Boy Monster Chapter 52

Jae Eunho let out a deep sigh. Jang Hwonwoo clasped his hands together and looked up at Jae Eunho, his face showing he had something to say. The burn mark that had appeared on the boy’s wrist a while ago was still red. It seemed he had gotten hurt while using his fire Hwelju ability.

Saying that the one who would succeed him must be raised harshly, the family head took the ten-year-old boy on assassination missions and to battlefields. Once they boarded a train or a ship, it was common for ten days to pass before they returned, and sometimes it took a month or two.

Each time the boy returned from a mission, the intelligence and murderous intent in his eyes grew sharper. At the same time, Jae Eunho could feel that an equal amount of innocence was being erased.

However, Jae Eunho never asked the boy what horrifying scenes he had witnessed with the family head, or what difficult tasks he had performed. He felt there was no need to ask such things. The boy, likewise, never spoke of them.

After choosing his words for a long moment, the boy opened his mouth.

“I have a favor to ask of you, Sa Yeonri-nim.”

A favor this time? Jae Eunho tilted his head slightly, his face already prepared to refuse. It was a gesture to go ahead and speak. Jang Hwonwoo blinked his deep-set eyes a couple of times and then, as if he had made up his mind, spoke in a firm tone.

“I’d like to ask for some dating advice.”

“What?”

This time, Eunho didn’t hide his true feelings and scowled. But the ten-year-old boy was dead serious. Jang Hwonwoo pointed to a female Yeonri in the distance.

“I want to have that Yeonri, and since you’ve taught her for a long time, I thought you would know her well.”

“Ha, really….”

“No matter how much I read and study about free love and romance in the newspapers, I just don’t get it. Couldn’t you give me some dating advice?”

The kid put on a look of longing as he gazed at the girl. It was absurd. And what about his choice of words? ‘I want to have that Yeonri.’ For goodness’ sake.

In this mess, where the country might be handed over to others and independence activists are being captured and tortured every day, this little brat is already horny for a girl? You want to procreate even in this national crisis? The clueless little fool…. He was just like his father, who wasn’t satisfied until he made every woman his own.

Jae Eunho scoffed freely. Just as he was about to cut him off flatly, saying he was too busy, the boy said this:

“Then I won’t talk to you any other time.”

“……”

“I’ll only come to you once a week to get dating advice.”

Come to think of it, if this kid was going to live in the mansion anyway, it wasn’t a bad deal. He wouldn’t have to answer pointless questions about his daily routine or what he was doing. After calculating, Jae Eunho answered.

“Fine. Come to the inner quarters at this time next week.”

“Yes.”

The boy bowed his head in a polite farewell, then waved one hand high. It was a child-like, innocent greeting. Why is he acting so friendly. Jae Eunho gave a stiff smile and turned away.

The days without the boy’s interruptions were busy and hectic. Before the promised week was up, Jae Eunho had an errand in the main building. As he passed in front of the statues of the Four Heavenly Kings, he happened to see the family head and the boy sitting opposite each other, talking.

“You said that we are the secret army that the King of Joseon trusts the most. I don’t think they would sell us out.”

“Tsk! Do you think the bastards selling out the country would spare us!”

“Wouldn’t they also need a final shield?”

“They are building a foothold to expand into the world. As they conscript military forces, their evil hands will surely reach for us as well! We must move first. If we just stand by, we’ll be the ones who get hit!”

“Please hurry and find the one who will become the master of Sa Hwelju. I will do my best to help with everything else.”

Jang Hwonwoo, speaking privately with the family head, no longer looked like a boy who was about to turn eleven. The perspective in his words was quite broad. His voice was full of confidence, yet he did not provoke his father’s temper. Jae Eunho had thought he wasn’t interested in the nation’s crisis, but it seemed he knew all that he needed to know.

……I take back calling him a clueless kid. But I’ll stand by my criticism that he’s a dog in heat who wants to procreate in this mess.

Jae Eunho hurriedly averted his gaze from the boy’s straight back and neckline.

:･⚜️⊹.️

Jae Eunho had tea with Jang Hwonwoo once a week. Sitting on the edge of the veranda, they would sip their tea as he gave information about the girl and taught him how to confess his affections.

“Yeonri tend to have a strong defensive nature. Once a Hwelju connects with them, they can’t even hold hands or associate with other Hwelju, so they have to be cautious when choosing one. A love letter would be better than words for expressing deep feelings.”

“Ah… a love letter!”

The boy took out a fountain pen and jotted down Jae Eunho’s words. Jae Eunho told the child one more important fact.

“Once you’ve prepared the love letter, next you must prepare a gift.”

“A gift? Um… something expensive?”

“The more expensive, the better. Within the category of things that Yeonri likes.”

The boy rolled his dark, grayish eyes here and there.

