Summer Break (2)
The closing ceremony was done, and the teacher's last homeroom remarks brought the day to an end. Lydia and the triplets stepped up to the podium and bowed deeply at the waist.
"You've looked after us so well this past month. It was a happy time — there was so much to see, and even more to learn."
In a single month, Lydia had grown popular enough that calling her the idol of the whole school would not have been an exaggeration. When she climbed the auditorium stage during the ceremony itself to say she was leaving, some of the children even came forward in tears, begging her not to go. That was how far it had gone.
"If you ever come to visit England, please come and find me. I'll show you around myself."
Sincerity was practically spilling out of her. Even so, if any of them actually went to England, I doubted there was a kid alive with the nerve to call up a princess.
The day's business finished, and summer break began in earnest.
The kids left in twos and threes, faces bright with excitement. I stood to head out myself, and found Han Go-eun and her crew had ringed me in, all of them watching me with sly little grins.
"......Got something to say?"
"Hmm~? Nothing at all?"
Han Go-eun wore a little devil's smile, smirking at me without pause, and Kim Chang-hyun and Su Yu-ri were no better.
"Yeah? Anyway, have a good summer. If something comes up and you need a hand, call me."
They were still smirking as I turned away — a weird bunch — and Lydia followed me out.
"You're heading straight back to England?"
"Yes."
"Right. Take care."
She was leaving, and I didn't have much else to say, so I kept it short. Lydia reached out and lightly caught my sleeve.
"Please visit England at least once. I'll receive you as a state guest!"
"If I show up, you're not going to kidnap me or anything, are you?"
"Hehe. Do that, and I might just end up plucking the whiskers off a sleeping lion, don't you think?"
She knew her business. Lydia kept a princess's bearing right to the last, offered a slight bow, climbed into a Rolls-Royce Phantom, and vanished from sight.
I'd spoken as if we had no further business, but we'd be seeing each other again before long. Once the PR video started making the rounds, everyone would know anyway — and the reason I'd told Lydia about my abilities ahead of that was precisely to lay the groundwork in advance.
Alastor's Black Castle...... Would I get to see those records?
Still in my school uniform, I returned to the Grand Blue building at the early hour of eleven in the morning, and a restless bustle hung over the place.
I stopped home first to change, then brought Miho and Hiarid with me to the office. Hwayeon and Aunt Hyeryeong came up and told me a guest had been waiting since nine that morning.
"Who is it?"
"The head of Suseong Group's Phase Strategy Office. I'd like to recommend you meet them at least once...... Is that all right?"
"If you're recommending it, Aunt, of course I'll meet them. What did they say they came for?"
Aunt Hyeryeong's eyes went to Miho, squirming on my shoulder. I patted the girl's head, and Aunt broke into a mother's smile before quickly schooling her face and answering.
"Ahem. Yesterday the video team and the publicity team stayed up all night making PR samples, and sent them to Her Excellency first. It seems she quietly circulated them through a private channel."
"Heh. Immediate reaction. If the head of the Phase Strategy Office showed up first thing in the morning, they're not complete idiots, are they? Do you know what the mood is over there?"
"Is Grand Blue's Master a monster?!"
At Aunt's sudden dead-serious delivery, I shut my mouth, blinked, and asked again.
"......What?"
"Exactly that kind of reaction. Hehe."
"Haha. So how should we handle it?"
"What do you want to do, Seoha?"
Hwayeon asked it while smoothing the slight creases from her black suit trousers. Hmm...... What did I want to do?
I folded my arms and turned it over. I like paying people back with interest. At the very least, something on the order of crushing that sleazy, infuriating deputy manager who'd come last time.
"At minimum, that rude bastard of a deputy manager needs his head taken off. Anyway — the man in charge showed up himself. Should I read that as them coming with their tail between their legs?"
"Yes. If the vice chairman came in person, you can be sure of it."
"The head of the Phase Strategy Office is the vice chairman?"
Hwayeon nodded without a word and switched on her Certifier, bringing up a profile.
"Oh my. The conglomerate chairman's grandson. For someone like that to come in person, the PR video must have turned out splendidly, mustn't it?"
Franc, who had been looking up the vice chairman of Suseong Group's Phase Strategy Office on her smartphone, widened her eyes and asked Aunt Hyeryeong in open admiration. Aunt explained with a look of pure pride.
