Episode 109:
Garam Yoon feels joy in watching something burn.
In some ways, she could have easily become a serial arsonist, but her nature was kind and gentle, so she couldn’t have done that. Perhaps, if he had grown up as he was, he would have been able to live a normal life while hiding his tendencies.
But something happened.
‘An incident in which everyone but themselves was burned to death in the forest.’
If Garam Yoon had not felt pleasure from the speech, he would have felt only fear. If she had been cruel and impatient, she would have been an arsonist. But in the end, Garam Yoon became a person who felt joy in the trauma even though he suffered from it.
When her ‘healthy mind’ disappears completely and she smiles brokenly, then when she faces the past. Garam Yoon would be able to show his true abilities.
“Maybe Mr. Garam Yoon won’t get lost.”
Invite fire in the forest, but avoid the flames.
“You’re lucky.”
Luck that never dies.
Well, someone else might die instead.
* * *
Kwon Yeon-hee looked back at President Yoon Garam.
“….”
It was staring at Lee Jae-heon with a smile.
“…Thank you for saying that.”
“It was nothing.”
“I hope we all have the same luck.”
Pale and neat…
It looked like he was going to kill someone.
“….”
It feels like someone is going to die.
* * *
“Mister…!”
A cry was heard, as if the voice had been lowered as much as possible. Jaeheon Lee probably lowered the volume because he was afraid there might be some kind of monster nearby, but Lee Jae-heon approached with a sigh at the sight of his quite happy face.
“Why are you so happy?”
“Did you know how scared we were?”
“I understand. “Come down slowly and I will receive you from below.”
“Who comes first….”
“You come first. You first.” Next, Park Da-hoon.”
I chose a tree that was shorter than other trees and put it up, but since there were many monsters crawling on the ground, I didn’t choose a very low tree.
It would be difficult for the chicks to come down alone, so Jaeheon Lee naturally went down there.
And then my shoulder was grabbed.
“Teacher, what are you doing now?”
“Oh fuck, I’m surprised.”
“You swear very softly.”
“Then should I scream?”
Lee Jae-heon took a step back, clutching his pounding heart.
If he had been in a sane state, he would have known who was approaching, but unfortunately, Lee Jae-heon was now almost on the verge of exhaustion. I could instinctively feel that even if Noh Yeon-seok, rather than Dr. Ha Seong-yoon, had approached behind me, he would not have noticed.
Doctor Ha Seong-yoon’s eyes became narrower, perhaps because he recognized Lee Jae-heon’s appearance.
“Now that I think about it, you are slow to react. “You were quite alert before entering the park.”
“Are you sure you don’t know who you are feeding?”
“You have to do that in moderation, too. As a doctor, you have become so zombie-like that I can’t even touch you.”
“What you’re saying is…”
Despite Lee Jae-heon’s complaints, Ha Seong-yoon remained steadfast.
“I admit that you have a miraculous ability to recover, but didn’t you get burns on your hands? I don’t know what on earth you’re going to do with those hands, feet, and arms. “Do you have the stamina to receive people safely?”
“I don’t know if you know this, but it’s not that people can’t feel pain when it hurts more than it should.”
Lee Jae-heon, who had been speaking without a filter, suddenly became proud and frowned.
“Are you ignoring my performance now?”
“…Performance…”
The doctor muttered briefly before continuing with a soft smile.
“What did you do without stopping Jeong In-ho?”
“…I was just trying to stop him. “If Ha Seong-yoon hadn’t appeared without a trace.”
“You seem so surprised.”
“I was surprised.”
Jeong In-ho smiled sincerely for the first time in a long time.
“Like everything else… your eyeballs have changed.”
“….”
“I guess you had a lot to do overnight.”
At the same time, Jaeheon Lee thought.
‘I doubt it.’
If you look closely, the main character makes that kind of facial expression when he wants to hide his true feelings. Actually, there were many similar situations before Lee Jae-heon remembered his past life, but that smile explained why the fire boiled deep in the old manager’s soul each time.
Aside from that, Jaeheon Lee was a bit shocked by his condition.
“….”
“Why, Manager?”
“No, just.”
