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Chapter 90
After agreeing to receive monthly reports on Koo Kyungman’s physical condition for a year, Seo Dawon took me to escape Koo Hui-seo’s room.
In addition, Seo Dawon said he would need to personally confirm that Kyungman’s arm was being cut off this evening, so we did not return to our home but settled, instead, in the guest room upstairs. A servant User guided us there.
As soon as the door closed, Seo Dawon said to Jung Garam, “Check it out.”
What did he mean by that?
Unlike me, who was utterly puzzled, Jung Garam immediately closed his eyes at those words and recited his skill, “[Investigation].”
As soon as the [Investigation] skill activated, I heard a small pop, like something burst within my ear canals. Jung Garam opened his eyes, “I caught one. A wire-tap.”
“Good.”
“…Wire-tap?” I looked around, belatedly wary.
Seo Dawon gently grabbed at my shoulder as if to calm me down. “Well, it’s normal to have a few around.”
Jung Garam also calmly sat on the sofa; his reaction confirming the Mage’s statement.
What do you mean normal! Normal people don’t wire-tap their rooms!
About to protest, I anxiously thought, ‘Don’t tell me, is Koo Hui-seo going to change his mind?’ He showed an extraordinary amount of madness, enough to hatch a scheme to get his half-brother pregnant. What if he has other self-interests?
“Why do you look so agitated?” Jung Garam asked curtly, looking at my face.
I hesitated to speak, seeing how easy-going he looked…but I eventually opened my mouth. “If he’s bugging the rooms…Is Koo Hui-seo possibly up to something else?”
“If it’s wire-taps you’re worried about, those are probably installed in every room.” Seo Dawon answered. “He’s a bit crazy…but I don’t think he’d be so crazy as to be unable to firmly grasp the situation he’s in.” Seo Dawon smiled softly, as if he read my anxious mind.
“I bet Koo Hui-seo is more interested in his new toy than us?” Jung Garam calmly added, glancing at me sideways from his seat on the sofa.
I was worried that they weren’t vigilant enough, but I thought it would be meaningless for me to further air my concerns when they spoke in unison.
Eventually I walked over to the bed and flopped down. My body suddenly lost its strength, and I was overwhelmed with fatigue. “By any chance, the revenge that you guys want…You’re not going to impregnate Bae Jaemin, right?”
“…….”
“…….”
While thinking of all that had happened today (Revenge, Koo Hui-seo, Koo Kyungman), my unfiltered thoughts suddenly popped out of my mouth.
They said nothing for quite some time. When I raised my head to look at them, their expressions were really unusual. “W-Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Because of you, I imagined something nauseating.”
“If Lee-kyung-ie absolutely insists, I could help him, but…”
I quickly bowed my head and apologized to the two–they both seemed like they detested the idea. Nevertheless, their reactions were reassuring; it would have been difficult to be in the same team as those that thought the same way as Koo Hui-seo.
Yeah. No one would say anything weird about simple murder or some light torture…
Knock Knock–
It was then.
Suddenly, we heard a knock on the door. At first, I thought I was hearing things, but, seeing as how Seo Dawon and Jung Garam both also looked towards the door, it seems my ears heard properly.
Seo Dawon had preemptively terminated the summoning to leave himself some time for a face-to-face meeting with Koo Kyungman later in the evening, so I was the only one who could answer the door.
‘…There’s no way it’s Koo Hui-seo, right?’ I thought, as I opened the door.
“The madam has returned to the mansion. She has invited you to dinner; please come down to the first floor by 6:30.”
Fortunately, it wasn’t Koo Hui-seo, but a servant who knocked on the door. He turned around and disappeared after that short remark.
An invite to dinner out of nowhere? And if it’s the madam…He must be talking about Koo Hui-seo’s mother.
“What should we do?” I asked.
“We have to go.” Seo Dawon calmly replied, as if he had expected this.
No one came to the room until 6 p.m., but I could not relax and soothe my mind. Time flew fast, and it was soon time for dinner.
