Jinseong put on his clothes and headed to the dining room.
He changed his clothes and moved as soon as he heard Lee Serin’s message, but it took him quite a long time to reach the dining room.
There were several reasons for this: one was that the unnecessarily large mansion required quite a walk to the dining room. Another reason was that the useless, expensive, and poorly unified artworks he saw along the way annoyed him, forcing him to stop and calm himself down.
The most important reason was that these nouveau riche-like artworks reminded him of his mercenary days, especially after the outbreak of World War III.
The dining room he arrived at after such a long time was truly a sight.
A long, large table reminiscent of a medieval noble family’s table awaited him, along with a luxurious and heavy meal that seemed like it would upset his stomach if eaten in the morning. It was lavishly decorated in a Western style, and the family members sitting at the table were eating it as if they were used to it.
‘What a sight.’
There is no nouveau riche like this.
“You’re late.”
And the ringleader who turned the family’s scenery into such a mess glared at him and opened his mouth. It was Lee Yanghoon, the head of the Lee family where Jinseong stayed and the chairman of the Gwangyang Group.
“Yes.”
That was the end of their conversation.
Jinseong sat down in an empty seat with an indifferent face, and Lee Yanghoon resumed eating without any further reaction.
However, the situation changed when the door creaked open again.
A woman, who looked like Lee Serin but exuded a completely different aura of delinquency, entered.
“Why are you late?”
Lee Yanghoon asked harshly towards the woman who entered late but carried herself confidently.
If the answer was unsatisfactory, he would immediately reprimand her.
Lee Yanghoon’s eyes said as much as he glared.
“Ah, shut up. People can be late sometimes, you old fart.”
She said that and sat next to Jinseong. Then, she quickly poked Jinseong’s side with her index finger and whispered.
“He’s such an old fart, right?”
Seeing that, Lee Yanghoon’s face turned red with anger, but looking at Jinseong’s smiling face, he sighed deeply.
“Lee Ahrin. Come to the study after the meal.”
“Yeah, yeah~”
Unable to get angry in front of Jinseong, Lee Yanghoon chose to suppress his anger and let it out later. But Lee Ahrin replied insincerely and started eating the food on the table regardless of his anger.
Watching that scene, Jinseong felt a sense of nostalgia.
‘It’s been a long time since I’ve experienced something like this.’
It was a scene from the days when he was protected in a mansion, something he hadn’t even thought about during the time he was obsessed with sorcery and money.
It was quite comfortable, making him want to settle down there.
But that’s not possible.
‘Since I have decided to dedicate my soul to sorcery, that resolution must be fulfilled.’
Jinseong smiled broadly and spoke.
“I have gained enlightenment.”
Enlightenment?
At his out-of-the-blue statement, everyone at the table looked up at Jinseong.
Lee Yanghoon’s wife, concubines, and daughters….
All their eyes were focused on him.
Suddenly, enlightenment, without any context?
It was naturally puzzling.
Receiving all their gazes, Jinseong opened his mouth.
“Enlightenment takes a long time, but it comes and goes in an instant. My enlightenment came like that.”
“Has he really gone mad, delving into sorcery….”
A muttering voice was heard from beside him, but Jinseong continued speaking without paying attention.
“All principles are in all things, and all things contain the answers of the world. Just as the tide comes in drawn by the moon, my enlightenment came to me like that.”
Lee Yanghoon opened his mouth, looking incredulous.
“Yes, enlightenment. What kind of enlightenment is it?”
“It is about a revolutionary replacement for breakfast.”
“Replacement?”
“Yes. Breakfast is originally a preparatory act to face the day’s activities in a thorough state. If we simplify the process and meet the necessary conditions, we will have extra time, which is certainly beneficial, isn’t it?”
Everyone remained silent at Jinseong’s unnecessarily grand and convoluted words, which were hard to understand at once.
“So, to put it simply, what does that mean?”
“How about replacing my breakfast with nutritional supplements from now on?”
When they realized the true meaning of what Jinseong said, everyone couldn’t help but chuckle.
His unnecessarily serious tone and the way he spoke like a fortune-teller giving a great prophecy turned out to be a childish complaint of ‘I don’t want to have breakfast,’ so they couldn’t help but laugh.
“Since enlightenment has come to this unworthy body, I feel there will be progress in sorcery, so I want to train without attachment to food.”
“No, well. Alright. Enlightenment, you say, can’t be helped….”
Lee Yanghoon tried to say something but then gave up and sighed deeply.
“Alright, understood…. When will you start?”
