Repairs were underway at Ares Guild headquarters.
Inside the conference room, the mood was grim.
Some thirty men and women sat around a massive round table, their somber eyes fixed on the man speaking.
“…And that is why I called this emergency meeting.”
Vice President Park Daewon had barely finished when objections erupted from all sides.
“Well, well. They must think very little of us. And it’s a brat who isn’t even thirty.”
“His intentions couldn’t be more obvious. He means to swallow Ares whole.”
“No, hyung1. Why would you call an emergency meeting at the request of an outsider who has no authority? Even if you are the Vice President, this is going too far.”
As the complaints came at him, Park wiped his half-bald forehead with a handkerchief.
Nearing sixty, he found the whole situation bewildering.
How on earth did it come to this?
He had distinguished himself in battle, but political infighting had never been his strength. Fortunately, he was the sort of man who made no enemies, and that had allowed him to keep his largely ceremonial position as Vice President.
Then, ten days ago, while taking a vacation ahead of his retirement, he had heard news he could hardly believe.
Ares Guild headquarters had been crushed by a single person, and Go Jun, the Vice Guild Master, had been murdered.
That can’t be true.
For the first ten minutes, at least, that was what Park had thought.
But every bit of it had been true. The impregnable fortress they had spent some thirty years building had fallen, and its newly appointed City Lord had lost his head before he had even settled into office.
And the retainers who had narrowly escaped the prosecutors’ office were voicing their grievances in unison.
“This is absurd! We don’t have to listen to such nonsense.”
“We created the name Ares, and we were the ones who protected it. What right does some outsider—some bloody brat who still doesn’t know how the world works—have to interfere?”
“Vice President Park, this really isn’t right!”
“…”
Park Daewon silently took a long drink from his glass of water.
Everyone gathered here had spent at least ten years with Ares Guild; some had been with it for more than thirty. Most of those who held real power in the Guild had been summoned by the prosecutors’ office, but the executives in this room were far from powerless.
…But we can’t ignore him, either.
Park Daewon knew all about Choi Minwoo.
No, he couldn’t not know. Cheon Taemin’s private life and family relationships had been protected with the utmost care, but things were different for the few people classified as his close associates. Park, a founding member of the Guild, was one of them.
I first saw him at his doljabi2. The funeral was the last time…wasn’t it?
The child who had slowly faded from his memory had grown up and returned to reclaim what he had lost long ago.
Park had spent his life going along with whatever happened around him, but this troubled him. He knew it was only a shallow sense of guilt for turning away from Choi Minwoo when the boy had been shut out of the Guild entirely.
What should I do?
While Park Daewon was lost in thought, a short, powerful voice rang through the noisy conference room.
“I was going to see how far you’d take this, but it’s getting more ridiculous by the minute. I can’t listen to any more.”
“…!”
“…!”
A chill silence fell over the conference room. Eyes widened, and every gaze turned toward the speaker.
“Managing Director Kim, what kind of outrageous statement was that?”
“Managing Director, my ass. Hey, Kim Gwangpil! What the hell are you talking about?”
The silence broke into angry shouts. Managing Director Kim shrugged his broad shoulders.
“Am I wrong? I called it ridiculous because it is. And Executive Director Baek, watch your language. I may be your junior, but I don’t care to be spoken to like that.”
“Just you wait, you traitorous bastard……”
Kim’s thick eyebrows twitched.
“What did you call me?”
“A traitor, you bastard! If it weren’t for traitors like you, we wouldn’t be in this goddamn mess!”
“Wasn’t it the people on Executive Director Baek’s side who acted like animals? We can figure that out simply by seeing who’s in the detention center right now.”
“What?”
“You seemed awfully bothered that a few executives and I joined Jin Taekyung. But in the end, what kind of shit was the Vice Guild Master—no, what was that man Go Jun—up to? Or did you have a hand in it too, Executive Director Baek?”
“You—you bastard…!”
“Hey, Managing Director Kim! Watch your mouth!”
“You’re the ones who need to watch your mouths!”
“Exactly!”
“How dare you!”
The room split into two factions, furious shouts flying back and forth. Then Park Daewon, who had remained silent, spoke up.
“Strictly speaking, he isn’t an outsider.”
The executives stopped short.
“What?”
“Vice President Park, what did you just…?”
“I’m talking about Choi Minwoo.”
Park slowly looked around at the thirty-odd executives.
“Isn’t he Guild Master Cheon Taemin’s only maternal grandson?”
“…!”
“…!”
He had touched on the one thing they had all been avoiding, and the room fell silent. Kim Gwangpil’s faction brightened at once. The faces of those who had spent the meeting complaining went ashen.
“B-but that’s only a rumor, isn’t it?”
“Th-that’s right, hyung1. No one’s confirmed it.”
Word of Choi Minwoo’s identity had been spreading quietly since the Small Cataclysm. They weren’t so much ignorant as pretending to be.
Park, at least, had no need to pretend.
“No. I’m certain. Unless my memory fails me, he is that person’s maternal grandson. And…”
Before anyone could object, Park set his smartphone on the table.
“It seems he’s decided to tell the world himself.”
“What do you mean…?”
“Argue with each other all you like, but you should have checked what was happening outside. Especially since you barred the secretaries you brought from coming in. Wouldn’t you agree?”
