"A prior appointment?"
Young Chaos asked back. Why are you asking Sung Hyunjae while looking at me? Even Sung Hyunjae turned to look at me. Why me?
"Please stay ri—"
"Yes! You did make a promise with me! I'd forgotten, but you did!"
I hurriedly shouted to stop Sung Hyunjae from speaking. No, seriously, how long are you planning to milk that for! That was ages ago! By now there wouldn't be anything left but plain water!
"So it really was you, First."
"No, I just told him not to die once. Normally. In a normal way."
"To be exact, at a cocktail bar overlooking the hotel's rooftop swimming pool—"
"While having a cocktail! We said something like, things are really unsettling and chaotic these days, but let's keep doing well and staying safe all the same."
This is embarrassing, so please stop. The me from before the regression went, What the hell are you even saying, and lightly kicked my shin. Since I was right next to him, it was twice as embarrassing. Back then, well, I was troubled in a lot of ways, so.
"Anyway, are you saying you're refusing because First told you not to die?"
"Yes. And there's someone else I'd rather leave the end to."
He probably meant Chief Secretary Song. Those golden eyes curved slightly.
"You're not at an age where you'd just blindly follow some strange adult you've only just met."
"Leaving all that aside, what are you really thinking?"
Without realizing it, I swallowed dryly. Before the regression, Sung Hyunjae had wanted to erase himself. Then now, what about now? Sung Hyunjae slowly opened his mouth.
"I was probably bored for a very long time."
"And these days life feels worth living?"
"You already know, don't you. Elder."
Young Chaos's brow furrowed sharply. What were those two talking about?
"First, why did you pick up someone like this?"
"Huh?"
I don't remember picking him up. He's not a child, he's a fully grown adult, so why would I pick him up? I should've reported him to the police station.
"He's acting as if he's fine, but he must have gone mad a very long time ago."
"…He's still not exactly fine even now."
Thinking back on everything that had happened, he was very, very far from fine. These days he had become fairly restrained, but in the beginning he hadn't even treated people like people.
"Still, he's gotten better these days. He speaks nicely to you too, Elder. And anyway, when you live long enough, it's normal to go a little off at the edges."
How many people in this world have perfectly healthy minds? Most people are bound to have one or two big or small wounds. As long as they don't go around swinging knives at other people just because they're hurting, then, well, it's fine. As long as people come into contact with other people, it's impossible not to get hurt.
Though Sung Hyunjae did swing chains at me.
Young Chaos groaned and narrowed the space between his brows.
"There's no answer if I just leave this brat alone. Or perhaps rather this one should…"
Chaos muttered something quietly, then placed a hand on his knee. And then—
Thoom!
A heavy sound rang out. The burst of air brushed past my cheek, and the table Young Chaos had been sitting on literally shattered into pieces. My eyes couldn't follow what had happened.
All I could do was stare at the result a beat too late.
"If you pull out a weapon, I'll have to take an arm or a leg."
Chaos said it while standing on the backrest of a chair. He should have weight to him, so how is he balancing on a chair without even tipping it? And Sung Hyunjae—
"Unfortunately, since I'm in the middle of a dungeon raid, I'll be preserving myself."
He had been pushed quite a distance back, crouched slightly low. His right sleeve was in tatters. As if his wrist had gone numb, he was even lightly massaging it with his left hand.
Even from that alone, it was obvious that, though they were both S-rank, the gap in skill was clear. Young Chaos had risen from the lower ranks to become the strongest transcendent, so it was only natural, but even so, the sight of Sung Hyunjae like that felt surprising.
"If you break the walls or the floor of the building, you fail. I'll overlook the furniture."
What? Is that even possible? Fight without breaking anything?
"No, Elder! Before that, why are you suddenly beating someone up!"
I shouted, but Young Chaos didn't so much as pretend to hear me. The boy's toes lightly tapped the end of the chair's backrest.
And he disappeared from right in front of my eyes. Almost at the same time, another loud crash rang out. Rattle, clatter—tables and chairs rolled about as though swept up in a gust of wind. Damn it, I can't even properly see what's going on!
"Hyung, didn't you say we were making the lobster sashimi?"
"No, I'm going to steam it. Yoohyun-ah! I'm putting the Teacher skill on you for a bit!"
