CHAPTER 131

“Light?[1]”

Jae-Hyeok was confused at first, but then his eyes shone. Well said, well said. I will definitely repay Father’s light; I’ll become a great man like Father, shining on the whole world

Seeing Jae-Hyeok smiling, everyone else looked on in bewilderment.

“It isn’t light, but debt,” the old man finally said.

“Debt...?” Jae-Hyeok’s expression stiffened. He was about to argue when the old man spoke first.

“I’m not falsely claiming things just because your father is bedridden. If you don’t believe me, you can ask Butler Hwang.”

“......”

Jae-Hyeok was at a loss for words. His father was a great figure who could be counted among the top ten in the history of South Korea. The country and its people owed him countless debts. How could his father owe someone else?

“No one can go through life alone.” The old pharmacist chuckled as he placed the long pipe back in his mouth. His gaze held an inexplicable weight that left Jae-Hyeok feeling like an open book. “Your father’s sword could save thousands of people because there were people who supported him.”

“And you’re saying you were one of them?”

“Of course. I might run a business obsessed with profit, but I’m not a quack.”

Certainly... Mixing potions and elixirs with various impurities without ruining their efficacy was a great achievement in its own right. And perhaps the old man really could increase the power of potions and elixirs, having helped his father in that way.

“Fine. How much debt do I need to repay?” Jae-Hyeok asked bluntly. He would definitely check with Butler Hwang later, but he wanted to hear the amount first.

“Hahaha! How bold. Do you think you can pay off your father’s debt with mere money?” The old man burst out laughing before stopping abruptly. With sharp eyes, the old man said, “Think again.”

His ability to freely change the pressure he gave off seemed to have been honed through years of experience.

Jae-Hyeok gulped nervously. Does my father owe his life to this man? It seemed possible—his father was a National Treasure and was always sent to the most dangerous battlefields. He must’ve experienced countless life-or-death crises. “Can I ask for Benefactor’s name?” Jae-Hyeok asked politely.

Rather than suspicion or wariness, Jae-Hyeok was full of gratitude toward this old man. He imagined his father, injured and surrounded on the battlefield, drinking one of the old man’s potions to recover before slaughtering millions of enemies and saving the day.

The old man shattered Jae-Hyeok’s thoughts.

“What benefactor? Shameless!” The old man pounded his chest. “I’m a victim! A victim who got used for twenty years by a brat much younger than me, you hear!?”

Jae-Hyeok, Hae-Rin, and even the middle-aged woman flinched back. The old man’s face was deep red, and he was impossible to calm down. “That brat! He used me to the fullest and eventually engraved the Curse of the Serpent God on me! How can this debt be paid with mere money?”

The old man clutched his side and sat down. Just remembering the past was enough to make him suffer from severe stomach cramps.

Curse of the Serpent God? Jae-Hyeok kept his mouth tightly shut. Normally, he would start shouting about insulting his father’s honor. But the old man mentioned too many shameless points. He didn’t even know where to start getting angry. Even so, he was the successor of the Kang family.

He had to be brave.

After organizing his thoughts, Jae-Hyeok said, “Your words don’t make sense. You spoke as if you continued preparing medicine for my father even after he collapsed. Now you are suddenly blaming my father? I can’t believe it.”

“That’s right,” Hae-Rin added.

The middle-aged woman also nodded silently.

Jae-Hyeok’s words made a lot of sense.

“I couldn’t let your father die! If he doesn’t open his eyes, who am I supposed to ask to lift the Curse of the Serpent God from me?” The old man yanked at his collar and revealed a tattoo of a snake biting its tail on his shoulder. It’s shaped exactly like the boss monster that appeared only once in the SS-grade world raid: the Jormungandr. “Therefore, I tried! I made the medicine with all my heart, hoping that your father would open his eyes. But... ”

Brain death was a condition that couldn’t be cured with potions and elixirs. The moment this hopeless reality resurfaced in the old man’s mind, his vision went dark and he slumped to the ground. He looked so pitiful that Jae-Hyeok couldn’t ignore it. “Don’t worry too much. Father will wake up. I will make sure of it.”

“Spare me the empty comfort! How can a brat like you possibly revive the Yaksha? That man is practically dead.”

“I will definitely get the elixir he needs.”

“Elixir? Hahahat! You’re talking about that elixir with a ridiculously low drop chance from the top-tier gates? Hmph. It’s a wild dream.”

Only players considered National Treasures had the right to challenge top-tier gates.

