Chapter 161

Chapter 161: Celestial of Cygnus (2)

“It’s been a while, Vega! Have you been doing well?”

The boy was wearing clothing so extravagant that he looked bizarre.

Deneb waved his hand at Vega with a bright smile.

Behind Deneb, who was cheerfully waving his hand, was a young man who followed him like a shadow.

The young man with the same dark blue hair as Deneb and a ponytail that reached his hips had a sword on his belt.

‘That person is…’

He was someone even Ohjin knew well.

—One of Deneb’s twelve apostles and a member of the ‘Seven Stars’.

The Sixth Star, Allen Orca.

Born in the United Kingdom, his swordsmanship skills were so astonishing that he was better known for his title of ‘Sword Saint’ rather than ‘Sixth Star’.

[What business do you have here?]

Vega narrowed her eyes and stared at Deneb.

Deneb smiled pleasantly and approached her.

“What business? I came to see how my close friend is doing!”

[Close friend, huh…? I don’t ever recall us building enough friendship to refer to each other so closely.]

“Haha! Is that so? Well, I guess you hardly speak to any of us other than Spica.

Deneb casually shrugged his shoulders.

Soon, his eyes headed to Ohjin.

“Wew, so you’re that famous Lightning Wolf. The first apostle of our… oh so great~ Star of the Weaver Girl.”

He whistled and looked at Ohjin, who was laying on top of Vega’s lap.

“It’s nice to see that you two are close. It feels like I’m watching a mother with their child.”

“…”

Ohjin got up in silence.

They’d just happened to take a visit when he was on Vega’s lap.

Despite not committing any sins, he felt awkward for no reason.

[I believe I asked what business you have here.] Vega asked once again with a cold voice.

Deneb exploded in humorous laughter and replied.

“Hey, don’t be so cold. I only came to see what kind of person your first apostle was like.”

[Then since you’ve finished your business, why don’t you go away now?]

Vega requested for them to leave in a cold manner.

“Don’t be like that. Isn’t it alright for us to stay a little longer? It’s not like I’m trying to harass you guys, right?”

Deneb shamelessly shrugged after Vega’s cold request.

Vega frowned in silence.

“Hmm. So it’s been a year since you’ve become the Star of the Weaver Girl’s apostle?”

He crossed his arms and looked at Ohjin with interest.

After thoroughly examining Ohjin, he leaked a chuckle.

“You’ve grown a lot considering it’s only been one year. Well, naturally—”

He put on a distinct smirk of mockery.

“—it’s nothing worth mentioning compared to my child’s growth.”

He boastfully put his arm on Allen’s hip.

The mockery wasn’t made without any grounds.

—The twelve apostles of Deneb…

If you were to consider only their influence, they were the most exceptional Awakeners in the world.

‘The most notable thing is that three of the Seven Stars are Deneb’s apostles.’

—The seven most powerful Awakeners in the world.

A total of three of them were Awakeners that had Deneb’s stigma of Cygnus.

If you were to think about how the remaining four each had different stigmas, it was certain that their influence was out of this world.

‘I also heard that the remaining nine apostles are at least 7-Star Awakeners.’

In addition, they weren’t Awakeners with normal stigmas, but Awakeners with the stigma of a ‘North Star’ like Ohjin.

It wasn’t hard to fathom how unreasonable the power contained in a North Star’s stigma was if you referred to the stigma of Lyra.

[Oho. Are you trying to claim that your children are more exceptional than mine?]

“I’m not trying to claim that. Isn’t my children being more exceptional just a fact?”

Vega and Deneb’s gazes clashed.

Rumbleeee!—

Simply releasing a tiny portion of their energy made the entire massive sanctuary tremble as if there was an earthquake.

“Kugh…”

—A battle of nerves between a North Star and a North Star.

Ohjin’s face distorted from the massive energy emitted from the two transcendents.

‘Shit.’

The energy was so overwhelming that it made it hard to breathe properly.

When he was feeling the crushing pressure on his body—

“Deneb.”

—a voice as cold as a winter blizzard rang out.

