episode_0580

580

“Then suddenly, I had this thought… about the magic academy Se-young goes to, and the sex diet that Se-hee is trying…”

“And even about the matter of our mom’s slave contract… maybe someone is deliberately trying to let Si-woo, you, know about it, sending a signal or something…”

Cheol-jin looked at Si-woo with a serious expression, continuing to speak as if piecing together a jumbled puzzle.

Si-woo’s eyes widened, his face showing a mixture of surprise and embarrassment.

**

“There were three things, right?”

Cheol-jin asks again, speaking to Si-woo, who is speechless and seems to have his thoughts frozen…

“What, what is?”

Si-woo asks back as if he doesn’t understand Cheol-jin’s question.

“I’m talking about the number of questions we could ask Seul-gi at the magic academy.”

Cheol-jin, as if enjoying Si-woo’s bewildered reaction, answers his own question himself.

Cheol-jin seemed to be talking about Seul-gi’s crystal ball fortune-telling event that took place after the parent-teacher conference at the magic academy.

“When I was getting my crystal ball reading, I also asked Seul-gi three things I was curious about, you know?”

Cheol-jin said, looking at Si-woo with a meaningful smile.

Si-woo recalls the memory of having a crystal ball reading alone with Seul-gi in a secret room with blackout curtains on the day of Se-young’s parent-teacher conference at the magic academy.

Conversations shared as if having a counseling session in a space separated from the world, between Seul-gi dressed in an orange witch costume and a shining crystal ball…

Seul-gi’s fortune-telling consultation, which started with lighthearted skepticism, gradually turned into a profound atmosphere, and in the end, brought unexpected embarrassment to Si-woo.

Recalling the events of that time, a mysterious feeling that could only be felt there seemed to revive within Si-woo, as if blurring the boundary between reality and dream.

The moments at that time were dreamy and intense, as if possessed by something…

“We filled out a questionnaire after our consultation, right? There was an item on the last page related to the crystal reading where you could write down your concerns or things you wanted to ask, right? Do you know what I wrote there?”

Cheol-jin asks, as if trying to draw attention and reaction from Si-woo, who was immersed in recalling the feelings of that time.

“What… what did you write?”

Si-woo asks, looking at Cheol-jin with eyes that seemed to be a mixture of curiosity and anxiety.

“Slave contract… manager… and sex diet…”

Cheol-jin conveyed to Si-woo the words he had written on the academy questionnaire, pronouncing each word clearly and distinctly.

Si-woo looked at Cheol-jin with wide eyes.

Even before going in for the crystal ball reading, Cheol-jin had already thrown provocative question keywords to Seul-gi and teacher Yoo Ye-na without holding back.

“While you were inside getting your crystal ball reading, I talked about various things with teacher Yoo Ye-na…”

“Like the rent for the cafe in the basement, or the relationship between Seul-gi and Shin-bi, or whether she really doesn’t have a boyfriend, things like that…”

“I heard that the building belongs to the academy? Seul-gi and Shin-bi are said to be nieces, but it was a bit awkward to talk about family relationships at that time…”

“I also casually asked about rumors circulating about the magic academy? Absurd stories like superpowers, human trafficking, or being mistresses of corporate executives or politicians.”

“They were all rude questions, but they only flatly denied the superpowers and just smiled and brushed off the rest… It wasn’t affirmative, but it definitely wasn’t negative…”

“There were many more things I wanted to ask, but it was almost my turn, so I moved to get my crystal ball reading…”

Cheol-jin was explaining in detail the conversations he had with teacher Yoo Ye-na while Si-woo was inside receiving Seul-gi’s crystal ball consultation.

“And then I was able to ask Seul-gi questions… things I was curious about regarding the slave contract…”

“You know from experience, but Seul-gi was sitting in a dark room doing a performance, right? With a dimly lit crystal ball in front of her…”

“When I sat down across from her, she set the mood and even said something plausible, saying that the things we talked about would forever be buried in that room as secrets…”

“To someone who came to ask about the slave contract or the sex diet… Seul-gi would have looked at it before coming in, right? The questionnaire I filled out… but she was still taking it calmly.”

