Haven't I Seen You Somewhere Before? - 4
Unfair. That was the only thought running through the honorary chairman of Jinhan Group's mind.
It was something he had clawed together in his youth by using every dirty trick in the shadows. He had started with loan sharking and pyramid schemes, then pushed into finance, construction, and distribution. Plenty of people still called it a dirty business, but he had fought his way this far. Now he was pouring money into politics and slowly gathering ability users under his wing with massive cash infusions. He had been on the cusp of stepping beyond a mere mid-sized conglomerate to chase far bigger dreams….
But that dream was collapsing, shattered by some kind of monster.
The woman lounging cross-legged in the honorary chairman's own seat, cackling with laughter. She could not have been more than twenty. The last traces of youth had not even fully left her face. And before her, the honorary chairman knelt on the floor, forehead pressed to the ground.
How the hell did things come to this? Just how?
It had all begun with something his third grandson pulled. According to the boy, an examiner had humiliated him. He would teach that worthless nobody the true bitterness of life. He had sent people to corner the man and put him in a miserable spot. Unfortunately, that examiner turned out to be connected to the woman sitting before him now—the one even villains referred to as a crazy bitch. Someone presumed to be an acquaintance of that 'Irina.'
He definitely said he only planned it and never actually did anything.
His grandson would not lie to his face. The boy had been raised from childhood to obey without question, so he would never dare. Therefore, everything his grandson had said had to be true. Even if he had been caught midway, it had still stopped at an attempt, hadn't it?
Had it gone to the police, it might have been swept under the rug. Even if they pressed charges, he could have manufactured an escape route. But this 'crazy bitch' would never let it go.
And the result had been catastrophic.
Irina had stormed in and flipped every subsidiary upside down. Literally by force. No one could stop her. Even the authorities had been forced to step back. Immediately afterward, a massive prosecutorial investigation had been launched out of nowhere. Every affiliate was torn open. Operations were completely paralyzed. Their political connections? Every last one of them had shut their mouths and vanished. No matter how many times he called, not a single person answered. Even when he threatened to expose their relationships, they refused to budge.
Only later had he learned the truth. The prosecution had simply decided to destroy Jinhan outright. They had no intention of dragging politics into it, and they were not looking over their shoulders at anyone. That was why the politicians had cut every line of contact and gone dark.
“Hey.”
“…”
“Hey. Not answering? Geezer?”
The typical Korean slang spilling from the blonde, blue-eyed woman's lips carried a shock on an entirely different level from a foreigner shouting “Fuck!”
“Y-yes, Lady Irina.”
“Feeling wronged?”
“N-no. Absolutely not…”
“It's written all over your face that you're feeling wronged. What's with the act?”
Honestly, he could not deny it. After the prosecution had dug up everything, after the group had been ripped to pieces, after the media had beaten them bloody and competitors had swarmed in to tear at the corpse, only after surviving that storm had he finally regained his senses. He had thought it was over, yet here Irina was again. This time she had declared she would really crush them.
“This time, this time we truly have no connection whatsoever.”
“Yeah. Keep talking.”
“It's the truth. I admit what happened before. I failed to educate my grandson properly. I beat him myself and ordered him to live at the Academy as if he no longer existed. He is not the kind of boy who would disobey. After that incident, I never ordered or planned anything else!”
The chairman cried out in a voice full of genuine desperation. Because it was true. Because neither he nor anyone under him had done a single thing.
They were not villains—just people trying to live well. What madman would dare provoke an S-rank ability user? And not just any S-rank. Irina. She was a living strategic nuclear weapon. Touch her and you died. The other nukes at least had safety mechanisms and some form of control. This crazy bitch had none. She could detonate at any moment.
“Hmm. So you're saying this time you really didn't do it. Correct?”
“Yes.”
“Really?”
“I swear it. I swear on everything I have built.”
Irina let out a little hum, then rose from her seat. The overwhelming pressure radiating from someone who had only just entered her twenties was unbelievable. And woven between that eeriness were bewitching movements that refused to let the eye look away. A crazy woman, yes. She was unmistakably insane, yet there was something about her that made it impossible to break free.
“Then the last time, it is correct that you people tried to do something, right?”
“…Pardon?”
“Last time. When you tried to tarnish our handsome oppa.”
