Chapter 190: The Shaking Empire (3)

Taeseong Hotel underground parking lot.

A black sedan slid down along the dedicated driveway used only by the owner's family.

It was a secret passage perfectly separated from general guests.

As the vehicle stopped, a waiting employee approached and opened the door.

First, Chairman Lim Man-seok slowly raised his body from the back seat.

A clear sound echoed as the cane struck the concrete floor.

Following behind, I, Lim Hyunjun, got out.

This was a place used only by the Taeseong owners.

It was a location difficult for even most executives to come to even once in a lifetime.

Lim Man-seok’s low voice echoed.

“Cheol-woo.”

“Yes, Chairman.”

“Bring Chairman Nam there.”

Kang Cheol-woo immediately bowed his waist.

There was no way Kang Cheol-woo did not know the meaning of there mentioned here.

The private office used only by Chairman Lim Man-seok on the top floor of Taeseong Hotel.

Kang Cheol-woo’s gaze stiffened for a moment and then sank.

“I will personally escort him up.”

Having answered briefly, he stepped back and took out his phone.

He had to move according to Chairman Nam Kun-ho’s arrival time.

“Let us go.”

Lim Man-seok headed toward the private elevator with me.

I walked while assisting him quietly by his side.

The two people passed the glass door and entered the elevator.

It was a lift heading only toward the top floor with no general floor buttons at all.

As the door opened, the two people moved their steps as if they were familiar.

I, Lim Hyunjun, pressed a button with no markings.

The elevator began to rise quietly.

I looked at the side profile of my grandfather standing next to me.

Although his gaze was looking ahead, his mind seemed to be heading toward a much more distant time.

The hand holding the cane repeatedly stiffened minutely and then relaxed.

Even so, Lim Man-seok did not say anything.

At a time when only silence lingered, I recalled the conversation I had with Chairman Lim Man-seok inside the car.

Before long, the elevator stopped.

As the door opened, a completely different world unfolded.

Thanks to the thick carpet spread on the floor, footsteps hardly echoed.

There were almost no decorations in the hallway.

As it was an extremely private place, it seemed to have been simplified.

Finally, as they reached the door with a security device, Lim Man-seok put his hand on the fingerprint recognition device.

With a mechanical sound, the door opened smoothly.

This was the top floor of the Taeseong Hotel.

It was the dedicated office used by Lim Man-seok.

The space was not larger than necessary, but a feeling of decades of time piled up layer by layer permeated strongly.

Bookshelves on the walls, and a leather sofa and a wide table in the center.

A wooden desk on the window side.

Everything was telling the life of the owner of this room.

Lim Man-seok sat on the sofa he usually enjoyed sitting on with familiar steps.

I caught my breath once in the middle of the room.

And I placed my gaze on a wall with no markings.

On the outside, it was a place with no special features.

I pressed a part with a protrusion with my fingertip.

With a low metallic sound, the wall moved slowly.

After turning my head toward Lim Man-seok, I said.

“I will be waiting inside.”

“Yes.”

I went inside the hidden door.

The door found its place again.

Now, only Lim Man-seok remained alone in the office.

The secret space was dim but was well organized in its own way.

As I turned on the switch, the monitors on the wall brightened one by one.

On the screens, the top floor hallway, in front of the elevator, and the inside of the office.

All movement lines on this floor were being captured from different angles.

I, Lim Hyunjun, sat on the chair placed in front of the center monitor and exhaled.

Today, I will watch the moment the heads of two empires, Taeseong and Daehan, sit face to face here.

Since it was a quiet place, the ticking sound of the wall clock’s second hand was heard exceptionally clearly.

I moved my gaze according to the scenes on the screens.

I looked at the monitor screen showing the front of the top floor elevator.

The appearance of Chief Secretary Kang Cheol-woo appeared first.

Behind him, the appearance of a middle-aged man wearing a black coat was revealed.

With a gait that didn't have a single bit of hesitation.

Chairman Nam Kun-ho of Daehan Group.

Behind him, Shin Jung-woo followed while stepping back slightly.

I spat out words as if muttering.

“You have finally come.”

Nam Kun-ho on the screen walked through the hallway while receiving Kang Cheol-woo’s guidance.

The rustling sound of footsteps on the carpet seemed as if it were spreading outside the screen.

A moment later, Kang Cheol-woo stopped in front of the office door.

As he placed his finger on the machine, the door opened.

“Chairman, I have brought Chairman Nam Kun-ho of Daehan Group.”

The three people entered inside the office.

Lim Man-seok, who was sitting on the leather sofa, did not rise from his seat.

Instead, he spoke in an intentionally louder voice while keeping his back straight.

“Chairman Nam, have you come.”

It was a voice confirming that he still held the upper hand in this board.

He made clear who the owner of this place was.

Nam Kun-ho’s gaze turned sharp.

‘Right, you're saying you're still worth living.’

Anger welled up from deep inside his chest, but on the outside, it didn't show at all.

He immediately equipped a familiar smile near his mouth.

“It has been a long time, Chairman.”

He approached one step closer and bowed his waist before slowly sitting on the sofa.

“I heard your health was not good… you look much better than I thought.”

The end of his words seemed polite, but the nuance contained within was not pleasant.

As if saying not to look at this side easily either.

Lim Man-seok’s mouth shape twisted very slightly.

“Haha, where would an old man be? Still, I am Lim Man-seok. I do not die easily.”

On the outside, he was laughing it off heartily, but his gaze was looking straight at Nam Kun-ho.

His gaze looked as if it wouldn't miss a single word, anything the opponent threw.

The air in the room sank heavily.

Formal greetings were exchanged, but it already weighed down on people heavily to the point of being suffocating.

