Chapter 261. To Lead (1) (1/2)
Dozens of papers were strewn across the streets.
Seol Jihu had just returned to the city, but he could feel countless people stealing looks at him. The signs all over the city were screaming— that something unusual was happening.
Seol Jihu picked up one of the papers lying on the ground.
Soon, his eyes went wide before narrowing. The newspaper explained what had happened while he was gone.
—While Carpe Diem’s main force left to complete the royal family’s mission, the Eva Alliance sent Ochoa Cartel’s Level 5 Warrior, ‘Noah Freya’ and a representative of the Eva Alliance, the level 5 Warrior ‘Yang Yang’, to attack Carpe Diem’s base. Receiving Carpe Diem’s request for assistance, the Triads dispatched ‘Ayase Kazuki’ and others, successfully annihilating the Eva Alliance’s forces raiding Carpe Diem.
Coincidentally, at the same time, Ochoa Cartel and the other organizations picked a fight with members of the Triads at the pub. Although it was only a small, insignificant fight at first, it quickly intensified until organizations were brought into the mix.
The Triads’ executive, ‘Ming Jie’, understood the seriousness of the situation and tried to stop the conflict, but the Eva Alliance unscrupulously raised their hand, taking out their weapons despite Ming Jie’s attempt to appease the situation. In the end, they attacked the Triads’ forces first.
In response, the Triads struck back, lighting the fuse for a war which ended in the Eva Alliance’s complete defeat.
The leader of Ochoa Cartel, ‘Omar Garcia’, was present at the scene. As he was making his escape, he was caught by the members of Carpe Diem who were on their way to reinforce the Triads. Captured and questioned, he revealed that he was instigated by Jung Sua, the representative of the royal family’s partner organization, Evangeline.
Jung Sua is pleading innocence, claiming that she knew nothing about Omar Garcia’s plans, but this was clearly the Eva Alliance’s attempt to drive out Carpe Diem and the Triads after suffering a huge loss from the recent revelation of their illegal activities.
With Jung Sua revealed to be the one who suggested Carpe Diem’s escort mission, her words are losing trust.
As a result, the Eva Alliance was completely annihilated, leaving behind only the Dongchun Merchants and Red Hwaru. However, the Triads and Carpe Diem suffered great losses as well.
Carpe Diem managed to escape the worst-case scenario thanks to the Triads’ timely support, but two legends of Paradise, Seo Yuhui and Jang Maldong have suffered severe injuries, causing the rage of many Earthlings…
‘What?’
Seol Jihu didn’t catch the last bits of the news, which noted, ‘Everyone is awaiting the decision of Eva’s queen, Charlotte Aria.’
Seo Yuhui and Jang Maldong suffered severe injuries?
Seol Jihu’s head turned white.
“Ooooh? What? What the hell happened?”
Phi Sora must have picked up a newspaper too as she muttered in shock. It wasn’t just her. Everyone else was in shock.
In the next moment, Seol Jihu ran.
He initially planned to stop by the palace to report the successful completion of the mission, but that thought evaporated altogether as he ran at full speed toward Carpe Diem’s building.
Passing the main gate and throwing open the front entrance, he heard someone scream and backed off.
It was Chohong.
“Ah, hey! Easy on the do—”
Chohong, who was about to get angry, shut her mouth seeing Seol Jihu.
“Oh, you’re here…”
She changed her attitude right away, welcoming him before trailing off. She had no other choice when she saw his face and spoke carefully.
“W-When did you get here?”
“Just now. Where’s Master Jang and Yuhui Noona?”
Seol Jihu had a ton of questions he wanted to ask, but he asked the most important matter first.
“Old Man is enjoying the hot spring… Yuhui Noonim, I think, is resting in her room.”
Seol Jihu’s eyes waned. Of the two supposedly injured people, one was enjoying the hot spring and the other was resting in her room?
“Did they come back from the emergency treatment room already?”
“Uhh, about that…”
Chohong avoided Seol Jihu’s eyes. She seemed guilty of something.
“I only heard after you left… and Old Man reluctantly agreed to it as well…”
She muttered something Seol Jihu couldn’t understand. He no longer waited for her reply and hurried up the stairs. He wanted to check their conditions with his own eyes.
