Chapter 8. South Korea Had Already Known for a Long Time>
Chapter 8. South Korea Had Already Known for a Long Time>
Beyond the wall of floor-to-ceiling glass, the heart of Seoul spread out below in a single sweeping view.
On the walls hung old photographs from the early days of Toy Empire, now a massive conglomerate, displayed like decorations of honor.
“I had no idea. I never knew your father was in this kind of business…”
“Father?”
“Ah… no, I mean, sir. Haha.”
The place Ian had brought me to was none other than the top floor of Toy Empire’s headquarters.
To my shock, Ian’s father was the chairman of Toy Empire.
It was that company—the one guaranteed to have a store in every department store in the country.
“I thought we were going to your house.”
“My house?”
Ian tilted her head with wide eyes.
For a moment, I thought she looked way too cute.
“No, I mean…”
Click.
“The Chairman is coming.”
As the staff respectfully opened the door, Ian’s father entered.
The fit of his suit looked custom-tailored to perfection, and his back was as straight as a soldier’s.
There was something unusual about the confident way his footsteps rang against the floor.
He gave off an intimidating presence that made him seem nothing like the ordinary president of a toy company.
“Hello. Sir— no, Chairman.”
Without realizing it, I bent at the waist in a full ninety-degree bow.
“Hm, so you’re Ryu Hyesung? I’ve heard a lot about you from Ian.”
“Heard about me?”
“You run a toy business, I hear. Very admirable for an eighteen-year-old.”
The Chairman rested his chin on one hand and looked me over carefully.
His gaze was so sharp it felt as if he were trying to memorize every contour of my face.
“Thank you. It started as a joke, but by luck it’s been going well.”
“And humble too.”
“But… if I may ask, what was the reason you wanted to see me?”
Overwhelmed by the Chairman’s unblinking gaze, I hurriedly changed the subject.
“My business is toy sales too, is it not? If the product is good, it would be nice to bring it into our stores. Sales would go up as well.”
Toy Empire was the first among first-tier retailers any toy manufacturer could hope to meet.
If we could open a supply line into a place like this, it would be the best possible good news.
Maybe Ian had not simply drifted into our container as a part-timer.
Maybe she had rolled into our lives carrying a jackpot.
No wonder she had seemed dazzling from the very first moment I saw her.
“It would be an honor for us. Shall I introduce our products to you?”
“Well, the drones are good, and the multi-warhead missile seems promising too.”
The Chairman already seemed to know about our company’s products.
“It really is such an honor.”
If they stocked even just those two products, there would be nothing more we could ask for.
…Then suddenly, something felt strange.
Had I ever shown Ian the multi-warhead missile toy?
“I also saw the reel you posted on social media. The drone performance was remarkable.”
“Yes. It promoted us quite a bit, so our sales have increased a lot now.”
“You have an excellent business instinct as well. You’ll grow into a large company in the future.”
“Thank you. I’ll keep working hard.”
“But have you ever considered something else?”
His voice dropped by a full tone.
I could feel the eyes of the toy-company chairman change instantly into those of a predator.
“What kind of thought?”
“What if, instead of toys, you made real ‘weapons’?”
Real weapons.
As a severe weapon geek, I had wanted to work as a researcher at a defense contractor.
Now, I wanted to build a defense company outright.
“It’s not that I’ve never thought about it, but legally, there’s nothing an eighteen-year-old like me can make in that field.”
“Is that so? If you could, would you do it?”
“What?”
“I said if. If you could.”
“Hmm… it would be a business that required a lot of money. I was planning to gather initial capital and technical strength through the toy business first, and then start.”
Because real weapon development required astronomical sums of money.
Which meant that, in the end, I had to earn astronomical sums of money.
“I see.”
As we continued talking, I started to feel that Ian’s father was using the toy-supply contract as an excuse to sharply probe my true intentions.
He did not seem particularly interested in our products to begin with.
“Dad, why are you talking about things like that?”
Maybe Ian had read the stiffness in my expression, because she lightly stepped in from the side.
“Hm, yes. Perhaps I talked too much. Secretary Kim.”
“Yes, sir.”
The man standing behind the Chairman like a shadow answered as if he had been waiting.
“Take President Hyesung and proceed with the product contract, then see him safely home.”
“Understood, Chairman.”
Together with the Chairman’s secretary, I headed straight for the VIP reception room.
“Excuse me, but may I call my colleague?”
“Yes, of course.”
This was the first historic contract with a giant corporation.
But while I understood the engineering side of things, I knew absolutely nothing about this kind of contract work.
Taeju, on the other hand, was an outright master when it came to business deals like this.
Right now, what I desperately needed was a capable COO.
Ring, ring, ring.
Click.
“Yeah, what is it?”
Taeju picked up before the phone had even rung three times.
Was this what a successful businessman looked like?
“Taeju, something huge happened.”
“What is it?”
“We’re signing a contract with Toy Empire.”
“What?”
“But I don’t know the first thing about handling this stuff. Hurry over before we get ripped off. The address is…”
I quickly gave him the address.
Whether he grabbed a taxi the instant I called or not, Taeju came tearing into the headquarters lobby in only twenty minutes.
And after the long meeting with the person in charge—
“We’ll proceed under a sell-through purchase arrangement, and including shelf occupancy fees, labor, and logistics, our side will take a 25 percent margin.”
The staff member read out the final contract terms.
“Yes, we’re satisfied.”
