Chapter 63

“……”

I stood gloomily, looking down at the two people. Inside the transparent casket lay my second parents. The black veins spread throughout their bodies still hadn’t subsided.

I let out a small sigh and closed my eyes for a moment. It felt like I would fall asleep quickly, but the anxiety kept me awake.

Whenever I closed my eyes, I thought of the funeral hall. Maybe it was because it was the most vivid place in my life.

My father, who ran a business, left behind a mountain of debt here and there. My mother didn’t die instantly but underwent four surgeries before falling into a coma and finally passing away, burning through what little assets we had left.

At that time, a chunk of metal had pierced my stomach, rupturing my intestines, and they said the infection had spread throughout my body. I heard the doctors struggled desperately to save me. I was even in a coma for about two months.

Thanks to that, I held the funeral not with funeral staff, but with debt collectors.

The people who had borrowed money from us didn’t show up. Only those who lent us money came, and some even pretended to have lent us money and clung on.

Tap. I placed my hand on top of the transparent casket.

Inside was my family.

My uncle, who swung a dinner table with one hand to chase away the debt collectors; my aunt, who sold her own house to pay off the debts; and my older sister, who hugged me tightly and cried her eyes out.

“……”

None of them were by my side anymore.

* * *

Nodding off in the car, I noticed Yang Il-ho glancing at me through the rearview mirror with a puzzled expression.

“Hyung, is something wrong today?”

“Huh? Why?”

“Uuuuuhm… Never mind.”

“Every time you end your sentence with a nasal whine, you get a smack. Keep your hands properly on the wheel.”

Yang Il-ho whimpered and focused on driving.

“……”

There were a few things that changed when I became a politician.

First, I got better at hiding my feelings. I was always that way to an extent, though.

“Ahh, A I U E O. Gan-jang gong-jang gong-dang-dang… Ahem…!”

My voice changed too. It got a little rougher, I guess.

Sitting gloomily in the back seat, I looked at my reflection in the window. Then, with my index finger, I pulled the skin under my eye downward.

“My dark circles are no joke……”

My cheeks had sunken, making me look sharp, irritable, and sensitive. Not that I’m saying I really am sharp, irritable, or sensitive.

“Hey, turn off the heater.”

“It’s not even on.” “Shut up.”

I spoke to Lee Ho-jung, who was sitting in the passenger seat flipping through my schedule.

“Hey, I weighed myself this morning. I think I’m lighter than you.”

“How much did you weigh?”

“Sixty.”

“Are you crazy!?”

Lee Ho-jung shrieked.

“I stuffed myself with chicken breast just to keep my figure! How can you be sixty!?”

“Did I hit a nerve?”

“I’m fifty-two, okay!?”

Yang Il-ho mumbled brightly.

“Fifty-four, though.”

“Lips.”

“……”

I chuckled and said to them,

“Hey, ever since I started doing politics, I’ve changed a lot, like, you know.”

“You mean you got all shriveled up?”

“That’s a bit too blunt. Anyway, don’t I seem different?”

“You’ve been doing loyalty tests too often lately-”

“Not that. Like, the dark circles, the gray hairs, the cracked voice, the weight loss, the sharp and sensitive look. Don’t I seem like I’ve changed a lot?”

While I grumbled and fiddled with my chin, the fact-bombing Lee Ho-jung stabbed me in the chest.

“It’s because you got jabbed with a syringe two hundred times. It’s not politics’ fault.”

“Politics ruined you?”

“Not exactly.”

“You’re saying you don’t feel like doing politics anymore?”

“If you put it that way, yeah.”

Sitting in the passenger seat, Lee Ho-jung chuckled and handed me a chocolate bar she had swiped from a collapsed convenience store.

“You’re low on sugar, right?”

“A little.”

Munch. Even though it was cheap chocolate, it tasted amazing since it had been so long. Maybe it was because I’d been living off only Spam and instant rice.

“Honestly, seeing what you do up close, it’s understandable. You never got to enjoy any perks.”

“Hey, come on. Who becomes an Assemblyman just to enjoy perks—”

Lee Ho-jung cut me off with a smirk, leaving me speechless.

“Really?”

“……”

“Don’t tell me you became an Assemblyman out of patriotism?”

She was right.

Who, these days, becomes a public servant out of patriotism? I just wanted to grab a bit of power.

“No one goes through twenty years of being an Assemblyman’s lackey after graduating from Korea University just out of some pure motive. Same for us. I mean, I only graduated from Sky University, but still.”

