Do Seungwoo
May, the month of family.
The weekend of the week that included Parents’ Day.
After having a late lunch, my family headed for the main house of the Divine Sword Do family.
The main house of the Divine Sword Do family was located in Gwanak-gu, about an hour’s drive from our home.
“We’re going to see your grandfather, so don’t make a fuss when we get there and behave yourselves, all right? Especially you, Ye-eun. Don’t try to climb onto the stone lion like you did last year.”
“I won’t do that anymore!”
“That’s right. Good girl.”
My father, who was driving, warned Ye-eun, who was sitting in the back seat.
Ye-eun agreed without complaint, but there was no telling how things would actually turn out.
She had quite the history of causing trouble.
Perhaps that was why he wasn’t reassured. My father spoke to me as well.
“Gyeon-u, keep a close eye on Ye-eun from beside her so she doesn’t cause any trouble. You’re her big brother, so you can do that, right?”
“Yes, I will.”
“I’m not going to cause any trouble….”
“And you, too—try not to cause any problems if you can help it. I’m begging you, please.”
“When have I ever done that?”
“You never have, no. But seeing what you’ve been doing lately makes me a little uneasy.”
“I’m not going to. Don’t worry.”
That was how I answered.
When had I ever caused trouble?
Even after thinking hard, nothing came to mind.
If I had to name one thing, it would be the spar I had with the triplets, but….
‘Can that really be called causing trouble? It was just a proper spar.’
I hadn’t violated any laws, nor had I acted against morality.
I had merely done something within the limits of what I could handle.
Could that really be called an incident?
‘Nope. Nothing.’
After thinking about it for a moment, I reached a conclusion.
I had never caused trouble.
The fact that I had nothing to be ashamed of was proof.
Whatever my father was worried about, it would never happen.
Soon, I turned my gaze away from the rearview mirror and looked at my mother in the passenger seat.
She had her lips tightly sealed.
‘She’s been quiet for a while now.’
Since this was a gathering of the family, my mother had gotten up early that morning and dressed herself up as much as possible so that no one would find fault with her.
But no matter how much makeup she put on, it was impossible not to notice how the kind, friendly look on her face had stiffened.
Even Ye-eun had been subtly watching her since getting into the car.
That was how different my mother was from usual.
“….”
Perhaps because of that, at some point, silence had settled over the car.
My father concentrated on driving, while Ye-eun merely stared out the window.
My mother kept looking straight ahead.
‘It was always like this before.’
This wasn’t the first time.
Whenever we attended a family gathering, we tended to end up like this.
We hated attending family gatherings. They made us uncomfortable and tense.
After all, we had never once seen anything pleasant there.
I had been the same before awakening memories of my past life.
“….”
For no particular reason, I would simply stare blankly out the window with my sword held against my chest.
Then I would silently hope that traffic would be congested or something would go wrong with the car, so that we would arrive at the main house as late as possible.
Sitting in silence like this made me feel as though I had gone back to those days.
The atmosphere in the car was suffocating.
So I broke the awkward silence and spoke.
“Come to think of it, we ate before leaving, but we didn’t have any coffee, did we?”
“Hm? Oh, right. But why are you bringing up coffee?”
“Ye-eun, don’t you want some cake?”
“Cake? Oppa, did you bring cake?”
“Mom, don’t you want some coffee?”
“Hm? What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
Everyone except me widened their eyes like rabbits.
I chuckled at my family, who had been dragged into such a random topic.
“We have to drive for over an hour. If we see a café along the way, how about we stop for some coffee? We can have cake, too.”
“….”
“We all got dressed up nicely for once, so we should get some fresh air somewhere along the way. Don’t you agree? What if we’re late?”
If we were late, then we were late.
Even if we went there now, it was obvious that we would only end up boasting about how we were doing compared to our relatives and badmouthing one another.
It would be better to arrive late.
We just had to make it in time for the banquet.
That was what I suggested to my family.
At first, they merely blinked blankly at what I had said….
