The legend about the vampire hunter who saved Korea from the evil Braeden Alarick and caused the great divide has been widespread. Her saga gave birth to numerous fairy tales and myths. Alarick even became the new boogyman parents used to scare their naughty children. Unfortunately, unlike the Bam family, who knew that Ambrosia was the one who committed the Braeden Massacre, the church propagated an unnamed Saint as the country's savior and used it to rise in power.
Gibyeong has long instilled the gravity of their duty to his children since they were kids. Gun-in, unlike Jeonsa, took his father's teachings seriously despite there being little chance for Ambrosia to wake up.
Bam Gun-in has always admired Ambrosia despite being a man of science. He's always curious about how his princess could pull off such a feat or survive being asleep for almost a century with nothing but drops of blood to sustain her. Thanks to his quirk - bio-mech - he naturally has to study how to build technology from scratch and use the nanomachines inside his body. Gun-in even established Hunter's Tech Inc. and developed technologies to help Ambrosia cope when she wakes up.
Luckily for him, his prayers were answered when Ambrosia woke up while he was present in the inner house, and after some begging, Gibyeong allowed Gun-in to be Ambrosia's new teacher.
It's been three months since then, and Gun-in is currently in his office inside their main house while sorting documents and writing off papers. With his precious princess awake, he began to transfer his duties to his cousin Dae-Jung since he couldn't be both Ambrosia's servant and Hunter's Tech Inc CEO at the same time. It's been a week since he began processing his retirement since Gun-in would rather be by his princess' side than holed up in his office.
While signing off some reports, Gun-in began to reminisce about how he started teaching Ambrosia. It was a week after Ambrosia's awakening when all she did was paint pictures and do calligraphy. Gun-in offered her a book as a change of pace, only to realize that his princess never underwent any formal education - not even reading and writing.
'Haa, just thinking about how pitiful Gongju-nim looked when she was cluelessly browsing the book makes me want to kill that bastard Alarick all over again. I knew he was the Blood Tyrant, but how could he rob Gongju-nim of the ability to read and write? The closest thing Gongju-nim had to education was when her mother taught her how to draw complicated characters beautifully.'
Letting out another exasperated sigh, Gun-in opened the lid on his left index finger, where nanobots poured out and created a USB-like device that slithered towards his laptop. He then smiled warmly like a doting parent when he noticed Ambrosia's practice papers and remembered her serious face when he taught her elementary mathematics.
'But still, Gongju-nim is a genius for mastering the alphabet and 1st-grade curriculum in just two months. If she keeps this up, I'm sure she'll catch up to kids her age in no time.'
After connecting, his computer prompted many programmer commands that processed data continuously before showing numerous screens of different places in their region. While each screen flickered between parks, roads, houses, and tall buildings, they all stopped at the image of various churches taken from different angles. One of the screens showed a wide street in front of a large cathedral with foot and car traffic.
'It would've been alright if Alarick's the only problem Gongju-nim is facing right now, but the church just had to make a move. We've been in a cold war against each other for as long as I can remember, but this is the first time they sent someone to infiltrate our compound. They already dared to discredit Gongju-nim in her own story, and now they want to bother her? Thankfully Jeonsa caught the prick before it got inside any further, lest I would've burned the church to the ground if they made Gongju-nim uncomfortable. Speaking of, I better improve the security around the inner house.
I should do make something like this, but with things like these, or something like this...'
While Gun-in immersed himself in creating different devices from nanobots that came from his robotic fingers, he didn't notice his phone ringing on the side. After a few more minutes of ringing, it finally stopped but was replaced with a loud knocking a few moments later. Startled by the sudden disturbance, the nanobots in front of him went haywire and created a small explosion, burning his immediate vicinity.
Cursing at the knock, he retracted the surviving nanobots back in his fingers before wiping the green liquid that escaped from his lips.
"Coming!"
He shouted with irritation before taking out a grey syringe gun with a fat, green vial as its ammo. He then went towards the door while rolling up his sleeves and opened it with an annoyed expression. Once open, he met a woman with ashen blonde hair wearing a red, one-piece, and backless dress with a fluffy shawl covering her back, waiting outside.
"Wha- Omma? What are you doing here?"
After seeing her son, the irritation of being ignored and made to wait earlier vanished from Yongseo's face when she saw the burnt marks on her son's clothes. The trace of the green liquid on his chin and the syringe gun armed with his son's 'blood' on his hand made Yongseo's expression soften as she reached out to touch Gun-in's dirty cheeks.
