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Chapter 123: Nile Pt. 5

A special gate had suddenly appeared in Cairo.

People chatted as they looked at it, but no one was taking it seriously. It was difficult for ordinary people to distinguish between special gates and general gates.

Because by this point, gates were appearing everywhere, so people just talked regularly, thinking that it was the case for this one as well.

The only ones whose demeanors hardened were the Hunters.

“...”

There were other Hunters in the restaurant besides Lee Jun-Kyeong and his party, and they, too, couldn’t take their eyes off of the gate that had appeared in Cairo.

In the end, Jeong In-Chang broke the silence and shouted, “Mr. Lee!”

“I see it too,” Lee Jun-Kyeong responded as he looked over at Jeong In-Chang.

The gate that had appeared in Cairo was unusual. It wasn’t just that it was a special gate.

“Does a gate like that really exist?”

It was a gate that defied common sense.

The bizarreness of the gate could only be felt by the Hunters and was something that ordinary people couldn’t feel.

“It hadn’t been long since it appeared, but the mana has already expanded so much,” Jeong In-Chang quickly said as he observed the state of the gate.

“At this rate, the gate is going to break soon!”

A gate break.

After a certain period of time passed after a gate appeared in which it wasn’t raided, the mana that filled the gate would begin to move actively and expand outward.

Eventually, if that gate still wasn’t conquered, then the gate would collapse and form a gate break. The monsters that existed within would pour out into the world with an explosion.

However, this process was one that took time.

If it were short, it would take a month.

If it were long, well, there were even gates that still hadn’t collapsed.

However, so far, there hadn’t been something that was quite like the gate in front of them.

“It hasn’t been that long since it appeared, but to think the gate would already be showing signs of collapse…” Oh Hyeong-Seok said as he also observed the gate as if he was analyzing it.

“Mr. Lee!”

Jeong In-Chang eventually couldn’t hold it in any further and got up from his seat. The gate in front of them could collapse at any time.

“We have to make our move!”

They had to either close it immediately or evacuate the people.

At this rate, countless people would die.

If the gate collapsed in Cairo, the capital city of Egypt…

The aftermath would be horrifying to even imagine.

However.

“Mr. Lee…?”

Lee Jun-Kyeong and Baldur didn’t rise from their seats. Even Won-Hwa didn’t move.

They still sat, observing the gate.

Jeong In-Chang had been about to shout even more out of frustration, but he suddenly heard Lee Jun-Kyeong’s voice in his ear.

“Sit down.”

In a situation where it wouldn’t have been enough time for them to raid it immediately, Jeong In-Chang’s face turned red as Lee Jun-Kyeong ordered him to sit down.

“I cannot. I’ll go even if I have to do it on my own. Although I can’t tell why you’re dragging your feet at this moment, we can’t waste even a second!”

Lee Jun-Kyeong had almost forgotten that Jeong In-Chang had a strong sense of justice.

The reason he had originally moved wasn’t out of loyalty to Lee Jun-Kyeong.

Rather, it was that sense of justice.

He was a man who would act according to his own idea of justice and was someone who would do anything for it.

Nevertheless, Lee Jun-Kyeong was adamant about him not moving.

“Sit. Down.”

“Mr. Lee!”

“Sit down, please.”

It was Won-Hwa who asked him to sit down this time.

Won-Hwa continued, staring at Jeong In-Chang, “This isn’t something for you to get this agitated about.”

Seeing Won-Hwa’s gentle expression, Jeong In-Chang seemed to come to his senses little by little.

He had been so agitated because a special gate had appeared directly in front of him. Moreover, he didn’t know what would happen even at that very moment.

However, now that he had calmed down a little, he was able to get a better grasp of the situation.

"The Hunters..."

He could feel the aura of Hunters approaching with his highly responsive senses.

There were some Hunters heading to the gate and others evacuating the citizens.

"This is not China," Won-Hwa said to Jeong In-Chang gently.

Regardless of what would happen, the place they currently were wasn’t the destroyed China from before that wasn’t able to resolve anything.

Moreover.

“This isn’t Korea either.”

This time it was Lee Jun-Kyeong who interjected.

He was right as well.

This wasn’t Korea.

