Chapter 316
When Chi-Woo returned to the tower, the drafting event was already over. Since Eval Sevaru hadn’t contacted him, he had thought that they might still be in the middle of negotiations, but his hopes were crushed. Chi-Woo left a message to Eval Sevaru, asking him to contact him as soon as he saw this message and began moving with Aida on his arm. After returning to Seven Stars’ zone, Chi-Woo was. .h.i.t with a stark feeling of unfamiliarity because of how much the zone had changed. It felt strange every time he saw it.
Magnificent and sophisticated buildings had replaced the wooden houses, which used to paint an antique and quaint picture. There were a total of eight buildings in the area. Seven were placed neatly around the main hall in the form of a heptagon. But what Chi-Woo liked the most was the outer wall surrounding all the buildings. With the central main hall as its base, the walls met at a vertex and connected the edges of each of the buildings in a triangular shape. From the top, it looked like a star with a pentagon in the middle. Frankly, it also looked like a maple leaf, but Chi-Woo liked it.
Although it wasn’t anything fancy, the structure highlighted precision and neatness with an emphasis on proportionality. Above all, Chi-Woo was satisfied because it seemed to capture the meaning of Seven Stars well. Chi-Woo led Aida to the main hall through a stone sidewalk along the axis. Except for Eval Sevaru, all the members of Seven Stars had already returned and had been waiting patiently on the first floor. When they saw Aida following Chi-Woo, they flocked around her like old-timers around a newbie. In particular, Ru Hiana and Evelyn moved Aida’s hand away from Chi-Woo at the same time and welcomed her brightly with a handshake.
After spending some time introducing themselves and learning about each other, Chi-Woo took Aida to his office. They decided to have a short tea break, and Chi-Woo asked, “How were they?”
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“I think I need to correct what I said,” Aida softly replied. “I thought Yunael was a star that would s.h.i.+ne brighter than anyone else…but that meeting just now changed my mind.” She shook her head in shock. “As of now, you already have one s.h.i.+ning star next to you.”
Chi-Woo smiled quietly because he knew who she was talking about. There was nothing more pleasing to parents than hearing praises for their children.
“I’ve never seen such a perfect star in my life. I’m sure it’s all thanks to you though.”
“No, honestly, I haven’t done much for Mr. Ru Amuh. As you said, he’s a star that s.h.i.+nes brilliantly by himself… Rather, I feel bad I haven’t done enough.”
A small smile tugged at Aida’s lips because she could sense how much he cared for the people around him from his words alone. Thus, her desire to get Yunael into this group became even stronger. She wished they were here as well.
Chi-Woo asked, “Is there anyone else that could be a star besides Ru Amuh?”
“Yes. Everyone is s.h.i.+ning beautifully, but most of them are reflecting your light. Unfortunately, I only saw one star s.h.i.+ning by themselves.”
“Is that so?” Chi-Woo nodded, swallowing a faint sense of regret. Just when he thought he should show Emmanuel to her and ask about him, someone knocked on the door. Chi-Woo answered, “Come in.”
The door opened, and in walked Eval Sevaru. He entered with a calm face but bowed at a right angle as soon as he approached Chi-Woo. “I’m sorry. I’ll receive any punishment.”
As soon as he heard this, Chi-Woo thought, ‘Ah, he failed to recruit Yunael Tania.’ However, what surprised him was that he didn’t feel that agitated even though he had let slip the hero Boboris told him to recruit. Rather, he felt calm without even the slightest bit of uneasiness. Maybe it was because of Aida’s innate ability, he felt like a sailboat sailing smoothly in a favorable wind.
Chi-Woo answered, “It’s all right, so please stand straight.”
“I have no words to defend myself.”
“It’s not your fault, Mr. Sevaru.” Chi-Woo sincerely thought this.
“No, it is my fault. Sir, I couldn’t take advantage of the opportunity you provided me.” Eval Sevaru believed he was truly to blame.
“Straighten your back. This is an order.”