* * *
“This way.”
When we descended to the first floor, the servant, waiting for us, guided us to our destination.
The door to the living room, where Koo Kyungman battled earlier (and had consequently been destroyed) was firmly closed and the inside could not be seen. We passed that door and went a little further inside; entering the heart of the mansion, we came upon a space like a glass greenhouse. There was a small garden within the house.
The garden’s terrace was equipped with an outdoor table, with plates and knives set upon it. Perhaps that’s tonight’s dinner location. Fortunately, or unfortunately, no one was sitting at the table; I moved to the center of this space under the guidance of the servant.
The servant, after showing me to the table, took out the chair. As I took a seat, the chairs next to me were also moved out as well.
Did someone else arrive? Or at least, that’s what I thought, until I–still frightened–saw Seo Dawon and Jung Garam sitting on the chairs with stiff expressions on their faces.
Currently, Seo Dawon and Jung Garam weren’t summoned so they could not be seen by others. But for these two to take these seats…
“Meow.”
But, before I could do anything, a white cat had appeared, without me noticing, on my plate. The cat appeared to be observing me–and my subsequent shock. It was the cat I saw with Koo Hui-seo, just a few days ago, as he was leaving the annex.
‘This must be the witch’s familiar…’
When I saw the cat, I was convinced that all that had happened was conducted under Koo Hui-seo’s mother’s directions. Maybe she knew we were the ones that rescued her son…If so, what could she be thinking?
I wanted to ask Seo Dawon for his opinion on this strange situation, but I heard an unfamiliar voice first.
“Long time no see.”
Koo Hui-seo’s mother, who I had seen when leaving the hospital, had appeared with a servant. She looked straight at Seo Dawon.
“…Yes. It has been a while.” Seo Dawon lowered his eyes and greeted politely. He looked as if he was swallowing a wry smile.
After staring openly at Seo Dawon, Koo Hui-seo’s mother turned her gaze towards me. It was impossible to guess her age from her knowing gaze; it felt like it pierced through me, tingling past my spine.
“Didn’t I tell you that day that you’d be snapped in two?” 1
“……”
“You didn’t listen……In the end, this is how we face each other again.”
I don’t understand why she’s saying the things she wants to say to Seo Dawon while looking at me…But, in any case, I understood from her words that Seo Dawon and she had known each other.
As a witch, she seems to have access to a rare ability, ‘[Prophecy]’. The two of them seem to have known each other in the past, and she seemed to have given Seo Dawon a warning–whether in the form of a prophecy or a curse.
‘Isn’t that a pretty deep connection?’
And the Mage didn’t say a word about this when we went to meet Koo Hui-seo…
Seo Dawon really doesn’t reveal his innermost thoughts but feels at ease to ask and uncover all that he’s curious about with me.
I kept paying attention to Seo Dawon’s uncanny calm expression even though my heart felt stuffy from the secretiveness of the man I thought I knew. Even though I knew that he wasn’t the type of man to feel discouraged by those words.
After hearing a ‘prophecy’ that he would suffer a huge defeat, dying, and signing a contract, Seo Dawon was now here with me. I don’t know how he reacted when he first heard her predictions…
The way she sat in her seat with a sneer clearly belied her intent to mock. Her malice could be felt by all those seated here.
I looked at Seo Dawon, who was silent, and eventually replied to her, “If you listen to the prophecy, can the future catastrophes be prevented?”
“Fate is merciful to the humble.”
In short, she’s saying that Seo Dawon died because he was a rude little bastard.
I placed one tightly clenched fist on my thigh and eventually retorted with something quite unlike me. “I guess you’re speaking from experience.”
“…….”
When she stared at me again, I smiled and said, “I’ll listen carefully.”
TL: MC – Murder and torture? Fine. Male impregnation? Absolutely not.
Also we’re at chapter 90! Only 10 to go till the big 100
Footnotes
This idiom actually means “Suffer a big loss,” but I felt like the literal translation was sufficient and poetic.