“Aigo. You don’t have to go this far to help me.”

“It’s nothing. I’m doing it because I want to.”

The old man smiled warmly at the boy who carried his load for him. “I don’t know whose son you are, but your parents must be very proud of you.”

“Thank you.” The boy scratched the back of his head and began to climb the mountain with the old man. A sad expression flashed across his face, but he quickly smiled again. The shadow watching from a distance became emotional.

After becoming Yeon-woo’s subordinate, Hanreyong had been so busy regaining his strength and helping Yeon-woo that he didn’t have time to worry about his son. It was also partly because Yeon-woo was taking care of his son like he’d promised. However, seeing it with his own eyes made him feel relieved.

He heard that his son had quit drugs and was working at a general store to earn a small living. After following him around all day, it looked like he really was living a decent life. He was polite to customers and helped strangers from time to time—he was nothing at all like the son Hanryeong knew.

For a moment, Hanryeong had wondered if he found the right person. Later, he wondered if his son was only acting like this in the day and doing something else at night, but that didn’t seem to be the case. He really had turned over into a new leaf.

He didn’t have competence as a player, but he was still behaving like a human. What had Yeon-woo done to make this happen? He shook his head. ‘I must have raised him badly.’

Hanryeong had done everything he could for Hanbin, but he hadn’t been there when Hanbin needed him the most, and that was probably why Hanbin had turned out the way he did. It wasn’t an excuse—he’d hurt many people and because of him, the sixteenth floor had nearly been destroyed.

However, seeing his son’s transformation made Hanryeong’s heart feel at ease. ‘Faceless…’ He thought of his encounter with Faceless at the Monkey King’s Palace.

“Hehe, I didn’t think I’d meet you here! My dear friend!” That wasn’t Faceless. Faceless had many faces, but the one who appeared was someone whom he thought was dead or dying. ‘Sword God.’

Hanryeong clenched his fists. ‘I wondered where you were hiding all this time…’

Faceless was considered one of the Six New Stars, but he was a player who had been in the Tower for quite a bit. He was pretty famous for his act, but he wasn’t very popular because he wasn’t that skilled. However, after Red Dragon’s sudden demise, he had been on the rise.

The Sword God was Faceless—or rather, he’d disguised himself as Faceless. ‘He probably swallowed the real Faceless.’ The Sword God was crazy about martial arts, but he hadn’t completely ignored other skills. It was entirely possible that he’d used other methods and arts to avoid those who were looking for him. However, there was one thing that complicated the situation: ‘He isn’t just one person.’

As a Death Noble, he knew that there were many souls other than the Sword God’s inside Faceless’ body. And to make it worse, he recognized most of them. ‘Mubyeol, Cadik, Heebaeksul, Sey, Tyler…and even Flang.’ They were all the subordinates who had been ready to give their lives for the Sword God. They were the swords that helped the Cheonghwado be part of the Eight Large Clans.

They were all with the Sword God, even the person he least expected: Flang. He was the Martial King’s younger brother and one of the founders of the Cheonghwado. There were other souls as well, but most of them were from the Cheonghwado. Faceless was a walking Cheonghwado.

Because there were too many souls in one body, he had difficulty functioning. His body creaked with just a little movement and the dominant personality changed frequently. But Hanryeong was sure that Faceless would overcome those constraints and become complete again. He might even reach a higher peak than the Sword God did since he could process the thoughts of many people at the same time.

The Sword God Hanryeong remembered never crumbled in front of an obstacle and always forced himself forward. That was how he had gone from a mute to one of the Nine Kings.

“I’ll see you next time if fate allows it.” Faceless had told Hanryeong before the cave collapsed.

To this day, Hanryeong felt frustrated and uncomfortable. Even if he turned back time, he would do the same thing. Even so, he’d been the cause of the Cheonghwado’s destruction. He’d already told Yeon-woo everything he knew about Faceless, and Yeon-woo had reassured him that he didn’t need to worry about anything. However, he still felt uneasy.

Since Faceless could see that he was with Yeon-woo now, unless Faceless was a fool, he’d know who was behind the Cheonghwado’s destruction.

『Hanryeong, where are you?』 At that moment, he heard Yeon-woo’s voice through their connection. It was time to go back. After replying that he was on his way, he looked at his son for a while and disappeared into the shadows.

“Hm?” Hanbin paused and looked around. He had definitely felt a familiar presence.

“What’s wrong?”

“N-nothing. Let’s continue.” Hanbin shook his head and began to walk with the old man again.

* * *

“Uncle! Are you going to go to work again?! No fair!”

Yeon-woo held the whining Sesha up high. “I’ll be back soon.”

“Hmph. That’s what you said last time. And Brahm’s going with you this time, too.”

Yeon-woo knew that she was upset because Brahm, who took care of her often, was going away as well, and he smiled.

“Bring me a Melona ice cream when you come back!”

“What?”

“What you made last time was really good! Make it for me again!”

Yeon-woo burst out laughing. He patted her back and reassured her that he would. Also, he desperately hoped he would have good news for Sesha when he returned.

