201. Father’s Shadow 5

“She’s so much like her mother... just completely infuriating...”

After that, Chertan continued to shed hot tears. Yoon Tae-ha quickly pulled out a handkerchief and handed it to him. Even this had been given to her by Chertan. Chertan roughly wiped his face with the handkerchief, then leaned the back of his head against the wall, looking drained. The handkerchief he held was so soaked it looked like it could fill a cup if squeezed. His tear-streaked face looked pathetic.

“Tell me the name of Rev’s favorite snack.”

“After crying so much, is it finally verification time?”

“Tell me Mago’s real name too.”

Yoon Tae-ha sighed, her shoulders heaving, and rattled off the answers.

“Mago’s real name is Ma Yu-jin, and Rev likes the jerky Ms. Ma Yu-jin makes for him.”

“At least you’re not a chimera.”

The man, who looked like he was at the end of his rope, wiped his eyes again with the handkerchief and tried to stand up, but then slumped back down. Instead of telling him he didn’t need to stand, Yoon Tae-ha also sat down close to the wall.

The two silently watched the flowers swaying in the wind. Yoon Tae-ha pulled her knees to her chest and organized the things she needed to say while basking in the sunlight.

“I regained consciousness a few days ago. Before that, I was in Lethe.”

“Lethe?”

Yoon Tae-ha gazed at the flowers her mother had planted and calmly recounted what she had experienced. She spoke of every scene she remembered: Titan chasing her, meeting Kali, and falling from the tower into the water-filled floor. Chertan listened to her words with astonishing focus.

Even a small bee that flew towards a flower blooming on the ivy and accidentally landed on his nose didn’t break his concentration.

“In conclusion, the Crow Prince stabbed a knife into your body.”

“That was the process. If Nox hadn’t done that, Kali might have cut off my ankle.”

Yoon Tae-ha slightly pulled down her sock and showed him the wound caused by Kali. Chertan’s large, calf-like eyes began to boil with murderous intent. He murmured in a low voice in a language she couldn’t understand.

“And if it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t have known how my mother died.”

“I didn’t even know what her last moments were like.”

“Raphael closed Mother’s eyes for her. That’s why I told Nox to bury that man’s belongings in the tree by the wall. I didn’t do anything wrong, did I?”

“You didn’t. The magic Nox uses isn’t unholy.”

He said that Nox would be incredibly grateful for Yoon Tae-ha’s kindness.

After that conversation, they both immersed themselves in their thoughts for a while. A moment later, Yoon Tae-ha overcame her embarrassment and asked a question.

“Could you tell me about Mother? Yours would be fine too.”

“Seo-hyun is Mother, but I’m ‘you’?”

“Oh...”

Chertan sniffled and gave her a look of hurt. Yoon Tae-ha, unable to overcome the awkward atmosphere, twitched her legs. She wished a swarm of bees would appear to break the silence between them.

“Tell me, Father.”

Yoon Tae-ha knew her own line had sounded even more stiff than Jet’s.

“You might not believe it, but I was born with the duty to take responsibility for a family.”

The story began with an introduction to a black-haired woman who fell into an unfamiliar world and the heir to the territory where she crash-landed.

Chertan felt a liking and curiosity for the woman who would do anything not to starve, and this feeling developed into a mix of friendship and love through various events. He wanted Yoon Seo-hyun to stay on that land.

However, Yoon Seo-hyun had a stronger desire to return to her family. On the night he was about to propose to Yoon Seo-hyun, a gate unexpectedly opened, allowing passage back to Earth. Yoon Seo-hyun was in a place far from Chertan’s territory for research at the time, and she left only a letter before returning to her original world with a friend.

“I was spectacularly dumped.”

Chertan muttered gloomily after saying that much. Yoon Tae-ha picked up an orange flower that had fallen from the vine and twirled it in one direction. The petals spread wide like the hem of a dress and spun.

What was Yoon Seo-hyun like, always wearing those long, flowing dresses? She must have been beautiful. Yoon Tae-ha couldn’t help but look up to Yoon Seo-hyun, who had accomplished such a huge feat when she was younger than herself.

“I couldn’t just stand by. I felt like I was going to die because I couldn’t see her. I just wanted to meet her again, just once.”

He explained that while investigating the area where the gate opened, he discovered a rift that operated with a similar power to a warp gate. And through it, he crossed over to this planet. It was natural that he, an outsider who couldn’t even speak the language properly, suffered severe hardships.

“Just before I was about to die, captured by anti-government eccentrics who liked to collect outsiders, her comrades raided the internment camp where I was held.”

“Was it Ark?”

“Yes, it was Ark.”

That’s how Chertan reunited with Yoon Seo-hyun.

“She felt like my destiny.”

Chertan said he was completely captivated by the new world and Yoon Seo-hyun, who belonged there. But one day, news arrived that brought the errant heir back to his senses. His subordinate, who had risked his life to cross the rift, brought information that the territory was in danger.

