Chapter 69
After class.
Sitting in his seat, Kim Se-ah turned around and looked at me with sparkling eyes.
“The Han Shin of Seoul Hero Academy…!”
“…What?”
Why is she suddenly like this?
“Stop it.”
“…Yes.”
She seemed to be just bored.
“By the way, are we doing club activities today?”
“I think we might not do it today because a lot of kids are missing. There’s no request right now, right?”
“…I hated math class this afternoon. And if we don’t do club activities either, I’ll be dragged into mentor classes after school!”
“Is the mentor class that hard?”
She hugged her arms and shivered at my question.
“Moving 2 tons of rocks, calculating coordinates while running around, real combat… I still get goosebumps just thinking about it.”
…… Looks like she’s getting a little overwhelmed.
Just then, I took out some elixirs that I had brought separately to take care of them for this occasion. It was an elixir called ‘Briton White Deer Velvet Antler’, which was good for physical ability recovery.
“Drink this when you get home.”
“Huh? This, this! Isn’t this White Deer Velvet Antler? I heard it’s very expensive! How can I take this?!”
She slapped her hands in surprise at seeing the velvet antler in my hand.
“I have plenty at home so just take it. Anyway, eating too much of the same elixir doesn’t have much effect anyway.”
“…Oh, then yeah.”
My house was overflowing with elixirs anyway.
Besides, I received so many of them at the last executive celebration, so I thought it would be better to share the ones I didn’t need or didn’t have much effect on me with the kids.
Their growth will be a great help to me, to our Familia.
“Hehe. I’ll eat well.”
She hugged the velvet antler like a precious baby with a very happy expression.
Then, of course, you should be grateful…Space mages are very rare and I have to take care of her to the end.
Just then, a message popped up in front of me through [Smart Lens].
[Sender: Lee Haru]
“Huh?”
What’s up with Lee Haru?
I checked the contents of the message with that thought.
[Lee Haru: There was a problem with the activities of the International Trade Club.]
[Lee Haru: I would like to make a request to ‘Familia’, is it okay after lunch today?]
“Ha.”
Really ghostly timing.
“Kim Se-ah.”
“Yes?”
“We’re doing club activities today.”
“Really?! Yay!”
I sent a reply telling her to come to the club room after lunch and thought for a moment.
It’s not someone else, but Lee Haru sent me a message directly asking for help, which means it’s a situation that’s hard to solve with her ability.
“I wonder what it is… interesting.”
Lee Haru’s expression when she came to the Familia club room was colder than usual.
“So, what do you want to request?”
She slowly opened her mouth at my question.
“It seems that there is a force that interferes with the activities of the International Trade Club recently.”
“…What? There aren’t many clubs that can interfere with your activities at the Academy.”
The ‘International Trade Club’ was a club that was preparing to become a gold club soon, and also a club that had to be visited if you wanted to buy rare items at the Academy.
That is, most of the students who attend the academy feel the need for the ‘International Trade Club’ but someone is interfering with that club.
I didn’t understand.
“I thought it would be smooth from now on, but for some reason, Asian countries, especially in China, some of the existing trading partners seem to be reluctant, I judged that there was a check from other clubs or students.”
“Someone is working behind the scenes?”
The Seoul Hero Academy was an educational institution that referred to the best prospective heroes in Korea, so the level and family of the students who attended were different.
And, it was also natural that there were families of powerful people among them.
“Why didn’t you try to find out through the Inomiya Group?”
But it wasn’t just Lee Haru who had a tough family.
If it was her family and power, finding out who was behind it wouldn’t be too difficult.
“As the International Trade Club was created by defying the opposition of the family, I wanted to solve it as much as possible with my own power and connections rather than borrowing the power of the family.”
It seemed to be her own stubbornness.
Well, connections are also power, so she wasn’t wrong.
“So you’re asking ‘Familia’ in the name of ‘International Trade Club’?”
“That’s right.”
I tap the desk with my finger and organize my thoughts.
Why would another force suddenly target the ‘International Trade Club’?
Deterrence? No, if they really wanted to deter, they would have backed up the Fund Investment Club from behind and blocked Lee Haru.
That means they wanted to interfere with the ‘International Trade Club’ recently.
That is, there is a force that wants to interfere with not only Lee Haru but also us.
“It’s because of us.”
Lee Haru nods her head at my murmur.
“As expected, that was it.”
“It can’t be seen any other way. The timing of interfering with the ‘International Trade Club’ that was doing well until now is when we make an alliance, it’s nothing but trying to deter us.”
