The Duke's Son :Re-Chapter 198

Chapter 198
“Is it tomorrow?”
“They said there’s no change in the schedule. I called the Association three times today just to be sure.”
“Then, why is it so quiet?”
For the last few days, the South Korean ers had been filled with anxiety.
It had been eight years since the National Treasure candidate exam had last been held in South Korea. Tomorrow marked the end of this dry spell, and the one responsible, the one challenging for the status of National Treasure candidate, was a sixteen-year-old minor with striking features and an even more striking background: he was none other than the Yaksha’s final son, Kang Jae-Hyeok.
Since the announcement of the exam ten days ago, the name “Kang Jae-Hyeok” had swept over Korea like a storm. The level of buzz was to the point that more and more media outlets had ignored the Association’s pressure and begun releasing segments on Jae-Hyeok every day.
However, the ers wanted more. Scouring old news articles and writing speculative pieces was no longer enough. They wanted Jae-Hyeok in the flesh. But the boy’s whereabouts remained a mystery—he was last seen at Guardian’s headquarters, but that was already many days ago.
“Guildmaster Park Chang-Cheon said Kang Jae-Hyeok is inside a gate, but we’ve found no record of him visiting a checkpoint. And... ”
Having checked the public gate records and finding nothing, the ers had thought that Jae-Hyeok was using a private gate. But after hounding the Association for an answer, the response they’d gotten was something no one had expected.
Another er in his mid-twenties shook his head. “
And
the Kang family has no private gates, yeah. It’s disgusting. They took everything except the house—do they even have the right to do that? This is one of the three ducal families we’re talking about. I always figured the government was looking after them.”
Similar conversations were taking place all across South Korea, especially among the younger generations, who’d grown up hearing the Kang family constantly criticized and rebuked in the news. The more facts that came to light, the less black and white the Kang family’s plight seemed. Even if they weren’t favorable toward the Kang family, many people were now questioning the government and the Association’s treatment of them, and this softening stance was thanks in large part to Jae-Hyeok.
Beautiful, talented, and with a tragic past as well as meritous achievements at Lion’s Castle—Kang Jae-Hyeok had the makings of a storybook hero. And as such, the public had singled him out as the tip of the spear for Korea's future glory.
“Be careful with your words. It’s a fact that Kang Dae-Seong and Kang Hyeon-Ah are terrorists. If you’re a real er, just focus on the facts.”
“I just feel sorry for the Yaksha. Even if his children were terrorists, he wasn’t, and yet was punished and stripped of his private gates.”
“Children learn from their parents. Whatever the Yaksha has lost is his karma for wrongly educating them. Besides, the Yaksha was far from perfect himself and earned criticism long before his kids turned traitor. At the eighty-seventh East Asia Gate Talks he—”
“Yeah, yeah—he was blinded by his hunger for fame and clashed with China and Japan. As a result, he weakened Korea’s national power. Right?”
“Good lad. So you did pay attention in school.”
“But isn’t it also true that the eighty-seventh gate became South Korea’s thanks to the Yaksha?”
“And? In return, South Korea lost one of its three National Treasures. Thanks to his recklessness, we became so weak that we could only quietly endure as China and Japan pressured us into giving up one gate after another.”
“So you’re saying it’s the Yaksha’s absence that made South Korea weak? But doesn’t that mean the sovereignty that South Korea enjoyed before was thanks to the Yaksha’s presence and efforts?”
“Kid, you’re twisting my words—”
“Don’t misunderstand me, Editor-in-Chief. This isn’t my opinion. It’s the opinion of the public.” The young er shrugged and scribbled a single word in his notebook: “Sacrifice.”
“People are saying that the Yaksha fell eight years ago while trying to win benefits for the country. Even if he overestimated himself, even if he made the wrong choice, the Yaksha did what he did for the country. That was before his kids had turned traitor. But even then, wasn’t the Association the Kang family's harshest critic? People are starting to question if the President of the Association was inwardly smiling when Kang Dae-Seong attacked him.
“The point is, now that the Kang family has re-entered the spotlight, more and more people are speaking up for them by pointing to the logical gaps in the Association’s motives.”
The young er spoke with certainty, almost as if he were among the “people” he spoke of.
***
Well, now that that’s settled...
After the Thunder Emperor returned to Earth, Jae-Hyeok didn’t take out his Reinhardt Ticket. Instead, under Kyoreh’s confused stare, he turned and hastened to Reinhardt City.
In any case, the only reason he’d agreed to return to Earth with the Thunder Emperor was to conceal the uniqueness of his own Reinhardt Ticket. Now that the Thunder Emperor was gone, he naturally had every reason to stay longer.
“Selling freshly fried Rainbow potatoes!”
“Bring your broken items here! We’ll fix them to be as good as new!”
Unlike Jae-Hyeok’s imagination, Reihardt City was rather ordinary. The city’s aesthetic was a mix of medieval and modern, and all kinds of people populated the streets—there were transcendent farmers, but Jae-Hyeok also saw other fearsome masters as well as people at or below his own level, including many ordinary folk.
Regardless, whether transcendent or ordinary—it seemed people were people at the end of the day; wherever they lived, they developed the environment in similar ways.
That said, there was one striking difference between Earth and Reinhardt. And that was the economy:
“I’m looking for a dishwasher. One silver per hour!”
“Is there anyone willing to join us in a kobold hunt? The reward is two gold, split evenly.”
[Would you like to accept the quest?]
Reinhardt used a foreign currency, and quests popped up constantly wherever Jae-Hyeok went. Even something as simple as getting a job at a tavern or joining a monster hunt counted as a quest.
This place is a complete treasure trove.
