The Genius Decided To Live An Ordinary Life [EN]: Chapter 302

How Not to Be Consumed by Darkness (5)

A possessor.

Though it’s not certain if that’s the right term, Jinhyuk’s soul entered another’s consciousness.

Along with the mission to guide him to survive.

– 【Become Erplah and teach him how to survive. Use any means necessary. The contract lasts until I say, ‘That’s enough.’】

He entered a discarded infant and helped that baby survive on his own.

No matter how frustrating it was, he never made a sound, only using suggestion.

He spent 300 years trapped in darkness like that.

“Now that you’ve recovered your memories, I can ask. Why were you so quiet for all that time? I even thought you might have given up. I thought you’d been consumed by the darkness.”

“I don’t know the details, but I feel like it was something like that. Later, much later… I think it was with the thought of when I would disappear. They say you notice when someone leaves, even if you don’t notice when they arrive. It felt like I was hiding my presence so that they wouldn’t depend on me, so they wouldn’t be confused when I left.”

Kuh-.

Hong Ki-joon made a drawn-out sound like a drunkard.

Not only did he endure an unimaginable amount of time without going insane, but he also considered the original owner of the body.

His legs were numb from sitting in one position for too long. Hong Ki-joon stretched out his folded legs, massaged his thighs and knees, and then folded them again into a cross-legged position.

Jinhyuk rested his clasped hands on his bent knees, gazing at the peaceful fields.

“When I think about it, it’s a barbaric yet honest world.”

“Yeah. It was a world of the survival of the fittest, but the strong protected the weak. The wicked were punished without mercy. And yet, you…”

Hong Ki-joon trailed off, glancing at Jinhyuk to see if he remembered.

“Yes. I couldn’t kill. No, I restrained him from doing so. He had such strong instincts that it was hard to control him.”

Jinhyuk smiled awkwardly.

The person Jinhyuk had entered couldn’t harm anyone due to Jinhyuk’s strong suggestion.

Instead, he underwent harsh training to ensure that no one could harm him.

And he protected the weak. That was also an action Jinhyuk intended.

– 【How romantic.】

That assessment from Dugu Elil was not without reason.

It was a world that used swords, shields, and unique techniques.

– 【That’s right, old man. Your little world didn’t have magic.】

When he was young and weak, he ran to survive, and as his body became trained from running, he continued to run to become stronger.

Jinhyuk taught him all the martial arts he knew.

Not only that, but he also incorporated and developed the fighting techniques of that world.

He repeatedly underwent harsh training to fully master it.

So that even when Jinhyuk left, and without the light of his heart, he could fight against enemies.

“That’s right, that’s right. It’s been so long that it’s hazy, but it’s all coming back to me. That person went through a lot too.”

Hong Ki-joon nodded repeatedly as he listened to Jinhyuk’s story.

He endured the pain of bones breaking and muscles tearing every day. The person Jinhyuk had entered, that is. To avoid harming others and to avoid being oppressed himself, he endured hellish training under Jinhyuk’s strong suggestion.

“I had no choice but to train his body.”

“Hah-, yeah. He was a very slow-witted friend. I don’t know how you felt, but even I was frustrated watching him.”

The two chuckled and shook their heads.

The person Jinhyuk had been living in was the most stubborn person in the world.

“But he was a good kid… I don’t know if it was because of me or if he was just like that from the start.”

Uh-huh-.

Hong Ki-joon’s shoulders shook as he laughed in disbelief.

“I knew that being a good person wasn’t everything, but he was extreme. Everyone else could use the techniques, but he couldn’t understand them. You just gather your strength, imagine the shape in your head, and create it, right? No matter how much I explained the principles and drilled it into him, he just couldn’t understand. Wow-. I don’t think there could be another human as slow as him. That breathing technique, you just do it…”

Jinhyuk’s voice rose to the point where Hong Ki-joon worried he might get agitated and start rampaging. It was refreshing to see the usually calm guy change like that.

Swoo-.

To suppress his heightened emotions, Jinhyuk took a breath.

The breathing technique Jinhyuk instinctively used when he returned to the past was also something he had learned back then.

He had returned with it engraved in his soul, so it was possible like a natural talent.

However, why the nature of Jinhyuk’s power was different, and why he couldn’t use it actively, would never be revealed. Even Dugu Elil didn’t know the cause.

“But his body was strong. So I thought, ‘Okay, let’s just have him do what he’s good at’… Focus and concentration.”

