Chapter 40. The Old Mercenary and Seaweed Soup (2)
“That’s admirable.”
Victoria smiled warmly after hearing Yukgap’s words.
Yukgap only gave a light shrug.
“I’m just trying to show off my skills a little as a chef.”
Then he asked Victoria for a favor.
“Anyway, I’m going to make another batch with different ingredients, so keep this old man company for a while.”
“Come back quickly. If this old man does something weird again, my fist might move before I can stop it.”
“Please. Just try not to kill him.”
With that, Yukgap left the room to cook.
Now only Victoria and Sunhyeong remained.
“Mom, Mom. Don’t go anywhere. Stay right here with me. Hehehe.”
Sunhyeong still called Victoria “Mom” and clung to her like a child.
Victoria looked at him with mixed feelings.
“Now that I know the story... I do feel a little sorry for him.”
She had punched him before because she thought he was simply an old man making unwanted advances.
But after hearing what had happened to him, pity came first.
He must have been so starved for familial affection that he was trying to find his mother in her.
Victoria quietly thought about it.
“Mom, where did that man from earlier go?”
Sunhyeong suddenly asked.
Victoria answered casually.
“Yukgap? He went to make seaweed soup for you.”
“Then it’s just you and me here now, Mom?”
“Yeah.”
Sunhyeong slowly looked up at her.
A murderous gleam flashed through the eyes that had been dull and unfocused only moments ago.
His voice dropped into a low, rough tone completely unlike the childish way he had spoken before.
“...Then this should make our conversation much easier, daughter of Mary Frankenstein.”
With those words, Sunhyeong violently grabbed Victoria by the throat.
Using strength that no ordinary old man should have possessed, he shoved her against the wall.
“Huh?”
The attack came so suddenly that Victoria could not react.
Sunhyeong breathed heavily as he stared at her.
“I heard rumors that Doctor Mary’s daughter had come to Korea. But I never imagined you would come directly to me!”
He tightened his grip around Victoria’s neck.
Victoria let out a short groan under the pressure.
“Ghk!”
“You won’t shake me off easily. I may not look it, but I’m an enhanced human whose muscle fibers were reinforced! Subduing one woman like you is nothing!”
As if proving his words, the muscles in both of Sunhyeong’s arms rippled unnaturally.
The pressure around Victoria’s throat steadily increased.
“Now tell me. Where is the Philosopher’s Stone Doctor Mary created?”
Sunhyeong demanded sharply.
Victoria merely let out a long sigh.
“Haaaa... Why is everyone so obsessed with that damn Philosopher’s Stone?”
She was completely calm.
Realizing his threat was not working, Sunhyeong tightened his fingers even harder.
“You don’t seem to understand. If I put just a little more strength into this, I’ll snap your neck and kill you.”
“Listen. I don’t know what kind of alchemist performed your enhancement surgery, but...”
Victoria suddenly drove her knee hard into Sunhyeong’s stomach.
The tremendous impact struck him squarely in the abdomen.
“Gah!”
“You’re unbelievably weak. Did you get some cheap, half-assed procedure?”
Victoria mocked him as she shoved him aside.
Caught off guard by the attack to his weak point, Sunhyeong glared at her with wide eyes.
“Y-You...!”
But to Victoria, his reaction only looked ridiculous.
“You really want to keep going? Yukgap asked me not to get rough with you.”
Victoria casually took a fighting stance.
Sunhyeong faced her while breathing heavily.
After being hit several times, he knew one thing for certain.
Victoria was not normal.
Not only could she physically overpower his enhanced body, she did not even flinch at ordinary threats.
That meant she had more than enough confidence to handle him.
But even so, he could not back down.
“If I can learn the truth about the Philosopher’s Stone, I’ll do anything!”
Sunhyeong screamed and lunged at Victoria.
At that moment, a dagger flew past and buried itself in the floor at his feet.
“Enough.”
Yukgap slowly approached from the other side, his eyes gleaming.
“Step away from my employer.”
“Yukgap, how did you know what was happening?”
How had someone who supposedly went to make seaweed soup returned here?
At Victoria’s question, Yukgap twitched his ears.
“My hearing is better than normal, remember? I thought you might be beating him up again, so I came back to check. Instead, I heard something very interesting.”
He glared coldly at Sunhyeong.
“Choi Sunhyeong. No, David Choi. You’ve been sane this whole time?”
Sunhyeong answered defensively.
“The dementia is real. But at least right now, I’m capable of having a proper conversation with you.”
“Then this should be quick.”
Yukgap rolled up his sleeve and exposed his arm.
Black spots appeared across his skin as animal fur began rising along it.
“I’m one of Abraxas’s Twelve Archons. In the past, I was called No. 6. Do you know anything about me?”
