Chapter 192

Slouched crooked in his chair, Cheon Sangcheol tipped his chin up and let his complaint fly.

His eyes were fixed on me, plain as day.

"This has been bugging me since the last time, actually. What's so special about our Deputy Guild Master Chae that everyone's falling all over him like this, hm?"

He snorted, sneering.

"Coddling him because he's the great Bureau Chief's precious little son? Or is there some other backer I don't know about?"

"…"

"For the life of me, I can't figure out what the world's Rank One and Rank Three see in a kid like that."

Inwardly, I let out a dry laugh.

Something about me, my ass. It's the kids they want.

Han Jewoon looked out for me because I'd fixed Choi Juran's core, and because he was scheming to bring Chae Ganghyeon down with me at his side.

And lately, with all the Scissors Squad business, he'd clearly grown quietly fond of the kids too.

Julia was the same.

Her goodwill toward me came from the fact that I was the guardian of the children in the vision — nothing to do with me personally.

Well — if he insists on misreading it that way, all the better for me.

I sneered inwardly at the stupid misread and kept my mouth shut.

Across from me, Han Jewoon cracked a small grin and stepped in.

"Why's our Guild Master Cheon so curious about that, hm? What — throwing a tantrum for my attention now?"

"Wh-who's asking for your attention?!"

Cheon Sangcheol snapped, voice rising.

"You're all so wound up over Deputy Guild Master Chae, it's ridiculous! What's this — bowing down 'cause his father runs the Bureau? I'm the heir to Cheonun Group, Korea's number-one conglomerate, for god's sake!"

"Pff — hahaha!"

Han Jewoon clutched his stomach and burst into a full-throated laugh.

"Now that's a proper kid's whine. Guild Master Cheon — you're saying that because you haven't seen our Junhyeok's real worth yet. What a fine talent our Junhyeok is — let me tell you—"

Han Jewoon started the buildup, sly, then cut himself off and shot a sidelong glance at Leo and Julia.

"Ehh~ don't feel like wearing my mouth out just to grow my own competition~"

He clamped his lips shut and gave a strange, sly little smile.

…What. He didn't actually have anything to praise? Competition, my ass.

As I clicked my tongue, exasperated, Cheon Sangcheol only worked himself up more.

"Ah, why cut off there?! Whatever, forget it!"

He raked his hair, testy, and got to the point.

"I've been busting my back for three weeks scraping the bottom, and I brought back the most useful intel out of anyone here. Even nailed their branch names. Shouldn't there be a little something in it for me?"

A reward.

So that was why he'd been sitting quiet.

Julia asked, expression not moving a hair.

"What sort of reward do you want?"

Cheon Sangcheol turned on a smile, oily and smarmy, as if he hadn't been red-faced a moment ago.

"Nothing much. Just — a pretty picture. World Rank One Veritas and Korea's Rank One, Two, and Three, all bound up in tight cooperation… that kind of image. All you have to do is stand for the cameras with me. One official appearance."

A press play…?

I frowned before I could help it.

I was wondering why he was suddenly so desperate for media exposure when a single fact popped into my head.

Ah. Come to think of it… Cheonun Group's in the middle of a succession war right now, isn't it?

Rumor had been all over the place lately: with the chairman's health taking a sharp turn for the worse, an all-out succession war had kicked off between the three siblings — eldest son, second daughter, and the youngest, Cheon Sangcheol.

The odds-on favorite was, hands down, the eldest son, Cheon Sangmin.

He ran the group's core business — mana stone distribution — and held the CEO seat at Cheonun Distribution rock-solid.

But the second daughter, Cheon Sangyeon, was close on his heels.

She ran the labs at the heart of mana stone processing, and had a reputation as a ruthless operator and a formidable talent in her own right.

She was closing on the eldest son fast — breathing down his neck.

A brutal race between two heavyweights.

