Episode 7
The skill “Regeneration” was an absurd, cheat-tier skill that even Jeong I-heun, the protagonist of the original work, did not possess.
‘To begin with, I’ve never even heard of a skill like this in the original, so that says it all.’
Among all those high-and-mighty S-ranks, not a single person had the Regeneration skill.
‘Just what kind of guy was Han Chasu, having a skill like this and still acting so pathetic?’
The more he learned, the more of a mystery it became.
And the fact that it was a B-rank skill despite having a description like perfect recovery was strange too.
Still, thanks to it, he had protected Jeong Seoheun and even received a favorable misunderstanding as a bonus. Two birds with one stone.
Han Chasu let out a languid sigh and turned his head.
The two men seemed to have waited until he had sorted out his thoughts.
Looking at Jeong I-heun, Han Chasu spoke in a voice that had sunk a little lower.
“…
It seems I can no longer work at Cheonryeong Guild.”
“Pardon?”
“With a body like this, I doubt I could even commute to work, let alone endure my working hours.”
Han Chasu said, pointing to the leg that had begun to convulse.
Even the fingertips pointing at his leg were blue.
The reaction was fierce.
“Hyung, are you saying you’re going to resign?”
“Mr. Han Chasu. That is a hasty decision.”
He had expected Baek Seon to object. But Jeong I-heun’s reaction was unexpected.
‘What’s with him?’
His face hardened as he stepped close to Han Chasu and spoke.
“What you should be thinking about is not what you can do for us, Mr. Han Chasu, but what we can do for you.”
“Pardon?”
“Cheonryeong Guild—no. Even on a personal level, I intend to do anything I can to repay the debt I owe you.”
No, you don’t need to repay any debt. I just need you to cleanly accept my resignation letter.
His heart suddenly began to pound.
A terrible premonition struck him over the head—that he might not be able to resign.
“Guildmaster, I didn’t act because I wanted something like that.”
Han Chasu was trying hard to persuade him when Jeong I-heun bent at the waist and braced a hand by the bedside.
At a distance close enough to feel his breath, the man’s vermilion eyes held a fervor.
“I saw with my own two eyes how you offered your body for my younger sibling.”
“……”
“If I did not help you after seeing that, then I would truly be no better than a beast.”
When the hell did you see that?
Jeong I-heun slowly looked over the frozen Han Chasu and smiled smoothly.
“So please allow me to repay your kindness.”
“No, Guildmaster. I did it because I wanted to. There’s really no need for you to go that far.”
“No.”
Jeong I-heun firmly shook his head. There was even an incomprehensible heat in his gentle voice.
Han Chasu felt a powerful premonition.
A premonition that things had gone very, very wrong.
“From now on, Mr. Han Chasu, you need not worry about anything.”
“……”
“Cheonryeong Guild will take responsibility for everything concerning you.”
With a dependable expression, Jeong I-heun held something out to him.
Cold sweat trickled down his back.
It was a stack of documents so thick it was a wonder it could be held in one hand.
On the front page he glimpsed, the horrifying words “lifetime contract” were written alongside phrases like housing provided and support funds.
A chill ran down his spine.
***
“Then I’ll come again next time.”
Jeong I-heun’s expression did not look good as he left the hospital room.
“I’ll come again too, hyung!”
Baek Seon shouted that and swiftly bolted.
I Jinryeol, who had been waiting in the corridor, frowned at the unusual sight.
“What, how did it go?”
“…
He was more stubborn than I expected.”
Jeong I-heun shook his head with a sigh and continued.
“Are you saying he refused?”
“Yes.”
“Huh…”
I Jinryeol wore an expression that said, What kind of person is that?
“He refused even after seeing that contract?”
A private foreign luxury car, a driver on standby twenty-four hours a day, and as if that weren’t enough, an offer to fully equip his residence with hospital facilities?
I Jinryeol muttered as if talking to himself, and Jeong I-heun silently nodded.
“What, is that man some angel who fell from heaven? If this keeps up, I’m going to look bad for having suspected him.”
I Jinryeol grumbled as he rubbed the back of his neck. Jeong I-heun felt much the same as he did.
“He really might have sacrificed himself to save Seoheun.”
His low voice was utterly calm.
In truth, Jeong I-heun knew very little about Han Chasu.
The owner of the gaze that clung to him persistently whenever they occasionally crossed paths inside the company.
At times, an annoying man who tried to bump into him while pretending it was a mistake. That was about it.
And yet, he had thrown himself in for his younger sibling and met with such tragedy.
“I think I may have misunderstood Mr. Han Chasu.”
An unnamed emotion was thickly buried in his composed voice. Was it guilt? I Jinryeol looked at Jeong I-heun with pitying eyes.
“It’s not your fault. Don’t let it weigh on you too much.”
“But it is because of Seoheun.”
The final blow that Han Chasu had taken in exchange for saving Jeong Seoheun. Because of it, he had hovered between life and death. Literally, for five days, his life could have ended at any moment.
“Every doctor who went in and out of the operating room was covered in blood.”
A healer had been brought in, and in the end, they had managed to save his life, but Han Chasu’s body had become like shattered glass.
It was because the poison that had spread throughout his entire body could not be detoxified no matter what they tried.
