Chapter 3: Death Is Not The End (2)

Jinseong changed his clothes and headed to the dining room.

Although he changed and moved as soon as he heard Lee Serin's message, it took quite a long time for him to reach the dining room.

There were several reasons for this, one being that the unnecessarily large mansion required a long walk just to get to the dining room. Another was that he had to stop intermittently to calm his mind, irritated by the useless and expensive art pieces that lacked coherence, which he saw along the way.

The most important reason was that these nouveau riche-like art pieces reminded him of his mercenary days, especially after World War III broke out.

The dining room he arrived at after such a long time was truly a sight to behold.

On a long, large table reminiscent of a medieval noble household, there awaited a lavish and heavy menu that might upset one's stomach if eaten in the morning. Even that was covered in Western style, perhaps emphasizing superficial appearances, and the family members seated at the table were eating it as if accustomed to it.

'What a sight.'

There was no other nouveau riche like this.

"You're late."

And the king of nouveau riche, the one responsible for turning the household into this mess, opened his mouth while glaring at him. It was Lee Yanghoon, the head of the Lee family where Jinseong was staying, and the chairman of Gwangyang Group.

"Yes."

The conversation ended there.

Jinseong sat down in an empty seat with an indifferent face, and Lee Yanghoon also continued eating without showing any particular reaction.

But the situation changed when the door opened again with a click.

Because a woman with the same face as Lee Serin–who was eating while exuding gloominess with her whole body–but conversely asserting with her whole body that "This is what a delinquent is like," had entered.

"Why are you late?"

Lee Yanghoon fiercely asked the woman who maintained a confident attitude despite being late.

If the answer is not satisfactory, I'll scold you right away.

Said Lee Yanghoon’s eyes as he glared.

"Ah, shut up. People can be late sometimes, you old man."

She said that and sat down next to Jinseong. As soon as she sat down, she poked Jinseong's side with her index finger and whispered.

"He's totally an old man, right?"

At that sight, Lee Yanghoon's face turned red and pale, but he sighed deeply when he saw Jinseong's smiling face.

"Lee Arin. You come to the study after the meal."

“Yes, yes~”

Unable to get angry in front of Jinseong, Lee Yanghoon chose to suppress his anger and explode later. But Lee Arin gave a perfunctory answer regardless of his reaction and started eating the food on the table.

Watching this scene, Jinseong felt nostalgic.

'It's been a while since I've seen this, too.'

The scene from the time when he was protected in the mansion, which he hadn't even thought about during the time when he was obsessed with magic and money.

It was a scene that made him want to settle down comfortably.

But he couldn’t do that.

'Having decided to dedicate my soul to magic, that resolution must be fulfilled.'

Jinseong smiled brightly and opened his mouth.

"I have gained enlightenment."

Enlightenment?

At his unexpected words, the people at the table raised their heads and looked at Jinseong.

Lee Yanghoon's wife, his mistress, his daughters…

All those gazes were focused on him.

Suddenly talking about enlightenment without any context?

Of course, they couldn't help but be puzzled.

Jinseong opened his mouth with their gazes on him.

"Enlightenment takes a long time, but the moment itself comes and goes in an instant. My enlightenment came like that."

"What, after digging into magic, has he really gone mad...?"

He could hear a voice muttering next to him, but Jinseong continued speaking without minding it.

"All principles are in all things, and all things contain the answers of the world. Like the tide pulled in by the moon, that was how enlightenment came to me."

Lee Yanghoon opened his mouth as if dumbfounded.

"Okay, enlightenment. What kind of enlightenment?"

"It's about an innovative alternative method for breakfast."

"Alternative method?"

"Yes. Breakfast is originally a preparatory act to thoroughly face the day's activities. If we simplify the procedure and fulfill the necessary conditions, we gain extra time, so how is this not beneficial?"

Everyone fell silent at Jinseong's unnecessarily refined and weighty voice and his words that were too convoluted to understand at once.

"So what does that mean in simple terms?"

"How about replacing my breakfast with taking nutritional supplements from now on?"

And when they realized the true meaning of what Jinseong had said, everyone couldn't help but let out a hollow laugh.

They couldn't help but laugh hollowly because what he had said in an unnecessarily solemn tone, like a fortune-teller giving a great divination, was actually a childish complaint saying "I don't want to eat breakfast."

"As enlightenment has come and gone to this unworthy body, I feel there will be progress in magic, so I wish to practice without attachment to food and drink."

"No, huu. I understand. If it's enlightenment, there's nothing we can do..."

Lee Yanghoon tried to say something but gave up and sighed deeply.

"Okay, I understand... From when?"

"As the start is like lightning striking, it's only possible when storm clouds gather, so I think it's better not to postpone the date."

"...I understand. From now on, you don't have to eat breakfast. I'll have my people send you simple food and nutritional supplements separately."