The door was open. Just like Chohong said, Seo Yuhui was resting in her room. To be more precise, she was sitting on her bed, playing with the red egg.
‘What’s he doing there?’
Seol Jihu couldn’t figure out what the egg was doing here, but he set the question aside. This wasn’t the first time it had happened anyway.
What mattered was Seo Yuhui’s condition.
But the way she smiled and gently tickled the egg, she looked nothing like a severely injured patient.
Seol Jihu breathed a sigh of relief before knocking on the door.
Seo Yuhui turned around in a startle.
“Jihu?”
“…Noona.”
“When did you get here?”
“Just now.”
Seol Jihu continued as he stepped into the room.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. There’s no problem at all. Ah, except the problem that I’ve been having.”
“Are you really, really okay?”
As Seol Jihu asked a second time, Seo Yuhui smiled bitterly.
“You saw the newspaper?”
Seol Jihu became convinced. The publicly known story was a lie.
Words could easily be manipulated to instill different thoughts in people. For whatever reason, someone must have pulled some strings to make the false story go out.
And within Carpe Diem, there was only one person who would think of such a thing.
Before Seol Jihu mentioned the name, he asked.
“What happened?”
“Unn… We’re pretending to be hurt. Miss Hannah said that would make it easier to manipulate public opinion.”
Seo Yuhui spoke in a slightly bashful way.
‘As I thought.’
After relief came suspicion. Seol Jihu felt stuffy for whatever reason and hurriedly asked.
“Can you give me an explanation?”
*
Kim Hannah has been running around like a headless chicken trying to take care of recent events. Even today, she left the Carpe Diem building early in the morning and had yet to return.
Seol Jihu stayed cooped up in the main office after hearing Seo Yuhui’s explanation. Sitting at the desk chair, he smoked endlessly. Otherwise, he didn’t feel like he could relax.
Although he was working hard to pretend like he was okay, he was seething on the inside like a blast furnace at full capacity.
White smoke came out of his nostrils and mouth, like the steam escaping a heated kettle. By the time his cigarette butts formed a small mound on the ashtray, the clacking of high heels rang out in the hallway.
Soon, knocks rang out, followed by the sound of the door opening.
“You’re back? Good work. Did the mission go well?”
He could tell who it was without even having to look.
Seol Jihu spoke with a slightly hoarse voice.
“…Come sit.”
“What, why? Why are you acting so serious?”
Seol Jihu’s chin shook a little. Kim Hannah must have known what he meant, so seeing her act this way made him too spiteful.
Seol Jihu took a deep breath.
“Don’t you have something to say to me?”
“I’m a bit busy right now…”
“You don’t have time to talk even for a little while?”
“…Fine, I’ll stay and talk. But keep it simple.”
“Sit.”
Even Seol Jihu was surprised by his cold tone. Kim Hannah looked at Seol Jihu with a renewed expression. Next, she quietly walked forward and sat down on a chair.
Seol Jihu had already heard about the events leading up until here.
After a moment of silence, he asked.
“Is this why you asked me to lend you the pendant?”
“Yep, it was just in case anyone attacked… Having it, saved us.”
Seol Jihu scoffed.
“No, you borrowed it to reverse the situation if the Eva Alliance invaded and devoured them instead.”
“You’re right. Since Flone was here, I didn’t think we’d lose.”
Kim Hannah admitted easily.
“But it’s not like I didn’t give much thought to it. Flone’s strength is one thing, but her main advantage is that her existence has not been revealed to Paradise. I had to devise a plan to utilize this advantage, and that’s how this plan came to be.”
What she said wasn’t wrong.
“But like I said in the past, the success and failure of the plan was unclear with you around. We kept poking at the Alliance, but they continued laying low. In the end, you had to leave this city to bait them out.”
Seol Jihu understood what she meant.
“Anyway, everything went well. With the Eva Alliance attacking first, we have the proper justification to deal with them. We also hid Flone’s existence, and with clear evidence supporting us, the public support is with us as well. The Eva Alliance is practically done for.”
Indeed, the outcome of the plan was an undeniable success. After all, five of Eva’s seven remaining organizations had collapsed.
…That was the case if he only looked at the outcome.