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Side Story: To You Far, Far Away 1
“Dad, do you know about the Hwa Empire?”
Michael Riegel tried not to show his surprise as he heard his son Sebastian’s question.
“The Hwa Empire? Where is that?”
“It’s a country that existed a long time ago, but I’m not sure where. Somewhere in Asia, I think.”
It was Christmas. Seeing the world overflowing with carols made Michael’s stomach turn. Carols? Blessings? His wife screamed every day and couldn’t sleep or breathe without drinking. The children weren’t receiving proper care, and his once-proud eldest son was barely awake for four hours a day. The doctors said his son might be crippled for life or unable to write, and yet, ‘overflowing blessings and a happy new year’? He wished everyone would just die. He’d have no regrets if the world ended.
“I’ll look into where it is.”
“Okay… I think someone I know lives there. Dad, I might have developed some kind of superpower.”
Good Lord.
While hospitalized in the VIP room, Sebastian was talking about superpowers. The doctor said Sebastian’s delusions had worsened as a means of escaping reality, but who would have thought those delusions would be ‘superpowers’? Sebastian believed he was meeting someone from a distant country, the Hwa Empire, through his dreams.
“His name is Shin-yeon. But I can see him, and he can’t really see me.”
Sebastian chattered happily. His face, which had been swollen, had subsided a lot, but he still couldn’t move his arms and legs well. Startled by loud noises, wary of strangers, and unable to live a normal life due to screaming, the son was alone in the hospital room even on Christmas. The younger brother was left with his grandparents, and the newborn baby sister was being cared for by a nanny while Michael had to earn money and find the culprit. The son was left alone among numerous gifts, talking about a friend he met in his dreams.
Is it a reflection of the child’s psychology that even the child he met in his dream doesn’t look at him and leaves him alone? Thinking this way, Michael just wanted to either blow up the whole world or die along with his son.
Nevertheless.
Michael reached out and hugged his son. Even though he had seen his father all his life, the son hesitated. And he barely managed to relax. Michael felt proud and pitiful of his son who couldn’t hug back and was just being hugged. Michael whispered.
“It’s going to be okay, Seb. I promise you. You’re going to be okay.”
“…”
“This is the worst page in your life right now. But there are a lot of exciting, beautiful, and good things behind it. So let’s just get through this page, this moment. I promise you. I, promise… promise…”
What promise?
Michael cursed inwardly. It wasn’t clear to whom. It could be the world, or it could be himself. Sometimes, even cruelly and pitifully, it was his son or wife who had gone through such an ordeal. But among all the targets of those curses, the main culprit, the kidnapper, was not there.
Michael never uttered any curse or negative words about the kidnapper. He pushed all his anger into his stomach. He gritted his teeth once in his life. Once in my life, I will face you in my life. At that time, no matter what I have or where I stand, I will never forgive you. Michael just vowed. He swallowed a hot lump of lava that burned his esophagus and soul entirely, vowing never to waste this anger even on a single curse. He didn’t know if it was tears or pain. It didn’t matter what it was. It would become the driving force for revenge someday.
*
“Honey, doesn’t my dress look a bit strange?”
Nicolette Riegel asked, looking at her dress from different angles. It was a beautiful and elegant dress with ivory color tinged with pink and three layers of pearls crossing the deeply cut back. Ah, how many dresses had his wife rejected before deciding on this one? Michael turned his head towards Jin standing next to him. Do something. Receiving that gaze, Jin, their unofficial adopted son and bodyguard, said in a stiff tone,
“You look beautiful.”
Are you kidding? Do you want to go back to the shop?! As Michael sent a reproachful glance, Jin pursed his lips. He was a man who could give his life for his mistress Nicolette Riegel and jump into flames with his body oiled, but he couldn’t tell white lies. Nicolette described Jin as ‘a man who can give his life for his lover but can’t throw away food waste.’ Remembering how Jin had scrunched up his face then, Michael looked at Jin with newfound pity. His wife tended not to expect filial piety from her biological children due to childhood issues, but instead expected all filial piety from Jin. He would have to sweat a bit to meet those expectations. Fortunately, Jin also had a tendency towards a mother complex. People often ask if their relationship is suspicious, but.
“Jin, you’re not going to wear such a strange tie to your brother’s engagement party, are you? Wear something else. Learn from your father’s tie. Once you become an adult, you should at least do that much!”
Jin was being pushed around too much for people to mistake their relationship.
“Hi, Mom. Hi, Dad. Hi, my brother Jin. You look pitiful today too, go change your tie and come back. Personally, I recommend navy blue with diagonal stripes.”
