[Raccoon Man Beginning]
[Raccoon Man Beginning]
There was a bit of a happening, but I decided to shake it off. If you let a bad mood from one unpleasant incident ruin the rest of your day, your long-awaited date is bound to go to hell.
"But I'm worried that what happened earlier might end up on the internet."
"I've already handled it so that no videos or photos could be taken, so there won't be any evidence. However, I can't do anything about it spreading via internet rumors."
While it's possible to erase the evidence itself, it's impossible to shut people's mouths. Of course, Sion could delete any posts as soon as they go up, but that would be too blatant, and there's a high chance someone would notice.
But if there's no evidence and it's just talk, it won't take long for it to die down.
Besides, if he's the son of the Daesung Group Chairman, he's bound to have a squad of comment bots. If he doesn't want his image ruined by rumors spreading that he was hitting on a married woman, he'll handle it himself.
"He'll restrain himself once he realizes you're someone else's wife. There are guys who don't, but then I won't have any reason to hold back."
"You must not cause trouble."
"I hold back a reasonable amount, but I can't let that slide. If that bastard keeps coveting you and crosses the line, I'll grind that entire company into dust."
"I will sell off all Daesung stocks."
"Not yet, not yet."
Let's be honest, what kind of moron would be happy if someone was hitting on his wife? Of course, the world is big and there are plenty of freaks, so maybe some people have that kind of fetish, but I'm perfectly normal, so that's not me.
Even the Ten Commandments say not to covet thy neighbor's goods. It means don't be greedy for what isn't yours, and that kind of sentiment has existed forever.
Plundering with power or money? Oh, really? Do they want to be ground into dust along with their civilization?
It was fortunate for both of us that this is a modern civilized society. If it were the Middle Ages, he would have tried to force himself on Sion, and then I would have ground him up very, very slowly.
"Ah, seriously. Just thinking about it makes me fucking pissed. Wait a second. I marked that bastard's presence, so I'll finish him off from here, long-distance."
"If you kill him right here, you'll be suspected as a suspect later. Even if I could somehow handle it from home by hacking wiretaps or surveillance drones, being accused of murdering a second-generation chaebol would be a huge headache."
"Who are you worried about right now? Me? Or him?"
"No, are you even serious? Of course, I'm worried about you. Don't do it now, just remember him and take care of it later with something natural like a heart attack."
"Got it."
That's my wife for you. She's ruthless, just like me.
If I've met someone and remembered their presence, there's nowhere on this planet they can run that's outside the range of my ability.
If he wants to avoid it, he can try running to the moon. It doesn't quite reach the moon.
A simple way to kill quietly and secretly is a heart attack. It's nothing special; I just use my ability from a distance to slightly stiffen the heart muscle, and that's it. A Force User could do it if they were skilled enough, but... I'll be at home by then, so there's no need to even be a suspect.
Once this whole thing dies down on the internet later, we'll see, that bastard... Does he think being a chaebol is everything?
To forget about the unpleasant incident, we decided to quickly find another attraction. First, something fun among the indoor rides...
"How about Pharaoh's Fury?"
"Ah, that one. I couldn't ride it back when it first opened because there were too many people."
"Then let's give it a try."
On the very top floor, the same level as that, whatchamacallit, the hot air balloon attraction that sticks to the ceiling and floats around, an entrance shaped like an Egyptian temple welcomed us. Over there, I could see a jeep-like vehicle clattering along the rails and entering a cave.
Rides like this, just like Sinbad's Adventure which we rode first, are called Dark Rides. The main attractions of these rides are the sets, structures, and animatronics that have been built.
Even if I've ridden the others once, I don't remember riding this one, so I think I'll be able to enjoy it much more.
"Did you know? This is the most expensive ride in this country."
"Oh, really?"
"It probably cost about 56 billion won."
"It better be fun, then."
But for something that cost so much money, it looks pretty shaky.
We passed through the Egyptian temple-like corridor and got on the boarding platform. There were two rows of seats that could hold about four people each. It was a spot that could seat about eight people in total. We sat in the very front, and another couple sat next to us.
