282 – Corporation, Villain, Gang #4
Hajungdo is my cousin’s younger brother.
He’s the kind of guy who works a respectable job and leads a proper life—a man whose name, Jungdo (正道, meaning “righteous path”), suits him perfectly.
Even before he was employed, offers for his hand in marriage were pouring in from everywhere, weren’t they?
People were saying they wanted him as a son-in-law.
Hajungdo was number one on my list of men I imagined as a potential son-in-law.
Sometimes, I would wonder when Hajungdo would bring us news of his marriage.
I was curious about who he might marry.
Then, during the last Chuseok gathering, Hajungdo dropped a surprising announcement: “Next year, I’m marrying an elf.”
Hajungdo met Galadriel while mountain climbing, and he said that Galadriel, a 60-year-old elf, finds it cute that he fumbles with various things.
Yes.
Galadriel is a 60-year-old elf.
For elves, 60 is apparently quite a young age, but it was striking enough to leave an impression due to its strangely realistic connotations.
“Who are you? Why are you speaking of Hajungdo?”
Galadriel narrowed her sharp eyes as she looked at me.
Just from her squinted gaze, there was an intense pressure, but I could tell from her attitude that she recognized me as someone familiar with Hajungdo.
“Hajungdo is my cousin. He mentioned he plans to marry an elf named Galadriel next year. Hearing the name Galadriel, I wondered… if this name hasn’t changed in centuries, might you…?”
There was a high probability that the Galadriel Hajungdo spoke of and the Galadriel before me were the same person.
The elf Galadriel trembled, drenched in cold sweat.
“Actually, are you not 60 years old? Are you deceiving my cousin Hajungdo? Galadriel, how old are you really?”
“……!”
The glow emanating from Galadriel began to fade.
Galadriel now looked like an ordinary woman, rather meek.
“Right. I see now. You must be Il-do, the family of Jungdo-san. He often speaks about you! And when I am with Jungdo-san, in my heart, I’m still the vibrant youth of 60!”
Pfft!
Galadriel grabbed my hand.
It was unusually warm and soft.
“Please, keep my age secret from Jungdo! I planned to tell him someday, honestly! But the opportunity hasn’t come, see? It’s not that I deliberately hid it…!”
Have you ever seen a rambling elf?
I was witnessing one now, and it was both disconcerting and surreal.
Is Hajungdo falling victim to a fraudulent marriage?
Lying about your age during marriage is a matter of trust, isn’t it?
However, this was a personal issue between the couple, and it might’ve been crossing a line for me to get involved as an older cousin. It might even be considered meddling in their relationship.
What would be the right thing to do?
While I was pondering this, the elves nearby started whispering.
“Look at that. Galadriel, who never lost her radiant glow, is stumbling here like this!”
“Indeed, Ratatoskr’s Haildo is remarkable. I’ve never seen either Freya or Galadriel argue face-to-face like this!”
“Ratatoskr, originally a squirrel who maintained neutrality between the hawks and the Nidhogg… does this mean a new Squirrel faction among elves is forming!?”
Swish.
The elves relaxed their grip on their swords, the hostility and suspicion fading.
“Let’s do this. If you, Il-do, keep my secret, I’ll offer you the information I obtained in return for driving off the troops this time. Aren’t you curious about the location of the hideout?”
Nidhogg faction’s leader, Galadriel, was now also offering me a deal—she would disclose the hideout location!
For me, this was a proposal with no downsides.
It was quite a favorable offer.
Still, I decided to add one condition.
“You must reveal the truth to Jungdo before the marriage. And the two of you should have a serious conversation. If you promise me that, I won’t disclose what I’ve learned today to Jungdo.”
“Agreed.”
Galadriel, likely afraid I might change my mind, replied without hesitation.
The deal was sealed.
I received a neatly folded piece of paper from Galadriel.
It was a sample invitation.
“I prepared this as a draft. Here, I’ve written down the information about the hideout. And… if you discover I am older, would you not break off the engagement eventually?”
Galadriel appeared fearful.
Is it about invading Korea by having too many babies?
No, I saw love in her eyes.
“Jungdo would be angry not because of your age but because of the lie. He’s that kind of man. And if the two of you truly love each other, age shouldn’t matter, right?”
And being older than 60 would be better, at least I thought.
Galadriel then closed her eyes calmly and said,
“Thank you. Now I feel reassured, Il-do. I understand why Freya and others speak highly of you. I also understand why my destined partner, Jungdo, respects you.”
“Is that so?”
“…May I call you Uncle?”
“…!”
Being called “uncle” by someone who has lived for several centuries was oddly strange.
I felt slightly dizzy and felt shivers running down my back.
—Zeez…
—
—
“Senior, that was amazing! The Nidhogg faction, among the elves, is known to be radical, causing trouble and all, yet you managed to calm their leader with just words, and also obtained information!”
Yu Ara highly praised me.
I felt somewhat flattered, and it was almost like my shoulders were lifting up.
“True strength lies in defeating an opponent without fighting. In the end, we both got what we wanted and won.”
I decided that if I ever meet Big Sister, I will ask her to consider welfare policies for elf second-generation kids.
Pretty soon, my cousin Jungdo will likely have around five elf second-generation children, and such policies could only be beneficial.
Thus, it’s a win-win.
“Senior, you really are remarkable!”
This is making me feel pretty good.
Honestly, I think this negotiation was quite impressive too.
I doubt any Awakened could have achieved this level of success without coming to blows with the elf army.
