The Duke's Son :Re-Chapter 67

[King’s Roar Level 1]

Unleashes the pressure of an innate king, briefly terrifying the target.

Applies to a maximum of three targets. The lower the target’s level or total stats compared to the user, the higher the probability of falling into the Fear state.

Skill Cooldown Time: 10 minutes.

Skill Mana Cost: 300]

King’s Roar was a random-target AOE Skill, so when there were more than three enemies in range, Jae-Hyeok had no control over which enemies the Skill would target.

That was a shame, but it wasn’t entirely a disadvantage.

As a random-target AOE Skill, everything within range would hear the roar, and the sound itself would frighten weak-minded people or monsters with low intelligence.

It was just like now.

Kieeek!

Jae-Hyeok’s roar shocked the marine monsters swimming in the calm depths of the night, and they turned upside down. The fact that most of them were low-class monsters also played a role in the Skill’s great impact.

The Black Tuna that Jae-Hyeok hunted was F-class, and low-class monsters generally lived in more shallow waters.

“......”

Jae-Hyeok’s vision was adjusting to the darkness of the sea.

This was combat underwater.

He was proud that he had practiced in the pool of the mansion, but the environment of the sea was completely different from a pool. In particular, the monsters were now running wild and the currents were irregular and violent.

I found it.

He looked around in a rare moment of nervousness and spotted what looked like his prey. It was a fish with black, obsidian-like hard scales covering its entire body. The head was larger than the body, and its hundreds of irregular teeth were reminiscent of serrated knives.

After seeing the red light emitting from its long tail, Jae-Hyeok was convinced that it was a black tuna.

It seems a bit bigger than normal, but...

Butler Hwang always said that the bigger the fish, the better it tasted. The client’s joy should only be greater if he caught this fish.

Bang!

Holding his breath, Jae-Hyeok collapsed his mana bubble—losing his oxygen supply in the process—and released his mana backward to shoot forward with little resistance.

Too slow. Nevertheless, Jae-Hyeok wasn’t satisfied. It seemed his Magic stat needed to be twice as high to reach the speed he desired.

Having collapsed his mana bubble, the only oxygen he had was in his lungs—he’d expected that, but he hadn’t expected his speed to fall short, which made him anxious.

He’d intended for a quick battle. But now he couldn’t breathe, and with his current speed, the battle would drag out. No, a prolonged battle isn’t possible. The monsters will wake up soon, and once they do, I’ll be surrounded and killed.

He either had to give up or...

Evolve.

A brilliant light glowed in Jae-Hyeok’s eyes as he made his decision. He felt the movement of the sea currents generating resistance around his body before changing the shape of the mana bubble around his body

Running from a fish meant for sashimi? Impossible—if he ran, he would feel sorry for all his efforts over the past eight years.

Baaaaaang!

Jae-Hyeok’s pace accelerated dramatically.

The currents that had been pushing him away suddenly changed. Where before he had been stuck in the currents created by the thrashing monsters, a new current took hold and pulled him forward.

Jae-Hyeok was using two mana-control techniques at the same time: The Yin-Yang Technique, which circulated mana, was added to the Kang family’s mana-control technique, which focused and released condensed mana from the dantian through specific mana circuits. Then, a bit of rotational force was added to his mana before being released around himself, stirring up currents that pulled him forward. He adjusted the spin on his mana as he went to control his direction as well.

A bit faster.

Jae-Hyeok increased the spin on his mana, and the currents around him grew stronger in turn. He moved through the sea as if he were riding a roller coaster.

Kiyak!

The black tuna’s eyes bulged in surprise as something approached at great speed. It felt an instinctive sense of crisis and swam harder, but it was useless; the monsters affected by King’s Roar were in a blind panic, swimming around wildly and blocking the black tuna’s path.

Bam!

Jae-Hyeok’s hwando pierced the head of the black tuna several times.

[The Queen Black Tuna has been killed.]

[Your level has risen.]

What?

Jae-Hyeok had thought it was big, but the tuna turned out to be a queen?

His level increased thanks to this, but it was still frustrating.

Jae-Hyeok left the queen’s body behind for a moment and looked around, hoping to find the ordinary black tuna that the client wanted.

Fortunately, he found one soon enough. There were always males around the queen.

Since things are like this, should I catch more?

Soon, the sea was stained with blood.

***

“Sigh...”

The gray-haired old man had run a sashimi restaurant in the same place for fifty years. He and his wife had devoted their whole lives to this restaurant. There were more bad days than good at the restaurant, but after his wife passed away, every day had become cherished memories. It was an irreplaceable space.

He wished to serve the dishes he developed while laughing and arguing with his wife until his last breath. And on that day, on the day he reunited with his wife, he hoped his bones could be buried here, too.

