The Return of The Mythical Archmage [EN]: Chapter 108

About ten minutes before Shin Inhyuk called Shin Hayul.

Right after the three executives escaped from the 3rd Mana Stone Warehouse.

Shin Inhyuk called for a car and returned straight to the hotel where he was staying.

Inside the limousine heading to the hotel.

The driver asked Shin Inhyuk with a worried expression.

“Are you alright, Head of the Family?”

He had been Shin Inhyuk’s exclusive driver in the Mado Shin family for over 30 years, but this was the first time he had seen Shin Inhyuk look so exhausted.

Shin Inhyuk’s condition was that bad.

“I just used a bit too much mental power. You don’t have to worry.”

The Mado Shin family’s secret magic, All Elemental, was so powerful that it consumed a great deal of mental power.

He had used such magic in succession, so there was no way his mental power would be okay.

“Shall I call a specialist?”

“There’s no need for that.”

He knew his own condition best. This level of mental exhaustion would recover after a good night’s rest. There was no reason to call someone.

“Then, would you like to close your eyes until we arrive?”

“…Yes. Please do.”

“Yes, I understand.”

The driver turned off the light in the back seat. At the same time, he lowered the partition separating the driver’s seat and the back seat.

The high-end limousine’s blackout curtains, which blocked out all light and even sound, completely surrounded the back seat.

In the dark world.

The car’s engine sound could only be heard faintly from below.

“Hoo.”

In the midst of that, Shin Inhyuk slowly closed his eyes.

He tried to fall asleep slowly, forcibly suppressing the throbbing in his head due to mental exhaustion, but.

“…Tsk.”

The voice file that Shin Hayul had sent earlier came to mind, and he couldn’t fall asleep.

‘Your VVIP customer is one of your brothers or sisters. I heard you made a connection four years ago.’

The words that came out of the mouth of the assailant who attacked Shin Hayul.

Those words made Shin Inhyuk’s already throbbing head even more complicated.

‘I had a hunch, but…’

Shin Inhyuk wasn’t a fool either.

If someone in the family was targeting Shin Hayul, he had long expected that it was highly likely to be Shin Jihan or Shin Se-ah, who were directly competing for the position of head of the family.

That’s why he had Kim Seokhyun and Shadow monitor Shin Jihan and Shin Se-ah.

While also investigating other members.

Fortunately, no suspicious points were found in this process.

He had thoroughly investigated, worrying about the aftermath if a direct descendant of the family was an informant of the Black Magic Tower, but he really couldn’t find anything suspicious.

That’s why Shin Inhyuk was secretly relieved.

That his own children had not abandoned their filial duty.

‘You fools.’

But that was Shin Inhyuk’s delusion. Shin Jihan or Shin Se-ah. One of them made the foolish choice to join hands with the Black Magic Tower.

They committed the heinous act of harming their own sibling by using the Black Magic Tower.

Shin Inhyuk was as angry as he could be at that fact.

Of course, there was a possibility that it wasn’t true.

The only evidence was the words that came out of The Fist’s mouth. He could have lied.

But.

‘There’s no reason for him to lie like that in that situation.’

The recording file that Shin Hayul sent to Shin Inhyuk contained the entire process from when the hotel collapsed to when The Fist was subdued.

The Fist’s personality as seen in the recording file.

His tone and intonation.

The mental superiority of having the strongest magic for a great mage, the Colosseum of Gladiators [a place where mages compete], and the inferiority complex that could be seen in the word ‘elite’.

Considering these things, the possibility of The Fist lying in that situation was extremely low.

In the first place, if he was going to lie, he wouldn’t have said ‘one of your brothers or sisters’, but would have pointed out someone specifically.

After denying it once, he gave a comprehensive answer, which further increased the credibility of his words.

‘Which one of the two is it?’

The key point now is not whether one of the two is an informant.

It’s which one of Shin Jihan and Shin Se-ah is the informant.

Shin Inhyuk’s brow furrowed even more sharply.

‘First of all, Hayul is likely to know which one of the two is the informant.’

The calm reaction Shin Hayul showed when he heard the truth from The Fist.

