Chapter 024 — A Woman Crazy About Money
“What else would they be? They’re the names of your babies.”
His bad feeling had been right.
By “babies,” she meant the children Noah and Enoch had left behind.
It was a relief that the little ones were here, but Mikael’s brows still furrowed.
“Who the hell gave them names like that…?”
“Huh? Sia told me those were their names.”
That damn blowhard and her garbage naming sense.
Mikael sighed and accepted the receipt.
Then his eyebrows shot up.
“…So how much is this?”
Mikael still didn't understand the currency used in modern society, so he tilted his head.
“…Oh, really? So that’s how you’re going to play this?”
Thinking he was trying to avoid paying, Heesong picked up a scalpel.
This woman was seriously out of her mind.
“You said Blowhard—no, Sia—brought them here. Didn’t she pay?”
Sia had been assigned as Mikael’s handler by the Exorcism Association, so he figured he could ask her for help.
But Heesong’s next words crushed that expectation.
“I sent her back. Sia offered to pay, but I don't take money from Sia. She’s pretty and cute, you know? Polite, listens well… What else was there? Anyway.”
Shing!
The sharp tip of the scalpel Heesong drew pointed straight at Mikael’s carotid artery.
“I don't care who you are. If you were sent to me, that means you’re probably a priest getting quite a bit of attention. If you want to establish a connection with me, then show me that much sincerity.”
A normal person would have panicked at being threatened with a weapon.
But Mikael had been stabbed more times than he could count.
If anything, it only made him angry.
“A doctor threatening someone with a knife and demanding ‘sincerity’?”
Grab!
Mikael lunged forward and seized the scalpel before Heesong could even react.
The blade, sharp as a razor, dug into his palm.
“H-Hey! Are you crazy?! You’ll cut your hand off!”
“Shut up. There’s a limit to this crap. You call yourself a doctor, yet you’re so obsessed with money that you’re pointing knives at people… Fuck, and you still call yourself a doctor?”
Gulp.
Blood flowed from Mikael’s hand, ran down the scalpel, and dripped onto the floor.
Feeling the overwhelming force of Mikael’s will, Heesong swallowed dryly.
Clang!
Eventually, the scalpel blade could no longer withstand Mikael’s grip.
It shattered and fell to the floor.
Frozen in place, Heesong weakly dropped the handle that remained in her hand.
Something’s wrong.
Mikael couldn't move either.
Normally, the wound would already have healed through his regenerative power.
But the cut remained.
Did I overload myself?
My regeneration isn’t working.
This sometimes happened whenever he used power beyond his limit all at once.
It was one of his weaknesses—a condition where he couldn't use any of his abilities.
Of all times…
It’ll take at least three days before I recover.
Mikael was about to tear part of his clothes to stop the bleeding when—
“…Hold on.”
Heesong pulled gauze from her pocket and pressed it against the wound.
Mikael almost refused.
But Heesong’s atmosphere had suddenly softened, so he let her handle his hand.
“Luckily, it doesn’t look deep enough to need stitches. We’ll disinfect it and use a hemostatic agent. That should do it.”
Heesong placed the gauze into Mikael’s hand.
Then, looking as though she had made up her mind about something, she pulled out her phone.
Tap, tap!
Watching Heesong type a message to someone made Mikael strangely uneasy.
In the past, people who got involved with debts were often sold off like slaves.
Unable to shake the possibility from his mind, Mikael asked directly.
“…Who are you contacting?”
“You look broke, so I’m trying to find you a job. Where are you going to find a creditor this kind?”
Heesong still hadn't given up on getting paid.
Before he knew it, their relationship had changed from doctor and patient to creditor and debtor.
Mikael let out a disbelieving laugh.
“Ha. You really are a crazy bitch.”
Ding!
“Oh, I got a reply.”
Heesong checked the message and froze for a moment.
“….”
Tap, tap.
Her expression darkened briefly before returning to normal.
She sent another message.
A new reply arrived almost immediately.
After reading the second message, Heesong wrote an address on a blank sheet of paper.
“The total bill is 1.2 million won. Deadline is three days. A physical type like you should have no problem working at this place.”
Unfortunately, those three days were exactly the period when Mikael couldn't use his abilities.
“Um… Look, what I did earlier was my mistake. Sorry. …But you should still earn the money and pay me. I can’t compromise on that part.”
Unlike before, Heesong hesitated.
Her voice sounded less like an order and more like a request.
It seemed she had her own circumstances.
“Sigh. Just take good care of the kids.”
The way she acted reminded Mikael of lower-class people who had become overly sensitive after being worn down by society.
Normally, someone else’s circumstances were none of his business.
But it brought back old memories.
Besides, he still needed to repay her for taking care of the Divine Beasts.
And while I’m at it, learning about modern jobs wouldn’t hurt.
Once, while living as a commoner, Mikael had learned that it was useful to have enough practical skills to survive on his own.
“I’m warning you now. If you don't repay me, your babies are going to earn money as mascots for our hospital.”
BANG!
Any sympathy Mikael had felt vanished instantly.
He slammed his fist onto a medical cart.
When he lifted his hand, a clear fist mark remained in the metal.
“If so much as a single hair on their bodies gets harmed, I’ll tear this whole place apart.”
But even that warning failed to intimidate Heesong.
Instead, she looked at the damaged cart and added,
“Add the cost of that too. Now it’s 1.3 million won.”
“You money-crazed bitch….”
Mikael had no words left.
He took the sheet of paper.
Heesong gave him a strange smile, as though she were hiding something.
“Don't worry about the kids. Work hard, debtor!”
The blazing sun beat down from above.
Sweat rolled from Mikael’s forehead to his cheeks, while waves of heat distorted his vision.
Fuck!
The job was manual labor?!
No wonder Heesong had smiled so unpleasantly at the end.
She had been hiding one last surprise.
With a sack of cement on his back, Mikael climbed up the scaffolding.
At a construction site near the animal hospital, the workers stared in amazement as Mikael handled two or three times the workload of everyone else.
“Whoa, that’s incredible! Everyone, take a lesson from Mr. Mi!”
“Hahaha. Young people these days won’t even look at hard labor jobs. You don't see young men like him very often.”
Most of the workers at the site appeared to be somewhere from their late thirties to mid-forties.
“Right! At this rate, we’ll finish in no time thanks to Mr. Mi!”
Ignoring their praise, Mikael put down the cement sack at the assigned location.
It brought back unpleasant memories.
Fuck. This reminds me of those noble bastards looking down on us.
Back when Mikael had lived among the lower class, nobles had often forced commoners into labor and then insulted them whenever the work went slowly.
—You filthy peasants are hopelessly lazy!
—If this were my father’s time, you wouldn’t even dream of slacking off. Do you think I’m easy to push around?
I should’ve ripped their tongues out back then. Tch!
Mikael started getting angry just remembering them.
He almost vented his frustration on the nobles in his memories.
Then he remembered the two Divine Beasts Heesong was looking after and forced himself to calm down.
He hoisted another sack onto his back and prepared to climb the construction site again.
Then the workers called out to announce lunch.
“Hey, Mr. Mi! Come eat something before you keep going!”
The more Mikael heard it, the more uncomfortable that “Mr. Mi” sounded.
When they had first asked his name, he told them Mikael was the name he had been given at the church.
Ever since then, they had all started calling him “Mr. Mi.”
From what Mikael had heard, Koreans sometimes combined someone’s family name with “Mr.”
The problem was—
Only nobles have family names!
Mikael didn't need a surname.
