Chapter 2: His Bucket List

At first, he denied it.

However, he couldn’t keep rejecting what was already unfolding before his eyes.

Simon eventually accepted the situation he was in, and he was furious.

‘It’s only six months.’

What on earth could he do in less than a year?

Even if he knew he was going to die in advance, it didn’t mean he could cure the illness.

Simon’s father had spent money without restraint to make Simon healthy.

Famous doctors from all over had examined Simon, and he had tried everything that was said to be good.

Nevertheless, Simon never became as healthy as ordinary people.

Then, around the time he reached adulthood, his first heart attack suddenly occurred.

He met every renowned doctor, but they all said there was nothing to do but be careful.

They claimed it was unavoidable because his body was weak and his spirit was equally fragile.

For that reason, he lived cautiously while receiving regular checkups.

Despite this, a second heart attack occurred.

He miraculously escaped death, but the doctor made a declaration.

They said there was no guarantee of what would happen the third time.

It was said that no one had ever survived after suffering three heart attacks.

The heart attack that took place in winter was exactly the third one.

In other words, Simon’s death was not the kind that could be prevented just by knowing about it beforehand.

‘In that case… I’m just terminally ill.’

Simon curled his body into a ball.

Despair washed over him.

Even though a miracle like returning to the past had happened, did it mean he still couldn’t live?

Did he have to live in fear, having been given a date of death?

As he thought that way, anger surged within him.

If a miracle was going to happen, they should have sent him much further into the past.

Then he might have been able to save his father.

If not that, they should have sent him back to before the first heart attack occurred.

He might have been able to do something about it then.

What was he supposed to do with a mere six months!

‘Do I have no choice but to wait for death like this? Truly?’

Simon asked himself again.

Was he really going to wait for death absentmindedly without doing anything, just as he remembered?

As he was dying, Simon had regretted it desperately.

It wasn’t a lingering attachment to a short life.

It was regret for having lived his life without doing anything.

Because he was afraid his health would worsen, because he was worried about public perception—the reasons were varied, but fundamentally the same.

He had been unable to do anything because he was afraid a future worse than the present would arrive.

But he was going to die anyway.

If that was his fixed fate, there was no longer a need to worry about the future!

No matter how much worse things got, could it possibly be worse than dying!

A realization flashed through Simon’s mind.

‘Then I… can do anything…!’

Because things couldn’t get any worse, he could finally do anything.

As his perspective shifted, his anger and despair turned directly into joy and excitement.

He had once read in a newspaper editorial that life looks different depending on one’s viewpoint.

He had scoffed at it as nonsense from easygoing scoundrels who didn’t know what tragedy was, but looking at it now, it was all true.

Just by changing his mindset, he was filled with such ecstasy.

Simon couldn’t contain his excitement and jumped to his feet.

He threw both arms high into the air.

Suddenly, energy surged within him.

‘What should I do now? There are so many things I want to do!’

There were always many things he wanted to do.

He wanted to go on a trip, he wanted to be in a relationship—anything that meant being free was good.

Simon took a small notebook out of a drawer.

Then, he began writing down the things he wanted to do.

Simon’s shoulders bounced with more excitement than ever before.

The dining room on the first floor of the Grayan manor.

Alcohol and food were laid out on the long table.

The person occupying the seat of honor was the manor’s butler.

He was boisterously laughing and playing while eating and drinking with his subordinates.

“So, yesterday that guy, right.”

When one of the servants made a vulgar gesture, everyone burst into laughter.

The atmosphere was no different from a back-alley pub rather than a wealthy manor.

The butler snickered while drinking wine.

The old, high-end wine kept separately in the butler’s office tasted excellent.

“Ah, the Grayan manor is the best.”

The butler savored this moment.

Who would have known that he, who had lived his whole life as an employee, would be able to enjoy such luxury.

Of course, the butler hadn’t been like this from the start.

A year ago, he became the butler of the Grayan manor through Dalton’s introduction.

To be precise, someone from the Eragon Investment Company had introduced him to Dalton.

Anyway, as long as he had become the butler, he had intended to act the part in his own way.

However, after actually staying at the Grayan manor, his mind changed.

The master, Simon, stayed cooped up in his room with no interest in worldly affairs and didn’t care what the butler did.

Realizing this, the butler gradually began to act as he pleased.

He kicked out the original servants and hired his own subordinates and friends as servants.

The butler turned the manor into his own world and spent every day drinking and idling with his subordinates.

The costs were all covered by the manor’s operating expenses, and he even took his weekly wages regularly.

It was a pity that it was hard to embezzle money because Dalton checked the ledgers meticulously, but he was generally satisfied.

Worry about getting caught? He didn’t even think of such a thing.

Simon was usually stuck in his room, so he didn’t know what was happening in the manor.

He wasn’t interested.

