Chapter 121 : Boundary Line of Palm and Fingers
Boundary Line of Palm and Fingers
Those in the workshop focused their attention when they heard In-hyuk's muttering.
Go Mi-ah was the first to speak.
"This? What's strange and where?"
Though she only understood computers, she could generally sense if there was a problem or not.
So, when In-hyuk raised his doubt, she tilted her head in confusion.
"Just looking at it, there's not much difference from an ordinary company. But on the cash flow statement, the funds going into the foundation are considerably large. About 30% of the net profit."
"Is that a lot?"
Go Mi-ah, along with Hong Yu-geon and Van Hester beside her, didn't know for sure either, so they just cocked their heads in confusion.
"Usually, about 20–30% of net profit goes to dividends. The remaining 70–80% is used for reinvestment. But this isn't reinvestment—it's giving 30% to the foundation? And it's not like the foundation is a nonprofit where the profit cycles back, so it doesn't make sense."
What was even stranger was the structure itself, which let such a large amount of funds flow from the head office, the trading company, into the foundation.
'It feels like some kind of protection money is being sent...'
As In-hyuk thought about this, he voiced another question.
"What about the personnel records for the CEO and chairman of Seunghwa?"
"If you switch to a different category, they're here."
The tablet's screen changed.
Listed there were the photos and backgrounds of Go Byeong-seop, CEO of Seunghwa Mulsan, and Lee Pil-jo, chairman of the Seunghwa Foundation.
In-hyuk had a rough idea of their names.
In his previous life, he hadn't thought anything special of them, but now that he found certain things suspicious and looked closely, everything seemed off.
"This hasn't changed either..."
The former CEO of Seunghwa Trading was Lee Seung-hwa, the father of the current Seunghwa Foundation chairman, Lee Pil-jo.
But when Lee Seung-hwa died of illness, Lee Pil-jo didn't succeed his father as CEO and instead installed Go Byeong-seop, a professional manager, as the current CEO.
The official reason given was to take responsibility for supporting education in South Korea rather than running the business.
Of course, In-hyuk hadn't believed that at the time.
And now, based on the overall situation he grasped, it was obvious that the true owner of Seunghwa Trading was Lee Pil-jo.
As In-hyuk was muttering to himself, Go Mi-ah asked back.
"What hasn't changed?"
Hong Yu-geon and Van Hester beside her looked confused too, not understanding what he meant.
"It's nothing."
Of course, he couldn't tell them about the memories from his past life, so he glossed it over.
Then his gaze fixated on the personal information of the two individuals.
'Should I break in and hack their server myself? Or should AMK or another group just acquire Seunghwa Trading outright?'
The quietest method would be infiltration.
But In-hyuk needed to consider the attention focused on him.
'No... if Seunghwa Trading is important to those guys, they would have taken measures to prevent an easy takeover.'
As he sorted out his thoughts, In-hyuk looked around at the group.
"By the way, how long are you going to keep pretending to be Go Mi-ah?"
At this, the other two stared at Go Mi-ah with tense expressions.
Go Mi-ah puckered her lips in a long line and clicked her tongue.
"Tsk—! When did you notice?"
The Go Mi-ah before them was actually Noah Vantrail in disguise.
"You haven't once offered the side dishes you just finished making and set aside to cool."
Of course, there were other things that caught his attention, so he'd known from the start.
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"It's something like that—just call Go Mi-ah over."
"Che."
With a regretful expression, Noah sent a message.
After a short while, the sound of a passcode being entered was heard at the entrance, and the real Go Mi-ah walked in.
"Wow—! Just now you looked just like the boss, and now you look exactly like me!"
"You came here looking like me?"
As Noah shrugged her shoulders, In-hyuk let out a deep sigh.
"Now that Go Mi-ah is here, can you do something about that face?"
"Wait a sec. Let me use the bathroom."
Noah, wearing a mischievous expression as Go Mi-ah, tapped the real Go Mi-ah on the shoulder and went to the bathroom.
Meanwhile, the real Go Mi-ah looked at her curiously, then spoke.
"How far did you get in the discussion?"
"We were looking at the personnel info of Seunghwa Trading and the foundation. But, Hong Yu-geon, are you okay?"
He had looked distinctly uncomfortable for a while.
"Didn't you say you were only hired as a freelancer?"
"I did."
"Then why are you here now?"
"If we're going to work together in the future, you need to know some things. And for Mi-ah to pay you your fee, she needs to hear some things directly herself."
Hong Yu-geon looked dissatisfied on several fronts.
Of course, In-hyuk knew the reason very well.
"If it's about your dark past, we can put it all in order today."
"You think that's easy?"
Click—
At that moment, Noah, having removed her disguise, came out of the bathroom.
She now looked like an East Asian woman with a black bob and black eyes.
Of course, Hong Yu-geon and Van Hester already knew that appearance well from having worked with her before.
"What were you talking about?"
"Well..."
As he was just about to answer, Hong Yu-geon's fierce gaze bore down on him. It was a clear, wordless warning not to say anything.
"... Just talking about this and that."
When Noah met Hong Yu-geon's eyes, he looked away. His past must have been terribly embarrassing.
Soon after, In-hyuk turned to Noah and continued.
