Chapter 180 – The Hero (1)
[Chapter 10 – Section 1] Sorry!
Sword Demon.
The very figure that P fears the most!
Only by dealing with those fuel dregs-like bastards can P’s health recover, and humanity can continue to enjoy the benefits of the aptitude test device.
A very simple solution!
Yet even though they knew this method, the witches simply stood by and watched.
Why?
My senior declared that I had no talent, but the witches were even less suited for combat than someone like me who supposedly had none!
It’s enough to drive anyone insane.
“He’s here!”
“Kang Moon-soo-ssi!”
“Is the rumor true that your missing mother is actually a member of the Holy Roman Empire’s imperial family?”
“Kang Moon-soo-ssi~!”
Click! Click! Click!
The arrival gate at the airport was packed with reporters and onlookers.
Even when I became a triple Olympic gold medalist and rose to celebrity status, I don’t think it was ever this bad.
But I know. This will all fade away and be forgotten in just a few days. I just have to endure until then.
“Hyung~!”
“Oh! It’s Kang-hoon.”
I spotted my junior, Choi Kang-hoon, mixed in among the crowd of onlookers.
This guy keeps getting more handsome day by day.
I really can’t understand why Choi Kang-hoon’s aptitude is ‘Cunning Hero’. His personality is good, and his appearance is perfect for a movie actor or model.
“Kang Moon-soo-ssi~!”
“Kang Moon-soo-ssi~!”
“…..”
Even though I wanted to get closer, it was hard because of all the people pushing.
“Kang-hoon-ah! Let’s meet in the parking lot!”
“Okay!”
With the help of the security guards, I pushed through the crowd and headed down to the parking lot.
Vrrr—
I had set my smartphone to silent since I figured no one would be able to hear it anyway, but it vibrated in my pocket.
(……)
“Sorry! Sun-young-ah! I can’t hear you well! Speak a bit louder, please!”
(…What about Mother?)
“She’s coming separately!”
(Sigh! People were saying weird things about me… No, never mind. I’ll talk to you when we meet. Stay right there and don’t move for just 30 seconds.)
“Huh? Uh, okay.”
Quite a few of the onlookers who had gathered to see me had already thinned out.
They finally realized that just looking at me won’t bring them blessings or money, huh?
A few persistent reporters and cameramen were still tailing me, but thanks to the security guards, they weren’t causing any real trouble.
“Ah…”
Song Sun-young was walking toward me with long strides, holding an iced coffee she bought from a café.
Normally when she comes to meet me, she wears jeans that emphasize her long legs, hot pants, short skirts, and so on—but today she was completely covered up.
Am I disappointed?
No.
The elegant blue one-piece dress she wore today rippled softly like waves around her hips, giving off the atmosphere of a lake fairy or a mermaid princess.
“Wow… pretty.”
Even someone like me who doesn’t care much about clothes could tell she had put a lot of thought into her outfit.
Click!
It would’ve been even better if there weren’t those mood-ruining camera flashes.
“I put in some extra effort because I thought Mother was coming too.”
“Ahh…”
The fact that my girlfriend was paying attention to my family made my chest feel tingly? It was some indescribable, grand emotion.
“So where’s Mother?”
“She doesn’t like drawing attention, so she’s coming quietly on her own.”
On the Empire’s private jet.
She might have already arrived and unpacked by now.
“I see. Let’s go.”
“Okay.”
I carefully took Song Sun-young’s hand as she started walking ahead toward the parking lot.
Squeeze—
Her hand felt so delicate that it seemed like it might break if I gripped too hard, yet it was also incredibly soft.
“After I dropped you off at the airport that time, I felt really strange.”
“Yeah?”
“My boyfriend was going overseas with a beautiful woman, but for some reason I wasn’t getting angry. It was a seriously troubling thought.”
“Th-that so!”
It’s because of the hypnosis!
“Don’t brush it off so easily. It was serious enough that I even wondered if maybe I didn’t actually like Moon-soo.”
“…It really was serious, huh.”
My heart sank when I understood just how much she had been worrying.
“But it turns out it was all in my head. Now that I see you again, I feel good.”
“Ahem!”
It was embarrassing.
“That beauty I was worried about seems to be a distant relative anyway. They don’t look alike at all.”
