“Please help me!”
I returned home with Aris, who had just received a message.
The way back wasn’t too long.
We only took a little extra time to avoid the place with the statue.
What I saw when I arrived at Aris’ house was—
“Thank you so much for saving our Aris!”
In the yard, a muscular macho uncle, who looked like he could easily bench press 500 pounds, was laying face down with tears streaming down his face.
The sight of those muscles twitching was nothing short of horror.
What on earth is this middle-aged man doing at his age?
“Father! What in the world are you doing?! So embarrassing!”
Aris, with a flushed face, grabbed her father’s arm.
Father, huh.
Not really surprising.
Yeah, I expected this.
According to the family structure of Aris that follows the light novel clichés, it was pretty much predictable that her father would be a macho bodybuilder.
His sun-tanned skin from working the fields was quite striking.
Honestly, it might have been more refreshing if he broke away from the cliché.
Suddenly.
Aris’ father stands up.
Grab!
He clasped my hand with his impressively muscular arm.
“Kim Deok-Sung, if it’s someone like you, I can trust you completely with my daughter.”
Aris’ father looked at me with desperate eyes.
I can’t just shake this off.
This is awkward.
[Oh ho. Even the world’s partner can’t treat a lady’s parents carelessly, huh?]
The Black Prince in my head comments.
Carelessly treat them?
Even if I look like this, I’m from a place renowned for manners.
I’m not a lunatic who threw etiquette out the window.
I’m just a person who finds this light novel world cringe-worthy.
‘What do you even think of me?’
[A rude tsundere?]
Shut it.
Responding to the Black Prince’s nonsense will only hurt me.
“I’m just a fool who couldn’t even properly solve my daughter getting bullied… Thank you so much for bringing back her smile.”
Aris’ father sobbed while shaking my hand.
Those monstrous muscles were twitching.
It wasn’t a pretty sight to see a muscular middle-aged man crying.
“Father! Stop it! This is so embarrassing…”
From the side, Aris patted her father while speaking in a mixed accent.
“Huhuhu… A-chan! I’m so proud of our A-chan, you’ve grown up so well. Bringing potential sons-in-law home like this…”
Crying in Aris’ arms, her father lacked any shame, like a typical daughter doting dad straight out of a light novel.
Smack.
Aris slapped her father on the back.
“Stop crying! You’re a grown man, this is so embarrassing… Seriously…”
“The guy is so embarrassing… Seriously…”
Aris turned red in the face.
After her urging, Aris’ father finally wiped his tears.
“Ugh… Everyone’s such a mess… I’m sorry, Kim Deok-Sung.”
Aris came up to me and whispered softly in my ear.
“No, it’s fine.”
It was a typical reaction for a visit from a light novel. If it had been any more normal, I might’ve been the one surprised.
“Thank you.”
As Aris nodded her head shyly, her face still flushed, suddenly—
“Ah-Chan! Little one! Come in quick… Aah?!”
A familiar voice rang out from inside.
It was Seira’s voice.
“President?”
Startled by Seira’s cut-off voice, Aris rushed into the house.
I followed her inside.
What we witnessed as we entered was—
“Seira-chan! Let’s play!”
“Seira-neechan is going to play with me!”
There were two kids, a boy and a girl who looked like Aris’ siblings, tugging at Seira’s skirt while glaring at each other.
Come to think of it, Aris lived in a big rural family, including her grandmother, father, mother, younger brother, and sister.
This was a scene hard to find in Korea, where even large families are becoming rare, let alone in Japan.
Seeing three generations gathered around a dining table in a standalone house in the heart of expensive Seoul, acting like the average citizens, was a cliché that seemed like it belonged in a long-gone daily drama.
“Ah-Chan! Please help me…”
Seira, seemingly dazed from the sibling tug-of-war, looked at Aris with a dizzy expression, begging for help.
Seeing Seira’s predicament reminded me of my own experiences being hounded by little nieces and nephews every holiday.
At this moment, I felt sorry for Seira.
“Then you can’t. Both of you stay away from the president.”
Accepting Seira’s plea for help, Aris scolded her siblings.
“Phew… I barely survived… Ah-Chan’s siblings have so much energy… This old lady has been struggling to deal with children lately.”
Finally out of harm’s way, Seira approached me with a sigh and started to vent her frustrations.
“Sister!”
“Big sister!”
Wow.
The siblings squealed as they hugged Aris.
“Yeah. I’m here.”
Aris smiled as she hugged her siblings.
Hearing Aris talk in a relaxed tone, rather than the formal language she usually used, made me feel oddly warm inside.
Just when I was enjoying the heartwarming scene—
“Is that the guy who big sister likes?”
“He doesn’t seem as handsome as I thought?”
The siblings’ gaze turned towards me.
“No, no, liking him? That’s absolutely not true, he’s just a junior at school!”
Aris blurted out in her dialect, flustered, while her siblings looked at her suspiciously.
The tension in the air was palpable when suddenly—
“Dinner’s ready! Everyone come eat!”
The sliding door opened, and Aris’ grandmother called for us.
“Dinner!”
“Let’s go eat, big sister!”
The heavy atmosphere lifted as the mood changed instantly.
Aris’ siblings tugged her along.
No one in the world dislikes food.
Seeing this, Seira smiled and fanned herself.
“Let’s go too, little one.”
Following Seira, we reached a place where all of Aris’ family had gathered.
The whole family gathered.
A feast laid out on the table.
From soybean paste soup to braised meat and potatoes.
It looked like a typical Japanese home-cooked meal straight out of a Japanese anime.
“I didn’t prepare much, but I hope you enjoy it,” Aris’ mother said with a pale expression.
