Memorize Chapter 226

The spiritual pillar of the Golden Lion Clan, Son Bun-Rye, a year 9 player known as the godmother, was murdered in the eastern mountains. Her body was mutilated beyond recognition, and no clear traces were found at the site of discovery or the presumed battle location. This suggested that the true culprit behind her death was highly skilled in tracking and had deliberately erased their tracks.

News of the godmother’s death spread rapidly across the North Continent. The incident reignited tensions that had barely calmed after the failed Iron Mountain expedition. Over her nine years, the godmother’s influence on Hall Plain and the North Continent was nothing short of legendary. For such a figure to meet a sudden, mysterious end, it would’ve been strange if it didn’t cause an uproar.

Following Do Young-Rok’s declaration of war in the academy’s instructor meeting room, the Golden Lion Clan moved swiftly. Shortly after the incident, they issued an official statement on the godmother’s death and requested extensive cooperation from the representative clans of each city to uncover the truth.

Their justification was impeccable. This wasn’t just any player—it was the godmother. Her name carried immense weight, and every player on the North Continent wanted the mystery of her death solved.

I owed my detailed knowledge of these events to Go Yeon-Joo. She had decided to stay at the player academy for a while after returning from the eastern mountains. Her updates on the situation outside the academy were quite intriguing, particularly the escalating debates over the godmother’s death.

The North Continent’s focus was now on one question: “Who killed the godmother, and why?” Amusingly, despite the lack of concrete evidence, the narrative was shifting toward the culprit being someone from within the North Continent.

Some pointed fingers at vagrants, but their claims gained little traction. After the recent vagrant extermination plan, most had fled to the Western Continent, and their appearances in the North had become rare. The theory surfaced briefly before fizzling out.

As the sentiment grew that the crime originated within the North Continent, Golden Lion’s allied clans issued a bold statement. They pledged unwavering support to uncover the truth and promised to accept any cooperation requests unconditionally, earning sympathy from ordinary players.

With the northern and western city clans having made their positions clear, all eyes turned to the southern and eastern cities. The deep rift between expedition-participating and non-participating clans was well-known, so everyone awaited their statements with bated breath.

Days after the allied clans’ announcements, the non-participating clans released their statement. It was strikingly brief: “We agree to uncover the truth behind the godmother’s death.” That was it.

On the surface, it seemed like they were agreeing to Golden Lion’s call for cooperation, but given the history of conflict, the statement felt deliberately ambiguous.

Regardless, for now, things were unfolding as Do Young-Rok intended.

Golden Lion’s subsequent actions reaffirmed their past dominance over the North Continent. They summoned key figures from all clans that agreed to their statement to Babara—specifically Clan Lords or high-ranking diplomats, with minimal additional personnel allowed.

As these heavyweights gathered in Babara, the general players’ attention naturally shifted to the central city.

Amid this growing focus, a summit of the North Continent’s leading clans commenced.

*

“Those goddamn bastards!”

Bang!

Kim Duk-Pil roared and slammed the table with all his might. The surface cracked, and debris scattered. Though his actions were blatantly rude, no one stopped him. In fact, everyone in the room was visibly furious.

‘So “agree” just means agreeing in name only.’

I gave a bitter smile and sank into thought. The three meetings over the past five days had been nothing short of one-sided.

Cutting to the chase, the non-participating clans wanted to send another investigation team to the eastern mountains, as it was the only place likely to hold clues about the culprit. Jo Sung-Ho, their representative, proposed that both sides join forces to form a large-scale team to thoroughly comb the mountains.

But Golden Lion rejected the proposal outright. They claimed they’d already conducted sufficient investigations and that further efforts would waste manpower and time. The non-participating clans didn’t back down easily, but Do Young-Rok’s single retort—“Bring me a player with better tracking skills than the Shadow Queen, and I’ll be convinced”—silenced them.

Honestly, it wasn’t an entirely baseless point, so it was somewhat acceptable up to that moment. But when the floor shifted to Golden Lion, their next statement shocked everyone.

They announced they would conduct internal audits of each clan. This meant audited clans would have to fully disclose all their information to Golden Lion without a filter.

Naturally, the non-participating clans fiercely opposed this. But the Golden Lion didn’t budge. Instead, they doubled down, and their allied clans chimed in, “If you’ve got nothing to hide, submit to the audit,” criticizing the opposing clans’ resistance.

Even I thought Golden Lion’s push for direct audits went too far—way too far. The very act of being audited was considered deeply humiliating.

But the Golden Lion didn’t stop there. They landed another bombshell, stating they would use the Crystal of Truth on clan members deemed suspicious during their audits. And as if that weren’t enough, they added that since their stock of Crystal of Truth was low, the audited clans would need to supply the shortfall.

This sparked outright outrage among the non-participating clans. At this point, it wasn’t just humiliation—it was beyond that.

After Do Young-Rok’s shocking statements, heated shouting matches erupted during the meetings. The non-participating clans, including the Goryeo Clan, offered a compromise: they would conduct their own internal audits.

Agreeing to audits at all was a significant concession, but Golden Lion’s stance remained unchanged. They emphasized that they were the victims, questioning whether a guilty clan could conduct a transparent audit, and dismissed the proposal.

From then on, the discussions devolved into petty arguments. The three rounds of meetings only reaffirmed the deep-seated conflict and animosity, yielding no meaningful results.

