Chapter 95

Chapter 95: Promise (1)

After the presentation ended, many people sought us out, but we turned them all down and left the venue.

Socializing was a hassle. Doubly so when there was nothing to gain from it.

Lee Yeeun wore a blooming smile the entire way back.

This was old hat for me, but for Lee Yeeun, receiving this much attention from so many people—all of them recognized figures in academia—was a first.

"Look at this. Another article just went up."

Lee Yeeun held out her smartphone to show me.

She was giddy, reading articles that popped up every few minutes.

Dozens had already been posted, and Lee Yeeun read every last one without skipping.

Whenever she found a passage she liked, she brought it over to show off.

"'How could an egg laid by a phoenix hatch into a chicken'... mm, that's right. This person gets it."

I worried she'd eventually stumble on a nasty comment and her mental would implode, but she was happy for now, so I let it be.

If something came up, I'd deal with it then.

"Let's head to the Chancellor first. There's something I need to collect from her."

"Collect what?"

"You'll see when we get there."

Lee Yeeun would win Best Paper.

The promise was fulfilled. With this, I'd proven to Ryu Jeonga that Lee Yeeun was a person worth investing in.

Now it was Ryu Jeonga's turn to keep her end.

***

"Good work, both of you."

Chancellor Ryu Jeonga greeted us with a bright face.

As Florian Academy's chancellor, she naturally had reason to be pleased with the awards we'd brought home.

"Th-thank you."

Lee Yeeun was stiff as a board, apparently intimidated by Ryu Jeonga.

Given Ryu Jeonga's age and position, Lee Yeeun's reaction was only natural. A young woman in the bloom of her twenties, face to face with someone who was over a hundred and......

"Young Cha, what are you thinking?"

Ryu Jeonga was staring fixedly at me.

Something akin to killing intent flickered in her eyes.

Was she actually reading minds?

Through experience, I'd learned that making excuses in front of Ryu Jeonga was utterly pointless.

"I'm sorry."

A swift apology was best.

Only then did the killing intent around Ryu Jeonga dissipate somewhat.

"Good. It is a joyful day, so I shall let it go at this. There will be no next time. Remember that."

"Yes."

Lee Yeeun, unable to follow the conversation, tilted her head in confusion.

Better you don't know. No need to be curious.

Ryu Jeonga cleared her throat twice, then spoke.

"You have come to collect on the promise we made, yes?"

"Yes."

"Very well. Let us start with the NIS matter we discussed."

The NIS.

At that word, Lee Yeeun's nerves visibly prickled.

But perhaps because her counterpart was Ryu Jeonga, she only moved her lips without managing to speak.

"I heard from young Cha. Your dream is to become an NIS agent?"

"Y-yes."

Only after Ryu Jeonga spoke first could Lee Yeeun find her voice.

"Why?"

Lee Yeeun mumbled her way through the same story she'd told me.

A look of sympathy spread across Ryu Jeonga's face.

"It sounds as though you would be fine not becoming an NIS agent, so long as you could learn the truth. You have no desire to follow in your father's career?"

"No. I don't actually want to be an agent. My current work is pretty enjoyable, actually......"

"Then there is no need for you to join the NIS. If it is I, I can give the young one the answer she seeks."

"R-really?"

Ryu Jeonga paused for a moment, then spoke in a heavy voice.

"Do you truly wish to know?"

"Yes."

"Sometimes, not knowing the truth can be the happier path."

"Huh?"

"When you do not know the truth, you can hold hope in your heart. Are you certain you wish to know? The truth may be far more cruel than you imagine."

"I still want to know."

"Very well. The young one has earned the right... and even if I were to stop you here, you would uncover it on your own before long. Listen carefully."

Ryu Jeonga relayed the facts dispassionately.

At the time, the ruling party was split between a pro-president faction and an anti-president faction. The ripple effect had fractured the NIS into two as well.

Leading the pro-president faction was the current NIS Director.

