I stared at Cheon Hyein with a blank expression.

Did I hear that wrong just now? I tapped my ear a few times, then asked Cheon Hyein again.

“Who... who’s coming?”

“I told you. The Martial Alliance strategist is coming.”

“......”

Looks like I didn’t mishear. At her words, I swallowed hard.

‘...The Jegal Clan Head... no, Jegal Clan Head is coming?’

Thousand-Mile True Sight Jegal Jin.

The current Jegal Clan Head—

and at the same time, the Martial Alliance strategist, and the war’s hero.

Or the God of War.

An old man called the greatest figure in Jegal Clan history, who built accomplishments even greater than Yoo Cheongil’s in the Orthodox-Demonic War.

And also—

‘...My maternal grandfather.’

I’d heard he was my maternal grandfather.

Something I only found out recently, but apparently, unbelievably, it was true.

[Oho. Jin’s coming?]

At the news of Jegal Jin’s appearance, Yoo Cheongil showed an openly delighted expression. Unlike me, who was getting more and more unsettled, he looked downright excited.

[That bastard’s life sure is long. He looked like he could drop dead any second, and yet he’s going to outlive even me. You never know with the world, do you? Kkekekekeke.]

“......”

The loud laughter didn’t even reach my ears. My complicated feelings were making everything miserable.

‘Since when does the strategist show up to explain something?’

On the first day of the banquet, the Alliance Leader showed up.

Now, in the preliminaries—not even the main event—the Martial Alliance strategist was showing up to explain things.

As far as I knew, things like this basically didn’t happen.

‘Don’t tell me.’

A °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° bad thought flashed through my mind.

‘They made a reason just to see me.’

That can’t be it, right?

I prayed like I meant it.

It was something I’d thought about ever since I learned Jegal Jin was my maternal grandfather, but—

‘...Does he even know I exist in the first place?’

That was the question.

But—

‘...He knows. He has to.’

I was sure of it. This was the Jegal Clan we were talking about. And—

‘Even the Tang Clan knows. You think the Jegal Clan wouldn’t?’

Even another clan—the Tang Clan—even the Poison King knew.

There was no chance the Jegal Clan didn’t.

They weren’t Beggar Clan or Hao Gate levels, but I’d heard plenty about the prestige and reputation of the Jegal Clan’s information apparatus.

‘If anything, it’s more shocking my father didn’t go running his mouth about it.’

There was no way my father didn’t know.

And yet that man, who lived for showing off, hadn’t used it.

That was the part that felt unbelievable.

‘Or maybe he only sprawls out after checking where he can safely sprawl.’

He’d know that if he mouthed off to the Jegal Clan carelessly, his life would be at risk.

Maybe he couldn’t touch them, so he lived with his head down.

That kind of thought crossed my mind.

But—

‘...Then the recommendation letter for the Martial Alliance—was that from them?’

The recommendation letter that let me enter the Martial Alliance.

The moment I thought about it, everything clicked into place.

One day I was told they’d gotten a recommendation letter from the Alliance and I should go in.

Back then, I’d wondered what kind of trick my father pulled to get it.

But—

‘If the Jegal Clan had their hand in it, then yeah.’

If he clung to the Jegal Clan and brought it in, it made sense.

No—it was the only way.

‘Then this is basically confirmed.’

I was sure now. If I joined the Alliance off the Jegal Clan’s recommendation letter, then without a doubt—

‘Jegal Jin knows I exist.’

The old man who was supposedly my maternal grandfather knew I existed.

The moment that sank in, my stomach felt heavy.

‘Ah, is this okay?’

Meeting my maternal grandfather.

It wasn’t just that I was nervous.

‘It’s a problem because it doesn’t feel like it’ll be peaceful.’

Meeting him itself didn’t matter much.

My family’s already a disaster—what’s so surprising about my maternal grandfather being the Jegal Clan—

‘Well, it is a little surprising.’

But still... separate from that, the problem was whether this would drag me into something annoying.

