Ha Eun-young’s eyes widened.
It must’ve been sothing she truly never expected to hear.
“What... did you say...?”
“I said I would beco your nation.”
“W-what kind of... nonsense...!”
“What, you think I’m not up to the task? You worked under too, didn’t you? You should know exactly what it ans to be the eldest grandson of the Koryo Group.”
That “heir of this country” line I’d thrown out back at the command post was ridiculous and absurd, sure—
But if you really think about it, it’s not that far off the mark.
Ha Eun-young, who had worked as my exclusive secretary for quite so ti, would understand what it ant.
Maybe even feel it more deeply than I ever could.
I don’t quite grasp how far I’m allowed to go when I throw a tantrum,
but those who actually handle the execution—like my secretaries—
they feel the consequences of my actions directly.
They would know much better.
“The Republic of Korea and the NIS threw you away. No—let’s be honest, they never even had you to begin with.
You were just consud like a disposable tool.
To have soone ans to take responsibility for them.
If they really had you, you wouldn’t be here right now.”
“...”
“Forget the fabricated life and follow the truth.
Your real life began at Prestige,
and it blood when you beca my secretary.
That is your life. I am your country.”
“Don’t be ridiculous... After everything... After doing sothing that horrible...
After turning and Yeon-joo unnie into this, now you’re saying that...!”
“That’s because, back then, your identity was Ha Eun-young.
Ha Eun-young, the NIS-dispatched spy.
Born as a tool for experints and brainwashed into an agent.
It’s unfortunate, but you went against our group, so that much punishnt was fair.
But that ends with Ha Eun-young.”
I stood up again.
“If you beco Seo Eun-mi, you still have a chance.
Unlike others, I don’t conduct experints on my own people or throw them away.”
“Ah, ngh...”
Ha Eun-young grit her teeth hard.
She didn’t seem to be able to accept it.
After suffering for months on end, of course it’s hard.
There’s a lot she must be thinking about.
But one thing is clear—
She’s wavering.
“Think about it.
Who’s the one you really should resent?
The one who has you—?
Or the NIS, who raised your parents like experintal livestock and then disposed of them?”
“...!”
“And think about whether the anger you hold against our group is truly justified,
or just the product of your brainwashing.”
“...”
Ha Eun-young fell silent.
She didn’t seem to have anything to say.
She was probably struggling with a thousand thoughts.
Her own identity,
the betrayal by the NIS and her country,
the collapse of her entire life—
those feelings must be flooding her mind all at once.
Trying to force anything in at this point would backfire.
Sotis, you have to wait quietly and let the results co on their own.
“I think that’s enough for now.
Next ti we et... I hope I’ll be seeing Seo Eun-mi.”
“Ah...”
The secretaries picked Ha Eun-young up and dragged her back to a corner of the detention camp.
Even then, her eyes never left .
“Master, was that really necessary?”
On the way out, Seo Aram asked .
“What was?”
“Regardless of the reason... she was a spy.
I’m not sure if placing your trust in her again is really in your best interest, Master.”
It looked like she didn’t trust Ha Eun-young.
‘Co to think of it, she didn’t like Yeon-joo either.’
I still ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) rember the scene where she kicked Ma Yeon-joo,
who was desperately screaming my na, like she was nothing.
After becoming absolutely loyal to ,
she also seed to develop an intense hatred for spies and traitors.
That’s probably why she was openly hostile toward both Ha Eun-young, who ca in as a spy,
and Ma Yeon-joo, a forr NIS agent.
“Soone who’s betrayed once will betray again.
I... can’t trust those won.”
“Those won, huh.
So that includes Ma Yeon-joo too.”
“...Yes. Honestly...
You should just use them as... at toilets.”
“...”
...Aram’s gotten pretty extre.
“There are countless people who would die to serve you, Master.
Why go out of your way to bring in girls like that?
I’m worried that if even one bad apple slips into the secretary team,
they might develop treacherous thoughts.”
“So basically,
if you forgive a traitor, others might think they can get away with betrayal too—
that’s what you’re trying to say?”
“...Yes.”
Ah, here it is.
The heroine once called “Iron-Blooded” is starting to show her true colors.
“Your premise is wrong, Aram.”
“...?”
“Ha Eun-young isn’t a traitor. She was just a spy.
Sa with Ma Yeon-joo.”
“...Excuse ?”
“Treason ans soone who was mine turned on .
But they were never mine to begin with.
They were brainwashed agents from the NIS.
They never swore loyalty—so how is that betrayal?”
“Th-that’s...”
Did I catch her off guard with too dictionary-perfect a definition?
Her face looked like she wanted to argue,
but she just couldn’t bring herself to say it.