But his wish was never meant to be.

Customers had stopped coming months ago, thanks to the huge sashimi restaurant that opened right in front of his restaurant. It was a chain store operated by a subsidiary of the Ocean Guild. They offered black tuna—which boasted a much better taste and nutrition than ordinary fish—as a cheap option.

There was no way for him to compete. Even customers who had been regulars for decades left.

“Honey, I’m sorry. This is my limit.”

The old man had also inquired about black tuna. However, 9% of the black tuna distributed in the domestic market was distributed through the Ocean Guild, ahe Ocean Guild’s subsidiary had blacklisted him. He was a competitor with the chain store, so the company refused to supply black tuna to him.

A company owning thousands of chain restaurants was actually wary of small sashimi restaurants in the neighborhood... Their determination to seize control of the nearby commercial area was obvious.

“Sigh... ”

It was also impossible to purchase black tuna from other companies. The price was so high that the old man couldn’t afford it.

“Is it said that poverty is a sin?”

The result of living a lifetime giving to the poor was to experience poverty in return; the lessons learned in his old age were cruel.

He didn’t regret his life, but it was saddening to watch society becoming harsher.

“Are you open?” As the old man was sighing repeatedly, the front door, which had been used by only the old man for months, swung open. A blue-haired girl was seen through the warm sunlight as she entered the store.

“Ah!” The old man’s expression brightened, then darkened. “I’m sorry. I don’t have any ingredients right now... ”

He had recently run out of money and couldn’t stock up on ingredients. He lowered his head to look at the dry cutting board.

The girl told him, “The ingredients will come from us.”

“Huh?”

The old man’s eyes widened. A group of people who were similarly dressed to the girl brought in ten ice boxes larger than his body.

The girl introduced herself to the stunned old man.

“I am Jang Yeon-Ju, a second-year student of Lion’s Castle. The student in charge of your commission asked me to transport these goods.”

The general public didn’t know about such a system, but usually, small commissions from individuals didn’t directly ask for a specific club. Instead, the commission is circulated among and put on offer. The Shooting Club had only received the commission because all the major clubs had rejected it. And even then, it was a low-priority commission. Yeon-Ju couldn’t guess how many months this process took, but the old man had probably been waiting for a very long time.

Jang Yeon-Ju noticed the kitchen knife on the empty cutting board still shone keenly, and sitting down, she glimpsed the dust-free appearance of the table.

“Boss-nim? We’ve come a long way. Can you serve us a plate of sashimi?”

“Y-yes! Of course... gasp!” The old man opened the icebox and was shocked. Each icebox contained a plump, black tuna. In addition, the tuna in the largest icebox was more than three times larger than an average black tuna.

“Is this a queen?” freёnovelkiss-com

“Yes. I heard they are twenty times more expensive than ordinary black tuna.”

“I-I only asked for a black tuna... ”

“It’s a blessing for the boss that we caught ten while trying to catch one.”

Yeon-Ju spotted the faded plaques piled up on one side of the store, removed the candy from her mouth, and sat back politely.

Children worried about their meals every holiday without school lunches, exhausted high school students, homeless people, and elderly people who lived alone—the plaques stated the good deeds of the old man, who had been providing free meals to those in need for decades. Now, they filled a corner of the store as if they were insignificant.

Why had Jae-Hyeok accepted this commission?

Yeon-Ju blushed, realizing that Jae-Hyeok must have read the commission's client information in the document. She usually only read the commission’s main content. Unless the client was a bigshot, she had never really paid attention to the client’s information.

She said, “...I sincerely apologize for the delay in fulfilling your commission.”

“How can you say that? I am... just grateful... sob.”

When he had sent in that commission, he had known he was grasping at straws. He wondered if a place as great as Lion’s Castle would deal with a small restaurant owner like himself.

However, it seemed the world wasn’t such a dark place. Lion’s Castle hadn’t forgotten him just because of his poverty. The old man was so moved that he burst into tears.

Jang Yeon-Ju covered his age-spotted hand with her own and told him, “Kang Jae-Hyeok... the son of Duke Kang Dae-Guk is watching people like you from afar. So cheer up.”

Since that day, the old man’s store was always bustling with customers. Foodies flocked from all over the country to taste the Queen Black Tuna, and the old man’s great skills brought satisfaction to everyone, growing his fame daily.

The old man used his fame and good business. He filled the stomachs of the poor, just as he once had with his wife.

The steady stream of black tuna delivered from Lion’s Castle continued to cheer him on.

-Thank you to Young Master Kang Jae-Hyeok.

Those words, handwritten and hung inside the restaurant, circulated among the customers.

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