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—Being genuine also depends on the circumstances.

“What?”

—Just bowing down isn’t the answer. There are people who you should do that to and those you shouldn’t.

Philip spoke like a master teaching his disciple.

“Then just now…”

—To make an analogy, the natives are like grass.

Philip continued.

—They take it for granted that they will get trampled on like weeds. Then what does it mean when they suddenly gather together and try not to get trampled on anymore? That means there’s a good reason for their behavior.

—Then you shouldn’t try to trample on them like usual. Rather, you should show them that you are willing to get trampled on instead.

—Come to think of it, you told me you were just a regular person where you came from, right?

Chi-Woo answered Philip’s sudden question with an affirmative.

—Then there must also be someone similar to a king there. Imagine if such a person bowed and apologized politely to you.

—How would you feel?

Of course—Chi-Woo would be surprised. He would be at a complete loss and not know what to do. Since the president of a country was going so far, he would think he should back down. Only then did Chi-Woo understand how the natives felt.

—The important thing is being on eye level. Your attitude needs to differ based on the situation and who your opponent is.

“Yes, I understand.”

Philip smacked his lips as he saw Chi-Woo nodded. First of all, it was good that Chi-Woo was ready to learn, and he was probably digesting the scene he just witnessed through his own lens. However, whether it was in the right direction was a whole different matter. Frankly, Philip thought there was little chance that Chi-Woo would be able to solve this problem smoothly. It was not that he didn’t acknowledge Chi-Woo as a hero; he was already a great hero. However, the problem this time lay in Chi-Woo’s personality, or in short, his innate nature. His natural disposition was completely at odds with his current status.

From Philip’s perspective, Chi-Woo didn’t like standing on top of anyone. Philip couldn’t understand him at all. A man should have the inherent desire to stand on top of others at least once. However, for some reason, Chi-Woo was extremely reluctant to do so, as if it was something to be avoided at all cost. Anyway, this was it. Philip had helped more than enough. Moreover, he wasn’t the only one who advised Chi-Woo; there was Eval Sevaru, and Chi-Hyun had also told him many times how he should behave himself.

Of course, they hadn’t told Chi-Woo exactly what to do, and everyone wanted Chi-Woo to come to the realization and break out of the eggshell by himself. One thing was for certain—unless Chi-Woo realized the true meaning behind people’s request for him to speak informally from now on, which Hawa had unintentionally set in motion, it would be a long way for Chi-Woo to rise to Master tier.

* * *

Encouraged by Philip’s demonstration, Chi-Woo immediately decided to take action. He waited for the appropriate time and contacted the influential tribes in the League. Of course, it wasn’t as easy as when Philip was doing it because they were not natives, but tribes with their own respective strengths. Still, in Chi-Woo’s perspective, he thought he made some progress.

“Fine, fine! I got it! Okay!” Because of his extreme persistence, Mangil from the buhguhbu tribe raised both hands in surrender. “We’ll stay quiet so just do whatever you want! But that’s it. We’ll only refrain from voicing our opposition, and if you expect more than that, you’ll put us in a tight spot. We also won’t provide any support for those Demon Empire bastards to settle in Shalyh.” Mangil growled as if to make it clear that it was his bottom line. Chi-Woo decided to be content with that since they had changed from refusing to ever accept the Demon Empire to giving in.

Persuading the half-demon tribe was a bit more difficult. “Damn it! I told you I got it! Do whatever you want!” Murumuru slammed the door with a furious expression. Since their tribe hated the Demon Empire more than any other tribes, they probably had a difficult time accepting the demons. While they didn’t completely accept the Demon Empire, they agreed to recognize the Demon Empire’s surrender with caveats.

Eval Sevaru, who was trying to coordinate the situation as best as possible, listened to Chi-Woo with an absurd expression. “No…why all of a sudden… Boss, weren’t you planning to go slowly…?”

Chi-Woo replied, “It’s hard to change the way people feel in a short period of time, but we can’t just leave the Demon Empire hanging outside forever.”

“That’s…”

“We need to first let them in after asking for others\' understanding. Helping them settle down will come next. We need to give them a chance. A chance for the Demon Empire to create its own justification.”

He wasn’t wrong, but then why did he… Eval Sevaru backed down with a grim expression while thinking, ‘What’s gotten into him again?’

Philip sighed and shook his head. A few days later, in the name of Seven Stars with Chi-Woo leading the effort, the surrender of the Demon Empire and their entry into Shalyh were officially decided.

