Amon’s life-or-death self-defense had begun.
He first detailed the reasons for heading to the brothel and the process of infiltrating the building.
“I had to cross-dress because of this and that… I needed to approach the chairman’s son.”
“S-Seriously… you’re going to…!”
During the process, Sonia had a trivial concern about Amon’s purity, but the misunderstanding was resolved without any special noise.
”It’s not like I’m some cyberpunk.”
Amon has very ordinary sexual preferences.
He never thought of doing anything like that with a man.
No matter the cause, he swore by his mother goddess that he would never do such a thing.
After Amon’s desperate defense, Sonia was able to clear up various misunderstandings.
All misunderstandings about Amon’s infidelity or his purity were resolved, and Sonia’s face brightened a bit.
‘Now is the time!’
Amon instinctively felt that this was the perfect time to deal.
After the misunderstanding was cleared up and Sonia’s mood improved, it was the perfect chance to cheer her up with better news.
He, riding the momentum, told her about the spoils obtained from this incident.
The money from robbing the Hexen Group meant they wouldn’t worry about finances.
The orphanage wouldn’t have to worry about food for life.
They could also expect to upgrade their specs with the high-end equipment taken from the Hexen Group, and so on.
Amon eagerly explained to Sonia the rosy future that lay ahead for them.
But despite his explanations, Sonia’s face didn’t brighten up.
She seemed even somewhat angry.
As Amon was perplexed, Sonia murmured softly, “Idiot…”
“Eh?”
“Is that important, idiot!? Look at what happened to you!”
Sonia pulled back the blanket to show Amon’s side, revealing a new yet not fully healed burn mark.
She was angry.
“What’s with the money! What’s with the equipment! You got injured! You almost died! But what’s important about that money! It’s worthless!”
Hearing her words, Amon also became solemn.
He couldn’t bring himself to say, ”It was still a lot of money.”
If Sonia had done something reckless like him, she would have felt the same way.
Of course, in this dangerous world, he couldn’t avoid taking dangerous actions.
But still.
No matter how harsh the world became and how the priorities shifted, the love and concern for his loved ones remained unchanged wherever he went.
“…I’m sorry.”
That’s all Amon could say.
He had no choice but to reflect.
In a way, he might have been treating this reality like a game.
Forgetting that there was someone precious beside him, viewing the world with a gamer’s mindset had choked his heart.
“Next time…”
He was going to say he wouldn’t do that again.
But his mouth stopped.
It couldn’t be helped.
Because the path he was on would never be safe.
Moreover, considering the Gorilla incident and this current one, his life couldn’t be guaranteed to be smooth.
For Amon, who valued the weight of words, he couldn’t dare to promise that he wouldn’t do that next time.
Amon couldn’t promise Sonia safety.
His lips remained closed.
He selected a promise he could whisper to her in his head.
Meanwhile, Sonia spoke first.
“I’m not saying don’t do it next time.”
Hearing that, Amon made eye contact with Sonia.
What was she wanting to say?
As Amon thought, Sonia looked at him with moist eyes and said, “If you’re going to do that next time, take me with you. You said you could rely on me. So let’s go together. It won’t be a burden, please.”
At her words, Amon couldn’t help but laugh.
‘Was it my lack of trust?’
Because she was the most trustworthy person in the world, he had confessed his love to her.
But in reality, he tried to handle this incident alone from start to finish.
Even though he had such a reliable companion.
He put a bitter expression on his face and nodded calmly.
“Alright. I understand.”
Amon pulled Sonia into his embrace.
Sonia cautiously pulled him into her embrace as well.
Then naturally, their lips met.
The sweetness of love was incomparable to any painkiller.
***
In the space with a bit of pink hue left, Sonia had to ask something she had always been curious about.
“But how much did you get as key money?”
“This much?”
Amon manipulated his phone and showed her the contract file.
She began counting the numbers that Amon showed her.
“One, two, three, four… six!? One hundred thousand dollars?”
Amon nodded.
An annual salary of one hundred thousand dollars.
It was an amount that would steadily accumulate in his bank account just by breathing.
It was a salary that hovered near the upper ranks even among the American middle class.