“And betrayal only happens
when there’s soone who can offer more than —
more benefit, or a higher sense of justice.
What I can’t tolerate is the existence of such an option.
Compared to that, traitors are kinda cute.”
“...I don’t quite understand what you an.”
“As the eldest grandson of the Koryo Group,
I can’t accept the very concept of betrayal.”
“....”
“I am this country.
I am justice.
Nothing is better than being at my side.
Naturally, there can be no motive for betrayal—
there mustn’t be.”
“....”
The absurdity of what I’d just said left Seo Aram speechless.
Her eyes went wide, her mouth hanging open—
I almost laughed.
But I had to maintain the dignity of a master.
“That’s why I forgive.”
“....”
Of course,
only the pretty ones.
And they have to pay their dues first.
Still, forgiveness is forgiveness, right?
Seo Aram, who’d been sitting there dazed, finally fixed her expression.
“If... that’s how you truly feel...”
“They’re pitiful, when you think about it.
They never had the freedom to judge things for themselves in the first place.
By becoming mine, they can be saved.
Everyone deserves at least one chance to be saved. Don’t you think?”
“Salvation...!”
Seo Aram, who believes she was saved through , reacted to the word imdiately.
“...Understood.
I will no longer question your judgnt, Master.”
“No, do question it sotis.
Otherwise, I’ll never get any decent advice.”
“Yes.”
Ha Eun-young’s head was in chaos as she lay in the corner.
It felt like every mont of her life had rged into a single vortex, swirling violently inside her mind.
A complete ss.
What was the truth, and what was a lie?
Where did the brainwashing end and where did her own identity begin?
She had no way of knowing.
And in the midst of it all, thanks to that bastard Go Muyeol digging into her with all sorts of words, her confusion only deepened.
“...”
She was so lost in thought, it was surprising she didn’t have a seizure.
She was so consud by what was happening in her head that even the severe withdrawal symptoms from the drugs couldn’t touch her.
Who... am I, really...
The NIS internal docunts Go Muyeol had dropped off last week.
She recognized them at a glance.
The formatting, the encryption thods, even the decryption algorithm—
It was all unmistakably the sa as what her forr organization used.
Forging sothing like this would take an incredible amount of effort.
And yet... she had denied it at the ti.
It was simply too shocking to accept just like that.
She had believed she was just one of the countless orphans scattered across South Korea—
But in truth, she was the result of a forced pregnancy during a human experintation program.
And the only reason she was still alive... was because she had been deed unfit to be a viable candidate.
Her life after that was a disaster, too.
From the orphanage, where her mories began, to the scattered brief relationships she’d had—
Everything had been part of a fabricated environnt designed by the NIS for “agent developnt.”
Everyone she rembered...
Their faces, their words—they were probably all fake.
All part of the script, designed and perford to shape her into a suitable operative for the organization.
They would’ve acted exactly according to that script, every step of the way.
People who approached her with genuine hearts were either nonexistent... or incredibly rare.
That’s why she denied it.
She had to deny it.
But...
Go Muyeol didn’t allow her to keep denying reality.
A week later, he returned—this ti having prepared an all-out invasion of the NIS—
And gave Ha Eun-young direct access to the internal docunts.
And then she saw it.
Everything she had read in those materials—
All of it was right there, still stored on the server.
She’d said, in a last-ditch effort,
“You guys probably just uploaded this ahead of ti to ss with ,”
but even as she said it, despair crept in.
Because she knew.
She knew Go Muyeol had no reason to go that far if it were a lie.
And his response had only confird that.
Despair wrapped itself around her whole body.
Her heart, which had been filled with nothing but a sense of duty and patriotism,
was now completely hollow.
If even the last two things she’d had were lies,
then what the hell did she have left?
“I’ll beco your nation, Seo Eun-mi.”
“Ah...”
Go Muyeol had offered to beco a nation for her—
even though she’d been caught spying,
he said it was fine... if she beca Seo Eun-mi.
When she thought about it...
The life she lived as Seo Eun-mi—
all the feedback she received in that identity had been real.
The things people said to her, the way they acted,
the training she received at Prestige, the missions she carried out,
the connections she ford during that ti—
They had all been, at most, filled with the kind of superficiality you’d find in normal society.
Not the kind of artificiality where so grand organization scripts and choreographs everyone’s behavior like so stage play.
These were real interactions with real people.
A real life.
If there was any falsehood in it—
It had co from Seo Eun-mi’s own heart.
Because it was an environnt even the NIS couldn’t reach, couldn’t manipulate—
Ironically, that made it the one place where she could live a genuine life.
“Prest...ige... Koryo... Group...”
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