Jae-heon Lee realized that the color of one of Dr. Seong-yoon Ha’s eyes had changed only after Assistant Manager In-ho Jeong first mentioned it. Even though he even faced Ha Seong-yoon.
“I feel like my grades are slowly getting worse.”
“…Grades?”
“…It’s okay, someone please put those bastards down quickly. “Where has Noh Yeon-seok gone?”
It was a mistake to use the word ‘grades’.
‘There’s no way they would understand me if I said this here.’
The ‘grades’ he was referring to was a slang term he had mainly used in his past life. It is a word that refers to the value of an individual’s usefulness when judged according to a specific standard, and when this score is low, the person is usually assigned to menial tasks. Things like porters, bait, and meat shields.
Lee Jae-heon looked at the burn marks that turned red and yellow on his hands.
‘It seems like the limit has slowly reached its limit…’
Still, not only was there no way to immediately recover his mental strength, but it was a situation where Lee Jae-heon’s resilience had increased as his ‘healthy mind’ had reached its lowest point. Considering the mobility due to the injury, it was better to avoid the situation even if it was a situation where mental strength could be compensated.
Well, I felt at ease thinking that I was just carrying a curse.
“Can I take it?”
“okay. “Director Kang will help you from above, so you guys go down first.”
“Yes, manager.”
Park Da-young was the first to be lifted up, followed by Park Da-hoon with skillful movements, and finally Kang Min-ah hesitantly and awkwardly stepping on the ground. Judging from the fairly smooth process, it seemed like everyone except Park Da-young could now climb up and down trees without difficulty.
After briefly asking Kang Min-ah and her siblings how they were doing, Lee Jae-heon quickly turned to one side and muttered.
“…Then now….”
To Ha Seong-yoon and Jeong In-ho.
“Let’s organize the situation.”
“….”
“I think everyone should know what happened so that something bad doesn’t happen in the future.”
Jeong In-ho muttered to himself.
“That’s not something a real manager would say…”
“Just get out of here. “I do everything I can, really.”
“Isn’t it a little strange that you are aware of that and are doing it?”
“Are you going to start a fight?”
“They are often called facts.”
In the end, Lee Jae-heon hit Jeong In-ho once on the back, and Lee Jae-heon was scolded by Ha Seong-yoon. The reason was that he hit his hard back with his burned hand.
“All of your fingerprints have already disappeared, but now your skin is about to disappear as well. “Please do it, teacher.”
“…No, the one who got hit was Deputy Jung….”
“So who was hit harder?”
“….”
“Even what Mr. Jeong In-ho said may not be wrong.”
Jaeheon Lee kept his mouth shut. Considering his spirit, which had changed a long time ago, it was Lee Jae-heon himself who suffered the greater blow, and in reality, what the protagonist pointed out was not a big mistake.
So I was confident.
‘Now it’s time to completely sort out the first mess.’
In order for the first piece of cake, ‘Lee Jae-heon is a survivor of the underworld’, to be resolved plausibly, the information that ‘the former old man is a fake’ had to be known in advance.
Now that that step seems to be over, it’s time to get the timing right and sort out the first piece of cake. To some extent, it was already known.
Lee Jae-heon consciously sighed and continued speaking.
“…First of all, Mr. Ha Seong-yoon, where and what did you do to come here with one of your eyes blown out?”
“I already told the students and Kang Min-ah, but I ran away because I thought a monster was chasing me. I couldn’t make a proper decision because I heard a strange sound. “When I came to, I found myself near a small lake.”
“There’s a lot I want to say, but why are your eyes like that?”
“Isn’t there a statue that Jaeheon Lee mentioned before? “A snake was climbing a tree… I touched it and came to my senses, and this is what happened.”
“Huh.”
Look at my shameless face.
‘You have to hit it as hard as you can.’
When did I bring up the topic of statues?
Above all, Yeonhee Kwon and Garam Yoon said that after a while, they stopped hearing the sound of movement. It is said that it was moved so secretly that it would be difficult to say that there was no intention. Looking at him, it seemed like Jeong In-ho was thinking similarly.
However, there were several problems with openly revealing this suspicion.
“…Well, I guess I know that.”
“haha.”