“Should we do that, then?”
Starting with my father’s wide grin, Ye-eun and my mother readily agreed as well.
“I’m going to have ice cream, too! I’ll look for a place that looks delicious!”
“We’re having dinner later, so choose only one of the two. Ye-eun, you look for a good place over there, and I’ll search over here.”
The silence that had settled over the car moments earlier vanished as though it had never existed.
Before long, my family was chatting with smiles on their faces.
‘Yes, this is how it should be.’
I was satisfied by the sight.
It was nice seeing Ye-eun and my mother competing to find a café.
“Should I look, too?”
“You just focus on driving.”
“Good luck, everyone.”
Before long, my father joined in as well.
As I cheered the three of them on, I suddenly remembered something and checked my smartphone.
I had received a message from Yeon Haneul.
[Yeon Haneul]: I’m on my way up the mountain now...
[Yeon Haneul]: (Photo)
It was a photograph of a hiking guide sign.
I read the message Yeon Haneul had sent and let out a quiet laugh.
‘I told her I wouldn’t be home today, so she could climb a mountain by herself or train at the Swordsmanship Academy. Looks like she’s actually climbing one.’
I had only said it half-jokingly.
It was cute how Yeon Haneul always complained that she didn’t want to do something, yet ended up following my words in the end.
I sent her a reply.
[Me]: Is that the mountain you mentioned before?
[Yeon Haneul]: Yeah, it’s behind my house, but it’s super high!
[Me]: Even so, it’s just the hill behind your neighborhood.
[Yeon Haneul]: (―“―;)
Her reply came right away.
It seemed she hadn’t started climbing yet.
[Me]: Then you should make it to the summit, right?
[Yeon Haneul]: I told you, it’s really high here!
[Me]: You have to if you want to become a Hunter.
[Yeon Haneul]: .......
[Me]: If you do it, you can do anything. :)
[Yeon Haneul]: Isn’t this a bit much, considering it’s not your problem?
[Me]: Send me a picture from the summit so I know you made it.
[Yeon Haneul]: Hmph! Hmph!
[Yeon Haneul]: ( ￣＾￣)
[Me]: But did you really go alone?
[Yeon Haneul]: I came with the director. When I told her I was going up a mountain, she was incredibly happy.
For several minutes, Yeon Haneul and I continued exchanging messages.
Eventually, she said she was going to start climbing, and our conversation ended.
Around that time, the contest between Ye-eun and my mother came to an end.
My mother had won.
* * *
By the time we finished enjoying ourselves at the café and arrived at the main house, we were an hour late for the agreed-upon time.
Even so, we got out of the car without a care.
“We’ve been waiting for you.”
“How have you been? What about the others?”
“Everyone has arrived except for Do Ujun’s family.”
“So Big Brother hasn’t arrived yet.”
“Then I’ll show you inside.”
The servants of the main house came over to us.
They took the luggage we were carrying, and the manager with the highest rank among them led the way.
“You may use this room. The key card should be on the desk inside.”
“Thank you for showing us the way.”
“It was nothing. We would appreciate it if you attended the banquet on time.”
“Of course. We can’t be late when Father is attending. But could you tell me where the others are right now?”
“If you mean the others, they should all be gathered in the study, chatting.”
“The study on the second floor?”
“Yes, that one.”
“Then we should head there, too. They’re all going to complain that we’re late.”
“Then I shall take my leave. Please call for me anytime if you need anything.”
The manager opened the room that my parents, Ye-eun, and I would be using, then left.
We each went into our respective rooms.
“Just leave the luggage there.”
“Yes, understood. Then we’ll take our leave as well.”
Since we planned to stay only for the night, we didn’t have much luggage to unpack.
I asked the servants to put the luggage in a corner and sent them away.
Just then, my parents entered the room.
“Gyeon-u. We’re going to the study to meet our relatives. What are you two going to do?”
“You can come with us, or you can spend time by yourselves. Just make sure you come to the banquet on time.”