* * *

At the same time, in a white space where several giants were gathered, a heavy silence passed between them. The giants, in various shapes and sizes, silently mused while watching the scene at the center. Among them, a general with a guangdo spoke.

—This is a bit…too much.

—Why?

A stunning, beautiful woman with nine tails immediately responded.

—From what I see, he’s trying hard enough.

—If effort were everything, I wouldn’t say much either. No, should I even consider that effort?

The woman with nine tails sharply refuted.

—If you’re referring to the possession, that spirit belongs to that child. Is there a problem when he’s just using what he got?

—I felt this before, but the way you think is way too different from mine.

—And he actually produced results. Since they accepted it in the end.

—I don’t think I can continue conversing with you.

The White Horse General and Miho both looked at a particular god. Mamiya, who was stuck between them once again, responded with a bitter smile. Since he was the one who set this condition, he needed to pitch in with his thoughts as well.

—Embrace the darkness. It’s the condition that I gave. Embrace means to benevolently hold or accept another but…looking at the present, it’s questionable whether I can use embrace to describe the situation. Ah, of course, it’s also true that there is room for interpretations depending on what perspective you choose to focus on.

Mamiya started out negative, but corrected himself at the end when Miho glared at him. Then he continued.

—Well, even if that’s the case, I wonder what La Bella thinks…

He tossed the baton to La Bella because her condition as well as his were at stake in this case. Then La Bella, who had been fiddling with the scale in her hand, suddenly raised her arm. Mamiya and Miho were aghast as she seemed ready to throw her scale. That would mean Chi-Woo’s attempt to rise to Master tier was a failure—one god’s opposition was all it took to put a stop to the promotion test.

—La Bella? Let’s wait a bit more.

Mamiya hurriedly stopped La Bella.

—I admire and praise you for making a fair decision without any hesitation even though he’s your apostle. Should I say it’s as expected of the daughter of justice and the goddess of Libra who protects balance? However, don’t you think it’s too early to make a judgment when things are not over yet…?

Without any regards to his words, La Bella was about to throw her scale when—

—Wait a minute!

Miho cried out hastily.

—Can’t you give him one more chance with this?

La Bella’s eyes briefly shifted to the center.

There was…

* * *

“This is not it,” Chi-Hyun muttered shortly. “This isn’t right.” He repeated himself while looking down at the document in his hand. Noel, who was responsible for giving him the report, looked at Chi-Hyun with nervous eyes. He said he wouldn’t intervene, and Chi-Hyun really kept his words. However, this didn’t mean that he had completely withdrawn his attention; quite the contrary, he had been watching Chi-Woo with keen interest, and initially, he had been a little pleasantly surprised.

When the hostility towards the Demon Empire was at its peak, the atmosphere among the natives changed somewhat within a few days. Their hostility hadn’t disappeared, but it was clearly subsiding as days went by. The first step Chi-Woo had taken was not bad—no, it was rather impressive. Chi-Hyun had truly thought so until he looked into what really happened. He was stunned, but even then, he still decided to wait patiently, but things got worse and worse.

“Stupid punk…” Chi-Hyun whispered to himself. He had thought it was too early, but even then, he tried to at least consider Chi-Woo’s determination. If things went on like this, it was safe to say that Chi-Woo’s promotion to Master tier would become a pipe’s dream; even if they were to disregard Mamiya’s condition, Chi-Woo had definitely gone against La Bella’s conditions. Chi-Woo wasn’t able to become the backbone of humanity nor fix the balance; rather, he was disrupting the balance.

Chi-Hyun couldn’t let things go like this; even if he had to twist the flow, he needed to obtain one more chance from La Bella for Chi-Woo.

“Noel.” When Chi-Hyun called out to her, Noel, who had been anxiously fretting, flinched. She didn’t want to believe it, but as expected…

“W-What?” Noel was shocked after hearing Chi-Hyun’s words.

“What’s the problem?”

“But…then…”

“….Noel Freya.” Chi-Hyun’s eyes narrowed as he saw Noel hesitate. “Who was the one who swore to do everything I ordered you to if I just allowed you to follow me?”

“Ah…”

“Or has your subject of loyalty changed?”

“My apologies!” Panic-stricken, Noel immediately bent down and said, “I’ll do as you say, my lord.” Noel chewed her lower lip after speaking and thought to herself, ‘He’s fucked.’

