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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 53
Chapter Title: Have You Eaten?
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The next day.
Having finished the auction and returned home safely, Kang-jun looked at 'Kagon' and spoke in an impassive tone.
“The Elixir.”
Kagon, the auction agent who had attended to them throughout the event, carefully handed over a purple box...
“Can you have the other auction items sent to my house?”
“As you wish, my lord. I will carry out your command.”
Kang-jun nodded in satisfaction, then turned to Bong-gu and said gently.
“Let's go see your mother now.”
At his words, Bong-gu immediately performed a deep bow and replied.
“Hyungnim, I will never, ever forget this kindness.”
Of course, the bidding war with Mayer Rothschild had become so heated that the final price was several times higher than the market average...
In any case, the final price Kang-jun had paid to gift him the elixir amounted to a staggering several hundred trillion won.
If he hadn't happened to cross paths with Hyungnim, he would never have been able to obtain the elixir, no matter how hard he worked his entire life.
“I will serve you faithfully by your side, even in death.”
Kang-jun looked slightly embarrassed by this and replied in a deliberately gruff tone.
“Enough with the pleasantries. Let's just go.”
“Really...”
“Your mother has been waiting a long time.”
Then he added again.
“If you're really that grateful.”
Kang-jun said curtly, then added impassively.
“Pay me back.”
Bong-gu nodded his head vigorously and replied.
“Yes, from now on, I'll work myself to the bone to...”
Kang-jun cut him off with a single “No,” and replied in a tone that was unusually serious for him.
“You know I have more money than I know what to do with, right? I'd have better luck squeezing the liver out of an ant. What kind of luxury could I possibly enjoy with that chump change from you?”
“Then...”
“How about we call the debt paid if you just keep visiting me from time to time, like you do now? Just show your face and report on how well you're doing.”
After speaking, Kang-jun gave Bong-gu's shoulder a light pat.
“It must have been fucking awful.”
“I'm sure it was.”
Kang-jun himself briefly imagined what it would be like to watch his own family, unconscious in a hospital bed, wasting away day by day.
The mere thought was agonizing.
To think that this kid had endured such a hellish life at the tender age of his early twenties made him seem incredibly admirable.
“Get back all that past misfortune as ‘happiness.’”
“Yes, Hyungnim...”
“And make sure you collect it all back with heavy interest, viciously so.”
At those words, something hot began to churn violently in a corner of Bong-gu's heart.
It felt as if an iceberg that had been coiled up in his heart had begun to melt.
“Damn kid, you're even uglier when you cry.”
With that, Kang-jun took the lead and started walking, but Bong-gu could only stare at him with eyes brimming with tears.
In truth, he'd wondered.
He had always been curious about why those who had been by Hyungnim's side for so long held such fierce loyalty.
Now, he thought he understood.
He was certain that they, just like him, had been captivated by Kang-jun's overflowing dignity—an attitude that no one else could dare imitate.
He wasn't what he seemed on the surface.
No matter how much he tried to use coarse language and act like a frivolous person, the 'wisdom' and 'depth' that seeped into their occasional conversations could not be hidden.
‘Hyungnim is...’
He was an incredible person who could completely change the course of another's life with just a few words.
Hadn't Hyungnim said that right before returning to Earth, he had reigned as an emperor in a dimension called 'Anux'?
Although it was no exaggeration to say he knew absolutely nothing about how Hyungnim was recorded in the history of that place...
‘He must have been remembered as a wise and virtuous ruler.’
Like most of those who had stayed by Kang-jun's side, even for a short while, Bong-gu inwardly repeated his vow of eternal loyalty over and over again.
*
*
Not long after, the two arrived at the exclusive hospital for Awakeners where Bong-gu's mother was staying.
“Go on in.”
Kang-jun said curtly and immediately handed over the box containing the elixir.
He had no intention of intruding on the mother and son's reunion in the first place.
He had only accompanied him just in case, since it was such an expensive item.
Just as Bong-gu nodded and was about to take a step.
“Bong-gu.”
Kang-jun began to speak in a cautious tone.
“I'm warning you in advance because you don't seem to know about the elixir's ‘side effects’...”
