Chapter 3: Return of the Useless Heir

Memories of the ones behind the assassination.

‘If I hadn’t purchased those memories…’

He would’ve missed a critical clue.

Even after Evan’s soul had departed, his body still lay on the bed.

Two people—one man and one woman—entered to check if Evan had truly died.

And they did so boldly.

Just from their voices, it was easy to identify them.

‘Heres, and her son Hilton.’

Through their conversation, it became clear that they were the ones who had plotted Evan’s assassination.

‘Was it because of the succession issue? If Evan died, the matter of succession would become murky.’

Heres, Clyd’s second wife, was a sly woman.

Of course, Evan always treated them like bugs—ignored them completely.

But Heres had endured all kinds of insults and humiliation to stick close to Evan and butter him up.

‘She had to, if she wanted to kill him. And this foolish scumbag was easy to manipulate from behind the scenes.’

After winning Evan’s trust, Heres acted as one of his close aides and began making preparations behind the scenes.

Naturally, she didn’t tell Evan any details.

She simply claimed it was all for his benefit, sweet-talking him with empty words.

—”Young master, if this continues, Second Young Master will take the position of successor. You want to inherit the family, don’t you? I’ll help you.”

That’s what Heres had said as she subtly sowed discord in Evan’s ear.

It was suspicious—very suspicious.

Lee Han frowned, trying to recall what came after that.

‘There must be more important clues…’

But no matter how hard he tried, it wasn’t easy to dig out specific moments from the sea of memories.

Even this much he’d only managed to learn by carefully organizing Evan’s memories.

And it seemed Evan didn’t consider them very important.

‘There’s barely any information about them.’

His mind was mostly consumed by resentment toward his father and jealousy of his younger brother.

Lee Han let out a sigh and shook his head.

‘Too many useless memories.’

From this point on, he’d have to investigate in person.

Until he saved his brother, he would have to continue the life Evan had abandoned.

He was now the owner of this body.

Evan Kerthen.

‘Until I meet my brother, I’ll have to live as Evan for now.’

Leaving the name “Lee Han” behind, a new life as Evan began.

***

Evan remained seated on the bed, silently upright.

‘Are these people the servants?’

Surrounding his bed were maids and a butler.

They had rushed in the moment they heard the news that the young master had woken up.

“Young Master! Are you all right?”

“You… you really woke up.”

“How could this happen…?”

Everyone was shocked that Evan was still alive.

And Evan could sense something strange in the air.

‘Rather than joy… It’s like they’ve seen a ghost.’

It was the reaction one might have to witnessing something horrifying.

Understandable, given that Evan had always tormented and bullied them.

The return of a good-for-nothing young master who was better off dead was nothing but bad news to them.

“First, report this to the lord. And you—go fetch the priest, now!”

A neatly dressed old man with slicked-back hair took command of the maids.

He seemed to be the head butler overseeing the scene.

His aged presence carried a gentle yet commanding charisma that held the room together.

“Young Master, please remain lying down until the priest arrives.”

The butler approached and carefully examined Evan’s body.

Evan merely observed in silence before casually gesturing.

“I’m fine. You can all leave.”

“Young Master? But your body is still—”

“I said leave!”

With a face that clearly showed his annoyance, Evan drove everyone out.

After all, this body belonged to a notorious delinquent.

There was no need to act proper.

He could behave however he wanted.

‘This part is convenient.’

Just as Evan was thinking that, the butler spoke again with a troubled expression.

“Understood. Then I’ll return once the priest arrives.”

The butler began clearing out the room, preparing to leave with the others.

“Wait!”

Evan called him back just in time, having almost forgotten something important.

“Where are Madam Heres and Hilton right now?”

The butler tilted his head and responded.

“Pardon? You mean the second madam and Master Hilton?”

“Yeah. I need to speak with them about something.”

The butler looked uncomfortable.

“After you collapsed, the second madam and Master Hilton… went to Freha. They said their schedule was full, so they likely won’t be returning for a while.”

Evan rested his chin in his hand, deep in thought, before motioning for the butler to go.

“Is that so? Got it. You can go now.”

The butler bowed and left the room.

Silence returned once more.

‘They went to Freha?’

Evan searched his memories for that location.

‘Freha is a commercial city located between the Kerthen County and the Barhman Barony.’

He’d only been there a few times when he was younger.

‘They confirmed Evan’s death and immediately headed there…’

They were clearly planning something in that city.

‘Didn’t the butler say they wouldn’t be coming back anytime soon?’

Evan immediately opened his inventory and took out a few low-grade recovery potions.

‘For now, I need to recover as quickly as possible.’

‘Who knew what they were up to?’

He had to be able to move if he wanted to respond to whatever came next.

‘Only about 30 minutes left, huh?’

Evan checked the remaining detox time, balancing his life force precariously at 5%.

***

[Hidden Achievement: “At the Crossroads of Life and Death” has been unlocked!]

[Reward: New ability “Fighting Spirit” has been granted.]

Evan endured for a full hour, maintaining his health at a razor-thin 5%.

As a result, an achievement notification popped up before his eyes.

He checked the details of the new ability he had received as a reward.