Just look at Yang Il-ho. A guy who racked up every youngest-ever title, passed the last bar exam, and even made it through the training institute.

Why would a guy with a law license be running around fetching coffee and putting up with an Assemblyman’s tantrums? He was gunning for a political career too. Just like me, grabbing any scrap thrown by an Assemblyman to earn a badge of my own.

Honestly, being a National Assembly aide was basically the same as being a prospective Assemblyman.

“But being an Assemblyman now isn’t what you imagined, right?”

“Right.”

After the Gate Incident blew a hole in the sky, there was no harder job in the world.

Barely sleeping six hours a day, getting no salary when the government collapsed, losing years off your life, getting hounded by reporters everywhere, and having guns pointed at you at random.

“In my opinion, it’s natural. Living like that, anyone would get sick of it. There’s no such thing as an eternal sense of purpose.”

“No, it’s not like I hate being an Assemblyman…”

Smack.

“……What’s for dinner tonight?”

I’m getting sick of politics. Politics.

* * *

Honestly, I’ve been feeling a lot of disillusionment lately.

After all that blood, sweat, and tears, what did I really gain?

Sure, I gained fame, power, a few things here and there, but losing my family and my health made everything feel a little hollow.

Maybe it’s a form of political burnout. Or maybe I just hit a slump.

I busted my ass to rebuild society, and then a black goat popped out and went “baaa” and wrecked everything again. Not that it’s all for nothing, but still.

Anyway.

Getting tangled up in people’s problems all the time is exhausting too. And the fact that one political decision can decide the lives of so many people—it’s a heavy burden.

In short, the burden was heavy.

And now, I was just a little tired.

That’s why it was hard.

On top of that, my family was ill, and my sister was wandering around the most dangerous places in Korea, searching for an existing cure. She might come back as a corpse any day.

“Huu……”

I let out a small sigh at the door and steadied myself.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Then I slowly knocked. As neatly and politely as possible.

“Come in…”

“It’s been a while, President Chun—”

The moment I opened the door and stepped inside, I froze. Awkwardly stiffened.

“Welcome……”

“Assemblyman Han, it’s been a while!”

In front of President Chun Geum-soon, who bowed feebly with a crooked posture, Hong Seon-ah sat leisurely, crossing her slender legs and waving her hand playfully.

The atmosphere between them was completely different, and the size difference was so extreme that visually they seemed like polar opposites. But in my eyes, they both looked like the same kind of beast.

What is this? A snake pit?

Hong Seon-ah beamed brightly.

“I dropped by when I heard you were coming, Assemblyman!”

“…Ah, I see.”

Back then, only the tips of her hair were dyed red, but now about half of it shimmered with a light reddish hue.

“……Did you dye your hair neon these days?”

Hong Seon-ah’s hair literally glowed. Gently.

She brushed back her now mid-length hair with a casual smile. No, it had grown into long hair before I even realized it.

“What can I do? I got too powerful! The blazing girl Hong Seon-ah is still—”

“Please, just stop with the nonsense.”

“Hiing……”

Even as she whined, her expression stayed lively. Chun Geum-soon, who was sitting across from her, weakly tugged at my sleeve.

“It’s been a while, darling…?”

“Ah, yes. I heard you’ve been doing quite well with magic stones.”

“All thanks to you, really…”

Right before the Han Seung-Moon Foundation was forcibly dismantled by the prosecutors and the special investigation team, I had donated all the magic stones I had accumulated to the GS Group.

And following my instructions, she was now maintaining a properly balanced magic stone market. Grabbing control of the market along the way too.

As I sat down, I asked about her well-being.

“I heard you even set up a PMC. Aegis, right? I remember the logo—a golden shield with a GS on it—because it was so tacky.”

“First thing you do when we meet after so long is throw stones at me…?”

I glanced at Hong Seon-ah, who was sitting across from her. Her skin looked smooth, and she had makeup on, as if she had just finished shooting a broadcast.

“Maybe it’s because Hong Seon-ah is the guild master. You two seem to get along quite well.”

It was a connection I arranged, trying to break the nationalization of Hunters and achieve a market economy for hunting.

At this, Chun Geum-soon gave a pitiful smile.

“Please take her back. She’s draining my energy…”

“Aww, unnie, don’t be like that.”

“Don’t call me unnie…”

“Unnieee.”

