261. The End of the Shin Family (3)
261. The End of the Shin Family (3)
"So, if you look at the list of researchers affiliated with the Shin family, this person here... Daughter, are you listening? Remember it properly."
"Yes, Mother. I've memorized it all."
I gaped at the sight before me.
Shin Se-hee and Shin Do-hwa had seated themselves apart and were exchanging words in a businesslike tone.
'What is this...?'
I shifted my gaze toward the other party members, wondering if I was the strange one.
The others wore expressions that said they couldn't grasp the situation either, so it seemed it wasn't just me.
Especially Sofia. Her face held an indescribably subtle look.
Moments earlier, Shin Do-hwa had said the burns were pulling her skin taut and making movement uncomfortable, and had requested treatment.
Sofia had refused her shameless request on the spot.
Instead, it was Shin Se-hee who had chimed in and made the request.
- Please, Sofia. Heal my mother.
- Huh? Wh-What did you say? Heal her? J-Jin Yu-ha!
Since it was Shin Se-hee's request, I had nodded approval.
But seeing Shin Do-hwa restored to her former pristine state, I couldn't help but feel conflicted.
'...In the game, it definitely didn't go like this. Even when Shin Do-hwa died, she didn't shed a single tear...!'
The hatred Shin Se-hee originally harbored toward Shin Do-hwa was by no means trivial.
Prolonged imprisonment, psychological abuse, even physical torture.
The one who actually carried it out may have been her older sister, Shin Su-yeon.
But standing at the pinnacle of it all was her mother, Shin Do-hwa.
Given Shin Se-hee's personality, there was no way she could forgive such a woman.
Yet the two of them conversing now did not look like sworn enemies in the slightest.
"The Shin family's assets are spread and managed worldwide through paper companies. The main branches are in China, the US, Japan, and the Philippines. The places that need especially careful management are..."
"Ah, we at Utopia have already set up paper companies in each of those locations. So linking them through those would be fine. They'd serve well as fund evasion channels."
"...Hmm, it seems your time at the Academy wasn't entirely wasted. Very well, Daughter. Let's leave it here for now. I'll send the rest of the materials within three days."
"Yes. Please don't be late."
At last, the lengthy conversation between the mother and daughter came to an end.
Then, Shin Do-hwa glanced back over her shoulder at us, immediately turned her back, and walked out of the laboratory without a word.
Click.
Click.
"..."
The party members simply watched her retreating figure with expressions that asked if this was really alright.
'We're just letting her go like that...? Is this right?'
Even if it had ended in an attempt, Shin Do-hwa was the seed and root of a calamity that had nearly unleashed thousands of chimeras upon the world.
And everything she had done until now was far beyond any scope of exoneration.
Honestly, if it were up to me, I wanted to charge out and seize Shin Do-hwa right then and there.
But the one who held the deepest grudge of all, Shin Se-hee, was staying still, so I was holding myself back.
Shin Se-hee was staring fixedly at Shin Do-hwa's receding back.
I approached her and spoke.
"Shin Se-hee."
At that, Shin Se-hee slowly turned her head.
"Jin Yu-ha."
"What on earth is going on here?"
When I asked as if an explanation was required, she gazed blankly for a moment before replying, "Ah."
"Ah. Are you so astonished, Jin Yu-ha, to see me conversing with my mother?"
"...Yeah."
I nodded.
"Honestly, yes. What were you thinking, healing her and sending her back like that?"
At that, Shin Se-hee let out a "Pfft." of laughter.
I furrowed my brows at her reaction.
"Ah, I'm sorry. I wasn't laughing because I found you funny. Please don't misunderstand."
"..."
"Jin Yu-ha, in your eyes, did Shin Do-hwa truly appear composed?"
Shin Se-hee asked me.
"...She wasn't?"
"If she looked that way, then Mother succeeded. Although, to me, she was completely transparent."
Shin Se-hee let out an "Hmm—" and placed a finger on her lips before speaking.
"Jin Yu-ha, if you were faced with a situation where your life's work—something to which you'd dedicated your entire soul and time—was swept away overnight, how do you think you would feel?"
An abrupt question.
But Shin Se-hee always had an answer in mind for her questions, so I gave it serious thought.
'A life's work.'
I'm not entirely sure, but for the current me, it would probably be the sword.
Because ever since I fell into this place, I haven't neglected my sword training for a single moment.
Honestly, I've done it to a degree where I'm not confident I could do it again if I went back to the past.
'If I were to do that for ten more years, and then lose it in an instant at some point in the future...?'
I furrowed my brow.
"...I think I'd despair."
Yeah. I probably wouldn't be able to keep my sanity under the sense of loss and despair.
I'm not sure, but I'd likely be consumed by rage and break down.
At my answer, Shin Se-hee nodded as if to say, That's exactly it.