Leading the anti-president faction was Lee Yeeun's father.

One day, Lee Yeeun's father and the anti-president faction's elite agents were deployed on a mission.

They were all outstanding operatives, but due to the NIS misjudging the mission's scale, they found themselves outnumbered and in mortal danger.

The team sent a request for support, but the current NIS Director—who managed support at the time—ignored it.

The agents pressed on with the mission anyway.

The outcome was devastating.

The mission succeeded, but every agent deployed—including Lee Yeeun's father—was killed.

The current Director claimed it was a mistake, but even a three-year-old could tell that was a lie.

"So... you're saying... Dad died because of petty office politics......?"

"Yes."

A single tear rolled down Lee Yeeun's cheek.

Confronted with the cruel truth, Lee Yeeun crumbled.

"How... hic, how could they......"

I could do nothing before my weeping student.

Clumsily trying to comfort her would only make things worse.

The happiest day of Lee Yeeun's life had been plunged into the mud in an instant.

***

Lee Yeeun wept herself to exhaustion and collapsed.

After confirming she'd safely fallen asleep, Ryu Jeonga asked.

"Young Cha, you already knew, did you not?"

Not 'did you suspect,' but a direct 'you knew'—Ryu Jeonga asked bluntly.

Lying would've been easy, but I knew it was impossible to hide my true feelings from Ryu Jeonga. So I answered honestly.

"Yes."

"And you still have no intention of revealing where your information comes from?"

"No."

"Well, fine. I have my own theories about young Cha. Everything I say from here is an old woman's idle musing—no need to respond."

Ryu Jeonga turned to face the wall as she spoke.

"Sometimes, when one wields too powerful an ability, one is bestowed with something called a 'Restriction.'"

A Restriction.

A word even I was hearing for the first time.

An enormous number of settings existed in the game.

Even a veteran who'd memorized every important setting in the main story wouldn't know the minor background lore.

What Ryu Jeonga was describing was probably a setting that wasn't prominently featured in the main story.

If it were important knowledge, there was no way I wouldn't know it.

"I gained immortality in exchange for the Restriction of maintaining a child's form. A so-called penalty imposed upon great power."

So Ryu Jeonga had that kind of backstory.

And here I'd thought it was the developers' preference. Knowing the reason made it click.

While Awakened aged more slowly, they weren't completely immune to aging.

Over ten, twenty years, they'd inevitably grow old, and an aging Awakened would weaken.

Ryu Jeonga's body apparently maintained a state where her prime would never come, but she'd never weaken either.

"I know someone near me who possesses a formidable ability. He is a prophet. A powerful one, capable of seeing many futures in great detail. Perhaps there is a Restriction on divulging the content—or the source—of those prophecies?"

Ryu Jeonga's hard-won conclusion was the theory that I was a prophet.

Since there was no harm in letting her misunderstand, I maintained my silence.

Ryu Jeonga had her discernment ability, but it couldn't have been convenient enough to draw conclusions when she was asking questions to herself and receiving no reaction whatsoever.

If I showed even the slightest reaction, maybe—but I didn't let a single expression change, maintaining a perfect act.

How Ryu Jeonga would interpret my non-reaction, I didn't know.

The best case was her assuming I couldn't react because of the Restriction.

"That concludes this old woman's musing. Let us discuss what comes next."

Fortunately, she didn't seem inclined to press further and changed the subject.

I offered the answer I'd already prepared.

"We can't bring back the dead, but we can at least give them the comfort of a peaceful rest."

"You desire revenge?"

"Yes."

"It will not be easy. That incident was closed internally within the NIS as a mistake. If it were an ordinary guild, you might publicize it, but your opponent is the NIS."

Applying pressure through the media was out of the question.

The NIS was the most covert organization in Korea.

Leaking NIS internal affairs, for any reason, gave them grounds to shut it down.

"No. I have no intention of publicizing the incident. Attacking the NIS through conventional channels is impossible."

"Oh?"