Jinhyuk smiled bitterly and rubbed his face.

He was a good kid, but he was too slow. [In this context, ‘slow’ means mentally slow or not quick to learn.]

It was only thanks to Jinhyuk’s efforts and rote learning that he quickly grasped writing and was able to complete the world’s studies with excellent grades.

“If I were you, I would have been so frustrated that I would have said something I didn’t like.”

“He’s a person.”

Hong Ki-joon raised his eyebrows as if asking what he meant.

“Rather than imposing my will, I wanted to give him the chance to live as he was and see the world around him. This way, that way. Worrying, conflicted, and ultimately unable to find his way, inconsistent. That’s what a person is. How many people throughout history have lived their entire lives with one clear goal, living upright? People worry and are swayed by temptations. That’s what people are.”

“Yeah, I don’t think even religious people would be like that.”

“Even I have one thought in the morning and another in the evening. That seems like the natural state of an ordinary person. When I came back, I was sometimes confused in middle school. When I hit puberty, I even felt like wandering. But then I thought, how boring would it be to live with only one goal, and that such people only exist in fiction, and I felt at ease. I was also glad. ‘Ah, I guess I’m finally becoming human.’ You know, that kind of thing.”

That’s right, that makes sense. Hong Ki-joon’s nodding didn’t stop.

Hong Ki-joon had encouraged Jinhyuk’s daily life, meaning he should enjoy the times he hadn’t properly experienced, the seasons he hadn’t been able to spend. The words to live happily also came from that background.

As an adult who had supported and sponsored him, he felt a sense of accomplishment.

“Even when I was working at the company, I saw that other employees would have serious meetings about important topics, but during breaks, they would chat and talk about personal things. It seems like the breaks where you hang out with friends are more fulfilling than the lessons at school. I think those personal chats are more memorable, and those random conversations come together to enrich life.”

They were pieces of the puzzle of life that Jinhyuk didn’t have.

Various fragments that he hadn’t possessed in the past when his vision was limited due to a sense of loss.

Those fragments come together to form the epic of life.

Right, you gave that person the chance to collect the stories you couldn’t have. Hong Ki-joon’s expression became solemn.

“Is that all? Don’t you remember anything else?”

Hmm-!

Hong Ki-joon cleared his throat, short and sharp.

“That…”

Ha-yu-, Jinhyuk sighed and scratched his head so hard it made a sound.

His face flushed red in an instant, and then he puffed out his cheeks.

“There’s more. At some point, his ego went berserk, and after that, he rejected my suggestions.”

“Ah…”

Hong Ki-joon lowered his head and scratched his forehead as if he had seen something he couldn’t bear to look at.

His forehead turned red, like he had been bitten by a mosquito.

“Aigoo-. To remember that, how embarrassing.”

“There’s no need to be embarrassed. I’m innocent. I didn’t do that.”

“I believe you.”

The incident where the friends he had taken in and protected since childhood were all killed was the trigger.

It was an incredibly strong enemy.

Just one enemy.

There was only one, but it was so powerful that it was questionable if it could even exist.

After witnessing the gruesome sight of his friends, he rushed at the powerful enemy without hesitation. The ego that had been under Jinhyuk’s control for over 20 years began to run wild like a runaway horse.

He had shaken off the black hand of Son Jinhyuk, who had been lurking in the darkness, unseen and unheard.

If Jinhyuk hadn’t desperately found the enemy’s weakness and informed him of the countermeasure when his life was on the line, he would have died as well.

“I think I slowly let go after that incident. It was time for him to live on his own. I only helped him when he was in danger, and the rest of the time, I just let him live as he pleased.”

“I thought it was something like that…”

Cough-.

Hong Ki-joon cleared his throat and turned his eyes to the distant horizon. He scratched his sideburns.

Once his control was released, he transformed from a righteous and just young man into a huge womanizer and playboy.

He went to the guardhouse and beat them all up for not maintaining public order properly, saying that a child had been hit by a carriage, and he even neutralized the army that came to arrest him. With his bare hands. Even then, Jinhyuk didn’t restrain him.

He drank strong liquor like water and became a chain smoker who always had a cigarette in his mouth except when he was sleeping.

Wherever he went, he slept with women, unleashing the instincts he had thoroughly suppressed. He also showed a bizarre pattern of womanizing, such as sleeping with one woman only five times.

Yet, he always lived with women by his side. That meant his partner changed every day.

