246. Shin Family (1)
246. Shin Family (1)
"As I thought, Chairwoman Rina's 7% affection back then wasn't false—"
Baek Seol-hee, whose default state was always cool-headed and composed, couldn't hide her agitation.
"Ma-Master! Misunderstanding! It's a misunderstanding!"
A flustered Jin Yu-ha shouted.
But—
She bit her lip hard, glared at Rina, and kicked off from that spot.
And Jin Yu-ha also immediately kicked off and started chasing the fleeing Baek Seol-hee.
In the end, only Rina remained.
"To leave without so much as a greeting. Truly, an insolent creature..."
With an expression of disbelief, Rina stared blankly at Jin Yu-ha's back as he chased after Baek Seol-hee.
"..."
Shockingly, Jin Yu-ha knew about Rina's own past.
It was a past no one in this world should have known. But she didn't think those words were lies.
Having raised her realm, she could now sufficiently discern whether someone was speaking falsehoods or sincerity even without reading their thoughts.
"But thou must not speak of it..."
She couldn't say she didn't understand his position either. Bound as he was by the great rules of the world, speaking of the past would certainly exact a commensurate price.
However, the words Jin Yu-ha had uttered at the end.
— Whatever happened in your past, Chairwoman, whatever it was, you have always made the best choices.
Rina let out a scoff. Who dared to evaluate whom?
"Ha, the best... Is that not obvious? Naturally, I always make only the best choices."
— And I truly, deeply respect you for that.
Jin Yu-ha's earnest gaze as he said that lingered deep in Rina's mind. The guy who always ran an insolent mouth, who circled like a hyena looking for anything more to wring out of her.
To think he held such feelings inside... Frankly, how could that possibly be unpleasant?
Unbeknownst to her, the corners of her lips lifted in satisfaction.
She flinched—then instantly stiffened her expression.
"No, wait."
Because in that moment, a swarm of women surfaced in her mind. Women who had gathered around Jin Yu-ha all day like conveyor-belt sushi before dispersing.
Im Ga-eul, Ichika, Shin Se-hee, Kang Do-hee, Lee Yu-ri, and even Baek Seol-hee.
Women who clung to Jin Yu-ha's side with stupid smiles, looking ready to hand over their livers and gallbladders! Their faces flickered past, one by one.
"That bastard, don't tell me he does this with everyone...?"
Rina bit her lip hard.
"That damn playboy...!"
Even if only briefly, she felt ashamed that she herself had thought Jin Yu-ha wasn't so bad.
'He's a dangerous guy. I'll have to be careful.'
And so Rina briefly sharpened her wariness toward Jin Yu-ha. Yet—
— And I truly, deeply respect you for that.
Once again, the corners of her lips drew an arc. Ahem.
"Still, everything the lad said was sincere..."
Above all.
"Saying such things in front of Seol-hee, that was satisfying."
Baek Seol-hee was always showing up at bizarre times without warning to brag about her disciple. Elevating Jin Yu-ha as her own disciple, boasting endlessly about how much he respected her. So the sight of that Baek Seol-hee fleeing today with her tail between her legs like a defeated dog was, honestly, a bit? Cathartic...?
Recalling Baek Seol-hee's face just moments ago, lips bitten and expression choked with emotion, a laugh slipped out.
"Serves you right. Seol-hee."
Rina tossed the remark in the direction Baek Seol-hee had fled, then, mood lifted, returned to the Chairwoman's Office.
* * *
The next day.
I had skipped all classes again today and was lying in the hammock hanging in the front yard, vacantly staring up at the sky. The sky was a damnably bright blue.
"Ugh. So tired..."
Apparently what I'd said to Chairwoman Rina the day before had come as a considerable shock to Master. To catch up to her as she fled, I'd had to wring every drop of Mana from my whole body like squeezing water from a dry rag.
But the gap between Master and me was still huge. In the end, I collapsed from pure exhaustion while chasing her. Only then did Master finally approach. But that was as far as it went.
No matter how I tried to explain, Master just kept her lips sealed and stared at me piercingly. That, honestly, was a little terrifying.
— There's no way I could respect the Chairwoman more than you, Master! Th-that's an entirely different category! The Chairwoman is, how should I put it, a great person! The category of a great person. And Master is personal, you're like a lighthouse I'd trust with my, my entire life. Something like that!
