“Ihyeon. It’s time to eat.”

Young Kang Ihyeon with black hair and blue eyes opened his eyes in front of the dining table. On the table was a dish covered with a silver lid.

And in front of him sat his grandfather.

Countless servants came and went around him. Clatter, a small cup was filled with milk.

Click, the silver tray opened and side dishes were filled around it.

Ribs loaded with cheese, and on the side, soups made with milk and all kinds of dairy products were piled up one by one.

Just smelling it made Kang Ihyeon feel like throwing up as he tightly gripped his shorts. He must have unconsciously bit his lower lip tightly.

“Kang Ihyeon! Control your expression!”

Thwack! As the sound of his grandfather’s cane hitting the ground rang out, he suddenly raised his head.

And reflexively smiled brightly. Only then did his satisfied grandfather allow him to eat.

He placed the napkin neatly on his lap. After making a brief sign of the cross and saying a prayer of thanks, he picked up the knife and fork from the outside.

The knife had to be cut just enough to fit in one bite, not crudely. He cut the ribs, which still smelled nauseating, into small pieces and picked them up with a fork.

Looking at Kang Ihyeon smiling at the meat, his grandfather spoke sternly.

“Kang Ihyeon, eat it. All of it. Everyone else eats it all. It gets better as you eat it.”

“……”

“Not answering? Disobeying your grandfather again? Be half like your father and mother!”

“No. Grandfather. …… I was just admiring the chef’s skills for a moment. I’ll eat.”

If he ate, his stomach would hurt again. He would vomit in the bathroom all day long. But he had to eat.

Because he had to get out of this situation somehow.

The moment Kang Ihyeon opened his mouth with a forced smile and slowly put the meat loaded with cheese into his mouth, someone grabbed his arm.

He looked to the side. The man was all black. His hair, his eyes, his clothes.

The man frowned deeply and put down Ihyeon’s arm. Then slowly opened his mouth.

“Don’t eat it. Ihyeon.”

[This is the timeline separator]

“Gasp……! Ahhh, cough……”

Kang Ihyeon, who opened his eyes with a start, tried to get up from his spot but lay down again in agony. The sound of the vital check monitor went beep, beep.

There was a faint smell of disinfectant.

Looking around, it seemed to be a single room. The humidifier spewed out steam, and a little sunlight came in through the blinds that were pulled down so the inside was not visible.

No wonder it was hard to move his body, looking down, bandages and splints were tightly wrapped around his arms and legs.

Kang Ihyeon, roughly grasping the situation, sighed.

“…… I was just trying to get some time off and recover on my own.”

[Constellation, the Staff of Purification says it was caught by Rude and is worried about you.]

“…… Damn it.”

Kang Ihyeon cursed softly and bit his lip tightly. He was caught.

He didn’t think he would get caught like this. Sighing deeply, he looked up again.

“So Miss Nari took me to the hospital?”

Hearing the affirmative message from his constellation, Kang Ihyeon let out another deep sigh. A chill ran down his spine.

He didn’t want to get caught at least this far, so what should he do now?

Thoughts of how to handle this situation swirled in his head.

‘Just like when Miss Nari got her secret exposed…….’

Kang Ihyeon, who thought he could understand how Shin Binnari felt at that time, was thinking of excuses when he heard the sound of the hospital room door opening with a click.

“Kang Ihyeon?!”

“Ah. Mr. Rude……”

Rude, wearing glasses, entered with a serious expression, holding what appeared to be a bunch of test results.

Even in the midst of this, Kang Ihyeon, who was only looking at Rude’s face, smiled.

“You’re wearing glasses. It’s pretty, it suits you well. Ijiseong made them for you, right?”

“Is that important right now?”

Although Rude spoke sharply, Kang Ihyeon just smiled.

Rude, who sat next to Kang Ihyeon, examined his condition and gnashed his teeth.

“Why didn’t you say anything? Why didn’t you let on when you were in so much pain? Do you know what your test results are like? It’s a miracle you’re alive and moving!”

Pelvic and rib fractures, skull fractures, and wrist bones were not only broken but shattered.

Several important organs were ruptured, and due to the impact of hitting his head hard, intracranial pressure increased, putting him at risk of blindness, and a bowl of nosebleeds occurred due to the accompanying cerebral hemorrhage, Rude explained in rapid fire.

“I’m fine.”

“How can you be fine?! This is weeks of hospitalization right now. At that time, you said you were okay, so I decided to draw attention alone, but I shouldn’t have made such a plan.”

It was a tactic for Kang Ihyeon to draw attention while dealing with the Minotaur, and for Nari to remove the status abnormality by apologizing to Jeong Suho and handling the gate together.

Even though he wasn’t in his usual white armor and holy sword, he said it was okay, so Rude believed him, but now this was the result.

Rude made a face like he was about to cry, then looked down at the floor and calmed his surging emotions.

Now it’s really time to say it, Kang Ihyeon thought as he slowly looked out the window. And smiled.

“I’ll recover quickly once my divine power returns. It’s okay.”

“What are you talking about, I heard only excommunicated priests can turn divine power into magic power, weren’t you excommunicated and lost your divine power?”

“It comes back.”

Kang Ihyeon turned his gaze to Rude. Rude blinked. Kang Ihyeon smiled bitterly.

“For me, it does. It comes back. I am…… ‘One who has mastered both good and evil’.”

“Then, you…… divine power and magic power……”

“Yes, I can use them simultaneously.”

There was never a precedent for being able to use divine power and magic power simultaneously.

Using divine power was not a problem. The problem was that a child not even 10 years old could use magic power.

