Ex Rank Supporting Role’s Replay in a Prestigious School

After hearing Eunho’s words, I had many thoughts.

‘Eunho really will do it. He’ll watch the situation through White Tiger and then immediately call for Heo Chae-ah.’

But that doesn’t mean I can shut White Tiger’s mouth.

Sending in Heo Chae-ah because my condition worsens isn’t interference.

I was supposed to handle purification with Andain, and if needed assist navigation with the “thread leading to the exit,” but if my condition collapses, the Demon Realm expedition could fail.

Informing him is not interference but assistance.

“Don’t overthink it. My sister is just worried about you, so you just need to take care of yourself.”

“But if it comes to it, you really will call Senpai Heo Chae-ah.”

“I will.”

I don’t know why he brought it up when it was obviously going to end like that.

I thought White Tiger would escort me back to Eun Hall on the pretext of surveillance after seeing me to my dorm room, but he followed me inside.

Even if the purpose was surveillance, he didn’t have to follow me, did he? Whatever I do gets conveyed to him in real time.

“Why did you follow me?”

“I’m the watcher.”

“I mean, you can watch without following. Why don’t you go to the meeting instead?”

“My friends will handle it just fine, so why bother?”

Well, Hwang Ji-ho, Eunho, Cheongho, and Jeokho would manage themselves. And with Black Tiger there, their morale would be high and they’d do even better, right?

“You know well. Then rest.”

Having no words to retort, I decided to rest.

The door was open, and lights were on around the dorm, but I closed my eyes on the bed.

I left closing the door to keep nightmares from leaking out and turning off the lights to White Tiger.

Once I head into the Demon Realm, I won’t have the chance to use him like this for a while, so I might as well make full use of it.

Before falling asleep, I asked.

“Do you remember the debuff bestowed by the Celestial God that we removed in the game?”

“I remember.”

In Flmago, I passed the Celestial God’s trial to break free from being a divine beast in the Divine Realm. Thanks to that, even though I had lost my True Name, I regained my power and obtained the authority to ‘go anywhere.’

However, the fact that I still lacked my True Name was obvious to any beastfolk or descendant, so the enemy persistently targeted that vulnerability.

I regained my authority and could act freely with the protagonist’s party, but that came with considerable risk. That’s why, even if they tease me as a free tiger, they couldn’t send me to undergo the Celestial God’s trial. Moreover, there was another reason.

‘You can’t persuade the Celestial God the same way as in Flmago.’

If White Tiger had watched Flmago’s flow through me, he would know that well, especially the parts where he appeared.

White Tiger nodded.

“I did persuade the Celestial God. In the Divine Realm Eun District, many beastfolk and descendants have already died, and the guardian of the Divine Realm, Hwangho, does not move, so binding me here serves no protective purpose.”

It was both persuasion and an expression of doubt.

The Celestial God did nothing. He only temporarily lifted restrictions when asked for permission to fight the Ung Tribe, and apart from that, he hardly intervened in any events. To put it extremely, he was nothing more than an obstacle shackling the most powerful mythic clan, the beastfolk, who were the party’s greatest asset.

In the midst of that, seeing the Dragon King God, who had watched over the dragons for thousands of years, abandon both dragons and lions, it was inevitable that my suspicions toward the Celestial God grew as well.

‘White Tiger intended to fight the Celestial God too. If his suspicions were confirmed, he would have destroyed every symbol of the Celestial God in the Eun District and severed his blessing.’

After winter passed, the White Tiger Army in Flmago made a decision. They would watch the Demonification of Gangwon Province from within the Eun District and observe the party return from the Demon Realm having lost their seniors. So they resolved to personally measure the Celestial God before he could do what the Dragon King God did. No matter how indifferent White Tiger was to past events, doubting a bond with the Celestial God that had lasted thousands of years wasn’t easy.

“It couldn’t have been easy, but if I faced the same situation, I would have challenged the Celestial God or whatever.”

“You didn’t fight the Celestial God.”

“If it were the Celestial God, he would know I’m picking a fight.”

White Tiger confidently confessed that he would have dared to pick a fight with the higher being served by the beastfolk.

I tested him with a question.

“Do you still want to pick a fight? Something big is happening in the Eun District. Although it’s not to the horrific level of Flmago, the Celestial God is just watching.”

“Not really.”

He answered bluntly. I was relieved he didn’t seem likely to recklessly demand removal of the debuff, but I was still suspicious. Now that it was confirmed the mastermind was trying to lure a divine beast like White Tiger out of the Divine Realm, I shouldn’t act rashly until I understood the reason. But I didn’t think that White Tiger was quietly holding back for such a noble reason. The fact that he was silent now must mean he believed in the Celestial God.

“The Celestial God appeared in Eunho and Cheongho’s dreams, warned them, and showed compassion. His heart did not abandon the beastfolk.”

Yet, considering the Celestial God’s actions, I doubted he was truly worthy of such reverence. When Youngin was born, because the Celestial God’s wife died, he didn’t even receive a proper name. He blamed Youngin for losing his partner and discriminated against the Fate Workers and Black Tiger who wielded the same color powers. As with humans, divine legends have many facets, so you can’t judge by one side alone, but I couldn’t view the Celestial God favorably.