"I watched the sample before I came. They combined it with the Floating Sky Islands footage the Master gave us, and the quality came out absolutely breathtaking. If this is released, it will cause an uproar."
"Then I'll feel him out while I talk. Watch how he reacts, and you and Aunt Hyeryeong can steer it as you see fit."
"Got it."
"Understood."
"Then have him come up."
I gave the order and glanced down at myself. A school uniform. This wasn't someone I cared to stand on ceremony for. Meeting him like this would do.
Hiarid had been standing beside a planter where some nameless weed had grown as tall as she was. I beckoned her over and set her behind me, where I sat in the seat of honor — only for Franc to shove her aside and take the place herself.
"......I was going to have Hiarid stand there for the intimidation."
At that, Franc pouted, yielded the spot, and drifted a little ways off to float idly through the air. Miho went on my knee. I seated Hwayeon and Aunt Hyeryeong to either side and waited, and the guest arrived with a secretary.
"Good day. It is an honor to meet you. I am Lee Huiyong, vice chairman of Suseong Group's Phase Strategy Office."
A strikingly handsome man in his early thirties entered, and the moment our eyes met he offered an appealing smile and bowed at the waist.
Early thirties, and already a vice chairman. Parachuted in, or does he actually have ability?
If the first impression had been another shitshow, I wouldn't have let it slide. This opening wasn't bad, though, so I stood and spoke.
"Yesterday some strange deputy manager from the Phase Strategy Office came by and left my nerves in shreds, and today the vice chairman himself graces us. I'm a little frightened of what you might be here for."
"I apologize for that matter. Former Deputy Manager Baek Jitae's conduct was something we failed to anticipate as well, and our response was delayed."
Former deputy manager? Did "former" mean they'd driven him out? Driving him out isn't enough.
"It's not that you got a look at my ability and decided this wouldn't do, is it?"
In that instant I caught the faintest flinch. If I hadn't been staring him through with Spatial Perception, I wouldn't have noticed a movement that small.
"So I was right. Please, sit."
Hwayeon and Aunt Hyeryeong, who had risen when I did, sat again as they saw me sit, and the man called Vice Chairman Lee Huiyong took his seat with a darkened face.
He might well have spared a glance for Hiarid behind me, or for Franc drifting through the office air as if swimming, but he didn't look away. He looked only at me.
"You came alone today?"
"I came alone, to show you that we are sincere."
None of the authority or pride one would ordinarily expect from a conglomerate vice chairman was anywhere on him. The train-wreck behavior you see in dramas had been on full display yesterday, courtesy of Baek Jitae.
A title like his was the sort that would make an ordinary person shrink at a business card alone. Honestly, though, after seeing more than a few beings beyond human imagination, someone holding a post like this didn't make me tense in the slightest. He wasn't showing me any friendliness either, so I didn't see a reason I ought to be nervous dealing with people like him.
Which meant my manner toward him was getting a little light. Maybe I needed to fix that.
I watched Lee Huiyong's disciplined, courteous bearing, then looked to Aunt Hyeryeong. She gave a small nod — a gesture that I could begin.
"I'm curious what it is you mean to show me."
"To speak my true mind, Suseong Group's Phase Strategy Office harbored doubts about the abilities of Grand Blue's Master. Everything announced until now...... had transcended common sense. Furthermore, it is an open secret that VIP stands behind Boss Park Jiwoong of Hwarang. Above all, is Boss Yoo Hwayeon of Time River not VIP's own child? And so we suspected that the founding of this Grand Blue raid team might be an act of invasion — the government reaching into the business world in order to throw the social order into disarray."
Hoh...... You could think of it that way.
So what. If you're so sore about it, you should've lined up a president's backing of your own.
"So I was a figurehead, the real power was Madam Yu Youngeun, and this was one piece of a conspiracy for her to hold the entire Republic of Korea in the palm of her hand — by force, by wealth, and by political power alike...... Is that what you thought?"
"That is correct."
"And so?"
Only then did Vice Chairman Lee Huiyong look at Hiarid, standing expressionless behind me in that angelic form.
"......It was difficult to believe. But the moment I encountered Grand Blue's PR sample, sent by an unknown party, I concluded that every forecast we had made until now had to be scrapped in full."
Listening to him, I couldn't help thinking they really did whatever the hell they pleased. Whether that thought showed on my face and in my voice, I saw him flinch.
