Plan B
I turned to Konoe Akina. “I’m going to open the door, so please don’t use your Evil Eye.”
“Understood.”
I unlocked the door to the room where Konoe Akina was being held. She had her eyes open, meaning she could control her power. With her long, glossy black hair that fell in three distinct layers and those crimson eyes caused by her ability, she was strikingly beautiful. Her appearance and elegant bearing made her look exactly like a refined young lady from a prestigious family.
When Konoe Akina saw me, she stared at my face with visible surprise. As expected, the truly handsome and beautiful always recognize their own kind. For a moment, we simply looked at each other.
“Everyone, come out.”
At my words, the boys and girls with supernatural abilities who had been waiting inside cautiously stepped out of the room. They still seemed dazed that they had suddenly been purchased by a single person.
“The reason I bought you isn’t to exploit you. Do any of you have somewhere to return to? If you have a home to go back to, raise your hand.”
Only Konoe Akina lifted her hand. Huh? How is she understanding Korean? When I looked at her with a puzzled expression, she smiled brightly and spoke.
“We’ve been locked up here for so long that all we could do was talk. We learned by speaking with each other. These friends picked up a bit of Japanese too.”
Oh, that’s impressive. I had been wondering how we would communicate once I took them to Japan, but if they could manage even a little, things would go much more smoothly.
“I see. So aside from Miss Konoe, none of you have anywhere to go?”
“Our parents abandoned us, so we ended up here. Even if we went back, we’d probably just end up in a place like this again.”
The boy with clairvoyance spoke with a rebellious expression, echoing what the slave trader had told me earlier. The others nodded in agreement.
“Then will you all follow me? I’ll buy you delicious food and get you nice clothes.”
“Why should we trust you?”
This time it was the boy with petrification who asked. I looked each of them in the eye, then used telekinesis to lift a broom from the corner and bring it into my hand.
“Because I’m the same as you.”
Of course, that wasn’t entirely true. These kids had suffered abuse from terrible parents and because of their abnormal powers, while I had chosen to obtain my abilities. But for young boys and girls, creating a sense of kinship was crucial if I wanted them to follow me.
“My parents didn’t abandon me. They raised me well. But people without powers can never truly understand those who have them.”
“I-is that… telekinesis?”
“W-whoa…!”
The kids who had been staring at me sharply immediately showed favorable reactions once I revealed I was an ability user too.
“Let’s get out of here first. Is there anything you want to eat? I’ll buy it right away.”
We couldn’t stay underground forever, so I spoke while opening the side door the slave trader had given me. Since everyone except Alexandra Smirnova and Konoe Akina was Korean, most of them chose chicken.
“But we’ve only been eating terrible slop for so long. If we suddenly eat chicken, won’t we get stomachaches?”
Konoe Akina had a point. The children were all painfully thin, which made it clear the slave trader hadn’t provided proper nutrition. We compromised on chicken porridge for now and decided they could have whatever they wanted for the next meal. We climbed the rickety staircase that looked like it might collapse at any moment and emerged onto a sparsely populated street.
Fortunately, even Kraskino had a porridge restaurant. I let the kids pick whatever they wanted, avoiding overly spicy options like spicy seafood porridge or bulnakjuk.
While everyone was excitedly choosing their meals, only Alexandra Smirnova and Konoe Akina hesitated. Since it was a Korean franchise, they seemed overwhelmed and couldn’t decide. I walked over to them.
“It’s simple. Just pick a main ingredient you like—beef, chicken, tuna, abalone—and go with that. Oh, they also have snow crab and seafood porridge.”
“Then I’ll have the abalone samgyetang porridge.”
“I’ll have the beef… porridge.”
Unlike Konoe Akina, who read the Korean menu smoothly thanks to the English and Japanese translations underneath, Alexandra Smirnova stumbled through her order. Beef porridge. How cute.
I ordered everything the children requested, plus seafood porridge, truffle abalone porridge, and crabmeat porridge for myself. That should be enough to fill them up. If not, we could always grab something from a convenience store later. Since our order was quite large and would take time, I told the owner we’d step out for a bit while the food was being prepared.
“While we wait for the food, let’s go buy you some clothes. People keep staring because of what you’re wearing.”
“Wow~!”
I had noticed a clothing store on the way to the porridge restaurant, so I led the kids there. It was a small shop without trendy or famous brands, but anything was better than the oversized rags they were currently wearing.
“Pick out something you can wear for now. I’ll buy you better clothes once we get to a bigger city.”
The children were completely absorbed in finding clothes that suited them. The store owner initially looked annoyed that dirty kids were rummaging through his merchandise, but when I showed him the thick wad of cash I had exchanged—money I couldn’t even spend entirely with cards or Dark Merchant points—his expression brightened immediately.
“We’re done choosing.”
“All set?”
