I'll Handle That Myself
Settled on the sofa, Jeong-Hoon summoned Han Su-Ho and asked whether Yong-Ha might still be alive. Already looking into the matter, Han Su-Ho confirmed it.
"It's possible. We once ran research on creating clones, but it failed because of a single problem."
"Clone research?"
"It was research into creating a clone of the previous Gaju in order to reinforce the seal."
The seal was maintained through the founding Gaju's direct male line, so the plan had been to multiply that bloodline with clones. In practice they had even succeeded at making the clone—more precisely, at building the body.
"The problem was the soul. Because it was created through applied magic, no soul would take root in the flesh, and the seal never reacted at all. If someone stole that technique, made a clone, and transferred a soul into it, then yes—he could still be alive."
"……Wait. Couldn't you just have transferred Uncle's soul into a clone?"
If his uncle had lived on as Gaju, there would have been no reason for Jeong-Hoon to inherit the seat at all. When Jeong-Hoon caught on that snag in the explanation, not only Han Su-Ho but even Fernandez, standing stiffly at attention behind them, shook their heads.
"Impossible. Soul-transfer magic requires the subject to be at least an S-class Awakened for the soul to survive the shock."
"Then Yong-Ha's SSS-class, so he'd still be alive."
Jeong-Hoon spoke as if it were already settled fact that a clone had been made and the man resurrected. Han Su-Ho looked uncomfortable.
"It isn't that simple. Even for an SSS-class, the success rate is under one percent."
"But I'm certain it worked."
Remembering that Yong-Ha had driven a dagger into his own heart and killed himself, Jeong-Hoon shook his head. Fernandez and Han Su-Ho's mouths fell open.
The artifact used to rebuild a body into a monster through the seal's power had also been a dagger—and the method of activation was to stab one's own heart. If someone had succeeded in forging soul-transfer magic into an artifact…
"Then he is almost certainly alive. Butler Han Su-Ho—can you look into this?"
"I will find the truth, without fail."
At Fernandez's order, Han Su-Ho bowed. Jeong-Hoon let out a quiet breath of relief. He had been wrestling with whether to admit that his future self in the dream had already told him Yong-Ha still lived—but the conversation had gone more smoothly than he expected.
When the Aurora Group, armed with its forty-six percent stake, called an extraordinary shareholders' meeting, Sintong Group went into full crisis mode.
What would come out of that meeting was obviously a new share issuance. And no matter that the owner family held fifty-four percent of the stock, nine percent of that belonged to the National Pension Service—which meant they could not block the issuance. Management control might still lean toward Sintong, but given Aurora's influence, the pension fund would have no choice but to side with Aurora on the new shares. Once those shares hit the market, Aurora would swallow the group whole. Sintong simply had no way to match Aurora's overwhelming capital.
So Sintong's chairman, Shin Young-gi, went looking for SB Group's Chairman Kim Seong-cheol—to prepare for the aftermath of that issuance.
"What brings you here, Chairman Shin? I hear Aurora's got your feet to the fire these days."
"Chairman Kim Seong-cheol—no, Senior! Please save our group!"
They were both chaebol chairmen, but privately they were university senior and junior. When Shin Young-gi cried out in desperation, Kim Seong-cheol's brow furrowed. He had already crossed swords with Aurora once over a dungeon bid, so the impulse to help was there. But if he stuck his neck out and Aurora decided SB was an enemy as well, this time it would be SB under siege.
"I'd love nothing more than to help you. But the other side is Aurora."
"If you step in, Senior, the other groups will move too. Even Aurora would have to back down if the corporations formed a united front, wouldn't they?"
"Why not just go to Aurora's chairman and apologize?"
"They won't even see me. Their secretariat made a mess of things, and he's properly furious."
