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 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 flew 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 towards door . Just when his hands pressed the door knob, 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 the 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 as 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 door knob 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 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 .

“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 like 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 recieved 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 .

Sugyoon 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 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 the Daesung group, had completely collapsed . They continued to face trouble acquiring 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 the 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 towards 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 the 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 the 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 towards the 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 buyout 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 .

He 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 . Someone knocked on the door of Jimin’s office .

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

“President... . ”

She became a bit nervous as she felt two sets of eyes stare at her .