Ha Seong-yoon himself didn’t seem to think that other people would completely believe what he said.
‘It doesn’t matter if you don’t believe it.’
Lee Jae-heon felt that Dr. Ha Seong-yoon had a clear purpose for coming to the secret world, and those eyes seemed to be in the process of heading towards that purpose. Unless I knew what kind of power those pale eyes had and why Ha Seong-yoon got them, I couldn’t touch them hastily.
That’s because Ha Sung-yoon is a character Lee Jae-heon doesn’t know.
‘Besides…’
he continued, stroking his itchy neck.
“I didn’t know there was such a problem with that statue.”
It was said that the statue of a snake climbing a tree clearly symbolizes a small lake without any function. These were the words of the author, not anyone else, and as such, the statue, which should have had no function, changed one of Dr. Ha Seong-yoon’s eyes.
‘Then it’s one of the two.’
Either this world is not entirely the novel I know.
Or the author lied to me.
“Fortunately, there is no pain anywhere. “My eyesight is fine.”
“…I’m so glad that happened.”
They very openly ask for your attention.
Lee Jae-heon’s face fell as he saw Dr. Ha Seong-yoon talking without even trying to hide his true feelings. There was already a lot to think about, but this variable was making things extremely messy. Even if he wasn’t really competent, he’d be discarded in the middle.
Jaeheon Lee unconsciously scratched the side of his eyes with his palm.
‘What’s the problem?’
I couldn’t tell if this was a problem with the novel itself or if the author was lying to me. I feel a sinking feeling inside, but since he hasn’t always told me the truth, I can’t be sure. Rather, it would be more likely that he lied.
If the guess is correct, it will be quite disappointing. To be honest, the novel that I finished reading because I felt like I would cry if I didn’t read it wasn’t even Lee Jae-heon’s taste… I don’t know if it was because of how things turned out, but I couldn’t understand why he was being so mean to me.
Of course, I have also cheated on you. You also deceived me and made fun of me for various reasons.
“….”
Still, I always believe in you…
“Manager.”
“….”
“… Manager?”
“what.”
“….”
“…No.”
Lee Jae-heon wiped the corner of his mouth with the hand that was near his eyes and continued speaking.
“I was just sleepy.”
I was dazed from extreme fatigue.
No, am I just dazed? Or is it a feeling of betrayal? But among the emotions I can feel toward her, there is no such thing as betrayal. You already know that, but yeah. I always believe in you.
Even if you strangle me, I will.
“….”
“…I’m sorry. I’m often tired these days.”
“Manager, the condition seems to be….”
“The condition appears to be bad.”
“….”
“I’m sorry.”
Even though he said things that undermined his own value, which he would never have said in normal times, Lee Jae-heon was not conscious of it. All I could think about was that I had to somehow divert the minds of those who were currently looking at me with anxious eyes.
He blinked a couple of times and spoke again.
“We… with Assistant Manager Jeong. Yes we met other survivors. They are in a group just like us. We briefly exchanged greetings, and the place they are staying is…” “
…a pavilion. There was originally a large pavilion there, and it was probably located almost in a straight line with the small lake. “It’s also quite close to the main gate.”
“That’s right. This was the first time I met Yeon-seok and his group after I broke up with Director Kang. “Thanks to you, our intern survived.”
“yes…?”
Kang Min-ah, who had been quietly listening to the story with an anxious face, looked back at Noh Yeon-seok in surprise. Even though it was a one-sided affection from a younger man, she seemed worried as if she was aware that they were dating, and she hurriedly approached Noh Yeon-seok.
“Are you all hurt? where. Where are you hurt? Ah ah uh. “I’m hungry…”
I guess I finally saw Noh Yeon-seok’s tattered shirt.
“Oh no. “I’m really okay now….”
“There’s so much blood, so what’s okay?”
“…Mina, I’m really fine.”
The protagonist carefully grabbed her shoulder. As Lee Jae-heon was staring at it, he felt eyes on him and slowly raised his head.
The main character was staring at Jaeheon Lee.
“The manager fixed it.”
“….”
“I don’t know how exactly.”
okay.
“…Tsk.”
I thought you would ask that.
Disgusting bastard.
