How a D-Class Alchemist Avoids Death

“Is there anything else that needs to be fixed apart from this?”

“No. Nothing else. It’s okay now.”

A response echoes from the slightly opened door of the room.

“What do you mean nothing else? Light’s leaking in from the roof.”

“Ah, right. I forgot.”

I clicked my tongue. 

After confirming that Woo Hanseong was younger than I thought, I abandoned all my operations.

I know certain items that appear in the novel, so I can get Taeju’s sword, although it’s a bit disappointing.

I had planned that if I can’t persuade the blacksmith.

But I can’t bear to see the kid living in such a ruined house. Even though I lived in an orphanage as an orphan, it was a better environment than this ruin. Basically, the home should be the most comfortable place. Even the basement, which I bought by combining the support money I received when I left the orphanage and my part-time job, was better than this ruin.

So after I abandoned the operation, I knocked on the rusted iron gate and said I wanted to fix the house. Woo Hanseong opened the iron gate on the third day to my cry that I just want to fix the house and will never appear again.

But the inside of the house was even more of a mess than I thought. As an SS-class blacksmith, it seemed like she had no intention of ever picking up a hammer again, letting alone fix the things she could with just one swing.

‘There’s nothing done properly here.’

In fact, this was a house that anyone would roll up their sleeves to help.

There really is nothing normal here.

‘How the hell did she live in this house for 2 years?’

“You can roam around as you please. I’ll be outside.”

Perhaps the day I had the pork belly meeting was courageous in itself. While I was wandering inside the house, Woo Hanseong stayed shut in the room. At least the door was slightly open so communication was possible.

Looking at the roof by climbing up the iron ladder, I could see gaps here and there.

If it rains, the house would definitely flood.

“What a disaster.”

Couldn’t she run away to a better place if she was going to run away? Why does she have to live in such a ruin?

I couldn’t understand, nor did I want to understand, such an act. I shrugged my shoulders and took out a wooden board. 

Since the roof is made of wooden boards, I thought it wouldn’t take much time to fix it by just placing new boards over the gaping parts, but the sky was already getting dark.

‘I should call it a day.’

It’s the fourth day since I started fixing the house, but there’s still a lot to be repaired in this damn ruin. I wondered how she survived the winter as the boiler isn’t working at all, and rusty water was running from the kitchen faucet. If only Woo Hanseong didn’t keep her guard up, I would have taken her to my place, since this house’s a real ruin.

‘It might be easier to tear it down and rebuild it’

“Ppi?”

“Yes. Off you go.”

Salt flew up from my head.

Salt always flew around the neighborhood when we came here, maybe he liked the quiet countryside. Despite its short wings, it flew so fast that its figure was soon out of sight.

“I hope its not going around catching bugs?”

Although Salt doesn’t eat human food, as a bird, he might eat bugs. I should ask Salt when he comes back. If he does eat them, I’ll have to gift him a box of mealworms, if not a beetle.

“I’m coming down.”

As Woo Hanseong shouted for him to go back inside, I heard the sound of rushing footsteps into the room. I waited until I couldn’t hear the footsteps anymore and then came down from the roof.

“I’ve put a lunch box in the fridge, so heat it up. You know how to use the microwave, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then I’ll come again tomorrow.”

“Yes, take care.”

Even though she never showed her face again, Woo Hanseong started to talk more as time passed. Sometimes she even asked questions first, and she even greeted me like this.

‘It feels like taming a stray cat.’

I cleaned up the iron ladder, put it in the infinity pouch, and came out of the iron gate. The oiled iron gate no longer squeaked.

“Ppi?”

“Yeah. Let’s go home early today.”

This morning, Taeju, the punk who had just gotten home, nagged me about where the hell I had been so busy. I tried to let it go in one ear and out the other, but it was almost as if instead of conquering dungeons in Australia, he had been learning how to nag. It was so bad I thought my ears would bleed.

‘Shit stinks, so you avoid it. Fear it, so you run.’

I heard that in two days, Taeju will be going to conquer an S-level dungeon in the guild. Since it’s a huge dungeon, it usually takes around three nights and four days, so I just need to endure until then.

‘Right. Let’s not pick fights unnecessarily.’

But, Taeju picked a fight again today.

“Where have you been?”

“Out.”

“You don’t have friends, hyung.”

I looked at Taeju with disbelief.

If I was truly Seo Go-woon, I would have swung a knife at you. You bloody piece of trash.

“Where did you go?”

“—tired.”

Ignoring the garbage of a human, I headed toward my room. I could feel Taeju following me, but I didn’t care. Tomorrow is the day to go to the dungeon, so I planned to get to bed early since I got home early.

“Hyung.”

The moment I shut the door to prevent him from following, I heard him grumbling outside.

Fortunately, that jerk doesn’t enter my room. If he came in here too, I would have suffered all night, every night.

“Salt. You should also take a bath.”

“Ppi.”

Salt flew up and headed towards the pillow, the size of a baby’s fist. I quickly caught Salt.

“Where are you going to sit on the pillow with a body covered in dust?”

“Ppi.”

“No but, you’re gray right now.”

Salt was naturally full of dust as it was on my head when I was fixing things in a dust hole.

“Alright. Let’s go wash.”

“Ppi-ppi-ppi.”

For a creature wearing a bird’s form, it hates bathing as much as a cat.

I filled the sink with warm water and placed Salt in it.

“Ppi-ppi!”

A loud chirp came out from Salt’s mouth.

“You rebel while taking a bath.”

