Devouring the Guild Alliance. (4)
I tap my fingers on the desk at regular intervals.
‘Kim Hye-in.’
The woman who had taken on my secretary duties under Park So-jeong’s orders. And the woman who would do anything if Park So-jeong commanded it.
Her current situation was nothing short of a broken kite string. Since Jo A-young had kicked her out, Park So-jeong had collapsed. She had remained a waiting assignee inside the Association, granted no tasks and left only to wait.
Could she have quit on her own and found another job? Absolutely impossible.
Park So-jeong, the perpetrator of the human experiments who had enraged the entire nation. Who would accept a woman who had once worked beneath her as sane?
Whether she had been blackmailed by Park So-jeong or had simply done as she was told for her livelihood, such excuses no longer mattered. What people remembered was only that she had worked for Park So-jeong. Even if it had been distasteful, or even if she had avoided entanglement, she would have been ostracized.
Indeed, her fate was sealed. That was the current situation Kim Hye-in found herself in.
The reason I had called her was simple. Of course, because she had been Park So-jeong’s person. If she had been willing to monitor the Association president under Park So-jeong’s orders, she must have been close to her.
Which meant she likely knew the situation between Park So-jeong and the Belves Alliance—or something related to it. She might even possess evidence.
‘Even in the Belves Alliance…’
What I truly sought was the Belgriff Guild. The Belves Alliance was a massive coalition of twenty large and small guilds united for profit. And the three main guilds that practically controlled this alliance were Belgriff, Beige, and Stopper.
The name Belves came from the initials of those three guilds. Among the main guilds, Belgriff had been the closest to the leader.
In other words, the information I most wanted was the direct contact that had once existed between the Belgriff Guild and Park So-jeong.
At that moment.
Knock knock.
I stopped my tapping fingers at the sound of the knock and opened my mouth in a dry tone. “Come in.”
Clack.
Simultaneously with my words, the door opened, and a familiar silhouette appeared through the gap. It was Kim Hye-in.
She still wore a neat suit. She looked impeccably clean, yet the sharp aura she once possessed was nowhere to be seen. Despite trying to hide it with makeup, the dark circles beneath her eyes were impossible to conceal.
Above all, her demeanor spoke volumes. She was in a lot of pain.
The woman who had once monitored the Association president entered now looking extremely subdued. And without approaching, she stood there fidgeting.
Her eyes shook with unease. Both hands trembled slightly.
She swallowed hard, then asked in a voice that seemed to struggle to emerge. “H-have you called for me…?”
Instead of answering, I gestured with my chin toward the seat opposite. “Sit down first.”
Even with my invitation, she flinched and hesitated. Then, with awkward movements, she cautiously sat on the edge of the chair.
Looking at her, I asked her well-being as if nothing had happened. “You’ve been doing well… uh.”
I tried to continue but ended up smiling involuntarily and corrected myself. “Since you’ve been resting, this question is meaningless.”
“….”
Kim Hye-in kept her mouth shut and did not answer. She simply looked down, biting her lip.
“I won’t beat around the bush.”
“….”
“Are you still thinking of moving for Park So-jeong?”
I cut straight to the point without preamble. With that direct question, Kim Hye-in’s eyes widened as she looked at me.
Disgust, fear, and confusion. Even in that moment, three emotions were visible in her eyes.
Yet she could not answer. Whether she did not want to or could not. Probably both.
Although Park So-jeong had already fallen, the shackles she had left behind were still tightening around Kim Hye-in’s neck.
I let out a small sigh and opened the desk drawer to pull out a prepared document file. Thud.
I placed it on the desk, flipped through the pages, and muttered to her. “Name: Kim Hye-in.”
“….”
“You did not attend university… Your awakening rank is B-rank. And…”
I paused for a moment, looked up, and stared at her. “You have one younger sister, right?”
“…!!”
At that moment, I saw Kim Hye-in’s breath stop for a moment. The emotion that appeared on her usually expressionless face.
But even so, she maintained silence. Silence. More silence.
She was biting her lip, trying to hold back.
I looked at her and smirked. Then closed the document file and said, “I’ll give you one chance.”
With that, Kim Hye-in’s eyes widened a bit. The sudden offer of a chance made her look like she could not believe it.
