NOVEL NEXT 26.
26.
Yu Jin had always thought that Jinhyeon would eventually become suspicious of him. After all, Yu Jin’s behavior so far had been unusual. He had prepared excuses for this in advance.
To reiterate, this world has mysteries. Therefore, although extremely rare, there were also prophets. Most of them live in hiding, making it difficult to meet one even once in a lifetime.
This was actually advantageous for Yu Jin. While it’s known that prophets can see the future, no one knows how they see it or how they convey what they’ve learned to others. So it was a good pretext for disguise.
If the other person was a prophet, Jinhyeon’s attitude might change a bit. That’s what he thought, but…
To react so helplessly to the word “condom” of all things! Condom! Yu Jin wanted to cry. He looked at Jinhyeon with faint hope, but he seemed to have already figured everything out.
Jinhyeon, wiping the smile off his face, put down his wine glass.
“You’re not from this world, are you?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“It’s not that you don’t know, you’re pretending not to know, right? If you know about condoms, you must know about other things too. How about cars or computers?”
This time, Yu Jin tried not to react, but Jinhyeon seemed to have read something from him again.
“I’m right, aren’t I? You came from the same world as me. But you seem to have come differently from me. Did only your soul come?”
No. Yu Jin was originally a resident of this world and had merely recalled his past life. But should he reveal that truth?
As if sensing Yu Jin’s dilemma, Jinhyeon added, “I have no intention of telling anyone else about this.”
I’m sure you don’t. Yu Jin was a very useful person to Jinhyeon. There was no need to create controversy by revealing Yu Jin’s identity here. Rather, it would be more efficient to extract various things from him in exchange for keeping his identity secret.
‘I don’t want that either!’
He was already planning to extract a lot from Yu Jin, but now he’s likely to stick to him like a real piranha. Yu Jin let out a deep sigh.
“So, what do you want me to help with?”
If he was going to be used anyway, it seemed better to offer help proactively. This way, he might at least get some credit.
“It’s good that we can communicate well. Do you know about the situation in the back alleys of the capital?”
“I do. Just tell me what you want.”
“I want power over the back alleys. They’re just a ragtag group now, but if properly united, they could be very useful. I heard other nobles have been showing interest in them recently.”
“You want to have it all before that happens, right?”
“Yes.”
“Alright. I’ll help you. But what’s in it for me?”
He shouldn’t just offer help unconditionally. Who would volunteer for others? Stepping forward to receive compensation would help gain Jinhyeon’s trust.
“I’ll give you the Lucid family.”
It was an arrogant statement. Jinhyeon spoke of the Lucid family, one of the most prominent in the empire, as if it were his own. But Yu Jin knew that it wasn’t an impossible claim.
“You think I want the Lucid family?”
“I’m not sure about the exact definition of possession, but I’ve learned something while observing. One, Yu Jin von Lucid has knowledge of modern Earth.”
Jinhyeon folded a finger.
“Two, but he’s not without knowledge of this world either. Of course, this wouldn’t be strange if you had fallen here before me and studied, but there are still parts that don’t fit. Because…”
He folded another finger.
“Three, Yu Jin harbors affection for Keith and Haruna.”
There was a strong bond between them that couldn’t have formed in just a few years.
“So the answer comes out. Yu Jin is either not possessed, or was possessed at a very young age.”
“Is that important?”
“No, it doesn’t matter to me. As long as you’re helpful. So let’s leave that aside. Actually, I’m curious about something else.”
“What is it?”
“The ability you possess.”
Jinhyeon spoke with certainty.
“What ability?”
A cold sweat ran down Yu Jin’s spine. In reality, Yu Jin doesn’t have any special abilities. But there is something that Jinhyeon might consider an ability. The fact that this world was the setting of a novel and someone had written down Jinhyeon’s life. And the fact that Yu Jin knew this.
Because of this, Yu Jin knew the broad strokes of what was going to happen in the future.
Jinhyeon, while observing the tense Yu Jin, showed no particular reaction. Yu Jin had expected him to immediately demand to know what the ability was, but he was surprisingly nonchalant.
“If you don’t want to tell me, that’s fine.”
He said that, but how long would he really stay that way?
‘I was too clumsy.’
But Yu Jin was a person who had lived an ordinary life in the modern world. The Yu Jin of this world had stopped studying at a young age and had since lived as a ruffian, so his mind couldn’t work properly.
