It's Been a While
It was a completely unexpected and sudden encounter. When the doorbell rang and he opened the door, Kain froze in place for a moment at the sight of Huren Grant’s face, blinking two or three times.
Am I still half-asleep? Why the hell was this guy standing in front of their house ringing the doorbell?
He had just woken up, his mind still foggy. He scratched the back of his head for a moment before speaking.
“Yeah, come in.”
Deciding it didn’t really matter, he opened the door wide. Kain yawned, pushed his slightly slipping glasses back up his nose, and shuffled back into the house.
“It’s a nicer house than I expected.”
Huren Grant followed him inside, carefully looking around.
“But how did you find the place? I don’t remember giving you the new address.”
“Arina told me. She said you’d moved and that I should send anything here to this address.”
“That little brat, doing unnecessary things.”
At Hughes Grant’s funeral, after Humon Grant had spoken about abandoning Arina, Kain had declared he would take her in and raise her. Whether it was out of guilt for those words or concern for the Grant Merchant Group’s reputation, Huren Grant had sent gifts to their house every holiday season since then.
Probably to keep any rumors or potential weaknesses from reaching the press.
Not that Kain had any intention of spreading rumors anyway. From Huren Grant’s perspective, Kain was a man whose identity he couldn’t uncover, yet also someone he couldn’t control at all. It made sense that he’d be worried.
Unlike the warm-hearted Hughes Grant or the emotional Humon Grant whom he’d only seen briefly, Huren was a different sort. Extremely rational and calculating—which was exactly why he sat at the head of the Grant Merchant Group.
“The kid says coffee’s bad for her health so she won’t let me drink it at home. If you’re thirsty, there’s bottled water in the fridge. Help yourself.”
With that, Kain dropped heavily into a chair at the dining table. He must have been in the middle of lunch. A simple meal of egg soup, kimchi, dried seaweed, and rice.
Huren Grant watched quietly as Kain continued eating without paying him the slightest attention, then sat down across from him.
“You haven’t changed at all.”
His rude personality that completely ignored guests. Yet strangely, Huren didn’t feel offended. No—he couldn’t feel offended. He was fully aware that Kain was no ordinary man.
Just who the hell is he?
After Kain had declared he was taking Arina and walked out of his brother’s funeral hall, Huren had naturally investigated his background. The most important thing when running a trading company was information. He had tried to dig up everything about the man, from start to finish.
“Sir, I’m only saying this because I respect you and value you as a client, but please drop this matter if you can.”
But the answer that came back shortly after he gave the order was far beyond common sense.
He had used his personal connections to commission an information broker in the underworld—one known to be quite skilled. Yet the moment the broker received the request, he shook his head and refused. Then he gave Huren some sincere advice.
“If you’re still curious about this person, make sure you leave clear evidence that I had nothing to do with this. I don’t want to die.”
If you want to die, die alone. An information broker who had survived every kind of hardship in the underworld had trembled in fear and given that warning to the man who commissioned him.
The same man who had always been bold even in front of Huren, the owner of the Grant Merchant Group, now showed a face he had never seen before. Without the slightest hesitation, Huren Grant withdrew from any further investigation.
For a merchant, information was important, but even more important was the insight to know which doors to open and which ones to leave closed. He had felt it clearly then—if he dug any deeper, it would be truly dangerous.
And ever since that moment, Huren Grant had begun watching Kain’s mood carefully and acting like a subordinate.
Slurp.
It was the same now. The Huren Grant who would never have tolerated such rudeness in front of him was quietly waiting for Kain to finish his meal.
“Anyway, what brings you here without any notice?”
After finishing his rice and setting the empty bowl on the sink, Kain grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge, took a drink, and returned to the table to ask.
“I did contact you.”
“Huh?”
“I called yesterday evening but you didn’t answer, so I sent a text saying I’d come today.”
“......”
Kain pulled the smartphone from his pocket. When he saw the powered-off screen, he shook his head and tossed the phone carelessly onto the table.
“When did this turn off?”
“At the very least, we can tell it was off before yesterday evening.”
“......”
This was exactly why he needed to get into the habit of charging it before bed. Kain clicked his tongue and gulped down the cold water.
“Well, whatever. So what do you want? You must be busy.”
The Grant Department Store, which Huren had ambitiously prepared as their entry into the capital, had failed spectacularly. Of course it wasn’t his fault, but he would still be extremely busy handling the aftermath. So why would he carve out time from that busy schedule to personally visit such a shabby place?
“It’s nothing special. I’ve nearly finished the cleanup, and since I was in the capital anyway, I stopped by for a bit.”
“You didn’t have to come all the way here.”
“So where is Arina?”
“She went to the academy. She started this year.”
“I see.”
Look at that. If he had done even a little investigation or contacted Arina once, he would have known. When she sent the address, if he had simply replied asking how she was doing, that kid’s personality meant she would have brought up the academy first thing.
The fact that he was asking such a question proved he didn’t actually have much interest in Arina.
“That’s a shame.”
“Yeah, it is. The kid would probably find it easier to talk to you than to me. We’re both pretty uncomfortable with each other.”
“More than that, I simply wanted to apologize. I heard the two of you were at the department store when the incident happened.”
