"Come over to your side?"
"Exactly what it sounds like. Work in the Hangeom Family's Intelligence Team and provide information to me."
"Are you telling me to become a spy right now?"
Mi-suk frowned at Yohan's absurd proposal.
By contrast, Yohan leaned casually against the bed and looked at her.
"Ultimately, that is the goal, but I won't force you. I'm not like someone else."
At the word 'someone,' the people of the Hangeom Family flashed through Mi-suk's mind.
They tried to obtain what they wanted by force, and they did not care what means or methods they used.
Was the result not none other than Yohan, the person they had worked on to recruit into the Shadow Unit by any means possible?
"I do not know what you are thinking, saying this to me. I could report this to the higher-ups right now."
"But you're not doing that, are you?"
Just as Yohan said, Mi-suk could have simply brushed him off and reported to the higher-ups as soon as she heard his proposal.
If that happened, people from the Hangeom Family would come out to investigate, and every plan would come to nothing.
But to Yohan, Mi-suk was the first step toward a Shadow Unit composed of ability users, and an indispensable person.
He could not remember every single thing from the ten years.
Moreover, because he had spent such a long time living only as an assassin, he did not know exactly how the Hangeom Family moved.
He had merely received orders and killed.
That was why Mi-suk, who was in the Intelligence Team, was important.
"Do you think I am not reporting this because your proposal interests me? I am merely...."
"Still, you're not doing it because you've decided it's worth hearing out."
"...I will hear you out, at least."
Yohan smiled faintly and nodded.
If she was interested, if she had decided to listen, she was already halfway over.
Now all he had to do was touch on Mi-suk's circumstances and make her feel antipathy toward the Hangeom Family.
"You and I have something in common. What do you think it is?"
"Are we doing a quiz right now?"
"I'm making you put the pieces together one by one, like a puzzle in your head. It won't be effective if I just run my mouth, will it?"
"Understood. Something in common.... It would be that we belong to the Hangeom Family."
Mi-suk's answer was not wrong, but she had not spoken of the fundamental thing.
She wanted to hide her weakness.
Because that weakness was the reason she was in her current situation, she believed that if others learned of it, they would only use her.
Her weakness, the reason she worked for the Hangeom Family, the reason she served there and took part in murder.
"In a way, you are right, but in another way, you are not. Hangeom Family blood does not run in your veins. So that puzzle piece is the wrong one."
Mi-suk frowned.
She was also aware that she was in the same situation as Yohan.
But how on earth did he know this and speak of it?
"Family... is in the Hangeom Family's hands. Is that what you are talking about?"
Yohan clapped his hands and leaned forward.
"Yes, exactly. Your mother and my mother are both bound to the Hangeom Family right now. Of course, to go further, your current environment itself must be poor. You have to support your family alone."
"How do you know that...."
"I told you I've been through every kind of hardship, didn't I? I learned a little then."
Yohan had learned of her circumstances while living after joining the Shadow Unit.
When he had been losing his emotions from killing people and his heart had been hollowed out by emptiness, she had approached him herself and told him.
While showing him photographs of her mother and younger sibling.
"You investigated me behind my back?"
Mi-suk raised her voice and stood up from her seat, as if angered.
"Calm down. That's not the point right now, is it?"
Certainly, what they were supposed to discuss right now was whether she would stand on Yohan's side or not.
Whether he had found out by investigating Mi-suk or by chance was not important.
What mattered was the truth.
Mi-suk sighed, tilted her head back once, then sat in the chair again.
"So those puzzle pieces are that your mother and mine are with the Hangeom Family because of illness?"
"On the surface, yes."
"Do not speak so meaningfully. Say it directly."
Yohan placed a hand on his chin. Silence flowed for a moment.
"Mi-suk."
"Yes."
"Did you get a good look at the state my mother is in?"
At Yohan's words, Mi-suk turned her eyes elsewhere and answered.
"Yes, I saw her. She seemed well."
"Do you think that is my mother?"
"Of course she.... Don't tell me...."
"Yes. What used to be my mother looks like a jointed doll to me."
Mi-suk could not continue speaking.
She, too, had heard about it after entering the Shadow Unit's Intelligence Team.
She was told that Yohan was under an Illusion Art concerning his mother, and that she should not react to it in any way and simply remain calm.
"When did the Illusion Art break?"
"So you knew?"
"...Yes. I heard about it from the Intelligence Team. But I was not told why they cast Illusion Art on you. Please believe me."
"If I hadn't trusted you in the first place, I wouldn't have made this proposal."
Even if Yohan became angry and pressed her now, Mi-suk would have nothing to say.
But Yohan did not do that. Instead, he calmly said that he trusted Mi-suk.
In the solemn atmosphere, Yohan continued.
"The Hangeom Family, especially Hangeom Do-cheol, are the bastards who worked on the person called my mother. There is no guarantee they won't do to you what they did to me."
"I cannot betray the Hangeom Family on mere suspicion. In truth, the only ones who can cure my mother's illness are... the Hangeom Family."
"Is that really true?"
"What do you mean...."
"I mean, did the Hangeom Family, who promised to cure her, actually cure her? What chronic illness does your mother suffer from?"
Mi-suk hesitated for a moment, then opened her mouth.
"Mana hypersensitivity caused by the emergence of the Gates."