Even if Jae-Hyeok managed to participate and clear a top-tier gate, there was no guarantee an elixir would drop. If by some miracle it did drop, he also had to rank first in the contribution to earn the right to claim it. That meant he had to beat the world’s strongest players to obtain the highest contribution right to an elixir.

Obtaining an elixir was the type of dream that only a child who didn’t know anything about the world would have.

The old pharmacist sighed deeply. “I honestly had high hopes when I heard from Butler Hwang that you’d been admitted to Lion’s Castle. I imagined more than once that you would grow quickly and bring back the Imoogi’s Scale on behalf of your father, allowing me to be freed from this terrible curse.

“It was an empty hope. I should’ve known from the moment you suggested trading something as trivial as potions for Community points: you are a child who has been confined to the mansion for half your life, so you naturally have no sense of reality.”

Wouldn’t he have a similar ending to Kang Dae-Seong, who had great talent but was too arrogant and suffered for it? The elderly pharmacist predicted Jae-Hyeok’s future and had worse stomach cramps. He was convinced the child in front of him was a long way from paying off the Yaksha’s debt. The old man lamented. The saying like father, like son exists for a reason.

Hae-Rin couldn’t stand it any longer and said, “Jae-Hyeok is a kind and amazing person.”

“Huhu.”

The old man laughed and clicked his tongue.

“Dae-Seong always had a girl with him as well. Even if you look alike, you look more like your brother than your father.”

“What?”

He resembled Kang Dae-Seong?

Jae-Hyeok was already dissatisfied with the old man’s attitude for blaming his father, now the old man was even comparing him to that shameless brother of his?

He was about to speak when suddenly, a gloomy voice entered her ears—or more accurately, it resonated in his mind.

“You are here.”

The mana imbued into his voice was not something ordinary people were capable of. It was a feat that couldn’t be done by ordinary players.

Thump, thump, thump...

In an instant, the atmosphere grew strangely tense as the steady sound of footsteps got closer.

Jae-Hyeok, Hae-Rin, the old pharmacist, and the middle-aged woman all turned their attention to the front of the store.

After another two steps, a man in a long coat stepped through the doorway. He radiated an aura that was potent and full of open intent, foretelling a coming disaster.

After pulling out a photo from his breast pocket and comparing it to Jae-Hyeok, the man nodded. “Looks like I indeed found the right place.”

Jae-Hyeok couldn’t help but wonder, Is this guy obsessive-compulsive? His hair was so perfectly parted that it was uncanny. There wasn’t a single hair out of place.

“We’ll. I guess it doesn’t hurt to ask and be sure. Hey, boy, do you know Cho Seong-Hyeon from Jaegyeong?” The man’s eyes shone through his glasses as he stared directly at Jae-Hyeok.

A chill went down Jae-Hyeok’s spine. He recalled what Professor Lee had told him on the night all the beastman who’d infiltrated the school were exterminated.

-It isn’t a coincidence that the Student Council president was absent.I’m certain the Tactical Studies professor, Wu Gyo-Hwan, lured her away just before the beastmen attacked. He pushed the Student Council into an unwinnable situation.

If he hadn’t arrived in time, Jae-Hyeok didn’t want to imagine what kind of horrible things would’ve happened. His eyes turned black like an abyss as he checked the feel of Heavenly Transformation on his hands.

“Tactical Studies professor, Wu Gyo-Hwan, could it be that you were the one who used the tamed monsters to attack Cho Seong-Hyeon?”

“You know a lot for a first-year student. I see how you became close to Cho Seong-Hyeon. You must have been there at the time and helped him survive.”

Wriggle.

The next moment, Jae-Hyeok sensed something strange above Wu Gyo-Hwan’s head. He instinctively drew the Grand Justice Alus's Dagger and threw it at the space above Wu Gyo-Hwan’s head.

Wu Gyo-Hwan waved his briefcase and deflected the dagger. He couldn’t help but admire this boy. “You noticed the evileye’s presence without using a search skill? It seems you must possess some great artifacts.” As expected, fallen or not, the Kang family has retained its legacy.”

One needed at least 100 points of Insight to be able to read the evileye’s presence without the help of Skills or items. But Wu Gyo-Hwan could never imagine that Jae-Hyeok was level 47. Rather, he thought Jae-Hyeok had used an item rather than his Insight to identify the evileye.

“Shall I look at your abilities first?”

Wu Gyo-Hwan confirmed through the evileye’s vision that there were no variables nearby and activated a Skill.

1. In Korean, ‘light’ and ‘debt’ sound similar. Previously, the old man had asked Jae-Hyeok to repay his father’s debt, but Jae-Hyeok misunderstood, thinking the old man had asked him to repay his father’s light. ☜