The Method to Resolve Worries
Breakfast preparation finished quickly.
The three of us sat around the table. Ah, make that four, since Seol-hee was holding Hye-rin.
“From now on, Seol-hee, you will be joining the executive meetings.”
I spoke after thinking over what I’d heard regarding her resolve yesterday.
Seol-hee looked startled.
“There’s no need to feel burdened. Just think of it as filling a seat for now. Bringing Hye-rin along is fine, too.”
Seol-hee felt anxiety and guilt because of Hye-rin. She believed that I was taking on the burden of raising a baby in her stead. She also felt a psychological pressure about prioritizing Hye-rin over Samira.
‘Actually, I’d already considered all of that.’
It was a factor I’d weighed back when I first accepted her in Muhwa-dong. Her skill was that important. Of course, the situation was different now than it had been then, which was likely why she felt the pressure. I kept my thoughts on that matter to myself. As long as Hye-rin was around, Seol-hee would truly do her best. Therefore, to me, Hye-rin wasn’t a burden—she was the key to managing Seol-hee.
“And there is one more thing.”
Since I’d already accepted her as a core member, I decided to give her a title.
“I want you to take responsibility for managing this house and my living environment in general.”
“Pardon? But that’s Bom’s…”
“Noona. That’s fine, right?”
Since I had decided, the matter was settled. There was no way Bom would refuse, but I asked out of courtesy anyway.
“Yup, yup. I’m fine with it. Hehe… then what should I do from now on?”
“You just keep doing what you’ve been doing, Noona. If there’s anything that bothers you, just tell Seol-hee.”
“Hmm~ Pleasure without responsibility? Is it something like that?”
Bom Noona was enough just by being by my side, acting as a battery in the field where mana was needed. In a sense, she was Samira’s totem.
“Besides, Seol-hee has already been doing most of it anyway. I’ve always liked how she takes care of things.”
It wasn’t a position created out of thin air. Seol-hee had been steadily assisting me since Muhwa-dong. Nominally, she had been in a position to help Bom Noona, and I was simply changing that now.
“I’m not saying you have to do it all alone. Recruit people as you see fit, and if you don’t like someone, replace them.”
“Oh… okay.”
“Handle the reporting yourself, too. I’ll mention it during the meeting later so your authority is properly recognized.”
This way, there would be no chance of a second Go Mi-hye appearing. Previously, Seol-hee hadn’t been able to voice her opinions because Bom Noona was the one in charge.
“Seol-ah~ Congratulations! So, is Seol-hee my superior now?”
“That’s not it. You’re just my Noona. You just don’t have a specific title.”
“Ah, I see.”
Her dazed reaction lasted only a moment. Seol-hee’s eyes burned with determination.
“I will… no, I will do well. I will do my absolute best to ensure you don’t feel any discomfort, Lee Hyun-nim.”
“Then let’s eat. Oh, and you don’t need to ask for my permission to enter the master bedroom or the bathroom anymore.”
I said this for Seol-hee’s sake. Until now, she had often used the common facilities in the main building for the bathroom or shower. Even though I’d told her it was fine, she had still been walking on eggshells. I assumed it was because there were two of them.
“Does that mean…”
“If the room is uncomfortable, change it, or feel free to renovate. The same goes for anything for Hye-rin. Don’t worry about what I think.”
I made it clear once more. Don’t walk on eggshells, and enjoy what you can enjoy. I could feel Seol-hee being moved.
“Mama.”
Perhaps because her name was mentioned, Hye-rin let out a small babble just as I finished speaking.
“Ah, Hye-rin. Yeah, you like that too, don’t you?”
Seol-hee, her eyes slightly reddened, lowered her head to look at Hye-rin. Hye-rin placed her tiny hand on Seol-hee’s chest.
“Looks like Hye-rin is hungry?”
“I suppose so. We came out in such a rush… Um, Lee Hyun-nim.”
“Yes?”
“May I nurse Hye-rin? I’ll make sure to be ready for the meeting on time.”
“Yes, do as you please.”
Seol-hee thanked me. Then, she started to stand up, but sat back down and lifted her clothes.
“Let’s eat. Time to eat.”
The mother and daughter began to have their respective meals. I confirmed the depth and magnitude of Seol-hee’s maternal love.
After breakfast, I held a meeting with my group. Everyone naturally accepted Seol-hee joining us. There were three main agenda items for this morning’s meeting: Seol-hee’s role and authority, a review of the treaty to be signed with the Seoul Station faction, and finally, a discussion on the content I had suddenly brought up during the Time of Cultivation yesterday.