* * *

Under the guidance of Seven Stars, the Demon Empire entered Shalyh. Chi-Woo had expected this, but they were not welcome. Cold glares came from all sides. As this was Chi-Woo’s decision, no one dared to come forward and publicly criticize it, but the agitated and tense atmosphere surrounding the city made it clear what the residents of Shalyh were thinking. In fact, no one lent a helping hand in the process of laying the groundwork for the Demon Empire to settle down.

Seven Stars had succeeded in securing an area for the Demon Empire by making an inquiry to the official residence in advance, but the real problem came after that. Construction work needed to be carried out, but the buhguhbus made it clear that they were not going to do anything for the Demon Empire. Given the circumstances, it was difficult for other groups to come forward. According to Eval Sevaru, the atmosphere made it so that anyone stepping up to help would be branded a traitor. Due to all these factors, Seven Stars had to take charge of everything. Eval Sevaru couldn’t handle the work alone, so they even needed to hold a meeting to redistribute work.

“I’m still doubtful to be honest if we have to accept them by going this far,” Yeriel complained and expressed her dissatisfaction. Thanks to the AI Armor she created, the finances of Seven Stars were more abundant than ever. Yeriel had planned to reinvest most of the earnings into research and development, but her plan was now put on hold indefinitely. Since the request for funding to the official residence was taking a long time to be reviewed, Seven Stars had to use their own money to create a base for the Demon Empire.

Yeriel continued, “I find it a bit hard to agree to. Well, I know it can’t be helped since oppa’s promotion to Master tier is on the line, but…that fucking Mamiya bastard, why did he give such a shitty ass condition.”

Chi-Woo smiled bitterly. She wasn’t wrong, and it was a sharp criticism that he needed to face sooner or later. It might be better to get hit by them now. Chi-Woo said, “I know all of you are busy, but please pay great attention to your respective tasks. As you all know, there’s going to be quite a significant amount of hostilities from the residents.”

“Hostility would be the least of our problems.” Yunael pitched in. The problem wasn’t going to just end with hostile feelings from the residents; there were more groups with a grudge. They were all quiet now because of Chi-Woo, but there was no guarantee that this would last forever. It wouldn’t be strange for an incident to break out at any time, especially in a place out of reach for Seven Stars.

Since Chi-Woo was also well aware of this, he strongly emphasized his following words, “I’ll also do my best, but whenever anyone has the time, please patrol the temporary base, and if you see a bad situation, sort it out so that problems won’t arise.” Then he added, “Anyway, all of you are the only ones I can trust right now, so please do this favor for me. It’s okay even if it’s only for a while, so please pay attention to the Demon Empire and don’t create problems that’ll earn us more criticism than now.”

Regardless of what they each thought, everyone here followed the leader’s decision, and they all nodded without much difficulty. After the meeting, Chi-Woo was about to leave at the very end when—

“Boss!” The door suddenly burst open, and one person rushed in—it was Eval Sevaru.

“I have…grave news!” Eval Sevaru was in such a hurry that he didn’t even steady his breathing before shouting. Chi-Woo wondered what the hell was going on, and as expected, it really was grave news.

“The official residence has refused funding.”

“What…did you say?”

Eval Sevaru wasn’t done. “And they announced that the area that was temporarily allocated for the Demon Empire can also be taken back according to future discussion…”

Chi-Woo’s brows trembled. He was already baffled that the funding he thought he would receive for sure was rejected, but the temporary zone was also going to be taken back? This could only mean one thing—the surrender of the Demon Empire, which was officialized by the leadership of Seven Stars, was going back to square one.

“By whose order?”

“By the legend’s.”

Chi-Woo’s expression stiffened at Eval’s reply. “There’s no way…” His brother had definitely told him he was going to just stay still.

“I don’t know what’s going on either…but it’s certain that the legend has stepped forward.” Eval Sevaru confirmed what Chi-Woo still found hard to believe and continued, “All the leading groups in Shalyh except for you, boss, have been called for a meeting. He gathered everyone’s opinions and expressed his. Soon, a meeting to officially discuss this matter will take place…”

There was only one reason why no one had been able to publicly voice their dissent even though they were full of complaints about the Demon Empire—it was all because of Chi-Woo. It had been the same case before; Chi-Woo had played such a big role in the recent war that no one dared to voice their opposition, and everyone was tactfully keeping their mouth shut. All except for one person, and after being silent the whole time, the man finally opened his mouth.

The one revered by all, the legend, Choi Chi-Hyun expressed his opposition to Chi-Woo’s decision. The situation that Chi-Woo had managed to bring about began to fluctuate violently once again.