Eval Sevaru had no choice but to straighten his back at Chi-Woo’s command, but his face was full of regrets. Although the chances hadn’t been great, there was still a possibility. No—he could have recruited Yunael if he really wanted to. It wasn’t that difficult. Even though he was a stand-in for Chi-Woo, he could have shown great interest or look desperate by calling Chi-Woo and badgering him to quickly come. Or at the end of the drafting event, he could have made an appointment with Yunael Tania for a private meeting. Then there would’ve been a high possibility for Yunael Tania to join hands with Seven Stars. Eval Sevaru had felt a strong, positive signal coming from Yunael as well.
However, rather than doing any of those, he had stuck with the att.i.tude of ‘I’m going to partic.i.p.ate, but it doesn’t matter to me what happens either way.’ Because he had a strong feeling that he should act like that.
“Where did that person choose to go?”
“…They chose Ho Lactea.”
“Hah.” Someone laughed. Aida had her hand on her mouth, and her shoulder was shaking. “My apologies.” Aida cleared her throat as Chi-Woo and Eval looked at her. “I thought it was very much like that child…haha.”
Chi-Woo sighed. Yunael went to Ho Lactea…what should he do?
“Boss…” As Chi-Woo glanced at Aida, Eval Sevaru carefully said, “I personally think this situation isn’t bad…?”
“It’s all right. Rather, this is good, so don’t worry about…?”
Eval Sevaru and Aida looked at each other mid-sentence. The opinion of Eval Sevaru, the best politician that Chi-Woo knew, and the woman, who knew Yunael Tania the best, matched.
“Why do you think so?” Chi-Woo first asked Eval Sevaru curiously.
“Drafting is not the only way to recruit new people. It’s also possible with transfers between organizations.” That was true. If mutual interests were aligned, transferring was more than possible.
Chi-Woo asked, “Are you saying that we should wait a little bit and gauge Ho Lactea’s plans?”
“No.” Eval Sevaru shook his head. “Then it will give Yunael Tania the impression that we want to bring them to our side because Ho Lactea wants them. We can’t let that happen.” Eval Sevaru continued with a firm voice, “Boss, if you really want to recruit that hero—you have to make them want to come here on their own.” In short, Chi-Woo had to make them want to knock on Seven Stars’ door and not the other way around. “Yunael Tania is a hero like that.” Eval Sevaru spoke in a confident tone.
Chi-Woo could understand his point to a certain extent. Although Eval Sevaru was being as roundabout as he could out of consideration of Aida, if Chi-Woo was to interpret his words without the sugarcoat, Eval was basically saying that Yunael had a lot of potential to cause trouble, so he needed to bring them into the fold after putting their arrogance down as much as possible. The scenario that Eval Sevaru wanted to create was where Yunael Tania was desperate to join Seven Stars, and Seven Stars would accept them as a gracious favor.
‘What kind of person is Yunael that…’ Chi-Woo clicked his tongue and stared at Aida. He also wanted to hear her thoughts, but Aida looked quite surprised.
“…It’s my second time being surprised since I came here.” Judging by how she spoke in a slightly baffled tone, she seemed more shocked than when she saw Ru Amuh. “It’s been less than a day since you met that child, but you saw through them to that extent… You’re very sharp.”
Although Aida was definitely praising him, Eval Sevaru’s face was sour. He had also observed Aida as well; she barely revealed any emotions under her closed eyes, and her expression hardly changed. She was the type that Eval Sevaru hated because it was difficult to read their intentions. Of course, it was only in the case of an enemy, and it didn’t matter if they were allies.
“Anyway, I’ve been worried about how to tell you since I’ve spent considerable time with that child, but…I"m grateful that he spoke for me instead.”
Chi-Woo asked, “Then are you agreeing with Mr. Eval Sevaru?”
“Well…Yunael definitely has a bit of a childish side, unbefitting of their age. That child sometimes can’t overcome their temper and act out in anger. I was most worried about that disposition when I brought them…”
“Then what should we do?”
“We need to hunt.”
Chi-Woo blinked. For a moment, he thought he heard her wrong. Did Aida tell him to hunt Yunael Tania?
“Do you know how a shrewd hunter hunts?”
Chi-Woo tilted his head at her sudden question. A common technique that hunters employed was to track down traces. Then what about a shrewd hunter?