Taeju nodded leisurely.
The contract was a massive success.
Other suppliers gave up 40 percent margins, while we ended up at just 25 percent.
Taeju’s negotiating ability was exceptionally good.
The staff member shook hands firmly with Taeju, then with me as well.
“Thank you. If sales increase after the initial delivery, we would also appreciate future new products.”
“Of course. I’m sure we can deliver good results.”
Taeju answered with a perfect ninety-degree bow to the person in charge.
The moment the staff member stepped out of the reception room, the two of us instantly sprang to our feet and smacked a high five.
Smack!
“Holy shit, this is insane! How did this suddenly happen?!”
“Hey, don’t freak out too much. Our Ian was the daughter of the chairman of Toy Empire.”
“What? Our Director Jang Ian? Damn, that’s incredible. But after director, there isn’t really any higher rank left for us to promote her to. What are we supposed to do now?”
We seriously put our heads together and fell into deep contemplation over how exactly we were supposed to show our gratitude to Ian, the benefactor of our company and the chaebol heiress(?) who had rolled right into our laps.
(Translator’s Note: Chaebol — A South Korean term for a large family-controlled conglomerate, such as Samsung, Hyundai, or LG. The term became especially associated with South Korea’s rapid industrialization in the second half of the 20th century.)
Thanks to her, the plan of earning astronomical money and then founding my defense company had moved forward faster.
The initial order contracted with Toy Empire was a full 1,000 units.
In pure value, that meant 500 million won went out at once.
I could not even begin to estimate how many more drones we were going to have to produce from here on.
“No matter how much automation equipment we have, there’s no way the three of us can handle this volume.”
At my words, Taeju nodded and completely agreed.
“We’re going to need to hire a lot of assembly workers. At least… five?”
“Yeah, around that. And let’s step away from assembly ourselves. I just want to focus on development from now on.”
Because I had spent all my time assembling drones day and night, I had never been able to properly do what I liked best—weapon design and new-product development.
If I wanted to devote myself to development, then production could be left to machines and employees.
“Right. The business has gotten this big, so the CEO doesn’t need to be assembling things personally anymore. Besides, we’ve got midterms coming up too.”
Taeju fully understood where I was coming from.
And on top of that, we had to prepare for the midterms that were already right in front of us.
“What if we… bring Ian in officially?”
If she was part of our company, our sales channels would be as good as a paved highway.
We absolutely had to keep her.
“Director Ian? But would she even want to? Why would a chaebol heiress join a tiny company like ours?”
“We just make it big. Big enough to get listed on Nasdaq.”
Our toy cottage-industry business was now growing uncontrollably, like absolute madness.
Meanwhile, after Hyesung left for the reception room, the atmosphere in the chairman’s office of Toy Empire turned cold.
Creak.
“Director, I have guided Ryu Hyesung to the reception room.”
“Good work.”
The tone of the man who had been the kindly ‘Chairman’ just moments ago had completely changed into a dry, businesslike voice with all warmth removed.
“What’s the mood on the Russian side?”
“They are maintaining steady contact with the VIP, but the VIP side is ignoring them.”
“And Japan?”
“They are currently selecting bait to lure the VIP in.”
“Hah… I see.”
The Chairman pressed at the bridge of his nose and let out a short sigh.
The true identity of Toy Empire’s chairman was Jang Seokjin, Second Deputy Director of the National Intelligence Service of South Korea.
(Translator’s Note: National Intelligence Service (NIS) — South Korea’s main intelligence agency. It was established in 1961 as the KCIA, later became the Agency for National Security Planning, and was renamed the National Intelligence Service in 1999.)
The title of toy-company chairman was merely an external cover identity.
Things had simply gotten out of hand, and the small shell company had turned into a real conglomerate.
That was only because his business ability had been too outstanding.
“Keep reporting continuously if anything suspicious comes up. Especially whether China is trying to pull anything.”
“Yes, sir.”
In truth, after Russia, Korea had been the quickest to identify the existence of Ryu Hyesung.
Jang Ian was truly the ordinary daughter of Deputy Director Jang Seokjin, but her coming into contact with Ryu Hyesung had been completely, utterly accidental.
“Hah… what do I do now.”
Lately, he had one deep concern.
Ryu Hyesung, the boy whom the world’s superpowers were all openly coveting.
As he secretly investigated him from the shadows, he had come to know far too much.
Even the toy company Hyesung had founded had, in truth, one or two legal issues in its early licensing and approvals.
Those were simply the inevitable problems any inexperienced eighteen-year-old high school student entrepreneur would run into.
But the real force who had quietly smoothed out all of that troublesome administration and those complex regulations behind the scenes…was none other than Jang Seokjin, Second Deputy Director of the National Intelligence Service.
And now, deep in his heart, a certain desire had begun to raise its head.
“No matter how I think about it, he’s just too capable…”
South Korea had been falling far behind China and the United States in both AI technology and drone technology, which could be called the core of modern warfare.
But with the appearance of a figure named Ryu Hyesung, that entire balance had been overturned.
“The thought I’m having… would this count as embezzlement of state assets…?”
His head felt like it would burst from thinking too much, but no matter how many times he thought it through, this seemed like the only answer.
He was convinced it was the only sure and certain national-security measure that would keep Hyesung from being taken by China, Japan, or Russia.
“There is only one way. We have to bring VIP Ryu Hyesung into our family as a son-in-law.”