Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
39. Tossed coin (4)
[Min Geurin] (link)
[Min Geurin] This is a web application made by Daeseok, but after grandpa Song said he would show it to his dongsaeng from Association, it became impossible to access…
‘Impossible to access’?
As I checked the link sent by Min Geurin, the Association’s logo popped up with the notice ‘page with limited access’.
This was a message which popped out when the Association’s side blocked the access to a specific webpage.
‘It means that it included information that was worthy for information to come out and restrict it…’
As it wasn’t information which came out in the game, I couldn’t guess anything.
[Min Geurin] Granpa Song received a call from Association and went there, but there are no news yet.
[Min Geurin] I can’t even contact Daeseok parents-nim, who went to pick up Daeseok.
[Min Geurin] And then suddenly there was a warning about otherworlds in the place where you have been, and even though the day is already bright, Daeseok didn’t check the messages…!
Looking at the conversation, Min Geurin didn’t get a wink of sleep after the video call with Kwon Lena was cut off.
I was bothered by the application thing, but I decided to calm down Min Geurin first.
‘It’s difficult to speak about the state of current Song Daeseok, but she will be uneasy if we hide it.’
I should convey the necessary facts without lying, and reassure Min Geurin.
With such thought, I wrote a message.
[Me] I heard that he and Kim Yuri need much more medical examination. They will be a bit later than us.
[Min Geurin] Yuri too?
[Min Geurin] Uh, Yuri also didn’t reply, right… I thought it was because she was busy as a class president. Are the two of them very hurt?
[Me] I don’t know that. Where are you now? At home?
[Min Geurin] Yep, I’m with master-nim.
Lucky.
If it’s Hong Gyeongbok, he will comfort Min Geurin and make sure she doesn’t overexert herself.
The reason why she didn’t run to the Seongmo Island to the hospital and was quietly writing messages at home must be thanks to Hong Gyeongbok stopping her.
“Hey.”
“What happened?”
“Min Geurin contacted me. When will she be able to visit Song Daeseok?”
“Min Geurin? Ah, she is worried as Song Daeseok ended up in such state, eh? However, she can’t meet with him today. Even close family members are refused a visit right now.”
“Why? Is his state so bad?”
“It’s because he didn’t regain his consciousness, but there is one bigger reason. Because the Nok tribe’s head requested to collect samples, I decided to sent him in to the hospital at night. As researching on the cases of poisoned humans should be helpful to developing the antidote.”
The Nok tribe’s head.
Are there many leaders, both in the Ho tribe and in the Nok tribe, who would like to personally step forward?
“Yu Sang-hui was decided to come in the morning to heal them. It would be better to visit the patients when they get a bit better, right? Let’s wait until tomorrow afternoon. And then gather class children to go together.”
It would be difficult for a class friend, who wasn’t even a family member, to visit straight away.
Though it couldn’t completely solve Min Geurin’s anxiety, with this much, Hwang Jiho was more than considerate.
[Me] Let’s visit together tomorrow. Hwang Jiho will request it from the hospital.
[Min Geurin] Hwang Jiho?
[Min Geurin] Ah, he is a relative of the Hwang Myeong Foundation’s chairman.
I guess Min Geurin forgot that geezer had such a setting.
At the thought of being able to see Song Daeseok tomorrow, Min Geurin seemed to calm down a bit.
[Me] Then see you tomorrow.
[Min Geurin] See ya.
[Me] Contact me if something happens.
After sending messages, while waiting for the father and son, Jeok-ho and Kim Sinrok, we were absorbed in the dinner preparations.
Baek Ho-gun and Yong Jegeon went to the liquor shop to personally select alcohol, and Hwang Jiho personally made all the dishes.
“That Yong tribe Member is Sinrok oppa’s friend? Moreover, He is Hwangho-nim and Uisin oppa’s vice homeroom teacher? What kind of person is He?”
“Can I take pictures?”
“There are many guests today! Shouldn’t we also help Hwangho-nim?”
“Because I came after a long time, there are many things I wanted to talk with you about. Ah, about the game you played with Mountain Spirit the previous time…”
My role, during the dinner preparations, was to keep Eun-ho’s three descendants siblings away.
— Even if it’s alright for the game dragon, I’m reluctant to burden the stomach of Jeok-ho, who was injured, and you, Jo Uisin, who stayed awake the whole night and consumed a lot of superpower wave, eh?
— Stay in the living room with Eun-ho’s descendants.
Hwang Jiho didn’t directly say it, but he said it in the roundabout way.
It seemed that the children’s destructive cooking skills still didn’t change.
As I held Snare in my arms and talked with Eun-ho’s three descendants siblings and floating in the air Mountian Spirit, the time passed quickly, and the sun was soon setting.
When I started to feel slightly hungry.
Woof!
“Jeokho-nim, Sinrok hyung!”
As I looked in the direction Snare barked, I saw the father and son duo.
Jeok-ho was making a happy-looking face.
Be it in the game or in this world, it was an expression I never saw.