I hurriedly used the Teacher skill on Yoohyun. I could see the lobster twitching its legs. A large hand grabbed the lobster and turned it this way and that. Lift your head a little, would you? Aren't you interested? At last, Yoohyun shifted his gaze. Toward the me from before the regression, who had picked up the steamer. The me from before the regression met Yoohyun's eyes and gave him a slightly awkward smile. Holding up the lobster, Yoohyun asked,
"Do you have to kill it before steaming it?"
"Shouldn't we at least knock it out? It'll thrash around. Do we flip it over like a crab?"
Yoohyun and I both looked at me. No, I don't really know either.
"If we search it up—well, the internet won't work, right."
"It's better to flip it. It depends on the heat, but around ten, ngh."
Sung Hyunjae cut in. Looks like he really is feeling alive.
"Yoohyun-ah, look over there for a second. What if something happens to Sung Hyunjae at this rate?"
My younger brother made a face that said, What does that have to do with me? Right, I guess he wouldn't care whether he lived or died. I felt just a tiny bit sorry for getting angry at Sung Hyunjae before the regression. But my little brother is still young, and Sung Hyunjae is an adult.
"Still, it's worth watching, isn't it? Seeing it might help."
"Dinner's more urgent, Hyung. We were going to learn anyway, and rather than going in with preconceived notions, it's better to experience it firsthand. Where should we grill the meat? There's a griddle here."
A large cooking griddle was brought out. Since this was a restaurant, the cooking equipment sure was good. Yoohyun set the griddle neatly into an empty spot that fit it exactly. Then he placed the lobster on top of it.
"I think we could grill it too."
"That aside, Yoohyun-ah. Just look up once. I'm really, really curious."
At last my younger brother turned his gaze outside the kitchen. There were already no intact tables left. Naturally, all the chairs were rolling around on the floor too. Vases and decorations lay broken here and there.
Young Chaos stuck close to the retreating Sung Hyunjae. A small foot lightly stepped on Sung Hyunjae's slightly bent knee, climbed up, and threw a punch. Sung Hyunjae swiftly raised an arm and blocked it.
Kwaaang!
Even though it was just one human body colliding with another, it sounded like some kind of explosion. Sung Hyunjae's feet slid backward. As though he were trying not to damage the floor, he didn't brace himself and resist with force, and he was pushed all the way to the wall before suddenly twisting his body and planting a palm against it.
Tak, a small sound rang out, but he absorbed the shock perfectly with his own body, so not even a tiny crack appeared in the wall. Only the picture frame hanging above it swayed slightly. But that meant the impact on Sung Hyunjae himself would be even greater. The damage must be steadily piling up in his body.
To begin with, when they were crashing into each other that hard, not wrecking their surroundings would normally be impossible!
Is this some kind of test to see how perfectly he can control his own strength? …He's not going to do that to Yoohyun too, is he?
Tap.
With a light footstep, Young Chaos attacked again without leaving even the slightest opening. In ordinary martial arts, physique mattered. There's a reason matches are divided by weight class. Even among Awakened people, though it mattered less than with non-Awakened people, weight class still couldn't be ignored.
But even with a frame not even half of Sung Hyunjae's, Chaos wasn't pushed back in the slightest. Rather, taking advantage of his smaller body, he cleverly slipped inside his opponent's reach and drove in ultra-close-range strikes that were hard to defend against.
'And with the restriction of not breaking the walls and floor, that would favor him even more.'
Because he was relatively lighter. Whiik—Chaos's fingers, sharpened like a beast's claws, grazed Sung Hyunjae's cheek by a hair's breadth. Pale hair scattered roughly. Young Chaos let the hand that had missed drop straight down, placed it on the edge of Sung Hyunjae's shoulder, and spun his body midair. It was a movement that ignored inertia and gravity so completely it was hard to believe it was possible.
Spinning around just like that, he moved behind Sung Hyunjae and lashed out with a long, extended leg, striking his back hard. In that brief moment, there was no way to defend his back. But Sung Hyunjae quickly rolled forward to minimize the impact.
Kwa-jijik, a chair that had gotten caught in it for no reason shattered instead. Sung Hyunjae spun once and landed on the floor, only to be met with another relentless attack. A heel that had been chopping down with terrifying force and speed missed its target, then stopped dead just a few centimeters above the floor. As if someone had pressed a pause button. Crazy, no matter how many times I see it, it makes me doubt my eyes. That's a human body, so how can it do that? And right now Chaos is only S-rank. Where did the laws of inertia go?
