“Wow! You’re too much.” Lee Gun was about to throw away Hugo’s phone. The reason was simple. “I said I wanted to meet her, so why are you showing me her picture?”

Yes, Lee Gun had just seen a picture of Hugo’s wife. When he said he wanted to see Hugo’s wife, Hugo had brought out his trump card.

Hugo had made a big deal about showing Lee Gun his wife, yet this was all he offered. This baffled Lee Gun.

“You tried to hide your children from me, too.”

Hugo shamelessly replied, “What about it? I showed you a picture this time!”

Really? Nevertheless, Hugo was undaunted. He stubbornly swiped the screen to show the next picture.

“Look at this. I took this picture to commemorate our first date. This was the first time I grabbed her hand! This was a picture taken after our first kiss! This is the commemorative photo I took when I saw her face without makeup! Isn’t she pretty!”

“…”

“That should be enough, right? You saw my wife. That’s the end of it.” Hugo flinched when Lee Gun glared at him. He tried to avoid his friend’s gaze.

Lee Gun had no idea why Hugo was acting this way, but soon, Hugo spoke as if he was being generous, “Alright, alright! I’ll show you my most treasured photo.”

This baffled Lee Gun again, but he became even more puzzled when he saw the background of the next set of photos.

“What do you think? Isn’t my Jiwoo beautiful no matter what season it is?”

“Yes, she’s pretty. But where did you take these pictures?” Lee Gun asked.

“What?”

“The pictures were taken in different periods, but the location is the same in all of them. Where is this?”

“What? Where do you think it is? It is your m—” Barely stopping himself from saying “your museum,” the surprised Hugo rolled his eyes.

“It was an exhibit about gourds! While you were gone, the museum put up a lot of fun exhibits!”

Perplexed, Lee Gun looked at Hugo. His friend was acting suspiciously.

Hugo clutched his chest as if he was nervous. He had a feeling that if he pushed this further, Lee Gun would beat him up. Still, he had no choice. ‘I can’t lose my daughter and wife to him.’

Hugo thought about what had happened when his children met Lee Gun. For an instant, he remembered Yooha talking about marriage. Hugo’s face changed into the face of an Asura. ‘I haven’t lost my children yet.’

After meeting Sungjae, he would immediately make him leave Lee Gun’s temple. Hugo trusted his wife, but he couldn’t take the chance. ‘I can let her meet him in real life.’

He already had a headache from dealing with his Zodiac. Why?

[Oh, Contractor. It is time to modify the prerequisite needed to enter my temple.]

This had happened a while after he reunited with Lee Gun. When his Zodiac had suggested they change the standard needed to enter the temple, Hugo had been overjoyed.

He was called the last-place Saint, so the number of people wanting to join his temple was low. Yet, the standard needed to enter the Archer temple was very high. Thus, he had a hard time gathering disciples. So, his Zodiac’s suggestion made him thankful.

“You’re very wise, King of the Sun. We aren’t a team of entertainers. The fact that our team members have to possess outstanding appearance isn’t the right standard. I wanted to bring this up before, but we should use agility as the standard…”

[The standard needed to enter the temple is no longer your appearance. I’ll raise it to Lee Gun’s appearance]

‘What the hell!’

Hugo had gone through such an experience as well. In many ways, Lee Gun’s appearance was a big problem. 

Hugo knew there was no way his wife would fall for Lee Gun after seeing his appearance, but he couldn’t take the chance. ‘I’ll never let them meet.’

Even if Lee Gun would beat him to a pulp, he had to protect his wife and daughter.

“Gun, it’s about time.”

Their destination was the Scorpio Saint’s territory, which was closed off to outsiders. Of course, she was better than the Virgo Saint, who suppressed the press in the regions under him. However, her territory was still closed off. 

There existed only one way to enter the Scorpio Saint’s territory. They had to travel past the US, which was the territory of the Leo Saint, and enter Canada.

Therefore, the group had to be on time to use the teleporter heading toward the US.

“Gun?”

The person in question was frowning as he looked at the phone.

“Gun? Let’s go.”

“We have to take care of something before we leave,” Lee Gun replied.

“Hmph! If you want to see more pictures of my life, I’ll show you more— Kuhk!!”

Unable to stand Hugo’s behavior in the end, Lee Gun kicked him.

[You have acquired data.]

[Trivial Barrier (A rank)]

“Stop it with the pictures, idiot! I’m talking about something else.”

“?”

Hugo became surprised when he read the article on the screen of Lee Gun’s phone.

In the beginning, Lee Gun had been awkward in using smartphones; he kept entering weird phishing sites. In that aspect, he had made great strides by now. However, that wasn’t important right now.

