The Deliberation (2)

Fifteen minutes since I had stepped into the conference room.

After my opening strike seized the initiative, Deputy Minister Kim Hakjun drove the other side with a ferocity that was honestly frightening. Sure the advantage was his, he unleashed a storm of argument.

“In that case, I believe it is Team Leader Kang Woohyuk and Assistant Manager Choi Soohan of the Survivor Protection and Management Department who ought to be punished for dereliction of duty. Seoha, after all, was never informed of the relevant matters. He entered the Phase World against his will, under circumstances he could not avoid. Is that not so?”

“Passing through a designated entry place is matter stipulated as transcendent law of international community, yes. Mr. Jung Seoha is minor, and he entered Phase World. This is fact. So by relevant legal provision, stern measure must be taken, or same incident will not… will not not happen again.”

Deputy Minister Kim did not so much as twitch an eyebrow at Richard’s slick, ingratiating expression.

“Which is precisely why I cannot accept that view. In Seoha’s case, it was an accident. He did not enter of his own will. A gap in his knowledge, a violent experience suffered in the Phase World, memories surging up to the surface, and that stimulus pulling him in—that is all. The Juvenile Act, where it speaks of protection, referral, and notification, targets boys and girls who committed crimes of their own will. It is not a law for punishing boys and girls caught up in an accident. Is it?”

Deputy Director Jo Mirin, who had been listening in silence, cut in.

“But it is a fact that Mr. Seoha entered the Phase World, and a fact that he came back alive, isn’t it? Talent aside, a detection-type ability user returning alive from a second entry in only two days—I think there’s room to be suspicious of that.”

“Are you saying you regard other underage ability users as potential criminals?”

“That isn’t what I mean. Only that Mr. Seoha’s situation may be a special one. Honestly, gaining a detection ability with a range of four hundred and fifty meters on a mere first entry is a rarity without equal anywhere in the world, isn’t it? I’m saying we ought to understand the background of that awakening.”

“An ability realized through life-threatening hardship and adversity, and you would suspect it of having been abused for some special crime? That strikes me as excessive. Had Team Leader Kang and Assistant Manager Choi properly delivered the guidelines to Seoha immediately after his return, no defense of an unlawful act would have been possible at all. This accident arose only because the two of them failed to carry out their duties in good faith. Would you not agree?”

Against the five deliberation members, Deputy Minister Kim Hakjun showed a terrifying command of words, not yielding an inch. One after another he broke them in debate and turned the fault onto the two employees of the Protection and Management Department standing behind the committee. Choi Soohan, wearing a face like death, and Team Leader Kang Woohyuk, standing silent, simply took the arrows flying their way.

From the moment Richard tried to muddy the waters, the war of words ended, as expected, in Deputy Minister Kim’s victory.

“……And so, as you will have received in your reports, and as you have seen for yourselves in his own defense, Seoha is by no means a fool, nor a reckless brat drunk on his own strength and swinging it about without judgment. I ask you to remember that this incident was an unavoidable accident, born where three things met: the instability of an ability immediately after awakening, the failure of the responsible parties to give him proper instruction, and the wound left on his mind from surviving a crisis.”

The five, beaten in turn after the heated exchange, went quiet at the Deputy Minister’s earnest tone, traded looks, excused themselves to us, and crossed into the next room. There they put their heads together with grave faces, whispering, and their complexions gradually worsened.

I snooped by lip-reading, but I wasn’t used to reading English words, so I dropped quite a few. From the shape of the conversation, the tone was that the directives come down from Association headquarters would be difficult to carry out.

About ten minutes later, Cha Uicheol returned, his face set hard, and opened his mouth.

“Pardon the interruption. I understand Deputy Minister Kim Hakjun’s argument, but…… the Association has no choice but to regard Mr. Seoha’s actions as unlawful.”

“Mm.”

Deputy Minister Kim’s face stiffened, and so did Director Lee Hyeryeong’s. From Hwayeon, a chill like a sheet of ice seemed to pour off her.

I held the blank expression I had long since mastered so my sister wouldn’t find fault with me, and sighed on the inside. Cha Uicheol went on.

