“Those damn bastards!”
Heiley, a member of the training team and also the leader of the assault team, threw something at the television with a fierce curse, as if he couldn’t stand his anger.
The television was showing his past actions and saying that he had a lot of problems with his personality, as well as his failures in dungeons and gates, and that his leadership skills were doubtful.
“How dare they talk like that when they would crumble if they were in front of me!”
He spat out coarse curses, snorting as if he couldn’t calm his anger even after smashing the television.
“If I ever meet them, I’ll smash their heads right there!”
“Please, stop swearing, will you?”
Xiao Jie, who was leaning half of his body on the sofa, snapped at him nervously, and Heiley spat out a lump of phlegm on the floor with all his strength.
“What did you say, Xiao Jie?”
“Stop swearing, it’s annoying to listen to!”
Heiley growled threateningly at Xiao Jie’s shout, as if he was going to vent his pent-up anger, who had been temporarily ordered to serve him by Choi Joon-hyung.
“Shut up, you useless bitch.”
“…What? What did you just say!”
“What, did I say something wrong? You’re a bitch who can’t even fix your own arm, let alone abandon your comrades and run away. What are you so proud of?”
“Pfft, look who’s talking.”
Xiao Jie shook his head in frustration.
“And you’re so great that you ambushed Laura and couldn’t even hurt her, and then you got beaten up by an academy student and ran away?”
“I did hurt her, you idiot! Hey, didn’t you see me make her nose bleed?”
“She let you hit her on purpose, you moron! And thanks to that, your arm was crushed like a pretzel!”
Xiao Jie said, tilting his head defiantly.
“Besides, you’re such a bastard. How did you live like a beast that you didn’t leave anyone alone? Thanks to you, anyone who passes by the association is either a witness or a victim!”
“…No, but did you lose your mind when I asked you if you were okay?”
As he looked like he was about to charge at any moment, Yoon Seul-hye, who was sitting quietly in a corner, opened her mouth softly.
“Please calm down, both of you. Jun-hyung Choi was already very angry, and if we fight among ourselves in this situation…!”
“Shut up, you bitchy girl.”
“What, what did you say?”
Yoon Seul-hye was so shocked that she wondered if she had heard him wrong. As she stammered, Hailey glared at her as if to say, what are you looking at?
“How dare you butt in, you young girl? What do you think you are, a girl we dragged along to make up the numbers? Do you really think you have any real skills to get in between us? You should just shut up and curl up in a corner, like you’re supposed to!”
“…”
Yoon Seul-hye twitched her eye as she glared at Hailey, who had insulted her.
She ignored his look of contempt and opened her mouth.
“So, you think you’re so great that you got beaten up and thrown to the ground by a girl your age?”
“What, what is this woman?”
“Stop calling me a woman, woman. It makes me feel disgusted. And didn’t you say you had someone younger than me when I asked you? Sir, do you have a hole in your head? You’re almost forty, you crazy bugger.”
“This is what I get for listening to you…!”
Bang!
He flinched and stopped his movement, about to slap Yoon Seul-hye’s cheek.
At the door, Choi Joon-hyung, who hadn’t shaved properly, glared at them with sharp eyes.
“Hailey.”
“Uh, uh.”
Choi Joon-hyung looked at him with a murderous glare and said,
“Cut it out, you’re annoying.”
“Uh, s-sorry…”
Choi Joon-hyung scanned everyone in the room with irritation and walked to the table used for meetings.
“Sit down, everyone. We have a lot of things to talk about.”
At his cold and stern tone, Hailey, Xiao Jie, and Yoon Seul-hye nervously sat down, looking around.
Choi Joon-hyung, who naturally took the seat of honor, put down the documents he brought and opened his mouth.
“Maxim?”
“Still no contact.”
Xiao Jie quickly answered his question.
“He’s probably too busy playing with money.”
“Tell him he’ll be expelled if he doesn’t show up by noon tomorrow. And when that happens, I’ll leak his secret ledger and everything else to the media.”
He added in an edgy voice.
“And also tell him I’ll kill him myself.”
“…Got it.”
Xiao Jie nodded quietly.
Choi Joon-hyung looked at Yoon Seul-hye this time.
“Manchas?”
“Well, he hasn’t contacted me since he received the ampoule I made to feed to the target. He said he would finish it in two days at the latest… And he told me not to contact him first during the mission.”