Chun Geum-soon quietly accepted the macaron that Hong Seon-ah fed her. It seemed she had met her natural enemy.

“I heard from Minister Yoo Jae-kyung that business is booming lately.”

“That damn bastard.”

“Excuse me?”

“Ah, nothing…”

Right, I remembered now. Yoo Jae-kyung had mobilized the Financial Services Commission and crushed one of Chun Geum-soon’s affiliates.

Even though the Financial Services Commission was technically under the Prime Minister’s Office, its members were all high-ranking officials from the Ministry of Finance, so in reality, the Finance Minister was the boss there.

No wonder Chun Geum-soon saw Minister Yoo as someone she wanted to kill. The GS Group had rocketed up to fifth place among conglomerates, and the Financial Services Commission had been itching to rein them in. Maybe that’s why Chun Geum-soon’s dark circles looked especially deep today.

She must’ve realized there was no benefit in owing me anything more, so she hadn’t even tried to lobby me. Which meant she was waging a financial war against Korea’s strongest minister without me knowing.

“Still, I heard Aegis topped the industry?”

“Where’s a ‘top’ for a startup… We’re just laying low for now, preparing for something big.”

Sensing that I was subtly hyping her up, Chun Geum-soon modestly feigned humility.

At least she was sharper than most politicians.

“Still, isn’t it the golden age of PMCs these days?”

As the Awakening Accelerator started to spread and the number of Awakeners skyrocketed through the Uijeongbu Gate, all sorts of PMCs began to pop up.

It was still a small number, but the money flowing through the industry was anything but small. The potential of the magic stone business was limitless.

“Using magic stones from PMCs to make potions, generate electricity, even spur R&D on new technologies, right?”

Translation: You made quite a fortune thanks to me, huh?

“That’s true… The volume of magic stones coming in was way beyond expectations. Hunter Hong has quite the knack for it…”

Translation: Not thanks to you, actually.

Hong Seon-ah smiled proudly.

“We burned down the entire Taebaek Mountain Range!”

“I heard Greenpeace cursed you out like crazy. Anyway, is work a bit easier now?”

“After burning it all, we only had to clean up the half-dead ones! There are a few monsters immune to fire, but my friends are just that good!”

The people at Aegis were originally the ones who used to work under David Kim Chun-sik, so their skills were guaranteed. Aegis was practically a gathering of ex-guild members.

“……”

David Kim had been drinking soju sadly ever since Hong Seon-ah and her team left. But that was a secret.

Saying someone had to die for others to live, or that a few had to sacrifice themselves for the many—those were questions without clear answers.

As I stared gloomily at the floor for a moment, Chun Geum-soon yawned and asked,

“By the way, what brings you here…?”

“Ah, well…”

I laughed awkwardly.

“I’m planning to hold a small party with people I know.”

“Excuse me?”

For once, Chun Geum-soon looked genuinely flustered. Hong Seon-ah, meanwhile, maintained her signature blank-but-smiling expression.

“I mean, all the people who’ve helped me so far, you know? I thought I’d gather them, serve some simple food, and maybe do a little networking.”

I was inviting them to the party.

“It’s been such a rough time that we can’t do anything big. But I’d really appreciate it if you could come and brighten up the event……”

“I want to go!”

Hong Seon-ah smiled brightly and raised her hand, but Chun Geum-soon mumbled with a reluctant expression.

“……What kind of party?”

* * *

“Starting now, the 1st National Party Convention begins – !”

– Waaaaah!

A thunderous cheer echoed through a giant baseball stadium, and I clapped with a look of deep emotion on the outside while feeling completely indifferent on the inside.

“Please welcome Floor Leader Han Seung-Moon! Let’s greet him with a big round of applause!”

– Waaaaaaaah!!

– Kkkyoooooot!

– Wuaaaah!!

Even louder cheers erupted. My face appeared on the giant screen. It was being broadcast live on every channel.

Sitting next to me were Chun Geum-soon and David Kim. Both were hugely popular figures in society, making them top-tier decorative props for the event.

As I stood up, waving and smiling brightly, I could see Chun Geum-soon clapping with a stiff expression. She was clearly grinding her teeth in discomfort.

If the National Defense Party won the election, what would happen to Chun Geum-soon, who had participated in the National Party convention?

That’s why conglomerates always had to maintain an ambiguous distance from politics. But now, she was stuck attending what was considered the “flower of politics.”

……Yes, the flower of politics.

Spring blossoms had bloomed.

The presidential and general elections were approaching.