"I'll calculate your commission and transfer it to whatever account you want. If you're worried about tracking, I can pay you in cryptocurrency or cash in a foreign bank."
"And how much do you think I'll ask for?"
He hadn't mentioned the exact amount yet.
As Noah grinned, In-hyuk shrugged his shoulders.
"I'll give you enough for your skill. If we're going to work together long-term, I can set it as an annual salary. Of course, the danger pay and costs incurred for missions will be counted separately."
Just like he had done for Go Mi-ah, Charybdis (Hong Yu-geon), and Van Hester, In-hyuk was planning to properly compensate her.
But Noah looked him up and down, as if still suspicious.
"Really? Then I'll take an annual contract. The amount is $400,000."
"Hey! Are you insane? That's...!"
About 570 million won in Korean currency. At the same time, Hong Yu-geon burst out, aghast.
In-hyuk glanced at Van Hester, who immediately moved to clamp a hand over Hong Yu-geon's mouth.
"$400,000 okay with you?"
Even considering industry standards for security, that wasn't a small amount.
Even overseas, $300,000 was pretty much the maximum.
Noah's gaze grew even stranger as she stared at In-hyuk.
As far as she knew, even if In-hyuk was married into the Taeshin family, he wasn't exactly rich himself.
Of course, while he was achieving great results at Taeshin Asset Management, that was growing company funds, not In-hyuk's personal assets.
"You can really pay that?"
"If you think you'll regret it later, I can raise it."
"Then four... five hundred?"
Noah hesitantly raised the amount, her face a little timid this time.
In-hyuk stared at her as if to say, "Are you serious?"
"Or four... seven hundred?"
"Let's keep it simple—make it five hundred. Like I said, hazard pay and other things will be figured in separately."
So now it rose to 710 million won.
As the decision was made, Noah, not understanding why, looked back and forth between Hong Yu-geon, Van Hester, and Go Mi-ah in shock.
"You have that much money? How?"
"Well, I have enough to spend on this."
"Wait, then how much do Yu-geon and Van get?"
Noah directed her attention to the two.
But they only shrugged and said nothing. Hong Yu-geon remained firmly silenced by Van Hester's hand.
Watching them, In-hyuk scratched his cheek with his finger.
"So what will it be? Do you accept $500,000?"
"Alright! Deal! But can you really pay that? Even if you could, hardly anyone ever actually gets that much set as a baseline."
As a monthly salary, it'd be about 56 million won.
While short-term contracts can net over $100,000, annual salaries are set regularly, so even companies have trouble paying that much.
"You'll find out as we keep working. Just tell Go Mi-ah your preferred payment method, and she'll put the money through for this job."
Go Mi-ah handed over a piece of paper and a pen.
"Oh, unni. Please give me your main phone too. I'll program it so it won't be traced."
"Huh? Oh... here."
Noah handed over her phone and the note with her account information, looking dazed.
Not long after, in her phone left on the desk, a deposit notification popped up.
【Alpine Bank of Switzerland】
【Amount Credited USD 50,000】
As she confirmed the contents, Noah's expression turned even more incredulous.
"What on earth do you do?"
"Just... someone who makes a lot of money?"
"Are you kidding?"
In-hyuk replied with a slow smile.
"Last time, there was a deputy general manager named Jung Yoon-ju from the Supreme Prosecutors' Office who followed me, along with various people forming an organization. You could call it a sort of cartel. And I plan to track them all down and deal with them."
At that moment, Noah's expression grew much more serious.
"Is this some kind of underworld group? Is Kang a high-ranking member? But for something like that..."
The room was barely 15 pyeong, packed with computer equipment.
For a place where a six-figure annual salary was being discussed, it looked incredibly humble.
In-hyuk answered, still smiling.
"It's similar. But it's not like we're fighting for justice."
"Then what for?"
"Because those guys tried to kill me. Given the circumstances, I have no choice but to strike first."
Noah looked even more dumbfounded at the answer.
"Isn't a deputy general manager at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office a huge position? If your opponents are people on the level of someone like that, the organization must be big..."
"Right. And they've got their own army. They kill people without a second thought. You should at least know that much. Go Mi-ah, show her that."
At In-hyuk's request, Go Mi-ah displayed a photo of Kooou's tattoo on the monitor.
As she saw the screen, Noah wrinkled her brow and slowly spoke.
"... What is this?"
"It's a mark those guys bear on their bodies. The location is..."
"Inside of the left ring finger, at the boundary line between palm and fingers."
Since Noah knew the precise location, even In-hyuk couldn't hide his surprise.
"How do you know that?"
"Because those guys killed my entire family! More importantly, do you really know people with this tattoo?"
The playful smile on her face earlier had vanished, and now there was a frosty edge.
At that, In-hyuk recalled the ones Noah used to seek as her enemies.
"You mean Revenant, your family, right?"
Noah's expression hardened even further.
"How do you know about that?"
Revenant was a mercenary group that operated mostly in Africa and picked up the newborn Noah Vantrail to raise her as family 33 years ago.
But about 13 years ago, it was wiped out in an attack by unknown enemies. Noah Vantrail was the sole survivor.
'I found out about this when I researched Noah's past... So it was Kooou who destroyed them?'
In-hyuk had little trouble deducing the situation.