Chapter 728: Doubt and Conviction (2)
‘Sh*t, I knew it.’
I couldn’t breathe properly and couldn’t stand the nausea because of the dark stench coming from his body. I suddenly felt like all probability had been met.
‘What is this disgusting devil talking about? He’s the one giving me nausea.’
I could see why he was so desperate for war, and why he was against the new plan.
In the first place, he never liked humans. Controlling the current human population for the sake of future humanity was also mere bullsh*t to him.
There was no way that stinky garbage truly loved mankind. His whole ordeal was just a lie. His acting was aimed at eating negative human emotions through war and causing confusion on the continent.
I got goosebumps all over my body when I thought of him wearing a mask and hiding for an immeasurable time.
Perhaps Cherubim was the enemy that the masked hero kept in check the most?
He had become suspicious from the time he was so adamant about waging wars. It was weird because he was more upset than he should’ve been.
‘This is enough, right?’ The corners of my mouth went up since it felt like it fit so well.
Perhaps the supplies were already in place. The bastard was already prepared to be the devil himself.
Of course, I couldn’t touch the subject hastily.
‘He was an angel of all trades, and he was one of the many pigeon models.’
For the time being, isolating him was the priority. That was the basis for all the work originally. If one wanted to politicize one person, it was only right to keep them away from the pack.
The way he sat in the conference room was very spectacular, and I was worried since he seemed to be taking the lead in the rookie program. It was the same thing that bothered me when he looked at me like he was going to dig up my identity.
‘You threw your hat into the ring first, right?’
Perhaps that had also served as a warning.
‘I’ll keep an eye on everything you do,’ or ‘You won’t be able to do anything stupid behind my back.’
I thought it meant the exact same thing.
There was an inconvenience that the radius of action was slightly reduced, but there would be no major problems about it overall.
I never did anything to get caught in the first place. I never sent quests and refrained from using telescopes.
Perhaps the reason why he decided to be with me was that he wanted to catch me in the act or something. They couldn’t find any hard evidence externally, so they decided to look inside.
“Smart pigeon.”
The method chosen was also unexpected.
“How’s the progress going?”
“We’re continuing to experiment. I’m getting satisfactory results in my own way. I’ll report to you as soon as I get the results, so you don’t have to rush me, Cherubim.”
“That’s slow for a spectacular job to do. Dominions?”
“It’s not slow at all. It hasn’t even been a month since we announced the new plan. We’re still collecting data, and we still need more time before we can determine all the errors.”
“Well, assuming you’re using the technology you’re proud of, three days is never a short time. I wonder if there’s a reason why nothing can be announced. How’s the pile doing? How many times did you repeat the other trial? Isn’t there something you can’t say?”
“…”
“I am also an investor. Dominions, I remember investing quite a lot of divinity… I deserve to know how things are going.”
‘You’re so annoying.’
It was the first time I had ever come across that type of pigeon.
So far, I had fought with devil officials, Blue’s old devil and psychopath murderer, Ito Souta, the devil worshiper, Jin Qing, and many others, but this type is new for me.
‘It’s my first time seeing it, too.’
It was normal to hide one’s beliefs or opinions and not reveal one’s claws.
Wasn’t the standard way to fight in such a situation was to smile while hiding a knife behind one’s back?
However, he was different. He didn’t hide his knife from the start, and he didn’t necessarily hide their beliefs and arguments either.
He wasn’t shouting against us, but he was showing hostility to us with his actions.
That was why he invested a large amount of divinity even though he knew it would all be poured on the floor.
‘Did going public backfire?’
Even the elderly pigeons began to invest their own divinity, and he soon became the largest shareholder in the pile of Lee Kiyoung’s subsidiary.
There was nothing wrong with what he said. As I had said at the briefing session, the investors had the right to be informed of how things were going.
That situation happened because we didn’t assume that he would abandon his divinity to the ground.
Of course, it wasn’t a big disadvantage, either. It wasn’t the right time to think about defending management, and he couldn’t think that far. There’s a limit to what he could do.
‘He’s pressuring us.’
He was trying to put weight on both Noona and me.
It was natural for us to be become discomforted. There were more eyes to deceive, after all.
“I remember there’s still a lot left to do with the first presentation. Just because you’re experimenting right now doesn’t mean you can get results right away and show them. I need time to clean up the data, and if there is an error, I need time to analyze the error. It’s not that I don’t understand how you feel, Cherubim. Please don’t be too pushy. You’re not the only one who’s counting on this. I want to proceed with the work in perfect condition.”
“You’re overreacting, Dominions. I just want to know what’s going on.”
“…”
“You put on a plausible show on stage, but what I saw was not a vision of theory, but a vision of technology. Of course, it’s not that many people don’t know that it’s worth a lot, but many people want more accurate data. I am just representing them.”