They, as Korean Hunters, didn’t have to come forward just because something was happening in front of them.

Lee Jun-Kyeong stared at the gate.

There were Hunters surrounding it.

As he looked at them, he noticed something.

‘How unexpected.’

He could see who was the first to move in the advent of the sudden crisis.

‘Set.’

Men in black leather were moving quickly to the gate.

***

Fortunately, the special gate, which had almost developed into a dangerous situation, was quickly raided. Of course, it was a done deal. Since a Hunter who had the power of someone who could be the head of a secret organization had moved, no matter how unique the gate had been, there wouldn’t have been any ability to withstand him.

The gate soon stabilized, and Jeong In-Chang was whistling with a flushed face.

"Hahaha."

Won-Hwa finally burst into laughter when he saw his companion’s expression.

When the gate had appeared, everyone in their party had been observing the situation as they knew how it would end. It had only been Jeong In-Chang who had found himself flustered.

Apparently, he had been embarrassed by the spectacle he had caused.

"Mr. Jeong.”

Lee Jun-Kyeong also looked at him with a smile.

"If you're going to make fun of me, you don’t have to. I'm already embarrassed enough,” Jeong In-Chang said as his cheeks flushed further.

However, Lee Jun-Kyeong just simply shook his head.

“That’s not it. You did well yesterday.”

Jeong In-Chang and Won-Hwa’s eyes opened wide in response to the sudden compliment.

“Didn’t you only act in that manner because you wanted to save people?” Lee Jun-Kyeong asked.

Jeong In-Chang rubbed his head. “That’s true, but…”

“All you did was try to move hastily to save the people without taking stock of the situation around you or thinking about what would happen. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing.”

Jeong In-Chang had been so concerned about the people’s safety that he hadn’t been able to take account of the surrounding situation.

Although, in some ways, it could be considered a disadvantage, it was also his greatest strength.

“Ahem,” Jeong In-Chang coughed in vain as he was embarrassed.

“So that’s how you had felt…how impressive.”

Won-Hwa looked at Jeong In-Chang and seemed to have been even more surprised by the man’s integrity.

Leaving them behind, Lee Jun-Kyeong thought about what had happened yesterday.

The fastest one to make a move on the gate had been Set.

Although the gate couldn’t have been a danger to the man, it was still unexpected that he would have been the first to try to raid it.

‘Hmm.’

Whether it was his intentions, the questions he asked, or even the question of what Lee Jun-Kyeong had felt the man would do when he obtained control of the Nile…

He still couldn’t figure out the answer.

“Still, it’s a relief,” Jeong In-Chang said.

“What do you mean?” Lee Jun-Kyeong replied.

“I heard you were able to achieve your purpose in coming to Egypt. Inebu. Weren’t you able to make an appointment with that Hunter?”

“Ah.”

Things did go just as Jeong In-Chang had said.

This morning, as soon as the gate had been raided, a message had come from Nile.

They, who had originally kept quiet and rejected him, had suddenly conveyed that he was allowed to meet with Inebu.

‘This is…’

He wondered if this decision had been made through the Nile’s own decision or if it had been arranged by the unknown spy from Asgard.

Regardless of who had made it happen, it didn’t matter to him.

“Wasn’t your appointment tonight?” Jeong In-Chang asked.

“Yes.”

Lee Jun-Kyeong was supposed to meet with Inebu this evening.

His meeting with Set had been unexpected, but Lee Jun-Kyeong had still intended to fulfill his reason for coming here.

‘I’ll get it right this time.’

He had to at least try as much as possible to make the history that he had distorted to go back into its original place. Only then could he continue to quickly walk down the path that he had to traverse in the future.

‘I have to erase the variables.’

With that in mind, Lee Jun-Kyeong looked around Egypt with his party.

As there were fewer people on the streets in the aftermath of the gate’s appearance yesterday, the party was able to roam the streets much more pleasantly this time.

“How nice,” Jeong In-Chang said, feeling as though something like this was more than enough to be called a rest after being dragged out at dawn.

There were a lot of things they had to think about, but time was ticking.

Just as they were about to return to their accommodations, they heard the slight sound of something breaking.

Crack!

However, due to their extremely sensitive senses, it was a sound that didn’t escape their ears.