Among Sonia and Amon’s peers, it would easily place them in the top 10%.
Sonia, upon seeing this, clamped her mouth shut and said, “I’ll cancel, I don’t need it.”
Hearing that, Amon burst into loud laughter.
“Hohoha, kuhahhuh!”
The cost of forgetting the wound on his side and bursting into laughter was intense.
The pain, which he thought had subsided, rose from deep within his organs.
As the dizzying pain made Amon unable to breathe, Sonia panicked, claiming that Amon was dying.
There was also an incident where a nurse, who had received a nurse call, hurriedly came in and looked at the ‘idiot couple’ with cold eyes.
But it wasn’t a very important story.
***
After that, Sonia packed her things from the church and began caring for Amon 24 hours a day.
“Aang~”
“Aa~ omnomnom”
Amon received and ate the ‘real’ pork that Sonia gave him.
“Is this the first time in a while I’m eating real meat!”
Beautiful marbling, firm texture, and an odor that couldn’t be removed no matter what!
His entire body cheered with cholesterol flowing through his veins for the first time in a long time.
This was one of the deals with the 3 Dollar Group.
They sent real pork, 100 grams of each part, monthly without overdoing or underdoing it.
No matter how rare real pork was in this world, he wondered why they had to add it to the deal while cutting the key money.
Considering the reduced key money, he could have just bought it himself.
Moreover, it wasn’t just any pork. <Variety by part. Be sure to include pork belly.>
Even the archbishop of the Vatican, who acted as Amon’s trading window, was astonished.
“Pork belly? What is that?”
When he referred to it as the belly area, he was even more incredulous.
-“Are you talking about the part used for bacon? There’s tenderloin, so why???”
They said they would send a lot of sirloin or tenderloin, but he couldn’t understand why Amon chose to reduce those and opt for pork belly.
Even Alan ordered not to slice it thin like bacon but to send it whole.
Hearing this, the chairman of the 3 Dollar Group was also puzzled.
“By any chance… is that legendary paladin a Korean?”
The archbishop didn’t respond to the chairman as if he wouldn’t give that fragmentary information, but he was also reasonably suspicious.
Anyway, the deal based on pork was finalized, and the company agreed that Amon would send 300 grams of pork monthly.
Why 300?
“Still, it’s the 3 Dollar Group.”
The chairman insisted on keeping the ‘3’, so he sent it that way.
Since it included the pork belly part that wasn’t used anyway, the unit price was correct.
As a bonus, they would send it divided weekly to prevent spoilage.
Thus, Amon could occasionally eat real pork that fattened his blood vessels instead of healthy hospital food.
This week: neck meat, next week: tenderloin, the week after: sirloin…
Sonia watched Amon’s actions with a satisfied look.
“Didn’t you say you couldn’t eat it because of the odor?”
“No, I could. Here, aang.”
“Aa.”
Amon was the one feeding the precious pork, which he could only eat once a week, to Sonia as well.
Through this incident, she also learned that Amon couldn’t eat synthetic meat simply because he hated insects.
Amon’s stubbornness felt cute to her.
Thus, the two enjoyed their weekend dinner.
However, Amon had a regret.
‘Damn it, I want to eat pork belly.’
Originally, pork belly was the main goal, but he couldn’t eat it in the hospital.
The smell wasn’t the issue.
Of course, Sonia cooked the meat outside and brought it back in a sealed container, and since Amon was in a single room, there was no problem.
Still, there was one reason why Amon couldn’t eat pork belly.
‘Fucking West. Fucking cyberpunk.’
The meat was prepared.
But there were no other items.
Ssamjang, garlic, ssam vegetables, etc.
These were the elements Amon had overlooked.
No matter how much Amon craved pork belly, eating it raw was a bit difficult.
‘I should get discharged and go to Korean Town, Won.’
According to what he searched on the internet, you could get ssamjang and garlic at the upscale grocery store there.
They say it’s really expensive.
Still, he planned to go since he could get them.
Thinking that, Amon took the hamburger that Sonia put in his mouth and ate it.
Gazing sadly at the pork belly slowly rotting in the corner of the freezer.
Amon survived another day in cyberpunk.