No matter whether it was small or big, every quest gave meaningful rewards. The more quests one accepted and cleared, the more profitable it would be. On Earth, players had to enter gates and meet certain criteria to trigger quests, which meant that without a strategy guide, finding a quest was a matter of exploring blindly and hoping for a stroke of luck. But in Reinhardt, things were different. Every simple choice and action was linked to a quest.
Compared to grinding gates on Earth, I think I can grow several times faster here.
That was the conclusion that Jae-Hyeok had come to after exploring the city for two days.
I also want to buy useful materials and items not found on Earth... I should focus on raising my funds first...
Between the natives and visitors like himself, Reinhardt City was full of people. So the cost of living was high. Meanwhile, the hourly wages for odd jobs were barely enough for one meal. He first needed to increase his earnings if he wanted to expand his activities inside the city.
Jae-Hyeok opened the notebook he’d received from the Thunder Emperor to plan his route for his next visit.
However...
The notebook was a mess—Jae-Hyeok could hardly tell what the Thunder Emperor was saying or why. The information was cluttered, difficult to read, and filled with useless observations. Apparently, the Thunder Emperor had never written a diary in his life.
I would’ve been in trouble if I had only had this notebook.
Still, it contained traces of the Thunder Emperor’s efforts. There were faint letters or pictures that he’d repeatedly written and erased. Jae-Hyeok could feel the Thunder Emperor’s sincerity.
Unfortunately...
“The Yaksha’s sooooooon!”
The Thunder Emperor hadn’t seemed happy when he’d realized Jae-Hyeok’s identity.
Jae-Hyeok sighed.
Well, it’s okay. Even if he has a grudge against the father, would he take it out on the son? He’s a National Treasure after all. Even if he’s a bit impulsive, he isn’t evil...
Suddenly, Jae-Hyeok couldn’t help but grin at the situation. His getting to know the Thunder Emperor’s quirky personality was something he could never have predicted before coming to Reinhardt. Life was full of strange coincidences.
Next time he visited A Concentious Merchant, his Thunder Emperor act would reach a new level of realism.
Jae-Hyeok climbed to the top of the blue wall and took in the panoramic view of Reinhardt while fiddling with the ticket in his pocket.
I had fun. Till next time, Reinhardt.
The National Treasure candidate exam was soon. If he didn’t pass, everything he’d gained over the last twelve days would go to waste.
“Sigh.”
No matter how great his strength, Jae-Hyeok was a human, and a teenager, at that. He might not like to show it, but he could also get nervous; thinking of the impending exam, his hands started sweating.
No, I can do it. I have to do it.
The boy clutched his chest with his sweaty hands and looked up at the moons in the sky, steadying his resolve. The faces of his father and mother overlapped with the moons that were unusually bright today, as if cheering him on.
***
The Association’s research laboratory on the eighth underground floor.
“
Kukuku
, it is finished.”
A man in a white lab coat laughed. In front of him was a flask containing Kang Jae-Hyeok’s blood and hair, collected from the site where the Gyeongnam branch manager had been killed.
“Doctor, it’s ready.”
Dozens of assistants spoke in unison.
The walls and floors of the laboratory were covered with magic circles and talismans.
The man nodded giddily. “Good, very good.”
The man was the best shaman in South Korea, but he preferred to be addressed as “Doctor,” as he’d always believed that sorcery was merely a scientific phenomenon.
He carefully checked the arrangement of the magic circles and talismans before imbuing mana into the flask containing Jae-Hyeok’s blood and hair. Then he began to cast.
“The cry of the bull will freeze your blood.”
Wriggle!
Jae-Hyeok’s blood fluctuated like slime.
“The devil’s hand will grasp your hair.”
The strands of hair shriveled as if they had been burned by fire.
The doctor coughed up blood, offering his tribute to the spell, while several spinning magic circles overlapped in the doctor’s eyes.
“You will be frozen and unable to move!”
The magic circles and talismans covering the laboratory’s floor and walls suddenly let out a red light, the glare of which permeated not only the eighth floor but the sixth and seventh floors as well.
[The Minotaur’s Curse has been activated on player Kang Jae-Hyeok.]
“
Hah!
Kuhaha!”
The doctor laughed when he saw the notification, certain of his perfect success.
***
At the same time, inside Guardian headquarters’ most luxurious VIP room, all the lights went out, as a blue warp gate appeared in the room, disappearing several moments later and leaving behind a yawning youth, who was none other than Jae-Hyeok.
I’m back.
Suddenly—
[You have resisted Minotaur’s Curse.]
—Jae-Hyeok saw a strange notification and tilted his head in confusion.
“Huh, what’s the Minataur’s Curse?”
A strange voice echoed in the darkness. “Too bad for you. It sounds like that despicable Ji Cheon-Myeong even went so far as to involve
that
doctor. He really went all out this time. He must hate you to the bone.”
The curtains rustled as a breeze blew through the room. At some point, a man had appeared before the window.
It was Geum Tae-Shin, the closest confidant of Geum Tae-Byeok, the master of the Sun Guild, and the one responsible for sending a sword demon to Jae-Hyeok’s residence, driving him to enter Lion’s Castle in the first place.
“There’s someone who highly values your Kang family’s martial arts. Come with me to meet him.”
As a high-level player, Geum Tae-Sin was naturally persistent; to capture Jae-Hyeok, he had adopted the method of the hunter and waited patiently for several days at Jae-Hyeok’s last known location.
As it happened, his efforts had paid off in more ways than one; not only had Jae-Hyeok abruptly appeared right in front of him, but he had also been struck immediately by the Minotaur’s Curse.
“Don’t try to resist. It’s pointless,” Geum Tae-Shin said. His overbearing presence and the flawless way with which he drew his sword betrayed his S-class level.