Chapter 40

Chapter 12

Returning home, Jaeha gave Seungho a brief rundown on Sia. He didn’t bother revealing that she was a homunculus—just introduced her as something like an NPC he’d ended up creating through one thing and another.

Jaeha didn’t seem to fully understand, but he gestured at the spirits and glossed over it. Not long after, Sia walked into the house.

“For now, just do the housework like I mentioned earlier.”

“Yes. Don’t worry, Master!”

Sia answered with vigor and got to work on all sorts of tasks. From cleaning to laundry to cooking—her skills weren’t half bad.

And so Jaeha spent three months living an ordinary life. He didn’t do much hunting, instead spending his time playing with the spirits or going out and about.

Over those three months, Jaeha learned all sorts of things about Sia. For one, she seemed to have been born with all of Jaeha’s talents, just as she’d said and the system had described.

Her ability to fight at range was a perfect copy of Jaeha’s. The only difference was that Jaeha had no talent for housework, while Sia handled it with ease.

Her talent for alchemy was also extraordinary. And she possessed knowledge of alchemy that even Jaeha didn’t have. So whenever Jaeha wanted to create something through alchemy, he often relied on her help.

“Yes, and so?”

<That alchemist group got in touch.>

“They want to come see me?”

<That’s right. Are you going to meet them?>

“I’ll meet them. Please set up a place.”

<Am I your secretary?>

“Haha. Well then, couldn’t you just give them my number?”

<Shut up.>

The call ended, and Jaeha got up from his seat. After waiting a moment, a text message arrived on his cell phone.

[Meeting time is 3 PM tomorrow. The place is where you met last time, apparently. 010-××××-××××. If that time doesn’t work, contact this number, they said.]

That was all the message said. After confirming the time and place, Jaeha called over Sia, who was working hard.

“Yes. You called?”

“Come out with me tomorrow.”

“Going out?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay. Got it.”

Having said that, Jaeha waited for the appointed time to arrive.

* * *

Sia’s appearance was at a level that would put celebrities to shame. The looks a person could artificially create were far more impressive than one might think.

Of course, it was a randomly determined appearance, but still. Either way, Sia’s looks were bound to draw eyes wherever she went. Especially since Jaeha was famous too.

A fairly well-known Jaeha walking around with a beautiful woman naturally attracted a lot of attention. Feeling people’s gazes, Jaeha hastily hailed a taxi.

‘I should get a license or something.’

Thinking that, Jaeha got into the taxi. After giving the destination, he leaned back quietly against the seat.

“But Master, where are we going today?”

“Huh? Oh, to meet someone.”

“But why are you bringing me along?”

“Because it’s something you’re good at.”

“Hmm, if it’s something I’m good at, is it alchemy?”

“Right.”

As they chatted, they arrived at the restaurant before long. Jaeha entered the restaurant with Sia. Going through the same simple procedure as last time, they reached the VIP room and stepped inside.

Inside were the same three people from before. Looking at them, Jaeha spoke.

“Good to see you.”

He greeted them briefly and sat down across from them, with Sia taking a seat beside him. Once Sia was seated, Jaeha looked at the three in front of him.

“So…… your name was John Smith, right.”

“That’s correct.”

“Nice to meet you. What business did you want to discuss?”

At Jaeha’s question, they swallowed hard before speaking.

“Back then, you said something to us, Jaeha.”

“…….”

“You asked what we could do for you if you taught us alchemy, didn’t you?”

“Yes. I did.”

“We’ve done our best over these past three months. So that we could be of some help to you, even a little.”

“……And what results did you obtain?”

“You said something back then, didn’t you? That the world is rotten, and living selfishly helps you live more richly.”

“I said it seemed more likely, but…… yes, I did.”

“So we decided to live a little selfishly too.”

At their words, Jaeha gave a small smile. Then he quietly waited for what would come next.

“In the end, the only thing we could do was alchemy. We thought we had to break through this situation with alchemy.”

“Hm.”

“So first, we wanted to make money. In this world, money is essential for doing anything. So we earned money. As you know, when you try to make money with alchemy, it comes easier than you’d think.”

“I thought you wouldn’t even know how to draw a proper transmutation circle.”

“Yes, that’s right. We don’t know how to draw proper transmutation circles either. But that isn’t all there is to alchemy, is it? We know how to make at least basic potions. We sold those to earn money.”

