Chapter 196
“I’m sorry, everyone, you’re all so surprised, aren’t you? I guess the uncles are nervous because it’s the first time I’m bringing friends home, hahahahaha!”
Scratching his head in embarrassment, Jin-woo leads us into the mansion.
“Wow, it’s really big…… no, Jin-woo. If you have such a big house, why do you always have no money?”
“No, it’s not because of our finances……it’s because of my dad’s!”
Se-ah, who had lived in a completely different environment from Jin-woo, had a strange expression on her face as if she couldn’t understand, but Young-jae nodded as if she understood.
“A lion usually drops its children off a cliff when it raises them, so that explains something.”
……My house must be special, right?
“Here, this is my room. It’s the first time I’ve ever had a friend over, so make yourself comfortable.”
I followed him into the room, which was only slightly smaller than my room at the mansion.
There were game posters on the walls, a bunch of gaming consoles in a row and a computer that didn’t look out of the ordinary at first glance.
“Wow, this is nicer than I thought. I thought it would be a pigsty.”
With an exclamation of admiration, Se-ah plopped down on the remaining couch and stretched out, surprised at how fluffy it was.
Grumbling, Jin-woo grabs a bunch of books from the bookshelf and puts them on the table in the middle of the room.
The other children also prepare to study, placing their textbooks from home on their desks one by one.
Apparently, the first subject is national language.
I put my tablet on my desk instead of the books and pretended to do the math.
Later, I’ll tell them what they don’t know.
Then.
-knock.
There was a knock at the door.
“Huh? Who is it? I don’t remember anyone coming to my room.”
Jin-woo stood up from his seat as if it was strange.
“Who?”
-It’s father.
“Aaah……father?”
Jin-woo was surprised, as if he never expected his father to come to his room.
The other children also began to look dumbfounded, as if they hadn’t expected this.
“Now, wait a minute. If Jin-woo’s father is the boss of the Bevalt family, he’s the boss of the……?! Crazy! Crazy! Crazy! Mafia boss!”
“Antonio Bevalt……? Crazy, crazy, crazy. We’re meeting the legend of Incheon here?”
I’m not too impressed, but……Antonio Bevalt is a heroic figure who has defended Incheon in the past. As such, he has a fairly high profile among the Family Bosses, so it’s not surprising that the kids reacted the way they did.
-……Jin-woo?
“Oh, wait, wait, wait!”
In response, the guy who had signaled us to calm down with his eyes slowly opened the door, and I heard an awkward drooling sound next to me.
“Go on, what’s the matter with you all of a sudden, ah, Dad?”
Gently opening the door, Jin-woo lets out an awkward chuckle.
“Your friends are here, so I thought I’d say hello for a bit…… Do you mind if I come in?”
“What? Uh, um. Well, then?”
Jin-woo looks at him and steps aside, knowing that he can’t refuse.
“Hey, guys, say hello, this is my dad.”
A middle-aged man enters the room.
We’d gotten to know each other a while back, running dungeons together, so seeing him in this situation made me smile.
“Nice to meet you friends of Jin-woo, I’m Jin-woo’s father, Antonio Bevalt. My son is always in your debt.”
He bows his head in a curt greeting to us.
Luckily, unlike the others, he was following through on what I had told him beforehand, but he still greeted us with an honorific……probably because he was aware of me.”
“Oh, hello! Nice to meet you! I’m Kim Se-ah!”
“I’m Kim Young-jae!”
“I’m Eugene Han.”
He smiles at our reactions.
“You must be the family Jin-woo was always talking about. I hope you’ll have a great time at the Bevalt mansion, and…… Jin-woo.”
“Oh, yeah. Yeah.”
“If you need anything, just let me know.”
“Oh. Sure.”
And with that, he shifts his gaze to mine and smiles brightly before bowing his head again and leaving.
After slowly closing the door behind him, Jin-woo sighed and sank back into his seat with a look that said: it’s been a decade.
“Wow……freaked me out. Really.”
“Why are you so scared of your dad, Jin-woo? He seems like a very gentlemanly and nice man.”
Is it because of Antonio’s neat movements and words?
Se-ah, who seems to have a completely different opinion, shakes her head and asks.
“That’s because you don’t know my father…… my father is……and when he’s angry, he’s really scary as hell.”
“He’s ……is he?”
“That was back when I was in the middle of puberty, and it was like…… Whoa, well, thankfully I never told my dad.”
Well, Antonio’s fighting style is smart, but when it comes to full-scale missions, it can get pretty bloody, which is understandable.
Well, you should listen to your parents, mmmmm.
