<b><u>Trantor: Jen</u></b>
<b><u>Editor: Zeroth Deuce</u></b>
Yong-Ho’s mana erupted like anexplosion.
An unexpected rainstorm.
The horns above Yong-Ho’s ears hadinitially been hidden, but now they were growing. They grew straight out andcreated a sharp triangr shape above his head,parable to the de of aknife.
The concentrated mana didn’t disappear.Instead it started to violently spin around Yong-Ho and cover the entirety ofthe inside of the meeting room.
Oros gulped. Yong-Ho now had two hornson each side, meaning he now had a total of four. Oros knew that Yong-Ho wasstrong, but he never knew that Yong-Ho even had four horns.
The number of horns represented theuser’s mana ss.
The owners in the empty region of thedemon world usually had two to three horns. Where out of all the owners in the entiredemon world, owners with four horns make up less than half.
‘Horns do not determine everything.’
Oros screamed it in his head. Hecontrolled his mind so that he wouldn’t be swept away by the mana.
It was true.
The numbers of horns was a sign of howstrong one’s mana was, but it didn’t determine everything.
There has been owners with just threehorns that have had much more powerful mana than some owners with four.
Having the same number of horns didn’tmean that the strength of mana was the same. There was usually a definitedifference in strength between users.
It only took Oros a short time torecover. While he was catching his breath, he felt relieved by that thought. Hehad managed to seed in looking at Yong-Ho without panicking.
Horns didn’t determine everything.
Mana didn’t determine everythingeither.
The strength of mana wasn’t enough todetermine one’s power. It’s true that the stronger one’s mana was, the greaterthe advantage they had during a fight, but there was no guarantee, forinstance, that an opponent holding a sword was a skilled swordsman.
Furthermore an Ogre or a Troll coulduse their physical strength to overpower the strength of an opponent’s mana.Mana alone wasn’t enough to determine the result of the battle.
‘But!’
Oros still felt himself cower. Coldsweat was rolling down his back.
He still had a hard time breathing. Itseemed like the mana that Yong-Ho released was pushing Oros really violently.
Simply saying that his mana was strongwasn’t enough to describe it.
It was heavy. It couldn’t beparedto the mana of Foras or Jungceros.
Oros gritted his teeth. He activatedhis physical skill and tried to escape the suppression he was feeling fromYong-Ho’s mana.
‘It’s not strong!’
It was strong. It was definitelystrong. But it wasn’t absolute. His mana was about 1.5 times stronger than themana that Jungceros and Foras had. However he was sure that the mana thatAgares possessed was a lot stronger!
He just couldn’t get rid of theoppression that he was feeling. It wasn’t just because of the size of the mana.There was something else. There was something within Yong-Ho’s mana and it wassomething that Oros wasn’t able to detect.
It had only been 10 seconds sinceYong-Ho released his mana.
Oros had no choice but to acknowledgeYong-Ho’s power. He gave up on resisting it. That’s why during those past 10seconds, he hadpletely forgotten about Dargon’s existence.
Oros felt like he was being blown awayby the mana rainstorm. Whereas Dargon was face-to-face with the root of therainstorm.
The oppression that he was feelingcouldn’t bepared to what Oros was feeling.
‘Dargon.’
Dargon used his mana to resist as well.As an Ogre Mage, he was able to control arger amount of mana than Oros.
Dargon smiled. He put his mace down andspoke loudly.
“You’re strong. There’s no need tofight. You...no, I acknowledge you, owner of the House of Mammon.”
He didn’t sound good. It was obviousthat he was forcing himself to say it.
Oros could imagine the expression thatDargon had as he looked at his back. It felt like he could see Dargon forcing asmile.
Yong-Ho looked straight at Dargon, andthen burst outughing.
“One who wields the sword must knowthat they can get hit by the sword as well.”
He raised his right arm. The mana thatwas flowing violently around him suddenly calmed down. But he couldn’t put hisguard down yet. For this was just the calm before the storm.
Yong-Ho focused his mana in one ce.Aamon’s fire then rose out of Yong-Ho’s right hand and transformed into nce.
“Even though you started it, I’ll bethe one ending it. I also need to test your strength.”
The flowing mana transformed into fire.The oppression they felt was now a lot stronger than before.
Mana wasn’t the only thing. There wassomething else within it. Oros didn’t know what, but he definitely feltsomething special.
It was the worst situation.
Dargon couldn’t avoid the fightanymore. Like Ophelia had stated, the owner of the House of Mammon wasn’t afool. There was a good chance that it wasn’t going to end with a simple sparand that the result of this fight would end up breaking the equality betweenthem.
Dargon breathed heavily. He startedspitting out profanities and tightened his grip on his mace.
Oros contemted. The moment felt likean eternity.
What was he supposed to do? Should hejoin Dargon? Should he fight together with Dargon so that they could preventYong-Ho from dominating over them?
But that was unreasonable. This mayruin their rtionship with the House of Mammon’s owner. It was a fight Dargonshouldn’t have started.
What was he supposed to do? Was hegoing to acknowledge the fact that he couldn’t take responsibility for Dargon’smistake? Was he going to let Yong-Ho take the lead? Should he try convincingYong-Ho that fighting amongst themselves was useless and that they should focuson taking down Agares?
It was a close call.
Oros was focusing on Yong-Ho and Dargonwhen an unexpected thing happened.
“The owner of the great House ofMammon, I ask that you calm your anger. Please forgive Dargon’s mistake andme me for not being able to talk him out of it.”