And in the middle of all that, the only Awakened of the three siblings — the one perched at the head of Cheonun Guild — was the youngest, Cheon Sangcheol. But…

Awakened title or not, his standing inside the group is exactly what it was eight years ago. Nothing.

Shoved aside, helpless, by a brother and sister who were monsters in their own right — he was in a precarious spot, the kind where you could be tossed to the curb any day.

That was where Cheon Sangcheol stood, at present.

Which meant a grand title like cooperating with the world's Rank One guild, and the image play that came with it, would be desperately necessary for him. Bone-deep necessary.

Leo, who'd finally had enough, twisted his brow up hard and muttered.

"What a joker. Can't even manage a thank-you for us going after your country's terrorists — and now he wants a reward?"

Cheon Sangcheol's shoulders flinched at the savage tone, but he pointedly avoided Leo's eyes and stuck his lip out.

"Hmph! Wh-what, we running a charity here?"

Cheon Sangcheol kept sneaking careful little glances at Leo, but forced out a snort to keep from looking cowed.

"I mean — if you don't like it, take it through the government or the Bureau instead of private guilds like us! You're the ones who pulled us together to run this on the quiet."

…Not wrong.

The Awakened Liberation Front was a large-scale terrorist outfit threatening national security.

By normal procedure, it should be the Korean government and the Bureau cooperating with Veritas — not private guilds.

So why go out of the way to rope in private guilds, and to do it in secret?

When I looked over at her, puzzled, Julia spoke, expression flat.

"The moment we understood the situation, we formally requested cooperation from the Korean government and the Bureau. But…"

Her eyes went cold as they swept the Korean rankers.

"All we got back were excuses and stalling. The intelligence the four of you pulled together in under a month — they hadn't caught a whiff of it in the past several. Incompetence or intent, I couldn't tell you."

…!

At that chilling revelation, a massive puzzle piece slid into place in my head with a horrifyingly perfect click.

Chae Ganghyeon's stonewalling it.

Chae Ganghyeon — Bureau Chief of Korea's Awakened Management Bureau.

He had to be deliberately burying information, hobbling Veritas, dragging things out.

The Bureau and the Awakened Liberation Front had always had a quiet, symbiotic thing going — watching each other's backs from the start.

"Well, in that case…"

Somehow emboldened by her words, Cheon Sangcheol shrugged and started putting on airs.

"Either way, we're the ones shouldering the dirty work here. Just stand for one photo with me in front of the press. That much is nothing, right?"

Julia sat silent, thinking, then spoke.

"Understood. I'll accept — on the condition that everyone else here attends as well."

Han Jewoon quirked one eyebrow at that and answered, bored.

"Why would I?"

Namgoong Yeojin, likewise, didn't even open her tightly closed eyes — just shook her head, firm.

"I too have no wish to appear in a crowded place."

Cut off on both sides, Julia turned her eyes on me next.

I hurriedly drew a line.

"I'd rather pass, personally."

I meant it.

I'd had more than enough of the insane media frenzy around Sea-ah's second awakening — it had put me right off.

Things had barely settled since. Zero interest in walking myself back into the gossip mill on my own two feet.

That was when the same telepathy as before drove into my head.

[Deputy Guild Master. Please.]

No — just the two of you go. I don't want to be tangled up in it.

[If I stand alone with that man in front of the press, we'll get flooded with speculation pieces — 'Veritas has agreed to back Cheonun,' that kind of thing. I have no interest in seeing the Veritas name tangled up in cheap politics like that.]

Her logic wasn't unreasonable.

The Guild Master of the world's Rank One and the heir to Cheonun Group, side by side under a barrage of camera flashes, just the two of them?

— Veritas and Cheonun Form Alliance of the Century!

— Cheonun Group Successor-Apparent Cheon Sangcheol Backed by World Rank One…

Headlines like those would splash across every portal-site homepage, big as billboards — dragging her name into a long, sticky mess for years to come.

But with our guild planted right there between them?