"Yes, that's right. That is precisely the state Shin Do-hwa is in right now. A state steeped in shame, humiliation, and unendurable despair. She's barely pretending to be calm. Pfft!"
"...Shin Do-hwa is in despair?"
"Yes. She's a person who lived on nothing but pride and self-esteem, so she's only endured this long. Right about now, she's probably shrieking and banging her head against the floor and walls."
Just then.
My keen senses caught a woman's voice.
— Kyaaaaaaahhk!!!!! Die! Die! Diiiiiiie!!!
A horrific shriek that sounded wrenched from the very soul.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
And the sound of something being violently battered.
'It's real...'
Shin Se-hee probably hadn't heard it, but she smiled brightly as if she could.
"Fufufu, isn't it so amusing?"
"Even so, letting her go like that and leaving behind a future threat... She could regain her power later and seek revenge."
"Mother? No, there's no way."
Shin Se-hee shook her head as if it were absurd.
As I listened to her subsequent explanation, I opened my mouth.
To Shin Do-hwa, the Shin family was not merely a family—it was the sole and singular work to which she had dedicated her entire life.
Because of that, the Shin family was more precious to her than her own life, or so she said.
She would not hesitate to sell her soul to a Demonized Human to protect the Shin family's dignity, but if the Shin family itself vanished, she would not be able to endure it.
"...And so, Mother made a swift judgment. She realized that the only way to preserve the Shin family name was to hand it over to me as intact as possible, right now."
"...And after that?"
"She'll probably die."
"By whose hand?"
"Her own. Mother has been teetering on the edge ever since she was pushed back by Chairwoman Rina. That's why she swallowed her shame and hid in China to build a foothold. Now that even that has been taken from her, what do you think will happen? Of course, she'll take her own life. And even if she doesn't, I will ensure it is dealt with, so don't worry, Jin Yu-ha."
"..."
Even as she spoke of her mother's death, Shin Se-hee's face was utterly composed.
Rather, she added more, likely thinking I was concerned.
"Ah, do you feel I'm letting her off too easily? Hmm, still, the despair of losing the Shin family is, for Shin Do-hwa, akin to receiving all of her punishment at once, so..."
Just then, a tearful voice came from beside us.
"Shasha...! No matter what! How could you come to this dangerous place! I told you! To run away somewhere no one knows and survive to the very end! How could you—!"
"How could I go anywhere and leave Dad behind! How could I ever abandon my dad!!!"
Father and daughter clung to each other as if they would break, weeping sorrowfully.
Shasha Pong and Yu-won were pouring out their overwhelming emotions of reunion without filter.
It was a paradoxical sight.
Shasha Pong and her father.
Shin Se-hee and her mother.
Both were family reunions.
Yet the aspects were diametrically opposed.
Suddenly, a lonely shadow seemed to fall over Shin Se-hee's eyes.
'That would be a normal family...'
I have never had a family either, so I don't fully understand that emotion.
But I could at least tell that this was what a normal familial bond looked like.
Not a relationship where you speak of your mother's death with such an expressionless face.
But one where you worry for each other, and willingly yield even your own lives for one another.
Somehow, I felt pity for Shin Se-hee.
I grabbed Shin Se-hee's shoulders and pulled her into an embrace.
Still holding her, I stroked her hair.
"J-J-Jin, Jin Yu-ha, Jin Yu-ha?!"
Shin Se-hee let out a flustered voice at the sudden embrace.
"It's okay."
"Y-Y-Y-Yes?!"
"Don't worry. I'll become your family. A real family."
I felt Shin Se-hee's warmth rise within my arms.
"F-F-Family, family?!"
"Yeah. Not the kind of family that tormented you, isolated you, and used you until the very end... Not a family like that. A family that, no matter what you do, no matter what you say, even if everyone else in the world turns their back on you, will be on your side to the very end."
Gulp.
Shin Se-hee gave a dry swallow.
"J-Jin Yu-ha, th-th-those words, by any chance—"
It was just as Shin Se-hee was about to open her mouth.
"...Hmph. I have no family at all, so I wonder if Flowerbed having a family is why she gets treated like that."
From across the way, Kang Do-hee, with her arms crossed and eyes narrowed, spat out in a displeased tone.
"Huuu... It's already been a year since I last saw my parents. Isn't there some way to fix this?"
"Yeah, seriously. Hoobae, I've been breaking my back charging Magic Stones and even did Mana Redistribution the whole way here. Treating a Support like a tool is a bit too harsh..."
"I don't have a mom and dad either."
"I-I live with my parents and saw them before I came... Is being a harmonious family a crime?!"
Starting with Kang Do-hee, the party members each tossed out a remark.
She bit her lip, still held in Jin Yu-ha's embrace.
The mood had just been so perfect!!!
This was Shin Se-hee's karma from the time she had teased Kang Do-hee.