“Mr. Seoha’s talent, his judgment, and his ability have shown an excellence that simply does not match his class. That is surely why he could enter empty-handed, with no gear at all, and return alive from a second entry in only two days. And so a doubt arises. Traces remain that the Certifier was used several times. Why, then, did he not look into the item concerning re-entry to the Phase World? Could it be…… that he thought himself special, and this was an attempt to test us?”

“That’s a stretch! Forcing a motive onto the circumstances like that is improper conduct, unfit for a deliberation, isn’t it?!”

Director Lee Hyeryeong seemed to have caught his intent, and she shouted. Cha Uicheol only looked at her for a moment, offered no reply, and continued.

“Of course, we acknowledge that there were problems in the response of our own staff, Team Leader Kang Woohyuk and Assistant Manager Choi Soohan. But when one considers a cleverness and a sense of judgment unsuited to Mr. Seoha’s age, this accident becomes difficult to understand as well. There were thirteen long days after his discharge, and still he did not look into re-entry. Set against the Ability User Protection Act, which rests on a framework of individual conduct and self-regulation, one cannot say Mr. Seoha bears no responsibility.”

“I find it difficult to believe those are words a Central Deliberation Committee member would speak. Are you not ignoring the legal principles that form the foundation of the modern rule of law?”

Hwayeon frowned and growled, but Cha Uicheol watched only me, looking me over as if he were searching for something.

I was busy too, damn it. Mom and my sister had me pinned down so I couldn’t do a thing on the side—nine days in the hospital, eat, sleep, repeat. I got the Certifier on Friday, and Saturday and Sunday I was busy learning lip-reading, and Sunday night I stayed up listening to Franc’s story. Monday I finally went back to school and got hit with every kind of maddening mess there is. That afternoon an Energy Eater swept me up and my ability awakened a second time. Tuesday I heard all sorts of things about the Energy Eater we’d captured, worried until my head split, met the Madam and got the shock of my life, ate, talked things over with the noonas at a salon, heard about Hwayeon’s shocking past at her house, and went straight into the Phase World for a second entry!

Say it out loud and it’s a little over three hundred characters. Write it all down and I bet it’d split into something like forty-nine chapters.

I dropped the idle thought and turned my eyes to the committee members staring at me.

Listening to the war of words between Deputy Minister Kim and the five, something had kept coming to me. Their attention happened to be on me now. This was the moment to jab.

“Excuse me. May I ask one thing?”

“Please. Speak.”

The unfailing calm, the steady honorifics, had felt gentlemanly at first. Now it only felt like mockery. A difference in position, of course. Was he doing it on purpose, so I’d feel the pressure? I did feel it. Compared to the pressure of the Rogue Imugi, though, it was something to snort at, and set beside the Supergiant Turtle’s presence it wasn’t even the grime between my toes.

I had no reason to feel weighed down. And that stubborn attitude—you messed up—had been getting on my nerves since earlier.

I tossed the check out as if I were merely saying it.

“……Pardon?”

A crack ran through Cha Uicheol’s expressionless face. At the level of what I’d said, the other four looked stunned as well.

Franc, who had been watching quietly, must have felt the turn in the air was a bad one. She studied my face. At that, an irritation I couldn’t swallow surged up all at once.

God, seriously! It isn’t even my fault, so why are they trying to use that against me? It pisses me off! An Association founded to protect ability users, wasn’t it? Then what is this farce? Why are you making Franc shrink like that, wearing a face that says the original sin is hers?!

I sped my thoughts and felt the right pause open. I looked at Franc. Sure enough, after more than a month living with me, she read what I meant to do in my expression and looked appalled.

Then she gave a small nod.

With Franc’s agreement, I hid the anger behind a bright, innocent smile and spoke to the five committee members.

“What you committee members are saying, in the end, is that the problem is that I didn’t die. That I came back alive. Isn’t that it?”

“No. That isn’t our inten—”

You slipped, mister. That was when you should have asked what I meant.

“If that isn’t it, then you’re saying you never even considered how a minor ability user, one month out from coming back alive, who hasn’t even been taught how to handle Phase Power, managed to return?”