"After a single video, you'll stop founding an association and stop backing it? Building an association must have cost a fair sum. You've already made the thing. Might as well poke the persimmon you can't eat — give it a jab, at least."
I let out a short laugh and said something calculated to scrape at his temper, and Lee Huiyong's expression grew steadily darker.
"Some two trillion won in net expenditure was incurred. More than that, the moment we confirmed Master Jung Seoha's abilities, our board of executives realized one thing, and we were left with no other choice."
"And what did you realize?"
"That there had never been any conspiracy on Her Excellency's part to begin with — that the purpose was rather to create a raid team specializing in high-tier aberrants, the kind that does not exist in this country, and to produce high-grade phase stones. Above all, the abilities we confirmed in Master Jung Seoha were not the sort one puts forward as a mere stand-in."
"That video could have been fabricated, you know. Didn't your side suspect that?"
"There was evidence too clear...... to leave room for suspicion."
Hmm. I kept poking at his nerves, and all he showed was the same unwavering posture. Had he also heard I was a petty man with a long memory for grudges?
"And?"
"Might I ask just one thing?"
"Go ahead."
"Do you intend to establish a phase stone refinement plant?"
Well now. How had he thought that far? It didn't feel like a blind stab. If that idea had come out of his own head, he was a fairly impressive man. Hwayeon's expression and Aunt Hyeryeong's shifted, just slightly, so I was probably right.
I hesitated over whether to speak about the plant, then looked at Aunt Hyeryeong. She nodded.
"That's right. I intend to build a phase stone refinement plant."
"......We will dissolve the association. We will also withdraw the boycott declaration and issue an official apology for the related matters."
"So you want us to reconsider the plant? There's a chance we build the factory and still can't get it properly running, you know."
I smiled thinly and began concentrating Mana Sieve through my body, laying on a quiet pressure. The neatly trimmed tips of Vice Chairman Lee Huiyong's eyebrows trembled.
"According to the Intelligence Bureau's projections, by volume, the Master of Grand Blue could collect in three months the quantity of phase stones that the domestic first- through fifth-ranked raid teams would gather in a year. We are sincere. So please cease testing us. ......Should you withdraw the plan, we will pay no small reparations. No — we will pay reparations regardless. I earnestly beg you to call it off."
Cold sweat ran down his straight forehead. He hadn't said reward. He'd said reparations. That was how I knew he meant it. I looked at Hwayeon, and she gave a slight shake of her head.
"Amusing. Do you know anything about the British princess who went home today?"
"I understand she approached Master Jung Seoha under the pretext of studying abroad."
"Before she left, she told me something. She'd received word from the Queen of England to win me over, even if she had to use her body. Why is the reaction Britain shows so different from the reaction our own companies show?"
He had nothing to say to that.
"We're going to proceed as planned."
Vice Chairman Lee Huiyong's face went grave.
"Cheonggung and Muhwaryeong both have dedicated phase stone refineries, don't they? It makes no sense that we, who are larger than they are, don't have one. No — it's strange that Time River and Hwarang have gone without refineries until now. Count yourselves lucky."
"Wha......"
"Before I smashed the neighboring country that tried to kill me, I was going to sweep all of you away first. You threatened me with money, so I thought I'd throw a money-mad tantrum of my own and grind you under it — but when I thought about it, we weren't the ones in a hurry. So I pushed you down the list. And in the meantime, the vice chairman came to apologize."
He stayed silent.
"You came in person and apologized with your whole heart, so I won't be stepping in myself."
I extended a finger slightly upward and layered the cubes I'd shown Lydia, overlapping them without number until they read as a circle. Above my fingertip a round Wall of Space took shape — opaque dark brown at the center, growing transparent toward the outer edge until it took on a clear amber hue.
Seeing it, Vice Chairman Lee Huiyong's throat bobbed in a hard swallow.
"Madam seems to have been thoroughly incensed over this affair, so handle that side of things well. If she says we ought to do such-and-such, I'm inclined to follow, short of something extreme."
"......Yes."
He forced the word out in a strangled voice, his face gone pale, and bowed his head low.
With Mana Sieve concentrated through my whole body, I supposed I did look rather abnormal.
