Finding Them One by One
Ever since becoming the Gaju, Jeong-Hoon had received at least a light touch of makeup whenever he stepped outside.
The subtle difference was enough that even his friend Choi Yeong-Min never once connected the Lumen Chairman Lee Jeong-Hoon with the Lee Jeong-Hoon he knew.
And now.
Having properly begun the Diana assignment, Jeong-Hoon went without makeup for the first time since taking the seat of Gaju. On top of that, he had abandoned his usual suit for a plain white T-shirt and black pants—completely ordinary clothes.
“Wow, Gaju-nim, dressing like that completely changes your image!”
“……The suit is the dressed-up version, though?”
“Is it? I’ve only ever seen you in suits, so I just assumed that was the default.”
Ju Min-Ha, granddaughter of Butler Ju, marveled at the sight of him. Jeong-Hoon shook his head with a wry smile.
She was not in her school uniform but in casual clothes suited for a day at an amusement park. Eighteen years old, a second-year high-school student, she was bold enough that the word “apprentice” hardly seemed to fit.
Every vassal Jeong-Hoon had met so far, no matter how proud or high-handed, had taken a deferential posture toward him as Gaju. It was not performance; it was bone-deep—they simply regarded him as their superior.
Min-Ha, however, was so cheeky it was hard to believe she was the granddaughter of the head butler, first among the Twelve Vassals. She did show him respect, but it was obvious the respect came with a long list of practical reasons. In short, she still felt too raw to be called a proper vassal.
“More importantly, stop calling me Gaju.”
“Ah, right. Then what should I call you?”
“Anything except Chairman or Gaju-nim. Call me like a friend as much as possible.”
He had deliberately come to Diana looking ordinary so that word of the Lumen Chairman strolling around the park would never reach the press. The last thing he needed was a trail of reporters following him while he performed this mysterious “assignment.” Any title that could pin down his identity had to be avoided.
“Then…… Oppa? No wait—siblings don’t usually go to amusement parks together, so should I go with Oppa~?”
It was the same word both times, yet the first “Oppa” carried the contemptuous flavor of a real twin sister addressing her brother, while the second was laced with an almost creepy dose of aegyo. The first one in particular sounded so authentic it was hard to believe she didn’t actually have a real older brother.
“……Keep the jokes in check.”
“Why?! You said anything was fine! I called you something that fits an amusement park—what’s the problem?”
When Min-Ha protested against Jeong-Hoon’s heavy sigh, he simply stared at her.
“Should I tell Butler Ju to cut your allowance?”
The moment he used the threat Butler Ju himself had authorized for exactly this situation, her face froze solid.
“I’m sorry. I overstepped. Please forgive me just this once, Oppa.”
The instant allowance money entered the conversation she apologized at once—yet the title “Oppa” seemed to have stuck for good.
Jeong-Hoon had no real complaint about it. As she said, it suited an amusement park perfectly, and the casual tone of a girl calling a familiar older brother didn’t grate on his nerves either.
“I heard that until someone becomes an adult their name isn’t entered in the register and they remain in the ‘apprentice’ position receiving education. How exactly does that apprentice education work?”
With the form of address settled, Jeong-Hoon asked the question that had been nagging at him since yesterday.
According to Butler Ju, underage children of vassals became vassal candidates and received apprentice training. As Gaju he ought to know these things; since he had free time, he asked.
“Normally we grow up without hearing a single word about the family until we enter middle school. I thought my grandfather, grandmother, dad, and mom were just ordinary company employees. But around middle school they tell us the truth—sort of.”
“Sort of? How?”
“Something like, ‘There’s a family business that’s been passed down for generations, and now it’s time for you to choose whether to inherit it. What will you do?’ That level.”
That was less “sort of” and more “completely concealed,” Jeong-Hoon thought, but he only nodded quietly. As a mere apprentice there were surely truths still hidden from her.
“If you say you’ll take it on, you receive primary education until you graduate middle school. Based on the results you either pass or fail. Pass, and you hear the family’s true secrets and become an apprentice vassal.”
Most of that middle-school education, she explained, was mental training—being drilled on the greatness of the inherited family business and on the proper reverence due the Chairman they were to serve.
