Ornamental Handsome Man?
The reason Jeong-Hoon had summoned Chairman Kim Seong-Cheol was simple: the man was a collaborator of the Organization.
Even knowing that fact, Jeong-Hoon had been unable to move against him lightly. Kim Seong-Cheol was, after all, the chairman of the SB Group. Now that the man had walked in of his own free will, however, Jeong-Hoon had no intention of simply letting him leave.
"Thank you for willingly stepping in to mediate, even after we lost our tempers with each other last time," Jeong-Hoon said as they ate Baek Si-Hwan's cooking in the private dining room of his suite rather than a restaurant.
Kim Seong-Cheol shook his head.
"When you run a company, collisions of that scale happen all the time. I don't take them to heart. Besides, I could hardly refuse a request from Chairman Shin Young-Gi. He's a close junior of mine."
"When the two of you first arrived together, I thought you were here to declare war. I even wondered whether SB Group already had a prior claim locked in if we issued additional stock."
"I have no intention of making an enemy of you, Chairman Lee Jeong-Hoon. It may sound unqualified coming from a chairman, but SB Group simply isn't in the same weight class as Aurora."
Watching Kim Seong-Cheol make a show of weakness while revealing he had no desire to fight, Jeong-Hoon let out an interested little laugh. "Oh?"
"And yet a man like that supported Ju Yong-Ha?"
"……What are you talking about? Who is Ju Yong-Ha?"
Jeong-Hoon had floated the name as a probe, and after only a brief hesitation Kim Seong-Cheol answered with perfect composure—as if he were genuinely puzzling over who that person might be. The shamelessness of it was almost impressive.
"You're lying. Your heart is beating faster than it was a moment ago."
Baek Si-Hwan, currently cooking right in front of them, was the family's finest assassin and the leader of Flamma, the household's assassination unit. Catching Kim Seong-Cheol in a lie took him less than a second.
"Chairman Kim Seong-Cheol, shall we make this easy? You're a little old for me to start using violence the way your grandson did."
Jeong-Hoon clicked his tongue and snapped his fingers. Han Su-Ho, who had been using invisibility, appeared behind Kim Seong-Cheol and rested a hand on the man's neck.
"Whoa there! Don't move. I'm an S-class Awakened. If I get startled and my hand tightens, I can't guarantee the chairman's safety."
Kim Seong-Cheol's secretaries, standing as if on guard, started forward at Han Su-Ho's sudden appearance. Han Su-Ho pressed down more firmly on the chairman's neck and spoke in his usual playful drawl.
"You think you can do something like this and walk away unscathed?"
"Honestly, I'm holding back a great deal right now. We're standing at the fork between the world ending and the world not ending."
"……The world ending? What on earth do you mean by that?!"
With Jeong-Hoon this certain and openly revealing the family's power, excuses were no longer possible. Moreover, the Organization's stated goal had always been restoring the world to its true form—Kim Seong-Cheol had never heard anything about destruction, and the word startled him.
"You didn't know? If the seal those people are trying to break is released, the world ends."
"I—I am a businessman. If releasing the seal would destroy the world, what possible meaning would there be in helping them?!"
"It's not a lie."
Baek Si-Hwan and Han Su-Ho confirmed it in unison. Jeong-Hoon nodded.
"……Huh. Did Yong-Ha deceive you, by any chance?"
"What I wanted was the awakening of all humanity that would follow the seal's release—and the increase in lifespan that would come with it!"
Because of his incompetent sons and grandsons, the family business he had spent a lifetime protecting could collapse. That was why Kim Seong-Cheol had wanted youth, wanted more years. He snapped the words out in anger. And he simply could not believe Jeong-Hoon's claim that the world might be destroyed.
"Do I look like I'm lying?"
At Kim Seong-Cheol's stubborn attitude, Jeong-Hoon snapped his fingers again. Fernandez, who had been waiting outside, entered and handed over a file summarizing every clash between the family and the Organization to date.
"Th-this is……?"
As he read the materials, color slowly flooded Kim Seong-Cheol's face. He finally understood that he had been used by Yong-Ha and the Organization.
He had wanted a longer life to protect the family business—but if the seal broke, monsters ran wild, and humanity was wiped out, there would be no family business left to protect.
Enraged, Chairman Kim Seong-Cheol offered every scrap of information he possessed about the Organization and pledged his sincere cooperation.
Kim Seong-Cheol, in his fury, had given them everything he knew—but it was no different from what they had already pieced together after torturing Kim Gi-yeong. Turning that fact over in his mind, Jeong-Hoon toyed with the three gems Jeong Si-Min had risked his life to recover during the assault on Hwanung's Sky Garden.
