Chapter 112: Tiger’s Den (2)

Chapter 112: Tiger’s Den (2)

What on earth is this situation?

Cheong-ho was absent, and in the place where he should be, his daughter Hyeon-ah was sitting like she was acting on his behalf.

Hyeon-ah wasn’t the only one in this room though. However, it’s not as if a huge crowd has gathered either.

Although it’s called a conference room, it was actually a room that Cheong-ho used for critical secret discussions with his executives.

Therefore, only Cheong-ho’s closest associates were allowed to enter this room.

It seems like everyone who is allowed in this room is indeed here.

I glanced around at the seven middle-aged heads gathered in this spacious conference room.

Including Chae Tae-won and Jeong Hyeon-ah, a total of 17 eyes were fixed on me.

Ah, the reason for the missing eye is because one of the executives was wearing a black eyepatch.

Anyway, it seemed like everyone was waiting for my response. But what do they expect me to do?

From the left, there was distrust, suspicion, discontent, the anger of the man with the eye patch in the middle, bewilderment, anxiety, and finally, an unpleasant smile at the far end.

Why is he grinning like that?

I turned my head slightly to look at Chae Tae-won, the eighth executive of the Cheong-ho faction. His face was a mix of complex emotions that were hard to describe with a single word. However, the predominant emotion on his face seemed to be guilt toward me.

Alright. Since I don’t fully understand the situation, I’ll have to probe a bit.

I felt a sensation similar to when I first encountered this game. A situation I had never seen before, an event I had never experienced.

I looked back at Jeong Hyeon-ah.

She was trying hard to appear confident.

She seemed to be straining her eyes to somehow make eye contact with me, but it was impossible to make eye contact with my four-eyed mask.

Her gaze was unstable, her fingertips kept twitching, and her complexion was pale. She seemed extremely nervous.

“Help you?”

“Yes. Please join us and fight. The book you mentioned will be given to you afterward. We will also provide the maximum reward you want.”

Ah.

So it was within the predictable and boring development range after all.

“Well, I’ve heard various rumors about the Triad lately. It seems a full-scale war with Jeok-du has begun, right?”

“Th-that’s correct. For the sake of loyalty to the chairman...”

Jeong Hyeon-ah trailed off. No one cut her off, and no one stopped her. She simply seemed unaccustomed to finishing such statements properly.

But, loyalty?

Sure, Cheong-ho and I had a firm alliance, but we weren’t some old-time gangsters from the ’50s. How exactly was I supposed to uphold loyalty?

“Miss. Do you actually have the book I’m supposed to receive? Or have you even seen it?”

“Dad! I mean, the chairman...”

Finally, the word “Dad” slipped from Hyeon-ah’s mouth. Realizing her mistake, she stopped talking and bit her lower lip.

She’s not in a state for a long conversation.

She had an awkward demeanor, like someone wearing clothes that didn’t fit.

Despite her background as the princess of the underworld, she was still a high school student.

Though her exact age was never mentioned in the game, she didn’t look like a first-year student. Maybe a second-year high school student?

Such a young girl was handling tasks that even adults found tough.

Why was it that a young girl, who was probably a third of these men’s age, was stepping up instead of the older men gathered here?

“Where is the chairman? It seems he isn’t in this building.”

“H-how did you know that?”

In fact, before entering the conference room, I had already confirmed that there was no trace of Cheong-ho’s magical power within the mansion.

Besides, it would be foolish not to know.

“You can pretty much tell just by looking at the situation.”

With her face flushed red with anger and shame, Hyeon-ah mumbled in a low voice.

“D-Dad, because of you...”

“Well! This won’t do.”

Suddenly, one of the executives interrupted. He had a greasy voice that caused an instinctive feeling of displeasure just by hearing it.

Among the seven executives excluding Chae Tae-won, He was the one sitting farthest to the right and wearing that unpleasant smile.

That man...

“It seems there has been some misunderstanding. The young miss is new to this kind of work—.”

“That’s right!”

Another executive chimed in.

His reaction was enthusiastic. It was as if he had been waiting for this moment.

“Am I not right? In the end, we have wasted our time for nothing!”

Before I could say anything, another executive spoke up.

“Miss, do you really think you can trust that suspicious mage?”

Even if I overlooked the inappropriate word choice, their tone was extremely rude. The roughness of their voices made it seem as though they were threatening Jeong Hyeon-ah.

Another executive followed suit. This one was looking flustered.

“Wait, what are you saying? Aren’t you going too far?”

“Yes, leaving Jeok-du aside, we should ask about the chairman! Hey, mage! The chairman! Do you know where the chairman is?”

“No, why are you saying useless things to an outsider!”

“The guest, Shin-hwa-nim, is the most promising and reliable fixer here. Perhaps there is a way.”

“Don’t be stupid! Maybe it’s because of him that the chairman ended up like this!”

“I agree that he seems very suspicious.”

“I never understood what senior Tae-won was thinking from the start.”

“Senior, what did you just say? Don’t be stupid?”

“Look at those clothes! How can we trust someone dressed like that?”

“You say stupid things, so I call you stupid, you idiot!”

For reference, only sentences that can be remembered in a complete form are mentioned here.

The seven mouths excluding Chae Tae-won spat everywhere, ‘What!’, ‘Exactly!’, ‘Jeok-du!’, ‘Do you know how much we!’, ‘Mage!’, ‘Fixer!’, ‘Grimoire!’, ‘Chairman!’, ‘Miss!’, ‘This!’, ‘Are you an idiot?’, ‘What did you say!?’, ‘Chairman!’, ‘Find them!’ and so on...

In the end, it got to the point where it wouldn’t have mattered if I just replaced their words with “Woof woof!” or “Bark bark” in my head.

What the heck am I supposed to do?

My head was pounding.

What is this chaos with me standing here?

The only reason I didn’t curse out loud was because Jeong Hyeon-ah was trapped in this whirlwind of bullsh*t and she was looking at me with a completely dead expression on her face.

“Kim Shin-hwa-nim...”

I heard Chae Tae-won’s quiet voice from behind me.

“I’m sorry. I thought there might be a problem, but I didn’t expect it to be this bad.”

When I turned to Chae Tae-won, he wore an expression filled with the utmost regret, shame, and embarrassment.

“You didn’t expect this?”

“I thought there might be a slight problem, but honestly, I didn’t expect them to act so disgracefully. I’m sorry.”

Ah, he had genuinely believed the executives gathered here were responsible adults and brought me in based on that belief. I could blame him, but with such an honest apology, I couldn’t bring myself to do so.

“Well, since you’ve put it that way, I’ll accept your apology. Then...”

“Woof woof woof!”

“Bark bark bark!”

Ah, they’re really noisy.

“We need to make them shut up.”

No matter what conversation I had with Chae Tae-won, the seven idiots continued to spew colorful insults and nonsense.

First, let’s rescue the young high school girl from these shameful adults’ disgraceful behavior.

[Sound Wave Refraction]

“?!”

Jeong Hyeon-ah looked up in surprise. The sudden silence must have startled her. I winked at her—though she couldn’t see it because of my mask—so I raised a hand and gave her a small wave.

Now, to expand the range.

I extended the range of the sound wave refraction to cover the entire room. Now, no sound from here would escape outside.

With this level of magic, they should have noticed by now, but they’re all too agitated to act their age...

I sighed as I watched the executives still barking at each other, then took a deep breath and activated the next spell.

[Sound Wave Impact]

“Shut up!!!”

BOOOOOM!!!