Until the banquet began, we were free to spend our time as we pleased.
We could even stay quietly cooped up in our room without interacting with our relatives.
However, displaying that sort of behavior at a gathering meant to strengthen family ties would likely lead to our being ostracized.
Since Ye-eun and I weren’t adults yet, they would tolerate it to some extent, even if they gossiped about us behind our backs.
Of course, I had no intention of doing that.
“We’ll get bored if we just stay in the room, so we’re going to the training grounds. You’re coming too, right, Ye-eun?”
“Yeah! I want to go, too!”
“Our cousins will probably be at the training grounds, so we can go mingle with them.”
“Is that so? Then do you want to do that?”
The training grounds at the main house had a variety of facilities that we didn’t have at home.
Since I was here at the main house anyway, I planned to make use of them.
It was an opportunity to train my body.
“Then we’ll be going.”
“All right, see you later. Don’t play too rough with the others.”
“I won’t, as long as they don’t bother me.”
“I believe you, son.”
After speaking with my parents, Ye-eun and I headed for the training grounds.
The training grounds were located on the second underground floor.
‘They’re all working hard.’
After going down to the training grounds, I briefly exchanged glances with my cousins.
We had been competing since childhood and were still competing now, so we weren’t close enough to exchange warm greetings.
Besides, today was the day we had to demonstrate our skills to the members of the family, so most of them were focused on training.
“What are you going to do, Oppa?”
“Hmm, let’s see.”
I decided to train as well.
I looked around at the facilities in the training grounds.
“Wow…. What’s that? Was it there before? Oppa, the doll is moving!”
“…It must have been made by the Yeonseong Nam family. I don’t think they’re available for sale, but it looks like the main house has one.”
On one side, an iron doll was moving on its own and sparring with my cousins.
Its joints moved smoothly.
‘So they already had those at this point in time.’
It was a training doll that appeared at the academy Kang Hanbyeol would attend, though its design was slightly different from the one I knew.
It had been manufactured by the Yeonseong Nam family, one of the Ten Great Families alongside the Divine Sword Do family.
Perhaps because they were a prestigious family of comparable standing, they seemed to have lent one to the Divine Sword Do family.
“That looks fun, too!”
On the other side, my cousins were stepping across a floor where lights flashed on and off rapidly.
Judging by the look of it, the difficulty seemed to vary according to the color of the lights.
‘It does look fun.’
There were quite a few other facilities that caught my interest as well.
So it was only natural that I had trouble deciding which training to try first.
That was when it happened.
“You’re late. What were you doing?”
The guy who had been training against targets that randomly shot up from the floor walked toward me.
My cousin, Do Seungwoo.
The bastard who had tormented me all this time.
‘He came to me on his own.’
In fact, from the moment I entered the training grounds, Do Seungwoo was the first person I had looked for.
I had planned to find a suitable opportunity and go speak to him.
But he had come looking for me himself.
He had saved me the trouble.
“How have you been? Hello, Ye-eun.”
“No, I haven’t been well because of you.”
“….”
“How about you? Have you been well?”
In the past, I would have shrunk back.
But I didn’t want to do that anymore.
* * *
Since Do Seungwoo and I were the same age, we had often been compared with each other from childhood, with the members of the family constantly judging who was more capable.
Because of that, there was no way for Do Seungwoo and me to become close, even if we had wanted to.
‘Whenever we were together, all we did was get compared. How could we become friends? It would be stranger if we did.’
Even so, we could have maintained a reasonably appropriate relationship without hurting each other’s feelings.
But contrary to my wishes, Do Seungwoo regarded me as an enemy he had to defeat. He hated and despised me.
When we were children, he would openly try to humiliate me whenever he got the chance.
Whenever that happened, I couldn’t properly respond to Do Seung-u’s provocations and would only cry like an idiot.
As it continued to happen again and again….
―He does nothing but cry all the time. Doesn’t he ever think of fighting back out of frustration? I know I would.
