Parricide (1)
When I first entered Kwon Ho-gyun's body with Kang Min-chan's mind, the most bewildering thing was exactly what Chairman Kwon Byung-do had just mentioned. My memories of living as Kang Min-chan were crystal clear, yet in everyone else's recollections—and in every record—the man had simply vanished. If something had been erased, there should have been traces left behind, but the shock came from realizing he had never existed at all.
Chairman Kwon Byung-do, having undergone possession before me, understood this fact all too well. That was why he had devised an ingenious method to pinpoint the exact moment of my possession. Because the Pyongyang Shaman had already written down the name of his third reincarnation as Kang Min-chan, the plan became possible.
I fanned out the five identification cards belonging to the various Kang Min-chans and gave my answer to the quiz the chairman had posed moments earlier.
"So you collected the IDs of every person around my age named Kang Min-chan across the country? So that if one of them disappeared, you'd know the possession had occurred?"
"That's right."
"Did it work?"
"It did. I can't remember which one vanished—it feels like trying to recall a black-and-white photograph from fifty years ago—but I distinctly remembered there were six, and I'd written it down, so I could tell."
As he said, even after bringing every resident registration card from the safe, only five remained in my hand instead of six. I nodded and moved on to the next question, something relatively minor yet, in its own way, the one that had intrigued me most.
"How exactly did you obtain these? Resident registration cards are important legal documents, so they aren't supposed to circulate freely."
"You little rascal. Just because you're a lawyer, you underestimate the reach of the QS Group chairman. Precisely because they're important documents, any registration card reported lost and later rediscovered is collected separately by the government. Some department in the Ministry of the Interior and Safety. Pulling out every card under the name Kang Min-chan from there was nothing."
I realized that by exploiting the very importance of these documents and layering the power of a chaebol heir on top, something I would never have even considered attempting became entirely feasible.
"Still, you only knew the timing of the possession. You didn't know it was me who had entered this body, did you?"
"That was the real headache. I had three sons, after all, and there was no way to tell which one it was. I even considered striking Kwon Ho-gyun from the family register because it seemed like he'd spend his life brawling with people, but I couldn't bring myself to do it."
"If you had, it would've been disastrous, wouldn't it?"
"Do I look like the kind of man who'd make such a rash decision?"
I let out a short laugh. After all, when you got down to it, he and I were essentially the same person. I returned the five resident registration cards to my bag and took out another item from the safe, showing it to Chairman Kwon Byung-do.
"Why did you keep this in there?"
"That was the wallet Park Jesik used to carry."
Oh? That was unexpected. Right now, I didn't have a single possession from when I was Kang Min-chan.
"Did you possess this empty wallet along with the body?"
"How could that be? Park Jesik, who was obsessed with stocks, bought this luxury wallet on a whim after making some money one day. It's from a Portuguese company called Sarmelon that later fled to Macau. Not many people know the brand, but among luxury enthusiasts, it's considered top-tier. Then, on the day he lost everything, he pawned it because he didn't even have money for a meal. He never retrieved it, and by the time he entered this body, years had passed."
"So you found it when you went back to the pawnshop?"
"That's right. In a way, it was fortunate he lost his money that day—otherwise he wouldn't have even had this one thing to recover."
Indeed, just because possession occurred didn't mean every trace connected to that person was erased from the world. This wallet had survived the storm of annihilation triggered by the possession because it had long been out of Park Jesik's hands. Then another strange point occurred to me.
"Did you originally like luxury goods? I've never seen you carry anything like that except this wallet."
At my question, Chairman Kwon Byung-do smiled faintly, as if reminiscing about his younger days.
"Once my name and face became luxury items themselves, carrying anything else just felt cumbersome."
I thought, so that's the realization a former retail stock investor who once couldn't afford a meal reaches after rising to the pinnacle of Korean business. No matter how I looked at it, it was an entirely accurate statement. No matter what luxury item Chairman Kwon Byung-do carried, it only elevated the item's value. Even a multi-billion-won luxury piece couldn't make Kwon Byung-do stand out more.
After our exchange reached this point, one of the questions I'd had before coming here was naturally resolved.
"You must have been able to see future stock prices, Father?"
It was the obvious conclusion when thinking about Park Jesik, who had lost money and gone hungry while investing in stocks.
"Yes. What do you see?"
"I see future court verdicts. At first they were very blurry, but now they're quite clear, and recently I've even started seeing documents leading up to the verdicts. But with the ability to see future stock prices, is that really all the money you made?"
At my playfully appended question, Chairman Kwon Byung-do snorted as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"How much do you think my assets are worth?"
"The media often says you have around thirty trillion won."
