"Do you want to know my reason for being the sole leader of the Hero League? Didn't I tell you at the meeting?"
Heero replied before he put the noodles in his mouth. He ate a bowl of spicy noodles for lunch.
Three old men sat on the opposite side, while Bai Xin Yue sat next to him.
The three old men did not react to Heero's reply.
"Huh, you didn't believe me?" Heero blinked a few times.
He thought that the three old men, well at least Kim Jung-Mun and Bai Xian Ming already knew about the Goun. After all, the intelligence team was given to him by them. He thought that they should have known everything that happened in the SES.
Huhu... It seems that Team Leader Luo has not told them about it yet.
Heero was quite happy as he grinned broadly, "It seems I have gained a loyal follower."
The three old men exchanged a look, not understanding what Heero was talking about.
Heero did not bother to explain as he unlocked his smartwatch. He tapped it a few times and then...
Brrt! Brrt! Brrt!
Bai Xian Ming and Kim Jung-Mun's smartwatch vibrated.
The two old men looked down. It was Heero sending them a video.
"Watch the video!" He waved his left hand at them while he used his right hand to bring the noodles into his mouth with the chopstick.
Bai Xian Ming played the video and Wu Shitian came closer to watch as well. It was a video of Musashi Hirata and Sun Zhou Yi fighting against the Goun.
They were quite amazed at how Heero's two disciples handled the Goun. Just when they thought the two were about to kill the goat-headed creature, a twist occurred.
The goat-headed creature suddenly shrank. All of its previous injuries were healed, and... The goat-headed creature quickly defeated the two up-and-coming Emperor Class heroes.
"Huh!?" The three men were stunned by how the battle ended. The creature then left, and the video was over.
The three old men looked up and asked Heero what the point of showing them the video was.
"The creature in the video was a level 7 specter. We, Dramonians, usually call it the Emperor Level Specter. It's only one level below what I said this morning, the Specter God!"
He handed over the bowl to finish the soup and drank a glass of lemonade before continuing.
"Even though it's only a level difference, God is certainly much stronger than a mere emperor. You can see it in the video, the large-sized creature is at the Emperor level, while the shrunken-sized creature has ascended to God!"
The three old men blinked their eyes. It was hard to believe, like a fairy tale. Heero's words were like a fairy tale to them.
"And the one we will fight the Specter God, is one of the twelve Specter Gods, God Horas. His men have been behind everything that has happened so far, the attack on the city, the attack on the kingdom, and we don't know what they will do next!"
"Therefore, I want to lead the Hero League myself. That's why I want to reform the Hero League. I have a grudge against this god Horas, so I will actively participate in this war, an eternal war between humanity and the specters!"
Heero's voice echoed through the empty shop. Musashi Hirata, who was standing next to his mother, had chased away all the customers when he found out that his master wanted a place to talk. Of course, it was with Lady Yuka's permission.
The three old men did not know how to react. Wu Shitian still looked at Heero suspiciously. The silence lasted for a long time.
"How strong is this god Horas?" Kim Jung-Mun broke the silence with a question.
"The Goun, the goat-headed creature in the video, could not be compared to this God Horas! The Goun has just ascended to the realm of God, while God Horas has been God for a long time!"
"The Goun!? That's the name of that goat-headed creature?" Bai Xian Ming opened his mouth.
"No, Goun is the name of a race!" Heero shook his head as he took another sip of lemonade.
"You! How sure are you that you can kill this god Horas?" Kim Jung-Mun asked again.
"70! That's my chance if we fight one one-on-one, but if this God Horas has his minions helping him, 50 or maybe 40! I don't have that much security if I have to fight his whole army alone!" Heero answered truthfully.
In fact, he was not sure if he could win against God Horas. However, the five years of training in the isolated space at the top of Nebraska Mountain had boosted his confidence.
"That's why I need the Hero League to fight them. I need to reform the current Hero League, which is just an insect to God Horas. At least reform the league to be... a cat!?"
Urgh!?' Heero's standardization for the Hero League was something. But compared to Heero, most of the heroes were 'insects' in terms of strength. It was an undeniable fact they realized after watching the battle footage of the Regal Kingdom.
A fact was a fact, but it was a fact that should not be spoken like that. Wu Shitian was offended by these words.
