In the Name of God - Chapter 45.2
‘Now is the time if I want to test it.’
A safe space, Lee Sunho looking excessively fine despite having drunk much more than me, and the senior clan members who were basically kind-hearted, even if they were a bit eccentric.
In this kind of environment, it was worth testing how much soju I could handle.
Since soju is almost a given whenever Koreans gather to drink, I needed to gauge my current tolerance for future reference.
‘Well, Seong Do-yoon has never blacked out before, so a few glasses of soju should be fine.’
That’s what I believed.
But that was my arrogance.
***
In the middle of the living room of my and Lee Sunho’s home.
Countless empty cans and soju bottles were lined up on and under the table. Most of them were consumed by the seniors who had barged into the new recruits’ room, drinking alcohol literally like water.
Sitting among them, my head started swaying slowly back and forth at some point. My eyelids, drooping vacantly, looked like they could close at any second.
“Are you sleepy?”
Lee Sunho, whose complexion hadn’t wavered once this whole time, asked me quietly from the side. I tried to lift my head a bit, only to answer in a slow, slurred voice.
“Mm…. No….”
It was a voice that was clearly drunk.
On the opposite side, Park Junggeon and the other senior Awakened fighters were already pouring and drinking with faces flushed bright red.
Park Junggeon, leaning halfway across the table, gestured exaggeratedly with an excited voice.
“Back at that testing site! This kid was flying around and blasting his gun! I thought I was seeing things for a second! I mean, what kind of Rank 9 who hasn’t even been awakened for two months shoots mana bullets?! It took me seven years after becoming an Awakened to finally do that!”
His tone was a mix of excitement and grumbling, but it carried the sincere weight of high expectations for my talent.
“This guy is definitely going to rise to the 1st division at high speed! You, you, you—Lee Sunho, you too!”
When Park Junggeon pointed a finger at Lee Sunho with his drunkenly flushed face, the others sitting nearby burst into giggles.
“Ah, senior, how many times have you said that already?”
“He’s so excited—hic—because he got a direct junior. Hehe.”
Just as he said, I had become Park Junggeon’s direct junior. I was able to enter the clan through a special case because Park Junggeon had personally written a recommendation letter for me.
Lee Sunho had received a recommendation letter from Estelle Roland, so he was known as her direct junior.
While any 1st division member could write a recommendation, it was extremely rare in practice.
When a new recruit joins through a recommendation, their behavior and skill level become the criteria by which the recommender is evaluated—judging factors beyond personal strength, such as their eye for talent and sense of responsibility.
Because of this, recruitment via recommendation was almost non-existent, and even if one was written, cases that made it all the way to final approval by the Clan Master were rare enough to be counted on one hand.
To put it differently, Lee Sunho and I, having secured the Clan Master’s final approval, could not help but be the center of attention for many clan members.
It also meant that Park Junggeon and Estelle Roland would take extra care of us.
Just as the other clan members were starting to get tired of Park Junggeon’s drunken habit of praising his direct junior and his partner to no end.
Lee Sunho quietly surveyed the situation and stood up.
The first thing he did was pick me up as I was nodding off and lay me down on the sofa.
Since I couldn’t hold my head up well, he let my head rest against his shoulder and held me carefully. Even when laying me down, he supported the back of my head with his hand so there would be no impact, lowered my body gradually, and placed a cushion under my head.
After looking down at me with gentle eyes while I just blinked blankly with a defenseless face, Lee Sunho turned toward the others. In that brief moment, his gaze turned indifferent, and the smile on his lips became nothing more than a formal curve.
“I think you all should leave now. We’re out of drinks anyway.”
At that, Park Junggeon flailed his hands while slurring his words.
“Huh? We can just buy more! Hey, go get some beer….”
“Seniors.”
Lee Sunho put a finger to his lips, signaling them to be quiet. A faint smile played on his lips, but his eyes were not laughing at all.
“You should go. …Before it gets too late.”
It was a short, quiet sentence.
But it was enough.
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