          *                     *                     *

Jinseong held a very ambiguous position in this household.

His real name was Park Jinseong.

He was a complete stranger, not sharing a single drop of blood with the Lee family.

Then, were there friendships between the parents?

No, there weren't.

Jinseong's parents, who have now passed away, had almost no relationship with the Lee family. To be precise, there was a relationship between the organization the Lee family belonged to and the organization Jinseong's parents were part of, but even that was hardly friendly... it was close to an antagonistic relationship.

If you asked whether the Lee family was Jinseong's guardian, that was also ambiguous.

First of all, legally, Jinseong's guardian was a distant relative of the Park family. In reality, there was only a nominal guardian whose existence was unknown, whether alive or dead. However, in practice, the Lee family was acting as Jinseong's guardian until the day he became an adult.

They were either guardians or they weren’t. It was a truly complex relationship.

What made it even more ambiguous was that usually, the side that sponsored and supported became the superior party, and the side that received support became the inferior party, but Jinseong and the Lee family had a strange relationship where they were both superior and inferior to each other.

'The Lee family had to take care of me without lack until I became an adult.'

It was a kind of unfair contract.

He could live receiving support without lack until the year he became an adult, that is, one year from the current point.

What was given in return?

Nothing.

It was a perfectly unfair contract.

How could such a contract be established...

'There's a very long story.'

Not just any old story, but one so ridiculous and absurd that it would make you laugh hollowly several times.

"Coincidence is accepted as coincidence, and the consequences of choices are borne by oneself."

But no matter how complex, causality was clear.

The starting point of the fight between the two organizations had been the Lee family's foolish act, and in the process, his parents died. And the two organizations ordered the Lee family to support him as a form of atonement.

However, the process was so intertwined with coincidences that it felt like fate, and his parents' death was not the fault of the Lee family but their own doing.

All of this might have just been the future that was bound to come.

"ॐ-"

But because it was so tangled, of course, the relationship could only be ambiguous.

Although the causality was intertwined, the people of the Lee family were not bad people.

In the case of Chairman Lee Yanghoon, he may have a strong nouveau riche mentality but he was at least a person who knew noblesse oblige. Although he had a poor understanding of it, at least his intentions were not bad.

If he had been born in a noble family and received proper education, he would have become a respected rich person.

Even Jinseong, who harbored feelings close to hatred towards the nouveau riche, didn't have negative feelings towards Chairman Lee Yanghoon, so it was clear that he was at least a good person.

The wife and mistress of Chairman Lee Yanghoon were not harsh people either. Just looking at how Lee Serin and Lee Arin, born from the mistress, grew up receiving plenty of love from both of them, their personalities weren’t bad. Of course, there would have been twists and turns and various stories behind how they became such a relationship... but at least the personalities that Jinseong witnessed were good.

The same was true for the daughters.

Lee Arin might seem like a delinquent at first glance, but she didn't bully others, and except for the flaws of being a bit wasteful with money and having some vanity, she had an impeccable personality. Also, in the case of her twin sister Lee Serin, although she was gloomy and had unusual hobbies, she also wasn't the type to bully others. Rather, she might be bullied herself, but she would never bully others.

It wasn’t easy to have only people like them in a nouveau riche household overflowing with money.

Seeing as troublemakers often appeared even in places called noble houses, and how there were people who either threw away their own lives or tried to ruin others' lives almost without fail.

Yes, it was a very harmonious household with kind family members.

To the extent that it was awkward for Jinseong to be there.

That was why the relationship became even more ambiguous.

If their personalities had been harsh, they could have cut it off cleanly by saying that the death of Jinseong's parents was a coincidence, and if Jinseong could have hated them, it would have at least been an opportunity to cut off this vague relationship.

That was why Jinseong had no choice but to leave this house as soon as he became an adult.

They would have continued to support Jinseong even after he became an adult, the ambiguous relationship would have continued, and later on, they would have become shackles for each other.

'With the magic I had learned, there was no problem in making a living.'

The magic he had consistently shown interest in and learned since middle school had reached a level sufficient for making a living anywhere by the time he became an adult, so he naturally chose the profession of mercenary, which could earn the most money.

Although it was dangerous, it was a profession with various merits.

The ability to travel around the world, meet various types of people, access the underworld that one couldn't know living an ordinary life, the potential to earn big money despite the big risks, the ability to develop combat skills to avoid dying a sudden death anywhere, and so on…

It was a really good job except for the huge disadvantage of one’s life being in danger.

'Even that dangerous disadvantage disappeared later.'

The reason mercenaries were dangerous was because they had to perform dangerous missions.

Deployment to conflict areas, assassination of key figures, protection of key figures, search and destroy missions…

Even tasks like wild animal extermination, hunting wanted criminals, or taking care of dangerous pets.

There was not a single job that wasn't dangerous from start to finish.

