Lifeline (2)
Lifeline (2)
[ Temple of the God of Amusement ]
Inside a reception room prepared for consultations and special guests.
A middle-aged man sat on the sofa.
A slight belly.
A gentle, approachable face.
Hair swept clean from the forehead to the crown.
This was Section Chief Kim Seong-won—the same man the Finance Department's youngest, Kim Na-hyeon, cursed and swore about so bitterly.
Before receiving the email about the academy's barrier going down, Kim Seong-won had already been in Seoul.
He had packed his things and come up the moment Kim Na-hyeon contacted him the day before. The reason he hadn't shown his face at the academy yesterday was that he had been praying, hoping this was all just someone's bad joke.
In short, he had been evading reality.
His escape shattered when an email arrived shortly past midnight.
Dragged back to an ugly reality, his first act was to call the youngest, Kim Na-hyeon. The call disconnected midway. Then the system reported that every communication device Kim Na-hyeon owned was powered off. A few more strands of Kim Seong-won's already-depleted hair slid to the floor.
Kim Seong-won hadn't linked the barrier failure to himself either. But the youngest's sudden radio silence added fuel to his anxiety, and before dawn he had driven straight to the academy.
He headed directly to the Temple of the God of Amusement.
The temple doors, which should have been firmly shut, stood wide open due to the academy's sudden crisis. Getting inside proved easy.
With the help of a priest on duty, Kim Seong-won was able to meet the Executor, Claire Vin Asen.
—Wait here quietly.
The moment Claire saw him, she locked him away in the reception room.
Without hearing a single word.
"......Mm."
Five hours since he entered the reception room.
Seven hours since the barrier went down.
When he first arrived, the window had been dark. Now warm sunlight filtered softly in, spreading across the floor.
'Well... it's not like I used it for something wrong.'
Five hours is never short. But once inside, Kim Seong-won had lost the presence of mind to feel time passing.
The Executor he had wanted to believe was an impostor—Claire Vin Asen—had confined him here.
Which meant Kim Na-hyeon's report that day had been entirely true.
From the moment he stepped into the room, Kim Seong-won had been so absorbed in figuring out what to say to the professor who wore a Black Ring and how to explain himself that he hadn't even noticed the hours slipping by.
—Click.
The door handle turned.
Kim Seong-won, who had been trembling nonstop with anxiety, shot up from the sofa and faced the door.
His movement was so swift and precise that a stranger might have mistaken him for an Enhancement-type Awakened.
The closed door moved.
First, Claire entered in her pure-white priestly robes. Behind her followed a tall man.
Unkempt black hair.
Large glasses covering half his face.
An imposing height that made people shrink.
It matched the description Kim Na-hyeon had given. And above all, there was the Black Ring on his left index finger.
"I am Section Chief Kim Seong-won of the Finance Department."
A ninety-degree bow.
Both hands gathered respectfully at his belly.
A voice infused with precise, understated deference.
From the outside, it was a flawless performance that hid all traces of anxiety.
But the beads of sweat rolling down from his hairless forehead were beyond his control.
A single drop traced his smooth skin and fell to the floor.
Kim Seong-won squeezed his eyes shut at the tiny stain forming below.
Contrary to his worries, the two who entered weren't even looking at him.
As Kim Seong-won kept his back bent, the tall man—Baek Woo-jin—took a seat on the opposite sofa and spoke. His words were not for Kim Seong-won.
"Claire. I have something to discuss with you afterward as well. Don't leave. Sit beside me."
"......Yes."
She had been standing by the door, planning to leave them alone. At his words, she quietly shut the door, walked past Kim Seong-won, and sat next to Baek Woo-jin.
Only then did his gaze shift to Kim Seong-won.
"Enough of that. Sit."
"Haha... then."
Kim Seong-won wiped the sweat with his sleeve and straightened his back. He lowered himself back onto the spot where he had been sitting miserably.
"You must be as uncomfortable here as I am, so I'll keep this short. Answer my questions with the essentials. Concisely."
"Yessir......."
The deep voice bored into his ears with an almost chilling clarity.
Kim Seong-won wet his dry lips and nodded.
"Two questions. Why did you conceal the information, and where did the unremitted funds go."
Baek Woo-jin leaned back comfortably into the sofa.
Kim Seong-won hunched forward in contrast.
Lips growing drier. Palms and trouser fabric dampening with cold sweat.
Kim Seong-won let out a short breath before raising his head.
Two questions. Neither had any reason to go unanswered.
But he also knew: explaining himself boldly wouldn't make what he had done stop being a crime. With that understanding, he spoke.
"I'll answer in reverse order."
"As you prefer."
"Yes....... First, the funds that should have gone into your account, Professor, were used for student scholarships, welfare, and as donations to each temple to secure their cooperation."
Students with passion and outstanding abilities, but difficult backgrounds.
To keep those talents from falling into unscrupulous guilds and the wrong hands, the academy provided extensive support—from dignity maintenance fees to equipment, potions, and even mass-produced elixirs—so they could focus purely on growth.
Kim Seong-won had used part of Baek Woo-jin's funds to slightly increase the quantities and marginally raise the quality of those supplies.
And the temples.
Healing abilities are exceptionally rare.
But clergy blessed by the gods can use holy power—a force a little more special than mana—to heal wounds, independently of their awakened abilities.
Of course, not to the extent of reattaching severed limbs.
A few can, depending on how beloved they are by their god and the total amount of holy power they carry. But most only close gashes and restore slightly damaged internal organs without leaving aftereffects.
And given the nature of the academy, student injuries are frequent. Extremely frequent, and in large numbers.
Potions and healing-type ability users alone couldn't cover it all. So the academy had built temples on campus, invited clergy, and accepted their aid.
Beyond that, when an incident like today's broke out, they would step forward to help. In short, the clergy gave as much as they received.