“The start is like a lightning strike, only possible when dark clouds gather, so it’s best not to delay.”
“…Alright. You don’t have to have breakfast anymore. I’ll have my people send you simple food and nutritional supplements separately.”
* * *
Jinseong held a rather ambiguous position in this house.
His real name was Park Jinseong.
He was a complete stranger to the Lee family, with no blood relation.
So, were their parents close friends?
No, they were not.
Park Jinseong’s parents, now deceased, had almost no relationship with the Lee family. To be precise, the group the Lee family belonged to and the group Park Jinseong’s parents belonged to were somewhat related, but it was not a friendly relationship. In fact, it was almost adversarial.
So, were the Lee family Park Jinseong’s guardians? That was also unclear.
Legally, Park Jinseong’s guardian was a distant relative from the Park family. In reality, this guardian existed only in name, and it was unclear if they were even alive. Practically, the Lee family was acting as Park Jinseong’s guardian until he reached adulthood.
It was a truly complicated relationship.
What made it more ambiguous was that usually, the supporter becomes the dominant party, and the supported party becomes the subordinate. However, in the relationship between Park Jinseong and the Lee family, both parties were both dominant and subordinate to each other.
‘The Lee family had to take care of me without any shortcomings until I became an adult.’
It was a kind of unfair contract.
He could live without any lack of support until he became an adult, which was one year from the present time.
What did he have to give in return?
Nothing.
It was a completely unfair contract.
How could such a contract be established…?
‘There is a very long story.’
It was not just a story, but one so absurd and ridiculous that it could make one laugh out loud several times.
“Coincidence should be accepted as coincidence, and the cost of choices must be borne by the individual.”
But no matter how complicated it may be, causality is clear.
The starting point of the conflict between the two groups was the foolish actions of the Lee family, and in the process, his parents died. As a form of penance, the two groups ordered the Lee family to take care of him.
However, the process was so entangled with coincidences that it felt like fate, and since the death of his parents was their own doing and not the fault of the Lee family, all of it might have been an inevitable future.
“ॐ-”
Given such tangled circumstances, it’s natural that their relationship is ambiguous.
Although causality is intertwined, the people of the Lee family were not bad.
In the case of Chairman Lee Yanghoon, although he had a strong nouveau riche mentality, he at least understood noblesse oblige. Although he understood it poorly, his intentions were not bad.
If he had been born into an established family and received proper education, he would have become a respected wealthy man.
Even Jinseong, who harbored almost hateful feelings toward nouveau riche, did not have ill feelings towards Chairman Lee Yanghoon, so at least it was clear that he was a good person.
The wives and concubines of Chairman Lee Yanghoon were also not harsh. Just looking at how Lee Serin and Lee Ahrin, born from a concubine, were loved dearly by both the main wife and the two concubines, their personalities were not bad. Of course, there must have been twists and various stories in how they became such, but at least the personalities Jinseong saw were good.
The same went for the daughters.
Lee Ahrin might look like a delinquent at first glance, but she didn’t bully others. Apart from a bit of wasteful spending and vanity, she had a flawless personality. As for her twin sister, Lee Serin, although she had a gloomy demeanor and peculiar hobbies, she too did not have a bullying nature. Rather, she might endure suffering herself but would never cause it to others.
Having such people in a nouveau riche family overflowing with money is no easy feat.
Even in families called prestigious, troublemakers frequently emerge, and almost invariably, there are people who either ruin their own lives or try to ruin others’ lives.
Yes, it was a very harmonious family with good people.
So much so that Jinseong felt embarrassed to be part of it.
This ambiguity in their relationship was inevitable.
If their personalities had been harsh, he could have dismissed his parents’ death as a mere coincidence, and if he could have hated them, it would have given him a clear reason to sever this ambiguous relationship.
Thus, Jinseong had no choice but to leave this house as soon as he became an adult.
If he had stayed, they would have continued to support him even into adulthood, maintaining the ambiguous relationship, and eventually, they would have become shackles for each other.
“Since I had already learned sorcery, there was no problem making a living.”
The sorcery he had been steadily studying since middle school had reached a level by adulthood where he could easily make a living. Naturally, he chose the profession that paid the most: a mercenary.
Although it was dangerous, it had many merits.
He could travel the world, meet various people, encounter the underworld that he would never know in an ordinary life, earn a lot of money despite the danger, and develop combat skills that would prevent him from dying an untimely death.
Apart from the major downside of the danger to his life, it was an excellent job.
“But that downside of danger eventually disappeared.”
Mercenaries are dangerous because they take on dangerous missions.