“They release their hunting dogs and make them get the prey, hide in advance where they think the prey will go, or…”
“Make the prey come on their own,” Eval Sevaru finished for her, and Aida gave him a bright smile. Chi-Woo slowly nodded as he watched them. They got along well with each other, and he thought he could safely leave this matter to them.
* * *
The antic.i.p.ated drafting event for the tenth reinforcements ended without hiccups. Seven Stars recruited Aida Odelia, and Ho Lactea recruited Yunael Tania. The two organizations took only one person each into their fold, and they were the exceptions. A moderate number of heroes were taken by Afrilith, Eust.i.tia, and the Adventure Guild. Then the remaining heroes were taken by teams that partic.i.p.ated in the second draft. Thus ended the whole event, but there were some complaints. There was a sentiment that considering Seven Stars and Ho Lactea were the top human guilds to exist currently, they should be able to handle more people. However, this protest didn’t receive much support because most heroes knew intrinsically that in a world like this, it was better to raise one strong hero properly than a hundred or even thousands of mediocre heroes.
It was too early to conclude who made the right decision. However, one thing for certain was that depending on who performed better as a result of this draft, there would be a big difference in the next one. In that sense, Aida Odelia was an unknown variable, while Yunael Tania was a box office movie that was sure to be a ma.s.sive hit.
After the event concluded, Yunael met up with Aida. “Sorry, Aida. I wanted to be with you, but I couldn’t resist Ho Lactea’s offer…” Yunael spoke in an apologetic tone as if they really couldn’t help it.
“No, it’s all right.” However, Aida’s reaction was dry. She said that Yunael had made sufficient achievements, and she respected their judgment as a now experienced hero.
“Y-Yeah, that’s right.” Yunael agreed but tilted their head. This wasn’t the response they’d antic.i.p.ated. Yunael stared at the calm Aida and smacked their lips for a long time before they finally said, “But still, it’s a bit…you know. If you’d at least contacted me once… No, honestly, I didn’t really care where I went before. I just wanted to go where you went since we’ve been working together for a long time!”
“I actually tried to make it happen as well.”
“What?” Yunael’s ears twitched.
“I mentioned you and asked if you could also join, but…” Aida didn’t finish, her voice growing quiet.
“But what?” Gulp. Yunael’s throat moved up and down. In fact, they could already roughly guess what had happened by Aida’s hesitation, but they wanted to hear it themselves. “Come on, tell me. What did he say!?” However, when there was still no answer, Yunael’s true emotions showed. Their careful, inquisitive tone was completely gone, and their voice was full of agitation.
“Well…” In the end, Aida succ.u.mbed to the pressure and continued with difficulty, “The leader of Seven Stars said it was not you but me they wanted to recruit…and flatly refused.”
A huff came out. Aida clearly heard it. “…That person has good sense.” Surprisingly, Yunael’s voice was calm. However, Aida had to work hard to hold back the laughter that was on the verge of leaking out. It was because she could easily imagine Yunael’s inner thoughts from that little huff she caught. In fact, while their voice was calm, Yunael was breathing hard in intense fury.
Yunael continued, “Well, our Aida is a hero that won’t lose to anyone…but I guess he hasn"t heard about me. Has it not been long since he rose to the Celestial Realm?” Yunael pretended to care for Aida, but unable to suppress their disappointment, they added a complaint at the end.
When Aida went quiet again, Yunael chewed their lower lip for a while and took a deep breath. Phew. “So what do you think? What"s Seven Stars like?”
“It’s not bad, but I think I need to see more.”
“No, anything is fine, so just tell me. For example, what are the living conditions like? It’s the place where you’ll be staying after all.”
Aida smiled wryly inside and felt relieved at the same time that Eval Sevaru wasn’t here. Since Aida was the only one with them, Yunael was freely expressing their interest in Seven Stars and basically shouting, ‘I’m interested in Seven Stars! Super interested!’ If Eval Sevaru had seen Yunael’s att.i.tude just now…any doubts about Yunael’s interest would turn into certainty. Then Yunael would become too pitiful. Considering Eval’s personality, he would relentlessly corner and pressure Yunael to their breaking point. Aida felt loyal to Yunael considering the years they spent together and didn’t want them to be pushed to that extent.