I stared in a daze without realizing it, then came to myself and snatched up the lobster.
"Stop it already! The kids are coming soon, and look at the two oldest people here!"
I hurled the lobster at them with all my might. Young Chaos casually caught it with a snap of his hand. He didn't even look this way.
"If you don't stop, then this time I'm jumping in! Yoohyun-ah, throw me!"
"Hyung..."
"Just throw that."
"No, Hyung."
"You tell me not to throw food, and yet."
The me from before the regression grumbled and opened the rice cooker lid. The smell of freshly cooked rice drifted past the kitchen and into the dining room. Chaos, who had been about to smack Sung Hyunjae over the head with the lobster, stopped moving. Maybe it smelled especially good because we bought the most expensive rice.
"Elder! You need to eat dinner too! And that's delicious! It's too good to waste on hitting people with!"
"Right. Steam this."
Young Chaos tossed the lobster to Sung Hyunjae. Then he righted one of the overturned chairs and sat upright on it. He looked calm, as though nothing had happened. Still holding the lobster, Sung Hyunjae shrugged.
"Did I pass?"
"It's hard to say. I think I'll have to beat on you for a few more days to know."
People aren't iron, you know. Can I really leave my kid with that man? I raised him carefully, okay. Just then, Song Taewon entered the dining room. As though it were nothing out of the ordinary, he cast a detached glance over the wrecked room, then froze solid with his gaze fixed on Sung Hyunjae.
"…The corner of your mouth."
"I got hit once."
The corner of Sung Hyunjae's mouth was slightly split, with blood smeared there as well. Touching his face was too much. It would all heal cleanly with a potion, but still. Chief Secretary Song stared at Sung Hyunjae's face as if rather shocked.
"You've laid hands on him too, Mr. Song Taewon, so acting surprised now is a little late."
"He let himself get hit even though he could have avoided it."
What kind of huge mistake did he make to let himself get hit on purpose? Honestly, if it were Chief Secretary Song, I think he'd be justified in hitting Sung Hyunjae three or four more times. I waved the lobster in my hand at Sung Hyunjae.
"I'm going to steam one, so should I make the other one into sashimi?"
"…Either way is fine."
Chief Secretary Song quietly began cleaning up the dining room. He stood up the tables and chairs that were still intact and gathered the broken ones to one side. Had he calmed down a little? When your thoughts are in turmoil, moving your body really does help.
Sung Hyunjae also came into the kitchen holding the lobster. In the middle of that, noisy chatter came from the lobby side. When I checked the time, sunset was in four minutes and fifteen seconds.
"Ahjussi, look at this! We robbed a jewelry store!"
…What?
"We brought back tons of sparkly stuff! Look at this, it's a gold bar~"
"It wasn't something I wanted to do..."
Noah, draped all over his neck and arms with dangling jewelry, wore an apologetic expression as if sorry he hadn't been able to stop them, then flinched when he saw me and me. So the kids hadn't told Mr. Noah yet.
"I was inside the dungeon too. So, well, I brought him along for now."
"Ah… I see."
"But what's this, Ahjussi? Did you guys have a round? Must've been fun."
Yerim asked, looking at the broken objects.
"Uh, well. Elder and Mr. Sung Hyunjae had a little sparring match or something. Elder is that person over there, so…"
"They said he was your and Han Yoohyun's ancestor, Ahjussi."
"…Huh?"
"That's right, they said he was your grandfather!"
Was Elder annoyed, so he just tossed out a rough explanation without caring?
"Our ancestor didn't have red eyes, though."
"They said that happened after coming out of the dungeon."
"No, no. He's a transcendent. Like the Mermaid Queen or Volleyball. He only came by to help for a little while."
"But he looks like you and Han Yoohyun. He looks a lot like Han Yoohyun, but he also feels like you too. Especially that part that's like you, Ahjussi."
What exactly does that even mean, that he's like me?
"They're the ones who look like him."
"Anyway, a grandfather is still a grandfather."
"Grandpa! I miss Grandpa."
Yoon Yoon said that with a slightly gloomy expression. Come to think of it, Yoon Yoon must have had a guardian. Hadn't contact suddenly been cut off? They must be worrying a lot.
"I don't know if we'll be able to take all that out, but let's put it away for now and eat first."
We had to grill meat, after all. As soon as the griddle was heated, the kids came swarming in. The spacious kitchen quickly grew crowded and bustling.
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