“......How did you know that?”
He was certain he had erased everyone’s memories from that time. That princess had pieced together the mismatched memories and guessed Arina was there, but for Huren Grant—who hadn’t even been present—to know that fact should have been nearly impossible.
“Tsk, so that’s what it was?”
Kain clicked his tongue as if he had figured out the answer. The black card Huren had given him must have contained a spell that sent an alert whenever someone entered a Grant Merchant store. There was no other way he could have known Kain had been there.
I was too lazy to look at it closely and just stuffed it in my wallet. I should’ve checked it at least once.
He considered erasing the spell now, but it wouldn’t cause him any loss and it was too much hassle, so Kain decided to just leave it alone.
Looking at him, Huren answered with a calm expression.
“No one knows the two of you were there. It’s something only I know within the company.”
“......”
“I’d like to tell you to use it freely without feeling burdened, but from the look on your face, I doubt that’s possible.”
Of course not. Would you use it? No matter how much Kain liked money.
Kain rested his chin on his hand with a dissatisfied expression and looked up at him rudely.
Swoosh.
Something was held out in front of him. An envelope? Since he wouldn’t use the card, was he offering cash instead?
“It’s an apology.”
“I don’t really need money.”
“Why don’t you open it first?”
Even at Kain’s words, Huren’s expression didn’t waver. Had he given a large enough sum to speak so confidently? Or was it not money at all?
Wondering what the answer was, Kain opened the envelope and checked the contents.
“A ticket?”
Staring at the concert ticket for some singer, he tilted his head in confusion. Layla Ruby. Even Kain—who only looked at news online and had zero interest in the entertainment industry—had heard the name and her songs enough to know she was a hugely famous diva. Naturally, the concert ticket was an extremely rare item that was hard to obtain.
The question was why he was giving it to him.
“Why are you giving this to me?”
“Go see it with Arina. You’re a fan of hers, right?”
“Huh?”
A fan? Now that he thought about it, he realized he must have overheard Arina listening to her songs from time to time. And the fact that Huren knew about it meant she had been a fan since at least two years ago, back when Hughes was still alive.
Now that I think about it, maybe the one who wasn’t interested in the kid wasn’t him—it was me?
Watching Huren’s subtly triumphant expression, Kain could only frown at some strange, indefinable emotion.
“Wow!”
She really did like it. That evening, after Kain told her everything that had happened with Huren and handed over Layla Ruby’s concert ticket, Arina accepted it with a bright smile. It was the brightest smile she had shown in recent days.
“I should text Uncle to thank him.”
“He’s right in front of you. Why text when you can just tell him?”
“......I meant Uncle Huren, not you, Uncle.”
Arina narrowed her eyes as if she had heard a truly unfunny joke.
“I’m the one who received the apology. There’s no reason for me to thank that guy.”
“I’ll just handle it myself.”
“Do as you like.”
If she wanted to do something unnecessary, there was no point in stopping her.
“I’ve actually been wanting to go. It’s her first nationwide tour concert in years. But unfortunately I failed at getting tickets……”
She was enough of a fan to try for tickets? Kain felt a bit strange that he was only learning this now. It wasn’t exactly a bad feeling, but should he call it bad?
“That failure definitely included that ticket as one of the reasons.”
“Ah, really!”
A grumpy remark slipped out of Kain’s mouth automatically. At the same time, it was definitely the truth. A man that busy dealing with the aftermath of the incident wouldn’t have sat in front of a computer or smartphone trying to get tickets. He had obviously bought them at a premium through scalpers in the underworld.
Guys like that were the reason black market dealers could run wild. Recalling a social issue he had glimpsed in the recent news, Kain turned his head. Arina let out a deep sigh as she watched him.
Does he really dislike Uncle Huren that much?
As usual, but especially whenever the Grant Merchant Group came up, Kain’s attitude grew even grumpier.
“Still, I’m glad I get to go out with you again like this, Uncle. Last time at the department store it ended badly because of that incident.”
Arina smiled as if trying to change the subject and steered the conversation elsewhere.
“Huh?”
But at those words, Kain turned back to her with a look of genuine surprise.
“I’m going too?”
“Of course. There are two tickets.”
“Couldn’t you go with that princess from before?”
“Come on, how could kids go to a place like that by themselves? There needs to be an adult with them.”
“......”
“And I’m sure Uncle Huren gave two tickets because he wanted you to go with me, Uncle.”
“......”
Don’t state such obvious facts. When he thought about it, she was right. Kain couldn’t find any words to refute her and simply kept his mouth shut.
He hadn’t thought about it at all, but things were flowing in a troublesome direction.
“I’m really looking forward to it. It’s the weekend so I don’t have academy either. Since it’s come to this, should we go out for lunch somewhere?”
“......”
But he couldn’t throw a tantrum and say he didn’t want to go now. Not when she was looking at him with that dazzlingly bright face.
Watching Arina, who was already lost in joy and making plans, Kain dropped his head heavily onto the table.
Damn that Huren bastard. I’ve never once seen him do a single thing that I actually like.
In his mind, he cursed Huren Grant for creating this situation by giving them the tickets for no reason.