Episode 11
Meanwhile, Han Chasu, left behind in the hospital room, calmly sorted out his thoughts.
‘So someone targeting me has finally appeared.’
The odds had been low, but he had thought it could happen at any time.
Judging by the original Han Chasu’s personality, he had probably caused plenty of trouble even before joining the company.
The problem was that, without the original body’s memories, he had no way of guessing who it might be.
‘Considering how diligently he kept a diary, there might be old journals too.’
“Should I go home and look for them….”
Come to think of it, he remembered seeing boxes piled up in another large room besides the study.
As Han Chasu frowned, trying to recall more, he heard someone clear their throat from somewhere.
“Ahem!”
“…….”
“Um, excuse me.”
“?”
Only then did Han Chasu realize that the lawyer was still in the hospital room.
His presence had been so faint that Han Chasu had forgotten about him.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t hear you call me.”
At Han Chasu’s apology, Attorney Choe Cheolmin spoke up with an awkward expression.
“If it’s all right with you, shall I go in your stead?”
“Pardon? Go where….”
“To, um, your home.”
Was he saying he would go to his house for him?
Han Chasu blinked, then flatly rejected the offer.
“You don’t need to trouble yourself.”
“But just now, you said you needed to go home.”
The lawyer was surprisingly persistent.
He acted as though he were desperately trying to score points with Han Chasu.
“Please leave it to me. I may not look it, but I’m quite quick on my feet. If you just give me your address, I can go and come back in no time!”
Choe Cheolmin said, wiping the sweat from his brow with a handkerchief.
He looked like he wouldn’t last even an hour standing under the blazing sun. Han Chasu silently shook his head.
“It’s fine.”
“Please, don’t be like that—”
No, if I let you into my house, I might die. Just as Han Chasu sighed and was about to call the security team—
Knock, knock.
“Patient, I’ve brought your meal.”
“Ah. Come in.”
The meal arrived with a tray.
With a much more relaxed expression, Han Chasu turned to Choe Cheolmin.
“I’m sorry, but let’s meet next time.”
“Yes, then next time!”
As if he hadn’t been discouraged at all, Choe Cheolmin left the hospital room with a spirited expression.
“I’ll bring your meal over.”
“Thank you.”
However, unlike usual, Han Chasu could not eat the abundant meal with a happy heart.
“…Gu poison.”
If the bastard had put a bug in his medicine, who knew what they might have done to his food?
“Damn it.”
The only good thing about possessing Han Chasu had been the meals. A fierce rage stirred in his usually calm gray eyes.
***
Fortunately, his meals were changed to food provided by the Cheonryeong Guild. Even so, it was impossible for him to recover his lost appetite.
After he had been picking at his food for several days, Baekdam, having heard the news, came to tease him with a grin.
“I’ll become your test subject.”
…
Had this bastard lost his mind?
Han Chasu once again realized that there wasn’t a single normal person among the protagonist’s group.
An S-rank healer volunteering to become his food taster. There was no greater waste of manpower.
“That won’t be necessary.”
It was already extremely burdensome that Baekdam was visiting to treat him.
Of course, it wasn’t something he had asked for. It was because of Baekseon’s stubbornness.
Something about making sure he was perfectly healed no matter what…. Naturally, it had no particular effect.
His wounds had healed long ago, and a body broken from the roots could not be fixed with healing.
In other words, this was merely Baekseon’s lingering attachment that she had failed to discard. And that lingering attachment had produced this bewildering result.
“Why would you do such a thing, Baekdam?”
“Because unlike the sickly Han Chasu, I won’t die no matter what I eat.”
Indeed, as one of the few S-rank healers in the world, he possessed an innate detoxification skill. To be precise, it would be more accurate to call it a purification skill.
Han Chasu shook his head and refused his offer.
“It’s fine.”
“Why? You’re so scared of bugs that you can’t even eat.”
“…….”
“Give it here.”
Baekdam held out his hand, saying it would be better for him to taste it himself than to inspect every bit of food.
“Hurry.”
At his gaze, which seemed to say not to whine, Han Chasu was overcome by a very complicated and subtle feeling.
‘I feel like a child.’
He felt like a child crying because he had seen a bug on his meal tray. In the past, he had been the one scolding such children.
For a moment, he felt a strange sense of dissonance at the reversed roles. Then Han Chasu grabbed the edge of the tray as it was already moving away.
He had nearly had it taken from him for real.
“Give it back.”
“It’s not like I’m doing this because I enjoy it. Seon calls me every day to ask how you’re doing.”
Muttering halfheartedly, Baekdam easily took Han Chasu’s tray away.
Han Chasu reflexively tried to twist his wrist, only to feel his vision blur.
[ Warning! ]
[ A penalty will be imposed for actions that do not match your cover identity! ]
‘Damn this glass body!’