“Mom doesn’t look anything like me either.”
“Yeah?”
“According to the stories from my maternal side, they say I take after my great-great-grandfather? Wait, no—great-great-grandmother’s father? Anyway, they say I resemble that ancestor a lot.”
I resemble P’s father. Is this what they call atavism?
“You really are imperial royalty, huh.”
“Well…”
Actually, I’m something even greater—a divine clan!
Not that I’m bragging because I think I’m all that.
“That pot-bellied uncle at the convenience store must be seriously impressive. He got to boss around a young imperial prince to his heart’s content.”
“Uh… is that how it sounds?”
I’m genuinely grateful to the convenience store owner.
“So, is he your master or something?”
“Cough! No way!”
“Just kidding.”
“……”
“Hmm~ Still can’t believe it. A pervert who peeks at women’s legs turning out to be imperial royalty.”
“Ahem!”
Sorry for being a pervert.
“It’s going to be a big problem from now on. You heard, right? In the virtual reality game <Molang Fantasy>, there’s a villain running around impersonating you.”
“Uh… y-yeah.”
That villain is actually me.
“Even during your Olympic star days it was like this, but now with imperial royalty added to the mix… I feel like the number of jealous villains is going to skyrocket.”
“The Empire will take care of it somehow.”
I can guarantee that.
Impersonating P’s descendant.
That counts as blasphemy, so the Holy Roman Empire won’t just sit idly by. This incident only got glossed over because the impersonator was the ‘real’ one.
“Then that’s a relief.”
“How have you been?”
“Me? Work has been going ridiculously smoothly… and Mom’s been making money through sports betting, so my parents have gotten along better. Dad’s even acting cute, begging Mom to buy him new medical equipment? He’s changed so much I almost didn’t recognize him as my dad.”
“Whoa.”
Truly a capitalist society.
“What about you?”
“Hm. I had an uneventful reunion with Mom, learned about the maternal family genealogy I never knew, and got the lesson ‘think about the consequences before acting’ carved deep into my bones.”
“Anything else?”
“Hm?”
“You’re royalty now. Did you order some pretty-legged maid to strip or something…?”
“Song Sun-young-ssi? Excuse me, but this isn’t the Middle Ages. Even royalty would go to prison for something like that.”
“They don’t, though?”
“Huh? No way…”
“You were in the Empire and still know less about it than I do? Where in the Empire is there a woman who would report the crown prince? She’d use it as a chance to aim for the position of concubine instead.”
“Ahh!”
“Your reaction tells me you really had no idea.”
“I didn’t know.”
I never imagined that the kind of thing palace maids did in the historical drama <Palace Maid Deok-chun> actually happens in real life.
“Even if you find out, don’t do it.”
“I won’t. I got nagged more than ten times by the adults not to ever do anything that would disgrace their dignity.”
My ancestor is devoting himself to humanity—how disappointed would he be if his descendant acted like an idiot?
Even if it weren’t for P, I don’t want to live like the protagonist of <The Generous Young Lady Who Receives Everything>, that ‘Vienna Susan’ character.
“Hyung~!”
Choi Kang-hoon, who had been waiting in the parking lot again, waved enthusiastically.
“Just looking at appearances, you’d think he’s the royalty over there…”
Song Sun-young muttered something extremely rude to her boyfriend.
“Sorry about that.”
“Don’t get sulky. I’m just saying based on looks. From the beginning, I started dating you without knowing anything anyway. Right?”
“Well… yeah.”
The uncomfortable feeling in my heart settled down peacefully.
“You’re so simple.”
“That’s one of my strengths!”
The imperial princess said that was my charm.
“It’s not something to get all puffed up and arrogant about… but compared to that guy whose thoughts I can’t read at all, you’re way better.”
“Really?”
It’s only natural that no one can read Choi Kang-hoon’s thoughts. He lives without thinking, like a herbivore peacefully grazing in a flower field.
“Hyung~!”
“I can hear you even if you don’t shout.”
“Mooon-soo hyuuung~!”
“Jeez…”
After chatting with Choi Kang-hoon in the limousine he was riding for about five minutes, I headed home.
***
“Young master. Are you disappointed that there wasn’t much gain compared to the time you waited?”
The bodyguard sitting in the passenger seat of the moving limousine asked Choi Kang-hoon.
