Chapter 420. Leader

There was a saying that ‘time is the best medicine.’ Forgetting was a blessing given to the human brain. Painful and difficult memories, even happy memories gradually faded and were forgotten as time pa.s.sed by. That was the case for Chi-Woo in the recent great war. The misery of the war and the relief of victory gradually became merely one of the many events that happened over time.

Of course, since it was such a big event, it hadn’t become a dim, summer night’s dream just yet, but enough time had pa.s.sed for him to step away from it and look at the future that was about to come. There was still too long a road ahead of Chi-Woo for him to linger on his memories of the previous war.

Now back to the main point. Humanity and the League had won the recent war. This fact was undeniable, but what was next? After fulfilling the challenge of ‘winning and surviving’, what were the appropriate next steps? Chi-Woo agonized over this. There were many things that came to mind, but once he tried to act upon it, he didn’t know where to start. The first reason was that Chi-Woo was the leader of an organization, and his decision didn’t affect only himself. Secondly, there were way too many things to do. Since he had to consider dozens of people rather than a couple, and he had to weigh the importance of each task, he was left at a loss by the whole affair.

Of course, Chi-Woo didn’t need to rack his head in frustration for answers. There was someone who was way better at reading the future than him—for example, Chi-Hyun. Chi-Woo was about to send a message right away, but hesitated. Come to think of it, there was no need to bother such a busy guy. Although it wasn’t a bad idea to ask his brother for help, he didn’t think it was a good idea to seek out Chi-Hyun every time a problem like this arose. He couldn’t rely on his brother forever and needed to know how to become independent. But above all, he had recruited someone for a moment like this. Chi-Woo immediately called for Eval Sevaru.

“Boss, you want to know what you should do in the future?” Chi-Woo simply asked what he should do, but Eval Sevaru immediately understood what he was truly asking—"what steps should Seven Stars take in preparation for the political and economic storm stemming from the recent victory?’ Eval Sevaru briefly organized his thoughts and gave a difficult answer, “Of course, Seven Stars must prepare in line with the power of humanity…and I can go on, but boss, you don’t like hearing such general answers, right?”

“Yes. No, yeah.”

“We need to get bigger. Or to be more precise, we need to get ready to increase our weight cla.s.s.” Eval Sevaru continued, “What we foresee would happen as a result of this war can be largely divided into two parts. The first is the fall of the Demon Empire. And the second is the arrival of new reinforcements from the Celestial Realm.” He cleared his throat and continued, “Of course, both are just unconfirmed rumors at the moment, but it’s basically an established fact.”

As Eval said, the other factions would not leave the Demon Empire alone, which had become so weak that it was embarra.s.sing to call them a faction. It was the same for humanity. In this war, humanity had lost a great number of valuable and precious heroes. Therefore, rumors circulated that the Celestial Realm would send reinforcements on a large scale to supplement their manpower.

“But what has that got to do with us preparing for the future?”

“The Demon Empire worked harder than anyone to capture the Liber natives and use them as slaves. Thus, the fall of the Demon Empire means that most of the enslaved natives would be liberated.” Where would the natives flee while the control of the Demon Empire weakened? There was only one answer—the last stronghold of humanity, the holy city, Shalyh.

“And from what I heard, the reinforcements that will arrive this time will be the largest ever. Unless there’s a change, it’s highly likely that this will be the last group of heroes to be transmitted from the Celestial Realm to Liber.” Eval Sevaru calmly continued, “The two factors would lead to the increase of humanity’s power. Under the current circ.u.mstances, being established as a faction on Liber means increasing your weight cla.s.s.” In short, humanity would absorb the natives released from captivity and accept the largest reinforcements ever.

“Thus, Seven Stars should also prepare to get bigger in size. If everyone bulks up while we stay the same, we’ll naturally fall behind.”

Chi-Woo pondered. After listening to Eval’s organized thoughts, he could now grasp the gist of what he should do. “Then what do you propose I do first?”

“Sir, you need to re-establish the system,” Eval Sevaru replied without a moment’s hesitation.

Chi-Woo tilted his head. “Of course, since we’re an organization, there needs to be an established system, but I thought it’s already been established somewhat after you joined. Why do we have to re-establish it?”

“What I’ve established is the basic, most minimal system. If we want to survive in the future, we need to become a much more professional and systematic organization than we are now.” Eval Sevaru shook his head and continued, “And the system that I’m talking about is a bit more inclusive. Boss, your status has risen exponentially since the war. It’s not an exaggeration to say that you’re second only to the legend. If we use this to our advantage, we can further cement Seven Stars’ position.” He continued with a stronger voice, “If you find it difficult to understand, consider the Demon Empire and the Abyss. It would be good to think about why these two factions with established systems went as far as reorganizing their internal affairs for a fresh start.”

