Chapter 20
Chapter 20
Chapter 20
Returning Home (3)
A week after visiting the broadcasting station.
Seoul Hotel Art Hall.
Reporters holding cameras had gathered in droves.
The reporters who filled the rows of desks had expressions clearly showing their confusion at the sudden news.
[So Iryeon's Press Conference on Donating Her Entire Fortune]
Korea's most successful entertainer had suddenly declared she would donate her entire fortune. Without any prior preparation, this was news that broke this morning.
A moment later, camera flashes burst in unison.
So Iryeon and a middle-aged man who appeared to be a lawyer entered together and took their seats.
The only one seated at the press conference was So Iryeon alone.
She sat gracefully and looked straight ahead. Then she showed a slight smile.
The reporters poured out questions without even waiting for the moderator's guidance. So Iryeon watched them calmly before pulling the microphone toward herself.
"As stated in the materials distributed, I will donate all 3 billion won of the fortune I have accumulated so far."
Camera flashes burst again.
So Iryeon gazed straight ahead as if the lights didn't bother her, then said with a smile.
"I'm not just donating it outright. The 3 billion won will be entrusted to a donation foundation through notarization for 6 months. If no one else takes it before then, it will all be donated to the foundation after 6 months."
The reporters murmured at So Iryeon's words.
"What do you mean someone else will take it?"
So Iryeon dragged out the time, waiting until curiosity reached its peak.
'She's doing well.'
I was watching So Iryeon from the very back of the press conference hall. She was handling the reporters quite skillfully.
Judging that the appropriate time had come, So Iryeon satisfied the reporters' curiosity.
"I'm going to give a quiz. Anyone who solves it can take the 3 billion won, regardless of nationality or age."
As the reporters murmured again, So Iryeon continued with strength in her voice.
"This quiz will be translated into 10 languages and released worldwide. Anyone who solves the quiz will become the owner of 3 billion won, and if no one answers correctly within 6 months, the entire amount will be donated."
"What's the reason for doing this?"
This was the most common question. To this, So Iryeon answered with a brighter smile than ever.
"It's nice to have this kind of fortune around us, isn't it?"
The press conference ended like that.
A 3 billion won quiz with a 6-month time limit.
This became an enormous topic of conversation.
Not only was it introduced simultaneously in overseas topics, but the site where the quiz was released was flooded with visitors.
As days passed, this spread like wildfire, and related sites and advertisements were created.
The quiz that became a worldwide topic was surprisingly simple.
[What lies between death and life? If you could possibly return, would you want to go to death or life?]
It was like a Zen dialogue.
"Cult Leader, but what's the answer?"
To So Iryeon's question, I answered honestly.
"I don't know."
"What?"
"Jimun Seo-saeng didn't tell me."
"Ah, Jimun Seo-saeng asked this?"
"Right. He didn't give me an answer only to this question. It's the only question I couldn't get an answer to. If Jimun Seo-saeng sees this question, he'll recognize it."
So Iryeon thought for a moment and said,
"Maybe Jimun Seo-saeng doesn't know either? Or maybe he got confused while asking the question."
"What?"
"Hey, just because he's Jimun Seo-saeng doesn't mean he knows everything, right? I've seen him spill food while eating, and I've seen him secretly throw away pictures he drew."
"Really?"
I asked back for no reason.
So Iryeon never lies. To be precise, she doesn't know the reason to lie.
"Anyway, so there's no correct answer to this question?"
"Right. The money will be donated anyway."
"Then this is fraud."
"Is there a problem?"
So Iryeon thought for a moment and answered.
"No. There isn't."
"Then it's settled, right? Now we don't know what form the contact will come in, so check carefully."
For now, we had to wait. In the meantime, we decided to faithfully live our respective lives and stay quiet.
I came home and enjoyed daily life for a while.
"Oppa! I'm going!"
Yuna waved her hand and got on the kindergarten bus.
"Have a good time. Don't fight."
The last part was sincere.
Yuna learned magic, so if she accidentally touches another child wrong, there could be an accident.
After Yuna left and I was returning home, Yuna's puppy glared at me fiercely.
It's the puppy Yuna named Ongi.
"Shut up, mutt."
Grrrrr.
Since the creature showed wariness, I responded in kind. I needed to scare it once for it to quiet down.
I planned to unleash dense killing intent and energy to make sure it would never act up again.
But at my threat, the puppy's eyes turned red. Not only that, but its white fur turned black, its body rapidly grew larger, and its fur stood up like thorns.
A large dog reaching 2 meters in height, even while crouching.
I had seen it before.
"So it was a Hellhound after all?"
It was the creature that guarded the entrance to the Witch's Ice Castle.
"I'll go easy on you since you're Yuna's puppy."
I was about to correct its behavior when the Hellhound shrank again. It was because Father opened the front door and came out.
Father came out with a machine to mow the lawn.
"Father, shall I help you?"
"No. You do what you need to do. You must be busy."
At some point, Father stopped asking me to do anything. He no longer casually talked to me or played around like before.
He was acknowledging me as an adult.
That somehow made me feel sorry.
"Let's do it together."
I grabbed the machine and walked on the lawn together.
"Wasn't it hard?"
This was a question that should have been asked a very long time ago. Father only asked it now.
He was talking about the Hell Gate training.
"It's what I've always done."
