Chapter 600

The grief of losing someone precious never disappears. Time only wears it down, little by little, until it grows faint.

In that sense, the past week had been exactly what Team Leader Choi needed to gather himself.

“He’ll rest peacefully. Butler Kim will. But we’ll be even busier from now on, won’t we?”

Those quiet words told me he was ready.

Ready to rise while keeping the person who had left us in his heart. Ready to start walking forward again.

So now I could tell him.

“I met Go Se-won a week ago.”

Team Leader Choi looked at me.

“Go Se-won… Ares Guild’s Head of Security?”

“Yes. Go Jun’s closest aide.”

At the mention of Go Jun, Team Leader Choi’s eyebrows twitched. He quickly steadied his expression and answered calmly.

“Please continue.”

“He asked to see me. Said he had a debt to repay.”

“A debt? Given what he’s done since, I doubt he only wanted to thank you.”

Team Leader Choi had never met Go Se-won, but he’d guessed right.

I nodded and told him everything I remembered about that day: our private meeting at the special detention center, and the existence of another secret area, which Go Se-won had told only me about.

“He didn’t know exactly where it was or what it was for. He said only Lee Jungryong and Go Jun could enter.”

When I finished, Team Leader Choi murmured, “I suspected as much… So it was true.”

“What?”

That wasn’t the reaction I’d expected. As I stared at him, eyes wide, he asked, “Does anyone else know about this, Mr. Jin?”

“Uh, I think Go Se-won and I are the only ones. We temporarily blocked the sound, and we covered our mouths while speaking.”

“I thought you said the President’s Security Service accompanied you.”

“They looked suspicious, but they haven’t asked me anything or reacted since. They might’ve reported it to President Baek Hanseong, though.”

“I see.”

I’d answered his questions. Now it was my turn.

“Did you already know, Team Leader Choi? It sounds like you did.”

He nodded without trying to deny it.

“Someone told me.”

“…So there weren’t two of us. There were four. At this point, doesn’t President Baek Hanseong know too?”

“I doubt it. Ares Guild’s security is thorough, and very few people were allowed access to information about Area A. Besides…”

He added evenly, “There are three of us, not four.”

“What?”

“The man who told me died recently. At one time, he was as close to Ares Guild’s darkest secrets as Go Se-won.”

As far as I knew, there couldn’t have been many people like that. In fact, there had been so few since Ares Guild’s founding that they could be counted on one hand.

And if he died recently…

A name flashed through my mind.

“Song Cheonwoo.”

Team Leader Choi nodded. “The last time we met, inside the Gate, he told me several secrets he’d kept until then. I don’t know whether his conscience finally troubled him or he just wanted to ease his own mind.”

His reason didn’t matter. What was done couldn’t be undone. We needed to look for the traces it had left behind.

“Did Song Cheonwoo know where the other secret area was, or what it was for? That old man seems like he would.”

“He didn’t know where it was. He did know its purpose.”

“What is it?”

That was what I’d wanted to know most. If Area A was the shell, the secret area inside it was the core.

What secret had Lee Jungryong and Go Jun—master and disciple—shared between them? What was hidden in a place that remained undiscovered even while Area A was being searched from top to bottom?

An astronomical amount of cash? S-rank Magic Gems siphoned off in secret? Or… a human experimentation lab?

Possibilities straight out of conspiracy theories and movies raced through my head.

Then Team Leader Choi spoke, and every thought vanished.

“My maternal grandfather.”

“What?”

“The purpose of the other secret area is to hide my maternal grandfather’s existence from the world.”

“…!”

How much time had passed? Even as the wind blew and clouds drifted slowly overhead, I couldn’t move for a long while.

This is insane.

I hadn’t imagined this.

Cheon Taemin. That Cheon Taemin was in the secret area.

I felt as if the A-Gwi¹ of Gyeongsang-do had smashed me in the back of the head with a sledgehammer. Frozen like a statue, I barely managed to speak.

“Um… You don’t happen to have two maternal grandfathers, do you?”

“…”

“No, we need to be sure about this.”

Team Leader Choi gave me a look that said Are you an idiot? before answering.

“Not as far as I know.”

“…Huh.”

Fuck. It really is him.

While I stood there speechless, Team Leader Choi hit me with another home run.

“I heard he lost consciousness more than twenty years ago. Lee Jungryong and Song Cheonwoo concealed that fact and kept it secret all this time.”

“…He lost consciousness? Cheon Taemin? I mean… the Cheon Taemin?”

Humanity’s immortal hero. The Slayer.