In truth Jeong-Hoon had been unconscious for three days and simply couldn't take meetings—but that detail did not matter to Shin Young-gi. He had already fired Park Seong-chung, the reporter who had flipped the Cheollian Daily story into a disaster. The editor-in-chief had been stripped of his post as well. Aurora's attitude had not changed one bit. They had been told to bring the man in courteously; instead those idiot secretaries had leaned on Jeong-Hoon, and now the man was seething. That was the only conclusion left.
"Hmm. If the other side has no interest in talking and means to run the board alone, then I suppose I have no choice but to help."
Hearing about the secretariat's rudeness as well, Kim Seong-cheol nodded. Shin Young-gi's face brightened.
"But I won't stop trying to talk."
"Any help at all is more than enough, Senior. Thank you!"
Kim Seong-cheol caught Shin Young-gi before the man could drop to his knees, smiling. He already felt the need to check Aurora—or more precisely, the family—over Organization business. This only reinforced it.
In the chairman's office, Jeong-Hoon's face hardened the moment the two unexpected visitors appeared. He had no idea how to handle either of them.
One was Shin Young-gi, chairman of the very Sintong Group currently under Aurora's aggressive M&A assault. The other was Kim Seong-cheol of SB Group—already confirmed as a collaborator with the Organization.
"I was expecting to see you at the shareholders' meeting soon enough, Chairman Shin. But what brings the two of you here together?"
"That shareholders' meeting is exactly why we're here, Chairman Lee Jeong-Hoon. I know you're angry over the… mistake—no, the rudeness of Sintong's secretariat. But there's no need for fellow chairmen to turn red in the face over it, is there?"
Remembering how Jeong-Hoon had exploded the last time someone dismissed a grandson's insolence as a mere "mistake," Kim Seong-cheol hastily corrected himself and smiled. He might be checking the family, but he only cooperated with the Organization for profit. Open hostility that would damage his own companies was not on the table.
"We've already dismissed everyone responsible at Cheollian Daily, including that reporter Park Seong-chung. Won't you let the anger go?"
Jeong-Hoon had expected Shin Young-gi, arriving with the stiff-necked Kim Seong-cheol, to be equally stiff-necked. Instead the man bowed his head, and Jeong-Hoon found himself at a loss. Judging by the secretariat's behavior, he had braced for shouting and fury—yet when it counted, the man knew how to lower his head.
"We've demoted every secretary who committed the offense as well. Sintong has absolutely no intention of becoming Aurora's enemy. Please don't misunderstand us."
The apology was so formal Jeong-Hoon had not seen it coming. He shook his head.
"Chairman Shin—one question. That day your secretaries pressured me. Was that not on your orders?"
Thinking back to how the secretaries had picked a fight with him in the middle of a busy day, Jeong-Hoon asked. Shin Young-gi shook his head. Looking at their attitude then, anyone would assume Shin Young-gi was only this humble now because the fire had reached his feet.
"That day I clearly told them to bring you in with every courtesy. Those fools acted on their own."
And the truly wronged Chairman Shin Young-gi poured out his grievance. He had trusted the secretariat to handle things properly—and those very people had botched it. In their eyes Jeong-Hoon was still a twenty-year-old with almost no social experience; a little pressure should have been enough. On top of that, every secretary was a prestigious-university graduate in his mid-thirties. The absurd refusal to bow their heads to a twenty-year-old kid who hadn't even gone to college had sparked this entire mess.
"……Is Sintong Group actually all right?"
Shocked that the company's supposed elite corps could look like that, Jeong-Hoon asked in open surprise. Shin Young-gi gave a bitter smile.
"Truth is, my health isn't what it was. I'd stepped back from the front line and left the company to my sons—and I never imagined they'd make such a complete hash of it."
Beside him, Kim Seong-cheol silently shook his head. Worry over useless children and grandchildren was something he shared.
"You have your reasons, and you've apologized with proper courtesy, so I'll drop the group acquisition. But Cheollian Daily is another matter."
