Leveling Up Alone

The mess that the thugs had made magically cleaned itself up as if nothing happened.

“H-How is this possible…?”

She could not believe what she had just witnessed. The utensils floating up off the floor and arranging themselves were one thing, but the tables and cracks on the wall mending themselves were completely shocking.

“Y-Yes?”

She looked down at her hand and realized it was blood, and she hurriedly covered her nose. Then, she ran into the kitchen to wash it.

Stewart let out a sigh now that they were alone. Then, he said, “I was actually surprised when you called that woman your mother, Han-Yeol-nim.”

Han-Yeol grimaced and retorted, “Imagine how surprised I was. Do you think I expected to see my mother in a place like this?”

Actually, he had no idea who his mother was or what she looked like. He had no memory of his mother, and the only thing he knew about her was that she had already passed away, which was what his father had told him.

The only reason he knew she was still alive and that she left hwith his sister was that he overheard his father talking to someone on the phone while he was drunk.

Han-Yeol had no idea what his mother looked like until fairly recently when he went to his father’s room to get something and saw a photo of her in one of the cabinets by pure coincidence.

“What are you going to do now, Han-Yeol-nim?” Stewart asked.

He initially considered using this opportunity to cut all ties with her as mother and son with his own hands, but he could no longer bring himself to do so after seeing her living situation. Now, he could no longer decide what he was supposed to do with her.

He pictured himself acting worse than the devil whenever he imagined himself meeting his mother, but the reality was completely different from his imagination.

Anyway, he decided to think about the troublesthings later and ordered two bowls of Yukgaejang.

He did not have to take care of the Gurkhas, as they stood guard in shifts and cinto the restaurants to eat without him having to tell them.

“H-Here is the yukgaejang you ordered.”

“Wow~ That looks good. Let’s eat, Stewart.”

“Yes, it does look good, Han-Yeol-nim.”

“Enjoy~”

Both of them took a spoonful of the hot, spicy stew.

However, the noisy murmuring of the crowd outside the restaurant interrupted their meal.

“Hmm?”

“It suddenly got noisy outside.”

They noticed that one of the Gurkhas let someone through and entered the restaurant.

The restaurant door creaked open, and a woman who seemed to be in her thirties rushed in.

They could see from her disheveled hair and clothes how much she had rushed to get here.

“Ah, t-they did—no, more importantly! How can a lady use such foul language?”

“Mom! Is my language what’s important right now?!”

The owner of the restaurant, Han-Yeol’s mother, pointed at one corner of the restaurant.

The woman who just entered looked where she was pointing and—

“S-Spare me! Mercy!”

The thugs flailed their limbs while suspended in mid-air by Han-Yeol’s Psychokinesis skill.

Han-Yeol had yet to eat his lunch, so he chose to sit down and enjoy a bowl of yukgaejang first, but that did not mean the situation was over.

On the other hand, Han-Yeol could immediately tell that she was likely his sister, whom his mother had left together with.

However, she seemed clueless about the fact that he was actually her little brother.

He was now confident that his mother was not simply apologizing for the sake of apologizing to him. She seemed to have kept the fact that Han-Yeol was her son hidden from her own daughter, just in case her daughter would go and find him.

“Hey, Stewart… What happened a while ago will probably spread like wildfire, right?” Han-Yeol whispered to the demon.

“Is it not obvious? I mean, we can stop the media by threatening them, but we have no way to control people from posting it on social media.”

“Yes, I am, always.”

Then, he pulled his mother aside to the kitchen to speak to her in private.

“Han-Yeol…”

“I still find it difficult to forgive you.”

“…”

“However, that is already in the past, and I am extremely successful while you are living such a life, so I do not have any desire to seek vengeance or anything.”

Han-Yeol would have definitely sought revenge and caused her downfall if she was living the good life, but that was not the case right now.

“I am… really sorry…”

“…”

“Do you understand?”

“Yes, I do.”

She looked Han-Yeol in the eyes for the first time.

Was she trying to get a good look at her son for the last time? Or was she disappointed by his ruthlessness?