Cheon Taemin, the man who had defeated even the Demon King Asmodeus, was in a vegetative state.

That was harder to believe than Jinho hyung² passing the civil service exam or Hyuk Mujin becoming the Murim Alliance Leader.

How is that possible?

Cheon Taemin held a place in this world much like the Martial God’s in Murim. More than twenty years had passed since he withdrew from public life, yet no one had come close to matching him.

A flawless man of absolute power. That power was why he was called the immortal hero and held the authority he did.

And now I was supposed to believe he’d spent decades in a vegetative state—even in a world with cutting-edge medicine and magical treatments?

Something stinks.

It seemed that thought had shown plainly on my face. Before I could say anything, Team Leader Choi shook his head.

“I don’t think Lee Jungryong or Song Cheonwoo did this to him.”

“Why not?”

“People tend to be honest when they’re facing death. Especially when their families are being held hostage.”

“…Right. Fair point.”

“The important thing is that my maternal grandfather is hidden in another secret area within Area A. And no one except those three knows about it. Not even the government, despite its thorough investigation of Area A.”

I thought of President Baek Hanseong, who had stood beside me throughout the national funeral. If anyone knew how to hide what they were thinking, it was a politician.

“Are you sure?”

“This isn’t a simple guess. It’s a certainty based on information. Several key insiders within the government investigation team sent to the site have already joined forces with us.”

“…!”

“So for now, at least, we don’t have to worry.”

Watching Team Leader Choi explain it so calmly, I had a sudden thought.

Maybe the past week had done more than get him back on his feet. Maybe it had set him running.

He’s already started.

After the life-or-death crisis in Sichuan and the grief he’d suffered in Pyeongchang, Team Leader Choi had grown tremendously. And I had a fair idea where his next long stride would take him.

“The investigation is expected to last at least a month. What would you do, Mr. Jin?”

“We’d have to stop the government’s investigation first. To secure that person while avoiding suspicion.”

“And the fastest way to stop it?”

“Put this whole mess to rest and become the legal owner of Area A as soon as possible.”

There was only one way to become Area A’s legal owner.

Team Leader Choi reached out and ran his hand over the memorial.

“I made Butler Kim a promise once.”

The impregnable fortress surrounding the royal castle had collapsed miserably, and the prince who had been stripped of his right to inherit the throne and sent into exile had finally returned after a long passage of time.

To reclaim the crown stolen from him long ago.

“I promised I would make Ares Guild mine. No matter what.”

His deeply sunken eyes gleamed.

Team Leader Choi stared at the name of the late Kim Hwajong, carved highest of all, then turned toward me.

“Will you help me?”

He didn’t need to ask. My answer had been settled the day I signed the contract he’d offered me.

“There’s still plenty of time left on my contract, so sure. But I’m not going to have to kill anyone else, am I?”

Team Leader Choi let out a quiet laugh at my deadpan question. It was the first time I’d seen him smile since he woke up.

He took out his phone.

“No. This time, you only need to be the stick.”

“The stick?”

“Yes. A little carrot and stick for those who can’t make up their minds.”

Beep. Beep. Beep. Click.

Someone picked up after the third ring. Team Leader Choi addressed them in a flat voice.

“Hello, Vice President Park Daewon. This is Choi Minwoo.”

I’d heard that name often enough in the news lately to know who he was calling.

The most senior executive left at Ares Guild.

With Vice Guild Master Go Jun dead and most of the executives who held real power dragged in for questioning by the prosecutors’ office after Go Se-won’s revelations, he was the man who had inadvertently become Ares Guild’s acting head.

“Yes, I’m listening. Team Leader Choi Minwoo—no, Mr. Choi Minwoo.”

Park’s voice sounded grim through the phone. Team Leader Choi answered gently.

“You still haven’t made up your mind, it seems. You left after the national funeral without saying anything to me.”

“I, well… It’s just…”

“Six o’clock this evening.”

“What?”

“I’ll come to the headquarters myself. When I open the conference room door and walk in, I want all the executives—including you, Vice President Park—to be there.”

“P-please wait. I still need more time…”

“Six o’clock this evening. You still have three hours, so that should be plenty of time. Goodbye.”

Click.

What the hell was that?

I stared dumbfounded at Team Leader Choi as he hung up without hesitation. He spoke as though nothing unusual had happened.

“You heard the conversation, so I assume you have a rough idea of the situation. Let’s go.”

“Right now? Leaving everything else aside, you said there are still three hours.”

“I’m holding a press conference too.”

“…What?”

“It’s going to be a busy day. We’ve waited a long time. Once you draw your sword, you have to swing it like lightning.”