The Regressor Only Protects Me [EN]: Chapter 203

203. Ruler of Seoul (3)

As Gangbuk and Metro fell, the forces of Gangnam finally began to mobilize.

Although they couldn’t secure a large share of the spoils this time, Gangnam had a plan of their own.

They were preparing for the third round.

Dongwang Kang Da-hye, with a cigarette dangling from her lips, gazed at the Lotte Tower.

An older subordinate approached her from behind and asked,

“Are you sure it’s alright even if we don’t gain anything this round? Perhaps investing a small force and advancing into Gangdong would have been the right move. No matter how well-laid our plans are…”

“Don’t worry, Grandpa.”

With a flick of her finger, Kang Da-hye sent the cigarette arcing into the distance.

She smiled and looked at the old subordinate.

“Are you afraid I’ll die? Is that it?”

“…It’s not that.”

“Even if we lose a round, only the leader is guaranteed to die. Of course, you’ll all receive a life penalty, but it’s not something to lose sleep over.”

At Kang Da-hye’s words, the old subordinate remained silent for a moment before slowly bowing his head and saying,

“I serve the lord. To me, the lord’s life is more precious than my own. Please don’t say such things.”

“Thanks for the thought, even if it’s just words, Grandpa.”

Kang Da-hye squatted down.

And continued,

“Don’t worry. I’m the one who’s going to catch the Dragon.”

Her eyes lifted, gazing at the top of the Lotte Tower.

For years, through dozens of wars, the Lotte Tower had remained standing.

Not only standing, but towering majestically.

And at its peak lived the Dragon.

* * *

Restless voices echoed from outside the room.

Ha Yun-ha and Jung Hyun-soo, having successfully undergone surgery, lay side by side in separate beds.

This room was prepared as a recovery room for the Emperor and his commanders.

The Seoul occupation war was over, and in the end, Kang Si-on had become the ruler of Seoul.

A large number of personnel were needed to clean up the site, and Commander-in-Chief Hwang Min-jae was in charge of directing the operation.

“…….”

The two lay still.

For the past two days.

Players would normally recover in a day, but the damage they sustained from the battle was too great.

To the point where they couldn’t even drink a glass of water without someone’s help.

Knock, knock.

Someone knocked on the door, and a young woman came in with a meal.

The food on the tray was ordinary military rations.

Before the war began in earnest, Kang Si-on had stored the city’s industrial resources, food, and water.

Because this stadium, where the monsters resided, was the safest place, most of the resources were concentrated here.

“How are you feeling?”

“…Fine. I’m fine. Haha.”

The young woman spoon-fed the two of them one bite at a time.

She quickly left the room, leaving the two of them alone again.

After a moment of silence, Jung Hyun-soo broke the silence with a burp.

Ha Yun-ha frowned and barely turned his head to look at Jung Hyun-soo.

“…Gross.”

“Gross, my foot.”

“…….”

Jung Hyun-soo was wrapped in bandages all over his body.

Because the bandages were covered in blood, they had to be changed regularly.

Ha Yun-ha asked,

“How’s your body… alright?”

“If you don’t count the stuffiness. What about you?”

“…I’m better than you. I can get up.”

“If you can get up, can you get me some water?”

“Why didn’t you ask… that lady when she came?”

“I feel bad asking her. She’s been nursing us 24/7.”

“And you don’t feel bad asking me?”

“Nope. Hurry. I’m thirsty.”

“Ugh. Fine.”

Ha Yun-ha barely got out of bed and picked up a water bottle.

In reality, Jung Hyun-soo’s condition was the most serious, and Ha Yun-ha was simply exhausted from overwork.

Of course, Ha Yun-ha’s physical condition was also worse than that of an ordinary person.

Ha Yun-ha poured water from the water bottle and brought it close to Jung Hyun-soo’s mouth.

As the water cup approached, Jung Hyun-soo pouted his lips.

Then Ha Yun-ha poured the water directly onto Jung Hyun-soo’s face.

Splash!

“Ptooey! Ack. Pah-!”

Ha Yun-ha smiled slightly at the sight of Jung Hyun-soo coughing.

Jung Hyun-soo frowned and asked,

“What are you doing?!”

“Just giving you a wash. You haven’t washed in days, your face looks terrible. Your sister-in-law specially poured water on you.”

“…Ah. My mind. Haa-. Ah, give me water quickly.”

“Want me to pour it on you again?”

“Give me water! No… Feed me water! Please.”