"Wrong. That's only because they're calculating based on shares you hold. If you properly account for art pieces, antiques, twenty-four-karat gold bars, dollars, and so on, it would be at least five times that."
Five times thirty trillion was a staggering one hundred fifty trillion won. And since that was the minimum estimate, the maximum could easily exceed three hundred trillion. At that scale, it was nearly equivalent to South Korea's entire annual national budget.
"You really do have an enormous amount of money."
"Yes. It's a lot of money. Having that much makes gathering more feel tedious. I was the same as you. It wasn't like the stock prices appeared right away. At first I only saw long-term moving averages, then gradually shorter ones became visible, and the more I studied individual stocks, the more accurate prices I could see. But I got tired of staring at it just to make a few more pennies."
Today had brought more than its share of moments that made me nod in agreement. Hearing these words from someone who shared a similar background and ability, someone who had stood at the very peak of the tower I was trying to climb, felt like receiving genuine advice from a senior in life.
After entering Kwon Ho-gyun's body, I had already understood that money no longer needed to be the goal, yet my belief that more money meant greater utility remained unchanged. Even that conviction, however, grew faint in the face of wealth on this scale.
The conversation with Chairman Kwon Byung-do continued after that, but unlike the smooth flow until now, the pattern shifted slightly. The chairman moved his head side to side for the first time when he heard this question.
"Father, are you aware of the strange tumor in your head?"
"It can't be the blood vessel that ruptured this time. You're talking about that hideous thing attached to the left brain."
Chairman Kwon Byung-do didn't seem to know much more about what I had tentatively named the homunculus than I did.
"Yes. I have one in my head as well. The doctor said it shouldn't affect my health, but do you know why these things form?"
"I don't know. If you have one too, it must be connected to our special past, wouldn't it?"
"Then did Grandfather also have one?"
"I was curious about that myself, but I can't exactly dissect my late father's head to check. I've just been assuming he did."
I sighed. After learning the homunculus's identity, Chairman Kwon Byung-do had deliberately avoided brain scans even during health checkups. He had been closer to actively trying not to think about it, so there was no answer to be gained by pressing further.
This lukewarm response wasn't limited to the homunculus. He also claimed to have no idea why the Pyongyang Shaman's records contained no name for the next generation's reincarnation after mine. At least that answer came with the acknowledgment that he had considered it. There was also something he reacted to as if hearing it for the first time: the regression to five years in the past that had accompanied the possession. According to him, neither he nor the previous chairman, Kwon Seong-wook, had experienced such a thing.
When he realized I had come from five years in the future, a flicker of surprise crossed his barely moving facial muscles. In the end, these three mysteries—the homunculus, the next-generation Pyongyang Shaman, and the regression—remained unsolved by Chairman Kwon Byung-do. They were puzzles I would have to unravel myself going forward.
After that, our conversation turned to company matters. He seemed to have already heard the general outline through Kwon Seong-gyun and Kim Majin, so there was no need for me to explain in detail what had happened since I became head of the Central Management Division.
"You've completely finished off Je-gyun. So now it's Seong-gyun's turn?"
"Yes, that's correct."
"In terms of the company, that means the electronics affiliates are all that's left?"
"Yes."
"You've only taken half."
I couldn't help but hold my breath at that assessment. I had thought I was dominating the group with my own brand of conquest, yet Chairman Kwon Byung-do's evaluation was both the closest to reality and the most dispassionate. When you combined all the affiliates led by Seong-gyun, starting with QS Electronics and QS Display, they accounted for roughly half the group's market capitalization and revenue.
"Does this fall short of the results you expected?"
"You fool, what expectations are you talking about? I only found out three days ago how long I'd been lying there after suddenly collapsing. What's important isn't how much you've taken so far, but how much more you can take from here."
This, at least, I could answer with confidence.
"From now on, I'll take everything."
I was about to elaborate on the blueprint I had drawn up when the chairman gave a brief reply.
"Good."
"Aren't you curious about what I'm planning to do?"
"That's for you to handle. I've found the next generation, and he says he has the confidence to do well, so I'll rest now. It's been too exhausting. That's probably why this head of mine burst open. I'll announce the succession of the chairmanship to you as soon as possible, so keep that in mind."
Even though it had been the expected course, hearing it directly from Chairman Kwon Byung-do brought an involuntary smile to my face.
"Thank you. I'll show you the results."
Unfortunately, I didn't know at the time that Chairman Kwon Byung-do would never live to see my final results.
"You don't need to show me anything. Just do what you set out to do, and do it properly."
Even as he gave that answer, he likely hadn't anticipated that he truly wouldn't see it through.