"Huh, says someone who wants to use the League for his selfish desire! After all, it's your personal grudge against this God Horas that you want to use the Hero League to help you! You are putting many lives at risk for your personal grudge," Old Wu sneered at Heero.
'Here we go again, the childish Wu Shitian,' Heero, Bai Xian Ming, and Kim Jung-Min had the same thought.
"Indeed, it's my selfishness that drives me to use the Hero League as a 'tool' for my gain. However, my selfishness does not harm the people, but benefits them! A reform that will make the heroes stronger to protect the people from harm, especially from the specters that will target us!" Heero admitted at once.
Give and take, that was what he had learned during his stay in this city.
"Then why do you want to be the sole leader? Why don't you cooperate with the Twelve Great Powers?" Wu Shitian did not want to let this matter rest.
"Working together is fine, no, in fact, we are still working together even with the reform. It's not like I'm kicking the Twelve Great Powers out of the Hero League! Why would I not want to be the sole leader, since those twelve major powers are the biggest obstacle to the reform!"
Just as Wu Shitian was about to refute, Heero spoke first, "It's hard to win an argument with a smart person, but it's almost impossible to win an argument with a child, especially a spoiled child!"
Only Bai Xin Yue in this room knew the truth that even her grandfather was just a snotty brat in front of Heero.
"Joking!" Heero grinned at Old Man Wu and continued, "All right, Old Man Wu, if you don't agree or don't want to support the reform, that's fine! Just don't try to find fault with what I'm going to do, you're wasting my time with this useless argument!"
"As I said this morning, it's okay without the reform. But I will leave the Hero League to form my force to fight God Horas! I am not threatening you, I mean what I say!"
He took a big gulp of the lemonade and put the glass down. After that, he stood up and left the three old men, waving his hand in the direction of Musashi Hirata.
Heero meant what he said. He planned to form a new force to fight the specters if his proposal was rejected. As for why he insisted on the Hero League, it was because the Hero League was a shortcut to building a large force in a short time.
Heero then left the shop with Musashi Hirata. Bai Xin Yue did not follow Heero. She looked at her grandfather, "You should not doubt him, grandfather!"
There were three grandfathers in front of her, but of course, her words were directed at her biological grandfather. As someone who knew the back story, she could not help but feel slightly angry.
"You should have asked Grandpa Dazekh, considering your close relationship with him. He must know something about this Specter god. You could find out the truth from him," she said.
She approached her grandfather and kissed his left cheek, "I'm off to the Academy, Grandpa! Let's have dinner together later!"
"Sigh, a girl who is married will always be on her husband's side. I miss my former granddaughter when she always clung to me," Bai Xian Ming lamented as he looked at his granddaughter's back.
"But she said something right! We can ask Dazekh, he's from the dungeon too, he might know something about this god thing!" Kim Jung-Mun said with a thoughtful expression on his face.
Bai Xian Ming looked at his smartwatch. It was 12:48...
"It's about to start, the Squad War! Let's go to Dazekh's place. We need to kill more people in the Squad War so that we can improve our squad ranking!" Bai Xian Ming stood up.
Kim Jung-Mun also looked at his smartwatch and nodded. Wu Shitian felt left out as he did not understand what his two friends were talking about.
"Where are you going?" Wu Shitian asked.
"It's time to play, so of course I am going to play!" Kim Jung-Mun replied naturally.
"Do you want to try? WarZone? It's quite fun!"
"Huh? Playtime? WarZone?' Wu Shitian was stunned.
*** ***
Meanwhile, Heero led Musashi Hirata out of the city. To the place where they usually trained.
"Are you going to teach me a new secret technique, Master?" Musashi Hirata was quite excited when he asked.
But then, something was missing. Butcher Wang and Sun Zhou Yi, the three of them would normally learn the new secret technique together, but now, he was alone.
Does the master need my help?
"I heard, your loss against the Goun!" Heero turned to face Hirata as he spoke.
He looked at the expression on his disciple's face which immediately turned dark. His pupil was quite frustrated with his first defeat.
"More beasts or specters as strong as Goun will appear soon. More and more dungeons will appear, so I decided to push it earlier and teach you the core sword art of the Musashi Clan! Are you ready for it?" Heero grinned at his pupil.
Musashi Hirata's face brightened immediately. Finally, his master would teach him this, the core sword art of the Musashi Clan.
"Yes, I am!!!" For the first time in a long time, Musashi Hirata shouted in excitement.