Jeong Taeui, having narrowly escaped harm, looked down at the shards behind him with a
frown and then turned to Christoph. He then shouted.
"Chris! You! Your hand!"
Christoph's hand was covered in cuts. This was entirely understandable since he had
clenched the broken porcelain pieces so tightly that his hand seemed about to burst with
veins, but his face was so calm that Jeong Taeui hadn't noticed.
"Damn it, who hurts others while injuring themselves, you idiot!"
Jeong Taeui clicked his tongue and approached him.
Christoph didn't respond but looked at Jeong Taeui with strange eyes.
However, when Jeong Taeui told him to extend his hand for inspection, Christoph flatly
turned around and left the office.
Jeong Taeui tried to follow him but stopped when he saw the messenger groaning in a pool of
blood behind him, so he turned back.
In the end, Christoph didn't return, even when Jeong Taeui called for an ambulance, and the
paramedics came to take the injured man away.
Jeong Taeui, still in shock, stood in the blood-soaked, shard-strewn room, and upon hearing
that the culprit of this chaos was leisurely riding a horse in the forest, could only curse the
owner of the empty room.
"Making someone like that and then leisurely riding a horse in the forest?! Oh my god, this
lunatic. Look at this room! Does he think his blood isn't mixed in with those damned
shards?!"
So, after cursing as much as he could at the empty room, Jeong Taeui grumbled, hoping
Christoph had treated his hand before riding the horse, and then rolled up his sleeves to start
cleaning up.
It took quite some time to clean the entire room, searching for shards in the hard-to-see
corners.
While cleaning, Jeong Taeui put a band-aid on his fingertip. A shard had lightly scratched his
finger, and a few drops of blood fell. Jeong Taeui clicked his tongue while mopping up the
bloody floor, seeing his pants spotted with blood around his knees. Finding the last shard left
him physically and mentally exhausted.
He began to crave a cigarette, something he had almost given up during his time in Berlin.However, remembering the dignity of the mansion and its remoteness from the outside world,
he decided to see Johan. Jeong Taeui didn't know if Johan smoked, but even if he didn't,
Johan knew more people than he did, so he could ask him to get some cigarettes.
Johan was shocked to see Jeong Taeui in blood-stained pants. He thought for a while and,
although he didn't smoke much, remembered he had some cigarettes left by a friend long ago.
Johan rummaged through a cabinet and finally found a pack, giving it to Jeong Taeui. The
pack was almost new, with only one cigarette taken.
Jeong Taeui found a suitable place to smoke. He stood in a beautiful spot where he could
look down at the forest and feel the wind rustling through the leaves.
It was a simple rest area with an artificial garden on top of the tower connecting the main
building and Seoik.
Initially, the main building, Dongik, and Seoik were designed as one structure, but due to
structural and functional issues, they were built separately. Instead, the buildings were
connected by this simple tower.
He heard there was a similar tower between Dongik and the main building.
The tower's sole function was to connect the main building with Dongik and Seoik, so the
lower level of the tower only had corridors. On the rooftop was a small artificial garden,
making it a great place to breathe fresh air, look out, and feel the gentle breeze.
In other words, it was a perfect place to smoke, as it was windy and hidden from view.
Moreover, it was an ideal spot for those wanting to smoke an entire pack like Jeong Taeui at
the moment.
"There's a problem..."
"That kid indeed has some issues..."
Jeong Taeui muttered while smoking his second cigarette.
Almost everyone was afraid of Christoph. Even those who didn't hate him didn't want to get
close to him.
And it was understandable.
Earlier, when the bloodied messenger was taken to the hospital, the people in charge of
contacting the hospital and arranging transport were terrified but not surprised that such an
incident had occurred. This indicated that such events happened frequently.
"... Puff… ."
Jeong Taeui tilted his head back and exhaled the smoke. The second cigarette was nearly
burned out.Without hesitation, he took out another cigarette and lit it. Perhaps because he hadn't smoked
in a while, his throat felt a bit sore.
At that moment.
