00229 Catastrophe ———————————————— ————————=
The spiritual leader of the Golden Lion Clan, 9-year user Son Bun-rye. A user commonly known as the Godmother was murdered in the Eastern Mountains. Her body was so horribly mutilated that it was impossible to even look at it, and there were no clear traces left at the place where her body was found and where the battle was presumed to have taken place. In other words, it was said that the real culprit who murdered her godmother was skilled in tracking her and intentionally erased his traces.
News of Godmother’s death quickly spread throughout the northern continent. And because of that incident, the northern continent, which had barely calmed down after the failed expedition to the Steel Mountains, began to heat up again. The impact that the Great Mother had on Hall Plain and the Northern Continent over the course of nine years could be considered legendary. However, since the legend died suddenly and mysteriously, it would be strange if it were quiet and not noisy.
After Do Yeong-rok’s declaration of war heard in the academy instructors’ conference room, the Golden Lion Clan moved very quickly. Not long after the incident broke out, an official statement was announced regarding the death of the godmother, and requested extensive cooperation from each city’s representative clans to uncover the truth.
The justification was perfect. It was the death of a godmother, not a user wandering around somewhere. The weight of the name was not light, and users in the Northern Continent all wanted the secret of her death to be revealed.
The reason I was able to know these facts in detail was because of Go Yeon-ju. This is because she decided to stay at the User Academy for a while after returning from the Eastern Mountains. And what she told us about the situation outside of her academy was quite interesting. In particular, I could hear that the debate over her godmother’s death was becoming more heated as the days passed.
The current focus of the Northern Continent is “Who on earth murdered the godmother and why?” was tuned to Funnily enough, even though the truth had not yet been revealed, the story was going that the culprit of this incident was someone inside the North Continent.
Some people said it was the vagabonds who did it, but their claims didn’t gain much weight. This is because most of them fled to the Western Continent after the recent plan to exterminate vagabonds. Moreover, the fact that vagabonds have rarely appeared in the northern continent since then also played a role, so the story only came up for a moment and then disappeared.
Just as the atmosphere was forming that the crime was committed within the North Continent, a large-scale statement from the Golden Lion friendly clans followed. They were able to gain the sympathy of general users by stating that they would spare no effort in revealing the truth and that they would unconditionally accept requests for cooperation.
Now that the representative clans of the northern and western cities have announced their positions, all that remains is for the southern and eastern cities to announce their positions. Since it was a well-known fact that the conflict between clans participating in the expedition and clans not participating was severe, all users paid close attention to their announcement.
Additionally, the statements of non-participating clans were announced a few days later than those of the previously announced clans. However, their statements were very concise compared to those of friendly clans. The gist of the announcement is, “I agree to reveal the truth about the death of my godmother.” That was all.
In some ways, this could be seen as an acceptance of the Golden Lion’s request for cooperation, but considering the conflict so far, it was a rather subtle announcement.
In any case, even though it is not immediately clear how things will progress in the future, for now, it can be seen that it was done as Do Young-rok intended.
The Golden Lion’s actions that soon followed were very rapid, reaffirming the fact that they were the clan that once held hegemony in the Northern Continent. They summoned all the important internal figures of the representative clans who agreed to their statement to Barbara. Among them, all those who were requested to attend were clan lords or high-ranking executives in charge of diplomacy, and the condition that other people were to be limited as much as possible was noteworthy.
As the big names of each clan gathered in Barbara at the request of the Golden Lion, the attention of ordinary users naturally focused on the center as well.
With everyone’s attention gathered, the meeting of the representative clans that dominate the Northern Continent began.
*
“You damn bastards!”
bang!
Deok-Pil Kim let out a loud roar and hit the table with all his might. As a result, the top of the table he is sitting on breaks and his fragments fall down. Although it was obviously rude, no one stopped him. No, everyone gathered here was showing their anger.
‘Agree means literally just agreeing.’
I smiled bitterly and was lost in thought. The three meetings that lasted for nearly five days could only be viewed as one-sided.
To put it bluntly and to the point, the non-participating clans wanted to send an investigation team to the eastern mountains again. This is because it was the only place where clues to the culprit could be found. Cho Seong-ho, who represented them, suggested that this time the two clans join forces to form a large-scale investigation team and examine the entire eastern mountain range in detail.