The second son, Herrgert, opened both doors like a protagonist, made a grand entrance, and saved Jin while pretending to greet everyone. Herrgert was once a model and had a great interest and sense in fashion, so Nicolette nodded readily. Finally, a savior has come. Michael shook his head. His wife told Jin to learn from his father, but Michael himself was wearing clothes that were approved after two days of all sorts of trouble. Of course, it was his wife Nicolette who caused all that trouble.
“Herr, you look handsome today. But if you’re caught panting with someone at your brother’s engagement party today, I’ll tell Jin to shoot you. Understood?”
Herrgert, the incorrigible playboy, pretended to be scared cutely by shrinking his broad shoulders at the fierce warning, saying “Aiko.” Even so, his shoulders were still broad.
“Mom, stop making Jin uncomfortable. I’ll shoot.”
It was the youngest daughter, Saskia, who approached from behind. Unlike her mother in a dress, she was wearing suit pants. With a lace top covering only her chest and stomach, a jacket draped over her shoulders, and finished with a flashy diamond necklace, she looked exactly like a haughty chaebol daughter.
“If you look as fierce as you, Rotman men can’t approach you?”
Herrgert attacked with a smirk, but Saskia rebutted by slightly raising her cat-like eyes.
“They approach just fine? Too many, actually.”
“Those bastards are after your money.”
“That’s why I hate Rotman men, including you, brother. They’re all greedy bastards with no ability.”
“What are you saying, with your brother complex?”
“That brother is not an ordinary Rotman man. And I have no interest in brothers like you, so mind your own business.”
While Herrgert and Saskia were engaged in a fiery battle of nerves, Nicolette was repeatedly striking poses, saying, “Ah, maybe I should have gone with the first one. Doesn’t this make me look fat?”
And behind them, the black woman, Lea Parke, was standing with a newfound feeling. As a capable spy, she had been to all sorts of places after joining the security bureau, but it was rare to see a chaebol family as full of love and individuality as this one. When love overflows, it tends to become familial, and when individuality overflows, it easily becomes dysfunctional, but this family had the remarkable ability to do both.
“Oh, Lea. Come on in.”
Nicolette and Lea had become quite close while on a yacht trip with Saskia. As a result, Lea was accompanying the Riegel family members to Sebastian’s engagement party without ever having met him face to face. When Lea said, ‘Wouldn’t that be a bit inappropriate?’ and tried to back out, both Saskia and Nicolette were adamant, seeming to have taken a liking to her.
“Oh, why? It’s a coworker’s wedding. Of course we should congratulate him.”
While Armin Schnieke might be a colleague, the security bureau was such a large organization that the range of colleagues wasn’t usually extended that far. Even if that wasn’t the case, a colleague you’ve never met face to face is just a colleague in name, not someone close enough to attend their engagement party…
Still, it might be good to go and express gratitude while I’m at it.
Recently, after Otto Layer, the head of Department 1 and a Canaris spy, was ousted and it was confirmed that Armin Schnieke, the leader of Team 9, had no connection to Canaris, she also reported to the director in person at the security bureau with the information she had gathered from Canaris. And now she was waiting until she would be deployed for a brief operation. Soon, when they start attacking and capturing Canaris, prosecutors will need her testimony, so they can’t put her in undercover operations.
According to Department Chief Nina Volkari, Armin Schnieke was serious about saving her. Even when he had somewhat grasped that he was being used, he didn’t hesitate at all to save her.
‘I owe him a debt.’
Lea knew that she owed a debt to Armin Schnieke. If it hadn’t been for him, Riegel wouldn’t have tried to save her in the first place.
If so, there was one piece of information that Armin Schnieke absolutely needed to know. Soon, she would be unable to approach Armin Schnieke. The director would try to control the information she had, and to do so, he would try to block meetings with key personnel.
Today, she had to repay at least part of that debt.
Lea smiled brightly at Nicolette.
“You look dazzling today, Nicol. It might outshine the main characters, but since they’re gentlemen, they’ll probably concede to some extent, right?”
The tall Lea naturally escorted Nicol. Lea was wearing a jumpsuit with a long waist belt adorned with cubic zirconia and a fur coat. This outfit suited her well because Lea was tall with long limbs, giving a dynamic impression like a cheetah. She was beautiful but had an androgynous charm, and as she escorted Nicol, Nicol became even more elegant and beautiful. In contrast, Lea’s androgynous beauty was much more accentuated and shone.
“How can you have such perfect sense?”
Nicol smiled satisfactorily while entrusting her hand to Lea. Everyone in the family except Nicol could read the hidden tension in that face. When Saskia signaled to Herrgert with her eyes, he joked, “Mom, leaving such a handsome son idle,” and Michael hurried them, saying they should go quickly for no reason. That’s how the whole family finally managed to drag out Nicolette, who had been afraid and hesitant to go to her son’s engagement party, making excuses about her dress.