The two regained their composure after a brief squabble.

Ha Yun-ha sat in front of Jung Hyun-soo’s bed.

Ha Yun-ha stared at Jung Hyun-soo’s face for a while before saying,

“I wonder what happened to the Hero?”

“…I don’t know.”

Even though the war was over, news of Kang Si-on had not reached them.

They were worried.

Because Kang Si-on’s power could not be felt anywhere.

“There’s no way something bad happened to the Hero. Just wait.”

“He hasn’t come to see us even once…”

“Does the Hero have to personally come and see us?”

“It’s not that…”

“Wait. Just wait.”

Jung Hyun-soo closed his eyes again after saying that.

“He’ll take care of everything. Let’s just wait.”

Ha Yun-ha carefully nodded his head.

“…Okay.”

* * *

I had a long dream.

I was in the middle of a desert, with nothing on my body.

The sandstorm raged fiercely, but I didn’t blink my eyes to block the wind, nor did I raise my hand to try to avoid it even a little.

Not knowing the direction, I moved wherever my feet took me.

At some point, I realized that my younger brother was on my back. My younger brother was fast asleep on my back.

Bearing the weight, I walked again.

I just moved forward.

Again, at some point, I realized that my younger brother had disappeared from my back, and I started moving to find him.

From then on, I desperately thrashed and moved like a man drowning in the sea.

I tried to overcome the sandstorm and cross the sand dunes to find my brother’s traces.

And I was about to collapse from exhaustion. It was a woman who supported my body.

The woman started walking with me.

The path we walked together gradually changed from a sandy field to a grassy field.

Now it’s a dense forest.

The woman taught me how to hold a knife and how to cut off leaves.

She also taught me how to confront the beasts I met in the forest.

It gradually became bearable.

The pain was halved when I walked this 30,000-mile road, which I had been walking alone, with someone I could rely on.

It took a long time to realize that her concern and affection, which she gave me without any expectation of return, were not a matter of course.

When I realized it, something had changed.

She was gradually moving away from me.

The surrounding environment changed, and we changed too.

As she gradually changed, I realized.

I cherished her.

As a person, and as a friend.

But now she was nowhere to be seen.

She wasn’t anywhere.

“…….”

I carefully opened my eyes.

* * *

Kang Si-on was lying in a luxurious bed.

There were 20 people taking care of him.

From doctors to masseuses to artifact ability users specializing in treatment around the bed.

The first person Kang Si-on saw when he opened his eyes was a nurse.

She was carefully wiping Kang Si-on’s forehead with a towel.

‘It’s fluffy…….’

That was the feeling Kang Si-on had when he opened his eyes again.

Lying in this bed, it felt like the gravity of my body had disappeared, as if I was floating in the sky.

Kang Si-on slowly raised his body.

Even as the people around him tried to stop him, Kang Si-on got up from his seat.

He said.

“Jin Jae-hee……?”

At Si-on’s words, the man sitting next to him smiled slightly and said,

“Well, that’s not the first thing I wanted to hear from you, hyung [older brother].”

At that voice, Si-on turned to the side.

From Si-on’s point of view, a man he had never seen before was cutting an apple.

The man cutting the apple was Kang Jun-ho.

Slice. Slice.

Kang Jun-ho carefully cut the apple and placed it neatly on a clean white plate.

Kang Si-on still didn’t know that his younger brother was the man in front of him.

That’s because Kang Jun-ho’s appearance was different from the grown-up version of his younger brother that Kang Si-on had imagined.

Kang Jun-ho continued to peel the apple with a knife, turning it around and around.

“When I was young… I don’t know where I saw it. But the person taking care of me was always cutting an apple. Maybe… it was the main character in a TV drama in kindergarten. I was envious of that main character. …In the days when we didn’t have money. In those days, it was hard to even buy one apple. There was a time when I was sick. I don’t know if hyung remembers.”

Kang Si-on’s eyelids fluttered slightly, and Kang Jun-ho continued.

“If I think about it, it was quite a high fever. I had a fever, so I couldn’t move properly. Well, it would have been strange not to catch a cold in that house. Cockroaches, rice weevils, and no air conditioning or heating, so we were just thinking about surviving, summer or winter.”

Thud.

Another apple slice was placed on top.

Kang Jun-ho continued.

“I caught a cold, and at that time… I especially wanted to eat an apple. Why is that? Apples aren’t exactly good for colds. It’s not even medicine.”

Pfft.

Kang Jun-ho chuckled softly.