‘There’s no way he’s going to treat me like some cute grandson.’

A rabid bastard who seduced his precious daughter and vanished.

And a grandson who looks like that bastard.

It was a relationship where one-sided malice and spite wouldn’t be strange at all.

‘Tch....’

This is bad.

No matter how I looked at it, it felt like he was coming to see me.

Is he?

It’d be nice if he wasn’t.

‘He is.’

No matter how I thought about it, he was coming to see me.

“...Young Lord Bang? Are you okay?”

“Huh? Ah, yeah. I’m fine. Totally fine.”

“Your face is pale. Are you not feeling well?”

“No. I feel better than any day.”

I wiped sweat away discreetly.

I held in a sigh and forced myself to get it together, and Cheon Hyein narrowed her brows. She clearly didn’t believe me.

I tried to say something more—

Then a shout came from the entrance.

“Young Heroes—!! You should start getting ready!”

Someone who looked like Martial Alliance personnel was calling for us to prepare.

At that, people began to move.

People who would normally shuffle around in a mess started moving quickly.

Not anyone else—Thousand-Mile True Sight.

The fact that the Martial Alliance’s number two was appearing in person clearly mattered.

As the crowd began to surge, our group slipped into it as well.

Walking with my party, I tried to soothe my insides.

‘Nothing will happen.’

That was all I could hope.

*****

We entered Main Alliance Headquarters. I’d been here before, so this time it felt a little less unfamiliar.

The difference was, instead of heading to where we did the preliminaries last time, we went to a banquet hall that looked wider.

It was the place we arrived at on the first day.

It felt much wider than before, probably because of all the people who got knocked out in the preliminaries.

Nearly seventy percent had been eliminated, so of course it would look like this.

But my seating didn’t change much.

That was only natural too. None of the Seven Prodigies had been eliminated, and my table was where the Seven Prodigies gathered.

“I’m sleepy as hell.”

“Brother Peng, sounds like you didn’t sleep well.”

“Nope. I slept more than ten hours. I’m just sleepy because I slept too much. Kkekekeke.”

“Huuray! As expected!”

Black-Grand Saber Peng Dojin and Thunder Dragon were still the same—still running their mouths.

Leaving the nonstop chatter behind, I scanned the platform with tired eyes.

‘Tch.’

[Are you nervous?]

Yoo Cheongil asked.

Without looking at him, I gave a small nod.

[You really worry over everything. What, you think Jin’s going to kill you?]

At that, I frowned.

‘Can I be sure he won’t?’

With Divine Spear and everything else, it was worse. Too many old men were tangled up around me now.

‘Of course, if he wanted to kill me, I’d already be dead. So it’s not that.’

But just the act of seeing him made me feel like this.

‘Ah. I shouldn’t have come.’

If I knew I’d just end up going through shit like this, I should’ve skipped the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering.

I should’ve stubbornly refused no matter what.

The fact I couldn’t do that stung.

“Hoo.”

I let out a quiet sigh. The water in front of me had been gone for a while.

I opened my eyes that I’d closed and looked forward.

That was when my eyes met someone else’s.

‘Huh?’

It was Sword Phoenix. She was staring at me quietly.

I thought we’d just met eyes for a moment, but she kept looking, which meant she was doing it on purpose.

“......”

“......”

After holding that silent eye contact for a while—

“Do you have something to say to me?”

I couldn’t stand the silence anymore and asked.

“......”

At my question, Sword Phoenix stayed still, then shook her head.

Then she leaned back in her chair like it meant nothing and closed her eyes.

What?

‘What the hell?’

She was a problem too. Why does she keep making me pay attention to her?

‘I thought she hated me, but... it doesn’t feel like that either.’

Since our first meeting got twisted, I’d figured something was wrong—

but it didn’t seem like that.

Then what was her intent?

‘Anyway, the Seven Prodigies are all weird.’

Every single one of them was weird.

Maybe because they all had absurd talent in martial arts, but it felt like each of them had an empty spot in their head.