[Fighting Spirit: The stronger the enemy, the greater your will to fight. Grants immunity to fear, paralysis, and panic status effects. Additionally, when suffering from conditions such as bleeding, trauma, or paralysis, all movement restrictions are lifted for 10 minutes.]

‘This is absolutely necessary. Especially if you’re low-level.’

Humans inevitably fall under abnormal status effects when they see monsters.

Particularly when there’s a large level gap, or when monsters possess strange abilities.

Those conditions naturally cause limitations in one’s actions.

That’s why fighting spirit was essential.

It could buy you ten minutes, no matter the situation.

In battle, whether you can move or not decides life or death.

Evan closed all the floating windows in front of him.

Then he checked the detox timer.

‘Almost done.’

Only about five minutes remained.

***

In the meantime, his body had recovered quite a bit.

He was light enough to stand up and move around.

‘Now then, let’s see just how bad this body is, since I can’t even feel mana…’

Evan immediately brought up his status window.

A holographic screen appeared before his eyes.

And Evan couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

“What the hell…?”

He rubbed his eyes with one hand.

Maybe he was misreading it somehow.

But the status window before him remained unchanged.

‘This is way too serious…’

[Evan looked at the status screen more carefully. <Status Window> – Name: Evan Kerthen – Age: 19 – Level: 1 – Race: Human – Class: None – HP: 27/550 – Mana: 0/0 – Strength: 5 (-3) – Agility: 2 (-40) – Intelligence: 0 (-18) – Endurance: 5 (-7) *Currently suffering from poisoning.]

No matter how many times he looked, the stats were hopelessly bad.

‘Are these negative stats all because of the poison?’

Even if that were true, his base stats capped at 5 at best.

Even the lowest-ranked F-grade Hunters had an average of over 10 in their initial stats when they awakened.

‘But these stats…’

Evan let out a sigh and pressed a hand to his forehead.

Then he looked around, searching for a mirror.

With stats like these, he was dying to know what kind of body he had ended up in.

“My body feels heavy…”

When Evan fully got out of bed, he felt an odd sense of discomfort throughout his body.

A disgusting sensation he’d never once felt in his old body before coming to this world.

Looking down, he saw a bulging belly.

“…No way.”

A spoiled young master from a wealthy family.

The image that brought to mind was all too familiar.

He quickly searched for a mirror.

It didn’t take long to find a full-length mirror in the corner of the room.

The moment he looked into it, Evan’s expression froze.

A pig standing on two legs stared back at him.

“This is… me?”

Blond hair and blue eyes.

Bloated cheeks and sagging jowls.

On top of that, rolls of fat clung to every corner of his body, making it feel like he was walking around with sandbags strapped on.

‘The first thing I need to do is lose weight.’

It was annoying, but losing weight was doable.

Just as Evan steeled his resolve—

[The poison of ArKas has been completely detoxified!]

[Due to your Absorption Constitution, the detoxified poison has been completely absorbed.]

[Passive skill ‘Poison Resistance’ has been acquired.]

[Penalties related to poison have been reduced.]

As the poison was fully removed, Evan felt a bit of strength return to his body.

But more than that, his attention was focused on the newly acquired skill.

Poison Resistance.

“What is this…?”

This was a first for Evan too.

‘Even when I was poisoned before, nothing like this ever happened…’

In his previous world, no matter how many detox potions he used, he had never gained a resistance skill like this.

With growing curiosity, Evan opened the skill window.

<Poison Resistance> – Skill Level: F – Type: Passive – Cost: None – Cooldown: None – Effect: Increases immunity to poison by 30%. <Absorption Constitution> – Type: Passive – Cost: None – Cooldown: None – Effect: Maximizes absorption rate of all ingested substances.

Evan’s eyes lit up as he studied the two skills.

First, the Poison Resistance skill increased his immunity to poison.

If he could raise this skill’s level, he’d no longer need to fear dying from poison.

‘And it’ll be extremely useful against poison-based monsters too.’

Neurotoxins, paralysis poisons—just thinking about those made this skill feel invaluable.

‘Next is…’

The skill called Absorption Constitution caught his eye.

It seemed to be a unique trait Evan had been born with.

‘Kind of like an innate ability for a Hunter?’

He finally understood why this body was so overweight.

‘If everything you eat gets absorbed at max efficiency… of course you’d gain weight…’

But thanks to that, it seemed he’d also absorbed the poison entirely.

‘No wonder it took so many detox potions.’

With this kind of trait, getting out of a poisoned state through normal means would be incredibly difficult.

Especially for someone who wasn’t an awakened individual—it would be impossible.

‘But wasn’t this body supposed to have talent related to mana? Is this some kind of different talent instead?’

Come to think of it, the Kerthen family was known for their innate magical talent.

They were gifted with a natural affinity for mana.

But only Evan had a constitution specialized for consumption.

‘No—this could actually be better in some ways.’

Before his own awakening, he didn’t have mana either.

It was only after becoming a Hunter and gaining experience that his mana grew.

There were plenty of ways to increase mana.

Talent just affected how easily the body could grow and adapt to it.

‘And with this body, I might be able to grow faster.’

Evan saw potential in this body.

After all, any talent—depending on how you used it—could be a curse or a blessing.