Deployments in conflict zones, assassination of key figures, guarding key figures, search and destroy missions…
Even tasks like eliminating wild beasts, hunting wanted criminals, and handling dangerous pets were part of the job.
There was nothing that wasn’t dangerous.
Couldn’t he choose non-dangerous tasks?
No, he couldn’t.
Why would they hire mercenaries and spend money on them if the tasks were not dangerous?
So, being placed on the front lines and being treated as expendable was the norm. While contracts prevented outright attempts on their lives, there was no effort to ensure their survival either.
Since mercenaries were not their people, just outsiders, and their fee decreased with each mercenary death, it was inevitable.
Therefore, wherever mercenaries went, it was dangerous, and even if it wasn’t, it became dangerous.
But then…
“The Third World War broke out.”
The entire world became a dangerous place.
The African continent became a den of madmen advocating for a return to primordial times through human modification. Europe turned into a battlefield of wars waged by crazed dictators with armies. The Americas became a place where nukes and great sorceries clashed. In Asia, too, the flames of war erupted.
As the world was engulfed in the flames of war, maniacs with the power of an entire army emerged everywhere, and in fighting against them, ABC weapons (Atomic, Biological, Chemical) were used, turning the mess into a complete wasteland.
“But surprisingly, the world functioned fairly well.”
It could have been described as five minutes to apocalypse, but strangely enough, the world kept turning. Passenger ships and planes were constantly blown up, but trade went on surprisingly well, and despite daily terrorist attacks in capitals and key facilities, people accepted death as part of daily life and continued living as usual.
Even if a building explosion killed hundreds of students, schools continued to operate, and even if a provincial city was obliterated by a nuke, national administration wasn’t paralyzed. Despite the chaos, covert trades occurred, peace treaties were made and broken in an almost routine manner.
No one knew exactly why, but somehow the world kept running, albeit creakingly.
Despite the outbreak of World War III, the world did not end.
Forcing a guess at the reasons, it might have been the efforts of countless people who did not want to live in hell, the lessons learned from history, and the efforts of those with the power of an entire army.
“Heroes… There’s one in this house too.”
Thud.
While Jinseong was lost in thought, he heard footsteps outside the door.
“Light and irregular footsteps. A small-framed woman.”
Knock, knock, knock.
“Oppa, are you there…?”
With a knock, Lee Serin entered.
“Um, here, the nutritional supplements and food. It’s food….”
She awkwardly smiled as she placed the packages she brought on the floor.
Her appearance, like a squirrel carrying acorns and freezing upon seeing something strange, instinctively aroused a protective urge, but Jinseong thought of something else instead.
It was the future image of Lee Serin.
“She looks so harmless. It’s hard to believe this is the girl who would single-handedly devastate Kyoto.”
About six years into Jinseong’s mercenary career, the Unified Korea and Japan went to war.
Having amended its constitution to allow for a military, Japan chose Korea as the first target to project its newfound power.
Japan had only two potential targets: China and Korea. China was a colossal force, armed with both advanced sorcery and cutting-edge science, making it a challenging adversary.
In contrast, South Korea, although strong in sorcery, had yet to recover from the devastation and plunder of its magical heritage during the Japanese occupation. Moreover, its weapons had not properly developed due to pressures from the United States and China. Without nuclear weapons, Korea appeared a feasible target.
Additionally, the northern regions, previously seized by puppet regimes and reclaimed with great difficulty, had become uninhabitable due to excessive sorcery use, depleting the land’s vitality. Japan calculated that by leveraging the abandoned northern lands, it could easily launch a preemptive strike against South Korea.
Furthermore, Japan had pro-Japanese factions planted since the occupation era and remembered the ease of past annexations, making South Korea an ideal target.
Japan continuously provoked territorial disputes over Dokdo and the Seventh District, and eventually initiated the war with an unannounced strike on Pohang, launching bombardments and missiles.
South Korea quickly responded, but the industrial complex in Pohang had already been decimated, complicating the war from the outset. Japan also deployed numerous special forces units to infiltrate the northern regions and spread chaos through guerrilla activities throughout South Korea.
In retaliation, South Korea decided to launch sabotage and terrorist attacks on the Japanese mainland, deploying powerful individuals with the strength of entire armies.
Four such individuals were sent to Japan, with Lee Serin assigned to devastate Kyoto.
“That this squirrel-like girl could…”
After thanking her and taking the food she brought, Jinseong glanced at the space behind her head.
What he saw was empty air. There was only a faintly distorted atmosphere, barely noticeable.
“I need to recover my powers quickly.”
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