Heading to Meet the Saintess

A while ago, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠right before the second half of the first round in the VKC, a sudden match-fixing scandal had thrown the entire scene into chaos. It reached from certain executives and managers at RLN, LF, and AVL all the way to the coach of our own team, ZX. The number of people involved was staggering, and the fact that they had been organized made it impossible to brush off as a trivial matter.

Of course, the massive corporation Crescent—which already had deep connections to the VA industry—used my running out of the match as an excuse to step in. Man… it really was resolved in such an absurd way.

Once they launched their investigations and started digging into the masterminds, the whole incident was wrapped up in just a few weeks. As for me, I received a three-month suspension for leaving the match without permission. Still, compared to the possibility of carrying the label of match-fixer for the rest of my pro career, it was a relatively cheap price to pay.

I wonder what the real Saintess is actually like…

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

It was already unbelievable that the Saintess had climbed all the way to Grandmaster using only a mid-lane priest and maintaining a perfect win record. On top of that, her older sister was the CEO of one of the top three conglomerates in the country. From my position—someone who had been steadily receiving her benefits for the past few weeks and had even managed to restore some of my standing within ZX—she was practically a savior. That only made me more curious about her.

I wanted to meet her again, properly ask how I could ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠help in return, and find out why she had chosen to help me in the first place.

It looked like Yuseong had started his solo queue stream right after the scrim ended, and somehow the Saintess had ended up in the same game. The problem was that Yuseong was currently being praised as the most overwhelmingly dominant player across every role among active pros, and the matchup itself was favorable for him.

Plus, didn’t she already lose to him once in her last solo queue broadcast a few weeks ago?

When I remembered that Yuseong had been the first to break the Saintess’s no-death, all-MVP record, the situation really didn’t look easy for her.

At least the positions didn’t get messed up. That’s a relief…

If an average mid laner had been matched against Yuseong’s rune mage instead of someone on the Saintess’s level, the game would have been over in the early game with the rune mage snowballing into a late-game monster. In that sense, it was probably fortunate that it was the Saintess.

I watched the early game setup from outside the room for a moment. Then, right from the start, both teams’ mid laners ran into each other at the entrance to the labyrinth bottom lane. A tense psychological battle unfolded, and in the end, the Saintess came out on top.

After that, the Saintess continued her rampage and eventually began dictating the flow of the game around herself. Even Hades got caught up in her macro play, to the point where his presence was completely overshadowed by the Saintess’s illusionist throughout the match.

Whoa… was she always this good?

It was as if the Saintess could read every single one of her opponent’s thoughts. She kept striking at the exact moments when they tried to counterattack or let their guard down. As a result, the bot duo on Hades’ side got caught again in an ambush designed by the illusionist and demon hunter near the Demon King’s Nest. The game ended with Yuseong sitting there stunned.

By now the chat was so flooded it was impossible to tell whether this was Hades’ stream or the Saintess’. Yuseong still seemed unable to shake off the shock. He muttered a quick closing remark and ended the broadcast in a hurry. The moment he stepped out of the capsule, he kept muttering the Saintess’s name as he headed straight for the monitor. It looked like he was about to review the game immediately.

Most people don’t get this obsessed over a single solo queue game. Just how focused was he to react like this?

He hadn’t even noticed me standing behind him watching the whole thing. The content of the match must have been far more shocking to him than the result itself.

Wait a second…

If I played my cards right with a shocked Yuseong, maybe I could engineer a point of contact with the Saintess. When I casually suggested it to him, his reaction was, “Ah… I forgot to send the friend request.” That told me he was genuinely interested in meeting her in person.

“…Should I ask her then?”

“I don’t know if she’ll accept, but go ahead and try.”

Borrowing the weight of the name Hades, I sent the Saintess her first direct message. To my surprise, she not only readily accepted the suggestion of an offline meeting that came up during our chat—she even suggested we meet right away.

“Wait… it’s fine? And she wants to meet right now?”

“…For real?”

I hadn’t expected either of them to agree so readily, so I quickly told her I would head over first and started preparing to leave.

“Where are you two suddenly going?”

The coach naturally asked where we were headed. After I explained the situation, he knew the upper management was desperate to somehow tie the Saintess to ZX even as a trainee. One side was busy but untouchable, while the other had nothing but time. In the end, he gladly gave us permission.

After we arrived first at the cafe in Cheongdam-dong that I had reserved in advance for the meeting with the Saintess, Yuseong—who had been looking around—spoke up.

“Hyung. Why does it feel like there’s nobody here…?”

Just as he said, aside from the staff, there wasn’t a single customer in the cafe.

“Well… ah, wait.”

Thinking about it again, I realized why. The Saintess’s appearance from our last meeting was so overwhelming that simply showing up anywhere drew massive aggro. She had kept her face hidden behind a mask and sunglasses until we sat down to eat. I remembered how we had to rent out a private VIP room inside the restaurant during our first meeting.

Plus, with the famous Crescent backing her, this level of luxury is probably nothing to her.

“You’ll understand once the Saintess arrives.”

“What does that have to do with the Saintess?”

It was a fair question. But once she showed up, he would immediately understand what I meant. I just smiled and brushed it off for now.

Before long, the Saintess appeared through the door wearing casual clothes just like last time.

“…”

Even Yuseong—who was famous for being completely indifferent to women—froze solid at the Saintess’s overwhelming beauty. Seeing his reaction, she responded with a mischievous smile and took the seat across from us.

“Nice to see everyone again. Especially you, Mr. Seonggwang. It’s been a while since the offline viewing, hasn’t it?”

“Ah… yes.”

Of course, her face wasn’t something I could get used to even after seeing it twice, so like Yuseong, I stayed completely frozen and could only nod vigorously.