Seeing the woman grab the man and pull him away to stop him when he tried to sit next to Sion, I thought she was quite sharp. Or maybe she was just a bit jealous.
[Alright, then, Pharaoh's Fury, departing now.]
Following the staff member's voice, the ride departed. It slowly moved forward and entered a cave-like area along the rails.
They had filled the surroundings with plausible-looking murals and decorations to create an Egyptian atmosphere, and for someone seeing it for the first time like me, I could give it a pretty good score.
And then we came out into the open. Over there, the hot air balloon attraction moving while attached to the ceiling caught my eye.
"I wanted to ride that too, but the line was too long."
"Do you want to ride it this time?"
"Hmm... it looks okay, but if we ride that, it'll be afternoon, and it'll be hard to ride other things."
Soon, we entered a cave-like place again. This time, a holographic Pharaoh's face warned us that this was the Pharaoh's tomb and that if we ventured further, we would be cursed.
Eh, I'm resistant to curses and stuff, so it's fine.
Before long, the inside was much more serious. Along with various passages, there were creepy sets and animatronics like snakes and giant spiders.
Sion, who was next to me, glanced upward, but I didn't see anything.
"What's wrong?"
"Ah, as I recall, there used to be spider web-like strings that would come down from above onto your shoulders to startle you."
"There was something like that? It must have been removed since it's been a while since it opened."
"It was probably due to safety issues."
If a string or rope came down and fell on someone's shoulder, it would be startling, but if it got caught on something while retracting, that would be a big problem. That's probably why it was removed.
Since rides are facilities, things disappear as they age. It's been a long time since Sion came to an amusement park, so there must be things in her memory that are gone now.
As we went further inside, a giant Pharaoh bust greeted us. You know, that typical golden, stern-looking face you see on Egyptian coffins. The one with long, sideburn-like things on the chin.
It said something about cursing us for entering its tomb, and then the ride we were on accelerated even more. It created a tense feeling of quickly escaping a collapsing passage while clattering along.
And after a while, we were able to return to where we originally boarded.
"Hmm, not bad. It was my first time, so it was fascinating and fun."
"I didn't realize the facility's aging was this serious... Though, considering the profitability, it might be better to just scrap useless equipment."
"It's ironic that the place with the least dreams and hope is an amusement park, which is supposed to be full of dreams and hope."
It was getting to be around lunchtime. People were gradually flocking in, and there were far more than in the morning.
To catch our breath, I looked around for a decent place to eat, but most of them were just so-so or bad. There wasn't much to choose from on the menus, either.
"I saw a buffet place on the floor below when we came up earlier, shall we go there? It seems much better than going far away to eat and coming back."
"We have a restaurant reservation for dinner anyway, so we can just eat something simple for lunch."
"A restaurant?"
"There's a decent place here in the tower. You'll probably be satisfied with it."
I work in the food industry, so I'm picky about what I eat. Aside from things related to Sion, one of the few things I can't forgive is people messing around with food, so that says it all.
Sion knows that too, so seeing her guarantee it like that, it might be some hotel restaurant or a place with a Michelin star. Even though the cooking I mainly do is home-style... it's delicious to eat at places like that sometimes.
It would be nice if the portions were just a bit bigger, though.
We entered a buffet in the basement that didn't have anything particularly special about it to just grab a quick lunch. Since you could move between the inside of the amusement park and the outside from here, there was a counter near the inside to guard against people sneaking in.
"Welco... hup?!"
"Two adults."
"Ah, ah?! Ah, yes! Understood. I'll show you to your seats."
The employee, who had stiffened upon seeing Sion, froze, but managed to pull themselves together at my words and showed us to a window seat. Even though it was lunchtime, there were other shops around, so there weren't many people yet...
"Two people."
"Ah, yes!"
"Four people here!"
"Yes, understood!"
Following us, people started to gather little by little. Since it was lunchtime, I thought they might be people who came to eat lunch like us, but to me, it looked like they had other ulterior motives.
And a significant number of the group were men.
"The quality of the buffet is passable. Ah, don't eat the fried stuff. The smell is bad."