Butler Ju was not the only one currently recuperating. Jeong Si-Min had also overexerted himself enough to require full rest, even if not quite to the same degree. And the gems now resting in Jeong-Hoon's hand were the reason Si-Min had pushed himself so far.
They were powerful artifacts that had controlled Hwanung's Sky Garden—artifacts strong enough that one might reasonably suspect them of being the mythic Cheonbuin themselves. Si-Min had refused to let such things be lost and had reclaimed them at the risk of his life.
They had merely been recovered, showing no reaction whatsoever. Jeong-Hoon had brought them along on the off chance that they might respond to the power of the seal.
"Gaju, Hunter Han Si-Eun has arrived. She requests an audience."
"Hunter Han Si-Eun? Did something happen?"
"She has come every day since learning that the Gaju collapsed."
Surprised to hear that Si-Eun had been visiting daily even though he had been unconscious and unable to meet her, Jeong-Hoon hurriedly had her shown in.
"Chairman, how is your body now……? Are you sure you should be drinking like that?"
Si-Eun walked in, took one look at Jeong-Hoon holding the Cheonbuin in one hand and a lemon-flavored canned beer in the other, and made a thoroughly exasperated face. Jeong-Hoon gave an awkward laugh.
"Haha. I've got a lot on my mind."
"Seeing you drink, I guess you're doing fine."
If Jeong-Hoon truly should not have been drinking, someone else would already have stopped him. With no real reason to object, Si-Eun simply snorted a quiet laugh and opened the refrigerator packed with Jeong-Hoon's beer. She pulled out the exact same can, cracked it open, and took a drink.
"You've gotten completely natural about it, haven't you?"
"I have my own stress to deal with. Now that the chairman is awake, I can finally breathe again."
Si-Eun usually arrived during Jeong-Hoon's beer hour, so he had naturally started offering her one. After enough of those ordinary evenings, she had reached the point where she no longer needed an invitation—the moment she saw him drinking, she simply helped herself from the fridge.
"Then, a toast to the chairman's recovery!"
"Thank you."
Si-Eun held out her can. Jeong-Hoon tapped his lightly against it and took a small sip. Si-Eun did not.
"Gulp, gulp, gulp—ahh! Chairman. Can I have another?"
"……Uh, as many as you want. Help yourself."
Even for a hunter with a strong alcohol tolerance, Si-Eun had never been the type to drain a canned beer in one go. Watching her finish one and immediately ask for a second, Jeong-Hoon nodded and shot a discreet glance at Fernandez standing behind him—a silent request for some proper snacks.
While Fernandez stepped out, Si-Eun already had the next beer open and finished it just as quickly.
"Is something wrong?"
"……I was just so relieved you woke up that I got thirsty, that's all."
Jeong-Hoon, startled by how fast she had emptied three cans in a row, pressed the question. Si-Eun clearly had something on her mind and was choosing not to say it.
"If something's weighing on you, talk about it. Sometimes just saying it out loud helps—and we're friends, aren't we?"
"……The problem is that you help too much."
She made no attempt to hide that she had a worry. Jeong-Hoon offered an awkward smile. In other words, it was a personal matter that would become even more troublesome if he intervened directly.
"Hunter Han Si-Eun, simply speaking of it can be a great comfort. And would that not be preferable to our chairman discovering it through private channels and intervening on his own?"
Fernandez returned with the snacks and spoke gently. Si-Eun nodded. Jeong-Hoon was not someone you could keep secrets from simply by trying. Better to be honest, ask for advice, and draw a firm line at counseling alone.
"Chairman, do you know someone named Yun-a? We're……"
"Hunter Jo Yun-a of FC Guild? A-class hunter, and Hunter Han Si-Eun's childhood friend of the same age, right?"
Jeong-Hoon answered before Si-Eun could even finish explaining. She nodded. He claimed to be a fan, and apparently he had memorized the personal details of every member of FC Guild.
"You've been friends since kindergarten, and you both awakened on the same day, didn't you? What about her?"
"Lately my friend has hit a wall. She keeps getting more and more restless."
Han Si-Eun and Jo Yun-a. Same age, childhood friends, awakened on the same day at the same rank. Two middle-schoolers both awakening as C-class had drawn every eye in the country. Ignoring the love calls from the major guilds, the two friends had joined the small elite outfit known as FC Guild. They had grown quickly, both rising to A-class around the same time.
The problem began after that.