‘Jeok-ho makes such an expression!’
On the other hand, as if the heat didn’t settle yet from his face, Kim Sinrok was half bowing his head and had a tired expression.
“Sinrok, did you have a good talk?”
“….”
Kim Sinrok thoroughly ignored the grinning Yong Jegeon.
Instead, Jeok-ho spoke to Yong Jegeon.
“My son was always at Your care[1]. Ah, my greetings are late.”
“We were together the entire time during the training camp, so greetings are truly late. Sinrok, Jeokho-ssi was so worried about you, that he didn’t even say a word.”
Jeok-ho didn’t decline Yong Jegeon’s words.
It was very easy for the two Jin people, who were so uneasy that they held their breaths while guarding Kim Sinrok, to associate with each other.
As if thinking it was embarrassing that those two Jin people were directly at his side, Kim Sinrok’s face turned red again.
“The dinner is ready. Come.”
Hwang Jiho, who appeared without a trace, wearing an apron, smiled as he said that.
After taking off the apron, Hwang Jiho checked if everyone sat down and took the seat of honor.
“This one made it personally. Have as much as you’d like.”
The food and drinks served by the automatic maid were all red.
The menu seemed like it was in anticipation and looking forward to the father and son’s reconciliation.
Meat of red snow crab[2] with caviar.
Roe and blackthroat sea perch[3] with red color.
Braised abalone siting in the yuxiang sauce.
Each menu item was paired with a corresponding drink brewed from red yeast rice, cornelian cherry[4] and five-flavor fruit[5].
I and Eun-ho’s descendants, who weren’t old enough to drink, were served ice tea, while other Jin people got alcohol.
‘Now they’re talking, huh?’
Jeok-ho and Kim Sinrok awkwardly exchanged glasses, and each said a word to the other.
Eun-ho’s descendants, who didn’t know the situation, were diligently talking to Jeok-ho and Kim Sinrok who they saw after a long time, and Yong Jegeon who they were meeting for the first time, brightening up the mood.
In that happy atmosphere, the conversations between the father and son increased.
Hwang Jiho, who looked at his scene and tilted his glass, threw a word.
“A lot, eh?”
“What?”
“….”
Without answering to my question, Hwang Jiho looked around.
Baek Ho-gun, Jeok-ho, Kim Sinrok, Yong Jegeon, Eun Saeho, Eun Niho, Eun Jaeho and even Snare sitting in the assistant chair for pre-schoolers attached to the table.
There was a lot of a lot.
‘In the game, Hwang Jiho was probably lonely.’
Unlike usual, Hwang Jiho spoke little.
He instead watched the dinning table, while often tilting his glass.
The joyful time soon ended.
As our meal continued to eating a dessert, while conversing, the midnight drew closer.
Around the time when Eun-ho’s descendants rubbed their eyes as if they were gradually starting to become sleepy, Yong Jegeon stood up.
“I ate well. And saw many good things. It’s a pity I couldn’t board the cruiser with our class children, but if I think I got this in exchange, I’m fine.”
I guess Yong Jegeon still didn’t let go of the fact that he couldn’t board the cruiser.
Kim Sinrok frowned as he looked at Yong Jegeon speaking while playing innocent.
“… Go quickly.”
“Yeah, yeah. Sinrok, have a good talk with your father.”
“I said go quickly!”
Yong Jegeon, who teased Kim Sinrok once more, made again his characteristic, ecstatic expression and then turned around.
Looking at that expression, Yong Jegeon seemed to have noticed that too.
Kim Sinrok, who tried not to come here under the excuse of work, wasn’t going back to dormitory, and seemed to think of staying for a night.
“Then I’ll be going back to the dormitory…”
“Uisin oppa… Are You going back to the dormitory?”
“Uisin hyung… Are You not staying?”
I aimed for when Yong Jegeon was leaving and tried to go home, but I ended up being captured by Eun-ho’s descendants.
Snare hastily ran to its room and came back holding something.
I thought it would be a leash, but it was something else.
Woof woof!
“It seems it wants you to watch as it drinks Nok tribe’s elixir, eh?”
At Baek Ho-gun and Snare’s words, my mind was shaken.
‘As I have the training camp baggage, I also have clothes to change, so it should be fine…’
Snare was crouching at my feet and Eun-ho’s descendants were blocking the exit.
It wasn’t long before I decide to stay for the night.
***
General hospitals network, referring to the hospitals established by Hwang Myeong Group, Hwang Myeong Medical Center.
One of the general hospitals in Eungwang District, Hwang Myeong Eungwang Hospital’s highest floor, exclusively used as a Player wing.
Currently, this floor was only occupied by Eungwang School’s teachers and students, who returned from the youth training camp unconscious.
In the middle of the place, which all medical staff left, only two heads of the Jin tribes stood in the hospital corridor.
“Finished everything?”
“Thank you, thank you! To have data directly from the Ho tribe’s head! The best!”
The Nok tribe’s head, who looked like a child, hugged the sample storage container full of refrigerant, and made a happy face.
