The Baby Seizes Fortune - Chapter 53

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 53

“You… don’t tell me you’re a South Korean agent?”

I didn’t bother to answer, and even greater shock appeared on Ri Ji-han’s face.

“….”

It seemed like some strange emotion was creeping into her hostile expression.

“No, we in North Korea do train promising sons as agents once they’re over eight, but how does South Korea use such a tiny kid like a mouse dropping….”

Ri Ji-han, who had likely received agent training and been deployed from childhood, seemed to feel something akin to kinship with this South Korean child agent who was like a mouse dropping.

Well, imagination is free and there’s no need to deny it.

“These utterly vicious South Korean bastards, to such a young child, truly cruel indeed. Then you already knew my information too?”

I nodded my head.

“Anyway, you can treat your family’s illnesses in Korea. That’s what you really want too, isn’t it, Older Sister?”

“But….”

“Do you think your family can survive the Arduous March?”

Ri Ji-han’s pupils wavered.

That’s right. This was the worst period in North Korea when hundreds of thousands died of starvation due to massive floods and droughts.

“You have a younger sibling too, don’t you?”

This was why Ri Ji-han was so shaken when she mistook me, a little kid, for an agent. Because she had a sibling about my age. A breath of determination escaped from Ri Ji-han’s lips with a “huh.”

I shrugged my shoulders.

“I’ll take responsibility for the defection costs.”

This was still a time when defection costs weren’t that expensive yet.

Of course, even if the costs had been high, I would have gladly supported it.

Ri Ji-han, the legendary female spy who shook South Korea. The value of preventing the damage our country would suffer and gaining someone like her as an ally is immense.

‘Especially when dealing with Gochan-hyeong or Gi Seung-cheol in the future, I’ll need someone who can move physically, someone I can trust and rely on completely.’

“….”

Now thinking this was a conversation between agent and agent, Ri Ji-han’s expression became considerably gentler.

“B-but. I’d rather die than sell information about my comrades to the South Korean Intelligence Agency, absolutely never.”

“I don’t need that kind of thing.”

No matter how brutal the training a spy receives, she’s still only twenty-two years old. This moment, before she’s committed any crimes, might be the last chance given to her.

Now, as the warm wind sways the tree branches.

“How about stopping what you’ve been doing and living a new life as an ordinary person. While occasionally helping me.”

Ri Ji-han’s eyes rippled.

* * *

“Are you really going to be okay?”

Standing in front of the black sedan, Hee-jae asked me in a calm voice.

I nodded my head.

“Can you keep what happened earlier a secret?”

Looking at me, Hee-jae also slowly nodded his head.

“…I’ll trust you. But are you really okay?”

Hee-jae tilted his head toward me and said.

“Won’t it be dangerous? That person from earlier.”

At his sincere concern, I said.

“I’ll be fine. And earlier, that was the only way.”

If I’d made a wrong move, Hee-jae could have been hurt.

After a brief silence, Hee-jae’s lips moved slightly.

“You saved me.”

At that voice seeping into my ears, I became a little embarrassed.

“So if this puts you in danger.”

The child’s intense black eyes eventually looked at me and spoke as if engraving the words.

“Next time, I’ll protect you no matter what.”

“….”

He looked a little frustrated too.

Not knowing what to say, I glanced away and said.

“Go on now, Grandfather will be worried.”

Hee-jae, who had been staring at me for several seconds, answered “Yeah” and got into the car through the door the driver had opened.

“Good night, Chaea.”

Soon the child’s clear voice was heard, and the door closed.

Watching the car Hee-jae got into depart, I raised my hand to press down on my pounding chest.

“Whew.”

When Ri Ji-han was choking Hee-jae’s neck with her arm, I thought I was going to die of fear too.

But if I had panicked and fumbled around, it really would have been a situation where we both died, so I used my wits.

As a result, I was able to gain Ri Ji-han.

“Noah, transfer 50 million won to this account.”

This is for Ri Ji-han’s family’s defection and settlement costs.

“If you really do that for me.”

She looked at me with deep conviction in her eyes that had been full of killing intent.

“I’ll pledge my remaining life not to my homeland, but to you.”