“Do I look that way?”
“With all due respect, yes.”
“It’s a shame that my noona’s check on our friendship out of jealousy was so intense. But I still achieved my goal.”
“Is that so.”
The bodyguard didn’t understand. It seemed like they hadn’t talked about business at all during those five minutes.
“Hyung probably didn’t think deeply about it, but the important thing is that the first person he met right after returning to the country was the businessman Choi Kang-hoon.”
“Ah!”
“The only people who know that we spent five minutes in a perfectly soundproof limousine having only trivial conversation are us.”
“I see!”
The bodyguard, realizing this after hearing Choi Kang-hoon’s explanation, let out a pure sigh of admiration.
“Given Hyung’s personality, he’s not the type to actively engage in external activities. Even from the Empire on the other side of the globe, they’re pressuring the government not to let him get up to any nonsense. You saw it, right? The virtual reality game impersonation incident.”
“Yes. I remember.”
The Holy Roman Empire mobilized all its resources to defend Kang Moon-soo’s honor.
Even when the crown prince was getting showered with criticism over allegations of sexually assaulting his mistress, the Empire remained indifferent—yet they went all out for a collateral imperial family member.
What a strange hierarchy.
“And Hyung said he’ll be going to treat patients again soon. That means the only person who’s had a proper conversation with him will be me. Excluding his girlfriend who has nothing to do with business, I’m essentially his exclusive channel.”
“That far ahead…”
“It’s the natural flow. Like water flowing from high to low. Anyone with even a bit of talent in business or politics would think of this.”
“……”
Easy to say.
But Kang Moon-soo, who hadn’t even glanced at the numerous celebrities who came all the way to the airport, responded warmly to just one word: “Hyung!”
It was only possible because it was Choi Kang-hoon, who had built a friendship with him since childhood.
To put it coldly, if Kang Moon-soo hadn’t achieved this level of success, that time would have been a complete waste from a business perspective.
“Young master.”
This time, it was the driver who spoke up.
“Yes.”
“Did you know that Kang Moon-soo-ssi was imperial royalty?”
“No way. My aptitude isn’t ‘Prophet.’ How could I have known about a family genealogy that even Moon-soo Hyung himself didn’t know?”
“So it was pure luck.”
“Hm… not exactly.”
“Huh?”
Choi Kang-hoon turned his gaze upward as if recalling the past and said,
“You all probably remember the words I used to say like a habit since I was little.”
“No way…?”
“What?”
“I want to become a man like Hyung.”
“……”
“……”
A chill ran down the spines of the two bodyguards sitting in the driver’s and passenger seats.
“I meant it sincerely. Even when Hyung was working part-time at a convenience store or cleaning the bathroom in a commercial building, to me it looked cool.”
“Huh…”
“Ah…”
“It’s closer to instinct, so it’s hard to explain in words… but it felt like watching a young tiger cub holding back and waiting until it becomes an adult. Something like that.”
The two bodyguards thought to themselves.
Cunning Hero.
That must be why Choi Kang-hoon, who has so much talent, has an aptitude that isn’t businessman or actor.
Even if they played together like childhood friends, it’s not easy for a chaebol second-generation heir to treat a convenience store part-timer like an older brother.
They even moved house together back then…
At the time, they were genuinely shocked.
Ding~♪
“It’s Choi Kang-hoon CEO’s secretary. Yes. Please hold for a moment.”
The bodyguard who took the call turned around to the back seat with a slightly surprised expression.
“Already getting bites, huh?”
The fox riding on the back of the friendly tiger smiled faintly.
“Yes.”
“Tell them it’s difficult to talk right now. Say I have to take care of the request Moon-soo Hyung made at the airport first.”
“Understood.”
He really did make a request. To recommend a nice, atmospheric high-end restaurant.
「Me: Hyung. This place is cheap and good.」
「Idol: Oh! Thanks.」
「Me: Need anything else?」
「Idol: Nah. Let’s grab a meal together later. My treat.」
「Me: I’m always welcome!」
「Idol: ^^b」
「Me: ^^/」
“…Wake me when we arrive.”
“Yes, young master.”
Choi Kang-hoon finished texting, lay back comfortably, and drifted off to sleep with a pleased expression.
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