The Sanarae Clan had decided to assign one raid team per member of Suho’s family—that is, a raid group of twenty members—to guard them twenty-four hours a day.
There had been quite a few internal complaints, but I Danbi quelled them with her charisma and the long-established trust she had built within the clan.
Before the full-scale protection began,
Clan Head I Danbi resolved to find Suho through discreet inquiries and meet with him, hoping to formally appeal for him to join the clan.
It would be a problem if they clashed with the guard groups already in place, and it would also be troublesome if they were mistaken for a hostile force.
Those aspects needed to be coordinated in advance as well.
Starting the car, she felt suffocated for no reason.
“Whew… I’m nervous. This is.”
All the more so because she somehow felt the rejection was guaranteed.
If an S-Rank Admittee was reluctant to go public to this extent, it wouldn’t be wrong to take it as him having no desire to appear in the world at all.
Joining a clan? Surely many places had already extended offers. The Tower Administration had probably probed him several times as well.
After all, raiding the Tower only truly began with joining a clan.
Vroooom—
I Danbi’s luxury sedan left the clan building’s parking garage.
* * *
“Ugh… I’m screwed.”
Suho muttered blankly.
Joshua was holding his forehead with his hand, his brow furrowed.
Minsu and Minji sat expressionlessly in the back seat, handling the aftermath.
“I’ve finished contacting the insurance company. They said they’ll arrive in seventeen minutes.”
“Yeah… thanks.”
The reckless bravado of a “confident beginner driver” had inevitably led to an accident.
He had failed to spot a vehicle hastily merging from a side road onto the main road.
Judging by the recklessness of the driving, the other vehicle also seemed to be under manual control rather than autonomous driving.
Strictly speaking, the merging vehicle was at fault, but it was also a situation that could have been avoided if the driver had been using autonomous driving or was more skilled.
Thanks to the shield Joshua had wrapped around the entire vehicle, Suho’s car and its passengers were unharmed, but the other vehicle had suffered significant damage with the driver’s side caved in.
“Joshua, are you alright? I’m sorry… I insisted on driving…”
“I’m fine. Though this has become a troublesome matter.”
“Tell me about it… Well, I guess we’ll have to let the insurance company handle it when they get here.”
Since Minsu had contacted the insurance company, Suho called his workplace to explain the circumstances of the traffic accident and let them know he would be late.
“But… Suho-nim, that car over there seems unusual?”
“Huh…?”
Just as Joshua said, it really was.
The other party’s car was a Comandorgini, and upon closer inspection, it wasn’t an ordinary color—it was a golden supercar gleaming brightly.
Whether it was gold leaf, gold plating, or gold wrapping, he couldn’t tell… though surely it wasn’t actual solid gold plates attached.
Suho’s vehicle was also a Comandorgini, the latest SUV model, but next to the car plastered in gold, it looked like a commoner’s vehicle.
As Suho and Joshua got out of their car and approached the other vehicle,
Hiss—
“Damn… which bastard…”
Scissor doors rose like wings and opened, and two young drivers got out, beginning to spew curses and spit.
Fortunately, they didn’t appear to be seriously injured.
“Are you alright?”
Suho’s greeting was simply buried beneath their cursing.
“Ah, fuck, does this look alright to you? Ow, ow… my neck… just how do you drive, huh? Huh?”
“I think my ribs are broken… do you even have eyes? Are your eyes rotten because you’re old geezers…”
At the vulgar words of kids much younger than Suho, Joshua flinched, but Suho stopped him.
“I didn’t do well either, but you shouldn’t merge that hastily from a narrow road. The going-straight vehicle has the right of way, so even at the least, you guys are seventy to eighty percent at fault.”
“Ha, bullshit. You’re saying it’s our fault? So fucking shameless. You old fogey bastards.”
“I’ve already called the insurance company, so let’s settle it through them. They’ll be here soon.”
“Hey, did you hear that, insurance?”
At those words, one of the guys exaggeratedly fussed over the Comandorgini’s dented door.
“Look at this. Look at this. The gold is all scraped off here. Do you know how much gold coating is on this? The gold that scraped off and flew away alone is worth several don. Uncles, do you think this can be covered by normal insurance, huh?”
Suho, who was already frowning deeply, squeezed his eyes shut.
He felt like his last thread of patience was about to snap from their rudeness.
Thud!
“Huh, what!”
Suho took out a roughly 20kg gold ingot from his warehouse and threw it onto the hood of the accident vehicle.
“What do you mean what, it’s gold. Gold. You were making a fuss about invisible gold scraping off, so use it to paint your car.”
The hood was dented deeply by the roughly 20kg weight, and with the side already crushed, the front too. The car looked even more miserable.
They seemed to be rich kids with quite a bit of money, but they wouldn’t have commonly seen a 20kg gold ingot. At current gold prices, 20 kilograms was worth over 3.3 billion won.
Even if you combined the price of their car and the gold coating, it clearly wouldn’t reach even half that amount.
