Chapter 3
Chapter 3
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 3
Chapter Title: I'm Alive.
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Splash! Splash! Thud! Whoosh!
I'm on a fishing boat in the western sea right now.
"Big Brother, it's time for you to go."
Manager Kim must have felt a bit guilty after all, because he unusually came aboard the boat himself to handle me. We'd shared meals from the same pot for decades, and I'd cut him a lot of slack here and there, so it seemed like even this bastard couldn't do it with a completely clear conscience.
"Got it."
"Argh, damn it! Why'd you have to make such a huge mess of things? I wanted to cover for you, but there's no way I could shield you from this!"
"You bastard! If it were you, and you found out who raped and killed your little sister—could you just sit there and take it?"
Manager Kim had raised his own little sister practically by hand.
"Tch, yeah, but still... Argh! You gotta pick your fights! This is like throwing an egg at a rock—it's straight-up suicide!"
"Shut up and do your job."
"Sigh, Big Brother. Sorry for beating you so hard earlier. If I'd gone easy, I'd have been in deep shit myself..."
If he'd held back, this guy would've faced hell, and Jo Min-cheol would've hounded him relentlessly for a while. Honestly, I didn't resent Manager Kim. He'd done his duty as a house servant in his own way.
"Enough. I don't blame you. We're both house servants—when have we ever had a choice? And with your skills, you could've made it a lot more painful, so I appreciate you going easy on me."
"Glad you see it that way. And you know... I just couldn't bring myself to stuff you in a drum barrel and weld it shut."
"Haha, thanks for that."
The usual procedure was to stuff them alive into a drum barrel, weld it shut, and dump it in the sea. But Manager Kim, feeling sorry, settled for chaining me up with a few chunks of metal instead. Honestly, that was a real mercy. I didn't want to die gasping inside a sealed barrel, gut shot full of seawater.
"Big Brother, then..."
"Give me one minute."
"Sure."
What a wretched life it had been. Not only had I spent my whole life as a house servant to the Jo family—my sworn enemies—but in the end, I couldn't even get proper revenge and wound up sunk in the sea.
Still, on the flip side, now I could forget all the pain and reunite in the afterlife with my late parents and the little sister I'd longed to see again. Death wasn't entirely terrifying. Yeah, what a life full of grudges. Time to let it all go and head to the other side.
Jo Min-cheol, you son of a bitch. I'll be watching from the afterlife to see how well you eat and live.
"Hey, Manager Kim."
"Yes, Big Brother."
"I'm ready. Let's end it."
"Big Brother, I'm truly sorry. Take care."
"Yeah, you too. Always watch your back. You know what I mean? You're Chairman Jo's real Achilles' heel."
If I was the head house servant on the brighter side of the Jo family, this bastard represented the true darkness of the Jo household completely. If he ever talked, even Chairman Jo would take a fatal hit.
"Come on, Big Brother! Why curse me on your way out?"
"I'm telling you to be careful, you punk. He's always been paranoid, and with what happened to me, he won't trust anyone anymore."
"Sigh, I've got it handled. So just go."
"Got it. Push."
"Yes, Big Brother. Farewell!"
"Wha— Urk!"
Splash!
I was about to say "Yeah" when the damn bastard just shoved me. I plummeted fast into the dark, deep sea. With dozens of kilos of metal weights chained to me, it was inevitable.
Haha, so this is how I die. My breath's getting shorter. Whatever, I'm dying anyway. No point holding it in.
Glug glug glug.
I relaxed and opened my mouth, and seawater flooded straight into my lungs and gut. An instant wave of terror and agony hit me, but once I gave up and endured, it started easing. In a word, I was dying.
My consciousness faded. Then, at some point, I felt myself rising from the dark, murky depths toward the sky. Guess I'd died and my soul was ascending.
A memory surfaced even now. They say when you die, the loved ones who went before you come to greet you. I'd always loved that story.
And sure enough? As I ascended, I was drawn toward a bright light, and far off, I saw someone beckoning me.
No way! My beloved little sister Hye-jeong. Looking exactly the same as ever, waving her hand and calling out to me.
'Hye-jeong! It's your big brother! Haha, yeah, big bro's here... Huh? What? Go away?'
Go away? What the hell? After decades apart, finally reuniting in death, and she tells me to leave?
'What? Go now? Please go? Why'd you come so soon?'
I couldn't make sense of it. From afar, it looked like joyful waving, but up close, she was shooing me away.
'No, Hye-jeong. What do you... What? It's not time for you to be here yet? Hey, wait! Nooooo!'
