Perfect Revenge
James spread both hands and jumped back.
"I'm so scare. I won't get involved."
"Damn it..."
Park Jin-tae realized that the greatsword left in his stomach had not been driven in all that deeply.
If I just finish him off...
After that, he thought, he could take care of the cowardly captain and get out of here.
But James had already grasped that Choi Jeong-san was still in a bad position and was acting on it.
'Healing mana... Heal. Action.'
The dagger stuck in Choi Jeong-san's stomach slowly pushed its way back out as the wound healed.
"!"
Choi Jeong-san, seeing Park Jin-tae's body looming large in front of him, quickly grabbed at the dagger sliding out of his own belly, and at that very moment Park Jin-tae was yanking the greatsword out of his stomach and thrusting it back in.
Thwack. Thunk.
The small blades embedded in their bodies were trading places.
"Guh!"
"Argh!"
Park Jin-tae lost his temper as he looked at Choi Jeong-san, who kept causing trouble right to the end, while Choi Jeong-san found himself able to resist thanks to a strange power rising within him.
"You son of a bitch..."
"Die!"
Choi Jeong-san tore the greatsword from his body and swung it again, while Park Jin-tae met him with the close-quarters combat he'd learned in the military.
Swish. Thud.
Even with the advantage of a blade in hand, Choi Jeong-san was hit by Park Jin-tae's fist and could only leave behind shallow wounds. Their blood soaked the deck.
"Hrk."
"Hah... hah..."
Fight. Keep fighting each other until you die.
James, having backed away, watched the two of them and waited until they were both a wreck.
"Huff. Hah."
"Ha... ha..."
Unlike before, Choi Jeong-san could tell that he was no longer gaining strength, and the wound in his abdomen was not healing either.
...Why?
Just as he had not understood why his body had suddenly started healing, he could not understand why the healing had stopped. And unlike before, when he had not felt pain, the agony rising from the stab wound in his abdomen was now painfully clear.
"Urk."
"Our President Choi's tougher than I expected."
Park Jin-tae still had the knife sunk into his abdomen, but he was enduring the pain and betting on his own victory.
"This is the end, you bastard."
"...Hrk."
As the two of them drew breath for one last clash, James, still disguised as Captain Mikhail, stepped forward.
"Hey guys."
"!"
"!"
Both men froze when they saw what the captain was holding in his hand.
Click.
"Drop your weapon."
In his hand was a gun, something a knife could not answer.
Clang.
Choi Jeong-san quickly threw down the knife he was holding.
"Hah. So you only come out when you're sure you're winning?"
Park Jin-tae was irritated that Captain Mikhail was stepping in only now, but he did not suspect him of being on the other side. Yet the muzzle was also pointed at Park Jin-tae.
"Get out my ship."
"What?"
"I sad GET OUT!"
James lowered the muzzle toward the sea, making it clear that this was an order to get off.
"......"
"......"
Both men were bleeding heavily, but they could not disobey the captain with the gun.
Splash. Splash.
"Good luck."
And he watched them without lowering the gun still aimed at them.
With their strength sapped by the fight and blood loss, there was no way the two of them could keep floating in the sea.
"Gurgle."
Park Jin-tae was steadily losing strength. He had suffered too many wounds from Choi Jeong-san's blade and bled too much.
"Puh-hah. Did that bastard James order you to kill me too?"
James released the spell he'd been maintaining and showed his true face.
"Park Jin-tae, you will apologize directly to my mother."
"!!"
The sight of that brutish face slowly shifting into James's own was shocking, but there was no time to dwell on it now.
"Don't make someone else do it. You should go down on your knees and apologize yourself. That's the right thing to do."
"Y-you...! Gurgle."
Park Jin-tae was already sinking into the sea.
Next was Choi Jeong-san, who was still clinging to life.
"This is our first time meeting like this, isn't it?"
"You, you..."
James had met Choi Jeong-san several times before, but always while hiding his face. This was the first time he had shown himself to Choi Jeong-san.
"Yesterday, your father, Chairman Choi Tae-yeong, died. He went with a smile, so I suppose that counts as a good death, doesn't it?"
"!!"
"He'll probably be waiting for you in the afterlife. If he asks who sent you, tell him his grandson did."
"Hrk... gurgle."
The terrible news made his limbs flail even more.
"You shouldn't have killed my mother. If you'd let my mother live, I would've spared your father and you."
Choi Jeong-san thrashed desperately, trying to stay alive, but James had already withdrawn the magic that had been helping him heal.
"Gurgle... Save me... save me! You're my son..."
"Why would a good-for-nothing bastard like you have raised a decent son? Why are you trying to soften me up now?"
James spoke in the same cold tone as before.
"I've already taken over the company your family worked so hard to build. Thanks for that."
"You... gurgle."
Choi Jeong-san shot James a glare full of murderous malice, but his ending had already been decided.
"This is the place where my mother died thinking of me until her very last moment. So you should die thinking only of me too."
That was true revenge. From the beginning, James had wanted Choi Jeong-san to leave knowing everything.
Gurgle.
Even as his strength drained away and he sank into the sea, Choi Jeong-san kept glaring at James.
"...Fine. I'll think only of you. I'm the one you're trying to kill, the one who's killing you. I took everything from you!"
James stood there for a moment over the sea where the two men had gone under. Then he took a single photograph from his pocket.
Mother...
He had never even seen her face in person, but her photograph remained. Park Jin-tae had kept hidden the information about the mistresses Choi Jeong-san had met over the years instead of throwing it away, and because of that, James had been able to keep her picture.
"Mom."
Even without ever knowing it, his mother had loved him, and had thought only of him until the very moment she died.
"...They've finally gone. That was late, wasn't it?"
