The Eve of the Verdict
The Verdict was now only a day away, and a strange fever had swept through the Royal Capital.
It wasn't unheard of for a scheduled Verdict to be called off at the last minute through an agreement between the parties involved, so right up until the eve of it, people kept quietly hoping that Longmen and Yakumo might still settle things between themselves. But Yerin had been right. Even with two full weeks granted, Longmen held its silence to the very end, and the Verdict set for tomorrow looked poised to go ahead exactly as scheduled, with no compromise in sight.
How long had it been since the last Verdict? And of all days, this one fell on January 1st — barely a few weeks after the Dimensional Gate had opened. Among the rookies who had only just begun to learn this world, an odd current of tension and anticipation ran side by side.
"Tomorrow we'll finally get to see the real Sakuragi Yuko. They say she's quite the beauty."
"That's the girl from the eastern front during the black-wolf swarm, right? I've only heard stories. Honestly, that was two years ago — aren't people hyping her up a little too much by now?"
"Who knows. If she was that good back then, she's probably better now. But seriously, who is Longmen putting forward? I heard there's still no announcement."
From one corner of the guild hall came the sound of guild members clustered together, chattering away. A rookie suddenly wedged himself into the conversation.
"Squad leaders! Is that Japanese woman really that strong? Word is everyone's going crazy placing bets in the Royal Capital."
At the sound of that voice I turned around to find a familiar face. It was Jung Taeyong, the rookie from my squad who had peeled off early into the Settler track.
"Hey, rookies shouldn't be gambling. You don't even have any money yet."
"I got into the Settler track early, so I'm on salary now, actually."
A guild member paused to think for a moment, then seemed to remember something and snapped his fingers.
"Oh, you're that guy! The Sparrow Druid! Come on, do the thing. Do that thing you do."
Laughter burst out around them.
"Augh, what is this, discrimination against Settlers? If I keep training, I can get as strong as a squad leader too, you know."
At that, one of the guild members pulled a face like he'd just heard something absurd.
"If we're talking about the Sparrow Druid squad leader, that's Hajun, isn't it? Look, to perform at that level without even a combat ability, you can't go hiding yourself away as a Settler. You have to get out there and survive — brush past death a few dozen times — before you get that good, you punk."
I listened to that exchange from a little distance away and drifted into thought for a moment.
Brush past death a few dozen times.
It wasn't wrong. Four years hadn't simply passed me by. It was just that I'd never once gone around broadcasting the fact. Growing stronger always came at a price, and recalling that price had never been a pleasant pastime.
And the Sakuragi Yuko I would see tomorrow had paid a far steeper one than I ever had.
As evening fell and tomorrow's Verdict solidified into certainty, guild banners began to rise along street after street. The eve of a Verdict was always like this. Raising a banner was a declaration of attendance — a public statement that you would witness the dispute and abide by its outcome. The more banners flew, the bigger the stage, and this time the main avenue was slowly disappearing beneath them.
The most overwhelming display, as always, came from Greystone. As the largest guild — having absorbed the entire Anglophone sphere — and the appointed arbitrator of this Verdict, their gray banners lined the central avenue of the capital without end, pressing down on the entire street. The swords of Espada, the crescents of Hilal, and the banners of lesser guilds one by one found their places behind them. Everyone wanted a front-row seat to this fight.
Among them, two banners stood apart. Longmen's red dragon, and Yakumo's deep navy banner. These two were different from all the rest. Not as spectators but as the parties themselves, each flew a spear at the top of its pole, the guild's emblem carved into it. Longmen's red dragon commandeered the very center of the avenue, flaunting its sheer size, while Yakumo's navy banner rippled across from it — quiet, yet with no intention whatsoever of yielding an inch.
And in one corner of that sea of banners, our own Baekho white tiger flew as well. It couldn't compare in size or in numbers, but well — we were a small guild, that much was true, and we weren't a party to the dispute anyway.
