Chapter 113 – GOY 113

#113

After ​finishing ​the ​meal, ​Joo ​Seung-hyuk ​guided me through ​the ​mansion ​again.

“There ​are ​so many rooms. How ​many ​are there?”

“I don’t ​know. I’ve never ​counted ​them.”

He ​made ​a ​statement ​that only a ​truly ​wealthy ​person could make, ​his face indifferent. However, ​it was ​understandable. Even ​just standing ​in the ​hallway ​and ​glancing around, there ​were countless ​doors. At this scale, ​it was reasonable not ​to know.

“It must be ​hard to ​manage ​all of this.”

“Most of them are ​empty. Only a few ​rooms ​are ​actually ​in ​use.”

Indeed, with this ​many rooms, ​filling ​each one with ​furniture ​and maintaining them would be ​quite a ​chore.

“Has ​the furniture been ​here ​since ​you ​were ​a child?”

“Yes. ​They ​are items ​bought by the previous owner.”

“I see.”

As expected, ​it didn’t seem ​like Joo Seung-hyuk ​had decorated the place.

“I ​thought about ​replacing everything, but ​I ​just left it. ​I didn’t want ​to waste ​my ​energy on ​a ​place like ​this.”

His ​voice was ​cold, ​hardly ​sounding like someone ​describing ​a place ​imbued ​with ​childhood ​memories.

Regardless, he had wanted to change the interior. From the ceiling decorations and marble floors to the lights, wallpaper, and every single piece of furniture, it was all excessively ornate—clearly not Joo Seung-hyuk’s taste.

“Where are the other employees?”

While touring the mansion, I hadn’t seen any employees other than Yoon Jeong-yeon.

“Why? Do you want to meet someone other than me?”

He grew sharp instantly. Looking into Joo Seung-hyuk’s eyes, which were smoldering with jealousy, I quickly shook my head. I had no desire to press the Obsessive Madman’s jealousy button on my first day out.

“Ah, no. I was just curious since there was no one else around…”

“Don’t look for any human other than me.”

“Okay. I understand. I won’t.”

I quickly changed the subject while soothing him as he looked sullen.

“By the way, Seung-hyuk-ah, what is that room?”

Among the many doors visible in the hallway, one particularly large door caught my attention.

“The library.”

“A library?”

“Do you want to go inside?”

I wondered if it was a library he had curated himself. I was curious about what kind of books Joo Seung-hyuk had filled the shelves with.

“Yes.”

As I nodded immediately, he opened the door and added briefly, “Don’t expect too much.”

The moment I stepped into the library, I was left speechless.

The library consisted of two floors, making it much larger than I had expected from the outside. However, it wasn’t the scale that overwhelmed me.

While it was certainly huge for a private library, it couldn’t compare to the large state-run libraries.

What surprised me were the books filling the shelves.

Every single one of them was an old book.

’10 Changes Jeokrunhwa Will Bring to This World’

‘The Disappearance of Ranks’

Just by looking at the titles and font designs on the spines, I could tell they were books from a previous era.

“You’re disappointed, aren’t you?”

“No. I’m just a bit surprised. It feels like I’ve taken a time machine back to the past.”

The combination of the old books and the antique furniture made it feel as if I had returned to the era when the ‘Jeokrunhwa craze’ was at its peak.

“Were you interested in Jeokrunhwa?”

It wasn’t just the era; the majority of the books themselves were about Jeokrunhwa. There were many Jeokrunhwa texts from abroad as well as domestic ones, and several shelves were occupied by files organizing papers related to Jeokrunhwa.

“No. It wasn’t me; Ju Gyeong-chan was the one who was very interested.”

“Ju Gyeong-chan… your uncle?”

Ju Gyeong-chan was Chairman Ju Won-chan’s older brother and the biological father of Ju Jeong-han and Ju Tae-han.

“Yes.”

Because he was a Non-Ability User, Ju Gyeong-chan had been pushed out of the succession race for the Seong Han Group and inherited only Seong Han Pharmaceuticals.

And during the Jeokrunhwa craze, Seong Han Pharmaceuticals had also embarked on developing a new drug.

“That’s impressive. Even for a company owner, it couldn’t have been easy to pour that much passion into it.”

“It wasn’t as a manager of the company, but out of personal greed,” Joo Seung-hyuk spat cynically.

“Personal greed…?”

“He deluded himself into thinking that if the unauthorized copydevelopment of [unauthorized copy]the Jeokrunhwa drug succeeded and he achieved Awakening, he could take over Seong Han. Then, when the Jeokrunhwa [Read on Read BL Novels]research ended in failure, he eventually committed suicide.”

“Suicide? Not an accident?”

It was known that Ju Gyeong-chan had died in a drunk driving accident. That was how it was written in the original novel as well.

“It was suicide. Though it was a bit different from a typical suicide.”

“Different how?”

“When the Jeokrunhwa research completely failed, he drank the Jeokrunhwa concentrate and drove until he had a seizure and died. Since there was nothing to gain from letting this fact be known, they covered it up as drunk driving.”

The Jeokrunhwa concentrate was essentially poison.

If Ju Gyeong-chan drank that, it meant he either wanted to commit suicide or was willing to risk death just to achieve Awakening.

At that time, pharmaceutical companies worldwide were going bankrupt one after another due to Red-Rune Side Effects and the failure of new drug developments. The hope that the world would change because of Jeokrunhwa had been shattered, and public resentment had reached its peak.