Why not choose jobs that weren’t dangerous?

You couldn't.

If it wasn't a dangerous job, why would they spend money to hire mercenaries instead of using their own people?

So being deployed to the front lines and being used as cannon fodder was everyday life. Although they didn't overtly try to kill mercenaries because of contracts, they didn't make efforts for the survival of mercenaries either.

After all, they weren't their own people but strangers, and depending on the situation, the more mercenaries died, the lower the request fee they had to pay, so it was natural.

Therefore, wherever mercenaries went was dangerous, and even if it wasn't dangerous, it became dangerous.

But then...

'World War III broke out.'

The whole world had turned into a dangerous place.

The African continent became a den of madmen performing human modifications, saying they should return to primordial times, and Europe became a battlefield where crazy dictators fought with their armies. America became a neighborhood where nuclear weapons and grand magic came and went, and the Asian region also burst into flames of war.

Amidst the whole world being engulfed in the flames of war, madmen who could exert army-level power alone popped up everywhere and made a mess, and to counter them, ABC weapons (Atomic, Biological, Chemical weapons) were used which turned the mess into a wasteland.

'But surprisingly, the world was running unexpectedly well.'

It could be described as five minutes to the apocalypse without exaggeration, but strangely, the world kept running. Passenger ships and planes exploded frequently, but trade was surprisingly smooth, and although terrorist attacks occurred in the capitals and important facilities of each country almost every day, people who had already accepted death as part of daily life continued to live as usual.

Even if a building exploded killing hundreds of students, schools continued to operate, and even if a provincial city was blown up by a nuclear weapon, the administration of the entire country was not paralyzed. Even as they fired missiles at each other and caused a commotion, trade was secretly carried out, and bizarre situations occurred frequently where countries that were enemies would declare a ceasefire, and then declare war again after the ceasefire.

He didn't know exactly why it kept running, but somehow, it kept going, albeit creakily.

Even though World War III had occurred, the world did not end.

If they were to forcibly guess the reason, it might have been due to the efforts of numerous people who didn't want to live in hell, the sense of crisis learned from history, and the efforts of one-man army level ability users.

'Heroes, heroes. There's one in this house too.'

Thump.

While Jinseong was lost in thought, footsteps were heard from outside the door.

'Light and irregular footsteps. A small-bodied woman.'

Knock knock knock.

"Oppa, are you there...?"

With the sound of knocking, Lee Serin entered.

"Um, that, nutritional supplements and food. It's food..."

Lee Serin smiled awkwardly as she put down what she had brought, wrapped up.

The sight was like seeing a squirrel that had been running around with acorns and then freezing after seeing something strange, naturally evoking a desire to protect. But instead of a protective instinct, Jinseong recalled something else.

It was the image of the future Lee Serin.

'She looks so harmless. It's hard to believe this is the past appearance of the person who single-handedly devastated Kyoto.'

About 6 years into Jinseong's mercenary life, the United Republic of Korea and Japan entered into a full-scale war.

Japan, which had amended its constitution to be able to have an army, chose the Republic of Korea as its first target to project its power.

There were only two countries that Japan could touch, China and Korea, but China was a dinosaur armed with various magic and the latest science, making it difficult to touch.

On the other hand, although Korea was strong in magic, much of its magic had been destroyed and plundered during the colonial period, and it hadn't yet recovered from the damage. Its weapons also hadn't developed properly due to the United States and China. Moreover, without nuclear weapons, it seemed like a manageable opponent.

Even the northern region, which had been lost to a puppet regime and barely recovered, had become uninhabitable due to the excessive use of magic by the puppet regime, depleting the land's energy. They calculated that they could easily strike the first blow against Korea using the ownerless northern region.

Moreover, there were pro-Japanese factions planted since the colonial period, and they had memories of easily annexing Korea in the past, so for Japan, there was no better opponent than Korea.

Japan continuously caused friction by raising territorial disputes over Dokdo and the 7th mining area, and started the war by launching a surprise attack without declaration of war, bombarding and firing missiles at Pohang.

Korea quickly began to respond, but the industrial complex in Pohang had already been destroyed, and difficulties bloomed from the start of the war. In addition, Japan landed a large number of special forces in the north to commit terrorism, and they spread throughout Korea, conducting guerrilla activities and continuously causing confusion.

The enraged Korean side decided to carry out sabotage and terrorism on the Japanese mainland in the same way, and thus infiltrated ability users with the power of one-man armies.

A total of 4 ability users were dispatched to Japan.

Among them, Lee Serin was the ability user in charge of the Kyoto annihilation operation.

'This squirrel-like child, you say.'

Jinseong thanked her and received the food from her, then looked behind her head.

What entered his line of sight was empty space. Only a faintly distorted atmosphere was barely visible, nothing more could be seen.

'I need to recover my level quickly.'