Hye-jeong smacked my back and shoved me hard, and I started plummeting somewhere again. What the hell is going on? Where does she want me to go?
"Hye... Hye-jeong! Hey! Hey! Where are you telling me to go?"
Huh?
What now? I must've blacked out for a second, but why was my inner voice—screaming in my mind after death—coming out loud and clear?
Come to think of it, my senses felt different. Just moments ago, Hye-jeong had smashed my back and I'd fallen, consciousness cutting out. But now, it felt no different from when I was alive.
I tried to open my tightly shut eyes, but hesitated badly. What if hell was waiting right in front of me? That fear held me back.
Honestly, I'd lived a life with no excuses even if I ended up in hell. Sure, as a house servant to the Jo family, I'd done bad things on orders and without choice, but I'd committed plenty of sins.
And as I hesitated like that...
"What the? This punk's coming to?"
A man's voice rang out, making my heart sink. What punk? Did I really end up in hell? Logically, angels in heaven wouldn't start cursing.
Damn it, hell... Hell.
As despair over landing in hell sank in, the man's voice came again, and someone shook me.
"Hey! Kang Hyeok! You awake? Looks like you're coming around!"
Huh?
Something's off. No demon in hell would call my name like that, right? And this voice... it felt familiar. Like one I heard often long ago.
"Gasp!"
Gathering courage, I cracked my eyes open. The sight that met them was beyond anything I'd expected. A tacky thirty-something guy straight out of the '80s and a high schooler with a buzz cut? But what hit me with shock and horror was the buzz-cut kid's outfit.
"Ph-physical... education uniform?"
PE uniform. PE uniform... Haha, what kind of hell is this? A PE uniform, of all things.
As I sat there dumbfounded, eyes wide like cow dung...
"What? Has this bastard lost his mind? You really okay? Head alright?"
The thirty-something tacky guy's words made my temper flare. I'm in my sixties, and he calls me a bastard? Hell or not, I snapped.
"What? Bastard? Hey! I'm old enough to be your dad, you punk—watch your mouth!"
"Th-this guy's gone nuts? Got hit in the head and lost it?"
"Kang Hyeok! What are you saying to the teacher!"
"Huh?"
Teacher? The buzz-cut kid's words jogged my memory about why the thirty-something looked familiar. That tacky thirty-something. Oh my god, it was my homeroom teacher from second year high school.
"N-no way? Teacher Jeon Sang-geun?"
Crack!
A fist slammed into my head out of nowhere.
"Ow!"
"Yeah, you bastard! I'm your homeroom teacher, Jeon Sang-geun. You crazy punk, where do you get off..."
Then a woman's voice came from behind the partition.
"Teacher Jeon! The poor kid's already hurt his head—don't hit him again!"
"Argh, but he's talking nonsense!"
"His head injury might've messed up his mind!"
"Sorry, Teacher Go."
"..."
I couldn't comprehend this situation at all. A tacky woman in her thirties emerged from behind the partition, the kind you see in old hospitals. I remembered. Go Suk-jeong, right? The school nurse at my high school. One of the few female teachers at our all-boys school. I even heard she'd married Teacher Jeon Sang-geun after I graduated.
What the hell is this? Is this really hell? Why are people from my high school days right in front of me?
Stunned, I looked around. I knew this place. No way. This was definitely the nurse's office at my old high school.
And the buzz-cut kid in the PE uniform...
"You're... Dae-cheol? Shin Dae-cheol?"
"Kang Hyeok, you really..."
The kid staring at me with a blank face was Dae-cheol for sure. Shin Dae-cheol, the one friend I'd opened up to almost completely back in high school—precious to me. We'd hung out often until college, but after I graduated and fully committed to the house servant life, contact broke off.
Not that it broke off—I'd cut all personal ties myself. House servants can't have friends.
Still, years later, curiosity struck and I'd looked him up once. What I learned depressed me for a while. Dae-cheol's family was well-off with his dad's business, but they couldn't weather the IMF crisis. The whole house crumbled, and Dae-cheol went down with his dad's company—life hadn't gone well for him.
And now that Dae-cheol was right in front of me. Buzz cut, PE uniform and all.
Calming my bewildered mind, I pieced together the situation. What the hell happened?
No matter how I thought about it, this wasn't hell. No way. Dae-cheol, who was always so kind, and Teacher Jeon Sang-geun, one of the few I secretly respected—they wouldn't be in hell.
Besides, this sensation... I was definitely breathing, alive. Especially judging by the pain when the teacher whacked my head.
So there's only one conclusion. I'm alive. Back in my high school days, no less. Haha! This is insane.