Tomb Raider King Chapter 72: The Man who left to search for the Herb of Eternal Youth 1

"Well then, what's your response?”

George Holten was seriously shaken up by Ju-Heon's question. It seemed as if Ju-Heon was looking right through him. It was an obvious reaction as he would be tempted even by a devil if they offered to save his parents!

Thanks to that, George Holten subconsciously blurted out.

“Please save them……!”

However, George Holten then gasped and closed his mouth. It was because he realized that this was not right just as he was about to fall for Ju-Heon's trap.

He had seen many scammers approach the Holten family.

'This bastard…! Is he planning on making us owe him a debt and then take what he wants from us?!'

That was why he could not agree to it even though this person was offering to heal his parents.

It was because Ju-Heon's goal was too obvious.

“There's no point to even talk to you! I will not get your help, you bastard!”
“Bro!”

Irene was looking at him as if he was out of his mind, but George Holten's mind was set.

'Artifacts are the devil.'

What day had it been?

A guest had visited the Holten couple. Those people who were said to be passing merchants had shown them some mysterious artifacts. However, the couple who had found the artifact to be amazing became sick after touching that artifact.

That was when the couple regretted being curious about the artifacts. They had seriously warned their children as well.

'You must never get involved with artifacts.'

That was the reason the Holten family rejected Pandora and artifacts. It was also the reason he was so adamantly repulsed by Ju-Heon's group.

“You got that? Artifacts are all devils! That is why I am going to remove that devil of an artifact from Irene as well. Don't do anything funny and get lost!”

Ju-Heon scoffed at that comment.

This bastard's reaction was understandable, but…

“How can the eldest son of the Holten family be so stupid?”
“What?!”
“Penicillin was just a harmful mold at first. Fire was a dangerous disaster to humans at first as well. But what happened? It changed based on how humans used them. Do you understand?”
"What?”

Ju-Heon then approached Irene's mother.

He smelled a terrible stench that smelled like a rotting corpse as he got closer.

This was the typical symptoms of a late-stage patient.

He was certain the staff and the doctors all probably wanted to vomit as they treated them. They probably never even thought about touching them.

However, Ju-Heon did not even frown in this potential vomit-inducing situation and very respectfully asked.

“Madam. You probably can't hear me well because of the illness, but I would like to heal your illness with an artifact. Will you please allow me to do that?”

Yoo Jaeha was completely shocked at that gentleman-like tone.

'Wait, that guy can act this normal?'

He had imagined Ju-Heon telling them to shut the hell up and do as he said or leave the mansion saying do as you please and die!

However, Irene's mother moved her mouth while Yoo Jaeha stood there in shock and Ju-Heon leaned his ear close before nodding his head.

He then started to speak to George Holten with an, 'I told you so' kind of expression.

“See. She said please help her if it is possible.”

George Holten thought he was bluffing and walked up to his mother. However, his mother had already fallen unconscious.

'!'

George Holten who now had no way of confirming his mother's words started to grumble.

“There's no way my mother would say that! Be honest. What the hell did you do to her with an artifact?!”

Irene urgently shouted toward George at that moment.

“Bro! Just do as Mr. Ju-Heon says for now. Nothing bad will happen if you do as Mr. Ju-Heon says! You can trust him!”

But George Holten became extremely angry.

“Irene! Stay out of this if you don't know anything! Damn it, this is all because of those damn peddlers who showed them the artifact! Why the hell did mother and father let those bastards in…!”
“Bro!”

Her brother who was extremely upset said something he should never have said.

“Irene! You understand? We can't do that even if it means our parents will pass away. If we trust an artifact user we know nothing about again……!”

Ju-Heon's gaze instantly turned cold.

It all happened in an instant.

Pow!

“!”

Ju-Heon's kick landed right on George Holten's face.

“Ugh!”

George's head was shaking from this serious pain.

However, it didn't end there. An even greater shock came after that. George Holten grabbed his stomach and curled over from the second impact when Ju-Heon's elbow ruthlessly landed on George Holten's spine.

Pow!

It felt as if an axe had fallen on his back.

Had he gotten annoyed at George Holten's immaturity or was he tired of trying to convince him? Either way, Ju-Heon ruthlessly beat George Holten to a pulp.

Thanks to that, George Holten's firm muscles felt as if they were turning into tofu.

Soft tofu at that.

Pow!
Pow!

Yoo Jaeha was thinking, 'aigoo, I knew his terrible personality will win out.' He then covered his eyes.

How many times must he have hit him?

He beat George down until no part was left uninjured and only stopped kicking once George Holten apologized and said he didn't mean to say that.

Then he said the following to George Holten.

"Did you age like shit?”
“Ugh…!”
"I don't care what the hell you do. But don't you know that your stupid thoughts are going to cause something that cannot be reversed?”

The staff quickly ran over and checked the bloody George Holten out. The old Butler was shaking in anger and tried to call someone.

“I will call the cops right away!”

However, Ju-Heon didn't care if they were angry.

That was obvious. It was because he realized something while looking at the couple's condition.

“Are you an idiot? Based on the situation, an artifact user purposely made your parents sick. They didn't get sick just because they touched an artifact.”
“!”
“Let's say you don't know that to be the case. However, you should be investigating any suspicious people and even selling your soul to the devil if you had to do so to save your parents. Why the hell are you turning us into your enemies?”
“Ugh. Do you think I wouldn't have investigated…”
“Shut up. Try again. Let me tell you one more time. The people responsible for making them ill are 100 percent the bastards who came with the artifact. Go look for them again if you have time to act like an idiot here.”