“What happens if you fail?”
“You never learn the family’s secrets and you’re left free to live whatever life you want.”
Relieved that the word “eliminate” never appeared, Jeong-Hoon nodded. Min-Ha added that she had actually seen people who chose that path.
“My twin brother is the classic example.”
“……Hold on. I only learned yesterday that Butler Ju has a granddaughter. Now a grandson pops out too? Wait—Butler Ju’s own grandson failed?!”
The news that even the grandson of a Twelve Vassal who had served four successive Gaju had been ruthlessly dropped made Jeong-Hoon’s head spin. No wonder her “Oppa” had sounded so unnervingly authentic.
“You don’t need to worry about it. That idiot’s off living however he wants, going on about how he’s going to be a rapper.”
“That’s enough. If I hear any more about Butler Ju’s family, my sanity won’t survive.”
“It’s my family too, you know?”
Feeling as though he had just ruthlessly dug up Butler Ju’s secrets, Jeong-Hoon shook his head hard. He almost felt guilty toward the old man.
“Fine, Oppa says so, so I won’t talk about family. Anyway, once you become an apprentice you receive education from Elder Jeong Si-Min of the Council of Elders—one of the Twelve Vassals and a professor.”
“Professor?”
“He’s actually an eighty-something grandfather who really is called Professor, and he oversees the education of all apprentice vassals.”
Just hearing the description summoned the image of a crusty old man; Jeong-Hoon merely shrugged.
“Anything else you’re curious about?”
“Nah, that clears it up. Good work.”
Nodding, Jeong-Hoon fitted an earpiece-style radio. Min-Ha followed suit.
“This is Owner. Commencing the Diana Stamp Relay. Check.”
Jeong-Hoon’s transmission was followed by the voices of the Twelve Vassals who had entered Diana.
Si-Hwan’s eager transmission came through; Jeong-Hoon pulled out his phone. The full list of today’s entry records based on Diana’s vassal roster appeared on the screen.
Any vassal who had not clocked in today was guaranteed not to be carrying a stamp. That alone would let them filter a few people with certainty.
“Huh? Uncle Si-Hwan, looking at this, every single Diana vassal is marked present. Do you even need to send it? Couldn’t you just say everyone showed up?”
Min-Ha, peeking at Jeong-Hoon’s phone, spoke into her own radio. A subtle silence settled over the channel.
She was right—every last Diana vassal was already inside the park. Those whose day off it was had come as ordinary guests. Not a single person had been filtered out.
“The information that no one was filtered is itself important. Explaining it over the radio would mean listing every single person—‘so-and-so is on duty, so-and-so is here for fun’—one by one.”
Vassals carrying stamps were required to remain at Diana from opening to closing every day of the week; that was the rule. Conversely, those without stamps followed ordinary labor laws and never exceeded forty hours a week.
“So even at the worst we should have been able to filter out six people just by waiting a week for their days off. And that plan just collapsed at the starting line……”
The most reliable strategy—filtering out anyone who failed to enter Diana because of a holiday over the course of a week, then gathering them all on the final day—had failed before it began. Jeong-Hoon’s brow furrowed.
He had never imagined every last Diana vassal would turn up as guests just to throw up a smokescreen.
That left only the hint Han Su-Ho had given him: find the vassals who periodically perform a specific action.
“Wow! Oppa, you’re amazing! So that’s why Grandfather keeps telling me to learn from you……”
While Jeong-Hoon was frowning in thought, Min-Ha’s next radio chatter made him heave a long sigh.
“You don’t even have a call sign, so stop breaking the atmosphere with random chatter and just listen.”
Wondering exactly what kind of apprentice education could produce someone like this, Jeong-Hoon silently cursed the still-unmet Jeong Si-Min.
Find the vassals who periodically perform a specific action. Depending on how you looked at it, the assignment could be finished in a single day.
But those vassals numbered only six out of the roughly three hundred attached to Diana. And this was no ordinary company staffed solely by vassals—there were thousands of ordinary employees as well.
A colossal theme park that averaged fifty thousand visitors on weekdays and hit ninety-thousand levels on weekends. The sheer number of people was enough to make anyone’s eyes spin.