Faced with such formality, Jeong-Hoon no longer felt like fighting to the end. He shook his head. Forcing a new share issuance through the extraordinary meeting and then buying up the rest to absorb the whole group would have taken enormous effort anyway. Now that he knew the Organization's leader, Yong-Ha, was still alive, he had no time to spare for side projects.
"I've already taken responsibility for Cheollian Daily and—"
"If a couple of people in charge get tossed out and the whole thing ends there, what do the rest of the hack journalists think?"
Aurora Group was a walking scoop. New businesses were launching on top of the group's founding, and public attention would only intensify. If someone tried a malicious article, failed, and walked away with nothing worse than this, others might start treating it as a gamble worth taking. Sacrifice one reporter and one editor, maybe land a special feature. Jeong-Hoon wanted Cheollian Daily shut down for one reason: to make an example of them so thoroughly that no one would ever dare try it again.
"Then what disposition do you want?"
"I want to exchange every share of Sintong Group I currently hold for Cheollian Daily's shares. And I want your agreement to Aurora absorbing Cheollian Daily."
Cheollian Daily was a core Sintong business, and Shin Young-gi hesitated for a beat. As a media company it did not generate enormous profit, but it was the foundation of the group. Handing it over was not something he could agree to lightly.
"Even if I agree to the absorption and merger, the National Pension Service will oppose it."
The pension fund even blocked parent companies from consolidating their own subsidiaries. Pointing that out, Shin Young-gi shook his head. Jeong-Hoon showed a flash of teeth in a smile.
"I'll handle that myself."
When Jeong-Hoon refused to budge, Shin Young-gi sank into thought. Trading Cheollian Daily for the stake Aurora currently held would be extremely favorable for Sintong. And if he took that entire stake in his own name, he could straighten out the group his sons had wrecked. Once that calculation clicked into place, a wild suspicion crossed his mind: had the boy bought the shares aiming for exactly this outcome all along?
No matter how many times they had knocked on Lumen's door trying to meet Jeong-Hoon, they had been refused. Yet the moment they arrived with Chairman Kim Seong-cheol as mediator, the door opened and terms were offered at once—it looked like calculated movement. By appearing unwilling to reconcile directly, he kept Sintong in check; by accepting another group's mediation, he showed he was a man one could talk to. And in the end he walked away with exactly what he wanted. The money involved was absurd—but set that aside, and wasn't this textbook chaebol maneuvering?
"Very well. I'll hand over Cheollian Daily. But persuading the National Pension Service is on you, Chairman Lee Jeong-Hoon."
He would surrender the foundation of his group, but he had no intention of playing hunting dog on top of it. That was Shin Young-gi's last scrap of pride, and Jeong-Hoon bowed his head.
"I understand completely. Your health isn't good, and souring the atmosphere between us over something like this leaves a bad taste in my mouth as well."
When Jeong-Hoon—who had never once bowed his head—accepted the reconciliation with formal courtesy, Shin Young-gi and Kim Seong-cheol both exhaled. Failure to reconcile would have left only all-out war between the groups.
"Sir Fernandez, give Chairman Shin a potion. That should help with recovery of body and mind, yes?"
"Of course, Chairman. While we're at it, why not stop by tomorrow for a full health screening as well, Chairman Shin? It is our chairman's consideration—please don't refuse it."
Offered the potion and the health check as symbols of reconciliation, Shin Young-gi nodded. There was no refusing a gesture like that.
"I'll leave it in your hands."
"This way, then. I'll call someone to escort you tomorrow."
As Fernandez supported Shin Young-gi and made to leave the office, Kim Seong-cheol rose to follow.
"Chairman Kim Seong-cheol—it's rare we get to meet face to face. Why not stay for a meal? I'd like to repay you for mediating."
But Jeong-Hoon singled him out by name, and Kim Seong-cheol had no choice but to stop where he stood. As the mediator, it was an invitation he could not refuse.