100.
‘Is he sincere?’
In the past, she would have believed those words, but now doubt arose first. Haruna couldn’t fully trust Jinhyeon.
Haruna turned and walked away silently. Then she stood in front of Yu Jin’s room. By now, all preparations should have been completed. When she opened the tightly closed door, the living room came into view first. Where a table and sofa would usually be, there was a coffin instead.
Seeing this, Jinhyeon’s body flinched. As he looked like he might rush to the coffin at any moment, Haruna shook her head.
“Not there.”
Haruna pointed to the bedroom. After hesitating for a moment, Jinhyeon turned his steps in that direction.
Yu Jin’s bedroom hadn’t changed much since Jinhyeon left the mansion. The neatly arranged room had a familiar scent. It was a faint fragrance of flower petals, with a soft sweetness that could be felt as one inhaled. It was a scent that resembled Yu Jin.
Why had he forgotten all of this?
Jinhyeon stepped into the bedroom and approached the bed by the window. On the bedside table, an incense burner was placed, from which white smoke continuously rose. Though it had no scent, it felt quite strong when inhaled. He then looked at the person lying on the bed. Yu Jin looked like someone peacefully asleep. However, his pale face and motionless body revealed that he was already dead.
“Yu Jin.”
He called the name just in case, but there was no answer. Still, thinking that maybe Yu Jin hadn’t heard, he raised his voice.
“Yu Jin, Yu Jin.”
Even to his desperate calls, Yu Jin didn’t move a muscle. Only then did Jinhyeon slowly begin to realize the reality. The last hope he had been holding onto, even while knowing that Yu Jin was dead, shattered into pieces. He shouldn’t have accepted the glass from Lyunne. Even if he had accepted it, he shouldn’t have drunk it. Belated regret tormented Jinhyeon.
He knelt beside the bed and stroked Yu Jin’s hand with trembling fingers. The faint warmth he felt gave him the illusion that Yu Jin might still be alive.
‘But that’s impossible, isn’t it?’
Jinhyeon stared intently at Yu Jin, swallowing his tears. He wanted to wail, but he felt he didn’t have the right to do so. He asked Haruna, who was leaning against the doorway.
“When is the funeral?”
“Soon.”
“Then there’s still time.”
“What time are you talking about?”
Haruna asked back, but Jinhyeon didn’t answer. He just slowly got up from his seat.
“You’re planning to do something, aren’t you?”
To the urgent question, Jinhyeon raised the corners of his mouth.
“You’re not planning to attack the Duke’s family, are you?”
The Duke’s family. Jinhyeon knew that Lyunne was behind all of this. But she was the beloved youngest daughter of the Duke’s family. It was obvious that something big would happen if he harmed her.
‘But so what?’
Yu Jin was dead. Jinhyeon didn’t care what happened to the rest of the world. Of course, even if he had shown remarkable achievement in swordsmanship, it would be impossible for him to kill all the knights of the Duke’s family alone. He might not even be able to touch Lyunne. If that happened, he would die miserably without accomplishing anything. He knew this, but it didn’t stir much emotion in him.
“Don’t do it.”
Haruna tried to dissuade Jinhyeon in an anxious voice. But Jinhyeon had no intention of listening to her words.
After deciding to fake his death, the first thing Yu Jin did was to find a drug that would make it possible. At first, he had planned to just spread rumors, but he felt that doing only that might reveal the fake death. In modern classic novels, there were drugs that could fake death. Surely in a world where magic existed, such drugs would exist too?
“Is there a drug that can fake death?”
To Yu Jin’s question, Keith answered.
“There is, but it’s dangerous.”
“And it’s hard to obtain!”
Haruna quickly added, but Yu Jin didn’t budge.
“If it’s hard to obtain, that means it can be obtained, right?”
For a moment, Keith shot a reproachful glance at Haruna. Haruna also covered her mouth with an “oops,” but Yu Jin had already heard everything.
“Get it for me.”
“No. What did I say? I said it’s dangerous.”
“How is it dangerous? Will I not be able to wake up again?”
“That’s not it. It’s just that since it was originally used as poison, it’s harmful to the body.”
“Haruna.”
“I know. I know, but even if I don’t say anything, you’ll find out from somewhere else anyway. I thought it would be better if we explained it to you.”