A good part about talking to Eval Sevaru was that he didn’t tell Chi-Woo what to do but suggested topics to think about during the conversation.

Chi-Woo clutched his head and said, “…So you’re saying that I should clean up the internal affairs of Seven Stars first. On second thought, if we establish a clear system now, there will be no confusion when we accept new people in the future.”

“Yes, that’s exactly right, sir. If you’re planning to operate a small elite team, our current system will do, but the story changes when there are more than dozens of members.”

“What’s the current status of the Seven Stars?”

“Would you like to take a look? It would be clearer to see it in an organized doc.u.ment than to hear it in words.” Eval Sevaru immediately handed over a piece of paper. The following words were written:

[Leader: Choi Chi-Woo

Administrator: Eval Sevaru

Advisor: Byeok Ran-Eum

First Team: Ru Amuh/ Ru Hiana/ La Hawa/ Salem Eshnunna/ Onorables Evelyn

Second Team: Emmanuel Eust.i.tia (External Partner)

Third Team: Yunael Tania/ Aida/ Jin-Cheon/ Abis/ Aric

Miscellaneous: Yeriel Lilly Dula Mariaju (External Collaborator)/ Asha(?)/ Fenrir Cub(?)

“At the time of Seven Star’s creation, several people following you were semi-forced into the first team due to understaffing. Therefore, the first team with Mr. Ru Amuh as the team leader should be regarded as a temporary team.”

“Yes, that…happened.”

“If we exclude the second team since it’s an external group, we have the same issue with the third team. Ms. Yunael also became a team leader on conditional terms, and after that, no other discussion took place over the issue.”

Chi-Woo made a bitter smile. It was all as Eval Sevaru said. Rather than just hearing about it and thinking inside his head, it became clear to him after seeing it on paper. He hadn’t realized how serious the issue was; now that the facts were laid out in the open, it became clear that he had been leading Seven Stars without any clear plans and instead had been going by a rule of thumb. It was no exaggeration to say he basically just let it run by itself.

Of course, Chi-Woo had been distracted by a series of incidents, but he couldn’t blame Eval Sevaru after all this time because he held all the personnel authority as the Seven Stars leader. In Eval Sevaru’s perspective, he probably didn’t think he could step up without permission when Chi-Woo hadn’t taken any action.

“Boss, you have to start from scratch. You need to move those who need to be moved while also recruiting new people. Of course, you should decide the direction we’re taking to achieve that.”

“Yeah, I agree. If some of the members from the first team are on a mission, we have to get new members… I’ll have to go around and look for potential recruits right away.” Chi-Woo smacked his lips as if he was already getting a headache.

“…What?” Eval Sevaru asked in a shrill voice. “Boss, you’re going to look for heroes yourself and put them in teams?”

“Yep.”

“All the teams?”

“Yeah, that’s what I’m planning to do. Why?” Since Chi-Woo could see other people’s user information, he thought this was the ideal plan, and he also planned to look for other stars in the process.

However, Eval Sevaru’s response didn’t seem favorable; it seemed like he was shocked to find Chi-Woo going off track after he’d been doing so well. Chi-Woo wasn’t able to see it, but Philip also smiled a little wryly.

“No…why are you doing that, boss…”

Eval Sevaru looked at him with such a dumbfounded expression that Chi-Woo became baffled instead. “Uh…” He simply blinked because he didn’t know why Eval Sevaru was acting like this all of the sudden.

* * *

After concluding his conversation with Eval Sevaru, Chi-Woo was lost in thought about the man’s reaction a while ago. However, no matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t figure it out. In the end, he initiated the plan, ‘Help me, Chi-Hyunremon’[1]. Chi-Hyun looked annoyed that Chi-Woo kept barging into his office without notice, but since Chi-Woo was his brother, he listened seriously to his concern. And he snickered after getting the full story.

“What the. Why are you laughing?” Chi-Woo protested when his brother just stared at him with a flat smile, but Chi-Hyun didn’t reply. After a while, he suddenly straightened his posture and said, “Chi-Woo.”

“Yeah?”

“You are, well, how do I say it? You’re not aware of this, but you tend to put people into very clear-cut categories when dealing with them.”

“Do I?” Chi-Woo tilted his head as if he didn’t know this.

