episode_0353

At that time, the top floor penthouse of the H Hotel in Yeouido, Seoul.

“Haaam.”

Yoon Hye-ra, a red-haired woman wearing a red dress, yawned lightly and waited for the other person to arrive.

“When will you come?”

Hye-ra Yoon prepared to greet someone, and to relieve her boredom, she lit a firework in the air and fiddled with her fingers to practice magic control.

Originally, she had to recover some more magic on Ulleungdo.

Even now, the magic power has not been completely recovered, only about 70% restored.

Thanks to my dedication to recovery, I was able to join the front line earlier than expected, but to recover 100%, I would have to wait at least half of the training period before I could recover.

The reason she came all the way to Seoul was because she wanted to meet and talk with someone.

Knock knock.

There was a knock on the door.

Hye-ra Yoon lightly flicked her hand, and the dress quickly turned into a black suit.

Not exposing any skin, just like the male office workers in Yeouido wear.

It may seem a bit stuffy because it is summer, but the inside of the penthouse was as cool as fall weather thanks to the air conditioning.

“Excuse me, Director.”

“Please come in.”

Sigh.

The door opened, and an old gentleman with platinum hair wearing a gray suit came inside.

Next to the old gentleman, the agents of the society dressed in suits – ‘masterminds’ – took their seats as if guarding the old gentleman, and the old gentleman took off his felt hat as he sat down in front of Hye-ra Yoon.

“‘Trader’ Desmond Feigrin, meet Director Gungi.”

“It’s been a while. This is the first time we have met face to face like this since the incident in Gangneung.”

“Yes. Almost three months have already passed.”

Desmond, the president of Paygreen Airlines, smiled bitterly and stroked the fedora on his thigh.

“Thanks to the good support of the organization, we were able to protect the Paygreen Group. Thank you always, Director.”

“Now that it has become a subsidiary of the association, of course the association must take care of it. Please continue to look after me, Chairman. Because he doesn’t really like it when someone else becomes chairman.”

“I will keep this in mind.”

Desmond Pagreen.

“Where is your granddaughter receiving treatment now?”

“At a vacation home in Montana. I am reflecting on my actions at a mountainside villa.”

After the ‘gene thief’ incident, he joined hands with the group to protect the group and to get his granddaughter out of the international criminal detention center.

“Now I have taken refuge in Buddha, shaved my head, and spend my days reciting Buddhist sutras.”

“…are you American?”

“Faith does not depend on race or nationality.”

“That’s the correct argument. great. Since you don’t seem to be deluded, I can entrust you with this important responsibility.”

Hye-ra Yoon handed the tablet on the table to Desmond.

“The Chairman will be the person who went to Jeju Island and put the ‘Phoenix Feather’ up for auction. The reason is to expand equity within the group and to raise cash to secure airline tickets to all of East Asia through expansionary moves.”

“You’re asking me to come up with a cause that requires a huge amount of cash, enough to sell Phoenix’s feathers. Confirmed.”

“How much do you think it will be?”

“In terms of won, the asking price will start at 200 billion. Because it is literally ‘the price of life’.”

Desmond carefully lifted the sparkling red feather on the table that Hye-ra Yoon had created with magical sparks.

“The ability to go back in time. The legacy left by ‘Phoenix’, an S-class hero who was famous in the United States, before he passed away.”

Beep beep.

A woman appeared on the tablet screen.

The woman, whose hair was suspiciously as clear as water, had a bright smile on her face, but in the photo there was a diagonal black band drawn across the top.

“Everyone thought she was a phoenix, but in reality, she was turning back time. It’s not that he didn’t die, but that he rewound the time of his body. …A hero who suffered countless deaths and died saving America.”

“Personally, I think it’s unfortunate. Because we have the same fire-related abilities and the concepts overlap.”

“Is that so…? Wasn’t Gungi a tiger?”

“It is a flame beast with wings.”

“Ah, I see. Well.”

Gunggi Yoon Hye-ra. Phoenix.

Although similar, they are completely different beings.

Hye-ra Yoon is Korean, but Phoenix is American.

Although they are both dead, they are still alive in spirit form thanks to the leader named Hye-ra Yoon, while Phoenix is not from this world.

On June 7, 2022, Phoenix died.

Before the nuclear missile launched by a Russian villain landed in New York, USA, she soared into space holding the nuclear missile’s warhead from below.

The core exploded, and the Phoenix did not return.

If she comes back alive, it may be a long way off – maybe a little too soon, but it will take at least nine months to fly to the other side of the universe and come back.

Maybe even longer than that.

And when you come back, you may be a completely different person from before.

Anyway, if you think about the time in this world, which is July 2025, it is virtually the same as being dead.

“Chairman Desmond, do you think Phoenix is alive?”

“Yes. Because he is America’s hero. Well, I’m asking this just in case, but is it possible that she wasn’t a member of the group…?”