Yohan let out a hollow laugh when he heard the name of the illness she spoke.
"You know what kind of illness that is, right?"
"The same illness as your mother...."
"Does that illness actually exist?"
"It is a rare disease, and not many people have contracted it. Since the treatment is uncertain, life support is said to be the best option...."
"A rare disease, huh.... By chance, both your mother and mine contracted the same illness. Who told you that?"
"The Hangeom Family."
Mi-suk's hand began to tremble.
Why had she not thought of something this simple?
Now that she thought about it, she had gone through the same procedure as Yohan.
A scouting offer had come from the Hangeom Family, and afterward, her mother had begun to fall ill.
Her family's circumstances had grown worse and worse, and in the end, she had had no choice but to enter the Hangeom Family herself for the sake of her home and her mother.
If this was the same as Yohan's case, how could she say it was different?
"Then are you saying the Hangeom Family worked on me in order to recruit me?"
"I can't say for certain. But look at the situation and judge for yourself. Whether that is correct or not."
Mi-suk quietly leaned back in her chair, tilted her head back, and closed her eyes.
The Hangeom Family had suddenly appeared and made what was not quite a proposal, saying they had seen Mi-suk's qualities.
After she had said she would think it over for a while and then showed signs of refusing, these things had happened.
Mi-suk felt pathetic for having believed in the Hangeom Family until now, thinking they had cured her mother's illness and looked after her younger sibling.
"Yohan, can you make my dream come true?"
"What, the dream of your family gathering together in small groups and living happily?"
"There is nothing you do not know."
"I was the same. And because the Hangeom Family touches on that kind of primal desire."
Yohan cleared his throat, and Mi-suk opened her eyes.
"I won't promise anything else, but I will promise one thing. I will make that wish come true. This is the deal I am offering you."
Mi-suk seemed to like Yohan's proposal, because she sat properly in the chair and looked at him.
"Very well. Lastly, let me hear your plan. No matter where one goes, there should be a plan, should there not?"
"A plan...."
Sitting on the bed, Yohan looked at Mi-suk while tapping his fingers.
"Of course I have one."
As if he had been waiting for those words, Yohan began to speak to Mi-suk.
"What do you think the Shadow Unit is?"
"An assassin group that murders Hunters."
"I'm going to make that at the Academy. The finest Shadow Unit, one that can stand against the Hangeom Family and the eleven Families."
"You are? What do you intend to do after creating the Shadow Unit?"
"Why do you think an assassin group exists?"
"To kill people. Do you mean to make an enemy of the Hangeom Family?"
"You know it well."
Mi-suk looked at Yohan with her brow furrowed.
It was an absurd story.
As if turning his back on the Twelve Family Heads who had closed the First Gate were not enough, he intended to make an enemy of the Hangeom Family, the First Family that was effectively their leader.
Unaware of Mi-suk's thoughts, Yohan continued explaining.
"That is why the place I have to enter first is the Academy."
He could have made an assassin group from ordinary Hunters, but Yohan would not do that.
There was one reason: they were egoists drunk on their own abilities.
A force always had to be built on trust.
But ordinary Hunters were like mercenaries who believed in their abilities and moved for money and fame.
Unable to place such mercenaries under him, Yohan decided to enter the Academy, raise people there, and keep them at his side.
"The Academy? In that case... you would have to be recognized by the Hangeom Family through the Awakening Ceremony and enter the Swordsmanship Academy. That place is full of people from the Hangeom Family."
"No. After the Awakening Ceremony, I won't enter the Swordsmanship Academy."
"Then where are you thinking of entering?"
"I told you, didn't I? I'm going to make the finest Shadow Unit."
"Surely not...."
"It's exactly what you're thinking."
"Pluton...."
When Yohan said he would enter Pluton Academy, the finest Academy in Korea, Mi-suk could not close her mouth.
'If he makes an assassin group out of the ability users in Pluton?'
It would become an assassin group composed of the finest ability users.
If that happened, taking on the Twelve Families would no longer be an absurd story.
"You are saying something impossible."
Yohan nodded.
Then he looked at Mi-suk and showed her his palm.
"I'm not telling you to trust me and follow me right away. You can watch the results and decide. I'll say it again. I don't force people."
"Understood. Then what is it I should do?"
"For now, come up into the light. After I prove at the Awakening Ceremony that I have Awakened, use the excuse that you want to observe me and stay in the Hangeom Family's regular Intelligence Team."
"Why?"
"Do I have to explain every single thing for you to understand? Report to the higher-ups in moderation, and keep me moderately separated from the Hangeom Family."
"Understood."
"You speak as if being recognized at the Awakening Ceremony is only natural."
"Of course. Who do you think I am?"
Mi-suk operated her device for a moment, then looked at Yohan.
"This is only on the premise that you can make my dream come true. I will always be watching you."
"Of course."
"If you fail to satisfy my condition, I will report your objective to the higher-ups. And the same goes if it does not suit my interests."
"That's exactly what I want."
From Yohan's confident attitude, Mi-suk gained a strange sense of trust and decided to believe him for now.
"May I ask you one thing?"
"What?"
"What you did today was extremely dangerous. If I had not gone along with your proposal, that is. Why do you want me so badly that you would take such a risk?"
"Because you're that clever."