"Understood."
It wasn't a buffet focused on specific ingredients or types of cuisine like a seafood buffet or a Korean food buffet, but just a typical, unremarkable buffet you could see anywhere. There weren't many menu items, but except for the fried stuff, it was at a passable level.
Sion left her bag and souvenirs and quickly grabbed a plate to pick out food first. I brought some drinks to take care of her before she sat down.
Usually, if you want to eat a lot at a buffet, you should skip carbonated drinks, but Sion doesn't care about that. My wife's style is to unconditionally love things that are bad for the body. Not diet coke, but just regular coke with ice floating in it. Ah, I settled for orange juice.
I put the drinks at our table first, and just as I was about to grab a plate and pick out some food, I saw a quite strange sight.
In a place like a buffet, when there are a lot of people, it's normal to stand in a single line and move sideways to pick out what you want to eat.
But the problem is that every single person, without exception, was on both sides of our Sion.
Even so, there should be at least one person looking around elsewhere. It wasn't even the dessert corner, but seeing not a single person at the noodle or dumpling corner, and everyone stuck to both sides of where Sion was looking, it felt undeniably intentional.
"Ah, thank you."
"No, it's nothing!"
That's it.
They pick out food from the side, put it on their plate, and then pass the tongs they used to Sion. And when Sion finishes using them, she passes them to the person next to her in the same way.
In the process, slight contact occurs, and it's clear they are aiming for that, which is why people are crowded on both sides of her.
It's a bit annoying, but it's not behavior that makes me that angry. Even though there was an annoying incident earlier, I can tolerate that much.
Even I am a person with common sense. I'm not such a rigid person that I'd get angry and furious right away just because someone else's hand touched my wife's hand. I just dislike people who cross the line.
That, I can see as somewhat cute because they just want to touch my wife's hand because she's incredibly pretty. It's not like they're blatantly asking if she has a boyfriend or anything.
Sion, who returned to her seat, drank the beverage I brought first and started her meal in earnest. Just as I said, she brought food without any fried items.
I mainly went for the sushi. It wasn't a seafood buffet, but they had quite a variety. Usually, places like this tend to increase the variety of rolls rather than sushi for show, but there were quite a lot of sushi types too.
The value for money is just so-so.
"Where shall we go after eating this?"
"Well, by the time we finish eating this, wouldn't it be okay to slowly head outside?"
"It'll be past the time when the sun is beating down, so it should be fine."
"Then let's do that."
Before long, Sion had already emptied one plate. As she pushed the empty plate aside, an employee came and cleared it away immediately.
"I'll clear this for you."
"Thank you."
Sion stood up to fill her second plate immediately. Then, I heard the sound of people rushing to stand up from behind us.
One or two people could be dismissed as a coincidence, but if five or six people do that at the same time, it's too blatant.
I wonder if Sion knows but is ignoring it. Or maybe she really doesn't know, as she looked completely nonchalant, only filled with thoughts of what to eat.
Soon, Sion brought back mostly sushi and rolls, just like me. This time, her plate was full; since both Sion and I are big eaters, we'd need to go back a couple more times at that level to get full.
"What will you do about dessert?"
"No, we just started eating, and you're already talking about dessert?"
"It's a bit awkward to eat it here."
"True, the quality is a bit lacking."
It doesn't matter for just eating, but if you're really thinking about a palate cleanser, eating here is a bit iffy. Most of it is just pre-made stuff they put out as-is. And it doesn't taste that good either.
It's better to go out and buy some decent dessert, like ice cream. Even street vendor ice cream would be better than stuff mass-produced in a factory.
By the time I barely finished one plate, Sion had already emptied one bowl. Wait, does she have a competitive streak against me?
"I'll clear this for you."
"Thank you."
As soon as Sion pushed her finished plate to the side, an employee came and cleared it away immediately again.
...You can dismiss it as a coincidence once, but by the second time, it's reasonable to be suspicious.
I tilted my ear slightly to hear what two male employees were talking about a bit in front of us.
"Hey, I'll go this time."
So much for reasonable suspicion. There's none of that.