IH Ch 94

Chapter 94

Having gained Lee Myunghwan’s trust, she rose swiftly through the ranks. Though she didn’t appear to be in the spotlight, she was effectively another ruler of the Lee Myunghwan Empire. She continued to secure allies more firmly and expanded her followers through various means. She also gathered people who had abilities similar to hers and trained them separately.

Perhaps, in that place, she believed she could achieve everything she desired. As much as she delivered concrete results, she likely believed that she, too, had a rightful stake in the kingdom. Immersed in that delusion, she failed to realize there were people who found her distasteful and were planning to stab her in the back.

Lee Myunghwan was never the type of man to share what was his. Even when he assigned tasks to people with abilities superior to his own and they achieved great results, he considered their success as naturally his own doing. To such a man, Yoo Shijin, who was expanding her influence, became nothing short of infuriating.

“Dohwa!”

Just like any other day, after coming home from kindergarten, Dohwa was drawing in his room when he turned around. Thinking his mom had arrived, he immediately stood up, and with loud footsteps, she appeared.

“Mom?”

Throwing the door wide open, Yoo Shijin lifted his small body into her arms, and Dohwa instinctively wrapped his arms around her neck. She carried him outside and quickly loaded him into a car that had been roughly parked in the front yard before getting into the driver’s seat.

Clunk. The car jolted backward with a rough reverse, as if it had been flung. Still holding his breath, Dohwa asked in a terrified voice,

“Where are we going?”

“……”

“Mom?”

She had always been a kind mother, even if not particularly attentive. But now, she was driving recklessly with a disheveled appearance. Sensing that something was seriously wrong, Dohwa spoke up again, calling her. As soon as Yoo Shijin turned onto a long road, she looked back at him.

“Dohwa, you’re probably wondering what’s going on, right? Don’t worry. We’re just moving.”

She kept glancing back and forth between the front and rearview mirrors, forcefully pulling up the corners of her lips into a smile. As if to say there’s nothing to be afraid of, that this was no big deal. But her eyes looked strange. The corners of her mouth trembled like a spasm, and she kept letting out shallow breaths.

Sensing that she was gripped by immense fear, Dohwa shrank his shoulders. Though she repeatedly said it was fine, that nothing was wrong—it wasn’t. The peaceful life they had known was beginning to crack. Watching his mother’s face, which now only looked grotesque with its smile, Dohwa muttered in a barely audible voice,

“Mom.”

I’m scared. As those words left his lips, something rammed into the side of the car.

The impact was tremendous. Dohwa, who had been sitting in a car seat, was flung sideways, his head snapping downward. His arms and legs flailed as his vision spun repeatedly. At the very end, his head suffered a heavy blow.

His vision alternated between a bright white and a consuming black. Even then, Dohwa tried to find his mother. Forcing his eyes open with great effort, he tried to check on her condition. But the driver’s seat was empty. She was gone. As he rolled his eyes in search of her, he froze. Outside the overturned car, far in the distance, she lay sprawled on the ground.

She was lying on her side, her face obscured. Dohwa stretched out his limp hand and called out, “Mom.” But there were others who reached her before he could. They surrounded her collapsed figure.

No. Don’t do that.

She had always been too busy to spend much time with him. Even when he had tried to approach or talk to her, she would just pat his head and continue with her phone calls or her work. Still, she was his mother. It didn’t change the fact that she had raised him alone. Dohwa squeezed his eyes shut and called out for her a few more times, but that was the last time he ever saw her.

When he regained consciousness, Dohwa was alone in a rundown hospital building. He thought his body had been wrecked by the shock, but the injuries weren’t as bad as he had feared. Still, his arms and legs were in casts, leaving him immobile for over a month.

Even as a child, Dohwa had enough awareness to keep silent throughout the treatment. Despite the discomfort, he managed to eat, wash, change clothes, and receive treatment. Through it all, one thought constantly echoed in his mind: Where is Mom?

He was the only one using the hospital room, which had ten beds. A small child sat alone on a bed far too large for him, yet no one seemed to find that strange. Dohwa was simply being monitored.

