Chapter 85
Chapter 85
In the end, the homeroom teacher chose to run.
I suppose there wasn't much else he could do. Serves him right for not thinking more carefully about whose money he was taking.
Probably not what he intended, but he's managed to get on the Chairwoman's bad side. If the teacher gets replaced soon, I wouldn't be surprised.
Not sure what'll happen with the bribe money, though. As long as they don't claw back everything he's been paid so far, a trip to prison might still leave him set for life. Thinking about that, I felt like I finally understood why so many economic criminals do what they do. If you can just hide it well enough, you can still use it after you get out.
"Heh."
So-hee flashed a supremely confident grin and plopped down into her seat.
"But seriously—you really blew over a billion won? Just to butter up one teacher?"
"Huh? No? Obviously not. Getting one of them in your pocket isn't the end of it. Well, you're better off asking senior Yang Hye-in for the details. I just tagged along for the ride."
Her claim of just tagging along was the truth. Bribery techniques were definitely something Yang Hye-in knew far more about. Though it was a bit of a mystery how someone who'd only worked as a maid knew about all that... but maybe Yang Hye-in had her own way of handling things head-on. As long as you can avoid the other party's suspicion, there really isn't much you can't do.
And when a mere maid shows up lugging over a billion won in cash to throw around, anyone would think the money doesn't belong to the maid—it belongs to whoever's backing her.
No matter how rich you are, nobody spends more than half their fortune on bribes. You use a bribe when you expect to gain more than the bribe is worth. The reason Yujin Group can casually spend over a billion won on bribes is that blowing that kind of money doesn't even register.
Even among rich people in Korea, some have hobbies like collecting sports cars. If they put that kind of money into bribes, how much could they really spend?
...And strictly speaking, this fell within the realm of Choi Na-kyung's "hobby" as well.
It seemed that Choi Na-kyung's greatest interest was, after all, Ye Sa-ra.
"...I'll cover the money you spent."
At my words, I heard someone nearby catch their breath.
Ha-neul had been staring at me with her mouth hanging open for a while now, too.
"Wow, you really are filthy rich...."
I am.
The only thing is, the me currently inside this body still hasn't adjusted to that insane level of wealth.
...And I have no idea when I ever will.
*
"We poured over a billion won into making you look the other way. Walking out on us like that stings a little."
It was the kind of remark perfectly sufficient to make someone's spirit shrivel up.
The transfer student who had introduced herself as Ye Sa-ra's "maid" was brazenly threatening the homeroom teacher. She had bribed him herself, she declared, and the amount was money in the "hundreds of millions."
The homeroom teacher probably hadn't pocketed all of that billion-plus by himself. Considering the conversation Ye Sa-ra and her maid-transfer-student had afterward, that money had likely been used to butter up the entire teaching staff, or at least a significant chunk of them. Perhaps it even reached the principal or vice-principal.
Truthfully, getting a teacher in your pocket isn't that difficult. Their salaries aren't exactly pocket change, but the teachers at this school were greedy for money. And you don't necessarily have to give a massive bribe all at once. People with more avenues for bribery tend to take smaller sums from many people in exchange for favors. If bribes had a unit price, the ones teachers took weren't that huge.
If a situation called for buying off the entire school with a sum of over a billion won, there were people inside this school who'd act on that without a second thought. Not every student's family could produce over a billion won on demand, but it was a manageable sum for the family of any student whose household ranked within Korea's top one hundred corporations.
"...I'll cover the money you spent."
And yet, Ye Sa-ra said that to the maid.
Indeed. The maid's claim was very simple.
"The money you took didn't come from the Chairwoman. It came from me and my senior."
In what household in the world could a maid pull together over a billion won of her "own money"?
On top of that, even after spending that much, she still had hundreds of millions left, and Ye Sa-ra looked at that and called it "penniless."
Right. Some rich person in the world might very well think that way. Someone who earns trillions of won a year, or even just hundreds of billions, might hear of a total fortune of a few hundred million and react exactly like that.
But even if the kids attending this school could pay exorbitant tuition, not every single one of them could dismiss money measured in the hundred-millions.
This school had over a hundred students per grade across three grades. It couldn't run on the children of "capitalists" worth hundreds of billions alone. Plenty of kids here came from families worth tens of billions or single-digit billions—rich families who sent their children here to forge connections with those capitalists.
No, "plenty" wasn't the word. They were the majority. From the school's perspective, it was probably those kids who were the primary customers.
And to those kids, the conversation those two were having did not sound normal in the slightest.
Listening to that abnormal conversation, they naturally realized:
No matter how much an adopted daughter had fallen out of the Chairwoman's favor, if she put her mind to it, a sum of over a billion won was just something she could "cover."