“We’ll try to show you as soon as possible.”
“I want you to specify the exact date.”
‘Stop it, you piece of sh*t.’
I thought Jihye Noona might’ve wanted to say that.
“Humans and…”
“We’re already trying to contact them, dear Cherubim.”
“…”
“Of course, most people can’t accept it… As I said before, if the situation changes, the interests will change. Some people have agreed to join us.”
“Are you sure?”
“It wasn’t Lee Kiyoung who took care of things. It was me, Cherubim.”
“Seraphim.”
“Of course, it’s still a small number of people, but I was told they’d see if there were any more people to join hands with.”
“…”
“Things are going great, Cherubim. There is no need to feel so suspicious.”
“I need to hear exactly who they are.”
I was desperately ready to shake my head when asked if his straightness really worked.
How easy it was to play rock-paper-scissors with a guy who always used rock. That was what he was currently doing.
‘Of course, I understand.’
He must’ve thought that what Lee Kiyoung could do at that moment was limited. Right then, he thought that the pressure and force he was exacting was enough.
Perhaps he was even pondering about his next move.
‘The first to check.’
The act of wielding a new plan with the funds he invested in is itself a check.
He was right. If one put our side in the corner, they’d be judging that we could have a wider range of our own. If one thought about it shallowly, they could judge that it wasn’t a big deal, but if he was trying to attract our side of the force, it might be a little annoying.
So far, other factions and I had been on the same team, but depending on how he did it, we could move away from each other.
Together, they were colleagues running toward the new plan. However, they were still just investors, and I was in the position where I had to return what they had given.
Suppose his checks worked to some extent.
Wasn’t it too obvious how that blue pigeon would behave? After recruiting the elders who invested with their divinity, he would rush to stab my heart with a knife instead of monitoring me.
‘Give me my money! You impostors!’ I could assure anyone that hundreds of pigeons would flap and say that.
The conference room, which was running toward dreams and the future, would turn into a group of victims swindled by frauds and would come to strangle us.
From the perspective of Noona and me, we had to be as careful as possible.
‘How many divinities have we gathered so far?’
Although it couldn’t be expressed in accurate figures, it was enough to change the laws of the continent one by one.
Everyone put their life and soul into the new plan with one mind. There were pigeons that invested all their divinities and pigeons that had been drawn from all over the place.
If the project collapsed, literally half of the senior pigeons would see what the water temperature was like in Mirror Lake.
‘It could be a shock if something like an IMF happens again.’
I didn’t know if I should express it like this, but I thought there would be confusion at the level of the Great Depression.
I thought that was what Cherubim had overlooked.
The pigeon wanted to pull down the rookie plan, but none of the pigeons that invested in me wanted the plan to go awry. In other words, everyone was holding hands and praying.
‘Who do you think will be the villain?’
I would definitely be a villain under general circumstances.
‘Do you think I’m going to be it?’
However, I wasn’t the public enemy, considering an outside enemy was trying to screw things up.
‘We sink together and rise together.’
Now that was called a destined community.
“Today’s meeting was sh*t. Really. Everyone was quarreling. I almost died of annoyance at him picking a fight at every chance he could get.”
“Well, it’ll be solved soon.”
“By the way, why are you laughing so viciously, Oppa?”
“Noona, what do you think you would do if the company you invested in falters because of some rumors?”
“What? All of a sudden?”
“Do you think you’re gonna blame the guy who spread the rumor?”
“Of course, you’ll blame the rat. That’s what most people resent it immediately when there is someone to blame for the cause of be suspicious, but you’re not, right?”
“That’s true.”
“But what’s wrong with that? Ahh… Woaahhh… Wow… that’s really trash. But, um… Is that going to work? These are pigeons, not humans. They might be a little more rational.”
“No, they’re no different than humans.”
What I heard from Benignore in the past went through my mind. We were probably in the middle of talking about Altanus.
‘You guys aren’t perfect either, huh.’
‘Right. We’re not perfect. Remember that well, my proud Honorary Cardinal Lee Kiyoung. We’re not perfect either. We’re imperfect. It’s just the place where we stand is different from those on the continent, but we’re not very different otherwise. Never forget that we’re not perfect.’
I remembered the exact words of our conversation.
I understood why Benignore kept emphasizing that they weren’t perfect.
I didn’t think it’s a double-track for the current situation, but Benignore probably wanted to convey that the ones we’d fight against in the future would be no different from us. They were imperfect, too.
I agreed with her.
As soon as Lee Jihye smiled at me, an elderly pigeon then rushed into view.
“Gee… Masked angels attacked the humans who have reached out to us… They lost their lives.”
The news came that the angels I made, no, disgusting pigeons sent by Cherubim, hit the back of powerless humans.
“Is… that true?!”
I had no choice but to harden my expression at this.