“Why didn’t you think of making money until now?”

“We were following our ancestors’ wishes. Our ancestors chose to hide their presence and retreated into the shadows.”

“Do you know why they chose to hide?”

“They said the decline of alchemy was all caused by greed, and that they had to bear that punishment themselves. So deliberately going underground and restoring the lost art of alchemy—that was our ancestors’ command and their plea.”

“So now you no longer need to follow that command?”

“That’s what I regret. Haah. If we were going to defy our ancestors’ will anyway, we should have just never listened from the start.”

“Hm.”

“After hearing those words from Jaeha, I had something of a realization. We’ve lived our whole lives being good, so now let’s live a little badly. And since we’d decided to live badly anyway, we figured we’d start by breaking our ancestors’ words.”

At that, Jaeha smiled.

“Well, regardless, the process isn’t all that important.”

Jaeha said that while looking at John Smith.

“You probably have a lot you want to say. But you see, I’m not really curious about any of it.”

“Yes. In the end, it’s just a story as common as they come.”

At that, he nodded, and Jaeha spoke.

“I’ll ask again. What can you offer me?”

“We thought long and hard. About what you might need. And the conclusion we reached was just one thing.”

“…….”

“In our judgment…….”

“Yes.”

“What Jaeha lacks is…… numbers, we thought. A faction.”

“A faction.”

“The one who connected our side to Jaeha was Ji Cheolmin.”

“Oh-ho. The elder must be quite a famous figure.”

“He’s a famous man. So much so that the President of the United States wanted to take him under his wing the moment he met him.”

“Oh-ho. An impressive man indeed.”

“The fact that he contacted you probably means Jaeha has ties with Umbratio.”

“Well, you could say that.”

“Umbratio is a highly aggressive group by nature. Of course, they don’t do unethical things, but still, criminals make up most of their membership.”

“I’m aware of that.”

“And they’re bound together by bonds that are far weaker than you’d think.”

“That makes sense. They’re criminals, and they’re being used like slaves just for the sake of being hidden.”

“Yes. Over these past three months, while earning money, we did just one thing.”

“What is it?”

“We strengthened ourselves.”

“Strengthened…….”

“Just hearing it, it sounds like we enhanced ourselves with drugs, but that’s not it. What we did was—”

“You’re saying you became stronger legally, as Hunters?”

“That’s correct.”

“Oh-ho.”

In truth, if Jaeha had to point out his own weakness, he would ultimately point to numbers. His mana reserves were overwhelmingly high, and in ranged combat, as well as close-quarters combat using his spirits, he could now overwhelmingly crush other Hunters.

But there was one thing—he lacked numbers. When it came to people who followed him, it was fair to say there was no one besides Seungho right now. Ji Cheolmin could switch sides at any moment depending on need, so he was out of the question.

And John Smith had precisely pinpointed the one part that could be considered his weakness.

“With potions, growing people isn’t difficult. Right?”

“Correct. We focused on physical enhancement. Unfortunately, the potion that raises Proficiency—the method for it has been lost, so we couldn’t make that one.”

Saying that, John Smith cautiously glanced around. In response, Jaeha smiled and pulled a potion that helped raise Proficiency out of his Inventory, showing it to them.

“A faction, you say. May I ask exactly how large it is?”

“225 members in total.”

“225 people. Rather modest for an organization that’s been around since the Middle Ages.”

“……That’s true. However, all 225 are Hunters, and in terms of raw physical ability alone, they’re nearly comparable to B-Rank Hunters. Their Total Ability is lacking, though.”

“You’ve raised them quite a lot in just three months—more than I expected. Sourcing the materials and brewing the potions must have been difficult.”

“Substitutes for the medicinal herbs are scattered all over the Dungeons, so that wasn’t an issue.”

“Ah. Come to think of it, you did say you had information on that.”

“That’s correct.”

Having said that much, Jaeha fell into quiet thought. As he sat there without a word, they kept swallowing dryly.

‘Then again, is there even anything to think about? They completed the assignment I gave them perfectly. Whatever’s lacking, I can fill in.’

The assignment he had given them was to come back having become beings that would be of use to him. Of course, he hadn’t given them even a single hint. That was exactly why Jaeha liked it even more.

With no answer—not even the slightest scrap of information—they had agonized and agonized, and in the end, hadn’t they found the answer on their own and grown strong enough to reach the level he wanted?