At Yohan's words, Mi-suk gave a dry cough, blushed, and shifted her gaze to her device.
"I will schedule the trip to the main family for next week."
"Wait."
"Yes?"
Mi-suk was a little afraid of what unreasonable demand Yohan might make next.
"Let's leave today. Right now."
"But...."
"What good will delaying do? You mentioned schedules and all that yourself."
Mi-suk clutched her throbbing head.
No matter how much someone was a blood-tied branch-line member, one could not simply barge into the Hangeom Family and be allowed inside.
A report was necessary, and approval was necessary.
"The Family will not welcome such a sudden visit."
Yohan thought there was no reason Do-cheol would refuse a visit from the person he had spent ten years working on.
"Ho ho, the old.... No, would anyone not be pleased when the Family Head says he wants to see his grandson?"
"The Family Head is not pleased even with direct-line scions if they cannot produce results."
"That's exactly why he'll be even happier."
Yohan began packing lightly.
With no concealed weapons or sword, the things he had always packed out of habit, he felt strangely empty.
"There is no car prepared today."
"Do you have something against public transportation?"
Mi-suk tried to stop Yohan somehow, but she could not stop him when he was already putting it into action.
All she could do was leave a message for the main family when he was not looking.
Fortunately, the reply that came immediately contained the words, 'Understood.'
At that, Mi-suk let out a sigh of relief without realizing it.
"I'm ready. Let's go."
"Yes. Understood."
There was only one reason Yohan was moving with such urgency.
Until he reached the age of seventeen, he had been an ordinary person no different from anyone else.
Athletic ability, reflexes, dynamic visual acuity. All of them had been average or below.
If he wanted to survive in the Hunter Academy, where Awakened would be gathered in the future, the first step was important.
And the clue to that was in the Hangeom Family.
Starting from the outskirts of Gyeonggi-do, Yohan and Mi-suk boarded a mana-stone maglev train.
Then they headed for Seoul, where the Hangeom Family's main family was located.
***
"Damn, this place is huge."
A bamboo forest had formed in the middle of a great city.
"There is a barrier here. Without me, you will be sent back to the entrance, so follow me careful...."
"Yeah, yeah."
With his hands clasped behind his back, Yohan walked inside ahead of Mi-suk.
"Ah! Come on!"
Unable to hold back any longer, Mi-suk shouted as she chased after Yohan.
"Same as ever, this place."
Around a massive mansion built in the style of a traditional Korean house, stone walls had been erected.
Its atmosphere and the surrounding scenery called the Joseon era to mind.
At the entrance stood large guardian posts, along with the word 'Hangeom' written in Hangeul.
"I have to hand it to the old man for his taste."
After the Gates appeared, civilization had regressed, but it was restored by the emergence of the Twelve Family Heads.
More precisely, it brought about an effect greater than mere restoration.
Because with the discovery of mana stones, technology surpassing science had been placed in human hands.
It was just like humanity at the beginning of time discovering fire.
"'Preserve the old, and maintain the present state.' That is the Family Head's will."
"Conservative old man."
As Yohan was looking around, a butler approached and asked Mi-suk and Yohan, who had passed through the barrier.
"I received word from Ms. Jennifer today. You are Yohan, correct?"
The butler, who looked younger than expected, was wearing a Western butler's uniform.
To learn how the people of the Family treated branch lines, Yohan held out his hand and opened his mouth.
"Yeah. Good to meet you."
The butler looked at the hand Yohan held out, smirked, and ignored it.
'So that's their attitude toward branch lines?'
Mi-suk spoke up about his informal speech at their first meeting.
"Yohan!"
"It is all right. If he is a branch-line gentleman who knows no better, such things can happen. I will show you around."
The butler began explaining the interior of the Hangeom Family while guiding Mi-suk and Yohan.
There were many buildings, but the butler explained exactly two of them.
"This is the main building, and the building on the right is the annex. You may stay in the annex until the Awakening Ceremony."
"And?"
"Pardon? Do you require anything else?"
When the butler asked calmly, Yohan frowned and looked at him.
"Hey."
"What is it?"
"I came early to train and grow used to this place. Where is the training hall?"
"Even if you spend a short time in the training hall, nothing will change. Furthermore, the training hall cannot be used without permission."
"Oh, really?"
Yohan approached the butler and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Hey, what is the role of a butler?"
"To assist the master."
"And how far does the master extend?"
"To those who have inherited the blood of the Hangeom Family."
"You know that and still act like this?!"
Yohan pressed the butler further and added one more thing.
"A branch line, too, is a bloodline that has inherited the Family Head's blood! And when someone like that says he needs something, what? You say it is impossible?"
"I-I apologize...."
"If you have time to apologize, make it possible!"
"Understood."
The butler flinched at Yohan's informal speech, straightened his posture, and bowed his head.
'I was clearly told he was an ordinary person who knew nothing.... This child cannot be underestimated.'
The butler told them the location of the training hall and said he would obtain permission for its use.
"You should've done that from the start."
Beside him, Mi-suk sighed as she looked at Yohan.
"You have caused an incident as soon as you arrived."
"Yeah, I'm pretty quick at handling things."
"That was not praise."
While talking with Mi-suk, Yohan headed not to the training hall the butler had told him about, but somewhere else.
"Where are you going?"
"The most important place."
The building where Yohan and Mi-suk arrived smelled of Korean medicine.
This place, too, had the word 'Apothecary' written on it in large letters.