The butler could not listen anymore and shouted that Ju-Heon was speaking bullshit.

“Please don't listen to that scammer! According to this bastard, then someone who has been the master's close friend for thirty years is the criminal! How dare he say that to someone who is like an uncle to the two of you!”

George shouted angrily at that point.

“What did you say? I thought you said they were passing merchants!”

The butler realized what he had done and lowered his head as he responded.

“….. That, the master requested that we keep our mouths shut about it…”

Ju-Heon started to scoff that it was a total shit-show.

“What the hell? Even if the master told you to stay quiet, you really stayed quiet when it was related to the master's life?”
“Shut your mouth! I'll call the cops right away to get these bastards…!”

The butler was angry. However, George Holten wiped the blood off his mouth and stopped him.

“You shut the hell up! I will punish you if you say anything else.”
“Y, young master-nim!”

George Holten who seemed to be thinking about something glared at Ju-Heon suspiciously before starting to shout.

“Fine then. Heal my parents if you can since you are so confident that you can do it. But I will throw both of you into the middle of the Pacific Ocean if you fail.”
“Young master-nim!”

Ju-Heon started to sneer in response.

“Then you will jump into the Pacific Ocean if I succeed?”
“Hmph, sure! Absolutely!”
“I'll warn you now, but I'm someone who does what I say I will do.”

George Holten sneered at him.

“You said you only need a day, right? Then why don't you do it right now?”

Ju-Heon clicked his tongue as if George was an idiot.

“Are you stupid? Even a supercomputer needs time to boot up. You think I can just use it at will?”
“What?!”
“I'll be back in less than a week. You damn shithead. You investigate the criminal while I'm gone.”
“Hmph, fine. Do it if you can. I'll even give you all of our family's wealth if you succeed!”

'I told you, you shouldn't make those kinds of statements.'

"Why do you always have to argue?”

He had not expected Ju-Heon to so ruthlessly beat the Holten family's eldest son up like that.

It was refreshing to see, but that would be quite the worldly news if it ever got out.

Of course, Irene told him it was fine to beat him up even more. She seemed to have been quite shocked by George Holten's words.

However, Yoo Jaeha asked an unrelated question.

“But the reason the Holten couple ended up like that. Is it really that friend of theirs who brought the artifact with him?”
“I'm certain. Tomb syndrome usually takes a long time to make a person sick. It would normally take around 10 years to get to that stage. That is why they must have used a disease-type artifact or something to make them sick on purpose.”

Of course, it looked as if George Holten had been investigating the wrong people because he had been told it was done by passing merchants.

'It might be possible that Irene's parents were really threatened by them.'

It was still quite weird that the butler was hiding that fact. The criminals might have gotten the parents sick and forced the parents to stay quiet about it.

They probably used some cliche line like how they would not leave the kids alone if the parents told them anything.

'But was there someone like that in Pandora?'

He had not paid much attention, but there might have been.

“Anyway, the Herb of Eternal Youth is first priority.”

They were currently in Manhattan. Yoo Jaeha found it odd that Ju-Heon was going into the subway.

It was because this place was unrelated to the Herb of Eternal Youth at all.

'We seem to be tight on time, is it really okay…'

However, Ju-Heon just walked down the stairs following the DOWN sign. They then smelled the stench of trash befitting the infamous New York subway.

Yoo Jaeha started to frown as he asked.

“Ugh, this stench, but Captain-nim, where are we going?”
“Where else? To upgrade the Herb of Eternal Youth.”
“!”

That was indeed the case.

Honestly speaking, there was a reason he couldn't heal the Holten couple's illnesses right now. The Herb of Eternal Youth was currently just a stamina enhancer as it had not awakened yet. He needed another artifact to awaken it into a true healing artifact.

It was Xu Fu's Artifact.

Xu Fu was the person who went to find the Herb of Eternal Youth after being ordered by Qin Shi Huang. He had supposedly left to find this herb with thousands of virgin boys and girls.

“Then you're saying Xu Fu's artifact is here?”
“You're quite sharp.”

However, the direction he was walking in after coming down to the platform was odd.

He seemed interested in a chair at the corner of the platform.

Specifically, the homeless person curled up on it.

The homeless person had a hat on his face and a dirty blanket around him. He seemed to have been here a long time.

'Ugh, the smell of sweat and booze………'

That was why Yoo Jaeha looked confused as he had no idea what Ju-Heon was doing. Ju-Heon seemed to have come here as if he knew this homeless person was here.

However…

'He doesn't look like he would know anything about artifacts.'

It wasn't as if he was here to rob the person.

However, Ju-Heon did something that made Yoo Jaeha gasp.

Boom!

He suddenly kicked the homeless man off the chair! Yoo Jaeha shouted after seeing that.

“H, hold on! Are you crazy? Do you not know how scary the homeless can be?!”

Ju-Heon chuckled and kicked the old man as if telling Jaeha to watch.

“Hey, are you enjoying this homeless life that is not suited for you?”
“No, Captain-nim. If you provoke him like that……”

However, Yoo Jaeha gasped after seeing the homeless man's face as he got up.

“Huh? You are!”

Chapter end