Don't Feed the Professor! - Chapter 75

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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“…… Sorry?”
“Amelie was captured by loan sharks in Shingang and brought to the Fortress, wasn’t she?”
“How did you…”
“Those people are all professionals at money laundering, so if you dig around a little, the cash flow becomes perfectly transparent.”
Morrison laughed as he watched me standing frozen under the sudden deluge of information.
“That Young Master you’re searching for—Amelie isn’t the only one looking. And if you start asking around the Fortress about who you’re looking for, that kind of thing always finds its way to my ears eventually.”
“Then……”
“I’ll tell you the rest after we wrap up filming safely. Don’t worry—that Young Master isn’t in a position where he can run anywhere right now.”
After hesitating, I nodded.
Since my departure date was set, I didn’t feel the same urgency as before, but if I could locate the missing person by then, I’d be able to wrap things up more cleanly with the loan sharks as well.
“Amelie.”
Goldilocks gestured to me as I was heading toward the kitchen.
“This week is your last shift, isn’t it?”
“Sorry?”
Her question, posed so matter-of-factly, caught me off guard. I’d never told Goldilocks about the offer I’d received from Marlo.
It had been too sudden for me as well, and honestly, I still hadn’t made up my mind.
“Did the professor—I mean, Marlo—say something?”
Goldilocks silently handed me an envelope. Only after I’d taken it did she speak.
“Thank you for everything. Take care of yourself.”
As she said this, her eyes seemed to glisten slightly with tears.
Meanwhile, I felt bewildered. Were we that kind of friends? More than that, why was everyone in such a hurry to push me out?
A little later, back in the dormitory and staring at my mobile phone, I finally called Marlo.
After a long silence on the line, Marlo answered but said nothing, waiting only for me to speak.
“…… Why are you trying so hard to drive me away?”
After a pause, Marlo asked back in a quiet voice.
-Is that what you wanted to ask me?
I barely swallowed the surge of emotion threatening to rise.
“I don’t want to act this emotional either, but you’re telling me to leave without even asking my opinion……”
-No one can stay at the Fortress forever. You always planned to return anyway. The timing has just moved up a bit.
‘The timing has just moved up a bit.’ I’d thought the same thing myself.
I’d only come to the Fortress because of my parents’ debt. Once that debt was cleared, there was no reason to linger in this strange world.
And yet, I couldn’t help feeling a certain disappointment.
Though I hated to admit it, I’d grown attached to the Fortress. The months I’d spent here had been more enjoyable than any time outside.
“I understand what you’re saying. Still, this is so sudden that honestly…… I feel hurt. You said I was your only student and……”
After a brief silence, Marlo spoke.
-As long as you’re my student, no harm will come to you.
“……?”
Marlo’s tone remained dry.
-But I can’t interfere with you unless you ask me to, Lee Yuri. I shouldn’t. If you feel yourself growing weak while being around me…… then leaving would be better for you and for me.
“So you’re saying I can’t stay here if I keep refusing help.”
Marlo didn’t answer, but I understood that silence as an affirmation.
If I were my usual self, I would’ve been angry at someone trying to control me like this, but this time I couldn’t.
Marlo had always respected me.
Looking back on it now, he’d never forced anything on me.
Even while playing childish pranks and treating me like a kid, he’d always asked for my opinion, and when things went wrong, he’d apologized.
No one else had ever done that for me. That was also why I couldn’t easily be angry with him.
“I understand what you mean. So……”
I took a long breath and opened my mouth.
“It’s the end then.”
-…….
“As I’ve said, I’m grateful.”
I heard what might have been a soft sigh from Marlo through the phone.
-Lee Yuri.
“Yes?”
-If you need help, tell me.
“……”
-Hmm?
I flinched.
‘Why do you always……’
Why do you always speak like that? Why go so far as to say that?
What am I to you?
Biting my lip uselessly, I finally spoke.
“Professor.”
-Hmm.
“What are you doing tomorrow?”
* * *
“Director Nun.”
Kang Do-jin smiled as he spotted the middle-aged woman waving beneath the shade of a tree.
“I hope you’ve been well. I’m sorry for not visiting more often.”
Director Nun grasped both of Kang Do-jin’s hands firmly.
“Don’t apologize—the fact that you’ve made something of yourself and are doing so well is enough for me to be proud. You’ll come inside, won’t you? Do you have time for a cup of tea?”
“No, I need to leave again soon today. I brought some sneakers for the children and a few tablets like you mentioned the other day—if you give me the key, I’ll put them inside and head out.”
“My goodness, what else have you brought? I already feel guilty and grateful for the monthly donations……”
“I don’t have anywhere else to spend it, so what’s the difference?”
Kang Do-jin laughed, waving it off.
“Oh, but Sister, about what you asked on the phone yesterday……”
“About Oo-jin, you mean? I reached out to some of the other children who grew up with the other sisters, like you suggested, but none of them know anything.”
Kang Do-jin sighed.
“I thought that would be the case. It’s funny to ask around now anyway. If even the Agency and the police couldn’t find him……”
After a moment of silence, Director Nun asked carefully.
“That……, you still don’t know, do you? What exactly did Oo-jin do wrong that the government is after him……”
Kang Do-jin shook his head.
Eight years had already passed since Kang Oo-jin had vanished without a trace. Yet the two of them still didn’t even know what charges he faced.
The police officers and men in suits who visited the orphanage daily in the first few months had revealed nothing of substance.
All Kang Do-jin knew was that his older brother Kang Oo-jin had harmed someone, or attempted to, and then disappeared without a trace.
“Even now, just thinking about Oo-jin makes my heart ache. How could such a precious child end up this way……”
Director Nun’s eyes glistened with tears, but Kang Do-jin had nothing to say. He was confident he wouldn’t be surprised by whatever his brother might have done.
Of course, Kang Do-jin himself was hardly an innocent man.
Now he smiled and played the part of an upright young man, but working under Chairman Song, he’d done many things that couldn’t be spoken of aloud.
But Kang Oo-jin—he was a different kind of person altogether.
Despite being blood brothers, they’d never shared any deep connection, nor had Kang Do-jin ever felt it was possible.
Even growing up in a childcare facility where they might have relied on each other, Kang Oo-jin had been distant, and Kang Do-jin had found him uncomfortable.
“…… In truth, I still don’t understand.”
“What do you mean?”
“When my brother established himself at Song Won.”
At Kang Do-jin’s words, Director Nun brought her hands together before her chest.
“Now that you mention it, is Chairman Song in good health? He’s truly a grateful man. He took in both of you brothers, and even arranged a transplant surgery for Oo-jin and paid for his studies abroad.”
“He was a prodigy, after all. At the time, I thought we’d never see each other again……”
“Don’t say such things. Even if it seems unlikely, Oo-jin must have thought of you quite a bit.”
“When he called me to Song Won, I thought the same thing. I even decided I should be of help to him. But…… he never came looking for me at all.”
No, not just didn’t come looking. Kang Oo-jin had completely forgotten of his existence back then.
But then why? Why would someone so calculating, someone who thought of nothing but his own goals, bother to summon his own blood relative?
What had he been trying to do?

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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