The maids there were decocting medicine, and they were preparing it in the traditional way.
"This is why the Hangeom Family's medicine actually works."
"Haah. What are you trying to do this time...."
"If anyone tries to stop me, all you have to do is say I'm a scion of the Hangeom Family."
"Haah, yes. Understood."
Without caring whether Mi-suk followed behind him or not, Yohan entered the apothecary.
There were people who tried to stop Yohan from entering, but with one word from Mi-suk, they all let him pass.
Mi-suk wondered whether this was really all right.
Knock, knock.
When there was no response even after he knocked, Yohan opened the door and entered.
The room he entered was filled with storage cabinets labeled in handwritten Hanja.
He took various things from the cabinets and packed an armful of them into his bag.
'Good. All the medicine I need is gathered here. I can carry out the big job.'
Then he went outside and caught hold of a maid who had been skillfully decocting medicine.
"Hey."
"Who...."
"This gentleman is a scion of the Hangeom Family."
Startled by Mi-suk's words, the maid looked at Yohan and bowed at the waist.
"Yes.... Did you call for me?"
"Combine all these medicinal ingredients and make them into pills."
"These medicines?"
"Yes. Extract the essence, dry it and turn it into powder, then pack it back inside."
He emptied the bag he had been carrying and showed her the things he had brought from the medicinal ingredient room.
"These are all poisons."
"Don't worry about that. Just proceed."
"Understood...."
"When you're finished, bring them to the detached house."
Yohan waved his hand, telling the maid to go.
Mi-suk no longer wanted to understand what Yohan was thinking as he acted.
Before she knew it, after following behind Yohan, she had arrived at the detached house the butler had told them about.
"Now, Mi-suk. I'll tell you what you need to do."
"What is it?"
"Check whether I can use the training hall, and don't let anyone enter the room until I come out."
Mi-suk was too tired to even ask any more questions, so she nodded.
"Haah... Understood. I will do that."
After repeatedly emphasizing it to Mi-suk, Yohan entered the detached house.
The detached house was larger than the house where Yohan had originally lived, and it had everything it needed, from a kitchen and living room to a bedroom and bathroom.
"Thankfully, all the ingredients were there."
He recalled the days when he had been part of the Shadow Unit.
When he had killed dozens of branch-line people, survived alone, and been drenched in blood.
A researcher had brought him a pill.
―Amazing! To think you possess that kind of recovery ability even after reaching the brink of death!
―....
―Then I have a proposal for you. Do you not want to become stronger?
Saying that, the man handed the medicine to Yohan.
Yohan had taken that medicine, and because of that, he became close with the researcher. Later, he had heard the medicine's mixture from that man, so he remembered it.
"That bastard was an eccentric. Completely insane. I wonder how many people died because of that drug."
Yohan did not even remember how he had endured it back then.
According to the researcher, he had a body with recovery ability far superior to an ordinary person's.
That was why he had been able to survive.
But Yohan only remembered that when he took that medicine at the time, he had truly wanted to die.
"The problem is how to endure that pain."
Yohan entered the room and tore a blanket into strips of cloth.
Then he cleared away every blade and dangerous object around him.
"I need to avoid anything I can use to kill myself while the medicine takes effect."
He had nearly finished preparing after setting out a dipper of water when a knock sounded from the front door of the detached house.
Knock, knock.
It was the maid he had ordered to prepare the pills.
She had prepared the pills just as Yohan had instructed and brought them on a small plate.
"I have made them."
"Good work."
After the maid left, Yohan locked the door.
Then he quietly went to the sofa and settled down.
Performing his routine, he prepared to take the medicine.
He had to be calmer and more cautious than ever.
"Hoo."
After letting out a deep breath, he swallowed the pill in one gulp.
"Gghhh...."
As soon as the medicine entered his body, agony began to surge through his entire body.
His fever rose, and it felt as if each and every muscle fiber was being torn apart.
'It's my second time, but this is still fucking awful!'
The pain of his flesh being ripped away and his organs twisting did not stop.
Yohan bit down on the blanket he had torn.
Pain so intense that he wanted to kill himself right then dominated his mind.
His teeth chattered, shaking as if they were about to fall out.
"Gghhh."
His body, which had been convulsing, eventually only trembled violently.
If he let go of consciousness even a little, he felt as if he would die on the spot.
And so the night that seemed as if it would never pass dragged on.
After enduring that time of pain, Yohan's body began entering the stage of restoration.
The torn muscle fibers recovered.
They formed tissue and took shape.
The shape of his slight bones changed, and his build grew larger.
'Now I finally feel a little alive.'
Even as his physique changed, Yohan's recovery ability was strong enough that he could barely endure it.
Yohan washed his face with the water he had set aside in the dipper.
At that, the clear water began to turn red.
He turned on the light.
Then, to check whether it had worked properly, he headed to the mirror.
'My body definitely feels lighter. Not as light as before, though....'
Each moving step carried so much force that it was hard to adjust.
He began to see every movement of a flying insect.
'Dynamic visual acuity restored.'
Yohan looked at the moving insect and swung his hand sharply.
In the hand he clenched, the insect was crushed.
'Reflexes restored.'
In the mirror he approached carefully, he saw how he had looked before returning to the past.
The side effects born from experiencing the brink of death and recovering from it.
His ash-gray hair and pupils stained yellow as if bleached proved it.
Bone-deep rebirth: successful.
"Fuck, I almost died."