What on earth was the standard for receiving a warning?
‘Am I supposed to just lie down and breathe?’
In the end, Han Chasu barely managed to defend a single dessert.
Of course, Baekdam had no intention of sitting by and letting that happen.
“Hand it over.”
“…….”
“Do you want to see another bug and collapse again?”
“This is a store-bought product, so it’s fine.”
Han Chasu said, showing him the pudding that was firmly sealed.
He had roughly grasped that the person targeting him had a sinister personality.
To put in gu poison instead of just simple poison—anyone could see that they did not intend to let him die peacefully.
But even someone like that probably wouldn’t have gone into a pudding factory and done something there.
Han Chasu’s eyes shone as if daring him to refute it.
“Hmmm.”
Baekdam’s light brown eyes narrowed.
Sarak.
His flaxen hair suddenly spilled down like a waterfall, blocking Han Chasu’s view.
Han Chasu frowned. Baekdam had bent at the waist and come close.
Just as Han Chasu hid the pudding behind him and was about to push Baekdam’s chest away—
Tap.
Baekdam’s fingertips crossed over Han Chasu’s body and touched the window.
And then.
Kiiing—!
Kagagagak!
A golden circular array spread across the window.
Golden rays like bars.
The light fired toward the sky was soon blocked by something and scattered.
“Aaaagh! I’m sorry, I’m sorry!”
To be precise, it had struck a man who had been hiding in a tree and peeping this way.
Han Chasu frowned, clutching the pudding tightly. No wonder he had felt an unpleasant presence.
“Han Chasu, you’re more popular than I expected.”
With a leisurely voice, Baekdam lightly waved his hand.
The golden rays that Han Chasu had thought had shattered and scattered were lingering at his fingertips.
Like a spider playing with its prey, Baekdam flicked his fingers.
Then the man dressed in black began to dance in midair.
“Aaaagh, aaaaagh!”
“…….”
“I was wrong! Please spare me!”
Han Chasu silently placed the pudding in Baekdam’s hand.
“Hm? Why the sudden change of heart?”
“…It’s nothing.”
He couldn’t very well say that in the original work, this bastard had once treated someone while hanging them upside down like that on the day their limbs had been torn off.
***
“He was a reporter.”
“Pardon?”
“Han Chasu, do you want to do an interview? If you’re interested, say so. Otherwise, I think the Cheonryeong Guildmaster is going to kill that person soon.”
Those were the words Baekdam spat out when he returned after briefly leaving the room.
“The guildmaster is here?”
Han Chasu looked at him in surprise. The bag of snacks Baekseon had secretly left behind slipped weakly from his hand.
Baekdam snatched the bag and asked,
“Why? Are you going to ask him to hurry up and kick me out?”
“You’re leaving soon anyway, Baekdam. Why would I bother?”
Everyone in the world knew that S-rank healers were busy. When Han Chasu answered calmly, Baekdam snorted.
His reaction said it was no fun.
“No, but aren’t you worried that the reporter will get beaten half to death? You’re such a sympathetic person, Han Chasu.”
“He won’t do that.”
Han Chasu knew Jeong Iheun. He knew just how gentle and kind of a pushover he had been before his younger brother died.
Besides.
“This isn’t inside a dungeon. How could he kill someone who was caught out in the open?”
Han Chasu shot Baekdam a look as if he were pathetic. As if he would take him for a fool.
At most, all Jeong Iheun could do was pressure the investigation.
“Ah, is that so?”
It seemed he really had meant to tease him. After hearing Han Chasu’s answer, Baekdam instantly lost interest. Crunch. The way he chewed the snack looked utterly halfhearted.
Instead of taking the snack back, Han Chasu asked magnanimously,
“By the way, why did that reporter come looking for me?”
“You said you weren’t interested in interviews, Han Chasu.”
“I was never interested in them to begin with. What I want to know is what that person was trying to do by covering me.”
At his dry murmur, one of Baekdam’s eyebrows rose. He stared at Han Chasu with a probing gaze.
Then he abruptly asked,
“Han Chasu, do you live without looking at the internet?”
“My phone was smashed that day.”
He hadn’t bought a new one anyway, since there was nowhere for calls to come from. He had no family and no friends, so what did it matter?
Han Chasu recalled his contacts list, empty except for people from the company.
His goal was to resign, so if this opportunity let him cut everything off, all the better.
But Baekdam’s expression was subtle. It was the expression of someone who had only now realized the core of the entire problem.
“You really didn’t know anything, did you? I thought you were holding out because you’d made some kind of plan to survive.”
This bastard.
Strength entered Han Chasu’s fist.
But Baekdam was one step faster. He held out the screen to Han Chasu.
[ The Little Hero of Seoraksan, Where Is He? ]
What is this?
Han Chasu’s eyes filled with shock.