Chapter 57
Chapter 57
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 57
Chapter Title: Baghdad Declaration (1)
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“What? You mean... that’s actually true?”
Yeouido’s K Hotel was right near the Federation of Korean Industries hall.
The FKI. A place where the heads of Korea’s major conglomerates gathered annually to exchange stories and information.
And even among those born into chaebol bloodlines, there were always some who never received an invitation to those meetings.
Today, the underground bar at Yeouido’s K Hotel wasn’t accepting outside guests.
In that space, the voices of those uninvited illegitimate children echoed alongside the music.
“Han Seo-jun of Ammunition Group... became the chairman? That brainless idiot of a concubine’s son?”
“That’s right. Han Seo-jun, the concubine’s son just like us. Well, now he’s up in the clouds, living it up.”
“No way. How...”
“But it happened anyway. Heh heh heh.”
A woman with round eyes wide open and short black hair.
She was twenty-nine, with faint traces of youthful innocence still lingering on her face. Her hardening expression was as complex as an abstract painting layered over a rough surface.
“I can’t believe it. That loser as chairman...”
“But Seo Yun-ji, how do you always end up hearing the news last? Sure, you’ve been busy with wedding prep this time. Come on, show some interest in the world.”
A same-age man with a goofy clown-like face reflected in his glass.
T Group’s youngest son, Kim Beom-ho, teased her with a chuckling grin.
Already excluded from the succession race, he was living a carefree life like an immortal, and this news was just idle gossip to him.
“Cut the crap! Tell me everything you know! Now!”
“Hey, why snap at poor me like that? You’re scary.”
But what meant nothing to one person held special significance for another.
Clicking her high heels sharply, Cheolhwa Group’s youngest daughter, Seo Yun-ji, rushed right up to him.
The same defense chaebol family.
The same age group.
And... the same illegitimate child status.
Yet now, an endless gap in their standings.
She couldn’t hide the emotion creeping across her face—something akin to rage, but closer to envy.
“Stop drinking and spouting nonsense. Tell me quick! How the hell did that idiot Han Seo-jun pull this off?”
“Ow, ow. Why grab a guy who’s just sitting here by the collar... Let go first, then I’ll talk. Let go.”
Once he could breathe, Kim Beom-ho calmly recounted what he’d heard.
After a brief explanation of the succession battle within Ammunition Group, he downed a whiskey and continued.
“...That’s the gist of it, or so I hear. And there’s something even more important.”
“More... important? What?”
“Ugh, Seo Yun-ji, you seriously need to fix that temper, or you’ll get smacked around by VP Im Jae-ho right after the wedding.”
“Ha, can’t you shut that flapping mouth for once? Just think quietly for a sec!”
Im Jae-ho, vice president and heir to SA Group, the top in corporate rankings.
The moment her fiancé’s name came up, her eyes flashed like lasers.
A fifteen-year age gap marriage.
Entering as a second wife to a divorced man with kids.
For her, an illegitimate child barely added to the family register with the elders’ reluctant permission, it was an opportunity she couldn’t let slip.
“What? You said you’d use that marriage to crush your sisters later... and now you’re taking it out on poor me.”
“Those crazy bitches don’t even deserve the word ‘sisters.’ Anyway... Han Seo-jun’s the chairman.”
Seo Yun-ji fiddled with the engraved groove on her glass, her nails adorned with flashy nail art.
She’d known Han Seo-jun since they were kids. He was your typical chaebol bastard son— no talent, no guts, no ambition.
He hadn’t even shown any successor vibes at his own father’s funeral, which only deepened her doubts.
After furrowing her brow for a while, Seo Yun-ji reached her own logical conclusion.
“The path to chairman must’ve been a bunch of lucky coincidences. It couldn’t be his own ability.”
“Hmm... probably? Honestly, if it was all planned out, would he even be human? He’d be a monster. Unless Han Seo-jun popped in from the future or something.”
“Yeah. That’s gotta be it. In that case...”
Seo Yun-ji grabbed her handbag from the seat beside her and stood.
Had some urgent business come to mind? She sent a message on her phone and left without a goodbye.
“Hey, Seo Yun-ji! Where you going? Not sticking around? You gotta party it up before the wedding!”
Kim Beom-ho’s voice faded behind her. She never once looked back, even as she stepped outside.
She pulled a cigarette from her purse and lit up.
In the suddenly chilly air, she exhaled gray smoke with her breath, and the surging displeasure seemed to ease a bit.
“Idiot Kim Beom-ho can just keep partying till he drops dead.”
She tossed the cigarette butt onto the asphalt like trash.
