Chapter 168: Employment Fraud (1)
TL: SHW
"Hey, hyung."
"What?"
"You know."
"Yeah."
Even after waiting a long while, no answer came. I lifted my head slightly and saw the ten-year-old fiddling with his tablet PC for no particular reason.
This morning, all the Pilot High School kids had left the Villa. It was before the holiday break had officially started, but when had this school-that-wasn't-really-a-school ever cared about things like that? Han Eun-young, the last holdout who'd insisted she didn't have to go home, was dragged away by her brother's hand with an expression that said she'd rather die.
There's a saying that you don't notice someone when they're around, only when they're gone. It wasn't just one or two, nearly ten kids had disappeared, and the spacious Villa was quiet. When they were here, there was so much to keep track of that it was nothing but a hassle, but now that they were actually gone, it felt a little... empty.
On top of that, Woo I-rok had gotten strangely quiet too.
Far from being warm to the kids, he'd been so surly that he'd pretend to kick them whenever the mood struck, but what's a ten-year-old Non-Awakened brat going to do to Pre-Hunters being ground down by Hong Seok-young? The kids found Woo I-rok rather cute. From what I could tell, Woo I-rok had been getting along with the kids better than expected, too. He might have been a little hurt at being the only one left behind.
I never had that kind of charm, but who knows with that kid. Honestly, by now I had to see him and me as different people.
"Do you want to go on a trip too?"
The kids hadn't left quietly. By nature, compared to others their age, they were well-behaved and obedient, but that didn't mean they were meek.
'Teacher Kim used that kind of magic, so what the hell happened?!'
Oh Hyun-wook, in particular, had put up a fight. Little piglet, the nerve of him....
This is why it's exhausting when there's a loudmouth around. The timid kids get swept up easily. Emboldened by the little piglet's voice, the kids who'd been sitting still started their own protest. Since Yoo Hye-eun had healed my and Han Tae-kyung's wounds, it was hard to brush it off as nothing.
Of course, technically I could just tell the kids they didn't need to know....
I know, I know. Saying that only fuels their defiance.
Kang Tae-woo, at least, just rolled his eyes around. It seemed he'd gotten the gist of what kind of mess we'd been caught up in just from what Yoo Hye-eun had told him.
Kang Tae-woo still had his little sister's bracelet on his wrist. We'd confirmed that the children Hope had dealt with were alive, but it wasn't as though we could bring them back to Korea, so we hadn't been able to tell Kang Tae-woo. If we carelessly passed the news to him and it reached Ark's ears, the children would really die then.
'Don't give us that fire drill story!!'
The little piglet threw a fit.
For the record, it wasn't my idea. I'd heard that one of the Daseon Hunters panicked at the kids' complaints and blurted that out on impulse.
Listening to the little piglet was a hassle, and I wanted to clear the kids out before Woo I-rok woke up, so I just gave them the rough truth.
'A criminal organization with a grudge against the principal attacked for revenge.'
It wasn't exactly a wrong explanation, was it?
'That's why things got chaotic. It should be quiet for a while, so don't worry. It's Chuseok, so go rest up and come back.'
The little piglet and his gang left the Villa with unconvinced expressions.
Having moved on from this morning's affair, I looked at Woo I-rok in front of me.
"Want to go?"
"No...."
Woo I-rok shook his head.
"That's not it."
He said it wasn't, but seeing how oddly calm he was, I wondered if I should have sent him along with the kids. Maybe not the others, but Kang Tae-woo could probably manage that brat well enough.
...I never expected I'd come to feel this comfortable about Subject 3, who'd approached so blatantly suspicious at first. Back then, I'd been looking for ways to use Kang Tae-woo as bait to lure out Ark.
Looking back now, even with Hong Seok-young here, my thinking had been shallow. If Ark had been a simple criminal organization the way Hong Seok-young initially assumed, then all we'd have needed to do was grab that thread and sweep them up. Hong Seok-young must have planned it that way too. It's just that Ark was... far larger than what Hong Seok-young and I had known, and utterly insane. We'd nearly gone down without even understanding what went wrong.
Then again, thinking about it that way, what Hope did at the Orphanage, that... whole shitstorm, actually worked in our favor. It severed the link between Kang Tae-woo and Ark and allowed us to take him under our protection. And that reconnected us to Hope, so... life really is unpredictable.
"If it's not that, then what?"
"......"
Woo I-rok pulled a sulky face.
Sandra Gamble would be arriving here soon. Hope was still in Australia, and he'd said himself that he had no intention of leaving until Gamble's situation was settled.
As long as we had Gamble in our custody, Hope couldn't act freely. That is, if he truly wanted to protect the person he'd cared about enough to betray his own kind.
But we still didn't know Ark's objective, or why Michel had created Ark, or joined it.
Woo I-rok's expression showed no sign of softening, either.
Maybe I really should have sent him out of here....
But I shook my head.
Sem Bloom had tried to kidnap that kid. We still didn't know why. But there couldn't be only Sem Bloom under Noah Michel, and another one of them might attack.
Come what may, I could only feel at ease with Woo I-rok where I could see him. Rather than something happening where my hands couldn't reach, it was better to keep him where I could grasp the situation immediately.
"......"
"......"
Even after waiting a long while, Woo I-rok's mouth didn't open. Figuring he'd talk when he felt like it, I shrugged and went back to the documents I'd been reading.
It was a bound booklet Lee Mi-seon had left behind. It wasn't particularly thick.