The calm voice belonged to Ophelia.
Oros widened his eyes when he saw whothe voice belonged to. Ophelia was known for being full of pride, but currentlyshe was kneeling on the ground.
‘Ophelia?!’
Oros has known Ophelia for 10 years. Nomatter what kind of owner she saw, she spoke formally to them, but that’s allshe did. He never imagined that she would do something like this.
Oros felt like his head was going toexplode. Ophelia’s actions hadpletely caught him off guard, but thesituation he was in was making him feel extremely confused.
He was on the same level as Ophelia andDargon. But Ophelia kneeled on the ground and acknowledged that she was beneaththe House of Mammon’s owner. That meant that the other leaders were underYong-Ho as well. It might be better for Dargon because it would’ve beenembarrassing if he lost to Yong-Ho, but in actuality, this was a perfect win forYong-Ho.
“I also ask for your forgiveness. No,please forgive me. Please forgive me for testing you.”
Dargon spoke. As the leader of theouws, he was the most sensitive out of all the other leaders when it came tosuperiority. The House of Mammon’s owner was stronger than himself. He had tono choice but to acknowledge and back away. Going up against a strongeropponent was foolish, not courageous, and this situation was the perfectexample of that.
Dargon thought he was immature for evenrequesting the fight. Since Ophelia was acting that way, there was no need forhim to push it. Bowing was his only viable solution.
Once Ophelia and Dargon acknowledgedtheir defeat, Yong-Ho looked at Oros.
Oros closed his eyes shut. Just likeOphelia and Dargon, he showed respect towards Yong-Ho. He acknowledged defeat.
“I ask for your forgiveness.”
He didn’t say much, but it was enough.
Yong-ho slowly nodded his head whilemaintaining a sharp, cold expression. The fiery mana disappeared.
Ophelia looked at Yong-Ho and sentsignals with her eyes.
‘That was too much. Didn’t it make youcringe? How could you say that you were going to end the fight?’
The level ofmunication was weakerthan Catalina. But, Yong-Ho understood the basics and in order to hide thesmile that appeared on his face, he purposely swung his right arm moreviolently. He spoke with his eyes.
‘And you’re okay with kneeling?’
‘It’s not my first time. You’re myowner anyway. It’s a relief that things worked out.’
This was what he had been expecting.
Ophelia knew Oros and Dargon’spersonality and depending on the situation, she knew how they were going toreact.
‘But...’
Ophelia was actually surprised byYong-Ho’s strength. It had only been a month since she first saw Yong-Ho. Buthe had grown a lot since then. He grew at an extremely fast rate.
Yong-Ho yed a big role in makingtoday’s n sessful. If Yong-Ho’s mana hadn’t been this strong and if hewasn’t strong enough to contain Aamon’s power inside his own mana, then today’sn would’ve definitely failed.
‘We’re going to get caught. Stopsmiling.’
‘I can’t help it. This was the greatestinvestment of my life.’
It was a forced investment though.
While the owner and his spirit weretalking happily, Dargon and Oros epted their reality while disying mixedemotions. The House of Mammon’s owner was far more than just an ordinarywarrior.
Skull put the hammer down and Catalinalooked at Yong-Ho with affection and respect. Even though her tail and earswere pping violently, Dargon and Oros were so focused on Yong-Ho that theydidn’t even realize the guard’s feelings.
Yong-Ho walked towards the table. Thetable no longer represented equality. The moment Yong-Ho took his seat, he wasnow at the head of the table.
***
“I will now provide an exnationabout Agares.”
Ophelia was in charge of the meeting.She stood in front of a portable ckboard that held various data on it andpointed to the map of the southern empty region.
“Agares is currently located in theHouse of Ale’s dungeon, which is located to the east of the Free City.ording to the scout team, it seems like Agares isn’t even trying to hide.The soldiers that Agares has gathered from the other dungeons are currentlygathering there.”
Agares ate the owner of the House ofAle as well as the members of the dungeon.
Oros knew about Agares, but he couldn’thelp but frown. It looked like he really wanted to smoke.
“Currently, we believe that Agares hasabout 700 to 1,000 soldiers.”
Foras and Jungceros had about 100-200soldiers, so whenparing to that, Agares really had a lot of soldiers.
Ophelia then exined about the threepowers in the Free City. The number was correct, so Dargon and Oros gulped onceagain. It couldn’t be helped, they felt like they were sitting there naked infront of Yong-Ho.
From the pub, about 70 of them wereable to fight.
The worker’s guild and the ouw grouphad about 100 soldiers each, so the pub had the least when looking at just thenumbers, but the soldiers that Ophelia picked were just as strong as the othertwo groups.
“This is a life and death situation forthe Free City, so I’m sure we’ll be able to gather more soldiers. Since we alsohave a fortress, we shouldn’t have that big of a disadvantage.”
The bigger the group was, the strongerit would be.
This wasmon sense during war and italso worked that way in the demon world. However it wasn’tpletely identicalto the human world.
Magic was also used in the demon world.
If one has extremely strong mana, theywere able to rece 10s, maybe 100s of soldiers. In the demon world, onesoldier had the ability to change the entire flow of war.
The result of this war depended onAgares’s existence.
The reason why the Free City’s leadersasked for Yong-Ho’s help was because they needed someone to fight Agares withthem.
Ophelia continued her exnation.
It was regarding Agares’s army and hispowers that were somewhat known in the demon world.
One week after the meeting.
Agares’s army left the House of Ale’s dungeon.
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