In his arms were records of vital signs of Hwang-ho as ‘Hwang Jiho’ when he took an experimental version of the Superpower Poison’s antidote.
“If you use it for anything besides developing the antidote, I’ll cut off the deal.”
“Don’t worry about that! For what reason would I use it for something else? Isn’t my current first priority[6] this poison? I won’t do something like this!”
The Nok tribe’s head, who was about to put the sample storage container into the carrier, hesitated and then spoke.
As he looked up at Hwang-ho, who appeared to be in his 60s, he looked like a grandson begging to buy him snacks.
“Hwang-ho, I wanted to also do tests on human subjects… But we don’t have any particular connections to humans, and… it’s a bit difficult to just catch someone….”
“It just so happened that I captured some humans, so after I finish interrogating them, I’ll hand them over to you.”
“Really? Thanks! When you’ll be buying an elixir next time, I’ll give you a discount!”
At Hwang-ho’s words, the Nok tribe’s head jumped around in excitement.
And, at the fact that the training camp instructors, who set up the bomb, had a usable corner, Hwang-ho smiled in satisfaction.
Several hours after, the secretary, with a face as if wearing a mask, guided the Nok tribe’s head outside the hospital.
At the time when the sun started to rise.
The door to the elevator, which didn’t open even once before, opened.
“You came early, eh?”
Through the opened door arrived a person Hwang-ho was waiting for.
“Chairman Hwang Myeongho-nim, hello.”
“Hi.”
The person who arrived together with the secretary was Eungwang School’s famous healer, Healing Frenzy, Yu Sang-hui.
“Student Sang-hui, just like the previous time, this time we’re also in the debt of gratitude for you, eh?”
“Teacher No Yeongmi-nim and juniors were injured in the event planned by the Student Council. It’s naturally my responsibility to pay.”
While Yu Sang-hui spoke humbly, she stood side by side with Hwang-ho and walked down the hospital corridor.
“I’ll for certain repay you for this time, even if you refuse.”
“Repay? I accepted the gift sets You sent through Jiho the previous time, so it’s enough.”
Hwang-ho raised the corner of his lips, and spoke with a good-natured smile.
It was a face like that of chairman, who was considerate of his students.
Hwang-ho threw meaningful words with such a face.
“It seems that you’re having trouble with choosing a career path. It’s probably difficult to refuse because it’s tied to TC.”
“…. You know about that, huh?”
Yu Sang-hui abruptly halted.
Yu Sang-hui’s face was faintly filled with fatigue and embarrassment.
Hwang-ho also stopped at her side and said:
“Tell us anytime when you will need Hwang Myeong Group’s help. Because the person you saved is worth that much.”
***
The place I woke up in, after sleeping soundly without dreams, was different from usual.
Seeing the scenery that was neither gosiwon[6] nor dormitory, I was confused for a few seconds and then snapped back to my senses.
‘Ah…. I wasn’t sleeping in the dormitory, right?’
When I blinked as my eyes were still sleepy.
Woof!
I heard the sound of an angel calling.
As I turned around, I saw Snare struggling.
The identity of the thing holding Snare was…
“Have you slept well?”
Was Baek Ho-gun.
I had no idea why Baek Ho-gun was in the guest room, where I was sleeping, or why he was holding Snare.
Even so, because my Playable Character asked, I replied.
“Yeah.”
“Is your body okay?”
“I slept soundly, so it’s okay.”
Hearing my reply, Baek Ho-gun released Snare on the bed.
Snare hastily ran on the sheets and jumped into my arms.
I don’t know what the hell Baek Ho-gun was doing here, but Snare was moaning in my arms and showing off its charms, so no matter what, it was good.
“This punk was disturbing your sleep, so I caught it.”
“Snare?”
…. Woof!
Snare replied shortly, and kept burrowing into my arms.
Was Snare really trying to disturb my sleep?
Was Snare lonely at night?
Was it because I was still drowsy and had Snare in my arms?
It was difficult to organize my thoughts.
“You heard what Jo Uisin said right now. Don’t disturb Jo Uisin’s sleep in the future.”
Baek Ho-gun left those words, turned around and left.
The atmosphere was as if a storm came and went.
*~*~*
[1] My son was always at Your care — ‘always had a debt of gratitude’.
[2] snow crab — called ‘great crab’ in Korean.
[3] blackthroat sea perch — Doederleinia berycoides, usually called ‘눈볼대 (nun-bol-dae)’, but another popular name was used in raws, ‘금태 (geum-tae)’ which roughly means golden-looking.
[4] cornelian cherry — Cornus Officinalis
[5] five-flavor fruit — Schisandra chinensis
[6] first priority — to preserve the sentence structure it was translated as ‘first priority’, but what the Nok tribe’s head says is that he is most interested in the poison.
[7] gosiwon — extremely small cubic rooms. Jo Uisin lived in one before coming to this world.
Translator’s note: Aaaah… They’re talking… They’re talking… What a blessing for my tired heart.
Did you see a mistake? 🐞
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