Yu Jin’s network of connections seemed narrow but was actually quite broad. In terms of normal people, he didn’t have many connections, but for those who weren’t normal, he had quite a few. Now, he had cut off contact with all such people, but it was hard to predict how Yu Jin, hungry for information, would act. Right now, Yu Jin was like a volcano about to erupt.
“Okay. So I won’t die, right? Please get me the drug.”
“Why do you keep ignoring the part about it being harmful?”
“No matter how harmful the drug is, it can’t be worse than how I feel right now. I feel like I’m going to die from depression in my current state, so the drug might be better.”
Eventually, Keith and Haruna had to give in to Yu Jin’s persistence and various methods of persuasion.
“But I’m not going to drink it without thinking. If I’m going to drink that, there should be some benefit too.”
For that reason, he informed Tulin and Ruhan, the head of the Lucid family, of the truth. Tulin decided to eliminate those who might become enemies among the people who had clung to them after the success of the department store, and Ruhan said he would bring down some of the elders. Once things were settled that way, all that was left was for Jinhyeon to return.
Yu Jin stared at the drug that Keith had obtained for him. The writhing purple liquid looked unappetizing to drink.
“If I drink this, I’ll look like a dead person in an instant, right?”
“Yes. But don’t drink it right away. The effect doesn’t last long. You should drink it briefly at the critical moment.”
“Wasn’t there anything with a longer-lasting effect?”
“There is. There’s something that can make you look dead for over a day. However, with those, there’s a low chance, but you might not wake up again. You don’t really want to die, right?”
“…Right.”
How unfair would it be if Jinhyeon returned and Yu Jin couldn’t wake up? Yu Jin gripped the vial tightly.
At first, he was so overwhelmed with despair that he didn’t properly recognize the situation when Jinhyeon had changed his mind. So he thought it was punishment for ruining the progression of the original novel. But after his mind cleared a bit later, he realized that probably wasn’t the case. The champagne that Jinhyeon had received from Lyunne at that time – it seemed that Lyunne had done something to it.
‘Right, in this world, there was a drug that could brainwash people.’
Of course, it wasn’t easy to obtain. Because the secret organization of the continent, Leviathan, held that drug. So if such a drug existed, Lyunne shouldn’t have been able to obtain it. If she could obtain it, there was only one answer.
‘Leviathan has sided with Lyunne.’
If that’s the case, it would be the person named Grey who had been around Lyunne for not too long. The novel didn’t describe the faces of all Leviathan members, so Yu Jin hadn’t known until now.
‘But is this okay?’
Originally, Lyunne, who should have met Jinhyeon and blossomed her ambitions, was now walking a different path due to Leviathan. It seemed that Ruhan, the head of the Lucid family, also gritted his teeth at the mention of Leviathan. Unless the Duke is a fool, he must be suspecting Grey after seeing Lyunne’s actions. It would have been better if they had used the drug on Yu Jin instead.
For the Duke, having the heir of Lucid as a son-in-law would have been a good thing, so even while suspecting Grey, he wouldn’t touch him. Ruhan would also be suspicious seeing Yu Jin’s actions, but he wouldn’t touch him immediately. He was a person who didn’t have affection for his children in the first place. If he found out about the connection with Leviathan at an appropriate time, he would have eliminated Yu Jin. That would have ended the relationship with the Duke.
It seems Lyunne really liked Jinhyeon. But that didn’t make Yu Jin want to give up. He didn’t know about later, but right now, Jinhyeon loved Yu Jin. So instead of being scared and backing down thinking about the future, Yu Jin decided to move forward more actively.
That’s how the plan began.
Rumors spread from the mansion, with Tulin adding credibility and Lucid confirming them. Yu Jin’s death caused changes here and there. Elders who had been dissatisfied since he became the heir seized the opportunity to speak up, and many of those who had clung to him after seeing the success of the department store fell away.
During this process, Haruna and Keith’s activities were remarkable. They perfectly filled and organized the place where Yu Jin was absent. And just as things were somewhat settled, Jinhyeon came.
Yu Jin, who had been cooped up in his room going through documents, immediately put away the papers and swallowed the drug when he heard the news of Jinhyeon’s arrival. The feeling of the drug going down his throat was strange and made him feel like vomiting, but he endured it. And as he lay on the bed, darkness soon came. His vision went black and he couldn’t move his body, but strangely, he could still hear sounds.