Of course, the pharmaceutical company’s share of the entire Seong Han Group was small, but it wouldn’t have been good for the public to know that the Chairman’s brother and CEO of the pharmaceutical company had committed suicide by drinking Jeokrunhwa. That was why they hid the fact.

However, this fact never appeared in the original novel. Even if I knew the contents of the novel, I couldn’t know the hidden depths…

“So, is this your uncle’s mansion?”

“It used to be. But now it’s mine.”

Why did Joo Seung-hyuk spend his childhood here? If it was Ju Gyeong-chan’s mansion, wouldn’t it have been better for his biological sons to stay there? Or were the three brothers together?

I was curious, but it was difficult to ask about the brothers Ju Jeong-han and Ju Tae-han.

In the original, he was only rivals with Ju Tae-han, but this time, he didn’t seem to be on good terms with Ju Jeong-han either.

Ju Jeong-han had lied, pretending Joo Seung-hyuk had agreed to an arranged marriage, and tried to send me to America. Specifically, to Texas, where his own biological brother was.

Furthermore, Joo Seung-hyuk referred to Ju Jeong-han as ‘that bastard’ rather than ‘Hyung.’ It seemed they had been rivals long before, not just regarding my situation. It was completely different from the original.

“Shall we go out?”

“Seung-hyuk-ah, can I read books here?”

“Here? There are only old books here.”

“I’ve wanted to read books from this era. They’re hard-to-find books.”

When the situation escalated and [Read on Read BL Novels]immense damage visit our siteoccurred due to the side effects of the Jeokrunhwa Read on Read BL Novelsdrug, the government banned the sale of books praising Jeokrunhwa.

Books related to it disappeared from libraries across the country, including the Esper Academy.

Publishers and authors also considered it a dark chapter of their history and reportedly disposed of them voluntarily.

Consequently, even in the Esper Academy library, which had almost all books related to superpowers, books from the Jeokrunhwa craze were hard to find.

“If Hyung wants to, then do so.”

Joo Seung-hyuk smiled faintly and lightly rubbed my cheek.

After receiving permission to leave my room, I was able to enjoy a fairly free life.

Although I couldn’t go outside the mansion, the building itself was so large and spacious that I didn’t feel trapped.

But I shouldn’t get too used to this tranquility…

Every day, I went to the library to read books and papers. There was a wide balcony on one side of the library.

Joo Seung-hyuk might allow me to go out onto the balcony. However, I didn’t even glance in that direction.

I was extremely careful so that Joo Seung-hyuk wouldn’t know my inner thoughts and [unauthorized copy]wouldn’t discover my true visit our siteintention to Read on Read BL Novelsescape. Even when he wasn’t around.

Today, as well, I piled books, papers, and research materials on a table with exquisite wooden decorations and read through the vast amount of text.

Among these were experimental data and research records for the development of the Jeokrunhwa drug at Seong Han Pharmaceuticals at the time.

Such data would be corporate secrets. I had asked Joo Seung-hyuk if I could look at them, and he had readily permitted it.

Ju Gyeong-chan had a strong image as an ‘incompetent loser pushed aside by his brother’ or a ‘pathetic loafer who died while drunk driving.’

However, looking at the materials Ju Gyeong-chan left behind, I could tell that the image of him known to the world was completely distorted.

The books and papers were meticulously underlined, and he had written his own thoughts in between. He hadn’t just collected books for decoration; he had read them all.

He wasn’t a loafer. Rather, he was obsessed with Jeokrunhwa to a fanatical degree.

But unlike Ju Gyeong-chan’s passion, the quality of the books and papers was disastrous.

‘A universal drug that can raise rank and matching rate, and even control Manifestation…’

It was absurd to see people calling themselves experts laying out rosy fantasies about Jeokrunhwa. I wondered how many victims were created because of their reckless words…

I closed the reckless book titled ‘Jeokrunhwa [Read on Read BL Novels]is the Future!’ and read through the research materials visit our siteof Seong Han Pharmaceuticals.

“Were you here?”

Just then, Joo Seung-hyuk came to my side and clung to me like a magnet, hugging my neck tightly.

“Yes. There are a lot of interesting materials.”

“Interesting?”

“Yes. Looking at the experimental data here, it seems Jeokrunhwa helped in raising the matching rate.”

The experiments to make Non-Ability Users awaken through Jeokrunhwa failed miserably. Research to trigger Manifestation in Betas was also conducted, but the results were minimal, and instead, a side effect occurred where the Pheromones of the Omegas participating in the experiment disappeared.

However, compared to other experiments, it seemed they derived meaningful results regarding the matching rate. Even so, it was a meager figure of less than 5%.

No Ability User would endure such immense side effects just to raise their matching rate by 5%.

“I wonder if there’s a way to raise the matching rate without side effects?”

“Why are you curious about that?”

“If there were such a way, it would help in fixing your Guiding Rejection reaction.”

“Why fix that?”

Even though I was talking about his own physical condition, he reacted indifferently.

“It’s dangerous if the rejection reaction persists.”

“It’s fine. I won’t have to receive Guiding from any other Guide anyway.”

“Still…”

I thought that Joo Seung-hyuk’s Guiding Rejection had already healed, or that he could easily find another Guide even if it wasn’t me.

But there was a possibility that wasn’t the case. I was worried that there would be no one to provide Guiding to Joo Seung-hyuk after I left.

“If you’re that worried, then bond with me.”

“What?”

“You can just bond with me.”

“Bonding…?”

“Yes. Become my imprinted guide.”

Joo Seung-hyuk often spoke to me about ‘bonding.’ But that was the bonding between an Alpha and an Omega. This was the first time he had suggested that I become his imprinted guide.