“That was also my destiny. I was young then, and foolish enough to believe I could grasp both. I told Seo-hyun, and she, of course, told me to go back. We were intoxicated by the fact that we knew the location and time the rift would open. Because we believed it was a special destiny that only we shared, we both made judgments we wouldn’t normally have made.”

Yoon Tae-ha hesitated before speaking.

“But the rift didn’t open again after you crossed over, did it?”

“It didn’t open until you became an adult. I used every method possible, but I failed. And what greeted me upon my return was an even greater failure.”

“How did you know I existed in this world?”

“Jeon Ye-rim told me.”

“I should treat her well then. She acted as a life-risking messenger pigeon, didn’t she?”

“I consider her a benefactor. Though she seemed to think of Seo-hyun that way.”

“She was an amazing person in many ways, then.”

“She was more persistent and courageous than any knight wielding a sword and spear.”

“May I ask how you crossed over, leaving your territory?”

It was a natural question for Yoon Tae-ha, who had witnessed the battles of outsiders ending in one side’s death.

“I handed it over to my younger brother. He was a delicate child and more skilled at managing the territory than I was.”

“You, no, Father, were also doing well managing the guild.”

“That voice doesn’t have a single shred of sincerity.”

“Even before I knew you were my father, I thought you were a respectable person.”

“Now you’re disappointed, aren’t you? Now that you know everything.”

A deep-seated self-reproach emanated from him. Yoon Tae-ha gazed at Chertan’s profile with a heavy heart and then impulsively blurted out.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were my father, even knowing I was your daughter? Were you worried that Yoon Jung-hoon had done some kind of brainwashing? If you considered my honor, you should have told me. I showed you all sorts of embarrassing things without knowing anything...”

If she had known Chertan was her father, she wouldn’t have said she had no intention of looking for her parents in front of him. She certainly wouldn’t have said that finding her parents wouldn’t change anything. It couldn’t have been easy for him to treat his daughter like a stranger. She was concerned about the pain Chertan must have felt then.

“I thought there was something more precious than your honor.”

“What on earth is that?”

“My daughter not being hurt anymore.”

He answered gloomily.

“But it seems I’ve failed again. I’m sorry.”

Again, Chertan’s eyes welled up. Yoon Tae-ha watched her father’s tears fall onto the barely drying handkerchief, then gently placed her hand on the back of his.

________________________________________

A black car smoothly pulled up in front of the Vice President’s mansion. The bodyguard, who had been waiting, opened the rear passenger door. However, Cheon Beom-jun, who stepped out of the back seat, found fault with the bodyguard’s sluggishness and, using his phone, struck the man’s cheekbone, a man a span taller than himself.

He walked briskly into the building, past the bodyguard who bowed his head, unable to even cover his injured spot.

As soon as Cheon Beom-jun entered the building, someone’s hysterical scream scraped his ears. Hearing the shriek, Cheon Beom-jun removed his heavy watch and headed towards the living room. As he expected, his wife was smashing a framed picture with a golf club.

“Hey!”

At that moment, the woman spotted Cheon Beom-jun and yelled at him. Cheon Beom-jun wrapped the removed watch around his fist and said menacingly,

“This woman is so vulgar... Did your father teach you to talk to your husband like that?”

The woman didn’t even bat an eye at his threat, approaching her husband and shoving his chest.

“The day my son goes to jail is the day we get a divorce. You incompetent fool who can’t even compare to Chairman Cheon! You’d better break a sweat running around! My father will never tolerate his grandson’s name being tarnished!”

The woman, who had unilaterally vented her emotions, threw the golf club on the floor, grabbed her bag, and walked out of the living room. Cheon Beom-jun let out a hollow laugh, feeling pushed to his limit.

Recently, his son was suspected of embezzling guild funds. There were also rumors of illegal use of awakening drugs for Espers by chaebol third-generation heirs of similar age.

It was strictly forbidden for ordinary people to use drugs meant for Espers. His son had even taken it and beaten an ordinary person. The reason was that he wanted to feel what it was like to be an Esper.

“That incompetent bastard...”

This wasn’t the first time such a thing had happened. Normally, it would have been a simple matter to have his secretary bribe the witnesses and end it. But there was a video. It was a fairly high-quality video, shot from a very low angle, looking upwards.

When the video’s existence was revealed, Cheon Beom-jun interrogated his son. He slapped him, asking if he had any idea who shot the video. But his son just babbled nonsense about a cute yellow cat being at the drinking party. “Meow,” he meowed, rolling on the floor, and Cheon Beom-jun simply couldn’t understand him.

As he was stepping over broken objects, looking for an answer, his secretary scurried over. He stopped at a distance where Cheon Beom-jun’s arm couldn’t reach, in case he was suddenly struck. Cheon Beom-jun asked in a sinister voice,

“Is it Geon-young’s work?”