Moreover, since they hadn’t seen the process of where the lump of gold suddenly appeared from or how it flew over, the two were even more shocked, their eyes wide open.
“Stop chattering noisily. How about it, let’s settle with that. Don’t like it? Then wait for the insurance company.”
As the guys wavered between their pride and the lump of gold, Suho deliberately retrieved the gold ingot from the hood.
It was quite a heavy gold ingot, so he had to grunt and strain to lift it.
“H-hey, wait, we haven’t said we won’t settle…”
“Yeah? You’re going to settle?”
“L-let us think about it…”
“Damn it, it’s heavy so decide quickly. What do you mean think! You guys look like your heads are empty at a glance.”
“Wh… what?”
“Ah, I said decide quickly!”
Suho threw the 20kg gold ingot he had been struggling to hold back onto the hood.
Bam—crunch—
The car caved in deeply again.
One of the two who seemed to be the car owner, trembling fiercely, spoke through gritted teeth.
“So you like to settle. We won’t settle! You bastards.”
“Yeah?”
Suho immediately took out two more 20kg gold ingots and dropped them on the hood.
Crash—crunch—thud—
“Even with this much?”
Faces that looked like they were about to lose their minds at the unforeseen development.
The guy who had been in the passenger seat barely came to his senses.
“W-we’ll see… S-seeing your sincerity, we’ll leave for now, but…”
The passenger-seat guy hurriedly gathered up the gold ingots, trying to wrap things up and leave quickly.
At that, the car owner guy had an outburst.
“What? Leave? Where are we going, who do you think you are? I said I won’t settle!”
“Shut up, you bastard. These three are 10 billion won, you idiot. We can just buy another car with that.”
“Te… ten…”
“And what are you going to do if we don’t settle, wait for insurance? Or call the police?”
“Umm…”
Neither option seemed to lead to the ending he wanted, so the stupid car owner guy finally conceded and followed his friend’s lead, packing the gold ingots into the trunk.
Afterwards, the guys climbed into their completely dented car and left as if fleeing.
The car made strange screeching sounds, as if something was wrong with it.
“Hmph! I’ll let you off this time!”
The guys who had struck a solid deal flipped the middle finger out the window as they drove off.
It was their last remaining pride, in its own way.
“Yeah, yeah, drive safe.”
As for Suho, he returned all three gold ingots from the trunk of their car to his warehouse.
The insurance company employee who arrived shortly after was surprisingly a familiar face.
“Oh… you?”
“Hello! Admittee Jeong Suho! I am Jang Narae of the Towerpia Premium Customer Management Department!”
“But the insurance company didn’t come…”
“We immediately detected that Admittee Jeong Suho’s vehicle had been reported in an accident, received full authority from the insurance company, and rushed straight here! We will handle this cleanly! By the way, where is the other vehicle…?”
“Ah, um, we settled amicably, so they already left. And our car is perfectly fine.”
Suho shrugged his shoulders.
“Ah…”
Manager Jang Narae grew sullen again.
Suho felt unnecessarily sorry. It was because she seemed so passionate about her assigned work, yet he felt like he was always throwing cold water on her efforts.
“Manager, I actually had something to ask you, so since we met like this, let’s talk business.”
“Yes? Yes!”
At Manager Jang Narae’s face brightening as if she had never been sullen, Suho burst into a short laugh.
She really was a quick-change person.
Since it was already past work hours, they couldn’t go far, so they settled into a nearby cafe by the Agency.
Minsu, Minji, and Joshua stood guard, keeping watch of the surroundings.
“Then, the matter you wish to entrust…?”
“Manager, you know my younger sibling, right?”
“Yes, if they are Admittee Suho’s family, we have already thoroughly identified them…”
“Jiho, among the two.”
“Aha, yes.”
“He recently…”
Suho opened up about the gambling problem Jiho had fallen into and asked her to prepare a counseling process for gambling addiction treatment.
It was true that Jiho had completely lost interest in gambling itself, but the addiction problem couldn’t be resolved by that alone.
Because gambling addiction was a complex issue deeply connected to psychological and mental health beyond simply being a behavioral problem.
Towerpia would actively look into processes such as cognitive behavioral therapy, motivational enhancement therapy, family therapy, and drug treatments like antidepressants or anti-anxiety medication, and support Jiho until he made a clean recovery.
It was the first moment Suho felt he was benefiting from Towerpia’s Manage, and Manager Jang Narae was also proud.
Just as the atmosphere was harmonious,
Ring-a-ling—
“Welcome.”
The person who entered the cafe to the sound of the employee’s greeting was a woman with a cap pulled down low, tall stature, and long hair hanging down to her shoulders.
Even with only her nose and mouth visible, hidden by her hair and cap, her face suggested she was quite a beauty.
She was none other than S-Rank Admittee I Danbi.
“Ah!”
Manager Jang Narae, who had casually raised her head toward the entrance, immediately recognized her and hurriedly covered her mouth with both hands.
I Danbi was more famous than top-class celebrities, so there was nothing good about acknowledging her here and revealing her identity.