Kang-jun trailed off vaguely for a moment.
“I'm worried you might get too shocked. Don't be.”
“Shocked?”
“You might see something you don't want to see.”
Kang-jun then continued with a more detailed, calm explanation.
“Back when I was in Anux, I usually supplied the elixir to those who had fallen unconscious from severe injuries during wartime.”
“Yes.”
“Because of that, a hundred out of a hundred people who regained consciousness thanks to the elixir showed signs of suffering from ‘trauma’ caused by their last memory.”
Was it because the vast majority of elixir users Kang-jun had personally witnessed were people who had collapsed and lost consciousness due to immense pain?
“I-I don't want to die!”
“Please, save me!”
“S-s-stop!”
“M-my arm...!”
“I want to live...”
Most of them, upon regaining consciousness, would display maddened behavior, crying out in fear and terror of their last memories.
If Bong-gu's mother had also fallen unconscious amidst terrible pain, then he too would inevitably have to face a heart-wrenching sight.
“For example, she might scream like she's lost her mind, or mutter to herself in terror...”
After speaking, Kang-jun patted Bong-gu's shoulder.
“It'll be painful to watch, but it's only for a moment.”
“I see...”
“They all got better pretty quickly.”
Then he added.
“To put it simply, it's not much different from people who have just woken up from anesthesia and say things they don't mean because the drugs haven't worn off yet.”
“Yes, Hyungnim...”
“Whatever your mother says or does, just think of it as how much pain she was in right before she collapsed, and accept it well.”
Kang-jun finished by adding, “with composure,” and after Bong-gu nodded...
He opened the door to the hospital room where his mother lay sound asleep and stepped inside.
Unable to leave right away, Kang-jun leaned his back against the wall next to the hospital room door and closed his eyes.
Inside the room, Bong-gu took a long breath.
“Mom.”
As always, there was no reply.
“It must have been hard.”
Bong-gu's rough hands opened the box containing the elixir.
“To be honest, it was hard for me too.”
Then he carefully opened the stopper of the crystal vial...
“It's time for us to go back now.”
Bong-gu's gaze came to rest on his mother's face, gaunt from her long illness.
“Just endure a little longer.”
It seemed the time had come, just as Hyungnim said, to get back past misfortunes as happiness, with heavy interest.
“Just a little...”
Bong-gu then began to slowly pour the elixir between his mother's lips.
He was happy.
At the same time...
He was afraid.
It was because of what Hyungnim had said—that he might have to witness the naked pain his mother felt right before she lost consciousness.
‘Mom...’
He'd heard that she had collapsed in the middle of the city because she was poisoned by a massive amount of mana released from a Gate that had opened near downtown Seoul.
In other words, she had lain collapsed for hours on the cold concrete floor in the heart of Seoul, which had turned into a scene of utter chaos...
‘How scared and cold she must have been...’
Bong-gu resolved to be composed.
No matter what she said...
He promised himself he would not be shaken.
And then.
For a moment, his mother's fingertip, which had been limp and motionless for years, twitched! with a slight movement.
“Uh...”
His mother's eyes fluttered open...
“M-Mom...”
Her parched and cracked lips parted.
“Son...”
Bong-gu, his eyes welling with tears, nodded his head several times in a row.
He thought all that was left was to witness his mother's last memory before she lost consciousness.
But.
His mother's dry lips moved with difficulty...
And words he had never expected squeezed out from between them.
“H-Have you... eaten?”
What was so special about a mere meal, something he ate two or three times a day without fail?
“I-I marinated the galbi you kids like... in the fridge...”
“Yeah...”
“D-Don't ever skip a meal... Make sure you and Ju-hui...”
Bong-gu bit his lip and nodded.
His mother's last memory was so heartbreaking.
Her last worry, right before she lost consciousness, was merely...
The fact that she was worried about him and his sister's meals made his heart ache.
“Yeah, we ate...”
Then he added with difficulty.
“It was delicious...”
It was a lie.
“It was really, really delicious...”
The marinated galbi his mother had prepared that day was still sitting untouched, deep inside the freezer.