Seeing the look as if asking what I was thinking, I added, “If you are the one, you must know where the evidence is that Park So-jeong is connected to the Belves Alliance.”
“That is…”
Finally, words came out of her lips. “If you tell me that, I’ll let you return to the secretary’s office.”
“……?!”
Her eyes widened. She had the most shocked expression among all the faces I had seen so far.
The suggestion to return to the secretary’s office meant a lot to her. To her, it was an irresistible whisper.
But.
“….”
Even so, Kim Hye-in was still hesitating. She clenched her hands, her gaze wandering, unable to speak.
“Even if I do this much, there’s no answer…”
I clicked my tongue as if regretting it. Why?
Why couldn’t she grab my hand happily?
The answer was obvious. Because there was a reason she could not answer.
And the reason I was not being forceful was also obvious. Because I knew the reason she could not answer.
She knew about the crime of human experiments. The reason she had to do unwanted things under Park So-jeong. The reason she still could not decide even now that Park So-jeong was in prison.
It was family. Younger sister Kim Hye-yoon. To Kim Hye-in, she was the only family left in the world. The only family whose life or whereabouts she could not even know now.
Seeing her with a face as if she had committed a crime, collapsing because she had no answer, but still unable to answer to protect her younger sister, a sigh naturally escaped me.
And I said quietly, one word at a time. “Name: Kim Hye-yoon. 15 years old.”
“……!!”
“She suffered from a rare disease, and in search of a cure for the disease, she met Park So-jeong.”
Kim Hye-in’s pupils began to shake.
“Following her proposal, she was entrusted to a special care facility, and her current whereabouts are unknown…”
I finished and looked at her. She was now losing focus.
Her shoulders kept shaking, and her whole body was trembling slightly.
What can I say.
I felt the first time facing her true emotions.
And she seemed to be crumbling in real time.
She opened her trembling lips and said to me. “How…”
How did you know that fact?
Facing her gaze, I shrugged. “While organizing Park So-jeong’s room, I found out.”
Half was truth, half was lie. The information from the search of Park So-jeong’s room was correct. I had been quite surprised when I saw those documents.
Especially because the name of the first test subject for the Forced Awakening Project in the future I knew suddenly appeared.
What a bizarre and miserable coincidence.
The younger sister of the woman who was the first subordinate I purged. Who would later become the first test subject for the Forced Awakening Project. The first failed experiment.
Looking at her now completely broken, I said quietly. “Then let’s make a deal.”
“….”
Kim Hye-in looked at me as if asking what I meant.
I offered her. “If you give me information about the Belves Alliance, I’ll give you information about your sister.”
At that moment.
Bang!
Kim Hye-in slammed the desk with both hands, the sound echoing.
The woman who had been collapsing until now glared at me without hiding her trembling body. “You too…!”
The momentum as if she would grab my collar right away.
Her eyes confused, whether it was grievance or anger.
Just as she thought she had escaped from Park So-jeong, now I appeared and tried to use it as a pretext to make her work.
It was natural.
But why?
Rather, I found it somewhat pleasing that she was now showing her true emotions.
Now she’s a bit more human.
“If you need time to think, think it over and contact me. I’ll wait until today…”
“I’ll pass.”
Before my words were even finished.
She said as if she had no need to think further. “I have a recording file of the conversation between Park So-jeong and the guild leader of Belgriff Guild.”
‘As expected.’
I was sure she had something.
People who are taken hostage by weaknesses and used always prepare revenge blades for the moment they find.
The only reason she had been hesitating until now was because she could not locate her sister’s whereabouts.
“So tell me…! Where is Hye-yoon… my sister right now? Please…!”
Thud, drip.
Tears flowing down her cheeks fell onto the desk.
And she looked at me with a pleading face.
Facing those desperate eyes, I said. “The Belgriff Guild is holding her.”
“……!”
At those words, Kim Hye-in gulped.
It was a natural reaction since she knew best.
Her face turned pale instantly at the fact that her sister was in the hands of Belgriff Guild, the behind-the-scenes of human experiments.
Looking at her, I cautiously opened my mouth.
I stated the reality she would never want to hear. “As the first test subject of the Forced Awakening Project.”