Jeong-Hoon's Round Table
As he sipped the tea his future selves had poured for him, a rich aroma spread through his mouth.
It wasn't real, so a faint sense of dissonance lingered, yet the fragrance was truly superb.
Even amid the repulsion of struggling to believe these were his future selves, the scent pleased him so thoroughly that he found himself thinking their tastes were identical without even meaning to.
"Young version of myself, you were never meant to come here."
"I felt it from the start. The seal still hasn't been broken, has it?"
At their words, Jeong-Hoon nodded with a heavy expression.
He had long been prepared for the day the seal would eventually break.
Even so, Jeong-Hoon wanted the seal to hold.
He had experienced firsthand, if only a little, what kind of catastrophe would follow once it was undone.
That was why the two of them speaking as if the seal's release was already a fixed future left Jeong-Hoon's expression unable to ease.
"Cases like this are a bit rare, but you touched the seal, didn't you?"
"Yeah, explaining it would take a while…"
"Young version of myself. If explaining is a hassle, simply recall the memories as if you are transmitting them to us. That will be enough."
At the Overlord's words, Jeong-Hoon recalled what had happened in the Sky Garden and thought of passing it on to the two of them; both nodded at once.
"Ah, so that's why you used this strategy. This is a bit unexpected."
When the Hero muttered as if troubled, Jeong-Hoon worried that he might have used the wrong approach.
"No, it wasn't the wrong strategy. It was excellent. The problem is that because of it, you touched the power of the seal and ended up here."
"I did not summon you without reason, Hero."
"…Yeah, I'll have to admit that one."
At the Overlord's words, the Hero acknowledged it cleanly.
This was a critical matter that concerned Jeong-Hoon's future.
The Overlord had said that the reason Jeong-Hoon felt repulsion toward the two of them was "a problem that arises because the future has not yet been decided."
"In truth, plenty of us come here, but once the seal breaks, our own existence becomes more solid in its own way. So it's usually not an issue—but you're different, and that's the problem. We were observing you, but we got a little careless."
"…So because the seal hasn't broken, my existence is unstable?"
"Whoa, whoa—it's not some terrifying talk about your existence vanishing. It's just that the future you yourself need to establish is wavering, that's all."
He could tell they were trying to explain as kindly as possible, yet Jeong-Hoon could not grasp this vague concept.
It was a far higher-dimensional realm than the time Kang Hwa-Rim had failed to make the 12 Vassals understand magic.
"Can't you just recall that part yourselves and pass it on to me?"
So Jeong-Hoon demanded they simply bring the concept to mind the way he had done, but both shook their heads at the same time.
"That would be troublesome, young version of myself."
"Because of that future?"
"No. Because the seal hasn't broken and you have no power, no matter how much we recall it, you can't receive the transmission. There's a reason we're rambling on like this."
In short, it meant he was still too weak, so Jeong-Hoon could only sigh and give up.
There was no other way, so he had no choice.
The Overlord had summoned the Hero as a safety measure so that Jeong-Hoon's future would not be absorbed into the Overlord.
It would be fine if Jeong-Hoon later chose of his own will a future in which he reigned as king, but converging on that result simply by making contact with the Overlord in this space was by no means a good thing.
"Why is that so bad?"
"That is difficult to explain right now. The moment you hear it as you are, you will choose one of our two futures."
"Well, just understand that this side has its own annoying rules too."
Following their guidance, he left the round table and walked toward the boundary of the mental world, frowning as he went.
"Haa, I hate this secrecy stuff."
"I am the same."
"But what can you do?"
They were, after all, the same Jeong-Hoon, so he continued walking in frustration at the secrecy he despised until they arrived at a space that felt as if it were blocked by some transparent wall.
"This is the end of this space. From here, the Overlord and I are going to place one safety device on you. Once it's set, you'll be kicked out of here, and you won't be able to come back until the seal is broken."
"Therefore, if you have any questions, ask as many as you like, young version of myself. We will answer within a range that does not affect the timeline."
They said he could ask as much as he wanted, but in truth it meant he should choose his questions carefully, so Jeong-Hoon thought for a moment before bringing up the thing that had bothered him most.
"I don't know if it's the same on your side, but there's this Ju Yong-Ha, the leader of the Organization—Butler Ju's grandson. Butler Ju and Secretary Kang killed him… he is dead, right?"
"…Uh, about that."
"That is difficult to answer."
At the reaction of the two who clearly knew what the Organization was and who Ju Yong-Ha was, Jeong-Hoon nodded.
"Yeah, that's enough. So he really didn't die, huh."
Thinking he now had something to do once he woke up, Jeong-Hoon chose his next question.
"Hmm, do I happen to marry someone? You two probably didn't marry the same person, so I was just curious…"
He was curious, and he figured a question like this wouldn't affect the timeline, but when Jeong-Hoon asked, the Overlord and the Hero stiffened, then came over and draped their arms around his shoulders.
"Uh, hey. Did I just ask a question I really shouldn't have?"
"Young version of myself, when you ask a question like that!"
"Isn't the polite thing to ask first whether we even got married?"
"…!"
The utterly shocking statement made Jeong-Hoon try to shout something, but the Overlord and the Hero drew up golden mana, and no voice came out.