Unlike Baek Woo-jin, who was secretly satisfied to have this curiosity resolved, Claire—seated beside him—flinched at the mention of his money being used as temple donations and began subtly gauging his reaction.
Oblivious to the subtle shift between them, Kim Seong-won continued.
"Professor...... I didn't conceal the information about the Black Ring. Not exactly. The access permissions were set so that only section-chief-level personnel and the Chairman could view it. That caused the misunderstanding."
A Black-grade ring registered at the academy's founding.
Everyone with the right position knew about it. They just didn't talk about it. Because the Chairman threatened severe repercussions in the contract they signed before taking the section-chief post if they ever disclosed anything about it.
And there wasn't much worth disclosing anyway.
No personal information on the professor. No lecture records. No external activity logs. Nothing.
Someone who took money without doing anything.
Money that piled up untouched.
That was when Kim Seong-won made up his mind.
Leaving such wealth idle was a massive loss.
First, he stopped the salary payments. No protest came, so he began using the assets accumulated on the ring. Still no protest, and after that Kim Seong-won spent without hesitation, which had brought him here today.
Kim Seong-won closed his mouth, and this time Baek Woo-jin opened his.
"Can you return everything by today."
"......Even if you beat me to death, I couldn't."
It hadn't been one or two years. A full twenty years.
Jokes aside, restoring all of it would require an amount that even next year's entire budget couldn't cover—and still come up a little short.
"Then until you've repaid every coin you freely used, the barrier stays off."
"......!!"
He'd half-expected it, but the moment the word "barrier" left Baek Woo-jin's mouth, Kim Seong-won sprang from the sofa and dropped to his knees on the floor.
"P-Professor. I'll do whatever it takes to replenish your assets as quickly as possible. But the barrier......."
If the barrier stayed down, they'd have to pour an obscene amount of money into academy defense facilities—money they had never invested before.
That meant budget would have to be pulled from elsewhere, and student scholarships would inevitably be among the cuts.
Baek Woo-jin looked down at the gleaming crown of Kim Seong-won's bowed head and asked.
"It's not embezzlement. Why invest so heavily in the students."
"......Whatever the reason, aren't they the talent who will risk their lives to protect us from the monsters? Of course I should support them. If they grow up well, my retirement will be comfortable."
Money can only be used in peacetime.
When peace shatters, power takes precedence over wealth.
As an ordinary human being, Kim Seong-won had lived through an era where power outweighed money once before. More than anyone, he wished never to see such times again.
Baek Woo-jin nodded at his answer.
"Sure. It's not even your money. Easy to play the benefactor."
"......."
"Was your salary mixed in there too."
"......."
"I'll take that as a yes."
Kim Seong-won couldn't lift his head.
As the man said, if his own salary had gone into it at least in part, he might have had a little more dignity here.
Unfortunately, Kim Seong-won had invested every paycheck he received into fishing.
He did have savings, but those were earmarked for a yacht.
"Kim Seong-won."
"......Yes."
Baek Woo-jin watched his own reflection on that bald crown and spoke.
"The assets you freely used. There's no need to return them."
He'd been angry for a moment, humiliated in front of Baek Ha-na. But in Baek Woo-jin's larger plans, money was not a critical factor.
"......?"
Kim Seong-won, who had been staring at the floor, looked up.
In the opaque white lenses of the glasses, his own shabby face stared back.
"Instead, handle the tasks I assign you from now on."
"......T-Tasks... you mean...?"
For forgiving a sum exceeding a hundred million, what couldn't he do?
He was prepared for a bit of irregularity—even crime.
But what Baek Woo-jin said next was far more mundane than anything Kim Seong-won had imagined.
"The bothersome chores that come with my work as a professor. Administrative procedures I need handled."
"......Th-That's all?"
"Why. Not enough?"
"No, no. Of course not."
Afraid the man might change his mind, Kim Seong-won shook his head like mad.
"However, from this year onward, you'd do well to fill the account properly."
"Absolutely. Of course. Yes. Without question."
"I'll contact you separately later. You may go."
"......I-I can really go?"
"If you have other business, feel free to stay."
"No. I don't."
Kim Seong-won shot up from his spot and bowed toward Baek Woo-jin.
"Then. Excuse me."
With his few remaining hairs flying, he practically bolted out of the reception room.
Baek Woo-jin, still leaning back comfortably, turned his head toward Claire and spoke.
"When are you leaving Korea."
"......For the time being, I'll be staying here."
"Is that so."
"......Yes."
Claire was still struggling to decide how to handle the revelation that his money had been used as temple donations.
Unaware of her inner turmoil, Baek Woo-jin continued.
"If you're free. Stop by the house from time to time."
"......Yes. Yes...?"
Claire had been glancing sidelong at him. Her eyes went round, and she turned her head fully—then caught her own reflection in his white glasses and hurriedly turned away again.
Not that it settled her startled heart.
"I mean come by so we can discuss Baek Ha-na's education. If you're busy, I can visit you instead."
"No, ah... no. I'm free. Yes. I'll... I'll come by."
"Good."
"......Yes."
The matter of the donations vanished from her mind in an instant. And she began to think that maybe it would be acceptable to ask for his contact information after all—something she'd been putting off.
While she was still deliberating how to broach the subject.
"Also."
His voice right beside her brought her back to attention.
The words continued.
"I was hoping you might lend me some money."
Claire's head slowly turned toward Baek Woo-jin. This time, she managed a normal expression.
"I'll pay it back—"
"Your contact."
Baek Woo-jin fell silent, and Claire subtly cleared her throat before finishing.
"...If you give me your contact information, I'll send the transfer."
The app certainly had such a function.
"Let's do that."
Claire Vin Asen.
A new number was saved to her contacts.