-Precious Test Subjects
Kim Seonho rubbed his temples as he waited for his subordinates.
Before thinking about countermeasures going forward, he had been reviewing everything that had happened so far, and suddenly anger toward Oudin surged up within him.
“How dare you turn the arrows toward Vanaheim! If you agreed to work under me, you should have become my man. Why would you take the lead in exposing the identity of Vanaheim’s black mage! You dog that bites its master.”
After shouting to his heart’s content by himself, his anger subsided a little.
When he thought about it, it wasn’t as if he didn’t understand why Oudin had done it.
He had always taken the lead in the raids, only to end up saddled with the rumors instead.
Oudin must have had no choice if he wanted to clear his name.
Kim Seonho could understand that much.
In truth, the reason Kim Seonho was angry at Oudin lay elsewhere.
It was because Oudin had frozen Kim Seonho’s precious test subjects solid and sealed them away. That was what truly irritated him.
But blaming only Oudin would not solve the problems before him.
“The problem is the collaborators. If we’re this out of sync, can they even be called collaborators?”
Not a single thing seemed to be proceeding properly.
Why on earth had they attacked Oudin in the first place?
If Oudin was such an obviously powerful mage, they should have brought him over to their side, not thought of turning him into an enemy.
With incompetent fools who didn’t even know the basics running wild, there was no way things could go smoothly.
The one who had suggested framing Oudin was a mage named Loki.
A bat-like fellow somewhere between a white mage and a black mage.
Loki’s role was to move between the government and the Hall, and between Vanaheim and the Magic Tower, serving as an intermediary. He also connected domestic and overseas channels.
He had been given a bat-like role befitting his bat-like nature, yet he had failed to perform even that properly.
By pointlessly turning the arrows toward Oudin, he had ultimately caused the arrows to turn back toward Vanaheim.
‘Idiot. I should deal with Loki before Oudin.’
Kim Seonho could neither make an enemy of Oudin nor kill him right now.
It was only natural. His precious test subjects were being held hostage by Oudin.
Moreover, as someone who was not a mage, Kim Seonho had absolutely no desire to create a situation where he had to face Oudin one-on-one.
‘Oudin must be placed under me. If I give him plenty of the things he wants, I’ll manage somehow.’
Having cooled the anger that had surged up in him with cold reason and calculation, Kim Seonho now pondered what he should do next.
He began to think it would be better not to rescue An Seokju at all.
To protect the company’s reputation, it seemed far easier to cut off the tail.
He did not know how much An Seokju would spill, but even if he confessed everything, they could simply deny it on their end.
After all, they had left no documented evidence anywhere.
‘The collaborators in the Bureau will make their move. Of course they will. Unless Department Head Han Huiyeong plans to give up all the apartments and land I gave her.’
Above all, if a problem arose with Vanaheim, the collaborators in the government and the Hall would all be in trouble as well. They would not be able to sit by and let that happen.
For that reason, Kim Seonho was not particularly worried.
His only headache was this damnable situation that had forced him awake before dawn.
Just then, the bodyguard who had gone out into the hallway returned to the living room.
Two men followed behind the bodyguard, but they were not the chief secretary and the head of the strategic research office Kim Seonho had been waiting for.
They were strangers. No, one of them seemed somewhat familiar.
They were probably mages from the Bureau.
“Chairman, mages from the Bureau have come looking for you.”
The bodyguard spoke with an awkward expression.
He seemed to feel responsible for failing to stop them outside and having allowed them to follow him in.
Of course, the mages must have been forceful about it.
Kim Seonho gestured for the bodyguard to step back, then turned his gaze toward the mages.
“What is this about? At this hour before dawn?”
One of the mages stepped forward.
“I’m Team Leader Yu Jaeseon of the Bureau. It’s urgent, so we came at this hour. You’ve heard that Researcher An Seokju has been arrested, haven’t you?”
Team Leader Yu Jaeseon, working diligently until dawn without sleep.
Kim Seonho committed that name and face to memory.
“Yes. I heard a short while ago.”
“You know what the charges are, don’t you? We believe Researcher An Seokju is the black mage who carried out yesterday’s terror attack.”
“Is that so? Do you have evidence? Because Researcher An Seokju is a mage? Our company has more than just one or two mages.”
“That is why we came to ask you to come with us to the Bureau, Chairman. From here on, we intend to prove that Researcher An Seokju is a black mage, and that can only be done at the Bureau. There are also things we need to ask you.”
“You’re telling me to come to the Bureau at this hour before dawn?”
Kim Seonho asked back with a broad smile on his face.
He was so annoyed that he was smiling instead.
Yet his expression looked quite gentle. It was his businessman’s smile, no different from a mask.
‘What? You want to take me there and prove right in front of my eyes that An Seokju is a black mage? You’re saying you’ll expose him before me so I can’t wriggle out of it.’
On the other hand, there was not the slightest trace of laughter on Yu Jaeseon’s face. He did not react at all to Kim Seonho’s smile.
Even standing before the chairman of Vanaheim, there was no sign of him lowering himself.
His arrogance was on par with Oudin’s.
Would his magical ability also be on par with Oudin’s?