Below the tower, Jeong Taeui heard the sound of a group of people coming up.
It was the sound of children.
He listened carefully to see if they were just passing by to other buildings, but they were
indeed coming up.
Jeong Taeui thought they could use the corridors below to other buildings, but the footsteps
passed the corridor and started climbing higher.
Jeong Taeui hurriedly put out his cigarette. Even adults shouldn't smoke in front of children.
He quickly extinguished the cigarette, stuffed it into the pack, and waved his hand to disperse
the lingering smoke. Just then, he heard the small footsteps climbing the final steps and
stepping onto the rooftop.
"Huh."
"Huh..."
Although he had known they were coming and knew the children were arriving, Jeong Taeui
thought he should still pretend to be surprised when facing the child who stopped in front.
A little girl stepped up first, followed by four or five other children. They all saw Jeong Taeui
standing there and exclaimed together.
"Huh... huh."
"You all came here to play? You guys have a good relationship."
Jeong Taeui said with a smile. They were all children he was familiar with. These were the
next potential successors that Christoph taught.
These kids, just a few years old, had to compete fiercely from a young age, just like
Christoph and Richard did before.
"Hey, I'm not playing with him. He's just a bookworm who loves to bury his head in books
all day."
"Better than you! You suddenly play boring puzzle games."
As soon as Jeong Taeui said they were good friends, the kids began to chime in, pointing at
someone and saying they didn't want to play with them because they were no fun. Jeong
Taeui could only smile.Richard and Christoph would never be like this. He thought that even at this age, their
relationship would not be much different from now.
Jeong Taeui looked at Oliver, who stood there smiling and said, "Losing badly to Wolf is
because you don't know how to play. I'll teach you later." Now, Oliver had a large bandage
on the back of his head but seemed normal.
"Oliver, is your injury okay?"
When Jeong Taeui asked, Oliver immediately nodded. His clear eyes looked up at Jeong
Taeui.
"It only hurts a bit when the bandage is changed and the medicine is applied, but it's fine
otherwise."
"Really... must have been scary."
Oliver hesitated a bit, then said, "Ugh," shaking his head and smiling with a grimace. Jeong
Taeui gently patted his head.
At that moment.
Richard appeared on the rooftop, a bit later than the children. And Ilay, who always
accompanied Richard, soon followed.
When Jeong Taeui saw Ilay, he could only mutter, "Oh no," while weakly smiling and
instinctively stepping back a bit. It was like a natural reaction to sudden alertness.
"What are you doing here?"
Richard waved to gather the children and greeted Jeong Taeui. Then Ilay glanced around. He
raised an eyebrow slightly.
"I came here to smoke."
He hadn't wanted the children to know about it, but...
There was no reason to lie about smoking. Jeong Taeui shrugged.
"From alcohol to cigarettes…" - Ilay clicked his tongue and turned back to Jeong Taeui. It
sounded like he was mocking him for using those things, given his status as a beer enthusiast.
But at that moment. When Ilay turned his head, he paused for a second. Then he looked
down.
"...?!"
In an instant, his eyes became empty. He stopped as if about to take a step in this direction.
His black eyes turned as cold as ice, startling Jeong Taeui.However, in the next moment, Ilay looked down a bit longer and clicked his tongue.
"What did you do to get your knees covered in blood and then come here...?"
He spoke softly while glancing at Jeong Taeui. Ilay noticed the small bandage on his fingertip
like a ghost, and his eyes turned cold.
"Um, I just got a cut from a porcelain shard... ."
Jeong Taeui quickly said, casually rubbing the bandage and pretending nothing was wrong.
Only then did the children notice the blood on Jeong Taeui's knees, and they started worrying
loudly.
"Are you hurt? How did you get hurt?"
"You should go to the hospital. Can you still walk?"
No one gave him a chance to speak. Jeong Taeui took a moment to explain that the blood
wasn't his.
Richard, who had been watching silently, quietly spoke.
"It's Christoph again."
His voice was cold, without a hint of laughter. Just like whenever he talked about Christoph.
