I'll Clean It Up
The Diana Incursion was over. There had been many injuries, but not a single death.
It was nothing short of a miracle.
Yet the military commander refused to believe in miracles. He was no fool who would simply accept that zero fatalities had been pure luck.
“Are you seriously going to claim it was just good fortune?”
Inside a military tent pitched amid the ruins of Diana, a colonel glared at the elders in the command post that had been set up to search for any remaining ogres.
He had rushed over with troops the moment the Incursion was reported, but by the time he arrived everything was already finished. That much was a tremendous relief. After listening to the testimonies of the Diana visitors who had evacuated early, however, he realized something about this Incursion did not add up.
“That’s right. We don’t really know either. We retired years ago, built a little villa in the mountains with some friends, and were living quietly when ogres suddenly popped out of nowhere.”
So he questioned the ten old men who had remained until the end, yet they refused to cooperate in the slightest. It was true they had cut down the ogres with their swords; plenty of the carcasses bore stab wounds. The visitors, however, had clearly testified that “people in black suits and helmets appeared, guided the evacuation, and fought the ogres.”
So where had those black-suited figures gone?
“Why ask us? Aren’t they Diana staff?”
The representative of the old men answered gruffly—an elderly man in a gray suit with his hair slicked back into a neat ponytail. At Fernandez’s words, veins stood out on the colonel’s forehead.
“That’s different from what you just said! You claimed you were the ones who subjugated the ogres!”
“We did. We said we subjugated them. We never said we guided the evacuation.”
“Then who the hell are the black-suited people?!”
“Didn’t I already tell you to ask Diana?”
Technically he was not wrong. Yet the colonel could feel it: these old men were toying with him through clever wordplay. At first they had clearly presented themselves as the ones who had slain the ogres and promised full cooperation. Their Awakened registrations checked out—ranks and detailed personal data were classified, but they were definitely registered. Their identities were solid. That was why the colonel had trusted them and arranged for the evacuated visitors to return home without delay.
An entire day later, all he had heard was the same refrain: “We did subjugate the ogres, but we don’t know the rest. Ask Diana.”
“Listen, old men. Keep refusing to cooperate and I have my own ideas about what to do next.”
As he spoke the colonel deliberately raised his presence. The unit had been founded to handle monsters, so its commander was an A-class Awakened; he was not someone who lost face easily. He wanted them to feel that he could take the hard line if necessary.
“……I’m rather curious what those ideas might be. Go ahead and try.”
Fernandez, who had been holding his own presence carefully in check, suddenly released it. The military tent housing the command post shuddered. In that instant the colonel realized he had made a catastrophic mistake. These old men who had only been playing with him until now were the same powerhouses who had butchered S-class ogres. They might even have been waiting for him to overstep exactly like this.
“I said go ahead and try. Why are you standing there frozen?”
When the old man applied real pressure, the colonel became certain: they had deliberately waited for him to threaten them. He should have simply done as they said and gone to question Diana. Instead, their constant evasiveness had gotten under his skin and he had taken the bait.
Now only two options remained. One: apologize meekly, send the elders home, and bury the truth. Two: steel himself to lose his uniform and clash with them head-on. No matter how he looked at it, the second choice was not wise. So he bowed his head.
“I apologize. The Incursion situation got me overexcited.”
“Good that you understand your mistake. Mind your tongue from now on, however.”
Fernandez rose as he spoke, and the colonel almost reached out to stop him. The atmosphere was clearly one of departure. If he let them leave now, the identity of the black-suited group would vanish into fog, leaving a gaping hole in his report—and that meant a reprimand.
He was about to grab Fernandez when a lieutenant from communications came sprinting up and blocked him.
“What is it?”
“Direct line from a VIP, sir. Orders are to send the cooperating elders home immediately.”
The colonel froze. A personal call from the president meant the backers of those black-suited people were far beyond anything he could touch.
Elder Council President Fernandez led the elders out of the command post still looking bewildered. He had steeled himself for at least several more hours of detention. Before deploying, the Elder Council had already set every piece in motion; while they were held at the command post, their connections would quietly cover the entire incident. That was why they had been toying with the colonel at a leisurely pace. Yet their release had come far too quickly.
“You’ve worked hard, Sir Fernandez.”
“What are you doing here? Where is the Gaju?”