“A return, if one finds a Return Point, can be managed somehow. It takes a long time, granted, but if one is merely nearby, it happens naturally……”

“So you don’t care what I went through, or how the accident happened, or any of the process. You’ll only make a problem of what I did. They wouldn’t even have pulled that in the Joseon era.”

“……”

At my words, the committee members looked troubled. Cha Uicheol shut his mouth with an unreadable look—angry that he’d been cut off, or thrown because he hadn’t expected me to attack like this. I couldn’t tell which.

“It pisses me off that I didn’t get a single word of warning for thirteen days after I came back. It pisses me off that Director Oh Soeun, Dr. Woo Mingu, and his assistants didn’t even give me the explanations they owed me, just fired off whatever they were curious about and moved on. It pisses me off that other people dug through my information and spread it around. It pisses me off that nobody so much as mentioned it to me, so I got sucked into the Phase World again against my will. I met a Mid-Rank Variant, got surrounded by seven Mid-Low Rank Variants and hundreds of Low-Rank Variants, nearly died getting past that, and I’d only just clawed my way out—and now it’s my fault for going in on my own, even though nobody told me how to enter?”

Hwayeon, who knew the whole of it, was one thing. Everyone else except Franc and me looked sick at the heart when they heard about hundreds of aberrants.

The more I talked, the hotter my temper burned.

Listening to the five committee members, a feeling had come over me. These people meant to put me in their debt and set me, at minimum, in a position of cooperating with the Association.

What made me sure was Richard’s thoughtless move, the way they’d reacted to personal trivia about me and Hwayeon, and Cha Uicheol’s words just now.

On the surface of the conversation there had been no problem at all. But I knew too well how my sister hid other intentions inside ordinary talk, and how much grief that had cost me.

Right? They came all the way from headquarters, and they ask questions like that. Either they had no intention of punishing me, or they meant to punish me from the start. Take the first one, and Cha Uicheol’s manner had been cautious from the beginning.

It had felt like they wanted something.

So it came down to one conclusion. Grab my weakness, lay a debt on me, and steer me however they liked.

If I couldn’t catch even this much, the shit-stained years I’d lived as my sister’s little brother would start sobbing. Or what? Or nothing. Not like it matters. On top of that, I had a vague hunch this wasn’t the sort of thing that landed you in Alcatraz.

If they really did send me to Alcatraz, I’d flee to the Phase World one way or another.

And I wouldn’t come out until I’d grown to match my talent. Not before I was A-Class.

Physical Reinforcement, Elemental, and even the recovery ability I only remembered as a pattern—if I got all of that and became A-Class…… As Hwayeon said, the abilities of aberrants stronger than ability users. Judging by my own ability, stronger still than those aberrants, I figured that once I was A-Class I’d be nearly national-power class.

Come out after growing that far, and I could smash the Association and everything else to pieces.

Social chaos? What’s that? Me and my family come first, and the country after. Since when does the country stand over us?

I was a little worried about my family, and about Hwayeon, but if it was Hwayeon, she’d look after my sister and my family just fine.

Franc would be beside me.

“Haha…… I’m flattered you rate me so highly, but I really can’t believe this. I’m only eighteen. Don’t you think you’re expecting a bit much of me? Blaming me for not looking up how to enter and leave the Phase World. Why don’t you just say the Phase World appeared because of me?”

“……Mr. Seoha, you’re a little worked—”

Han Yeowool had opened her mouth to speak, so I cut in again.

“And with things like this, you hang out the slogan of an Association that exists for ability users? Even my shallow legal knowledge can find a couple of grounds for leniency. If this is how it’s going to be, why did you call me? If it was already decided, just send a notice telling me to shut up and fall in line. Or did you call me in so you could watch me eat shit?”

At the rough speech, Han Yeowool clamped her mouth shut.

Even in the middle of being pissed off, the reason I could push this hard was the temporary backing behind me. Hwayeon was there, and the Madam was as good as there too. That was the only reason I could talk with my liver hauled out and slapped on the table.

“So what’s the penalty I’m supposed to take? Do I have to be locked up in Alcatraz?”

“N-no. It isn’t like that……”

“It’s fine. Go ahead and say it. I’m only one person. How could I ever stand against the great and mighty World Phase Ability User Association?”