“This time they’re not even going to feed us? I’m getting hungry.”

“Seriously. Not giving us food while doing this is kind of cheap.”

I kept listening to Black-Grand Saber and Thunder Dragon’s nonsense for a while longer.

Then—

Click.

A tiny sound rang out. The moment it did, the banquet hall that had been murmuring went silent all at once.

‘...Like ghosts, seriously.’

Everyone’s hearing was so good they reacted instantly to the smallest noise.

Even if they looked like idiots, that speed of reaction was proof that these people were the future of the Central Plains.

Step.

Footsteps sounded.

Everyone’s gaze turned to one place.

And not long after—

“The strategist is entering.”

At the announcement, everyone who’d been seated stood up at once.

The junior generation rose in one motion, and the owner of the footsteps appeared.

An old man wearing a robe that proved he was Martial Alliance personnel over black silk clothes.

He looked just under seven cheok tall.

Average for a martial artist, tall for a normal person.

He had sharp eyes, nose, and mouth, and an unbelievably upright posture.

A neatly groomed beard, hair tied up, an official cap on his head—

as he walked in, he swept his eyes across the room.

Flinch.

It was like Divine Spear. At the old man’s gaze, the junior generation’s bodies trembled.

Even I felt like my shoulders were about to curl in on themselves under that stare.

That man was the current Martial Alliance’s number two.

Thousand-Mile True Sight Jegal Jin.

The strange thing was—

‘...I heard he doesn’t have inner power?’

Jegal Jin wasn’t a martial artist—no, more precisely, he was, but I’d heard he wasn’t at a level people would call a master.

‘Then what the hell is that presence?’

His eyes were vicious.

Just looking at him, I could see how he became a hero of the Orthodox-Demonic War despite not having the body of a master. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

His body was thin enough that a tap might snap him—

but the sense packed inside him screamed that you shouldn’t treat that old man lightly.

And that old man—

‘...Is my maternal grandfather?’

My mother’s family, whose faces I’d never even seen.

A fact I only learned for the first time this year.

Jegal Jin walked calmly up and stood on the platform.

I stared at him with trembling eyes—

Then.

‘Huh?’

A figure standing beside him suddenly caught my eye.

‘Wait?’

A familiar face.

Of course it was. I’d seen her yesterday, and she was the one who told me she’d see me today.

‘...Older Sister?’

Bang Clan’s eldest daughter, Bang Seojin.

My sister was standing beside Jegal Jin.

‘What the fuck. Why is she over there?’

Bang Seojin stood next to Jegal Jin with a blank expression.

With one hand resting on the sword at her waist, she was staring at me.

After our eyes met for a moment—

Grin.

Bang Seojin smiled.

“Ha.”

I let out a hollow breath.

What the hell is she doing right now?

I stared at Bang Seojin with eyes full of disbelief—

Then—

[Boy.]

Yoo Cheongil spoke to me.

[Now doesn’t seem like the time to have a staring contest with your sister. Look to the side.]

At Yoo Cheongil’s words, I turned my gaze to the side.

“......!”

My body froze.

Jegal Jin.

My maternal grandfather was glaring at me.

With eyes so chilling it made my skin crawl.

[I told you, didn’t I? That bastard looks like dried tree bark. Well? Perfect, isn’t it?]

“......”

Even now, that tactless malicious ghost was trying to rub it in that he was right.

This wasn’t the time to care about that.

I swallowed hard and rolled my eyes.

Just from that look, it was clear he knew me.

It was terrifying, but I still had a tiny, stupid bit of hope.

He’s still my grandfather—maybe he’d look at me a little kindly.

But then—

—So it’s you.

A voice rang out. It sounded like Jegal Jin’s voice transmission.

I’d heard he wasn’t that strong, but he can use voice transmission?

That thought flashed—

And then—

—The child of that damned Bang Clan bastard.

‘Ah, shit.’

At Jegal Jin’s words, even the last scraps of hope shattered into dust.