The Late Game Healer Is Way Too Strong – Chapter 322

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟑𝟐𝟐: 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞 2

“You fucking assholes!!”

Zzaaaaak!!

A hand as big as a pot lid slapped the young boy’s ear.

The boy’s head turned sideways, and drops of blood fell on the floor.

“Ryu Ji-hwan, you bastard! Who told you to beat up the neighborhood kids!! I’m getting complaints about you! Are you trying to ruin our orphanage?! If our funding gets cut because of you, you’ll have to earn money to feed the kids!”

Ryu Ji-hwan wiped the blood dripping from the corner of his mouth with his dirty sleeve.

In contrast to his reddened cheeks, his expression was eerily calm.

Then, Jeong Min-jun, who was kneeling beside him with his hands raised, said in a sobbing voice.

“D-Director. . . It’s my fault. . . He. . . He was defending me. . .”

“Shut up, you brat!!”

The middle-aged man, called the Director, lunged towards Jeong Min-jun in rage.

Teureok!

“Ryu Ji-hwan. . . You insolent bastard! How dare you grab my hand?”

“That’s enough, you fucker!”

“What did you say?!”

“S-Stop, hyu. . .”

The Director, with a thick beard, rolled his eyes.

“So you’re saying we should just take beatings, huh? Those assholes started it first, you don’t even know!”

“Haha. . . Our Ji-hwan has grown up, huh? Talking back to me?”

The Director stubbed out the strong cigarette he was smoking in the ashtray.

Then, he slowly rolled up his shirt sleeves and put on a fake luxury watch like brass knuckles.

“Are you saying it’s okay to hit back just because they hit you first? Is that what a person does? Only use your mouth for eating?!”

“Fuck! It was self-defense, I hit them back!”

“So if I hit you, you’ll claim self-defense? Let’s have a little discipline session today, Ryu Ji-hwan. You’ve been lacking respect lately.”

“I never had any respect for you, you bastard- Kkeureok!!”

Ppaaaaak!!

The Director’s fist violently struck Ryu Ji-hwan’s face.

His slender frame slammed against the wall with a dull thud.

No matter how tough, he was still just a boy.

Ryu Ji-hwan collapsed limply, and more blood poured from his mouth and nose.

“This little bastard!! I let you off, and you keep pushing your luck! Are you mocking me! Mocking me!!”

Ppeoreoreok! Ppyeoreoreok!!

The Director gritted his teeth and swung his fists repeatedly.

“Kkeuheurok!! Kkeuwiik! Cho, choke!!”

“Hahaha! Yeah, keep barking, you mongrel!!”

“S-Stop it. . .! D-Director. . .!”

The director’s office turned into a mess in no time, and Ryu Ji-hwan, covered in blood, was taken to the infirmary in the orphanage.

Half-conscious, he lay in bed while the kids gathered around him.

Some kids frowned as if they were worried, and some looked at Ryu Ji-hwan with their innocent, round eyes.

“You should not have confronted the Director.”

“Shu. . .t up. . . .”

Ryu Ji-hwan licked his lips, which were smeared with blood.

Crow sighed deeply, then washed a dirty rag clean and wiped his wounds.

“Ah. . . damn. . . . Be, gentle. . . .”

“I am being gentle.”

“Oppa! Does it hurt?”

“Yes, Warthog. Oppa’s head hurts. Or maybe it’s a headache.”

“Hey, you. . . . Shu. . .t up.”

Ryu Ji-hwan glared at her with furrowed brows.

“You must have cursed the Director as usual. It must be because your older brother beat up the street kids.”

“Kaleo, you are so smart. You seem to be more upright than anyone.”

“Thank you, Sister Crow.”

“Th. . . this damn. . . leaving patients. . . . joking around. . .”

“By the way, I told you not to bother the neighborhood kids. Why did you hit them?”

As Crow asked, Jeong Min-jun, who had been sobbing next to Ryu Ji-hwan, opened his mouth.

“Th. . . they. . . . they hit. . . . me first, saying I was. . . . a monster.”