“Something must have happened!”

Again, it was Jeong In-Chang who moved first.

He ran quickly to the sound without looking back, while Lee Jun-Kyeong and Won-Hwa also followed belatedly.

Soon, they arrived in an alley in Egypt.

"Ha..."

Lee Jun-Kyeong sighed.

An alley.

Every time he went to an alley, something happened, and it was never a good thing.

Just as he expected, what they had come across wasn’t good.

“What are you doing?!” Jeong In-Chang shouted.

Several people were trampling on a man, and the bags and boxes that appeared to belong to him were thrown about and broken.

Jeong In-Chang had thrown himself in their midst and protected the man under their feet.

Fortunately, there was something that was better here than what Lee Jun-Kyeong had undergone in England.

“A Hunter?”

The men had all recognized them as Hunters.

Moreover.

“Isn’t that the Underdog?”

They had recognized him.

Therefore, Lee Jun-Kyeong didn’t think that there would be any unnecessary problems from this encounter.

He stepped up in place of Jeong In-Chang, who couldn’t communicate with the mob.

"What's the matter?”

It was difficult for them to immediately assume that the person who was being hit was the victim without at least understanding the situation that occurred before and after they got involved.

Violence had been prevented because it was wrong, but they still had to find out why it had happened first before taking appropriate measures.

Lee Jun-Kyeong, who signaled to Won-Hwa, then asked the Hunters who were assaulting the man once again.

“What could have happened that you would be attacking someone like this?”

Although they were flustered for a little bit, as if they were surprised that the Underdog could speak Arabic, they soon calmed down and responded curtly, “It’s not the place of a Hunter from another country to intervene.”

While it wasn’t a hostile tone, it was clear that it wasn’t welcoming either.

“What the hell are they saying?!” Jeong In-Chang asked out of frustration.

"That it's not for us to cut in," Lee Jun-Kyeong responded.

“However, I can’t just watch you beat a person like this. I insist on figuring out what is going on. If that’s not possible…”

Lee Jun-Kyeong pulled out a phone.

“I’ll have to contact the Association. Regardless of what had happened, for a group of Hunters to be assaulting a human…”

“It seems you have something mistaken,” one of the men who were assaulting the man on the ground interrupted, his mouth curling up into a smirk.

"There is no such law in Egypt."

Lee Jun-Kyeong was confused. Hunters weren’t banned from assaulting humans?

“Still, assault in itself is…”

“—IN EGYPT!” the man shouted as he laughed at the fallen man.

“As long as one has a reason, a Hunter is allowed to discipline a normal human.”

"What the hell is he talking about?!" Jeong In-Chang shouted.

“…”

Lee Jun-Kyeong's expression hardened.

“As long as it is for the safety of the Hunters, we are allowed to discipline the general public as much as we want. Like this, I mean.”

He slowly raised his foot and tried to crush the fallen man's wrist.

"You bastard!"

.

Right as Jeong In-Chang was about to get involved…

Squelch.

…An eerie sound rang out.

It was the sound of something cutting through flesh and bone.

A great scimitar appeared, and, with a single stroke, it cut off the head of the Hunter who had just been about to crush the man’s hand.

Thud.

"There are also laws like this in Egypt."

It was a familiar but unfamiliar voice.

"The Hunters of the Nile also have the right to punish any Hunters."

It was Set.

***

The appearance of Set terrified everyone.

The Hunters who had been laughing at Lee Jun-Kyeong were too busy stepping back with hardened expressions while the man who had been beaten by them immediately fainted.

The situation had changed with just the appearance of this one man.

"Is he all right?" Set said in a sweet voice that no one could imagine belonged to someone who had just casually cut off a man’s head.

As he spoke to Lee Jun-Kyeong, Won-Hwa ran over to examine the man who fainted.

"He’s all right."

The man had just fainted.

"That's a relief,” Set continued as he began to walk forward slowly, approaching the other Hunters.

“P, please forgive us!”

“We apologize!”

"Do you know what you did wrong?" Set asked the begging and fawning Hunters as he smiled the entire time.

Although they tried to answer him, a gruesome sound rang out again.

Squelch.

Before anyone realized, Set had turned back around as he muttered.

“That Anubis bastard would like this.”