Each One’s Fourth Year! (2)

Unusually many inns lined the area beside the square and the north road. For some reason, numerous representatives were staying along that inn street.

I say “were” because no representatives stay at the northern inns anymore.

No — the inns themselves are gone.

There was only one reason things had reached this point: the clashes between the Demon God and Heavenly God factions had intensified.

What began as media plays against each other escalated bit by bit until it turned bloody.

It started when discarded representatives—those beaten and abandoned by their factions—were discovered.

Because the Demon God faction had a relatively high proportion of female representatives, victims appeared first among them.

There were successive incidents of abduction, rape, and sexual assault. Sometimes even male representatives suffered the same.

It only seemed sudden because many incidents broke out at once; in truth, this had been happening for some time.

Representatives of both factions didn’t always live together, and since the legion hadn’t been formally established, even when someone wanted to join a group there were too many people for that to be reported directly to Violentia.

So it was common to assume someone had simply been absent for a few days.

But one day in March, reports began to surface when a Demon God representative who had escaped from the Heavenly God faction revealed the Heavenly God’s atrocities to Exorsus, and the matter grew.

As if on cue, victims’ identities and stories poured out all at once.

About fifteen days later, Heavenly God representatives were found in alleys or secluded spots, their bodies ravaged or marked by magical wounds.

Believing this to be Violentia’s retaliation, Heavenly God representatives rose in fury—without pausing to consider what they themselves had done.

The two factions fought whenever they met, regardless of time or place.

Recognizing each other wasn’t difficult; after the series of incidents, few traveled alone.

They began moving in groups of at least five, so when groups met on the road they were immediately on guard.

Then group sizes swelled to ten, twenty people.

Those outmatched in skill increased their numbers to attack, and eventually groups of around a hundred began living nearby or renting entire inns.

The problem fell on the innkeepers.

Because a representative could rent an entire inn, their abuses toward continentals—whom they didn’t consider people—became indescribable.

Still, the innkeepers endured for their livelihood, until the rival faction of a representative who had rented an inn stormed it one night.

Starting with broken furnishings, magic and divine power eventually destroyed the inn.

From that inn, battles raged day after day at every inn where representatives stayed, and in the end none of the inns around the square remained.

Only after all the inns were ruined did the representatives of both factions briefly regret what they’d done—then shift all blame to the other side.

The more they pointed fingers, the sharper their rivalry became, and now they drew weapons at the mere sight of each other’s faces.

Continentals swept up and killed in the process could complain to no one.

At best, if an inn was destroyed one could petition the gardener for repair costs, but that was all.

Mental damage and bodily wounds inflicted by representatives remained uncompensated.

About 18,000 representatives belonging to Violentia and Benialis suffered constant fights and disputes,

Rebound Legion members endured grueling, blood-spitting training,

Other representatives faced their own situations,

Exorsus citizens wept,

Thus each was spending their fourth year in their own way.

The training that started in March filled the mansion with moans and cries of pain until June—but that only lasted until June.

The sounds gradually diminished, and now it had become commonplace to attack without flinching even with one or two holes in the body.

Seen that way, they looked like highly trained assassins, but they did not move solely to kill.

Their primary goal was to protect teammates centered on themselves; the next was to coordinate stronger attacks together.

Priests healed faster than anyone, so large wounds closed in an instant. More remarkable was that you couldn’t tell who was a priest just by movement.

No one carried staves or relics. Four priests in leather armor and mobile attire moved quickly and intermittently used magic.

That was the same in every faction.

This was all thanks to Mae Young-ryeong and Apher; after the two began training one person each, the effects gradually appeared.

The mages were no different.

They countered incoming magic with their own spells while constantly moving and maintaining formation in sync with their party.

And if a spell didn’t need to be blocked, they actively directed movement.

Organic movement—neither side could be said to be strictly better.

The result of brutal training that left no member without at least one severed limb or wound was evident here.

“How is it?”

“Ah, Master Talis… It’s… good.”

There was nothing to say but that it was good.

One-against-a-hundred? That’s the natural result if they stay in this mansion I prepared.

Excellent masters, efficient configurations, comfortable living and cozy facilities—plus the equipment I provide.

Not only Talis and Bioss, but what I wanted was thirty against ten thousand. If one representative can face a hundred, thirty together can face not three thousand but ten thousand.

It’s not that level yet, but the signs are slowly starting to show.

And I myself, who will lead them from the front, was gradually getting ready.

I answer Talis with a wry smile, though he doesn’t even turn his head.

“How is it? Have you started tasting Deicide and Destruction little by little?”

“It’s killing me.”

They’d lived like wrecks for nearly three months. Without Hazel, Lee Hyo-ju, and Mae Young-ryeong—who constantly comforted them despite being strained—they might not have held on.

Those days were tormenting and hard, but they endured. Now they had become accustomed to Deicide and Destruction.

“Can you extract it directly?”

“Occasionally. Maybe once in ten tries.”

“…Really?”

Talis, who’d been lazily chuckling and watching the fighting members, looked surprised and asked.

The reason he was surprised: what I extract are the Deicide energy called Deicide and the Destruction magic.

“Yes. We have to increase it gradually.”

Since even the Mesh hasn’t acknowledged it yet, the Setting likely considers my Deicide and Destruction incomplete.

So even now, watching the members, I’m repeatedly inducing Deicide and Destruction and then canceling it.