He looked at Ryu Ji-hwan with his eyes full of tears.

Crow let out a soft breath and stroked Jeong Min-jun’s hair.

“It’s okay, Min-jun. Those who hate others are monsters, but we are not monsters.”

“I-Is that so . . . ? S-Sorry . . . B-Because of me, Ji-hwan-hyung . . .”

“No, he has a bad temper, so he would have gotten into trouble even without you.”

“T-That . . . crazy . . . b-brat. A-Are you going to talk nonsense to a child?”

“Look, look. He’s picking on his sister even now. By the way, patients shouldn’t be rude to nurses.”

She said, pressing Ryu Ji-hwan’s swollen cheek with her finger.

“Aaargh . . . oww!! You’re killing me!!”

“See? A person’s temper doesn’t change overnight.”

Crow picked up a cloth and wiped Ryu Ji-hwan’s eyes, nose, and mouth like she was dusting them.

“Pooh-huh. . . . Ugh! Hey, you. . . .! gasp. . . .!”

“Hahaha. See, Min-jun? This is what happens when you’re being stupid. You should never grow up like this.”

“W-What? Oh, okay . . .”

Jeong Min-jun nodded, looking at Crow with fearful eyes.

“Crow, we’re not monsters, are we?”

Warthog asked her then.

“Of course not.”

“But why do they call me a monster’s child?”

“. . . Well. Isn’t who I am more important than who my parents are?”

“Do we all have different moms and dads?”

“No, they’re all different.”

“Then what are we to each other?”

A relationship that the slightly older or precocious children knew, but the younger children still didn’t really understand.

Crow smiled gently at Warthog and continued to speak skillfully.

“We are all family. Family members help each other and trust each other. We always support each other. Got it?”

“Yeah, I got it.”

“Get . . . the rag off . . . my face . . . and talk.”

At Ryu Ji-hwan’s words, Crow began to rub the cloth on his face again.

EZ Orphanage.

Located between the Demon Realm and the human world, it was the only institution that raised abandoned human children and half-demon children.

At the time, humans and demons were fighting fiercely, and their feelings toward each other were extremely bad.

Because of that, ‘EZ Orphanage’ was not recognized by either humans or demons.

The orphanage, located in a gray area, gathered children who had been abandoned or had run away from here and there like garbage and created a kind of territory.

The director who raised them was a failed hunter.

He had been caught and expelled for taking bribes to cover up for numerous entertainment establishments, but with the help of a local congressman to whom he had given bribes, he started an orphanage in hopes of government subsidies.

However, the government subsidies were not as generous as the director had expected.

Rather, he only received enough subsidies to barely keep from starving, and the children had to earn the money they needed by doing odd jobs.

Therefore, there was no way that the children would receive good benefits or welfare.

They lacked education, didn’t have clothes to wear, and often had to starve.

Fortunately, the director was not a scumbag who abused or molested the children, and the children liked this place.

Anyway, if they went out into the world, they would only face all kinds of coldness and discrimination.

“Get . . . out . . . now. I’m . . . fine.”

Ryu Ji-hwan barely moved his chapped lips to tell the children around him.

“Okay, let’s go now. Ivan, Raphel, you guys get up quickly too.”

Crow woke up Ivan and Raphel, who had been sleeping in the corner, and took all the children out.

Only then did Ryu Ji-hwan sigh in relief and take the medicine that Crow had left on his bedside table and fell asleep.

And that night.

The orphanage disappeared.

It was the child who had been beaten by Ryu Ji-hwan during the day who set fire to the orphanage.

Crackle!! Crash!!

Someone slapped Ryu Ji-hwan’s cheek hard and repeatedly.

“Aaagh!”

Ryu Ji-hwan screamed at the sudden violence.

His cheek, which was already swollen, was hit again, causing new pain to blossom.

He felt the bloody taste spreading in his mouth and forcibly suppressed the sleepiness that was pouring in before glaring into the darkness.

It was because of the strong sleeping effect of the medicine Crow had given him.

