A Secret Deal (2)
During the Spring and Autumn period in China, the state of Wu and the state of Yue had been bitter enemies.
One day, people from both states happened to board the same boat. They glared at one another and snarled, until a storm rose up and caught them all in its fury.
When the vessel was on the verge of capsizing, the Wu and Yue men forgot their hatred and joined forces in desperate unity, barely surviving the ordeal.
“So it’s two enemies on the same boat.”
I reduced Lee Yu-seol’s proposal to a single sentence.
She was quick-witted enough to catch my meaning immediately.
“Exactly. Even if we were enemies before, if our interests line up, we can still be on the same team.”
From Go Ju-hun’s death to the Gangnam Station multi-Gate incident, there had been something that never quite sat right with me when I thought about it.
What bothered me was how easily the things I’d done could be buried.
“Did you cover up the Nike instructor too?”
The fact that Nike had been a faithful believer in Cheonyang-ji, and that he had murdered interns and tried to abduct Ha Se-na, was the kind of scandal that would have rocked the country.
And yet the media had reported that Nike died while fighting a boss monster.
If it ever got out that I’d been the one to kill him, it was obvious I’d be dragged into one ugly mess.
I’d have to stand in court, bring witnesses, the whole thing.
I could claim self-defense, sure, but if things went wrong, it could easily be ruled excessive force.
Lee Yu-seol admitted it without hesitation.
“Half right, half wrong. It was also on Go Pil-hun’s orders. At a time like this, when you’re being hailed as a hero, there was no need to create noise.”
Go Pil-hun.
I still didn’t know what kind of bastard he was.
But from the impression I’d gotten the one time our paths had crossed…
Machiavellian.
The word came from The Prince, and it described someone who stopped at nothing to achieve his goals.
For example, the reason Lee Yu-seol had come looking for me was probably tied to that.
Go Pil-hun was charging straight ahead, trying to seize something for himself.
And Lee Yu-seol probably didn’t like the process—or the outcome.
The offer had come from her side.
Whether I accepted it was entirely up to me.
“Why? Is there a reason you need to push Go Pil-hun out?”
If you wanted to understand someone, you had to look into what they desired.
“That man…”
She clenched her fist tight.
Lee Yu-seol had looked angry from the moment she arrived.
But the target of that anger wasn’t me.
“He wants to sell Dio Guild to overseas buyers. The negotiations fell apart because of the share price, but if things keep going like this, it’ll happen eventually.”
It wasn’t unusual for a Korean guild to be sold abroad.
There were all sorts of reasons for it—poor management, legal requirements, funding issues.
But in this case…
“A strategic sale?”
“Yes. He’s trying to maximize the value of the shares he inherited from his brother and make a killing.”
His younger brother was planning to sell off the company he’d built up so easily it was almost obscene.
If Go Ju-hun knew, he’d have kicked open the lid of his coffin and come crawling out.
It was a reason I could understand, all right.
“Didn’t know you were that much of a patriot.”
“Please. It has nothing to do with patriotism. It’s personal greed.”
Lee Yu-seol curled her lip.
“I respected the former representative. I had no doubt that one day, a man named Go Ju-hun would rise to the top. Until then, I intended to stay by his side.”
She turned and walked to the window.
“I never expected his empire to collapse like this.”
Her gaze drifted beyond the glass.
“Selling Dio for a bargain? Representative Go Ju-hun would never allow that.”
Lee Yu-seol looked back at me.
“Choi Yongki. Help me carry on his will.”
Human beings really were strange things.
They rejoiced, raged, grieved, delighted, loved, hated, and longed with all their hearts.
All of that was folded into the reason Lee Yu-seol had come to see me.
It was a rather moving story, in its own way.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t sentimental enough to grab her hand in a fit of warmth and say yes.
“Why should I?”
Lee Yu-seol had a motive to betray Go Pil-hun, but I didn’t have one.
Even if Dio ended up being sold overseas, my paycheck wouldn’t shrink and my treatment wouldn’t suddenly get worse.
Actually, it might get better.
While the other side was trying to lure me into an enemies-on-the-same-boat situation, I kept calculating every angle.
Lee Yu-seol let out a breath.
“...Fine. Then how about this? Put me in the representative’s seat, and I’ll make you the one behind the curtain.”