Allen’s dark blue hair wavered smoothly as he took a step forward.

He gently placed his hand on Deneb’s shoulder as if the crushing force emitted from the transcendents was nothing.

“Calm down.”

“Hmm. Well, if my Allen says so.”

Deneb smiled brightly and nodded his head.

The energy pressing down on the area disappeared like melting snow.

“I apologize for the discourtesy, Goddess of Lyra.”

Allen bowed his head with an elegance that made it seem like his movements were measured precisely by a ruler.

The dark blue hair long enough to reach his hip dropped down and covered his handsome face that rivaled Lee Woohyuk’s.

[As long as you understand.]

“However…”

He gently raised his head and gave her an ice-cold look.

“I hope Lady Vega understands that her actions against Deneb were also enough to be considered discourteous.”

Allen strictly acknowledged their own wrongdoings but also criticized the other party’s the same way.

Not being able to hear the slightest emotion in his voice made him seem more like a machine.

“I don’t know about that. Are you sure you aren’t mistaken about the definition of ‘discourteous’?”

[My child?]

Ohjin took a step forward.

He couldn’t sit still while Vega was getting reprimanded in front of his eyes.

“What do you mean by that?”

“This place is Lady Vega’s sanctuary. The same couldn’t be said if this meeting took place anywhere else, but isn’t asking unwanted guests to leave a natural right for the owner to hold?”

“That’s…”

Allen slurred the end of his sentence.

Deneb cackled out as he stuck out his tongue.

“This place is Vega’s sanctuary?”

He spun around and continued.

“I wonder… How much longer will this place remain as Vega’s sanctuary?”

“…What do you mean?”

Ohjin furrowed his brow.

‘How much longer will it remain as Vega’s sanctuary? It’s not like the sanctuary is on a lease, can the owner even change?’

Ohjin looked at Vega with questioning eyes.

[…]

Vega was staring at Deneb with her mouth shut tight.

“Vega, you’re also aware, aren’t you?

[…That mouth of yours is as flippant as always.]

‘Huh? Is it actually on a lease?’

“Vega, what does he mean?”

“Didn’t Vega recently receive the Commandment’s Restriction?”

Deneb hummed and continued like it was a delightful subject.

“Celestials that receive the Commandment’s Restriction lose some of their ‘divinity’. Even more so if that celestial merely has one apostle, giving them few methods to protect their ‘divinity’.”

The edges of his lips crept up.

Ohjin frowned.

He also knew well what ‘divinity’ meant amongst celestials.

‘Celestials aren’t all the same rank.’

The three celestials possessing the most divinity were the North Stars.

Beneath the North Stars were the 12 Zodiacs, and under them existed even lower-rank celestials.

Even the sanctuary’s location was decided according to the celestial’s ‘divinity’.

Celestials that owned a sanctuary below had that little divinity, and those who owned a sanctuary up high possessed more.

‘The way celestials can increase their divinity is by…’

Granting a stigma to a human capable of handling it and growing their power and influence.

As an analogy, it was similar to an orchard.

They selected humans and planted ‘seeds’ called stigmas in a land appropriate for growing trees.

That seed would grow up to be a tree, and the celestial’s divinity would grow accordingly.

There was only one tree in Vega’s orchard.

It was growing at an astonishing rate, but it couldn’t help but miserably fall behind celestials that had much higher numbers.

“Isn’t the North Stars, 12 Zodiacs, or whatever, nothing but a rank that was decided before the Awakeners appeared?”

Deneb laughed joyfully and continued.

“Since times have changed, I think it’s about time for the outdated rankings to change as well.”

[…What is it that you wish to say?]

“Vega, why don’t you step down from the ‘North Stars’ now? Haha! The 13 Zodiacs! It sounds perfect!”

Deneb clapped his hands and laughed while Vega coldly stared at him.

‘What nonsense is that?’

Ohjin’s expression distorted on its own.

Demoting Vega from the North Stars and putting her with the 12 Zodiacs?

[Don’t speak nonsense. I still have the divinity to maintain my rank as a North Star.]