“Maybe that’s it. I thought that was a normal life. Why… can’t I eat an apple? I wanted to eat an apple like other people. So I kept nagging hyung. Nagging and nagging. Without knowing hyung’s heart, I kept nagging. That day when there was a record snowfall. Hyung went outside to get an apple.”

Kang Si-on recalled that day.

Of course, he didn’t have enough money to buy even one apple.

At the time, Kang Si-on used all his money systematically.

Of course, Kang Si-on had taken the money he was going to use to buy a triangular kimbap [a common and cheap Korean snack] for lunch the next day and bought an apple for 1,000 won.

“So hyung came home with his eyes covered in snow and shook the apple at me. His hands were frozen and swollen red… He sniffled as if he was cold, and he sucked in his snot… That’s how hyung cut an apple in front of me. Slice. Slice. The apple that hyung cut, who didn’t know how to hold a knife, was very ugly.”

“You…….”

“It was so delicious. That apple at that time. I’m sorry about that. I’m really sorry. I was already having a hard time. I still feel so sorry about that day. So much that I’ll regret it for the rest of my life. When I heard the news that hyung had disappeared in Mangyeong, when I thought I had to give up like that, and when I finally met hyung again… I was really sad and sorry like crazy.”

Kang Jun-ho placed the apple on the plate with trembling hands.

Now his expression was distorted with sadness.

The same was true for everyone in the room.

No one said a word.

Kang Si-on’s expression was also distorted.

Si-on swallowed his emotions, clutching the blanket that covered his thighs.

Kang Jun-ho’s eyes turned red.

The current Kang Jun-ho was the Kang Jun-ho when the two brothers parted.

The thirteen-year-old Kang Jun-ho began to pour out the words he couldn’t bring himself to say to his brother.

“When I was young. …I was too young. I didn’t understand anything. Really. I just compared myself to other families, and I just resented our family. Why is our family so poor… Why don’t we have parents… Why do we live in a basement and get teased for being recipients of basic livelihood security [government assistance]… Why… why… did I have to force myself to eat school lunches until my stomach burst? And why… do we have to carry out buckets when it rains at home, and shovel snow when it snows… Why am I different from the kids who live in apartments? I want to ride the elevator too… I want to bring my friends home too… And why did I have to run alone at the sports day… I was so jealous of the kids who had dads… I was so jealous of the kids who had moms… I was so jealous of the kids who held their parents’ hands and went to eat pork cutlets… When they went on a school trip… the kids who thought about what to do and play with each other without worrying about money… When the kids went to PC rooms or played mobile games… When they wore new clothes for the new season and the new semester, I was so jealous of them… Those kids who had good parents. Those kids who enjoyed that ordinary thing as if it were natural. That parent who readily handed over 10,000 won [approximately $8 USD] as pocket money to their children. Those parents… all of them. I was jealous. But… hyung. I’m really sorry. Hyung. I think I know a little bit now. I realized.”

Kang Jun-ho shed hot tears.

“…That our hyung is much stronger and more admirable than those respectable parents.”

After that, Kang Jun-ho turned his head and swallowed his tears.

He was complaining to his brother like he used to when he was young.

When Kang Si-on was young, he always accepted Kang Jun-ho’s complaints.

There was a time when he could have scolded him harshly, but he always patted him and took good care of him. Kang Si-on always put Kang Jun-ho first in everything.

Health, money, and food.

He couldn’t buy him new clothes, but he was a hyung who would get good used clothes so that his younger brother wouldn’t be cold.

He couldn’t feed him delicious meat, but he made sure to feed him every meal so that his younger brother wouldn’t feel hungry.

He couldn’t buy him a good game console, but he played with him every day so that his younger brother wouldn’t be bored.

He couldn’t send him to a cram school, but if his younger brother didn’t know something, he would ask his college student hyung, who was working part-time at a construction site, and find out the answer.

Kang Si-on was strong.

Kang Si-on was stronger than any parent, whether they were judges, prosecutors, office workers, civil servants, or politicians.

Kang Si-on was Kang Jun-ho’s hyung.

His only hyung.

And… his only younger brother.

Kang Si-on swallowed his emotions and barely smiled. And looking at his younger brother, he said.

“You’ve grown a lot… Jun-ho.”

“…….”

The two brothers hugged each other as if to show off.

Strongly, and even more strongly, as if they never wanted to be apart again.

The two brothers didn’t burst into tears like children, but their eyes were red.

Kang Si-on said.