Moon's Labyrinths

“Soyoung?”

The man’s lips distorted into a sneer.

“Are you still using that name?”

“What’s wrong with it? It's the name given to her by her father. Also, stop changing the subject. What did you do to Soyoung?”

“I did nothing. The kid dared to travel around enemy territory without fear. So I was going to discipline her. Of course, some weirdo got in the way...”

When the man thought about Sungyoon, he unconsciously glanced at his wrist, where Sungyoon had grabbed him.

A short while ago, his wrist had been red. It had made the man realize Sungyoon possessed considerable power.

‘That son of a bitch! I’ll kill him next time I meet him!’

The man inwardly honed the sword of revenge.

“Didn’t I tell you before? Leave Soyoung alone.”

“I’ll say this again. Your child was alone, walking through enemy territory. How could I ignore that? What happens if she leaks information about us? If not for that, that dirty blooded—”

Ssssk!

Plu-El’s sword moved closer to the man’s neck, and blood flowed out from the small wound.

“If you refer to Soyoung by those words...”

“What? Are you going to kill me?”

Plu-El didn’t say anything and just further pressed the blade into his neck.

A murderous intent flashed in the man’s eyes. His hands twitched as if he was about to use his weapon against Plu-El.

Ssssk.

However, the worst-case scenario did not occur as Plu-El retracted her sword.

She unsummoned her sword as she spoke.

“I'll apologize for Soyoung's actions and make sure she knows the severity of her actions. However, you should never speak that way about her again.”

“… Hmmph!”

The twitching in the man's hands stopped, but he remained silent.

He walked toward the door. Just when his hands pressed the doorknob, he opened his mouth.

“I’ll give you this one warning. It seems you still feel friendly toward our enemies because of that man. However, you should throw away such sentiments. They can never be trusted.”

“I'll follow your advice for now. However, I haven’t given up on the dream of working with them. Soyoung is the greatest evidence that it can work. Why do you think we can reside in such an expensive hotel right now? Who do you think provided the funds? Don’t forget that.”

This situation was proof that her husband had cooperated with their cause. He was the existence that gave her hope and belief that her dream could come true.

However, the man sneered.

“Hmmph. That guy was odd even amongst his own kind. Anyway, they are base beings. We are the ones who saved them, yet they had the audacity to betray us.”

The man looked at Plu-El.

“It is the reason your husband is dead.”

Anger rose in Plu-El's eyes, but she pushed down the feeling. This didn’t mean she would let him get away without retorting.

“Those bastards represent only a portion of their society. I still don’t plan on giving up on hope. Also, you called them base beings? Get your head out of your ass. Do you still think your family is royalty? My family is no longer chief, and your family is no longer royalty. You even lost the Gem of the royal family, the sole proof of your royalty. You're the one who should wake up from your dream.”

Kwah-doo-doohk!

The doorknob crumbled into powder.

The man possessed unusual strength, a characteristic of Connectors. If Plu-El wasn’t careful, she could stoke up his will to fight, which she had barely quenched. However, she didn't care even if it came back with a vengeance.

“Well, you can’t even use it anymore, so maybe it was better that you had lost it. In fact, you should use this opportunity to get rid of our elitist attitude. You're merely a descendant of a dead line of royalty.”

Boom!

As if he didn’t want to hear her words, the man shut the door in her face. He stomped his feet as he moved farther away from the door.

Plu-El didn’t care what he did.

‘That guy is scum….’

She entered the other room, where her daughter sat on top of the bed with a sullen expression.

When she heard the door open, Soyoung looked up at Plu-El.

“Mom.”

“Oh, my daughter!”

Plu-El hugged Soyoung tight.

In the arms of her mother, Soyoung washed away all the uncertainty in her heart.

Plu-El gave a fierce hug, but in the end, she disengaged from her daughter. She kept her hands on the girl’s shoulders as she put Soyoung an arms distance away. Plu-El looked into her daughter’s eyes. Her daughter’s cute eyes resembled her husband’s eyes. Despite Soyoung being a reminder of him, Plu-El didn't feel hurt to look at her daughter. She also knew she had to discipline her child when needed.