The tidy picture Cheon Sangcheol was so desperate for — a tight partnership between two mega-guilds, just the two of them — would shatter clean.

My head got it. I still didn't want any part of it.

Even so — I'll pass—

Just as I was about to refuse —

[A massive overload gate broke open in Poland yesterday. Wouldn't you like another refined Chaos Mana Stone or two?]

…Nnnnngh!

I swallowed a groan.

Refined Chaos Mana Stones gathered so far, counting the one Sea-ah had already drunk: four.

Six kids meant I still needed two more.

And I had less than six months left on my self-imposed escape deadline.

The bait she'd tossed out was fatally tempting — no way to turn it down.

…Fine! I'll go.

At my surrender, the corner of Julia's mouth curled up — just barely, I could have sworn.

But she turned her head away, sharp, before I could confirm it.

"Deputy Guild Master Chae Junhyeok will be accompanying me."

"Huh? What's this — our Junhyeok's coming along?"

Han Jewoon blinked, thrown.

When I nodded, his eyes lit up with interest.

"Yeah? Then I'm going too."

"What the fuck?! You cut me off flat when I said let's go together, and now—!"

Cheon Sangcheol flew off the handle, but Han Jewoon didn't let it so much as graze his ears — ignored him outright.

Namgoong Yeojin held her ground to the very end — silent throughout.

I let out a small sigh and asked Cheon Sangcheol.

"So — when and where?"

Cheon Sangcheol answered, strutting again like he hadn't just been screaming a second ago.

"Next weekend. Cheonun Group's New Year's party."

"Direektuh's going to a paarty?"

Over to the side, the kids who'd been watching Sea-ah and Julia's training sat huddled together, chattering.

And, naturally, mixed in right beside them was Leo — leaning at an angle against the training-hall wall, rolling a lollipop around in his mouth.

Leo gave the kids a cool little nod.

"Yeah, whatever. Other guild masters are all going. Han Jewoon, Julia — everyone."

"Whoaaa…"

Looking down at the kids' shining eyes, Leo clicked his tongue inwardly.

Little kids, to him, had always been nothing but noisy, stupid creatures.

At first he'd only been holding down a corner of the training hall with an eye on hauling the whole batch over to Veritas down the road — putting his face in front of them early, laying the groundwork.

But the more time he spent knocking around with them, the more his thinking shifted.

Well… they show enough promise that there's some fun in watching them, at least.

The genius artifact maker who could polish raw stones into the finest gems.

Even to his exacting artisan's eye, every one of the kids in front of him was a top-grade raw stone, brimming with overwhelming potential.

Enough to crumble the standards of a stuck-up teenage genius, helpless in the face of it.

Of course, Leo's own social skills were scraping the floor too, so more often than not he'd end up bickering with the kids on their level, as childish as any of them.

But days on end holed up in the training hall, tangling with them — before he noticed, he'd gotten pretty stuck on the little brats.

"Yaaay~ Party shoundsh gweat! What'sh at a party? Are there wots of shparkly things?"

"There'll be lots of yummy food too, I bet!"

Leo huffed a small laugh at their shining eyes.

"Obviously. Fancy buffet laid out end to end, big-name performers coming through — your eyes'll spin."

"Whoaaa… shoundsh sho gweat. I wanna go too…"

"Wait — you've never been to a party?"

When Leo asked without thinking, the youngest ones stuck their lips out and answered.

"Of coursh not! Direektuh won't wet ush!"

"We wanna go to a fancy place like that with the Director too!"

Fair enough. Given Chae Junhyeok's manic overprotectiveness — the man came sprinting across a room if a kid so much as stumbled in the distance — zero chance he'd bring little ones like these to a place like that.

Hmm… maybe I can rack up a few points with the brats here.

In that moment —

An outrageously clever, wicked idea flashed through the peerless genius's head.

Leo dropped his voice to a conspiratorial whisper and flashed them a wicked little teenage-brat grin.

"You guys… wanna sneak into a party?"