"Go back. And take this chance to think about what happens if I get angry and run wild. I've never shown an angry face in public, so it seems quite a few places have been looking down on me. Something's going to happen soon where you'll be able to see with your own two eyes what that looks like. It might be worth watching then with your eyes wide open."
I smiled and looked straight at him. He answered with a hollow look, bowing his head.
"I understand......"
"Oh, right."
I called to him as he rose weakly to leave.
"Yesterday's Deputy Manager Baek Jitae really put me in a foul mood. If I happen to see that man on the street, I think I'll come to dislike Suseong even more."
"I apologize once more regarding that matter. And...... I will see that it is handled, without fail."
I'd spoken with the clear nuance that the man bore no small blame for how things had come to this, and a bleak chill stirred in Vice Chairman Lee Huiyong's eyes.
Hehehe. Former Deputy Manager Baek Jitae, you'd better watch your neck.
"Ah, and you don't imagine we're short on money, do you?"
I drew a few high-grade phase stones I'd been charging from inside my coat, tossed them into the air, and caught them again with a thin smile. For the first time, his expression collapsed outright.
"Hah...... Th-those are—"
Watching his gaze lock onto phase stones more brilliant than blue diamonds, I felt a thrill. Good thing I'd charged the discarded high-grade stones Hwayeon had brought me.
"Get home safely. I won't see you out."
"Un...... Understood. Then I will take my leave."
Vice Chairman Lee Huiyong rode the elevator down with a look as if his soul had slipped out of him. Aunt Hyeryeong, who had watched the entire affair, looked at me the way one looks at a blessed treasure.
"Goodness. I can't tell whether our Master is eighteen or thirty-eight."
"What?"
"How do you deploy pressure tactics so naturally? Did you study them somewhere? Even I, standing beside you, felt the pressure so strongly I swallowed without meaning to and got a little shaky — I can only imagine how hard it was for the man himself. Hohoho."
"Pressure tactics? I was completely sincere about all of it."
"......Even the part about smashing them to pieces?"
"Of course. If you want to keep people from getting cocky, the only way is to show overwhelming power so absolute they can't even think of resisting. If he hadn't come in bent over like that, I wouldn't have let it go."
I had the strength and the ability for it now. Aunt Hyeryeong looked at me speaking so calmly, flustered for a moment, then began to smile — sly, and satisfied.
"With our Master's mindset at this level, there's no need to worry on the side. We only need to put our strength into the founding ceremony on August 1st."
Beaming, she left one last remark just before she boarded the elevator.
"I'm truly glad the Master is our Master. Truly."
She looked happy enough that it brought to mind Department Head Kim Pyochung's back from yesterday.
"No, why is everyone like that? Department Head Kim was the same yesterday."
I muttered it, not understanding, and Hwayeon, who had been smiling quietly beside me, stroked my head with a gentle hand.
"It means you've earned their trust. Take it as you're doing well."
"So I am doing well."
I was ignorant of the business as a whole. I had some grasp of how the company flowed, thanks to my sister and Hwayeon coaching me one-on-one at my side, but the moment it came to actual operations I couldn't do a thing. I just sat there in a daze.
That it was enough for someone like me merely to hear how things stood and issue direction on how to move...... meant what I held was just that absurdly broken.
Well. Peerless power no one could approach, and wealth close to limitless, drawn from charging phase stones. If I couldn't manage even this much with those two things in hand, I ought to plant my face in a saucer of water and drown.
Suddenly I remembered something my father had once said. A good leader is one who sets a clear direction, and who can hold up the people doing the real work from behind.
If that was the measure, even I could do it.
"Has Aunt Hyeryeong's husband come back from America?"
"No idea. Why?"
"I need to check whether my Healing Touch recovers illness too. I promised her."
"Ah...... Then we'll confirm it and have him admitted to your father's hospital......"
"No. Just ask them to invite me to their home."
"Got it."
Hwayeon pressed the elevator call button, then turned and looked straight at me. The moment I thought there was heat in her eyes, she caught my cheek and kissed me, deep and unhurried.
The sudden kiss left me a little thrown, but I never turn down that kind of contact. I caught her plum-sweet tongue between my teeth, nibbled, and answered her for a good while.
Satisfied with a kiss that was anything but brief, Hwayeon smiled and took the elevator down — and Franc slid in as if they were changing shifts, covering my mouth with hers.
Seriously, what was with them? I had no idea what had them so worked up.