The Returnee's Daughter (1)
In a prison in Los Angeles, USA.
It wasn't particularly magnificent; on the contrary, it was a rather ordinary prison. Yet, in Arica, it was a rather famous one.
That's because Jas Walker, who had once caused a stir across Arica as a 'returnee', was serving his sentence there.
"Jas, you have a visitor."
At the guard's indifferent voice calling out to him, Jas took a slow step forward.
Whenever he walked through, taunting voices would echo from all sides.
"Hey, Jas! Is your daughter visiting you again?"
"Lucky you! The father scams people, and the daughter makes money off her scamming father. Sooo impressive!"
With snickering laughter ringing at his back, Jas let out a sigh.
This was why he'd told her not to co, so why did she keep visiting?
When he entered the visiting room, he saw a familiar face across the transparent partition.
Striking black hair and dazzling erald eyes, beautiful features.
His daughter, who had just turned twenty, leaving her girlhood behind to beco a young adult woman.
"Alencia, I thought I told you to stop coming here."
He picked up the receiver with a nonchalant face and spoke; on the other side, she snorted.
"No way, why should I listen to you, dad? Besides, if I don't even visit you, people will forget about you soon, right?"
"Being forgotten is a good thing, for both of us. So you should really give up that streaming, too..."
"Oh, geeze. Didn't you hear ? I said no. I'm going to keep streaming."
Jas could feel a headache forming at his daughter's whining, laced with annoyance.
Who on earth did she get that from?
'Ah, from , I guess.'
Her attention-seeking streak was just like his own.
And the fact that it might one day bring her ruin? Also, very similar.
"Your mother would be disappointed if she saw you now."
"That goes both ways. I bet Mom would love to see you like this, dad. 'That's not what I ant for you to do~.' She'd say."
"Ahem."
He didn't have a retort.
In the end, it was all because of his own wrongdoings.
Trouble arose, and by the ti he regretted it, it was far too late.
Above all...
"Even if it's possible for , it's not for you."
"What does that even an?"
"More importantly, how's the tattoo on your back?"
At Jas's question, Alencia frowned.
He asked about it every ti she visited.
"It doesn't get any darker or bigger now."
"Really?"
"'Really?' That's all you have to say? Explain what this is already! You always just nod to yourself. Aren't you supposed to tell
what this tattoo ans?!"
Alencia, the reason she ca to see Jas once or twice a month wasn't simply for streaming content.
The tattoo that started to appear on her back when she hit puberty.
She wanted to find out what it was.
"Dad, you know what this is."
At first it resembled nothing but a spot.
But as she grew older, its shape beca unusual.
Like a tattoo drawn by human hands.
"I don't know."
"Ugh, so annoying."
Her father, who clearly knew, stayed silent.
Because of that, Alencia felt like the frustration would drive her insane.
So, she decided to tease him a little.
"I'm going for an awakened aptitude test today."
"What? Why all of a sudden?"
"Well, since you won't tell
what this is, I'm going to do sothing you told
not to."
"Alencia!"
Jas shouted urgently, but Alencia just put down the receiver and stuck her tongue out briefly.
Taking the awakened aptitude test was precisely one of the things Jas had told her never to do.
She'd been so quiet about it all this ti that he didn't think much of it, and now she suddenly dropped a bomb like this.
"Damn it."
Jas slamd down the receiver and muttered a curse.
He could only hope that nothing would happen while Alencia took the aptitude test.
That was all he could do.
***
Tae-yeong Group.
A major player in the cultural industry, and the company owning the most movie theaters in South Korea.
But recently, with one film flop after another under their distribution, their strong position had begun to falter.
That's why, this ti, they poured enormous investnt into Director Cha Jae-seok and tried to produce a solid, entertaining film that would succeed at the box office.
"Welco, you're Manager Park Jung-woo, correct?"
When I arrived at the headquarters of Tae-yeong Group, I was greeted by several suited n.
Just as Director Cha Jae-seok had said, everything seed arranged in advance because, the mont I arrived, several people attached themselves to .
"This way, please."
With n in immaculate suits politely escorting , I felt an inexplicable pressure.
'Why go this far?'
It was strange enough that they wanted to see
face to face. Treating
like a VIP only made it stranger.
Even if I'd gotten a bit of attention recently, I was still just a manager.
A manager who'd simply been lucky enough to acquire two S-rank hunters.
There was no reason for Tae-yeong Group to treat
as such a guest of honor.
'Maybe it's because I'm a returnee?'
That was the only plausible explanation I could think of.
All the small managent agencies knew about it, so it was likely a group like Tae-young would know as well.
'If so, the answer is obvious.'
I didn't rember anything about what happened inside the rift.
What a perfect excuse.
Everything I'd done until now was credited to Shin Ah-yeon, so nobody had any reason to suspect my record.
Especially since, if it was Shin Ah-yeon, no one would bat an eye at her inventing things like circle magic.
"The chairman is inside."
The n stopped in front of a door decorated with ornate patterns.
It was the kind of place that looked like it housed soone important.
"You're here."
When I slowly opened the door and went in, chairman Song Hyun-seung, who had been sitting in a chair, slowly stood up.
He was nearing his sixties, yet his robust physique made him look quite vigorous.
"Chairman, you really don't have to get up..."
"It's fine. How could I greet a guest while sitting?"
"... Understood."
By his side stood a male secretary with a sharp look, whose expression clearly showed he didn't think much of .
"It's a pleasure to et you. I'm Song Hyun-seung of Tae-yeong Group."
"The honor is mine, chairman Song Hyun-seung. I'm Park Jung-woo, head manager at Unique."