Yoon Seul-hye muttered, glancing at him as if making an excuse.
“Try to contact him.”
“…Okay.”
Yoon Seul-hye immediately called Manchas at his words.
She turned her head cautiously and looked at him when she got a notification that he couldn’t answer the phone.
“Uh, he’s not answering…”
“So what? Do I have to tell you to keep trying until he answers?”
“Ah, no… I’m sorry.”
Yoon Seul-hye bowed her head and continued to call him at Choi Joon-hyung’s words.
It was Hailey’s turn now.
“Hailey.”
“Yeah.”
“Tell me honestly, is this true, this thing you wrote as a special feature?”
Choi Joon-hyung took out a newspaper from the pile of documents he brought and unfolded it in front of him.
The newspaper detailed the content that Yoon Seul-hye had just freaked out about.
“That’s…”
Hailey, who was watching Choi Joon-hyung’s reaction, sensed that he would be in big trouble if he lied here.
So he closed his eyes tightly and nodded.
Right after that, he was violently thrown back by a huge impact that hit his chest.
“Kuh-ack, ugh!”
“What are you looking at! Finish your tasks!”
Choi Joon-hyung shouted at Xiao Jie and Yoon Seul-hye, who were startled by the loud noise, and looked down at Hailey, who was groaning on the floor.
“Stay still like you’re dead for a while. Until you finish cleaning up the mess you made. No, don’t show your face outside until I give you permission. Do you understand me?”
“Uh, uh… I got it, ugh!”
Hailey, who was trying to answer hastily, vomited blood.
Choi Joon-hyung turned his head with no more interest and looked at Yoon Seul-hye, who was still on the phone.
“If he doesn’t answer, just give up, are you stupid enough to keep doing that?”
“I’m s-sorry…”
Choi Joon-hyung said to Yoon Seul-hye, who answered in a shrunk voice.
“For now, you go back to the academy. At least the things about you are easy to cover up… Go and get close to Yoo Ji-hyuk or at least someone around him by any means necessary. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“Hey, Yoon Seul-hye.”
Choi Joon-hyung stared at her and said.
“I clearly said ‘by any means necessary’. I hope you understand what that means.”
“…Yes. I understand.”
“Good, then you can go now.”
Choi Joon-hyung looked at Yoon Seul-hye, who got up from her seat and bowed her head, and leaned back on his chair, letting out a deep sigh.
‘…What am I supposed to do with these losers?’
He clicked his tongue and quietly sorted out his thoughts.
While he was doing that, he almost slammed the desk when he concluded that Manchas was probably already dead, but he managed to calm his boiling emotions.
Yeah, wasn’t the reason he created the ridiculous group called Yuksung to gather some decent guys and use them as he pleased?
If a stupid guy died, he just had to pick another decent guy and fill the vacancy.
‘I thought he was a brat who only trusted his background and acted cocky…’
But according to Yoon Seul-hye, he wasn’t that dumb.
‘Well, he’s still nothing but a brat anyway…’
He believed that everything would go his way and smiled quietly.
He closed his eyes and breathed quietly, savoring the imagination of becoming the immortal body he had longed for.
[…….]
In a corner of the conference room.
He was dreaming a sweet dream, unaware of the fact that the seed of the World Tree that had fallen from Yoon Seul-hye’s body was taking root.
***
“…That’s what they said. Mr. Shin Woo-seok. You remembered everything, right?”
“Yes, sir. I remembered everything without missing anything.”
Through the seed of the World Tree that I planted through Yoon Seul-hye, I told Shin Woo-seok everything that Choi Joon-hyung and his gang were talking about.
Even after Yoon Seul-hye left, they talked for a long time about how to deal with the problems that would come up, how to mess with us, and what to hide.
“Tell this story to the head of the family, of course, and to the Ten Powers as well.”
“I will do that.”
…Originally, I wanted to spend time with the kids and have a meal together, but I got an urgent call from Cass Lyle.
Alice Blessbuck was about to arrive at Orhe Academy soon, and she wanted to meet me secretly.
And as soon as I noticed that Yoon Seul-hye was heading deep inside the association, I asked the kids for their understanding and left quickly with Shin Woo-seok.
The association that was openly targeting us.
And Alice Blessbuck, who had a deep connection with the children of Milited.
Both of these were urgent problems that had to be dealt with.