“Candy? Or wagashi?”

“Wagashi would be suitable. It’s pretty, too. You know what they say, what looks good, tastes good.”

“What looks good, tastes good….”

The boy nodded and stared at Jae Eunho for a long time. His gaze, firmly fixed on Eunho’s face, was proper and serious.

“What looks good, tastes good. Yes, I’ll be sure to remember that.”

Over the course of two months, the boy shot up in height. Even when he was young, his limbs were long, so Jae Eunho had expected him to have a large frame, but his physique had developed so much it was hard to guess his age. Now, there wasn’t a single girl among the mansion’s Yeonri who didn’t dream of him as their Hwelju.

The kids’ romance games were of no interest to Jae Eunho. While teaching Jang Hwonwoo how to get closer to the Yeonri once a week, Jae Eunho was busy preparing his own revenge behind the scenes. With the family head obsessed with finding the Sa Hwelju bloodline and neglecting the affairs inside the mansion, there were many things he could do.

First, Jae Eunho experimented to see what would happen if he skipped his special pills. Jae Eunho’s resonance ability was usually controlled by these pills and a talisman. Since removing the talisman carried a high risk of being caught by the shaman, he started by secretly throwing away the pills.

‘The talisman’s power is probably stronger, but….’

Throwing away the pills without anyone knowing wasn’t easy. On the day he finally succeeded in skipping the pills for a whole week, Jae Eunho made a meaningful discovery. It was obvious he couldn’t resonate with the entire neighborhood or all of Gyeongseong, but he found he could use his ability to some extent even with the talisman on his back. Of course, it was almost the same as not being able to use it at all. Without his prayer beads either, he could only enter the minds of one or two people for a few seconds.

However, this brief opportunity was not useless if it was in front of the family head. If he could use his power for even a few seconds in front of the family head, he could slowly unsettle his mind.

「Could it be that this nation has fallen into turmoil because my own vessel and ability are lacking?」

「Am I truly one who can take responsibility for the divine power of a nation?」

If he planted these thoughts, little by little, over a long time,

The day would not be far off when the family head, who had only ever overcome his mental anguish with violent acts, would crumble.

Jae Eunho dreamed of a Sashimcheon without the family head. That day when the Hwelju would gather their strength in peace and freedom…. Joseon, too, would greet a beautiful, bright light.

He was in the middle of preparing his quiet revenge. Jae Eunho decided to stop the weekly free-love counseling sessions. He had seen the boy hanging around with that girl last week.

After seeing the two children chatting amiably by the pond near the mansion, he judged that there was no longer any need to spend more time on the boy.

However, when Jae Eunho didn’t show up at the inner quarters’ veranda at their usual meeting time, Jang Hwonwoo apparently went around the mansion looking for him. At that time, Jae Eunho was carrying out a resonance investigation near Incheon Port under the family head’s orders.

The next day, the boy left for Shanghai with other Hwelju. While they were gone for a long time, Jae Eunho spent his days in peace.

When he asked the Yeonri whom Jang Hwonwoo had pointed out, saying he wanted to have her, about recent events, he received an unexpected answer.

“Me? Nothing special has happened recently!”

“Nothing special with the Hwelju either? I saw you taking a walk with Jang Hwonwoo.”

“We’ve always been friendly. Hwonwoo-nim is on good terms with the other Yeonri too, not just me. I guess he doesn’t have a particular Yeonri in mind yet….”

She said they were just being friendly as usual, and that nothing special had happened. There was no mention of a love letter or a wagashi gift.

He couldn’t understand why the boy had spent so much time getting advice. But it was none of his business. When the boy returned to the mansion and waved his much larger hand in greeting to Jae Eunho, Eunho returned the greeting with the same indifferent glance as always.

As he was crossing the garden to go to his room, the boy called out to him from behind.

“Sa Yeonri-nim. Why didn’t you come last week?”

“The consultation is over. What advice is there to give when there’s nothing left to teach you?”

“Pardon? What do you mean, it’s over?”

“I’ve taught you everything I can about that girl.”

“Ah….”

Jae Eunho gave a brief farewell and continued on his way. After a moment of silence, he heard footsteps from behind. The boy ran slowly to catch up to Eunho and said:

“Well, actually, I’m not interested in that girl anymore.”

“…What?”

“I want to have a different Yeonri. What kind of girl is that Yeonri? Please tell me about her now.”

Jang Hwonwoo pointed to a girl who was nearby. Jae Eunho could not hold back his astonishment in the face of a desire passed down through the bloodline. He’s a lecher, just like his damn father. A few more years, no, just a year or two, and he’ll have gone through every Yeonri in this mansion. Is that really your plan, you brat?

“I still need more advice.”

The boy’s expression was nothing but serious.