Chapter 57: Holy Blood (11)

Yoanna, who had been quiet ever since we confronted the people from the corporation, belatedly apologized.

Her voice was unusually dejected.

“I’m sorry, Unni…. This happened because I insisted on coming here today…..”

I quietly shook my head.

“No. There’s no need to be sorry. Even if we had stayed on 13th Street, they would have found us just the same.”

It wasn’t just an attempt to comfort her. It was simply the truth.

An ant crawling on the ground cannot escape the gaze of a human looking down from the sky.

That much of a gap still existed between the corporation and the Church.

This incident had made me realize that fact clearly.

I keenly felt the need for new preparations commensurate with that reality.

“Anyway, you’re tired, right? Let’s go back for now.”

And so, my short holiday spent with Yoanna ended with an unexpected commotion.

After the incident was resolved, I immediately contacted Boss Chen of the Black Tiger Gang.

Unsurprisingly, as soon as he heard the name of the large corporation, he was practically scared out of his wits and declared that he would completely withdraw from the wine business.

His aversion to getting caught in any potential crossfire was palpable.

Considering the notorious reputation of corporations in this city, this was indeed the typical reaction.

However, their attitude towards us was, contrary to such prejudice, strangely gentlemanly.

I could only surmise that it was due to the will of one person.

The president of a large corporation whose name I didn’t even know yet.

What on earth was he thinking?

===========

“Rachel, I prepared a small gift for you today.”

“It’s a familiar wine, isn’t it? I thought you liked it back then. I decided to distribute it from our side so I can bring it to you anytime.”

“Hmm? Did I buy it too expensively?”

“Being a president’s wife and still so unpretentious, you might say that.”

“Yes, perhaps I paid a bit too much for it.”

“But for something you liked… I didn’t want to place a lesser value on it.”

“Was it a bit of a waste? I’m sorry. I think I made a mistake. See, if you don’t control me like this, my spending keeps getting extravagant. I really need a perfect wife like you, Rachel, by my side.”

“So, it’s okay to nag me. I swore at the wedding to listen well to my wife. I haven’t forgotten. So…”

“Nag me like you used to.”

“Please.”

===========

The top floor of the Lumina Holdings building.

The CEO’s office, where the city’s night view shimmered at his feet.

Rian Lumen, a middle-aged man sitting in the center, quietly covered his eyes.

“…….”

In his mind, he was recalling someone who used to sit in this very seat when he was young.

His father. Oliver Lumen.

In young Rian’s eyes, that man was literally a man of iron.

An iron monarch who judged everything by money and ability, grinding people down to finally build Lumina Group, his own kingdom.

Under that enormous shadow, Rian’s childhood suffocated.

His father’s thorough meritocracy treated even his own son as just another spare part for the company.

“I heard you didn’t get a perfect score on the recent financial management exam.”

Harsh and suffocating succession lessons.

The slightest deviation from expectations brought down relentless reprimands and punishments.

“Again, you disappoint me, Rian. You will skip dinner for three days.”

“….I’m sorry.”

Like his two older brothers, Rian, in his youth, could only comply without understanding.

But as he grew older, he naturally came to loathe everything that coerced him, and it soon led to rebellion.

During his turbulent adolescence, filled with bravado and passion, he finally ran away from home.

“Damn old man. See if I ever see you again in my life.”

Having cut ties with his family, he used the pocket money he had secretly saved to get a small lodging in the city and began his independence.

From then on, Rian was no longer a chaebol scion, but a wastrel.

But he was a wastrel with a dream.

He intended to succeed spectacularly with rock music, the very music he used to secretly listen to at home, a symbol of rebellion, just to show his damn father.

Thus, Rian practiced guitar while doing menial jobs at a small live house called ‘Underdog’ in a corner of the city.

“Welcome, customer!”

Even while greeting customers at the counter, his mind was always on the stage.

It was a place where the indie rock band he admired often performed.

Rian endured each day, dreaming of the day he too would hone his skills, stand proudly on that stage, catch the eye of an agency scouter, and advance to a bigger world.

Then one day, an opportunity came to Rian.

The band scheduled to perform suddenly canceled, and he was to fill the vacant spot on stage.

With trembling hands, Rian adjusted his old, second-hand guitar and began to play.

However, the audience’s reaction was beyond cold; it was sheer indifference.

“Ah, boring.”

“When did they say the Chrome Samurai band was coming on?”

No one paid any attention to the clumsy performance of an unknown rookie rocker.

The patrons on the floor were just chatting loudly among themselves or sipping their drinks.

‘Is my playing… that bad….?’

He somehow managed to continue playing and singing steadfastly, but he was gradually being enveloped by despair.

But just then, a woman sitting at a corner table in the audience caught his eye.

She had been watching him quietly throughout the entire performance.

Just the fact that at least one person was listening to his music allowed him to somehow finish the last song.

When the performance ended, Rian, wanting to at least thank her, hesitantly approached.

When he asked why she had watched his terrible performance until the end, she smiled faintly and said.