“We have been bound to the Celestial God by a heavy grace for a long time. The stronger the power granted, the greater the burden on the giver. The Celestial God watched over the Korean Peninsula and the beastfolk for a very long time. That’s why even the dragons and lions did not doubt the Dragon King God.”

White Tiger calmly stated his position instead of denying my unpleasant feelings. To shake the beastfolk’s faith in the Celestial God, a calamity of Flmago’s scale would have to occur, but nothing like that had happened here, so his reaction was understandable. But comparing the Celestial God to the Dragon King God made something click in my mind.

‘Even though the dragonfolk were so close, they didn’t notice the Dragon King God was replaced by the Imugi God.’

After the Dragon Palace incident in Flmago, I recalled the dragonfolk’s appearance. In the game, the dragonfolk weren’t the main characters, so they weren’t well depicted, but through Yeom Jun-yeol’s replay, I could see them in detail. Thinking of the Yellow Dragon’s condition gave me chills. Because the Dragon King God’s shrine maidens’ revolt succeeded, the Imugi God must have taken his place, yet the Yellow Dragon rejoiced, feeling the Dragon King God’s presence nearby. The Azure Dragon, Vermilion Dragon, and other descendants and lions also did not sense the change in the Dragon King God. They could feel higher beings more closely than other bloodlines through the intermediary of the deep-sea Dragon Palace, yet they did not realize it.

‘So would the beastfolk notice if the Celestial God were replaced by another being?’

Of course, replacing him wouldn’t be easy. The Dragon King God’s shrine maidens and the mastermind had invested in the Dragon Palace for a long time. They polished the Imugi’s scales to corrupt the Yellow Dragon, and all the shrine maidens except the Crimson one united to enthrone the Imugi God. But the beastfolk have no shrine maidens to help them, and there doesn’t seem to be a traitor among the mythic beastfolk.

‘Only if someone spent a very long time and great effort, or had powerful means to shorten the period. Otherwise......’

My thoughts branched in many directions. Unlike in Flmago, I recalled and combined the paths and testimonies of those who returned to the Tiger Manor. Putting together all the pieces connected to the Celestial God, I felt I was beginning to see something. But if I acted to confirm my suspicions, I might alienate the Tigers. Even as the replay fatigue piled up, I felt my limbs go numb.

“Joo Isin, I promised not to interfere with you. As proof, I didn’t kill Ungnyeo when you met her.”

White Tiger spoke ominously. If he had read my thoughts entirely, he would know I hypothesized there might be circumstances for Ungnyeo, yet he said that. Seeing my friend bound to the Red Frame for thousands of years and my disciple suffering, I understood the urge to kill Ungnyeo. I forced myself to speak coldly.

“You didn’t kill her. You met her outside the Divine Realm.”

“Do you think there was no way? When we infiltrated the Dream Auction, I knew the time and place you planned to meet Ungnyeo. I could have summoned Hwangho and Jeokho to locate her and surrounded her with all the beastfolk.”

That was true. White Tiger’s chilling words didn’t end there.

“And I heard everything about Yong Jegun boasting to you that he met Ungnyeo. Bound by his teaching contract, I could have dragged him to the Abyss and interrogated him to extract clues. That dragon, daring to act as a teacher in the Divine Realm, colluded with the beastfolk’s archenemy for a long time. So even if I tortured him, the dragons wouldn’t dare protest.”

Doing such things would have put him at odds with the dragons, but given the hatred toward the Ung Tribe, it was something he might have done. Out of consideration for my friend Kim Sinrok, he might not kill Yong Jegun but would have interrogated him until he spilled what he knew. When I heard of Ungnyeo and Yong Jegun’s affair, I heard Kim Sinrok was terribly afraid, and hearing this now made sense.

“But Joo Isin, I trusted you and did nothing. I planned all of that, even how to carry it out.”

“If you’d done that, the blessing would have ended long ago.”

“Exactly, so however you think or plan, I will never interfere.”

It sounded like he would have interfered if the blessing weren’t in place. And yet hearing those words warmed the coldness in my hands. To maintain a blessing that gave White Tiger no benefit beyond reading my mind, he chose to suppress his will. I didn’t need to ponder deeply to understand what that meant.

‘If I’m right, I’ll have to make an even heavier decision than pretending not to know Ungnyeo. The beastfolk might see it as a betrayal, yet he promises not to interfere?’

I couldn’t speak for a while. But I decided to say what I had to.

“Still, take your True Name.”

“No.”

I closed my eyes in irritation at the refusal that came with a chuckle. I closed my eyes and thought about the matters tied to the Celestial God. If I’m correct, the Celestial God hasn’t merely been a bystander, so there should be traces left, and the mastermind would be moving along those traces. Meanwhile, I also had to worry about the Demonification. Even now, in Gangwon Province, phenomena that seem like signs of Demonification must be appearing one by one.

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