“You know you were in the wrong today, right?

Plu-El intentionally made her eyes turn fierce.

Soyoung lowered her head.

“I’m sorry.”

“Will you do it again?”

“No.”

The oppressive silence lasted a bit longer.

When her mother didn’t say anything, it put emotional pressure on Soyoung. Her head drooped further and further with time.

In the end, Plu-El hugged Soyoung once again.

“Mom was worried about you. Do you know how surprised I was? You should never do that again. Ok?”

“Yes.”

Soyoung sounded close to tears as she answered her mother.

“Why did you do that? I won’t get mad at you. Tell me.”

Plu-El had an idea why her daughter had acted that way, but she needed to know for sure.

Soyoung hesitated, but spoke after a while.

“I... I wanted to see the animals of the place where dad used to live. Our place only has monsters...”

Plu-El felt sympathy toward Soyoung.

Soyoung had lost her father when she was still in the womb. As she grew up, Plu-El had told her many stories about her dad. Therefore, Soyoung had developed a strong curiosity for anything related to her father.

“Was it fun?”

“… Yes.”

Soyoung answered in the affirmative while discreetly glancing at Plu-El. She was afraid her mother would get angry with her.

However, Soyoung’s expression relaxed when she saw her mother’s face, which held her usual smile. It was a smile that told Soyoung that her mother treasured her.

The worry in the child’s heart melted away.

“What did you see?”

“You know what, Mom! There was this animal called an elephant! Its nose is so long that it uses it as a hand! I saw it eat food with its nose! Also…!”

Soyoung was like all children her age. She was talkative as she boasted to her mother about what she saw. Incorporating all the information she had received from Shinhae, she told Plu-El about the animals with an earnest expression.

She was so passionate that she unconsciously clenched her palms. Plu-El almost laughed out loud. However, she pressed down on her laughter as she showed deep interest in the story told by Soyoung.

***

Two weeks. Some would argue it was long, but others could argue it was short too.

It was a dreamlike vacation for Sungyoon, but he would have to put his life on the line afterward.

During the vacation, alongside playing with Shinhae, he had to tie up minor individual affairs. The most important task was severing his ties to his past ill-fated relationships.

“We have to go to court, but we can’t lose even if we wanted to.”

Jimin put down several files as she spoke.

Sungyoon unpacked the files. The stack was quite thick. The words printed in small letters were reminiscent of ants crawling across the papers.

Just looking at the flood of letters made one get a faraway look. However, Sungyoon read every single word.

Jimin didn’t bother Sungyoon as she sipped at her coffee.

After a while, Sungyoon put down the files.

“It is only a matter of time from what I read here.”

“It’ll take a long time, but Daesung can't do much against us now. Also, Daesung group is facing tough times.”

Daesung Energy, one of the pillars of Daesung group, had completely collapsed. They continued to face trouble acquiring the supply of moonstones, and they had been sued by Sungyoon over rights to their core moonstone refining technology.

Above all else, their president had hired a terrorist group in order to carry out personal revenge against the world’s hero.

“The chairman Lee Hooyoung might not care. He still wants to get revenge for his son. However, the rest on the board feel otherwise.”

Even if it was by a very small amount, Lee Hooyoung held the majority stake in his company. Therefore, he could do whatever he wanted without repercussions. The company was protected by a very poorly designed system in Korea. Daesung was a limited liability company.

The rest of the shareholders were very unhappy.

“Lee Hooyoung did a very good job raising his children. They are opposing his move.”

Daesung group was on shaky grounds, yet Hooyoung was focused on getting his revenge. His children didn’t look kindly at his action.

There was a chance that what they wanted to inherit might go bankrupt, and it made them move into action.

“Their brother died, but they aren't sad. In fact, they are very glad that they have one fewer competitor.”

“It is the typical broken family.”

Sungyoon wondered if all families that owned large corporations were like that.

“It's none of our business how they run their household, but their actions made our work very easy. A few of his children have already contacted us.”

“They did so when I’m the one that killed their brother?”

