## C388
"..."
Kang Geun-mok didn't even notice the cold sweat running down his back.
'How?'
How had he managed to get in here?
Clearly, it was impossible with the magic and magical ability of 'this world'.
'No, more than that, how can it be so silent?'
Kang Geun-mok's house wasn't simply a 'fortress' because of security magic.
There were special agents placed everywhere who acted as guardians to protect his house.
They didn't usually show themselves.
'Yes, like now.'
Simply, like now, when Kang Geun-mok visited his house for a moment, this place was silent.
'There's no smell of blood.'
There's no smell of blood from the guardians.
At the same time, he doesn't feel their presence.
'That means...'
It meant that this enemy, who was now grabbing his neck, had overcome everything and infiltrated this house.
'Is it possible? This is the area managed by Transparent. This is the house the chairman personally gave me. How...'
The moment Kang Geun-mok's mind was about to become complex.
"Why are you so stiff?"
The voice sounded again.
A carefree and casual voice.
It was definitely a voice he had never heard before.
At that moment...
"Well, how wouldn't he be stiff when you're grabbing his neck?"
A woman's voice was heard.
'Again...'
There's someone else.
But he couldn't see anything.
Of course, as a normal human, it was impossible for him to see clearly in this dark room without a single light.
But as his eyes adjusted to the darkness...
'Three...!'
Faint silhouettes were seen.
He couldn't see the one grabbing his neck, but he could see two people sitting on the living room sofa.
Cold sweat accumulated on Kang Geun-mok's face, which was like a dry tree.
"Who are you?"
Despite his nervousness, his voice had calmed down.
Of course, his eyes also stabilized.
"Well, who do you think we are?"
"Did Ahn Roh Man send you?"
Oh.
Cale let out a small sigh of admiration.
"The chairman's chief of staff is truly someone special."
“So you don't come from Ahn Roh Man.”
“You already knew, right? You just asked to confirm it.”
“That's right. Because Ahn Roh Man doesn't have people of this level.”
"Yes. If he did, it wouldn't have been the senior advisor who became a murder suspect because of the scheme you guys made."
Silence fell over them.
Rosalyn, who was sitting on the sofa and looking at the main entrance, where the only source of light was, told Alberu with magic.
-This Kang Geun-mok is not easy.
Alberu nodded in agreement.
The conversation between Cale and Kang Geun-mok.
There was a lot of meaning in that short conversation.
-It seems that Kang Geun-mok is quite cunning.
Alberu agreed with Rosalyn's words.
-Like Young Master Cale.
However, he didn't agree with that part.
He shook his head.
'Cale Henituse.'
This guy is smart, but more than cunning...
"But, chief of staff."
He's a guy who just goes ahead.
"Do you also know that Honorary Chairman Han Taek-su is not human?"
Indeed, he's a guy who goes ahead.
It wasn't easy to beat this guy.
"!"
Kang Geun-mok's eyes widened for the first time.
Although he felt the strength of the hand grabbing his neck decrease, and although that hand removed its hand from his neck and patted his shoulder, he couldn't move.
"...Who are you?"
Kang Geun-mok again asked the identity of his opponent.
There was something different in his voice.
Before, it had been a simple test, but now it was a real doubt.
At that moment.
Click.
With a small sound.
Whoosh!
The living room lights turned on.
"!"
And Kang Geun-mok could see the person who had turned on the living room light switch.
"Why are you so surprised?"
A man in an impeccable suit.
Red hair and brown eyes.
And a handsome man with a relaxed air, but who had a rather masculine voice, was speaking in the same carefree voice as before.
'…He's younger than I expected.'
He thought he would be a little younger because his voice was young, but Kang Geun-mok, who was now over 60, thought his opponent was much younger, like in his early or mid-20s.
With a smile.
Cale showed him a rather kind smile.
"I like talking face-to-face. Don't you think?"
Gulp.
Kang Geun-mok swallowed.
Seeing his face. That could only mean one thing.
'…If the conversation doesn't work, if things don't go well, he'll kill me.'
The enemy who had stealthily infiltrated his house had shown his face.
In other words, Kang Geun-mok's life depended on how he acted today.
"...Alright. Let's talk."
But Kang Geun-mok remained impassive.
-It's amazing. Even though he's our enemy.
Cale heard Rosalyn's magical voice.
-As he has served the head of the Transparent Blood Family for over 50 years, he is truly centered. It seems he is also very loyal. If we could turn him into our ally, we could trust him to do the work.
Cale didn't respond to her words and asked Kang Geun-mok.
"Where do you want to sit?"
"...Follow me."
Kang Geun-mok walked slowly.
Then, he took his place and gestured to Cale.
"Sit down."
Ah.
Alberu let out a sigh.
"...Not bad."
Cale smiled wryly and sat down in the place Kang Geun-mok had indicated.
The living room sofa.
Its shape was made up of a long sofa placed on both sides and a single sofa for one person, the seat of honor, in the middle.
Kang Geun-mok sat in the seat of honor and indicated for Cale to sit next to Alberu.
"Hm. I'll move."
Alberu calmly got up from his seat and sat next to Rosalyn.
Cale sat alone on the long sofa and looked at Kang Geun-mok, who was sitting in the seat of honor.
"You haven't sought me out, but the chairman, right?"
Kang Geun-mok's expression was unperturbed.
"I can't tell you anything."
He didn't give Cale a chance to speak and said what he had to say first.
"Even if I die here."
And the corner of his mouth curved upwards.
"Of course, if you have come to join Transparent, we welcome you. We always welcome people with abilities like yours with open arms."
Oh.
Alberu read the sincerity in Kang Geun-mok's voice.
'This guy is not easy.'
At that moment...
"Kang Geun-mok."