Passing the troops stationed around the command post and stepping through the temporary container gateway, Fernandez frowned at the sight of Butler Ju. Then he noticed the black limousine bus waiting behind him, the Lumen emblem gleaming on its side, and swallowed the rest of his question.
“The Gaju has come to greet you personally.”
“Is that true?”
“Why else would I be standing here?”
The moment he heard that Jeong-Hoon had come, Fernandez understood why they had been released so soon. The Gaju himself was cleaning up the situation.
“Shouldn’t the family’s power remain hidden?”
Fernandez therefore pointed out the flaw. The Elder Council existed as the Gaju’s advisory body; when the Gaju made a misstep, it was their duty to correct him.
“He moved the president precisely in order to hide it.”
“Moving the very person who ought to stay hidden… what do you mean by that—”
“I’ll explain everything once you’re inside. Just get on first!”
Jeong-Hoon’s voice floated out of the bus before Fernandez could press Butler Ju any further.
“……Very well. Let us board.”
Unable to refuse a direct order from the Gaju, Fernandez and the elders climbed aboard, swept their eyes around the interior, and slowly nodded. From the outside it was merely a Lumen-branded limousine bus; they had expected something lacking in dignity for the family head. The interior changed their minds at once.
Gold-embroidered carpet covered the floor. Heavy blackout curtains framed the deeply tinted windows. Jeong-Hoon, dressed casually with an IV drip in his arm, sat in a seat as luxurious as the sofas in a Lumen royal suite. In front of him stretched a long conference table with chairs arranged on both sides—an unmistakable hierarchy that placed the Gaju’s seat at the absolute head. Eight of the Twelve Vassals, including Head Maid Jeong I-Yeong, already occupied those chairs. Behind the Vassals’ seats, additional chairs waited for any other retainers who might join. It was the family’s classic conference layout, designed so the Gaju’s position reigned supreme. In short, the bus had been built as a mobile command center for the family.
“……A fine bus. You put real thought into this, Head Butler.”
“The previous Gaju had it constructed specifically for the present Gaju.”
“……Excellent! A truly excellent bus! Ahem!”
Fernandez, who had been prepared to offer a token complaint, flipped his opinion the instant he heard the previous Gaju’s name. The change was so abrupt Jeong-Hoon wore a momentarily blank expression before shaking his head.
“All right, everyone sit. There are plenty of seats.”
Jeong-Hoon gestured toward the empty chairs. Fernandez took a place at the table while the remaining elders settled into the seats behind the Vassals.
“Gaju, is your health all right?”
“Hm? Oh, this? Just a nutrient drip—nothing to worry about. Oddly enough I don’t have a single injury.”
Fernandez had asked more out of form than genuine concern, so he simply nodded. Jeong-Hoon’s complexion was far too healthy to warrant real worry, and Jeong-Hoon himself felt no lingering damage. He was only receiving the drip as a precaution after having blacked out once.
“Gaju, forgive the rudeness, but before I offer formal greetings I must ask: why did you intervene? We already informed you through the Head Butler that we would handle the cleanup ourselves.”
“If we bury everything too perfectly, that creates its own problem.”
“What do you mean?”
Jeong-Hoon shook his head at Fernandez’s puzzled look.
“There’s only one task left, right? If I pass every task, what happens to the family?”
“According to the previous Gaju’s will, everything will be subordinated to the Gaju, and the individual businesses will be merged into a single group for tighter coordination.”
They had been discussing how to handle the aftermath when Jeong-Hoon suddenly asked about completing the remaining tasks. Fernandez found the timing odd yet answered diligently.
“That’s exactly the problem. This time the Vassals stepped forward and guided the evacuation, didn’t they? We’re going to claim they were Diana employees, and that’s already the story circulating.”
Fernandez nodded; the media was being fed that narrative, and the visitors who had escaped safely believed it as well.
“But the moment I pass the final task I’ll announce, ‘Ta-da! We’re all one group now!’ What do you think the sharp-eyed people will conclude?”
“Ah……!”
It was already public knowledge that Jeong-Hoon had visited Diana, and Han Su-Ho had previously claimed the visit was for business. If Diana alone was said to have cleaned up the Incursion, only for the companies to suddenly merge into a single conglomerate shortly afterward…
“It would actually look more suspicious. Indeed—we overlooked that completely.”
Neither Fernandez nor the other elders had expected the young Gaju to have considered a point even they had missed; they all nodded in understanding.
“Then moving the president was a maneuver to minimize the noise.”