That was likely why she had come wearing her cap pulled down like that.
I Danbi seemed to recognize Jang Narae as well and immediately approached them.
“Hello, Manager.”
I Danbi, an outstanding beauty with refreshing, distinct features, smiled brightly and greeted Jang Narae first.
As if the claim that she managed most S-Rank Admittees at Towerpia was no empty boast, the two seemed to already be acquainted.
“Clan Head, what brings you here…?”
“Ah, I’m looking for someone, so I’m wandering around aimlessly right now. I was going to have a cup of coffee and then get moving again.”
I Danbi shrugged.
“Ah…! If it’s such a matter, our Manage could…”
“It’s fine. It’s a personal matter, and nothing serious. The person next to you is…”
I Danbi, who had been moving her gaze to greet the person sitting next to Manager Jang Narae, suddenly stiffened rigidly.
There was none other than the new S-Rank Admittee Jeong Suho, whom she had set out determined to meet today by any means.
And the man standing next to him was…
‘Joshua Evans… crazy…!’
Joshua, whose whereabouts had been unknown since naturalizing in South Korea, and the mysterious S-Rank Jeong Suho were in the same place.
Suho stood up from his seat and greeted I Danbi, who had lost her words for a moment and was stammering.
“Hello. It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Jeong Suho. You seem to be some kind of clan head.”
“Ah, no… I’m…”
It was then.
Ring ring—
New people noisily poured in.
They were the president, vice president, and several team leaders of Inyeon Agency.
It had been a mistake to choose a cafe near the company.
Suho was the first to recognize them and quickly lowered his head, but it was already too late.
The team leader and vice president, who had been looking around from the counter, spotted Suho and approached.
Especially Team Leader Han Sincheol, who looked like a predator that had cornered its prey in a dead end, was bristling with aggression.
“Yo, Jeong Suho, what are you doing here? I heard some report about a traffic accident came in; these days, do you get into traffic accidents while sitting in cafes too? What time do you think it is, huh? You really do whatever you want, don’t you?”
Perhaps because the president was present, the vice president also joined in on berating Suho.
“Hoo, this discipline is terrible… the newbie is slacking off… President, I’m sorry. I will discipline him firmly.”
“Hmph…”
The president, who had been looking down at Suho with displeasure alongside the vice president and team leader, recognized Jang Narae and his eyes went wide.
“Well, goodness, if it isn’t Manager Jang Narae of Towerpia?”
“Oh, ah, hello. So you were the president.”
“Ha ha, what brings you all the way to this humble place?”
“Well...”
Despite being older and holding the title of president, the president of Inyeon treated Jang Narae with the utmost respect, while Manager Jang showed no sign of tension in dealing with him.
That was how vast the gap was between Towerpia, one of the top management companies, and Inyeon, a small subcontracting agency.
An absolute client-contractor relationship.
“What business do you have with our employee? It seems this fellow has been here skipping work, so the department head must have given him a talking-to. Ha ha. I hope he hasn’t been rude to you in any way. If you tell us, we’ll make sure to give him a stern warning.”
“......”
Jang Narae was displeased by the way the people from Inyeon openly looked down on Jeong Suho, and she glared at the president with a sullen expression.
Lee Danbi had her head lowered, staring only at the ground, and Joshua had, at some point, entered stealth.
The president’s group, eager to make a good impression on Towerpia, the absolute superior party, even bought a heap of slice cakes Jang Narae hadn’t asked for and brought them over to the table before sitting nearby.
This is bad.
It seemed the agency was, in all likelihood, finished.
Suho sprang up from his seat.
“Oh! My! Look at the time! I’ll be going first. I have something urgent to take care of—wow, since you all know each other, that works out nicely. Please, have a good conversation.”
As Suho hurried out of the café, Team Leader Han Sincheol pointed after him and shouted.
“Hey, you arrogant little bastard, where do you think you’re going! Where! The president is here!”
“I’ll be leaving first.”
“Hey, get back here!”
The team leader kicked open the café door and rushed after him, but Suho was already nowhere to be seen.
“What the hell... that bastard... where did he go...”
Both Inyeon’s department head and president were dumbfounded, unable to grasp what was going on.
Suppressing an ominous feeling, the president asked.
“Um... may I ask how you know our employee...?”
At that, Jang Narae asked back in an ice-cold voice.
“That’s what I’d like to ask. How is that gentleman here?”
“That guy is an intern employee here...”
“That gentleman is a highest-tier VVIP premium client of our Towerpia Management.”
“Hrk...... That’s impossible... There must be some huge mistake. Employee Suho is an official new hire who joined after taking both the written exam and the interview. I think you must have come here under some misunderstanding...”
“No, that’s right. The manager is correct.”
As she took off her cap and swept her falling hair back, the president recognized her at a glance—Lee Danbi—and froze like a statue.
“G... good heavens. L-L-L-Lee Danbi, Clan Leader...”
The very thing Suho had feared had come crashing down on him in a single morning.