“Yeah. Once you judge that someone has entered the line you’ve drawn, you’ll try to take care of them as much as possible. I’m not saying that part of your personality is bad, and it wouldn’t matter if we were on Earth. But where you and I stand now is Liber.” Adding that this wasn’t the only concern, Chi-Hyun continued, “Moreover, you’re the leader of an organization, and a powerful group with unlimited potential for development in the future at that.”

“What does that have to do with my personality—”

“It does matter.” Chi-Hyun sharply cut him off. “During war, well, that’s fine. You played the drum and the fiddle, but can you really say that you did it all by yourself from the very beginning to the end?”

“That’s…” Chi-Woo gaped. It was true that he had made the biggest contribution and achievements in this war, but it would be a lie and immoral of him to say that he didn’t receive any help from others. “No, I received a lot of help.”

“Yeah, running an organization is almost exactly the same. The bigger the scale, the more you have to delegate.” Chi-Hyun paused and folded his arms. “Since you already talked to that guy, you know roughly what’s going to happen in the future, right?” Chi-Hyun was referring to Eval Sevaru, and after Chi-Woo quietly agreed, he continued, “A lot of things will happen from now on, and among them, there will definitely be events that will require your influence.”

“Well…”

“If you pay attention to each and every one of them, you’ll feel overburdened by it someday. When that time comes, you’ll have no choice but to lean on those around you. To put it simply, you’ll have to ask for help from those who trust and follow you.”

Before he knew it, Chi-Woo was carefully listening to Chi-Hyun because for some reason, he felt that his brother was saying something very important.

Chi-Hyun continued, “Then you should know how and when to trust and entrust tasks to them as well. Until when are you planning to take care of each and every one of them? Like changing a baby’s diaper. That’s nothing short of ignoring and looking down on those around you.”

“I wasn’t trying to ignore—”

“Even if that wasn’t your intention,” Chi-Hyun cut him off, “There’s a possibility that it can be interpreted like that.”

“…”

“That’s especially true for the Celestial Realm heroes. They were treated as saviors in their respective worlds. Don’t look down on the egos of heroes.”

Only then did Chi-Woo finally realize what Chi-Hyun was saying. Chi-Hyun was right about everything. In terms of life as a hero, Chi-Woo was basically a beginner; he wasn’t in the position to teach or take care of anyone. Even if he acted with good intentions, others might think, ‘What’s with this punk? Is he looking down on me? Why is he micromanaging me?’

“You should just make important decisions that only you can make and take responsibility for the incidents caused by those you’ve accepted into your organization. That’s the only role you have to play in Seven Stars. If you do more than that, you’ll get tired of each other.” Chi-Hyun emphasized his following words, “The leader only needs to determine the direction, and then the members will follow on their own.”

Upon reflection, Chi-Woo now understood a little bit why Eval Sevaru had reacted like that. Looking back, he had claimed that he would give authority to each team and let them work autonomously; that was the picture of Seven Stars he had painted. Eval Sevaru must have decided to join after agreeing to that, so rather than interfering in each and every task, Chi-Woo should be leaving his members in charge.

Since he had broken his initial promise and overturned it, it was only natural that Eval Sevaru would feel taken aback. He needed to think of his position rather than dismissing them as nothing but words. Since a stone carelessly thrown could hit a frog and inadvertently kill it.

“…It’s difficult. Being a leader.” Chi-Woo sighed and smacked his lips. The more he thought about it, the more difficult being a leader seemed.

“You better keep that in mind. A foreseen event is merely an incident, while an unforeseen event will likely turn into a problem. If you don’t want to be shaken when that happens, you have to do a good job keeping the balance.” With these words, Chi-Hyun was about to go back to his doc.u.ments, but paused. He glanced at Philip, who was going, ‘Yep, yep. That’s right,’ and agreeing whole-heartedly, and then looked back at Chi-Woo.

“And…” After a short pause, Chi-Hyun continued, “You must be busy not only with Seven Stars, but also with your personal affairs, aren’t you?”

Chi-Woo’s eyes widened.

“I’m talking about your promotion.”

Chi-Woo’s jaw dropped a little. “How did you know?”

“It’s obvious. Diamond tier is a given, and considering La Bella’s personality, she probably even discussed promotion to Master tier.”

When Chi-Woo nodded with a stiff expression, Chi-Hyun snorted, “So tell me. What did the G.o.ds say?”

1. Reference to Doraemon, a fictional character in a j.a.panese manga/anime series. ☜