Whale Fight
Having decided to give Yong-Ha a brief moment of his time, Kim Sang-Myeong drew a cup of coffee from the machine and held it out to him.
"Ah, thank you."
Offering coffee meant acknowledging him as a guest, so Yong-Ha smiled and downed the cup in one go.
"Whew, this tastes incredible. What beans do you use?"
"It's not the beans that matter. It's the machine."
When Yong-Ha—who, as Butler Ju's grandson, had grown up steeped in every luxury of high society—asked the question, Kim Sang-Myeong let out a short laugh and pointed at his coffee machine.
"Wow, even at a glance it looks expensive."
"…Is coffee really what you came here to talk about?"
"Haha, do you hate me that much?"
"Honestly, I'd like to call security this second."
At Kim Sang-Myeong's unfiltered honesty, Yong-Ha shook his head.
"Can't be helped, then. I'll get to the point. In as little as a week, as long as a month, Nova intends to fight Aurora Group to the death."
"…Here."
At the words "fight to the death," Kim Sang-Myeong did not hesitate. He pulled something from his jacket. Yong-Ha stared at him with a look that said, You're kidding.
He was stunned that a conversation this short had already given the man what he wanted.
But what Kim Sang-Myeong held out was a white envelope.
"…What's this?"
A thick white envelope with the bold Chinese characters for Condolences stamped squarely in the center.
Anyone could see it was a funeral gift, and Yong-Ha's face twisted in disbelief.
"You said you were going to die, so I expressed my condolences in advance. Is that a problem?"
"Hahaha. Chairman Kim Sang-Myeong, your jokes are sharper than I expected!"
"If it sounds like a joke to you, then you really will die."
Kim Sang-Myeong had dressed the accusation of suicide as a polite circumlocution, and Yong-Ha scratched his head.
He had thought he had a decent chance of winning. He hadn't expected this reaction.
"Objectively or subjectively, you people in Nova cannot beat Aurora Group."
"Doesn't matter. Our only target is Chairman Lee Jeong-Hoon. No matter what losses we take, as long as that guy dies, we're fine."
When Yong-Ha spoke as if that alone gave them a winning hand, Kim Sang-Myeong nodded, fetched his bag, and pulled out an identical envelope to offer him.
"Hey, why another condolence gift?!"
"Because it looks hopeless, so I brought more."
Kim Sang-Myeong shrugged and waved him off as if to say, You can leave now.
"I still have a lot I want to do. I have no intention of joining Nova's double suicide."
When Kim Sang-Myeong scowled as if dying at Yong-Ha's hands here or at Aurora Group's hands later would make no difference, Yong-Ha shrugged.
"Look, I get how scared you are of Aurora, but I'm not asking you to fight with us. It's just that our food situation is a little tight."
"…If word gets out that I cooperated with Nova, my life is over. I refuse."
At Kim Sang-Myeong's flat, decisive refusal, Yong-Ha only smiled.
"I'm not asking for cooperation. We're planning to hit one of your warehouses for supplies later, and I'd like you to look the other way."
The leader of Nova—a global armed menace, even if it was nothing next to Aurora Group—was making a request like that. Kim Sang-Myeong's expression shifted.
He seemed intrigued by the sheer gall of a man who would walk up to the owner of the goods, announce he was going to steal them, and demand silence.
"In exchange, you can snitch to Aurora Group all you want—just don't snitch to the government."
"Hmm. I see. You want to pour everything into Aurora and avoid making an enemy of the state."
"If you claim you were threatened in my name, Aurora Group will actually thank you for cooperating and compensate you for far more than the goods were worth."
That was the proposal Yong-Ha was making.
He would get permission, loot the warehouse, and deliberately leak their own information to Aurora. Then Aurora, not he, would pay for the stolen goods. In return, he would keep the government out of it.
The merit for the Organization was simple: they could raid the warehouses of one of Korea's top businessmen, Kim Sang-Myeong, and restock their supplies. And the enemy family itself would foot the bill—satisfying in its own right.
The problem was that Yong-Ha's survival would become known to the family.
But that was no longer a major concern.
After dying once and coming back, Yong-Ha had reexamined how his identity as the Organization's leader had been exposed in the first place. His conclusion: the Gaju's instinct, linked to the seal.
Having reached that conclusion, he had spent the last month cheerfully hammering the seal with demons. In other words, he was already operating under the assumption that the family knew he was alive.
"Haa… I don't think I could stop you even if I tried. Do as you like."
"Thank you for the cooperation."
"This is not cooperation. I'm just ducking so I don't get my back broken in a fight between whales."
At Kim Sang-Myeong's weary head-shake, Yong-Ha snorted with laughter.
Here was the man who had written the myth of the young entrepreneur who succeeded at every business he touched—and he was calling himself a shrimp. It was just too funny.
If he ever chose to, this man could become a whale and join the fight himself.
"Then I'll take my leave. The coffee was—"
"Wait a moment."
"Ah, right. I never gave you my name, did I?"
His business finished, Yong-Ha had been about to stand when Kim Sang-Myeong stopped him. He turned back.
"My name is—"
"I already know you're Ju Yong-Ha. This is something else."
Realizing he had never introduced himself and starting to speak his name, Yong-Ha felt a sudden chill.
If the man knew he was Nova's leader and knew his name, he might already know the truth about the family and the Organization.
"Chairman… you're scarier than I thought."
"Well, I run a lot of dangerous businesses."
Smiling with a touch of madness, Kim Sang-Myeong nodded and brought out a thick stack of condolence envelopes from his safe.