"Aigoo, why are you making such dangerous gadgets in your office? Shouldn't you do those in your lab? Did I disturb you in any way? Omma is sorry, it's been a while since I saw your faces, and I can't find Jeonsa anywhere."
Yongseo explained as she wiped her son's cheeks with her hands despite dirtying her white gloves.
"I'm fine, Omma. I was just surprised. You didn't disturb anything. Come, I'll pour you some tea."
"No, I should be the one pouring you some tea. Nae A-dul has been so busy that he's been experimenting inside his own office."
"Ehehe."
After sheepishly going back inside the room, Gun-in sat on the sofa while watching his mother skillfully prepare tea on the side of the room. Even though they have enough money to buy all types of tea in the world with money to spare, Gun-in's mother never lost her willingness to do things herself - especially when it came to her children. With a childish smile on his face, he placed the syringe on the table before standing up and taking the tea cart from Yongseo.
"Let me serve you, Omma. You might hurt your back after all."
"Aigoo, I'm not that old, you know!"
"Yes, yes. Omma is still the prettiest and the youngest one in all of Korea. No wannabee actress can take the title of 'Screen Queen' from the famous Bam Yongseo."
With a light smack on Gun-in's arm, the mother and son chuckled as they sat side by side on the sofa. After pouring themselves a cup of tea, Yongseo picked up the syringe gun with her left and stretched out her right towards Gun-in.
"Now, give me your arm. You need this as soon as you can, right?"
"Omma, I'm not a kid anymore."
"You'll always be my little soldier. Now, let Omma fix you."
With weak reluctance, Gun-in offered his arm, in which Yongseo obediently injected the syringe. Gun-in watched his mother absent-mindedly while sipping his tea. Once finished, Gun-in placed his cup back on the table before unfolding his sleeves.
"So, Omma. Why are you here?"
"Do I need a reason to visit my son?"
"Impatiently knocking on my door, not to mention the missed calls on my phone? Why are you here, Omma?"
Gun-in turned to his mother and held her hand, intently staring at her in the eyes. Realizing that no half-assed lie would go unnoticed, Yongseo decided to come clean.
Resting her cup back on the table, she placed her hand on top of her son's, looking back at him straight in the eyes.
"I rarely see my family anymore. You and Jeonsa don't visit me at home. You don't even come for dinner anymore, just like your father. So, tell me about what you're doing in the inner house."
"Omma..."
"I'm your mother, Gun-in. How could I sleep at night if I don't even know what my children are doing? I bet you haven't even eaten anything since this morning, haven't you?"
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"What are you talking about, Omma? It's only 9 am."
"What 9 am are you saying? It's already 2 in the afternoon!"
"What?! Gongju-nim! Gongju-nim hasn't eaten yet! Omma, I have to go. I'll talk to you later, okay?! I love you!"
"Wha- wait! What about- Aigoo, look at this child."
Yongseo let out a sigh as she shook her head, seeing the mess her son left as he rushed out of the room. With a light chuckle, she began to clean up Gun-in's office. She placed the tea set back to the cart and parked it outside the room before arranging her son's cluttered table. Despite his intelligence, Gun-in has always been messy, leaving most of his things lying around.
As she gathered the papers into one stack, she noticed a paper with hand-written marks repeating the same word - filling up the entire page.
"Ambrosia?"
Back in the inner house, Gun-in was desperately wearing the outer clothing of his hanbok as he headed towards his princess' room. Upon reaching the door, he stabilized his breathing before sitting in a seiza position. Letting out one last breath of nervousness, Gun-in finally knocked on the door and announced his arrival.
"Gongju-nim, it's Bam Gun-in. May this humble one enter the room?"
"Mm."
With her permission given, Gun-in slid the door open and saw his princess reading a book with a pitcher and glass on the bedside table. It was only then that he remembered what he had forgotten. Gun-in immediately cursed his forgetfulness before bowing once again, placing his forehead close to the ground.
"This lowly one was going to ask about Gongju-nim their preference for their meal today."
". . ."
"W-well, we were able to harvest blood from a 17-year-old bachelor with weak telekinesis as his quirk. Although, if Gongju-nim prefers maidens over bachelors, then this lowly one will bring some right away."
". . . Mm."