At last that mana covered his eyes, and Jeong-Hoon's mind sank as if falling asleep.
The top floor of the Lumen Seoul branch.
In the guest room of Jeong-Hoon, chairman of the Aurora Group. On the bed in that room, Jeong-Hoon sat up with a bounce and spat out the words he hadn't managed to say.
"Solo until a hundred and twenty years old?! Absolutely not!!!"
"Gaju…?"
At Jeong-Hoon's scream-laced awakening, Fernandez, who had been standing watch, looked at him in surprise.
Instead of his usual gray suit, Fernandez wore a tailcoat like Butler Ju's and a pair of glasses; the look suited him extremely well.
"…Sir Fernandez?"
"Yes, Gaju. Have you woken?"
With Fernandez serving as chief butler in place of Butler Ju, confusion flooded Jeong-Hoon's head.
He worried that using the power of the seal might have caused a problem with the timeline.
"Where's Butler Ju?"
"The chief butler is currently recovering from serious injuries. It will take about two weeks for him to heal. So I am acting in his place for now."
It wasn't that Butler Ju's existence had vanished and Fernandez had become chief butler, so Jeong-Hoon let out a sigh of relief.
But Fernandez, unaware of Jeong-Hoon's inner thoughts, assumed he was simply relieved that Butler Ju was safe no matter what.
"How many hours was I out?"
Reassured that everything was normal, Jeong-Hoon asked while searching for his phone; Fernandez shook his head.
"You slept for a full three days."
"…Three days?"
The time he had spent in the mental world hadn't felt that long, so the startled Jeong-Hoon nodded, deciding it must have been because of the safety device the Overlord and the Hero had placed on him.
"I am ashamed to report this the moment you awaken, but I must inform you of my incompetence."
"…Did something happen while I was asleep?"
"I failed to carry out the dissolution of the Shintong Group that you ordered, Gaju. I ask that you punish this incompetent servant."
At Fernandez's sudden words, Jeong-Hoon searched his memory.
He had indeed said, before entering the Sky Garden, that he would like the Shintong Group dissolved by that morning.
"It's fine. I said I'd like it, not that you had to do it. Sounds like you've hit some serious snags, though?"
"Through every means available, we have secured up to forty-six percent of the shares. However, the remaining fifty-four percent is held by the Shintong Group's owner family."
They held more than half the shares for management defense and refused to let go, so Jeong-Hoon nodded.
"Well, getting that far in three days is impressive."
Praising him as impressive yet not rescinding the order, Jeong-Hoon rose from the bed.
"So with forty-six percent of the shares, we can't quite cut the Shintong Group's lifeline?"
"We plan to convene an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders. Then we will pressure them to issue additional stock."
Once the additional stock was issued, they would buy it all up to secure over fifty percent, force the chairman to resign on that basis, absorb the Shintong Group, and erase it.
In other words, they intended to execute a hostile M&A, so Jeong-Hoon nodded.
"Well, then proceed that way. Creating a bunch of unemployed people just to take over the Clairvoyance Daily would be a bit much."
"I shall obey your command."
"Ah! Is Director Han free right now?"
"Until Diana is rebuilt, Han Su-Ho is the freest among the 12 Vassals."
When Jeong-Hoon asked after Han Su-Ho in order to find Yong-Ha, the leader of the Organization, Fernandez bowed his head in a manner that said he could pile as much work on the man as he liked.
An executive of the Organization, Silvio Rosso, gazed at the dagger he had improved using the results of research on the demon Anubis, his expression rapturous.
An improved version of the artifact that forcibly triggered an Incursion, absorbed monsters, and turned Awakened into demons.
It was not yet complete.
But thanks to Anubis, the successful product of the experiments, the success rate had risen sharply.
No—the research team boasted that they had made becoming a demon a one-hundred-percent success.
The problem was that the stability of the mind remained unreliable.
"Hmm, but we have never actually tested it, so it would be unwise to jump to conclusions."
Intoxicated by the words of the research team who had built the new version based on their findings, Silvio shook his head.
After losing Yong-Ha, the leader of the Organization, the group had weakened rapidly.
Executives remained scattered across the world, but the Korean leadership centered on Yong-Ha had been annihilated.
Clinging to the Organization's ideal of restoring the world to its true form with the seal undone, Silvio had somehow kept it going; that was the only reason it still retained the shape of an organization at all.
Yet suddenly a dungeon had collapsed in Korea, a Sky Garden had appeared, and even the demon dagger had reached a level of completion incomparable to before.
Struck as if by a divine revelation, Silvio was now in a state of high excitement.
It felt as if the world itself were whispering for him to lead the Organization and undo the seal.
It was amazing he was still rational.
Even now, one more step and he would have driven the demon dagger into his own heart without hesitation.
"Don Rosso, shall we prepare subjects to test the demon dagger?"
"…No. We won't do it here."
When the research team who had boasted of its completion asked, Silvio shook his head.
A far better experimental site than this hideout of his had come to mind.
"We go to Korea. There we will use this dagger to keep the family in check and spread the ideals of the Organization far and wide."
Riding the current that felt as if it were shoving him from behind to undo the seal, Silvio smiled.
Korea was the family's home base and therefore dangerous, but for that very reason it was the finest stage on which to display the ideals and power of the Organization.