“Well, I don’t know for sure, but…. I felt like you put in a lot of effort, so I found myself watching until the end without realizing it. It was more fun than I thought.”

Effort.

It was a warm compliment he had never once heard from his father, who always demanded results and trampled on the process.

After that day, Rian became friends with that female audience member, Rachel.

She was also the first friend the boy had ever had in his life.

As time passed, Rian and Rachel’s bond deepened.

Amidst countless shared stories and accumulating memories, Rachel supported Rian, who was still a young master ignorant of the world, sometimes like a dependable older sister, and sometimes like a gentle mother.

Then again, she would occasionally show an unexpectedly clumsy side, acting like an adorable younger sister.

Rian felt a deep bond with her that he had never even had with his real family.

To her, Rian would sometimes still boast about becoming a rock star, a dream that, in retrospect, was utterly absurd.

Looking back, it was an incredibly embarrassing and childish ambition that made his face burn, but Rachel never once laughed at him or criticized him.

She always listened to his stories seriously and sincerely supported his dreams.

Her unwavering kindness was Rian’s greatest comfort.

However, one day, as if by a lie, Rachel stopped coming to the live house.

When he finally managed to contact her, she replied in an exhausted voice that she was swamped with demanding work because of student loans.

“…..”

At that moment, Rian desperately wanted to help her.

But there was nothing he, having cut ties with his family, could do on these streets.

He couldn’t even secure an amount lighter than the weekly pocket money he used to receive during his ‘Lumen family scion’ days.

In his desperation, he naively went to a loan shark, revealed his identity as a chaebol scion, and tried to borrow money, only to narrowly escape with his life after almost being kidnapped.

“Get him! Don’t let him get away!”

“Pant… pant!”

After barely escaping the loan sharks and returning empty-handed, what pained Rian more than his battered body was his helplessness.

“Damn it….!”

When he was at home, he thought money meant nothing.

He believed that people and dreams were what mattered.

But this city was a world where no one listened to such dreamlike nonsense.

Money here was a human right.

This was a city where, even if a patient’s stomach was open during surgery, they would be thrown out if hospital payments stopped.

Even what he believed to be cutting ties and becoming independent was, in fact, a wastrel’s life made possible by the pocket money he had received since childhood.

He was no longer a young master, nor was he an ordinary commoner.

He was a gray particle, floating like dust, belonging nowhere.

At that moment of realization, the adolescent boy’s childhood came to a brutal end.

Rian finally understood.

To gain one thing, he had to give up another.

He eventually returned to his family home.

Before his father’s cold gaze, which he faced after several months, he silently knelt.

He begged to learn the business from the bottom up, pleaded for just one more chance.

But as a prodigal son who had ungratefully left home and then returned, he first had to prove his own worth.

He ended up having to start everything over from the lowest rung of the group, an unknown rank-and-file employee.

However, Rian, who had keenly experienced the desperation of falling to nothing, was far more earnest and tenacious than his two older brothers who had grown up constantly suppressed by their father’s shadow.

Thanks to this, his dormant natural business acumen and desperate efforts gradually began to shine.

He achieved astonishing results, rising to a position shoulder to shoulder with his two brothers, and not content with that, he was finally recognized as the successor to the group.

It was a task that took a very long time.

But if one focuses too much on running too hard, too far ahead, one can eventually lose their way.

Because he had strived so earnestly for so long without looking back, the very reason why he wanted to succeed in the first place had become buried in the distant recesses of his memory.

When he was finally designated as the successor to Lumina Holdings after his father’s rapidly deteriorating health, he was undoubtedly at the pinnacle of radiant glory.

However, the deep, inexplicable emptiness that occasionally visited him, lurking in the shadow of that dazzling light, was his only constant companion.

Then, one day.

On his usual commute to work, a familiar melody flowed from the radio, which the driver had idly turned on.

“Wait!”

That song… was the very song he had first played with a trembling heart on the shabby stage of ‘Underdog.’

How could he have forgotten it so completely?

A melody filled with such familiar and poignant memories.

As soon as he heard that melody, Rian, as if possessed, began to retrace the forgotten memories of his past, one by one.

They were times so precious that he wondered how he could have lived without remembering them.

And finally, he found Rachel’s whereabouts.

Rachel, whom he found after much searching, was working as an ordinary waitress in a small café.

At first, it was a lighthearted thought of just wanting to see if she, from his faded memories, was doing well, just to see her face once.

However, as he sat opposite her, talking and spending time together, Rian suddenly realized.

He was smiling comfortably, with an open heart, for the first time in decades.

And that innocent first love of his foolish boyhood days was, in fact, the most radiantly happy moment in his barren life.

The rest of the story, as everyone knows, leads to the present.

Rian approached her with sincerity, and Rachel gradually began to open her heart.

Days followed where they played an old guitar together and talked about trivial things all night long.

Rian was happy.

It felt as if he had rediscovered the most important piece of himself that he had lost.

They eventually married and spent a short but blissfully happy time together.

However, Rachel’s illness, which they had already known about, separated them, just as fate had ordained.

