Chapter 553

No matter how many levels I gained or how high I raised my stats, one fact would never change: to one person, I was still her immature little boy.

And… my mother, dear Lady Kim Jeonghee, had attack power that ignored every defense.

“What are you two doing?”

One hand was clenched into a fist. The other held a ladle. Sensing that things were getting serious, I spoke quickly.

“Lady Kim. You may have forgotten, but it’s your son’s birthday today.”

“So?”

“I’m almost thirty. Wouldn’t hitting me in front of other people be a little embarrassing?”

“I’ll be sixty before you know it.”

“Ah. Right…”

Wrong approach. I acknowledged my mistake deep in my heart and changed tack.

“Two months—no, not that long ago, I was fighting monsters for my life.”

“Thank goodness you came back safely, son.”

“Thank you, Mother.”

“Then why do you keep fighting with your little sister, who’s eight years younger than you, instead of a monster?”

“Mother. I don’t fight people. Therefore, that thing isn’t my little sister. It’s a monster.”

“Then you’re saying I gave birth to a monster.”

“…!”

“My palm or my ladle—which would you prefer?”

Checkmate. Realizing there was no escape, I closed my eyes and answered quietly.

“Your palm.”

“Forearm? Back?”

“I’ll take the back.”

I considered my answer carefully. The punishment came immediately.

“Mom told you—”

Smack!

“Not to fight!”

Smack!

“Didn’t I?”

Smack!

“Eek!”

“Ugh!”

Good heavens. Was that the Flame Divine Palm?

Pain bored into my back, and Hayeon and I screamed.

Even the perfect body known in Murim as the Heavenly Martial Physique was useless now. This fear—and this pain—were engraved on my soul.

I can’t dodge, either.

If I did, she would apply the crime of insolence and trigger a tenfold event.

In the end, Hayeon and I weren’t released until Mom had stamped her handprints on our backs. Team Leader Choi and the Skeleton King stared at Lady Kim as she turned away, breathing hard. Their eyes were practically shaking.

“Y-Your mother. I was trying to stop them.”

“I am American. Citizen of the United States. Do not touch me. Please.”

Their desperate attempts to survive were almost pitiful.

Of course, Lady Kim gave them a warm smile as though nothing had happened.

“Oh, my children were making trouble, weren’t they? I’m sorry. Neither of them has grown up yet. I’m making breakfast, so come eat with us.”

“Th-Thank you.”

“Thank you. Thank you, Jeonghee.”

What the hell, you son of a bitch?

I could let the rest go, but the Skeleton King was dead for that “Thank you, Jeonghee.”

I promised him murder with a look, then headed toward the dining room.

The mansion was enormous, so the distance to the dining room was considerable. But the elevator installed inside the house and the short-range Teleport magic circles made the journey quick.

“…?”

Wait. Now that I thought about it, this was ridiculous. Why was there a Teleport magic circle inside a mansion?

I stared at Team Leader Choi in disbelief. He answered calmly.

“The mansion is quite large. As I understand it, they were installed to reduce travel time.”

“…Right. That’s what Teleport magic circles are for. Obviously.”

He might as well have said, People eat to fill their stomachs.

Then again, perhaps all of this really was normal to Team Leader Choi.

He certainly didn’t grow up in an ordinary family.

Even a third-generation Korean chaebol¹ heir or the youngest son of a famed swordsmanship family would have to defer to him. His maternal grandfather was the immortal hero who had defeated the Demon King Asmodeus in the final battle and saved humanity.

Cheon Taemin.

If the birth of a prophet had divided an era into before and after, Cheon Taemin had decided the fate of humanity.

Tens of millions had seen him. Hundreds of millions remembered him. The vast records of his existence would remain through countless ages, until the day humanity itself came to an end.

And that very Cheon Taemin once lived in this mansion.

Even Team Leader Choi, his maternal grandson, did not know where he was or whether he was alive. But putting that aside, the thought was moving in its own way.

I was only staying here temporarily because the press wouldn’t leave me alone, but it felt as though I was sharing a space with the immortal hero Cheon Taemin.

This is incredible.

I looked around the mansion, where immensely valuable A-rank Magic Gems had been slotted in like batteries to provide a constant supply of energy, and drew in a deep breath.

“Hoooh.”

Team Leader Choi gave me an uneasy look.

“…What are you doing?”

“Should I say I’m absorbing the energy? Or that I’m sensing the scent of a hero?”

Hayeon rubbed her sore back and muttered, “He’s just a pervert. He has a smell fetish.”

“Would you be quiet, insolent human girl?”

“Oh, really? Mom—mmph!”

“If you don’t want to get murdered tonight, keep your mouth shut.”

I was almost thirty. I didn’t want to get hit in front of other people again.

Fortunately, someone appeared just before Lady Kim, sensing that something was amiss, turned around.

“Good morning.”

A smooth, low voice that sounded like a coffee commercial had started playing. Even at this early hour, his pompadour was immaculate, and his tailored suit was neat and dignified.

Butler Kim approached at an unhurried pace and bowed first to Team Leader Choi.

“Did you sleep well, Young Master?”

Team Leader Choi nodded as though this were perfectly ordinary.

“Yes. I went to bed a little late because I had a few things to take care of, but I’m feeling fine.”

“The proposal from Mr. Johnson, I presume.”