It flapped its wings as if to say, when did I resist washing, and cleaned itself meticulously. I chuckled at the sight and just as I finished my shower and came out, I heard Taeju, who seemed to be still outside, knocking on the door.

‘Disgusting jerk. He doesn’t know when to quit.’

“What?” While drying my hair with a wet towel, I asked curtly.

“Hyung, let’s talk.”

“I’m tired.”

“What did you do that you’re so tired?”

I sighed and opened the door. Seo Taeju stood there with his fist clenched, probably thinking of knocking again.

“Hyung, did you take a shower?”

“Yeah, I did. Why are you doing this?”

“What?”

At my question, he tilted his head.

“Are you afraid that I’ll cause another incident?”

“Huh?”

“I told you. I won’t cause any more incidents. No gambling, no drugs, no loans.”

“No, that’s not what I’m worried about.”

If it’s not that, then why is he bothering me? Even if my social skills have improved due to my life as a cop and a detective, I am someone used to being alone. Furthermore, the reason I reconciled with the constantly rambling Seo Taeju for Cradle’s party was not to live as Seo Go-woon, but because I wanted to maintain a certain boundary.

“Hyung, I…”

“If you’re not worrying about that, then don’t bother me. Got it?”

The guy eventually clamped his mouth shut and nodded.

Now it should get a little quieter.

“Now, go to sleep.”

With the last bit of kindness left, I waved my hand and closed the door again.

***

“Hey, Kim Salt. Didn’t I tell you not to climb on my head when I’m wet?”

At the sound coming from inside the room, Seo Taeju frowned. His mood worsened at the tone that was warmer than when the initial tone the man used on himself earlier.

“…You’re acting strange, hyung.”

He thought they had reconciled. He thought that they could now get along like other brothers.

“Do you think brotherhood is something like a drama? It’s a fantasy. Brothers naturally fight like dogs. It’s just frustration because they can’t prey on each other.”

He remembered what Seo Moon-no-eul told him with a cluck of her tongue, but Seo Taeju shook his head. He never intended to overpower his older brother. After all, hadn’t his brother just accepted him?

Even though other brothers shared the same blood, he and his brother didn’t, they still could have a affectionate brotherhood. Seo Taeju, recalling Go-woon who used to comfort him as soon as he cried until he went to Australia, nodded.

“That’s right, I need to try harder because I owe him…”

In order to become the loving brothers that his deceased parents wanted, they needed to spend time together. He thought he could spend time together because Go-woon promised to adjust his busy dungeon schedule before setting off. So when he went to Australia, he sped up his party members who went together and finished the raid faster than planned and returned.

“Where on earth is he going?”

Go-woon’s schedule that he found out was really leisurely adjusted. Unlike the past when he used to go to public dungeons besides running two dungeons in the morning and afternoon, now he only conducted one dungeon raid in the morning and took a rest once every three days.

“He even took a vacation.”

And it went on for a whole week.

It was a long vacation, enough for anyone to think he went overseas for fun. Sneaking into the dungeon and taking vacations were pleasurable things for Seo Taeju. After all, it was Seo Taeju who wanted his brother to live by enjoying the money he earned.

But the fact that Go-woon didn’t tell him anything made Seo Taeju anxious.

“Go-woon is weak to temptations. I didn’t raise him that way, why has he grown up like this.”

“I’m sorry I’m leaving the burden to you. But please take care of your brother.”

Seo Taeju sighed, recalling his mother’s sigh mixed with her lament and his father’s words asking him to take care of Go-woon as he vomited blood before he died.

‘Hyung, I’m sorry.’

Conveying an apology that he could never make himself, Seo Taeju entered his room. And then he made a phone call.

—Yes, Vice Guild Leader.

“Check where my brother has been recently and what he’s been doing, then report to me.”

Not ordering the retreat of the freelance stealth hunter who was watching Go-woon, who had come to his senses, but who knew when he would fall back into temptation, was a godsend.

—Why? Did Seo Go-woon cause trouble again?

“Seo Go-woon? Speak properly. Is he your friend?”

—I’m sorry.

“Report back within 10 minutes.”

—Yes, but hyung, I really didn’t mean to—

He cut off the whining sound with the end call button, and Seo Taeju paced anxiously around the room. He thought he had finally gained the face to meet his deceased parents, but if he goes back to the past, he was in the dark about what he should do.

At that moment, his tightly gripped cell phone vibrated.

“Hmm.”

—Is something wrong? Your voice is—

“Stop the nonsense and just report.”

—Well, it seems he hasn’t done anything strange.

Seo Taeju pressed hard between his eyebrows with his finger as he spoke. “Did you check where he went after finishing the dungeon?”

—Yes. He went to Pyeongbuk-dong…?

“Pyeongbuk-dong?”

—It’s at the end of Gyeonggi-do.

It was a place name he heard for the first time. He wondered if it had something to do with his parents, but both of his parents were from Seoul. In addition, both of their parents were single children, so they had no other relatives. So it was impossible for him to know anyone in Gyeonggi-do, let alone at the end of it.

‘What on earth could be the reason for my brother to go to such a place?’

“What’s there?”

—Nothing in particular.

“But why would he go there?”

—Actually, it’s not that he’s trying to do something there, but he went there to meet someone who lives there.

“Who? Are you going to do such a sloppy job?”

—Ah, sorry… I don’t know about that. But I heard he’s been going there since you went to Australia?

If it was Australia, it was a story more than a week ago.

Has he been going there since then? Who is he meeting?

“What did he do during their meeting?”

—Just a moment.

For a while, the sound of frantic typing was heard, and soon the answer came.

—It seems he’s renovating a house?

“……What?”