She still wouldn’t open her mouth, as if the smile I kept wearing pressed on her hard, and in that instant my irritation blew wide open. Maybe because my emotions had spiked, Phase Power flowed into both eyes on its own.

It gathered thick in my eyes until they shone with a watery light and then past that—blue fire scattering, TP spilling from my eyes. A sensation washed through me, hot and cold at once, not only in the irises but through the sockets themselves. I ignored it and asked.

“I’m asking what my punishment is for the unlawful act. Right now.”

At that, the five examiners seated before me, and Kang Woohyuk, and Choi Soohan, froze the way I had frozen before the Imugi, unable to blink even once.

“Ms. Choi Soohan.”

“Y-yes?!”

Called by name, Choi Soohan startled and couldn’t tear her eyes from mine. She answered in a flustered voice.

“Tell me. Did you forget to inform me, or did you choose not to?”

“Ah, that.”

“You had plenty of time. You were in a position to send a message. If not, the Association hospital was right next door. Were you so busy you couldn’t stop by on a break, tell me, and leave?”

“Ah.”

“But when I called last Monday, you came running right away, didn’t you? Looking at that, it doesn’t seem like you were all that busy.”

“Ugh……”

At my words, the room went quiet. I hadn’t known I could manufacture silence here, and not only in a classroom. In the middle of it, Choi Soohan was trickling arousal again and soaking her panties, and I was sick to death of it. I really couldn’t tell what kind of person she was.

“Deputy Minister Kim.”

“Uh, yes?”

“These people won’t answer a single question. I wondered if you might know what punishment I receive in a case like this.”

“……Unreported entry into the Phase World is classified as a considerable felony. The weight is judged according to the crime and the circumstances, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠but in your case I do not believe it rises to confinement in Alcatraz. Most likely…… a disposition banning hunter activity for a certain period, beginning the day you come of age.”

“About how many years would that be, roughly?”

“Five, if short. Twenty, if long.”

My face hardened at once.

At how fucked it was, rage heaved in my chest. A mistake that hadn’t reflected my will at all, and they meant to close a fist around my life.

The media covered it ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠often enough. Ability users’ taxes were severe. Even with no income, you were classified as a special high earner and had to pay in two installments a year, and if you didn’t work as an ability user the rate was so filthy high you’d go bankrupt in no time. Earn a lot, and you were expected to pay a lot and spend a lot. That sort of thing.

Get old, or get hurt and be unable to work, and you could attach a diagnosis and a medical opinion, file a suspension of business, and they said the tax bills would stop for a few months. You couldn’t do it often, and every time there was a complicated review. The more you did it, the stricter the review became.

Or you had to file to close down as an ability user entirely. Close, and you could use your ability only in a handful of specific places and specific situations, and break that and a fine beyond imagination came down. Activity blocked on one side, taxes falling on the other. Because it was a punishment, there was no tax exemption either. Go bankrupt, or file for closure and never enter the Phase World again. One or the other.

A closure filing could never be withdrawn. I wasn’t someone like Hwayeon, with a fortune already set aside, and I hadn’t even started working. Take that punishment, and it meant I was utterly fucked.

I did have a means to make money.

It was still at the planning stage, but judging by how I’d charged Phase Power into the Soul Stone, I figured I could charge empty Phase Stones too and turn them into fresh ones. So I could ask Hwayeon to gather Phase Stones that had run dry, charge them, and sell them back. The sales route would be simple enough if I asked her.

Of course I’d need Hwayeon’s help for that. But Franc was flushed red with anger, and looking at her, I thought there was a good chance she’d hear me out and share the secret with Hwayeon.

Start selling that way, and various taxes would stick to Hwayeon, but I could just cut the price to account for them. If not that, I had a vague faith that if I left it to her, she’d handle it well. Even that much would be enough to live on, and enough to pay the taxes……

Special tax collectors were famous for being vicious and venomous.

A kid with no income, parents whose income was obvious, smoothly paying an enormous ability-user tax—anyone would find that strange. The arrow could point not only at my parents, but at Hwayeon too.

Thinking that, my rage blazed up like a volcano. Reason shook, and my thought acceleration came undone.