She was an existence who could pay maids hundreds of millions a year in salary and treat that kind of money as mere "pocket change."
...And they had been ostracizing that kind of person.
Ye Sa-ra had begun to move.
The rumors still circulated—the rumors that Ye Sa-ra's stepmother, Chairwoman Choi Na-kyung, crushed everyone who got close to Ye Sa-ra, and used any means necessary in the process.
But right in front of their eyes, there were people who were perfectly fine despite being close with Ye Sa-ra.
How?
Perhaps because they were people Ye Sa-ra was directly protecting. Wasn't this proof that with that level of capital, she could protect her inner circle without breaking a sweat?
At that moment, Ye Sa-ra glanced around as if she'd just remembered something.
Her narrowed eyes were sharp. A look that could slice the air itself.
Her red eyes, almost gleaming, swept once over the now-silent classroom.
That look seemed to say:
Go on. Choose.
Choi Na-kyung, far away, or Ye Sa-ra, right here up close.
You could hear someone swallow dryly.
*
The class felt oddly quiet, so I looked around and saw everyone avoiding my eyes.
...Did that whole thing land a bit too hard?
Well, even I'd be shocked overhearing a conversation like that. They were talking about money in the hundreds of millions like it was just cash flowing in and out.
But what can I do? There really is that much money.
Even I find it so surreal I can't help but laugh hollowly.
"...By the way."
Ha-neul, who had been listening from the side, finally couldn't hold back and chimed in.
"Didn't you say you're Sara's maid?"
"Oh, right."
At Ha-neul's question, So-hee clapped her hands together as if she'd just remembered.
"I apologize, my lady. If you choose to punish me, I will gladly accept it."
"...."
At her utterly shameless words, I narrowed my eyes and stared hard at So-hee. Naturally, So-hee wore an expression that said she wasn't the least bit scared.
I had no intention of punishing her. Considering what just happened, she deserved praise instead. She'd dealt a massive blow to the whole class in a way I hadn't even thought of.
Besides, her using formal speech just feels awkward. Well, she is a maid, so I guess it can't be helped.
"Forget it. What punishment? Just be more careful from now on."
I answered with a deep sigh.
So-hee gave me a little grin in return.
...She's definitely on my side, but I don't know why she's so aggravating.
*
"Sara."
I was sitting in my seat, nodding off as usual, when I heard a voice calling me.
I shook my half-asleep head awake and saw the teacher who'd been at the lectern was gone. Ah, class must have ended while I was dozing.
...I just let that whole period drift past while I slept. It was still a bit chilly outside, but inside this school with its expensive climate-control system, it was warm. The windows kept the wind out perfectly. So there I was, sitting by the window soaking up the warm sunlight, and naturally, I couldn't fight off the nodding off.
"Hm?"
I rubbed my eyes and looked up toward the voice. Ha-neul was looking down at me. Her expression was pretty serious.
Without preamble, Ha-neul pointed a finger at my textbook and asked,
"Can you solve this?"
"Uh...."
With my head still drowsy from just waking up, I looked down at the spot Ha-neul was pointing at. An equation sat there, probably something I'd seen back in middle school or high school.
And since I'd given up on math early, I had no idea how to solve it. The only part I vaguely remembered from any math textbook was sets.
And even then, if we got into more advanced set problems, there was a high chance I'd botch those too.
...Saying it out loud, I sound really stupid.
"...No."
Still, I do know it's embarrassing. But honestly, I've got plenty of money, so what does it matter if I don't study?
"Haaah."
Ha-neul let out a sigh, as if I'd just proved her point.
"This isn't even what we learned today. It's from last week."
Ah, was it?
These days, unless I at least had my textbook open, Ha-neul kept poking me in the side, so I was reflexively just leaving it open. Naturally, I had no memory whatsoever of when or where we learned what. I mostly spent the time staring out the window or sitting there with a blank, unfocused gaze.
Yeah, I did think it looked like it was from early in the textbook. Although for how early it was, this definitely wasn't the sets section.
But a deeply serious expression didn't cross my face.
For an obvious reason. Like I literally just said, I had a lot of money. Not just a lot, but a mind-boggling amount I doubted I could ever burn through even if I lived recklessly my whole life.
On top of that, I was the only person set to inherit that money. The entire fortune was being managed by a trust company. The stocks just grew on their own if I left them alone.
...How could I possibly find the motivation to study?
"...."
Seeing my expression, as if she knew exactly what I was thinking, Ha-neul spoke.
"Okay, then I've got no choice."
Like a declaration.
"Unless someone forces you to do it, you won't."
"...Uh."
Sweeping her hair back as if she were unsealing a Dark Flame Dragon, Ha-neul spoke, and I just stared up at her blankly.