At last, revenge for an incident that had happened thirty years ago was fulfilled today.
"Now rest easy. Your son will live long and well, just as you wished. And I have someone I love too. If you had met her, you would have liked her..."
James could not hear an answer, but he stood on the ship for a long time, talking to himself and remembering his mother. And before long, along with the ship floating at sea, every trace of him vanished.
Flash.
In the sea where the ship had been, two men with eyes still wide open were sinking into the deep.
* * *
Flash.
Back at the office, James could tell that lunchtime was approaching.
I finished in time.
He had spent a great deal of time on the boat heading toward the East Sea, but the rest of the trip had been over in an instant, so he had made it back to the office before lunch.
James hurried outside and showed his face to his secretary.
"Assistant Park. Nothing happened, right?"
"I told you I'd keep everything blocked for you, hehe."
"Did anyone come by?"
"No. Not at all."
"Really? Then check whether President Colt has lunch plans."
"Huh? But you brought a lunchbox."
James had brought it in saying he was going to watch dramas all day.
"...It wasn't as entertaining as I'd hoped."
"Pfft. I'll recommend you a fun series next time."
"Anyway, tell President Colt to have lunch with me."
"Yes, Vice President."
James made an appointment to eat with Colt and went into Colt's room, only to find Colt dressing in a flurry.
"Why are you in such a rush? You could take your time leaving..."
"Another schedule just came up."
"What is it? Can't we have lunch together?"
"Well..."
Realizing that this concerned James too, Colt answered quickly.
"We were told that former Chairman Choi Tae-yeong passed away at home this morning."
"This morning?"
It was strange, since it had not been yesterday, but the death was a thing James had done with his own hands.
"President Choi Jeong-pil called the executive office to let us know. Ho-jung got a separate call too. You should go as well, right?"
"Of course."
Legally they might be strangers, but President Choi Jeong-pil knew who he was. Even if that weren't the case, the founder of the company they had taken had died, so they needed to show their faces.
"From what I heard, he went peacefully. Don't take it too hard."
"I appreciate your concern, but I don't really think of him as my grandfather. We only met a few times..."
"Then that's a relief."
"Still, I suppose I should go with you. I need to pay my respects."
"I'll stop by home for a moment and then head over. You go ahead."
"Okay."
* * *
James entered the funeral hall dressed in a black suit and white shirt. It was a funeral hall inside a university hospital, and it seemed they had rented out an entire basement floor, since access was controlled from the entrance onward.
"Incredible."
As the founder of TY Group, Choi Tae-yeong had an enormous network. That network was on display in the wreaths filling the corridor, sent not only by former and current ministers and the Speaker of the National Assembly, but even by the leaders of each party. So many wreaths kept arriving that they had overflowed the memorial corridor and had to be carried out.
"Vice President James? ...Please, come in."
The people controlling the funeral hall were strategic secretariat staff pulled from TY Telecom and TY Chemical.
"Did former President Choi Jeong-pil ask for this?"
"...No."
The hesitation made it clear that someone else had contacted them separately.
"Is this volunteer service?"
"Traditionally, the TY Group alumni association supports employee funerals as part of its welfare policy."
"All employees, then?"
"......"
Originally, this had been a welfare policy only for currently working employees. Considering how many retirees there were, they did not have room to cover them too.
"Well... I suppose it's understandable since he was the former chairman, but that excuse is a little weak."
"......"
"It would have been better to say you stepped forward personally."
"Ahem."
"Thank you for your hard work."
At the moment, James was nitpicking for no real reason.
He was already feeling uneasy, since this was the funeral of the former chairman whose death he had personally led to.
James went inside the funeral hall and saw former President Choi Jeong-pil acting as chief mourner.
"......"
"......"
Choi Jeong-pil, faced with James, did not know what to say and kept his mouth shut, and James likewise could not immediately think of any greeting to offer him.
"...May the deceased rest in peace."
"Ah... yes."
After paying his respects before the portrait of the deceased and bowing with incense, James turned away, but Choi Jeong-pil caught his arm.
"Could we talk for a moment?"
"All right."
Even in the same space as James, Choi Jeong-pil could not bring himself to speak, his mouth moving without words.
"...Uh. Hmm."
So James spoke first.
"I didn't expect to see you again in a place like this."
"Neither did I..."
Choi Jeong-pil, trying to be polite to James, asked,
"May I speak casually?"
"You already seem to be doing that."
"I'll take that as permission."
"Yes. Speak comfortably."
Choi Jeong-pil washed his face with dry hands, trying to keep his mind from drifting away.
"Phew."
He had heard of his father's death in the morning and rushed to prepare the funeral arrangements, and until just now he had been receiving a steady stream of mourners. Right now, he was half out of his head.
"I had so much I wanted to say to you, but it didn't feel like my place, so I held back. But now that we've met like this, I can't just pretend not to know..."
James was not his son, but his brother's son, and even then not a child born from a legal marriage.
"I'm sorry."
Still, Choi Jeong-pil wanted to apologize. They were family, after all.
"Why is President Choi apologizing to me?"
The people who had truly wanted an apology had kept their mouths shut and gone neatly to the underworld together, while the one who had never asked for an apology was the one feeling sorry.
"I heard you were adopted to America after living in an orphanage, and that you've lived there ever since. It wasn't my doing, but I have children of my own... I can't tell you how sorry I felt when I heard your story."
President Choi Jeong-pil, who had two sons and a daughter, found James's life all the more painful. He thought his own children were living comfortably in abundance, while his nephew had been abandoned by his older brother and lived as an orphan.
"Hah! You think I'm pitiful?"
"...What?"
James did not like the way Choi Jeong-pil was looking at him.
You think you can say that after knowing what I've done?
James had completed his perfect revenge.