Beyond the main agenda, there were new rescue requests, the status of gates, and various Samira projects. Because there was so much to discuss, the meeting ran a bit long.
“Hyung-nim. But isn’t our concept a bit ambiguous?”
“What concept?”
We had finished the meeting and were on our way to Seoul Station with a selected team. Among the executives, Jang Hoseop and Sujeong-ajumma were accompanying me.
“It’s like a company, but also like a religious group…”
“What are you talking about?”
“No, the Time of Repentance. Giving people a chance to confess their sins is a bit…”
Through the meeting, we had created a new system called the Time of Repentance. This was the opportunity I had mentioned during the Time of Cultivation yesterday. Now, members of Samira could apply for an interview with the executives through the Time of Repentance. It was, quite literally, a time to repent for one’s sins.
“Is there a problem with that?”
“No, it’s not that. But will you really let them off the hook if they confess first?”
“We’ll see. I can’t let everyone off unconditionally.”
The Time of Repentance could become a mere formality. Still, the very existence of such a system could provide me with a powerful justification, so it didn’t matter how it turned out.
“Hyung-nim, you’d do whatever you wanted anyway, even without something like that.”
“Are you picking a fight?”
As I hooked my middle finger over my thumb to flick him, Jang Hoseop quickly hid behind his mother.
“Th-that’s really not allowed anymore. My head will get a hole in it.”
I had once flicked a steel plate as a test. With mana infused. Jang Hoseop was reacting that way because he had seen the steel plate shatter.
“If you don’t want a hole in your head, I told you to practice controlling your mana, didn’t I?”
“I am, but it’s not working! If it were that easy…”
My companions would eventually hit their level caps. I had told them to practice mana control in preparation for that time, but no one had achieved results yet.
“Sigh… I won’t hit you, so come here.”
“For real?”
“Yeah. And did you think about Lie Detection?”
Jang Hoseop returned to my side, nudged by his mother.
“Yes. First, the fact that it’s difficult to judge what is a lie if there’s too much information, and…”
At first, he just listed things I already knew. Then, he proposed a hypothesis.
“I made an assumption. Lie Detection is, quite literally, a skill that filters out lies.”
Jang Hoseop explained with an example.
“Let’s say there’s someone who believes 1 plus 1 equals 3.”
“Yeah.”
“If I asked that person what 1 plus 1 is, and they answered 3, it would obviously be a lie by my standards.”
It was a matter of where the standard lay.
“So, could it be that Lie Detection doesn’t activate because that person believes the answer is 3?”
“Yes. But ultimately, the reason I started worrying about this is… because of Yuri-an. I thought that woman might have deceived or hidden her skills.”
Jang Hoseop took out a notebook and continued. The notebook was filled with traces of his contemplation.
“Then wouldn’t it be more likely that Yuri-an’s skill itself belongs to a category that hides or deceives skills?”
“If that’s the case, it means you lost in a skill battle… even though you have a higher level?”
“Maybe she even deceived my Target Detection… Ah, does that make even less sense? But just like how I change names on the Square, it might have nothing to do with level.”
We might be barking up the wrong tree entirely. As we weighed the possibilities, we ended up discussing many things.
“Got it. You can stop worrying about it.”
“Pardon?”
“We aren’t getting an answer anyway.”
I realized there was a limit to us worrying about it on our own. So, I silently selected the most efficient option.
We arrived at Seoul Station.
Led by Sujeong-ajumma, we signed a treaty with the Seoul Station Hope Bunker. The contents of the treaty were similar to the one with Yongsan Station. We provided them with help in the form of investment. In return, the Seoul Station faction had to repay us with magic stones and various resources. Now, the Seoul Station faction could not be free from Samira’s influence.
“It was sudden… but thank you for granting our request.”
After the official business concluded, Yuk Dae-jang bowed his head and thanked me. It was because the content was slightly different from what we had discussed before. We had decided to take more of the ordinary people from Seoul Station.
“It was a request I could grant. You don’t need to worry about it.”
The Seoul Station Hope Bunker was larger in scale than Yongsan Station. And the proportion of ordinary people was extremely high. That was a burden for them. On the other hand, from Samira’s perspective, an increase in ordinary people was fine. It was all labor, after all.
It appeared as if I were granting a favor, but it was a proposal that benefited us as well. Furthermore, the leader couple wasn’t sending the people away empty-handed. We received a massive quantity of ready-to-eat combat rations along with them.
“Then, shall we go have a meal?”
As it turned out, Seoul Station’s food situation was good. The help we provided them was in the form of combat equipment and support for gate clearing. Oh, and I only received a portion of the magic stones from the monster horde I had killed previously. These people were already struggling just to maintain their safety perimeter.