After she made her decision, I smiled gently and told her the truth.

That I’m not an agent, just someone who will help her and needs her help.

Since I had never actually said I was an agent, Ri Ji-han accepted this fact, though bewildered.

“So that’s why you said you didn’t need information about comrades. Well, the affiliation of my benefactor isn’t what’s important.”

Getting results and having Ri Ji-han return will require sufficient time.

At least several months, maybe even over a year.

When I returned to the ward, I heard the noisy chatter of the nurses.

“My goodness, that crazy new guy turned Teacher Kim’s cabinet upside down at the hospital entrance and left? And do you know what he wrote on it with red lacquer?”

“Oh my. That heavy thing? What did he write?”

“If you don’t fix your character, next time it won’t be a cabinet but your tombstone that gets erected here.”

* * *

After sending the children home and returning to the classroom, Jihye raised her hands and stretched.

It had been two weeks since she started digging in the forest soil at Chaea’s request.

The first few days, she suffered from muscle pain and had to apply pain patches, but now her body seemed adapted and it was manageable.

‘My voice seems much louder too.’

A pleased smile crossed Jihye’s lips.

‘Chaea also gave me Ji Min-hyeok’s signed album recently. My goodness, that hard-to-get item.’

She didn’t know what effect digging had on her voice, but strangely, when digging, she felt strength entering her vocal cords.

She had been someone who got scolded by adults daily for having a voice as small as a mosquito’s since childhood.

She had worried whether she could work as a kindergarten teacher with such a voice.

‘But really… is that thing actually there?’

Jihye looked at the kindergarten forest beyond the window.

Chaea had said her late mother definitely buried a time capsule in Somang Preschool’s forest, but didn’t know the location.

So they were mainly digging in places where a time capsule might be, but so far hadn’t seen hide nor hair of it.

‘Still, I should help as much as I can.’

Making that resolution, Jihye looked once more with satisfaction at the photo with MIX members on her desk, then prepared to leave work.

“Teacher.”

Just as she was about to leave the faculty room, a familiar voice was heard. Jihye turned toward the door and greeted in surprise.

“Principal.”

Jo Mi-sook.

She was the principal of this Somang Preschool.

But since she also served as principal of Edinburgh Kindergarten in Daechi-dong, she rarely showed her face here.

“What brings you here….”

About to say “What brings you here,” Jihye quickly closed her mouth with a start.

The director doesn’t necessarily have to come to her preschool only when there’s business.

“Why did you come?”

But Misuk smiled knowingly, as if she had already anticipated what Jihye was going to ask.

“Ah, well….”

“That’s understandable. I’ve been neglecting Somang Preschool so much until now. Even recently. But recently, I had no choice. I had to find someone to run Edinburgh instead.”

“….”

“Well, that place is like my child too.”

Opening the door to the director’s office that had been practically empty since entering Somang Preschool, Misuk gestured for her to come in.

When Jihye entered, she saw the dreary director’s office. Misuk, who had hung up her jacket, said to Jihye.

“I’m planning to start commuting here now.”

Indeed, Misuk had been so busy finding the right person for Edinburgh that she had no time to pay attention to this place.

Directly operating both Edinburgh and Somang Preschool was practically impossible, and while Misuk had chosen to operate Edinburgh among the two, she now planned to return to her original intentions and focus on Somang Preschool.

“Director… but… isn’t that place better?”

Misuk shook her head and shrugged her shoulders.

“It depends on where you set your standards, but I’ve finally realized. That I actually considered this place more important.”

“Ah….”

“And, hehe, this place is definitely more fun.”

Misuk laughed joyfully as if she had returned to her girlhood.

Jihye watched her unpretentious smile, which she was seeing for the first time, for a long while.

Soon the laughter faded, and Misuk continued speaking.

“I heard that Jihye has been getting all dirty and working hard like this lately to fulfill Chaea’s request….”

“Ah. That’s… yes. She said she really wanted to find her mother’s time capsule.”

Misuk, with her refined appearance that would suit Daechi-dong, somehow looked like she belonged here today as well.

“I know where that is.”

“…What?”

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