WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The S-Classes That I Raised ◈
Chapter 19: In Front of the Kids
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Kim Seonghan came along as our driver again. Naturally, Yerim didn't have a license, and neither did I. More precisely, I didn't have one at this point in time. I got my license and bought a car after I had managed to settle in as an F-Class Hunter.
My beloved car hadn't even been born yet. Should I buy the same model again?
As we entered the apartment building, Yerim looked a little tense. Well, she was still only fifteen, a young girl. Even if she had a bad relationship with them, she couldn't be entirely comfortable cutting ties with the relatives who had taken her in.
Still, perhaps thanks to the S-Class Mental Strength stat bonus, she pressed the elevator button without hesitation. Her hand was just as steady when selecting the floor.
I probably didn't need to worry much.
“It's here.”
Yerim spoke as she stepped off on the fourteenth floor and turned toward the door on the right.
“Even if that man you call your uncle acts up, don't ever engage with him. If a high-ranked Awakened touches an ordinary person, things get troublesome. Hold back, even if you get angry.”
But I had F-Class stats, hardly different from an ordinary person, so I would be fine. Yerim nodded despite looking displeased.
After one last check, I stepped in front of her and rang the bell. A moment later, a middle-aged woman asked who it was.
“I'm Miss Park Yerim's new guardian.”
[…What are you talking about?]
A faint mutter came through the intercom. It had to be bewildering. Soon, the closed door opened.
A large man in his fifties, wearing loose shorts and a sleeveless shirt, frowned at me.
“Nice to meet you. You are Miss Park Yerim's former custodian, correct?”
I greeted him with a sweet smile and voice. The man, Park Seongtae, Yerim's uncle, spotted Yerim standing a short distance behind me and frowned even harder.
“What the hell did that bitch do now?!”
His sudden shout made my ears sting. What a voice.
“Please calm down.”
“Calm down, my ass! Who the hell are you supposed to be?”
“I just told you. I'm Miss Park Yerim's new guardian.”
“…Guardian?”
At the word guardian, Park Seongtae paused. He was probably thinking of the inheritance he had taken from his older brother.
“I'm her custodian, so what guardian are you talking about? What kind of scam are you trying to pull?”
“It isn't a scam. Please take a look.”
I deliberately took the guardianship agreement for a minor Awakened from the document case I had prepared and politely handed it to him. It had been formally drawn up and notarized through the Legal Affairs Team.
Yerim had not yet registered with the Association, but Haeyeon Guild's testing device had confirmed that she was Awakened, and she had even signed a contract as a Hunter. There was no legal issue.
Things like this had to be handled properly.
“…Awakened? That bitch?”
The clear emotion on the man's face as he gave the agreement a cursory read was greed. Easy enough to understand.
His eyes darted as he looked at Yerim.
“I hear Awakened make quite a bit of money.”
“That depends on their rank. More importantly, minor Hunters possess the same rights as adults, so they may choose their own guardian. In other words, all the rights and obligations you held as Miss Park Yerim's custodian have completely lapsed.”
Park Seongtae furrowed his brow, failing to understand right away.
“What are you talking about? I'm her custodian!”
“Not anymore.”
Would you please understand what I was saying? How many times did I have to explain it?
“How can that be?! That bitch is sixteen!”
“She is fifteen. Under the Special Act, Hunters aged fourteen or older have the same rights as adult Hunters.”
“What Special Act? Stop spouting this bullshit and get out! Yerim, come here!”
He tried to shove past me to approach Yerim. But I did not budge.
This was why I wore leather gloves even in the heat. Come at me if you dared. My Strength was 24 now!
“You little…!”
Park Seongtae stumbled back in surprise when my relatively small frame did not move at all. I stopped the front door from closing with the tip of my foot and lowered the doorstop.
“How can you suddenly hit someone? Please speak nicely.”
“Hit? What hit? You little bastard, you're Awakened too! Don't you know Awakened aren't allowed to hit ordinary civilians?!”
“I am Awakened, but I have F-Class stats that hardly differ from those of an ordinary person. And I have no intention of resorting to violence. You were the one who hit me first, weren't you?”
At this very moment, I was a pacifist who valued morality and ethics. Look at this kind smile. Didn't I look nice?
“I trust that, after all this explanation, you understand that I am Miss Park Yerim's guardian and that you are no longer her custodian.”
I took the agreement from Park Seongtae's hand and pulled out documents concerning Yerim's inheritance.
“After checking, I found that you sold off all the real estate that should have gone to Miss Park Yerim.”
Park Seongtae's expression darkened at the mention of the inheritance.
“That was only because it was difficult to manage… Yerim agreed to it too!”
What a load of bullshit.
“When she was fifteen? No, she was thirteen then, an elementary school student.”
“Agreement is agreement.”
The bastard was shameless. That was irritating.
“I don't find that persuasive, but I did not come today to dispute the inheritance. Let us get to the point.”
I put away the inheritance documents Park Seongtae had not even glanced at and presented a written pledge instead.
“It states that you will neither approach nor contact Miss Park Yerim in any way going forward. Will you sign it?”
It would not have legal effect, but it could be useful for media pressure. Park Seongtae scowled and spat out a curse.