She pointed back and forth between herself and me with her finger.
“I’ll be the figurehead, and you’ll be the one pulling the strings.”
Her proposal was genuinely interesting.
For someone as proud as her to set everything aside and offer to become a puppet herself…
Maybe her feelings toward Go Ju-hun had been
more than simple respect.
The enemy who had killed the person she cared for.
The one trying to destroy the wish that mattered most to that man.
Between me and Go Pil-hun, the scale had likely tilted a little more in my direction.
On a ship being battered by a fierce wind, the two of us were slowly finding our balance.
“So what do you get out of this, Lee Yu-seol?”
The word revenge had already gone fuzzy around the edges.
And sweet words like loyalty to the dead were nothing more than sugarcoating.
What I wanted was a clear exchange of benefits.
“I like how direct you are. I don’t want to stay a team leader forever. If I become representative, my salary goes up, and I’ll be able to take a bigger share in Dio Guild. The company car, housing, and all the other perks they provide are tempting too.”
She’d danced around it, but in the end, what she wanted was wealth and status.
Blunt, yes—but honest.
I don’t hate that.
I didn’t trust Lee Yu-seol.
Still, until she got what she wanted, the odds of her betraying me would be lower.
“I’ll say it again. The real head of Dio Guild is Choi Yongki. We can even write up a contract. No, if I break my promise, then you can kill me. You’d definitely be capable of it.”
If Lee Yu-seol became representative and I held the power to control the whole guild from behind the scenes…
Now that’s tempting.
I’d bought Factory 4 in Ilsan from a business perspective.
It secured me a pipeline that would keep bringing in money, and it gave me a workplace where I could stay close to people I trusted, like Karki. It was a two-for-one deal.
What about Dio Guild?
The reason I’d joined in the first place was because it made hero work easier.
It gave me access to Gate intel and information on all sorts of villains, and it was a solid place to gain experience as a hunter.
After some thought, I finally made my decision.
“Forget the contract. We’ll settle this with a verbal agreement.”
Lee Yu-seol moved to the window again and pointed at the workers bustling below the building.
“Look at them. Working that frantically deep into the night… don’t they look like ants?”
They were using a backhoe to clear out the dirt and laying down new asphalt where the old road had been torn apart.
“Choi Yongki. Let me ask you one last question.”
Lee Yu-seol spoke carefully.
“Representative Go Ju-hun said that the weak aren’t people you torment—they’re people you rule. What’s your vision? I thought I should know in advance.”
My eyes fell on the payroll statement sitting on the desk.
On the first page, the full name of Dio Guild was printed there.
<< Dikaiosyne Guild >>
At one point, I’d been seized by the desire to cleanse this place.
To turn it into an organization built for real justice, not fake justice.
“I want to save the weak too. That’s my justice.”
After hearing my answer, Lee Yu-seol looked dazed for a moment, then smiled faintly.
She politely extended one hand and bowed her head.
“Then I look forward to working with you, future representative.”
We shook hands.
For an A-class hunter, her hand was cold and soft.
Under the moonlight spilling through the window crack, we finished our secret deal.
“Auntie. More soup, please.”
“Yes! Coming right up, madam.”
A middle-aged woman in an apron brought over a bowl of beef and radish soup.
The hot broth slid down my throat and warmed my stomach all the way through.
The whole family was gathered for breakfast.
There were three of us at the table: me, my younger brother, and Grandma.
We sat huddled together around the marble dining table in the spacious kitchen.
When I lifted my head, I could see the Han River through the floor-to-ceiling windows.
It had already been a week since we moved in.
Even now, it still felt unreal.
This is my house?
The first thing I splurged on with all the money I’d made was a premium apartment in the fifty-pyeong range.
It came with a buffet, swimming pool, gym, golf course, library, and all sorts of other facilities, and there was even a bomb shelter prepared in case monsters invaded.
So this is what they mean when they say the world turns upside down.
I’d worried Grandma might feel cramped living in a high-rise, but it had been an unnecessary concern.
She loved that the living room was the size of a playground and that there were three bathrooms.
Once I hired a housekeeper to help with chores, the place became nothing less than my own little castle.
While we ate, my brother kept sneaking looks at me.
