Free Web NovelAfter Kim Muhyuk left the banquet hall, the people inside resumed their conversations.
Seo Maenggeon of JC Jeongdang and Seo Yonggeon of Ilseong met together for the first time in a while.
“It has been a while, brother.”
Seo Yonggeon approached Seo Maenggeon first. Seo Maenggeon, who had been speaking with someone else, turned his head at ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ that voice.
The moment he confirmed the owner of the voice, Seo Maenggeon’s brow naturally furrowed. After excusing himself to the one he had been speaking with, he turned to Seo Yonggeon and spoke coldly.
“Yes. Yonggeon, it has been a while.”
“Uncle, it has been a while since I last greeted you.”
Standing next to him, Seo Jaesang also greeted Seo Yonggeon with an awkward expression. Seo Yonggeon gave a silent nod to Jaesang’s greeting.
For a brief moment, an uncomfortable silence lingered. It was Seo Yonggeon who broke it first.
“Brother, let us talk privately.”
“Do we still have anything to talk about?”
“Brother!”
When his cold dismissal cut him off, Seo Yonggeon raised his voice. At that sharp tone, Seo Maenggeon’s face stiffened.
“Did you just shout at me?”
“Brother, don’t make this a scene. Let us talk alone.”
“Fine. Let me hear what you want to say. Jaesang, stay and continue your conversations.”
Leaving Seo Jaesang behind, the two brothers moved to a corner of the banquet hall.
Seated, they simply stared at each other for quite a while without a word.
The awkward silence dragged on until Seo Yonggeon finally opened his mouth.
“Brother, why did you do it?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Why did you join hands with Kim Muhyuk?”
The dispute over JC Jeongdang’s management rights was a hot issue in the business world. Seo Yonggeon had also been watching it with great interest.
“I was about to lose management control. Should I have just sat there and watched? Like I did when you took Ilseong from me.”
“Brother, do you really think I stole Ilseong? No. You tried to seize Ilseong from Father and were overturned instead.”
At that insolent remark, Seo Maenggeon clenched his fist tight. His wrinkled hand trembled.
“······What did you say?”
“It’s the truth, isn’t it? If you hadn’t made such a mistake, you would have naturally inherited it. Well, in that case, Ilseong as it exists now would never have been born.”
He had tried to turn their father into a backroom old man and crown himself as heir. But Seo Maenggeon had not factored in the variable named Cheon Taesan.
With Taesan’s appearance, all the friendly shares Maenggeon had secured turned into dust.
Because of his own greed, he was stripped of his position as crown prince of Ilseong in an instant. Remembering that, Seo Maenggeon spoke through clenched teeth.
“You led me into that.”
“That’s what you think.”
At the mocking smile that accompanied those words, Seo Maenggeon’s distorted face flushed red.
“You manipulated me like that.”
“I never did such a thing.”
Their eyes collided in the air, sparks flying. The conversation remained deadlocked.
“And let’s say I really did manipulate you. Then what does that make you for falling for it? Thanks to me inheriting Ilseong, I am now holding this seat. Ilseong will soon surpass Daehyeon.”
“······.”
Seo Maenggeon’s body trembled. His tightly closed lips were full of rage.
“You are also part of Ilseong, Brother. Yet you join hands with Kim Muhyuk? How far have you fallen? Do you truly think surrendering to him is better than standing with your own blood?”
The sneer hanging on Seo Yonggeon’s lips deepened. Outwardly he called him “brother” at every turn, but beneath it all lay contempt.
“I am different from you. I have prepared every possible means to protect management control. Even if your shares were combined.”
The fact that Maenggeon had decided to hand over his Ilseong shares was known only to him and a few close aides. Yet Yonggeon already knew.
Realizing that, Maenggeon’s expression hardened even more.
“If I win this time, the name JC will disappear from Korea. When I say I will do something, I do it. Brother, you know that better than anyone.” fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm
“Is that a threat?”
“Whether it’s a threat or advice, time will tell.”