It seemed the news of Christoph sending someone to the hospital had spread throughout the
mansion. Richard and Ilay already knew what had happened.
Jeong Taeui smiled bitterly and shrugged.
He felt like he had used up all his energy for the day just cleaning the bloody floor. He
wanted to avoid conversations that could worsen his mood.
"By the way, what are you doing here with the kids?"
If Richard had only appeared with Oliver, anyone would think it was just a father and son
outing, but with all the children here, the only conclusion was that he was babysitting.
"I was going to teach them how to use some simple weapons."
Richard shook the sturdy-looking case he was holding. Jeong Taeui looked at it with a
strange expression.
"Gun?!"
Teaching kids how to use weapons was strange enough, but giving them guns was even
stranger."It's a gun... . No, I think knowing how to use it is better than not knowing, but besides that,
there are still many good things to learn. Why start with guns...?"
Jeong Taeui scratched his head and muttered. However, his voice was so soft that it sounded
like he was talking to himself. Richard, surrounded by the children, didn't seem to hear him.
Instead, the one who answered Jeong Taeui was Ilay, a man with not only a keen sense of
smell but also sharp ears... well.
"These kids always have to live with bodyguards, so they need to be taught how to defend
themselves as best as possible."
Jeong Taeui nodded and said, "Oh."
That made sense. These children were specially selected from many outstanding children in
this house. In this context, they would face more dangerous situations than other kids.
In fact, even if a child knew self-defense, it wouldn't be very useful because their physical
strength was different from an adult's. But considering unexpected situations, knowing was
still better than not knowing.
"You kids need to take care of yourselves."
Jeong Taeui muttered, understanding the feeling of almost being kidnapped many times as a
child (although he had never actually been kidnapped). His brother, who was very talented,
was the one kidnapped multiple times.
Even Jeong Taeui, someone completely ordinary and extremely average, faced the risk of
being kidnapped, so it was needless to say for these children.
Jeong Taeui nodded, saying, "Yes, I understand," and looked at Richard and the children,
then glanced at Ilay. Ilay was also looking at him with folded arms.
"When you were a child, did you learn like this too?"
Thinking about it, the house of this man was no less than this place. He also had to live with
bodyguards 24/7 since childhood.
Jeong Taeui couldn't imagine what it felt like to always have someone protecting and
watching him and having to learn self-defense techniques or how to use weapons just for
safety.
But Ilay's answer was simple.
"No. They didn't even ask if I wanted to learn."
"Really? Compared to Tarten, Riegrow seems to have better protection."
"Not really. My brother and sister were both taught. My father just didn't offer it to me." little demon, Ilay>
"...Oh... I see."
Jeong Taeui didn't say anything else but nodded.
Thinking about it, these children were only about 7 or 8 years old. So, perhaps at this age, the
Riegrow family also taught their children self-defense... At that time, he heard this guy
already knew how to wield an axe (to wield and hurt people).
His father must have had good foresight to decide not to put many weapons in his son's
hands. Although in the end, it was useless.
"Christoph."
Jeong Taeui unconsciously called Christoph's name. Ilay's eyes lowered.
"Christoph didn't need to learn, did he? Did he know how to use weapons back then?"
Ilay folded his arms and slowly tapped his fingers. His eyes looked coldly at Jeong Taeui.
"If you ask me when he learned to use weapons, I don't know, but his personality and mental
state have been like that since he was young."
"Really… ."
Jeong Taeui nodded.
Richard led the children to the round table in the middle of the garden and was unpacking
items from the case. Inside was a fully assembled gun and a gun disassembled into parts.
"Why? Were you shocked to see him beating someone half to death?"
Jeong Taeui looked at Ilay, saying that with pale, cold eyes. If it were someone else, he
wouldn't know, but he didn't think those were the words Ilay would say.
"If I were shocked seeing someone bathing in a pool of blood, I would have been shocked a
hundred times and had a nervous breakdown by now."
Sometimes, his most frequent task was discarding his bloodstained gloves.