57.
‘It’s because of the trauma.’
Despite trying hard, it seemed he was still lacking. Yu Jin sighed and moved his steps. Still, today’s harvest wasn’t bad. It was the first day of activities, and he had already received several invitations.
Now Keith or Haruna would choose the suitable ones among them.
‘I should watch the opera with a peaceful mind.’
Fortunately, none of the Lucid family members had a schedule to come to the opera house today. So Yu Jin could comfortably enjoy the performance sitting in a private box with Jinhyeon.
As Yu Jin sat in the plush chair, Jinhyeon stood behind him.
“Aren’t you tired?”
When Yu Jin asked in a whisper, Jinhyeon replied,
“I’m fine.”
All day long, Jinhyeon had been chasing away people with bad intentions who approached Yu Jin. Originally, Keith wanted to accompany as a guard, but Haruna held him back.
“Where do you think you’re going with so much work to do!”
“I know, but I can’t leave Yu Jin alone.”
“He’s not alone. We’re sending Jinhyeon with him, and other guards will be watching from unseen places.”
“But still!”
“No. I can’t do all this by myself. We can’t just sit Jinhyeon down here and make him work, right? You know we can’t use someone else for this right now.”
So Keith remained at the mansion with the paperwork.
While exchanging light conversation with Jinhyeon, the third and final bell rang, and the curtain covering the stage rose. Then, amidst the flowing music, the currently most popular singer, Arina, appeared singing.
“The Fairy of Lutiel” was an ordinary story with appropriate melodrama and love. In modern times, there were many harsher and sadder stories, but Yu Jin still enjoyed times like this.
“It’s fun.”
In response to Yu Jin’s inadvertent comment, Jinhyeon replied,
“Then shall we come see it again?”
Yu Jin would have to visit various cultural facilities, including the opera house, to attract people’s attention for the time being. Knowing this, Jinhyeon’s words made Yu Jin laugh.
“Sure.”
Yu Jin answered as he stood up from his seat.
Yu Jin, elaborately dressed by the maids, was extremely beautiful. Because of this, people’s gazes didn’t leave him even after he entered the box seat. Even as the song continued on stage, there were people looking at him intermittently, and seeing this, Jinhyeon thought,
‘I want to pluck out their eyeballs.’
Then they wouldn’t be able to look at Yu Jin anymore. Jinhyeon moved his body to shield Yu Jin from others’ gazes. Whether aware of this or not, Yu Jin was staring intently at the stage. His eyes, reflecting the sparkling lights, shone brilliantly.
If angels really existed, wouldn’t they look like this?
Even Jinhyeon ended up thinking so. Seeing Yu Jin’s expression brighten at the suggestion to come again next time, it seemed he liked opera more than expected.
‘This isn’t bad either.’
As he smiled without realizing it, suddenly his mood turned sour. Wondering why, Jinhyeon glanced around and spotted a familiar face in the opposite box seat. Upon confirming who it was, Jinhyeon smiled, stretching his mouth wide.
It was him.
The person Jinhyeon had wanted to tear apart and kill all along, Count Lumine. There were many people he wanted to kill since falling into this world, but currently, he was the top priority. Next was that Ahmed guy.
Although Count Lumine was likely unaware, Jinhyeon, Keith, and Haruna already knew what he had done. There are no eternal secrets in the world, and even seemingly perfect secrets leak out somewhere. Count Lumine’s secret was no exception.
After the incident, Keith’s spy planted in Lucid had relayed the contents of a conversation between Count Lumine and Ahmed. He probably intended to gain benefits without dirtying his own hands, but soon he would regret his actions while shedding tears of blood.
Because Jinhyeon would make it so.
Suddenly, his eyes met with a noble in the adjacent box seat. As soon as he saw Jinhyeon, the noble made an expression as if he’d seen something frightening and turned his head away. Only then did Jinhyeon cover his mouth with his hand. The mask he was wearing now only covered his eyes and bridge of his nose, so his expression must have been fully visible.
“What are you doing?”
Fortunately, Yu Jin didn’t seem to have noticed.
“It’s nothing.”
When Jinhyeon lowered his hand, he had already returned to his usual expression. He escorted Yu Jin, moving his steps leisurely.