However, Golden Lion flatly rejected Cho Seong-ho’s offer. They claimed that they had already completed a sufficient investigation and that conducting the investigation again would be a waste of manpower and time. Non-participating clans also did not back down, but Do Yeong-rok said, “I will understand if you bring in a user with better tracking skills than the Shadow Queen.” I ended up keeping my mouth shut at that one word.
Honestly, it wasn’t completely wrong, so it was worth listening to up to this point. However, the turn came to the Golden Lion, and their subsequent remarks surprised everyone.
The next thing they said was that they would conduct an internal audit of each clan. In other words, the clan being audited had to disclose all of its information to the Golden Lion Clan without filtering.
Naturally, all non-participating clans strongly opposed it. But the Golden Lion did not change its position. On the contrary, they showed a more hardline attitude, and friendly clans also said, “If you have nothing to worry about, respond to the internal audit.” pointed out the attitude of the clans who verbally opposed it.
From my perspective, I felt that the Golden Lion’s direct internal audit remarks went a little too far, or rather went too far. This is because the very fact of being thanked in the first place could be seen as quite humiliating.
But the Golden Lion’s remarks did not stop there. Subsequently, he delivered a series of shocking blows, saying he would use
Going one step further, he incurred the wrath of non-participating clans by adding that the quantity of
After Do Young-rok’s shocking remarks, harsh shouting continued for a while during the meeting. And non-participating clans, including the Goryeo clan, proposed a compromise: they would conduct their own internal audit.
First of all, just complying with the internal audit statement could be seen as a significant concession, but the Golden Lion’s attitude did not change. They highlighted that the victim of this incident was the Golden Lion Clan, and ignored their opinions on the grounds that the clan that committed the crime could not conduct a transparent internal audit.
In the end, after that, the conversation just continued with each other holding on to each other’s tail. The meeting lasted until the third round, but it was only a time to reaffirm each other’s conflicts and animosity, and it was difficult to say that any significant results were achieved.
The meeting ended in collapse without being able to narrow the differences in positions on internal audit. And after the meeting, the remaining instructors ended up in a fairly ambiguous position due to the academy incident.
“Crazy guys. “In the end, you’re saying that you’re going to ignore what we say and go ahead with it!”
“I’m not saying we’re going to force it, we’ve already done it. “At the end of the second meeting, it is said that an internal audit of the representative clans of the northern and western cities that had already expressed approval had begun.”
Kim Deok-pil couldn’t hide his anger and continued to wheeze, and Na Seung-hye corrected him in a cold voice.
“what the. Internal audit? I will do it fairly with those guys. I can see them lighting up their eyes and searching everywhere. “If you catch any pod, you can see that they will attack you again with it. What crazy person would agree to that?”
“That’s not the problem now. “No matter what the internal situation is, we have rejected the Golden Lion’s request for cooperation, and public opinion is trending in a bad direction toward us.”
As they said, public opinion in Hall Plain was currently turning against non-participating clans. It wasn’t just about refusing internal audit. In fact, some people were saying that internal auditing was definitely excessive.
However, after the second meeting, the Golden Lion actually began directly auditing the northwest clans that agreed to the internal audit, and the clans responded to the audit in a proactive manner. At the same time, the reason her godmother left after the convocation order and the words she said about the academy began to spread, knowingly or unknowingly. The situation was coming together cleverly, as if the story had been planned in advance.
‘Well, even if you don’t know who spread it, it’s just a video.’
Conflict between clans over the user academy. The Great Mother left for the Eastern Mountains to receive treatment for the Golden Lion Clan Lord. The body of the godmother was later discovered in the eastern mountain range. An atmosphere that concludes that it was an internal act that began to spread knowingly or unknowingly. and the refusal of internal audits of non-participating clans.
As all these flows began to interconnect, the direction of the flow, which had previously been assumed to be an internal act, began to shift in one direction.
“I don’t think we can just sit still.”
“… … .”
At that moment, Seo Jin-woo, who had remained silent until now, finally opened his mouth. The users who were sighing in frustration immediately raised their heads and stared at him.
“I’m sure everyone here is in a similar situation anyway, so I’ll just tell you my personal thoughts.”
Seo Jin-woo opened his mouth with a stern expression on his face, completely erasing his gentle expression.
“I don’t think Do Yeong-rok is truly angry about his godmother’s death and is doing this to find out the cause.”