“I raised her with all my care, and now that she's Awakened, you fucking bastard are trying to take her away!”
The pledge he slapped away fluttered to the floor. I heard teeth grinding behind me. Hold on just a little longer, Yerim.
“You certainly speak like a devoted Caregiver. Though the girl you claim to have raised with such care is wearing old sneakers that don't even fit her.”
I made sure to let my suppressed anger show. In truth, heat was already rising in me, so I did not need to act much.
“Th-That's because! We aren't well-off, and when you're raising children, they have to wear hand-me-down shoes…”
“So these days, even after swallowing an inheritance worth billions of won, people cannot afford one pair of shoes. Prices must have gone up a lot while I wasn't looking.”
Maybe a new pair of sneakers cost a hundred million won now. Had I come to the future rather than the past?
Park Seongtae's face turned red, then blue at my mockery.
“Even so, if she has any conscience, she should repay the people who raised her! Is it the right thing for a person to do, leaving just so she can live well on her own?”
Wow. Just look at him forcing that argument. His hide had to be at least a meter thick.
I deliberately sighed loudly, then took out my wallet.
“So, what you're saying is that you want money.”
“That's not necessarily…”
“Here is a check for one hundred million won.”
As I took out the check, his gaze wavered.
“That paltry sum…”
“Please remember that I had no reason to give you even that paltry sum. This is purely an investment for my ward.”
After hesitating, Park Seongtae picked up the pledge from the floor. His finances were almost certainly not in good shape. A simple check of the property registry revealed mortgage liens worth hundreds of millions of won.
After swallowing several billion won and ending up like that in only a few years, naturally he would covet the hundred million won before his eyes.
“…Give me a pen.”
“Here you are.”
We each signed the pledge and kept a copy.
“Then I sincerely hope we never meet again.”
After saying that, I switched off the recorder. From the conversation in the recorder alone, it would sound as though I had lowered my head and paid money to a scoundrel.
His theft of the inheritance was in there, the way he had treated Yerim was in there, and the money he took was in there. I had been extremely polite. Perfect.
“What was that just now?”
Park Seongtae frowned when he saw me turn off the recorder. What did he think it was?
“A recording I'll use to bury you if you pull anything stupid.”
“…What?”
“You don't expect me to believe an asshole like you will take a mere hundred million won and keep quiet, do you?”
“You're insane…!”
Bang!
I grabbed the charging man's face in one hand and slammed it into the doorframe. Then I kicked his collapsing body into the entryway.
“Suchan's Dad!”
A middle-aged woman who had been peeking through the inner door let out a shrill cry.
“If you don't want to clean up a corpse, please keep quiet. You'll disturb the neighbors.”
The apartment next door was quiet, perhaps because they had gone away for the weekend, but you never knew. The middle-aged woman trembled and nodded reflexively.
I had only intended to give a warning and leave, but she looked so terrified that I felt a little awkward.
I bent down and tapped Park Seongtae's cheek. There was a faint smell of blood, as if he had split the back of his head. He groaned and opened his eyes.
“You should be more careful. Why did you lose your footing? Hit your head in the wrong place, and you're dead.”
“W-What…”
“Apartment front doors are heavy pieces of metal, so they are dangerous in many ways. Especially, look.”
I pushed his limp arm so that his fingers rested against the edge of the doorframe. When his hand twitched to pull away, I stepped on it firmly.
“If the door shuts wrong like this, your fingers will come right off. A tragic accident.”
“W-Wait! I was wrong! I'll return the money too!”
His eyes were full of fear as he looked up at me. Still, he was an ordinary person. Had I gone a little too far? I had been spending time around half-crazy bastards until recently, so…
This would not do. I was supposed to live kindly this time.
I straightened up and gave him a bright smile.
“Ah, I'm sorry. I went too far, didn't I? Don't worry, I won't touch you again. The same will apply going forward. As long as you don't make trouble, you will never have to see me again. Just live well like this without worrying about me.”
He had just received a free hundred million won. How nice for him.
“But if you start getting greedy for no reason, it will not end with a warning. I'll put a little spin on the recording, grease the press, bury you socially, and make you cough up every bit of the inheritance you swallowed. Oh, but you probably will not have enough money to repay it. Then I'll get you Awakened and use you as a dungeon porter. Did you know? If you drop dead inside a dungeon, nobody knows what happened.”
When a dungeon was cleared, it reset and even the bodies disappeared cleanly. If I simply said a monster had killed him, that would be that.
Ugh, another bad memory was about to surface. It had not happened this time around, so I should forget it quickly.
“I-I'll live quietly! I won't say a word!”
“I would appreciate it if you did. Now get up.”
Stop bowing your head so much. You were making me uncomfortable.
Thinking things were roughly settled, I turned to Yerim. But the expression on her face as she looked at me was rather strange.
…Had I really gone too far? He had been the uncle she lived with, and I had cracked his head and threatened to cut off his fingers. It made sense for her to see me differently. It would be bad if things went wrong between us now.
“Um, Yerim.”
“Are you okay, mister?”
“…What?”
Yerim walked over to me.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
…You were worried about the wrong person. I was the one who hit him, so why was she asking me that?
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