“It wasn’t an alliance.”

Yoon Hye-ra smiled bitterly and shook her head.

“Because she was a woman, she was the top priority for recruitment, but the CEO did not try to recruit her very actively.”

“Could it be Phoenix’s…”

“Let’s skip the issue of the dead person’s sexual identity. What’s important is that it’s one of the three abilities she had.”

Yoon Hye-ra cleared her throat and spread three fingers.

“Blue flame, mana burn, and time reversal. We need to focus on the last of these abilities, the Time Rewind Feather, which she leaves behind with her ability whenever her mana is full. Now there are only 7 pieces of Phoenix’s legacy left in the world.”

“…What is the probability that I secured that?”

“You say you hid the gift you received for 3 years and now you brought it out? In any case, people will be more concerned about ‘who will win the bid’ rather than being interested in how the chairman got it.”

“Grunt.”

Desmond nodded heavily, fiddling with his red feathers.

“Already, I am already receiving calls on my personal SNS saying they will buy it before the auction. From the president to the chairman of a group larger than me, and even S-level talented people.”

“If you use it within 10 seconds, you will gain an extra life. Even if you don’t write it yourself, someone else can write it.”

“…He was a great hero. Phoenix is.”

Desmond swept up Phoenix’s photo with a faint look on his face.

“I believe that one day, she will definitely come back. With that belief, I will definitely succeed in the mission given to me.”

thud.

Desmond stood up, clenching his fists.

“May the day come when blue flames burn again in this land!”

* * *

“I don’t know how Chairman Desmond got his hands on the phoenix feather, but at least he can’t get his orange juice-soaked shirt back.”

I pointed to the front of Professor Lisara’s shirt.

“We recommend that you ask the stewardess to change your clothes in a quiet place. If you get something like orange juice on your shirt, it won’t come off easily later.”

“I think you sprayed orange perfume, well.”

Professor Lisara thought nothing of the juice on her shirt.

“And while we were already talking, 10 seconds, the golden time, had passed. Anyway, a lot of people are probably looking for that feather. The Chairman of Sunshade is also targeting him or something.”

“Of course. Because officially you don’t have it. Even if you have it, it’s not a bad thing to have a spare.”

The association has only one quantity.

I am now putting that one feather up for auction, and the head of the company willingly allows it.

As for the secret to reviving a lion, research on the phoenix’s feathers has already been completed.

The Order can revive the dead in other ways, and if we have to be honest, the Phoenix’s feather is like a guild.

It’s good to have it, but it’s okay if you don’t have it.

However, it is something that everyone outside of the organization wants.

I threw a tantrum with that, and everyone from all over the world is flying towards Jeju Island.

“It would be nice if students could focus on the summer semester, but the situation is really difficult, right? Because of the phoenix’s feathers, people from all over the world will flock to Jeju Island.”

“Education cannot be abandoned just because there are too many people. The summer semester program will proceed as normal.”

“I think so too. …I think it will arrive soon.”

Suddenly, Jeju Island began to appear outside the window.

“The conversation was fun. Thanks to you, the time went well.”

“Try hard. There is no need to return the handkerchief.”

“Oh my. I was going to apply for after-sales service by returning the handkerchief.”

“I will politely decline that.”

“It’s an iron wall. Hehehe.”

Lisara smiled slightly and looked at me.

“If you push someone away like that, how do you think the person being pushed away will feel?”

“You might think that this guy is not interested in me.”

“…Relentless, really. If you want to see Phoenix’s feathers in the future, please contact me. I was thinking of going to watch the auction.”

“Do you plan to buy it?”

“Yes. I’m quite a billionaire, right?”

oh.

Suddenly people look different.

But I won’t get too close.

‘Rather, we should increase the distance.’

What if Professor Lisara buys the Phoenix Feather for hundreds of billions, or even trillions, of money?

‘I might feel a little sorry.’

The blue feather she bought.

‘It’s a fake.’

It is nothing more than a blue feather made of magical power, created through the ‘material creation’ of a goblin bat, with only one function missing.

‘Because I don’t know if it’s real or not until I write it.’

It’s not like the person who left the legacy can come back from space and prove, ‘This is a fake.’

‘I don’t know if it’s effective against the demons of Pandemonium, but it’ll be troublesome if it gets into the hands of a villain.’

If a wicked person who deserves to be killed buys it, they take the money and execute him.

If a good person buys it, the money is used as research funds and invested in developing technology to revive lions.

As a result, as long as you save him from the danger of death, he’s up.

No matter what the intermediate process is, as long as the result is good, everything is good.

‘Anyway, if I die, all I have to do is save my life.’

It’s not like I’ll die as soon as I buy it before July is over.

Once the technology to revive lions is developed before the use of feathers, it can be used as the first private clinical tester.

ah.

What features are missing?

…

It’s time reversal.