Not understanding his princess' response one bit, Gun-in got bold and assumed that Ambrosia was willing to try the bachelor's blood. After some more formalities, he finally closed the door - not daring to look up as he was still drowning from the embarrassment of forgetting to bring his princess' meal. He spent a few seconds looking dazedly at the closed panel door before smacking his forehead.
"Idiot."
He cursed himself as he stood from his seat before proceeding to the kitchen.
Gun-in returned with a silver tray carrying a silver goblet - all made out from his nanobots - and resumed his sitting position in front of Ambrosia's door. He announced his arrival once more after knocking.
"Gongju-nim, it's Bam Gun-in. This humble one has brought Gongju-nim's meal."
". . . Mm."
In a practiced manner, Gun-in slid the door open with one hand, stood from his position, sat back inside before finally closing it. Without spilling a drop of the ominous liquid from the goblet, he skillfully rose from his seat and headed to Ambrosia with small and steady steps.
As Gun-in approached, Ambrosia closed her book, placing it on the bedside table before receiving the blood-filled goblet. Gun-in watched over his princess, completely forgetting his earlier blunder, and received the now-empty goblet before it broke down into small robots as they returned to his fingers.
"Does Gongju-nim enjoy reading?"
Gun-in asked after absorbing the silver tray, eyeing the book that his princess opened to resume her reading.
"Mm."
"I see. The library should be complete in a few days; would Gongju-nim be interested in visiting it by then?"
Seeing his princess tilts her head in confusion, Gun-in fought hard in containing the chuckle that was threatening to escape.
"A library is a room filled with all kinds of books, Gongju-nim."
Upon hearing the library's definition, anticipation and excitement filled Ambrosia's expression, looking at Gun-in with sparkling eyes.
'Waaah, Gongju-nim looks so cute! She loves reading and drawing.
Despite all his efforts, Gun-in broke into a doting smile and nodded lovingly at his excited princess.
"Yes, but it still needs to be filled with books, so Gongju-nim can only visit after a few days."
". . . Mm."
"Shall we continue Gongju-nim's studies?"
"Mm!"
Ever since Ambrosia woke up, there were only a few things that could make her smile so innocently as she is now. It's only in these moments does Gun-in sees Ambrosia as an innocent child and not the vampire hunter of the Braeden Massacre.
Months passed, and they were already halfway through the year. The church was getting more aggressive by the day in their attempts that forced Jeonsa to return home less and less.
One afternoon, while Gun-in was teaching his princess in the library, Ambrosia caught him off guard by asking him something he never thought he would hear from her.
"Gun-in-nim, where's Jeonsa-nim?"
Gun-in was more surprised about the number of words his princess said rather than the question itself. He spent a few seconds looking at Ambrosia, who focused on writing something, before gathering his thoughts for an answer.
"Ah, Ja-mae is currently running some errands for Abuh-ji. Does Gongju-nim need something from Ja-mae?"
". . . No, just curious."
Although his princess ended the topic, Gun-in was still pondering about the question. Although Ambrosia never once complained, she could be missing a female presence in her life - she is closer to her mother, after all. While still looking at his princess, Gun-in remembered a particular enthusiastic woman who would love to be part of their inner house duties.
'Perhaps I'll ask Abuh-ji about allowing Omma to replace Jeonsa in taking care of Gongju-nim.'
A few weeks later, Gun-in, Jeonsa, and Gibyeong were inside the patriarch's office, sitting on the sofa with Gibyeong at the head seat and Gun-in and Jeonsa on the opposite sofas, facing each other. They were currently discussing how aggressive the church has become as of late. From sending scouting parties with minimal threats, the church has begun sending infiltrating parties with paladins.
". . . That's all I have gathered so far."
Gun-in, wearing a formal blue and white vested suit without the jacket, finished his report about the recent activities of the church based on his surveillance. As he was cleaning up his laptop, Gibyeong thanked Gun-in for his brief before turning to his daughter, who was wearing an olive green baggy sweater with black and white striped sleeves from her elbow to her wrist paired with grey jean shorts and black ankle-high boots. Jeonsa was sitting with her left leg over her right while sucking on a lollipop.
"What about the aggressive regional Bishops, Jeonsa?"
"Done, though I still don't understand the need to eliminate the bishops. We could've just blackmailed the church like we always do."
"We can't have such flies buzzing around Gongju-nim when she's starting to assimilate back to society."
"About that, Abuh-ji, can I suggest something?"
"If it's coming from you, I'm sure you've thought it through. What is it?"
