Free Web NovelHa Myeonghun, who had been silently recalling the past, opened his eyes. His face looked even heavier than before.
“What on earth was lacking that made you do this?”
“Myeonghun, listen to me.”
“If it is not a proper excuse, then it is better not to say anything at all.”
“······.”
Cheon Sooman closed his mouth and gauged Ha Myeonghun’s expression.
That behavior only served to stoke his anger further.
“Do not try to read my face. That was never the kind of person you were.”
Ha Myeonghun’s tone was hard as he glared at Cheon Sooman.
“Since childhood, I knew you were jealous of the young lady. You might have thought you were acting ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) as the kind brother, but your eyes never lied.”
“······.”
“Still, I never imagined you would actually ask another person to kill your own blood. No human being would ever be capable of such a thing.”
Cheon Sooman could say nothing, only rolling his eyes around as if searching for a hole to crawl through.
“If you had done nothing, the Chairman would have handed everything down to you. It was you who kicked that away. Yet you dared······!”
His voice trembled faintly, emotion making it unsteady.
Taking a deep breath as though to calm his fury, Ha Myeonghun spoke again.
“You dared······ to lay a hand on the Chairman?”
“······.”
“He spared you. The Chairman could not bring himself to kill you with his own hand. Because you were his son, his blood. That is why he let you live. Yet how could you? How could you think of killing your father?”
Cheon Sooman’s eyes shook violently. The face of Cheon Taesan staring at him when the drug was injected flashed across his mind. He had thought it was only his imagination.
“Are you curious how I know?”
“······.”
“You have a mouth, so speak. Why do you keep it shut?”
But Cheon Sooman could not open his lips.
Ha Myeonghun slowly shook his head. There was no way Cheon Sooman would leave this place alive.
“Keeping your mouth shut will not save you. This is your grave.”
After a long silence, Cheon Sooman finally opened his mouth.
“Father always discriminated against us······.”
That pathetic excuse was all he could utter. ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com
Ha Myeonghun frowned, incredulous.
“What did you say?”
“Father only loved Misook. He never once showed us any affection. You know this well, do you not? You spent more time with him than I ever did.”
“Ha······.”
A sigh escaped his lips.
It was true Cheon Taesan cherished Cheon Misook.
But that was because she was the youngest and approached everyone warmly, without pretense.
Though outwardly it may have seemed favoritism, Ha Myeonghun knew the truth.
Cheon Taesan had never once discriminated against his children.
“I was afraid of losing what was mine. So when Misook fought with Father and left, I cheered. At last, the thorn in my eye was gone. But still Father’s eyes were always turned toward her. That is why I was afraid. Yes······. It was a choice I could not avoid.”
While he spoke, Cheon Sooman tried to justify his own actions.
Watching him sink into self-pity with his head hanging low, disgust appeared on Ha Myeonghun’s face.
“So now you are saying what you did was justified? You killed a man with so few days left to live, and that is the Chairman’s fault?”
“······.”
Ha Myeonghun gazed at Cheon Sooman for a moment before muttering in a flat voice.
“Right. I never thought you were any better than this. I never expected more. Let us stop this farce.”
At those chilling words, Cheon Sooman shrank.
“What did you inject into the Chairman?”
“······How did you find out?”
“Is that what you are curious about right now?”
“Does Father know? That you are doing this? Did Father······ order you to kill me?”
His voice trembled as he asked. The image of Cheon Taesan’s all-seeing eyes came to mind.
“Have I ever acted without the Chairman’s orders?”
“······Yes, it was true. It was not my imagination.”
Cheon Sooman murmured vacantly.
Ha Myeonghun had to hold himself back from killing him on the spot. Death would be too merciful. freeweɓnovel.cѳm
“Right after your visit, the Chairman regained consciousness. It was nothing short of a miracle.”
He felt sorrow for Cheon Taesan, who had to witness his own blood’s betrayal.
“He believed in you until the very end. He said if what he saw was not real, to send you abroad, away from danger. Even then he trusted a bastard like you······.”