<In the Blood Fog incident, the Archer Saint showed his incompetence>

<The US government states, “The Archer Saint doesn’t deserve to be part of the twelve Zodiac Saints!”>

<The Korean government cuts off support to the Archer Saint.>

<The Archer Saint needs to be held accountable for the death of 5,000 people>

The phone showed articles coming from various sources, ranging from major news networks to gossip magazines. The articles and the videos disparaged the Archer Saint.

Hugo sighed at this. “What about them? Why are you suddenly reading articles from ten years ago?”

Hugo didn’t know why Lee Gun was reading those articles. He tried to open the front page.

“The world is going nuts because you saved Belgium. All the top news organizations are full of praise about you…”

Despite his efforts, Lee Gun pushed away the phone. “You did nothing wrong, so why were you dragged through the mud like this?”

“!”

Lee Gun didn’t like anyone other than him disparaging his friend.

When his friend showed no signs of backing off, Hugo’s expression turned awkward. Ten years ago, he had lost his wife and subordinate, and that incident had also led to the loss of his reputation.

The incident had cemented him into the role of the last-place Saint. However, this didn’t bother Hugo now.

The important part was that the victims of that incident had all woken up thanks to Lee Gun.

“It’s fine. I’ll tell the world about your role in all of this. You will get your recognition. I don’t care about the slander toward me. It was my mistake.”

Lee Gun scoffed. “That’s what I’m talking about. The monsters pierced through the dome made by the Sagittarius? Moreover, it makes no sense that you were unable to sense the breach at all.”

Hugo let out a bitter laugh. After that incident, the Sagittarius was never called again to create a dome around a city. The Sagittarius was the only Zodiac excluded from this.

At one time, the Archer was known as a defensive Zodiac, and its dome praised as a steel wall.

Domes were the reason people flocked to the Zodiacs. Once the public stopped using the Sagittarius’s dome, naturally the Archer Saint was also ignored.

“At the time, I was proud. I thought I could be like you, but when my abilities didn’t measure up, I was humbled.”

Lee Gun burst out laughing as if he found Hugo’s words preposterous. This man was someone he had trained. Lee Gun acknowledged Hugo as a capable awakened being. So, he asked, “Do you really think this was your mistake?”

“What?”

At that moment, Lee Jaewon butted in. “There was something I wanted to tell you before we got sidetracked.”

“What?”

“The monster that ate madam and me didn’t come from outside. It was summoned inside.”

“!”

Lee Gun laughed. “That’s right. Your dome wasn’t at fault. It was never breached. Humans summoned the monster inside the dome.”

Hugo was dumbfounded. Until this moment, he had considered himself incompetent. Therefore, this information surprised him. “How could humans summon an enemy of humanity—”

“You saw it recently within the Virgo Saint’s holy ground. You saw someone summon monsters.”

“…!”

“The culprits from ten years ago probably summoned the monster in the same way. If I had to guess, the one behind that move was the Libra Saint.”

“…!”

“It’s obvious. That woman hates my existence and anyone related to me.” Lee Gun furrowed his brows. “In truth, I think that she’s the culprit. She probably tried to kill me in the tower.”

“!”

“You were my partner, and you had the best public image amongst the twelve Zodiac Saints.”

Although he was a bit of a pushover, Hugo truly wanted to save and protect people. Everyone in the world used to admire him.

This was an annoying point, but Hugo’s image had been tens of thousands of times better than Lee Gun, who was considered trash.

“I don’t know the exact reason, but she probably wanted to bury me as an incompetent piece of trash. You came out to defend me, so you probably got on her nerves.”

That was why that woman tried to bury Hugo using that incident ten years ago.

Soon, Lee Gun’s eyes flashed. “Also, the Libra Saint seized you by the ankle, right?”

“What?”

“Don’t deny it! When that psycho Kevin talked about the Saints of the west, your face hardened.”

Hugo sighed. As expected, he couldn’t get anything past Lee Gun’s eyes. “Yes. The ones responsible for the incident ten years ago were the sons of the Libra Saint.”

“!”

Yoon Taewoo and Yoon Siwoo! At the time, they had been underage. Therefore, the media hadn’t revealed their names, but Hugo knew they were the culprits. 

‘Well, I never would have imagined that they were the ones who had summoned the monster.’

At the time, Hugo thought they had played around with a fluid that the monster liked and this had caused the incident.

After the incident had blown up, the Libra Saint had come to Hugo to make a deal.

[Pick, Hugo! Choose either A or B.]

The first choice was for Hugo to take the fall for the incident, and she would spare his children.

Or, Hugo could reveal that the Libra Saint’s sons had committed the mistake, and she would kill all of them.

Hugo had already lost his wife and subordinate, and he had wanted to protect his children at all costs. That had been his thought process.