Several executives seemed to realize what he meant. They hurriedly pulled out their phones.
Within a minute, startled gasps sounded around the room. A reporter’s urgent voice played from dozens of speakers.
“M-Mr. Choi Minwoo! Could you tell us your maternal grandfather’s full name once more?”
Another voice followed, filling the conference room.
“The Cheon character, the Tae character, and the Min character. Cheon Taemin. He is my maternal grandfather.”
“…!”
“…!”
The ceaseless camera flashes and the surrounding murmur vanished in an instant, both at the press conference shown in the video and inside the conference room.
Everyone had suspected it. But hearing that suspicion confirmed and announced to the world had an impact none of them had imagined.
All the more so when it concerned the only blood relative of Cheon Taemin, a man about whom everything was shrouded in mystery.
At the same moment, everyone in the room understood.
He’s finally drawn his sword.
After more than twenty years in what had amounted to exile, the royal grandson had returned. At the perfect moment, he had drawn the sharpest blade he possessed to reclaim what he had lost by his own strength.
The question was where he would swing it—and at whom.
Gulp.
No one could bring themselves to speak easily. As time passed in an atmosphere where an invisible thread of tension had been pulled taut, the room filled with faint whispers.
Then—
Beep.
Every head turned at the faint electronic sound. It had come from the clock on the conference room wall.
The current time shone in red LEDs, like a warning.
PM 06:00
Six o’clock.
The time they had gathered for. The time someone was due to arrive.
Step. Step.
Everyone heard shoes crossing the hallway outside the door, and without realizing it, they reflexively rose from their seats.
And then…
Click.
The door opened smoothly, revealing two people.
“You’re all here early.”
“Oh, they fixed this place already. I think I broke it last time.”
The occupying force had arrived: one polite, one rude, and neither to be avoided.
When I was little, my father used to tell me, “Son, once a man draws his sword, he has to cut at least a radish.”
By that measure, Team Leader Choi was a man among men. He had come to cut up Ares Guild, not a radish.
“…”
Come to think of it, I had already cut it down once myself. But still.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Choi Minwoo.”
Team Leader Choi gave a polite bow, and the Ares Guild executives standing around the table awkwardly returned it.
Some looked as if the world would end in three seconds. Others wore broad smiles. I recognized them: they were the executives from Song Cheonwoo’s faction who had sided with me when I attacked headquarters.
One person was harder to read.
The elderly middle-aged man seated at the head of the table was Vice President Park Daewon.
“Welcome, Team Leader Choi Minwoo.”
Team Leader Choi studied his conflicted expression, then nodded.
“I hope I’m not late. The press conference ran longer than I expected. I apologize for keeping you waiting.”
Judging by their faces, they’d all watched the live broadcast. About half of them didn’t seem to think they’d got their money’s worth from the license fee.
“Not at all. Before we begin, please have a seat…”
“That won’t be necessary.”
Team Leader Choi gently stopped Park from offering him a place.
“This won’t take long. And since the others still think of me as an outsider, I wouldn’t want to make them uncomfortable by drawing it out.”
“…Ahem.”
Awkward coughs came from around the table. Team Leader Choi paid them no mind as he looked over the room.
“I see five empty seats. Where are the three advisers and the directors of the United States and France branches?”
A middle-aged man with a prickly appearance answered with an uncomfortable expression.
“You seem very interested in our people.”
“I have a good memory, Executive Director Baek.”
“…”
Baek fell silent. One of the executives who had sided with me ten days ago answered promptly.
“They didn’t come.”
“Something unavoidable must have kept them away. Is that right?”
“The three advisers cited illness. As I understand it, the two branch directors refused to attend.”
“I specifically told them to attend. It seems my wishes weren’t conveyed properly.”
Team Leader Choi muttered this calmly, and Executive Director Baek spoke again.
“This isn’t an official meeting. We gathered at an outsider’s request. No one was obliged to attend, even if that outsider…”
After hesitating for a moment, he continued in a distinctly quieter voice.
“…is that person’s maternal grandson.”
“You’re right.”
Team Leader Choi nodded in agreement, then took a small note from inside his clothes and handed it over.
“What’s this?”
“A prescription for the advisers who are ill. Ah, the other two branch directors will receive something other than a prescription.”
I had a feeling the advisers who’d used illness as an excuse would recover the moment they saw that note. It listed the crimes they’d committed that hadn’t come to light yet.
Baek read it and swallowed hard.
“Th-this…”
“You don’t look well yourself, Executive Director Baek. Would you like a prescription too?”
“N-no! What are you talking about? I’m fine!”
I stood with my arms crossed, watching the situation, and muttered.
“Wasn’t that ‘I’m fine’ a bit too casual?”
“I—I’m quite well.”
One Hundred and One Ways to Kill Without a Sound, by Jin Taekyung.
“I—I’m perfectly fine, sir.”
Hmm. The man could take a hint. I glanced at him as he stood there swallowing nervously, then turned to Team Leader Choi.
“Can’t we sit down and talk? My legs hurt.”
“Well, there isn’t really a suitable seat…”
I helpfully pointed toward the head of the table before he could finish.
“There. That one’s empty.”
“Oh, I see. But would it be all right for me to sit there?”
“Let’s put it to a vote. Majority rules. Anyone opposed? Hands?”
“…”
No one raised a hand.
Comments
Comments need a network connection.