At that moment, Lee Jin-A spoke.
“However, deceiving someone about age before marriage, is keeping secrets acceptable even between two people who like each other? I wonder if Haildo would tolerate this.”
“I think the same. People who lie and deceive are bad people.”
Seo Ye-rim also agreed with Lee Jin-A’s opinion.
As they both shared the same thought, Ari trembled slightly.
“Maybe she’s afraid she will be abandoned if she tells the truth! That’s what love is. Women who love someone tend to hide things that might make them look bad and what they don’t want to show!”
Ah, Ari with her young girl perspective.
Could it be her own defense for hiding that she’s a secret agent?
I suddenly felt sorry for Ari who might have to keep lying unnecessarily and guard her secret for life.
“Still, if both parties care for and cherish each other, they can eventually understand any secret, especially if they’re honest. Well, unless it violates the law, of course.”
Pfft, Pfft.
I could see sweat on Ari’s forehead.
Could her secret involve something illegal?
I hastily added:
“…as long as it’s not something like hitting or mistreating people, it could be understood…”
Drip, drip.
Sweat now flowed from Ari’s forehead like rain.
Seems like Ari’s secrets are going to remain guarded firmly and thoroughly.
I wanted to relieve her from carrying such a burden in her heart.
While conversing like this, we arrived at the container warehouse district.
Seo Ye-rim, who was inspecting the loading manifests marked on the containers, spoke.
“It appears this is a storage area belonging to the Osa Group, which has created many warehouses like this around Makcheon City. Is the coordinate Galadriel provided really here?”
“It’s correct.”
There were at least a hundred containers.
According to Galadriel, the hideout must be inside one of these.
Kkungkkungi, sniffing around for the criminal’s scent, began his search by sniffing each container.
“Cut!”
Hiss!
Ari used a sharp scalpel to cut through the chains and padlocks that tightly bound the containers. The cuts were clean and precise.
Creeeak.
As Ari was opening the container, Lee Jin-A looked surprised and asked,
“Is it alright to just open it like this—”
The reason Lee Jin-A didn’t finish her sentence was because of something—or rather, someone—inside the cargo.
Barrel!
Inside the container was a small child, about elementary school age.
“Oh, we sensed movement.”
Ari sighed.
Seo Ye-rim, upon seeing the shaking child inside the container, turned pale.
“Unbelievable bastards, locking people inside containers! Could these be the children that were kidnapped by the person named Mobile? There could be more! Open them all! Unlock them!”
Pfft!
Seo Ye-rim cast a spell at the tightly locked padlocks, and they clicked open.
Magic truly is incredible!
Soon, we managed to rescue children who were locked one by one inside the containers.
“Are you all okay?”
I gathered the children together. They were very guarded against us at first, but when Kkungkkungi, the squirrel beast, pranced and hopped around them, their wariness softened considerably.
“I know him! He’s Kkungkkungi, the top squirrel beast from Kira MiTub!”
“Are you Uncle Haildo?”
“I’m not Uncle, but it is Haildo.”
Children love animals, and they especially love cute creatures like the squirrel beast.
Thanks to Kkungkkungi, the squirrel beast, I was able to easily calm the children down.
However, we still couldn’t find the criminal, Mobile.
“Do you know someone called Mobile? Was the person who kidnapped you Mobile?”
The children looked at each other’s expressions but appeared not to remember much about the kidnapping.
“I know Mobile. He was a man with fluffy facial hair, and I heard he fled to Jeju Island.”
At that moment, a boy raised his hand. He had silver hair and a long, scary scar on one side of his face and looked to be about 13 years old.
“Jeju Island?”
Seo Ye-rim frowned at the mention, probably worried about the schedule getting messed up. However, I noticed Kkungkkungi growling and puffing up his fur at the sight of the boy. Clearly, it was a hostile action.
I instinctively bent forward and noticed there was no shadow beneath the boy’s feet.
No shadow.
And Kkungkkungi showing hostility…?
“Damn it. That’s why we hate animals with keen senses.”
Pfft!
The boy—no, Mobile—pushed the children aside and began to flee.
We immediately pursued him.
“Hey! Isn’t Mobile supposed to be 27? What’s with that appearance!”
Seo Ye-rim asked me while we were running.
I also noticed the mismatch between the face from the documents and the real face, but at this point, such discrepancies didn’t matter. I was certain that if we lost this guy here, he’d vanish entirely.
He was escaping way too fast.
Darting in and out of the container maze, it was incredibly hard to keep up.
“Jin-A! Why isn’t it working?”
“The movement is too fast to aim!”
It seems.
In that case, there was nothing I could do.
I had to use my ultimate weapon.
“Kalilnoi!”
—Phrrrr!
A shadow appeared in the sky before diving at tremendous speed.
It was the movement of a predator stalking its prey, and Mobile, who was trying to escape, was crushed beneath the powerful legs of the great horned owl, falling with a loud crash.
“Uaaaaaaak!”
“We’ve got him!”
I cheered.
Seo Ye-rim, on the other hand, mumbled slightly in frustration at me.
“If you had asked Kalilnoi earlier, we could’ve done this already.”
“Kalilnoi is picky and will demand to be petted for two hours after one operation. It’s a labor-intensive and effort-consuming task.”
—Hoo, hoo…!
Kalilnoi spread its wings wide.
Though I don’t understand everything, it must be saying, “I did the hard work, so bring me some grilled beef and caress my feathers immediately!”
—