Unable to bridge the gap on internal audits, the summit ended in a catastrophic breakdown. And after the meetings, the instructors remaining at the academy for the ongoing incident found themselves in an awkward position.

“Those crazy bastards. So they’re just gonna ignore us and push forward!”

“They’re not just planning to push forward—they’ve already started. After the second meeting, they began internal audits on the northern and western city clans that agreed to cooperate.”

Kim Duk-Pil couldn’t hide his fury, continuing to seethe, while Na Seung-Hye corrected him in a cold tone.

“Seriously? Internal audits? Like those assholes will do it fairly. I can already see them tearing through everything, looking for any excuse to pounce. Who in their right mind would agree to this?”

“That’s not the issue right now. Regardless of the internal situation, we’ve essentially rejected Golden Lion’s call for cooperation, and public opinion is turning against us.”

As they said, Hall Plain’s current sentiment was unfavorable toward the non-participating clans. It wasn’t just about refusing the audits. In fact, some even said the audits were excessive.

But after the second meeting, Golden Lion began auditing the northern and western clans that had agreed, and those clans complied with enthusiasm. At the same time, rumors about why the godmother left after the summons and her comments about the academy started spreading subtly. It was as if everything had been orchestrated, the pieces falling into place with eerie precision.

‘Well, it’s obvious who’s spreading this without even looking.’

The clan conflicts over the player academy. The godmother heading to the eastern mountains to treat the Golden Lion Clan Lord. Her body was found in those mountains. The growing narrative pinning the crime on an internal actor. And the non-participating clans’ refusal of internal audits.

As these threads wove together, the narrative, previously just pointing to an internal culprit, began to tilt heavily in one direction.

“We can’t just sit here doing nothing,” Seo Jin-Woo finally spoke, breaking his silence. The players, who had been sighing in frustration, snapped their heads up to look at him.

“Since we’re all in the same boat here, I’ll just share my personal thoughts.”

Seo Jin-Woo’s usually gentle demeanor was gone, replaced by a stern expression.

“I don’t believe Do Young-Rok is genuinely enraged about the godmother’s death or acting to uncover the truth.”

“Same here,” Heo Yuri chimed in immediately. “Weren’t he and the godmother at odds back in the day? I heard he led the charge to oust her.”

Nods of agreement followed, faces turning serious as they processed the conversation.

“They’ve got a solid pretext with the godmother’s death, but their actions are excessive—way over the line. At this point, their intentions are starting to look suspicious.”

“Are you saying they killed the godmother on purpose to create this situation?”

“You’re getting ahead of yourself. I didn’t say that. No one knows for sure. But I think I understand why they’re acting this way. Their moves are too swift, too calculated, to just brush off. It’s like they planned this before the summit.”

“No way.”

“Let me be blunt. To me, this looks like a desperate attempt to reclaim the prestige and control they lost after the Iron Mountain expedition failure.”

‘A power struggle, huh. He nailed it.’

Seo Jin-Woo’s direct words silenced the room. They’d all been thinking it implicitly, but hearing it laid bare hit differently.

An awkward silence lingered. Perhaps feeling the heat, Seo Jin-Woo gulped down a glass of cold water. Scanning everyone in the room, he spoke again, a faint, unreadable smile on his lips—though I might’ve imagined it.

He stood abruptly. Sung Hyun-Min, Na Seung-Hye, and other eastern clan members followed suit, their faces radiating a cold intensity. As the ones currently under direct suspicion, their emotions were likely razor-sharp.

“As you said, public opinion is against us, and it’ll probably stay that way for a while. But we have no intention of handing over control so easily.”

“Are you saying you’re ready to jump into this power struggle head-on?”

“We’ll see. You’ll find out soon enough. But from the start, when we answered the summons, our eastern clans came prepared with plenty of plans. We were even ready to make some serious enemies. the godmother’s death made us hold off, but at this point, there’s no need to restrain ourselves.”

“They started this mudslinging brawl. We didn’t expect the godmother’s death to lead to this, but… if they’re provoking us, it’s only natural to respond, right?”

“Exactly. We can’t just sit here and take it.”

Seeing their faces, a shiver of excitement ran through me. Sung Hyun-Min and Na Seung-Hye’s expressions were subtle, as if they’d anticipated this day and had prepared thoroughly.

‘They’ve got something up their sleeves. Golden Lion played their card, so now it’s their turn. Makes sense—these guys aren’t ones to shy away from a dirty fight.’

The group calmly walked toward the door but paused in front of the southern clans’ table. Seo Jin-Woo looked down at the Blue Wolf Clan representative and spoke.

“Let’s wrap up today’s talk here. We’ll take our leave. Starting today—maybe even tomorrow—things are about to get busy.”

“Busy, huh? I’ll be looking forward to it.”

“Just looking forward to it?” Na Seung-Hye cut in sharply.

The Blue Wolf Clan instructor paused, then spoke in a quiet voice.

“A saying comes to mind—‘When the lips are gone, the teeth get cold,’ right?”

“Heh. Glad you get it.”

Seo Jin-Woo bared his teeth in a grin at the southern clan’s affirmative response. In that moment, I saw the southern clan instructors’ eyes gleam as well.

Witnessing this, I felt a strong sense that this was the opening shot of a full-blown clan war.