There’s a saying that if a modern person goes back to the past, they’d become a genius, but this was a bit different. From the start, even magic was a field that you could only touch if you were at least called a prodigy.
Yu Jin felt that this couldn’t go on. Would things be different if he let the Lucid family be swallowed up and helped Jinhyeon rise to the top? But Yu Jin wasn’t the female protagonist. And abandoned hunting dogs eventually end up in the pot.
Yu Jin didn’t want to end up like that.
‘I need to make an effort too.’
That was the conclusion.
To do that, it was better to move right away. The problem was that his physical strength was at rock bottom.
‘I have no choice.’
Yu Jin called for Keith. Fortunately, Jinhyeon had gone out to the training ground, so now was the chance. He knew that the two would have to face each other eventually, but he wanted to postpone that moment as much as possible.
It was the least he could do with a clear conscience.
“Yu Jin!”
Keith rushed over urgently and examined Yu Jin. And Yu Jin also examined Keith. It had only been a few days, but Keith had changed for the worse. His skin had become rough, and there were dark circles under his eyes.
Moreover, his face looked slimmer than usual, as if he hadn’t been eating well. Originally, Yu Jin had planned to get involved in the back alleys right away, but seeing Keith’s face, he felt that wouldn’t be right.
‘How can I use someone like this?’
Yu Jin immediately ordered a maid to bring food. As soon as Yu Jin spoke, Keith brought a tray from somewhere, placed it on the bed, and began to fill it with food brought by the maid.
“No, is this for you to eat?”
It would be good for Yu Jin to eat too, but right now, soup was enough.
“Me?”
“Yes, you’ve gotten too thin. Haven’t you been eating?”
At the probing question, Keith rolled his eyes.
“I did eat.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Haruna told me to eat.”
It seemed that Haruna, who had stopped by the mansion in the meantime, had taken care of Keith.
“…Did sister just tell you to eat?”
Considering Haruna’s personality, she must have turned the place upside down. At Yu Jin’s question, Keith just smiled awkwardly. In fact, he could still hear Haruna’s shouts ringing in his ears.
“It’s okay. It ended well.”
Although Haruna had gone crazy, he had managed to patch things up somehow.
“Nothing will happen.”
At Keith’s words, Yu Jin bit his lip. As he was about to open his mouth to apologize, Keith shook his head first.
“Let’s eat first.”
It seemed he didn’t want to hear an apology. Realizing this made Yu Jin’s heart ache even more. Keith pushed a bowl of soup towards Yu Jin.
The pale red soup topped with white cream looked delicious even just by looking at it. Normally, Yu Jin might have eaten it excitedly, but…
‘I don’t want to do that now.’
Yu Jin picked up the spoon, scooped up some soup, and held it out to Keith. It was very tiring to stretch out his arm, but he managed it out of stubbornness.
Keith stared at Yu Jin with blank eyes. Then he pointed at himself with his finger.
“That’s right. It’s for you to eat.”
Only then did Keith accept the soup. Yu Jin scooped up more soup before Keith could offer to feed him. He intended to feed Keith this time too.
‘But why are his fingers like that?’
They were fine just a few days ago. Now, more than half of his fingers were wrapped in bandages. At first, when he was arranging the food on the tray, it was cleverly hidden, but now he seemed to have failed to hide it due to surprise.
As Yu Jin’s gaze turned to his fingers, Keith lowered his hand slightly. For now, Yu Jin decided to fill his stomach before questioning about the injury. Still, Keith obediently ate the soup he was given.
After feeding him all the soup, Yu Jin then fed him a couple of soft white bread rolls. He wanted to feed him more, but putting greasy food into a body that had been starving for a long time wasn’t good, so he put down the fork at that point.
‘This is tiring!’
He felt like he was going to die of exhaustion just from feeding someone.
‘Damn protagonist bastard!’
Cursing naturally made the pain feel a bit less. He should curse him often from now on. Now it was time to ask Keith where he injured his fingers. Thinking this, he looked at Keith, but his expression wasn’t good.
Keith seemed to have guessed that Yu Jin was about to ask about the injury. Worried that he might get indigestion after just eating, Yu Jin swallowed the question he was about to ask. Instead, let’s talk about work.
“Keith, how much of my assets can I use?”
Keith looked surprised at Yu Jin’s question. This was the second time. The first time he was surprised was when Yu Jin said he wanted to see the merchant guild documents.