"Be careful not to get hurt. Your mother worries a lot."
Since when was it?
Father doesn't talk about himself. All his reasons are for the sake of someone other than himself.
For Mom, for older sister, for younger sister.
He's absent from all his reasons.
That's why it sometimes sounds sad.
"Father."
"Hm?"
"Would you like to go to the bathhouse?"
Father looked at me as if surprised.
I heard somewhere that fathers like going to the bathhouse with their sons the most.
"Just us men, what do you think?"
"Sounds great!"
I saw Father's bright smile after a long time.
***
"Oppa! I hate you!"
Yuna puffed up her cheeks to the fullest and shouted with force.
Just because I went to the bathhouse, Yuna felt left out and threw a tantrum.
The cause was that I came out of the bathhouse, ate lunch, and talked for a while, which made me quite late.
"Daddy is sorry."
"I hate Daddy too! Leaving only me out!"
She seemed to think the bathhouse was some kind of amusement park.
"Next time we'll go with Mom."
Mother stepped in to soothe her, but Yuna's disappointed feelings weren't easily calmed.
"I want to go to the bathhouse too!"
Yuna had never been to a bathhouse even once.
"We just went to a slightly bigger bathroom."
I tried to soothe Yuna while explaining.
When I stepped in, Mother quietly stepped back. Then she watched Father and me soothing Yuna with an expression that found it cute.
"Mom said I can't go there. Don't go to such places anymore!"
"Okay."
"I can't go even if I want to! I don't like it!"
Her tearful expression looked cute only to my eyes. Still, I matched her mood and slowly soothed her while holding her in my arms.
But without knowing it, my mind was thinking other thoughts.
'Can't go even if she wants to...'
Those words kept bothering me.
'What if it's not that they haven't heard the news, but that they can't come?'
Being only in the country called Korea, I seemed to have become too accustomed to freedom.
'I don't even know which country they were born in. I don't know what environment they're in either.'
Perhaps they already contacted us but we missed it.
'I need to check all possibilities.'
However, this isn't limited to Jimun Seo-saeng. The other Dharma Protectors could be in the same situation.
'So Iryeon said she only checked her email.'
These days, there are many things that use computers, and unfortunately, I know almost nothing about this. So I don't know what means of contact exist.
'Computers...'
I do know one person who could properly answer in this situation.
'Do I really have to ask the Witch?'
There's a quick way. But I don't like that way.
This is how people come to a crossroads of choice again.
After much deliberation, I came to the Witch's laboratory.
It was an unavoidable choice.
"If you have something to say, say it."
The Witch spoke indifferently with her back turned.
"Let's make a deal."
This is all I managed to come up with.
I know it's petty. But I felt like I needed to do it this way for words to come out.
"What deal?"
"I'm going to ask you something. So later, you can also ask me anything."
I know it's childish. But this is the only method.
"What do you want to know?"
The Witch turned around. She's wearing an expression of having won something.
Yes, I've been avoiding this because I hate that expression.
For a moment, I thought about turning back, but having come this far, I couldn't retreat.
"It's a long story."
"Really? Then make it long."
She always says the same thing this way. I really want to punch her.
I held back once more and stated the facts.
Anyway, she probably heard most of it through So Iryeon, so there was no reason to hold back.
After hearing the entire story, the Witch was lost in thought for a moment. Then, as if she had organized her thoughts, she answered seriously.
"First, the strongest possibility is that they couldn't receive the contact. And the second possibility is that they received the contact but are refusing."
Both were things I had anticipated.
"The third possibility is that they contacted, but So Iryeon couldn't receive it, and you're curious what methods exist here, right?"
"Right."
"So Iryeon only thought of email or someone coming directly, and if the other party isn't in a situation to do that, then what environment are they in..."
The Witch continued explaining logically, one by one.
"First, I'll exclude the situation where they didn't receive contact. And I'll also exclude the case where they received contact but can't come. You have no way to find them anyway. You can't search the entire world."
The Witch eliminated the impossible and approached what was possible.
"Then only one possibility remains now. They sent contact, but it wasn't by email, but another method, and coming directly is also impossible."
"So what's the conclusion?"
"It's simple. If email doesn't work, then it means online doesn't work, so they would have sent it offline."
"Offline?"
An unexpected conclusion came out.
"A letter?"
"Right. Fan mail."
It's worth checking.
As soon as I turned around, I heard the Witch's voice.
"You're in my debt."
Leaving the Witch's words behind, I immediately left the laboratory.
The battle with fan mail began that night.
I arrived at So Iryeon's agency and sat in a small, unused room. Then an employee brought the fan mail.
The amount of fan mail was enormous. It was enough to fill the small room floor.
The nationalities were diverse too, with letters coming from all over Asia.
"Cult Leader, I have a schedule, so I'll be going."
"I'm sorry. I'm not at a level where I can read Korean yet."
Most of the fan mail was in Chinese and Korean.
So Iryeon decided to check the Chinese letters when her schedule ended, and Cheong Ak-sal only read the fan mail in English.
In the end, the most numerous Korean letters were my share.
"Let's begin."
I read every letter carefully in case I missed something.
Time passed endlessly, and my eyes felt like they would fall out.
There are truly many things in the world harder than training.
Before I knew it, night came and passed midnight, but the letter checking continued.