A Chaebol Family Member
Colt was hungry for new techniques. He wasn’t satisfied with the swordsmanship he was learning now.
“Aren’t there any other styles of swordsmanship in the book?”
“There’s dagger fighting.”
At the mention of dagger fighting, Colt glared at James.
“...Not that.”
“Mounted swordsmanship and mounted lance combat?”
“Do we ever have any reason to fight on horseback?”
“Nope.”
“And even if we did ride horses, I don’t think the swordsmanship would change much.”
“Agreed.”
The mana cultivation method the Knights of the Round Table had once practiced was lost to time, but their swordsmanship had survived and continued to evolve. It wasn’t as though only European sword styles existed, either. Asian swordsmanship had developed along its own path, and in this age, it was actually regarded as superior to European styles.
“Haa. Why is swordsmanship even like this? The mana cultivation method seemed pretty good, though...”
“A tremendous amount of time has passed.”
As James kept agreeing, Colt picked apart swordsmanship’s shortcomings even more.
“Besides, it’s not like we’re going to be fighting armored knights. This style is way too focused on thrusting.”
“And we’re not going to be fighting people who aren’t wearing armor, either, are we?”
“Ah...”
They weren’t about to point blades at armored opponents—or unarmored ones, for that matter. The two of them were simply training with swords while mastering mana.
“For now, we’ll stick with this and keep looking for other sword styles like you said. I’m starting to think this one’s a bit off, too.”
“Can’t be helped.”
After that, a giant sword wildly out of place in a Seoul family home kept cleaving through the air for quite some time longer. When training ended and they were on their way back inside, Colt asked, “Huff. So when are we having the party?”
Clang. Clang.
The enormous swords the two of them had been using were set side by side on the sword rack in the living room. Beyond those two, several more swords were displayed along the wall. Only a small fraction of the blades James had bought in the United States.
“Ah. Soon.”
“Anyway, once Suji and Hojung are here, that’s basically it. There’s not much to prepare.”
“There’s a time for everything.”
James couldn’t throw a party while the people watching him were still around. But now that he had Park Jin-tae under his thumb, he could do it whenever he wanted.
The guys who were keeping watch are all gone.
Choi Jeong-san would still receive a report from Park Jin-tae about the surveillance as if everything were normal, but it would all be fabricated information.
Colt flopped onto the sofa in the spacious living room and said, “Hojung’s going to lose her mind when she sees this place.”
“Cough, cough. Go shower and then come sit down. You’re getting my sofa dirty!”
Colt shot James a glare and rubbed himself even more shamelessly against the cushions. Thanks to that, sweat from Colt soaked into the sofa in several places.
“That’s rent! Hey!”
“Y-you!”
When James pointed a finger at him, Colt jumped up and fled to the shower room, shouting, “I’m going to shower first!”
“...”
James glared after him for a moment, then quickly cleaned the sofa with magic.
“All clean. Action!”
The wind of mana that swept through the living room focused especially on the sofa.
“Dirty bastard. Maybe I should raise the rent!”
But charging Colt more rent didn’t seem likely to change anything.
“Ah, crap! My beer!”
Fumbling all the while, Colt came out of the shower room, grabbed a cold can of beer, and went back in again.
“...What an awful bastard.”
* * *
On the day of the party.
James came out to welcome Suji, who arrived by taxi in front of the house.
“Come on in.”
“Is this it?”
“The outside’s changed a bit, hasn’t it?”
“It looks like an entirely different house.”
It was nothing like the house Suji had seen in photos. That was because he had bought the place and then carried out a major renovation.
“I did a little work on the exterior while I was fixing up the inside.”
“Ohhh.”
Once she came through the gate, Suji also spotted the trailer standing alone in the large yard. It was the camping trailer James had kept in his inventory.
“Whoa. When did you even buy a trailer?”
“The yard felt too empty, so I brought it over.”
Thanks to the lights installed around the trailer, the wide yard had a distinctly camping feel to it.
“You could camp out here.”
“Right?”
“It must’ve been a pain getting that huge trailer all the way out here.”
“Ah...”
There was no road leading into the yard. She assumed a special vehicle must have been brought in to place it there.
“...I had them move it here when I was renovating the house. I was planning to put it in the underground parking garage later.”
“What a waste of money.”
All I’d have to do is put it in my inventory...
But there was no way to explain that, so he quickly led Suji into the house.
“Come on in. Hojung’s already here.”
“I told her to come with us, but she just bailed on me because she didn’t have class.”
“Haha. Really?”
By the time they went inside, Colt and Hojung were already holding drinks in their hands.
“You’re here?”
“Welcome to my house.”
At the greeting, Suji corrected Colt.
“James’s house! Not Colt’s house.”
“Haha. Suji’s right.”
Colt might have been treating James’s house like it was his own, but as Suji said, this was James’s house, not Colt’s.
“I’m buying one too, Suji.”
“Really? Want me to look around for something similar nearby?”
Hojung brightened, but a house that cost well over twenty million dollars was a little hard for Colt to swallow.
“...I’ll think about it more later.”
“Tch.”
“Anyway, come on in, Suji.”
“Okay.”
As Suji was about to take off her shoes, she noticed that Hojung and Colt were still wearing theirs. James was also heading inside with his shoes on.
“What the... Is this the American way?”
“Taking our shoes off feels weird.”
“If you’re in Korea, you should adapt.”