That was a reaction that could not be shown by someone who did not know the truth of the incident in advance.

In the first place, if he didn’t know in advance, he wouldn’t have sent the recording file so quickly.

Shin Hayul definitely knew something.

Shin Inhyuk took out his phone and called Shin Hayul.

“The voice recording file you sent. I heard it.”

And he said this abruptly.

“Jihan and Se-ah. Which one is it?”

The answer came back immediately.

-I don’t think this is something to discuss over the phone.

Shin Hayul replied in a very serious voice.

-I’ll tell you in person.

* * *

After driving for about 30 minutes, I arrived at the hotel where my father was staying.

I went straight to my father’s room and told him everything I had been hiding.

“That’s the end of it.”

The story didn’t go on for long.

There wasn’t much to talk about in the first place.

On the day of the Leng Smith incident, when I gathered my siblings to test the culprit, only Shin Jihan showed a different reaction to the news of Leng Smith’s arrest.

That was all I could say.

I couldn’t say anything more since I hadn’t caught any other evidence besides this incident.

“Why are you telling me this now?”

“Because you wouldn’t have believed me even if I had told you.”

At the time of the Leng Smith incident, I was a complete nobody with nothing.

My words had no power.

Even if I had talked about Shin Jihan at that time, my father wouldn’t have listened to me.

“Unless I had caught solid evidence. I didn’t think I could convince my father with just circumstantial evidence.”

At that time, when trust with my father had not been fully restored, if I had brought up unnecessary things, I could have received the backlash instead.

That’s why I kept my mouth shut.

“And there was no evidence at all in the Baengnyeong Island incident.”

I couldn’t find any evidence that Shin Jihan had interfered in the Baengnyeong Island incident.

In that incident, I didn’t keep my mouth shut, I just had nothing to say.

“…I see.”

My father was lost in thought with a complicated expression.

I remained silent for a long time while my father finished thinking.

About 10 minutes passed.

“I understand the situation.”

My father opened his mouth with an even sharper expression.

“Go out. I’ll take care of the rest.”

I couldn’t ask what he meant by that.

I didn’t have the courage to ask questions in front of my father with such a fierce aura.

“Yes.”

I quietly got up from my seat and headed out of the room.

“Then, please get some rest.”

I bowed my head one last time and left the room.

‘That’s the first time I’ve seen my father so scary.’

I felt a little sympathy for Shin Jihan, who would face my father with that kind of aura.

* * *

Three days had passed since the incident.

The 3rd Mana Stone Warehouse attack and the attacks on each team’s hotel were quietly handled.

The 3rd Mana Stone Warehouse attack was an incident that was originally planned to be handled quietly.

The attacks on each team’s hotel were also decided to be handled quietly since there were no casualties.

Well, it was said to be handled quietly, but it was practically a cover-up.

I heard that the Olympiad side paid a huge amount of money to bury the incident.

They couldn’t stop the Olympiad, which was reaching its climax, by revealing the incident.

Besides, they didn’t want to leave a precedent that Olympiad participants had been attacked.

Anyway, due to such adult circumstances, the incident was not revealed to the public.

“A mana disaster. How did it hit the hotel at that exact timing?”

Of course, the fact that the Korean team’s hotel was destroyed couldn’t be completely hidden, so it was disguised as another incident.

A mana disaster, not an attack.

The hotel where the Korean team was staying was completely destroyed due to a natural disaster that humans could not control.

That’s how they roughly covered it up.

“I know, right? It’s a miracle that no one was injured.”

Fortunately, no one was suspicious.

In the first place, a mana disaster is a disaster that humans cannot control. It’s an abnormal phenomenon that can happen at any time.

The fact that such a phenomenon suddenly occurred and wiped out the hotel was something that could happen.

“I was about to go back to the hotel after winning 3rd place in a good mood, and when I heard that the hotel had disappeared, I was so surprised. I thought I was being filmed for a hidden camera show.”

Soonchan laughed in disbelief, as if he couldn’t believe it even after thinking about it again.

“Me too. This is the first time I’ve ever experienced something like this in my life.”

“If it had happened while we were resting… Ugh, that’s terrible.”