The feeling had grown so violent the world in front of me swayed. I closed my eyes and steadied my breathing in small draws, and Hwayeon and Franc, perhaps thinking I’d gotten too worked up, each wore a worried look. One took the back of my hand, one my shoulder, and they soothed me with a light touch.

I felt the warmth of their hands and, to settle the surge, turned Mana Mode over.

I released the Phase Power concentrated in my eyes through Mana Sieve, left only an ordinary amount, and opened my eyes again. The people who had frozen like frogs before a snake let out a breath. I could see a drop of sweat running down each of their brows.

……What was that? If enough Phase Power gathers in the eyes, does some other effect appear? It froze even an ability user with a Phase Power of two hundred thousand.

No. Think about it later.

Cha Uicheol fussed with his tie as if his throat were tight, and spoke in a voice on the verge of cracking.

“Khh…… hem. A ban of that length will not be imposed. The Association has no intention of making an enemy ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of a capable ability user such as yourself. The Association is also aware of the cooperation of Mr. Seoha, who readily provided a precious Energy Eater.”

With an awkward motion he drew a handkerchief from his breast, wiped the sweat on his brow, and spoke again.

“But whatever the reasons and the process, once the law has been broken, punishment must be received. That is how social order is established.”

“We committee members fully understand your sense of grievance, Mr. Seoha. If the two employees of the Survivor Protection and Management Department behind us had only done their work properly, an accident like this would not have occurred.”

In place of the frozen Cha Uicheol, Deputy Director Jo Mirin explained, in a soft, coaxing voice, that their intentions were absolutely not bad—careful not to provoke my anger. Was I the only one who felt as if they were soothing an angry child?

“But the law has a strong tendency to prioritize results over process. Thirty to seventy, perhaps? The Association has also concluded that our two employees account for more than eighty percent of the fault.”

I wanted to sneer, And the people lecturing me about that tendency of the law ignored the presumption of innocence, did they? Do that, though, and they’d remind me this seat was a deliberation. Things would turn extremely against me.

More than that, shoving a full twenty percent of the negligence onto me when I had done nothing wrong sent a revulsion through me strong enough to turn my stomach. But a single thread of reason left in my head, hot with rage, pointed out that I bore a sliver of fault as well.

If I hadn’t hidden my abilities and had updated them faithfully, the Association would have considered that and seen the fault not as two to eight, but as zero to ten. Whatever came after I’d revealed all of them, anyway.

I didn’t answer. I stayed still, and Cha Uicheol lowered his eyes to the documents, drew his brows slowly together, and spoke.

“The materials prepared by Mr. Seoha’s side provide ample grounds for mitigation. I am saying this only in this room, but a suspension of no more than seven months—a level that will not hinder full-scale activity once you come of age—will be handed down together with a fine. The fine will not be small…… but at your level, the signing fee from contracting with a raid team, and a short period of income, should be enough to cover it.”

As if they found that level of punishment reasonable, the faces of Deputy Minister Kim and Director Lee, who had gone silent before my anger, eased considerably.

With cold eyes, I tried to read Cha Uicheol’s intent.

Only a guess, but that was probably the maximum concession he could offer. My anger had been beyond what they’d imagined, so he’d retreated as far as he could.

So this place really was arranged to scare me? Make me swallow my fear so I couldn’t judge rationally, then lay a debt of gratitude on me? And when I got angry and pushed back beyond what they expected, they hastily retreated.

Take away two of them, and the rest were all Korean. If I found it filthy, found it sickening, had my pride wounded, and went off to another group or another country, they’d be the only ones taking the loss. That must have been it.

I couldn’t tell just how precious they thought my ability was, to stage a show like this.

“Then Team Leader Kang and Ms. Choi will be punished too?”

At my words, Choi Soohan flinched, and Team Leader Kang nodded. Deputy Director Jo Mirin, of the same department as those two, gave a heavy nod and spoke.

“It is a grave mistake that might have ended a person’s life. Even when the workload had climbed past five times normal, from mass outbreaks of aberrants and the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠appearance of an extreme-danger aberrant, this was something that absolutely had to be seen to. We cannot let it pass as if nothing happened.”

