A Dreamlike Reality — 3
Machina and the Chairman must have gone on talking, and for all I knew she understood the reason as well.
"Machina?"
Until now she had answered every question without the slightest pause. This time she held her silence for a moment before she spoke.
> …
> You are not authorized to access that information.
That answer turned expectation into certainty.
"So you're saying you know why the Chairman put my name in the will."
> Yes. That is correct. But I cannot tell you.
"Then the one behind the attack that killed him—"
> I do not know who was responsible. I am sorry. If I were capable of guilt, I am certain I would be feeling it even now.
The attack had caught even Machina off guard, for all her seemingly transcendent ability, and there was still no telling whose hand had struck.
> But I have learned. And so I will not lose my master a second time.
The tone had changed. There was resolve in it that hadn't been there a moment ago.
"Then what do I have to do before I can access that information?"
> Protect this company, and make it grow. Do that, and you will come to know its secrets.
"Simple. And nowhere near simple."
Fortunately, it was exactly what I already meant to do, so I set the information—and Machina herself—aside for the time being. There was far too much else that needed handling first.
"Then I'll ask you something else."
> Yes. Please go ahead.
I was just about to ask when the moment broke.
"Ah. You're here."
The only way to the secretarial office was through the front door of the chairman's suite, and standing there was a face I knew better from photographs than from life.
"What brings you all the way here?"
"Straight to the point, without so much as a hello. Any other day I would have called that rude, but given the circumstances, I'll let it pass."
"I'm sorry. There's been too much to do, and my manners slipped."
> Warning. She harbors considerable hostility toward you, Chairman.
Machina's warning cut in about her. On the surface we were smiling through our greetings. Underneath, it was nothing of the kind.
Of course. It would be strange if she didn't.
The Chairman's granddaughter, and the new star of the entertainment world—she had founded her own company while still young and carried it all the way to number one.
"A pleasure, Secretary Lee. Or should I be calling you acting president now?"
"Whichever you prefer. Thank you for coming all this way, CEO Lee Sieun."
Lee Sieun, head of High Group's entertainment business. There was no longer a soul in the industry who didn't know that name.
The chaebol chairman's granddaughter built an entire agency just so she could debut herself.
Hair black as bottled night, eyes the red of rubies—looks like hers were more than enough to start a rumor of that kind. Quite apart from the gossip, High Group's expansion in those days had been condemned as absurd. Reckless, even.
But Lee Sieun had succeeded. Every group she debuted, every singer, climbed to number one. That gift for marketing, that eye for talent—it belonged to no one else. It was a blessing, plain and simple.
"I thought you'd be with the family."
"We were never especially close to begin with. We only gathered so each of us could observe the proper duty."
She was still smiling, and looking only at the surface, I couldn't feel a trace of the hostility Machina had named.
An ordinary person wouldn't have.
The Lee Sieun I knew was exactly that sort of woman. Whatever she wanted, she took. And above all else, she judged people by nothing but ability.
"So. What brings you here?"
"Are you asking because you already know, or because you truly don't?"
"Because I truly don't. I was worried your company might be all right, as well."
"Don't concern yourself with my company. Did you forge the will?"
The mask she wore for interviews and the world outside was gone. This was the voice from family gatherings—hers, unadorned.
"Hardly. Even I couldn't believe it when Chief Im told me. You have no idea how shocked I was."
"So Grandfather really wrote your name down and died? And you expect me to believe that? Not a single one of the family—not Father, not Uncle—you?"
It was a perfectly fair question. But I didn't know the reason myself, and I wasn't about to invent one.
"I find it just as strange."
"For someone who finds it strange, you seem to have swallowed it easily enough."
"It only looks that way."
"...Hm."
Anyone would have been suspicious. For Lee Sieun, one of the owner family, it was doubly so.
"Whatever the case, I took the seat exactly as the will set down. I'll choose the next successor carefully, and I'll protect the company the Chairman built. That is all."
"You're going to regret this. You have no idea how many people are already eyeing that chair..."
I was a little startled. The face she wore as she said it was nothing like the image I had of her. She looked genuinely worried.
> The concern is genuine. She feels anxiety and worry toward her family.
Why? She could be the successor herself.
> More than you think, Chairman. Miss Lee Sieun is worried about you.
A moment ago you said she was hostile.
> That was anger. Fury that some absurd nobody was sitting in the president's chair.
I would have preferred she explain that first. Still, if the worry was real, then setting it at ease was part of my role as well.
"You really don't need to worry."
"Wh-who said anything about worrying, and when? It's just that it puts me in a foul mood when some outsider gets dragged into our family's business. That's all."
She shot the words back as if the very idea were ridiculous, but the exaggeration only made it plainer that she had, in fact, been worried.
"Then I'll do everything I can to stay out of it. I was going to see the family once before tomorrow's press conference, so we can speak again then."
"You're holding a press conference?"
"Yes. The Chairman is gone, but we need to show that we are still standing."
"...You're not quite as incompetent as I thought."
"I'll take that as a compliment. Thank you."
A knock sounded at the door of the chairman's office. It opened a crack, and Choi Yura stepped in—the secretary who had been standing the night duty.
"What is it?"
"I'm sorry to interrupt. You asked to be told as soon as the entire secretarial staff had gathered..."
"Yes. I'll be there shortly."
I answered Secretary Choi, rose, straightened the line of my suit, and looked at Lee Sieun.
"I enjoyed our talk today. We may be seeing a good deal of each other."
"Well. You're not entirely without ability, so I'll give you one thing."
She caught me as I reached to open the door and go.
"Watch out for my cousin. He's rushing back from America right now."
"...I'll keep that in mind."
In front of High Group Headquarters, a single car was waiting for Lee Sieun.
"Sorry. Were you waiting long?"
"No. It's quite all right."
Weariness written across her face, Sieun dropped into the back seat and flicked a hand for them to drive.
"So. How was he?"
"Hmm. What is he, I wonder."
At first I had been certain some upstart who didn't know his place had forged the will and stolen Grandfather's seat. A man without a shred of ability, I had thought, who had left the entire family like dogs staring up at the roof after the chicken got away. And so—
"If that had really been it, I would've grabbed that bastard by the hair and just—"
"Ma'am?"
"Ah... ahem. Talking to myself. Don't mind me."
He was someone I had never spared a glance, a man who used to stand silent behind Grandfather—and lately I couldn't seem to stop noticing him. And more than that...
"CEO... no, unnie, I'm sorry, but... would you come with me to the family gathering?"
"Haa..."
The childish request surfaced without warning, and a sigh slipped out of me before I could stop it. Truthfully, if not for that plea, I wouldn't have gone to the family gathering at all.
"Are you all right? Should we really be leaving him alone after all?"
"No. Leave him. For now we watch. It's not as if he can't do the work."
The directors, who had been guaranteed to raise a racket, had gone quiet, and so had the press. Every live broadcast was nothing but speculation over who would walk out to the press conference.
Strangely quick, and accurate—but for now, watching is all I can do.
If this was how things had fallen out, he was someone I needed on my side. Ability in him was no bad thing. If anything, it was better that—
The phone buzzed, long and low, while I was still turning it over. The moment I saw the name on the screen, a deep sigh left me.
"Haa... Yes. I picked up."
"Well? How was he?"
A call after all this time, and the first thing out of her mouth was how was he?—in that tone that suggested she already knew. I still couldn't stand that woman. His older sister. My own older cousin.