His words trailed off as he bit his lip.
“Father truly saw me······.”
As if nothing else could be heard, Cheon Sooman kept muttering to himself like a madman.
Unable to endure it any longer, Ha Myeonghun struck his cheek. Cheon Sooman’s head lolled weakly to the side.
“Do not pretend regret now. It is revolting. The one who betrayed the Chairman’s trust until the very end was you.”
When he turned back, Cheon Sooman’s eyes glimmered with venom.
“Then what should I have done? Live banished abroad my whole life, stripped of everything by that bastard Kim Muhyuk? Endure such an exile? I, Cheon Sooman?!”
“······Madman.”
“Yes! I am mad, so what! I could not just sit still and let everything be taken away from me!”
His frenzied shouts were the ravings of a lunatic.
“You ruined the Chairman’s final moments.”
“It was all Father’s fault! He should have given everything to me and rested peacefully! He ruined it all himself! I did nothing wrong! It was all Father’s fault! All because of Father!”
Cheon Sooman shrieked, brainwashing himself.
“I did not want this! It was all because of Father! No, it was that bastard Kim Muhyuk! Everything went wrong the moment he appeared!”
At the mention of Kim Muhyuk’s name, Cheon Sooman’s face twisted like a demon’s.
Deciding there was no more reason to listen, Ha Myeonghun’s tone turned icy.
“Stop the nonsense. Tell me what you injected into the Chairman, and with whom you plotted.”
Cheon Sooman was never capable of such a plan alone.
Seo Yonggeon had to be behind him. But proof was needed.
“If I tell you everything······ will you let me live?”
Seeing his pitiful face, Ha Myeonghun shook his head.
Despising the way he treated other lives as cheap but clung desperately to his own.
“Myeonghun······. I will tell you all. Spare me. I want to live. Please······.”
“Ha······. After doing such things, you still wish to live?”
Grinding his teeth until they creaked, Ha Myeonghun recalled Cheon Taesan’s last moments.
Tragic, bitter, regretful—Cheon Taesan was not someone who should have died that way.
“From the moment I confirmed you injected drugs into the Chairman’s IV, you were already dead. I only endured to guard his last moments and see him off. Now even that is over.”
He wanted to rip Cheon Sooman apart where he sat.
“Spare me. It was all my fault. Please, Myeonghun, let me live.”
His previous frenzy gone, Cheon Sooman now grovelled shamelessly.
Watching him with a heavy heart, Ha Myeonghun closed his eyes.
‘Why did such a man have to be born as the Chairman’s son······. If only I had been his son instead······.’
But this was his last duty as Cheon Taesan’s blade. He had to uncover everything.
Opening his eyes again, he spoke coldly.
“Fine. You need not say a word. The pain will force it out of you. I guarantee it. A man like you will not last a single minute.”
Ha Myeonghun rose and opened the door.
“Come in. If he knows nothing, make him invent something. He is no longer the Chairman’s son. Do as you usually do.”
“Yes, understood.”
Two men entered at his command.
“Myeonghun! Myeonghun!”
Ha Myeonghun closed the door and leaned against it, shutting his eyes.
If he kept them open, he knew he would interfere.
He knew better than anyone what would happen from here. It was the same task he had always carried out on Cheon Taesan’s orders.
The only difference was that the target was Cheon Sooman.
“Myeonghun!”
Cheon Sooman screamed at the top of his lungs. One of the men struck his face with a loud crack.
“Shut up. Your whining is filthy.”
The single blow was so strong that blood streamed down immediately.
“You······ bastards dare!”
“Why? You still think you are someone important?”
The other man grinned and pointed to the scar on his own face.
“Remember this? You slashed me with a knife when we were kids. Just for fun.”
“Wh-what nonsense.”
“Of course you do not remember. To you, it was just play. Then let me remind you.”
Chuckling, he drew a hatchet from his belt.
“Hold him.”
Cheon Sooman’s shoes were yanked off.