No matter how strong the divine power was or whether he could use magic power and divine power together, it was not an advantage at all.

Because the magic power he could use immediately after awakening itself meant ‘a person who was excommunicated from birth’.

Kang Ihyeon could never say it anywhere.

The fact that he was special mostly became poison. Moreover, ‘specialness that cannot be understood’ was even more so.

A freak born flawlessly under perfect parents was even more so.

‘Social life level up’ obtained at a young age. He naturally had to be maxed out.

To hide a huge flaw, he had to pile up all sorts of skills.

“I’m sorry. For hiding it. Knowing your secret, but hiding mine……”

Kang Ihyeon still couldn’t forget his grandfather who forced him to eat dairy products until he vomited and attend mission school, saying he had to change his grandson’s constitution.

That’s how ‘family’ disappeared from Kang Ihyeon’s life.

He told his really close friends, but at some point, when he started being treated as a ‘freak’ or ‘special person’, Kang Ihyeon completely erased such aspects of himself.

That’s how ‘friends’ disappeared from Kang Ihyeon’s life.

Even Min Jaewon and Kang Sujin, who claimed to be his guardians, had a tendency to deliberately not talk about or suppress Kang Ihyeon’s secrets to some extent.

Even if it was for his sake.

The only person who treated him the same even knowing this was Min Jaeyun.

And his evaluation of Kang Ihyeon was exactly right.

He had no interest in others. In fact, family and friends weren’t very important to him.

What was important to him was Shin Binnari, that existence alone.

The incarnation of evil who reaffirmed the obvious proposition that ‘if you don’t harm others, you’re a good person’.

The king of madness who told him not to be swayed by others.

So, quite naturally, he really didn’t want his flaws to be exposed to the person who affirmed him for the first time.

He only wanted to show his good side. But there was no choice, it was already exposed.

But it was the same for Rude. He must have felt this way after being exposed to Kang Ihyeon.

Kang Ihyeon swallowed the feeling of wanting to cry and blurted out an excuse.

“…… If it’s creepy, I’m sorry. But, I really wasn’t excommunicated or anything. I’ve never really done anything bad. I try every day not to have such thoughts. I just awakened and found myself like this. I don’t know why this is happening either.”

If he was going to be treated as a freak like this, that’s fortunate. Kang Ihyeon closed his eyes tightly. He hoped he wouldn’t be denied at least.

Although he thinks Miss Nari isn’t that kind of person, this fear has always existed.

With his eyes tightly closed, Rude answered Kang Ihyeon.

“…… Then.”

“Yes.”

Feeling like a death sentence had been handed down, he frowned. Rude’s voice broke the brief silence.

“You’re also an alt? Like me.”

“What?”

He blinked his eyes. Rude was looking down at Ihyeon with a playful expression. He made a relieved expression.

“I’m glad your divine power is returning. I was so worried about what would happen to you. How long will it take to return?”

“What? No, wait a minute. Shouldn’t you be more surprised?! Ah, tsk……”

Kang Ihyeon, startled, sat up and lay down holding his aching stomach.

Rude, who was also startled, let out a deep sigh and leaned back in his chair.

“I knew you were hiding something long ago. So I’m not more surprised.”

“What?! Since when?!”

“I recalled the day we first met. I thought something was strange then.”

Ah. Kang Ihyeon let out a small voice.

Rude smiled and stroked his bangs a few times. It seemed to be a choice he made since he couldn’t pat his head.

“But you still trusted me? Even though I was hiding something?”

“I’m also hiding a lot from you. If we expose what each other is thinking in detail right now, we’ll be shocked. A relationship with nothing to hide is even creepier.”

“…… Is that so.”

Kang Ihyeon rolled his blue eyes and thought. Rude, who thought he was really like a 23-year-old at times like this, laughed.

“But you don’t lie. You’re honestly telling me as much as you can be truthful to me.”

“That’s right.”

Rude, who was fake coughing, glanced at Kang Ihyeon. He fiddled with the back of his neck and mumbled.

“Then…… your words about protecting me are also sincere.”

“…… That’s right.”

Kang Ihyeon glanced at Rude. The tips of his ears, where his gaze was naturally drawn to by his glasses string, were slightly red.

Rude mumbled again.

“Then that’s enough. I trust you. Show me only as much as you want to show, I won’t hastily judge or decide.”

“Miss Nari.”

Rude, who was mumbling, looked down at the feeling of something touching his hand.

At some point, Kang Ihyeon had intertwined his fingers with Rude’s.

Soon, Kang Ihyeon smiled with an expression that looked like he would cry if poked.

The first time seeing such an expression. Rude unconsciously gripped the hem of his coat with his other hand.

“I…… I really, really……”

“Young master!!!!”

Breaking the tense atmosphere was the deep cry of a man. The single room door burst open with a bang.

Min Jaewon was holding a bouquet of flowers and sweating profusely.

“Young master, I heard the news. Are you alri-……”

And Min Jaewon looked at the two of them. Kang Ihyeon with an expression that was clearly unusual, Rude who was only gripping the hem of his clothes, and their interlocked hands.

Min Jaewon fell silent. A chill ran down Rude’s spine as he unconsciously made an excuse.

“Wait.”

Creak, Min Jaewon, with a shy expression as if seeing his son’s first love, gently closed the door.

A small voice flowed through the gap in the door.

“Young master…… Already in that kind of relationship.”

“Wait!! It’s not like that!!”

Rude, whose face turned red up to his neck, jumped up from his seat. Min Jaewon’s shy voice with an open mind was heard from beyond the door.

“I apologize for interrupting. You two…… continue your good time.”

“I said it’s not like that!! It’s not!!”