Seo Maenggeon glared at him, lips pressed shut, eyes swirling with countless emotions.
“You’ve always been like this. That gaze, that tone, that attitude of looking down on me. I’ve always hated every bit of it.”
Speaking with loathing, Seo Maenggeon’s figure made Seo Yonggeon shake his head.
“I have never once looked down on you. It is you, Brother, who has carried an inferiority complex.”
“Enough. There’s nothing more to say. Was this the reason you wanted to talk privately?”
The sardonic smile faded from Seo Yonggeon’s face, and he shook his head slightly.
“Still, we are brothers who share the same blood, are we not?”
“Ha! Brothers?”
As though he had heard something utterly ridiculous, Seo Maenggeon suddenly burst into loud laughter. Yet his booming laughter quickly vanished, and his face turned cold.
“Then you should have helped me this time. Full-page tender offers were published in every newspaper. Representative Eva gave interviews day after day. And yet did you once contact me? No. You merely waited.”
Seo Maenggeon’s gaze sharpened. If his beast of a younger brother had his way, he was surely waiting for JC Group’s collapse.
“For me to surrender, call you, and beg for your help.”
“And is that so wrong? Even if it was, had you called to ask for help, do you think I would have turned you away?”
“Ha······.”
At that shameless reply, Seo Maenggeon let out a deep sigh.
“Enough. I have nothing more to say to you.”
He rose from his seat first. Watching him, Seo Yonggeon tossed out his last words.
“You will regret this, Brother.”
“Whether I regret it, or you regret it, time will teach us. By the way, President Kim Muhyuk’s influence today was far greater than I expected. I hear all authority regarding Russian investments has been delegated to him. Are you truly fine with that?”
Sneering, Seo Maenggeon turned and headed back toward the hall.
It was the authority of a fox borrowing the tiger’s name, yet Seo Yonggeon could do nothing but glare at his retreating back.
From afar, seeing Maenggeon return, Seo Jaesang excused himself from his conversation partner and rushed over.
“Father.”
“I’m fine.”
As though drained of all strength, Seo Maenggeon walked heavily. Supporting him, Jaesang asked urgently.
“Did you argue with Uncle?”
At that question, Maenggeon flinched faintly but then shook his head. After a long pause to steady his breath, he suddenly asked,
“······What did you see today?”
“Sir?”
“What did you feel here today?”
At that question, Jaesang glanced around. Russian and Korean businessmen stood in groups, networking.
“I think many people found Russia to be attractive. After all, those gathered here are the ones supporting the Korean economy, aren’t they?”
Maenggeon nodded. After a rough cough, he met Jaesang’s eyes.
“Yes. Everyone wants to invest in Russia’s future. But the authority for that went to a loan shark named Kim Muhyuk, the very man you ignored. What do you think of that?”
Jaesang’s face flushed red. Instead of scolding him, Maenggeon spoke gently.
“The world you know is not the end of the world.”
“I’m sorry, Father.”
“I know you feel inferior to Jaehun. But there is no reason, no need, to compare yourself to him.”
He understood his son’s inferiority complex well. Patting Jaesang’s shoulder, Maenggeon looked around and said,
“Now is the time to look beyond narrow Korea, and see the world. Aren’t you curious how that young man Kim Muhyuk will grow? He will live in the same era as you. You already know what your response should be.”
“Yes, Father. I will carve it deep into my heart.”
“Good. That is enough.”
At his son’s firm reply, a deep smile spread across Seo Maenggeon’s face.
* * *
Following Chief of Staff Voloshin, I arrived at the suite on the top floor of the Koryo Hotel. Voloshin opened the door for me.
“Go in. You asked for a private audience.”
Inside, I found Putin alone, drinking in the living room of the spacious suite.
“Mr. President.”
“Muhyuk. Come, sit.”
As I sat across from him, Putin naturally poured me a drink.
Raising his glass, he smiled softly.
“Let’s drink.”
We clinked glasses, then downed them in one shot. The sharp scent of vodka filled my nose.