"Since Jeonsa is too busy doing errands outside the residence, how about having Omma take care of Gongju-nim for the meantime?"
"Yongseo?"
"Wait, Omma? Why?"
"Why not? She's been wanting to join us in the inner house anyways."
"Haven't we done enough? I'm killing for Gongju-nim, for crying out loud!"
"What do you mean by enough, Ja-mae? It's nowhere near enough in repaying her for everything she did for Korea."
"We don't even know if she is the so-called 'savior' Hyung-jae. She could be the second coming of the Blood Tyrant for all we know."
"Ja-mae! How dare you slander Gongju-nim?!"
"Don't look at me like that, Hyung-jae. We both know you were also skeptical about her identity,"
"That was before! I love and respect Gongju-nim with all my heart now!"
"Hah! You spent less than a year with her, and you're already head over heels for her? What a joke."
"Oh, yeah? Says the lesbian who stalked a girl she only met thrice in a year."
"Hey, Ha Eun is a beautiful human being with a lovely voice. And we always keep in touch through chat, so it's fine even if we don't see each other often."
"I knew it! Ha Eun is the reason you're such a bitch towards Gongju-nim right now. It's because she's going to be a knight-in-training next year."
"Why not? It would be a conflict of interest if I were to work for the 'Blood Tyrant' when the girl I'm dating belongs to the church. Not to mention I have a date with her this weekend, so I'd appreciate it if there won't be any assignments until next week."
"Ja-mae! You better take that back! Gongju-nim is a far cry from her destitute father!"
"Yeah? Make me!"
Just as his children morphed their arms into their desired weapons - Jeonsa created an S&W .500 with her right arm while Gun-in produced a pulse canon with his left - Gibyeong slammed his hand on his armrest before reprimanding the twins.
"Enough! Gun-in, you should know better than take Jeonsa's bantering seriously. Jeonsa, you're well aware of your brother's enthusiasm towards Gongju-nim. Show some respect; if not towards Gongju-nim, then at least towards our family traditions and me."
""Yes, Abuh-ji.""
The twins obediently retracted their weapons and took back their seats while maintaining their childish glares. Looking at his children acting unlike their age, Gibyeon couldn't help but let out a sigh and warmly look at them.
"Even though we're such a powerful family, I'm glad that the both of you haven't forgotten each other."
"What are you talking about, Abuh-ji? Hell would have to freeze over before we forget our family."
"That's right, Abuh-ji. You've been telling us that family is the most important thing. Isn't it normal to tolerate Ja-mae? Even though she's a delinquent and a sexual deviant of a lesbian?"
"That's right. You told us to never turn our back on family, even if one of them is a nerdy and perverted virgin."
Hearing his twin's remark, Gun-in shot up from his seat and pointed a newly produced handheld pulse cannon at Jeonsa.
"Who's the virgin, you horny lesbian?!"
In response to Gun-in's threats, Jeonsa created her own S&W .500 pistol with her arm and aimed it at her brother.
"Wanna go, you gynophobic virgin?!"
"G-gynophobic virgin?! I am not afraid of women!"
"Yeah?! Then I dare you to talk to your secretary without freezing up."
"Only if you go on a date that doesn't end up to sex."
"Wha-! I've gone through dates that ended wholesomely! I at least got some, unlike you, you egghead celibate!"
"Ha! I dare you to name one who you didn't have to pay at the end of the day, you lascivious lesbian!"
"You-!"
"Yeah?!"
Seeing the resumed banter between his children, Gibyeong couldn't help but let out a burst of hearty laughter, causing his children to hit pause and look at him with a confused expression.
It took him a few more seconds to regain his bearings before he wiped a tear from his eye while chuckling.
"Haa, it's been a while since I've laughed that much. Anyway, that's enough, you two, as there's still much work left to do. Gun-in, look for anything we can use to cripple those vermins permanently. Jeonsa, wait for my or Gun-in's instructions. I'll do my best to reserve any assignments until next week, but I can't promise anything. Aside from that, you're free to spend your time however you want."
""Yes, Abuh-ji!""
Gibyeong stood from his seat once his children had left, and took a cigar from his inner suit pocket, and lit it up. Looking at the vast green scenery beyond the window, he puffed a cloud of smoke while contemplating their current situation.
'Gongju-nim is awake, and my family has enough social prestige to provide her with everything she needs. All that's left is the annoying church and their thick-witted pope. It's only a matter of time before the Braeden clan takes back its rightful place in society and claim Korea once more.'