In fact, it was done with my allowance, but from the outside, it would look like the club room of ‘Familia’, which had nothing, changed luxuriously by acquiring goods from the ‘International Trade Club’.
Maybe they would think of it as a lower club…
Then we just had to attack behind them while they were targeting the ‘International Trade Club’.
“We’ll move on our side too.”
“…Do you mean right now? It will take a lot of time to find out the culprit and evidence.”
Well, if it was an ordinary club or an academy student, it might not have been.
“Do you forget who I am? First of all, can you tell me where the blocked trading partners are?”
As I smiled and spoke, Lee Haru tilted her head and said.
“First of all, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Macau and Nanjing.”
“…Just wait a minute.”
I immediately took out my phone and called Parnello.
“Parnello. The triads who tried to enter illegally recently. Do I still have authority over them?”
[Yes. Since you became an executive this time, it seems that China will be entirely entrusted to you.]
“Thank you.”
As soon as the story of triads and Parnello, illegal entry and negotiation came up, Lee Haru’s expression began to frost a little bit.
“Sir, this seems to be a completely different level of scale than what I imagined…”
[(Hello?)]
“This is Eugene Hah Corleone, an executive of Corleone. I have something to tell you.”
As I identify myself in Korean, I hear a murmur over the receiver, followed quickly by a familiar Korean voice.
[Ah, yes, Eugene from Corleone. What are you calling about?]
“Shanghai, Hong Kong, Macau, Nanjing. There are merchants here who refuse to do business with a company called the International Trade Club. I want you to find out who paid them off in two days. Is that possible?”
After a moment of silence.
[If they’re in the area, it can be done today. I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.]
“I like that. Make sure you do it neatly and get back to me as soon as you’re done.”
[Yes, Eugene, thank you for the opportunity].
I hang up the phone and look back at Haru.
“They say it’ll be taken care of, so let’s have some tea while we wait.”
With that, I poured the black tea that Se-ah handed me earlier into Haru cup.
“……I had forgotten that you had recently been promoted to an Executive, and I didn’t think it would be something that could be resolved with a phone call.”
“You got lucky. I just happened to have a recent contact with the guys who control China. By the way, how’s that Gold Club promotion going?”
Hearing my words, Haru quenched her thirst with black tea and spoke up.
“It’s safe to say that I’m actually just waiting for the examination. The only thing holding me back is that I haven’t been able to fulfill my recent requests, but since you’ve taken care of that, I don’t think there’ll be any problems.”
“Good.”
Then we talked about other things for a while.
──♬ ──♬ ──♬ ──♬
Suddenly, several short alarms started going off in her pocket.
Haru glanced at it, then at me.
“You can watch it at your leisure.”
“Thank you.”
After taking out her cell phone and checking the contents, Haru smiles.
“It’s from our Chinese counterparts, apologizing for the recent events, and saying they won’t accept commissions for two months.”
It’s over already.
Then, my phone rang and I answered it with a big smile on my face.
[Sir, it’s settled].
“I just confirmed it. Did you find out who was blocking the deal?”
[I’m trying to find out now, but all they’re saying is that a ‘Club of the Academy’ paid them a lot of money. Give me a little more time and I’ll get this straightened out.]
“……Good job, let me know when you get more information and I’ll pay you for it.”
[Yes, please let me know if you have any further instructions.]
“Okay, I’ll make sure to charge you accordingly.”
[Thank you.]
As expected, it was another club in the Academy that was sabotaging Haru’s club this time.
This means that there are now forces that are targeting me, and not just Haru.
It seemed necessary to find out who they were.
“Hmm? What’s wrong?”
When I ended the call and turned to face her, I saw her face looking a little more somber than usual.
“I’ve been feeling guilty about this whole thing, wondering if I’ve cost you a lot of money. I don’t know how on earth to apologize to you…….”
It was like her to be serious about a deal like this but…
“You don’t need to apologize. It was my fault, and I’m responsible for what happened.
“But…….”
“Enough.”
Well, I’m sure it cost me a pretty penny to handle this but it’s a tiny fraction of what I made on the mission.
Besides…….
“Never mind. It’s their money, anyway.”
“What?”
“They made a mistake this time and I got a lot of compensation so I just took some of it off, there’s no need to feel sorry.”
“How much is it…?”
“Enough to survive after showing your teeth to Corleone.”
Only then did she realize what she was saying and opened her eyes wide.
Perhaps it was time to remind her again how rich I am.