The ash clinging to her fingertips blew away in the wind.
Whatever had touched her lips was discarded on the roadside once its purpose was served.
“Hoo...”
And she, staring at the glow of her phone screen right now, was no different.
She was on the family register now as the arranged marriage pawn, but once her usefulness ended, she could be tossed aside anytime.
-Ziiing!
Her phone rang insistently.
After a deep breath, Seo Yun-ji, her face stiff as a plaster statue, forced a bright tone to answer.
“Yes, Father.”
Her voice bubbly like a dutiful youngest daughter. But the response was as dry as desert sand.
It hardly sounded like a father speaking to his own flesh and blood.
“Where the hell you been wandering? Get over here now. The in-laws-to-be want to see your face.”
“Ah, I’m on my way. Oh, does that mean VP Im Jae-ho’s there too?”
“That’s what I said! You scatterbrain... We’ve got the SA Group joint venture right around the corner.”
She barely kept the fragile mask on her face, smiling through it.
Only when the call ended—right as her true self, swallowing bloody tears of rage, threatened to break through—did her suffocating breath ease.
“Yes, I’ll be right there. Of course. Don’t worry. I’m your daughter, after all. I’ll handle it perfectly.”
“Spare me the sweet talk and hustle over!”
The call cut off abruptly, shattering the mask she’d worn.
Gripping her phone tight, hands trembling, eyes bloodshot, Seo Yun-ji spat.
“Human trafficker. Disgusting.”
The joint venture with SA Group, sealed by her marriage.
A new joint company from SA Group’s world-class electronics and Cheolhwa Group, the domestic defense giant.
Seo Yun-ji pulled her joint venture business card from her bag’s inner pocket and held it under a streetlamp.
-SA-Cheolhwa Tech One. CEO Seo Yun-ji.
“Of course, I’m playing along with that sleazy deal too.”
She clenched her teeth so hard she tasted blood.
Nominal CEO for now, but deep inside burned a blazing ambition.
Concubine’s child. The humiliation of living as an illegitimate barely tolerated.
“I’ll take it all. Control of Cheolhwa Group, and... the right to punish those hollow family shells.”
She vowed that one day, Cheolhwa Group—her family home—would be swallowed whole.
And that brainless guy who stumbled into Ammunition Group’s chairmanship just might be her first stepping stone.
“Han Seo-jun, Han Seo-jun... Yeah. Might take less time than I think.”
* * * *
After becoming chairman, the change that hit closest to home was the private jet.
The seating on the flight to Iraq didn’t quite match the group’s protocol hierarchy.
Next to me at the front window seat sat not VP Yang Taek-su or Chief of Staff Kim Won-cheol, but Ammunition Shipbuilding & Marine President Seong Won-sik, looking a bit uncomfortable.
Once the plane leveled off in steady flight, he asked cautiously.
“Chairman? If I may, one question?”
“You’re wondering why the seating’s like this?”
Seong Won-sik nodded carefully. I wet my throat with some water and answered.
“No computer glitch. Not a secretary’s mistake either. I arranged it on purpose since we have a lot to discuss.”
I called a flight attendant and had her set up a folding partition behind the seats.
In the now fully sealed space, perfect for a private talk, a tense Seong Won-sik watched my lips intently.
“You remember... the talk we had at my officetel.”
“How could I forget? It was the first day I served you, Chairman.”
I’d thrown him a lifeline to a new life when he’d backed the wrong horse.
Turning the heart of my uncle’s loyal hound wasn’t just about sparing his life.
‘Heavy industries, construction, shipbuilding & marine. From affiliate mergers to selling off unneeded divisions. We need a control tower to handle it all at once.’
The haphazard operations exemplified by the Iraq seawater desalination plant project. Someone had to wield the scalpel.
‘Pledge your loyalty to me. The head of that control tower. You could very well be President Seong.’
To reform that mess, someone had to charge ahead, flag raised, bullets flying.
And now, I pulled a document envelope from the seat pocket and handed it to Seong Won-sik.
“I’ve seen your loyalty, President Seong. From now on, assist me in a new role.”
“Chairman...?”
Rustle. The envelope opened.
On the white paper inside, under the Ammunition Group logo, these words were printed.
-Seong Won-sik, President of Ammunition Shipbuilding & Marine. Appointed Head of Ammunition Group Organizational Reform TF.
“Chairman. This is...”
“We’ll announce the personnel move first thing when we land in Iraq. You wield the scalpel.”
The scalpel.
Seong Won-sik’s new mission as TF head.
His face lit with emotion, but he didn’t yet know the big picture I was painting through him.