Kang Cheol-woo stepped forward sensibly.

“I will go prepare tea.”

The silence that was suffocating for a moment loosened slightly at those words.

Soon, warm tea was placed on the table.

Lim Man-seok lifted the teacup once and then put it down just like that.

Without even tasting the tea, he turned his gaze toward Nam Kun-ho.

“Cheol-woo.”

“Yes, Chairman.”

“Tell that fellow like a mongrel that Chairman Nam brought to stay outside for a bit.”

The air inside the office froze in an instant.

Shin Jung-woo’s expression stiffened.

Chairman Nam Kun-ho also furrowed his brows in an instant and then smoothed them.

It was a sign of barely holding the corners of his mouth in place that were about to curl up.

‘This old man! You're saying you're still going to come out this way!’

Inside, he ground his teeth, but on the outside, not much showed.

He merely turned his head and signaled toward Shin Jung-woo with his hand.

Shin Jung-woo, who realized the meaning, answered.

“Yes, Chairman.”

After greeting politely like a person without any emotion, he quietly stepped back and went out through the door.

The sound of the door closing was heard exceptionally loudly.

Kang Cheol-woo remained in that spot.

One step behind Lim Man-seok’s right side.

It was a distance from which he could step forward immediately whenever needed.

Now, only three people remained in the room.

Lim Man-seok, Nam Kun-ho, and Kang Cheol-woo, who was standing and guarding silently.

Lim Man-seok lifted the teacup and took a sip.

This time, he seemed to slowly savor the scent.

Only after doing that did he finally bring up the full-scale story.

“Chairman Nam.”

He continued his words while putting down the teacup.

“It seems you have much interest in our Taeseong?”

“Haha. For me, I always have much interest in Taeseong.”

As Nam Kun-ho answered like a slippery snake, Lim Man-seok’s gaze deepened a bit more.

“I suppose that is why you are buying up our company’s stocks so diligently?”

The end of his words sank lowly.

“It is to the point where I begin to wonder if such a thing as business ethics even exists.”

The air sank heavily once more.

He didn't directly say the word thief, but it was a more blatant rebuke than that.

The silence stretched long.

Nam Kun-ho bit the inside of his lip for a moment and then slowly exhaled.

‘You've determined to clash head-on.’

He smiled again.

But his eyes were like those of a wolf.

“In a world like these days, if there is a market, is it not free to buy and sell within it.”

His voice echoed through the office.

“How could I just watch blankly as Taeseong is shaking? We should help each other when times are difficult.”

His words seemed to show courtesy, but a clear message was spread within them.

That us buying up Taeseong stocks was just done according to market principles.

Well, something like that.

Lim Man-seok’s gaze narrowed.

“Is that so?”

He continued his words calmly.

“Is it your way to pick them up when they shake, climb on when it seems they will collapse, and take a seat sitting on top of them when they fall? Chairman Nam. Does our Taeseong look exactly like such a time in your eyes?”

The corners of Nam Kun-ho’s mouth rose up once more.

“Your words always have bones, Chairman, but it is not business, always the difference between a person who sees a gap and a person who does not.”

A chilly energy lingered in his gaze.

“If Taeseong is in a crisis, there is bound to be a person who takes that crisis as an opportunity.”

In an instant, Lim Man-seok’s eyes narrowed.

“It is truly words like you.”

He stopped his words for a moment and put the teacup in his hand.

“Chairman Nam, your father, the first Chairman, did not do business in that way.”

Nam Kun-ho’s pupils shook slightly.

“How a child like you came out from a person like Chairman Nam Young-hoon. Tsk tsk.”

Although it was words thrown as if talking to himself, it was enough to irritate Nam Kun-ho’s feelings.

“Chairman Lim Man-seok!”

An on-edge voice flowed from Nam Kun-ho’s mouth.

However, Lim Man-seok continued his words without caring.

“I still remember even now. I mean your older brother, Nam Mun-ho.”

The moment that name came out, veins appeared on the back of Nam Kun-ho’s hand.

Lim Man-seok continued his words.

“I have stood shoulder to shoulder with that friend since we were young. We were in a relationship where we were criticized together and ran around together since before we knew the world.”

A short moment.

Lim Man-seok’s gaze brushed somewhere in the air and then returned to Nam Kun-ho.

“What kind of state that friend suffered after the first Chairman passed away. There might be many people who do not know, but I know.”

Nam Mun-ho.

The second generation and the eldest son of Daehan Group.

He was a figure who was called the next successor of Daehan at one time.

However, after his father’s death, he stood at the center of a suspicion of corruption that suddenly emerged, and he was also pushed out from management rights.

In the end, not long after being pushed out of the company, he passed away in an accident.

A bitter smile rose inside Lim Man-seok.

‘Accidental death? What a joke.’

Recalling old times, he continued his words.

“Is it not you who kicked out your biological brother in that way and practically took away the company as a whole when it had not been long since your father passed away.”

He intentionally did not stretch the end of his words long.

“After framing him with such an unfair false charge, in the end, he even met a mysterious death.”

Nam Kun-ho’s gaze flashed.

Strength was put into the point his voice cracked.

“Has this old man gone senile. Why are you bringing up that story here now!”

It was the moment the anger he had suppressed until now burst out.

A chilly smile spread near Lim Man-seok’s mouth.

“Right, your true colors are finally coming out.”

Inside, he muttered even more coldly.

‘You killed Mun-ho.’

Although he couldn't bear to spit it out of his mouth, it was a sentence already driven like a nail inside his chest.

“Do you intend to make Taeseong that way as well, like at that time?”

Chairman Lim Man-seok’s voice sank one level lower.

“Where is Do-hyun!”