The Saintess's Calculated Reveal

The meeting today had been somewhat intentional on my part. Originally I planned to keep Han Seongkwang and the viewers hanging a little longer after hitting solo rank fifth—at least until the summer season wrapped up. The contact came faster than I expected.

Han Seongkwang, whom I had pegged as a calm, calculating strategist, had reached out first, using Hades’s interest in me as his excuse. Once I gave him the right amount of encouragement, he slowly steered the conversation toward meeting up sometime. It seemed his curiosity and inquisitiveness ran far hotter than I had guessed.

Still… the moment my sister saw I had reached solo rank fifth, she went ahead and signed the STD contract on the spot. When someone requests a meeting first, accepting immediately instead of playing hard to get lets you seize the upper hand in the relationship. At this stage, revealing both my pro debut team and doing a first joint stream with the controversial pro gamer Han Seongkwang was an option with serious merit.

It was a shame I wouldn’t get to savor the cult’s desperate reactions to the absolute limit—only to suddenly return with a Han Seongkwang collab and watch their responses shatter. But with the heavyweight Hades sitting right across from me, even if my focus was slightly split, the sheer aggro would undoubtedly hit harder than ever.

“Since both of you still look tense, shall I start the conversation?”

“Yes…”

“Please do.”

Somehow the atmosphere felt like it would flow far more smoothly than anticipated.

“The truth is, I’ve signed with STD. I’ll be playing for them starting next spring… I figured we could do a joint stream to announce the news alongside the broadcast I’ve been delaying. What do you think?”

“Uh… what?”

“A joint stream isn’t a bad idea, but… you already signed with STD? Weren’t you turning down every team that approached you?”

Given STD’s reputation, there was no real reason for me to join them, so I could understand Han Seongkwang’s reaction. Still, wasn’t he looking down on STD a bit too much? Or maybe that wasn’t the issue.

“Did ZX tell you to recruit me by any means necessary? Is that why you contacted me earlier?”

“…Uh…”

“…Pardon? Um… it’s not only that, but…”

Judging by Han Seongkwang’s flustered response, it was obvious that recruitment talk about me had been circulating on ZX’s side. Of course, that didn’t seem to be their main reason for coming to see me.

If they were truly serious about signing me, they wouldn’t have sent just these two by themselves.

ZX had probably assumed I wouldn’t sign with anyone until next year and wanted to use this meeting with Hades and Starlight as groundwork for long-term negotiations. Unfortunately for them, the contract had already been finalized right before that.

STD had become my new team in the interim, and Hades and Han Seongkwang now looked like people attempting to tamper with another team’s player for impure reasons.

“Judging from your reaction, it doesn’t seem like you came with only that intention.”

“Yes… that’s correct.”

“I came because I’m more interested in Saintess-nim’s skill than in my own team.”

Oh, had the tension finally eased? Unlike Han Seongkwang, who was still groggy and blushing, Hades spoke in a noticeably calmer tone, making it clear that he cared far more about my ability than my appearance.

“Then how about this?”

I explained that they already knew STD had failed to reach playoffs in summer and therefore wouldn’t be participating in the Worlds qualifiers. “After I secure the starting mid position with STD, I’ll act as ZX’s scrim partner all the way until Worlds ends. In exchange, you two simply need to appear on my pro debut broadcast from time to time.”

“Oh…”

“Yes, that works.”

As expected, Hades accepted the proposal immediately. I shot a meaningful glance at Han Seongkwang—who already owed me heavily—and he nodded at once.

“Then shall we start the broadcast right away?”

Obviously I couldn’t let them see the chat window that was about to become hell, so I turned it on first where they couldn’t see the screen. As expected, pure chaos greeted me.

“Have you all been well?”

The chat ranged from the usual praise of my looks to questions about whether I had quit, but thankfully there was almost none of the chaos from last time. Did the cult get purged? This was pretty decent for a stream after several weeks of silence. I could safely ignore the “why are you back ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠now” comments and keep going.

“All right then… since it’s been a while, I have two very special guests with me today!”

I waited for more viewers to gather, then moved to where Hades and Han Seongkwang were sitting. The chat immediately exploded at the appearance of two absolute giants.

Some members of the cult quickly flipped their attitude as if nothing had happened earlier and began praising me nonstop. Even Hades and Han Seongkwang seemed startled by the sheer firepower; the chat only grew stronger as time passed.

“Wow… 570,000 real-time viewers…”

Hades in particular stared in awe as the viewer count broke fifty thousand and climbed toward sixty. Han Seongkwang, who knew exactly how long I had been streaming, reacted even more strongly than Hades.

“Now that the cult seems to have gathered, shall we move on to today’s main event?”

While watching their reactions, I pulled out a black-and-silver uniform and dropped the bomb I had been waiting to release.

“Starting next year, I will be playing as STD’s mid laner.”

Most reactions were pure shock at first, but as people started thinking rationally, the chat filled with a mix of worry and mockery asking if STD wasn’t too weak.

“I understand your concerns, but if STD—the team everyone is doubting—manages to win the World Championship, how valuable would that be?”

I openly declared ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠my ambition to chase the feat of winning Worlds with STD.

After wrapping up the stream at an appropriate point, I added Hades as a friend and saw them off. Just as I was about to head home, my sister called.

“Yeah, what’s up?”

She suggested stopping by the STD office to check out the players now that the contract was done.

“Sure, let’s go.”

I had already decided on Han Seongkwang for support. Now it was time to see whether there were usable top and ADC players who weren’t quite the core of the team.