“Thank you for the meal,” I sat down, instinctively saying the dining greeting.
On my left was Aris, and on my right sat Seira.
I had rice and soybean paste soup together.
Pretty delicious.
True to Wakayama’s seafood-rich nature, grilled hairtail was also on the table.
I took a piece of grilled hairtail and popped it into my mouth.
Delicious.
It wasn’t like Korean dishes, but it had that warm home-cooked vibe I really liked.
At that moment, while enjoying the meal…
“Cough, cough!”
Aris’ mother coughed loudly.
Naturally, our gazes shifted that way.
There stood Aris’ mother, a handkerchief in hand, with red blood smeared around her mouth.
“Are you okay?” Seira asked, surprised, while eating beside me.
“No, I’m fine! This happens all the time, so please don’t worry about it, sensei,” Aris’ mother forced a smile.
For some reason, it reminded me of my mother, who was hospitalized, and made me a bit uneasy.
After that, dinner wrapped up without any other incidents, yet my discomfort remained.
*
After the meal.
In the tatami room.
After spending time with Aris’ family, the three of us—Aris, Seira, and I—were gathered in one room.
A heavy silence hung between us.
I knew Aris’ mother was sick, but I never expected her to cough up blood to that extent.
“Aris, is your mother really okay?” Seira broke the silence first, her voice filled with concern.
“She’s fine. She’s much better compared to before. Thank you for worrying, Seira-neesan,” Aris said with a small smile.
Before my possession, Aris’ situation never felt real to me, even while reading the novel.
Now that the story had become reality and I was witnessing her situation firsthand, my heart felt all twisted.
“But if we don’t find a cure…”
Just as Seira trailed off,
A certain setting from the original work popped into my mind.
A way to cure Aris’ mother.
Not just that; I also thought of a way to complete a bi-directional gate, so I could return to my original world and treat my own mother.
I suddenly had a method to catch two rabbits at once.
“There… is a way,” I said, drawing both their attention.
Aris’ silver eyes trembled.
“Are you saying there’s a cure for A-chan’s mother’s incurable illness?” Seira asked, and I nodded.
There was indeed a way.
“The Undertaker, an EX-rank villain affiliated with the League… If we can get the artifact called ‘Immortal Heart’ from him, we could heal Aris’ mother!”
The Undertaker.
A member of the EX-rank villainous group Four Horsemen belonging to the New World League.
Among the four villains representing War, Pestilence, Famine, and Death, he is the necromancer-themed magic villain responsible for Death.
While it sounds like a pro-wrestler name, it literally means undertaker in English.
It’s clear that the author just flipped through an English dictionary to slap together a cool-sounding word.
Anyway, if we used the ‘Immortal Heart,’ an artifact that can heal all wounds and debuffs once a day, we could…
If I use it.
Of course, I can save not only Aris’ mother but also my own.
The circumstances under which the Messiah and the New World League have made me their main target were clearly revealed during the Seoul terror incident.
If I’m going to have to fight anyway, I might as well make the most out of it rather than doing it for free.
If it comes to this, I must definitely open the two-way gate to save my mother.
“Kim Deok-Sung, is that true?”
“Kid, how did you get that information…?”
Aris is shocked by my words, while Seira is surprised in a different way.
Well, it wouldn’t make sense if Seira, who had been planning revenge against the League her whole life, didn’t know the details of the League’s top executive, the Four Horsemen.
She must know, without a doubt.
It seems she is curious about my source of information.
“It was information provided by the Korean National Intelligence Service.”
At times like this, I decided to just use the excuse of the National Intelligence Service.
In fact, it turned out they were much more competent than I thought during the time in France.
There wouldn’t be any grounds for suspicion.
“The National Intelligence Service, I see.”
“Hm. That makes sense if it’s the National Intelligence Service. But kid, the Undertaker is an EX-rank villain and one of the League Master’s most dangerous subordinates. The Undertaker is a monster of a different level than any villain you’ve faced so far.”
Seira and Aris immediately nod in agreement with my words.
Seira speaks to me in a worried tone.
I already know Seira’s concerns.
“I understand. But anyway, I’m in a position where I’m on the main terror target list of the League, the unidentified dark force. Even if I wanted to avoid fighting, I can’t. Since I’m already going to fight, wouldn’t it be better to treat Aris’ mother with the spoils from the battle?”
It’s not the right time to share information about the world yet.
So I only brought up the topic of Aris’ mother.
Aris’ silver eyes tremble at my words.
“So please help me. Eventually, that guy will come after me.”
I’m still not able to face an EX-rank villain alone.
I need Aris and Seira’s help.
They both nod in agreement with what I said.
That’s settled.
*
The Undertaker and the Immortal Heart.
As Kim Deok-Sung mentions their existence, Seira chews on her lips.
“No matter how good the National Intelligence Service is, it can’t be easy to get information on the League’s top executive, the Four Horsemen…”
The League is an extremely secretive dark organization.
Even the National Intelligence Service, known worldwide for its excellent intelligence capabilities, could barely gather detailed information on the Undertaker, a member of the Four Horsemen.
In fact, Seira herself had only obtained her information after over a decade of struggle.
“Kid… what on earth are you hiding…?”
What circumstances are concealed?
Seira swallows her words and fidgets with her fingers.
She also knew through her accumulated insight and experience that Kim Deok-Sung was hiding something.
“You can’t fool my eyes.”
What that something is, she couldn’t grasp.
“If there’s a situation, it would be better for you to tell me…”
Seira bites her lips.
In her view, Kim Deok-Sung appears.
Thump.
Seira’s heart beats softly.
