Blue House! I even put explosive magic on the sword! But I really didn't stab you!"
"Then what about this symbol found on the sword the Chief of Staff was holding? Why is the same symbol engraved on the sword that stabbed me?"
That symbol was something even Hugo's Constellation God didn't know.
Moreover, Hugo's Constellation God reportedly turned pale as soon as Hugo showed him the symbol.
["Put that filth away."]
In short, it was a mark that even a Constellation God would be wary of.
"Surely you won't say you don't know the symbol your puppet had."
"I swear! That symbol, I don't know either. In fact, the explosion at the Blue House happened too quickly. Someone else interfered."
At that, Lee Geon sneered.
"You're basically admitting you're the epitome of incompetence. Don't you have any shame?"
As Lee Geon thoroughly ruffled her feathers, Heiji couldn't lift her face from the humiliation.
But she endured it.
Because here, no matter the insult, she had to negotiate well to be able to return to her own body.
As expected.
"I have an idea about that symbol."
"Oh?"
At Lee Geon's interested expression, Heiji thought, this is it.
'Lee Geon wants information.'
If she played it well, she could get out of here.
"Right. I can tell you information you don't know. So... kuheok!"
Heiji's mind was jolted.
Lee Geon's knife was stabbing Heiji's leg.
Hugo, feeling dizzy, tried to send the children away, but they wouldn't listen.
And in her mind, which felt about to be cut off, she heard Lee Geon's laugh.
"You're under a huge misconception."
"......!"
Lee Geon's eyes, while piercing her leg, were gleaming.
"You're not in a position to make a deal with me right now."
"......!"
"Don't delude yourself. It's not that I can't kill you; I'm deliberately keeping you alive."
Heiji's consciousness grew dim.
Lee Geon pulled the knife out again.
Puak!
He shook the blood off the blade and grinned twistedly.
"Now. If you've got that crammed into that sniveling brain of yours, I'll ask one last time."
"......!"
"Did you stab me?"
There was no winning. Heiji decided to speak from the heart.
"That's not..."
Stab!
"Kuheok!"
"I asked, did you stab me."
"Kuheok...! I said it's not..."
Stab!
"Heo-eok!"
"Really, you didn't stab me?"
"I really didn't..."
Stab!
"Strange, you should have stabbed me."
"Kyaak!"
By that point, Hugo was sweating.
He had forgotten, but this kind of thing was routine for those two.
In the end, Heiji, stabbed all over, couldn't take it anymore and screamed.
"You just want to think I stabbed you!"
"Of course."
You little...!
Eventually, Hugo, unable to watch any longer, spoke.
"Geon-ah. It's not that one person stabbed you. Is there a possibility that everyone there was an accomplice?"
"!"
Hugo was looking at Heiji with displeasure.
Of course, his suspicion was reasonable.
He had already been dying of frustration at not being able to witness his friend's death, but he was treated as an outsider because he hadn't been in the tower for twenty years.
Whenever he tried to correct the false facts, he was buried with accusations of siding with his friend or trying to snatch the inheritance.
"How else could everyone, as if they'd rehearsed it, steal Geon's achievements unless they were accomplices."
At that, Lee Geon laughed.
"Well, for now, there was one who stabbed."
The conspirators who threw him into the trap could be all of them, but the likelihood is low.
And Lee Geon's thinking was correct.
It was because of the adults' reactions when Lee Geon fell into the trap.
When Lee Geon fell into the trap, everyone had been truly flustered.
Even his adversary Heiji had been startled, as she hadn't expected it either.
That was understandable, because no matter how much they hated Lee Geon, they were all the type to value their own lives more.
Even if they didn't want to admit it, without his presence, even escaping the tower would have been difficult.
Kill Lee Geon in that situation?
'That's ridiculous.'
In reality, when they escaped the tower, they nearly died.
Saving Lee Geon was unimaginable.
Blame also poured out asking why they hadn't caught Lee Geon when he fell into the trap.
Of course, after they came out of the tower and found stability.
'Cheers! The twelve caught the Red Eye!'
It was true that they had momentarily lost their heads at the journalists' shouts.
As expected, Lee Geon laughed.
"Well, even if only one stabbed, they're all the same kind of scum."
That's why Lee Geon was planning to crush all the adults.
He just planned to single out the one who trapped him and provide a special service.
And.
'The culprit seems to be connected to the unknown civilization somehow.'
The trap he fell into had a structure that couldn't be activated without knowing the tower well.
And that tower was the lair of the Red Eye, a leader-class of the unknown civilization at the time.
Not only could no human know the tower in such detail,
'The tower keeper I killed at the end.'
The vermin who reset the tower and treated him like a test subject.