Cheol-jin also explained in detail to Si-woo about the situation in the secret room where he went to get the crystal ball reading, and about Seul-gi’s attitude…

Cheol-jin, watching Si-woo listening seriously with a serious expression, smiled with satisfaction and continued the story.

“The first thing I was curious about was… whether they were really intentionally leaking information about that world to us…”

“If so, why would they try to pass such important information to us now?”

“Whether it was a simple mistake or a coincidence… or whether it was planned from the beginning…”

“The second thing I was curious about was… why Mom made such a slave contract in the first place. Maybe she was in debt… or maybe they had other weaknesses of hers?”

“I thought I had to know that clearly in order to help, mess things up, or report it later, or do something…”

“And if the slave contract and the things I investigated were true, then Seul-gi sitting there is also our mom’s daughter, right?”

“I was curious how she would answer? I thought I could naturally know her position or emotional state about Mom by looking at her attitude when answering.”

“The third thing was about the sex diet your sister is trying to do… What exactly is that strange meeting disguised as a meeting for?”

“If the magic academy is involved, I thought it wouldn’t be a simple act of rebellion by the students…”

Cheol-jin smiles proudly, as if boasting about a difficult and arduous journey of achievement, talking about his inner conflicts, worries, and choices.

“So, did you get an answer? From Seul-gi?!”

Si-woo asks Cheol-jin with an anxious voice, as if confirming.

“Well… I did.”

Cheol-jin was looking down at the floor as if lost in thought for a moment, changing his voice to a serious, lowered tone.

“What did she say?”

Si-woo, unable to contain his impatience, asks Cheol-jin again, urging him for an answer.

“The answer to the first question was ‘yes’. They were intentionally leaking information about that world to us.”

“She added that we would find out the reason soon, and after that, she didn’t say much even if I asked more…”

“I didn’t ask any more because I could roughly guess. I was thinking it must be a reason related to inheritance or something…”

Cheol-jin conveyed to Si-woo Seul-gi’s answer to the first question.

“The answer to the second question was ‘They don’t make you do anything if you don’t want to’.”

“I guess that’s the policy of the slave contract set by the group. When I looked at Seul-gi’s expression at that time… her expression seemed to become a bit gloomy while saying that. A sad expression…”

“So, the reason Mom made the slave contract wasn’t because she was in debt or because they had her weaknesses, but because it was a voluntary choice…”

Cheol-jin then calmly conveys to Si-woo Seul-gi’s second answer to his question.

Si-woo smiles bitterly, thinking of his mom, and waits for Cheol-jin’s next words.

“I was a bit surprised at the third one! Seul-gi said that the meeting is like an ‘initiation ceremony’ for the group?”

“It seems that you can’t just participate in the group just because you are an heir…”

“Even if the parents have a slave contract in a master-slave relationship, making them participate in the group and keeping the secrets is a different issue from inheritance.”

“And the meeting seems to have the purpose of ‘qualifications screening’ or ‘monitoring’ for people who have inheritance qualifications at the same time.”

“There are cases where you can join at once through such a meeting, but they make you participate several times to observe the situation, or they may revoke the qualifications later if they think you are not qualified.”

Cheol-jin further explained to Si-woo the purpose of the meeting, which he heard from Seul-gi, and additional details.

“So, does that mean that everyone gathered there at that meeting, except for me and Se-hee, knew from the beginning that it was a meeting for that purpose?”

Si-woo seemed confused, but asked Cheol-jin, trying to sort out the thoughts in his head somehow.

“It seems that all the women there except Se-hee knew. I think I was the only one of the men who knew…”

“It’s written in the slave contract, but it seems that the girls naturally grow up receiving such education from a young age.”

“It seems that only Se-hee is a bit of a special case in your house, and our house doesn’t have any sisters… so it doesn’t apply…”

Cheol-jin was answering Si-woo’s question in as much detail as he knew.