At Deputy Director Jo’s words, I glared at Choi Soohan and opened my mouth.

“Then personally, I’d like Ms. Choi worked to the bone. Hard enough that that scatterbrained, bungling streak of hers disappears. Brutally hard!”

Seeing her leak all over herself again under my cold gaze, I doubted she’d be fixed easily. Still, I wanted a punishment harsh enough to correct a constitution that dribbled slick just from being chewed out a little and condemned.

“We’ll…… keep that in mind as much as we can.”

Choi Soohan looked ready to cry.

Except for the lower lip, which hung there drooling.

After that I kept my mouth shut, and Deputy Minister Kim Hakjun and Hwayeon traded small blows with Central Committee Member Cha Uicheol, trying to lower my punishment even a little.

But the level Cha had offered really did seem to be the lowest he could concede. He showed a stubbornness that would not yield a single step, and in the end the punishment was fixed at the level he had proposed.

Suspension of ability-user qualification for seven months, plus a fine on top.

The fine was to be discussed the following Monday, when Supervisor Han Jungmun and people from the Anomalous Ability Bureau reconvened, together with the formal punishment procedure. They said it would come to roughly six hundred billion won.

Fuck…… Even if I dumped in the five-billion-won provisional signing fee, the five-hundred-billion-won regular contract fee, and several years of salary, I still couldn’t pay that off!!

If Hwayeon hadn’t said that a few deployments under the profit split would be enough to pay it off, and that she’d extend an interest-free loan in the raid team’s name, I would have exploded all over again.

I ground my teeth.

Look at how it started. It happened because of their mistake, so why was it my hard-earned money……!

It pissed me off, but I packed the feeling down, telling myself the fine was a drop in the bucket next to the money I’d be making from here on.

The punishment levels Choi Soohan and Team Leader Kang got for their side’s mistake were none of my business. They said they saw the fault as two to eight, so those two would get a punishment at least four times mine.

So twenty-eight months, and 2.4 trillion won? Even an ability user pulling in enormous money could never personally recover from a fine like that. But I couldn’t feel a penny of real intent to collect it, so I’d watch, start to finish, with full attention, how they handled it!

Whether they ended up dead as a result or not!

The moment the deliberation wrapped, the committee members left first, in a hurry. They must have found the blue light that had gathered in my eyes anything but ordinary. No question they’d been watching this room on CCTV too, meaning to analyze my ability.

In the moment my temper had blown and I’d just slammed back at them, and I thought I’d done right. Keep your mouth shut and stay quiet, and of course they look down on you and treat you like a sucker. You have to show them your temper’s filthy enough that if they cross you, you’ll hit back, or they won’t leave you alone.

And…… I needed to focus a little more on growing my ability.

They’d made a show of measuring me in the appraisal room and the measurement room and uncovered almost nothing, so what could they figure out by analyzing footage? Still, there was no harm in being careful.

“Hoo…… Seoha, you really are remarkable. I wonder if you even needed our help.”

Coming out of the Association building, Deputy Minister Kim Hakjun gave a somehow hollow laugh, drew a handkerchief from his breast, and wiped the slight sweat on his brow.

With adults of his years, playing humble probably scored more points.

“Not at all. If you and the boss hadn’t been sitting beside me and pressing them first, they would have let an anger like mine go in one ear and out the other.”

“Not so. Midway through, when you spewed those fierce blue flames, I felt as dizzy as if I were standing before Her Excellency’s thunderous rebuke.”

Laughing softly that Her Excellency had been right to mark me as a talent worth close attention, Deputy Minister Kim looked back and forth between me and Hwayeon, then smiled a meaningful smile.

“If the day comes soon to eat noodles, I hope you’ll invite this old man as well. Heh heh heh.”

Eating noodles? What’s that supposed to mean?

I was still puzzling over it when Hwayeon’s face went red again. Had it been something she’d be embarrassed about?

Hwayeon flushing and looking shy had a fatal charm that could snare not only men but women too. The steps of women passing by slowed, little by little, and their eyes turned toward her.

“Then I must return and write the report. Until next time, Seoha.”