“I’m sure they do have some negative feelings toward you, but their brother made too big of a mess. It was an unsophisticated plot, and there is no answer to make it all go away. This is why most of their household are treating Jaeho as the black sheep of the family that had been kicked out. In the first place, they saw him as a competitor more so than a brother.”

The siblings treated Jaeho as if he was a stain on the family’s honor.

Jaeho had a large dream of wanting to inherit Daesung group, and he had worked tirelessly toward that goal. Even if he had met his end, it was unbelievable how badly he was being treated by his siblings.

Jaeho had fallen, but it was an extremely miserable fall. However, Sungyoon didn’t feel an ounce of sympathy toward him, and this surprised him.

‘Of course not. He wronged me so much.’

Sungyoon inwardly snorted as he wiped that thought out of his mind.

“What did they say?”

“It isn't just about technology. They are thinking about giving up on Daesung Energy itself.”

That was surprising news.

“Isn’t it one of Daesung group’s top assets?”

“That’s old news. It now barely brings in income, and its image has fallen. Moreover, Daesung Energy was built up to that extent by stealing your technology, Mr. Sungyoon. Once that technology is taken away from them, that company will go under. Instead of an asset that would have fattened up Daesung group, Daesung Energy has turned into a cancerous tumor.”

Subsidiary companies were closely related to the parent company. The profit from the other subsidiary companies could be used to stop the hemorrhaging caused by Daesung Energy. However, Daesung Energy was bringing down the entire conglomerate.

“Therefore I would like us to purchase Daesung Energy. To be precise, I want Mr. Sungyoon to buy it.”

“… You want me to buy it?”

In the past, Sungyoon would have been in tears of joy at the opportunity.

Even if Daesung Energy was on shaky ground, it used to be a subsidiary company of a massive conglomerate.

When he was a president of his own company, he had dreamed about leading a company of that size. However, things were different now, and he now wanted to live his life as a Connector.

Moreover, there was the practical problem of him not having enough time to run a company.

“It is perfect timing. All the laws made to restrict the powers of Connectors are being torn down right now. Moreover, Armstrong city is leading the charge in making these changes.”

The Connectors who had hit their stride possessed crazy amounts of wealth, and many of them had used this wealth to start businesses. However, the government restricted Connectors from entering several industries, one of them being the moonstone refinery business.

If Connectors got into the moonstone refinery business, the government worried they would hold too much power in the energy sector.

However, the government and Armstrong city had asked Connectors to take three shifts mandated by them, and Armstrong city had to soothe the discontentment that arose amongst the Connectors. Therefore, Armstrong city came to agreements with several countries to modify some laws.

“I doubt they’ll just hand it over to us.”

“Of course, there are stipulations. After this lawsuit, they want you to treat the incident with Lee Jaeho as a personal matter. You have to state you have no ill feelings toward Daesung group as a whole in front of a camera. Basically, just some lip service.”

While they handed over an almost bankrupt company, the Lee siblings were trying to raise the image of their parent company and salvage some good from this irreparable relationship.

Even if Miyun and Jaeho hadn’t betrayed him, Sungyoon knew that he wasn’t suited to lead a large corporation. That thought crossed his mind.

“What would you like to do? It’ll cost a lot, but it’ll be possible for you to purchase Daesung Energy with the money you currently have.”

Even if Daesung Energy’s stock had cratered, Sungyoon would have to pay a lot to buy out the shareholders, and it would deeply hurt his pocket.

“I’m fine as it is. I don’t have the time to run it. Will you run that company for me, Ms. Jimin?”

“I’m already overworked with just my current company. However, I do think it’ll be a waste to sit on the technology that will come under your patent again. Why don’t you become the owner and have someone in the industry run it for you?”

Sungyoon shut his mouth. According to Jimin’s attitude, she already had a candidate in mind.

Sungyoon suddenly recalled someone that could fill such a role.

“The person you are thinking about… is it who I think it is?”

“Maybe?”

It was great timing as someone knocked on the door of Jimin’s office.

Jiyoon came in with a big pile of documents in her arms.

“President...”

Faced with two sets of eyes staring at her, Jiyoon became nervous.