Han Si-Eun awakened to S-class first. Up to that point, everything was fine. Jo Yun-a had sincerely celebrated her friend's growth and congratulated her. But the world Si-Eun inhabited after becoming S-class gradually drifted further and further from Yun-a's. Eventually Yun-a found herself watching her friend become close with the chairman of Lumen—now Aurora—whom she had never even met, then rise to youngest SS-class with massive support.
No matter how hard she tried not to care, the people around her kept giving her looks.
You two awakened the same day and grew together. Your friend is pulling ahead. What are you doing?
That was the sort of thing she kept hearing.
"Ah—I'm not saying people inside FC Guild are saying those things. It's other guilds and other hunters that are the problem."
Listening to the story of a friend desperately trying to break through the wall of S-class out of sheer restlessness, Jeong-Hoon shook his head.
"If that's the issue, shouldn't you have come to me for advice first?"
"Pardon?"
"Sir Fernandez. Is there a chance that Hunter Jo Yun-a, Hunter Han Si-Eun's friend, could awaken to S-class?"
"A more detailed investigation would be required, but considering Master Choi Jae-Yeon of Saturn, it is entirely possible."
Fernandez bowed his head as he answered. Jeong-Hoon smiled faintly.
"Don't tell me the family possesses a technique for awakening people to S-class?!"
"Several conditions have to line up, but from what I've heard, it's easier for us than for most places."
Hearing that Jeong-Hoon intended to solve the root cause of the rift forming between her and her friend Yun-a, Si-Eun was stunned.
"If you have technology like that, why does the family have so few Awakened above S-class?"
"That's a secret. Just know that we aren't mass-producing them either. More importantly—isn't Hunter Jo Yun-a what matters right now?"
Jeong-Hoon shrugged. Si-Eun's reason returned. And with it came the question of whether she really ought to accept his help.
It was not because they were friends that she felt guilty—it was precisely because they were friends that she had been receiving nothing but favors and was starting to feel bad about it.
"What are you hesitating for? If she's Hunter Han Si-Eun's friend, then she's my friend too. Someone's talking trash about my friend—you think I'm just going to sit here?"
Reading the hesitation on her face, Jeong-Hoon spoke with absolute firmness. Si-Eun nodded. At this point there was no stopping him.
A young-looking woman who resembled Si-Eun. She looked so much like her that, at a glance, people might have wondered if they were sisters—so she deliberately wore sharp, heavy eye makeup and kept her hair in an unbalanced bob. Si-Eun's closest friend.
When Hunter Jo Yun-a arrived at the top floor of the Lumen Seoul branch, right outside Jeong-Hoon's suite, Si-Eun grabbed her by the shoulders and fretted.
"Absolutely, absolutely! You must not be rude to the chairman. Got it?"
"I know, so stop worrying. I'm not thoughtless enough to sabotage my friend's romance."
"No! The chairman and I are not like that!"
"Don't play dumb! How many years have we spent together? I can tell just by looking."
Unaware of the real reason Jeong-Hoon had called for her, Yun-a looked at Si-Eun and vaguely assumed this was about some romantic problem between the two of them. She smiled a little. Being alone together like this, with none of the public's stares, let them slip back into their original relationship—and that put Yun-a at ease.
"I'm telling you it's not!!!"
"Fine, fine, I got it. We'll call it not."
Taking Si-Eun's fierce denial as the strongest possible confirmation, Yun-a knocked on the suite door. The moment it opened from inside, she strode straight in.
"A pleasure to meet you, Hunter Jo Yun-a. I am Lee Jeong-Hoon, chairman of the Aurora Group."
Yun-a took in Jeong-Hoon standing in a polite posture and offering his greeting, then gave a slow nod.
"Hmm~ I'm Jo Yun-a, Si-Eun's friend. Nice to meet you."
She held out her hand for a handshake. Jeong-Hoon smiled awkwardly and offered his own.
"Ah, Si-Eun! Cancel what I said earlier. He's handsome, sure—but more of an ornamental pretty boy than boyfriend or husband material. Definitely no romantic feelings here!"
"……Jo Yun-a, you!!! I told you to watch your manners!!!"
Still shaking hands, Yun-a turned back to Si-Eun and said it at full volume. Si-Eun lunged at her. Her face had gone paper-white; she even used Acceleration. She looked truly, thoroughly flustered.
"I'm so sorry you have a friend like this!!!"
"……Ah, no. She called me handsome, so I'll take it as a compliment."
Suddenly branded an ornamental pretty boy, Jeong-Hoon forced out an awkward laugh and shook his head. The words of his future selves—Overlord and Hero, both of whom claimed they would remain single until the age of one hundred twenty—floated up unbidden. He did not feel much like laughing, but he laughed anyway.