“Don’t worry. I’ll take care of Sesha. Even if I couldn’t, everyone in this village is happy to care for her.” The Head Elder adjusted his glasses as he took Sesha from Yeon-woo. The fights between the village boys had grown worse every day thanks to her.

Yeon-woo waved and returned to his companions. Henova was looking at Sesha with a stiff expression. “That child is…”

“Yes. Jeong-woo’s daughter.”

“I…see.” He nodded. He had seen her from time to time when he was making the Philosopher’s Stone, but he hadn’t realized who she was. Even though she called Yeon-woo her uncle, he thought it was just a sign of affection.

“Would you like to hold her?”

Henova hesitated for a bit and carefully held Sesha as though she would break. Sesha’s eyes widened. “Uncle! This kid grandfather is weird!”

Kid grandfather. Yeon-woo held in the laughter that was about to escape his lips. Others looked away with red faces as well. Henova patted Sesha with his short arms and returned her with a sigh. Then, he glared at Yeon-woo with narrowed eyes. “Seems like rudeness is a family trait.”

“It seems that way.” Yeon-woo looked at his companions. Khan, Doyle, Victoria, Creutz. And in addition to that, Brahm, Galliard, and Henova. Eight people in total. The number of people in his party had grown. Considering how he only wanted to be on his own when he first entered the Tower, a lot had changed.

“I’m going to open the path now.” Brahm ripped the scroll in his hand. A red portal appeared under their feet using Yeon-woo’s coordinates since he had already been to Tartarus.

They could see the black sky of Tartarus beyond the portal. As they were about to enter, the Martial King waved at Yeon-woo from the roof of Brahm’s cottage. “Sir Disciple? Would you please come here for a second?”

Yeon-woo’s eyes widened at his teacher’s sudden appearance and asked his companions to wait so that he could speak with the Martial King. “Yes, sir?”

“You should clean up your own shit.”

Yeon-woo looked at him with questioning eyes, and the Martial King tossed a piece of paper at him as though he couldn’t be bothered to reply. Yeon-woo caught the paper easily and read it. His eyes turned grim. “This is…”

“The Devil Army has declared war.”

In the name of our god, we declare a holy war on our enemy, the Hoarder, for disturbing the actions of our god. Punishment will also fall on the ruffians, heretics, and immoral people who follow the Hoarder.

“As you can see, they’re saying they’re gonna kill everyone who helps you. They’re shitting on me too, right?” The Martial King continued with an annoyed face. “And that Gluttony bastard should just quietly eat his crackers in his room, but he’s saying he’s working with you and those black salamanders to beat up those white lizards.” He was referring to Black Dragon and White Dragon. “And those Magic Tower jackasses must’ve been shot in the head because they made an alliance or whatever and they’re targeting you.”

Yeon-woo thought of the way Boo had melted Doctor Doom and Necropolis.

“The Elohim, those sons of bitches. are also acting up again. And that Iron Lion Clan is gathering mercenaries too.”

Four of the Eight Large Clans were moving. The Magic Towers hadn’t been able to show their full power because of their internal struggles, but if they were truly united, they would become a force to be reckoned with. If Iron Lion rounded up all the mercenaries, it would become a mighty force too. It could turn into a great war.

“But this is all with you at the center. What kind of mess have you been making?” The Martial King’s eyes narrowed. He was smiling, but the air around him was chilling. “Because of Sir Disciple, our entire village will be involved in something annoying, so what should we do?”

However, Yeon-woo reacted in a nonchalant manner. “Is that it?”

The Martial King’s forehead wrinkled. “What?”

“It still needs to develop further. It’s not as serious as I was hoping.”

“You…you want a great war to happen?”

“If possible.”

“Ha! You crazy dipshit.” The Martial King gripped his forehead with an incredulous expression.

There had been lots of wars during the Tower’s thousands of years of history. However, there had only been a few that had been on such a large scale that they nearly wiped out half of the population. One of the most famous wars was the legendary Great Second Dragon Extermination War.

The Draconic species had wanted to open a path to the ninety-eighth floor to regain their divinity, but Allforone blocked them on the seventy-seventh floor. The result of the war was the extinction of the Draconic species, who had ruled the Tower at the time. If the young Summer Queen hadn’t survived, the entire Draconic species would’ve died out.

There were a few more great wars after that, and each time, there were changes to the hierarchy of the Tower. That was what Yeon-woo was talking about. The Martial King found it unbelievable, but Yeon-woo’s eyes were more serious than ever.

“Please just ignore what’s going on. War won’t break out that easily anyway. The situation will grow beyond their expectations, and they’ll be too busy being suspicious of each other. As long as the fire in the furnace isn’t lit, there will only be talks of alliances.”

“And you’re going to light the furnace?”

Yeon-woo didn’t say anything. The Martial King’s eyes grew thoughtful and a corner of his mouth rose. His smile looked mocking from one angle and mischievous from a different one. “Is this the picture that you wanted to draw?”

“Yes.”

“Then Sir Disciple’s drawing skills are excellent.”