“I don’t want to. It’s my house, so I can do what I want.”
“Honestly.”
Suji slipped her shoes back on and went inside, taking the glass Hojung handed her.
“Huh? Is this Hawaiian punch?”
“They really went all out.”
The drink Hojung handed her was a punch made by mixing various juices and alcohols, the kind of cocktail often served at house parties.
“At least they put some effort into it. I’m glad it’s a low-proof drink.”
“There’s no need to prepare anything else. Look over there.”
In one corner of the spacious living room, there was an actual bar set up. Rows of assorted liquor bottles lined it, giving the place the atmosphere of an American pub. She had heard they’d put a lot of effort into the interior, but she hadn’t expected them to build a bar too.
“...This isn’t a family home. It’s a bar.”
“How did he even get this many swords?”
When Suji followed Hojung’s pointing finger and turned her head, the swords displayed along the wall came into view. And they weren’t the only thing there—there were even a few guns hanging up too, though they looked like replicas. But some of them were real firearms.
“He turned a man’s romance into reality.”
“Still, the interior design isn’t bad, is it?”
She hadn’t explored the rest of the house yet, but the living room alone was enough to make the point.
“It does have style...”
Thanks to that, Suji could guess what James had been thinking when he furnished the place.
James didn’t want a family home.
Not a house for living with children, but one crammed with everything young men would love. James handed her a drink and tugged her by the arm.
“Suji. I’ll show you around the house.”
“Okay.”
When she went downstairs, Suji greeted the huge pickup truck parked in the spacious garage, and when they went up to the second floor, she saw a giant hundred-inch TV and the latest game consoles arranged by type.
“Just as I thought...”
“Thought what?”
“That you bought everything you wanted.”
“It’s still not enough. I’m thinking of turning the spare room here into a movie theater. There’s still a storage room in the basement, too, and I’m putting exercise equipment in there piece by piece. I already brought in a treadmill.”
“Must be nice.”
“Of course.”
“...”
Suji realized she had been expecting too much.
He’s only twenty-eight in American age. James-oppa is still young.
Even in Korea, men who were thinking about marriage were now well into their thirties.
I’m young too...
Suji herself was no different. At only twenty-four, marriage was still far too early for her.
“Let’s head back down now. Colt and Hojung are probably waiting.”
“Okay. Let’s go. The house is great. Oh! And did my air purifier get here yet?”
Suji had ordered and sent over an air purifier, one of the must-have appliances for the fine-dust era, because she’d planned to buy food for the party.
“Ah, it did arrive, but I thought we wouldn’t need it yet, so I put it away.”
James’s house was being maintained by magic in many respects. A barrier had been set up to block intruders, and a thin protective layer kept insects from getting in over the fence. On top of that, the freshening spell engraved inside the house kept the air perfectly clean at all times. That was why he hadn’t felt any need to use an air purifier.
“Honestly. Do you know how filthy the air in Seoul is these days? It’s not like America.”
“I know. I’ll turn it on as soon as we go downstairs.”
As Suji went down with James, she fell into thought.
...Right. I know.
She understood very well that this wasn’t something she could force.
James-oppa is still...
Even without saying it out loud, she could feel it.
...not thinking about marriage.
“You can come by anytime from now on. The auction’s over, and there’s nothing dangerous left.”
“Okay.”
* * *
After the fun party ended, Hojung asked from the taxi on the way home, “Suji. Was the party today not fun?”
It was because Suji’s expression had been stiff ever since they left the house.
“No. He prepared everything really well. He even made the drinks light so they’d be easy to have, and the food he prepared was delicious.”
“Then why do you look so down?”
“...I just kept thinking James-oppa is too young.”
“Is that supposed to be an insult? Now I’m annoyed that I’m dating an old man?”
“Ah...”
Compared to Colt, whom Hojung was seeing, James really was young.
“That’s not what I meant...”
“Then what?”
“...I guess I felt like marriage was still a long way off. Seeing him today, it really looked like he had no intention of getting married at all.”
“You’re thinking about marrying James?”
“...As I kept seeing him, I started thinking he might be the one.”
“Heh. Marriage? Come on... Do you really think your family would allow it?”
“...”
“James doesn’t even have parents in America, right? And I heard trying to find his birth parents in Korea was a dead end too.”
It wasn’t only the fact that James had no parents that mattered, but the truth was, that wasn’t the whole reason either.
“...Even if that weren’t the case, it still wouldn’t be easy.”
“My family already threw me out, so it wouldn’t matter who I dated or married. But you’re not in that position.”
“Huu. Yeah. My situation is more of a problem than James-oppa’s feelings.”
“Unless James were on the level of Colt’s family...”
Back when they’d met in LA, Tae-jin had actually come from a rather formidable background.
“Why are you bringing up Tae-jin-oppa again? Are you taking his side because he’s your cousin?”
It was also something neither James nor Colt knew: Hojung was related to Tae-jin by blood.
“Do you think I brought up Tae-jin-oppa because I like him? I’m talking about reality.”
“I don’t want to marry someone my family picks out for me.”
“And yet, what can you do? If it’s not an arranged marriage, there’s no other way.”
“...”
Suji couldn’t answer Hojung when she brought up arranged marriage.
“...If I said no, the family would probably turn upside down, wouldn’t they?”
“Of course. Chairman would probably shave your head bald and still not think he’d gone too far.”
“...Sigh.”
Suji was a member of a chaebol family.