―That guy is the lion’s son? I can’t understand how someone like that ever came from our family. What will the other families think of us later? They’ll make a complete laughingstock of our family.
―He was born from the womb of a commoner whose only possession was her face, so of course he looks that pathetic.
―There’s no greater disgrace to the family.
―And to think he inherited the lion’s blood….
Before I knew it, I had become an object of ridicule among the people of my family.
Meanwhile, Do Seung-u steadily raised his own standing by tormenting me.
‘He could have stopped once he’d gotten that far….’
Just like that, he came to be regarded as one of the promising young talents the family had high hopes for.
And yet, as if something still displeased him, he did not stop tormenting me.
He hated me terribly.
‘Seriously, what did I ever do wrong?’
I couldn’t make sense of it.
I felt wronged and furious.
But before I realized my past life, I hadn’t even dared to stand up to him. I had merely wallowed in self-deprecation.
Like a complete idiot.
‘What a damn fool.’
I cursed myself inwardly.
Perhaps that was why he continued to torment me even after he no longer had any reason to look down on me and harass me.
So if I simply continued to let myself fall victim to his schemes….
‘It’ll continue even in the Academy City.’
According to the game’s storyline, five years from now, Do Seung-u and I would enter the same academy where Kang Hanbyeol was enrolled.
There, I would be manipulated by him and suffer all manner of humiliation unbecoming of someone from a prestigious family.
‘Then I’ll meet Kang Hanbyeol, and Kang Hanbyeol will deal with the bastards who had been tormenting me.’
In the game, Kang Hanbyeol met Do Gyeon-u, who was being bullied by other students, and after defeating them, she went on to fight Do Seung-u’s group, including the triplets.
Then, during the midterms of the first semester of freshman year,
Kang Hanbyeol defeated Do Seung-u, who appeared as the boss, and I was able to recruit Do Gyeon-u as an official companion at that point.
In that sense….
Do Seung-u could be said to have served as the catalyst that brought Kang Hanbyeol and Do Gyeon-u together.
Even so….
‘You expect me to keep taking it like this? Until I meet Kang Hanbyeol? For the next five years?’
Absolutely not.
Why should I? Why in the world? Why the hell?
My mind was filled with nothing but question marks.
Unless I intended to follow the story exactly as it was written, I had no intention of doing that whatsoever.
“You couldn’t get along because of me? Did I ever do anything wrong to you?”
“I really missed you.”
“You….”
“You thought I wouldn’t know that you were the one who egged the twins on?”
“….”
He wasn’t simply a child anymore, and since he had attracted the family’s attention, he had to maintain his dignity.
But I had nothing to lose within the family, so I had no need to preserve my dignity.
I said it outright.
For a moment, he was rendered speechless and simply stared at me.
His eyes narrowed.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. The twins? Who do you mean?”
“There are triplets at the Swordsmanship Hall.”
“Oh, there were kids like that. They went to the same school as you, right? Come to think of it, I think I heard something about that.”
“What did you hear?”
“I heard you fought those kids at the Swordsmanship Hall and taught them a lesson. I thought that was unexpected.”
“….”
“I never thought you’d do something like that. I figured you’d just go on living as you were, taking whatever came your way. But I suppose even you get angry when you’re bullied by kids like that? Well, that’s how it should be. It would be a problem if someone from the Divine Sword Do clan got beaten by a bunch of nobodies…. Good job. I would have done the same in your place.”
He snickered.
I could see the hostility in his narrowed eyes.
My eyes were probably the same.
They must have been filled with resentment and hostility toward both myself and him.
“You couldn’t even attack your opponent during sparring. All you did was take hits and dodge. What’s gotten into you? You’ve changed a lot.”
“Yeah. I wonder who I have to thank for that.”
“Now you can finally fight me properly. Make some time and let’s have a sparring match. I won’t go easy on you then—I’ll fight you seriously.”
The words I had been waiting for had finally come.
I answered with a triumphant smile.
“Oh, really? Then shall we do it right now?”
I Became the Mid-Boss’s Childhood Friend