As the sun sank completely, Yerin gathered the guild members into the hall. Save for the first day after the Gate opened, it was the first time in a long while that everyone remaining at guild headquarters had been in one place.
"Alright, everyone, attention."
It was guild-master mode. When every eye in the room had fixed on her, Yerin continued.
"First, to our rookies. You've all worked incredibly hard through these two weeks of probation. You've got a little over two months left, so keep doing what you've been doing — stay safe and see it through to the end."
The moment she finished, light applause and laughter broke out here and there.
"Our squad is in first place right now!"
"Our squad leader's the one who's been working hardest!"
Yerin snorted, raised a hand, and settled the room.
"And as you all know, the reason I've gathered you here today is that there's an important announcement ahead of tomorrow's Verdict. Tomorrow, every single one of our guild members is welcome to attend — rookies included. Seeing something like this with your own eyes is worth more than a thousand explanations. How this world works. How disputes end. It'll do you good to watch."
A murmur rippled through the hall, and excitement spread across the rookies' faces.
"In exchange."
When Yerin's voice dropped, the murmur died.
"A few rules. One: do not pick fights with other guilds, under any circumstances. Especially with anyone from Longmen or Yakumo — they'll all be on a hair trigger, so be extra careful with what you do and say. And rookies, if you think you can just run your mouth in Korean because nobody will understand you, you're dead wrong."
"Two — and this one matters even more. While the Verdict is in progress, you do not interfere, no matter what happens. Directly or indirectly, any act that could influence the outcome is absolutely forbidden. Cheering is fine, but using your abilities is not. That's the rule of the Verdict, and if anyone breaks it, the whole of Baekho pays the price. Understood?"
"Yes."
Every guild member answered as one.
"And three."
Yerin paused, then added in a voice a little lower than usual.
"What you're going to see tomorrow… may be crueler than anything you've imagined. Rookies, brace yourselves before you come."
The hall went quiet. Half fear, half curiosity. A Verdict was never a common event to begin with, and one of this scale was rarer still. Even as a fourth-year, I could count on one hand the ones I'd seen.
On the way back to the dormitory after we dispersed, I heard Jaehyuk's squad carrying on around the corner.
"Ugh, I'm honestly so hyped for tomorrow. Hey William, do you even know what a Verdict is?"
"Aigoo, ye think I don't know that much? Two fellas throw down and the winner takes it all, aye?"
"Ooh, not bad."
"But look 'ere, Jaehyuk-lad, I got me a question."
"What is it?"
"That Sakuragi woman or whoever she be, they say she's mighty fierce. So if she fought our guild master, who'd come out on top?"
"Hey, there's no point even asking that."
Jaehyuk replied like it was nothing.
"Awakened can't enter Verdicts in the first place. Yerin's never going to face Sakuragi Yuko."
"Oh 'ere? Well then, just sayin' — not in a Verdict, just a straight one-on-one, who'd win?"
"That's what I'm asking — why does it even matter to you? When would Yerin ever end up fighting someone one-on-one?"
Jaehyuk shot back, exasperated.
"Yerin never fights alone. No matter how shitty a situation gets—"
There he stopped, as if remembering someone, and smirked.
"There's one person who sticks to her side and fights beside her until the very end."
He was around the corner of the corridor, so I couldn't see his face. But I had a pretty good idea who he meant.
"Eh? Who's that, then? This person what fights at her side? Hold on — is the guild master a married woman, then?"
William asked in all seriousness.
"Well~"
Jaehyuk played coy.
"We do happen to have one very dependable person in our guild. It's not exactly a secret, so find out for yourself."
"Ah come on now, at least tell us who it be. I've got to pay me respects to that fine person, don't I?"
"Nope, nope. Where's the fun if I just tell you?"
Laughter spread through the squad. And in the tail end of that laughter, one quiet voice slipped in.
"…I'm jealous."