He was certainly a high-ranking executive of the unknown civilization, but that bastard said this inside the trap.
'Truly remarkable. I was told they'd send me a usable one, but your colleague has sent a human beyond imagination.'
Back then, he was in agony and let it pass, but in hindsight, it was really strange.
It sounded as if someone among them had secretly met with the monster of the unknown civilization.
And if that's the case.
'The one who threw me into the trap might be a traitor to humanity.'
So simply crushing them isn't enough.
I have to find that one and confirm properly.
That was when.
The moment Lee Geon raised the knife high again.
"That symbol!"
An urgent cry was heard.
Lee Geon turned his gaze.
Perhaps having realized something, Heiji trembled minutely.
"I'll tell you everything I know, so please stop stabbing me!"
Unlike her usual calculating self, it was a clean admission of defeat.
But Lee Geon smiled arrogantly.
"Your line's wrong, isn't it?"
"What?"
"Respected Lee Geon-nim. I beg you. I'll even lick your feet."
Heiji seethed inside.
As expected, that bastard should never have come out of the tower.
"If there's an owner of that symbol, the likely suspect is the West."
"The West?"
"The constellations of the west, with strongholds in the western direction of the ecliptic."
In simple terms, the constellations form citadels in the four cardinal directions and hold power, and among them, it refers to the west.
The eastern constellations were Aries, Sagittarius, and Gemini, all of which Lee Geon had trampled.
"The western constellations include Aquarius and Virgo. Virgo is the de facto hegemon of the west. Well, recently Libra and Scorpio have joined in too."
At someone's name, Hugo's face stiffened slightly.
His gaze went to his daughter's arms.
Heiji continued speaking.
"Especially Libra and Virgo, as the top two constellations overall, are fighting incredibly stupidly."
"But those bastards are connected to this symbol?"
"I saw it in the battles of the western constellations."
"Oh?"
"I think it's highly likely to be Virgo."
"Why?"
"Because Virgo has your sword!"
"!"
Everyone was surprised.
"Is that true?!"
"Heaven's Punishment?"
That was his weapon. It was also the item that killed the Red Eye, his ever-present partner.
'I searched and searched but couldn't find it.'
The weapon that had been with him when he died had vanished, and Virgo had it.
'That's definitely suspicious.'
Well, it was good timing.
Virgo was the affiliation of that SS-class appraiser who was a huge fan of his.
'I had left that sword for appraisal, I'm curious what they'll say.'
Of course, I'm going to mess up all the adults anyway.
And that's when.
At Lee Geon's satisfied expression, Heiji hurriedly shouted.
"Now, I've told you the information, so get me out of here! N-No, at least stop the bleeding!"
Then Lee Geon smiled brightly.
"Why would I?"
"Lee Geon!"
"Don't act like the victim when you're the perpetrator. Information is information, and killing you is killing you."
"......!"
Right then.
"!"
Lee Geon's smiling expression suddenly changed. A rare look of alertness.
That wasn't all.
"!"
Hugo also went on guard. But there was one person smiling.
'They've come!'
It was Heiji.
[A vicious aura is approaching.]
[The servant gods of the Two-Faced Lord are approaching with terrifying force.]
Lee Geon shot up.
'Gemini's servant gods.'
They were on a different level from the Piggy Bank.
'Combat attribute.'
Whether sent by Gemini's Constellation God or called by Heiji, they were enemies.
'These are guys from Gemini's holy territory.'
The servant gods are loyal followers of Gemini's Constellation God, and they won't forgive actions that lead to the collapse of the constellation.
There was no way they'd forgive the adult being in this state.
As expected, Heiji brightened as if an unexpected savior had arrived and shouted.
"O gods of the 88 seats who protect Gemini and the Yin-Yang Palace! Please help me!"
With that voice, light descended before Heiji.
Flash!
Agwi Yang Wei screamed and hid from the powerful aura of the servant gods.
Although from another constellation, there was no way he didn't know the aura of such beings.
"Crazy! They're advanced combat gods! Insane!"
Cheon Yuha immediately tensed and summoned her weapon. Cheon Seongjae, who knew their identity, turned pale white.
"Uncle! Hurry and run! Those gods are...!"
Light burst.
The three gods that appeared approached Lee Geon. Heiji rejoiced as if it was now over.
Lee Geon immediately drew his knife.
But then.
Thud!
The gods heading for Lee Geon suddenly hid behind Hugo.
As if they had followed Hugo. And then they knelt behind Hugo and bowed their heads.
Everyone's eyes widened.
But their next words were a sight to behold.
["Ahh! We dare not look upon that person!"]
["O servant of Sagittarius! What are you doing! Quickly request an audience with Lee Geon-nim!"]
What?
(To be continued in the next episode)