Jinhyuk had often enjoyed alcohol, but he was far from the other two. [The other two refers to the chain smoker and womanizer.]

Only then could he guess why he had thought of cigarettes when he returned to the past, and why women didn’t feel unfamiliar.

“He’s too pitiful… That’s why I just left him alone.”

The pain of losing all the friends he had protected, cherished, and grown up with in one day was deeply felt in Jinhyuk’s heart, so he couldn’t scold him.

After defeating the powerful enemy, he broke down a stone wall to make a tomb for his friends, and Jinhyuk comforted him by crying with him as he knelt in front of it, shedding tears of blood. That was all he could do.

His deviations were not actions that violated social norms, so no one criticized him.

Thanks to the fact that he was the strongest person in the world, with a tall and handsome physique, women endlessly flocked to him even though he was annoyed by it. He was a playboy who went out looking for them even if they didn’t flock to him. A stallion in heat would have been more modest.

He seduced the daughter of a local lord he met during an adventure, responded to the seduction of a central noble’s wife, and even flirted with a renowned and noble saint.

Some days, he had more than ten… Ah, never mind.

He continued to live as a womanizer and playboy.

‘I keep thinking about it, and it’s making me dizzy, damn it.’

It was around that time.

That was when Jinhyuk completely cut off his connection with him and curled up in the darkness.

He fell into a long, deep sleep.

He didn’t open his eyes until an unconscious alarm went off when an enemy appeared that threatened his life.

‘It’s probably better not to go into detail about the… lewd stuff.’

I should just stay quiet.

Cough-.

Jinhyuk subtly averted his gaze from Hong Ki-joon.

Cough-.

For a moment, an awkward atmosphere flowed between them.

He glanced at Hong Ki-joon and asked,

“By the way-, did you… see everything?”

“No, I mean-, it was my duty and mission to watch over you, but knowing you were there, I couldn’t not see, and I didn’t see everything, but um, yeah. Didn’t you see?”

…He really didn’t get tired of doing it. Hong Ki-joon mumbled like a ventriloquist.

“I had my eyes closed. It was my friend’s privacy.”

“Oh, really…”

His tone was flat, but it sounded like he didn’t believe him?

His eyes also seemed to have narrowed.

“I really did.”

“Uh-huh-. I believe you, I believe you. Who else would believe you as much as I do…”

He says he believes me, but does he have something to hide…? Hong Ki-joon looked around at the cloudless sky.

That’s when it happened.

A strange head suddenly appeared over their shoulders.

“What are you looking at? What are you good at?”

“Tteoh-!”

“Aigoo!”

It was Yujin.

She had a mesh onion bag on her head, with grass and leaves stuck in it, looking like a soldier disguised in a war movie.

She held a toy rifle in her hand and had pine cones dangling from her chest.

“You, you, you- when did you get here?”

Yujin’s elbows and knees were covered in grass stains, as if she had crawled here.

It must have been because they were focused on their conversation, but it seemed that even the sensitive Jinhyuk hadn’t noticed her presence.

“I just got here-. What did you say the uncle was good at? But I only saw the uncle, not the oppa [Oppa is a Korean term used by females to refer to older brothers or close male friends].”

It was a great relief that she didn’t say the crucial word out loud.

If the sharp-eared Yujin had heard it and asked what it meant, he would have broken out in a cold sweat trying to explain.

“It’s just that the uncle and oppa are talking. Yujin, keep playing. Mikyung unnie [Unnie is a Korean term used by females to refer to older sisters or close female friends] and everyone else are over there.”

“Yes-, ehehe-. Bang bang! Whee-oong- Pow-! Follow me!”

Yujin fired her toy gun at Choi Mikyung, who was enjoying her leisure by the waterway in the distance. She also threw pine cone grenades that she had taken off her chest.

She gradually moved away like that.

“Does Yujin… play like that sometimes?”

Hong Ki-joon, whose face had turned pale from the surprise attack, pointed with his chin at Yujin, who was crawling away.

For Hong Ki-joon, the sight of a little girl playing war games alone was quite shocking.

“No…”

“Ah-. That’s a relief-.”

“…She’s like that every day.”

Ah-.

Hong Ki-joon, who had gently closed his eyes, shook his head. Your mother must be having a hard time.

Now that the troublemaker was gone, they had to continue their conversation.

There was still more to learn from Jinhyuk.

“What I really want to ask is different. How did you endure that long time?”