Chapter 290: Tempering (6)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 290: Tempering (6)
The sticky red mana flowing around the man's body surged into my palm.
[Your Mana has increased.]
Unfortunately, my mana stat didn't rise, but my total mana pool seemed to have grown quite a bit.
“Well, that’s the meal finished.”
There’s an old saying.
Let not your left hand know what your right hand is doing.
It means you shouldn't show off your good deeds, but always remain humble…
“What a load of nonsense.”
I don't know how it was in the past, but that saying doesn't hold up at all today.
Isn't this an age of self-promotion, where even a good deed can become another line on your resume?
An unknown act of kindness is simply treated as if it never happened.
If it’s something good, you have to make sure people know about it.
The same applied now.
“Alright, up we go.”
I hoisted the guy sprawled on the floor onto my back and climbed the stairs.
My destination: the living room of the mansion, where Mrs. Ahn Joo-ri was waiting.
“Ah, ahem.”
First, I cleared my throat before opening the door…
Okay, that’s good.
Having prepared myself mentally and physically, I threw open the front door and rushed inside.
“Ma’am, Ma’am!”
“Oh, sir? What’s all this sudden… Aaaah!”
Ahn Joo-ri, who had been rising from the living room sofa, caught sight of her half-dead son on my back, and her sharp scream echoed throughout the entire house.
“S-S-Sir…!? W-What’s wrong with my Jeong-hun?”
The sudden scream brought out Eun-bi and the mansion's staff.
Now that a decent crowd had gathered…
I carefully lowered Kim Jeong-hun from my back onto the sofa and exclaimed.
“Ma’am.”
“Yes, yes.”
“Where is Jeong-hun’s father right now?”
“Uh, he should be at the office… Why? And what happened to Jeong-hun!”
She beat her chest in frustration, urging me for an answer. I replied in a calm tone.
“Please tell him to come home immediately.”
“Hey, sir!”
She pressed on with an angry voice, but I paid her no mind.
When you're acting, it's always important to maintain your own pace.
If you get swept up in someone else's mood, the awkwardness is bound to show somewhere.
“Ma’am, please, just do as I say for now.”
“My son is injured, we should be taking him to a hospital, not calling his father out of the blue…!”
“If he goes to a hospital now, his life is over, Ma’am.”
My words, cutting her off, cast a heavy silence over the room.
“Wh-What do you mean by that…”
The time was ripe.
This was the perfect moment to drop the shocking news.
Putting on the most devastated expression I could muster, I forced my lips to part as if in great difficulty.
“Jeong-hun… I think he’s been using drugs.”
“……”
A deep silence followed.
Good.
Perfect.
* * *
After the shocking statement was dropped on the household.
Thirty minutes after receiving a call from his wife, her voice frantic and breathless, begging him to come home at once.
Screeeech!
“Honey, honey!”
Kim Yong-un had arrived.
“What in the world is going on that you’d call me like…!”
Kim Yong-un strode into the living room, but his words caught in his throat.
He had spotted his son, collapsed on a sofa large enough to seat the entire family with room to spare.
“J-Jeong-hun! Wh-What is this…! Butler Park!”
“Yes, sir.”
“What are you standing around for! Call an ambulance at once…!”
Just then.
Kim Do-jin, who had been standing to the side, stepped forward, cutting off his urgent command.
“Please calm down for a moment, sir.”
A sharp glare turned on him.
“You, sir! What kind of training did you put him through for him to end up like this?!”
His tone was overbearing, meant to crush his opponent.
Kim Do-jin remained unfazed, speaking at his own pace.
“This didn't happen because of training.”
“If not training, then what! What could have done this to my son…!”
“Calm down, dear. It’s not Teacher Do-jin’s fault!”
It was his wife, Ahn Joo-ri, who stopped his furious outburst, veins bulging on his temples.
However, his anger did not subside easily.
“Then what is it! What made our son like this…!”
“Jeong-hun!”
Unable to bear it any longer, Ahn Joo-ri shrieked, cutting him off.
Then, she began to sob.
“J-Jeong-hun… hic… I think he got his hands on some strange drugs, honey.”
“…What?”
Kim Yong-un’s eyes widened.
As if he couldn't believe what he was hearing, he asked again.
“My son… did what?”
“Waaaaah!”
Instead of answering, Ahn Joo-ri collapsed, wailing.
That was enough to make Kim Yong-un realize the grim reality.
“Drugs… That, that can’t be.”
Kim Yong-un shook his head, struggling to deny the reality before him.
He had given his son a great deal of freedom.
With only one exception.
“I warned him so many times…”
He had warned his son until he was blue in the face.
He was at an age to have fun, so he could do whatever he wanted, but he was never to touch drugs.
Hadn't he even said that if he got addicted to drugs, he would no longer consider him his son?
And only then did he understand.
Why they hadn't rashly called an ambulance for their injured son.
‘If he goes to the hospital now, my son is finished.’
The bodies of the Awakened were resistant even to narcotics that would be fatal to ordinary people.
That was precisely why drug-related issues were handled so severely.
