Ch.643Chapter 24. Real Estate Never Die (21)

When you spend a “Night of Awakening” with the Patriotic General, even Italians will fall for it so deeply they’ll drink iced Americanos.

The scene of Firenze drinking an Americano while suppressing the pain of dismemberment spread worldwide, causing an enormous reaction, especially in Italy.

To make a comparison, it would be like if Korean ability user A-rank Mr. Kim Cheol-min went to America and was photographed climbing onto a bed while wearing shoes.

Some people said it was just cultural differences and not to worry about it, but most Italians are saying that drinking an Americano crossed the line.

Correction.

They’re somewhat criticizing drinking an Americano as crossing the line.

“Honey, sob sob…”

“How could you make my darling drink an iced Americano…!”

Firenze, nestled in Milano’s arms, shed tears as if she had been violated by Platinum Sun, while Milano raised his voice at me for forcing her to consume something hot, thick, and covered in white cream.

“That’s not carbonara! How could you call something so full of heavy cream carbonara!”

“But it must have been delicious.”

“It was tasty, but that doesn’t make it carbonara!”

It felt like going to Mexico and calling lettuce pickled with habanero peppers “kimchi,” but thanks to Firenze’s tearful sacrifice, I was able to achieve the effect I wanted.

“I’ll let you eat all the bibimbap you want in Jeonju later, but for now, please refrain from going outside. And…”

“Honey!!”

“Darling!!”

As soon as I pulled out the tickets, the couple embraced each other and began to cry.

“Our hearts won’t waver, right? Right?”

“Of course not. It’s just temporary, we absolutely can’t waver!”

“…Anyone watching would think you’re Gyeonu and Jiknyeo.”

I may be the crow and magpie who created the bridge for them, but I’m also the one who will separate them again.

“If you go out and people gossip, just ignore them. It’s just malicious misunderstandings from people trying to frame you.”

That’s only natural.

“You’ve never committed adultery, Firenze has never harbored feelings for Do Ji-hwan, and she never abandoned her husband after being enchanted by Do Ji-hwan’s patriotic awakening.”

Drinking iced Americano.

Eating carbonara soaked in cream in one bite.

“The rumor that Firenze is trying to show off to Do Ji-hwan to somehow ‘awaken more’ is just people’s wild imagination.”

All of this is to trick people into believing that ‘Do Ji-hwan NTR’d Firenze from Milano.’

“Milano. You need to genuinely think of Do Ji-hwan as a bastard. As the man who stole your wife. Understand?”

“Will that help us catch that fever demon?”

“Of course. If your acting is convincing enough, that guy will definitely do a triple axel of joy.”

More precisely, Yoo Yeol-chung.

“For that, we need an even more definitive method.”

I picked up the goblin club.

“Uh, wait, what are you…?”

“To deceive the enemy, you must deceive your allies too. Don’t worry. It’s the princess’s kiss that breaks the curse on the cursed prince.”

“W-wait a moment? Why are you pointing that at my head?”

“Well.”

For more convincing acting.

“To deceive the world, shouldn’t you start by deceiving yourself?”

WHACK!

* * *

A little later, at the hotel cafeteria.

In front of a monitor showing the scene.

A woman holding a child in her arms is watching the monitor while giving the baby a pacifier.

[Hey. Are you listening?]

“What, pervert.”

[Pervert? I’m just taking on a form to entice the Goblin, that’s all.]

The voice coming from the speaker sounded similar yet different from the missing Yang Da-rin, but the owner of the voice wasn’t visible on screen.

[How do I look?]

The screen flips.

[Miss Yang Da-rin. How do I look?]

“I don’t know.”

The white-haired, red-eyed woman looking directly at the camera lens smiled broadly, with marks around her eyes from wearing glasses.

[Do you think this is enough to lure the Goblin? I don’t think I look that different from the women around him.]

“You seem to have become much more lively than when you were with me.”

[I changed not just my appearance but also my way of speaking to appeal to the Goblin. Humans call this an ‘ideal type,’ right?]

“Is that really the Goblin’s type? I wonder…”

Yang Da-rin tilted her head, recalling the Goblin—no, Do Ji-hwan—she had met before.

“Maybe that’s not the Goblin’s ideal romantic type, but rather the ideal form for the demon Yoo Yeol-chung?”

[Oh… That’s quite an interesting perspective. As expected from the woman who inherited 10% of Haeguneul Group Chairman Choi Ho-jung’s legacy.]

“…Hmph.”

Yang Da-rin pouted while patting the baby in her swaddling cloth.

“That’s not really important. So what? What exactly are you trying to show me?”

[Obviously, the anguish of the Goblin who dared to mess with a married woman and her husband! You wanted to see this kind of thing, didn’t you?]

“……”

Yang Da-rin bit her lower lip for a moment.