“Yesterday, Chairman, you said that there were no black mages in Vanaheim, and that perhaps an outside black mage had infiltrated and caused the incident. But wouldn’t it be surprising if there were a black mage inside the company? I thought you would be more curious than anyone, so we wanted to show you first.”
Yu Jaeseon spoke with shameless composure.
This man was playing a psychological game right now.
But Kim Seonho was not someone who would fall for that so easily.
“No. I’m not curious at all.”
“Pardon?”
“There is no way there would be a black mage inside the company. Moreover, a black mage in a bio company like ours? Researcher An Seokju is simply a mage. I trust the Bureau, so please verify it and inform me of the results. I don’t see any reason why I must attend in person.”
For the moment, he denied it.
The thing he hated most was the idea of following this man to the Bureau right now.
“Are you saying that you trust Researcher An Seokju?”
“He is an employee, so of course I trust him. However, if it turns out he has been hiding his identity even from the company all this time, then that would be a serious mistake on our part, and the company will have to prepare measures.
In any case, determining whether he is a black mage or not is the Bureau’s responsibility, so please handle it yourselves. I have things I must do as the chairman of Vanaheim.”
He subtly took another step back.
Kim Seonho disliked the fact that his words had grown lengthy, as if he were making excuses.
He also disliked the way Yu Jaeseon slowly nodded and quietly looked at him.
“Understood. Then the Bureau will handle the Bureau’s work on its own. However, Chairman, you will have to come to the Bureau at least once.”
Had he said he was Team Leader Yu Jaeseon?
Kim Seonho looked at him with the same smiling face.
‘Team leader? A greenhorn mage, and yet he’s rampaging around without knowing heaven from earth.’
He would run wild, going on about justice without knowing the circumstances, but if he was only a team leader, Department Head Han Huiyeong would easily suppress him.
And that was not all. There were collaborators among high-ranking government officials as well.
No matter how much mages were a privileged class in society, the world did not run on mages alone. Financial power was also no trivial authority.
“Whatever you plan to do, let’s do it after daybreak. Don’t try to drag away someone you woke from his sleep. I’ll make time and come by once.”
“Understood. We apologize for the intrusion at this hour.”
In the end, Yu Jaeseon and the other mage obediently left.
Things had gone as Kim Seonho wished, but perhaps they had not come expecting to take Kim Seonho away immediately either. Maybe they had simply barged in at dawn to probe him.
Kim Seonho chewed over the things he had said.
He felt that, unlike usual, he might have reacted a little emotionally.
‘I’m starting to hate every last one of those mage bastards.’
Whether it was proud, arrogant mages like Oudin and Yu Jaeseon, or the mages in the palm of his hand who were so incompetent they could not handle their tasks properly, he found them all equally unpleasant.
The black mages were no different.
The foolish An Seokju had gotten himself arrested, Yasin, blinded by greed, was running around making a mess, and the bat Loki had ruined everything.
There was nothing better about black mages either.
“They’re all so pathetic I can’t stand to watch.”
Kim Seonho had never once been disappointed in the fact that he was not a mage.
Back when he and Yasin had both been researchers, Yasin had always been ahead of Kim Seonho.
Perhaps the advantage of being a mage had played a part. But that was all in the past now.
At present, Kim Seonho was a successful entrepreneur who had built an enormous company with his own hands, while Yasin was nothing more than a black mage working under someone else.
‘So what if I’m not a mage?’
With his outstanding research ability as a scientist and his exceptional instincts as an entrepreneur, Kim Seonho had carved out his own success.
He was an exceptional person.
If mages possessed the absolute weapon called magic, then he had test subjects.
His precious test subjects were the weapons that would lead Kim Seonho to even greater victory.
“I mustn’t miss the timing. Opportunity must be seized when it comes. I’ll have to move up the release of the Golden Apple. And then I’ll show this foolish world what I’m capable of.”
Kim Seonho sprang to his feet.
He crossed the living room, took the internal elevator, and headed for the penthouse’s secret space.
The top floor of the Vanaheim Building. There was the chairman’s secret space.
To others, it looked like a place filled with several enormous safes. In reality, however, those were not safes.
If they were safes, they would only be stacked full of lifeless valuables, but living creatures dwelled in that secret space.
Extremely deadly living creatures, at that.
“I’ll have to turn the clock a little faster.”
Now, even if it was imperfect, he had no choice but to release the Golden Apple.
It had passed clinical trials well enough, so there should be no particular problem.
Along with the release, he would have to stage a dazzling event to seize people’s attention.
“After all, I still have my precious test subjects.”
Kim Seonho giggled like a child as he entered the secret space.
* * *
When I came back out from the magical space to the rooftop room, I heard someone knocking on the front door.
It was a quiet, cautious knock.
At first, I thought Gil had come up.
But when I opened the door, to my surprise, Yu Jaeseon was standing before me.
I never imagined that someone who had talked with me late into the night and then left would come looking for me again as soon as morning arrived.
“What is it?”
Naturally, I assumed there had been another terror attack.
Otherwise, there would be no reason for Yu Jaeseon to come to my house so early in the morning.
But there was no tension at all on Yu Jaeseon’s face.
If anything, he looked languid in a way unlike his usual self. In his hands, he held two cups of coffee.
“How about some morning coffee? I came because there’s something I need to tell you.”
Looking closely, it seemed Yu Jaeseon had also stayed up all night.