The Cat's Repayment
After finishing his phone call with David, a quiet stillness returned to the living room. Grayson lay on the sofa, staring up at the ceiling, blinking blankly as he sank into the silence. Becoming the best player was one thing, but living a second life where he reformed himself and helped the people around him? Even he had to admit he had grown up quite a bit.
Then, suddenly, his thoughts began to spiral in an unexpected direction.
…Hold on.
Grayson slowly furrowed his brow and pushed himself upright.
Was Tete the only person whose life got derailed because of me in my past life?
He dug deeper into his memories. All the antics, the indulgence, the eventual downfall during his Manchester United days. As the recollections of his previous life flashed before him like a lantern show, a chill ran down his spine.
Come to think of it, there were far too many people whose lives had been ruined because of him.
He didn't have to look far. Just the day before, in the locker room, Manager Merah had been pounding the whiteboard as if trying to break it, barking orders at him. Digging through his past-life memories, Grayson recalled that around this time—late January, as the winter transfer window was closing—Manager Merah had received notice of his dismissal from the club.
Whether it was entirely his own fault was hazy, but the fact remained that Grayson's blatant disregard for team tactics and his disruptive behavior both on and off the pitch had dragged Toulouse down to 17th place. Seeing the team teetering on the edge of relegation, the club's executives had made the inevitable decision to sack the manager.
And that wasn't all. When Manager Merah packed his bags, the entire Merah faction that had supported him lost their jobs one after another. The physical coach who checked his muscle condition every morning, the assistant coach who shouted during training, the goalkeeping coach, the video analyst… More than a dozen members of the coaching staff and their families had seen their livelihoods shattered because of the old Grayson.
Of course, they were capable people. They probably found new positions quickly enough…
He couldn't quite remember whether they had landed on their feet, but a dismissal record was a devastating stain on any football manager or coach's career. The thought left Grayson feeling distinctly uneasy.
Come to think of it, during my time in Saudi Arabia…
Grayson recalled the two years he had spent in the Saudi league just before retirement. He had moved to the Middle East for a massive oil-money offer, but injuries and deliberate underperformance meant he played fewer than twenty matches in those two years. The salary he had pocketed was still at a European top-class level. There had never been a more blatant case of taking the money and running.
Did I wrong that Saudi club owner pretty badly too?
Grayson rubbed his chin with a serious expression. It was only right to feel guilty for making someone throw away a huge sum of money. But then he shook his head vigorously.
No, wait. My salary would have been pocket change to a Saudi oil tycoon. The guy collected supercars as a hobby. He probably wrote off my lack of appearances as just one car getting wrecked.
That made sense. A club owner with that kind of wealth wouldn't have been hurt by losing one player's salary.
Okay, no guilt toward the Saudi owner. Moving on.
Having coolly erased his Saudi chapter, Grayson returned to the present. Among all these karmic debts, the people he could immediately help with his current power narrowed down to exactly three.
The first was his agent, David, the man he had just been on the phone with.
From the time Grayson was barely a middle-schooler in Korean age—when he knew nothing as a promising youngster—until his retirement at thirty-two, David had spent nearly twenty years looking after him. Even when Grayson caused massive scandals at Manchester United and drew relentless media fire, even when he was isolated in Saudi Arabia amid accusations of being a mercenary, David had remained by his side until the very end, bowing his head to clubs on his behalf.
Of all the people in his previous life, David had cared for him most sincerely, yet the first words out of Grayson's mouth upon regressing had been a harsh curse. The memory made his chest tighten.
Ah… this feels a bit awkward…
Feeling a pang of guilt, Grayson picked up the smartphone he had tossed beside the sofa. He opened the messenger app, tapped David's profile, and began typing. Sentences he would never have written in the past—sappy, sentimental lines—appeared on the screen.
The moment he hit send, his face flushed. Just as he was about to flip the phone over, feeling his limbs curl with embarrassment, a reply notification sounded in less than three seconds. Typical of an agent who treated every minute as money—the response was lightning fast. Grayson burst out laughing when he saw the screen.
Exactly three question marks. The short message seemed to contain every possible meaning and question at once.
"Okay, I've at least conveyed my feelings through text, so first one—done!"
Grayson threw himself onto the bed with considerable satisfaction. With his heart feeling as light as a feather, he moved on to the next person.
The second was Manager Merah.
The manager whose reputation had been ruined after being sacked because of him in the previous life.
Lying in bed with a pillow hugged to his chest, Grayson pondered seriously. How should he help Manager Merah? Should he buy him a gift? Or treat him to a meal?
But now that I think about it, I don't have any personal relationship with Manager Merah, do I?
That was true. They weren't close; theirs was simply the professional relationship of a manager giving tactical instructions and a player carrying them out. Besides, the decisive reason for his dismissal in the past life had been the team's drop to 17th place. In this life, the situation was completely different.
Currently, Toulouse was sitting proudly in 4th place, with Grayson Lee—the ace who was blasting goals every match and terrorizing Ligue 1—at the center of it all. As long as he kept playing this well, the team had no chance of sliding into the relegation zone, and the probability of Manager Merah being sacked was approaching zero. On the contrary, he was on track to be praised as the mastermind behind Toulouse's surprise surge, his stock soaring.
Huh? Come to think of it, in this life I'm playing incredibly well, so I've basically already helped him, haven't I? I've made sure he won't get sacked, so that's neatly resolved too!
The logic seemed flawless to him. Grayson slapped his knee.
"Okay, already solved! Manager Merah—pass!"
The tangled web of karmic debts was unraveling far too easily. Now only one person remained: Tete Kwasi.
The third—Tete Kwasi.
The teammate he felt the most guilt toward. Grayson flicked his fingers while staring at the ceiling.
How should I help Tete? Hmm…
Grayson replayed the plan he had made right after David's visit. He wouldn't slip away alone during the winter transfer window; he would stay at Toulouse. Then, for the rest of the season, he would share the pitch with Tete—scoring goals from Tete's assists and building Tete's stats with his own passes.
After the two of them led Toulouse to the Champions League stage for the first time in club history, they would return to Manchester United together in the upcoming summer window.
That way, Tete would make a glorious comeback as Manchester United's established starting left-back, and the career that had gone off the rails in his past life would become a smooth highway in this one.
……Huh?
Grayson narrowed his eyes after finishing the thought.
So what exactly do I need to do right now to help Tete?
No matter how much he racked his brain, nothing came to mind. Buying him a meal was something he already did occasionally, and all he had to do was keep training hard, give his best in matches, and wait for the summer window. There was nothing he needed to act on immediately.
"In the end… there's nothing I can do or need to do right now?"
Everything had fallen perfectly into place.
He had sent David a heartfelt thank-you message—solved. Manager Merah wouldn't be sacked because the team was in 4th—solved. Tete would be taken to Manchester United at the end of the season—solved.
"Okay, everything neatly resolved!"
It was a rather hasty conclusion, but Grayson felt a deep sense of satisfaction at his own personal growth and warm humanity. His chest swelled with pride at the thought that the heavy karmic debts of his past life had been cleared in just a few minutes.
Content with the perfect conclusion he had reached on his own, Grayson pulled the blanket over his head and fell back asleep, just as he had before the doorbell woke him.