It was Seoyun. She hadn't said it loudly — just a single line dropped at her feet, like talking to herself.
"Jealous of what?"
Jaehyuk asked.
"Ah… the guild master. Just… having someone like that."
Seoyun's voice was a little low.
"Even in a situation that hopeless, not running away — fighting beside her like that, just because…"
Her words trailed off.
"Hey, if that's what it is, don't worry about it."
Jaehyuk cut in like he'd been waiting for the opening.
"You've got me. If our squad's ever in real danger, I'll be the one holding the line at the very front. You saw me jump ten meters in the plaza on day one, right? I'm a combat type."
"Wasn't that because Hajun oppa buffed you?"
"…Well, okay, that's true."
"No, that's not the point. What I mean is, I'm that dependable, is what I'm saying. Seoyun, if things get dangerous, I'll scoop you up and run you out of there if I have to—"
"That's running away, though."
"No, that's not—!"
Jaehyuk raised his voice in frustration.
"It's a figure of speech! I mean I'll protect you to the end. Hey, William, you saw it too, right? I've got a sense of responsibility."
"Can't rightly say I've seen that… though I did see ye skip trainin' yesterday for a nap."
"Goddammit, you people don't even know what my ability is."
The squad members burst out laughing.
"There he goes again. The 'my ability is amazing once I unlock it' speech?"
"It's not 'amazing,' it's genuinely incredible. You people just haven't seen what happens when I really let my power loose."
"Sure, sure. So scary. Terrifying."
"You little… Just wait. Someday I'll show you."
Only then did Seoyun crack a small smile.
"Yes, sir. Very reassuring, our squad leader."
She answered along with the joke, but there was something absent-minded in it.
What Seoyun had muttered to herself came back to me. Jealous.
I'd been listening from around the corner, and before I knew it, the corner of my mouth had lifted slightly. What's so good about that, anyway…
I hastily wiped the expression off my face.
The next day, the Royal Capital began to move as a whole from the crack of dawn. Before the sun had even risen, people came pouring out into the streets. The Verdict would be held at the Grand Colosseum on the capital's outskirts — originally a royal venue for state ceremonies, but one that espers borrowed whenever a Verdict of any real scale came up. They said the arena, built to hold thousands, would be packed to the walls today.
Baekho turned out in full as well — everyone remaining in the guild, minus the expedition team that had yet to return. With even the rookies along, we made for a fairly long procession. The rookies were giddy the entire way there.
"Whoa, there are so many people. All of these came to watch the Verdict?"
"Was the capital always this crowded? Feels like practically the whole guild turned out."
"Hey, hey, look at that. That's a Longmen banner. The red dragon."
"Hey, the guild master told us not to even look at the Longmen side, remember?"
Amid the rookies' excited chatter, William craned his neck around and chimed in.
"Woo-wee, I never seen a place this big in me life. Bigger than the Gwangju World Cup stadium, I reckon?"
"Come on, you can't compare it to a stadium. People might die in there today."
"Aish, 'twas only a figure of speech, now."
William was parroting Jaehyuk's speech patterns word for word.
Stepping inside the arena, the sheer scale hit home all over again. Enormous circular stands rose above us, and beneath them the sand-covered fighting floor sat empty and bare. A row of banner poles lined the barrier between the floor and the stands, and looking around, it seemed each guild had been assigned its own section. Yerin, wearing the cloak that marked a guild master, walked at the very front, and we followed her toward the Baekho section that Greystone had allotted us.
"Hajun, come up front with me. You too, Jaehyuk."
"…Me too?"
"It's the official seating. Key members of our side sit in front. There's a reason guilds get their own sections, you know."
As I fell into step behind Yerin, one of the rookies behind us muttered, bewildered.
"Huh? Did you just hear that…?"
"Must be because he's an officer. For all that, I heard the squad leaders are pretty well known."
