Chapter 181
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 181
Chapter Title: Past, The Season the Rose Withers
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00181 [-- #Past, The Season the Rose Withers --]
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#Past (12), The Season the Rose Withers (5)
The tyrant had not yet plucked the rose.
Han Ga-eul was a beautiful season. Eyes brimming with sorrow, shadows, yet a neat and upright gaze, a fleeting aura, soft demeanor... The fragrance of a person. Not the literal smell. It meant she hadn't decayed, unlike ordinary humans.
A few words of conversation were enough for judgment. The chairman knew how to read people as a merchant. You couldn't reach the top of a world made of people without dealing in them.
But all humans rot in the end. Han Ga-eul was no exception. Most people withered without blooming, but some shone beautifully for a season. Still, no flower bloomed forever. Beauty faded, passion cooled, memories eroded. Humans were products with expiration dates. Like seasons that passed, never returning for a second spring.
He couldn't fathom why he was drawn to her. He even suspected it was an emotion etched into his flesh. But such irrational doubt was contemptible in itself. Superstitions unproven by science were surely just whims of the heart. Fear was weakness. He couldn't tolerate weakness.
He had to overcome it.
Love—that sweet, dizzying, repulsive emotion—was also a memory of crushing defeat. A mental scar the chairman could never shake. If this feeling for Han Ga-eul now was a new form of love, fine. A chance to reclaim his loss. Fleeing? Absurd. He'd face it head-on and conquer. Transcend human limits.
I want her. I want her. I want her.
Go Geoncheol, the chairman, suppressed his pounding heart and fierce impulse.
'I have to price it. Pay the cost. Acquire her legitimately through bargaining and contract.'
No emotion came without a price.
One experience of being ruled by irrational feelings was enough. The heart's irrationality would be replaced by rational economics through logical deals.
Go Geoncheol wanted to be a tyrant even to himself. Absolute control over every element that made him. Ah, life had to be economical. He was a tyrant who never wanted to lose himself again. Principles must be upheld. One principle. Contracts and deals. Human life.
How many times was this? The chairman asked Autumn.
"This time, I want an answer. Will you accept the deal?"
Winter's sister gazed steadily at the tyrant. Beyond that savage expression, the gentle original form lingered. The face that once was Winter grew harder to resent the more she saw it. It hurt to sense a different soul each time, yet she still felt longing in the end.
That's why these forced meetings weren't pure torment. Without courage to face her precarious brother, who wanted to abandon everything, even this much solace was precious to Autumn.
But she didn't want to accept the deal, even if it meant losing this solace.
Seeking Winter in someone who merely occupied his body was sin enough to evoke guilt.
Autumn, hands clasped over the hem of her green dress, spoke in a calm tone.
"Chairman. Please let me go now."
A twitch. Go Geoncheol furrowed his brows like an enraged Winter.
"Refusal?"
"Yes. Your proposed deal was impossible from the start."
Why! The chairman swallowed the urge to explode. Before reason kicked in, his body—his heart—suppressed it... No, illusion. He endured only because it wouldn't help the deal. I'm a merchant. Reining himself in, he quelled baseless worries.
"I'd like to ask why you think that, but I can guess the obvious answer, so never mind."
The nonsense about not buying hearts with money. He'd heard such drivel too often. The faker, the louder. He'd never seen a self-righteous gentleman who didn't trade conscience or love. It just varied by the amount required.
"Still, I need clear confirmation of what you want."
Defining trade items precisely was a prerequisite for fair deals.
"You seem mistaken, but what I want isn't intangible feelings. A concrete relationship. A mosaic of individual acts of affection to satisfy desires—that's enough consent. Nothing more exists from the start."
Autumn sighed deeply without a sound. He truly doesn't know what he's demanding. How did a person end up like this? She should hate him, but couldn't.
Lost resentment settled as chill frost over her heart.
'Winter, this world is full of adults younger than us.'
He could force it with power, yet his stubborn offers of deals were clues too. Autumn understood. This was the only way he could live.
Her unwavering silence—a firmer refusal than words—forced Go Geoncheol to swallow boiling rage again. He clenched and unclenched his fists neurotically several times. Forcing deals on the unthinking was merchant skill too. The chairman twisted a smile.
"You're truly selfish."
"What do you mean?"
"Don't you pity your brother? I heard his guarantee period is shaky."
That idiot, moron who pledged even his afterlife for family.
Autumn's shoulders trembled. Her fleeting passion seemed a negotiation opening to the chairman. He'd carve into her soft insides with sharpened words, try to shake her somehow.
"His name was Han Gyeowol, right? Of the reasons he sold his body to me, how much is your share? At least more than those thousand-piece parents. So, you should feel that much guilt for his situation. Am I wrong?"
"......"
"Hmph. Still, I tried for a fair deal. True, those parent scum made it happen, but hogging all profit isn't right. Do you know? They came haggling their child's body but only cared about their cut. The dying son was fine with basic guarantee; no need for afterlife insurance payout, just give them half."
Truly revolting scum. The chairman revealed his contempt.
"That wasn't fair! Unfair! I ignored their demand. Threw away a chance for a cheaper deal! Why? His afterlife after dealing with me couldn't be that pathetic! My trading partner couldn't end up that miserable! I'm a merchant! It was an insult to me! In unfair deals, both parties get dirty!"
Autumn's teary gaze dropped to the floor. The tyrant barked at her. Look at me.