“You think the same as me. Wasn’t he the one who initially created a conflict with Daemonim when he was working, and later took the lead in ousting him? “That’s what I heard.”
No matter where he picked it up, Heo Yu-ri immediately agreed. At the conversation between the two, everyone nodded with a serious look on their faces.
“Clearly there is a justification for revealing the death of Godmother, but they are acting more excessively than necessary. This means that it has gone too far. “Now, honestly, I’m starting to doubt their intentions.”
“So you’re saying they killed the godmother on purpose? To create this situation?”
“You’re going too far. I didn’t say that. Because that’s something no one knows. But now I think I kind of understand why they act like this. Their actions so far have been too quick and planned to just be ignored by what they see and hear. “It was as if they had talked to each other before the meeting.”
“no way.”
“yes. Let me put it bluntly. To me, it seems nothing but a struggle to regain the reputation and leadership they lost during the Iron Mountains expedition through this incident.”
‘It’s a battle of interests. ‘I saw it correctly.’
Everyone fell silent at Seo Jin-woo’s direct words. It was something we had been keeping implicitly for a while, but when we said it directly, it seemed to resonate with us.
There was an awkward silence for a moment. Seo Jin-woo felt sick to his stomach and gulped down a glass of cold water. Then he looked around at all the people in the conference room and opened his mouth again. I don’t know if it was my imagination, but there was a faint smile on his lips.
Seo Jin-woo suddenly stood up from his seat. Then, Seong Hyeon-min and Na Seung-hye, as well as other members of the Dongbu team, followed him and stood up. Their faces all had a cold aura. Since they are currently under direct suspicion, their current emotional state is probably very sharp.
“As you said, public opinion is currently turning unfavorable. This will continue to be the case for the time being. But we also have no intention of just giving up the initiative like this.”
“Are you saying that you are going to engage in a full-fledged battle for power?”
“well. Just watch and you will soon find out. However, from the very beginning, our eastern clan responded to the summons. I’ve been thinking a lot. I was even prepared to have a tough fight with someone. However, thanks to the intervention of my godmother, I put that resolution aside for a while, but now that we have come this far, I don’t think there is a need for that.”
“They were the ones who started the mud dog fight in the first place. I had no idea that this would happen due to the godmother’s incident, but… . “If there is a provocation, isn’t it natural to accept it?”
“That’s my opinion too. “You can’t cut your nose with your eyes open.”
The moment I saw their faces, I felt goosebumps running down my spine. The expressions on Seong Hyun-min and Na Seung-hye’s expressions after receiving Seo Jin-woo’s words were subtle. It was as if he had anticipated that a day like this might come and had made solid preparations.
‘I think there’s a part of me that believes in something. Since they took out a card from the Golden Lion, does this mean it is time for them to take out their own cards as well? Well, these people were people who would feel sad if it was a dog fight in the mud.’
Eventually, they calmly walked towards the door and stopped again in front of the table where the southern clans were sitting. And Seo Jin-woo looked down at the representative of the Blue Wolf Clan and opened his mouth.
“Let’s stop talking about today. We’ll just leave now. “I think I’ll be quite busy starting tomorrow, or even today.”
“You’re getting busy. “I’m looking forward to it.”
“Are you just looking forward to it?”
Na Seung-hye quickly intervened from the side. Then the instructor from the Blue Wolf Clan thought for a moment and then opened his mouth in a quiet voice.
“Suddenly, an old idiom comes to mind. “Did you say he was Sunmanchihan?”
“Tsk. “I’m glad you understand.”
Seo Jin-woo smiled, showing his teeth at the southern clan’s positive response. And the moment I heard his words, I could see the Southern Clan instructors’ eyes flashing as well.
The moment I saw the scene, I had a strong feeling that this was a signal signaling the beginning of a full-scale dog fight between the two clans.
—————————= Review of the work ——————– ——-=
hello. This is Ro Yujin.
I planned to upload it in the morning at the latest, but since I wasn’t used to working early in the morning, I ended up falling asleep. sorry. ㅜ.ㅠ Yesterday something was truly unavoidable and could not be avoided. First of all, I have another appointment at 14:00, so I think I need to prepare quickly. We will combine the re-ripple in the next episode. We ask for the readers’ understanding.
fantasy,