He couldn't bring himself to eat it, thinking it was the last food his mom had touched, so he had no choice but to leave it there.
Bong-gu grasped his mother's hand, large teardrops rolling down his cheeks as he sobbed quietly.
‘Are you Ms. Shin Hye-won's guardian?’
When his mother first collapsed, Bong-gu had spent several sleepless nights by her bedside in the hospital room.
It felt as though someone had placed the weight of an unbearable reality upon his shoulders.
Still, I have to live.
For my sister's sake.
I have to endure.
After comforting himself like that, he returned home, only to be confronted by the 'marinated galbi' in a plastic container in the fridge.
That day.
Bong-gu, who had seemed to be stoically accepting reality, finally broke down because of the simple marinated galbi in the refrigerator.
He had hugged the cold container tightly to his chest and cried his heart out for a long time.
The image of his mother's back as she diligently seasoned and mixed the galbi kept coming to mind, and he couldn't help but wail.
Yes.
Looking back now, his mom had always been this kind of person.
A person who worried about her children's meals, even at the very end.
A person who always took her own sacrifices for granted.
Simply...
A person who struggled her whole life just for the reason of having given birth to him.
Kang-jun, who had been leaning against the wall right next to the door, eavesdropping on the conversation inside, slowly began to walk out of the hospital.
“A meal...”
He had poured the elixir into the mouths of countless people over the years, but not a single one had reacted like this upon waking.
He was confused...
And sad.
Yes, it was sadness.
For a very long time, Kang-jun had dismissed this emotion called 'sadness' as something weak and soft.
Perhaps he had even been wary of it.
Because the moment he set even a single foot into the emotion of sadness, it would drag him down to some unknown place.
But wasn't Bong-gu clearly just 'another person'?
No matter how close they were, he was still just a stranger.
Why on earth am I being moved by a stranger's sadness right now?
“I'm becoming stranger and stranger.”
He realized he had been changing since his return to Earth.
He was being easily shaken and swayed by weak emotions.
In the past, he wouldn't have even helped in the first place.
Life here was changing him.
“Is it okay to go on like this...?”
Lost in thought as he walked, Kang-jun found himself in front of his house before he knew it.
Beep, beep, beeep-.
As he began to press the buttons on the door lock, he heard a clamor from beyond the door.
‘Dada, Dada!’
It was Seol-i's voice.
As he opened the door and stepped inside...
“Dadaa!”
He saw Seol-i pressed right up against the glass of the inner door in front of the entryway shoe rack, looking at him.
“Daughter...”
In that instant, he was overcome with the feeling that the texture and value of certain words he knew had changed completely.
Home, daughter, family, parent...
No.
The entire world had changed.
Kang-jun immediately opened the inner door, took a first step into the living room, and swept Seol-i up into his arms, looking at her intently.
“Seori, I missed Dada!”
“I missed you too.”
“You weally came after five sleeps!”
“That's right, we promised.”
Just then, Lee Su-bin came out to greet him, wearing an apron...
“Have you eaten?”
At that question, Kang-jun's eyes shook violently.
His sister's first words were also a worry about his meal.
Just like Bong-gu's mother, she asked about his meal first.
“Not yet.”
At that, Lee Su-bin said with a bright smile.
“I was just making dinner, perfect timing. Go wash your hands first and play with Seol-i for a bit. I'll have dinner ready soon.”
A smile also appeared on Kang-jun's lips as he nodded.
Only then did he start to like the changes that were coming over him.
Just a short while ago he had wanted to die, but now he wanted to live.
His moods were as fickle as boiling porridge, and now he wanted to live weakly again.
“Seori has something for Dada.”
“What is it?”
“Seori will give you a pwetty sticker.”
Laughing and crying with his precious ones.
Sharing joy, sadness, and even special things with each other.
He wanted to live submerged in these soft emotions.
Ordinarily, like others.
And yet...
A little bit specially.
“Here, I'll give this sticker to Dada!”
“It's a cat sticker.”
“Seori is giving it 'cause I love you.”
Yes, while loving.
He wanted to live like that.
If this was a world where such changes were inappropriate...
He could just change the world, as he had always done.
So, he thought it was okay to change.