Senior Jin Heeyoon made a ‘hiya’ sound and laughed, and Senior Ma Jinseok shuddered.

“But what should I say about this? Should I say that people who are meant to succeed will succeed no matter what…? This is how it turned out.”

Soonchan, who was surfing the web on his phone, turned on the hologram broadcast mode and showed everyone the screen he was looking at.

[Korea, a country writing a new history in the Olympiad! The adversity that has befallen that country!]

[A strong country that does not give in to adversity! Korea!]

[Shin Hayul, despite being injured in the incident, has announced that he will participate in the next match.]

[The entire nation of Korea is worried about Shin Hayul’s fighting spirit despite his injury.]

It’s like putting a nose ring on a nose or an earring on an ear [a Korean idiom meaning something that is obvious].

But this is an over-packaging that far exceeds the level of over-packaging.

“If we win this, the article will say that we won despite the adversity of a natural disaster, right?”

“I know, right? It’s 100% going to happen.”

“No, more than that, what’s with Shin Leader’s fighting spirit despite his injury? Didn’t he say he wasn’t hurt?”

Jin Heeyoon and Ma Jinseok said alternately.

“I did get hurt. It was just a small bruise. But even that healed in a day.”

“They packaged it like this? Wow…”

Jin Heeyoon clapped his hands, saying it was really amazing.

“Whatever it is, it’s good that the spotlight on us is getting stronger.”

“Should we practice signing autographs?”

“When we go back to Korea, will there be fans lined up at the airport?”

The seniors laughed playfully.

“Yeah. Maybe not for you guys. Do you know how hard it was for us because you guys were eliminated on the first day?”

“Hey. That was unavoidable.”

“Isn’t it a miracle that two of us survived in that situation?”

“That’s right. We made a righteous sacrifice~ That’s what I’m saying.”

The two seniors stepped forward confidently, as if they were saying ‘so what’.

But what they said wasn’t wrong. Considering the situation of the Korean team at that time, it was a miracle that they weren’t all eliminated.

Rather, those two seniors volunteered to sacrifice themselves so that Senior Jin Heeyoon or Soonchan could survive.

If you think about it that way, it was a noble sacrifice.

“Yeah. But you’re still the ones who were eliminated at lightning speed, right?”

“Ah, come on. You’re getting on my nerves?”

“Geez. Don’t expect me to sacrifice myself again next time.”

Senior Jin Heeyoon knows that too. He’s just joking like that, knowing it. The other two seniors are also laughing and responding like that because they know that Senior Jin Heeyoon is joking.

“Hoo. Now it feels like the gold medal is already in my mouth.”

“In your mouth? It’s already in my esophagus.”

3rd place in the Battle Survival overall standings.

And it’s 3rd place with not much difference from 2nd place.

With this, we can secure a gold medal if we win just one of the remaining three matches.

“Ah, right. Did you all see this?”

Soonchan seemed to realize something and manipulated his phone to display a new screen.

[Korea, writing a new history in the Olympiad.]

“I saw this and realized. If we win all three of our remaining matches, it’ll be the highest score in Olympiad history, right?”

“Ooh!”

“Is that possible?”

“Okay. That’s our next goal.”

The seniors’ eyes lit up.

Then they started drinking the kimchi soup, getting ahead of themselves.

“Adela just needs to beat Kyle and Dahlia in the individual matches.”

But it’s not just wishful thinking. It’s not like there’s no possibility of winning all three matches.

“…I’ll try my best.”

Adela’s eyes shone sharply with fighting spirit.

“It’s not like there’s no chance of winning at all.”

“Ooh. That’s good confidence.”

The seniors made a fuss, looking at Adela.

‘That’s a relief. I was worried that the atmosphere would become depressed.’

With the hotel being destroyed, I was worried that the atmosphere would become gloomy.

It seems like it was an unnecessary worry.

I chuckled as I looked at the noisy and excited seniors and friends.

Bzzzt-!

At that moment.

My phone rang.

[Sender: Kim Seokhyun]

It was a text message from Uncle Seokhyun.

I quickly checked the text message.

[The Fist. Dan McKelley says he wants to meet with you directly to make a deal.]