Still, after deploying an all-night fantasia of sweet-talking, I finally succeeded in getting Master to open her mouth.
— ...Your entire life?
— Yes, yes, I truly think I could entrust my entire life to you, Master!
— Hmm... I will remember those words clearly.
And so I smoothed over Master's mood. Then I came home, and what do you know.
...Lee Yu-ri was there, waiting without having slept.
— You said you'd be right back? What time is it now?
Gukbap, arms crossed, giving me a frosty stare in front of the main gate.
— Th-that's, well, b-because of the Chairwoman!
— The Chairwoman? Hmm, sniff sniff. This smells like Instructor, though?
I definitely hadn't lied, but the more I talked, the more tangled things got. Also, how could she even smell Instructor's scent?
From there, round two began.
— Oh? Jin Yu-ha?
— Yellow Dog?
— Hoobae?
— Jin Yu-ha...
— Yaaawn... Benefactor?
And in the midst of that, the other party members woke up too.
— I'll explain everything. Everyone, everyone stop making those terrifying faces!!
And so the spiraling explanations on explanations could only conclude by the time the round sun hung high in the sky.
The result is this current state.
"Where exactly did it all go wrong...?"
Wasn't I supposedly fighting to save the world alongside my party members? Was it just my imagination that this feels harder than hunting Demons?
Something pricked at my eye. A tiny bead of moisture formed.
"Haaah... And now I have to go to China, too."
All my energy had been sucked dry pulling that dog-and-pony show all night; I had no will to even move.
"Oh? Jin Yu-ha, do you have business in China?"
Just then, a voice came from behind me. It was Shin Se-hee.
I rolled only my eyes upward to gaze at her dully.
Glossy black hair, pale translucent skin. A beauty more radiant and lovely than when I'd first met her as Cheonhwa—Black Snake.
'This main scenario is connected to Shin Se-hee.'
Knowing that, I'd been gauging when to bring it up.
'Hmm, since it's just the two of us now, should I tell her?'
Short deliberation, quick decision.
"Shin Se-hee, so, Shin Su-yeon—is she well?"
I opened with a question about her older sister, Shin Su-yeon. She was Shin family too, after all.
"...!"
As if she hadn't expected me to suddenly ask that, Shin Se-hee flinched in surprise and covered her mouth.
"Th-that's! U-unni!? Wh-why bring her up all of a sudden!?"
I tilted my head at her unexpectedly intense reaction.
'...Why is she acting like this? Shin Su-yeon is in the basement of the house she originally lived in now, isn't she?'
Given Shin Se-hee's slightly (?) twisted personality, it was hard to imagine she'd mercifully forgive and release someone who'd tormented her for over ten years. She'd probably think she needed to return exactly what had been done to her.
But that didn't particularly change what I felt toward her. After all, Shin Se-hee was on my side.
'Ah, maybe Shin Se-hee thinks I don't know yet?'
If so, that reaction made sense.
"I have a rough idea what situation she's in. You don't have to worry about it changing how I see you."
I said it casually to reassure her. At that, Shin Se-hee shook her head sideways.
"N-no... That's not it... It's just, I had this feeling that if I brought that up... I remembered the web novel I was reading got completely flamed and the author went AWOL for about 3 months..."
'What the hell is she talking about?'
At the sudden nonsense, I frowned.
"You read web novels, Shin Se-hee?"
"Ah, no. I'm talking nonsense. I couldn't sleep last night, so my head's a little scrambled."
Shin Se-hee brushed it off as nothing. It seemed suspicious, but if she was going to talk around it this much, it was awkward to press further.
"Yes, well, my unni is in the basement, doing fine. So, what does that have to do with China...?"
I hesitated briefly at her question, then opened my mouth.
"I'm going to go crush Shin family this time."
"..."
At that, Shin Se-hee's eyes sank low and dark.
"The promise. Is it time."
"Right."
I nodded.
Yeah. Sometime ago, I'd made a promise to Shin Se-hee.
Her family—the family that had tormented her so viciously, discriminated against her, subjected her to cruel torture. I'd promised to smash Shin family apart and give it to her.
Finally, that time had come.