Maybe his mother was in the same situation as he was. Thinking that if he quietly continued his treatment, he might see her again, Dohwa endured that long time in silence. Then, just as his treatment was about to end, a stranger appeared. A woman in a black suit and sunglasses. Her lower face resembled his mother’s, so he stared at her as she approached him.

She looked him up and down as if assessing an item, then bent down to bring her face close to his and said,

“Your mother is a traitor. She tried to leave your father without so much as a word of gratitude.”

“……”

“She knew exactly who allowed her to live in comfort all this time. And yet, she dared to betray him. Shameless.”

There was a sharp thorn embedded in her words. It was clear that she was speaking to hurt him intentionally.

“Listen, when someone does you a favor, you should never forget it. You must repay it with your life until the day you die. So from now on, you’ll have to make an effort, won’t you?”

“……”

“Since your damned mother nearly ruined everything, you’ll have to clean up her mess. You’re nothing but a useless brat right now, but with some training, you might become something.”

Straightening her back, she pushed her sunglasses up.

“If you want to stay alive, you’ll have to fight for it with everything you’ve got. Understand?”

He couldn’t comprehend even half of what this woman was saying. Dohwa silently stared at her, then finally opened his mouth, which had remained closed all this time.

“What about my mom?”

Because he hadn’t spoken in a long time, his voice came out strangely. The woman frowned at the sound, clearly displeased, and smirked.

“If you want to know that, you better behave from now on. Who knows—maybe if you do, one day you’ll see your mother again.”

Though it was a vague promise, Dohwa had no choice but to nod. There was no other way to find out whether his mother was alive or dead. The only option was to do as they said—whatever it may be.

“So I did everything they told me to do. I lived with other kids my age, studied, trained, even took weird drugs. Somewhere along the way, I found out my mom was no longer alive. That’s just how it went.”

Now that some time had passed, he felt nothing in particular when talking about her.

In truth, he had probably known from the beginning that she wasn’t alive. Still, he followed their orders because—even if she was dead—what could he do? He had been a child, constantly monitored within the organization.

After talking aimlessly for a long time, his throat was dry. Dohwa licked his lips and looked to the side. At some point, Jae-i had rested both his arms on the steering wheel and was leaning his head on them. His face looked calm, but the veins were bulging from his forehead.

“……”

Was he angry because of what Dohwa had said? Or maybe he’d gone off track, talking about things that had nothing to do with what Jae-i actually wanted to know.

Dohwa fiddled with his clasped hands and spoke up.

“Part of the training was sensory-based. They’d show us certain people and such, and I saw you there.”

He remembered the first time he saw Hwang Jae-i. He must’ve been around fifteen. He clearly remembered it was around the time he started wearing the iron mask.

He had been constantly on edge, agitated because of the unfamiliar mask. He was in a state where anything could’ve set him off. Then, on the screen, a boy appeared, visibly annoyed and frowning.

Hwang Jae-i, being an S-rank, had developed faster than most kids his age. Dohwa had assumed he was older, but it turned out he was three years younger. Anyway, when he saw that perpetually angry face, he found it oddly amusing. So there’s someone else out there who’s just as pissed off as me.

Every photo or video of him in the data was the same. Wherever he was, Hwang Jae-i was always angry. The only time he showed a different expression was when he was alone. In a low-quality video—so zoomed-in it was blurry—Jae-i was in a garden-like place by himself. He was curled up on a bench, and small birds flew over to his head and shoulders.

At first, Dohwa expected him to scowl again, but he didn’t. Even when a bird landed right in the middle of his head, or pecked lightly at his shoulder or leg, he just sat still. Looking closely, he wasn’t even frowning. He actually seemed more relaxed than when he was around people.

Then, one bird hopped closer on his shoulder and gently nudged his chin with its head. Dohwa thought Now he’s definitely going to get mad, but instead, Jae-i lowered his head. The bird bumped its head against his cheek a few times, then flew away.