“Ah, yes. Thank you for helping today. Please tell the Madam I’m grateful as well.”

“I shall. Even so, she would be gladder if you offered your thanks in person, if possible. You did receive the card?”

“You mean that gaudy, gleaming golden business card?”

“Ha ha ha ha.”

Deputy Minister Kim Hakjun nodded with a kindly grandfather’s laugh and disappeared with his attendants. Only after his party had vanished from sight did Director Lee Hyeryeong and the two others, who had been standing ramrod-straight like privates at attention, let out a breath.

“Hoo. Really…… There are so many things about you that don’t match your age, Mr. Seoha. Sometimes you speak in a way that suits it, and sometimes you command a room so thoroughly it’s startling. I feel as if I caught a glimpse of your true face at this deliberation.”

“……Well. I am that sister’s little brother.”

“Ho ho ho.”

I’d dropped my sister’s name because I was afraid too much modesty would look like weakness, and whether that was a convincing reason or not, Director Lee and the attendants nodded along.

This stung my pride in its own way……

“It isn’t over yet.”

With those words Hwayeon drew every eye at once, and looked at me with a warm gaze.

“The fine of six hundred billion won—had this deliberation gone as they intended, the Association would have offered to pay it with no restrictions and no conditions, and in exchange tried to settle the matter by having Seoha serve with them for a set period. His wit let him slip that scheme, but his true face has been revealed. The Association will certainly contact him and try to win him over. His mother will inevitably be drawn into that opening. Protecting Seoha from such people begins now.”

“Yes. We’ll prepare thoroughly and do everything we can so that Mr. Seoha never leaves Time River.”

Director Lee Hyeryeong answered, looking at me with sparkling eyes. Supervisor Han Jungmun and Choi Jinsik, too, looked as if they fully believed in me now, and it was almost enough to give me goosebumps. When expectations climb, it gets hard to live up to them.

And Director Lee’s party disappeared in the white limousine they’d arrived in.

Only Hwayeon and I were left, and only then did it sink in that we’d cleared a massive wave. Franc, stuck flat against my back, let out a small sigh of relief. I stroked the back of the hand she had around my waist, and Hwayeon saw it and blinked.

“It is about time you were hungry. Let’s go home. Auntie, Uncle, and Siha will be waiting themselves sick.”

Ah. She thought I was rubbing my stomach because I was hungry. I checked the clock, and it had already slipped past twelve. I could picture Mom and my sister fretting.

“This way.”

I followed her as she strode toward the parking structure, and asked.

“Where are we going?”

“My car is parked here.”

Hm. I was going to take a taxi…… So she keeps a car here separately? We went into the pure-white parking structure, and Hwayeon pressed lightly just above her left breast. Far off, a matte-black car beeped and flashed its headlights.

……But why had she implanted the Certifier above her left breast? It felt like that pretty chest had been claimed by the Certifier, and the feeling was strange.

“……”

I was staring a hole through her chest. She flushed all over again and rapped me lightly on the head.

Thump.

Scratching at the spot she’d hit, I walked toward her car, and the closer I got, the wider my eyes went.

That was a Lamborghini Aventador?! I’d seen them online now and then, but never in person!

A classic sports car from more than two hundred years ago—one of the handful of vintage supercars left in the world. Just looking at it got my blood up.

“……Huh? That’s a phase-drive motorhead?”

I asked, looking at the phase-energy engine visible in the Aventador’s rear engine bay. She headed for the driver’s seat with an expression that said she felt nothing in particular about it.

“Environmental issues. I kept the shell and swapped out everything inside.”

“Come on, then it’s not a Lamborghini.”

“A car only has to be something you can drive, doesn’t it? Get in.”

Tch. So she hadn’t bought it because she wanted it.

……But where was the door handle? I was flustered, not knowing how to open the door, and Franc, so I wouldn’t be embarrassed, kindly mimed slipping a finger into the underside of that streamlined groove and pulling.

A click, then a smooth slide.

……A supercar really was something else. I marveled at the wing rising without a sound—shoong—and climbed into the passenger seat.

Whoa, the body sat low! And it was cramped!

Thinking it would have been a struggle just to get in before I’d lost the weight, I closed the scissor door.