Cale's voice resonated with a completely neutral and professional tone, devoid of any emotion.
“At the age of ten, you met Honorary Chairman Han Taeksu, who saved your life. Since then, you have been by his side as his secretary. It is said that your cold and calculating judgment is so valued by him that he even trusts you more than his own children.”
Cale's eyes fell on Kang Geun-mok.
“And isn't it true that your loyalty is so deep that the Honorary Chairman follows your advice even in the most important decisions of his life and his company?”
"..."
Kang Geun-mok responded with silence.
He had no intention of saying anything.
Even if he died.
And he had a plan.
‘I just need to buy time.’
If he couldn't return to Honorary Chairman Han Taek-su's mansion in an hour. Or rather, if he didn't contact the chairman in the next ten minutes.
Definitely, the chairman would realize something and send his subordinates to this house.
'Yes, ten minutes. That's enough.'
Therefore, Kang Geun-mok could relax.
But...
“Then, why can't I see that loyalty in your eyes?”
Cale had no intention of prolonging this conversation. Ten minutes, for what? With the imminent threat of Ahn Roh Man and the need to witness the birth of Eden Miru, there was no time to waste.
There's no telling what Clopeh Sekka will do in a single day.
Therefore, Cale went straight to the answer.
"Kang Geun-mok."
When Rosalyn mentioned loyalty, Cale remembered what he had discovered.
“Did you know that Honorary Chairman Han Taek-su is not human?”
The moment he uttered those words, someone close, not exactly Cale, but another entity, found something. That someone, a boastful expert on these kinds of matters, discovered it.
-Eh?
The Dominating Aura spoke for the first time in a long time.
He said in a grave voice.
-This guy is scared now.
He wasn't scared by Cale's words.
– The moment you said he wasn't human, he got really scared. I saw it! I'm very good at noticing these things. Now that I have the power of chaos, I'm even better. He's completely terrified! He's sunk into fear.
At that moment, Cale understood why Honorary Chairman Han Taek-su, that guy called the Hunter, had Kang Geun-mok by his side.
Because the leaders of the hunter families he had met so far were not people who trusted emotions like loyalty.
"Are you afraid?"
"!...!"
Kang Geun-mok's eyes widened. He wasn't hypnotized.
Simply, he was afraid of Han Taek-su.
“For you, Han Taek-su is scarier than death.”
Therefore, Cale asked.
"Why?"
What can be scarier than death?
"What did you see?"
What could he have witnessed to live under Han Taek-su's orders?
His body, like a dry tree, was drenched in cold sweat for a different reason.
Cale, Alberu, and Rosalyn saw Kang Geun-mok's snow-white hands.
Cale asked.
"What did you see to be afraid of Han Taek-su?"
"..."
But Kang Geun-mok just pursed his lips and didn't answer.
"Aren't you going to say anything?"
Cale asked again.
"...Kill me."
Kang Geun-mok closed his eyes tightly and decided to give up even his plan to buy time, and let him be taken away.
"You're firm."
And Cale had no intention of wasting time.
He also had no intention of talking for a long time.
Why waste time?
If Kang Geun-mok had been loyal, or if he had had other emotions, Cale might have thought long and hard about how to convince him.
But if it was fear...
"Kang Geun-mok."
Cale called him in a low voice and asked.
“Aren't we scary to you?”
Kang Geun-mok kept his eyes closed.
‘No, they're not scary to me.’
Compared to Han Taek-su, they weren't scary.
Compared to what that inhuman being did, he preferred death.
Then,
“Am I not scary to you?”
The young man's voice sounded again.
Kang Geun-mok remained silent.
Suddenly, he felt it.
‘…Ah!’
He felt something rising from his feet. Or rather, he realized that something was gradually invading the space around him.
It's not a scent.
Nor heat.
Nor magic.
Nor a special power.
It's just air.
Nothing has changed.
'No!'
Kang Geun-mok opened his eyes without realizing it.
And he saw.
Cale's eyes looking at him.
"Hhh!"
And suddenly, he felt a pressure strangling him.
'This... this is bearable!'
Kang Geun-mok remembered a memory from the past.
The moment he saw 50 years ago.
It was the first time he encountered something that wasn't human, or rather, something that was more than human.
And he realized that it could make even life itself scary.
Han Taek-su.
That guy was also a monster.
‘But there is a bigger monster...'
He definitely saw it.
It was a monster, or rather, a demon...
'No... a evil god!'
He saw that terrible thing.
'To not become its prey...'
The memory of that moment became an illusion that spread before Kang Geun-mok.
I don't want to fall into that hell, even if I die.
'I...'
I can endure...
"!"
Kang Geun-mok saw something in that illusion.
The terrible memory that had been holding him back.
The day he saw Han Taek-su and the monster he was raising.
In that memory, he saw.
"C, how..."
Eyes.
Brown eyes were looking at him.
It's an illusion.
No.
It's not an illusion.
This is real.
Inside the illusion created by the terrible memory.
Those eyes that were staring at him in the midst of terror.
They also scared him and left him breathless, but at the same time...
‘Ah.’
They weren't horrible.
They were terrifying, but they gave him a strange comfort, a sense of hope.
It was as if being under his control could escape those memories.
The illusion faded.
Kang Geun-mok understood.
The disaster that Han Taek-su was creating, that calamity that even calling it an evil god was insufficient, was not comparable to the power in those eyes.
“Am I not scary to you?”
The young man asked with a mocking tone.
Kang Geunm-ok slowly opened his mouth.
“…Could you…?”
Caught in the chaos of terrifying illusions, Kang Geun-mok, feeling the weight of reality surrounding him, asked the only light within his confusion.
For the first time in 50 years, he found a light in the chaos.
“Could you save me?”
He knew that that light could save him. That it had that power.