Talis turns his gaze back to the duelists and casually asks, “What will you do now?”

“Do what… Yeah. The situation has changed too much.”

Things had changed so much compared to when I planned after reverting from representative to civilian that the original plans fell apart.

Violentia wasn’t as strong as before—partly because of me, but looking at the result, that’s how it was.

As Benialis’s plans failed, the quality of those who followed him proved lower than expected.

Violentia and Benialis pursued quantitative expansion rather than accepting high-quality representatives as they once did.

As a result, the total number of representatives on both sides exceeded 18,000 and continued to grow.

And above all, I had grown stronger.

I figure that if my thirty-one-years-ago self fought the current me, I’d likely win—that’s how strong I’ve become.

Not only I, but Lee Hyo-ju, Hazel, Mae Young-ryeong, Naruan, Arun, and others were growing stronger by the day.

With the situation changing like this, most of the original plans no longer fit.

“What are you worrying about, you who dare be Talis’s disciple. There’s no need to hide everything—you can reveal up to half your strength!”

“Reveal it?”

“Ha! Look at this stupid disciple. Hey, you. Where’s the whining? You could go out and tussle with some shabby transcendent and win. Want to die? The situation changed, so just tweak the plan a bit. Efficiently.”

“Efficient…”

“Yes, efficiency.”

After that, until the members came out of the training ground the troops call the ‘field’ where terrain shifts, we fell silent.

‘Battlefield of the Gods’ year 4, the last day of September.

Exorsus was becoming the most chaotic and messy it had been since this Battlefield of the Gods began.

Especially for continentals, the situation worsened over time.

At first only a few hundred representatives ran amok. But as time passed their savagery spread like a trend, growing increasingly severe.

Exorsus citizens mostly avoided going outside, or if they did, they moved mainly at night.

One day, a commotion broke out in the square around the Garden of Gods.

Suddenly ten representatives dragged dozens of continentals stripped naked.

But none of the continentals who saw it intervened. They couldn’t.

Even though ten representatives had formed a ring, cackling as they groped the continentals and shouted insults, not one representative stepped in to stop them.

Some representatives even looked on with eager, excited faces or cheered.

“D-Don’t do this!”

A young woman resisted roughly against a representative trying to grope her chest. Her desperate struggle made the representative lose his posture.

“Y-You bitch!”

As his face flushed and he reached for his whip,

“Stop.”

A low, rough voice stopped him.

A man clad in seamless black leather armor with a subtle sheen.

He was Kim Han, who surprised not only the watching representatives but all the beings.

At Kim Han’s cold, irritated voice, the ten representatives flinched and glanced around.

They checked to see if Kim Han had brought anyone with him, which drew a sneer across his face.

Then, after confirming there was no one, the group of representatives sneered and laughed grimly.

“Well, well. Isn’t this the Exemplary Messenger? Hahaha. Came alone?”

“…Tch. I said stop. Let go of her hand and get lost.”

Kim Han’s voice remained cold. It was so icy that the representatives watching with interest all flinched, as if a blue blade hung over their necks.

“Y-Yo, you bastard!”

Starting with the man who reflexively drew his sword, they each brandished weapons—ten representatives against one.

“…Ha, fuck. Of all days, I come out rare today and you idiots cause trouble in a crowded square, you dogs.”

Kim Han’s voice seemed like a private murmur, but it lodged clearly in the ears of not only the ten representatives but every representative in the square.

They didn’t know Kim Han had infused his voice with divine power so that only representatives could hear it, not continentals.

So the dozens of citizens crouched beyond the surrounded continentals didn’t hear it either.

“What?!”

“Y-You bastard!!”

Kuuuuung—!

The ten representatives who charged suddenly bowed their heads and dropped to their knees.

The watching representatives sprang to their feet.

Those who had seen such a thing before whispered about it. The most surprised were the dozens of citizens dragged like slaves.

“Come this way for now.”

Unlike when he faced representatives, Kim Han’s reply to the continentals was warm, and without realizing it they rose and filed behind him.

Then, as if from nowhere, three mages appeared and handed out robes to cover their nakedness.

“Can’t you just live quietly? Huh? After exactly three months I can kill you. Hey you, whip—what’s your name?”

“Guh!!”

“Gak!”

“Huh!”

“Ugh!”

Were they unable to breathe? No—some tremendous force crushed the four, preventing them from rising.

“Ah… Too hard to speak? You couldn’t even open your mouths for this, and yet you picked a fight with me?”

Kim Han’s tone was languid, like someone complaining they’re being made to work while sleepy after a warm spring lunch.

“Ha… There’s still three months left, so I can’t even kill you yet—what to do?”

As if choosing between black bean noodles or spicy seafood noodles, Kim Han pondered while watching the representatives wheeze on the ground.

At that moment, the representative who had provoked Kim Han met his gaze.

An indifferent stare. The man trembled at Kim Han’s calm look, lowered as if killing a representative were nothing.

Only then did he realize whom he’d picked a fight with.

The apex predator.

Not a beast or monster. That gaze resembled the contempt his patron god gave him when looking down.

He had provoked someone he shouldn’t have touched.

“Guh… S-Save me…”

The man forced out a plea, begging to be spared and promising to stay quiet if spared.

“No, no. Letting someone like you go only causes trouble for me later. What should I do?”

After pondering for a long while, Kim Han pulled something out of the air with a soft whoosh.