"But there is one entity that can give the NIS hell, isn't there? I'll get them to move instead."

***

The building that symbolized the Republic of Korea. The blue-roofed residence.

The atmosphere at the Blue House had been tense of late.

Recently, a 'Korea Wave' had begun sweeping across the world.

With the emergence of a peerless genius named Cha Eunwoo, everything he did generated massive buzz—and his homeland, Korea, naturally drew attention alongside him.

Yet despite this 'Korea Wave,' Korea's standing in the international Hero community was only shrinking.

If anything, it had deteriorated compared to the year before.

"Not a single Korean guild in the Africa Expedition either. Not even the Big Three?"

"...Correct, sir."

The President of the Republic of Korea, Ju Hyeonsu, lamented.

A secretary stood beside him, looking contrite. Ju Hyeonsu waved him away.

Left alone, Ju Hyeonsu sighed deeply.

"Haah, damn it."

The emergence of high-rank dungeons was hell for the people living in those regions, but for other countries, it wasn't actually bad news.

Unless the Gate opened in your own country, there was no damage to worry about—you just sent Heroes to a safe extent and collected the rewards.

The rewards from dungeons spoke for themselves, and the gains in the international community were also enormous.

In the Hero community, dungeon clears were synonymous with national power.

But Korea had achieved virtually nothing in overseas expeditions recently.

A string of failed expeditions had cratered foreign trust in Korean guilds.

The worst of all was the fact that not a single Korean guild had been invited to the Pacific Dungeon expedition.

Edelin's unilateral decision had at least allowed Cha Eunwoo to participate, but that was trust in Cha Eunwoo the individual—not in Korea.

The current treatment of Korean Heroes in the international community was abysmal.

This was a problem.

The field the public cared about most was, without question, Heroes.

With things going this poorly, the opposition was predictably seizing on it, singing "Heroes, Heroes" all day and attacking the administration.

No matter how well you handled housing or inflation, if you dropped the ball on Heroes, your approval rating would tank. Not that Ju Hyeonsu had done anything for the economy either.

"Replacing the Association president only goes so far. No matter who takes the job, it ends up the same."

A key to restoring the crumbling trust did exist.

Professor Cha Eunwoo.

If he leveraged that professor—currently the world's center of attention—he could restore Korea's damaged credibility and create a platform for Korean guilds to shine. His approval ratings would naturally rise too.

The problem was that Cha Eunwoo happened to belong to Florian Academy.

Florian Academy had the witch, Ryu Jeonga.

The witch who had protected Korea for 150 years was someone not even a president could lightly provoke.

No—precisely because he was president, he couldn't.

'They say she could become Korea's president any time she wanted.'

The witch, who had safeguarded Korea longer than anyone, enjoyed unparalleled support from the people.

More than a few politicians had carelessly provoked Florian Academy only to see their careers destroyed. There was no guarantee Ju Hyeonsu would fare differently.

"If only they'd reach out to me first. Haah......"

This was what they called a chicken rib. He wanted to use it but couldn't.

RING—

"Hm?"

The phone on his desk jolted Ju Hyeonsu from his thoughts.

That line connected directly to his chief secretary.

Ju Hyeonsu picked up the receiver.

"It's me. What is it?"

─Visitors have arrived requesting to see you, Mr. President.

"At this hour? I'm fairly certain there were no appointments."

─No, sir.

"Tch, is this a prank? Handle it at your level and send them away."

─W-well, the thing is, they're not ordinary visitors... It's Chancellor Ryu Jeonga and Professor Cha Eunwoo of Florian Academy.

"Wh-what?"

He nearly dropped the receiver.

They'd actually come. Ju Hyeonsu's wish had been granted.

─Shall I... turn them away?

"Send them up immediately! Cancel every appointment after this!"

─Yes sir.

The heavens were generous indeed.

This was an opportunity.

Ju Hyeonsu vowed to stake everything he had on making Cha Eunwoo an ally.