“B-but Lady Irina already took care of that matter…”
Squeeze—
Irina's foot came down on top of the chairman's head.
“So you thought I'd finished everything back then?”
“Wasn't that the case?”
“Nope. Not even close. I got dragged away on a dispatch mission. That's why I handed it to the prosecution. But these bastards didn't do the job right. I told them to dig, and they literally just dug. That's not how it's supposed to work.”
She had told them to dig, yet the problem was that they had only dug? What kind of absurd, literally insane nonsense was this?
But the chairman could not utter a single word in protest.
In a developed society built on science and deep-rooted ideologies, ability users had come to stand above everything else. They slaughtered monsters no earthly technology could touch. They fought villains that entire armies could not handle. That fact alone made ability users beings no one could carelessly provoke.
Of course, since they were still human and lived among humans, they could not completely ignore the eyes and judgment of the world. Those who did had already become villains busy destroying society.
That was why even S-rank ability users usually paid some attention to the social climate. Because they could not live alone, they adjusted despite being called demigods.
However, not everyone was like that.
“I hate it most when someone touches what belongs to me.”
A madness different from the villains. Yes, what shone in those eyes was unmistakable insanity.
“He's an oppa who can truly entertain me. Just thinking about him gets me so excited. It's thrilling enough to kill me. But only I am allowed to feel that. I will never tolerate some other bitch or bastard putting a scratch on him.”
Crackle—
Golden lightning surged and vanished around Irina's body. Cold sweat poured down the chairman's spine as he witnessed the sight.
“Th-then… what would you like me to do? Please instruct me.”
At his words Irina tilted her head and asked, “Huh?” Then she suddenly clutched her stomach and exploded with laughter.
“Ahk! Ahahaha! Oh man, I'm dying!”
“I will do anything. If you want compensation from that examiner, I will pay whatever amount you demand. If my grandson is the problem, I will leave him entirely to your disposal, Lady Irina. So please…”
“Hey. You still don't understand what I'm saying, do you?”
Irina bent at the waist and stared down at the chairman. Seeing the madness swirling in her eyes once more, he could only let out a deep sigh.
Could anyone negotiate with a natural disaster? Of course not. Before a colossal catastrophe, a human could do nothing at all.
“You shouldn't be asking me that. Jiyun, isn't this your problem to handle?”
News of Irina's rampage had reached Han Jiyun through the Association almost immediately. In truth, even the Association lacked any real power to restrain her. At best they could request cooperation from another S-rank, or go beg her parents once again. Or they could ask for help from the few individuals Irina found uncomfortable. For example, the very person Han Jiyun was currently speaking with—Ma Hakjun.
“I'm busy.”
“No! What if something really big happens?!”
“What power does this old man have? And stop trying to dump your work on me.”
“You're too much!”
Click—
Han Jiyun ended the call with a thoroughly sulky voice. Of course she wasn't actually sulking. She knew perfectly well that this was her responsibility. It was only natural that stopping an S-rank required another S-rank.
“Ugh…”
Ma Hakjun sank deep into his chair and let out a low groan. Was it because Irina had caused another incident? No. There was no point worrying about a girl who was no longer even an Academy student.
“It's just… watching that examiner made someone suddenly come to mind.”
“Hakjun. Do you still remember that man?”
Why bring up that story all of a sudden? Ma Hakjun genuinely wanted to strangle his old friend.
“Sujin. Hyun Sujin's fiancé.”
At first he had not understood what Kang Minsung was talking about. He had even cursed the man for dragging up a story buried deep in the shadows. Kang Minsung had apologized but stubbornly continued.
“It might sound like nonsense, but… they're similar.”
“I'm not talking about appearance. What I mean is… he resembles that man. The way his ability suddenly bloomed—not just awakened but fully flowered. The way he instantly reads the subtle principles someone shows him and tries to absorb them into his own body. That sort of thing.”
Ma Hakjun had answered that true geniuses always appear at unexpected times, then warned his friend in a very stern voice never to speak of the matter again.
But after ending the call, Ma Hakjun had found himself biting his lip.
Why had the story from that time, the story of that person, suddenly been brought up?
“Hooo…”
Ma Hakjun let out another long sigh, his face sinking into deep thought. In his long life he had rarely felt regret, but if he had to name one thing he regretted, it would be that exact moment Kang Minsung had brought up the topic.