He had acted in order to hide the truth—burying the family inside the shadow of Chairman Lee Jeong-Hoon.
“Magnificent, Gaju. Your ability to read the battlefield—you truly possess the qualities of a warrior.”
Fernandez offered the highest praise a Gaju could receive and bowed his head. Jeong-Hoon let out a quiet sigh of relief. The Elder Council held enough authority to block even the family head; the thought that they might reject his explanation no matter how carefully he laid it out had weighed heavily on him. That the conversation had gone smoothly was a genuine mercy.
“Though late, allow me to offer formal greetings. I am Fernandez Seo, former Head Butler before Joo Yeong-Cheol, and Elder Council President who holds a seat among the Twelve Vassals.”
Having confirmed that the Gaju’s judgment was flawless, Fernandez rose, bowed deeply at the waist, and introduced himself. Even a man who offered the Gaju near-fanatical loyalty did not lightly bestow such high praise; the respect in his greeting was genuine.
“Uh… you look completely Korean no matter how I look at you, but the name is foreign, so I thought it was strange. Are you a Korean with foreign nationality?”
When Jeong-Hoon first heard the name Fernandez he had simply assumed the man was a foreigner. The family was ancient enough that foreign Vassals were possible. Seeing him in person, however, he looked Korean through and through, and he used the surname Seo. Fernandez shook his head at the question.
“Before I became Head Butler my duty was to move the family’s assets overseas and manage them, so I hold multiple nationalities. The most prominent among them is Spanish.”
Jeong-Hoon briefly wondered whether dual nationality had even been possible at Fernandez’s age, then decided not to press the point. The man had been acting as a family Vassal the entire time; such things could be arranged.
“Ah, and everyone keeps calling Elder Fernandez ‘Sir Fernandez.’ Is that an honorific for elders?”
“……That is merely my nickname.”
Fernandez declared it was not an honorific while shooting a sharp glare at the Twelve Vassals seated around the table. He had never expected them to mention the nickname in front of the Gaju.
“Nickname? Why that particular… ah. I get it.”
Jeong-Hoon was about to ask for the reason when he suddenly realized the play on the surname and nodded. The Korean surname Seo sounded natural when placed before a name. Attached after “Fernandez,” however, it produced an entirely different effect.
Fernandez Seo—Sir.
“It’s a good nickname. Makes you sound like a knight who’s protected the family for generations. May I call you Sir Fernandez as well?”
Bang!
“If the Gaju names me the family’s knight, then until my life ends I shall be the family’s sword!”
Far from feeling mocked, Fernandez was so moved by being called the family’s knight that he dropped to one knee with a thunderous impact, then folded into a full bow while his entire body trembled.
“Please stand up. The table is blocking my view of you.”
Fernandez flinched at Jeong-Hoon’s words and managed to rise, though his frame still shook with emotion.
“……Gaju, I dare to speak. Only one step remains before you become the true Gaju. Therefore I earnestly hope you will proceed to Photon at once.”
Though his voice still trembled, Fernandez forced himself to speak as calmly as possible. Jeong-Hoon scratched the back of his head. There was no malice in the suggestion; given Fernandez’s past record, however, if they went to Photon together the old man would almost certainly browbeat the Vassal in charge and force the task to be skipped on the spot. That clashed with Jeong-Hoon’s determination to complete every task properly and earn a genuine pass.
“No, let’s leave a little time. Sir Fernandez, you said you have a separate mission, didn’t you? You should hurry back to the Elder Council.”
“I intend to finish this swiftly before I return.”
Seeing Fernandez’s clear intention to wrap everything up while he was already out, Jeong-Hoon realized the man truly meant to skip the task and prepared to refuse.
“Gaju, I shall turn the vehicle toward Photon.”
“What? Butler Ju, I never said I was going!”
When even Butler Ju joined in and recommended heading to Photon, cold sweat beaded on Jeong-Hoon’s forehead.
“It is something Butler Dong Sa-Seong of Photon has strongly requested.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“I heard it when I was previously summoned.”
Two days earlier, when Butler Ju had received the new suit and been briefed on the magical reaction, Dong Sa-Seong had apparently made the request.
“This is the first I’m hearing of it.”
“I missed the proper timing to report.”
Butler Ju answered with perfect calm. Jeong-Hoon rewound his memories and had to admit the butler was right—there truly had never been a good moment to mention it.