“What? You want allowance?”
He was wearing his brand-new school uniform.
I’d thrown out all the old, faded, worn-out stuff and had three sets of the best-quality uniforms made for him.
I sent him to a hair salon in Gangnam for a proper haircut, and every day I made sure he put on expensive cosmetics too.
Thanks to that, the scruffy look had faded away, and he really did seem like the son of a wealthy family now.
“Hyung. Um, I want to get tutoring…”
He trailed off at the end of the sentence.
“Tutoring?”
“I’m ranked first in every other subject, but math’s dragging me down a little…”
As expected, once he’d settled himself and started studying seriously, his grades had shot up.
In the last mock exam, he’d ranked third in the school.
Truthfully, when he said math was holding him back, it only meant he occasionally slipped to second place.
By my standards, he was already doing plenty well.
But it still doesn’t seem like enough for him.
His goal was to get into the best medical school in Korea.
“Go ahead.”
“Huh? Really?”
His face brightened, then quickly clouded over again.
“But tutoring’s pretty expensive. The math teacher’s famous as a top-tier instructor, so he charges by the hour…”
“Then do it. I’ll cover it.”
I sounded indifferent, but a warm sense of pride welled up inside me.
Wasn’t there a saying about this?
When a child wants something but the family can’t afford it, it tears a parent’s heart apart.
I’d never been married.
I’d never had children of my own.
But for someone like me, who’d grown up without a father, my brother was almost like a son.
“Thanks, Hyung. I’ll make sure I get first place this time.”
I set down my spoon.
“Hey.”
“Yeah?”
He shrank his shoulders.
I’d barely ever hit him even when we were growing up, so why was he always so jumpy?
“You don’t have to get first place. Even if the tutoring money goes to waste, it doesn’t matter.”
I met his eyes.
“Don’t lie to yourself.”
I’d spent my whole life lying to myself.
Even though nobody had ordered me to, I’d spent my entire life laboring away in a factory.
I told myself that even if my life was miserable, it was the path I’d chosen, and so I wasn’t allowed to stray from it.
I told myself that was right.
I told myself that was the life I’d been given.
And when death finally came, what had been carved deepest into my skull was regret.
Day after day, I’d spent gift-wrapped years focusing on nothing but making money.
I should have taken better care of my family…
No. I should have taken care of myself first.
Looking back, I could have chosen a different life entirely.
For example.
Instead of saving up one billion won,
I could have blown through all one billion won however I wanted.
“The only thing I can support you with is money. The rest is up to you. What you want, and how you want to live.”
My brother nodded.
“Okay! Got it. Thanks, Hyung.”
In the middle of our sibling conversation, someone cut in.
“You two are talking nonsense. You damn brats. What kind of nonsense are you two spouting at the table? Eat your damn food! Anyone looking at you would think you, Yongki, lived longer than me.”
If you added up my lifespan from my previous life and this one, it might actually come out about even.
“You heard Grandma. Let’s eat.”
Grandma tasted the beef and radish soup, then waved the housekeeper over.
“Well damn, this is good as hell. What’d you put in the broth?”
“I simmered it with radish, but I also added a little seasoning.”
“Well, shit. It’s salty in just the right way. What kind of seasoning comes out this good?”
“Should I show you?”
“Now that sounds good, huh!”
She’d throw around filthy curses at me without hesitation, but she was surprisingly kind to the housekeeper.
Well, that sort of tsundere side to her was pretty lovable.
With her back bent from age, Grandma lifted her bowl and got to her feet.
She was going to wash the dishes herself.
“Madam, I’ll do it.”
“No need. An old woman’s got nothing better to do all day anyway. And can you quit calling me madam all the time?”
“Then what should I call you?”
“Hmm. Sister?”
“Come on. How could I do that? Give me the bowl, Madam.”
“Hey! That bowl’s gonna break. You want to get cursed out too?”
“Sure. Curse me out too, Mad—am~”
“Damn it all!”
Unlike her words, Grandma was smiling as she watched the exchange, and my brother stood by the front door with his school bag in hand.
“I’m heading out to school!”
Warm sunlight poured down from above, and fluffy clouds drifted across the sky.
It was the kind of moment I’d dreamed about while surviving day by day in a semi-basement like a cockroach.