In a dilapidated house in the back alley, a middle-aged man was frantically searching through the house. He pulled out drawers and opened the wardrobe, pulling out clothes. But no matter how much he searched, there was nothing of value.
“Why, why isn’t there anything?”
The middle-aged man, Ulan, gritted his teeth. Originally, he was one of the thugs in the back alley working under Hans. He had lived comfortably, gambling and harassing women as he pleased while sticking to Hans, but now he couldn’t live like that anymore. It was because Hans had been killed.
Who would have thought that Hans would die! He had joined Hans thinking he was the strongest in the back alley, but it seemed he had made the wrong choice. After Hans died, Blando started cleaning up the back alleys with some unknown people. Many people died in the process. Although he had managed to avoid it so far, Ulan might soon be caught and end up in the same situation as them.
“That can’t happen!”
After much deliberation, Ulan decided to leave the back alley. But he couldn’t leave empty-handed. The world wasn’t kind enough to flee without a penny. So he returned home after a long time, but there was no one inside.
It seemed his wife and son were out.
‘Not bad.’
If they had both been home, they would have tried to stop him from taking the money. This was better. Ulan left the bedroom and headed to the kitchen. Just as he was about to open the cupboard, the door opened and his wife entered, calling out to him in a surprised voice.
“Ulan?”
Then she made a shocked expression seeing the messy house.
“Shit, you scared me! Where’s the money?”
Ulan yelled at his wife, intimidating her. As he approached with raised fists, his wife, who usually trembled at such times, replied unusually calmly.
“You still haven’t changed. But I…”
His wife clasped her hands in front of her chest.
“I…”
She shook her head and moved her steps to the side. Through the gap that formed, a man rushed in.
“Ulan!”
The man immediately struck Ulan with his fist.
“Ugh!”
It wasn’t just a simple fist, but he was wearing a tool with sharp spikes on his hand. Because of this, even though he was hit only once, blood flowed profusely.
“Hey, you son of a bitch! Come at me!”
Ulan tried to somehow avoid the attack and escape, but it was useless. Amidst the sound of his wife’s sobbing, he was beaten until his bones broke. He fainted in the middle but was beaten awake again. This repeated until at some point he couldn’t open his eyes anymore.
Then the small child who had been comforting the wife asked the man,
“Is he dead?”
“No, you said to keep him alive. Said he might know something.”
“Ah, yes. I did say that.”
The small child, San, narrowed his eyes and glared at the man, Gee. Does this person not understand the meaning of keeping someone alive? To extract information, they need to be alive enough to speak, but at this rate, it seemed he would breathe his last soon.
“Let’s take care of that person for now. We need to get back quickly and show him to a doctor.”
“What? Why? To treat him?”
“Don’t we need him alive to extract information?”
San scolded Gee and moved his steps. Meanwhile, Ulan’s wife had stopped crying at some point. She looked at her husband being dragged away by Gee and the messy house, then bowed her head to the two. It seemed she was trying to completely cut off any lingering attachments.
‘That’s good.’
It’s better to abandon someone like him. San wished for the wife’s happiness. Then, after completely erasing that affair from his mind, he looked at the notebook in his hand.
“This side is almost cleaned up.”
“Really? Then what should we do next?”
“Based on the information we’ve extracted, we need to steal the assets Hans and Green had hidden, and use that to solidify our power. Wait, didn’t I say this at the last meeting too?”
“I told you I don’t like using my head.”
Gee yawned and patted San’s head.
“Aaargh! Blood, blood! I told you not to pat my head with your dirty hands!”
“What’s the big deal. Just wash it later.”
“Do you know how precious water is!”
“Then wipe it off.”
Despite San’s protests, Gee just snorted. After Blando decided to stick with Yu Jin, Yu Jin sent this little kid. He had heard that they would raise him well and make him the ruler of the back alleys later, but seeing how small and thin he was, it was hard to tell when he would grow up. Moreover, after trying him out a few times, Gee felt that this kid had no talent for combat.
“Why can’t you do that?”
“No, how am I supposed to do this?”
Gee frequently quarreled and fought with San.