"No, that's not it. The way the guild master just addressed Hajun-squad-leader… it was kind of…"
The rookies' eyes darted between me and Yerin. Then one of them made a small, startled noise.
"No way… are those two dating?"
"What, you didn't know?"
In an instant, a small commotion broke out among the rookies.
"Seriously? The guild master and Hajun-squad-leader?"
"Whoa, that's the person who guided us on day one, right? The guild master's boyfriend?"
"There are more of you who didn't know than I expected. My squad leader told me about it."
"That explains it. During registration, the guild master's tone with Hajun-squad-leader was a little different."
William was the most shocked of all.
"Is that the honest truth?! The guild master?! Woo-wee! THAT person, with HER person?!"
A few of the rookie girls stole glances at Yerin and whispered among themselves.
"Up close, the guild master really is gorgeous."
"Those two look great together. Like something out of a painting."
"Turns out Hajun-squad-leader's the capable one after all, huh. Dating the guild master and everything."
I pretended not to hear any of it and kept my eyes forward. The back of my neck burned. It wasn't as if it were a secret, but hearing it tossed around by the rookies like this made it oddly embarrassing all over again.
And at the edge of that little commotion sat Seoyun, saying nothing amid the chattering rookies. Wearing an expression that said there was nothing to be surprised about, she simply followed me and Yerin with her eyes as we moved away. She showed no trace of the girl who had wept in the courtyard only days ago. The moment our eyes nearly met, it was Seoyun who looked away first.
I didn't bother turning back. I simply followed Yerin up front, and once we took our seats, the center of the arena was close enough to touch. Jaehyuk plopped down beside me and murmured under his breath.
"Hey, the section next to us is Yakumo. Look at the atmosphere over there, it's brutal. Sakuragi Yuko's going to win anyway, so why the long faces?"
I stole a glance at the Yakumo section myself. For a side that was supposed to win, not a single one of them was smiling.
"Jaehyuk, please, just for today, keep quiet—"
Before I could even finish the sentence, a man from the Yakumo section began walking toward us.
A slight build. An expressionless face. And yet that very blankness created an air that made it hard to approach him carelessly. The master of the Yakumo guild — Satoshi.
Yerin rose from her seat to meet him, greeting him in English.
"So it's come to this after all."
"…It has."
"I wish Baekho had joined the Verdict with us. You have people missing too, don't you?"
"Even if we wanted to, the champion is Sakuragi Yuko. This is a stage where Yakumo has to be the protagonist, no? Even if we entered, the chance would never come our way — so what's the point."
Yerin deflected lightly.
"And what happened to our missing person is still nothing but circumstantial."
Satoshi neither confirmed nor denied it. Only, his expressionless face seemed to waver, ever so faintly.
"…Longmen stayed silent to the very end."
"…I see."
"Even with two weeks given to them."
There was almost no emotion in Satoshi's voice. But it was precisely that flatness that made you guess at how heavy the thing he'd locked away inside it really was.
"If they'd ever intended to send Misaki back, they'd have sent her long ago. I genuinely believed that what we'd uncovered was bad information — that she was still alive out there somewhere. But clinging to hope this far down the road is a joke in itself. You'll all know soon enough what really happened."
Yerin said nothing for a moment. I understood the English perfectly well, but kept my gaze fixed on the arena, feigning indifference. Beside me, Jaehyuk asked quietly.
"What are they saying? What's going on between those two?"
I looked at Jaehyuk and answered with all the pity I could muster.
"…Jaehyuk, why on earth have you still not learned English?"
After two years of roughing it in this world, people learned to roughly follow each other's languages even across different linguistic spheres. To survive, you had to catch every word you could. But this guy Jaehyuk still showed no intention of learning even English.
When I turned my head back, Satoshi had given Yerin a brief nod and returned to the Yakumo section. As she sat down, Yerin let out a short breath.
"…This will be over faster than I thought. Satoshi… has made up his mind completely."
Her voice was heavier than usual. Way heavier.