After the storm had passed and the atmosphere had calmed down a bit, the kids were finally ready to start studying.
Once they started studying, it was really quiet, with them doing their own work and occasionally asking me questions about things they didn’t understand.
I wonder how much time passed.
-Master. I have prepared snacks.
A woman’s voice was heard from outside.
“Crazy…….”
Again, Jin-woo drops the pen he’s holding and throws up his hands.
What the hell?
“What’s wrong?”
Young-jae asks, looking at him strangely, and Jin-woo slowly points to the door.
“Woo, no one in the house has ever prepared and given me a snack until now…… not even once!”
So he’s shocked?
“Well, isn’t it because Jin-woo has never studied that you haven’t gotten one?”
“Oh, right.”
No big deal.
After receiving the snacks from the maid, we decided to take a break from studying for a while.
Various fruits and sweets were placed on the table.
As we ate and chatted lightly Se-ah suddenly said something.
“I’m suddenly curious, I’d like to visit Young-jae’s house or Eugene’s house later, especially Eugene’s house. Since you’re from a top-notch company, shouldn’t your house be bigger than this one?”
Suddenly, an arrow flew toward me.
“Uh, my house?”
“Yes! You have a chauffeur, your own lawyer, a walk-in closet, a ballroom, maybe even a soap opera house!”
I didn’t realize she was curious about my house, although I’m sure I had all of those things.
“I’m really curious, too. Something tells me your house is in a different class than ours. It has a fountain in the backyard and dozens of gardeners.”
…… If you’re asking if there’s one, there is.
Except that most of the gardeners are combat troops.
“Let’s not put too much pressure on him. Next thing you know, he’ll say he has airplanes and yachts. What, he has a dedicated space wizard?”
I have…….all of those.
“Hahahaha, surely that’s a bit much?”
“Oh, that’s too far. Dedicated space wizards are for corporate bosses.”
Yeah……Lets just have a snack.
Someday, the kids will know.
* * *
The next day I’m on my way to the academy as usual when a message arrived from an unexpected person.
[Julie: junior. junior. junior. junior. junior]
[Me: ?]
[Julie: The elixir I promised you. I got it. Do you have time today?]
[Me: Today? Sure.]
[Julie: Then I’ll go to your club room during lunch today.]
[Me: Okay]
Finally, the long-awaited elixir arrived.
It was the Rodman Family’s Arcane Elixir, the highest-ranked elixir that could only be obtained by actually clearing an entire scenario in the game.
‘Isn’t this really how I became an elixir warehouse?’
When am I going to consume all these elixirs lying dormant in my cube? But just like in the game, more is always better.
I need to take care of my body.
‘What’s more, it’s hard to take anything from Julie without special conditions.’
I’m looking forward to it.
I walked into the classroom in the morning with a fresh mind and for some reason, I saw Jin-woo studying early.
“……What are you doing at this hour?”
It felt more alien than I expected, even more so, the sight of him, who hated studying, studying.
“I…….”
“What?”
“I got a promise. If I make it to the top 30 in my grade, I’ll get my pocket money back.”
“Oh.”
He looks determined.
“Well, cheer up.”
I pat him on the shoulder and sit down to study.
Studying? Ah, it’s like an open book to me, and I have the knowledge of the game in my head, so what’s the problem?
When I tried to get some sleep, confident that I’d be able to score top marks if I took the test properly.
“Hey, boss, boss, boss, boss, boss, boss!”
I heard a familiar voice from somewhere.
Did I hear it wrong? Why is Latte’s voice here…….?
“Boss! Boss! Boss! Boss! Boss! Boss! Boss! Boss! Boss!”
I hadn’t misheard.
I jumped out of my seat, opened the classroom door, and looked outside to see Latte running down the hall, sobbing profusely.
“Latte?”
“Boss? Boss!!!”
She spots me at the far end and starts to come running.
“What the hell is this……aren’t you running a cafe right now?”
Selling coffee to students on their way to school in the morning is a very lucrative business so I don’t understand why she’s here when she should be making coffee.
She opened her mouth to speak.
“I’m sorry, please kill me. Kill me!”
“Suddenly? You need to explain what’s going on!”
“There’s a thief……robbed Cielo Nocturno!”
“……what?”
A thief robbed the cafe that our family was using as a sort of information guild?
“Okay, come with me.”
I grabbed my latte and headed up to the deserted rooftop.
“What do you mean, there’s a thief in the cafe?”
Cielo Nocturno was a cafe on the grounds of the Seoul Hero Academy, which meant that the academy’s security extended to the cafe.
No ordinary thief would be able to rob Cielo Nocturno.