"I don't know Nova's total headcount, but I brought everything I had on hand. May the deceased rest in peace."
"…When the decisive battle is over, I'll come back and return every last one of these."
It wasn't enough for every member, but it was enough to cover a full third of them. Yong-Ha accepted the staggering pile of envelopes with a look of pure shock—and burned with the resolve to win at all costs so he could return them to Kim Sang-Myeong in person.
After rising as usual, finishing breakfast, and handling a reasonable amount of morning work, Jeong-Hoon was lounging around wondering whether it was time for lunch.
"I'm getting used to this pretty quickly."
"The fact that you've adapted in only a month proves you were born for it."
Butler Ju smiled with genuine admiration at how swiftly Jeong-Hoon had settled into the chairman's duties.
"Huh? Butler Ju, your phone's ringing."
"…Is it? Hmm."
Startled by Jeong-Hoon's sudden remark, Butler Ju pulled the phone from his pocket with a puzzled look.
It was set to vibrate, so there was no ringtone—only a faint buzz. An SSS-class Awakened should never have missed even that slight vibration. Still, it was the Gaju who had spoken, so he had to check.
"I believe you were mistaken."
"Really? I thought it said Chairman Kim Sang-Myeong had arrived…"
Bzzzt. Bzzzt.
Just as he was about to put the phone away, it rang. Butler Ju started slightly and answered.
"Mm, yes, I understand. I'll report it to the Gaju."
After the brief call he slipped the phone back into his pocket, eyes narrowing.
"Gaju, did you just… foresee the future?"
"What? What are you talking about? I'm a Non-Awakened."
"That's exactly why I'm asking. I sense no mana from you at all."
Butler Ju shook his head left and right, unsure how to process the situation.
"It was just a coincidence."
"It's far too precise to call coincidence. The call was to inform us that Chairman Kim Sang-Myeong has just arrived in Lumen's lobby, requesting an audience with the Gaju."
Jeong-Hoon had not only "mistakenly" felt the phone vibrate—he had correctly named the exact visitor and purpose. It was hard to dismiss as chance, and that was what had rattled Butler Ju.
"Ah… I've been feeling this faint, itchy sensation lately. Something must be happening with the seal."
Trying to soothe the butler's confusion, Jeong-Hoon cobbled together an excuse—while privately thinking that if this really was future sight, they were in serious trouble.
He didn't know whether he possessed true foresight, but a similar ability was possible: contacting countless versions of himself across timelines through the Imaginary World and harvesting their information.
And if that was possible, it meant the seal was genuinely on the verge of collapse.
Exactly as he and Yong-Ha had arranged, Kim Sang-Myeong wore a heavy expression and reported that Yong-Ha had attacked him the previous night, threatened him into surrendering supplies, and that the goods had inevitably been taken.
Whatever Kim Sang-Myeong actually felt, controlling one's face was a basic skill for any businessman.
"You've been through a great deal."
"Not at all. What galls me is that I ultimately caved to terrorists and handed over the goods."
At Jeong-Hoon's consolation, Kim Sang-Myeong clenched his teeth. The expression of a man forced into submission by threats was so genuine that Jeong-Hoon could only look on with pity.
"Have you reported it to the police?"
"If not for a power as strong as Aurora Group, who could I possibly trust?"
He was saying he feared further retaliation if he reported it carelessly. Jeong-Hoon could only let out a long sigh.
"What is the damage estimate?"
"Around five billion won. Every product scheduled to ship today and tomorrow was cleaned out."
It went beyond simple theft; business itself had been paralyzed, so the losses were massive. On top of that, they couldn't even publicize Nova's involvement, which meant secondary damages had yet to be calculated.
"Aurora Group will do everything in its power to help you settle the damages as smoothly as possible."
"Thank you, Chairman Lee Jeong-Hoon. I only came to vent, and here you are offering help."
"…Isn't this more of a tip-off than a venting session?"
Kim Sang-Myeong, who had already anticipated that things would unfold exactly as Yong-Ha predicted, smiled and expressed his gratitude—only for Jeong-Hoon to strike straight to the heart of the matter.
Everyone knew Aurora Group was hostile to Nova. The question was whether he had come specifically to report that.
"Haa… as expected, I can't fool Chairman Lee Jeong-Hoon. You truly operate on a level above me."
Openly admitting the point, Kim Sang-Myeong continued.
"But I heard something interesting. The name of Nova's leader is Ju Yong-Ha."
"…That's a fact we already confirmed."
Kim Sang-Myeong spoke as if he had uncovered some earth-shattering secret, but Jeong-Hoon shook his head.
Given that the man had brought information, the polite response would have been to feign surprise and delight. But Ju Yong-Ha was a stain on the family—and by extension on Aurora Group.
He was, after all, the grandson of Butler Ju, who served as president of Lumen.
"You already know he's President Joo Yeong-Cheol's grandson as well, I take it."
"There's a reason I'm trying to eliminate Nova with everything I have."
Because the man was a disgrace, the excuse that Jeong-Hoon intended to remove him personally held water. He waved the heavy atmosphere away with a vigorous shake of his head.
"Chairman Kim Sang-Myeong, you've made a difficult trip. How about lunch together? It's just about that time."
"You're offering help—I can hardly refuse the invitation."
To anyone watching, Jeong-Hoon's behavior looked like that of a man who simply did not wish to discuss the group's shame. Standing silently behind them, Butler Ju nodded to himself, judging the response excellent.