“Is that so? To my understanding, you’re walking on thin ice.”

Deneb smiled slyly.

* * *

Translator – Maccas

Proofreader – ilafy

* * *

“Then let’s do this, Vega. How about a bet with me?”

[A bet?]

“Yeah. If you win the bet, I’ll give you some of my divinity and prevent you from demoting a rank.”

[…]

Vega narrowed her eyes with her mouth shut tight.

[What kind of bet?]

“There’s only one kind of bet amongst celestials, isn’t there?”

He cackled out and slowly moved his gaze to Ohjin.

“I’m saying that our apostles should have a go at each other.”

[Impossible.]

Vega shook her head like the offer wasn’t even worth considering.

It was true that Ohjin was growing at an astonishing speed, but he was still far from being able to face Deneb’s twelve apostles.

“Hey, I naturally have no intentions of matching him up with Allen. I’m saying he should face my younger apostles.”

Though he called them ‘younger’, they were still Deneb’s twelve apostles.

Even the apostle with the lowest rank amongst Deneb’s apostles was like Ohjin, a 7-Star Awakener.

“Or are you perhaps afraid? Afraid that the only apostle of the great Star of the Weaver Girl will get miserably broken by my children.”

[Shut your mouth!]

“Wait, Vega.”

Ohjin stopped Vega, who was on the verge of releasing her energy, and stepped forward.

“Could you explain that bet to me in detail?”

[M-My child!]

“Hmm. You’re a bit interesting, unlike your scaredy-cat goddess.”

Deneb smirked and continued.

“Well, the rules are simple. You win if you beat three of my children in a one versus one.”

Three people in a one-versus-one?

[How petty, Deneb!]

“I’m not being petty. Vega, isn’t the reason you weren’t able to make many apostles because you couldn’t find humans that could handle it?”

Deneb shrugged with a cunning look.

“An apostle’s skill is important, but as numbers are an equally important factor that makes up ‘divinity’, I can’t allow it to end with a single one-versus-one. Truth be told, only having to beat three apostles is already me cutting you a lot of slack.”

He wasn’t wrong.

You couldn’t say that the enemy was petty for having ten times the number of soldiers in a war.

‘Giving a part of his divinity to Vega if we win the bet, huh…?’

Ohjin’s gaze headed to Vega.

She’d said that she still had enough to maintain her rank as a North Star, but based on the fact that she couldn’t refute Deneb properly, it appeared certain that there wasn’t much leeway.

In the first place, the reason her divinity decreased was because she’d used her power in the fight with Cheon Doyoon.

‘It’s partially my responsibility.’

In that case, returning Vega’s diminished divinity was also his role.

‘And…’

Ohjin’s eyes narrowed.

He looked at the gems that Deneb wore all around his body.

They weren’t luxury goods that had no worth besides being shiny like diamonds and sapphires… 

Every single one of them was a starstone of the highest quality.

‘There’s probably no being in existence that possesses as many expensive star relics and starstones as Deneb.’

A whopping three of his twelve apostles were members of the Seven Stars.

The start and end of Deneb’s wealth were probably immeasurable.

‘If so…’

The edge of Ohjin’s lips tilted up.

“Then let’s do it this way: you will give the promised divinity if I defeat ‘three’ of your apostles.”

“Hehe! This is what I’m talking about!!”

Deneb clapped his hands out of joy.

[Didn’t I say that it’s impossible?!]

“It’s alright, Vega.”

Ohjin stared at Deneb while Vega tried to hold him back, her expression pale.

“However, I would like to request for the duels to take place a month from now.”

“Hmm. Do you believe something will change in a mere month?”

Deneb mocked him and nodded his head.

“Alright. I can grant you that much.”

“Thank you.”

“But should you really accept the bet without knowing what you’ll have to do when you lose? Who knows what I’ll request?” Deneb asked with a humorous expression.

“Ah, there’s no need to inform us.”

“…Why?”

Ohjin looked at the celestial of Cygnus and smirked.

“Because I’ll win.”

“…”

Deneb’s jolly expression gradually distorted.

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