Half-sprawled on the sofa, I turned the pages. Every page was packed with Runes.
We hadn't set a release date yet, but the content was complete. This would be the second set of Runes published under Daseon's name, following the previous one. Naturally, though....
I stopped turning pages.
Naturally, Noah Michel's Mana Concealment Rune was included.
Would it be alright to publish this as is?
Hong Seok-young and I had discussed it multiple times, but we still couldn't reach a decision.
In the original timeline, Noah Michel's public release of the Mana Concealment Rune was still several years away. But that only referred to when it was made public. There was no way to know when Michel had actually created it. If we published it carelessly, it might draw Michel's attention.
But by that logic, the first set of Runes we'd published also had Michel's Runes mixed in. Kim Chae-min had mentioned that Michel reacted to the Runes in the Mage community. Among those, couldn't there have been Runes Michel had already created?
Hong Seok-young told me I was overthinking it, but how could I not think about something like this when it was sitting right in front of me?
Rustle.
I'd been glaring at the thin booklet in my hands when I lifted my head. Woo I-rok, who'd been deep in thought with his brow furrowed, was already looking at his tablet PC. Something about the way he was sprawled on the other end of the sofa rubbed me the wrong way.
...That damn cat.
His hyung's head was about to explode from work over here.
In the end, I closed the documents. Woo I-rok had his brow deeply furrowed, as if something didn't sit right with him.
He wasn't about to say he suddenly wanted a cat plushie or something, was he?
I spent a moment worrying about a future that hadn't happened, then fortunately recalled a topic that Woo I-rok might plausibly be this hesitant about.
I scowled.
"Is that man giving you a hard time?"
"......"
Woo I-rok, who'd been fidgeting, went still. So that was it.
I let out a sigh.
"Hyung told you before, right? What do you do when you don't like something?"
"Say... that I don't like it?"
"Right."
"But it wasn't that I really disliked it...."
Hong Seok-young would keel over backward with joy if he heard that.
I remembered making a rather solemn declaration about being prepared to become that kid's hyung. People just get like that when emotions run high.
But thinking about it objectively, that was only a matter of how I felt; I was already that cheeky brat's hyung. Nothing about my daily life changed just because he'd become my little brother anew, and my actions wouldn't change either.
Still, maybe it would be better to... act more like a normal pair of brothers. Originally, I'd started going crooked little by little around that age, when my hyung disappeared. The Orphanage I'd stayed at after being rescued by my father hadn't helped.
The only sibling relationship I had to reference was Yoo Ji-eun's. She'd been a noona, so I shouldn't directly map her relationship with her little brother onto mine, but....
I stretched my legs out and nudged Woo I-rok. The mini-me, who'd been lost in thought, squirmed as if annoyed.
For some reason....
Hm.
I moved my legs more forcefully.
Thud!
"Ow!"
Woo I-rok, having fallen off the sofa, shot up and glared at me.
"What was that for!"
"You called for hyung and then won't say anything?"
"Grrr...."
Woo I-rok's face crumpled like an ugly doll.
I finally understood why Yoo Ji-eun used to pick fights with me every time she saw me.
Woo I-rok, thoroughly riled up, lunged at me. His movements were surprisingly fast for someone who hadn't Awakened yet. His Awakening was still a long way off, though, so what was I supposed to do about this when it came?
I left him alone until he tired himself out. Realizing he was no match for me, Woo I-rok gave up quickly. As expected of me. He knew his own limits well.
Instead of sitting back on the sofa, Woo I-rok plopped down on the floor cross-legged.
"That man keeps telling me to become his son."
I answered in the most nonchalant voice I could manage.
"Want hyung to tell him to stop?"
"But that man says since you're his son, I'm his son too. Is that true?"
What a pain....
"Don't worry about me. Just do whatever you want."
"Whatever I want?"
"If you want to be that man's son, go ahead."
If so, I had no intention of stopping him.
Woo I-rok tilted his head to the side, brow still furrowed.
"Then what about you, hyung?"
"Me?"
"Will you become his son too, hyung?"
"Who knows.... I'm not sure about that."
"He said brothers should have the same dad."
"Don't go saying that kind of thing in this day and age. There are all kinds of families in the world."
I paused for a moment.
"You can have different dads... that's just how that family works."
"Like how you and I are family, hyung?"
"We're connected by blood, so that's a bit of a different story...."
"Hmm...."
"So, want me to tell him you don't like it? Even without hyung saying anything, if you tell him you don't want it, he'll probably stop."
"......"
Surprisingly, the word "no" didn't come from Woo I-rok's mouth.
...How on earth did Hong Seok-young win that kid over? It had only been a few days.
The current Woo I-rok hadn't gone through the Orphanage years, so the difficulty level was lower than I had been. No, but still....
Telling him to say no if he didn't like something applied just the same in reverse. If he liked it, he just had to say he liked it. Then Woo I-rok would become Hong Seok-young's son.
Well... that wasn't a bad title to have.
I was about to say something more, but stopped. That was between Hong Seok-young and Woo I-rok, and I didn't want to insert myself. I already had more than enough on my plate.
"......"
I looked at my phone, which had started buzzing. Lee Mi-seon's name was on the screen.
This is why they say words have a way of coming true. I'd just said I had a lot to do, and now there was more.
"Yes. What is it?"
─Teacher Woo! Get out here!
Lee Mi-seon spoke the moment I picked up.
─I brought Gamble.
***
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