Whatever she was thinking, Han-Yeol took one last good look at his mother.

“I will not mention this to Father.”

“Yes, that’s alright.”

“Oh! What did you talk about with my mom in the kitchen, Han-Yeol-nim?”

“Wow! It is an honor you like our food!”

The woman in her thirties looked at Han-Yeol with sparkles in her eyes.

Han-Yeol and Stewart left the restaurant, and he took one last look at them before leaving them forever.

The low hum of the electric motor was the only thing that could be heard while Han-Yeol looked out the window. He finally managed to settle one of his long-standing grudges, but he did not feel comfortable for sreason.

“Hey, Stewart.”

“Yes?”

“That building a while ago.”

“Yes?”

“Buy it.”

“As you wish.”

“If they get in the way—“

“I will eliminate them.”

“Please.”

“Just leave it to me, Han-Yeol-nim.”

“Thanks.”

Stewart was here to assist Han-Yeol. He might act like a secretary, but he was, in fact, stronger than most Master-Rank Hunters. On top of that, he possessed numerous skills, as he was a demon capable of wielding magic as his specialty.

Thus, a Master-Rank Hunter would not be able to win against him due to the sheer number of skills he could unleash at them.

Stewart was extremely powerful, but he was still Han-Yeol’s secretary right now, so he had no qualms about running errands for Han-Yeol rather than being in combat.

The demon recorded what he had to do on his smartphone before calling out, “Han-Yeol-nim…”

“Yeah?”

“Are families supposed to be… that complicated?”

“What? Don’t you demons have families?”

Han-Yeol was not that familiar with the lifestyle of demons. Of course, there were numerous records of demons in the books he read, but he was skeptical of most of the information written in them, as there was no way mere humans could know about the actual lifestyle of demons. Most of the information written in these books was just the prejudice and arrogance humans had rather than facts.

He did not feel any shin asking about things he was unfamiliar with, and he actually considered pretending to know something he had no idea about to be more embarrassing.

“Monsters procreate just like humans or animals do, but that cannot be said for demons. In fact, even we demons have no idea how we were made. Perhaps the best way to explain it is that we are born from darkness?”

“Darkness? I guess that’s why you find it difficult to understand what family is.”

“I believe so. Frankly speaking, I was a bit surprised, as you acted completely different from how you usually are. However, I did read a few things about family and stuff on the internet, and I sort of understood that it can indeed be complicated. I just did not expect it to be this complicated…”

“Family is a topic you think you know about, yet your heart will tell you otherwise.”

“Yes, I believe it is.”

“To be honest, even I have no idea.”

“Hmm?”

“I think anyone will give you the sanswer. Nobody will be able to give you a satisfactory explanation regarding things like love, friendship, family, maternal love, or anything like that. Ah, a few people make a living from speaking about those things, but they just sugarcoat it without giving a proper explanation.”

“Oh?”

“And I’m not a fan of those kinds of people.”

“Hmm…”

“So yeah, if you askto explain what a family is, then I have no idea, to be honest.”

“I see…”

The last thing Han-Yeol said sort of perplexed Stewart. He did not expect to find something so intriguing yet bizarre after coming to the human world under Lucifer’s commands. Interestingly, the demon could feel a strange desire to feel whatever confusing emotion Han-Yeol was feeling currently.

However, he decided to brush this foreign feeling off.

“It seems that spring has come, Han-Yeol-nim.”

“Oh, it’s already spring? I guess treally does fly.”

***

Han-Yeol had encountered a small incident, but that did not affect him at all. Rather, he felt as if a heavy load had finally been lifted off his chest.

“Did they agree to the invitation?”

“All 1,023 people we sent the invitation to have sent their replies.”

“Oh? That was easier than I thought.”

“It seems the thought of getting on the world’s strongest Hunter’s bad side was burdensfor them.”

“Yes, and they probably think nothing bad will happen to them in the Blue House.”

“I must say I am looking forward to it as well.”

Han-Yeol asked Stewart to send out invitations to the people he labeled as the top priority targets for him to eliminate to ensure that South Korea could becgreat again.