…I promised to grant one wish to Han Soo-young and Jin Ye-seul later, anyway.
Choi Hyun-woo, who was watching the process, looked at me as if to say, look at that, and Kang Yun-kyung watched with interest and gave me a strange consolation that she wouldn’t tell Lee Ye-eun, so don’t worry.
“And sir, I have something to report to you about the orphanage you mentioned before.”
“The one related to Yuna? Tell me.”
Shin Woo-seok, who was carefully pushing the wheelchair, opened his mouth.
“As you feared, some people have appeared who want to buy the land in that area.”
“Can we move first?”
“It’s possible right now. It wasn’t a very commercial area in the first place…”
Shin Woo-seok said not to worry.
“I’ve already delivered the message. And if it’s okay with you, I’ll arrange for a fund to be donated to them through a suitable foundation. If we support them with a reasonable amount, Yuna won’t feel anything strange.”
“…Thank you. You’re always reliable.”
“It was nothing but my duty, sir.”
Shin Woo-seok added quietly after a while.
“Besides, Yuna is my successor.”
“Oh, that’s right. You said you taught Yuna a lot of things, right?”
At that, he laughed softly.
“Well, the situation was what it was. To be honest, I couldn’t deny that I was excited when Yuna turned out to be much more talented than I expected.”
“…She’s a genius that all the professors acknowledge.”
Come to think of it, the next class was supposed to be the supervising professor’s class.
Grossman, who had come to visit me in the hospital, had told me from the beginning to just rest and not come at all, so I was able to skip the class without any problem.
But Jin Ye-seul and Yuna weren’t.
So Yuna said it would be okay if she explained the situation, and she said she would go with me, but I politely declined her offer.
It wasn’t something she needed, and more importantly, the things Alice Blessbuck wanted to talk to me about were surely things that only I had to hear.
“Ah.”
As I was thinking that, Cass Lyle, who was waiting for me in front of the building, spotted me and came over quickly.
“I’m Cass Lyle.”
“I’m Shin Woo-seok.”
“Hello, Lyle senior.”
“Yeah, hi.”
We exchanged brief greetings and I looked at Shin Woo-seok.
“It’s okay now. You can go ahead.”
“But sir.”
“It’s okay.”
At my words, he bowed his head quietly.
“Then I’ll wait around here. Please contact me whenever you’re done.”
“I don’t know how long it will take…”
“It doesn’t matter. The reason I came here in the first place was to serve you, sir.”
He added in a quiet voice.
“Please understand my position and forgive me.”
In the end, I had no choice but to accept his request.
“He’s very enthusiastic.”
Cass Lyle muttered as he stopped at a suitable place and bowed his head toward us.
“Yes, well…”
If it was Alice Blessbuck’s words, it didn’t sound like something a person who would do anything would say.
As I was thinking that, he opened the door of the classroom before I knew it.
“Ah…”
And I saw Alice Blessbuck, who was standing in the middle of it waiting for me, and Lee Myung-joon, who was sitting a little away from her.
Alice Blessbuck’s eyes shook as if she was shocked by the sight of me in a wheelchair.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you both.”
At my greeting, Lee Myung-joon smiled faintly.
And he got up from his seat and said.
“I’ll be outside.”
“Okay, thanks. Myung-joon.”
Lee Myung-joon bowed his head once to me and went out the door.
And Cass Lyle followed him.
“Lyle, can you stay with me?”
“Me too?”
At Cass Lyle’s question, Alice Blessbuck nodded her head with difficulty.
He closed the door and stood next to me, and Alice looked down at the floor and breathed hard.
“Hoo…”
And then she lifted her head as if she had made up her mind and looked at me and Cass Lyle alternately and called our names.
“Lyle.”
“Yes, professor.”
“Ji-hyuk.”
“Yes, what is it?”
She took a deep breath again.
“First… before we get into the real talk, there’s something I have to do first.”
As she said that, she suddenly knelt down toward us.
It was so natural and sudden that neither Cass Lyle nor I could react at all.
“Pro, professor. What are you doing?”
Cass Lyle tried to stop her, but Alice Blessbuck didn’t stop there and bowed her head so low that it touched the floor.
As if she was confessing her sins, she knelt down and bowed her head to us and then opened her mouth quietly.
“…I’m the one who ruined your lives.”
At her confession in a quiet voice, the only reaction I could give was one.
‘…Huh?’
What the hell, this is.