Back when Choi Ho-jung was alive.

More precisely, before Choi Ho-jung became the ‘Man Praying Desperately’ statue now standing in the first-floor plaza of Haeguneul Department Store in Busan’s Seomyeon.

Yang Da-rin had wanted it.

A scene straight out of a drama.

The image of a bold man taking Yang Da-rin and her child away, leaving Choi Ho-jung behind.

[How about it, should I apply a filter? Change the man’s appearance to Choi Ho-jung?]

“You can do that?”

[It will only appear that way to you, but that’s nothing. Look, here he comes now.]

Crackle.

The screen flipped again.

Following Yoo Yeol-chung’s gaze as he adjusted his glasses, the screen changed, and soon two people entering the cafeteria came into view.

“Oh…”

Do Ji-hwan remained the same.

But the woman, who initially appeared to be Firenze, soon transformed into Yang Da-rin.

“This is quite…”

[He seems to be limping. A side effect of awakening?]

“…amazing, really amazing.”

Yang Da-rin felt a certain thrill watching herself limping through the magical filtering.

Then, looking at the comment section of a certain Gangwon-do cyber broadcast that had secretly infiltrated the Geumgangsan Hotel—different from Yoo Yeol-chung’s view—she felt a shiver down her spine.

-So the Patriotic General finally went after a married woman!

-From today, I’m calling Do Ji-hwan “Affair-hwan.”

-The audacity to go after a married woman when he’s married himself… and a Western white horse at that…

The comments were full of explicit sexual harassment, but Yang Da-rin found even that harassment somehow amusing.

-What about the husband… Lost his ability, lost his hero qualification, lost his cradle, and even lost his wife…

-Literally Zenros.

The foundation was clearly pleasure.

-What? This is good. That man didn’t deserve a woman like her.

The vicarious satisfaction of seeing someone liberated from their old husband and meeting a new, younger man.

It reached its climax as she watched a man suddenly rush into the cafeteria.

[Honey!!]

An old man running toward the couple sitting in the cafeteria.

[What are you doing! Why, why are you with that man!!]

He looked like Choi Ho-jung, and Yang Da-rin clenched her fist as she watched him desperately clinging to her on-screen self.

[…Security.]

[Darling!!]

[…I’m disappointed in you. It’s over between us, A-rank hero Milano.]

In a cold, rigid voice, the on-screen Yang Da-rin clearly announced to Choi Ho-jung.

[If you truly loved me, you would let me go willingly. If not, it means you never loved me—you just carried me around like a convenient handbag.]

[H-honey…!]

[The ice has melted in my coffee. I’ll be going now.]

The on-screen Yang Da-rin downed her iced Americano in one shot, then moved closer to Do Ji-hwan sitting across from her and linked arms with him.

[H-honey…]

Thud.

The kneeling Choi Ho-jung’s appearance changed again.

With an unbelieving face, filled with despair and frustration, looking as if he might take his own life at any moment, the Italian man began clawing at his chest.

[Ugh, argh…!]

And everyone worried.

For a moment, whether he might become a “demon.”

“…Zenros’d but not becoming a demon?”

Snicker.

As if that thought had reached him.

[AAAAARGH!!]

The man who had been Milano simply exhaled roughly and screamed in agony, unable to become a demon.

[How pitiful. Lost his wife to a Korean man, yet can’t even become a demon. Moreover…]

Yoo Yeol-chung continued.

[Italy decided that one S-rank is better than two A-ranks. Wow, his life is over. Ah, aah…]

In an excited voice, he began breathing heavily.

[To drive a human into such a hopeless abyss… Pretending to save him only to do this to him, what devilish behavior…!]

“…Is that possibly not acting?”

[What do you mean? Maybe it’s because you’re watching through a screen, but if you saw it in person, you’d feel differently. If this were acting, I’d quit being a demon.]

“……”

Yang Da-rin just smirked at Yoo Yeol-chung’s words.

“Sure, whatever you say.”

Because.

“I’ve already enjoyed myself to the fullest.”

Just seeing Choi Ho-jung screaming in anguish as she fell into the arms of another, younger man had given her catharsis.

The very definition of ‘vicarious satisfaction.’

* * *

“…I never want to do this again.”

Firenze covered her face with her hands as soon as she entered the room.

“Even so, to seal away memories and put on such an act…!”

“If we erased the memories, it wouldn’t be acting but reality.”

Milano’s words, actions, and pain aren’t acting.

That man is currently experiencing the genuine pain of being NTR’d, if only temporarily.

“I told you. To catch a demon, one must become something worse than a demon.”

To catch Yoo Yeol-chung.

“I, the Goblin, can become a god, a demon, or even Platinum Sun who NTRs married women.”

Everything is.

“For the peace of the world that The Syndicate will rule.”

Just an act.