Another adversity had come.

Nevertheless, he thought it was different this time.

He was no longer the foolish wastrel of his past.

He had become the owner of a company that proudly held a place among the city’s top 100 corporations.

It was now far easier to count the things he ‘couldn’t do’ than the things he ‘could do.’

Rian spared no means or methods to save Rachel.

When it comes to solving life’s problems, an ordinary person might think of only two or three methods.

Those with a certain amount of wealth and influence would have over a hundred means at their disposal.

What about the current Rian?

A million, no, it would be meaningless to even count the number of ways he could try.

He thought it wouldn’t be a waste at all to pour in everything he had worked so hard to build.

And he actually tried everything he could, every method.

But if even that all failed… ultimately, it was the same.

Whether a penniless, jobless wastrel or the president of a conglomerate ruling the city.

Just unable to defy the impossible…

He would only become a weak human being.

“I’m sorry, Mr. President. This new drug also… had no effect.”

The doctor’s final notification rang coldly in his ears.

“……”

Rian ultimately couldn’t find a way to cure his wife’s illness.

He despaired helplessly at that fact.

He had worked so hard all his life.

He had finally grasped success and even reconnected with a lost bond.

He had believed that all those choices were the right ones….

In the end, everything was collapsing so futilely, beyond his control.

Now, he no longer knew what life was.

He couldn’t understand anything.

Nevertheless, there was still one reason he endured this hellish reality.

It was because of a desperate last request his wife had made, holding his hand, on a day before her illness deepened.

“Even if I leave…. please, you must continue to live….”

It was her last request, heartbreaking just to hear.

He hesitated, thinking it would be a promise he couldn’t keep, but wanting to alleviate his wife’s anxiety even a little, he eventually nodded.

Time flowed relentlessly, and her condition worsened day by day.

It became difficult to even have proper conversations, and days followed where she could barely swallow any food.

His wife grew noticeably weaker.

Very occasionally, there were moments that seemed like a flicker of hope.

When he let her smell the aroma of the wine she loved so much, there were times she would take a tiny bite of food.

Rian didn’t know how happy he was then.

It felt as if he had encountered a miracle.

However, it was merely a fleeting comfort; the illness itself, consuming Rachel’s brain, did not improve.

Watching her become more emaciated with each passing day, Rian eventually resigned himself.

Perhaps he was tired from the prolonged despair.

He couldn’t help but think about the eventual parting.

And also, how to keep his last promise to his wife.

But he couldn’t think of a way at all.

When you’ve tried your best but ultimately changed nothing.

When you seemed to have everything in the world in your hands but ended up losing the most precious thing.

After forever losing an irreplaceable existence….

How on earth was one supposed to continue a life that had lost all meaning?

He still had no idea how.

He wished someone could teach him the answer.

But even a renowned psychiatrist, who charged thousands of credits per hour for consultations, couldn’t offer any sharp solution to his deep despair.

When the consultations showed no progress, the doctor eventually just prescribed antidepressants.

Rian stared blankly at the few pills lying in his palm.

And he also looked back at the pistol he held in his other hand.

If someday, the day truly came when he had to let his wife go…

=========

Several weeks passed.

I was spending hectic days planning how to manage the enormous funds earned from the wine business started in cooperation with the Lumina Group.

I had to plan new large-scale charitable projects and, at the same time, devise concrete measures to bolster the Church’s forces, which I still keenly felt were lacking. I was so busy I barely knew how the days were passing.

Then one day, I received a sudden, out-of-the-blue call from Benjamin.

“Miss Eve, good day. It’s nothing urgent, but our President would like to cordially invite you to dinner. We will send a car to your residence tomorrow at 7 PM. It would be an honor if you could attend.”

His voice was still polite, but it carried a nuance that seemed to brook no refusal.

It was less of an invitation and more of a unilateral notification.

“……”

After the call ended, I fell into deep thought.

‘Can I… refuse this?’

If they had overtly threatened me, fighting back or somehow planning an escape would have been the clear answer.

But the Lumina Group had consistently shown an incomprehensible attitude that I had not anticipated at all.

That made it even harder to judge.

Therefore, while I was deliberating for a long time, Yoanna, who was beside me, cautiously spoke.

“But Unni, there’s something a bit strange. I discreetly looked into it, and there’s a rumor going around that for the past few weeks, the president of Lumina Holdings has been sequentially inviting various figures from all walks of life to private gatherings. It’s not just you, Unni.”

As she said that, she turned the screen of her personal terminal, which she always carried, and showed me an invitation list she seemed to have compiled.

A truly diverse range of names was written there.

Renowned professors, philosophers, social activists, psychiatrists, critics, lawyers, athletes, influencers, poets, novelists, psychological counselors, painters….

I stared at the list for a long time, but I only grew more bewildered.

I had no idea by what criteria all those people had been gathered.

All I could discern was that the individuals on the invitation list each had a background that did not overlap with the others.

If I thought about it in terms of such categories…

‘Am I… a religious figure?’