In fact, even up until then, Jeong I-heun had harbored complicated feelings toward Han Chasu. The one who changed his mind was Seoheun.
“Hyung, is that true? That person is going to die soon…!”
Who knew how he found out, but news of Han Chasu’s condition had spread to him in an instant.
‘I told them so many times to be careful.’
Jeong I-heun resolved that once this incident was settled, he would conduct another internal personnel inspection.
But before that, stabilizing his younger sibling came first.
“It happened because of me…”
“Seoheun, calm down. He’s still alive. We’re doing everything we can to treat him.”
“Hyung, I’m sorry. I didn’t want to put you in a difficult position over something like this, but… can’t you please help him?”
From Seoheun’s trembling eyes, he could tell that his younger sibling was still trapped in that day.
The same was true for him.
When he closed his eyes, it still appeared vividly before him.
The image of that pale man collapsing with a small trace of relief only after confirming his younger sibling’s safety to the very end.
“…
All right.”
That was why he had tried to help him as Seoheun requested.
But he could not trust him so easily. He had deliberately gone to see him with excessive compensation. And yet, to think he would refuse so cleanly.
‘That was unexpected.’
Han Chasu had even gone a step further and strongly insisted that he would resign.
Perhaps even that might be a lie. But if so, it was even more interesting.
At that moment, just what had Han Chasu been thinking?
As if scattering his idle thoughts, I Jinryeol muttered.
“He doesn’t want compensation, and he says he’ll resign because he can’t be a burden. Then did he really save Seoheun without any ulterior motive?”
“For now, that’s the only way we can see it. Even the exorcism of the wraith was almost closer to a fluke.”
After Han Chasu saved Seoheun and lost consciousness, the remaining team members cleaned up the scene.
An unexpected rampage, a hidden boss monster they had never seen before.
For the sake of the day it might appear again, gathering information was essential.
“How can coincidence pile on coincidence like that? Seoheun really must have been destined to live.”
I Jinryeol said with a note of admiration as he got into the car.
Among the reagents Han Chasu had taken that day, there had been types that affected spiritual-body monsters.
The team members said the object he had thrown at the wraith was probably an explosive made by combining those reagents.
Jeong I-heun agreed with them on that point.
Because he had seen the wraith crumble like ash with the powerful explosion.
Thinking that far, he once again felt that Han Chasu’s abilities were a waste. In a moment of absolute crisis, anyone who could show such resourcefulness was no ordinary person.
Yes, as expected, it would be a waste to just let him go. In many ways.
Leaning the back of his head against the seat with a thud, Jeong I-heun murmured lowly.
“…
I don’t think this will do.”
“Uh, whenever you say that, something troublesome always happens.”
“I can’t let Mr. Han Chasu leave like this.”
His eyes, gazing into empty air, were now filled with firm resolve.
“As a guildmaster and as Seoheun’s older brother, I cannot treat our benefactor poorly.”
Seeing a rare flame burning in those red eyes, I Jinryeol was dumbfounded.
‘Why are Baek Seon and now Jeong I-heun acting like this?’
First Baek Seon, who had run away because he didn’t want to live with his older brother, had contacted Baek Dam of his own accord.
And now Jeong I-heun was burning with enthusiasm to somehow keep Han Chasu by his side.
‘Is there really something about Han Chasu?’
I Jinryeol’s gaze deepened as he looked at the hospital growing farther away.
***
Meanwhile, Han Chasu was struggling against the extreme stress Jeong I-heun had thrown at him and left behind.
A lifetime contract? A lifetime contraaact?
“Then I’ll come again next time.”
The documents Jeong I-heun had dumped on him along with those damned words were more than enough to make him clutch the back of his neck.
‘That pushover protagonist, who’s he trying to screw over?’
The contract was filled with terms so exceptional they went beyond good and into the realm of fantasy.
Full support for all treatment costs until complete recovery, an apartment in central Seoul, and a commuting vehicle and driver provided.
His working hours had even been reduced to one-tenth, while his annual salary had instead increased tenfold.
It was such an insane contract that it seemed less like a groundbreaking offer and more like someone’s brain had melted.
The problem was that none of it was of any use to Han Chasu.
“Am I supposed to die just to get a salary ten times higher?”
With an icy expression, Han Chasu tossed the documents aside.
“Do they know how much crap I pulled there?”
He had manipulated potions so many times that his mouth would hurt from listing them.
Even just the things written in the diary included damaging equipment, obstructing work, embezzling research materials, and plenty of other very definite acts of misconduct.
‘And it wasn’t just once. He’d been doing it steadily ever since he joined the company…’
Even if he was the benefactor who had saved the guildmaster’s younger sibling, there was no way they could cover it up and let it slide.
If even one thing was discovered, being kicked out of the guild was a given.
And if all the other things were exposed as well, he might not just be hit with a string of lawsuits—he might even be killed.
“I need to resign as soon as possible.”
As Han Chasu steeled his resolve, someone silently opened the door.
“You were awake?”
It was a man with a pure, delicate impression, his flaxen hair tied to one side and hanging long.
The man addressed him without hesitation and came over to sit beside him as if they were friends.
“Is your body feeling a little better? I worked up quite a sweat treating you.”
…
Who the hell is this bastard now?
Han Chasu furrowed his brow.
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