The "head manager" was a title I'd only recently received from Unique.
Sung-hwan had said that calling myself just a manager sounded unimpressive when telling others.
Originally, I wanted a lower position, but Sung-hwan insisted that I needed to at least take the title of head manager. Because of all I'd done, a lower title would only leave a negative impression of Unique.
"You must be busy, but thank you for accepting my invitation."
"Not at all. It just happened to be a slow period for ."
"Heh, even after all that dia attention lately, you had ti on your hands?"
Song Hyun-seung laughed boisterously and sat back down.
"You must be curious as to why I called you here."
"Yes, to be honest, I'm not quite sure."
"It's because I've developed a bit of an interest, for several reasons."
He took a sip of the tea set on the table, quietly observing .
Like he was trying to see through to my heart.
"First, you're the manager of Shin Ah-yeon, who's one of the central figures of our upcoming film."
If Song Hyun-seung spoke of her like that, it showed just how much they were counting on Shin Ah-yeon's reputation for this movie.
"And second, you're a returnee."
"... So you knew after all."
"My friend, it's not hard to find that out with a bit of digging. Of course I know."
He smiled aningfully as he spoke.
"I even know what you told the governnt. But I didn't call you today to press you about that, so no need to be on edge."
He waved his hand as if to reassure .
From his attitude, it seed being a returnee was not his main reason for calling
today.
Though it seed he was at least interested.
"The real reason I asked you here is because I want to propose a collaboration."
"A collaboration... you say?"
"I place a very high value on your abilities."
Song Hyun-seung smiled warmly.
"You brought back Shin Ah-yeon, who was half-retired, and not only that, but managed to restore her to sothing like her previous level of recognition in no ti. If the movie does well, she'll probably beco even more popular than during her pri."
"That was thanks to Shin Ah-yeon-nim's exceptional abilities, more than mine."
"No, if not for you, Shin Ah-yeon would never have co back. I was there at the ceremony where she received her decoration, so I know well."
"When Shin Ah-yeon-nim received her decoration, you an?"
At my words, he nodded slowly, as if reminiscing about the past.
"At that ti, Shin Ah-yeon risked her life to avert a great disaster and received the Order of Mugunghwa, the highest honor the nation could bestow. But she didn't seem to care about it. After losing what was most dear to her—her magic—and after her agency cast her aside, I thought for sure she'd never co back. Yet, she did."
He looked at
with serious eyes.
"Can you really say that wasn't thanks to your effort?"
"That's..."
"And not only Shin Ah-yeon, but you also discovered Lee Soo-ah. You saw potential where everyone else turned away, and brought her up to beco the sixth strongest in Korea."
I never expected Song Hyun-seung to rate
this highly.
If the issue wasn't about
being a returnee, I thought maybe they just wanted to offer so ads to Ah-yeon or Soo-ah because of recent buzz.
But from his words now, it didn't seem to be just that.
"And after the recent Shim Chun-hoo incident, it looks like you discovered another new talent."
"... You an Hunter Hwang Yeon-ji."
"Yes. Still young, but with extraordinary abilities. I'm almost curious how you find such people."
"I was just lucky."
"Luck? Haha, I don't believe in luck."
Song Hyun-seung stood up from his seat.
And then approached
slowly.
"Watching your achievents, I felt a sense of urgency. If I left you alone, soone else would surely poach you."
"You an..."
"You're a smart man, so you must understand—I'm making you a scout offer."
A scout offer?
Tae-yeong Group is trying to scout ?
"I was under the impression Tae-yeong Group had no interest in the Hunter business."
"Not 'no interest'. We just couldn't jump in carelessly."
"And why is that?"
"Jin Su-hyuk."
"You an the president of Grand Nova. But even with Grand Nova, their earnings can't match Tae-yeong Group's in the culture sector..."
No matter how prestigious Grand Nova was in this field, their earnings couldn't compare to a cultural giant like Tae-yeong Group.
"That might've been true before, but not anymore. Do you know what it is that those in power most fear in today's society?"
Strong power, and imnse wealth.
Those who possessed both were only afraid of one thing.
That was awakened individuals.
The organization that possessed the greatest number of those overwhelming monsters was Grand Nova.
I'd once incited a conflict between Assemblyman Min Gwang-hun and Upstream.
But, that was only possible because it was Upstream.
The only one of the big three managent agencies without an S-rank hunter.
If Min Gwang-hun had picked a fight with Grand Nova, he would've ended up a corpse the next day.
Trying to stop an S-rank hunter was impossible, even for the military.
"But even Jin Su-hyuk..."
"He's a monster. If he ever viewed us as enemies, he wouldn't leave anyone standing. He wouldn't even leave proof. Even if there was strong suspicion, the status S-ranks hold in the nation can't be overco by re suspicion."
That's why he wanted to bring
in.
If I joined, Ah-yeon or Soo-ah were likely to follow.
"You have two S-rank hunters at your side. Even if they didn't join you, I believe you have the ability to uncover more S-rank talents."
"So that's why you want to scout ?"
If a company like Tae-yeong Group entered the Hunter business, Grand Nova would surely try to keep them in check.
Until now, the reason conglorates like Tae-yeong Group hadn't entered the industry was a fear of Grand Nova's power. But now, soone who could break through that blockade and flip the ga board had appeared.
That was , Park Jung-woo.
"If it's money, I'll pay whatever you want. Tens of billions of won in salary? That's fine. So, how about working with us?"
As Song Hyun-seung slowly extended his hand to ,
I simply stared quietly at his outstretched hand for a mont.
-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=
【【_】a(?????? )】
Reviews
All reviews (0)