“I have one thing I’d like to ask.”
“Yes. What is…”
“You know Yuri-an, right?”
We moved to a different spot to have lunch with the leader couple. When I brought up Yuri-an’s name, the couple’s expressions stiffened.
“I see she went to Samira after all.”
“Yes. She joined this side along with other people.”
“We lost a lot of Awakened on our side. Whew…”
Yuri-an seemed reluctant to talk about herself to the Seoul Station side. That was none of my business.
“There’s something strange about that woman.”
I said it straight, observing their emotions.
“I’m feeling an attraction toward Yuri-an. It hasn’t been long since I met her, but those favorable feelings are growing too quickly.”
Yuk Dae-jang nodded. On the other hand, Cha Dong-ja frowned.
“This is strange.”
“See? Lee Hyun-nim starts by thinking it’s strange right away.”
Cha Dong-ja said, glaring at Yuk Dae-jang. Her tone was one of scolding him.
“Did you perhaps have a crush on Yuri-an from the start… Ah, she was a popular actress, after all. You know, right?”
“Yes. I know. But that’s irrelevant. I didn’t have any particular feelings for her.”
Yuk Dae-jang spoke, glancing at his wife.
“Lee Hyun-nim. May I tell you a few things? I’m worried it might sound like I’m bad-mouthing someone behind their back…”
“It’s fine. Please, speak freely.”
This time, Cha Dong-ja stepped up.
“There were many people on our side who liked her, too. At first, we thought it was natural.”
Her appearance, her personality. And even the way she actively participated in fights against monsters. Yuri-an was popular at Seoul Station as well.
“But as time passed, I started to think something was strange. Since the situation was like this, we controlled people like an army.”
“Yes.”
“Yuri-an seemed to dislike that. Things like supply distribution, guard duty… and various tasks for maintaining the unit.”
The life at Seoul Station I heard from the leader couple was slightly different from what I had heard from Yuri-an. That could happen. Because their positions were different.
“Yuri-an often avoided orders.”
“Avoided?”
“Yes. She… um, disliked being controlled, but she didn’t openly rebel; she would just push her work onto other people.”
Even so, they said she fought monsters diligently. People would volunteer to help Yuri-an with her work.
“Even Yi-i was strangely lenient toward that woman. I was of the opinion that there shouldn’t be any exceptions.”
“I see.”
“She would even turn a blind eye to obvious lies… we even had a marital fight because of that!”
“No, honey. You don’t have to go that far…”
Yuk Dae-jang and Cha Dong-ja, the couple, were arguing in front of me. Stories from when Yuri-an lived at Seoul Station started popping out one by one.
“I understand. There’s definitely something going on.”
I asked about her skills, but it was the same as what I already knew.
“Yes. I was also half-doubting. Because men can instinctively be like that toward a pretty woman…”
Cha Dong-ja seemed to think that people were bewitched by Yuri-an’s natural charm.
“But hearing what you said, Lee Hyun-nim, it doesn’t seem like it was just that.”
“See, honey? What kind of ulterior motive did you think I had to treat me like a rat?”
“You don’t have the right to say that.”
It seemed my question had unearthed the couple’s buried conflict once again.
At the same time, Yuri-an followed Lee Yuna out for external activities. They were currently patrolling the area outside the sphere of influence.
‘We definitely made eye contact.’
Yuri-an was bothered by what had happened at the Time of Cultivation the previous day. Lee Hyun had looked at her after desecrating Go Mi-hye’s corpse. The words he had spoken felt like a warning directed at her.
‘No. He couldn’t have known anything. But just in case…’
Yuri-an racked her brain. She knew it, too. That her skill could provoke antipathy in others. It was a skill that gained favor, but ironically, if its true nature were discovered, it could also evoke feelings of revulsion. That was why she had hidden it.
“Team Leader~”
“Yes?”
Yuri-an looked for an opportunity. Then, during a break, she approached Lee Yuna.
“You should apply this. The sun is so harsh these days.”
“I already applied some.”
“Oh my, when was that? Sunscreen is…”
Yuri-an tried hard to get close to Lee Yuna. Starting with a conversation about beauty, she even learned that Yuna had been on the verge of debuting as an idol.
“That agency? Yes. I’ve heard of them, too. Those guys are total thugs…”
Yuri-an, who was 38, and Lee Yuna, who was nearly twenty years younger than her. Yuri-an easily buttered up Lee Yuna.
“So, can I ask you a favor after work later?”
“What kind of favor?”
“A little personal interview… Ah, you know, the Time of Repentance. The one that starts today.”
Yuri-an decided to create a safety device.