“What, what is it . . . ! Who the hell . . . !”

“Get up, you son of a bitch! Are you going to lie down and sleep until you’re burned to a crisp?!”

“Wh-what? D-Director?”

“Hahaha. It seems like you feel like using honorifics after getting hit.”

The director raised his large hand and grabbed Ryu Ji-hwan by the scruff of the neck and lifted him up.

“W-Why all of a s-sudden . . .?!”

“You idiot! Even if it’s hot, you should wake up and get out! Who are you going to blame again if you get burned to death?!”

“Wha . . . ?”

Only then did Ryu Ji-hwan notice the flames blazing through the window.

When he confirmed the crisis he hadn’t been aware of with his own eyes, his breath suddenly caught in his throat.

“Cough! Cough! Cough!”

Before he knew it, the pungent smoke filling the room was blocking his breathing.

“Let’s get out of here quickly, you brat.”

The director lifted him onto his shoulder and hurriedly headed outside.

There were fewer children outside than he had expected.

There were only Crow and the other children who had visited Ryu Ji-hwan a little while ago.

After visiting him, they had gone to the kitchen and cooked soup and steamed potatoes with the leftover vegetables and had been lucky enough to discover the fire and get out first.

Thanks to the back door in the kitchen.

“Cough! Cough . . . !”

“You little brat, you’re so weak. When I was your age, I could even eat fire, you punk.”

“T-That’s ridiculous . . .”

Ryu Ji-hwan turned his head to the director with a frown.

However, the director was looking at the orphanage engulfed in flames, not at him.

“Hey, Ryu Ji-hwan. And Crow.”

The director called them in a blunt tone.

“What, what is it . . . all of a sudden.”

“What is it, Director.”

“If something happens to me, you guys will have to take care of the children.”

He picked up the rainwater tank in the yard and poured the rotten water inside all over himself.

“Cough! Damn it . . . Director! Don’t t-talk nonsense!”

“. . . . . . .”

The director stroked Ryu Ji-hwan’s head roughly, looking at him with sharp eyes.

“This . . . d-damn it! I don’t like this!”

“Is that so? Well, this suits you better.”

With that, the director punched him hard in the head.

“Aagh!!”

“Hahaha! Crow, take this ring. If you go to ‘Zero Bar’ in the city and give it to the manager, he’ll give you something.”

“What about you, sir. . . ?”

“I’ll see you later.”

The director, who had finished speaking as he pleased, flew into the orphanage engulfed in flames.

It was to rescue the children who were still there.

And he never came out again.

The orphanage, made of flimsy slate and haphazardly woven wood, was engulfed in flames in an instant, and dozens of children lost their lives.

Ryu Ji-hwan looked blankly at his charred sanctuary, or rather the charred sanctuary of his own.

The bloody taste filling his mouth mixed with sticky hatred.

The surviving children cried.

They didn’t know what was going on, but they couldn’t stop their tears because they were anxious, because the director hadn’t returned, and because their home was hot.

“Crow.”

Ryu Ji-hwan called in a hoarse voice.

The tears streaming from his two eyes looked bright red like flames.

“Why.”

“Let’s live, we will.”

“. . . Yes.”

Ryu Ji-hwan looked around.

He saw the cigarette case that the director had dropped on the floor while rescuing him.

Ryu Ji-hwan picked up the cigarette case coolly and took out a cigarette with unfamiliar hand movements and put it in his mouth.

Even though he didn’t light it, it smelled like the pungent cigarette smell that the director always had.

“What are we going to do now?”

Crow asked, looking at him.

Ryu Ji-hwan opened his mouth, biting the cigarette filter.

“Somewhere . . . there’s a place where half-demons live together. I heard that a woman with snow-white hair is the king there.”

“Really? Then let’s go there.”

“No, you guys go.”

He looked up at the sky with blank eyes for a moment before slowly walking away.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m . . . going to find the power to destroy this world.”

Ryu Ji-hwan opened his bloodshot eyes wide.

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