It didn’t take them long. The store wasn’t very big, and honestly, for the kids right now, food was far more urgent than fashion. After being picky at first, they quickly settled on anything that fit.
“That’ll be 750,000 won.”
“Here you go.”
It felt a bit overpriced, but I paid without complaint. The children had scattered clothes everywhere, and having been locked underground for so long, their hands weren’t exactly clean. Some of the garments would need to be washed anyway.
After leaving the clothing store, we picked up our porridge and headed to the hotel where I was staying. I checked the girls into the room on one side of mine and the boys into the room on the other. Then I set the porridge down in my room and told them to go wash up first. If they took the food to their rooms, they might eat without washing their hands and end up with stomach problems.
The boys finished showering together in just five minutes and returned to my room. They each picked out their porridge and began eating.
“Let’s talk while we eat. Just tell me your names and ages for now.”
At my suggestion, the children introduced themselves between bites. The boy with regeneration was Lee Doo-young, eighteen years old. The one with petrification was Choi Jin-ha, nineteen. The clairvoyant boy was Kim Young-chan, the same age as Choi Jin-ha.
“For now, you’ll be working at my company. I may have bought you, but I have no intention of treating you like slaves. You’ll receive proper salaries, and once your probation period ends, you’ll be paid more than most employees at major Korean corporations.”
Of course, working for a PMC meant high pay. After all, they’d be risking their lives. I deliberately avoided mentioning the PMC and simply called it a “company.”
“Um…”
Kim Young-chan spoke up quietly while looking at me. What is it? Does he have a complaint?
“You’re not going to use me for gambling or anything like that, right? I don’t mind helping with other things, but I can’t assist with gambling.”
From the way he said it, it seemed there was a story behind his complete refusal to cooperate at the gambling den the slave trader had mentioned.
“Of course not. I won’t waste your ability on something so trivial. But may I ask why you hate gambling so much?”
“My parents got addicted to gambling, racked up debt, and sold me. So I swore to myself that I would never get involved with it, no matter what.”
I see. So that’s the reason. In any case, I had no plans to make money through gambling. With the knowledge stored in my head, I was confident I could become one of the richest people in the world. There was no need to bother with something as small as gambling.
“Don’t worry about that. I have no intention of earning money through gambling.”
“But will I actually be useful? My ability isn’t very strong, and I’m not good at much else.”
This time Lee Doo-young, the one with regeneration, asked the question. Having heard the slave trader call his ability “mediocre” over and over, his self-esteem seemed to have taken a serious hit.
“Regeneration isn’t something you can do much with when you’re this skinny. It ultimately requires a lot of energy in your body, so don’t think your current level is the limit. And even a weak regeneration ability is perfect for building a body. You could become someone like me.”
The very mechanism of muscle growth involved protein synthesizing over torn muscle fibers from exercise. A regeneration user could build their body far faster than an ordinary person.
“Oh… I see. But how do you know so much about regeneration?”
“Because I have it too.”
I channeled a bit of the Abyss into my fingernail and lightly sliced my arm. The skin tore open with a wet sound, then slowly knit back together. Thanks to being shot so many times, my regeneration rank had grown tremendously, allowing me to put on this kind of show. The boys who witnessed my regeneration ability let out shouts of amazement.
“Whoa~! That’s amazing! So you have two abilities?”
“Well, yeah.”
Since they each only had one power, they seemed utterly fascinated that I could use both telekinesis and regeneration. I was giving the other two some advice when the girls returned. Having washed up, they looked much fresher.
The porridge was still piping hot, so everyone opened their containers and began eating. Excluding Konoe Akina, whose name I already knew, I asked Alexandra Smirnova and Jeong Darim for their names and ages.
“Alexandra Smirnova. Nineteen years old.”
“My name is Jeong Darim, and I’m also nineteen.”
“Just so you know, I’m twenty.”
Konoe Akina was surprisingly the oldest. And Alexandra looked quite young, yet she was already nineteen? Maybe it was because she hadn’t eaten properly. In my memory, she was supposed to become an incredibly curvaceous Russian beauty. Had the First Group done something to her? I spent a moment pondering how to turn Alexandra Smirnova into that stunning figure.
That was when my phone vibrated.
“Just a moment…”
I took out my phone. When I turned on the screen, I saw that Mimata Chieri had sent me a Line message. What’s going on? I opened the app and read it.
Senboku City was a vital location that, along with Akita City, protected the main headquarters in Daisen City. If it had fallen, the situation was clearly critical. In that case, I needed to lend my strength to resolve this. I couldn’t let Kurotsukidoo take my mithril mine.
Taira Ryuta: I’m heading out now.
I sent the reply and stood up. It was time to return to Japan.
Jeong Darim
Konoe Akina’s appearance will be uploaded in tomorrow’s chapter!