“Vodka truly is the drink. At the banquet hall, drinking only wine, it felt so unsatisfying.”
“Is that so? I too sometimes miss the vodka I had in Russia.”
“President Kim, you can hold your liquor better than I thought. Ah, that is not an insult.”
“I understand, Mr. President.”
As drinks went back and forth, the mood relaxed. Putin casually joked, making me feel he was treating me warmly.
“How was my gift?”
“I was astonished. I did not expect you to delegate full authority over Russian investments to a foreigner.”
“What difference does it make that you are Korean? What matters to me is whether I can trust you or not.”
A smile came naturally. The trust I had earned from him was finally bearing fruit.
Rights as great as unclaimed lottery tickets — resource mining concessions across Russia — had fallen into my hands.
Because of this, Korean corporations had no choice but to try to please me.
This alone gave me a dominant edge in my full-scale war against Ilseong. Once other conglomerates sided with Ilseong, Russian investments would vanish into smoke.
“You have placed your trust in me. I must repay that.”
The warm exchange of drinks was interrupted when Putin suddenly brought up Roman.
“You heard about Chairman Roman, yes?”
“I apologize. I did not know he was such a fool.”
I bowed my head, but Putin waved it off.
“It’s fine. Did you know beforehand?”
“I knew he was greedy. That is why I thought he was the best fit for that position.”
Putin nodded, as if he had thought the same after experiencing Roman himself. Slowly turning his glass, he spoke.
“I too did not know he was such a fool. Anyway, I have locked Berezovsky away.”
“I heard from Medvedev.”
“My heart wants to just kill him······.”
If Putin, a man of boundless power, truly wished it, he could have Roman killed any time. But that would not be wise.
“······That is not a good choice, Mr. President.”
“I know.”
“What will you do with Chairman Roman? Do you still intend to remove him?”
“Well, I’m thinking.”
Downing his full glass, Putin set it down.
“He’s foolish, yes, but he also knows how to bow deeply when needed.”
Putin had accurately grasped Roman’s character. Which was precisely why the dilemma troubled him.
“If you do not intend to wipe out the oligarchs completely, there is no better candidate than him.”
“But this time he made too big a mistake. I clearly gave him a chance. You recommended him, and I saw him as greedy. But his greed goes too far.”
As Putin poured another drink, I followed suit. Focused on his words, I spilled a bit of liquor over the rim.
“His greed is excessive.”
“Still, it is impossible to re-nationalize every Russian industry as in the Soviet days. If you tried, no one would ever invest in Russia again.”
With the transition from the Soviet Union to the Russian Federation, many state enterprises had been privatized.
Foreign investors had not been given outright management rights, but they had been allowed to invest in Russian firms.
There were side effects, of course, but drastic change always brings pain.
If all this were abandoned and Russia reverted to the past, isolation would be inevitable. Putin knew this truth well.
“I have no intention of nationalizing everything. But neither will I run things as Yeltsin did.”
“I believe it is best to use Roman as a leash to control the private corporations. He made one mistake, but he will not be stupid enough to repeat it. This very error will become his chain.”
Putin stroked his chin, sinking into thought. While he pondered, I sipped my drink, waiting.
After a long silence, he finally spoke.
“Very well. Let us do that. But why do you defend Chairman Roman so much?”
Narrowing his eyes, he asked. I let out a light laugh.
“Because it helps you, of course, Mr. President. And also, I admit, I feel some fondness for him personally.”
Putin nodded, as though expecting such an answer.
“Well, from the moment you first came to me, Muhyuk, your eye for judgment has been exceptional. I mean when no one believed I would ever become president.”
Instead of saying I had known the future, I only gave an awkward smile.
“By the way, I hear the European nobles are in an uproar because of you······.”
From Putin’s lips came mention of them. I had received direct warnings about them through him before.
“One family, I hear, suffered humiliation because of you. They are now discussing how to resolve it.”
At those words, my slight drunken haze vanished instantly.