If a drug was potent enough to affect an Awakened, the damage it could do to a normal person was unimaginable.
In this desperate crisis, his mind raced, quickly assessing the situation.
‘My wife wouldn't have been the one to say not to call an ambulance. Which means…’
His expression hardened, and he immediately bowed his head to the person he had just been berating.
“…My apologies, Teacher Do-jin. I was so agitated about my son that I showed you an unsightly side of myself.”
It was Kim Do-jin.
He was the one who stopped the ambulance call, the one who had summoned him so urgently.
“It’s alright. It’s only natural for a parent to be angry when their child is hurt.”
As a man who once had a daughter, Kim Do-jin understood that feeling well.
But Kim Yong-un, who only knew of his past as an orphan from a children's home, was deeply moved.
‘Not only is he capable, but his character is magnanimous as well.’
To be so mature at only twenty-one years of age.
In that moment, Kim Do-jin’s value skyrocketed in Kim Yong-un’s estimation.
“You don’t have to worry too much about Jeong-hun’s condition. I’ve administered first aid, and the effects of the drug have mostly worn off, so there won’t be any immediate problems.”
“Ah…”
Kim Yong-un let out a sigh of relief.
But it was too soon to be relieved.
“However… that doesn’t mean the problem has been completely resolved.”
“Hmm.”
That was right.
He had only prevented him from dying for the moment; the problem they faced was still immense.
The fact that he used a narcotic potent enough to affect an Awakened.
“As you well know, sir… if this gets out, Jeong-hun’s life is over.”
The faces of Kim Yong-un and the rest of the family darkened.
He might have been different to others, but to his family, Kim Jeong-hun was a kind and dependable son.
He never caused any major trouble, and while his spending was lavish, he didn't go around making a mess.
“Oh… honey, what should we do? At this rate, our son will…!”
“Calm down, dear.”
“How can I calm down! Our son is about to go to prison, sob!”
“I said…! I need to think, so be quiet! Do you not understand what I’m saying?!”
A good daughter and a good son.
Thanks to them, the couple had never had their household turned upside down by their children's problems, and now they were snapping at each other.
It was understandable.
How much of a headache would it be if the first problem you ever faced with your child was drugs?
As their voices began to rise, Kim Do-jin quietly inserted himself between them.
“Please, both of you, calm down.”
At his intervention, the two of them clamped their mouths shut as if on cue.
They were reminded that this was not the time to be fighting and blaming each other.
“I completely understand why you’re both acting this way. The situation is just that bad. But.”
After confirming that both of their gazes were on him, he continued.
“If you’re asking if this is the worst-case scenario, I’d say it’s not.”
Their eyes flashed.
For an Awakened, the use of narcotics was met with a zero-tolerance policy.
In this dire situation, where their son was on the verge of becoming a criminal, there was only one reason he would say it wasn't the worst.
Kim Yong-un looked up at him with eyes full of expectation and asked.
“Is there… some kind of solution?”
As if to meet that expectation, Kim Do-jin gave a careful nod.
At this, the couple’s emotions, which had plummeted to the depths of hell, soared back to the surface.
“Sir, Ma’am.”
Kim Do-jin met their hopeful gazes and spoke calmly.
“You both know. Jeong-hun is not the kind of boy who would get involved with something like drugs.”
“O-Of course! My Jeong-hun is so diligent! He’s not the type to touch such things, absolutely not.”
“Hmm… I may not know about other things, but I warned him time and again that he must never do drugs.”
I couldn't relate to their words at all.
But the current Kim Do-jin was an angel of empathy.
An empathy machine that deeply related to their every word.
“That’s right. Jeong-hun was clearly forced to take the drug.”
Therefore.
“I will catch the dealer. If we can catch him and prove that Jeong-hun was forced, he should be able to get by without any serious punishment.”
As Kim Do-jin said this in a deliberately angry voice, Ahn Joo-ri came over, grabbed his hands, and pleaded.
“Oh… sir, please! Please catch that wicked person who forced those strange drugs on my Jeong-hun and clear our son’s name!”
Kim Yong-un, realizing there was no other way, bowed his head once more.
“I’m counting on you, sir.”
His tone was filled with the utmost respect he could muster.
Hearing this, Kim Do-jin offered a confident smile, as if to tell them not to worry, and replied.
“From now on, you both must trust me completely.”
“Of course, sir!”
“Hmm… I will do as you say.”
Ahn Joo-ri answered readily, while Kim Yong-un nodded with a somewhat reluctant expression.
In any case, having received consent from both of them, Kim Do-jin casually brought up the next step.
“Then, for starters…”
He glanced at Kim Jeong-hun, who was lying there as if dead, and continued.
“Let’s put Jeong-hun in a psychiatric hospital for now.”
“…Sir?”
“……?”
As their expressions turned strange, Kim Do-jin replied with a serious face.
“I told you, didn’t I? You have to trust me completely.”
“B-But, sir.”
“I have my reasons, so please just do as I say. Understood?”
“……”
“……”
They could no longer say a word in response.