He thrashed wildly, but the men did not budge.
“Do you really not remember?”
The man’s smile remained, but his voice was ice-cold.
“Enough. Finish it quickly,” Ha Myeonghun murmured, eyes still shut.
Clicking his tongue regretfully, the man stroked the blunt hatchet blade.
“Hyung is still treating you like a person. Anyway, Myeonghun-hyung is too kind. Hey, bite down or you will bite off your tongue.”
With no hesitation, he brought the hatchet down on Cheon Sooman’s big toe.
Because the blade was blunt, it did not sever but crushed it.
“Aaagh!”
Pain so searing it turned his vision white made Cheon Sooman thrash against the chair.
But restrained, he could not even writhe freely.
“Already crying from this? This is just the beginning. Whatever you know, do not say it. Hold on and endure long.”
Taunting him, the man swung the hatchet again. Blood splattered everywhere.
“Uwaaagh!”
This time his toe was severed, blood soaking the floor beneath the chair.
Even with his face spattered, the man wiped it away casually, as though playing in water.
Minutes later, the mountain cabin grew silent again.
“Have you decided to speak now?”
Tapping the hatchet’s handle, the man asked.
Half out of his mind, Cheon Sooman only moved his lips. The man raised the hatchet again.
“Stop, stop!!”
“Stop?”
With his face covered in tears and mucus, Cheon Sooman nodded frantically.
“I will say everything, everything······. Please, no more. Myeonghun, please······!”
The man looked at Ha Myeonghun.
He had opened his eyes and nodded.
“Leave us.”
Casting one last longing glance, the man licked his lips.
“See you again. It will be even more fun then.”
Cheon Sooman trembled like a leaf.
Once they left, Ha Myeonghun pulled a chair before him and sat down. His shoes were bloodstained, but he did not care.
Cold sweat dripped down Cheon Sooman’s face.
“Speak.”
Ha Myeonghun’s tone was indifferent.
Everything spilled from Cheon Sooman’s mouth—what drug he injected, who gave it to him, and whose plan it was.
As expected, it was Seo Yonggeon’s scheme. Cheon Sooman had been thoroughly used.
Pity stirred briefly for a man who had spent his entire life being used by others.
“Not only Cheongpunghoe, now even Seo Yonggeon. I cannot understand it. What was lacking in you that made you so easily manipulated?”
Greed beyond his means, and no ability to fulfill it—he always relied on another’s hand.
“Look at where your greed brought you. Nothing remains. Was this worth it?”
But nothing reached Cheon Sooman’s ears.
Past the limits of pain, he only panted heavily.
“It hurts······ it hurts······.”
“Hu······.”
If he had at least endured, lied, or tried to bargain, perhaps Ha Myeonghun would have looked at him differently.
But he was still the same Cheon Sooman.
Shaking his head silently, Ha Myeonghun stood and opened the door.
Even so, he did not want to kill Cheon Taesan’s son with his own hands.
“Finish it. Dispose of the body as always. Bring me the ashes. At the very least, the young master should see them.”
Leaving behind Cheon Sooman’s desperate screams, Ha Myeonghun closed the door.
His wails were abruptly cut off.
A headache throbbed, and Ha Myeonghun scowled. Cheon Taesan’s face, trusting his son until the end, would not leave his mind.
He shut his eyes tightly and sat on the living room sofa, waiting for everything to be handled.
“Here are Cheon Sooman’s ashes.”
How much time had passed? At the voice of his subordinate, he opened his eyes.
In his hand was a small urn.
“Did you clean everything up neatly? Leave men behind to erase all traces. Be more thorough than usual. Do not leave a single thread to pull.”
“Yes, understood.”
Ha Myeonghun rose and stepped outside the cabin. The man holding the urn followed behind.
The sun was rising behind the mountain. Ha Myeonghun gazed at it briefly, then got into the car.
The vehicle sped swiftly toward Cheongcheong-do, to the ancestral burial ground where Cheon Taesan’s grave lay.