Lee Gun suddenly asked him, “Is that incident the reason for Sungjae’s low faith toward you?”

“What?”

In truth, Lee Gun had found this odd. Chun Sungjae’s faith toward the Libra, an enemy, was -99%. He could overlook that. However…

<Chun Sungjae>

- Sagittarius Faith: 0%

Sungjae’s faith toward his father had been very low. Lee Gun had thought it was a byproduct of puberty, but…

“Does that incident have anything to do with why your son doesn’t like you?”

Hugo let out a small groan. He could remember only one incident that might have caused the rift.

“I’m telling the truth, Dad. I saw it. I saw two high school boys summon a monster. The monster didn’t appear by mistake.”

“Stop talking nonsense.”

This had happened at the funeral.

Hugo groaned as he massaged his temple. He recalled what he had said to his son. He had apologized, and at the time, it wasn’t as if he didn’t believe his son’s words. However, at that time, he had no choice.

‘It wouldn’t have happened if you didn’t call for your Mom.’

The Libra Saint was threatening his children, and if his son continued to speak out like this, he would be in danger. Therefore, Hugo had said those hurtful words, for which he still felt sorry to this day.

“There’s no way that incident caused it. Sungjae was five. There’s no way he would remember.”

“Why not? Sungjae is very smart.”

“No way! He gets last place at school.”

These words puzzled Lee Gun. Last place? He had heard Sungjae was ranked #1 nationally. Lee Gun had even seen the recruitment effort by Harvard to bring Sungjae into their science department. Well, it didn’t matter.

“You are saying the sons of the Libra Saint are the ones who messed with you guys?”

“!”

Lee Gun’s voice turned menacing, making Hugo flinch in surprise.

“That’s good! I have business with the Libra Saint.”

The Libra Saint was ranked number one. After Lee Gun had died, she had suddenly rocketed to the top place, so everything around her was suspicious. Therefore, she had been his number one suspect.

Now, Lee Gun had come to find out that his friend and his children had gotten tangled up with her? Therefore, he said, “Hey, Jaewon! I want you to locate Yoon Taewoo and Yoon Siwoo.” Lee Gun’s eyes flashed coldly.

Lee Jaewon laughed as he nodded. 

In truth, a part of the reason Lee Gun was going to meet the Scorpio Saint was the Libra Saint.

‘I’ve heard the Scorpio Saint has a special item that can destroy a Zodiac.’ Lee Gun was aiming for that item.

He then said, “Also, I want you guys to get ready to fight the Scorpio Saint. She hates me so much that she always runs away when she sees me.”

Lee Jaewon tilted his head in confusion. The Scorpio Saint hates Lee Gun-nim? ‘There is no way that’s true.’

In fact, the Scorpio Saint…

Soon, Lee Gun spoke up again. “I want you to prepare your heart, too.”

Hugo’s eyes flashed. ‘Libra Saint.’

She was the number one Saint, who had climbed above all the other Zodiac Saints. In the past, his children had been young, so Hugo didn’t even think about fighting her. However, his children could protect themselves now.

Moreover, the Libra Saint seemed to have some connection to the plot that had caged Lee Gun in the tower.

‘There’s no reason for me to stand back anymore.’ 

Lee Gun was probably trying to tell him this.

Let’s kill the Libra Saint together.

Then there was the problem with Yooha’s arms. This development had deeply moved Hugo. He reframed his mind to look favorably toward Lee Gun, but…

“Hey, Sungjae! This is Uncle. Let me speak to your mom. She’s awake, right? I want to talk to her through video call.”

“Hey!!!” Hugo snatched the phone away from Lee Gun.

* * *

Around the same time…

<Did the 13th Saint really make an appearance?>

<What kind of Zodiac is the 13th Zodiac?>

<The main Gemini disciple Chun Sungjae has left the Gemini temple.>

<Did he join forces with the 13th Saint?>

<The disciples around the world are getting nervous.>

<It’s a Zodiac the world has never seen before>

A beautiful woman at the Scorpio Saint’s holy ground was reading the news about Lee Gun. This woman was the one who had sent the so-called bone to the Drachma auction house. That had led to the Leo Saint falling from the Sky Castle Drachma.

Suddenly, a Scorpio disciple quickly ran up to the woman. “Saint-nim! We have a problem!”

When the disciple made a big fuss, the beautiful woman clicked her tongue as she closed the laptop. She had an overwhelming presence, and there wasn’t a hint of a smile on the statuesque beauty. “Calm yourself! Where do you think you are to cause such a ruckus?”

“I apologize! However, I’ve received info that Lee Gun is heading here, to the Scorpio Saint’s holy ground!”

The woman immediately dropped her laptop. “Lee… Lee Gun!”

The beauty with the cold face was nervous.