"You're worse than I was then! Utterly unfair! Tell me, what can you do for your brother? Have you ever imagined how terrified he is, day by day nearing the end of his afterlife? No thought to ease that fear even a little?"
"......"
"Your lofty solitude now wastes Han Gyeowol's remaining time. In an era where one-night stands blanket the world. Say one fuck earns 100 million. As many times as it takes, till I tire! Who wouldn't envy you? Huh? What other fool but you! Even men would spread for me!"
"......"
"If you have any conscience, sacrifice a bit for your brother. Accepting the deal costs you nothing real?"
At this, Autumn, who'd only listened, lifted her head.
"I know better than anyone what's best for my brother."
"Oh, do you?"
Ignoring the sarcasm, Autumn raged calmly.
"That child would've given up already without me. Just because of me... I said I couldn't live without you, so he's waiting. He won't even show it in front of me... Who's protecting who...?"
Tears rolled from blinking eyes as she spoke.
Seeing it, the tyrant clenched his fist. His heart rebelled again. An unpleasant sense of his body not being his own. Yet strangely, not entirely bad.
Autumn shook her head and continued.
"Forcing an unwanted afterlife extension, even selling my body... That's not helping. It's trampling his grateful wait for me. I can't. I'll do my best, but I won't deceive Winter. Won't make him smile falsely."
Hard to fool anyway. Few as clever as Winter, per Autumn. Sudden billions? Lottery win?
As Autumn read Winter, he read her. Meeting with guilty heart—could she hide it fully? No. Absolutely not. Better never meet, but that'd clue Winter her misery was his fault. The catastrophe she'd most avoid.
'He knows me too well.'
Autumn recalled Winters who stayed silently beside her when she needed comfort, wordless. Even on his tough days, never missing once.
Watching her flowing longing, the tyrant sensed intensifying desire. Want her in hand. In hand. Fleeting emotion that'd fade? Still prime goods now. Momentary pleasure fine. If it perfected him.
The chairman felt blood rush below.
Oh.
Pin her down now, break her, defile till sated.
'Defile? Why?'
He frowned at the incomprehensible desire. But the impulse fled, offering no explanation.
"Alright, how about this."
Go Geoncheol pressed the intercom to his secretarial office.
"Any update on what I asked to investigate?"
[Special secretary sent records. Shall I forward?]
"Send."
As Autumn wiped tears and composed herself, the chairman projected data from the secretariat as hologram.
"Look at the screen."
Han Ga-eul looked up puzzled, her face hardening gradually. What she saw: boys and girls in poor condition, at a glance. Brief clips under ten seconds each, endless sequence. No repeats even after long watch.
"What you're seeing are bastard kids irresponsibly bred and abandoned by paupers. Left like this, they'll die in beds, get patched and sold cheap, or have healthy organs harvested—for fates like Han Gyeowol's, but worse. Parents are scum, natural-born always popular. Like farmed ginseng inferior to wild."
"......Why show me this?"
"That I—and you—can save these brats."
The chairman explained the new terms impassively.
"I'll add their lifespans to the original price. Ha, they're afterlife insurance fodder anyway—not pitiable, but to your soft heart? Demand from you, supply from me."
"......Are you sane?"
"No sanity in this world. What's the standard? Average of subhumans? Your parents and these brats' included?"
"......"
"Who are you glaring at?"
The tyrant leaned back, unleashing lax contempt.
"Did I make these kids pitiable? Me?! We bear no blame! Without you, I'd never check! Without me, no pity from you! They'd die unknown by fate! World's always been thus!"
He preempted backlash.
"Sure, trading lives is immoral! But the dying won't mind ideals? They'd welcome me! Better roll in shit than die! Circumstances aside, they wanna live!"
Madness grows dangerous when rational.
Autumn gazed straight at the chairman, quietly.
"You're pitiable—not human enough."
Go Geoncheol frowned. Pitying not just the brats, but me? Dare?
"I can't grasp why you want me this much, but going this far means some compelling reason. You need me enough for this effort and threat...? I think I know what to say."
"......What?"
"Leave those kids to die, and you'll never, ever get me. Winter's my priority now... I vowed anything for him, so no matter how pitiable these others, I won't sell myself. Ridiculous. Can't save one brother, can't shoulder world's ills. So."
Strength entered Autumn's eyes on the chairman.
"Don't fuck with my brother's body, you bastard."
============================ Author's Note ============================
#Q&A
Q. 破雷님 : @No Chinese purification movement or anything?
A. Well... haha... you'll see.
Q. awkawr님 : @If electronic bitch, like Kotana from Halo series?
A. Comments say Kotana fits. Only played 1, so clueless on later story. Or why Kotana's treated that way.
No need to explain! Planning to play someday!
Q. svjk님 : @ㅠㅠ Nuke dropped after all. Excluding humanitarian side, hardline response might raise humanity survival odds? Medieval burned villages for plagues, said to prevent worse. Different since person vs person?
A. Preemptive nuke before launch avoids liberation issues, but regime stability risk. Up to writer anyway...
Q. 카이오가님 : @Multi-warhead missile like Jericho from Iron Man?
A. Search MIRV for info. Jericho... sounds like cluster bomb with guided submunitions.
Q. 음란마귀F님 : @Super supply base gone, but US production means weeks-to-months gap issue. They'll activate some Sosus anyway. Track nuke subs, worst case conventional wipeout possible.
A. Even one week's supply gap is fatal.