“Hmm…I don’t find it particularly inconvenient to live there.”
Yunael’s eyes sparkled at Aida’s words. “Really? Ho Lactea’s place is really great though! Their building is no joke!”
“Is that so? I’m curious.”
“I was really shocked. I finally understand now why everyone praises Ho Lactea so much.”
“The Ho Lacteas live up to their name. Congratulations.”
“Thanks. Anyway, where is Seven Stars’ base? I also want to check it out sometime.” Yunael asked proudly.
“It’s over there.” Aide pointed without looking back, and Yunael flinched. The two of them were meeting at the main square and the center of the holy city, Shalyh, and Seven Stars’ base was somewhere they could immediately see from the main square? It was an even better location than the Ho Lactea’s area, where he had to walk a bit to reach the main square.
Then Yunael became speechless after seeing the place Aida pointed to. She had said she didn’t find it particularly inconvenient to live there, but that was a complete, bold-face lie. Of course, it was difficult to determine which place was better when compared with Ho Lactea’s area, but if anyone asked Yunael to choose, they would choose Seven Stars without hesitation. The Ho Lactea building was big and nice, but it was too standard. Everything was too structured and fit right up to the standard. In contrast, the Seven Stars zone felt like artisans had burned their artistic souls freely to construct a piece of artwork. At the same time, it didn’t feel excessive and looked clean and organized. It perfectly matched Yunael’s taste.
“Uh…yeah… That place isn’t bad either…” Yunael mumbled in a small voice and cleared their throat. “Anyway, if you don’t like that place…just tell me whenever you want. I was a bit nervous because it was a Ho Lactea after all, but we got along better than I thought. If I asked, it would be no problem for me to bring one person with me.”
“Thank you for your offer, but I’m fine.” Aida flatly refused.
“No, I’m saying this just in case. Later on, you might—”
“I want to stay with Seven Stars a little longer.”
Yunael’s eyes widened a bit. Since they’ve known each other for over ten years, Yunael knew Aida well, and Aida was not pretentious with her words and actions. She always spoke matter-of-factly, and Aida of all people had refused them twice in a row. As of now, she was clearly expressing how she had no intentions to leave Seven Stars.
“…Ah, really? I see. Sorry, don’t get me wrong. It’s because I want to be with you, Aida, so…”
“Haha. Of course, I feel the same.”
“Uh-huh…anyway, we’re working at different places, but nothing’s changed between us, right?”
“Of course. Let’s do our best at our respective places, and I’ll visit often to say h.e.l.lo and check up on how you’re doing.” Aida cheered Yunael on until the very end. The problem was that was all she did.
“Geez…” Yunael’s expression looked extremely sour as they went back. Yunael had made all sorts of hints to get Aida to invite them. “But how could she not even ask…” Even till the very end, Aida hadn’t said, ‘Then why don’t you come to Seven Stars to join me?’ She didn’t even ask them once for politeness sake. Of course, Yunael was the one who made it clear that they chose Ho Lactea, and Aida expressed that she respected their decision. Yunael did know that, but they still felt a sense of betrayal for no reason.
“s.h.i.+t…” Why did they feel like an ex abandoned by the person they were dating? Yunael puckered their lips and kicked a rock on the street in annoyance. Then they clenched their teeth and clutched their fists. ‘I’ll show them.’ So that was how Seven Stars was gonna play. Fine, Yunael gladly accepted their challenge. They didn’t need Seven Stars or Aida. Yunael was going to show them and make Seven Stars punch the ground in regret for not choosing them. Yunael made a firm resolve in their heart and stomped out of the main square.
“…” Then a figure wearing a long hood stood up quietly near the place where Aida and Yunael had been sitting and talking. As if it was uncomfortable, Eval Sevaru immediately took off his hood, and his face became visible. He stretched his neck from side to side when he glanced at Yunael’s quickly departing back. Then he muttered to himself, ‘You’re dead now.’