“A few terms in our agreement with the Wizard Guild need adjusting. I’ve put the details together, so…”

Hayeon, listening to them, muttered, “Is this a scene from a TV drama or what?”

“Not a drama. If anything, it’s a web novel.”

A webtoon, maybe. Turning this kind of fantasy into a TV drama would cost a fortune.

“Just let it go. You’ll get used to it if you watch long enough.”

“To that?”

“…At least try.”

Honestly, it still threw me every time.

Barely six months ago in modern-world time, I’d been an F-rank Hunter getting by on blood sausage gukbap² and cup noodles. Now the media hailed me as the new hero following in Cheon Taemin’s footsteps, and an S-rank Hunter license made from specially processed top-grade Magic Gems sat in the old leather wallet I still hadn’t replaced.

I should be getting used to this by now, but somehow it isn’t happening.

Maybe I still had too much to do. Keeping up with one crisis after another while rushing between the modern world and Murim was hard enough. Perhaps it would be stranger if I could settle in and enjoy the wealth and fame I’d been given.

“We can discuss the details after breakfast, Young Master.”

“Ah, yes. Let’s do that.”

Their brief conversation ended, and I followed Team Leader Choi and Butler Kim into the dining room.

No, dining room didn’t do it justice. Banquet hall was closer.

It was enormous, spotless, and elegant. Robots equipped with advanced AI waited at their assigned positions.

Yet in this room, where every detail had been prepared with meticulous care, one thing wasn’t ready.

“Hmm.”

“Just as I thought.”

Everyone except Hayeon and me blinked. The Skeleton King sounded genuinely confused when he whispered to me.

“Wicked human. May I ask you something?”

“Go ahead.”

“We were told to eat. Why, then, is there nothing on the table?”

The enormous table in the center of the banquet hall was completely empty. No dishes, no food—nothing but a perfect blank slate.

I had already guessed the reason, so I quietly nodded.

“That’s how it works.”

“What?”

“An absolute rule. Or a species-wide habit. Something like that.”

When Mom called us to eat, it meant she was still making the food. Whether she called once or ten times, yelling that everything was ready and we needed to come out right now, the result was the same when we got there.

Hayeon knew it too. She was already looking for the utensils.

“Sorry, where do you keep the spoons and chopsticks?”

“Pardon?”

“Spoons and chopsticks.”

Team Leader Choi blinked, then turned slowly toward Butler Kim.

“Butler Kim?”

At that moment, a single stray hair stuck out from Butler Kim’s perfectly arranged pompadour.

“Those functions are all integrated into the robots’ circuits, so they should bring everything automatically… But why aren’t the robots moving?”

Just then, Lady Kim peeked her head out from the kitchen. She had rushed there earlier with a ladle in hand, saying that the soup was boiling.

“Oh, I turned them all off.”

“What?”

“Pardon?”

“I already feel bad imposing on you. It seemed a waste of electricity. The kids can set things out in no time, so please, have a seat.”

“…”

“…”

There was no way Lady Kim would hear that every robot in the mansion ran on embedded Magic Gems rather than electricity, or that there was no need to save money on the electric bill.

She was a veteran homemaker who had spent her life scrimping and scraping to raise two children.

As everyone stared at me, speechless, I merely smacked my lips.

“Just accept it. I’ve tried explaining it more than once or twice, but it never gets through.”

She’d even saved every bit of the money I sent home, saying she couldn’t possibly spend it.

Remembering her old days working in a restaurant kitchen, I smiled bitterly, then smacked the Skeleton King on the back of the head.

Whack!

“Why me…?”

“What are you doing, asshole? Go help.”

“Wicked human. This is unfair. And un-American!”

“Then go to America. The moment you arrive, they’ll find out you’re a monster and drag you off to the Octagon.”

Team Leader Choi stared at me in bewilderment.

“It’s the Pentagon, Mr. Jin Taekyung…”

“Octagon, Pentagon—whatever. You and Butler Kim go help too.”

“Pardon?”

“We’re eating together. We should all help get it ready.”

Team Leader Choi’s gaze wavered.

“Eating… together?”

“You heard me. Go set out the utensils. I’ll be watching to make sure you do it properly.”

His gaze steadied again.

“Watching?”

“Yes.”

“And what about you, Mr. Jin Taekyung? Aren’t you doing anything?”

“It’s my birthday. Even at the Hunter training camp, they gave people free time on their birthdays.”

“…”

“What are you waiting for? We need to be ready before the seaweed soup³ comes out.”

His parents had died, his grandfather Cheon Taemin had disappeared, and Lee Jungryong had shut him out afterward. But Team Leader Choi was still the Young Master of a wealthy household.

This must have been something he had never experienced in his life.

I let out a quiet laugh as he walked away with Butler Kim, wearing a dazed expression I’d never seen on him before. Then I sat down and pulled out my smartphone.

Nothing beats the news when you need to figure out what’s going on.

Tap. Tap-tap.

A few touches took me to a large online community open only to Hunters. I found an article posted just ten minutes earlier, and my hand stopped.

Former Ares Guild Vice Guild Master Lee Jungryong, 68: National funeral scheduled for tomorrow.

Where is the immortal hero Cheon Taemin?

Amid global attention, Ares Guild members remaining in Sichuan Province depart the country. Interest from around the world turns to Hunter Go Jun, the late Lee Jungryong’s Head of Security…

“Go Jun.”

Right. That guy was still around.