‘Even if he knows, what’s he gonna do.’

The one who hired the butler was Dalton Grayan.

He was the person looking after Simon and in charge of all the family businesses.

Simon couldn’t even budge in front of Dalton, like a child.

No matter what he did, Simon would be unable to take any action because he wanted to avoid trouble with Dalton.

In fact, wasn’t he unable to do anything even though the butler was increasingly acting rude?

Dalton didn’t care what kind of treatment Simon received either.

Therefore, the butler had no worries.

‘That sucker. Why does he live like that when he has so much money.’

If it were him, he would use this massive fortune more effectively.

The butler ridiculed Simon.

While he was doing that for a while, a servant who had gone to the butler’s office to get wine came running into the dining room.

“Big brother, you should go to the butler’s office.”

“What? Why?”

“The sucker is going to the butler’s office!”

“That sucker came out of his room?”

The butler stood up with an annoyed expression.

It was very bothersome, but he couldn’t ignore it, so he headed to the butler’s office.

He decided that as punishment for bothering him, he would serve a terrible lunch.

When he arrived at the butler’s office, Simon was standing there covering his nose and mouth with a handkerchief.

It was because the dust made him cough, but the butler was annoyed, thinking it was a criticism of him.

“What are you doing in my office?”

The butler questioned him demandingly.

Regardless, Simon pointed to a cabinet.

It was the cabinet where Simon’s medicine was kept.

Since the medicines Simon took were so expensive and important, they were kept separately in a cabinet in the butler’s office.

“Open this.”

“What? Why all of a sudden?”

“If I tell you to open it, open it.”

The butler was inwardly startled by Simon’s command.

It was hard to pinpoint exactly where, but it felt different from usual.

He held his ground while staring intently into Simon’s eyes.

Then, he discovered that the brown eyes, which were always hazy, were sparkling strangely.

What is this?

“I told you to open it?”

Simon urged.

“…He’s really got a knack for being bothersome.”

Because he didn’t want to admit he was doing as Simon told him, the butler grumbled audibly as he tossed the key to a maid standing nearby.

The maid opened the cabinet.

Various liquid medicines were stored tightly inside the cabinet.

Even though they were in bottles, the unique bitter and pungent smell of liquid medicine wafted out.

Simon frowned, as he felt like vomiting just from smelling it.

‘This trash!’

From the time he was a child, not a single day had passed where he hadn’t taken medicine.

He had endured and taken it every day even though he hated it to death, just to become healthy.

But what did it matter now?

He would eventually die even if he took enough medicine to make his stomach burst!

Of course, if he didn’t take this medicine, he might not be able to last for the six-month period, but it was better to die early in comfort than to live a little longer in agony.

‘I won’t eat this kind of thing anymore.’

Having made up his mind, there was no hesitation in Simon’s actions.

Without hesitation, Simon began to shove the medicine bottles into the trash can as he grabbed them.

Thump!

Clatter!

Glass bottles collided, shattered, and a mess was made.

Nevertheless, Simon did not stop.

Simon, throwing the medicine bottles, seemed somewhat passionate and possessed by a touch of madness.

“Gasp.”

“Shouldn’t we stop him?”

The butler and the servants all watched Simon’s unexpected behavior in horror.

It was the first time Simon had ever done something so aggressive.

He often showed the sensitivity unique to sick people, but for the most part, he was the quiet type.

“What on earth are you doing?”

The butler quickly regained his senses and grabbed Simon’s wrist.

Simon’s brow furrowed at the strong grip.

Simon’s thin wrist, caught in the butler’s large hand, looked precarious as if it might break.

“Do you have any idea how much all of this costs!”

“So what?”

“Ah, what, are you showing off your wealth now? That you have so much money you can just throw away expensive things like this?”

The butler sneered.

The salary he received for working hard for a month was the price of just one of those liquid medicines.

Simon’s action of throwing them into the trash as if it were nothing triggered his inferiority complex.

Simon couldn’t understand a butler like that.

What does it matter if I want to throw away my own medicine?

Furthermore, the butler’s current behavior was absolutely not something to be shown to an employer.

Simon also knew that the butler had been ignoring him for a long time.

He had noticed that the man had fired the existing servants and hired his acquaintances, spent the whole day idling instead of working, stole expensive alcohol, and was acting recklessly.

He wasn’t such a fool that he wouldn’t notice when someone acted so openly.

Nonetheless, he had let it be because he thought enduring was best.

It was because he was worried about trouble, such as Uncle Dalton getting angry thinking Simon had shamed him, or the issues of finding and hiring another butler after firing this one.

However, Simon decided he would no longer endure.

He made up his mind not to think about the consequences.

Simon shook off the butler’s hand with all his might.

It hurt as if his arm were being pulled out, but he grit his teeth.

Simon held back a groan and declared.