In other words, he had to recognize three hundred faces among tens of thousands, then pick out the six who performed a specific action from among those three hundred. It was no wonder the assignment was considered difficult.
“Oppa, is this even possible? Just memorizing three hundred faces sounds hard enough.”
“Names would be impossible, but I’ve already memorized the faces. And it’s not just me—everyone else is helping search, so we can divide the work.”
Having already drawn up the plan, Jeong-Hoon shrugged as if it were no big deal. Min-Ha made a distressed little noise at the sight of him.
“You’re really not normal, Oppa. Memorizing them is one thing, but being confident you won’t mix them up is another.”
“The ones who defy common sense are the monsters like Butler Ju.”
“Ah, I’ll give you that. Grandfather is a monster. Huh? Oppa, over there! That person looks suspicious!”
Nodding absently at his words, Min-Ha suddenly seized Jeong-Hoon’s head and forced it to turn toward something else she had spotted.
Crunch!
“Are you trying to kill me?!”
“Never mind that—look! Over there!”
Fortunately the self-defense techniques etched into his body let him yield to the force rather than resist it, bleeding off the momentum and avoiding injury. Jeong-Hoon looked where her finger pointed.
A man with a massive camera was photographing a single ride from every possible angle in rapid succession.
“……That’s just an ordinary ride otaku.”
Rolling his neck and grumbling, Jeong-Hoon scowled. That had been a close call.
“But it’s super suspicious! That could be the periodic behavior we’re looking for!”
“No. That face isn’t among the ones I memorized, so he’s an ordinary guest.”
And he wasn’t particularly suspicious either. Jeong-Hoon shook his head and sighed. He had brought her along as escort, but it was becoming clear Butler Ju’s personnel choice had issues.
“Eeeeh?! Uncle Han Su-Ho, why are you butting into this channel?!”
He also made it clear he had no intention of eavesdropping just to interfere. Jeong-Hoon shook his head.
“You’re about the same age as Chef Baek and Director Han, so why is Chef Baek ‘Uncle’ while Director Han is ‘Mister’?”
“……The image he gives off?”
“Cough! Cough! Achoo!”
Confirming that even an apprentice vassal thought Han Su-Ho’s image was a complete mess, Jeong-Hoon nodded—then turned at the sound of a man coughing behind him.
“This is Owner. Found one.”
“What? Already?”
Speaking into the radio, Jeong-Hoon walked toward the family of three about fifty meters behind him.
A couple with a little boy who looked to be kindergarten age. A perfectly wholesome-looking family.
The moment Jeong-Hoon turned, the couple averted their eyes—except for the boy, who stared at him with sparkling curiosity. Aside from that, they looked utterly ordinary.
“……It’s you, right?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
Standing in front of the family that made no attempt to flee, Jeong-Hoon asked. The wife nodded and spoke.
“Huh? I thought it was the husband.”
“I’m the one carrying it. My husband is off today, so he just came out with our son.”
Surprised that it was the wife and not the husband—who had been coughing so obviously—Jeong-Hoon held out his stamp book.
“There. My stamp is done.”
“Ah, thank you for your hard work.”
“This is Stamp Three. I’ve been found out. Per Diana One’s directive, I will now begin one week of paid leave.”
The instant the stamp was pressed she broadcast to the entire channel. Jeong-Hoon was left speechless—not by the radio call, but by the words “paid leave.”
“Mommy’s on vacation starting today, so let’s play a ton!”
“Yeah! Mommy’s the best!”
Grabbing their child’s hand the moment the stamp was finished, the couple sprinted off without a backward glance. Jeong-Hoon scratched his head.
It was obvious they had deliberately made themselves conspicuous just to snag the paid vacation.
“……Once this assignment is over, Diana is going to need a full overhaul.”
“M-maybe just think of it as the occasional oiling of the gears and let it slide generously?”
Min-Ha tried to intervene, but there was not a single drop of soul in her voice.
At this point Jeong-Hoon could only feel that Diana was an organization where not only the responsible vassal Han Su-Ho but every single vassal attached to it was completely out of their minds.